The Super Potato

for 2 people you will need: 2 big potatoes 2 Tbsp duck fat or lard fine salt rough sea salt There is nothing at all to these potatoes, but once you have had the patience to prepare them, you will be rewarded with the best potatoes you’ve ever eaten! Peel your potatoes and slice them

The Perfect Steamed Egg

The old fashioned coffee shops in Malaysia produce a kind of buffet lunch, in which they line up big trays of all kinds of different prepared foods. There can be literally dozens of different dishes and you just go and load your plate of rice with whatever you fancy, pay what will probably amount to

Eddie’s Lap Mei Fan

There are a lot of places in town that claim to make the best Lap Mei Fan, but my vote goes to the one that Eddie makes. I don’t know whether it’s the most authentic, but it hits all the right spots, as far as I’m concerned. Now before I get started on Eddie’s recipe,

The Plainest of Cakes

Having been extremely slack in our backing and cooking and candlestick making over the last week, we found there is NO cake in the house. Not even a cookie crumb is to be found, which on a Sunday is a fairly sad state of affairs. So one has to start off by making a nice

Caviar & the Soviet Ambassador

Most of my life has been the humdrum kind. It’s been a good life, but you know, work, travel, dinners; not the stuff of legends. And then there are a few episodes so unlikely that I’m not sure they were real. An unlikely friendship with Blofeld, or more correctly Charles Gray, the actor who played

Sorrento Lemon Cake

You may think it impossible to make Sorrento lemon cake without those spindle lemons from Sorrento, but you are mistaken. The lemons have a flavour and a smell we here in Malaysia are very used to. It’s a smell more than a taste and you can smell it as soon as you crush the leaves.

Blanquette d’Agneau

Eddie and I had a little dinner party yesterday and I made a great French classic, Blanquette d’Agneau, lamb in a creamy white sauce. It’s probably one of the simplest things to make, it keeps in the chiller for 3 days and in fact improves with age, it freezes extremely well and is hardly any

Risotto is a Soup

There is a basic problem with risotto: It’s a soup! If you’re aiming for a rice dish, you’ll definitely get it wrong. Think of it as a soup and chances are you’ll get it right. Now before all of Italy starts screaming bloody murder, let me explain. I assume we are all agreed that risotto

Japanese Fried Noodles

When you wander the streets of Tokyo late at night, drunk and hungry, forget the sushi and head to those little places that sell fried udon, add plenty of chilli flakes and the morning will be only half as painful. Well, as you’re not likely to be wandering those streets anytime soon, here’s how you

Ginger Garlic Paste

I always have 3 basic staples in my chiller and this is one of them. If you cook a lot of Asian food, it’s well worth keeping a jar of this ginger garlic paste at the ready. It saves you from having to chop everything up every single time and it can make a tasty