Posts Tagged “baking”
Baking is, thank goodness, enjoying something of a revival. We are reconnecting with some old-fashioned culinary values – the kitchen filled with tempting aromas, a cake on a glass stand, some home-made chocolate treats. But much of the appeal of the candy is the fact that it is also eye-candy. They look beautiful. Perhaps these…
Portugal is on the very edge of Europe and often overlooked in favour of its more vocal neighbour, Spain. But this country has so much to offer to the visitor. Striking landscapes of Alentejo flatter the eye, generous hospitality warms the soul, and gastronomy seems to be a well-exercised hobby practised by all. The Alentejo…
You might think that cooking with flowers is pushing the culinary envelope. It’s perhaps reminiscent of the long-gone hippie era and its ethos of peace, nut loaf and free love. Well, consider this: we often eat flowers and don’t think of it as one bit retro or bizarre. Cooking with Flowers is a floral introduction….
For years it was referred to as Mei Ren Wu (Mei Ren Wo) or “den of beauties” in Chinese, as many rich men housed their mistresses in this rather stylish 1930’s estate. This is one of the oldest housing estates in Singapore. It was the first project undertaken by the Singapore Improvement Trust and is…
America’s PBS TV channel has offered America’s Test Kitchen to its US viewers for decades. Now we can find PBS in the UK and it’s well worth investigating its programme schedule, to discover America’s Test Kitchen for yourself. The Best of America’s Test Kitchen 2013 is a paper version of he series. This book is…
If you love cooking you will likely have wanted to try baking your own bread but it’s equally possible that you lost your nerve and didn’t bother. It’s baking and that is culinary alchemy; and then you add yeast into the equation and, well, how does that work? No Need to Knead tells you how…
Pierre Hermé is the fourth generation of a family of bakers from Alsace in France. He has been working and learning his trade since he was just 14 years old, when he started as a lowly apprentice. He was in Paris with the celebrated pâtissier, Gaston Lenôtre, who was to become Pierre’s greatest professional influence….
We in the UK can now watch America’s Test Kitchen, hosted by Chris Kimball, on PBS. That’s a non-commercial TV station from the US and they are famed for their quality broadcasting. Yes, they offer programmes that will appeal to American viewers, but so much of that is equally pertinent to us on the right-hand-side…
It’s a feel-good cookbook in every regard. It’s in support of The Ben Kinsella Trust, which was set up to raise awareness of knife crime after the death of young Ben. It has the comforting feel of a good old-fashioned cookbook with attractive and slightly retro graphics and simple recipes for things that one would…
It once was a flavour or, more honestly, a non-flavour that harked back to my now-distant youth. Vanilla was the ice cream you chose when it was going to have a pile of garnishes and sauces on top. Vanilla was the cake for the non-special occasions. Vanilla was even the paint colour which was, ironically,…
Surely we have all licked out the bowl after mum has made cookies. But let’s make it clear what we mean by a cookie. A cookie is a biscuit if you are an American. A biscuit is a cookie if you are British. Something like a scone is a biscuit if you come from the…
It’s no surprise that I love cooking. I bake bread, make pies, curries, casseroles and roasts but, to tell the truth, I have never managed a great repertoire of desserts. Perhaps it’s because I don’t want to spend hours and hours in the kitchen confectioning a fiddly sweet creation. I might have a passion for…
I am a travel book reviewer and a cookbook reviewer and How Do You Measure Up? falls into neither of those categories …but on the other hand (the hand is a non-SI unit of length, now used only for the measurement of the height of horses) it fits nicely into both. Shirley Bond has penned a…
A Passion for Cheese is another classy book by Paul Gayler. The visual delight is supplied by, once again, Gus Filgate and his camera. The book offers us more than 130 ways to cook with cheese but it also enlightens us about cheese making, choosing and storing cheese and what wine might work best. I…
Well, I guess there are a couple of interpretations of the title, Love Food. That could be food to make for those you love; it could be recipes for those who love to eat food. Indeed this book offers dishes that fit the bill on both counts. Love Food is written by Tina Bester who…
This is another one of those foods that crosses the divide between vegetable and fruit. We have that same complication with the tomato, which is technically a fruit but which is more often than not served as a savoury. Rhubarb is classified in the UK as a vegetable but in the US it’s a fruit….
Ginette Mathiot was one of the most celebrated French food writers. She was so respected that she was awarded Officier de la Légion d’Honneur by the French government. She was into her 90s when she died after a long and celebrated career. Ginette Mathiot wrote over 30 books including the famous Je Sais Cuisiner –…
As a kid I didn’t have The Golden Book of Desserts but I would sit next to the radiogram (yes, there were such things and yes, I am that old), listen to Two-Way Family Favourites and leaf through my Mum’s big old cookbook. It had thousands of pictures but all of them in black and…
It’s just the time to start getting anxious about Christmas. All that shopping …and all that cooking and baking. It’s a special season, when we want to make an extra effort for family and friends; our usual delicious food but with a little more care taken over presentation. Sweet things and large cakes can provide…
Food, like clothes, has fashions and trends. We have had cupcakes and macaroons and now it’s the era of the Whoopie Pie! The name is amusing and nobody is sure where exactly that name originates, although it’s said to mimic the exclamation of joy as lunch boxes containing the aforementioned cakes were opened. They are…