Food & recipes
Misadventures in sourdough
I have a habit of adopting trends several years after everyone else. It’s like an in-built aversion to doing anything popular at the time that it’s popular. For some reason, I wait until the popular thing has eventually tipped over into cliché and everyone’s...
‘But cheese’ … a cosy chat about being vegan
A LOT of people asked me about veganism when I was back home. And the prevailing sentiment was, ‘I could never give up cheese’. Believe me, I get it. I was the same. We’d watch all those documentaries about the horrors of factory farming and I’d say ‘We should go...
Cluster sowing, beetroot recipes
Always one for trying something new (*cough* bullshit *cough*) I did something a bit different with my beetroot this year. I tried the ‘multi-sowing’ (cluster-sowing) method espoused by Charles Dowding, the guy who made no dig gardening famous. If any form of...
13 squash recipes everyone should have up their sleeve
I realise this post would have been more timely back in the autumn, when squash and pumpkin were everywhere in the shops. But if you grow your own squash, as we do, you’ll still have loads left from the autumn (cured properly in a sunny, warm spot squash will keep...
A lovely, sticky ginger cake for you (vegan, but you’d never know it)
As someone who’s constantly obsessed with my next meal, I’m still surprised how much I’ve focused in on food during this whole pandemic thing. Which is partly why I’m enjoying Instagram so much. (If you aren’t yet following me, I’m @auntie_bulgaria. I share lots of...
Homemade liqueurs. Birthday snow
The snow has finally returned to Bulgaria. Which is handy because I was getting really cheesed off with all that brownness. Brown trees. Brown muddy lanes. Brown garden. Brown paw prints all over the kitchen floor. Brown village river (it’s been raining a lot,...
How to make mekitsi
The first time we ate mekitsi, we were in the Rodopi mountains, staying in a small family hotel. Every morning the cook would bring out a plate piled with three or four large mekitsi at a time. There would be a brief but dignified scrum among the few guests...
The boomiest of booms (also, cake)
Stormy season has arrived in Bulgaria. Look at those clouds rolling in. Ah, June. A great month for those Brits in Bulgaria who love wanging on about the weather. (So that’s all Brits in Bulgaria, then.) It’s hot and sunny one minute, then you hear the...
In search of cheese – or, the Great Bulgarian (Vegan) Pizza Off
Firing up the pizza oven for the first time this year. Being the borderline millennial clichés that we are, it was only a matter of time before we started eating vegan-ish. We already ate vegetarian 95% of the time (the other 5% being a weakness for barbecue...
The ‘rona report, part 2: Freezer pleaser
This week we have mainly been drinking frozen margaritas. You? It all started with the frozen lemon slices. Before long, I was freezing pretty much anything that wasn’t nailed down... When you grow your own veg, you quickly learn to love the freezer. We make...
The ‘rona report, part 1: No scrap left behind
When life gives you lemons (and orange cordial), make (orangey) G&Ts. Then re-use the lemons. I’ve always been a bit competitive about food and drink. The number of times a waiter has looked at me in a restaurant and said, ‘Are you sure you want to order...
Scavengers
You know what’s the surest sign that winter is on the way? It’s not the arrival of this year’s wood order, which finally turned up about a week ago… The annual Rob-in-front-of-the-wood-delivery picture. Nor is it harvesting the tempting butternut squash,...