Kirkgate Market in Leeds is the city’s oldest market and the biggest covered market in Europe.
It’s sad to say, but it’s not what it used to be. Despite this, the place is packed with potential.
Find out more in my piece on Kirkgate for The Culture Vulture
Before you go, here are a few more photos from in and around Kirkgate Market. More photos below….
Pork cooked slowly for a very long time in chilli? Sounds like a good idea, right?
Here’s how to do it.
You’ll need some dried chillis to start with – two medium anchos and four medium guajillos. Both of these varieties are the work horses of the Mexican kitchen. The ancho has a smokey, mild and almost sweet flavour to it, whilst the guajillo has more in the way of heat.
It’s worth seeking out the correct chillis for this recipe, and most other Mexican cookery, for that matter. Try the good people at the Cool Chile Co. to start with.
Soak the chillis in hot water in a small bowl until they rehydrate and plump up, and then add them to a blender along with 175ml of the soaking water and two bay leaves.
Blend until you have a smooth paste, then add a teaspoon of mixed dried herbs, half of a small onion, a quarter of a teaspoon of allspice, two tablespoons of cider vinegar and a pinch of ground cloves. Blend again until the paste becomes smooth and thick. Add a little more water to keep the blades turning, if necessary.
The sauce needs some cooking to take the rawness off the onion and chilli, so heat a large tablespoon of lard in a pan until it starts to smoke, and then add the sauce. It should splutter indignantly, and you’ll be able to smell the chillis. Keep the heat moderate and stir constantly for about five minutes until the sauce sears and concentrates.
Season with half a teaspoon of salt. More this way….
Make My Day Products is an Australian company who specialise in well designed, attractive and functional kitchen and household products.
Their strapline is “simple, practical, designed to make your day”.
That’s quite a lofty claim, and I’m not so sure that this glass drying mat “made my day”, as such, but I don’t think it had a negative impact on it either…
This mat is a great design. It’s simple and straightforward, big enough to hold a clutch of glasses so that they drain properly and dry without streaks. It withstands heat of up to 300c, so it’ll survive the dishwasher, and it does a far better job than than the dirty tea towel I normally use.
It works. It looks good. It rolls up really small for storage. It comes in several colours.
It’s a really clever solution to a tricky problem.
£14.99, from Ma Cuisine, 01380 722322, online stockists coming soon.
This is a very optimistic recipe for this time of year.
It’s got an eye firmly on the summer, but somehow, its heat and warmth don’t feel completely out of place in the depths of February.
Maybe that’s because there’s never a bad time for pork.
This barbecue sauce is very quick to make. It’s simply a matter of smashing up a garlic clove or three and mixing up some other ingredients.
I made a curry a while ago that called for a couple of tablespoons of dessicated coconut.
As you can’t buy just a couple of tablespoons of dessicated coconut, the rest of the massive, opened packet has sat in the cupboard ever since, waiting to be thrown out in the next Great Clear Out, sometime in 2012 or 13, probably.
Instead of just letting that happen, I decided to do the right thing and hunt out a recipe that made use of dessicated coconut.
Lots of dessicated coconut.
This is a traditional Moroccan cake, a Jewish recipe from Claudia Roden’s classic The Book of Jewish Food
It’s quite an unusual cake, with a little twist that only becomes apparent when you turn the cake out at the end.