Author Archives: Emma

About Emma

Sometime chef and utterly besotted foodie out to eat the world!

Chillies and Mexican Food – the Sweet Heat Chilli Challenge roundup

Posted on May 29, 2012

For anyone who loves chillies proper Mexican food is a real treat – the Mexicans grow and use probably more varieties of chilli than any other country, from the fiery habanero to the smokey chipotle and everything in between.  This … Continue reading →

Posted in Baking, Bloggers event, Main course, Meat, Nibbles, Poultry, Recipes, Sauces, Seafood, Sides, Starters, Vegan, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Mexican fajitas with pico de gallo

Posted on May 25, 2012

Once upon a time fajitas made their way onto my dinner table every week and always went down a storm whenever I served them to guests. My secret? A shameful addiction to a store-bought sauce called Knorr’s ‘Stir it up’ … Continue reading →

Posted in Bloggers event, Main course, Meat, Poultry, Recipes, Sauces | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Aqua Cotta

Posted on May 11, 2012

This hearty soup is true Italian peasant food, born out of poverty – the name literally means ‘cooked water’ – and even if we didn’t live in increasingly frugal times it is a dish worth making for the sheer pleasure … Continue reading →

Posted in Bloggers event, Main course, Recipes, Soups, Starters, Vegan, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The joys of growing chillies AND May Sweet Heat Chilli Challenge!

Posted on May 1, 2012

Last year was a bit of a mixed bag in terms of grow-your-own success for me: we had chillies in abundance but due to a failure in labelling the seedlings we ended up with 2 varieties growing prolifically, whilst all … Continue reading →

Posted in Bloggers event, Gardening, Ingredients | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

DIY butter – (and scones) – homemade kitchen alchemy

Posted on March 26, 2012

What’s that you say? You’ve never made your own butter? Oh daaaarlink, you simply must – it’s so easy!  I was amazed recently by how many people reacted with surprise when I said you could make your own butter in … Continue reading →

Posted in Baking, Bloggers event, Preserves, Recipes, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Vietnamese banana flower salad (Nộm hoa chuối)

Posted on March 20, 2012

In my worklife my recipe writing revolves around straightforward meals anyone can make, using ingredients that are easily available to everyone, no matter where they live.  So it is such joy to come home and write about something that – … Continue reading →

Posted in Main course, Poultry, Recipes, Salads, Starters | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Beetroot tartlets with chilled pea cream

Posted on March 6, 2012

Despite the (hopefully sarcastic) pleas of my friends, I have no desire to ever enter Come Dine With Me – the dinner-party-show-cum-torture-device, as (quite apart from the inherent humiliation involved) dinner parties are really not ‘me’ – I simply cannot … Continue reading →

Posted in Baking, Nibbles, Pastry, Recipes, Starters, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

My ultimate hot ‘Buffalo’ wings and blue cheese dip

Posted on February 24, 2012

Look good don’t they?  Juicy, saucy, yet crispy….I love hot wings but so often find that you can either have them crispy, or saucy, not both; and unless you’re deep-frying them saucy usually means the skin is all soft and … Continue reading →

Posted in Bloggers event, Main course, Meat, Nibbles, Poultry, Recipes, Sauces, Sides, Starters | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

How to cook like Heston? – Ultimate cheese sauce for lasagne

Posted on February 14, 2012

Ahh, Heston Blumenthal, a name that divides opinion more sharply than probably almost any other in the food world. Love him or loathe him (I blame the snail porridge for 99% of the haters) you can’t escape him these days, … Continue reading →

Posted in Bloggers event, Main course, Recipes, Sauces, Vegetarian | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Chinese accompaniments: Umami-rich Egg fried rice and easy carrot pickle

Posted on February 2, 2012

To my mind no oriental meal is complete without some rice and some pickles, and one of my favourite parts of any Chinese takeaway is the egg fried rice – for something so apparently simple it is something that has … Continue reading →

Posted in Recipes, Sides | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment