The first thing to say about my very small attempt to farm garden snails for culinary purposes is that its been controversial. “It’s worse than the live crabs in the sink incident“, Jenny said, “but not as bad as the pig’s head in the fridge.” Personally, I think it’s far worse than the pig head [...]
Our go-to recipe for chicken stew type meals is normally a curry of some description, something from the sub-continent, or maybe South-East Asia, packed with garlic, ginger and spices. I normally get quite fired up by the idea of making these types of dish, then realise that the list of ingredients is a foot long and [...]
I had a minor disaster the other day. I’d been away on a business trip for a couple of days, but before I went, I made a couple of batches of ice cream. I rinsed out the freezer bowl from the ice cream maker, the metal bit that goes in the freezer and does The [...]
They look so complicated, with their elegant crescent shape and proudly airy layers of rich pastry, tightly curled up and falling over one another. Breaking one open sends a shower of buttery flakes everywhere and leaves your fingers satisfyingly greasy. Surely, this type of baking is the preserve of the professional? Or the French? But, [...]
A while ago, I spent some time in India, travelling around Rajasthan and the north of the country. We ended up in the town of Jaiselmer, deep in the Rajasthani scrublands, a place that feels like the very edge of the world. The big tourist thing to do in Jaiselmer is to hire a guide [...]