tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82063088150975120332011-07-31T11:19:38.836+02:00"I can reason down or deny everything, except this perpetual Belly: feed he must and will, and I cannot make him respectable." Ralph Waldo EmersonFrau Dietznoreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-55492851352227617232010-07-30T19:28:00.007+02:002010-08-18T21:00:53.971+02:002010-08-18T21:00:53.971+02:00

"Egg may be dressed in a multiplicity of ways but seldom more relished in any form than in a well made, expeditiously served omelette." (Eliza Acton¹) I love eggs.  First choice: boiled.  Or no, scrambled.  Or no, perhaps poached and perched atop an English muffin and a slice of ham and dripping with home-made Hollandaise.  I love egg yolk smeared across a Fiorentina pizza, thoroughly eggy eggy

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-58730700785132380182010-07-28T15:18:00.005+02:002010-08-11T13:47:26.139+02:002010-08-11T13:47:26.139+02:00

Until I ate gulas in Hungary, I never really quite knew what it was.  I remember ‘goulash’ being on the menu at school but my recollections are of chewy brown lumps of fatty meat in a puddle of brown liquid that occasionally offered a small chunk of something orange or red.  It certainly didn’t have much flavour, and I think it was served with rice.  When I ate my first, real, proper Hungarian

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-38650779350777397392010-07-27T13:25:00.002+02:002010-07-27T13:48:39.584+02:002010-07-27T13:48:39.584+02:00

I cannot tell you how over-excited I am about this banana bread. It's the recipe my mum used when I was small and BOY did I love her banana bread. And her banana ice cream, come to think of it. Must get that recipe off her. And also a freezer. Anyhoo, I have been thinking about banana bread a great deal of late, perhaps because I came back from London armed with some new baking tools (new as

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-85843248028237942792010-07-23T16:10:00.003+02:002010-07-23T16:56:06.372+02:002010-07-23T16:56:06.372+02:00

I've just been back in London staying with my folks for a couple of weeks.  My dear mum had rather a lot on her (proverbial) plate with my dad, two of their three children, my brother-in-law, a visiting aunt and two small grandchildren all roaming around the place and so on arrival I told her I'd be doing most of the cooking whilst I was home.  Lots of brownie points for me of course, but hardly

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-74611810886875630832010-06-20T16:50:00.000+02:002010-06-20T18:32:55.997+02:002010-06-20T18:32:55.997+02:00

Having happily passed through a phase of cooking dishes that take a bit more time and effort (as a celebration of having more time and energy to do it), I've gone back now to rather more simple culinary pleasures. I've been leafing through a few of my old favourite cookery books for recipes that I've previously dismissed for a variety of reasons and in this way, I last week ended up making

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-31378236259894091732010-06-19T15:23:00.000+02:002010-06-20T16:18:23.419+02:002010-06-20T16:18:23.419+02:00

To celebrate having dragged all my most recent recipes across from my New Life In Germany blog to get this one back in action, I've made myself a quick banana milkshake (any excuse). My mum's banana milkshakes just sort of materialised at some point during my childhood and as far as I'm concerned they will never be surpassed by anything with twelve mangoes and a dragonfruit in. This is just one

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-7401981539543454102010-05-23T20:27:00.000+02:002010-06-20T11:20:36.808+02:002010-06-20T11:20:36.808+02:00

A few months ago, a friend posted a couple of very excited Facebook status updates about making, and thoroughly enjoying, Maiale al Latte. I'd never heard of it, and on first consideration 'pig product heated long time in cow product' sounded all wrong. But the more I thought about it, the more tempting pork cooked in milk sounded, and the idea of cooking such a thing soon became, like so many

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-22409812288477422692010-05-11T18:12:00.000+02:002010-06-20T11:19:27.717+02:002010-06-20T11:19:27.717+02:00

So. How on earth to explain how I came to cook a vegetarian Jamie Oliver dish for Sunday lunch?It’s been cold and miserable for well over a week now, and if it wasn’t for my fading freckles I’d be forgiven for thinking our week of scorching Spring was but a very pretty, blossom-filled dream. For this reason, well, that and for the love of spending a whole Sunday morning playing in the kitchen,

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-11266579230363433822010-05-07T20:56:00.000+02:002010-06-20T11:18:42.170+02:002010-06-20T11:18:42.170+02:00

As a special birthday treat this year I Amazon-ed myself Ottolenghi The Cookbook. I've been following Yotam Ottolenghi's New Vegetarian column since it started in I think around 2006 (alongside Dan Leppard's brilliantHow To Bake); I very much miss spending bits of my Sundays poring over his lists of obscure ingredients in the Observer magazine before tearing them out for my recipe folder(s). I've

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-1672628699439114002010-05-06T21:42:00.000+02:002010-06-20T11:17:37.951+02:002010-06-20T11:17:37.951+02:00

Ignoring the fact that I haven't blogged for two and a half weeks and that I'm probably going to miss my bus by deciding to come back to it now (EDIT: I did), I've just made myself some pea soup for lunch and wanted to share it, because it's extremely good (and cheap. And very, very simple).There are plenty of variations on the pea soup theme but this is how Frau Dietz likes to make it. If you're

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-19649448629622094672010-04-14T21:18:00.000+02:002010-06-20T11:16:18.114+02:002010-06-20T11:16:18.114+02:00

I love Thai food: it's extremely quick to make, really quite healthy (once you forget about all the sugar, coconut milk and wildly salty sauces) and wonderfully tasty to boot. I went on a cookery course in Chiang Mai a couple of years ago and now, knowing just how easy it is to create a masterpiece from virtually nothing and in hardly any time at all, I can't really condone the use of the serious

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-9324171005959364082010-03-03T01:36:00.000+01:002010-06-20T11:05:21.706+02:002010-06-20T11:05:21.706+02:00

I know, I know, the two words hardly set the pleasure receptors on fire. I realise there is almost no hope at all that I can convince you how good this soup is by just uploading the recipe and a couple of photographs of a highly suspect looking book: I can only hope that perhaps you are of a wild and spontaneous disposition, have a rogue cauliflower to hand and half an hour till lunch. This soup

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-88358135472070538332010-03-02T03:30:00.000+01:002010-06-20T11:04:32.864+02:002010-06-20T11:04:32.864+02:00

My new sister and I were just reminiscing fondly about the birthday cake that we somewhat haphazardly turned out for my other new sister's birthday last summer. The chocolate spongecame out of the oven moist and cracked and crumbly; with the vanilla cream piled on it was a brilliant mess; and once the candles were pushed in it became an extreme fire hazard. It was utterly, utterly divine.Thank

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-18545584885668478872010-02-26T00:15:00.000+01:002010-06-20T11:03:15.218+02:002010-06-20T11:03:15.218+02:00

Just a quick recommendation: Cafe Mozart, on Swain's Lane in Dartmouth Park. It's one of those places I just never quite got round to visiting whilst I lived in Kentish Town, and more fool me, although I suppose I'd be a very tubby Frau Dietz by now if I had known about it. The gorgeous Miss Gabby Young (full of excitement after her adventures at London Fashion Week), Revere frontman Stephen

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-528069176784558132010-02-19T19:25:00.000+01:002010-06-20T11:01:56.237+02:002010-06-20T11:01:56.237+02:00

My mum's freezer is stuffed with dozens of trout (brown and rainbow) that my dad harvested last year on countless fishing trips on the river Loddon with his lovely friend Nigel, very sadly recently deceased. One of these fish always seems to go into the oven with some butter and fresh herbs from the garden and come out to be accompanied with homemade Hollandaise, a few potatoes and some greens.

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-87309548010783787972009-03-23T18:57:00.000+01:002009-03-23T19:03:13.218+01:002009-03-23T19:03:13.218+01:00

Hollandaise Sauce, if left on the side all day by mistake (in a cool room), firms up beautifully to become Hollandaise Butter and can be used in conjunction with (for example) left over ham and a couple of branches of greenery in a toasted leftover English muffin to make an absolutely divine sandwich.  That's lunch sorted for an entire week (at the end of which I shall be very fat).

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-14401694285771455902009-03-21T15:15:00.000+01:002009-04-26T16:43:11.655+02:002009-04-26T16:43:11.655+02:00

Well I haven't written anything for months (for reasons that are far too boring to go into), but I am SO pleased with myself for the breakfast I just served up for the German and his sister that I have had to write about it immediately. Background information: every Saturday and Sunday we've been together, somewhere between the hours of 10:00 and 14:00, the German and I eat a cooked breakfast.  

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-7584307374639562512009-01-24T23:35:00.000+01:002009-01-25T19:03:37.485+01:002009-01-25T19:03:37.485+01:00

Last night the German took charge of the kitchen.  He's really quite good in there, but I have somewhat taken over in the cooking department since I moved in, so he's not really had the chance lately.  His usuals tend to be German (funnily enough) or Italian, but this is a Swiss favourite, apparently, and good grief it is good - even if it doesn't quite fit within the Healthy And Dry January

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-45154720135622508192009-01-23T13:34:00.001+01:002009-01-23T14:16:01.889+01:002009-01-23T14:16:01.889+01:00

Kedgeree: totally underrated.  I only discovered it about six or seven years ago and made it only a handful of times since, but last night I somehow discovered I had precisely everything I needed to make it, so make it I did.  And I tell you what: I'm going to be having it again and again and again, and not just because I'm becoming a student next week and it costs almost nothing to make.If

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-72576346600253104912009-01-09T17:48:00.000+01:002009-01-19T16:06:25.403+01:002009-01-19T16:06:25.403+01:00

This week has been a catalogue of health disasters culminating in horrible side effects from antibiotics in addition to megalurgy, so last night I knew that Friday lunch was going to have to be a good head-clearing HOT one to see me through the day.And so... last night I wandered down Camden High Street to the brilliant Thai food shop near Mornington Crescent (before a quick lemongrass pork with

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-49320889304385835882009-01-08T10:06:00.000+01:002009-01-10T12:06:49.859+01:002009-01-10T12:06:49.859+01:00

Thank you once more, Nigel Slater, for yet another failsafe recipe that keeps reappearing on my plate.  Nigel suggests serving this gratin by itself (hence the recipe, below, is for 4 as a main dish), but I seem to always end up serving it with fish, for some reason; either a few chunks of haddock with bacon or a couple of whole mackerels baked in the oven with some olive oil and tarragon (have

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-63950461459070691112009-01-04T20:42:00.000+01:002009-01-05T13:55:44.654+01:002009-01-05T13:55:44.654+01:00

New Year's Resolution: to actually update this blog.  It just all suddenly seemed a bit overwhelming: I had so many restaurants I wanted to write about and so many recipes to share; and so many people seem to be doing the same thing that I felt a bit like I was meant to be in competition.  I'm only doing this because I love it and want to keep myself out of trouble so I'm going to pretend I'm the

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-59427999652057004592008-11-04T21:22:00.000+01:002009-01-09T18:50:15.110+01:002009-01-09T18:50:15.110+01:00

I have been totally converted to rice noodles: I pretty much barely ate anything else as I waddled around South East Asia.  Dried ones will have to do back home but the fresh ones you get served over there are out of this world, whether they're in a good old tasty paad Thai, a spicey mee hoon or a hot, deep bowl of Beef Pho.  The dried ones I've found at Trader Joe's (I'm still in LA) are totally

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-72340576851692091962008-11-02T17:49:00.000+01:002009-01-08T13:49:43.195+01:002009-01-08T13:49:43.195+01:00

This weekend we had a pair of vegans to stay.  They weren't real vegans, strictly speaking, but for health reasons the two of them have been on a Raw Food Diet (which is clearly madness but since it's for health reasons I'll not have a go about it).  One of them has moved back onto nibbling the odd bit of cheese now he's lost a phenomenal amount of weight and started to go mad (probably), but the

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8206308815097512033.post-74164598003387944822008-10-18T04:10:00.000+02:002008-11-07T07:59:25.519+01:002008-11-07T07:59:25.519+01:00

After a thirty hour megaflightathon from Kuala Lumpur to LA there was really only one thing I wanted to do: sleep.  Yet I understood that being full was far more important than being laid out unconscious on the sofa, and in my new (five week) post as chef, babysitter and general dogsbody at my sister's little house in Culver City, guess who was cooking dinner?  It is at times like these it is

Frau Dietznoreply@blogger.com0