Spring is a great time of the year for vegetables; the restricted range of winter vegetables opens up and suddenly a whole host of new vegetables decorate the green grocer’s shelves. I have chosen two of my favourite vegetables on which to concentrate this month. They are the quintessentially English watercress and asparagus. Watercress Watercress…
Brexit Border Problems
It is not just the English/northern Irish border that is experiencing delivery problems due to Brexit as I am finding out. It is also currently quite a serious problem for small importers bringing in premium products from the EU. So, if like me, you are keen on food from small artisan producers rather than from…
Memories: Lunaio and the Seggiano brand
The small town of Seggiano is tucked away at the foot of Monte Amiata in the Grosetto region of south western Tuscany. It is still quite a wild area somewhat off the Tuscan beaten tourist track. The mountain is volcanic and there are numerous hot pools which the locals say are great for swimming even…
Olive Oil and The English Vegetable Year: Autumn
This is a new series for my blog, marrying up two of my favourite foods: Vegetables and Olive Oil. The tendency is to think of dishes based on Mediterranean vegetables when cooking with olive oil but in fact this lovely flavoursome ingredient can enhance traditional English vegetables equally well. Autumn sees the beginning of the…
Cooking with Andalucian Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Following my virtual tasting of Andalucian oils last week I immediately started to look for some really authentic recipes from the region to try out. Here are the results: Pipirrana My first recipe comes from Elena Garcia at Spanish Gastro Larder and features their Finca Alamillos del Prior extra virgin olive oil from Jaen. It is…
Celebrating Andalucian olive oil
Engaged in my first virtual olive oil tasting yesterday. We tasted five excellent extra virgin olive oils bfrom the region, taking in four different olive varieties plus a blend of three of them. I knew all five oils well from many visits and tastings over the years and they did not disappoint. They all tasted…
Memories: Rovies and Odysea
My memories this week go back to the very early days of my work with olives and olive oil not very long after I had retrained to switch from wine writing to olive oil in the early 1990s. I had written a paper for the then European Union on assessing and describing extra virgin olive…
Spreading the Word……
I am very pleased to announce the addition of another foreign language edition of The Olive Oil Diet, written in conjunction with my co-author Dr. Simon Poole. This one is Bulgarian and it follows Turkish and Spanish editions as well, of course, the English edition. If you would like to buy one of these editions,…
Travel: Nyons and Les Baronnies 2
My first post about this region concentrated on Nyons itself. This time I shall be travelling round the Route des Oliviers from Nyons taking in the villages of Mirabel les Baronnies, Mollans sur Ovese, Buis Les Baronnies and Entrechaux. There are 61 villages included in the Nyons Appellation and they all grow the Tanche olive….
A Taste of Northern Provence
The best places to try the authentically rustic food of the region are at the Fermes Auberges or farm inns like the Auberge du St Julien at Buis Les Baronnies, the Auberge du Domaine Guilon at Chamaret with its own winery and Moulin de Chateau near Villeperdrix with its 12th century buildings and 16th century…