novel34

I am rather fond of cherries . . . when we lived down South in Kent, during cherry season the roads and byways were filled with local sellers plying their wares . . . fresh English cherries, served up warm in paper bags.   I could never get my fill.  Half of each bag purchased always disappeared in the car on the way home . . . as if by magic. Normally I would only eat these tasty little babies in season . . . I am a lover of seasonal eating, because usually these types of things really only taste wonderful when they are in season . . . the way they were meant to be eaten.   But when I received the latest and last installment of the  Ultimate Cookbook from the Sunday Times, I couldn't resist one final foray into cherry-indulgence for the year.   The Cherry Clafoutis recipe by Gordon Ramsay (from his book, Sunday Lunch) was screaming my name and I just had to make it. Over the past three weeks, and finishing this week, The Sunday Times has been  ...

  The chemistry of cooking has always fascinated me.  I think it is amazing how a good cook can combine a few simple ingredients and come up with something which is totally delicious . . . and how depending on how you combine them with any number of other ingredients, you can come up with something new and different each time. Take birds eggs for instance . . . they come in all shapes and sizes and colours . . . and are all basically the same thing,  no matter the size or colour.  Humans mostly consume chicken eggs, although duck eggs are also quite popular as are quail.  Filled with vitamins and coming in their own fragile package you can eat them on their own, cooked or raw and depending on preparation you can come up with no less than 4 different ways to have them all on their lonesome . . .  boiled, fried, scrambled, poached . . . and even those can be varied according to what you choose to do with them.  What is a frittata or omelette but eggs, be...

I make no apologies for it . . . when it comes to my every day cooking, I can be rather lazy.   I don't like a lot of fiddle faddle and faffing about.  I like to just get on with it.  I also don't like to eat out of tins, so I try find a compromise somewhere in the middle.   A middle place where I can cook from scratch, but where the cooking is quick, easy and simple. Don't get me wrong . . . I do enjoy a challenge and will rise to it on occasion . . . but occasion is the key word here, and every day cooking isn't an occasion.  Which doesn't mean that the food isn't tasty or delicious or exciting.  It just means that it doesn't take a lot of work to create it. That's why I like to keep a well stocked store cupboard and larder of essentials such as pasta, tinned tomatoes, fresh lemons and herbs, cheese and dairy, amongst other things.  Those are things you will always find in my house and having them means I always have a tasty and quick meal at my fin...

Sunday Lunch has to be one of the nicest traditions here in the UK.  It's actually a dinner . . . not a lunch (usually served early to mid afternoon).  Not sure why it is called lunch, but I have noted that most celebratory dinners here in the UK are referred to as lunch, prime example being Christmas Lunch.  Who am I to quibble when we are talking about something as delicious a meal as Sunday Lunch generally is! Over the next four weeks The Sunday Times is publishing a pull out Ultimate Cookbook as part of the Incredible Edibles Food Series, dedicated to food and dining.   This weeks focus is Sunday Lunch, and you can get your copy of The Sunday Times Ultimate Cookbook:  Sunday Lunch this weekend, on Sunday the 17th November, featuring no less than twelve of the finest  recipes for this occasion  brought to you by twelve celebrity chef's. You will be able to enjoy and recreate such tasty delights as Jamie Oliver's Sunday Roast Steak and Marcus W...