How to make the perfect chilli con queso – recipe | Felicity Cloake's How to make the perfect …

I well remember the first time I encountered the Tex-Mex phenomenon known as queso, which is not to be confused with Mexican queso, which just means “cheese”, as opposed to queso fundido, or melted cheese of an altogether different sort. It arrived in a bowl made out of fried tortillas that was filled with orange cheese that was melted, yet not quite liquid: “Kinda like a cheese soup,” the helpful waitress said on seeing my puzzlement.Apparently I’m not alone. Austin native Melanie Haupt reports finding “people from northern California to West Virginia … pleasantly flummoxed by the magical concoction now considered ‘classic’ queso among those who went straight from baby food to Tex-Mex”. Fellow Texan Rhoda Boone tells Bon Appetit magazine that in the Lone Star state, “We try to have as many occasions as possible to eat queso … sometimes it’s just, like, Sunday lunch”

Party starters: how to jazz up your Christmas leftovers | Kitchen aide

“Pastry and cheese are the best food groups,” says Sarah Rossi, author of What’s for Christmas Dinner? Happily, those two worlds collide in her brie and cranberry bites, AKA an easy, scalable canape that minimises time in the kitchen. Cut a sheet of puff pastry into squares, then push them into the greased holes of a muffin tin. “Dollop each one with leftover cranberry sauce and top with leftover brie. Brush with beaten egg, then bake at 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7 for about 20 minutes, until golden.”Lettuce is another great carrier of leftovers, and especially Conor Gadd’s turkey and ham fried rice

Australian protein bar taste test: the winner is ‘giving fitness, but not entirely unpleasant’

From slabs with ‘dreaded’ soy nuggets to those that resemble a Milky Way, Jess Ho trials 10 chocolate protein bars and sorts through the sweet, the sticky and the downright sicklyI have a confession to make: I’ve eaten a lot of protein bars in my time. Back when I was working in hospitality, I kept a stash in my backpack in case of emergency. The emergency was if the staff meal looked inedible, or I didn’t have enough time to take a break and just needed something in my stomach. They were a means to an end. I didn’t focus very hard on registering their edibility

From workhouse flummery to jelly whip | Letters

Recent letters about desserts made with jelly and evaporated milk (27 December) reveal an interesting backstory, going back at least to the 17th century. In those days, it was made by boiling oatmeal down into a jelly, which was served to workhouse inmates and prisoners and was called flummery. Its blandness resulted in the word being used in its current sense as an empty and unsatisfying compliment.But it was reinvented and reintroduced after the second world war as a cheap dessert made from jelly and condensed milk, specifically Carnation milk. The vehicle for its reintroduction was an advertising campaign by Carnation, which promoted its “jelly whip” recipe in newspapers and on its packaging

Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for scallop, leek and mushroom gratins | Quick and easy

You can serve these in one of two ways: three scallops, each in large half-shells or small ramekins as a dinner party starter, or if you are lucky enough to have 18 small shells, serve them as canapes – my daughter appropriated my collection into her toy kitchen, so I had to beg for them back: “I’m making fish fingers in a shell!” She didn’t buy it. For anyone who isn’t a toddler, these are a lovely, easy, prep-ahead dish.Make the sauce and breadcrumb topping the day before, then reheat the sauce and cook the scallops just before assembling and flashing everything under the grill.Prep 15 min Cook 30 min Serves 6 as a starter2 tbsp olive oil 15g salted butter 1 large leek, trimmed, tough outer leaves peeled off and discarded, the rest finely sliced (about 200g)1 garlic clove, peeled and finely grated150g mixed wild mushrooms, roughly chopped1 tsp sea salt flakes 100ml dry white wine3 heaped tbsp cream cheese 18 queen scallopsBlack pepper 15g grated parmesan 15g panko breadcrumbs 15g flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped½ tsp chilli flakes (optional)Heat one tablespoon of the olive oil and all the butter in a large frying pan on a low heat and, when the butter starts foaming, stir in the leeks and garlic, cover and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes, until softened – you don’t want the leeks to take on any colour.Add the mushrooms and salt, and fry for five to six minutes more, until the mushrooms are soft and cooked through

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for ham baked in bread | A kitchen in Rome

As well as being a glorious thing, a well-cured ham is a generous thing, giving many times over. The first is the simmering, which Nigella Lawson describes as “a savoury clove-scented fog” filling the room, poaching the joint and creating a highly flavoured stock for later use. Then comes the second fog of roasting meat and, in the case of this recipe, the bread wrapped around it, which is an idea borrowed from a cafeteria buffet in Trieste.There is the pleasure of ham itself, too, brought to the table, carved and enjoyed, but only up to a point. When it comes to ham, it isn’t enough to hope that there are leftovers; it is necessary to ensure that there are leftovers, for sandwiches or to go with fried eggs and thin chips