Comfort food: for some, that will mean the food we eat alone, standing in front of an open fridge with no one else’s needs to satisfy other than our own. It can be a completely gratifying meal made of picky bits: a hunk of cheddar with a spoon of raspberry jam, say, or a cold leftover roast potato splashed with Maggi sauce and topped with a thick slice of salted butter, or an anchovy and draped over a pickle. However, […]
Yotam
Summer is not a time for spending too long in the kitchen. Cook we must, though, as eat we always will, so here are some dishes to make you want to get cooking, quickly, before getting out, just as quickly, eating well and then assuming a horizontal position somewhere under a tree. Harissa pilchards with zingy herb salsa (pictured top) Tinned fish makes one of easiest, tastiest, quickest and most cost-effective meals, and I often use it straight from the […]
I knew I was on to a good thing when my new test kitchen colleague Katja Tausig started talking about and cooking with feta. For a team whose mantra might well be “Everything’s better with feta!”, her enthusiasm, and desire to dedicate a whole column to this briny, tangy, salty cheese, meant that the fit was complete. So here’s to welcoming Katja and to celebrating feta: crumble it, bake it, blitz it, stuff with it, showcase it. Baked feta and […]
We’ve made it through another year – well done us! There are all kinds of ways to see out 2022, but whether you’re dressing up to party or donning slippers to get cosy, the weeks ahead demand only one thing of the kitchen: comfort food. What that is means different things to different people, but there’s often something about its texture that hits the spot: flaky, all-butter puff pastry, warm sponge, duvet-like polenta, soft prunes, melted cheese … These are […]
A festive “last minute” is not quite the same as a Monday night “last minute”. Agreed?! A festive last minute means that you’ve just been told that a few extra people are turning up for tomorrow’s feast. And one of them happens to be vegan, another is gluten-free and the other one’s just going to be very (very) hungry. Festive feasting is all about fending off last-minute curveballs such as this, so here are three dishes to help keep you […]
There are few things more festive than a festive dessert. They offer the most jolly excuse (not that we need one at this time of the year) to pile all sorts of sweet, seasonal flavours into a tart or on to a plate. Caramelised nuts, plates dusted with icing sugar, boozy double cream, cinnamon and allspice, dried fruit … so bring me some figgy pudding (and then some!) indeed! Piloncillo tart (pictured top) Piloncillo is an unrefined, dark sugar from […]
It’s party season, which, paradoxically, is when everyone shares their “rules”! Contradiction or otherwise, here are mine: 1. When it comes to party food, embrace the classics. 2. Serve food that can be eaten by hand or put in a vessel that can itself be eaten – washing-up, done! 3. If in doubt, bejewel your food: this is the season pomegranate seeds were made for. 4. Take shortcuts where you can (extracting those pomegranate seeds is not for everyone, after […]
For some, a 30-minute meal is a super-quick fix. For others, it’s a longer than they usually spend making dinner. For me, however, whether it’s midweek or when we have friends over at the weekend, it’s pretty much where I’m at. On the one hand, 30 minutes is no time at all – it’s an episode of something quick on TV, a podcast listen or a catch-up with a buddy on the phone – but it’s also enough time to […]
Pickling, salting, fermenting and curing are just a few of the many ways humankind has learned to extend a food’s shelf life. I’m not one for goodbyes at the best of times, so happily this means I never really have to part with my favourite fruit and vegetables; instead, I get to enjoy them in a different guise. Whereas fresh produce needs very little doing to it, the art of preserving lends itself to bigger, louder, funkier flavours. The ingredients […]
I feel like a kid in a sweetshop at this time of year, rubbing my hands (or my tummy, more honestly) in anticipation of all the combinations to be had. Sweet melons, crunchy apples, tender courgettes, soft herbs, ripe tomatoes, buttery leaves: I’m bowled over by the colours, the possibilities, and delighted that, unlike when I was a kid, I don’t need to restrain myself. Courgette and cantaloupe salad with preserved lemon dressing (pictured top) Nothing tastes of summer quite […]
