Mulled Wine

We went to our neighbour Noel's for mulled wine, mince pies and present sharing at the weekend. And very nice it was too. I do think on the whole, mulled wine is very hit and miss and it's more often horrid than lovely, which is a shame.

Here are my top five tips
1 Use a ratio of 1:1 wine to water. Don’t make it too strong or it will taste furry.

2 Only use whole spices not ground as they spoil the texture. Allspice berries, star anise, cinnamon are good. So are slices of root ginger. Cloves are okay but don’t use too many.

3 Make sure you balance it out with enough sugar.

4 Don’t let it boil. Keep it below a simmer – it’s better for flavour and prevents the alcohol burning off

5 Add a tot of brandy or sherry at the end for a bit of depth.

Absolutely Delicious Feta Dip

I had the in-laws round for Sunday lunch yesterday but it didn't go quite according to plan. It started well, with Rob and Scrap off out with a list of things to get and me alone in my own kitchen as happy as could be, cooking on a sunny Sunday morning with the Archers omnibus on.

At 10.30, there's a knock on the door, no, not Noel from across the road after soy sauce, tea bags or pickled ginger, but my mother and father-in-law. Yes, one and a half hours early! I am dressed in a vest and apron with hair like Amy Winehouse. "Have you ever eaten snails?" asks my father-in-law. I turn off the radio and put my shirt on.

Eventually Rob and Scrap return and we're having a nice time but it's getting later and later. We're all really hungry and can't eat any more nuts or crisps but Rob's sister has still not arrived! All my timings are out and I end up with three unexpected hours to to fill with drinks and snacks before I get to serve lunch.

We drag the kitchen table outside and sit in the sunshine and I cut a salami ring into thick slices, open a pack of saltines and whizz this dip up in less than three minutes. It kept them quiet for at least a quarter of an hour and was suprisingly yum.

Serves 4
1 small garlic clove
bunch of fresh mint
150ml Greek yogurt
squeeze of lime juice
1 preserved lemon, finely chopped
* 250g block of good feta
slosh of extra virgin olive oil

Place the garlic and most of the mint in a mini chopper and whizz until finely chopped. Add the yogurt and whizz to blend well then season with lime juice and salt.

Pour onto a serving plate and scatter over the chopped lemon. Crumble over the feta then drizzle over some olive oil. Scatter with a little shredded mint, then grind over some back peppper.

*This dip hinges on the quality of the feta. Sainsbury's own label is bad but Total is good. Best of all is one from the Greek grocer on Lordship Lane or my favourite, Cruson on Camberwell Church Street.

Faulty ballcock, Leaking boiler

I’m very very upset. After all our recent plumbing problems, now my oven's gone and broken. It happened yesterday lunchtime three minutes before our guests showed up. It just switched itself off, the lights went out and the fan stopped. The joint and
dauphinoise were cooked but the roasties weren’t quite ready. Robert ran over the road and put them in our neighbour Noel’s oven. They came back 20 minutes later golden and cooked through but with very crunchy black bottoms. Anyway, everyone said it was the fuse so I didn’t panic too much but we’ve changed it now and it’s still broken. I shall have to make the lovely organic chicken sitting in the fridge into a stew instead of a pie. And that’ll be yet another £1,000 for the credit card. Thanks a lot Chairman Miaow