Virtue can come in a can. In a tin. Yes, virtue comes in cans of tomato sauce. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. This tomato sauce – proclaimed my best-ever tomato sauce is proof. ‘Eating’, living proof. I’ve made it with both fresh and canned tomatoes and the former cannot hold a...
My advice on tomatoes may test ye, o virtuous cook for who fresh is best. Stay with me. Yes, it is the season of fresh corn and African butter pears, Ube; African walnuts, fresh dates, mosquitoes, sugar ants, guinea fowl eggs, yellow pepper and soursop. The season of rain storms and cottton wool clouds, of sunrise and sunsets,...
When I first wrote about tomatoes, before the Marketplace/ Tomato post, I confess I’d never seen tomatoes sold anywhere else in the world in the same way. Until I woke up on a Saturday morning and came across a photo – of baskets of tomatoes in an Italian Piazza while flicking through ‘Waitrose Kitchen’, the...
They come from all over Nigeria and go by different names, speaking to their provenance, their source and origins. The tomatoes do. Names unpronounceable in some languages, where certain consonant combinations are never found. Like gb. Pronounced with force and confidence. And literally known as labial-velar consonants. Truly doubly articulated labial–velars occur as stops and nasals in the majority...
His cries of ‘spice, spice’ herald new beginnings, but at only 4 years old…this little man knows it not. This is the first proper ‘thing’ to come out of our new kitchen ( long before our delicious churros which have been followed by cupcakes and pizza. I’m thankful I can still cook and bake!), or...
We fell into bed just after 8pm in Bedroom 2 of our transit house, exhausted by the day’s events. While the day was not dotted with drama, it had been a long one for us all – the first day of school for the three children, and the first time in all the schooling years...
Embrace the heart of the Levant with Fattoush, of the genus Fattat – a family of stale bread salads with toasted or fried pieces of khubz ‘arabi ( pita bread) as the base, combined with seasonal vegetables. Like croutons, the crisp pita shards bring bready substance to the fragrant, herbed salad alongside heirloom tomatoes, cucumber...
….’cause technically speaking, tommies are fruit! Anyhow, since I heard these lines a few weeks ago, I’ve been itching to share them! ‘Measure with a micrometer, Mark with chalk, Cut with an axe.’ Carl Zwanzig Ray’s Rule of Precision….works well for Passata too! In food terms this would be: