Distantly related to Margaret Costa’s equally sublime lemon surprise pudding, this is a light souffled chocolate sponge that generates its own sauce. The recipe is foolproof, fills the house with wonderful aromas and is particularly good with lemony fromage frais or crème fraiche. Serves 4-6Prep: 20 minCook: 45 min 100g soft butter plus extra knob100g…

I read months ago of a halloumi shortage looming, so promptly stocked up because I love this weirdly rubbery, salty cheese. Last night most of the last packet went into an omelette, a lazy omelette that firms over the hob and gets a soufflé finish under the grill. I served it in big wedges like…

Good old chicken to the rescue again for a quick, vaguely healthy but filling after work supper. The dish begins by softening diced onion with bay, adding bacon lardons then browning strips of floured chicken, bubbling up with a splash of white wine and chicken stock. Back goes the bacon and onion, sliced carrot and…

This is a lovely plate of food, a good mix of textures as well as interesting yet subtle flavours. Pork mince is flavoured with oregano, lemon zest and leeks, held firm with egg yolk and softened by breadcrumbs in milk. These slim little burgers are dipped in the leftover egg white beaten into a fluff…

A dear friend wrote recently saying she was craving chicken soup, a thick, creamy version would be preferable. Should she fill it out with floury potatoes and should she add watercress, she wondered. She is also cooking for the freezer and wants to make it with cheap cuts of chicken specially bought to make sturdy…

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…

There’s a hint of chilli heat to tomatoes sweetened by red pepper, enriched with white wine and cooked into a thick sauce that clings to very tender chunks of lamb neck fillet, the dish thickened with chickpeas. It reheats perfectly and is very good over oven chips but healthier with shredded, quickly stir-fried sprouts. I also…