Beef Stew and Dumplings

One of those find some organic meat on offer and text mum ‘how do I cook this’ meals. I made this before Christmas and don’t remember exactly what I did… but here are the photos and mother’s recipe exactly as she sent it, spelling mistakes and all. Ingredients Beef, in chunks Salt and peper Rosemary…

Parsnips and Pears

Once upon a Saturday morning in October, I took pity on two large bags of sorry-looking reduced parsnips in Scotmid despite the mountain of allotment vegetables already sitting in my flat. Next to the mountain, however, was a slightly smaller mountain, a foothill, if you will, of allotment pears that I had no plan for….

Chicken and Squash One Pot

Chicken, Potato and Crown Prince Squash Bake Chicken thighs, skin-on is better so they don’t dry out in the oven Squash, any variety will do. I used half a crown prince Potatoes Rosemary Thyme Garlic, half a bulb Olive oil Salt and black pepper Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius. Peel and chop the…

Autumn Allotment Delivery

A compilation of some of the recipes I used with last Autumn’s haul of home-grown produce comprising onions, apples, pears, leeks, crown prince squash, swede, turnip, celeriac and potatoes. Not forgetting the many millipedes and spiders smuggled in from the allotment which have probably re-homed themselves in my flat. Fragrant Ham & Autumn Veg Stew…

Green Pea Risotto

Ingredients 2 shallots 1 garlic clove 400g risotto rice 150ml white wine 750ml veg stock 300g frozen peas, defrosted zest and juice of half a lemon pea shoots mint leaves olive oil parmesan S&P Method In a food processor, blitz together the peas, half the pea shoots, mint leaves, lemon juice and half the lemon…

Basque Cheesecake

I had ‘Make a Basque Cheesecake!’ written on the to-do list for the date of my birthday for several months. The idea was inspired by the baking of my Spanish flatmate, Marta, last year who made one for a friend’s birthday in Trondheim. Was also a great excuse to pull out my 1970’s Kenwood Chef…

Sourdough Pt. III: 2:2:1

After much trial and error, this rustic, seedy, sourdough affair is now my go-to weekend bake and ergo what I eat most days for breakfast or lunch. In the trials I was trying to achieve a balance between: the dense, healthy rye and wholemeal bread I made weekly before I entered the sourdough world; the…

Sourdough Pt. II: Country Loaf

After a few months of trying different wholemeal mixes and hydrations, despite getting very tasty bread, I wasn’t getting any closer to that perfect, airy, classic ‘bunny’ shape you see everywhere with sourdough. So I decided to try out a classic recipe without messing around with different flours. Apparently different flours can sometimes absorb more…

Sourdough Pt. I: 50:50

My adventure with sourdough began almost a year ago, and I have been meaning since that day to process some photos and recipes. It’s finally time! I couldn’t possibly document everything, as I have baked a loaf of bread almost every weekend for a year, so I have split the highlights into three different posts….

Spinach, blue cheese and potato pie

Tried to reinvent my go-to spanakopita-ish recipe into a pie with blue cheese instead of feta, and the result is truly wonderful. Surprise surprise, its made even better when accompanied by a chimchurri/chermoula like dressing (I put it on nearly everything these days…) Ingredients Pie Puff pastry (shop bought – sorry – i’ll do better…

Sweet Dutch Babies

Dutch Babies have featured on the blog before as a savoury Yorkshire pudding replacement in ‘May Day Lunch’. This post is dedicated to the sweet variety that have, in recent years, taken over the top spot as my favourite celebratory brunch/breakfast, replacing pancakes. They’re so much better than pancakes. If the words ‘classy’ and ‘rustic’…

Flat Warming

I have returned to the ‘Burgh! There is recipe upon recipe waiting patiently in my drafts from the long last semester I spent at home in lockdown completing final exams, essays and a dissertation. Now that it’s all over, I have moved back to Edinburgh for a long, relaxed, and a little bit productive summer…