Happened upon some Conwy mussels today, in fact they were delivered to the front door by Llandudno’s Mermaid along with a bunch of other seafood goodies. One of the many things we have learned during lock-down is the Mermaid does free deliveries to Bethesda for orders of over £20.00 and, given the price of cod, […]

Yet another use for matured 80% dough. Alright, it’s a pizza if you really insist. 200g each of dough after 48hrs in the fridge. Pressed out on a pizza tin and proved for a couple of hours. Original from a James Martin recipe Lebanese Spiced Lamb on BBC Food. For two pizzas I started with […]

Three days separating Valentines from the birthday but it’s classed as holiday so we still had a good, if less up-market, time. Difference on the Wednesday was I didn’t have to do anything but sit on a high stool and pop corks and not fall off. What an amazing difference a three day marinade and […]

Always a festive time of the year. A couple of weeks doing Christmas and New Year (usually after big bakes); the winter dip in energy followed by the tedium of income tax returns. But then, the approach of Valentines Day followed by my birthday three days later. These things we take seriously. Valentines falling on […]

Peter Reinhart’s Garlic Lovers’ Italian Sausage. Deep pan pizza – how to feed two people on three sausages – just look at that caramelised cheese. Couldn’t even finish it (until this morning!)

“The” Chicken Burger because this isn’t any old chicken burger, it’s a bit magnificent. Comes from the ancient document below, carbon dated to the last century. Back in the 1990’s Richard Ehrlich had a column in the Guardian magazine when Matthew Fort edited the food section. I liked that era unlike the “Feast” of the […]

I buy my tortillas by the kilo from Cool Chile Co. That’s about 40 a pack and, if you’ve got to pay mailing, you might as well buy two packs or, like this time, I pressed the wrong button and ended up with three packs. That’s a lot of tortillas even after I gave one […]

You may have noticed that I’m an effective if not subtle barman. So occasionally it’s good to sample the arts of a proper cocktail bartender and see how the professionals perform. In my experience this is not as easy as it seems – never mind the state of modern cocktails, any barperson with a shaker […]

Just for a change I actually managed to prepare a few little things before Christmas – nothing major, just a few nibbles to complement the first drinks of the day, chatting in the kitchen. All lifted from Pepita Aris’ Tapas & Traditional Spanish Cooking, Kindle edition currently £2.99. The whole of this book is contained […]

Twasn’t the night before Christmas, twas the day before New Year’s Eve and we’re having a very lazy lunch. A nice bowl of Mexican fish soup has brought us as far as mid-afternoon and next up will be a dish of pasta with smoked salmon & porcini. Instead there’s a bang, the music stops and […]