In the UK (and the US) quince season is getting into full swing. Chef and food writer Clare Heal says it’s time to make membrillo, and plenty more besides…
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As the weather turns thoroughly autumnal (for those of us in the Northern hemisphere, at least) thoughts turn towards warming comfort food. In the latest contribution to our Consuming Passions series, food writer Ellen Manning reflects on the simple pleasures of slow cooking. In a world that rarely slows down, she makes the case for meals that do.
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It’s peak citrus season. In this latest contribution to our Consuming Passions series, chef, food writer and fermenter Clare Heal says it’s the perfect time to make preserved lemons and shares some of her favourite ways to use them.
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Jenny Linford is the author of numerous cookbooks and food guides. In this latest contribution to our Consuming Passions series, she celebrates her love of tofu, one of the most flexible and adaptable ingredients that you will ever come across.
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James Read is the founder of artisanal kimchi brand Kim Kong Kimchi (a Nigella favourite) and the author of On Cabbages and Kimchi, a bestselling book on fermented food. Here he digs into this obsession and highlights fermentation-related books and recipes from ckbk’s collection.
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Dates may seem like just another unexceptional dried fruit, but they are a food with a long history. In this latest contribution to the Consuming Passions series Joel Haber, a food historian specializing in Jewish food, shows the many diverse ways in which this fruit can be enjoyed.
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In the Northern hemisphere, Wimbledon is fast approaching and strawberry season is getting into full swing. In this latest contribution to our Consuming Passions series, TV producer and food writer Antonia Lloyd shares childhood reminiscences and suggests culinary uses, both traditional and adventurous, for this most popular of berries.
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Christine McFadden is a cookbook author and closet botanist. Her book Pepper: The spice that changed the world is available in full on ckbk. In this contribution to our Consuming Passions series she explains why cabbage, in all its forms, holds a special fascination.
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Kerstin Rodgers, freshly back from Italy’s famous artichoke festival in Paestum, near Naples, celebrates her passion for growing, cooking and eating this delicious, but often overlooked, vegetable.
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Consuming Passions don’t have to be about ingredients – there are plenty of other items in the kitchen that can stoke fires of passion. We asked Sydney-based food writer Jill Dupleix to tell us more about her consuming passion for… cake tins.
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For me, garlic is divine, and at the centre of what I call the holy trinity of ingredients that is garlic, ginger and chillies. Few ingredients can produce flavour in so many distinct ways when cooked correctly. Nothing is more beautiful than delicately roasted garlic, simply popped into the oven whole with all the cloves still on the bulb
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Long, slender sticks of vibrantly coloured, shocking Schiaparelli pink rhubarb stalks make a welcome return on the shelves of farm shops and grocers in the winter months. The arrival of forced rhubarb in January is celebrated with festivals and celebrations across Yorkshire, north England its traditional home.
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Neil Buttery is a chef and food blogger based in the North of England who specialises in British food from a historical perspective, cooking familiar favourites, forgotten dishes as well as food that has unfairly acquired a bad name. Liver certainly falls into the latter category, shunned by many otherwise adventurous cooks. These liver sceptics don’t know what they are missing…. Whether as a fine chicken liver paté or a Michelin star foie gras dish, liver can scale gastronomic heights. In this piece the author seeks to rehabilitate an ingredient which ill-deserves its reputation.
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Roberta Muir, who ran the Sydney Seafood School for more than a decade, shares her enthusiasm for these many-legged, strange looking, but delicious molluscs.
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In the latest feature in our Consuming Passions series, food writer and supperclub host Kerstin Rodgers explains why the aubergine is much more than just a saucy emoji…
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Amoul Oakes is a London-based chef, originally from Lebanon. Her restaurant in London’s Maida Vale, Amoul’s, was open from 2003-2018 and was acclaimed by critics including Jay Rayner for its soulful home-cooked dishes, which reflected Amoul’s recollections of the food made by her mother and grandmother. Her book, Amoul: Some family recipes is now available in full on ckbk. Here Amoul shares her enthusiasm for the ancient grain freekeh, and offers a bonus recipe for freekeh served with chickpeas and spinach.
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Until bullying vanilla swept them aside, the flavours of orange blossom and of roses were the UK’s favourites in both sweet and savoury food. Following vanilla’s all-conquering rise, flower waters are now comparatively rarely used in Europe and the USA (except in better restaurants from the Near and Middle East and the Indian continent).
What a lot we are missing, ignoring the flavour heritage of many centuries of British cuisine that has fascinating roots…
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As a keen home cook, my passion for lemons began a few decades ago as I realised how often lemons topped my shopping list. I was always reaching for one to slice into a cocktail, squeeze across a fatty fish on the grill or tuck into a chicken being prepped for the roasting tin.
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Amongst the Igbos of the South-Eastern region of Nigeria in West Africa, crayfish are a vastly popular ingredient. They are freshwater shrimp or prawns typically smoked or sun-dried and used as a seasoning in many savory West African dishes.
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Spices are addictive. Perhaps not scientifically speaking but spices possess a fragrant ability to tantalise the appetite, to evoke memories of childhood baking or rambling through souks abundant with spices. As a lover of gingerbread, I am easily seduced by the aromas of ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. But it is the scent of saffron that triumphs as my favourite spice – slightly floral with a hint of smoke capable of transporting me to the land of the Arabian Nights with its fragrant rice dishes and golden hued stews.
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