Caldo Verde


  We made Caldo Verde  for lunch today. Caldo verde or green broth is the most popular soup in Portugal. It has its origins in the Minho region in the North of Portugal, but today Caldo Verde is considered by many to be Portugal’s national soup.There are many versions of it but the basic ingredients are potatoes, shredded…

Boxing Day 2018


It was like no other Boxing Day We were in the little wine village of Kleinbottwar in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.  It was 3 degrees below zero that morning but the air was still and there was no snow. Some from our party drove across the border to Austria to ski. The rest of us walked along…

Remembrance Sunday 2018


  It was a cold, crispy day in Harrogate and autumn leaves carpeted the Stray. One man’s greed engulfed Sri Lanka – the land of my birth, in the most serious constitutional crisis since independence from. British rule in 1948. It was also my birthday but there was no mood for celebrations. As tradition demands,…

Montenegro – 3. A Day In Kotor


“Wedged between brooding mountains and a moody corner of the bay, the achingly atmospheric Kotor is perfectly at one with its setting. Hemmed in by staunch walls snaking improbably up the surrounding slopes, the town is a medieval maze of museums, churches, cafe-strewn squares and Venetian palaces and pillories. It’s a dramatic and delightful place…

Montenegro – 2. A Day On The Beach


  Beach? There are no sandy beaches along the entire 107.3 km shoreline of Kotor Bay that I know of. Rocky mountain sides dip straight and deep in to the azure sea and ‘beaches’ are either man made gravelly areas or concrete promenades with umbrellas and sun beds. The ‘beach’ below the Volat 2 Cafe in Kracisi is…

Remembrance Sunday – 2017


It is a beautiful, sunny autumn’s day in Yorkshire. It is also Remembrance Day and a small group of us, old friends and colleagues, are having lunch together at the Golf Club.   We sip Louis Roederer Brut and talk about old times. The table was already laid and at twelve thirty, John serves lunch.…

A Bank Holiday Feast


We spent the Spring Bank Holiday weekend in the little Cotswolds village of Notgrove. Our four-bedoomed farm cottage had all the mod cons. Robins frolicked in the garden and Roe deer peered at us from the hedge. One day, we hired Hasan, an Iranian chef to cook us a festive meal. He first served a…

Summer Time Begins!


2017 British Summer Time started yesterday and clocks went forward by one hour. It was a glorious Sunday in this Yorkshire spa-town. There was wall to wall sunshine all day. Forsythia are blooming in the gardens, verges are covered with Daffodils and parts of the Stray are carpeted with white and purple Crocuses. it was…

In My Time – Week 29, 2015


Early on in the week we made Harira for supper – the Moroccan thick soup with chickpeas, lentils, rice, tomatoes, garlic and ginger. It didn’t come out quite the way neither the recipe nor we intended, so we added loads of leftover roast guinea fowl from the previous evening to it and opened a bottle of…