This May Or May Not Be Pastitsio

May 16, 2015 by Kass

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I don’t really know why; just haven’t felt the urge, I guess. Nearly two years have passed, in which time I’ve changed jobs (twice), B has set up his own business, we’ve been on six holidays, picked up multiple sports injuries between us and have consistently failed to sell the house. Not that I’m offering all of this as any kind of excuse, you understand! One of those holidays was to Limassol in Cyprus. […]

Categories: Beef, European, Lamb, Main Meals, Pasta, Pork • Tags: comfort, glutenfree, Greek, lasagna, meat, pasta

Baja Fish Tacos

June 18, 2013 by Kass

Excitement ripples through the Casa del Picky Eaters this week: we just booked our next holiday. We’re going to a wedding in Minneapolis in September, and will fly from there down to Los Angeles, California, for ten days of letting our movie and TV geekery all hang out. In celebration of what is probably our most advance-planned holiday ever, I made fish tacos. Baja fish tacos are a Mexican dish, originating from Baja California, the Mexican state immediately to the […]

Categories: American, Fish, Main Meals, Mexican • Tags: fried fish, glutenfree, Mexican, spicy, taco

Bayou Stew

April 23, 2013 by Kass

This is a completely made up dish, inspired partly by a conversation I was having via Twitter about grits, and partly by some Black Farmer sausages being next in line in Project Empty The Freezer. It’s based on Cajun principles, hence Bayou, but is too thick to be gumbo, too riceless to be jambalaya, too meaty to be étouffée. It’s a sausage stew with warming spices, total comfort food, and if you don’t have cheese grits, it would be equally […]

Categories: American, Main Meals, Pork • Tags: Cajun, Creole, sausage, Southern, spicy, stew

Cod with Miso, after Nobu

April 22, 2013 by Kass

We spent the long weekend at Easter in London, catching up with various friends. The schedule of getting around half a dozen different families left us unoccupied during the day on the Sunday, so we decided we’d have our Easter Sunday lunch at Nobu on Old Park Lane. We went for the Omakase menu – a tasting selection of Nobu classic dishes – and I was delighted to find that it included their famous Black Cod with Miso. The whole […]

Categories: Asian, Fish, Main Meals • Tags: cod, dairyfree, glutenfree, Japanese, Nobu

Goan Beef Curry

April 19, 2013 by Kass

The freezer is full; I’m not sure how it happened. Long and short of the matter is that I need to use up some of the stuff in it before I go buying anything else. The first thing to hand was 750g braising steak, and a vague urge for something chilli-hot. I found the recipe in Floyd’s Great Curries but astonishingly the great man suggests that it would only take half an hour for the beef to become tender. I’m […]

Categories: Asian, Beef, Main Meals • Tags: beef, curry, dairyfree, glutenfree, Indian, spicy

Nonya Chicken Satay

April 18, 2013 by Kass

We spent the first two weeks of March in Malaysia, split between the chaos of capital city Kuala Lumpur and the incredible beauty and tranquility of Langkawi. The very first meal we had, courtesy of room service at 1am, was chicken satay. Satay is a dish I thought I knew reasonably well: I had it regularly from hawker centres and stalls while working in Singapore, and it’s commonly on our Thai takeaway order here in the UK, too. But wow! […]

Categories: Asian, Beef, Chicken, Main Meals, Sauces and Dressings • Tags: dairyfree, glutenfree, indonesian, Malaysian, peanut, satay, sauce, singaporean, spicy

Sweet and Spicy Saffron Chicken

December 9, 2012 by Kass

This light, warming stew takes about half an hour and uses the humble chicken thigh to glorious effect. Every time I have it, I think I could quite happily live off thighs only for the rest of my life. Once upon a time I served it with couscous, but now I like it with roasted squash, or baked sweet potatoes. Sweet and Spicy Saffron Chicken Soften a finely chopped banana shallot and a minced garlic clove in olive oil. Season […]

Categories: Chicken, Main Meals, Middle Eastern • Tags: dairyfree, glutenfree

Smoked Mackerel Fishcakes with Beetroot-Horseradish Purée

October 31, 2012 by Kass

Wasn’t it summer just a moment ago? Well, not now. Now it’s chilly and damp and we barely see daylight since we wake before dawn and stay in work until long after dusk. No lettuce will enter the house until at least March, and instead meals are earthy and meaty, and mashed potato has become an essential accompaniment. At the Casa del Picky Eaters, mash causes a bit of a PR problem: B insists that I am being irrational and […]

Categories: Uncategorized

Pollo alla Cacciatore (Hunter’s Chicken)

August 27, 2012 by Kass

It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks at the Casa del Picky Eaters. First, my birthday coincided with a visit from B’s Auntie and Fred, Auntie’s partner, who have lived in New Zealand for over thirty years and come back to to the UK for an annual grand tour of the rellies. We had various meals out with family on both sides over the course of four days, including the brilliant Guinea Pig night at Piazza by Anthony, and an […]

Categories: Chicken, European, Main Meals, Pasta • Tags: Chicken Cacciatore, dairyfree, glutenfree

Gluten Free Pizza for Poorly People & Paralympic Excellence

August 8, 2012 by Kass

Last Friday I spent a two hour meeting sitting next to a colleague who had a cold. As he leant over to crack a joke about one of the other delegates having a name that sounded a bit like Peter Parker and so she must therefore be Spiderman, I said, if you breathe over me again I’m going to move. Well, I didn’t move and now I’m bloody unwell. Can’t breathe properly, can’t speak without coughing, can’t sleep, the works. […]

Categories: European, Main Meals, Pizza • Tags: #PimpMyBonta, bonta, glutenfree, pizza