Here’s a slightly different way of serving asparagus and wild garlic – which is still in late season, thanks to the cold weather we’ve had this year. It’s a simpler recipe than it looks. You need to make a lot of different things but none of them requires any skill or takes any longer than [...]
This is what I had with the flatbreads I made the other day. I’m not sure if it’s an entirely authentic version, since I hadn’t heard of this dish until last week, but it went down very well. According to the internet, the real deal should probably contain parsley, but I’m more of a coriander [...]
This takes maybe 10 minutes to make first time. Five minutes when you know what you’re doing. I used gram flour (aka chickpea flour or besan) because I wound up buying a massive bag of it when all I needed was a couple of spoonfuls for another recipe. It does taste good in these flatbreads, [...]
Visit a dozen different Spanish restaurants and you’ll get a dozen different variations on the classic patatas bravas. Sometimes it comes with fresh tomato salsa, other times with a sort of spicy Marie Rose sauce, but my favourite type is the one that’s cooked in a rich, hot, chunky tomato and chilli sauce. Which is [...]
This was an experiment to get rid of some of our veg box carrot mountain without making the usual carrot and coriander soup, and it turned out to be pretty delicious. It’s spicy and a bit curryish. This recipe makes enough for four portions as a starter or maybe two as a main for lunch. [...]
Since wild garlic makes a tastier (and completely free) stand-in for spinach, here’s a garlicky variation on a classic spinach-based recipe. I used conchiglioni pasta – giant shells, big enough for stuffing – but if you can’t get those then you could easily turn it into canneloni by wrapping the filling in cooked lasagne sheets, [...]
Aubergines baked with cheese, eggs and tomato sauce. In the traditional Italian version of this dish you’d fry the aubergines in oil first, and while that does produce a rather nice silky texture, I think it’s a spectacularly unhealthy extravagance. Grilling the aubergines, which is what I’ve done here, gives a texture that’s pretty much [...]
The key to a good cauliflower cheese is to let the blanched cauliflower steam dry naturally before adding the cheese sauce. Also, the cheese sauce needs to be as thick as possible. If the cauliflower is too damp or the sauce too runny, you’ll end up with an undesirable watery layer at the bottom of [...]
If you boil broccoli, you’ll find that a lot of the colour and flavour ends up getting poured away when you drain the pan. This method uses no water at all, and results in a deep green colour with a delicious roasted taste. Try it – you’ll never boil broccoli again.
I’m quite picky about pickled jalapeños. Having tried probably every type that’s readily available in this country, I’ve come to the conclusion that the only one worth bothering with is a Californian brand called Mezzetta. There’s something wrong with every other kind – some taste of iodine, some are too squidgy and have little flavour, [...]