meemalee

Tiny thief The first time I tried haggis was 15 years ago when one of my brothers married a Scottish lass up in Edinburgh. If I recall correctly, it was used to stuff a chicken galantine, and I was hugely relieved that it wasn't as offensive as I'd been led to believe. Several years later, I found myself at their house for a Burns Night supper where my sister-in-law began proceedings by reciting a Robert Burns poem, which to this day, my husband refers to as " when Gayle sang to a haggis ". Great Chieftain of the Pudding Race Haggis was relatively difficult to come by down South however - at least, you wouldn't see it in your local butchers or supermarket. I remember when I first saw a MacSween's a few years ago and was delighted that the "real deal" had made it to England. Now of course, you can get a whole selection - I picked up this lot from my Morrisons, including a vegetarian haggis for my mother-in-law which is presumably m...

Miso Salmon, Green Tea Soba Noodles, Stir-fried Shimeji Mushrooms I don't believe in diets, but sometimes I feel like I'm stretched too tightly, uncomfortable in my own skin like the bug man in Men in Black. Times like those, I still want to eat my fill, but I don't want to have to have a lie-down afterwards. This Japanese-influenced dish does the trick - the dressed noodles are bright and zingy, whilst the salmon is sweet, comforting and savoury. Even better, after a bit of advance prep, it only takes 15 minutes to cook. Miso Salmon with Soba Noodles  Serves 2 All ingredients are available in larger supermarkets, health food stores or online from the Japan Centre. 2 salmon fillets, about 150-200g each, skin still on  150g dried soba noodles (I used matcha ie green tea soba)  Groundnut or other neutral oil for frying 1 spring onion, green and white parts, finely sliced  1 tsp black sesame seeds  For the salmon marinade: 1 rou...

Mohinga, Burma's Breakfast of Choice Bursting with contrasting textures, fragrances, and flavours, mohinga is a Burmese catfish chowder served over rice vermicelli. It's the breakfast of choice wherever you go in Burma, and considered our national dish. As soon as we're back in Yangon, my family and I will devour bowl after bowl of mohinga, brought home in huge metal tiffin carriers from the nearest street vendor, or eaten in situ at our favourite stall. Heaped with crispy split-peas, slices of soft duck egg, bouncy fishcake, and fresh feathery coriander leaves, with extra fish sauce and lime to squeeze on the side, it's hard to know when to stop, and for many, their love for mohinga borders on obsession. Mohinga is usually made with small river catfish known in Burmese as nga gyi, nga ku or  nga yunt which I believe are related to the Pangas catfish. While you can't get the same fish in the West, I've found that a combination of tinned mack...

I don't know much about Ina Garten aka the Barefoot Contessa, but I caught a British-themed episode of her cookery show where she made "bangers and mash" using an electric blender to make her mashed potato.  As any fule kno, this will result in an abysmal, gluey slop similar to wallpaper paste, rather than the glorious mash that we know and love (although I have been assured that Americans of a certain generation prefer their mashed potatoes made that way). Testing, testing No, there's no substitute for a bit of old-fashioned elbow grease - or at least that's what I thought until I came across something called a Masha on Big Spud's excellent blog. As I'm weaning my baby daughter, I was up for anything that might make life a bit easier, so I was pleased to be sent one too. The Masha is the size of a stick blender but a little lighter. All the moving parts are made of plastic, which I like very much as blades seem to be drawn to me (or vic...

It's the MiMi Cookery Show! Ha, not really. So you know Vouchercodes - those guys that email you handy discount codes for shops like Clark's and Dorothy Perkins? Turns out that they also have an online magazine called Most Wanted  which is oddly hidden away in the top right of their website. Most Wanted is full of rather good articles and handy money-saving tips - eg how to stream music for free  or how to achieve Jennifer Lawrence's smokey eye makeup . "Now add the chicken to the stockpot"   It also has a Food and Drink section, which is currently running a series called "Afford Autumn Food".  It even has its own hashtag on Twitter - #AffordAutumnFood . Vouchercodes asked me to take part in the series, so I went along to the beautiful cookery school  Food at 52 to spend a couple of hours filming this How-To video. "It should be starting to smell fragrant" Anyway, here is the result - watch the video below to...

Ramen egg in situ People complain that it's hard to get around in Japan because you're literally lost in translation. This isn't true for a number of reasons which I won't go into now, but especially when it comes to food. Most restaurants, even the high-end ones, have amazing plastic models in their windows called " sampuru " which show you pretty much exactly what you're going to get; when you get inside, the menus often contain pictures; and a lot of more casual places make you order in advance from a machine which has photos of all the dishes (it's a bit like buying a car park ticket, but what you get in return is a hell of a lot more fun). Choosing noodle options in Osaka I loved using these machines because you could easily build up the craziest order possible without any confusion - press this button for extra noodles, that button for tempura on the side - but my favourite button was the one which got you a ramen egg. A r...