Posts by Tom Johnston

Many families like a trifle on the table at Christmas time. This recipe is taken from Wendy Barrie’s book, Meadows: The Swedish Farmer & The Scottish Cook which we reviewed on Wednesday. A badly made trifle can be disgusting. There are no shortcuts in this recipe as it features home made Swiss roll for the…

With Christmas approaching, I had a fancy to include a cake recipe. Not a traditional Christmas cake – for me it has too much similarity to Christmas pudding, the true highlight (after the roast potatoes) of Christmas dinner. I acquired a stollen recipe from a friend, but I’m suspicious of the yeast quantities given. Not…

With the onset of winter you expect the temperature to drop. That’s fine. In fact I rather enjoy the clear, crisp, blue skied days, but not those damp, dank ones where the cold seems to seep into your bone marrow. At such times comfort food is called for. But which one? Looking through the archives…

This is a homage to Portugal where I holidayed recently. The country is the world’s largest consumer of salt cod. In every supermarket you’ll see racks and racks of the stuff, stiff as a board, probably handy as an offensive weapon. You’ll find variations wherever cod was common, Newfoundland, Norway and the Faroe Islands. It’s…

While there are probably no new recipes under the sun, this one did come out of my head. One of the many reasons I like Nigel Slater so much is that he says he will often just decide what to cook for dinner when looking at the contents of his fridge. While his TV programmes…

Call this beef stew if you like, but that’s akin to saying that Leonardo da Vinci could paint a wee bit. Today’s column was inspired by two things. After being delighted by Felicity Cloake’s Red Sauce, Brown Sauce, reviewed in On The Side a few weeks ago, I bought a copy of her earlier work, One More…

Well, what a stooshie we had after last week’s article about omelettes. I fear I may have lost a couple of friends in the fall out. I shall say no more other than to quote the wise words of Elizabeth David in French Provincial Cooking. As everybody knows, there is only one infallible recipe for…

Last week’s article about Wiener schnitzel attracted a bigger postbag than usual. Breaking free of the authoritative Austrian shackles – it must be veal and it must be made in Austria – two things became clear. It’s a great favourite of many of you, and the majority would use pork or chicken over veal. The…