Tomatilla!

I know that I am holding fire on announcing a Paper Chef winner – especially since the next one is due to kick off pretty shortly! So that’ll come later today.

In the meantime I just need to record a few notes about things I have cooked recently so they don’t slip my brain entirely. We [...]

I guess the theme song for this should be ‘Home on the Range’ rather than something less cooking related – but it makes me think of rather different things. Tradition and a relaxed frame of mind and a relaxed approach to life. Rather more ’slow food’ than cowboy food perhaps.

Here’s how this edition of the [...]

Entries and recipes and photos are coming in for Paper Chef 25 and since I am stuck at work until late in the day anyhow, I am extending the deadline until the end of the day. Regular participants and lurkers already know that we don’t pay too much attention to deadlines and rules around here, [...]

The short answer is whenever it’s hot, which means most of the year here. But it is more complicated than that. For example, although my fancy new gas (propane) grill has a side burner, I wouldn’t make it my first choice for boiling water. In fact it is used mostly for roasting coffee. But that [...]

While I wait for the Paper Chef entries to come flooding in, I’m going to resume blogging about other subjects. In this case the matter of going out to eat at restaurants. I do this less and less and especially less and less at fancy dining establishments. Why? Because I find it a worse and [...]

OK – a couple of hours late, but here we go…

The theme for this edition of Paper Chef is ‘Home.’ That means that the fourth ingredient is ’something you already have in your home’ – you can’t go out and buy it – you have to look around and use something. If the cupboard is [...]

The final ingredient list after all nominations was: Chile peppers, zucchini (courgettes), crawfish (crayfish), scallions (spring onions), cocoa nibs, italian prune plums, saffron, blueberries, olives, chicken, peaches, rosemary, five spice (the chinese blend of five spices), ’skin’ (presumably of anything), basil, smoked swordfish, cod roe, aubergine (eggplant), lard, sardines, caraway seeds, lemon cucumbers and cardamom.

A [...]