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What could herald the arrival of summer more than a big bowl of cold soup. Wasps perhaps. Or possibly sharing the big bowl of cold soup with a wasp. A wasp in shorts. Anyway, if you’ve bothered to read the posts below, you’ll know I am intimately familiar with the red, tomato-based gazpacho, however, up […]

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Regrettably, and I feel unreasonably, Tower Hamlets Council won’t let us keep sheep on the balcony so making our own feta cheese is out of the question. We do however have a healthy and ever-expanding mint plant and so at least were able to locally source half the ingredients in the title.

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Summer reluctantly and briefly visited the UK this weekend, and so as a gesture of thanks to the mighty sun god Ra we held up this delicious offering - the first gazpacho of the cold soup season.

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… or at least it would have been if I’d had any molasses sugar. However there was something similarly brown and sweet at the back of cupboard and this seemed to work just as well.

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I knocked up these whimsical little critters one Sunday morning partly because I was in the market for a bread product less brown and worthy than the usual, and partly because it was an effective way of delaying various foreboding DIY chores. Four of the five fancy shapes are illustrated below. The fifth, a curly […]

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Now it seems it’s no longer middle class enough to simply bake your own bread. To be a fully paid-up member of the bourgeoisie takes more time. We have to allow our dough to slowly ferment overnight to encourage friendly bacteria which will protect our delicate constitutions from bloated, irritable bowels and leaky gut-type conditions. […]

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According to Babel Fish couronne is French for crown, and according to the title this loaf is meant to be couronne-shaped. But it was snowing, I got over excited, couldn’t concentrate, and failed to read the recipe properly. As a result I missed out one small, but essential, step and by way of punishment the […]

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I’ll tell you what bugs me, people who travel to work in the morning drinking their tea/coffee from those aluminium thermos mugs. They’re designed for camping in the woods, not commuting from Forest Hill. Are we supposed to look on enviously and wonder at the cool, impulsive, incandescent lives led by these urbane creatures? Probably. […]

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If you came here in search of an American-style muffin to accompany your tall caramel macchiato, then you’ll be disappointed. They’re not muffins, they’re cakes. If however you are in search of an English muffin which is light and yeasty and perfect for toasting and smothering in butter, then you’re in luck. A word of […]

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As well as being very tasty, Soda Bread is also great when you need a loaf in a hurry or can’t be arsed with all that kneading and proving. Unfortunately on such occasions you’re unlikely to have soured cream (a major ingredient) and a desperate trip to your local urban Costcutter is guaranteed to prove […]

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Searching through my book of breads I came upon black bread. It brought back fond memories of the rush to join the throng following the bread van as it arrived with fresh warm supplies, back in the pre-Lukashenko Minsk of 1993. And then I had to get rye flour which meant another trip to Holland […]

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A lunchtime trip to Holland and Barrett for sundry dried fruits and seeds meant there were now things to put in things for extra flavour/texture/goodness - I believe the term is ‘value added’. And so to my value added loaf. Not merely a humble malthouse loaf but one now boasting bonus tasties such as pumpkin […]

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Another recipe from the much used ‘The Bread Book’ by Sara Lewis. This time I turned towards the back where the more fancy bread-based products can be found. Essentially this is a loaf which can magically be torn into individual rolls. We live in exciting times.

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Ah, the weekend of baking. It was the day before my first day at work for over two weeks. We’d sworn off booze for three weeks (soon to be somewhat foreshortened to one week) and the weather was its usual dull hue so the only thing for it was to cook like fiends. The dinner […]

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It seemed like everywhere you turned there was someone eulogising about the magnificence of spelt. They featured a farmer who had gone back to growing the stuff and was now coining it due to some middle-class fad of using an ancient relative of modern wheat in their constant search for the secret to life itself. […]

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Well I’d opened the packet of spelt flour you see and not wishing for it to sit in the cupboard forgetten and rapidly staling, the fate that had previously befallen the buckwheat flour, I sought out another recipe. And what do you know, my bread book (called The Bread Book, published by Hamlyn) had just […]

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Now I’m a big fan of Delia, although I appreciate that some people are less enthusiastic. Whatever your opinion, compared with the current crop of TV cooks whether they be two hairy geordies on bikes, a simpering goddess on prozac, or a Michelin starred narcisist on EVERYbleedinTHING, Delia shines out as a beacon of understated […]

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Obviously what with the world as we know it ending in 2012 and all that, it could be argued that time is too precious to be squandered on baking bread. However, life and food are about quality not quantity, and besides as the title says, this is a ‘quick’ light wholemeal loaf.

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