The British Larder Inspirational recipe diary

It’s the beginning of  both a new year and decade. It’s certainly time to have deep clean, throw away the hoards of scrap paper with nonsensical squiggles, magazines from the beginning of the last decade, numerous bottles of rancid oils, tasteless spices and nut’s that should have seen the dustbin about three years ago. Yesterday was the day the kitchen and study “got it”, oh my word…I cannot believe that two individuals, with no dependents, can collect so many things which have turned into rubbish within three years.

Well even the fruit and vegetable basket “got it”, if was not fit for the pot, it was chopped up and fed to the worms… well they deserve a festive new year too! The pumpkin that I had kept since November was lovely and ripe and finally made it into the saucepan along with the remaining ginger and garlic that were hiding

Right I’m ready for the new decade! Christmas and New Year have gone and there is no more reason to indulge in the unhealthy foods. My body feels a bit creaky, squidgy round the edges and bending over to put on my wellington boots is a bit of a mission. I’m in dire need for a rescue remedy and this Oaty, Peach and Pear Smoothie is just the recipe to help me gain control again!

Frankly any tired looking fruits would have done the job. However Mr.P detests bananas and he gets seriously upset when he buys a smoothie on the high street but they all contain bananas even though there is no clue in the name but is hidden in the smallest writing on the back. Hence the challenge is to use something other than bananas to give body to my smoothie.

So I need to make a smoothie

It’s a new year and after lavish celebrations for both Christmas and New Year, it’s time to think twice about what I put on my dinner plate.

This raw salad of fennel, Seville orange and kohlrabi is the perfect dish for a more considerate new year. It’s highly fragrant, superbly fresh and crunchy. I enjoy this delicious side dish with poached salmon or lightly smoked haddock. It also goes very well with char-grilled chicken as the Seville orange vinaigrette brings a delicious freshness to the whole dish.

I’m sure I could hear a few moans when you read the title and saw that I have used chicory. Chicory is another one of those love or loathe ingredients but I must be honest, I have never found chicory to be delicious and had to fight really hard with my taste buds to learn to love the taste. I find chicory incredibly

Happy New Year!! Wow it’s nearly 2010, the end of a decade and time for an extra special New Years party.

This  is the perfect party recipe, it raises the eyebrows every time they are served. The eggs turn the conversation to food, even though sometimes it may only last for a few minutes, but for me it’s enough, as it gives me the feeling of “mission accomplished”. I do have a slight mission in life to make food fun for all people and to encourage them to cook by raising their curiosity in the culinary arts. This will satisfy my life long passion to make cooking both interesting and entertaining for both myself and others.

The trickiest part of making this dish is to open  and clean out the egg shells  without breaking them. I normally calculate  a few extra eggs as you are guaranteed to have a few