Christmas is long over; the decorations packed up for another year, turkey sandwiches but a distant memory. And there’s that creeping sense of regret that 5 mince pies with a double Baileys chaser as a pre-dinner snackette may not have been so wise after all. My fat day jeans are tight, but I’m just not ready for salad yet. It’s too chilly for anything remotely lettuce like. READ MORE
Spicy pulled pork for tea? I can’t think of anything I’d rather have. Well apart from a large bowl of creamy blue cheese and a spoon, but hey, that’s just me. READ MORE
I’ve confessed before about my vegetable smuggling ways. Not all my sons happily munch on crudités in front of the TV so I have a habit of adding extra veg to dinner time offerings. This is a delicious vegetable rich beef ragu which is cooked in just 25 minutes in a pressure cooker but tastes like it’s had 3 hours bubbling away on the stove. So essentially a dinner that makes you look like you’ve given more effort than you have – that’s my kind of dish. (Details of how to cook on the stove too below). READ MORE
Here I am again with a curry recipe. This time it’s a chicken and spinach curry. I don’t pretend that any of my curries are authentic in any way, they are my very Holly-style interpretation of curry. A childhood spent growing up in Leicester, eating the odd biryani and then frankly OD-ing in my teens and twenties. I do love a curry and this chicken and spinach curry is one of my favourites. It’s easy, which is just the way I like my cooking to be. READ MORE
I think I’m on some kind of curry marathon at the moment. I can’t get enough of the stuff. And beef curry is something I adore, especially when combined with my all time favourite carbohydrate, sweet potato. Together we have a delicious beef and sweet potato curry that’s perfect for a week night supper or for a special having friends over kind of occasion. READ MORE
When I lived in London I was obsessed with salt beef bagels. It wasn’t a hipster affectation, nor was it a mark of a heritage steeped in salt beef and lox. It was just pure and simple greed for something that tastes so good, (especially when consumed at say 3am after a few gins) it’s hard to stop at one. I have never been a woman who could be accused of ordering light. READ MORE
Good evening to you on this fine Thursday of the summer holidays. Two observations today. One being that I am raising a gaggle of boys for whom watching an animated Giant steal a small orphaned child and then catch dreams together falls just short of keeping their attention. I blame Pixar. READ MORE
Pressure cooker cheesecake? Yes, yes and yes.
Now I know pressure cookers generally are used for making stews and other such savoury items, but time has moved on. (Obviously they are still excellent for hot pots and curries etc). I want you to consider for a second the prospect of a really creamy, perfectly cooked baked cheesecake without the 4 hour faff. Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce you to…. (drum roll) pressure cooker cheesecake. Not only that, I made this particular one the chocolate variety. Because I am nice like that. READ MORE
I hated staying in alone when I was single. It felt like a silent admission of defeat. I’d pace and distract myself with organising and tidying. I was never comfortable alone. READ MORE
Pressure cookers eh? What do you make of them? Up until this summer I’d always been slightly scared of them; the hissing sound, the old scare stories of exploding pans from the 60’s, the locking of the pan… They were not for me.
Then in July I got the chance to use one. Except it wasn’t any old pressure cooker, it was one that plugs in, rather than sits on your stove top, and is was all whizzy and had different buttons for different foods. I set to work to have a play and this beef rogan josh was just one of the recipes that sprung out of the Pressure King Pro by the end of the day. READ MORE
Holly Bell 