Campbell's launch new range of bouillabaisse, fish chowder and seafood bisque

Oh no, wait, it's just a marketing tie-in for Pixar's latest release Finding Dory. They're all just chicken broth with pasta shapes - no fish in them at all. Perhaps for the best - might have upset the kids otherwise.

The Last of the Leftovers (for now, at least...)

In my last post I wrote about the recipes I'd tried out in order to use up the remains of a tin of chestnut puree, including one with lentils in the ingredients list, giving me the opportunity to clear another space in my can cupboard, which is always good. The only trouble was that the recipe only required about half the tin of lentils, leaving me in much the same situation as before, searching for recipes again in order to find a use for the rest of those. Such are the trials of being a tin cannoisseur who can't bear to waste food.

The manufacturers of the lentils, Epicure, have been going since 1891 according to their website, "originally bringing food innovation to Britain by importing exotic canned fruits and vegetables previously unseen in this corner of the world". I like the cut of their jib. While their product range has grown to embrace all manner of products and types of packaging - tubes of anchovy paste,
jars of pickled walnuts, packets of marzipan - it still includes various types of tinned fruit and veg, as well as a wide range of canned of beans and pulses, both organic and non-organic. One kind I hadn't come across before was aduki beans, to which my immediate thought was "oh, like the highly-stylised form of classical Japanese theatre with dance and elaborate make-up", before remembering that's kabuki, not aduki. Noh link between the two whatsoever.