Recipe

Potato gnocchi in spicy tomato sauce.

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I tried gnocchi for the first time recently in a local restaurant and thought it was brilliant. Little tattie dumplings covered in cheese and garlic, awesome. As far as culinary revelations go I’m sure you’re picking your jaw off the floor as you read this, but put trust me, they’re the future!

OK, so I’m a bit behind the curve. I guess there’s always a first time to taste something even if it’s as common as gnocchi. But after trying it a few months ago I decided I thought I should have a bash at making it myself. It seemed simple enough; mix some tatties, flour and an egg, knead into a dough and then chop into the little dumplings and boil for a few minutes. How hard could that be? Continue reading “Potato gnocchi in spicy tomato sauce.” →

Thoughts

Taking stock and goals for 2011

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As it’s a new year I guess it’s traditional that we set goals for ourselves or vague ambitions for what we’d like to achieve in the year ahead. I’m definitely not just writing this article as a filler because I’ve done no blog worthy cooking recently. Nope. Definitely not. Continue reading “Taking stock and goals for 2011” →

Recipe

Steamed and braised haddock with colcannon

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It’s been a while since I chose a recipe out of a book and then set out to buy the necessary ingredients and follow it as closely as possible. Post-Christmas, having received a few books as presents it’s time to break out of the making it up as I go along groove I”ve been in lately.

The excellent River Cottage Fish book is the one I decided would supply tonight’s dinner and I settled on a recipe for steamed/braised ling. Because Tesco’s is shit and it didn’t have any of the white fish Hugh recommended I decided to go for haddock. It was either that or Vietnamese cobbler. Seemed a better idea to go for the fish that had only travelled a few hundred miles instead of a few thousand. Continue reading “Steamed and braised haddock with colcannon” →

Thoughts

Cookbooks from Santa

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How was everyone’s Christmas? Was Santa good to you?

I was lucky enough to receive not one, not two, but three new cookbooks for Christmas! Ok, one of them isn’t a recipe book as such – The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit is an excellent reference for matching ingredients which also included a short description of the 99 pairings in the book. I’m really looking forward to using it as a spark for new ideas in 2011. Continue reading “Cookbooks from Santa” →

Food and drink

Low Fat Whisky Cream

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One of the things my girlfriend has been missing the most since being diagnosed with gallstones is Baileys. Unfortunately as it’s made with cream it’s on the banned list for her. In the meantime she’s been making do with White Russians using semi-skimmed milk as a substitute, or at least she was until boxing day.

We were watching some TV after the second large feast in as many days but not really paying attention to what was happening on the programme. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed that they were talking about Irish whiskey cream and the presenters were going to have a go at making their own. It was at this point I started paying a little more attention. Continue reading “Low Fat Whisky Cream” →