I love a good pork sausage. They’re definitely not just for an English-style fry-up. They make a perfectly decent quick and very economical dinner too. Think bangers with mash, onion gravy and peas; think toad-in-the-hole or hot dogs with caramelised onions and lashings of mustard. And then of course, there’s the option of squeezing out the meat and transforming pork [...]
A friend recently remarked that I am very fond of gluten. I’d never particularly given it any thought, but she’s quite right. I love carbs. Period. And top of my list is wheat. Pasta, bread, pastry… Wave these in front of me and I'm not responsible for what happens next. Frightfully unfashionable in a world where seemingly everybody is banting. [...]
I sometimes worry about the amount of time I spend contemplating totally pointless things. Like wondering what animal I would prefer to have with me if I were marooned, Robinson Crusoe-style, and had to fend for myself for the rest of time. The answer is pig. I simply cannot think of any meat more versatile than pork. Think bacon, German [...]
I’m pretty sure I can’t be the only one, but I’m the kind of person who peeks in other peoples’ baskets when I’m in a supermarket queue. Surreptitiously of course, I wouldn’t want to appear weird. You can’t blame me. After all, it’s not like there’s much else to do. One can tell a lot about people from their baskets. [...]
Sometimes life gives one a bit of a wallop. It’s not nice, but it happens. And when it does, I want comfort food. I lock the front door, put on my ugly trackie pants that make me look like a baby elephant, and hit the kitchen to whip up something that will make me feel all warm and fuzzy. [...]
I have a thing for sweet with meat – it’s a particularly South African thing. Take sweet potatoes. They aren’t sweet enough the way nature made them. Oh no, we have to add truckloads of butter and sugar, and roast them slowly to glistening, treacly perfection. So I’m constanty looking for new sweet-with-meat combinations. My latest obsession is fennel. [...]