How times have changed. Tonight, BBC4 has been running a whole series of Fanny Cradock cookery programmes back to back. Never before have I seen such a collection of artificial colours that even the the Tweenies would look sepia stood beside them.
Tonight, in the two episodes I watched, she made a Christmas pudding that looked [...]
So we chose La Trouvaille for our Christmas lunch this year. None of us had been before, so we took it on the strength of recommendations alone. The food was fantastic.
I had the fish pie, while the meaties among us picked from venison, pheasant and partridge, all beautifully presented. The restaurant itself is a lovely [...]
It’s autumn. Officially(ish). Which means you get some great sunsets out in the countruside. The hedgerows are also bursting with food. On a short walk this evening, beside the regular crab apples, mushrooms and edible fungus, and the flowers I couldn’t identify, there was all manner of edible berries ready for picking…
Elderberries, which go well [...]
It’s the last weekend of the month, so time to make biscuits. This month, oat and coconut biscuits. They’re a bit like nobbly Hobnobs - or what Hobnobs would be like if they weren’t rolled out flat.
The following quantities make 50 biscuits, so can be reduced as necessary to make smaller batches (half them for [...]
It’s the last weekend of the month, so it’s baking weekend. This month, lavender biscuits, with lavender picked fresh from the garden this morning. As long as you can get your hands on the stuff, it’s one of the easiest biscuit recipes of all.
125g (4.5oz) of butter
100g (3.5oz) of caster sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons of lavender [...]
It’s years since I’ve made these, but it’s the last weekend of the month, the traditional time to bake for the office, so I thought I’d dig out the recipe.
170g (6oz) self raising flour
115g (4oz) caster sugar
85g (3oz) butter or margarine
115g (4oz) sultanas or raisins
4 tablespoons of condensed milk
Grated rind of a lemon (optional)
I’d recommend [...]
It’s the last Sunday of the month, so it’s baking day. This month: Coconut Buns.
Ingredients for around 50 biscuits
450g (1lb) self raising flour
225g (0.5lb) butter or margarine
285g (10oz) caster sugar
115g (4oz) desiccated coconut
2 large eggs
Rub the margarine into the flour until it forms fine bread crumbs. Now add the sugar and coconut and mix well. [...]
It’s the last Sunday of the month, so it’s cooking day. This week: shortbread.
Ingredients
200g (7oz) plain flour
30g (1oz) rice flour or ground rice
60g (2oz) sugar
140g (5oz) of butter
a pinch of salt
Mix together the dry ingredients and then rub in the butter until it forms fine breadcrumbs. If using a mixer, you can instead throw it [...]
It’s the last weekend of the month, so time to get out the oven gloves. Today it was ginger biscuits. Again stolen from my grandmother’s hand-written cookery book, and again rediculously easy.
Ingredients for 20 - 25 biscuits
170g (6oz) self-raising flour
Three quarters of a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
70g (2.5oz) of sugar
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
70g [...]
Everyone remembers their grandparents for different things. One of the things for which I remember my grandmother is her cooking, and in particular the toffee she used to make when we all had colds. It is a lot softer than the toffee you get in the shops; very buttery and sweet. So today I set [...]
