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
Read MoreLong, 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.
Read MoreNeil 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.
Read MoreRoberta Muir, who ran the Sydney Seafood School for more than a decade, shares her enthusiasm for these many-legged, strange looking, but delicious molluscs.
Read MoreIn 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…
Read MoreAmoul 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.
Read MoreUntil 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…
Read MoreAs 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.
Read MoreAmongst 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.
Read MoreSpices 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.
Read MoreIn the latest instalment of our Consuming Passions series, Elly McCausland, author of The Botanical Kitchen, recalls the childhood origin of her passion for blackcurrants. This small, intensely colored and flavored summer fruit is familiar in Europe, where its short season runs from July until mid-August, but it remains something of a rarity in the United States — in fact Wikipedia claims that just 0.1% of Americans have ever tasted one. Perhaps that is about to change…
Read MoreAdam Hoss is an Ohio-based author, who has published two novels, the most recent being One Hundred Below, a murder mystery set at Antarctic research station. He is also a keen cook and a ckbk subscriber. In this contribution to our Consuming Passions series, Adam describes his love for cinnamon, one of the most versatile spices in any cook’s spice cabinet.
Read MoreDi Murrell is a British food writer and food historian who has written extensively on food-related aspects of the waterways of Britain and France. Following her earlier celebration of sardines, in this piece she shares her love of wild garlic (along with other foraged woodland items). Commonly known in the US as ramps or ramsons, wild garlic is easy to find, growing abundantly in damp and shady woodland areas, and has a huge range of culinary uses.
Read MoreAs Easter approaches, food writer and Registered Nutritionist Joy Skipper reflects on her passion for chocolate and shares findings from her recent travels around southern India, visiting cacao plantations and chocolate makers.
Read MoreOnce whilst in Malawi, Africa, I visited a local food market and my new friends chose a chicken to buy. We drove 15 miles back home with it in the back of the car, privately promising myself that I wouldn’t give it a name. As soon as we entered the shack, we slit its neck, drained the blood, plucked it, cooked it and enjoyed a delicious and hearty meal celebrating us simply being together. We ate the entire chicken, including the feet, and left only the beak….
Read MoreMarcus Bawdon is obsessed by cooking with fire. It’s an all-encompassing passion that he loves to share with people via his vibrant Country Wood Smoke website, Facebook group and YouTube channel; through demonstrations and appearances at food and BBQ festivals across Britain, and as editor of UK BBQ Mag. He was crowned king of Meatopia BBQ festival, is a judge at BBQ events such as Grillstock, and makes regular appearances in the media to talk all things related to outdoor cooking.
Read MoreThomas David DuBois is a Beijing-based historian who studies China’s immeasurably diverse food traditions. He is the author of a forthcoming book on the history of food in China . His Consuming Passion is doubanjiang which Wikipedia describes as “a hot and savoury Chinese bean paste made from fermented broad beans, chili peppers, soybeans, salt and flour”.
Read MoreShikha Kaiwar is a pastry chef and writer of the Shikha la Mode newsletter. She’s been baking with spelt since the beginning of her career and her desserts often feature this ancient grain. Her piece helps demystify spelt so that other cooks can confidently use it to create more complex, flavourful baked goods.
Read MoreBrought up on pig farms in Essex and Kent, Chris Bulow is the creator of Salute the Pig, a website devoted to “the countless joys of porcine delights”. His piece for our Consuming Passions series is naturally on the subject of all things pig-related.
Read More“My number one desert island food would be feta cheese. It would go beautifully with any tropical fruit I might forage. Just thinking of its crumbly creaminess and saltiness coupled with a lusciously sweet mango makes the prospect of being marooned on a wild and uninhabited island quite appealing. As long as there is a crate of feta drifting behind me.”
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