Food and drink, recipes and cooking

Moghul lamb with onions and raisins

Moghul lamb or mutton with onions and raisins, by Madhur Jaffrey

Indian and Pakistani food is rich and varied. I’ve cooked countless lamb or mutton curries, each with the same basic method and ingredients, each of which have been vastly different because of subtle differences in spicing and small tweaks in ingredients. The length of the list of spices that go into most curries means that [...]

Food & drink

Rhubarb and ginger cake

Rhubarb and ginger cake

We’ve got a North facing garden, shaded by next door’s garage and four stories of Edwardian brickwork. There isn’t a lot of light back there, and the ground has a tendency to hold too much water because of the high clay content.  I can successfully grow only two things – those Jurassic style ferns that [...]

Food & drink

Wholemeal shortbread biscuits

Wholemeal shortcrust cookies

This is a guest post from my son, Ethan, aged 8. Ethan has been learning about imperative verbs at school, and for one of his exercises, he had to complete a task and write a set of instructions about what he did, using words that connect each step and are very direct. We thought Ethan’s [...]

Food & drink

Messada di bue – Italian-style cured beef

Messada di bue – Italian beef cured with herbs and garlic

I’ve said this before, many times, but it bears repeating – the best thing about cooking is the transformation of unpromising ingredients into something better. Take this dish… normally, I’d never dream of eating a piece of brisket without at least a couple of hours on a low heat, let alone raw, but here it [...]

Food & drink