With the end of Week Two of temporary ‘lockdown’ fast approaching, we are starting to get the hang of it. This week we should have been in Warwickshire and had planned to meet some friends for lunch – instead we had afternoon coffee and buns and a surprisingly satisfactory chat via Zoom. Continue reading “Smoked mackerel paté & quick-pickled cucumber”
Category: Appetisers
Smoked haddock & sweetcorn chowder
I realise I have been somewhat remiss at posting recipes of late, but there haven’t been too many exciting things coming out of my cooking cupboard – and certainly nothing remotely photogenic. My challenge is to cook things using no more than two pans, as I only have a two-ring electric camping hob at my disposal. Unfortunately, the choice of temperature seems to be ‘nuclear hot’ or ‘off’. No simmering then – I could kick myself for not remembering to bring our rarely-used slow-cooker over from Turkey. Continue reading “Smoked haddock & sweetcorn chowder”
Spring vegetable soup
Who remembers spring vegetable soup? It was a mainstay of the 1970s – I remember it being served at practically every wedding we attended, presumably because its delicate nature meant it wouldn’t offend some long-lost great aunt’s fussy palate (or mine – I was a complete nightmare to feed when I was younger – something that many people would find hard to believe now). Unfortunately, most of the time it was straight out of a tin, so tasted of a mixture of metal, dried herbs and fake stock. Continue reading “Spring vegetable soup”
Sweetcorn fritters (Maryland style)
You can take the girl out of the 70s… Or so says Nigella Lawson, I think when she was expounding on the virtues of prawn cocktail – and what could possibly be wrong with that?
My first ever slightly grown-up date, at the age of 16 and a quarter, involved being picked up in a car borrowed from a parent and being taken to the dizzy heights of The Buttery at the De Vere Hotel in Coventry. In 1979, it was the swankiest place in town. Obviously we will gloss over the other, not-so-swanky, offenders. To be honest, I am not sure how much we’ve actually moved on since then. Continue reading “Sweetcorn fritters (Maryland style)”
Super-quick lime & coriander hummus (vegan)
This only takes about five minutes to whizz up in a food processor. It is perfect with breadsticks or crudités as a pre-dinner nibble, or you could serve it as a light lunch with olives, cucumber sticks and crusty bread. Canned chickpeas are perfect for the job – they give a lovely light and creamy texture. Continue reading “Super-quick lime & coriander hummus (vegan)”
A duo of easy-bake biscuits for cheese
I’m making our friend Linda a little Christmas hamper, so that she has a few yummy goodies to tuck into if she is at home in front of the fire over the next week while we are away. She does like a piece of cheese, and decent crackers are not something you can generally buy in a Turkish supermarket, so I thought I’d better get creative. Continue reading “A duo of easy-bake biscuits for cheese”
Heidi’s Tongan ham & cheese pancake rolls
I’m having a little cleaning flurry. Where I sit at the breakfast bar to write this blog, I get a birdseye view of the wall behind my worktop/stove, where all the action takes place. When we redesigned our kitchen, we got one thing wrong: we allowed the nice man at Vitra to convince us that matte tiles were OK to use as a splashback. Not true, never be tempted to try this at home. It is practically impossible to remove grease spots from the little darlings – the grease just soaks into the tiles. Continue reading “Heidi’s Tongan ham & cheese pancake rolls”
Leek & onion tarts
No posts for 18 days, now two come along at once.
To be truthful, posting on the blog allows me to sit in air-conditioned bliss at the kitchen counter, feeling as though I am doing something slightly useful (while attempting to ignore the fact that there is a pile of ironing in the spare bedroom so big that it’s starting to block out the daylight).
Today is a half-day holiday before Eid Al-Fitr, the feast that follows the month of fasting during Ramadan, or Ramazan as it is called here. Known in Turkey as Şeker Bayramı, literally ‘sugar festival’, the local children will be out early tomorrow morning, knocking on their neighbours’ doors, looking for sweets and pennies. Watch out for tomorrow’s easy chocolate muffin recipe, which I’ll be cooking up for any children passing this way. Continue reading “Leek & onion tarts”
Crunchy rosemary multi-seed crackers
Our internet connection is being super-unfriendly this morning. It may take me until about next Thursday to actually load this post, the way things are going.
After a very dry spring, followed by weeks of unsettled weather, both rainy and windy at times, there are signs that summer has finally arrived. One sign was that I actually got into the pool yesterday after making myself hot doing a few housekeeping chores. I think it is possible that I stayed in there for all of 4 seconds – basically the time it took me to get back to the side and leap out before any polar bears lurking in the Arctic conditions got wind of my presence. Toast and Marmalade looked on from the safety of a sun-lounger – I am sure I caught sight of them shaking their furry heads in wonderment at this crazy behaviour. Continue reading “Crunchy rosemary multi-seed crackers”
Kind-of-healthy appetisers
We had friends over for dinner on Saturday evening and I was trying not to sabotage our weight loss efforts too much. I rarely serve a first course these days, but I wanted something we could have with drinks pre-dinner. We recently visited some friends in the UK, who served some delicious hummus varieties they’d bought from M&S. Continue reading “Kind-of-healthy appetisers”
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