After a slight hiatus on the pudding front, here is a recipe for a straightforward but richly aromatic fruit fool. It comes from Sophie Grigson’s Food for Friends (see Aubergine Parmigiana and Chickpea & tomato soup) and makes a great end to an Indian-themed meal, thanks to the cardamom and the orange-flower water, which transportContinue reading “Mango fool”
Author Archives: motherrach
Pea, feta & mint fritters
It’s useful to have a range of vegetarian starters up your sleeve. This one tastes of early summer but has gone down a treat in December too. The recipe comes from Simple by Ottolenghi who, though not vegetarian himself, has revolutionized vegetarian cooking during the last decade. His newspaper columns and beautiful cookbooks have inspiredContinue reading “Pea, feta & mint fritters”
Greek salad
As a Classics student with a convenient bolt-hole at the British embassy in Athens, I spent several of my long university summer holidays in Greece, often travelling alone. My go-to evening meal at any local taverna (in Patmos, say, or Loutro or Porto Rafti) was Horiatiki or ‘garden’ salad (Χωριάτικη σαλάτα) washed down with aContinue reading “Greek salad”
Lamb shawarma with broad bean smash
This is a relatively recent addition to the family repertoire – a recipe sourced from Olive Magazine when we were wondering what to do with a large basket of broad beans from the garden at Garde. Fresh broad beans are ideal – they’re usually in season from late June to mid-September – but frozen workContinue reading “Lamb shawarma with broad bean smash”
Courgettes, courgettes
Courgettes (or zucchini) are wonderfully versatile vegetables. Cheap and quick to prepare, they can be served as a side dish or beefed up to make a main meal in themselves, and they go well with an array of herbs and spices from all sorts of cuisines. The recipes and pictures below are a mere selection,Continue reading “Courgettes, courgettes”
Blinis
Homemade blinis are a world away from the thick, claggy discs sold in vacuum-packed plastic. Originally from Russia, they’re traditionally made with buckwheat flour, but I prefer Delia Smith’s lighter version which uses a mixture of strong white and buckwheat. You can make these large (approx 10cm diameter) as a starter, or in smaller bite-sizedContinue reading “Blinis”
Omelette wraps
Nadiya Hussain is one of my cooking heroes: she’s a devoted mother, darling of Bake Off, and has done much to destigmatize mental health issues. A couple of years ago she demonstrated a recipe for egg and mushroom rolls on TV – basically a thin omelette fused to a tortilla wrap and filled with whateverContinue reading “Omelette wraps”
Potato salad
A homemade potato salad is infinitely preferable to anything you can buy in a shop, although you should feel no guilt about using ready-made mayonnaise, as you might for this dish’s close relative, tartare sauce. The main difference between the latter and this recipe is that I use spring onions here to bump up theContinue reading “Potato salad”
Profiteroles
Choux pastry is nervously avoided by many a domestic cook: its preparation is a bit alarming and most people think it’s beyond their cooking skills. Although I don’t produce it often, it has held few fears for me because I learned to make it at school as a ten year-old. (The less said about theContinue reading “Profiteroles”
Wiener schnitzel
Since you can all make it on autopilot, you don’t really need a recipe for Wiener schnitzel, so my introduction today is going off-piste into linguistic territory. A schnitzel is a thin, breaded, fried cutlet traditionally made from veal; the ‘Wiener’ part means ‘from Vienna’. In Hungary they call the dish Bécsi szelet, Bécs beingContinue reading “Wiener schnitzel”
Years of Practice 