I interview 80-year-old Dee from south Wales who likes her pwdin reis with black skin on it. Rice pudding was once eaten for Sunday dinner all over Wales, slow-cooked overnight to make use of a hot oven after baking bread.
Tahini biscuits, rescued
I was thinking of calling this post Why I can’t bake and possible solutions, but I thought that would be off-putting. But I’ll be honest upfront, I can’t bake. Keep this in mind when I say I made tahini biscuits today, under the very straight-forward instructions of Galia, my Israeli workaway host and mother of this little
A pot of peelings
There is no good reason to throw onion peelings straight to the compost. The robes of a humble onion serve a far nobler purpose, and that is to make boiled eggs taste (and look) better. This is a new discovery for me, and one that I learnt at my latest workaway in Israel. I’ve been spending my days with
Fiery and fresh: a relish from Yemen
Before you shrug and scroll on, this is not pesto. This is a potent, fiery, fresh hit of a relish, and it’s from Yemen. It’s zhoug… as tricky to spell as it is to pronounce. Yemenite food is entrenched in Israel. Or I should say Yemenite Jewish food, because there is a difference. What is great
Salvage and save
It’s with a heavy heart (read: heavy stomach) that I left Georgia this week. What an incredible, colourful country that one is. And I chose this pic because I think it epitomises the way Georgians cook and eat, reuse and repurpose so well. I took it in Tbilisi, the capital, where cooperative shops are a
Georgian beef flatbreads
I’ve been meaning to give Nora a proper intro for ages now so, finally, this is she. Hello Nora. Reasons given are: she’s a great cook, a firm farmhand and a good soul. She also has a toothless smile, a grip to cripple you and the ability to make kubdari (Georgian flatbreads stuffed with spiced beef or
Stuff and roll: Armenian pasus tolma
Armenia. What a beauty. We’ve arrived in the south after getting a straight three-hour ride to a roadside in the middle of nowhere. The sun is shining, turning arid landscape golden. Some men sell potatoes. Me and my new travelling companion, Cina, are trying to get to a village, some three kilometres from here. We
Armenia, walnuts, tea
Check out these walnuts! These are whole unshelled walnuts, soaked and cooked until the hard shell becomes soft and edible. Bite into one and you can see how the shell encases the whole walnut inside. Who knew? In Armenia, popoki murabba appears on the table with breakfast or a pot of tea; whole glistening black
Svaneti, Georgia
Mornings in Svaneti, high up in the Georgian mountains, follow a slow rhythm. It’s a purposeful rhythm, but unhurried, methodical, each person with their job to do. Chabu chops wood, old Nora stokes the fire, Zaza brings in the eggs and a bucket of potatoes, the cows are milked, coffee made, the ducks and piglets
Breakfast in Bosnia
Steaming pans of scrambled eggs and fried chanterelles, piles of eggy bread with lashings of creamy cheese and ajvar, doughy bread fritters with sweet jam and – my favourite – oozy, rich cicvara (pronounced seets-vuh-ruh)… Bosnian breakfasts are meant to be approached with an empty stomach and the willingness to fill it. They are, much
A national obsession
I’ve fallen in love with Georgian khinkali. Soft, juicy, wonton-like dumplings, with a thick, doughy outer layer encasing herby ground meat, potato or cheese. It seems the entire Georgian population share this obsession. You can eat khinkali everywhere. But go into the northern mountains that surround the villages of Kazbegi and Pasanauri where they say they taste best. Probably because