Category: Nice Cuppa and a Natter

How to describe a curd tart?It's not the egg custard tart of my childhood which screams pasty as in pallid and not pasty as in pic-nic, although my mum and her mother could make an excellent home-made egg custard freckled with grated nutmeg. Not forgetting that it isn't nutmeg unless it has been lurking in the bottom of the baking drawer for a good few decades. Nor is it the Manchester Tart from school dinners with a dollop of jam on top of solid day-glo custard and a smattering of desiccated coconut and certainly not the unctuous and ubiquitous Portuguese Tarts that grace delis, cafés and food shops. The Yorkshire Curd Tart hints at the texture of a baked American cheesecake but isn't sickly or rich. Buttery, fruity, slightly tangy…

I could dine on soup alone and often I do ...BEAUTIFUL Soup, so rich and green,Waiting in a hot tureen!Who for such dainties would not stoop?Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup!Soup of the evening, beautiful Soup! Lewis Carroll We revere soup as a great comfort food, a winter warmer, a real crowd pleaser. Whether a quick lunch or supper, the first course of a meal or the main event, soup is worthy of celebration. Yet this sits uncomfortably against images in the press of 2021 soup kitchen queues and underlines the nonsense behind inequalities that threaten our sense of living in a democracy. To those people standing in line, soup represents a last resort, a lifeline, not luxury at all. Back in time for soupIt has been said that "Soup…