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Recipes for the enthusiastic home cook
Wild Garlic Butter is a wonderful, seasonal condiment. You need just two ingredients to make it, and one of those is absolutely FREE! Wild garlic is found in most of Britain from March to June. And with its distinctive aroma, it’s easy for foraging beginners to …Read more
Hot Cross Scones are a quick and easy, light, and fluffy alternative to hot cross buns. Full of spice and dried fruit, you can be enjoying this easy twist on traditional sultana scones in around thirty minutes. Eat the scones while still warm, split and …Read more
Roasted Red Pepper Hummus is a smoky, spicier take on traditional hummus. It still has the classic ingredients of chickpeas, tahini, garlic, and lemon. But the earthy original is given a lightly sweet and smoky edge with roasted red pepper and Spanish paprika. For extra …Read more
Grapefruit Jam is an easy, tangy homemade preserve that’s perfect for your morning toast. Great for beginners, the only ingredients you need are three or four grapefruits plus jam sugar. After discarding the peel and pith from the grapefruits, the flesh and juice are quickly …Read more
Italian Pork Meatloaf is my take on polpettone which means ‘big meatball’. With herbs, garlic, fennel seeds, lemon and Parmesan, this easy recipe combines classic meatball flavours with a sliceable loaf that’s great hot or cold. I’ve used all pork mince, but you can replace half …Read more
Orange Shortbread Biscuits, light, buttery, and with a hint of citrus, are an absolute delight. Enjoy them with a cuppa or as a crunchy accompaniment to desserts like panna cotta and ice cream. Or make as a welcome gift. So easy, you just whizz up the …Read more
Cheese & Chive Pancakes, a savoury version of Scotch pancakes or drop scones, make a great breakfast, lunch, or snack. The simple batter of flour, milk and an egg plus mature Cheddar, Parmesan and fresh chives, is whisked together in seconds. Drop spoonfuls onto a …Read more
Ginger Oat Biscuits are crispy, crunchy, sweet, and buttery, with the warmly spicy flavour of both ground ginger and stem ginger. A cousin of digestive biscuits, the combination of oats and wholemeal flour gives a lovely rustic texture. Neither hard like traditional ginger nuts, nor soft …Read more
Waldorf Salad is an easy classic. At its simplest, just crunchy apples and celery in a mayonnaise dressing, these days it usually includes walnuts too. In my version there’s also plump raisins (substitute halved grapes if you prefer) and a dressing that’s lightened with natural …Read more
French Onion & Oxtail Soup is great comfort food. Dig down beneath a toasty, cheesy topping and you’ll find rich onion soup made with tasty beef broth, filled with shreds of meltingly soft oxtail. Although the soup is best made over a couple of days, …Read more
Cheese, Chorizo & Chive Scones are the latest incarnation of my popular light and fluffy cheese scones. Like the original Very Cheesy Cheese Scones, there’s plenty of tangy Cheddar in there. But a generous amount of smoky chorizo plus fresh chives means these are packed …Read more
Baked Oat Pudding with Apple & Cinnamon is a super easy dessert with a taste and soft texture you’ll love. It combines rolled oats, grated apple, optional sultanas, brown sugar and cinnamon with milk, eggs, melted butter and a touch of vanilla. The result is …Read more
Rye, Spelt & Sesame Crackers are crispy and crunchy, with an earthy, nutty flavour. With no yeast, no kneading, and no proofing, these easy homemade crackers are ready to eat in little more than half an hour. With rye, spelt and white flours plus sesame seeds, …Read more
Quick Pea & Bacon Soup, using convenient frozen peas, can be on the table in less than thirty minutes. Beautifully green in colour, with hints of smoky bacon and garlic, each bowl will provide at least two of your daily veg portions. Great as a …Read more
Spanish Lamb Stew is inspired by a dish I ate many years ago in central Spain. With chunks of tender meat and soft peppers in a garlic and paprika scented broth, close my eyes and I’m almost back there. My version includes chickpeas to stretch …Read more
Prawn Cocktail is a classic and rightly so. Tender, juicy prawns in a lightly spicy, creamy Marie Rose sauce atop fresh salad. While you can buy bottles of the sauce, making your own takes just a few minutes. All you need are mayo, ketchup and …Read more
Spicy Roasted Parsnip Soup is warming in both senses of the word. A steaming bowlful is just what’s needed on chilly days, plus its spice will bring a warming tingle to your taste buds! Roasting the parsnips first, with a generous amount of my special spice …Read more
Winter Soup, comforting, nourishing and delicious, is one of the delights of the season. So here I’ve brought together my absolute favourite warming soups. Whether you want spicy lentil, creamy bean or chicken, chunky veg or elegant broth, meaty or entirely plant-based, you’ll find the …Read more
Glazed Gammon, with its glossy, sweet yet tangy exterior and tender meat within, is a real showstopper. But it’s surprisingly easy to make at home and good to eat hot or cold. The gammon joint is first cooked by gentle simmering and then the skin discarded. …Read more
Cheese, Smoky Bacon & Spring Onion Scones take the classic cheese scone to a new level. Light and fluffy, they have a generous amount of cheese plus nuggets of smoky bacon and savoury spring onion flavour. Eat warm with butter as a snack, for afternoon …Read more
Flaky Cheese Crackers are a melt-in-the-mouth snack and are perfect as a nibble with drinks. Layers of light, cheesy pastry are created by a simple technique of folding grated cheese into rolled out, buttery dough. Cut into whatever shapes you like, brush with beaten egg and …Read more
Creamy Bean & Pancetta Soup, despite its name, doesn’t contain any cream. Instead, its smooth creaminess comes from pureed cannellini beans and a little potato simmered in stock and milk. Adding great depth of flavour are pancetta (or smoked bacon) along with onion, celery, garlic and …Read more
Mincemeat Christmas Tree is a stunning looking but deceptively simple tear and share bread. With fruity mincemeat between layers of lightly sweet, buttery dough, it’s a great alternative to mince pies. Made using my overnight, no-knead bread method it’s really simple too. Bake in just 15 …Read more
Stirato is a rustic, Italian-style baguette whose name means ‘stretched’. Made with just bread flour, salt, fast-acting yeast and water, it has a crispy crust and open crumb. With this easy, no-knead recipe you’ll get great-tasting bread for very little effort. Just mix up the dough the …Read more
Quick Pickled Cucumber is an easy pickle that’s ready to eat in a few hours. You can flavour the light pickling liquor however you please. Here I’ve used fresh dill and mustard seeds for one jar and warmly spicy Aleppo pepper in the other. Without …Read more