Meltingly soft eggplant wrapped around a garlicky Georgian spinach and walnut dip is a wonderful vegan starter or light lunch – delicious warm or cold. Leftover dip makes a fab, instant sauce for hot pasta. Low-carb, high-fat (good ones!) and paleo, too. I so wish I could tell you that this lip-smackingly delicious recipe was …
This time of year – despite the falling temperatures and falling leaves – is a favourite time for me as a homecook, and glutton. And figs are one reason why. Beautiful, black bursa figs – with their soft, edible dusky-leather jackets, and their tiny crunchy seeds – are my favourite fruit of autumn. I know …
Pomegranates – crimson globes, living ornaments adorning heavy-boughed trees. Symbol of life, fertility and marriage; a healing drink, sumptuous pudding, refreshing salad, vibrant gift of autumn piled high on earthenware plates. Strike the thick leather – really strike it – to reveal tumbles of ruby lozenges. Catch the tart-sweet juice; burst each glittering jewel between your teeth. Scatter, …
I am astonished at how much I love beetroot. And salmon and horseradish for that matter. My early introductions to all three did not bode well for them featuring in any way, shape or form in my kitchen. By all rights I should still be shunning them, and anything made with them. I shudder to …
Greetings from Heathrow Airport! We are spending today {Boxing Day, the 26th} in transit: Edinburgh to London {7 hour layover!} to Washington DC, and then tomorrow on to my home state of Florida. I doubt very much we will be having anything desperately healthy, although Leon, The Perfectionist’s Cafe, {A Heston Blumenthal venture}, and The Gorgeous …
This time of year – despite the falling temperatures and falling leaves – is a favourite time for me as a cook, and glutton. And figs are one reason why. Beautiful, black Turkish figs – with their soft, edible dusky-leather jackets, and their tiny crunchy seeds – are my favourite fruit of autumn. I know this sounds …
What do you get when you cross meltingly soft, walnut oil-infused eggplants with 7-spice walnuts and silky tomatoes? No, this isn’t a seriously bad joke, but a serious question. I am not au fait enough with the difference between Turkish, Syrian and Lebanese spicing to plump for one or there other, so I have dubbed it Arabic. …
Confession time: I’m not a big fan of pumpkin pie. There. I said it. However, I’m not proud of this declaration. For an American it is rather like saying you hate baseball, or Disney World. Might as well burn your passport and be done with it. I have to admit I haven’t tried very hard …
Botanically identical to tender-skinned summer squashes, winter squashes are my unsung hero of autumn-winter eating. Not only do they keep well – you can forget about them for over a month and they will still love you – they are just about the most useful and delicious of the cold weather crops. Butternut squash, acorn, Delicata, …