Crafts and Life

Okay the challenge is to make a dish out of every cook book we have never made something out of! We listed all our cook books yesterday (108 of them!) and then went through and flagged if we had ever had a recipe from it and the statistics were 50…

Ingredients For the meat a thumbnail-sized piece of tamarind pod 285ml/½ pint good-quality red wine 3kg/6½lb best beef mince (for best results, get good rump steak and mince it yourself) 250g/9oz blanched almonds 24 black peppercorns, crushed a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped 2 hot chillies, finely chopped…

Ingredients 50g butter 1kg brown onions , thinly sliced 2 tbsp thyme , picked leaves 3 tbsp dry sherry beef stock fresh, cube or concentrate made up to 1.2 litres http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/sifr/formata.swfCROUTONS 1 baguette , sliced 1 garlic clove , halved extra-virgin olive oil 100g Gruyère , grated  Method Heat the…

Ingredients 100g spring greens , leaves trimmed 2 x 125g fillets firm white fish (choose sustainably fished cod, haddock or pollack) 1 lemon , cut into thin slices 1 small red chilli , sliced 1 tbsp shredded root ginger 1 tbsp rice vinegar 2 tbsp hoisin sauce  Put the spring…

  We are starting to get some semblance of order into the garden (post pup purchase!) and so we put another couple of rosemary plants and a couple of English lavender in the side by the fencing – the small amount of fencing is to deter a small furry from…

Chicken is always a good choice for entertaining because it is so versatile and most people like it. Slowly cooked in white wine and given lots of flavour with garlic, herbs and bacon, it makes an ideal dinner party dish that is also quick and easy to prepare. SERVES 6…

  Before any one asks this is NOT a fine example of the candle dribblers art – this is the morning after starting a Baltic Porter trial brew off. There was a slight mistake in calculating the amount of yeast required and there turned out to be 4 or 5…

Ingredients 2 garlic clove 4 slices fresh ginger root 1 scallion 2 tbs soy sauce 4 tbs sherry 1 tbs Hoisin sauce 1 tbs chilli sauce 1 tbs honey 0.5 tsp salt Method Crush garlic and ginger root; cut scallion into 2 inch pieces. Then combine with remaining ingredients. Rub…

Ingredients 2 tbsp olive oil 400g/14oz stewing beef, cubed 700ml/1¼ pints hot water or beef stock 300g/10½oz mixed mushrooms (such as oyster, button or shiitake), washed thoroughly, roughly sliced salt and freshly ground black pepper For the tomato salsa 400g/14oz vine-ripened tomatoes, each cut into eight wedges handful chopped fresh…

Ingredients 0.5 lb lean pork 1 tsp cornstarch 2 tbs soy sauce 0.25 lb fresh ginger root 1 scallion stalk 2 tbs oil 2 tbs water 1 tsp sugar Method Slice the pork thin against the grain. Dredge in cornstarch; then add soy sauce and toss. Slice ginger root thin.…