Food & Drink / Reader Recipe: A landlady has a good bash

'I SUSPECT the following recipe isn't highbrow enough for a cookery column, but it is very simple and tastes good,' writes James McLaren of Cheltenham. 'I call it 'Cowannaise' after the landlady who taught me how to make it.'

I regret to report that I am not nearly highbrow enough to resist Mr McLaren's smash-and-beat recipe. It only just pipped a similar-sounding one involving Dime bars. However, it does deserve a decent title so I have lengthened its name.

Mr McLaren will receive a bottle of 1990 Givry Champs Pourot Domaine Ragot, a chardonnay from the Cotes Chalonnaise, which we buy from Reid Wines of Bristol.

GINGER BISCUITS COWANNAISE

Serves 6

Ingredients: 1/2 pint (285cl) whipping cream

1/2 pint (285cl) yoghurt

1 packet chocolate-covered ginger biscuits

Preparation: Whip the cream, beat in the yoghurt. Put the biscuits into a bag, take a rolling pin and smash them into crumbs. Beat the crumbs into the cream and yoghurt mixture, and chill for 30 minutes to an hour.

Next week, we continue looking at creamy food. Recipes for yoghurts and creams, or for our next category, Italian cooking in the British kitchen, are welcome. Send them, stating the source, to Emily Green, The Independent, 40 City Road, London EC1Y 2DB. In the second category, those whose recipes we print will receive a bottle of the superb Tuscan wine, 1990 Cepparello from Isole e Olena, which we purchase from Wine Cellars of south London, the Italian wine specialist.