Persimmons Everywhere

My American friends have spoken about persimmons for as long as have known them. I'd always wondered how Mr Gube's Persimmon Pudding would taste - not really knowing what a persimmon was - but sadly I think the recipe died with him. I never did get around to finding out what they were until recently when …

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Microwave Christmas Pudding

Yep! Microwave. I thought I'd lost this, but just dug it out again. :)We made this last year at my Mum's in Cyprus, and as we were on the watch for powercuts, it had to be fast. It turns out that this is really, really good. Light and tender on the 1st and 2nd days, …

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Belly porchetta, with Christmas flavours

First, apologies if things look slightly out of kilter for a while. Blogger in their wisdom have been making changes, and LiveWriter, which I use to compose and publish posts, will not talk to Blogger any more. A fix is being worked on, but will not be available until next year.We went out for a …

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Christmas: Kourabiedes, or Greek Butter Cookies

I have a cookbook. (Nobody is surprised at this.) I have 2 copies of the same cookbook, because the first one fell apart. My Mum used it to learn to cook Greek food for my Dad after they got married, then I found it, and started reading it. It had a cover, back then. One …

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A good day

Not strictly a food post, or a recipe post. But a post nonetheless. It's been a hard week, and the planes taking off from Cyprus to bomb the oil fields was just the last straw. Facebook is full of people talk talk talking non-stop about the bombings, the politics, analysing over and over again but …

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Albert’s Table: a revisit

They say never go back, but when it comes to excellent restaurants I see no reason not to revisit again and again. Once such place is Albert’s Table, in South Croydon. I was first alerted to them by a Jay Rayner column, so we visited back in September 2011. We’ve been a fair few times …

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Use It Up: Lebanese 7 Spice Shepherd’s Pie

My husband has been away since last week and, as is usual when he is away, I bought ALL THE VEGETABLES. Cooked vegetables are really not his thing, other than corn, green beans, peas, potatoes and carrots. (He likes raw veggies, and almost all salads.) I, on the other hand, eat pretty much all vegetables, …

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Sprouts Are Not Just For Christmas Salad

I love sprouts. There. I said it. It’s true though, I really do! I used to hate them as a child, and would try to hide them under leftover mash, but then as I got older, and my tastebuds changed, I got to liking them, and then to loving them. Poor, maligned creatures they are, …

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Seasonal Salad

I do love a good salad. Not the old British version that was a strip of lettuce, a tomato, a few slices of cucumber and some salad cream – though there is a place for that, and I love salad cream – but a full on, flavour packing plate of different flavours and textures. I …

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Chocolate Chip Buckwheat Cookies

Ever since I read about triple chocolate buckwheat cookies in Simply Nigella, I knew I had to try baking some. It’s like an itch in my brain that won’t go away until I give in and buy the ingredients. I reread the recipe yesterday, and realised that the inspiration for Nigella’s recipe was from London …

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