Next time you have roast pork, I recommend you use any leftovers to make this spicy and interesting stew. It’s a variation on a theme that appears in many of my books and recipe articles, a real favourite combination of food and hard to screw up. It could be made with cocktail sausages, ribbons of…

This Thai-style, almost coleslaw was inspired by wanting to do something a bit different with slivers of leftover roast pork but could be made without meat or using scraps of chicken instead. It’s crunchy and interesting, quick to make and will keep in the fridge for 24 hours; perfect lunch on the hoof or al…

I’m definitely having a carrot moment, enjoying them more than I can remember. Here they’re teamed with cabbage, another under appreciated vegetable, potatoes and onion but the judicious addition of aniseedy caraway, chilli flakes and saffron, worked wonders. It’s a chunky yet pale and interesting soup flecked with carrot pennies bobbing in the pale yellow…

The best variety for savoury and sweet apple sauce is Bramley. They are the popular cooking apple, big with glossy green skin and they cook to a lovely pale golden fluffy puree which is easily achieved by beating with a wooden spoon. I cook the peeled and cored apple – often you only need one…

Yet again, on another chilly morning, I’m scrounging in the fridge vegetable drawers and store cupboard for something to turn into soup. This combo is a winner, leeks and onion softened with scraps of bacon thickened with creamy butter beans and prettied up with chopped parsley. It reheats perfectly but add parsley at the last…

My fishmonger here in West London (www.coventgardenfishmongers.co.uk) is big on shellfish and his nets of mussels are rarely barnacle-flecked but their glossy shells hide luscious, plump mussels. Not for me the usual scrubbing and scraping, rinsing and draining that can take a good twenty minutes and a lot longer than the actual cooking. This is…

This could be made as individual pies in shallow round, oven-proof dishes, or as a large pie to share. The filling of chicken, carrot and onion, is chopped small, the top covered with layers of super-thin potato slices, then roasted crisp. Lemon juice adds a welcome tart zing to its creamy sauce and parsley lends…

Two of my best pals slipped quietly out of Gatwick heading for Malaga just before Lockdown 2. They’d planned an extended stay ages ago – nine or ten weeks – ostensibly to write but so far, they’re having the luck of great weather and what sounds like a beach holiday. The food they tell us…