Direct from America, Clara Freeman – freelance columnist, and self-confessed celebrity gossip mogul – discusses the twists and turns of one of TNT’s hottest shows: Nurse HawthoRNe (sic). Nurse [...]
All Entries in the "Food & Drink" Category
Pasta Puttanesca
I spent a superb weekend in my favourite city of Amsterdam, but I must remember that I am not as young as I use to be and that I can no longer party for three days in a row with out paying the price. That price was me being very rough and tired on the [...]
Wine of the Month – May 2013
Named after the Greek goddess Maia, May is the month when spring turns into summer – or should do, at least. With two bank holidays in the month, opportunities for leisurely eating outside should be plentiful – and in case we get the inevitable bank holiday wash-out, there are also some reds. This month, we also [...]
A Most Particular Taste: Haut-Brion 350 Years Celebration Dinner
On April 10th 1663, diarist, Cambridge-graduate and upwardly-mobile man-about-town, Samuel Pepys wrote to have “drank a sort of French wine called Ho Bryen that hath a good and most particular taste I never met with”, thereby inventing the tasting note. Haut-Brion, the only Bordeaux first growth based outside the Medoc, was purchased in 1935 by US [...]
Vietnamese Chicken Hotpot
After reviewing the recipes from Skinny Meals in Heels, I decided to try a simple recipe of chicken, ginger and green bean hotpot, served with rice. This is a classic Vietnamese braised dish that is low in fat but full in flavour. The recipe in the book required 500g of chicken but I only had [...]
Greek Halwa
Greek Halwa ~ a rich and fragrant sweet semolina dessert that is flavoured with spices such as cinnamon, cloves, star anise and garnished with nuts. Ingredients: 60 g / 2 oz fine semolina 60 g / 2 oz unsalted butter few pistachio nut to garnish Sugar Syrup 60 g / 2 oz sugar 250 ml water 3 [...]
Book Review: Skinny Meals in Heels
For my birthday in January a good friend bought me a “joke” cookery book called Skinny Meals in Heels, by Jennifer Joyce. He thought it was funny because I’m always talking about trying to lose weight (due to the amount of eating I do so that I can write articles for this blog). He also [...]
Two Wines from Dopff & Irion, Alsace
Dopff & Irion is based in the beautiful village of Riquewihr in Franco-Germanic Alsace; the vineyards are now four estates, created by René Dopff in 1945: Les Murailles, Les Sorcières, Les Maquisards and Les Amandiers, each with a single variety planted. The domaine sent me two wines to review: they make an oddly sensuous / nervy [...]
Tooting: SW17 is Worth a Second Look
For those of you who are familiar with the Tooting area, you will know that it’s not the most happening of places when it comes to eating and drinking. And for those of you who have never heard of Tooting, I don’t blame you. Tooting gets over looked by its richer neighbours – Balham, Clapham [...]
Pasta Bake
Penne pasta baked in a spicy tomato sauce with a delicious cheesy topping. Ingredients: Pasta: 240 grams / 8 oz uncooked pasta penne 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon olive oil 2 litres Water Arrabbiata Sauce: 60 grams / 2 oz pre cooked sweet corn kernels 60 grams / 2 oz mixed peppers red /green / [...]
Wild Mushroom Risotto
I always think of risottos as largely unhealthy and something to eat now and again, as I always thought they had a lot of parmesan in them. Recently I’ve been told otherwise and that cheese is not used that often and so when searching through my food bible “Good Housekeeping Cookery Book, published by Good [...]
Ramon Bilbao Dinner at Cambridge Hotel du Vin
It’s not often you get to try a completely new appellation of wine – the Ramon Bilbao NV Mar de Frades Albariño Rías Baixas Brut Nature, the first-ever sparkling Albarino from Rias Baxas, was presented by Carlos Delage at Cambridge Hotel du Vin at a Ramon Bilbao dinner. Over canapes in the Hotel’s Library room, [...]
Beetroot Relish
Sweetness of the beetroot and the tang from the lemon makes this relish delicious and tasty. Ingredients: 2 medium raw beetroots 1/4 small white cabbage 1 tablespoon brown sugar Juice of half lemon 1/2 tablespoon sunflower oil 1 green chilli finely diced 1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds 1 red dried chilli 1/2 teaspoon salt Method: 1. [...]
Chocolate: Italy’s Founding Fathers
There are conflicting series as to how and when chocolate reached Italy. Some historians believe it was around the middle of the 16th century when the exiled duke Emmanuel-Philibert returned to power, having experienced the delights of chocolate in Spain. The popular theory is that chocolate was imported by a Florentine merchant, Antonio Carletti, who [...]
Cheese and Sage Crusted Pork Chop
I prefer my pork chops simply grilled or lightly fried in the a pan, occasionally I just add it to some soup but I wanted to do something completely different. I scanned the net to see what other recipes people had created to change a simple but tasty pork chop into something new After reviewing [...]
Wine of the Month – April 2013
April is the first full month of spring – a time when the grapes for this year’s wine will start to burst as buds on the vines. It is also the month of Earth Day, St George’s Day and the London marathon, so take your pick. Also, April Fools Day and the cruellest month, according [...]
Caramel Fudge
Delectable pieces of melt-in-the-mouth soft brown fudge topped with flaked almonds. Ingredients: 240 ml / 8 oz Caramel Condensed milk 300 g / 10 oz Milk Powder Flaked almonds Butter to grease the pan Method: 1. In a large microwaveable dish add the caramel condensed milk and the milk powder. 2. Mix the ingredients and [...]
Moroccan Chicken
Hands up if you’ve ever heard of onions cut Asian style? It was a new one on me so went to the internet to see if I could find out what it meant and how the onions were cut. After a few seconds I found that It means that you make thick cuts with the [...]
La Cave des Vignerons de Pfaffenheim – Alsace
Dating back to 1957, La Cave des Vignerons de Pfaffenheim is a co-operative of 230 growers based in the sunnier, warmer part of southern Alsace that typically produces riper, fuller wines. Alsace, with its Germanic heritage, generally produces single-variety wines labelled as such – these two wines, however, are blends with generic names. Priced as everyday [...]
Chocolate Coins
These simple and delectable little chocolate coins are simple and easy to prepare and make wonderful Easter treats. Ingredients: 8 oz / 220 grams White chocolate 8 oz / 220 grams Milk chocolate Edible coloured sugar or sprinkles to decorate. Method: 1.Break up each type of chocolate into small pieces and place it in two separate bowls [...]
Making Sense of Grocery-store Eggs
Grocery stores have lots of different kinds of eggs. All come from chickens, but some are labeled “all natural”, others “organic”, and still others “free-range”. Some are even “organic free range”. So what are the differences and which are best? All Natural: This term is generally meaningless. This is what the conventional egg industry calls [...]
Chicken and Fennel Meatballs
Where does time go, I cannot believe it’s been so long since I last wrote an entry. I am still creating and eating new recipes and I have been visiting new and exciting restaurants and I’m even reading a lot on food in general. I’ve even written a lot, but something always seems to drag [...]
Chocolate: The British Founding Fathers
When chocolate arrived in Britain it did so more or less simultaneously with two other stimulants, tea from Asia and coffee from Africa. Coffee was the first to catch on in British society as it was relatively cheaper but chocolate soon followed. Documentary evidence of the first chocolate house in London appeared in 1657. The [...]
Chocolate as Medicine
Chocolate was used therapeutically as long ago as the fourth century, when the Maya first started cultivating the cacao tree. Mayan sorcerers, who were the predecessors of priests and doctors, prescribed cacao both as a stimulant and as a soothing balm. Warriors took it as an energy boosting drink, and cocoa butter was used as a [...]
Wine of the Month – March 2013
Also on Cambridge Wine Blogger. With a name taken from the Roman god of war, March is neither quite the depths of winter nor properly spring. Chilly, rather than frosty, it is said to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. February’s snowdrops have given way to early-flowering daffodils and the [...]
Chocolate: From Beverage to Confectionery
In its early days chocolate was an extremely rich beverage. It contained a fatty substance known as cacao butter which tended to rise to the top, where it would float in unappetising greasy pools. Manufacturers overcame this to some extent by adding starchy substances to absorb the fat – a process similar to the Aztec [...]
There is No Such Things as Completely Safe Food
The goal of government regulation in the area of food and agriculture, at least according to rhetoric, is to ensure that food is safe. Complete safety is the stated top priority. But is such a goal possible? Yes, but only by severely compromising nutrition. All of nature is mixture of things that are both beneficial and harmful to [...]
Ask City Connect
Quality of Life Highest in South Cambridgeshire
In answer to your question about moving out of London to a rural area for a fresh start, we thoguht the following survey results would be of interest.
According to a [...]
Style
Maxi Dresses for Maximum Impact
The maxi dress has been adorning the red carpet and the high street for a long time now however we have taken it upon ourselves to highlight a few of [...]
Relationships
Brush Away Those Singleton Blues
With the sudden dip of temperature causing us to dust the cobwebs from our hats, gloves and scarves, Winter is definitely here! For most people, thoughts turn to the planning of impending significant family occasions [...]
