Firstly, addressing the title. The common mistake that the soft meringue like shelled confectionary is a macaroon, not a macaron. It is not. It is also not a coconut based cake. MACARON! Now, on we go...

These things can be a pain in the arse. I have tried, and failed, to make these, more than once. My Mrs has failed at making these. So they're not so easy, but it's more about finding what works with your equipment, oven, even the eggs you have. Almost like the nemisis in the kitchen, you want to beat. Well m'lady did exactly that.

There are two main methods you can use to create them.

1. The Italian Meringue method

Egg white 100 g (3 eggs - aged)

Pure icing sugar 125 g

Almond meal 125 g

Caster sugar 125 g

Water 34 g

Where you beat your eggs to stiff peaks, make a hot sugar syrup (to about 118c) and while still processing the egg whites, gently add the sugar syrup to the whites. Then, you add the sieved almond meal to the mixture, folding it in to try to limit the lost air in the mix. (If you wish to colour your mix, I would add this to the almond meal, not the egg & sugar mix as it tends to take air out.) Fold it all in until mixed well, but don't go around mixing it hard. You want a shiny consistency, not grainy, or lumpy.

2. The French Meringue way method.

225g powdered sugar

125g almonds, blanched

25g sugar

food colouring (about 5 drops)

3 egg whites (preferably aged *which is leaving on the side for 3 days*)

Well, we live in France, and the last time I tried them, I did it the Italian way, it wasn't working properly, this time, French.

Beat your egg whites to stiff peaks, don't overwork them either. Then, add 25g of caster sugar while beating. Blend up your icing sugar and your almond meal with your colouring of choice. Now, slowly add this in to the egg whites, a bit at a time, folding it all in until the mixture is fully incorporated. Again, glossy, smooth, no lumps.

With both methods, preheat the oven to 157c. Or 160, as mine and yours probably go up in 20s anyway. Pipe the discs on to baking paper, remembering that they will spread and settle slightly, so don't go too big to start.

Importantly, you need to then leave the macarons to set on the side, for at least 30minutes. This will form a sort of film on the outside of the shell, which helps in the cooking. They will raise from this and keep shape.

We found the best results came when we put them directly on the oven shelf that was hot (we have shelves with trays on them which are flat) as this seemed to seal the bottom of the macaron shell.

Cook for 12-15minutes. We found 13 minutes to be the on the money. The shell should be firm to touch (lightly) and a consistent colour. You do not want to brown or discolour them.

Remove from the oven, put on the side to cool. Don't try and remove them right away. If you're having any trouble with the removing. Wet your worktop and then put the baking sheet directly on the wet surface, this often helps.

Options for filling are many, you can do a chocolate ganache, other flavours etc. We went for a raspberry coulis and chocolate ganache.

You can then have some great fun playing with flavour combinations, flavour the shell, and the centre etc.

Mrs. RS is doing some more today. Next stop, macaron tower.

Some pics:

"Oooo scallops"

This can normally be heard any time we go somewhere and they're seen on the menu. In fact, I can say for a fact, that any menu with them on, that will be the choice of Mrs RS.

So, she likes them.

So, I thought we should cook some.

I didn't have a recipe off tinterweb for these, just thought I'd go with it. Fuck it, what could go wrong?! Oh, ruining the scallops and have an angry lady with no scallops? Now I put it like that, I'm glad it was OK.

Excuse if the recipe is a bit, well, thrown together...

You will need 12 scallops, trimmed of la Peche, or the orange bit on the side

1 Fennel bulb

1/4 cauliflower

1 pack of lardons (decent ones, not cheap crappy ones)

3 shallots (finely sliced)

3 cloves garlic (finely sliced)

25g butter (plus some for pan)

Get your cauliflower and the fennel on to steam. We like to steam rather than boil veg, so they went on to steam until soft. Cook them more than you would to eat them, as we're blending so you don't want lumpy bits. Once they're soft, chuck them in a bowl with the butter and stick blend them up until nice and smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

Heavy based frying pan on the cooker. In with a drizzle of oil, then in with the lardons. Cook for a bit until cooked, but not crisp, then add garlic and shallots. Cook now until all are nicely browned but not burnt. Burnt onion and garlic is quite bitter so try to avoid that.

Remove these from the pan and set to one side, pan back on the heat and heat up. Butter in the pan, melt and add the scallops. We did these for c. 1m30 a side. That will obviously vary on your cooker, heat, pan, but to give you some idea anyway.

Plate up and serve. Quick and tasty starter.

It's no secret that the oh so amazing Mrs RS loves her seafood. She's from oop north and used to live just off the Tyne fish quay, so it's in her blood.

With that in mind, we're doing more different things of late, so thought we would share.

I would also like to point out that we cook for us as a family. That is; Phili, myself , 7yr old and 4yr old. We don't cook the boys anything different to what we would eat. No chicken nuggets and chips, they get what we have.

So, on with the recipe? Yes. It's Sea Bass with a seafood one pot. Great recipe, it's quick, easy and tastes fantastic. Great when you've just got in from work and don't have an hour + to cook.

You will need:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 fennel bulb , halved and sliced

2 garlic cloves , sliced

½ red chilli , chopped

250g cleaned squid , sliced into rings

bunch basil , leaves and stalks separated, stalks tied together, leaves roughly chopped

400g can chopped tomatoes

150ml white wine

2 large handfuls of mussels or clams

8 large raw prawns (whole look nicest)

4 sea bass fillets (about 140g/5oz each)

I think we used more prawns, and big bastards at that. We likes those. I would say that it did serve 4, but just, it's not hugely saucy (when you think you have, what 550ml of liquid there?) so you can always add another tins of toms and more wine, if you'd like to expand it a bit. The leftovers would make a great fish soup.

Now, get yourself a nice big heavy bottomed pan with a lid. Throw in the fennel, garlic and chilli with the olive oil and cook until the fennel is soft. Add the squid to the pan, along with the tin of tomatoes, white wine and basil stalks. Cook on a simmer for 30mins. Now, simmer is simmer. Don't boil the shit out of it or you will then also be left with no liquid. Simmer.

Time to add the mussels, prawns and sea bass. Put in the mussels and prawns first and give it a stir round, coating them. Then place the sea bass fillets on top, then place the lid on top of the pan. Cook on a high heat for 5 minutes.

Slap it in a bowl and serve with some crusty bread, or in our case, a baguette. It's not one for a dinner party per say, as you will get your hands dirty, but the boys devoured it, we both love it, so it will feature again for us.

Official recipe can be found here: Click Me

I know, and you thought I rustled this one up myself.

Everyone loves ribs. If you don’t love ribs, you’re probably not going to be interested in this post. Keep reading anyway, and you might be pleasantly surprised. You may not, and then waste 5 minutes of your life reading this, but that’s your risk.

Last time I did ribs, we couldn’t get them in racks, just single ribs. Which is a little offensive, right? So this time when I saw some racks of these bad boy racks, I was on it. 3 please.

Now, I’m going to inform you of what I did for these, and the recipe involved for that, but this is no way the only way to do it. Cooking methods all vary, even mine and recipes there are many many of, so this is one way, one recipe.

The rub I used was called the rendezvous rib rub. Rolls off the tongue nicely. I’ve even seen variiations of this recipe but this is how I did it:

Stage 1, the rub.

1/3 cup of paprika

2 tablespoons of chilli powder

6 tablespoons of powdered garlic

3 tablespoons of oregano (dried)

1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper

1 tablespoon mustard powder

1 tablespoon celery seed

3 tablespoons of salt

½ cup of vinegar

½ cup water

Habanero hot sauce (to taste)

Simply grind and mix all of these together and it should form a nice paste. Add the vinegar and water gradually as you don’t want it too wet. With your paste, you can now apply it to your racks of ribs.

Firstly, take the racks of ribs and on the back (bone) side of the rack, you will need to remove the membrane that is there. Get a sharp knife slide it under and you will be able to start to peel a film like membrane back and off the ribs.

Lay some cling film down on your worktop, paste the rub mixture on to both sides of the ribs. Then wrap up the rack, individually, in the cling film nice and tightly. Fridge these for the next day.

This is stage one of the process. You now need a BBQ sauce to go on the ribs.

Stage 2; The Sauce.

You will need for this:

2 cups ketchup

1/4 cup cider vinegar

1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

2 T. molasses

2 T. prepared mustard

1 T. Tabasco sauce

1 T. of your favorite barbecue rub (I used this Basic Barbecue Rub – see below)

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1 tablespoon of Heinz 57 sauce

Basic Barbecue Rub:

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 sweet paprika

2 T.black pepper

3 T. kosher salt

2 tsp. garlic powder

2 tsp. onion powder

2 tsp. celery seed

1 tsp.cayenne pepper

We tend to make it and have a stash of it in the cupboard, so you don’t have to make it every time.

With the sauce, slap it all in to a saucepan, simmer it for 20 minutes until it mixes up and thickens down. Cool and use. Again, I have a batch of this in the cupboard/ fridge ready for rib occasions. This makes life easier for rib action.

The cooking:

This is where you can change what you do, based on what you’re ultimately using. For me, I was using in this case, an oven. I haven’t busted out the BBQ yet this year, but it will come. So to the oven with these ribs.

Get out the ribs from the fridge and allow to get to room temperature. Preheat your oven to 110c and wrap your racks individually in foil. Put them in the oven for 4hrs. Also, I add a tray of water to the oven as well, just sitting at the bottom to make sure there is plenty of moisture in the oven.

Once cooked for 4hrs remove the ribs from the foil and they should be falling apart. You now need to apply your BBQ sauce to the racks of ribs, whack back on a tray and in the oven for around 40minutes at 180c to get all nice and sticky in sauce.

Serve those bad boys up. They go great with some homemade slaw, proper BBQ beans, corn, well anything. Enjoy.