Christmas is over and the New Year has been and gone. And while it’s proving difficult to come to terms with the fact it’s 2015, I bet that you still have some of 2014’s mincemeat hanging around in your fridge. But what is to be done with leftover mincemeat? Well, you can give this recipe for Leftover Mincemeat Apple Crumble a try for starters.
If you like plumbs and want to cook with them, look no further than the humble greengage. Adorably small, attractively green and somewhere between bitter and sweet, greengages lend themselves well to a wide spectrum of sweet dishes, bakes and preserves; not least this simple, yet devastatingly delicious Greengage and Honey Compote.
Coleslaw – or slaw, for short – is a fantastically versatile side dish. Composed primarily of finely sliced ribbons of red and/or white cabbage, slaw is able to adopt and absorb any flavours successfully, usually to delicious effect. For me, however, white cabbage slaw always has an “Asian” feel about it – my apologies for the generalisation. This Asian Sesame Seed Slaw, for instance, benefits greatly from the presence of just a little sesame oil, a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds and a pinch of chilli flakes. Seasoned similarly, it makes the perfect accompaniment to almost any noodle dish, but also as a fresh dish alongside a curry.
There’s an awful lot of red wine in Spain. That may be an obvious statement – one that didn’t really need saying – but combined with the burning heat of the Iberian Peninsula it does at least explain why the Spanish do so many different things with the stuff. A glass of good-quality Rioja always goes down a treat, but under the oppressive sun a few drops of sangria or Tinto de Verano can go a long way.
A variety of edible thistle, the Artichoke is one of the real joys of summer in both flavour and fragrance. Though cultivated in Britain – particularly in the South – the heartland of the Globe Artichoke is the Mediterranean, where it grows wild and in prodigious quantity. Indeed, the artichoke is best known for its use in Italian cuisine. But before we get onto all of the clever things that can be done with artichoke hearts, let me show you how to prepare the vegetable and enjoy its meaty leaves.