Matt, Author at Nerds with Knives

Vanilla Custard Tart with Berries

November 19, 2024May 20, 2016 by Matt

This custard tart with berries makes a great start to the summer. Creamy, rich vanilla custard in a crisp, buttery tart shell, topped with sweet berries and mint.

Raising chicks: We’re All Clucked! A video diary

October 23, 2019April 21, 2016 by Matt

Raising chicks isn’t something we ever thought we’d do, and yet here we are, in our basement with a half-dozen chirping chicks on our hands. Join us to watch the fun!

Hi, woodland chums!

No recipe this week as Emily is busy with photography work, so I thought I’d “entertain” you (rarely was a word used so incorrectly with such flagrant abandon) with a little video diary of us raising chicks. Last September, we got five new chicks, and like any proud parent, I Periscoped the hell out of them for about a month before promptly dropping the whole documentary process.

Our salmon favarolles, AKA Bernie Sanders. Can you guess how she acquired this nickname?

Lasagna Bolognese with Fontina Béchamel

December 8, 2024April 1, 2016 by Matt

A revised classic pasta, made with hands, from scratch. Will it take you all weekend? Yes. Is it worth it? YES.

Unbelievably Delicious Chocolate Babka

June 10, 2024March 25, 2016 by Matt

Chocolate babka: a sweet bread treat made with enriched dough and layered with chocolate – a weekend project you’ll be glad you made.

Greetings, Easter (and Passover***) bunnies!

***This babka is leavened and therefore not suitable for Passover, if your family, unlike ours, cares about such things. Read Matt’s full, sincere and amusing apology at the bottom of the post.

It may have slipped out in the course of this blog that one of us is Jewish, and the other of us is English. These are not, frankly, genres that strike awe into the hearts of home chefs (although Nigella Lawson does pretty well for herself) . When our best friends in town got married, they catered the reception with dishes from Italy (his family heritage), and soul food from New Orleans (hers). It was awesome. A Jewish-British catered wedding? Maybe not so much.

An Easter/(not)Passover*** dessert option, though? Now you’re talking.

Unbelievably Delicious Chocolate Babka — This Babka is filled with rich, dark chocolate with just a hint of cinnamon.

Toffee-Apple Sour Cream Cake (with a Salted Caramel Drizzle)

June 15, 2024September 18, 2015 by Matt

It’s a shame about toffee apples, it really is. In theory, I ought to love them.

There’s the toffee, which, as our Ultimate English Toffee recipe proves, we’re all about. I have no problem with the toffee.

There are the apples – and who doesn’t like apples? Your basic apple is basically the perfect snack – you can eat it on the go without getting your hands covered in crumbs, it’s got plenty of natural fiber, vitamins and that, they’re available pretty much all year round no matter where you live.

And there’s the stick, to hold it with. (Don’t eat the stick.)

Toffee apples – those of a more American persuasion might be more familiar with them as “candy apples” – are a mainstay of Autumn, and the first hints of autumnal flavors in our cooking always give me a frisson of delight (no, Pumpkin Spice Latte, I am definitely NOT looking at you). But a toffee apple just leaves me cold.

So why am I banging on about toffee apples if I don’t even like them that much? And what’s that picture of a cake doing at the top of this post?

Toffee-Apple Sour Cream Cake — These Honeycrisp apples (the large ones) are tart and hold their shape when cooked.

Chickens! Episode 3: More Chickens.

February 17, 2021September 4, 2015 by Matt

Dear reader, or indeed, readers: You may, singularly or en masse, have become increasingly concerned at the startling lack of chicken-related news in this blog. It is possible, but admittedly not likely, that you are of a nervous disposition, and have been unable to reconcile the existence of a “Chickens” menu with the non-existence of any news or updates regarding them. Well, my anxious friend, this post is for you.

We started out almost exactly two years ago with four red sex-link pullets. Since then, we have gained two Ameraucanas – one of which turned out to be a rooster and had to be “returned to the farm”. I don’t know why I put that phrase in quotes, he literally was returned to the farm. To, you know, “live out his life in the paddock”. What? It’s the quotes, they make everything look suspicious. Anyway, the farmer promised to “take care of him”, so I’m sure everything’s fine. Just fine.