Not a gravy but not as pretentious as it sounds

So everything is a jus now but there are 2 important distinctions between jus and gravy. Gravy is pretty much a velouté which really means it’s thickened with flour and/or dairy of some sort. And gravy can have lumps of onion or whatever in it. Jus should be clear of any lumps.

Rice. Lovely, sticky, deeply-flavoured rice. Lick the plate

Risotto is sold to cooks as a dark art that normal people can’t do – it’s all about timing, hot stock and standing around for 20 minutes while it comes together.

It's not exactly cooking

Well, this is predominantly a food site, even if I am using it to blog about spending a couple of months in Spain.

Yum Yum! This is a beautiful thing

This is a very beautiful hot and sour soup from Thailand. You can just about make it vegetarian, but the fish sauce is important in my view.

Bechemal for grown-ups. You don’t always want milk in your dinner unless you’re 1yrs old.

Velouté is based on a roux in the same way as Bechemal but you add stock, wine or something else instead of milk. The classic velouté is a “white stock”; not beef or lamb, so think fish, chicken or veg. The absolute classic is veal stock.

No, nothing at all to do with French Nazi sympathisers

The real reason we have roasts on Sunday

There are several ways of making this, but the traditional description of gravy is that it’s made from the juices from the meat. Well, if you’re Achilles on the beach of Troy sacrificing 20 white bulls for the death of Patroclus then you might have enough juices for that but the rest of us use oxo.