bitful

I love fish, but cooking fish is smelly.
As we often have our laundry to dry in the open space kitchen/dining room/living room (i.e. the only room in the flat big enough to open the clothes drier), I have been trying to come up with ways to cook fish that do not stink.
The following recipe is [...]

Often, especially if I haven't got time, I enjoy making 'mock-porridge' by pouring hot water on oats, giving it a stir and eating it straight away. Unorthodox but speedy.
Lately however I have tasted Dr B.'s porridge and it's so good I don't mind the extra calories. As it is not always easy to get the [...]

A typical salad from Cataluña. I had it several months ago on the last day in Sitges before leaving for the airport, but it is best eaten during the colder winter months (January and February in Cataluña).
Xató recipe at massrecipes.com
Serves 6.
Ingredients

2 Heads Curly endive
3 Garlic cloves
8 Almonds; peeled and toasted
1 Or more Sharp chili peppers [...]

I love these cookies. They are very spicy (among the ingredients are black pepper and cayenne pepper) and gingery. Last year I used some as Christmas tree decorations.
Icelandic pepper cookies recipe at allrecipes.com
Ingredients

1 1/4 cups butter, softened
1 1/4 cups white sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
2 small eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon [...]

About one year ago Dr B. felt like making curry. He seldom cooks, so I welcomed the idea with enthusiasm and sent him off to the market.
He came back with two kilos of brown Basmati rice, made two curries in a week with some of it, then left me to go through the rest when [...]

There was a time when I used to make this every Thursday night. Then Tesco's Healthy Eating ready meals made my cooking redundant.
The other night I offered to relieve Dr B.'s grumpiness and frustration at not sleeping much because of continuous calls from work (he is on 24-hour support until the end of the weekend) [...]

Most often enjoyed on Sundays at lunchtime, this simple British classic recipe goes very well with headaches, queasiness, the need to maintain a horizontal position, bad (yet compelling) TV and other signs of a hangover.
This sandwich is such an institution that experts at Leeds University have come up with a mathematical formula to make the [...]

Another French-themed dinner last night, this time in honour of Bastille Day (and to reciprocate on two dinner invitations received well over two years ago - what took us so long?).
We had the baked camembert with home-made bread as a starter, and tarte Tatin for dessert (this time served with some gorgeous home-made cinnamon icecream [...]

British cuisine is quite special. Often, the name of the dish is the recipe itself. Cheese and beans on toast. Scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam.
Ok, I'll grant you these are not the most elaborate of recipes, but that's exactly why I'm so keen on them.
Today (or rather, on Thursday night, one of the [...]

We are in the middle of British Sandwich Week 2007.
Unfortunately, we are also in the middle of our 'ZOMFG we only have three weeks to squeeze back into last year's swimsuits' week. There's no way I'm buying a larger size. I mean, my trunks were loose last year!
I know a sandwich can be a very [...]

Today the French are electing their new president. I hope they make a good and wise choice (hint: she would be France's first female president), I fear they won't.
Update: the French elected Sarkozy instead.
In their honour, here is a simplified version of my favourite dessert. I made it last night to celebrate one year exactly [...]

I have absolutely no idea how I came up with the idea of making a Finnish sweet bread for a picnic with friends on Hampstead Heath.
I seem to remember waking up at stupid o'clock, wanting to impress people with my culinary skills, then going to the supermarket, and the next thing I knew I was [...]

I always find that whenever I put together a meal with the only few ingredients I can find at home, it turns out quite well.
So on Friday night, after a short but hard week at work, the last thing I wanted to do was to fight for a trolley at Tesco. I knew we had [...]

Three days ago (April 5th) was Dr B.'s birthday and I made him a cake in the shape of a Dalek.
By coincidence a few days earlier I had come across a BBC Blue Peter Dalek cake recipe that was just perfect, as it involved no cooking. All you have to do is stick a couple [...]

We recently acquired a new dining table (our first) and can now finally have people over for proper sit-down meals.
As a first dinner party, I insisted that the five friends who helped us move come round. We are very grateful to them and pulled all the stops to make this a memorable dinner.
We dusted off [...]

I know, it's not Sunday. But believe me, once you try this, every day is going to be Thai chicken soup day for you too.
I think Dr B. first picked up this soup a few weeks ago. It;'s hot and rich, and full of chicken goodness.
I think it was me who bought a few packets [...]

A variation on the basic goat cheese and walnut salad we often have.
Adapted from a BBC h2g2 salad recipe

Ingredients

Washed baby spinach leaves
Goat cheese
Lemon juice
Pine nuts
Sliced mushrooms
Garlic
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preparation

Toast the pine nuts in a hot pan until golden
Fry mushrooms in oil with garlic and let cool slightly
Grill goat cheese until golden
Make a dressing with oil, [...]

I love cheese. I adore bread. I go gaga for a sharp taste.
This is why the most common meal round here is some combination of these three elements.
Ciabatta, ham and a squirt of Daddy sauce.
In France I used to have the classic baguette, gruyère and gherkins sandwich.
Cheddar and sliced tomatoes on doorstop white bread.
But, more [...]

This was one of Jamie Oliver's ads for Sainsbury's in which he effortlessly throws a couple of unusual ingredients together, it looks scrumptuous and it ends with him repeating the campaign's slogan 'Try something new'.
We tried. And liked. So much so in fact that we had this every single week (on Monday night, which is [...]

This grilled goat cheese and walnuts salad has something in common with the great British tradition that is cheese and beans on toast, namely that the title of the recipe is the recipe itself.
It is one of our favourite salads because it requires minimum shopping and can be prepared very quickly but it still has [...]

This is one of our favourite recipes. We call it 'Nigella beans' or simply 'Nigella', because we first saw it on one of Nigella Lawson's cooking TV shows.
I think we originally saw it made with asparagus, but tried replacing it with French beans (cheaper and easier to find) and it works just as well.
Ingredients

French beans
Parma [...]

This is the very first dessert I ever made for Dr B. It was Valentine's Day and it was the first time I was cooking for him. The menu made entirely out of Dr Atkins' worst nightmares, also featured breadsticks with Parma ham, and spinach and sweetcorn lasagna.
Ah, those were the days. We had met [...]

Continuing the anniversary theme, here is the main course I cooked for my first Valentine's dinner with Dr B. (twelve days after we met) four years ago.
At the time I served it with a side salad and I made a tiramisu for dessert (we were thin then).
This recipe serves four.
Ingredients

1 pack (1 kilo) frozen spinach, [...]

I made this last night for Dr B. while I was having hearty British food (leeks, potatoes, sliced green beans and beef).
I have adapted the quantities and part of the preparation from the Thai beef salad recipe at iVillage.co.uk, and this usually is as a generous main course (sometimes the only course) for our dinner.
Serves [...]