Ah, the joy of leftovers. Here’s a brilliant example. I always make too much tzatziki, the garlicky Greek yoghurt and cucumber take on Indian raita. I make it chunky and leftovers proved to be the perfect dressing for spare boiled potatoes. They weren’t any old potatoes, to coin an old M&S ad-line, but Jersey Royals….

I love roast chicken and really enjoy the aftermath, by which I mean the leftovers. I usually turn them into a gratin, salad or stewy dish like this. Here choice pieces are stirred into a quickly made fresh tomato sauce seasoned with orange zest. The zest has an extraordinarily pronounced affect on the sauce and…

This sounds a lot more complicated than it is. All you need is a couple of fillets of carefully boned smoked mackerel, a jar of creamed horseradish, a chunk of cucumber and a crisp lettuce heart. The vinaigrette is a thin creamy mix of mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, honey, lemon juice and olive oil. With hot…

This pretty salad is a combination of two favourites; egg mayonnaise and leek vinaigrette. The dressing is  made by beating Dijon mustard, lemon juice and olive oil into mayo, so it’s thick but thinner than straight mayo. The leeks are sliced into bite-size pennies and steamed then piled with sliced eggs, the dressing spooned over…

It was a Marigolds and hoover day yesterday and late in the morning my thoughts turned to lunch. I’d just heard Anna Jones (whose inspiring book The Modern Cook’s Year is on my desk) talking on Woman’s Hour about lockdown lunches and the difficulty they presented, so when a quick riffle in the fridge veg…

Petits pois a la Francais with new potatoes and succulent morsels of chicken inspired this one pot supper. It’s blessedly undemanding to make but for the dish to work as it should, you will need free-range chicken thigh fillets, Jersey Royal or other new or waxy potatoes, diced pancetta and a large heavy-based, lidded frying…

The combination of thick flakes of smoky, salty fish with fluffy, buttery mashed potato and lashings of creamy tangy sauce is heavenly. Add a soft-poached egg and flourish of chives and it’s Proper Job, as they say in Cornwall.  Serves 4Prep: 20 minCook: 30 min 4 large potatoes, approx 800g80g butter 500ml milk4 thick fillets…

     I came across this unlikely dish when I was asked to write a week of recipes to complement teams in the World Cup. Its actual name is Tallarines Chalacos and owes its heritage to a time when Italy occupied Paraguay. My version adds chopped tomato, giving a fresh juiciness to the baked spaghetti sandwich…

This is my go-to loaf and below is the original recipe from healthy eating campaigner Doris Grant (1905-2003) who invented it by accident during the second world war. I’ve made it with various flours and flour combinations and my favourite is equal amounts of wholemeal and strong white flour. The mix of flour, yeast, sugar…