meemalee

Here's a quick and dirty one. One of my little pleasures in life is to suck the marrow out of a bone. Osso bucco , lamb shanks, even chicken bones all have chunks of wobbly, meaty goodness to release for my delectation and , as far as I'm concerned , it's as delicious as foie gras without the guilt. I'd noticed that Selfridges had some sliced veal bones in its Food Hall, so I schlepped over to pick up a kilo, as well as some chicken hearts and gizzards. To be honest, it gave me a bit of a thrill to be walking around chi-chi Selfridges carrying what my Fallout- playing husband would call a " gorebag ". Anyway, I also got me a loaf of sourdough and a bunch of parsley to construct a celebrated Fergus Henderson recipe - and a death row meal for Anthony Bourdain no less. Here's my take - serves a greedy two. Note that you'll need a long thin implement to extract the marrow if the bones haven't been sliced vertically (espresso spoons work well - can...

Is anyone else scared of butchers or is it just me? A while ago, I summoned the courage to visit McKanna Meats (aka Theobald's Butchers ) on Theobald's Road in Holborn. I had £50 in my pocket, a huge jute shopper bag and absolutely no idea what I wanted. Although it was 4pm (ie not lunchtime or after work), there was still a huge queue, so I spied on what the people in front of me were buying - one guy bought about ten kilos of diced venison. Anyway, finally it was my turn and the kindly butcher says "And what can I get for you, madam?". Bad start, although I'm nearly thirty, it still disconcerts the hell out of me to be called "madam". Anyway, it made me forget the power of speech and so I began randomly pointing at things. In the end, I came away with four quail, six venison sausages, one diced rabbit, four fat pork chops, two herby lamb racks, two lamb shanks, a duck confit, a bottle of Lingham's chilli sauce and a kilo of ox cheeks . The whole ...

Google "macaroni cheese recipe" and you'll get over 400,000 results. So why am I giving you another recipe for mac 'n' cheese, aka macaroni cheese , aka mac & cheese, aka macaroni and cheese? Simple, because this recipe is genuinely the BEST ever! Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese is all very well, but a few simple ingredients, a short stint in the oven and, according to everyone who's tried this, you're looking at mac and cheese heaven :) Of course, what really makes this cheesy manna is the hitherto top secret ingredient which I am now ready to reveal to the world ... ready salted crisps (ie plain potato chips)! This recipe serves four hungry people, six who are less so ... The Best Macaroni Cheese Ever (IMHO) 3 heaped tbsp plain flour 2 heaped tbsp margarine/butter 2 mugs milk 500g pasta tubes (I like them fat so I use rigatoni or tortiglioni rather than actual macaroni) 300g grated mature cheddar 2 packets of ready salted crisps 1 tbsp tomato ket...

When I was little, I always had school dinners and one of my favourites was Toad in the Hole . This traditional dish of Yorkshire Pudding batter and sausages is about as comforting as food can get, and its name is about as silly (bar Spotted Dick perhaps). It's a dish that's also beloved by my husband, but I try not to make it too often in case he gets fat. I've tried various different combos for the batter and I found that Brian Turner's Yorkshire Pudding recipe gives the best results and is also fairly idiot-proof. As for the sausages, I use nice quality pork ones from my butcher's counter, Debbie & Andrew's , or The Black Farmer , and when our veggie friends come for tea, Cauldron's vegetarian sausages . This recipe serves four (or three greedy people who want 4 bangers each) Dead Easy Toad in the Hole 12 good quality pork or vegetarian sausages A mug of beaten eggs (a standard coffee mug - not a monster from Whittards ) A mug of plain flour A mug o...