October 2025 favourites list

 Welcome to my virtual kitchen table and this month’s favourites list. This month’s photos are from my very recent evening out in the London Bridge/Borough area where I stumbled upon a public art project by contemporary artist Philip Colbert. The playfulness, cartoony nature, and vivid colour of these lobster and floral sculptures put a smile on my face on what was a grey and wet evening. Thankfully, good company, good cocktails, and good food thereafter meant the evening stayed joyful, even if the weather was anything but. There were 5 artworks in the project, but I was only able to spot three. I now realise I probably should have looked up – a reminder we should do our best from time to time to change our perspective. 

I hope you enjoy this month’s selections. Happy new year to all my Hindu readers, who recently celebrated Diwali. May your year ahead be full of light and happiness. 

Food and drink writing

Many of you are watching Netflix drama House of Guinness, which focusses on the Victorian heir to the Guiness fortune, Arthur. This History Extra article explores the true life history of Arthur Guiness. https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/arthur-guinness-real-who-life-death/

Greggs opening a pub? Perhaps as a good way of tackling the cost of going out you could have a sausage roll and pint rather than a full plate full of pub grub. https://www.squaremeal.co.uk/restaurants/news/greggs-opens-pub_10966

Cocktails should be enjoyed in style. Here is Vogue’s collection of the best cocktail bars in London: https://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/best-cocktail-bars-london

Kavey has written an in depth and practical review of pizza cookbook Epic Indoor Pizza Oven by Jonathon Schuhrke, concluding it’s a great set of recipes and cooking advice for home cooks: https://www.kaveyeats.com/epic-indoor-pizza-oven-jonathon-schuhrke

 

Cooking inspiration

As the days are getting colder this month, I’ve been thinking about soups. This is a great article on chicken soups from around the world for cooking ideas for you: https://www.eatingwell.com/longform/7948202/chicken-soup-around-the-world/

How to pimp a can of tomato soup: https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/food/2119661/tinned-soup-taste-better-ingredient

You will have heard about how fermented foods assist good gut health. Here is a short read with simple achievable ideas for your first home ferment projects: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/oct/21/how-to-make-ferments-pickles-kitchen-aide

Tinned sardines in the UK (or pilchards as they used to be called) used to be seen as a low value or low class product. But now cult and quality brands from Portugal, Spain and France are available, no longer. But what to do with them? Here’s a helpful piece: https://www.seriouseats.com/canned-sardines-love-letter-11806834

 

Recipes

Mala meat sauce is a Chinese classic, and here is a fusion version served with broken lasagne. The perfect way to use up half a box of lasagne which has been languishing in the storecupboard. https://whattocooktoday.com/broken-lasagna-with-mala-meat-sauce.html

No waste storecupboard recipes https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/oct/22/comfort-food-recipes-max-la-manna

Ezme is a Turkish meze dish, a dip, which makes bread sing. This is how to make it: https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/ezme

I’ve come to recognise the deliciousness of burrata rather late. I personally love it with fresh crusty ciabatta, chopped ripe tomatoes, and a touch of fresh basil. But I am always up for new ideas and my fancy was piqued by this Charred eggplant (aubergine) and pomegranate recipe: https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/charred-eggplant-burrata-and-pomegranate-walnut-relish

Autumn doesn’t just mean soups, it also means stews. Here is a Czech beef goulash recipe for the grey days ahead: https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/czech-beef-goulash-recipe-b2837170.html

 

 

TV

A must for music fans who love the sounds of the late 80s, Mix Tape is a likeable drama series following Alison and Daniel’s lives many years after their school teenage romance. With themes of class, opportunity, family life and first love, we travel from Sheffield to Australia, and time travel from the 80s to the present day.

Available in BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m002fy6d/mix-tape

Each year the Mercury Prize honours the best British and Irish albums of the year. From new talents like to known previous nominees such as Wolf Alice, to vintage acts like Pulp and Martin Carthy. Live performances from the majority of the nominees means this is a great survey of the key albums of the year.

Available on BBC iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b00dl7hr/mercury-prize

Please note: as with every monthly Favourites List, all of these items have been selected by me simply because I love them. I do not receive any money, benefits in kind or other incentive for posting these links or recommendations.

September 2025 favourites list

Welcome to this month’s collection, focussing on recipes. The change in season has brought with it a change to what I want to cook and eat. The start of the new academic year has brought with it a new cohort of keen, enthusiastic students. Unfortunately, it has also brought with it the dreaded start-of-term bugs. I have succumbed to a cold-flu-Covid type bug which has messed with me in ways I won’t be sharing any further.

To all my friends who are involved in education (be they teachers, lecturers, students, or pupils), I wish you Happy New Academic Year. To my Jewish friends, Happy Jewish New Year! I hope we all have a healthy, happy, successful, and fun year ahead! If you are not involved in education, consider this a friendly mid-year boost to your motivation and energy. 

Casserole pot with beans, tomatoes and Nduja

I hope you will enjoy these seasonal selections, and my photos of recent home cooking adventures. 

White beans with tomato and Nduja

Food articles

Jay Rayner reviews Apna Punjab in Southall and now I want kulchas and daaba dahl. https://archive.ph/BibI1

Kavey reviews the new edition of Sri Owen’s famous and influential cookbook on Indonesian food. https://www.kaveyeats.com/indonesian-food-sri-owen

Recipes

We’re getting into soup weather, so here are some high protein plant based soup ideas to snuggle into: https://www.stylist.co.uk/fitness-health/nutrition/high-protein-plant-based-soup-recipes/1017645

Lentils always make great protein rich soups, here Meike shares her recipe for a fennel and garlic flavoured lentil and tomato soup: https://www.dorothy-porker.com/filling-easy-fennel-lentil-soup/

The Man In Black Johnny Cash shared his recipe for Old Iron Pot chili, and now I an imagining him and June Carter Cash tucking in at home when he wasn’t on tour: https://www.uso.org/stories/86-from-the-uso-cookbook-johnny-cash-s-old-iron-pot-chili

Recipes for Salsa Macha, Salsa Verde, Salsa Roja and Pico de Gallo to bring colour and flavour for your next taco dinner: https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/cooking/salsa-styles-recipes

 

Nduja and tomato tagliatelle

Sticking with the theme of Mexican inspired food, here is a recipe for Fajita inspired chicken stuffed peppers (the spicing and flavouring echo those used for fajitas): https://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/7923409/fajita-inspired-chicken-stuffed-peppers/

Bibimbap, the colourful Korean dish, is the perfect way to get all your food groups in, while also looking great. This is Judy Joo’s recipe from her show Korean Food Made Simple: https://www.lovefood.com/recipes/57355/simple-traditional-bibimbap-recipe

Why do meals in a bowl seem ultra cosy? I can’t explain it, but this recipe for sesame chicken thighs, sesame ginger sauce, and cucumber salad sitting on a bed of rice is just what an autumn evening dinner is all about. https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a64020043/sesame-ginger-chicken-bowls-recipe/

Harissa and herbs flavour the tinned butter beans overnight in this marinated butter bean salad; one to make and take to work: https://www.realsimple.com/marinated-butter-bean-salad-11774401

 

Bangers and mash with veg and Yorkshire pud

The Urban Rajah shares his Uncle Guddu Chachu’s beloved family recipe for Gunpowder lamb patties; spiced mince lamb parcels encased in pastry: https://www.lovefood.com/recipes/57931/gunpowder-lamb-patties-recipe

Rukmini Iyer’s Cooking Tin cookbooks have made quick dinners for families easy. Here is her recipe for Crispy butter bean, chorizo and cos salad with coriander: https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/aug/25/crispy-butter-bean-chorizo-cos-salad-quick-easy-recipe-rukmini-iyer

What you might have missed at Snig’s Kitchen

My recipe for Italian sausage pasta using the high meat content pork sausages available in Italian delicatessens:  https://snigskitchen.blogspot.com/2025/09/italian-sausage-pasta-recipe-post.html

 

Lamb and squash tagine with couscous

My mini blog post on Tom Kerridge's Spanish inspired recipe for Barbecue pork chops with spicy white beans: https://www.tumblr.com/snigskitchen/790710841641205760/barbecue-pork-chops-ms-recipe-ms

My Doll brand Hello Kitty Dim Sum Japanese prawn flavour instant noodle review: https://snigskitchen.blogspot.com/2025/08/doll-hello-kitty-dim-sum-noodle-review.html

Please note: as with every monthly Favourites List, all of these items have been selected by me simply because I love them. I do not receive any money, benefits in kind or other incentive for posting these links or recommendations.

Italian sausage pasta – a recipe post

This has been a recipe I’ve been messing with and tweaking around for some time. There have been several scrawled hand written ingredient lists and methods left around on dog eared bits of paper. I am a fiend for reusing paper, so some versions were written on the back of printouts of Powerpoint slides for my classes. It’s all reusing, right? But when I dig them up again, they’re always a funny reminder of how the facets of my life are so very different.

The variations I have explored are: fennel sausages or plain? Garlic or no garlic? Wine or no wine? Cream or no cream? Tomato puree and tomatoes or just fresh tomatoes?

 

[Other variations could be: basil or oregano? Wine, vodka, or no alcohol at all? Parmesan or Grano Padano?] 

 

The sausages here are not just British bangers. These are Italian sausages with very high (pork) meat content, making them very dense. This is why I think they’re perfect for skinning and crumbling up into a sauce. I like the fennel flavoured Italian sausages, but if you don’t like this flavour, use plain.

 

In the end, this is what I arrived at. The tomato stem part of the recipe was inspired by seeing “Roasting Tin” cookbook author Rukmini Ayer on the TV saying that her top cooking tip for intensifying tomato aroma and flavour was to save up the stems and add to soups, sauces and stews. It was a solid cooking hack I have been using ever since. (Don't forget to fish them out before serving, though!)

 

 

 

Serves 2

 

Ingredients

2 echalion shallots, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, peeled, sliced across their width with the slices cut into 3 or 4

4 Tuscan sausages or 5 smaller Fennel Italian sausages

250-275g cherry or similar small, ripe tomatoes, diced

Any tomato stems you may have

1/4 (quarter) teaspoon dried oregano or half a teaspoon of fresh

60 ml white wine

1/2 teaspoon plain flour

60 ml double cream

3 tbsp fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

250g dried pasta of your choice, I used bronze die extruded fusilli

4-5 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

If you don’t have fennel sausages and like the flavour, a pinch of fennel seeds

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

 

You will need

Two saucepans, a colander, a fine grater, Knife/chopping board

 

Instructions

Put some water on to boil to make your pasta. Add salt to the water.

The sausages need to be peeled and crumbled up first. I use a sharp knife to cut the skin along the length of the sausages very shallowly, so the skin can just be pulled off. Break up into chunks.

 

 

 

Add the olive oil to a frying pan on a medium heat. Fry the shallots for 5 minutes.

 

Then add the garlic and lower the heat. Cook for 3 minutes.

 

At around this time put your pasta on. Cook it to the Al Dente time on the packet if you like it cooked. Or take a minute or even two off the Al Dente time if you like it Al Dente. (It will be cooked again at the end.) Drain the pasta and reserve a little pasta water in case you need to loosen up the pasta and sauce later. Do not rinse the pasta!

 

Now add the sausage meat, raising the heat back to a medium heat. If you want to add the pinch of fennel seeds, add them now.

 

Fry off for 7-8 minutes, until they have changed colour. If you've crumbled up into small pieces, you might need less time here.

 

Turn the heat off and take everything out of the pan, leaving on a plate near the hob.

 

Put the heat back into a medium high heat. Now add the wine to the pan. When bubbling, add the flour. Stir thoroughly. Keep stirring until you can't smell raw wine any more.

 

Add the tomatoes and any stems and oregano and cook for 5-7 minutes. You want the tomatoes to start breaking down and for the juices to escape the tomatoes and begin to thicken.

 

Add the sausage meat back in and combine thoroughly. Make sure the meat is heated through.

 

Once warmed through, add the cream, stirring constantly. Once combined, reduce the heat to low.

 

Now add the chopped basil and mix through. Remove the tomato stems.

 

 

Add the cooked pasta. Mix everything together, keeping it moving. If you think it needs loosening up, add some of the pasta water and mix through to the desired consistency. When all warmed through, and at a hardness you like your pasta at, serve in bowls. Top with the Parmesan cheese.

 

 

Enjoy immediately.

August 2025 favourites list

Welcome to this month’s list. I hope you love the food writing, tips, travel, and recipes I have collected for your reading pleasure.  

 

 

This month’s photos are from a small wildflower grass verge grown by a residents organisation in Hounslow. The colour and vibrancy of the poppies and cornflowers was so much prettier than just plain lawn. The bees and butterflies benefitted from these flowers more than they would have with grass alone, and we all know how important it is to look after the bees. I had to stop to take a picture, and I hope the residents will be doing more of the same next year.  

Food writing  

A zingy and spicy guide to the different types of ginger in the world: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/different-kinds-of-ginger  

There have been lots of hot takes on the early dining conundrum; whether a 6pm or 8pm table reservation is ideal, whether it is a Gen Z thing, whether it is the end of civilisation… I’m not remotely Gen Z, but have to say, I like an early table for all the reasons this diner does. It might have something to do with living far enough from Central London that any public transport journey takes me more than an hour… https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/restaurants-bookings-early-bird-dinner-6pm-b2801647.html  

Kitchen tips 

I love garlic. But I confess, I don’t enjoy peeling it. I tend to give it a good bash and then peel. https://www.foodandwine.com/how-chefs-peel-garlic-11784335 

I try to match up my cooking oil either to the type of food I’m making, or matching to the likely cooking temperature. Here is a guide to cooking oils and when to use them: https://www.cnet.com/home/kitchen-and-household/you-might-be-using-the-wrong-oil-a-guide-to-cooking-oils-and-when-to-use-them/ 

Cooking pasta is one of the first things many of us ever had to learn, but we might have acquired some ingrained bad habits: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/6-mistakes-you-make-when-cooking-pasta_uk_688ccb69e4b08a266e7d518f 

There are so many kitchen gadgets you fork out for and discover are badly designed, difficult to use, or just not needed as often as you thought. Here are 6 to avoid, and I completely agree on glass chopping boards, just yuk: https://www.pressreader.com/australia/the-guardian-australia/20250327/282106347439901  

Yotam Ottolenghi on umami, fermentation, and how to make your food just taste “more”: https://archive.ph/Z6nwE  

The Yotam Ottolenghi tomato and date salad he discusses in the above article (with an umami boost of fish sauce): https://archive.ph/godoz  

How to get the richness and flavour of restaurant quality risotto at home: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/restaurant-level-risotto-tips_uk_688786dee4b0b5f7e9081232 

 

Recipes  

Minced Lamb and Aubergine Noodles recipe from new cookbook Chinese Made Easy by Kwoklyn Wan: https://www.kaveyeats.com/minced-lamb-and-aubergine-noodles 

This is the point in summer where tomatoes are ripe, red and ready. Felicity Cloake has turned her usual attention to detail to the Italian classic Pasta al pomodoro crudo (pasta with raw chopped tomatoes): https://www.theguardian.com/food/2025/aug/03/how-to-make-perfect-fresh-tomato-pasta-recipe-felicity-cloake 

TikTok sensation and School of Wok tutor Emma Chung shares a recipe from her first cookbook, crispy chilli beef with sriracha: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/crispy-chilli-beef-recipe-sriracha-easy-fakeaway-b2789838.html  

 

 

Food and travel  

Mieke, otherwise known by her blog name Dorothy Porker, is a Dutch-Indonesian food author and cookbook writer living in France. She's done us all a massive favour and collected her top food tips for Bordeaux: https://www.dorothy-porker.com/some-bordeaux-food-tips-for-you/ 

One of my favourite things to do when travelling abroad is to visit a food market. Another, is visiting grocery stores and supermarkets. When I tell some people they think it is a strange and mundane thing to spend precious annual leave on. Others agree it is a view into food culture which you wouldn’t get any other way. This piece is a beautifully written celebration of this holiday activity:  https://www.goya.in/blog/the-anthropology-of-aisles-reading-cultures-through-grocery-store  

What you might have missed at Snig’s Kitchen 

My mini blog post on Tom Kerridge's recipe for Barbecue pork chops with spicy white beans: https://www.tumblr.com/snigskitchen/790710841641205760/barbecue-pork-chops-ms-recipe-ms 

My Doll Hello Kitty Dim Sum Japanese prawn flavour instant noodle review: https://snigskitchen.blogspot.com/2025/08/doll-hello-kitty-dim-sum-noodle-review.html  

Please note: as with every monthly Favourites List, all of these items have been selected by me simply because I love them. I do not receive any money, benefits in kind or other incentive for posting these links or recommendations.