Kefir without tears

March 21, 2018 by Sarah Pettegree in Cooking, Recipes, Lifestyle

Actually, there's no need for tears at all, it's a doddle making your own kefir, but why waste a good title?

How to make your own kefir

The first thing you need are some kefir grains, which are little clusters of culture (bacterial, not Proust-reading). If you can't find someone with spares to give you they're easily and cheaply bought as mail order on t'internet.

If you buy them, the grains will come with instructions, which will be variations on the theme of "put the grains in milk and wait".

Pork Pies? It's child's play

Bray's Cottage Pork Pies

November 30, 2017 by Sarah Pettegree in Cooking, Pork Pies

It probably hasn't escaped your attention that, in our Pies By Post shop, we don't only sell pork pies that are ready baked, for years we've also sold frozen ones for you to bake at home (with full instructions). We always say that it's really easy and here's the proof. This is one of our customer's daughters. Isn't she brilliant?

Is a pork pie course right for me?

Macarons and More Bakery

November 06, 2017 by Sarah Pettegree in Cooking

Everyone naturally has a few concerns, whether you're buying a cookery course for yourself or as gift for someone else. So I thought I'd write a blog post to lead you through everything so you can be sure that its right for you. I even asked on social media what people's fears might be.

Honestly. There's nothing to be worried about - it's all very un-scary.

The cookery school is run by ex hospital consultant and now pâtissier (which means he has a gorgeous cake shop) Dr Tim Kinnaird. Tim and I have been good friends for a long time and we're keen that people have fun whilst they're with us, as well as learning something new.

You are in very safe hands, Tim and I know that pork pies are probably a new skill, but we make it all surprisingly easy. And we'll teach you how to make puff pastry as a bonus.

The day Kate came to play with pastry

November 26, 2016 by Sarah Pettegree in Cooking, Lifestyle, Norfolk, Pork Pies, Pastry

We know what we like and the Great British Bake Off is one of those things, we adore the gentle fun of it, the way a nation has convened around it and the fact that it's got people into their kitchen, inspired to learn skills to feed themselves and their friends and family. And we do like the contestants, who seem to be particularly nice human beings.
We've really hit it off with Kate Barmby from this year's series,

Kimchee

March 09, 2016 by Sarah Pettegree in Cooking, Recipes

Kimchi (kimchee and various other spelling variations) is cropping up all over social media at the moment, and I'm sure it'll be in the cookery pages imminently. I hereby declare you to be at the cutting edge of the zeitgeist. And if you give making it a go you'll be even more so.

It's simple preserving of vegetables using lacto fermentation, which for some reason isn't really in the British cookery repertoire, we seem to favour sugar and vinegar in our funny old medieval way. But most of the rest of the world does some form of it, using naturally occurring "good" bacteria, in the same way as yoghurt or cheese does (notably sauerkraut). So

My currently in-use cook books

Bray's Cottage Pork Pies

January 26, 2016 by Sarah Pettegree in Cookbooks, Cooking, Recipes

Let's play cookbook snap