Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary
cooking up a storm at the edge of the world
In collaboration with Merchant Gourmet #EatWellLiveWell. “Shetland to avoid scurvy epidemic as boat brings fruit and veg”, reads the latest headline from Shetland’s spoof news website, Da Bonxie. They’re not kidding. After a spell of poor weather and cancelled ferry sailings, it’s been slim pickings in the fresh fruit and veg departments at our local …
Happy New Year! I hope you have had a lovely festive period, and that the New Year was greeted with a bang. Have you made any resolutions? What sort of things did you get up to? Over the last few years we’ve started a new family tradition of bringing in the New Year watching the …
The idea for these raw chocolate and clementine mini cheesecakes with a chocolate hazelnut crust has been bumping around inside my head for quite some time now, ever since I tried The Rawtarian’s raw cheesecake recipe a few months ago and was really impressed with how light and creamy the cashew based filling was after blending …
In collaboration with Expedia and their #WorldonaPlate Challenge. It’s funny how our tastes change as we grow up. My childhood diet was quite limited – baked meat and mashed potatoes being the staple, supplemented with seasonal wild fruits harvested ourselves (one wild strawberry for the basket, three for me!). I was very reluctant to try …
Something a little different for Christmas pudding. It has many, many years since I last made an ice cream bombe – 14 or 15 of them, to be honest. Back then I’d taken to cutting recipes out of supermarket magazines while I was learning how to cook for my new family. One Christmas there was …
This week saw another birthday come and go. It was also my blog’s 4th birthday. I haven’t quite reached the big 4-0 yet, but 39 is too darn close for comfort. I don’t know how this has turned into A Thing for me, but it has. It’s been playing on my mind for awhile, so …
The Ptarmigan – Scotland’s highest restaurant at 1090 metres. Situated in the top station on Cairn Gorm Mountain, in the most unexpected of places, you’ll find Scotland’s highest restaurant – The Ptarmigan. At 1090 metres/ 3500 feet above sea level it’s no problem to access thanks to Scotland’s only Funicular Railway – a train carriage …
I miss trees. Where I grew up in rural Cape Breton, on the east coast of Canada, we had more trees than you could imagine. Most of my childhood was spent in them, falling out of them, getting lost in them, and on many an occasion, eating from them. There were so many wild apple …
This recipe for braised red cabbage with apples and star anise offers a tender and flavourful side dish. Sweet red cabbage is enriched with the warm, aromatic essence of star anise, cinnamon and other herbs, complemented by red wine vinegar and dark muscovado sugar. Prep Time: 10 minutes Cooking Time: 70 minutes Difficulty: Easy This …
We spent last Friday and Saturday confined indoors due to Storm Abigail, the first UK storm to be named under the Met Office’s Name Our Storms project. Schools were cancelled on the Friday because the risk of the high winds blowing the school buses over, and so duvet days were had with much lounging and …
A recipe, review and giveaway in collaboration with Cole & Mason. Once you start cooking with whole freshly toasted and ground spices you can never go back to the ready ground variety. The difference it makes to the flavour of a dish is astounding. As soon as you grind spices they begin to lose their …
These cupcakes came into existence because my husband buys too many pears. I’m pretty sure no one eats pears in our house, and there’s been a bag of pears lurking in the fridge for well over a month now and lo, a few days ago yet another bag of fresh pears somehow appeared in the …
Fried sage and white truffle-infused olive oil transform this soup into something really special. I’m not a big fan of dried sage. There’s something stale and unpalatable about the herb, I feel, so I tend not to cook with it. That was until fresh sage leaves began appearing in my veg box and I discovered …
aka how to salvage a failed attempt at making chocolate hazelnut spread. I like experimenting in my kitchen, I really do. Sometimes (quite a lot of the time, if I am to be honest!) it doesn’t quite go according to plan. I had a notion to make some homemade chocolate hazelnut spread recently. Ok, if …
In collaboration with Veetee Rice. I love home cooking, I really do. I enjoy the whole chopping, preparing and assembling process which results in a nice, tasty home cooked meal for the family, but time isn’t always on my side. Sometimes, at the end of a long, busy day ferrying children to clubs and events, …
Freshly toasted and ground cumin and a touch of cayenne give this hummus recipe a nice kick. There must be at least a hundred different ways to make hummus, and we each tend to have our favourite version. Mine includes plenty of toasted and freshly ground cumin seeds and a generous pinch of cayenne for …
The third, and final, post in my Paris series. The morning of my last day in Paris dawned bright and clear. I walked what had become a very familiar route over the last four days along the Esplanade de Villes into the city centre, enjoying the tranquility and the golden glow of the early morning. …
This quick and easy Hungarian plum cake is a great way to showcase fresh, seasonal plums. It’s very nutty and delicious, perfect with an afternoon cuppa. Post updated 16 August 2018. “Mum, why it so windy?” It’s that time of year again. The gales have returned causing ferry transport disruptions. It’s getting dark early and …
In collaboration with Flora. Carrot cake is one of those ultimate comfort food cakes. It’s incredibly tasty, moist, delicious, and with plenty of grated carrots it surely contributes to your five a day, no? It’s loaded with vegetables, surely it has to be good for you! In this recipe I’ve teamed up with Flora to …
A Redmond Multicooker Recipe. I’m a deep dish apple crumble kind of gal. I like a nice thick layer of fresh fruit, scented with cinnamon and nutmeg, piled high with an oaty, nutty crumble topping. I also like a little bit of bite and texture in my fruit – no mushy tinned apple pie filling …
