Minty Bit Stronger

How do you make a Chesse Souffle? Or as some more sophisticated readers might ask 'Comment cuisiner un Souffle au Fromage?' in the mother tongue of such a typically French Dish. Well First of all you will need... Butter Bread crumbs 4 eggs Salt Lemon juice Dijon Mustard Cayenne Pepper Nutmeg Plain Flour Whole Milk Gruyère Cheese Crack open three eggs and separate the white's from the yolks, keep both. Now whisk up the yolks with a spoonful of Dijon mustard, a generous spoon of Cayenne pepper, a generous pinch of Nutmeg and a pinch of Salt. On the hob gently boil 250ml of Milk. Go back to your egg yolk mix and add 20 grams of flour and mix like mad. This thick, smooth mix will then be slowly poured into your just off the boil milk. Again you will need to grab your whisk and get going at it like crazy. When the mixture is smooth add 100grams of the Gruyère Cheese and stir some more. Finally, pour it into a dish, cover in cling f...

"Moi, overtly sexual? Surely not!" When lusty, busty Nigella Lawson first graced my TV screen I was rapt. Not by her curves, sexuality or pouting but by the fact a TV cookery show could be entertaining rather than instructional. Maybe it was the style of shooting with quick fire cuts, close ups, steady-cam movements and the urgent feel of her making it in real time. Kind of like an NYPD of cookery without the body count. (Although, saying that, Nigella was merciless when it came to high fat, meat, cheese, cream and sugary recipes. I'm sure she has single handedly raised the UK mortality rate with her calorific recipes. Maybe there is a body count!) The new format, the sexed up middle class temtress and the glutonous food made TV cookery appealing for the first time in years. There can be no doubt that the high fat, high sugar, artery clogging cuisine was a huge part of the appeal... The food wasn't healthy, it was decadent, desirable and yet entirely real...

Welcome to the new look Minty Bit Stronger Page. Seeing the season is changing and soon we'll even be flung an hour through time to 'save daylight' I thought it high time for a makeover. Like Madonna's ever changing look I am sure this will be the first reboot of many ...and hopefully (unlike Madge) each one a little better than the last. Speaking of improvements - this page hasn't been the only thing I have set out to remodel. The bigger task by far (and not something that can be done at a computer in an hour) has been the attempted streamlining and optimisation of my-lardy-fat-arse. Robert v1.2 is being beta tested as we speak and should be available on the high street (shopping for skinny jeans) by the end of April. I, the aforementioned Robert, have been dieting like hell and walking my wobbly-weight off. The following things I have learned along my journey (so far), read on if you too have a few pounds to shift. (Go away if you are already perfect):- ...