A Sunny Springtime Walk in Kew Gardens and Supper of Prawn, Pea & Saffron Risotto

March 9, 2021.Reading time 9 minutes.

I’ve been busy with my job as a freelance book editor but a bit of serendipity was in play when I found that a short break while waiting for a new job to arrive coincided with the forecast of a sunny day. There was really only one thing to do: book an entry slot at […]

Mushroom Stroganoff

February 24, 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

I call this ‘stroganoff’ with a little caution: you have to be careful using a classic name for a dish and people can get very upset (including me sometimes!) if cooks stray too far from the traditional. But of course ‘stroganoff’ is traditionally a beef dish and thus turning it into a vegetarian one is […]

A Trio of Pancakes for Shrove Tuesday

February 16, 2021.Reading time 8 minutes.

It’s Shrove Tuesday and if you ever needed an excuse to make pancakes – this is your day! Mix a pancake, Stir a pancake, Pop it in the pan; Fry the pancake, Toss the pancake – Catch it if you can. Christina Rossetti’s fun poem says it all. Though I have to confess I’ve never […]

Wholewheat Fruit & Guinness Cake

February 7, 2021.Reading time 11 minutes.

This is a recipe I used to make regularly many years ago. More precisely, when my daughter was a baby, back in the early 1980s. It comes from Delia Smith’s Book of Cakes, published in 1977, where it’s named Wholewheat Guinness Cake. The page where the recipe is printed in the book is so stained […]

Romanesco – Two Ways

January 28, 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

A romanesco is so beautiful, how could one resist it? Well, actually I’d been resisting them for a week or two, seeing them piled invitingly in Whole Foods’ greengrocery section, before temptation became too much yesterday morning and one was lifted carefully into my basket. They’re not commonly found on supermarket shelves in London but […]

Cranachan – A Dessert for Burns’ Night

January 25, 2021.Reading time 10 minutes.

It’s Burns’ Night tonight, 25 January, and the celebration of the great Scottish poet’s birth in 1759. Remarkably, this popular event has been going since 1801 when it was held by a group of Burns’ friends to mark the fifth anniversary of his death in July 1796. The first Burns’ Night was held in July, […]

Almond & Orange Biscotti

January 6, 2021.Reading time 5 minutes.

I hadn’t planned to do any serious cooking today but when I received a message from my Italian friend Antonio this morning wishing me a ‘Buona Befana’ I couldn’t resist finding out more. I had heard of La Befana but have always celebrated Epiphany before French style with a Galette des Rois. But clearly it […]

Cod With Potatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Olives & Capers

January 5, 2021.Reading time 5 minutes.

I like to eat fish once or twice a week. Most often it’s salmon (organic farmed; wild when in season if I find it). Sometimes sea bream or sea bass; prawns to go into a fiery tomato sauce with pasta. I hadn’t particularly planned on cooking fish when I was wandering round Whole Foods in […]

Lamb with Prunes & Moroccan Spices

January 3, 2021.Reading time 8 minutes.

Happy New Year!! Let me first wish you a happy, healthy and altogether easier and more enjoyable year than the one we’ve just left. Despite the many challenges of 2020, there were positives and indeed lovely parts of it for me. Especially the birth of my fourth grandson (my son’s third child) on 27 December. […]

2020: Oh, What a Year! … Happy Christmas!

December 16, 2020.Reading time 21 minutes.

‘Oh, what a night/Late December back in ’63/Was a very special time for me/As I remember what a night’. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons may famously have been singing about a very good and special time back in 1975 but the words keep coming to me from the perspective of this year’s pandemic: ‘Oh, what […]