Lamb

Recipes: Lamb recipes to get the juices flowing.

Spicy lamb, cranberry, and date bites

Welsh lamb Cutlets en croûte

Mojito-style racks of lamb

Welsh lamb and mango curry with coriander and sweet potato dumplings

British Christmas recipes

Article & Recipes: Deep and crisp and even

Three sweet Christmas recipe from Nigel Slater: brandy snaps with cinnamon cream; mulled perry with pears and spices; brown sugar spice biscuits.

Perry is now sold as 'pear cider'. A wonderfully refreshing drink, even when warmed with sugar and spice. The smell as it fizzes on the stove is pure Christmas.

Gravlax & the Feast of Seven Fishes

Recipe: Lemon-Dill Gravlax

To make this Scandinavian specialty, you rub raw salmon with salt, dill, and other flavorings and cure it in the fridge. The process takes three days, at which point you’ll have smooth, silky cured salmon, which makes an impressive appetizer served with baguette toasts or black bread and a swirl of crème fraîche.

Article & Recipes: Feast of Seven Fishes

For these Italian chefs the Feast of Seven Fishes is the highlight of their culinary calendar, and they're happy to be sharing recipes, workspace, and later, lunch. The feast is a Christmas Eve tradition that has spread from southern Italy to Italian homes throughout the United States. Though theories abound on its origins, the feast probably derives from the centuries-old Catholic tradition of eating only fish on Fridays and certain holy days.

Turkey & Tiny Kitchens

Article/Recipe/Blog Post: Cooking turkey

And, from the same writer: So your kitchen is tiny, so what?

Pumpkin

Article / Recipes: Thanksgiving: 20 things to do with a pumpkin.

The traditional side dishes that accompany the roasted bird may vary according to region but usually include sweet potatoes baked with either marshmallows or maple syrup; stuffing, known as “dressing”, and made with herbs, cornbread, wild rice, chillies, chestnuts or sausage depending on the state; New England cranberry relish as a tart foil to all the sweetness on the plate, and, for pudding, the acquired taste that is pumpkin pie.

Both pumpkin and butternut squash are versatile types of winter squash that can be sautéed, mashed or used in soups and curries.

Perfect Yorkshire Pudding

Article/Recipe: Chemists divine formula for perfect Yorkshire pud.

Scroll down: the recipe sits at the end.

Dr Emsley’s consultations with colleagues across the country led the Royal Society of Chemistry to conclude that the best specimens were no less than 4in high. He declined to disclose the precise methodology of the investigation.

“I have seen many grim results from people who have tried to get their Yorkshires to rise,” he said. “They frequently made gross errors.

“Cooking is chemistry in the kitchen and one has to have the correct formula, equipment and procedures. To translate the ingredients into chemical terms, these are carbohydrate + H2O + protein + NaCl + lipids.”

Couscous with mustard dressing

Recipe: Golden couscous with lemony mustard dressing.

Curry

Blog Post: What makes a good curry great?

The ingredients must be obviously fresh and identifiable. The meat must be coated in sauce, not drowned in it. The meat must have been cooked with the sauce - not that catering rubbish that is pre-cooked, heated and chucked in later.

The meat must not be tough, but not cooked to the point of being stewy/poached/falling apart either - not melt-in-the-mouth, but slightly resisting the bite.

50 Best Cookbooks

Article: The 50 Best Cookbooks ...


... according to the Independent.

Offal

Article & Recipe: Britain gets an offal taste of austerity.

Scroll to the end of the article for three recipes.

In The River Cottage Family Cookbook, Fearnley-Whittingstall points out that muscle, or flesh, makes up only 60 per cent of a carcass: why waste the rest?

"Many people are squeamish about eating offal – some seem to assume that they won't like it before they have even tried it," he grumbled. "This is partly because it seems so different from the meat they are used to. And partly perhaps because, unlike ordinary red meat, when you look at a piece of offal it is hard to forget where it comes from.

"But the offal cuts are often some of the most interesting and delicious parts of an animal; sweeter, more tender and usually more interestingly flavoured than the muscle meat. Try it; you might like it."

Offal can be the ultimate fast food, he said – a slice of liver can be fried quicker than bread toasted. A teaspoon of mustard, a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce, a pinch of cayenne, and some crème fraîche made some dressing.