Walk into a decent drinks shop and you will find four bottles that all claim to taste of cherries: a ruby-red liqueur, a clear kirsch, a pale maraschino and something labelled cherry brandy. They are not interchangeable, and swapping one for another is a reliable way to ruin a Singapore Sling. This guide sorts out…
Most seasonal produce charts tell you what is in season and then leave you standing in the grocery aisle with a bunch of kale and no plan. This one does something different. For every season, you get the best ingredients to buy and a simple way to cook each one. It is written for the…
Most seasonal produce calendars tell you what is in season and then leave you standing in the shop wondering what to do with a bag of leeks. This one pairs every season’s best ingredients with a simple way to cook them, so you can use it as a planning tool rather than a reference list….
Open most kitchen cupboards and you will find at least two or three bottles of vinegar, each bought for one recipe and then left to gather dust. It is easy to see why. The labels all promise “tangy”, the prices swing wildly, and the recipe that called for rice vinegar never said what to do…
Whether you are cooking for a vegetarian guest, trying a few meat-free nights a week or just fancy something different, the best alternatives to chicken are already in most kitchens. Tofu, tempeh, mushrooms, chickpeas and jackfruit can all stand in for chicken, but each one behaves differently in the pan. The trick is matching the…
Most of us buy garlic in bulk because it is cheap, and then watch half of it sprout, soften or dry out before we get through it. The good news is that garlic is easy to keep, as long as you match the storage method to the form it is in. This guide on how…
Black vodka is vodka that has been coloured black, and it tastes close to ordinary vodka. That means you can use it in almost any vodka cocktail and only the colour changes. The best results come from pale mixers such as ginger beer, tonic water and lemonade, where the contrast does the work. This guide…
Whether you know it as corn or sweetcorn, those little yellow vegetables are unmistakable on the plate. While they are available all year round, this time of year is when they are starting to be harvested and the freshest corn on the cob can be grabbed. But what are some of the things to do…
I’m the first to admit when I first started to drink rose wine, I thought it was made by mixing red and white wines. Or at least the grapes! But really, rose is something a little different because while it often uses the same grapes as red, the processes used to make it is very…
There are four main types of vodka: grain vodka, potato vodka, vodka made from other bases such as grapes or milk whey, and flavoured vodka. Grain vodkas split further into wheat, rye, corn and blended-grain bottles, and each base nudges the taste and texture a little. That difference shows most in a chilled martini and…
If I had a choice between lemon and lime, I would side with lime. There’s just something delicious about the tangy flavour of those green fruits! From adding to cocktails to delicious recipes like key lime pie, there are hundreds of things to do with limes. I can’t add them all here, but I thought…
There is a bag of lemons in the fridge, and some of them are starting to look a bit tired. Maybe you bought them for one recipe and never needed the rest, or a neighbour left a carrier bag of homegrown ones on your doorstep. The good news is that a lemon is one of…
