There’s something magical to me, some sort of alchemy that happens when you cook over a simple wood fire. I know it can seem unpredictable and perhaps daunting to cook with fire, without dials and digital displays, but the flavour imparted to any ingredients cooked this way is unbeatable and I find it so grounding […]
Flowering currants are a beautiful pop of pink in gardens, parks and the occasional hedgerow in spring. They are particularly abundant in March and April, but can still be flowering in early May in more northerly parts of the UK. I love their fruity aroma and gorgeous bright colour and they are just perfect as […]
I know it’s probably a little late now for cherry blossom buds unless you live fairly far north in the UK, but I’ve been sharing how to make these Japanese salted, pickled cherry blossom buds over on my Instagram stories and wanted to put together a post with all of the information in one place […]
You might have noticed a hiatus in my blog posting over the last few months. Without going into too much detail at this point, my body wasn’t taking no for an answer and the enforced rest was pretty much mandatory for a while! The good news is that I’m in full health, there is nothing […]
Slurping delicious buckwheat soba noodles is a New Year’s tradition in Japan. I know New Year’s celebrations might feel like a while ago at this point, but we’re still in January, and I’m certainly still in transition mode from one year to the next. I think we too often forget that this transition is something […]
Things have been slowing down for winter, the trees are once again bare and the ground is again familiar with frost and ice. Now is the time to make use of the stores collected and preserved over the year of berries, mushrooms, but especially spices. The word spices almost feels synonymous with far-off lands, yet […]
As much as I love whiling away an afternoon, or indeed an entire day, cooking something elaborate, I tend not to want to take forever making lunches during the week. The flip side is that I still don’t want lunch to be boring, and so I have a few recipes up my sleeve that I […]
Wild plums are often smaller than shop-bought varieties, more alike to the size of a cherry hence one of their common names being “Cherry Plum”, but what they lack in size they make up for in sweetness and flavour. They’re also known as Mirabelle plums in France and are incredibly popular there, particularly in the […]
A trip to the coast isn’t complete without some seaweed foraging if you ask me. We’ve recently taken ourselves away to Cornwall to enjoy the rugged coastal paths, refreshing sea breeze, delicious local produce, and cold-water dips – it’s been absolute heaven! We were lucky to be visiting around the time of the full moon […]
With May being so cold this year, a lot of things have been a little slower to appear than usual. One example is the St George’s mushroom, Calocybe gambosa, which as its name suggests usually starts to appear around St George’s Day, 23rd April. This year, however, they didn’t seem to start appearing until much […]