curlywurlyfi

sure you can. just layer the alternate pasta layers with cheesy nutmeggy bechamel. Or slices of mozzarella. Or, a tip from my best friend, she uses a little plain yoghurt (full fat, Greek variety if poss), sometimes with cheese grated in.

careful what you wish for Lynes, we may hold you to that. I'll go home this evening and report back tomorrow. I do have somewhere else on the bookshelf a cookbook which came with the New World cooker in my parents' house, installed circa 1945. talks about things cooking at Regulo 5, for example. I dread to think what horrors lurk therein. Pickled Lung with Bechamel + Pineapple Bake?

A couple of weeks ago in a secondhand bookshop in Derbyshire I picked up a copy of the 1956 Constance Spry + Rosemary Hume cookbook for the giant sum of £3. Was leafing through it last night (the very first chapter is 'Cocktail Parties' - women after my own heart!) and not 10 pages in came upon a recipe calling for large Brussels sprouts, blanched, hollowed, stuffed with egg mayonnaise + pickle, then battered and deep-fried, to be served as a part of Mixed Hors d'Oeuvres. this was closely followed, in Fruit First Courses, by a 1934 recipe from 'Pin' Baglioni for a whole pomegranate stuffed with its own seeds scooped out and mixed with two chopped gherkins, hard boiled egg yolk, redcurrant jelly, French mustard, vinegar and 'a suspicion' of Worcester sauce. I am afraid to read any further. did people in the 1950s really eat this sort of thing?? Fi PS was then thrilled to my little Scottish tight-fisted core to discover whilst prowling round Waterstone's last week that Grub Street have just brought out a new edition of this book. Am now going to have to go back and see if Pomegranate Gherkin Surprise has made it into the new version.

got home late after delightful weekend spent up north god-daughter wrangling. cupboards were bare + Chatsworth farm shop closes at 5pm on a Sunday - harumph - so no delicious free range eggs neither. discovered some withering Brussels sprouts and some already-cooked butternut squash cubes in the veg drawer. 15 minutes later... butternut squash, bacon and Brusslers bubble + squeak. Fantastic! and verging on eye-wateringly colourful (orange! green! pink! black!) Squeeze of lemon over the crusty top, Belazu rose harissa on the side.

my mother does a quick + easy turkey + chickpea curry which we have come to prefer to the turkey qua turkey. take one onion, slice thinly, fry half till softened + golden, add tbsp (or to taste) curry paste, tin chickpeas (drained), use the empty tin to measure in a tinful chicken/veg stock or water, heat through + boil off a little, add strips of cooked turkey, heat through. Meanwhile, in a little frying pan, you have fried the other half of the onion really hard till blackened and crispy. When turkey is heated through, serve over white rice and top with blackened onions. god this is delicious, I had forgotten.

another good thing - big splash of Worcestershire sauce (Lea + Perrins) in the hollow, then s+p. thanks for this blog, Susan in FL!

I am afraid that I am about to be berated for an imbecile, but I have spent the last three days scouring London for buckwheat noodles. Finished my last packet several weeks ago and of course cannot remember where I bought them, or even the brand, helpfully, and am now in the grip of a craving. Have drawn a blank at all the supermarkets (any amount of egg noodles, straight-to-wok stirfry noodles, even rice noodles, but no buckwheat). Even went to Chinatown on Saturday where many, MANY types of noodle about (dried shrimp noodles, anyone?), but no buckwheat. any suggestions where I might go? I really don't remember them being that tricky to find before... Fi PS have just thought - is that big Japanese department store still on Piccadilly Circus? because I will kick myself if it is.

I went to the Anglesea Arms for lunch yesterday. Three of the company were feeling a little, how you say, jaded, but Liz + I were on fine fettle. A large fino over ice in a tumbler for me (just how I like it); exemplary Bloody Mary for Liz; Guinness for the boys; water for the pale and trembling Julia. The venison (I think) terrine looked delicious and came with appropriate gherkins; the fines claires and rock oysters were fresh + good; but I was menu winner with braised Jerusalem artichokes + spinach topped with an egg beignet and creme fraiche. Light + delicate flavours, but the egg beignet was a marvel of engineering. I can only imagine they'd taken a very very lightly poached egg, breadcrumbed then deep-fried it. It was perfect. when I popped it with my fork the yolk splurged out into the braisedy juices, and when the creme fraiche was stirred in it was even better. For the mains, three of the table had roast lamb, which was beautifully pink and came with astoundingly garlicky dauphinois. Liz had roast chicken (which looked a bit pallid to me) with mashed potato FROM HEAVEN and sticky-bottomed (in a good way) roast carrots. My plaice with caper tomato parsley mulch (not really how they described it on the menu but things were a little blurry after quite a lot of Sancerre) and crushed potatoes was really superb - perfectly cooked fish. But my goodness it took a long time - we waited a good hour from when they cleared our starters to when the mains arrived. Glad we weren't in a hurry. Yes, it's a small kitchen, but that kind of gap says 'overstretched' to me. And the bill? a completely remarkable £40 each, for four starters, five mains, coffee, water, the pre-lunch drinks and four bottles of wine. We were not robbed. The perfect boozy Sunday.

oh, you beat me to it - they look wonderful!

oh, yes, champagne to start the day. We have heelpad rolls (trans: square Lorne sausage in a bun, with or without marmelade, tomato sauce, HP sauce, viz various other threads) with ours. My mother also (accidentally - we burnt the custard - it's a long story) came up with a fantastic wheeze a couple of years ago which is now the law. Christmas lunch stops after the turkey. Everybody goes to bed or dozes in front of the telly for two hours, snores reverberate round the household, and then when we get up again, we've digested sufficient roast bird to have space for Christmas pudding. It's fantastic I tell you.

chez Kirkpatrick, just in case there's a snowball's chance in hell of anyone feeling underfed on the big day, we also do a ham alongside the turkey, and mashed turnip (swede to you English, rutabaga to you Americans) with plenty of black pepper. I second the prawn cocktail as starter of choice. My mother decided one year to do melon + Parma ham instead and there was virtually an insurrection.

oh god yes. and, in a marvellous variation, the crisp [American = chip] butty. One slice buttered white bread, top with packet salt + vinegar flavour crisps, add second slice buttered white bread, press slightly with palm of hand to crush crisps + ensure they adhere to butter. This healthy foodstuff comes to you from Scotland, the land (or should that be 'lard') that also gave you the deepfried Mars Bar.

Cracked off the evening with a trip to IKEA. Bribed my friend Tom to come with me with (a) the chance to use his power tools and (b) the offer of home-made chicken pie for dinner. We staggered up my four flights of stairs cursing Pax Brevik (wardrobe), Funda (large carpet), Poklar (tumblers) and Breven (toilet brush). Came back down again minutes later, scowling slightly, to retrieve Komplement (the hinges for Pax Brevik). With all items finally in the flat, Tom set to mantling, and I made chicken pie. Earlier in the day had poached a chicken, stripped the flesh off + made stock. Now, skimmed the fat off the stock + softened some leeks + carrots, then stirred in some flour, curry powder, the stock, splash white wine + some milk. Added the chicken + lots of chopped fresh parsley, topped with puff pastry. Into the oven for 40 minutes then served with baked potatoes + steamed Savoy cabbage. Complete bliss. And, leftovers for lunch! not to mention gleaming new wardrobe in spare room.

if you're looking for a recipe for a sticky cakey gingerbread, can I point you to this one, Nigel Slater's double ginger cake? It was Sunday morning, I was idly surfing the papers, had absolutely no intention of doing anything more strenuous than perhaps boil an egg, and this recipe propelled me down four flights of stairs in search of preserved ginger so I could make it. It was absolutely delicious (though from memory I left out the sultanas and just chopped in a bit more ginger). He recommends serving it warm with cream, but I let it sit for a couple of days wrapped up to go squadgy, and we ate the whole thing between five of us in one sitting.

I've got a recipe for a salad of roasted sweet potato, chorizo and rocket. (there's something else in there too that I can't remember, dammit). have never made it but thought it sounded fantastic. I made the butterbeans + chorizo thing the other day. Added some chard too, and some garlic. Not beautiful, you realize, but ooooh good.

this is more of a sponge with currants in, from memory. I'll have a little sift through the files tonight. Fi

I've got a recipe somewhere for Cornish fruit cake (don't ask me why but Cornwall = saffron) which involves saffron + currants in the dough and saffron + lemon juice in the glaze.

OK, well, it's 8am and the pork has been in the oven since 6.45am, in a lined roasting tin, rubbed with fennel salt thyme + garlic, at 90C, as per Jack. I am in the office and slightly nervous that I will get home to find my zealous cleaning lady has turned the oven off. accompaniments will be steamed cabbage (as per Moby), boiled floury potatoes, green beans tossed with cumin + tomato, roasted parsnips, apple sauce. followed up with honey-roasted oranges with cardamom. I shall report back tomorrow! thanks for all your suggestions. Fi

this made me laugh! thank you! am loving the barbecue idea. AND the fact I leave it overnight in the lowest possible oven. Hmmm - this is where we discover that the new oven is rubbish at temp control. Still, nothing ventured... Fi

so, if I scuttle home and salt + thyme it this evening, I get up in the morning and confit it all day? cover entirely with olive oil and put in 90C oven, was that your method? presumably have to serve it with cream, just to cut the richness (© Ma Kirkpatrick)

have got some friends coming over Thursday night. Have a nice chunk of pork belly sitting on my countertop defrosting nicely. Would love just to roast it with thyme + salt, but I don't think time constraints permit (I get home 6.15pm, guests arrive 8pm). Have seen a recipe in Delicious for pork belly cubed then braised with cardamom and orange, which I'm quite liking the sound of, especially since I can do it this evening when I get home, but I tend to prefer my pork with aromatics like fennel + bay (like a kind of porchetta). Obviously I'd cut the rind off and make crackling (the new canapes! who knew) before braising. so does anyone have any brainwaves for good things to braise with pork belly? have all of the following in the house: soy, ginger, garlic, onions, star anise, mirin, fish sauce, oranges, apples, fennel seeds, fennel bulb, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, carrots, rosemary, thyme, fresh parsley, fresh coriander, ground coriander, nutmeg, cloves, chives, lemons, bay, juniper berries, chillies, stock, red wine, white wine, gin, olives, marshmallows (just checking you're still paying attention) Or am I better off trying to roast it in the window I have between getting home and them arriving? can do all other prep tonight. thanks for your help! Fi

this month's Sainsbury's mag has a whole page devoted to ideas for golden syrup (inc warmed with finely chopped crystallized ginger + spooned over icecream, schlerp) - can PM should anyone wish.

Chef, these sound delicious. How did you do them? thanks! Fi

People's Palace is a bit nondescript - plus no guarantee of getting a table with a view, and if you're going to have ho-hum food you may as well have a knock-out view. though if you're going early you might be OK? other options round there v thin on the ground. I had tapas a couple of weeks ago at the Meson Don Felipe in the cut (I went to see Cloaca, yes I did, shriek) and the tortilla was fantastic but the green beans + anchovies were too buttery and too sharp, respectively. what if you took your own little pikey picnic (either from home or by raiding somewhere like Villandry or at a pinch M&S) and just bought yourself some overpriced wine from the National bar? if it's a nice evening you could sit outside and watch the river go by. or, you could have supper somewhere like Gordon's Wine Bar (Embankment, though again, it's not magnificent) and then walk over the bridge to the theatre? you could probably do this with the Savoy Grill, too - mmm - cocktails in the American Bar... Fi

am totally intrigued by the idea of nuking the kabocha BEFORE cooking it. I bought one yesterday - thought I'd try it as a change from butternut - and am going to cook it tonight. So tell me - how does it work? Nuke on high for how many minutes? is the point just to make it a bit easier to peel? thanks! Fi