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Hummus
My local greengrocer (what an old fashioned word that is!) has new season garlic from Spain on display. Perfect for making hummus. Good spread on pitta bread or any rustic toasted bread but also good to serve with drinks spread on very thin slices of roasted beetroot. 150g chickpeas Salt 4 garlic cloves Juice of…
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Pistachio Salsa Verde
A variation of salsa verde which is refreshing and especially good with barbecued chicken. 50g lightly roasted pistachios, roughly chopped 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 small bunch mint, stalks removed and leaves finely chopped 1 small bunch parsley, finely chopped 1 green chilli, finely chopped Juice of 1 lime 4 salad onions, finely sliced 4…
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Colcannon
St Patrick’s Day yesterday and we did him proud. Mr Guinness’s Cake for tea and then off to the pub for a Guinness and back home, as the snow was falling, for colcannon – one of my very favourite dishes. This classic kale dish, delicious served with baked ham, is the bubble and squeak of…
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Pasta with Kale Pesto and Crispy Garlic Greens
A delicious meal, thanks to Anna Jones. In the first edition of The Guardian’s Saturday Feast magazine (20 January 2018), she has a recipe which was perfect for using up food in the fridge, left over from a weekend of abysmal weather.. 800g kale (or cavallo nero) stripped off the stalks and torn into bite-size…
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Salsa Verde
Friday evening suppers have to be easy as I come home late from the stables. Because it’s Friday, the tradition is that it should be fish or vegetarian. Last Friday I bought two excellent tuna steaks from Tesco. The fish monger kindly wrapped them with an ice pack (not that the interior of my old…
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Blood orange marmalade
My favourite marmalade. It is made in exactly the same way as the Seville and Bergamot Marmalade but the result is much sweeter. As every part of the fruit, including the peel, is used, it is important that it should be organic. 9 blood oranges 2 Seville oranges 2 lemons 1 pink grapefruit. Approx 1.2…
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Coriander and Peanut Chutney
Perfect for a damp Monday’s supper to accompany the remains of a roast chicken and a baked potato. Coriander and Peanut Chutney 2 generous handfuls of fresh coriander A small piece (1.25 cm) fresh ginger 2 green chillies 2 tbsp roasted unsalted peanuts 1-2 tsp caster sugar Juice of one lemon Salt Wash and chop…
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Easter Biscuits
Of course, there are Easter traditions all round the world. My friend Trish recently gave me a packet of mahlep seeds which, in Greece, are used together with a resin called mastic (pistacia lentiscus) to flavour an Easter bread. Here we use cassia oil to flavour Easter biscuits. There is some thought that Easter biscuits…
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Pancakes
Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday and time for pancakes. With the addition of Cointreau we turned them into Crêpes Suzette. Enough batter was left over to have pancakes with lemon and sugar for breakfast this morning. A great treat from my childhood were my mother’s pancakes; she used to add currants to hers but we just…
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Seville and Bergamot Marmalade
Things come in waves. One day, there were the Hairy Bikers on television tasting bergamots in Italy and then I find bergamots on sale in my local greengrocers and again in Waitrose. Nigella Lawson too has found bergamots. In At My Table, her latest book, she writes, ‘(bergamont) has a mild, almost sweet heat and…