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Tarragon Sugared Doughnuts and Pink Peppercorn Ice Cream I am contrary. If someone tells me to go left, I feel myself veering to the right (this is possibly why I don't drive, and you should all be grateful)*. So when Lurpak sent me a product from their new Cooks' Range - Lurpak Clarified Butter (or ghee as it's often known) with some tarragon and some pink peppercorns and then suggested I might use them to make a nice steak, my first thought was, "I don't think so". In fact, I'm contrary enough that I thought I'd make a dessert instead, and as any fule kno, I don't do puds (unless they're as ridiculously easy as the Burmese New Year snack known as mont lone yay paw ). So anyway, I sat staring at the wee tub of ghee and the little baggies of herbs, and I racked my brain and I came up with the following - Tarragon Sugared Doughnuts with Pink Peppercorn Ice Cream. It occurred to me that tarragon is sweet and fragra...

Coconut Prawn Curry I stockpile cans like there's no tomorrow . Chopped and plum tomatoes, baked beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, cannellini beans, sweetcorn, pilchards, sardines, corned beef, condensed milk, random meat products which I bought partly because of their amusing names, and even a forlorn tin of Libby's pumpkin, waiting, always waiting, to be turned into pumpkin pie some (Thanksgiving) day. The other tin which stares at me reproachfully is one of coconut milk. "You only ever use me to make ohn-no khao swè ", it says to me. "I am so versatile and exciting. DO SOMETHING WITH ME. LET ME LIVE". So I made up this dish. Coconut Prawn Curry Recipe Serves 4 500g large raw prawns 3 tbsp oil 1 large onion, chopped 4 cloves garlic, chopped 1 lemongrass stalk, trimmed of woody bits and finely chopped OR 1 tsp lemongrass paste 1 tbsp Marigold bouillon 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes 1 x 400g tin coconut milk 1 tbsp fish sauce Sm...

Gong Bao or Kung Pao Chicken As a child, my musical tastes were dictated by my parents. Having arrived in the UK just before I was born, their choices largely consisted of the "safe" Western music that had been allowed into Burma - for example, ABBA, Andy Williams and a certain Cliff Richard - as well as old-time Burmese songs dating from before World War II as far as I could tell. Later on however, as we kept in touch with the family back home, our playlists began to be dominated by a man called Zaw Win Htut .  I say 'a man' - he was (and still is) vaunted as a rock legend - a Burmese Bruce Springsteen at the height of his powers. I adored every single one of his songs - the ballads and the anthems - and I would lustily yell along to the many tapes we brought back from our visits to the old country. One fine day here though, I remember very clearly we were in the car on the way to see some cousins. We had the radio on for once, and suddenly the voice o...

Crispy Salt and Pepper Squid T here's nothing wrong with succumbing to the occasional takeaway, and I've recently been craving a lot of Chinese food.  Our usual order includes Sweet and Sour Chicken Balls (for him) and Salt and Pepper Squid (for me). The thing is, with seafood particularly, the portions can be rather parsimonious, so sometimes I'll crack out my wok and make a massive batch of my beloved S&P Squid just for me ... Salt and Pepper Squid Recipe  Serves 2-4 2 large whole squid, cleaned and prepared, cut into rings, or into triangles and then scored in a diamond shape, plus tentacles  3 tbsp cornflour  3 tbsp plain flour  2 tbsp black peppercorns, crushed  2 tsp sea salt  2 tbsp five spice 1 egg white  Groundnut or other flavourless oil for frying Garnish  4 spring onions, thinly sliced at an angle (keep white and green parts in two separate piles) 4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced 2 Thai chi...

Killer Kimchi Kimchi. Practically the national dish of Korea, this potent pickle is pungent, sour, spicy and unnecessarily delicious. It works well as a condiment or side dish, in stews and curries, with rice and noodles, and even in a sandwich or bun - in fact, a kimchi hotdog seems to be de rigueur these days. Till recently, I've been lazy and got packets or tubs of the stuff from Oriental supermarkets, but I discovered that it's both cheap and easy to make yourself. This is a good thing as I recently had to make a shed-load for my Momofuku tribute dinner Lunchy Peach . The recipe looks long but I wanted to show you all the steps - it's really straightforward. Korean Pepper Flakes and Burmese Shrimp Paste And you can tweak the flavours (saltier, sweeter, sourer) so it tastes even better than shop-bought. (Burmese) shrimp paste, similar to belacan, is my secret ingredient for extra umami - other recipes add chopped-up oysters, dried shrimp or squid, ...

Last year I was lucky enough to be one of the judges at the inaugural Scotch Egg Challenge  held at the mighty Ship pub in Wandsworth. 2012's Scotch Egg Challenge was held last night, and fighting off strong competition, the Bladebone Inn took the first prize, the Hind's Head  came second, and the  Drapers Arms  (sister pub to last year's winner the Devonshire Arms), came third. Unfortunately, I had to miss this year's festivities, so this recipe is for me and anyone else out there who missed out and wants a piece of the eggy action themselves. The judges at last year's Scotch Egg Challenge - Eric Lanlard, Chris Pople, Mat Follas, me, and David Constable Note that this recipe will make two each of original Scotch Egg, Chorizo Scotch Egg and Black Pudding Scotch Egg. If you fancy just making the original flavour, just triple the quantity of sausage meat and leave out the other types of meat. Scotch Eggs Recipe Makes 6 eggs 6 eggs (Burford Brow...

Egg and Bacon Tarts So Sainsbury's contacts me.  They say, "Next month is Organic September - a month long promotion of organic food by the Soil Association - and to celebrate this, we'd love to send you a box of our seasonal goods from our SO Organic range for you to come up with some recipes". I think, "Meh, I do like a cookery challenge. All right then".  The allotted time and date arrives. There's a knock at the door, and a cheerful driver says, "Here's the delivery for Miss Bunty Fairweather*".  I think, "Eh?" and say, "Um, I am expecting a delivery, but my name's MiMi, not Bunty". He looks perplexed and shrugs.  I say, "Are they all organic products?" and he says, "Yes", and hands the goods over since the address is right and he doesn't really give a monkey's what my name is.  I put the bag on the kitchen table and empty its contents excitedly. So. There's milk, ...

When I was ill, the doctors ran all sorts of tests on me and discovered I had a slight calcium deficiency.  My diet doesn't contain an awful lot of dairy, so I did some research and found out that sesame seeds contain a surprising amount of calcium. So here is a recipe for Japanese style scallops using said seeds and a bit of butter - delicious and you can also feel like you're doing your bones some good. Osteoporosis be damned. Japanese Scallops with Soy Butter and Black Sesame Seeds Serves 2 6 fat scallops, coral attached Fat knob of butter Dash of soy sauce Handful of sesame seeds, black if possible Shichimi togarashi (a Japanese pepper mixture) Toast the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan till fragrant, and then set to one side in a saucer. Heat the butter in the same pan till it sizzles but before it burns, and then sear the scallops in the butter for two minutes each side. Chuck in the soy sauce and toss the scallops in the soy butter. Plate ...

Where's your self re-cocking-spect? Apparently people hate those posts where errant bloggers go, "I'm so sorry for being AWOL" or "So you're probably wondering where I've been". I'm just going to say I was ill which meant I stopped giving a shit, but now I'm back. Anyway. A Cock Tale The Ginger Pig is one of those semi-legendary butchers, and one fine day, they're kind enough to offer me one of their new 100 day French chickens to play with (cook, I mean. Not befriend. That would be weird). I can go for a cock or a pullet (Google those words, and an awful joke comes up which you can probably guess), and I choose the cock.  They then offer me a choice of prepared or intact - I've had cockscomb in salads before, and I love me some chicken feet, so I figure I can make good use of the extra bits, so  I say, "Bring it on".   Friday, my office doorbell rings and a nice chap appears with a beautiful ba...