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Anchovies. Along with avocados, tomatoes, asparagus, olives, prawns, marmite, facon, cheese, oranges, garlic, toast, squid, potato salad, humous, peanut butter, roasted peppers, gherkins, cashews, mustard, pasta, eggs, butter beans, smoked salmon and beer, anchovies are my favourite food.

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‘Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. But we think you’re crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us. In the simplest terms. […]

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If you’re lucky enough to live by the sea or a Waitrose, then use fresh seafood for this recipe. If you live anywhere else on this island, you’ll have to use frozen.

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This one goes out to VJ ‘Mr Prudence‘ - anarchist, transphormetic blogger, psychic geographer, algorithmic obsessive and occasional ActionScript guru. The other day he confessed he was in possession of a celeriac and asked what he could possibly do with it. I’m afraid my advice was a dismissive “either mash it or chuck it in […]

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I preserved some lemons in brine a few months ago, but to be honest they started to scare me as they lay suspended in their jar like some jaundiced medical exhibit. So what to do with them? Well you could do a lot worse than making this simple but admittedly time-consuming casserole.

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Another Tuesday, another veg box. But today was different. Having said no to parsnips - don’t get me wrong, I like a parsnip, but I don’t want them every week and I will get them every week without fail once they’re in season - I got black salsify. I’d only ever seen these earthy black […]

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And then there was this other time when we had a cabbage in the veg box. Observant readers might notice a pattern of veg box-related dinners, indeed dinners built round one vegetable have become a regular occurrence. Not a bad thing as it makes you seek out new ways with seemingly old/tired/well trod/uninspiring ingredients.

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Now there’s a thing. If you go to lentil.com you just get a crappy illustration of ‘Lenny the Lentil’ and an email link, lentil.co.uk doesn’t seem to have been registered, and lentil.org is the blog site of a senior network engineer called Robert Lister. I mention this only because I can’t think of an introduction […]

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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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What to do with a surfeit of onions when there’s already a soup on go? A tart of course. But what if you neither have eggs and cream nor the wish to include them? Then the Onion Flat it has to be. Onions without Borders. Oignons sans Frontières. Wars without tears.

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There was going to be a gathering of girls (I say girls, that’s what we were when first we gathered aged 11 in our smart navy blue uniforms) and we were to gather at a friend’s house to eat takeaway food and drink vin ordinaire by the gallon. So I thought it would be nice […]

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Last week a report by the ‘World Cancer Research Fund’ found that among other things, bacon gives you cancer. The media gave this saturation coverage. At around the same time the German-based ‘Energy Watch Group’ concluded that global oil production peaked back in 2006. This barely got a mention.

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Being English we claim not to be programmed to celebrate 31st October with pumpkins and ghoulish tales of the night, however I went trick or treating as a nipper back in the 80s and disagree with tedious naesayers who claim that the celebrating of Halloween is nothing but yet another blind import from the evil […]

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