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Fran Dowd
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Down the Back of the Sofa

English - Food, Recipes, Cooking
http://frandowdsofa.wordpress.com/
Down the Back of the Sofa · 6M ago

Pinterest – this looks fun

I’ve set up some boards on a system called Pinterest.  It’s like cutting pictures out of papers and magazines, and organising them on your fridge, but it’s based on images across the web. Highly addictive … If you look at the bottom of the left sidebar of this page, you can see some of my [...]
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Down the Back of the Sofa · 6M ago

These are not the squash you’re looking for

I don’t actually like pumpkin. It’s heresy to say that at this time of year, when my in-tray is full of recipes for cookies, casseroles, pies, cheesecakes, cupcakes, and, heaven help us, trifle. But I think it’s the wateriest of all the squashes, texture-free, and with an unpleasant, almost bitter a
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Down the Back of the Sofa · 7M ago

Mostarda di #Allotment

Glistening in righteous expensiveness in the upper-crust supermarkets, lives Mostarda di Cremona. What we can buy, while still the genuine article, is the lower end of the range. It’s a strange substance, candied fruit preserved  in a mustard syrup. The Real Thing is split by region (there are many
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Down the Back of the Sofa · 8M ago

Simple Pork in Cream Sauce

This is loosely based on Cotes de Porc Sauce Nenette, from Julia Child. It’s very forgiving, and usually needs very little shopping. Extras freeze well, and you can double up the sauce without a problem. You want pork shoulder steak, or thick chops – something that isn’t too tender like a medallion,
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Down the Back of the Sofa · 8M ago

Preserved Courgettes

So far we’ve got three different kinds of preserved courgettes. Courgette and Pineapple Jam – yellow courgettes, seeded, peeled and cut up small. Set aside overnight dredged with sugar. It makes a syrup, and next day you boil it up with added tinned pineapple and a bit of lemon juice to help the set
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Down the Back of the Sofa · 8M ago

Bloody Courgettes

Yeah yeah yeah, I KNOW. But we only planted a few, although probably a few more than we thought we’d want in case of early death. And the little young ones were delicious, and we treated them with reverential care. Now? Buggrit millenium hand and shrimp. It didn’t help that J went away for a [...]
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Down the Back of the Sofa · 1Y ago

Happy World Book Day

There’s a meme going round about Book Day, and I’ve done it elsewhere for general reading books. It needed tweaking a bit for this, so here goes: The cookbook I am reading for pleasure: in the downstairs loo are several books about cooking in the tropics, or books that I picked up in Australia last
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Down the Back of the Sofa · 1Y ago

Christmas Fig Chutney

I was very taken, watching HFW and the River Cottage Christmas Fayre programme, with his Christmas Chutney. But when I went looking for it, it was the one recipe that wasn’t up on his website, bah humbug. I’ve been meaning to try some recipes from my new (second-hand) copy of Jams, Pickles and Chutn
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Down the Back of the Sofa · 1Y ago

Gordon Effing Ramsay

There’s a downside to the Use It or Lose It philosophy. I’m watching Channel 4′s Ramsay’s Best Restaurant, which has got to the semi-finals stage. Two places I really like, and recommend regularly, and get to when I can, have made it through. One is The Milestone, Sheffield’s up-and-coming Michelin
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Down the Back of the Sofa · 1Y ago

Red Cabbage

I usually make French-style red cabbage, with red wine and bay leaves. But tonight I wanted something a bit sweeter, thicker, warmer. More in keeping with a British November night. In an oven-proof casserole, fry some lardons (or the fat end of a piece of ham, which is what I had), an onion and a [.
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