My blog is 17 years old today. 1,741 blog posts. My goodness! So much water under the bridge and so many recipes tried, with only a few FAILS. I thought I’d do a little round-up of where I am up to with the Top 100. Let’s go! Counting down from #93 Andy Clyde’s Baked Ham...
Silver Screen Suppers Towers has moved to the seaside. I put my intention to do this out into the universe a few months ago, and a beautiful place to live has been handed to me on a plate with parsley around it! I have an absolutely wonderful kitchen and am planning some movie star recipe...
How I love a homemade fishcake, and how I love David’s recipe for making them. Because basically, it’s a fishcake template. I am sure David wouldn’t mind you putting in whatever you have around the place. Here’s his recipe, in his very own words. Take any old piece of left over fish (the better the...
A conversation with a colleague way back in November reminded me of my pledge in 2017 that I would ALWAYS make a Jack Cassidy Quicky Green Bean Casserole for Thanksgiving. As I had a spare evening on my hands on the last Thursday in November, I decided to make one just for me, myself and...
“My wife makes a simple little thing called Jansson’s Temptation that’s terribly good. It’s nothing more than a potato and onion thing done in cream…” the suave David Niven told food writer Johna Blinn in 1967. I agree with David 100%. This dish is indeed terribly good. I suppose that it should really be known...
I think my lockdown quarantine feral eating period is almost over. My panic buying of store cupboard staples seems to have abated and the compulsion to eat salad cream directly from the jar on a spoon seems to be slowing down too. But here is something I made when I needed comfort food of the...
It seems strange to be writing about something that happened on a cold January day when we are slap bang in the middle of a heatwave here in London. But I’m catching up on writing about The Great Bear Project. Finchley Central is the last of the Northern Line underground stops that are OVERGROUND on...
I am a person who likes to follow a recipe. I am not a freestyler. But I make an exception for David Niven. I love his fish cakes recipe, because he basically issues a carte blanche for making them however the hell you like. So here’s his recipe, just as he wrote it… Take any...
In the heatwave we had here this summer in the UK, I was reading Nigel Slater’s Eating for England on my commute to and from work and it gave me a powerful urge to eat some rice pudding. I’m sure it was partly to do with the sudden changes of season we get here in...
“Traditionally we have Swedish food on Christmas Eve and toast each other with mugs of glögg, After doing the whole Swedish bit, we celebrate Christmas Day with a typical English dinner of turkey and plum pudding. We wind up tons heavier, not speaking to anyone.” I know the feeling David! It’s coming soon, the Christmas...
I’ve been wanting to try this recipe ever since I had an email conversation with my beloved Michael MacMahon about Jansson’s Temptation. I think it was after I had cooked the best film star recipe ever, Jocko Marx’s Herring Potatoes. (the first time around…) This pot contained the most delicious meal I have ever made… I...
David Niven was plucked from the pack for this month’s recipe of the month and it’s a goodie. I love fish cakes. I like the way David writes a recipe too… I’m going to transcribe his recipe exactly as he wrote it, then let you know how I actually made them… As David wrote...
“You can count on Errol Flynn, he’ll always let you down.” Perhaps it is a bit of portentous syncronicity that Niven has a good quote about Errol as I am supposed to be embarking upon “Errol Week” tomorrow. Almost finished reading his amazing biography and pen is poised to write the blurb to go with...
“I have a face that is a cross between two pounds of halibut and an explosion in an old clothes closet.” I don’t usually write about things I haven’t made myself but I must just mention the marvellous “My Man Godfrey” cocktail served in the 5th floor bar of Waterstones, Piccadilly. On Tuesday I was...
