Kale of the century
The kitchen cupboards are full of butterbeans, lentils and chickpeas and the pot-bellied white wire basket on the counter kept loaded with eggs as much possible.…
The peanut vendor
The closest I’ve been to Tijuana is my possibly over enthusiastic collection of Herb Alpert and his brass band’s albums. But I’ve always fancied sitting in…
Les miso rabbles
One of the most celebrated dishes on the menu at Nobu, the black cod, is dismissed by Yuki with a smiling shake of the head as…
Midsummer night’s rain
It’s June. At least the calendar says so. You wouldn’t know from the amount of rain we’ve had. The garden has plenty of flowers blooming, and…
I’ve bean losing you
Garlic green beans It’s the smell of the garlic that does it. And the way the deep, shining green of the beans reflects the light, inviting…
Holy molee
Mr E. P. Veerasawmy, founder of Veeraswamy’s in London’s Picadilly tells me that the molee is a “Southern Indian, Ceylon or Malay dish.” Perhaps he had…
Roasting, fires, dark nights
I had my first mince pie(s) of the year yesterday. Hallowe’en and bonfire night have gone and now it’s open season on the festive fun. So…
Let baigans be baigans
The more I cook, perhaps the older I get (or is it tireder), the fewer ingredients I want to use in a dish. And the simpler…
Little green courgette
The wateriness of courgettes puts many people off. But that’s only if you cook them like a 1950s battle-axe of a boarding-house landlady. The key…
Respect your elders
It’s now late May, nearly everything is fully laden with flowers and the leaves hang heavily from the trees and bushes looking like a 1950’s film…
The Modern Husband 