Category: Home Cooking

Garlic

Garlic is a most important ingredient. It’s rare in our house we don’t use it. Whether it’s starting a tomato sauce by frying an onion or crushing into teryaki sauce it’s unthinkable to cook without it. You shouldn’t taste it in the dish, but it rounds out the finished product nicely. The example above was… Continue reading Garlic

Home made pizza

Homemade pizza. It’s pretty hard to go wrong with this. The ingredients: Pizza base. You can buy this pre-made from the supermarket. Please don’t, it’s awful. We have a sneaky trick to a good base. Get your bread maker to do the kneading cycle on either your own bread recipe or supermarket bread mix. So… Continue reading Home made pizza

Bay Leaves

Bay Leaves are funny things. Straight off the tree, they’re lovely and aromatic. Throw them into a beef casserole and Ragù and they disappear. But the weird thing is that even if they don’t have the up-front taste of dried, powdered cumin, or fresh coriander, you’d miss them if they were gone. Essential recipes that… Continue reading Bay Leaves

“Free from” Food

I make no apologies for this, but it’s something that’s irritating me as we go round the supermarket. We mostly go around the edge, because that’s where the real food is to be found. The burgeoning of “free from” food is beginning to wind me up. I’ve had my DNA tested by 23andme, I’ve lived… Continue reading “Free from” Food

Panko Tofu

Tofu in itself isn’t the most exciting thing in the world. But that doesn’t stop a billion or more Chinese, Japanese and vegetarians around the world eating it. It comes in many textures from silky to solid. The one we pick up is solid and once it has the liquid drained from it, is a… Continue reading Panko Tofu

Japanese Flaked Mackerel with Vegetables

This Japanese Flaked Mackerel with Vegetables a variation of this dish which has become one of our staples since mackerel turns up often on the supermarket last day shelf and freezes so well. This dish thrives on the basis that “soy/mirin/sake makes everything better”. We originally got our recipe from [easyazon_link identifier=”1840917431″ locale=”UK” tag=”thenomr03-21″]Everyday Harumi:… Continue reading Japanese Flaked Mackerel with Vegetables

Felafel

Felafel Have you ever wondered how to make felafel? Felafel is one of those things you don’t think too much about, especially after a night on the tiles. Being British, it probably came to the UK both with our adventures in the Middle East and also with immigration. Certainly it didn’t enter the English language… Continue reading Felafel

Classic Bolognese/Ragù/Tomato Sauce

It was decided we would have a vegetarian dinner since we’d been having meat just a little too often, despite my O- blood group being allegedly quite meat oriented. It’s bullshit, but what the heck. We had some Quorn mince in the freezer. Quorn is not the worst thing in the world. We survived on… Continue reading Classic Bolognese/Ragù/Tomato Sauce