Category: Seasons

  • Mutton roasted with amaretti-date spiced marinade

    I’ll confess that I wasn’t planning to blog this recipe. However, the reaction of friends on twitter and the team here was so good that I had to share. And that’s why there isn’t a fab picture of the cooked dish: it got eaten before the camera could record it. Sorry. I wanted to cook…

  • Apple, almond & date cake recipe

    This cake is so simple and stunningly satisfying. It has a crunchy top and moist inside. The flavours are pleasingly complex with spicy sweet/tart apples contrasting with rich toffee-like roasted dates. The spelt flour and almonds give the cake a substantial nutty body. It tastes great warm straight from the oven or cool later on.…

  • Chestnut ravioli with brocciu

    Like many English people, I have a love affair with Corsica. It’s partly because of this: Corsica has a fantastic blend of  Mare et Monte: sea and mountains. It’s why I live  in North Wales, to be with môr a mynydd. But Corsica smells different too: it has the maquis. The maquis is a mixture…

  • Llyn first frosts

    We woke up this morning to some hard frosts after a very clear night. The sunrise over Cardigan Bay was glorious. The red light shone in the trees and they glowed with a warmth absent form the air. Snowdon rises magestically into the clear air.

  • Olive oil and potato flatbread

    This is the second weekly Short and Tweet Challenge based on Dan Lepard’s new recipe book Short & Sweet. This olive oil and potato flatbread is crisp and flavoursome on the outside and moist & chewy on the inside. Amongst the bakers taking on the Challenge, there’s been some discussion about flour types and handling…

  • How to make sourdough bread simply

    I wanted to do another post about making sourdough bread. Since my first How To Make Sourdough post and the Update, I’ve learnt quite a lot and continue to do so. I’ve now got more experience handling different flours and doughs. I’ve tried different ways of developing the dough, folding, kneading and no-knead. What I…

  • Fermenting Revolution IV – Ethiopian Honey Wine

    I’ve just racked this heady concoction into a wine box and some bottles and had my first taste. It’s just gorgeous: fragrant, rich, heady and aromatic. It’s such a simple and quick wine, I’m quite shocked we all don’t make more of it. It’s another of the delights I found in Sandor Katz’s book Wild…

  • White and kamut sourdough bread

    I experimented today & used 20% kamut flour in with my white sourdough bread. Seems like the long loaf was pleased to see me: some grin there… And this round one is just a star: Taste test to come once it cools a bit 🙂

  • Pizzoccheri, buckwheat pasta recipe

    I just love pizzoccheri. The dish is robust & earthy in taste & feel: a true peasant meal. It’s made with buckwheat pasta which is very easy to make or you can buy dried from Italian food stockists. It’s a traditional recipe of the Valtellina in Lombardy, Northern Italy. Classically it’s made with the buckwheat…