I first met Jake Hodges when he was still working at the River Café alongside Sam and Sam Clark and they all left to open Moro. Shortly after that, now over 15 years ago, Jake branched out on his own to open Cigala, in Bloomsbury. That is where I had tumbet not long before the…

Not everyone likes lamb’s kidneys but I crave them (and lamb’s liver) when they’ve been off the menu for a while. Here their rich flavour is surprised by aniseedy caraway, the little dark dried seeds ground to flour to sprinkle over soft, slippery onion. A couple of tomatoes – my last ripe big ones –…

Cooking bacon lardons directly from the deep freeze is a new discovery for me. Those little 75g packs soon defrost in a hot pan with a scrap of cooking oil, leaving just the right amount of time to peel and chop an onion, cut chicken into double bite-size pieces, peel a few carrots and begin…

This is a wonderful soup to warm the cockles on a chilly autumnal night. It smells rich and enticing, is a golden terracotta colour and its creamy texture and intriguingly spicy, lime-spiked flavour cries out for crusty bread – particularly torn hot nan – to dunk and slurp. Best of all, it’s as quick and…