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Steve's Top Tips

Q. We are planning a barbeque this weekend and wanted some recommendations of what to do?Read

Steve's Top tips: Add flavour to courgettes with herbs

Q I’ve got a glut of yellow courgettes that I want to use in a salad. Is it possible to marinade them to serve them raw?Read

Steve's Top Tips

Q. I have apples ripe on my tree at home. What can I do with them.Read

Steve's Top Tips

Q. What can I do with an abundance of strawberries?Read

Steve's Top Tips

Q. I love Moroccan food, especially tagines. Are they easy to make?Read

Steve's Top Tips

Q. I had a cold, white soup in Spain made, I think, with almonds and garlic. Any ideas how it might have been made?Read

Steve's Top Tips

QWhat’s the difference between ice cream and semifreddo and are they easy to make?Read

Steve's Top Tips

Q. What is the secret of a really good rice pudding?Read

Steve's Top Tips

Q. I’ve been buying bags of tomatoes at the Bull Ring open market at a great price to make soup. Any other ways they could be used?Read

Steve's Top Tips: You can't beat my meatballs

Q. I made some meatballs in tomato sauce but they fell apart. Do you have a recipe that works?Read

Steve's Top Tips

QI tried to glaze a ham with honey in the oven recently, but it burned. How do you stop it burning?Read

The Spice is Right: Round wok uses less oil

TALNA is a frying technique. Frying Indian food is usually done in a wok or kadhai. The round bottom uses less oil and cooks the food evenly.Read

The Spice Is Right: It's a handi way to keep a lid on your flavour

HANDI is an Indian pot that has a bottom like a wok and then has a narrow opening on the top.Read

The Spice is Right

Bhunao (Curry). This is Indian curry cooking. Oil is added to a wok or pan and to this chopped onion and cumin are added.Read

The Spice is Right

BAGHAR, tadka or chonkis instant seasonings or tempering.Read

The Spice Is Right

GARAM MASALA. Garam means heat and masala, of course, means spice. Read

The Spice is Right

Poppy seed – or khus khus – come from the same plant as opium. Used whole or ground in cooking and baking, they are also pressed to yield its oil.Read

The Spice is Right

BLACK Cardamom is the dried fruit of an herbaceous plant of the ginger family.Read

The Spice is Right: Fruit is used in Keralan curries

KOKUMRead

The Spice Is Right

ASAFOETIDA (Hing) is dried latex from a type of fennel plant growing mainly in Afganistan and Iran.Read

Pub reviews

Pub reviews

Pub grub

See how local pubs rate with our teams of reviewers. Read

Food and drink news

Cheap As Chips: Perfect Fryer, 8 King Edwards Road, Ladywood, B1 2PZ Feb 10 2012

Pub Grub: JD Wetherspoon Assembly Rooms, 21 Poplar Road, Solihull B91 3AD Feb 10 2012

Ingredient of the Week

Herbs

Food tips

See our selection for Ingredient of the Week. Read

Top Stories

Birmingham Map

Trains suspended after fatality at University station in Birmingham Feb 12 2012

Warning as man and children caught dicing with death in freezing water in Bromsgrove and Sutton Park Feb 12 2012

Restaurant Reviews

Paul Fulford

Restaurant Spy

Restaurant Spy Paul Fulford gives his verdict on local eateries. Read

Cocktail of the Week

Cocktail of the week

Fancy a tipple?

See our choice for Cocktail of the Week. Read

Cheap as chips

Cheap as chips

Chippy reviews

See what Graham Young thinks of fish and chip shops around the Midlands. Read

Raise a Glass!

Wine glass

Wine reviews

Get tips on the best wines from our expert. Read

Recipes

Recipes

Learn new dishes

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