January 2009

January 29, 2009 · 22 comments

Eat, My Friend

Your branches are a pomegranate orchard with all precious fruits, henna and roses saffron and spikenard, cassia, cinnamon with frankincense trees, myrrh and aloes all perfect spices … Eat, my friend, drink – lover be drunk with love (The Song of Songs) It’s time again for the Daring Bakers challenge. This month’s challenge is brought to [...]

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January 21, 2009 · 12 comments

Mystery Vegetable

in Soup,Vegetarian

When I got a big bag of the above strange looking tubers in my weekly vegetable box from Riverford Stockly the immediate response from my mum was “What on Earth are they?” Luckily I recognised them but I guess lots of people wouldn’t, they’re not an overly common sight here. They are Jerusalem artichokes, a vegetable I’d never [...]

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January 20, 2009 · 13 comments

When The Boat Comes In

in Fish & Seafood

You shall have a fishy In a little dishy, You shall have a fishy When the boat comes in On Sunday night we had battered haddock and chips for dinner, a lovely treat and something we only ever used to have when visiting my relatives in Yorkshire, fish and chips locally are not worth the [...]

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January 12, 2009 · 5 comments

Kylie's China

in Fish & Seafood,Sides,Vegetarian

I bought myself a copy of Kylie Kwong’s latest book My China: Stories and Recipes from My Homeland the other week in the January sales, it’s a lovely book full of photography that makes you want to pack your suitcase and head for the nearest airport, China being your destination of choice. I’ve read several poor [...]

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January 10, 2009 · 6 comments

Green Heart

in Meat,My Recipes

Another “New Years” inspired dish, this time from Italy where it is traditional to have sausages (typically Cotechino) and lentils on New Year’s Eve to symbolise wealth and abundance for the following year – Cotechino sausage is a symbol of abundance because they are rich in fat; while lentils symbolise money (being both green and coin shaped). Cotechino Modena [...]

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January 8, 2009 · 8 comments

Turkish?

in Cakes & Cookies,Vegetarian

When the delightful syrupy, nutty, filo pastry sweet treat that is baklava is mentioned many of us immediately think of Greece (or at least many of my friends did when asked about them), but the origins of the dish are rather unclear. The general consensus now is that they are to be classed as Turkish; in fact in 2008 the Turkish patent [...]

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January 6, 2009 · 7 comments

Happy New Year!

in Meat,Sides

So lets begin by wishing A Happy New Year to all, here’s hoping 2009 is going to be a good year. Image Courtesy of Google Images Although I was late (by a couple of days due to work commitments) cooking our New Years dinner of rib roast beef and all the trimmings I have to [...]

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