Writing and thoughts from NE Scotland
It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago and I was lucky enough to receive some fabulous presents. Amongst the gifts I received was a copy of Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey. At a recent party some friends of mine cooked dinner from that book and my fiance had obviously noted my appreciation for it so when I became another year older she presented me with a copy. Continue reading “Loc Lac – Rick Stein’s Cambodian Marinated Beef”
When I think of the food I enjoy the most it always seems dishes that involve chunks of meat cooked for a long time in boozy liquid are the ones that come to mind. A lamb shank cooked in red wine for a couple of hours or those French classics beef bourguignon and coq au vin. Any dish that involves moist meat which just falls apart without needing a knife and a thick, rich sauce which you can only get from a couple of hours of slow cooking is a winner. The only way you can make that better is by sticking some pastry on top of it. Continue reading “Steak and ale pie”
Potatoes Dauphinoise… sounds difficult doesn’t it? This is a classic French dish after all so I don’t expect it’s easy. At least that’s what I thought. It makes regular appearances on Masterchef and various other haughty food programmes. It must take skill or they wouldn’t do it?
Actually no. Basically it seems all you do is slice up some tatties then pour some cream over them before sticking them in the oven for 45 minutes. Couldn’t be much easier in fact. Continue reading “Potatoes Dauphinoise”
My favourite bit of a supermarket just now is the world foods aisle. I’ve managed to work my way through the whole range of instant noodles and bought some great ingredients from it. However the one thing that’s been catching my eye recently was the range of sushi related products in our local Tesco. Sushi mats, rice wine vinegar, sushi rice, wasabi… everything you need to give making sushi a go.
On Friday night I decided to invite my brother and his wife over to have a go. Continue reading “Homemade Sushi”
We thought it would be a good idea to go to Edinburgh for the Scotland – Wales six nations match. Turns out that was a mistake, but the rest of the weekend was great. I’ll pick up from 75 minutes into the rugby. Probably best as everything before that was a bit disappointing. Anyway, we had enough and decided to steal a march on the rest of Murrayfield so nipped out early. A long walk at a brisk pace brought us to Zizzi before any other rugby fan and we managed to secure a table for two where we sat and watched the baying hordes arrive a couple of minutes later and be turned away. Continue reading “A capital weekend – 3 days in Edinburgh”
Mince and Skirlie 