gardenali's Profile

I like lemon (or lime) curd on toasted crumpets, or mixed with greek yoghurt and whipped cream for a lovely dessert.

We often have soup as our evening meal, especially in the winter.
I often make a soup with pulses in it anyway, but we also have baguette or ciabatta bread and a cheese board with it - and any hummus if it is in the fridge.

I have a mechanical scale which I use almost daily - for weighing flour to make bread.

I often bake so scales are essential, and I can never eyeball pasta quantities so I have to weigh. My scales are right at the front of the cupboard!

Aga's are a British institution, like Hunter wellies, Barbour jackets and Labrador dogs. No English country house should be without one and most of us over here secretly hanker after one, even if we also want a regular cooker in the kitchen, and don't have the country house but live in a two bed flat in Birmingham.

They speak upper class, which is why Sophie Dhal has one in her cooking show.

I have my mother's 1953 Pryex Prize Recipes cookbook. I haven't made anything from it but I love the vintage photography. And I used to love looking through the photos as a child.

Tuna and peas always!

From Autumn through to early spring, I make gravy every two weeks or so as it's an essential part of a Sunday roast or Bangers and mash. Sometimes it's from scratch, with roasting juices, cornflour (for a shiny clear gravy), and water or stock. Otherwise it's the juices, water and Bisto. If I'm really lazy, it's just water and Bisto. Looking at the photo, gravy on your side of the pond is quite different to ours.

The kitchen used for Jamie at home is his own kitchen at his home in Essex, albeit with lots of styling I'm sure, He also uses it for filming for his company 'jamie at home' which you may have outside of the UK - it's a Jamie version of Tupperware and Pampered Chef.

Surely the main reason for pasteurising milk and cheese is to kill the bacteria that cause Diphtheria, Listeria, Salmonella and Typhoid among others. All very nasty illnesses indeed.

Pate is lovely - rich and a treat, but lovely. I like it best with crusty baguette and cornichons but it is good with mango chutney too.
Personally I prefer chicken liver pate to plain brussels pate which is made with pork liver, but duck and champagne or duck and orange are very good.