Made for dunking

If you like Peter Kay as much as I do you'll love his sketch about dunking biscuits.  He should try the dunking biscuits made in Llay, Wrexham, by Cleopatra's Foods. My partner's quite taken with them, and it was fun discussing them with the makers, Philippe and Helen Kalkwarf, at the Hamper Llangollen Food Festival.

Philippe's from South Africa and the biscuits are a version of the Afrikaner beskuit, a twice-cooked bread that is a little like a biscotto. You may have come across the popular SA brand Ouma Rusks.

The biscuits are chunky and robust, they come in a range of flavours and the record for pulling one intact from a hot drink stands at 59 seconds.

Llangollen lamb find

A big hit after a family trip to the Hamper Llangollen Food Festival was lamb faggots produced by Aran Lamb in Bala. Don't let the web site put you off, though it must be one of the worst sites I've seen or used. Behind the bad design there's some good food that deserves a place on your plate.

The faggot (ffagod) is very Welsh and is usually made of pork and pig offal. In this case the donor is a sheep, and it's a lovely result. They're big, there's a sweet richness in the flavour and texture, and the liver flavour is less pronounced than in many piggy versions though it still contributes. And they were £1 each. They're not advertised on the web site, so ask.

And stop giggling at the back there. While the Americans have developed a world of meaning for faggot, it gets in the way of debate about good food. A few years ago Facebook were banishing users for talking about them online... **sigh**

Visa victory

I like this: a Brazilian restaurant chain in the USA can bring in Brazilian cooks to cut its meats the way only they know how, the Supreme Court has decided. If you want a Green Card, keep practising those knife skills!

I've been out and about in St Helens, enjoying lunch at The Glass House:

CLASS: The Glass House

Potted pleasure

CLASSIC: the moka pot

I've been rediscovering the moka pot, and the way I first learned how to make a half-decent cup of coffee. And I'm wondering why I've not used one for so long, because now it's getting to be a habit.

It needn't be an expensive habit, either. My "3-cup" Bialetti -- the size tells you how many 30ml espresso-sized servings it will deliver, though the maximum boiler capacity is 200ml -- was bought brand-new at a car-boot sale for £2. And Bialetti is widely regarded as the best.

I have bigger moka pots, too. They're part of a collection that includes filter funnels, cafetieres (aka French presses), a magnificently theatrical Cona system and electric

THEATRE: the Cona

espresso makers (including a La Pavoni lever machine). Oh yes, there's a cafe-size, two-group, bean-to-cup machine, as well. Don't ask...

The point is that I've enjoyed coffee made in many ways since I was a child, and from a moka pot since dad brought one back from Italy in the 60s. I'm enjoying a moka pot coffee right now from my favourite

APT: Apilco

Apilco "tea" cup (another very cheap car-boot find). Using the Bialetti is both child's play and adult joy. And because you don't need to -- mustn't! -- tamp the coffee firmly first, and don't need a knock-box to empty the grounds afterwards, it's often more convenient than an espresso machine. And the coffee is almost as good.

There's plenty of advice on how to do it; this is what I recommend:

Have to hand your moka pot, some coffee (see below about the grind), a tablespoon (or coffee measure), a cup, a kettle and a tea towel. Put the kettle on.

Rule of thumb

Unscrew the bottom of the pot, pour boiling water into it up to the safety valve, drop the funnel into the aperture and spoon coffee into the filter. A rule of thumb is one tablespoon of coffee per cup, but you can vary this to taste. I push the measure gently into the coffee at this stage to level it. DON'T press hard.

Pick up the top of the pot with one hand and the tea towel with the other. Grip the bottom of the pot with the tea-towel hand (it's hot!) and screw the top on. Put the pot on the stove on a lowish light -- I turn the gas down until it stops hissing. Make sure the lid is closed. And put some hot water from the kettle in your cup to warm it.

Because you've put hot water in the pot it won't take long to brew, so don't stray far. As soon as the pot begins to make a bubbling noise, take it off the heat, empty the hot water from the cup and pour. Enjoy!

Ready to use

Remember to clean and rinse the pot afterwards so that it's ready to use -- reassemble it loosely and keep it handy. Please don't push it to the back of a cupboard, as I did, where it will be forgotten.

There are many ways to make coffee, and mine changes with the time of day and the circumstances. What's yours?

A note on the grind: slightly coarser than the grind for an espresso is best, but I cope with the few grounds that have settled in the cup when I use ground coffee such as Lavazza Espresso or Rosso. You'll get a reasonable brew using an all-purpose grind, which is coarser, but it won't be quite as good.

Tanks for the memory

Ah, I knew it all along: beer improves your memory! At least you'd replicate the results of this study if you drank 3,500 pints of it.

A £1 soup for two

A pack of "Mediterranean" veg from the Co-op, remaindered at 75p, prompted this improvised recipe (and it worked):

• Half a large onion
• 2 small cloves of garlic
• 400g of mixed "Mediterranean" veg: red onion, courgette, red and yellow peppers
• 1tbsp olive oil (I don't use extra virgin for frying; "light" will do)
• 500ml stock (I used a Morrison's chicken stock cube, but I prefer to use Marigold powder when I haven't got the real thing)
• Some dried thyme and oregano
• Salt and black pepper

Chop the veg if you like, but I only sliced the half-onion, then sweated it in oil in a saucepan for five minutes before adding the crushed and chopped garlic. After a minute add the rest of the veg, cover the pan and sweat all over low heat for 10 minutes. The heat should not be so high that the vegetables take colour.


Add the stock and then the herbs, taste and season. Remember that you can add seasoning later but you can't take it away. Simmer for another 10-15 minutes and test the vegetables. When you think they're tender enough, serve.


I've since done this with a portion of chopped, leftover chicken (half a breast, or a boned leg or thigh) added along with the stock. Even better.