It has been a lazy weekend for me. After the excitement and travel of last week I found my creativity needed washing and ironing, leaving me naked for a couple of days. And cooking whilst naked, creatively or otherwise, is never a good idea. So I fished around for an easy recipe and found it on The British Larder.
Rarely a day goes by when I don’t take a good look at this site. That and the excellent Food Pornographer’s. Daily Internet use for me is a scramble to read news, design blogs, game news and advertising journals. It’s not easy cramming all of this into an already overloaded day but even so, I do try to squeeze in a little food viewing. It’s one of the ways I relax each evening without resorting to the TV so neglecting that would be like quitting reading or hiking through the Lake District. Read more…
It doesn't lend itself to high-falutin' presentation but it sure does taste good
Autumn is my favourite season. It’s the time of year when I can start cookinjg up stews and casseroles (what’s the difference between those anyway?) and get thick, crusty bread onto the table and even start thinking of mulled wine. It’s the time of year you eat for comfort and can’t, in all conscience, buy salad.
This weekend I decided to put my feet up and let others do the cooking. My wife searched through the books and came back with this recipe which we ate over two evenings and cried a little when the pot was empty. It’s beef and red pepper and you’ll love it. Unless you are vegetarian. Read more…
This recipe has been adapted from a fruit mix my wife makes for our two year old. As with most of the dishes we prepare for him, this is one we look forward to showing him how to eat. It’s such a simple mix of flavours that I have long been planning to adapt it into something we can all enjoy. By making it into a grown-up pie, we’ve done just that. Read more…
Tuna and pasta is, for me, an utterly warming and indulgent meal. Usually I cook this mid-week and it does enough for two nights. Really I ought to cook it the night before I plan on eating it because it would benefit hugely from time to let the flavours to develop.
The idea for this comes as a mashup between the inspiration of Jamie Oliver and my son’s first pasta based meals that we did for him when he was weaning. I enjoyed “showing” him how best to stuff food into an eager mouth and developed a taste for the way his food was being prepared. Then I added chilli 
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The weekend wasn’t filled with time to play around in the kitchen. There was too much to do from attending Mark’s wedding reception to planning a birthday party for my son. So other than scrounging Hot Pot (and there’s a future Monday Recipe) at my mum’s to throwing a heap of veg onto a tray and roasting it, all I managed to rustle up in the way of indulgence was a sausage butty.
Simply take three fat sausages apiece, two slices of thick white bread and enough HP sauce to drown a kitten in and put it all together.
Delicious.
UPDATE:: THIS JUST IN:: EMERGENCY PHOTO REPLY FROM CARL::
I'll raise your sausage butty
Another recipe I can’t claim credit for but, thanks to Martin over at 2K Games, I CAN take credit for eating it. And before you write in, go with the marmite. Sounds crazy, vile even, but it works. You could vary this by playing with the spices you put in. Cloves, chinese five spice and star anise all might add something to it.
It should be noted that didn’t follow Martin’s recipe to the letter. I only used one duck leg per person because I’m not a fat lad and I did my potatoes differently but it was still utterly delicious.
Especially the jus.
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Monday it may not be but why let the facts stand in the way of tradition? That’s what my grandmother taught me as we skipped school and pretended it was a Saturday. Well that tradition has survived and I still don’t know one day from the next and I still didn’t get no education. But one thing I did learn at my nanny’s knee was how to cook. Read more…
Part of the motivation gained from working within the advertising sector is the opportunity to work with the top creative people. This business attracts people who just want to be creative, whether it is in creating packaging, coding websites, dreaming up games or working out new ways to communicate what they feel is important. Every client, every supplier, every partner I work with has the capacity for this creativity. Some have an eye for photography and others express themselves, in part, through cookery. Read more…
A scoop of spanish joy
If you enjoyed my red pepper and prawn risotto then you will love this paella. Unless you are vegetarian in which case you must either 1) shut your eyes or 2) adapt. This is a rough guide to making paella. I’ve found that using anything to hand varies the flavour and the experience. And speaking of experience my only other bit of advice here is to share it. I have made this for two people only and as nice as it is, it feels like it ought to be served up to far more. Make it in a big pan, invite friends, neighbours and homeless people over and just let people scoop it out into bowls by the steaming handful. Leave thick scraps of crusty bread lying around for them to dip in to the deep sauce and keep pouring the wine – alcoholic or non-alcoholic – the experience will be intoxicating enough. Read more…
Presentation should have dictated a lighter touch on the sauce but the steak was in there for the finding.
I have a love-hate relationship with meat. I know it’s cruel. I know it’s environmentally wasteful. In all conscience I shouldn’t be eating it. But I’m weak. And it tastes great.Saturday’s evening meal was steak with veg.
I’ve been eating too much risotto and pasta lately and not enough green vegetables so I decided to go old school and cook up a simple meal of steak, mushrooms, veg and potatoes. It worked out pretty well.
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