Category: Uncategorized

Saturday 13 February: Ireland 🇮🇪 : Irish Stew When I casually mention to my friend R that I am cooking my way round the world and am wondering what to do for Ireland, without a second’s hesitation, she says “Irish stew” and looks at me like I am an idiot. Obvious really. (On the same…

Saturday 6 February: Japan 🇯🇵 : Miso Soup and Chicken Katsu Don Japan… The first time that I went there was on a business trip for my organisation’s annual conference. On my first evening, sluggish with jetlag, a Japanese colleague took me from the hotel to the central train station in Tokyo for a light…

Saturday 30 January: Vietnam 🇻🇳 : Cha Gio and Phó – Fried Spring Rolls and Soup My 1996 trip to South East Asia ended by crossing into Vietnam, staying a day in the gorgeous city of Hue before ending in Hanoi. Time flies and it shames me that I have not been back since. The…

Friday 22 January: India 🇮🇳 : North Indian Lamb Curry with Basmati Pilaf with Dill and Cardamom Two recipes from two great cookery writers: Anjum Anand and the legendary Madhur Jaffrey.  As ever on a Friday evening, I start rather late after my evening walk and pay the price. Fry some cardamom and bay leaf before…

Saturday 16 January: Iraq 🇮🇶: Fasoulia – Iraqi white bean stew This is a very simple recipe taken a while ago from Meera Sodha’s series “The new vegan” in The Guardian.  Cook some chopped onions mixed with pepper, ground cinnamon, ground allspice, cumin and coriander stalks for 20 minutes until soft and dark.  Add chopped tomatoes, 2…

Friday 8 January: Bosnia 🇧🇦 : Bosanski Lonac / Bosnian Stew The first dish from a country that I have not yet visited though will get to as soon as this crisis is over. I Google recipes and specialities of Bosnia and this one comes up regularly. The recipe that I use is from allyskitchen.com…

January can be such a dull month, a let-down after all the hype of December, the days still dark, winter at its coldest, and miserable weather. And this January in particular is a difficult one, with lives still very restricted because of the evil bug, and threatening to get a lot worse before the springtime…

The nothing days between Christmas and New Year are a wonderful time for rest and reflection. The end of the calendar year calls us to close up the mental accounts and settle the psychological profit and loss for the previous 360-odd days: to look at what has been achieved but also what has remained undone.…