Simple and tasty food.
I promise these are the last biscuits for a while. I am going to turn into a biscuit if not! The weather has been spectacularly drizzly in Ireland so far this summer. I wore a polo neck and winter boots the other day. It is turning into yet another Irish summer – rain with intermittent showers. When the weather is like this, it’s hard to drag yourself out of the …
We recently had very enjoyable afternoon tea in Reid’s hotel in Madeira. The tearooms are ideally situated on a balcony, overlooking a tropical garden and the glistening blue sea. The whole experience was idyllic and felt a little like walking back in time, to an age where afternoon tea was all the go. Our table was covered with pristine starched linens and we were presented with shiny silver teapots, fine …
Carrying on from my Rose Apple Tarts, I decided to make a similar savoury version using bright coloured vegetables – courgettes, carrots and aubergines. It turned out to be very pretty, but it did take a lot of work and patience! It’s a good one to make if you have a glut of vegetables in the summer, and a bit of time on your hands 🙂
It’s mad when you think about it, someone tucking into a bourbon biscuit and a cup of tea during World War 1. But, it’s entirely possible as the humble bourbon biscuit has been around since 1910, making it a whopping 102 years old. The original bourbon was apparently called Creola, but was changed to the name Bourbon, in order to make it sound more appealing. Apart from the name change, it doesn’t appear that a lot has …
Finally, it feels like the summer has arrived and it’s definitely time for something a bit lighter. For me, bouillabaisse is the sunny South of France in one big bubbling pot : Pernod, fennel, tomatoes, and succulent seafood. It always smells and tastes like the summer. Bouillabaisse was originally created by the fisherman in the port of Marseille using cheaper types of fish, like eel and rockfish, all the fish they …
A lot of people ask me, what do you cook when you have no time? I know it looks like I cook all the time, but when it comes to feeding myself; I am usually very short on time. So to prevent myself from starving 😉 I always try to have good quality ingredients on hand. Decent ingredients practically speak for themselves, which means they take very little preparation. Take …