
Mini Shepherd Pies make handy individual eating, especially if frozen. This recipe makes use of New Zealand lamb mince which is good but also uses baked beans which we’re not sure about. Mind you, it does make the mince go further and you can’t ignore anything that cuts costs now can you?

If you want to spice up your love life this Valentine’s Day, there’s a new way to get things stirring – ‘Cupid’s Curry”, available online from DoddleCurry.Com, who offer spice kits to make cooking curry at home a doddle.
After the excesses of the festive period, and the general cutting back on rich food during January, we start to regain our appetite for the occasional treat. Here from the Fruisana Kitchen is a quick and easy recipe which uses store cupboard ingredients.
‘Candlelight, romantic melody and aromatic scent all add to the pea-fect ambience of the night, while the brilliant green of each dish assaults your vision. If you can let yourselves merge with the richness of gourmet sensuality you can actually imbibe romance.’
Frozen herbs? Well why not, they’re convenient and far better than the dried stuff which is about as much use as sawdust. Freezing keeps the flavour and saves the waste normally asscociated with fresh herbs when the last bits go all manky in the fridge. Dorot are the masters at freezng herbs and have some rather tasty recipes. You can find Dorot frozen herbs in Sainsburys.
Great recipes from Cherry Valley Duckling mean the Chinese New Year is now the perfect opportunity for budding Nigella Lawson’s and Gordon Ramsay’s to learn new culinary talents and create their own ‘STAGS’ – Stay at Home Gourmets
Classic Indian dishes are made tastier and even easier with Seed of Change sauces.
‘Kung Hei Fat Choy’ or ‘Happy Chinese New Year’! The Year of the Ox is celebrated on 26th January and with Chinese households cleaning, repainting and handing out Lai See (lucky money); Alan Coxon has developed a menu for those who want to join in with the festivities. Food is an integral part of the celebrations and Alan has scoured the Orient to come up with a delicious menu for all to enjoy.
We all do it, there is some madness which happens to us just before Christmas and we become domestic goddesses, with the need to fill the house with everything and anything that anyone could possible crave over the holiday. Come January, we find ourselves with bowls of nuts waiting to be shelled and those ubiquitous boxes of dates, bought because Granny always likes them