Design Your Own Cookies, the book to encourage you to branch out of your comfort zone!

Design Your Own Cookies by Rachel Cotterill will encourage you to bake delicious cookies, and go on to devise your own variations. 

Rachel provides 50 basic cookie recipes, both sweet and savoury, then encourages you to break the mould, and develop your own, personalised cookie.

You like chocolate chip cookies? Try adding peppermint oil to dark chocolate chips, or orange essence.  Perhaps instead of dark chocolate you might prefer white chocolate - maybe with some freeze dried fruit mixed in.

The basic recipes have been tried and tested - the wonderful permutations that are waiting are down to your imagination - go for it:)

Prashad - a Michelin starred Indian vegetarian cafe in Bradford

I went for a visit with my parents recently, which was lovely - it had been ages since I saw them what with one thing and another.

A friend had told me shortly before I went that a vegetarian Indian cafe, Prashad, in Bradford had been named in the Michelin guide.  Naturally, I wanted to eat there!  http://www.prashad.co.uk/

I asked my brother if he knew of it, but as he's a carnivore par excellence, he wasn't really interested, but he did say he'd come with us if my parents wanted to go.  They did, and he managed to book a table for my final evening.  It was six o'clock or nothing, so we ate early.

The premises has two entries, and, of course, we went in one side, only to be told that our table was in the other side, so we had to go back out into the street and walk along to the next door - it wasn't possible to walk through between the eating areas, which was a little strange.

The tables were black plastic, with no cloths.  The napkins were paper.  But they were clean and neatly set.  There was very little space between them, a cosy tete-a-tete wouldn't be possible!

The menu is basically Gujerati or Punjabi, and potatoes feature largely on the menu.  However, as vegetarians and vegans, it's lovely to be spoiled for choice.  Many of the items are vegan, and these, along with wheat free foods, are indicated, which is a great help to me, especially, and my mother. 

My brother and I shared a mixed starter for about £8, which had 8 or 9 items, some duplicated, as you'd expect with a sharing platter.  Delicious.  My parents opted for stuffed mushrooms - since there were some on our platter, I know they were good:)

We each chose a different main course, Dad had a burger, with chips.  I had aubergine and pea curry, my brother the chickpea curry, and Mum chose Idli with sambar and yogurt sauce.  We also had a portion of their massala chips to share, just a touch spicy, and good and chunky.  Dad was persuaded into a garlic naan by my brother, who opted for a plain naan.  I chose the kichdi rice with lentils to accompany my curry.

Mum is unable to eat hot ie chilli heat, food due to a medical condition, and I asked the waiter to request that the sambar to accompany her Idli was mild.  He said that couldn't be done, which seemed a little strange to me in a such an establishment.  He then said he'd ask them to make it milder when he saw Mum's disappointment.

Sadly, when it arrived, the sambar was too hot, although she enjoyed the light, airy Idli.  Another waiter, seeing that her sambar was untouched, offered to fetch something else from the menu for her.  He suggested that the paneer massala was the mildest choice, and this arrived, complete with chappatis, in good time.  Sadly, even this was too hot, but she was able to pick out the paneer.

The chef/owner, Kaushy, came round the tables, and when she heard of Mum's problem, she assured us that she could have made the sambar without any chilli, and would the next time we ate there.

This begs the question why did the waiter fail to pass on the request for a mild dish to the kitchen?  In an eatery featured in the Michelin guide, I would expect that the waiting staff need to be as well informed as the cooks in the kitchen about possibilities.

So, we spent an enjoyable hour or so, I appreciated my food, and tasted my brother's, too, and he mine.  The rice was dry and made a pleasant change from plain basmati rice.  Prices were reasonable and portion sizes fine.

Was it the best Indian food I've ever eaten?  No, sadly not.  Would I go again?  Yes, because it was enjoyable, if not the best.  We discovered that they also do a take-away service, with free delivery within a 3 mile radius - so perhaps another time we'll try that - with a meal deal of around a tenner a head, it's a good option.

Where do you go for your favourite Indian meal?

Starbucks new, elegant coffee mugs

I was concerned to receive an e-mail recently which informed me that Starbucks, who have soya milk in their coffee bars to accommodate vegans, were literally binning all their old, earthenware mugs, to replace them with "bone china" mugs.

Now, I don't know about you, but I don't buy "bone china" products.  The name says it all, doesn't it?  Many years ago, a trip around a pottery factory, where trolleys of bones stood awaiting use in the manufacturing process, confirmed my fears.

So when I read about the "improvements" that Starbucks were planning, I wrote to them to ask them to reconsider.  Of course, I knew that my lone voice wouldn't carry any weight, but there are a lot of vegetarians and vegans out there, and who knew how many of them might also complain?

I received a reply from Starbucks informing me:  "Please be assured that we have checked with our supplier who has confirmed that our new mugs do not contain animal bone ash and that a synthetic material is used in its place."

It sort of begs the question how they can be described as "bone china" if they don't contain bone, doesn't it?  Do they retain the name "bone china" to keep the cachet of the lighter, "premium" product?  Even though it's inaccurate?  Is that legal?

Maybe honesty is the best policy.  After all, if a product purports to be made from something containing bones, vegans and vegetarian will shun it.  There's a whole new customer base out there for manufacturers who devise a new name for their lighter, stronger china which doesn't contain animal remains.