Category: Cook’s notes

There are plenty of reasons to eat mushrooms!

Learn everything you need to know about mushrooms right here.

Thyme

Thyme’s a warming sort of herb and is often associated with slow-cooked autumnal or wintery dishes or comfort food, but it shouldn’t be typecast.

Time for pie

Ilaria seems happy stirring. What’s she up to?

Ting-ting-a-ling … That’s capers!

Yep, they sure ting-le your taste buds. Food a bit flat? Life a bit boring? Add a few capers and liven things up. Capers are the pickled or salted green flower bud of a shrub commonly found in the Mediterranean. They develop capric acid during pickling, and this, coupled with the added salt and their […]

Tom-ato To-mato

Get the best out of tomato products.

Tomato Sauce – a classic Italian sauce

A handy sauce to make ahead and keep in the freezer for those nights when you want to pull something together with little effort – thaw in a microwave for speed.

Top Tomato Tips

If you don’t grow your own tomatoes, seek out the best at a farmers’ market.

Touch test for cooked beef

The temperature of meat will increase for up to 5 minutes after it is removed from the oven or heat source.

Tropical tempter – White Sapote

Custard and cream. Oh yeah, who doesn’t love that!

Turmeric

Whoo-hoo. Yellow gold. An antiseptic, a gargle, a digestive aid, clears sinuses, too, and it’s a much-loved preservative in pickles and chutneys. Add some to your vege shakes for a health kick.

Useful to know – green beans

Beware of out of season beans sold in tinted plastic bags – it’s a scam to enhance their green colour.

Verjuice

Keep a bottle of verjuice on hand to deglaze frying pans and roasting tins, to lift up all those sticky little nuggets of flavour.

Vietnamese Mint

Green leaves with a hot spicy nip.

Watermelon

Chilled, juicy and sweet, watermelon is the quintessential summer snack.

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Why throw bay leaves in the water when cooking broccoli?

It’s either that, or open the windows!

Wild Rice

Is wild rice actually rice? Is it better for you than white rice?

Witloof – just the right crunch for salad

Sort out the riddle: witloof, endive, chicory …

Zucchini (courgettes)

Our favourite way with zucchini flowers is stuffed and fried (anything fried at our place is a no-brainer!). Goat’s cheese seasoned with lemon and herbs or with anchovies, a spicy almondy chilli paste, and a fresh pea puree lightened with mascarpone are three ways we like, but the possibilities are endless. Just keep the filling light and don’t over-fill the flowers.