Helen: [00:00:00] I wanted to make an Oasis joke because we’re on a roll, but I realized that that dates me.
Chris: Welcome to The Dirty Page.
Welcome to episode three of The Dirty Page. We’re really on a roll
now.
Helen: Absolutely, yes. We’re certainly getting into the groove of this podcasting thing, but I don’t know about you, Chris, but I’m having lots of fun, right? Definitely
Chris: lots of fun.
Helen: Good stuff. So what is the Dirty Page? Well, we’re two home cooks who are chatting about food and life through the swapping of our Dirty Pages of our cookbooks.
Chris: Indeed, and today one of our featured recipes hit on the inspiration for the pod, as I’ll be chatting about a recipe by the high priestess herself, Nigella.
Helen: Yes, indeed. And that’s kind of where we got the idea to do the pod, because Chris and I are both worshippers of the high priestess of our urban religion, that is Nigella [00:01:00] Lawson.
And one of the things. That in talking we realized that we, we have all her books, of course, but it’s interesting how both of us both use different recipes in her books and that blossomed as an idea into this podcast. It really did. It did, it did. It’s, it is actually kind of strange that this is episode three and we’ve only mentioned her in passing, so it’s probably good we’ve widened her horizons a bit, otherwise this could just be the Nigella Lovins.
Chris: Yeah, moderation, moderation. Exactly, exactly. And of course, if you have the same books that we’re talking about please feel free to let us know about it, because we want to hear what your Dirty Pages are from these books. And of course you can get in contact with us on our email at hello at thedirtypage. com
Helen: Or you can prod us on Instagram, where we’re the Dirty Page
Chris: Pod. [00:02:00] And how is the instas going? Have we got you on TikTok yet or not yet? No,
Helen: no, no, not yet, not yet. The last reel, which I didn’t do as well, I was kind of surprised, because it involved baking cookies, and it even repeated the feet, Andy at the end of it, I was
Chris: quite chuffed with it.
I was sitting there whilst we were out at a restaurant watching it, I’m like, oh my god. And then, because I was watching in a restaurant, I didn’t hear what the music was.
Helen: That you realised later
Chris: on. Until I got on the train and listened to it through my headphones. I’m like, oh no!
It was amazing. It was really good. So how are you, Helen? What have you been eating?
Helen: Indeed. So as I was just chatting to Chris before we came on air that I’m just at the end of probably the hardest three months of my working life. I’ve probably bordered on [00:03:00] burnout which is not something I would recommend to anybody.
But I’ve got a bit of a break now. And I think kind of what I’ve been eating reflects that a little bit. I’m a big devotee of the ABC everyday mail, mail shop or newsletter that they do. I love it for lots of reasons. I think I love the articles they talk about life the issues that actually affect people.
I’ve got a big respect for what that team does, but they also always have a recipe. And there’s been a lot of Hetty McKinnon recipes she used to do for them and stuff like that and, and, and things like this. But they had one this week about poached chicken. Which I’ve never done, but you know, you’ve got the, it was the perfect recipe for me.
I like last week before a break, you wanted something that was simple, nutritious, but also really heartwarming and but also did multiple meals. So essentially it was like you plonk a chicken in, you put[00:04:00] a load of, you know, veggies, like stock veggies, so like celery and and herbs and things in there and you literally, simmer it for an hour and a half and at the end you’ve got a beautifully cooked chicken that you can use for salads or I made some rice paper rolls for my lunches but we had a big salad the first night but you’ve also got the broth so we had chicken noodle soup with well we only had a little bit of chicken left so I put in some prawns as well so yeah that’s I really think that’s what’s got me through this week this you know You know, when you just, you can see the finish line and you’re stumbling through.
So yeah, I’ve, I’ve really enjoyed that. So I, I I, I was gonna mention that I’ve also made jam again ’cause I, I remember last episode, I, I’d had a ma marmalade no, a marmalade success this week. I actually had a jam success as well. We have our house has some unexpected fruit trees and turns out we have a low quart tree.
And wow.
Chris: I did see
Helen: [00:05:00] this. Yeah, and loquats were great because they’re quite high in pectin. So the thing thickened itself, which was great. I didn’t even have to add the amount of that jam setter cheat product. So, yeah, so I haven’t actually tasted the jam yet. So loquats.
Yeah, I had a friend who suggested that I ate them raw and they actually were a lot nicer than I thought they were going to be. They were not, not too sour. She even suggested putting a little bit of salt on them if they were a little bit too tangy. And that, that, it was really nice. So I had a few. The ones I had left over, I I ate raw and I was, yeah, it was pretty yummy.
Anyway, enough about me. What about you, Chris? What’s been cooking?
Chris: Well, in the last week, well, last couple of weeks, I’ve been dealing with multiple things. Helping a friend who just recently got diagnosed with celiacs and you know, helping her [00:06:00] navigate the wonderful world of gluten free. And… You know, on top of that, I had a similar week to you in that my week was just constantly being bombarded with Stuff I didn’t want to be bombarded with.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. To the point where the walls were closing in a bit. And, you know, I’m going to be honest, when I get that way, you tend to be quite healthy in what you do, which is you reach for something nutritious and good. I reach for KFC.
Helen: Oh. Sorry, was that KFC? There is nothing wrong with a Zinger burger.
Chris: Yes, this is true. This is very true. But you know, I, I, if I tend to get down the dumps, I tend to reach for greasy food. And yeah, yeah, but it’ll be okay. I’ll make something healthy for [00:07:00] dinner tonight and I’ll be all right. Yeah,
Helen: yeah. Well, on that note, my my noodle soup, because I used that broth that I had made with the poached chicken.
It was probably the best broth I’ve ever made. So sort of like, yeah, that, that poached chicken stock was just insane. And I was surprised because it’d only been in there for an hour and a half, I guess, because the whole chicken was in there. That really, and it had that, when you cool it down, it has that gelatinous wobbliness to it.
Oh, I love that. Exactly. You know, this is good stock.
Chris: Yeah, yeah. Now.
Helen: That’s a good segue, talking about good stock. We, we haven’t really talked about today’s theme at all. We have not. We have not. So today’s theme is about date nights.
Chris: Yes, this is right. Today’s theme has never been so relevant as the cost of living bites getting out to restaurants has become a bit of a luxury [00:08:00] to cut back on.
But what if you’ve got someone you want to impress or celebrate?
Helen: Yeah, indeed. What are the meals that you crack out on those important date nights? Could it be something that, you know, your love, your, one of your family or your loved one has done? Or is it a new person that you want to really impress?
I should say Chris and I are both subscribers to the view that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. Very much so. It certainly
Chris: is
Helen: to mine. Mine as well. And Thank you. Since we oh brain has gone. I guess, yeah, because since we were both in relatively established relationships we’re probably not having to impress our other persons so much.
But at the same time, it doesn’t mean that we can’t celebrate and crack out something yummy every so often. So. Chris in that notes, what, what do you crack out when you want to impress?
Chris: So, the way date night works for Anton and [00:09:00] I and has worked since we started dating was the whole concept of making a meal together and You know, originally, this was things like for heaters and this sort of thing.
But something that we’ve certainly done over the last few years has been a combination of a couple of Nigella recipes. And it’s the
Helen: first time we’ve talked about a Nigella recipe.
Chris: I know, I know this is, this is really exciting. So the first recipe that we use is lamb with rosemary and port. And so basically it’s lamb cutlets.
I’m just finding the recipe. Which Nigella book is this from? This is from Nigella Kitchen. Nigella Kitchen is probably, probably our most used book. Actually we do a lot from this. We, I talked briefly on episode one about a Belgian dish called stouffles[00:10:00] which is also in this book and yeah, just.
Some really lovely stuff in here. She, if you haven’t read a Nigella book, she goes through everything from breakfast to dinner to dessert to midnight snacks to 3am snacks to there’s everything in here and it’s generally not in a way that you would traditionally approach that in a cookbook. So in most other cookbooks I’ve read, you’ll have.
Here’s breakfast, here’s lunch, here’s dinner, here’s dessert, here’s after dessert, here’s cocktails. Nigella generally goes to a particular theme. This one, for example, is hurry up, I’m hungry. And the lamb with rosemary and port is really, really, really lovely. It’s basically your… Lamb leg steaks and you’ve got some Worcestershire sauce and some olive [00:11:00] oil and you basically cook that all up in the pan.
And then you’ve got your sauce for the port, which is butter, rosemary. Fat clove of garlic. I do love when she,
you know, when she stipulates,
must be a fat clove of garlic. Yep. And four tablespoons of ruby port. Now. This is the first place where I will say that we, we changed this a little bit because we don’t always have port in the, we don’t always have port in the, in the house, that we always have musket, well I always have musket in the house.
So I will, I will use a fortified wine of some, some sort. And generally this will be served with beans or we do broccolini sometimes or asparagus, depending on what, what’s in season, what’s in the, what’s in the grocery shop, [00:12:00] but we combined this with.
Helen: This is what I’m excited about was this, this step.
Yeah.
Chris: Another recipe which she does with her Speedy Scallopini. Now this, this recipe is called Rapid Roastini and they’re basically. Gnocchi, which have been fried. So, the way that we do this in our house is while Anton is setting everything up, I’m making the gnocchi. Now, she would normally say, Oh, just, just get store bought gnocchi.
It’s easy. That’s fine. Or, you know, whatever. But I have become obsessed with making gnocchi.
Helen: Oh my word, that’s
Chris: insane. To the point, to the point where I can tell you that if you are making gnocchi, steam your potatoes. From that point of view, do not, do [00:13:00] not boil your potatoes, steam them because
Helen: that way is that, because then it doesn’t sort of boil out all the starch and stuff,
Chris: and so you want that, it doesn’t ab, it doesn’t absorb as much of the water, so you don’t have as much.
Water in the potatoes, so they’re drier, basically.
Helen: Okay. Does that mean you have to adjust the amount of flour you add in?
Chris: No, same amount of flour is generally the idea and it’s usually an egg. Or two as well to help it because it’s done as a pasta sort of deal. And so, yeah, while Anton’s getting everything set up for the lamb, I’m there making the gnocchi or, you know, mashing the potato for the gnocchi and getting it all ready to go.
And then. Anton will make the, the lamb and get that all sorted. And while he’s doing the sauce, I’ll probably put the gnocchi into the pan ready to, no, [00:14:00] I’ll put it into the saucepan to be boiled because we, this is another place where we differ from. From Nigella. Shocking. We boil them first.
Helen: Yeah, but then if they’re homemade, that kind of makes sense.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You want to sort of, like, render them a little bit
Chris: before you fry them up. It’s the same as any dumpling. You’ll just pop it into the saucepan once it rises to the top, pull it out, okay, let it dry for five or ten minutes, and then, okay, now it can go in the the griddle pan or the, the frying pan.
And yeah, it’s, it’s a lovely, lovely dish, but for us, it cements that whole idea of teamwork. And yeah, I think that’s something that Anton and I have, you know, has been a strong part of our relationship is that we do things together as a team. And. This sort of reinforces that. That’s [00:15:00] beautiful.
Helen: I love it.
That’s kind of exciting that you make your own gnocchi because like, whenever we have leftover mashed potato I would admit that it’s not gnocchi we make, it’s tatty scones. They’re essentially the same thing but you flatten them out and then you fry them
Chris: up. I’ve had your tatty scones. They’re gorgeous.
They are
Helen: good. It was something we were forced to start making when we moved. for Australia from Scotland and realized you couldn’t buy them for 50p from the supermarket anymore. We’re like, we’re gonna have to learn how to make these, which is a bit ridiculous. See, it’s interesting because Nigella Kitchen is the book that really did start off the conversations that led to this pod because I have a copy and I don’t know whether, but I just don’t use it.
Compared to, I’m a big, a big fan of Feast Express those are the two that I would say, and actually At My Table, and, what was the latest one? Oh gosh. Cook,
Chris: Eat, [00:16:00] Repeat.
Helen: Cook, Eat, Repeat, like, those, you know, that’s my desert island discs of Nigella books. Yeah. I just don’t use Kitchen, and so it was really interesting to hear.
that, you know, what, you know, and I’ve, I’ve learned and I’ve, I’ve been using it a lot more because, you know, I find out what, what, what you guys use and then, and then I’m like, okay, I’ll give that. I think another problem that I have with kitchen and I probably should just walk out and buy another one is I bought, I think I bought it from a cheap bookshop and it’s actually the American version.
Chris: And right.
Helen: It’s interesting how just. the slight tweaks in, it’s not so much the tweaks in language because I believe that she probably writes it the same, but it’s things like, you know, Fahrenheit for the oven and some of the ingredients like arugula. What the hell is arugula? And we’re like, Oh, yeah.
And cilantro. That was discombobulating enough that I just haven’t used it. So it’s, it is great for me when you guys Tell me. Oh yeah. We use this all the time, and I [00:17:00] think the, the potatoes that you did for us at Christmas and we’ve used that potato recipe quite a few
Chris: times. Yeah. And, and that one’s not a Ella one, but we, we will be talking about that soon.
Helen: Oh no, there was, it was a salt and pepper potato, I seem to remember. So, yeah, I think it was, and you crushed them with the, and then you brush them.
Chris: Yeah, there’s, there’s so many. potato things we’ve done for you guys. Yes, no,
Helen: no. That was one of another one that sort of came out of kitchen and I was like, Oh, it’s really interesting and so this is where the whole idea of the Dirty Page, the concept of us talking about the recipes we love and finding out recipes that other people love and then as a result us exploring.
More different things to cook. So we hope that’s what people who are listening are doing and, and, and, and starting to tell us a bit about
Chris: absolutely just on that. I wanted to talk about a couple of the recipes in this book. The one that, and we do [00:18:00] this a lot where Bill look at what the recipes are in the book and we’ll.
If we go, Oh, we might not do that yet, but we love that we’ll pull certain parts out of the recipes she’s done. So one of them is what is it? Ham hocks in cider with leeks in white sauce. Yeah. And those leeks in white sauce, I can tell you are amazing. Particularly when you just pull ten leeks out of garden.
It’s like, we are doing this. We are doing this. Like, yeah. Guinness gingerbread is beautiful
I’m looking through all the pages trying to find some.
Helen: I was actually, it’s weird because I was looking at the book yesterday because I’ve got some lamb shanks and I was trying to find, they were on offer at the butcher’s and I was trying to find a recipe and she has a lamb shank recipe where you do it in like coconut milk.
With a with a paste and things a curry paste and I’m basically thinking I will wander down to the Asian supermarket to [00:19:00] find as close to the curry paste as I can and maybe do that tomorrow.
Chris: In, in Australia of course there’s your Keen’s curry paste, but I always like the IAM brand. Yeah, it’s a Malaysian brand Yeah, well,
Helen: that’s exactly the one that would be perfect for this because it’s the sort of Malaysian inspired lamb recipe.
Chris: Yeah Absolutely. I do love the names of her sections my sweet
Helen: solution I know it’s like the thing you love when you get a new Nigella book like in the oh Gosh, I’ve forgotten the name of it the lockdown one But it’s, there’s a whole chapter.
Chris: I lost you. Yeah. Yeah. And you’re upside down. And you’re upside down.
I I can’t hear you again. There we go. There we go. There we go. [00:20:00]
Helen: What happened? Maybe I just dropped out.
Chris: You are upside down now. So I wonder if something weird has happened with the iPad. Oh,
Helen: I’m still, I’m right way up.
Chris: Not for me, but it’s fine. I can deal with you being upside down.
Helen: Okay, maybe, yeah, maybe the iPad did something stupid. It’s all right. I can turn my camera off if that’s going to… No, no, no, no, no,
Chris: no, no. It’s fine.
Helen: All right. I thought of the best pickup, because I was just saying, because she, that was it. One of the chapters was called In Defense of Brown Food.
Chris: Oh, yes. And that’s in… I do
Helen: think it’s good. Yeah, cookie repeat. That’s
Chris: the cookie repeat. Yeah, yeah, that’s good. So talk about that. I just did. Awesome.
Helen: That’s all I was going to say.
Chris: Yeah, and you’re [00:21:00] right. The. You know, it is great to look at those sections in any new Nigella book and just go, Ooh, what is she doing this time?
But in defense in brown food, amazing, amazing, amazing. So yeah, that, that’s, that’s me. fuffing on about Nigella, who I absolutely adore. So what are you going to talk about, Helen? What’s your? Yeah,
Helen: I realize I haven’t put it up on our sticky note on our script. So, so yeah, I was thinking about this and you know, date night.
What’s date night mean when you’ve been married as long as I have and together with Andy for 18 years, but and for us, if I’m truly honest, and it’s interesting, you’ve already stolen the thunder there. Date night means fajitas. It’s, it’s probably that, you know, the old El Paso kit. It’s probably the meal.
Chris: Like, nothing beats it. And I know, you know, people go, [00:22:00] Oh, but it’s such a cop out, but it’s all there. And it’s so easy to do, particularly together. You know, someone could be chopping the veggies while the other person’s chopping the meat.
Helen: It’s the togetherness. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So we, we totally make fajitas together.
I’m not sure if I should admit to this, but it literally is the first meal that we ever made. I ever made for Andy was fajitas. We had maybe seen each other a couple of times and he came over and I cooked fajitas. He didn’t go home that night.
So, you know, it’s sort of always been kind of like he really likes his Mexican food. So, you know, it was quite good. And yeah, there’s a lot of. It has a, every time we cook it, it brings back nice memories of that very first time, very, very early on in our relationship. So, yeah.
Chris: So, your [00:23:00] dirty page is the back of an old El Paso fajita cube?
Helen: It isn’t. No, it isn’t. I was going to put that up as the picture, but, but I was thinking of like, you know, going on the theme of food that you do to impress. And I actually found a recipe that Andy did quite, again, quite early on to impress me. And we, we’ve done it quite a few times and I, I went to check and it really is a very dirty page.
I’m going to just hold it up to the camera so Chris can see how dirty it is. And it’s from, it’s another famous British cook. It’s from Jamie. Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Italy and and probably also has some smacks of cultural appropriation and things like this. But Jamie, I mean, actually, it’s kind of funny because he looks so young.
Look how young
Chris: he looks. Yeah, I did see that. Yeah.
Helen: Yeah, so young. And, you know, as a young chef, he was very inspired by Italian food and, like, he came [00:24:00] from, was it the River Cottage and things like, not the River Cottage what was his background? There was a big restaurant in London that he used to work at.
Anyway, but this is 2005, gosh, so this is really old. So you can hear me flicking and I should say the recipe I’m going to talk about isn’t the dirtiest page that we have in this. The dirtiest page that we have in this cookbook is his sausage carbonara, which we do pretty regularly as a, as a, as a.
There’s a, I mean, I’m just going to show how foul it is properly. Oh wow! This is one of the ones that really inspired, and with that, that is
Chris: great. There is splatters of sauce all over the bottom of that page. There is,
Helen: there is. Oh my god. And the genius of that recipe is the zest of the lemon that he adds to it, and both of us are not big creamy fans.
In fact, we actually substitute the cream for In the recipe for milk[00:25:00] and we find the zest of the lemon just really adds just really freshens it up because the sausages are quite greasy as well, so but The recipe I was gonna I was going to talk about is Oh gosh I can’t even say it in italian because he because he’s been a bit pretentious in the book Everything has its italian name and then its english name so go along.
Yeah There you go, please nobody who speaks italian right in And that means, and it is roasted sole three ways And it’s a tray bake recipe, which I think is a great one for, for a date night because you can’t go too wrong with the tray bake. And you can also, you know, get on with actually talking to the person and things like this.
So in terms of like obviously it would be a crap date night for you because you don’t like fish. But, but in terms for, for me, like, you know, fish is one of those things that you don’t always have as. good access to. You know, even like growing up in the [00:26:00] UK, you’d think as an island nation, but Brits are terrible with eating the, the range of fish that they have access to.
One of the things actually through my relationship with Andy is I learned a lot about Scottish seafood because his parents are big seafood eaters and stuff. So there’s something I really do. the amount of seafood I eat. I associate a bit about my sort of learning being in Scotland and things like this.
And then now I’m in Australia, there’s a whole heap of seafood and stuff. We’re very lucky where we live. We have a local dude called Andy’s. Seafood, not my Andy, a different Andy, and he, he actually goes down to the Sydney fish market, which is a long way from here, but brings it up to the mountains and he has a little van, and he sets up in the various car parks around the lower Blue Mountains, so he’s always down.
In our, in our, like, the shop, our local shop’s in our car park at one o’clock on a Friday. So we [00:27:00] can always have Fish Friday. We can go down and he usually has some oysters or, and things like this. And I wanted to get something like some sole or something to do this, but he didn’t have any. So we’ve got some barramundi for tonight, which will be nice.
Ooh, nice. But the, the, the recipe, I remember, I remember Andy actually found this recipe, this roasted salt and he I remember him making it for me the first time and it involves essentially chopping up potatoes and then, you know, not pre boiling them or anything and just putting them in a pan. And I remember, and this was revolutionary to me.
at that age. I’d never think eating a potato that hadn’t been like part boiled or something like this. And I was like, that’s not going to work or something. And he was like, no, no, no, it’s in the recipe. And Andy’s always been a good one for actually following the recipes for us. I’m very much, oh, they’re just guidelines.
Chris: Yeah. Yeah. You, you and me are very similar. Oh,
no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, you have to do this [00:28:00] bit. And then I said, yeah, but what if I added this, this spice or this herb? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don’t do that. Yeah,
Helen: exactly. Exactly. So essentially this recipe is you have a potato base and you add actually olives and rosemary to the potatoes, which is some of my favorite things.
And then you, you cook the potatoes for a bit and then you lay the fish on top. And you put them sort of non skin side down, so skin side up. And you put some toppings, and he has three choices of toppings to go on the one of them involves anchovies, so that’s never in my house. Although, oh, that’s a whole nother episode of I’m trying to learn to love anchovies.
But the one that we usually do is he has cherry tomatoes and basil, which you put on top. And and that’s essentially it. You put a bit of, you have a little bit of rocket in it at the end. You can put a bit of a green salad to go with it. But it’s a really gorgeous recipe, which, [00:29:00] as I say, Andy did it first.
And then we we’ve made it together a number of times. You know, when we’ve got access to some nice fish, not just soul, anything that’s flat with a bit of skin on famously cause Andy’s parents and his dad loves his lemon. So he loves, you know, also so I think his family had come around while we’re in Edinburgh and I think.
Andy had sort of made this because this became Andy’s signature dish and famously his mum turned around to me and said, Oh, this is amazing, Helen, well done. It wasn’t me, it was your son that made this. So yeah, it’s kind of, she, and then she looked a bit shocked.
Chris: You let him in the kitchen?
Helen: Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s, so this is kind of funny. It’s a dirty page, and I should say, it’s probably more that it’s, it’s Andy’s influence, but then I guess that’s kind of what [00:30:00] the pod’s about, is about learning to love other recipes from other people and things like this, so
Chris: yeah. This is it, and particularly with DateNight, you know, at a certain point DateNight becomes about sharing and learning different things as a couple, right?
Yeah. You know, date nights, not just for the single ones, it’s for those who are coupled as well. And you learn heaps through those interactions. So I think it’s, it’s just lovely.
Helen: Yeah, actually thinking about that, it’s like, what do I make myself when I want to impress myself? And I don’t have to impress anyone else.
That’s like a whole nother theme. Season two, here we come. Yeah, mushroom risotto for me.
What about you? What would you make if you had to make a special meal to just celebrate yourself?
You don’t have to think about anybody else’s tastes.[00:31:00]
Chris: If I don’t have to think about anyone else’s tastes at all, I still would go to something chocolatey and creamy. I, I’m, as, as has been well documented from last week, the last month’s podcast. I love chocolate. I love things moist and chocolate. It’s probably going to be chocoflan. I think that is the dish that I have loved the most.
Chocoflan is and we may or may not talk about this later in the podcast. We’ll see. But it’s a chocolate cake, really nice, moist chocolate cake covered in creme caramel.
That, that is it. Sorry, I’m
Helen: just pausing because my mouth is drooling.
Chris: Laughter Laughter This is it. It is just It is one of, it is simultaneously the most amazing dish and the most [00:32:00] stressful dish I’ve ever cooked. Because you put Into your Bundt tin, you put the chocolate cake first, and then you put your creme caramel, and then while it cooks, they flip.
They swap. They swap. And, even when, I’ve cooked it like four times now, and I still get freaked out every single time.
Helen: It’s like magic. Yeah, that’s crazy beans. Oh, that’s pretty good. I suppose this is the point where we should reflect on what might be in our mailbag. Yeah. Other people’s dirty pages. So, absolutely.
I have a great one to start with and it’s actually already up on our Instagram, which is pod. And this is from my friend Jane, who I know through another podcast through a cricket podcast called the final word. So being up to all the final nerds out there. I know there are a couple who there’s a bit of a [00:33:00] crossover at this point.
But yeah, so she found from her mum’s homemade cookbook. It’s a sweet and sour meatball recipe and it is. Absolutely gloriously dirty, but it’s like 40 years old and she explained how, you know, it was a massive favorite and her mum had sent it to her and I sort of said, Oh, is it okay if I put this on Insta?
And she said she went to say to her mum and she’s like, of course, that’s where I sent it. So I’m really excited about that one. Jane, actually, because I saw her at another final nerd’s friend’s birthday party a few weeks ago, and she actually, she was staying at her sister, her, with her brother and sister in law, and she found an amazing dirty page from her sister in law’s cookbook, which is like a hot pot with noodle, and with pasta and things in it.
It just looked amazing. I think I put that piece in the story as well, so yeah. What about you? Has [00:34:00] anyone been in contact with you, Chris?
Chris: Yeah, there’s, there’s been a few comments all saying that they love the podcast and they’re enjoying it. There was particular comment about the noises I was making over chocolate cookies.
Someone had clipped it and just sent me that bit, which was delightful. We need to be careful, don’t we? Yeah, just a little bit, just a little bit. The, you know my cousin wrote in again talking about was around the memories around recipes, and this one’s not a written recipe, but it was my Nana’s curried egg recipe, and she just sent me.
The, the photo of it all and it’s like she was just commenting how it’s not written down, but the ratios were just so easy that she could just do it anytime because now she makes that for her husband and her child and it’s, it’s lovely [00:35:00] how those memories just get ingrained at some point.
Helen: Yeah. Yeah, it’s sort of interesting how often does it have to be made.
And by who. to it become ingrained as an intergenerational thing. I think that’s, that’s really, really exciting. So, oh, that’s cool. So, you know, I’m encouraging to everybody out there, do please write in and tell us about your Dirty Pages. Do you also have a copy of Nigella Kitchen or Jamie, Jamie’s Italy?
And do you have a couple of other recipes in there that you use all the time? Or do you have any other date night recipes that you want to show to show off? So the the way to get in in touch is to let us know by our email which is hello at the dirty page dot com
Chris: or you can tag us on instagram we where we are the dirty page pod oh yeah we’re not
Helen: the it’s just dirty page pod isn’t it sorry yeah that’s correct [00:36:00]
Chris: That’s correct, but it’s fine.
But yeah, absolutely. Let us know what you’ve been cooking what cookbooks you’re looking at, and yeah, what your 30 pages are, because we would love to hear about it.
Helen: So I was going to have a suggestion. So in our planning, our next theme, I can’t remember what our next theme is, but I was going to suggest that maybe we change.
What next month’s theme is?
Chris: I, yes,
Helen: I’m doing this on the fly, so Chris is probably going to be like, what?
Chris: Well, I’ve already planned for this because there’s some, there’s some dates coming up soon. So I think we’re going to start playing around with the theme a little bit. Yeah,
Helen: yeah, I think and I would like to suggest that maybe we might have our first guest.
So
Chris: Yes, excitement I could be up for this.
Helen: Yes. Yeah, exactly. So we’ll just leave the theme Yeah, leave it. We’ll sort of watch the space but we’ll come up with a theme and let [00:37:00] everybody know before too long and And I think that pretty much wraps us up. So do Do keep an eye on our website and please do read, rate and review our pod at all the normal places.
You can catch Chris’s cooking adventures at twitch. tv slash gingerchris86. What are you making this Sunday?
Chris: I have a gloss of lemons at the moment. Through… Through no fault of my own, and certainly through a fault of Helen we’re still working through those lemons but yeah, no, you know, I need to do something lemony, we’re down to, oh, what did I find today?
I can’t remember what I found. I did find something and I’m like, oh, I could do that. But we were also looking at lemon like a lemon, oh my god, what’s it called? It’s an ice creamy thing. It’s not gelato. Sorbet? Sorbet, that’s the one. That moment [00:38:00] where Chris’s brain just completely shuts down.
Helen: Oh, I think that’s happened at least a couple of times today for me as well.
We’ve both been working too hard. Chris.
Chris: Yes, absolutely. And it’s probably is going to be sorbet or it might be like a nice lemon tea cake or something. We’ll see. We’ll see.
Helen: All right. Well you stay well, Chris, and we hope everyone takes care.
Chris: Yeah. Thank you everyone for listening and we’ll see you next time.
The Dirty Page is created, written and produced by Helen Maynard Casely and Chris Simms. And is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Sharer Like 4. 0 International License. Idea, Logo, and Social Media handled by Helen Maynard Casely. Website and Editing handled by Chris Simms. If you would like to contact us, you can email us at hello at thedirtypage. com Or follow us on [00:39:00] Instagram at DirtyPagePod.
Helen: You gotta take your time. You gotta do what you do. Don’t let anybody get in your way.