What’s this little bundle of joy?
Read the 101 of jam making here and you’ll be away … tips galore!
Dill is a tricky little devil. It looks so innocent, all soft fronds and sweet anise scent, but it packs a potent punch, and the taste lingers. That makes it perfect with oily fish such as salmon.
Letting some fennel plants go to seed, (accidentally or on purpose), will ensure you have fresh fennel seeds to use in dishes.
Chilled, juicy and sweet, watermelon is the quintessential summer snack.
All your medicine in a pearly white clove: antiseptic, anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, anti-fungal, antioxidant = GARLIC.
Panko are dry Japanese wheat flakes, similar to coarse bread crumbs. They turn gorgeously crisp and crunchy when fried or browned.
Keep a bottle of verjuice on hand to deglaze frying pans and roasting tins, to lift up all those sticky little nuggets of flavour.
Have you seen these cutsey bundles of garlic in a shop near you? How good are you at reading labels?
What’s a tangelo all about?
Of all the citrus tangelos are the juiciest, the most bracing, offering fresh acidity tempered with gorgeous sweetness. Did you know they are a cross between …
It may be a cliché, but feta served with a salad of olives, tomatoes and bread and drizzled with olive oil, makes a fabulous summer lunch.
If I could resist harvesting my fennel bulbs, they would have babies, slim fennel-ettes would start forming that I could pluck out leaving the plant to continue growing and forming more of the same. But I can’t, of course.
It’s primal … it’s messy … but the rewards are worth it.
Sort out the riddle: witloof, endive, chicory …
Marjoram has much to offer with musky, spicy notes and a sweet herbal taste.
Fresh sage is strongly herbal, spicy and warming, and is most commonly associated with cooked dishes, especially meat, but just a little added to a salad of green beans can be a revelation.
Sweeten it up if you dare!
The most important point with mince is to use it fresh.
Learn everything you need to know about mushrooms right here.
If someone asks you what you want for your birthday …
The easiest way to get acquainted with pomegranate molasses is to use it as a drizzle – try it over a tray of roasted vegetables for starters. And just like mint sauce, it gives lamb a fresh zing, but it also adds a fruity note.
This humdinger of a hot mixture is pretty much a staple of North African cuisine. Its heat can vary from explosive to mild. You might find it in powdered form, which can be used as a sprinkle or rub, or mixed to a paste with water and/or oil. I love the way it gives mundane meat, vegetable and grain dishes a rev up.
Add a squirt of lemon to blueberries – it brings them alive!
Freekeh is smoky and slightly chewy and gives salads some heft and a depth of flavour.
Though it seems just like yesterday, it was in fact 40 years ago that I spent a week walking the hills of Crete.
A striking memory is the aromatic scents that rose all around us as we crushed wild thyme and oregano underfoot. The oregano was ‘rigani’, origanum vulgare (hirtum). Bit of a gob-full, I suppose, but the last name (hirtum) is pretty important.
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