French Beans with a Sweet Pepper & Tomato Sauce

Years ago, when  I was regularly cooking family meals and hosting dinner parties, Marcella Hazan’s Fagiolini verdi con peperoni e pomodoro – French beans with peppers and tomatoes – from her iconic The Classic Italian Cookbook, was a favourite side dish to make. It’s a great dish to accompany simply cooked meat – like grilled or […]

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The 8th Birthday Cake

It’s my eldest grandson Freddie’s 8th birthday. I’ve been making the same cake ever since his first birthday – The 1st Birthday Cake – and followed the recipe again today. In fact, I’ve made it more than eight times for my son Jonathan now has three boys, so there’s Ben (5) and Alex (2) as […]

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Three Ways to Enjoy Pesto

I always make my own pesto. Partly this is because the jars once opened have to be used up fairly quickly and they are usually too big for one person – and mainly I’m cooking just for myself. But really, the main reason is taste: there is just no bought pesto that comes close to […]

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Cod with Chorizo, Bean & Tomato Ragu

I’ve been thinking about cooking this dish for ages after having a similar one at the brilliant Bayside Social in Worthing in April. I even bought some chorizo which has been in my freezer. This morning, considering what to eat tonight, I also found some cod. It was a fillet not a nice chunky piece […]

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Lunch at Brindisa, Richmond upon Thames

We have a joke in UK that you wait ages for a bus and then three come along all at the same time. I’ve been playing this out with tapas bars recently. For years I meant to go to one of Jose Pizarro’s restaurants/tapas bars, finally made it to the RA one (click here) in […]

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Slow-roasted Tomatoes in Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Earlier in the year, sometime in spring, I was in the local garden centre and spied little tomato plants. I remembered how excited the grandsons were last year when I grew some: Freddie (now 7½)  loves to eat them; Ben (4¾) doesn’t like tomatoes but said he was excited to watch them grow. So I […]

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Halloumi with Sweet Pepper & Coriander Salsa

Yes halloumi again. Apologies for two halloumi recipes in a row. It wasn’t especially intentional, but the weather remains warm and rather humid here in London – though nothing like the two days of heatwave (yes only two days, despite all the fuss) of two weeks’ ago. The temperature is only in the mid-20s, which […]

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Madeleines: A First Attempt

I’ve never made madeleines before. They seem to have been in my life for as long as my memory goes back, like scones and clotted cream, the bread pudding and Christmas puddings I used to make as a child with my grandmother. I guess I perhaps ate madeleines for the first time in France. I […]

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Grilled Crottin Salad with Figs, Walnuts & Honey

It’s been a bit of a French week: I’ve been upgrading my French Peugeot car to a newer (not new) version; I’ve been enjoying the re-run of Rick Stein’s Secret France on BBC TV in the evenings; and there was a French market in Twickenham on Sunday and Monday. I had the eldest grandsons – […]

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Pan-Roasted Cod with a Blood Orange Salad

Tonight’s supper was my interpretation of the wonderful meal I had a Jose Pizarro’s restaurant in the Royal Academy of Arts in March (click here). I was particularly keen to make the blood orange salad, which was so gorgeous. I’ve been buying blood oranges recently from the local Twickenham greengrocer P. Cooper & Sons. It’s […]

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