Recipe Archives

Spicy Squid Stew – Comfort on a plate

The finished squid stew - doesn't it look appetising?

A warming, tasty recipe

When challenged to create a recipe using new potatoes, I immediately thought of this dish. I know many of you love crispy rings of squid, but have you ever tried squid stewed? Most people haven’t.

Indeed if you’ve ever tried to cook it, you might have said “never again” as the squid turned out rubbery. Not with this recipe. It’s easy to prepare and it’s a dish that you can leave to cook slowly whilst you go off and do other things, the result is amazingly delicious and tender. Spanish inspired flavours including smoked paprika make this dish very special

A selection of vegetables for the squid stew

Simple tasty mango ice cream

One scoop or two? Let's make it three scoops of mango ice cream.

Liven up your taste buds with my exotic mango ice cream that’s so easy to make

A Victorian Christmas: Furmenty and Snapdragon

Fetching home the Christmas dinner cooked at the local bakers http://www.victorianlondon.org/food/bakers.gif

We have the Victorians to thank for many of our Christmas traditions but thank goodness some of them are not followed today.

For a recent Victorian themed Christmas party, each guest was asked to dress up and do a “turn”. Dressing up was no problem, we had fun discovering all the costumes a local dramatic group had to offer. But a “turn”? I was nervous about this bit. I wasn’t up to reciting a poem or god forbid singing, so something foodie would have to do.

Award winning sloe gin recipe

A really delicious alcoholic drink that can be drunk neat or added to a cocktail, sloe gin is easy to make with fruits from the hedgerow

Let’s make sloe gin

Why make sloe gin? It is a gorgeous tipple. Drink a tot on its own or add to a cocktail. Make in early autumn so it’s ready for Christmas.

Its latin name is prunus spinosa which might give you a clue to its spiky nature. Do go armed with gloves! Look for the blackberry bushes and if you’re lucky you’ll find the sloe bushes also known as blackthorn. They can grow up to 6 or 7 metres high and live for 100 years! But the ones round here are much smaller. The fruits are mostly similar in size to a blueberry although I did find some woppers this year.

Baked soup recipe and other flavours

Make great soup with my 7 top tips and 2 recipes

Let’s reclaim jelly – try this recipe

Make jelly for yourself not the kids!

When I was little, I loved nothing more than chewing on jelly cubes usually red and made by Rowntree – what a treat.

As I got older, I rarely ate jelly. It was only when Marks & Spencer introduced their pots of raspberry jelly and again I was hooked. Now, a fruity homemade jelly is hard to beat. If you need an excuse, do make it for your children or grandchildren.

Mini berry rum baba recipe

Each month 180 Clandestine Cake groups celebrate cake. I take part in the Gloucester group and share a recipe for berry babas.

Lunch in Cirencester: Cafe Mosaic

Twice baked cheese souffle at Cafe Mosaic, Cirencester

You don’t really expect to get a recipe when you visit a Café for lunch, yet this is what happened when we ate at Café Mosaic in Cirencester.

I love cheese soufflé. It is my show off dish and I make it regularly. My friend Amy is equally obsessed with all types of soufflé. She has been known to visit various restaurants in Edinburgh eating nothing but soufflé.