Carry on cooking I may have fallen off the blogging wagon for the past month, but I didn’t forget to photograph the trials and tribulations of my cooking. Here are some of the highlights!
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Carry on cooking

I may have fallen off the blogging wagon for the past month, but I didn’t forget to photograph the trials and tribulations of my cooking. Here are some of the highlights!

Halloumi burgers with homemade red pepper humous from Bill’s: Cook Eat Smile by Bill Collison Following on from the Bill’s evening meal review, I’ve also bought the book of the most popular recipes used in Bill’s. The design and photography in this book is really polished and really suits the image of the grocer’s/café. There isn’t the great amount of recipes in this size book as I would expect, as many pages are filled with beautiful ‘food porn’ photography and a few words of seasonal wisdom. But this isn’t entirely a bad thing, it’s just a pleasure to flick through on a coffee table, even when I don’t intend on cooking anything from it for a while. So, I made the burgers along with the humous. It was delicious even though it’s squeeky cheese, but when griddled it takes on a charred smokey flavour, and all the trimmings of roasted red pepper, toasted sour dough bread, rocket, chilli jam and humous make it a really special vegetarian delight. If you can’t be bothered to make red pepper humous, buy some for a quick, easy, healthy and filling meal.
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Halloumi burgers with homemade red pepper humous

from Bill’s: Cook Eat Smile by Bill Collison


Following on from the Bill’s evening meal review, I’ve also bought the book of the most popular recipes used in Bill’s. The design and photography in this book is really polished and really suits the image of the grocer’s/café. There isn’t the great amount of recipes in this size book as I would expect, as many pages are filled with beautiful ‘food porn’ photography and a few words of seasonal wisdom. But this isn’t entirely a bad thing, it’s just a pleasure to flick through on a coffee table, even when I don’t intend on cooking anything from it for a while.

So, I made the burgers along with the humous. It was delicious even though it’s squeeky cheese, but when griddled it takes on a charred smokey flavour, and all the trimmings of roasted red pepper, toasted sour dough bread, rocket, chilli jam and humous make it a really special vegetarian delight. If you can’t be bothered to make red pepper humous, buy some for a quick, easy, healthy and filling meal.

Bill’s Produce Store and Restaurant - Lewes The Original Bill’s finally opens in the evening! Whilst I haven’t been cooking quite so much lately, I have been eating out on several occasions, which is more than usual! It’s time I reported some of my experiences whilst out and about. Bill’s has a special place in my foodie heart, as it’s where I started getting really interested in food, although when it first started out as a green grocer’s-cum-café it served boiled eggs on toast, beans on toast, sausage sandwiches and the “Bill’s Breakfast”. Ordinary these may sound, but I was always captivated by the innovative presentation of the dishes and the quality of the ingredients. Not to mention the furniture using a blend of painted metal garden furniture outside, battered wooden tables indoors with old church chairs, mis-matching stripey coloured mugs and sugar cube laden dishes. I loved and still love everything about it. Except one thing - you cannot get a table at lunchtime without booking in advance, it’s always so busy! So, down to the nitty-gritty - the meal, all four courses of it! The menu is simple, retaining some of the much loved regular lunch dishes (fish-finger sandwiches for dinner, anyone?). I love a straight-forward menu, it usually shows the dishes will be super fresh, and the kitchen will deliver them consistently. There are of course 3 specials, 1 starter, 1 main and 1 dessert. I chose the special for the main, fresh porcini mushroom stuffed half-moon shaped pasta with a sage and Gorgonzola butter sauce. It was perfect, the pasta was al-dente and there was just the right amount with the right balance of porcini flavour and sage. Prawn cakes were the starter, these came in an unexpected spherical shape, which suited the mixture very well. It was served on a bed of lettuce with a sweet salsa of mango, chilli, coriander and lime. Prior to this I had a ‘Hedgerow Fizz” cocktail of sparkling white wine, elderflower cordial with blackberry, and a good chunk of crusty fresh ciabatta and some very large fresh olives. The meal was finished with a dessert of vanilla pannacotta with seasonal berries. Bill’s gets a solid 9/10.* *1 point lost due to not having the best alternatives to cater for a certain pain-in-the-backside nut allergy of mine. That’s why there is a Cadbury’s flake with the pannacotta instead of a homemade almond biscuit! There were also supposed to be walnuts with the pasta, which could have been substituted with pine nuts (despite the name these are a seed!).
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Bill’s Produce Store and Restaurant - Lewes

The Original Bill’s finally opens in the evening!


Whilst I haven’t been cooking quite so much lately, I have been eating out on several occasions, which is more than usual! It’s time I reported some of my experiences whilst out and about.

Bill’s has a special place in my foodie heart, as it’s where I started getting really interested in food, although when it first started out as a green grocer’s-cum-café it served boiled eggs on toast, beans on toast, sausage sandwiches and the “Bill’s Breakfast”. Ordinary these may sound, but I was always captivated by the innovative presentation of the dishes and the quality of the ingredients. Not to mention the furniture using a blend of painted metal garden furniture outside, battered wooden tables indoors with old church chairs, mis-matching stripey coloured mugs and sugar cube laden dishes. I loved and still love everything about it. Except one thing - you cannot get a table at lunchtime without booking in advance, it’s always so busy!

So, down to the nitty-gritty - the meal, all four courses of it! The menu is simple, retaining some of the much loved regular lunch dishes (fish-finger sandwiches for dinner, anyone?). I love a straight-forward menu, it usually shows the dishes will be super fresh, and the kitchen will deliver them consistently. There are of course 3 specials, 1 starter, 1 main and 1 dessert. I chose the special for the main, fresh porcini mushroom stuffed half-moon shaped pasta with a sage and Gorgonzola butter sauce. It was perfect, the pasta was al-dente and there was just the right amount with the right balance of porcini flavour and sage. Prawn cakes were the starter, these came in an unexpected spherical shape, which suited the mixture very well. It was served on a bed of lettuce with a sweet salsa of mango, chilli, coriander and lime. Prior to this I had a ‘Hedgerow Fizz” cocktail of sparkling white wine, elderflower cordial with blackberry, and a good chunk of crusty fresh ciabatta and some very large fresh olives. The meal was finished with a dessert of vanilla pannacotta with seasonal berries.


Bill’s gets a solid 9/10.*

*1 point lost due to not having the best alternatives to cater for a certain pain-in-the-backside nut allergy of mine. That’s why there is a Cadbury’s flake with the pannacotta instead of a homemade almond biscuit! There were also supposed to be walnuts with the pasta, which could have been substituted with pine nuts (despite the name these are a seed!).


Loads of recipes at a glance!