Master in the Kitchen

Chilled Rhubarb Juice

Rhubarb juice is highly prized in our house-hold – especially when chilled and served with one or two raspberries and a slice of lemon. The juice I make is...

Spring Recipes

Raw Strawberry Cheese Cake

In catholic Belgium May is a month for weddings, communions and confirmations. With unusual serendipity a four day week-end break coincided with a sunny and clement spell of weather....

featured, Spring Recipes

Traditional Fruit Tart

J. turned 18 last week. He requested a strawberry cake for his birthday celebration. I was not in the least bit surprised – it’s what he’s asked for since...

Spring Recipes

Beef, spinach and ricotta pie

This pie tastes great either warm or cold. Serve it with a fresh salad and with condiments such as pickles, sauerkraut or chutneys. It is probably not a dish...

featured, Soups, Spring Recipes

Traditional Asparagus Soup

The best way to make asparagus soup is to keep it simple. Four ingredients and a food mill is all you need. I use a chicken stock since it...

featured, Spring Recipes

Ol’ Limey Honey and Coconut Cheesecake

I have a feeling this raw cheese cake would appeal to the Royal Navy of yester-year since it is full of fresh lime juice to keep the scurvy at...

Dairy, Spring Recipes

Basic Cheese Cake

Cheese cake can be eaten either raw or baked. Although different they are equally delicious. The one difference between the two is that raw cheesecake is brimming with beneficial...

Spring Recipes

Asparagus Tips

The flavour of asparagus is concentrated in the delicate spear-heads whilst the base of the asparagus tends to be milder – and depending on the age of the asparagus...

Dairy, Spring Recipes

Whey

Whey is the liquid by-product from the production of cream cheese or any other fermented dairy produce. Authentic, traditional Italian ricotta is made not from milk and lemon as...

11/05/2016

Pastry

– flour, salt, fat, water (sometimes sugar) – Cultures all over the world have teamed-up ground flour with a...

by Kathleen Garnett

Comments 2

16/03/2016

Cooking Basics: the ABC of our favourite dishes

Every recipe, every dish, every method of cooking food begins with an ABC; a doe, re, mi; a one,...

by Kathleen Garnett

Comments 0

21/01/2016

Knick-knack paddy-whack give the cook a bone – Stock

Basic ingredients – A bone (any bone from any animal will do: chicken, game, veal, beef). An onion, Carrots. Celery...

by Kathleen Garnett

Comments 3

14/03/2015

Marinades

Basic ingredients: – Olive Oil. Lemon juice or vinegar or cultured milk. Herbs or Spices or both. Salt & pepper....

by Kathleen Garnett

Comments 0

13/03/2015

The best start any stew can get – a mirepoix

Basic ingredients Onion. Celery. Carrots. The French name this basic, common-place start to a braised stew after an aristocrat...

by Kathleen Garnett

Comment 1

12/03/2015

Béchamel (or White) Sauce

Basic Ingredients – Butter. Flour. Milk. Salt & Pepper – So many dishes – both savoury and sweet –...

by Kathleen Garnett

Comment 1

11/03/2015

Salad Dressing

Basic ingredients Olive Oil. Salt & Pepper. Honey. Begin by pouring a good glug of vinegar into a salad...

by Kathleen Garnett

Comments 0

Winter Recipes

From Belgium with love … Baked chicory in a cheese and ham sauce.

Chicory baked in a cheese and ham sauce is a big favourite in this part of the world. From January until the end of April the markets are full of...

Soups, Winter Recipes

Winter Soups

Nothing beats a thick winter soup. It is the quintessential warm food for cold days. Add enough potatoes, stock, vegetables and a small cut or two of some left-over...

Winter Recipes

Goulash

As with the Belgian carbonarde so too with this traditional Hungarian dish – a good stock makes all the difference. You can omit the stock and have a...

Soups, Winter Recipes

Traditional pea & ham soup

Pea and ham soup is the quintessential, traditional winter soup – comforting , filling but above all tasty. Fresh pea soup served with mint and a light chicken stock...

Winter Recipes

Traditional gammon in a creamy mustard sauce.

I had to wait one week for my gammon but it was well worth the wait. It is not for the first time that I reflect on how lucky we...

Summer Recipes

I’m just a tad cynical when people, communities or countries claim to have “invented” a recipe. Quite honestly, individuals, communities, regions and countries – who before globalisation had limited...

Soups, Summer Recipes

Once Through the Garden Summer Soup

Every global culture has some kind of a vegetable soup with a bit of meat thrown in for flavour. The differences between the soups depend on the kind of...

Summer Recipes

Honey and tarragon pork tenderloin

This is such a simple recipe. It takes ten minutes max. to prepare the marinade yet the long soak really does impart the fresh flavour of tarragon teamed up with...

Summer Recipes

Sourdough Pizza

I’m told, on good authority, that sourdough pizzas are all the latest rage in London. This site may be all about traditional cooking but you could never accuse Master...

Summer Recipes

Green runner beans fried in garlic and olive oil

Green, purple and white runner beans are in season! Yay! There are hundreds of ways to serve runner beans. The worst way is to boil them to death and...

Jams

The Great British Remainalade

Don’t believe for a single moment that Brexiteers own the rights to British patriotism and identity. I am a British patriot and I am one hundred per cent behind...

Autumn Recipes

Baked Apples in Rum

At a recent advent’s market in Germany I was treated to some seriously good boscoop apples baked above an open fire. They were served with raisins either soaked in rum...

Autumn Recipes

Roasted haunch of venison

Unlike the tougher neck or “chuck” of a comforting venison stew, traditional best practice requires neither a marinade nor a slow cook for a haunch of venison. There are, nevertheless,...

Autumn Recipes

Port & Prune Bundt Cake

This is a substantial cake which stays fresh for up to three days if it can’t all be eaten in one sitting. If you want you can reduce the...

Autumn Recipes

Apple & cinnamon tart

Ingredients For the sweet pastry 200 gr. plain white flour 100 gr. butter 80 gr. sugar 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 beaten egg A pinch of salt For the filling...

Festive Recipes

Pomegranate, mandarine and bulgur salad

After the delicious leg of lamb on Sunday I had plenty of meat left over but felt like something light and refreshing for the following day. Pomegranates and mandarines...

Festive Recipes

Gentleman’s Dessert

This recipe comes courtesy of my mother. In Germany it is commonly known as “Herrencreme” – and is associated with Westphalia, or so I gather. It is typically served...

Festive Recipes

Leg of lamb soaked in mulled wine

The festive season is a great occasion to try out some amazingly simple and delicious traditional cooking. Lamb is not often associated with the Christmas season but the mulled...

Festive Recipes

Buttered Spinach

For years I thought blanching was a total waste of time and unnecessary. In fact it is essential and not much of an extra effort. Blanching vegetables in salt...

Autumn Recipes, Festive Recipes

Traditional Red Cabbage

One whole cabbage may seem like a lot but I freeze any extra portions. Alternatively if you’re just making this for a small number of people see if you...

Festive Recipes

Creamed Spinach

For years I thought blanching was a total waste of time and unnecessary. In fact it is essential and not much of an extra effort. Blanching vegetables in salt...

Autumn Recipes, Festive Recipes

A traditional meat pie

This is not a traditional mince pie, which entails soaking dried fruit with shredded suet in a jar for up to four weeks before encasing it as a filling...

featured, Featured Recipe, Festive Recipes, Winter Recipes

Alpine Cheese Fondue

One of the great things about rediscovering traditional food and cooking is learning to embrace all the natural fats we were once warned are the root cause of all...