Salmon is the lifeblood of British Columbia, the province in Canada where I grew up. It permeates everything – the history, culture, mythology, ecology, and economy. It feeds the people, the bears, the soil itself. It attracts tourists and sends them home with suitcases full of salmon products. Continue reading
After a couple of weeks of indulging myself with cocktails and Christmas baking, I find myself craving things like this green lentil soup for supper.
Like many young girls, I converted to vegetarianism in my teens. This wasn’t a straightforward thing to do in northern Canada in those days. The supermarkets had only recently started selling yogurt – tofu, hummus, and soy mince had yet to arrive. There were no veggie burgers, sausages or nut cutlets in the freezer section, and Quorn hadn’t been invented.
Apparently, savoury porridge is having a moment. I’m hailing myself as a breakfast pioneer for topping my porridge with hot sauce, butter, salt and pepper rather than sugar since childhood.
After twenty-five years of scoffing at me rather than with me, Adam tried his first bowl of savoury porridge a couple of days ago. “This is delicious!” he said. “Where have you been all my life?”
All things must pass – the holiday season, our friends’ visit, the twelve cocktails of Christmas – and it seems fitting to wrap it all up with a Blue Christmas cocktail. Continue reading
This Christmas, our great friends Margo and Aaron travelled from Canada to spend holidays with us. They are both cocktail lovers, and their visit was a big part of my idea to do the twelve cocktails of Christmas.
One of our gifts to Margo was a copy of Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails With a Literary Twist. She thanked us by mixing up a round of A Cocktail of Two Cities. Continue reading
I’ve enjoyed listening to my Christmas in New Orleans CD throughout the holidays, which is enough of a reason to make the sazerac my tenth cocktail of Christmas.
The ones we make aren’t as authentic as you’d be served in the Big Easy – we coated the glasses with Pernod instead of absinthe and use Canadian rye whisky, although I have recently got my hands on some Peychauds bitters. Continue reading
Sloe gin is delicious, and sipping a little glass of it neat while watching Alastair Sim’s Scrooge discover the spirit of Christmas makes a perfect holiday afternoon.
But a shot of sloe gin isn’t a cocktail. This led to the idea of using sloe gin in a negroni – where it cosied right up with the red vermouth, and stood its ground against the bitterness of the Cinzano.
This delicious, hot buttered rum certainly hit the spot after a cold, wet evening at the football. It’s beyond my photography skills to make this drink beautiful, but I promise it tastes far better than it looks.
Essentially a screwdriver gussied up with an indulgent splash of Galliano, the Harvey Wallbanger is definitely the cocktail of Christmases past for me.
My parents always made Harvey Wallbangers during the holiday season. They probably made them year-round – the Harvey Wallbanger was a happening drink in the 1970s – but in my memory they are associated with our annual Christmas carol singing party. Continue reading
Cola de mono (or “tail of the monkey”) is a Christmas drink from Chile. It’s pretty similar to a white Russian (or Kahlua and milk), but tastes cleaner and less cloying than my memory of that drink. Continue reading
Cranberry juice is the reason the Scarlett O’Hara makes my Christmas cocktail list – plus it’s very tasty. It’s also a good way to use up any Southern Comfort you may have lurking at the back of your drinks cabinet.
Sometimes, a beer-based cocktail hits the spot. Especially, after we’d popped into the pub for a pint after ice skating. And were having sausages and mash for dinner.
Plus the dark colour of the Dandy Shandy goes perfectly with the long, dark nights of December.
Now that you can buy anything year round, it seems strange to recall that when I was growing up in northern Canada, satsumas were available only during the holiday season. Getting our annual 5lb crate of mandarin oranges, as we called them, was an eagerly awaited Christmas treat.
Each orange was individually wrapped in green tissue paper, like a little present. I imagine there would have been about thirty oranges in the box – or six each – and we were allowed one a day to make them last. Sometimes I’d remove the tough skin from each segment and eat it cell by juicy little cell.
So the citrusy sidecar in its festive, sugar-frosted glass is an easy choice for my Christmas cocktail list. Continue reading
The whisky mac is a is a wonderfully warming mix of whisky and green ginger wine. Named after a Colonel Macdonald who invented it while serving in India, the whisky mac is a great antidote to the cold, damp British weather.
I make it with a 1:1 ratio, but some recipes call for up to three times the amount of whisky to wine.
A ruby-bright, festive mix of prosecco, pomegranate juice and fresh pomegranate seeds. I love the way the bubbles cause the seeds to float to the top instead of languishing at the bottom of the glass, the way fruit usually does in a mixed drink. Continue reading
Christmas can feel overwhelming at times. Presents to wrap, cards to write, shopping, cooking, school events, family visiting, tree decorating, tantrums, tinsel… That was just today – and there’s no sign of things letting up in the week ahead.
Forget “bells on bobtail ring” – I plan to keep my spirits bright with a cocktail or two over the holidays. Which gave me the idea for the Twelve Cocktails of Christmas. As I reminded myself this evening, if you don’t have time to enjoy a few cocktails at this time of year, you’re working too hard.
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‘Tis the season to be jolly!
Tavë kosi – Albania’s national dish of lamb and rice baked beneath a layer of yogurt custard – reminded me a lot of moussaka. And the Albanian tomato cucumber salad I served with it was essentially a Greek salad. The vegetables were cut differently, and the recipe didn’t call for lemon juice or oregano, but those are details. Continue reading
There’s something very Christmassy about a deep red bowl of tomato soup, especially when it has a dollop of creme fraiche and a scattering of fresh green herbs. (Actually, the girls wouldn’t agree with that – Christmas is all about chocolate and baked goods (preferably involving chocolate) for them. Continue reading
I’ve never eaten Swedish meatballs in the IKEA café, but I have bought bags of frozen köttbullar from their food hall once or twice. They were nice enough, but these homemade Swedish meatballs are in a different league – crispy on the outside, soft and juicy within, and coated in a velvety cream sauce. Continue reading
Well, I finally solved the mystery of gin and It this weekend… In my teens, I read a lot of British crime novels – Agatha Christie mainly. It was all quite exotic to a thirteen-year-old Canadian who’d never set foot in the UK.
Country houses where retired military men were forever being poisoned, village fetes and cricket greens, debutantes and domestic servants. And the food – tisanes, gin and It, barley water, beef tea, crumpets, violet creams. I had no idea what any of them were… Continue reading
I love to cook, and am happy to make my own bread, stock, ice cream, sushi or whatever. So long as the effort justifies the end result, I consider it time well spent.
But I equally love it when a only small amount of effort is needed to produce something delicious. Along with Barbados cream, Grasmere gingerbread, and sardine pesto, chicken with Szechuan pepper and star anise is one of those recipes. Continue reading
This tray of cherry slice officially opens the Christmas baking season in our house. Each year, I bake a number of the treats my mum and my sister-in-law always made. Cherry slice, butterscotch fudge, date squares, Nanaimo bars, shortbread and fruit cake are the definites – Christmas wouldn’t feel the same without them.
But that pair didn’t stop there… Continue reading
Each November, we celebrate Thanksgiving with longtime friends, who have family in America. We pick a date that falls between Canadian and American Thanksgiving, and take turns hosting. The family that does the travelling brings the pies.
This year, it was our turn to cook the meal. I made this smoked trout paté to whet our appetite for the main event. The flavours are more delicate – and it’s also prettier – than my usual mackerel paté. The original recipe comes from Delicious magazine. Continue reading
I’ve tried a lot of brownie recipes over the years — cakey brownies, gooey brownies, fudgy brownies, “ultimate” brownies — but the one I make most often is this family standby.
These brownies tick all the right boxes for me. The cocoa powder and flour give them some cakeiness, and adding chopped chocolate to the mixture ups the goo factor. The tops are nicely dry and crackly, and the insides moist and melty.
Also, while I’m all for using good quality ingredients, I’m a bit skeptical about recipes that call for 400g of top quality chocolate and six eggs to produce a pan of brownies… Continue reading
Stirfries are standard mid-week fare in our house, especially if I have beansprouts to use up. The vegetables vary with the contents of the fridge, but I always like to have carrot, peppers, onion and something green like mange tout, snowpeas or broccoli.
Marinating the beef before stirfrying adds a nice depth of flavour to the dish.
I was undecided whether to call name this dish prawn satay, but eventually decided against it. Strictly speaking, I think that satay are grilled skewers served with a peanut sauce on the side.
This is a nice way of doing things too, and threading the prawns onto two skewers keeps them flat for grilling and helps prevent the peanut sauce sliding off.
I serve these skewers with a big green salad and a bowl of steamed rice.
I adored these cookies when I was a child. We didn’t have them often – I imagine my mum considered them too sugary to make them regularly. I even remember her telling me she’d lost the recipe, and making her usual granola cookies instead. Continue reading
“It smells like Japan!” Lyra said when she walked into the kitchen. And so it did, that inimitable simmering dashi smell. We ate hijiki no ni mono pretty regularly when we lived in Japan. It was one of the only dishes Adam cooked and his main contribution to house meals.
Hijiki has a slightly liquorice flavour that works well with the carrots, and the chewiness of the fried tofu provides a contrast to the softness of the vegetables. It looks so pretty too… Continue reading
This seafood soup recipe has evolved from a straightforward tomato-based broth, making its way south to Provence with the addition of fennel, orange juice and a splash of Pernod. It now occurs to me that with a can of chickpeas, a half cup of couscous, and a dash of hot pepper sauce, it could easily hop the Mediterranean and land up in north Africa… Continue reading
Nikujaga (or simmered beef and potatoes) is no-frills, homestyle Japanese cooking – something a Japanese mum would make on a busy weeknight the way I might make macaroni cheese. The Japanese call this sort of cooking ofukuro no aji, which means “mother’s taste”.
There’s a nostalgia associated with these dishes – while others may cook them, nobody’s tastes quite like your mum’s version. That’s because hers tasted of home and childhood… and love. Continue reading
There are lots of recipes for Dorset apple cake around. Having tried a few, I’ve settled on this one.
This lovely cake is surprisingly light, fresh and lemony. I always make it with Bramley apples, liking their tartness and they way they become so fluffy when cooked. Plus we have a tree in the garden… Continue reading
When I worked in central London, it was necessary to employ various nurseries, childminders and nannies to look after the girls. Through trial and error, we learned that live-out nannies suited us best – and with two children, they worked out cheaper than a nursery.
Our nanny would arrive as I left for work, to spend the day with the girls, taking them to playgroups and parks, supervising playdates, and preparing their meals. So long as they cooked from scratch, I gave them free rein in the kitchen.
One Polish nanny in particular was an excellent cook. She would make the most wonderful soups for the girls, which she always served with stacks of thin pancakes. When she left us to start her own family, she kindly copied out those recipes the girls had become so fond of. This vegetable soup in particular has become a family favourite. It’s also a great way to clear out the vegetable tray before the week’s grocery shop. Continue reading
Carbonara is one of those recipes that it’s worth doing properly – good quality ingredients, carefully cooked. It is also very rich. Instead of my usual 110-120g of dry pasta per serving, 100g per person is plenty with carbonara.
I always make spaghetti carbonara with linguine, preferring the way that the slightly thicker, flatter linguine strands become cloaked in sauce.
Like most schools these days, ours is a “nut-free zone”. While peanuts are their main concern, they have banned all nuts to be on the safe side. This has led to considerable confusion about what counts as a nut – are coconuts allowed? Pine nuts? Sunflower seeds?
Strictly speaking they are all seeds – peanuts, almonds, coconuts, sesame seeds, the lot… And which seeds are considered nuts depends on whether you ask a cook or a botanist.
It’s very different to my school days, when half the class brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches daily, and peanut butter cookies were standard lunchbox fare. Continue reading
I only recently learned the difference between caramel and butterscotch. Caramel is white sugar that has been boiled until it darkens, while butterscotch is made with brown sugar and butter. I’m a great fan of both, which is why I love these oatmeal butterscotch chip cookies. An oatmeal chocolate chip cookie is a fine thing, but to my mind these are even better. Continue reading
While traditional enchiladas are rolled, in New Mexico they do things differently. Lightly fried corn tortillas are spread with sauce and cheese and stacked together, and often served topped with a fried egg.
This is my take on stacked enchiladas. I don’t bother frying the tortillas, opting to bake the assembled stacks in the oven instead. While they are very nice with just the traditional sauce and cheese, I often add toppings to each layer – mushrooms and olives, usually – to give the dish more substance. It’s important to slice toppings thinly so they cook quickly and the stack melds together in the oven. Continue reading
I used to make sautéed potatoes quite regularly, but until recently I’d fallen out of the habit.
When one of the girls has a friend round after school, the accepted thing is to feed the child some dinner before they are collected at 6pm. Our family normally eats quite late, so for playdates I’ll usually cook a separate kids’ meal.
I play it safe on these occasions, ever since I made a little girl cry by serving her a bowl of chickpea pasta soup. Schnitzel, meatballs, pesto pasta, fish fingers and chips, sausages and mash are all good bets. Continue reading
Apple crumble is one of the first things that my mum taught me to cook, as I imagine her mother must have taught her. Crumble always on the menu at my grandparent’s house: apple, plum, peach are the ones I remember best. She would serve it with tinned milk, cheaper and more readily available than cream. While Britain excels in the realm of cream – the range on offer in Canada is far more limited even now.
I was surprised to learn that crumble originated in World War II Britain, when food rationing meant pies were off the menu. Women made crumbles instead to eke out their supplies of butter and sugar. Which leaves me wondering why my English-born grandmother was such a crumble queen – given that she emigrated to Canada in 1927. Continue reading
Since becoming a mum, I’ve cooked daily for my own children – and pretty regularly for their friends. It’s been a surprise to me how many of these kids like broccoli. I serve cooked vegetables with pretty much every dinner, and given a choice, most kids pick broccoli over carrots, peas or green beans. Even over corn – unless it’s on the cob. Continue reading
It’s taken a while, but the UK has finally embraced Halloween. For years, ours was the lone jack-o-lantern in the neighbourhood, and four or five kids might knock on the door all evening. Last night, we had more than 150.
These days our neighbourhood association publishes a “trick-or-treat trail” of participating houses, and crowds of little witches and ghouls traipse round the route. The high street shops get in on it too, decorating their windows and handing out sweets.
This year the local dentist erected some scaffolding outside their premises to create a raised platform, and grinned maniacally at the kids as they passed below, complete with smoke machine adding to the atmosphere. Halloween is firmly on the calendar now, it would seem. Continue reading
Ten More Bites 