• Blog

    Crispy pan fried chicken

    25 March 2025 - By 

    The chicken was slightly over cooked here, you could definitely lose a few minutes in the oven, and the sauce not really right at all… I’m not sure the creme is really necessary at all, but I’d definitely massively reduce the amount. Otherwise, this is a delight. It really infused the chicken with garlic and herb, and the crisp of the skin is wonderful. Definitely a go to recipe. Ingredients: – 4 chicken pieces (thighs or breasts) – Salt & pepper, to taste – Flour, for dusting – 2 tbsp olive oil – 2 sprigs rosemary – 2 sprigs thyme…

  • Blog

    South Indian Fish Curry

    22 January 2025 - By 

    This is not for a week night, with several irritatingly spaced steps as is often the case with Tom Kerridge, but it is excellent, made here with hake, and the pre-salting to firm up the fish is well worth it. Wonderful fresh flavours, well worth the time… But not when you just want to collapse after a day at the computer. From Tom Kerridge, Lose Weight Pg. 82

  • Blog

    Sift: Festive Buns

    16 January 2025 - By 

    These are a wonderful hot cross bun, and I would absolutely repeat them, even though making enriched bread in a cold kitchen in the depth of winter is an act of vandalism to your patience. I did end up making use of the pricing setting in the oven, which I often consider too hot, but in this case was justified. Very indulgent with the white chocolate chunks, and perfectly pleasant, but I wouldn’t add them again. The base bun is excellent as it is. The orange glaze however I wouldn’t do without. From Sift pg. 179

  • Blog

    Pumpkin curry, coconut chutney with buckwheat pancakes

    7 January 2025 - By 

    Yep this is just wonderful. Delicately flavoured veggie curry is first rate, coconut chutney made with shredded coconut is wonderful, buckwheat pancakes are magic… Seriously, I could devour them without cessation. Altogether it is a bit of a faff for midweek. I was cooking for well over an hour, and that’s without the time to pressure cook the chickpeas, done the previous night… A worthwhile step, they really end up with more body and flavor … but not essential. Individually the parts would be pretty quick though. From Rupy Cooks (Doctor’s Kitchen)

  • Blog

    Aubergine Green Curry

    7 November 2024 - By 

    Actually very much an aubergine red curry, as I replaced the Thai green curry paste with harissa and it was exceptional. i ford the initial vegetable roasting in the air fryer and ooo that’s a grand way to roast an aubergine. Dries it out and colours it up nicely. I then just reduced the combined curry in a pan. I did feel like some sharpness was required, and I added some lemon at the end, a lime would be preferable. The sweet peanuts are excellent with it… Too excellent to resist stuffing most of them in my face before the…

  • Blog

    Beetroot salad and hot smoked fish

    26 October 2024 - By 

    A beautiful way to cook beetroot, in the oven (or actually air fryer) for and hour or so. Then accompanied with a grain, in this case red rice, though the recipe suggests barley which would be a delight. The vinaigrette is powerful, but a little creamy, and the horseradish is a perfect compliment to the fish. Wow and lovely. From Jeremy Lee, Cooking Simply and Well

  • Blog - Full Recipe

    Salmon en croute & real puff pastry

    22 October 2024 - By 

    Made in the air fryer. I’m starting to think that if you cover the food with foil you don’t lower the temp by 25c… It needed a good full temperature blast at the end to puff up and golden, and meant that it didn’t really puff up as much as it should. This was a combo of Simon Hopkinson’s recipe and Leith’s puff pastry recipe, which is very good and I would recommend it as the go to version. Preserved below for posterity. A coating of mustard on the salmon is welcome, and although this hefty portion with around 750g…

  • Blog

    Butternut squash and poppadom curry

    22 October 2024 - By 

    Second of the crunchy curry recipes, and also a success. Smooth, fudgy and comforting. This is less healthy and less complex than the chickpea curry, but also very good. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/sep/28/yotam-ottolenghi-curries-recipes-squash-poppadom-chickpea-mango-bombay-mix

  • Blog

    Black chickpea and mango curry with bombay mix

    7 October 2024 - By 

    The unripe mango here is a really treat, gives the curry body and tang. Big fan of this, lovely flavours and texture. Could definitely use normal chickpeas, possibly cook it a little less to amount for the density difference, but the colour contrast is great with the black ones. From Ottolenghi: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/sep/28/yotam-ottolenghi-curries-recipes-squash-poppadom-chickpea-mango-bombay-mix

  • Blog

    Pancakes test prep

    10 September 2024 - By 

    I’m gonna call it that the following recipes speak the most sense when it comes to US style fluffy pancakes Frank Proto Andy Cooks https://www.andy-cooks.com/blogs/recipes/pancakes?_pos=2&_psq=pancake&_ss=e&_v=1.0 Frank for the thick, stodgy, dirty, fried-up monstrosity. Andy for the more reasoned, keep the baking soda taste out of it, golden brown, polite society pancake. The amount of flour is similar (360g), the main differences are: Mainly I’m interested in introducing the egg white separation from Andy’s option 2 into the Proto pancake to check what happens, possibly reducing the baking powder/soda at the same time.