“It’s mid afternoon and the sky is dark grey. The rain hasn’t let up, and it’s cold as well as miserable. Fancy a salad, anyone? No way! Let’s have some good old British stodge. These dumplings are cheap, quick and easy to make, and add a nice touch to any casserole.” Kay shows how to make dumplings – even if you can’t get hold of suet where you are.
“Although you can learn a lot by eating authentic Thai food and from books (and websites!), I found that attending a Thai cookery school was a great benefit. Each day, the class started with a visit to a local market where we were invited to sample things as well as having ingredients described to us. This was a useful familiarisation exercise.” A look at some of the key ingredients in Thai cuisine.
“The popularity of Thai cuisine has grown significantly in Britain over the last few years. Pat Chapman’s Thai Restaurant Cookbook describes how there was only a handful of Thai restaurants in the UK a few years back and yet this number had grown exponentially to 500 by 1996.” The Editor looks at the reasons why Thai food has become so popular in recent years.
“Have a haggis bag (ie a sheep’s paunch) perfectly clean, and see that there be no thin part to it, else your whole labour will be lost due to its bursting.” Meg Dod’s prize-winning haggis recipe – strong (sheep’s) stomachs required!
“The following week when apparently I had consumed two tons (sic) of tuna, I just let it go. No doubt there would be a logical explanation. However, when I saw that I had paid 5 dinar for one wenker (again sic), I had to question it.” Phil finds that it’s not always easy to understand what your domestic staff are up to.
“Brits have a reputation for being pet lovers and that’s great. I quite like dogs, when they’re not fierce-looking brutes who jump on me and clart my clothes with muddy paw-marks. And I don’t mind cats when they’re in someone else’s house and being all nice, fluffy, and purry. But what drives me mental is all the pooh involved.” Phil McCollum sounds off about a pet hate.