27 May 2015

Recipe development - mother and son

Steenbergs is very much a family business, not just Axel and Sophie and their children, but also the people who work for us find their whole family have become part of the wider Steenbergs family.  Sally Roberts, who helps with recipe development at...

05 June 2012

Cooking With A Wonderbag

Sophie came across the Wonderbag on the radio and then The Guardian, so one arrived several weeks thereafter.  Basically, a Wonderbag is a modern and green take on the slow cooker and that you find in books as far back as Mrs Beeton’s and even like t...

25 April 2012

Dosas – Southern Indian Pancakes

My parents have recently come back from a wedding in Southern India and they have been to one of my favourite regions, Kerala.  They were blown away by the delicious food and already miss the flavours of their staple, the dosa.  At about the same tim...

17 April 2012

Pretty Little Rich Cake

It was Sophie’s birthday the other day.  We went out en famille for a Chinese meal at Sweet Basil in Kirk Hammerton.  Sophie wanted a strawberry cake, so I felt like trying something a bit old-fashioned.  Before Bird and Dr Oetker independently came...

28 March 2012

Sophie Grigson Cookery Demonstration At The Oak Tree In Helperby

On Monday 26th, we had arranged a cookery demonstration by Michael Ibbotson (who owns the acclaimed The Durham Ox); they have, also, recently taken over The Punch Bowl in Marton cum Grafton and breathed life back into it and are developing a reputati...

19 March 2012

A Better Version Of Simnel Cake Than My Last Attempt

A year or so ago I made a simnel cake, but it came out rather squat and a tad heavy. The squatness was easily remedied with a smaller baking tin, while the texture was improved through using a lighter recipe with more eggs. I have, also, used an id...

05 March 2012

Having A Crack At Making Pan Pepato

One of my favourite Christmassy things is panforte and I, also, love Nurnberger lebkuchen.  It hails from Siena which is probably my favourite city in Italy.  There really is something special about sitting out in the Piazza del Campo, looking across...

25 February 2012

Delicious (Though I Say It Myself) Orange And Earl Grey Cake

17 February 2012

Some Recipe Ideas For Laura Santtini's Alchemical Larder Ingredients

I have been asked by several people to give some starting ideas for the various goodies within Laura Santtini's Alchemical Larder box that we provide to Fortnum & Mason, Harrods, Harvey Nichols and Selfridges amongst others.  So while there is a...

12 February 2012

Homemade Marshmallows

It is not very often that I rip out pages from cookery magazines for use at a later date, so it was a surprise when the other day I found some pages I had ripped from a copy of the magazine, Delicious, from some years back.  In it, I had obviously fa...

23 December 2011

Give Some Time And Make Some Christmas Sweets

In this festive period, we have been asked out to various families for drinks, or the kids out to parties.  And the question always is what to give people in a period of giving.  So yesterday, the kids and I spent a happy day making sweets, much as w...

20 December 2011

Recipe For A Thoroughly Modern Vegetarian Balti

Once in a while, I really need to go without meat of any form and I am going through one of those patches at the moment.  So I have tweaked my Chicken Balti Recipe from earlier this year to be more tofu friendly and so usable as a vegetarian dish. At...

17 December 2011

Recipe For Nurnberger Christmas Cookies - German Lebkuchen

Following on from the spekulatius blog, we have been having fun trying to make German lebkuchen cookies.

11 December 2011

Recipe For Speculaas Biscuits - A Dutch Christmas Treat

One of my favourite Christmas cookies are spekulatius biscuits, or speculaas as they are called in the Netherlands.  I remember we always used to get a special parcel from Lebkuchen Schmidt in Nürmberg from my Granny.  In amongst all the beautiful ti...

03 December 2011

My Most Well Worn Cookbooks

I don't know whether it is when you really learned how to cook that determines what are your favourite books, or whether some books are just better than others.  However, I noticed recently how I still keep on going back to a few cookery books that I...

30 November 2011

North Yorkshire Beef Stew

15 November 2011

Mint Choc Cupcakes

Weren't we all brought up on the luxury of After Eights or Elizabeth Shaw Mint Crisps or Matchmakers, those quintessentially 1970s pieces of sophistication?  Or was it just me?  So using our new mintier Organic Peppermint Extract, I decided to create...

06 November 2011

Lamb Stew With Rosemary & Lemon

I was pottering around the shops the other day and their was some good looking shoulder of lamb.  They called out to me "Cook me, take me", so I asked the butcher for them and popped them in the basket.  Back at home, I found some lemons that need us...