Back of the fridge pasta

Yesterday when I was catching up with posts on a few of my favourite blogs I spotted a pasta blogging event that Mangocheeks at Allotment2Kitchen was taking part in. So I followed the links and ended up at Presto Pasta Nights,which this week (PPN #117) is hosted by Katie at Thyme for Cooking. The concept is that you blog about a pasta dish (well anything that has pasta or noodles in actually) and as pasta is one of my favourite quick dishes I thought it might be fun to take part especially as I had pasta for lunch on [...]

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A walk on the wild side

“Here,turn right here,this has got to be it”.

We swerve round the corner and bounce along the driveway. “Nice pond,but where’s the big house?” There’s plenty of rolling parkland and a cluster of outbuildings but no grand house to be seen. There’s also a tall affable looking chap wearing wellies and a big chunky jumper so we slow up and roll down the window. “Here for the food foraging?” he says,“follow the track round between these buildings and you’ll see a group of parked cars and over to the right people on the lawn,that’s [...]

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In season:more asparagus

A few weeks ago I treated myself to a ‘Tarte Maison‘tin from John Lewis. Its a lovely thing,3 times as long as its wide and calling out to have something pretty made in it. Initially I’d intended to make a rhubarb tart that I’d seen Jonathan (aka @Browners),over at ‘Around Britain with a Paunch‘mention on Twitter. I’ve not got to the rhubarb tart yet –mainly because we don’t eat that many desserts so it just hasn’t happened.

But this weekend I thought it would be nice to do something a little bit different with [...]

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Under the clock,with the flowers

Yesterday I had an assignation at Liverpool Street Station in London with a man I’d never met before called Dan (at least that what he said his name was). We agreed to meet at 11.30 BST. He said I’d recognise him by the flowers and the gentle aroma of garlic. How he was going to identify me we didn’t establish. Gave me plenty of get out but not him. Fortunately there aren’t that many people just standing looking like they are waiting for a man bearing a wild garlic plant at that time of day –most people are [...]

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Very easy rhubarb ice cream

As the sun has been out quite a bit over the last few weeks my mind turned to ice cream making. I don’t make lots of desserts or do lots of baking – I enjoy it but we just don’t eat dessert that often so it kind of gets wasted (this is not some ‘health’ or ‘no sugar’ things its just I prefer munching on savoury stuff these days);but every now and then a sweet dish is just what’s needed.

There are some really good ice creams out there especially at farm shops – enough really to make [...]

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In season:wild garlic

Wild garlic had been popping up on my radar for a couple of weeks as being very much in season and ‘very now’ i.e. a thing it seems we should aspire to be seen eating. Never one to want to miss out on an emerging trend I thought I’d best give it a go.

I didn’t fancy going off to forage for it – it mostly grows in woodland and by river banks – neither of which are that common in East London (and those that there are you’d probably not want to harvest wild garlic from). It’s apparently easy [...]

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In season:mussels

Last night I had mussels just as they should be – wonderfully fresh,plump,sweet and with a tang of salty sea-ness about them. Cooked in the classic style of mariniere – butter,white wine,shallots,parsley and served with crusty bread to mop all the delicious juices.

I have to confess I didn’t cook them myself – I’ve always been a bit scared about preparing shellfish at home,maybe I just need to find a reliable local source and give it a go. The instructions in books always seems a bit of a faff – lots of leaving the [...]

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