More adventures in the croft Advent kitchenWill the Master Baker come to the rescue? After a course of counselling and esteem building I was ready to open the Advent kitchen again and continue my exploration of Scandinavian Christmas baking. This time I vowed to follow the recipe precisely, and accurately measure and weigh all the ingredients. However, I decided to
The aroma in the Advent croft kitchen is delicious and augurs Christmas treats. There are enough spices to fill a potentate’s bazaar, jars of dried fruit and dark sugars, bundles of cinnamon sticks and piles of gleaming Satsumas and lemons. The Christmas cake is slumbering in a miasma of brandy in the cupboard with the
Once again we have to thank the Victorians for discovering the culinary delights of rhubarb, as prior to the 19th century it was more likely to be found in a physic garden or apothecary’s shop than the vegetable garden. Extracts from Chinese rhubarb Rheum officinale and Chingai or Turkey rhubarb Rheum palmatum have been used
bramble n. rough prickly shrub of the genus Rubus with long trailing shoots, esp. blackberry-bush. Oxford English Dictionary. Is it the time of year or the advancing years that makes one prone to nostalgia? Sunday afternoon bike rides with my Dad were always wonderful excursions into the countryside where there were always new things to
As a child I encountered marrows but nothing as exotic as a courgette – apart from the mysterious thing called zucchini listed as an ingredient on the back of a packet of dried minestrone soup. My love affair with courgettes started in Italy when I was served stuffed courgette flowers and tiny delicately flavoured, finger-sized