The colour of this soup is so dramatic it’s almost worth making it just for its looks. The texture, too, is beguiling. Fluffy, yet creamy, light and easy to digest, satisfying too, as if glides over your tongue leaving a delicious trail of sweet sour beetroot. The sourness comes from cooking apples and fresh lime…

I love mint and it always gives me a frisson of pleasure when I see the first leaves curling out of my enduring mint patch. I picked enough of the pink-flushed early little leaves to make salsa verde and they sang through assertive flat leaf parsley, anchovy, capers and garlic, in this versatile mayo-style dark…

Greek holiday blues always leave me craving spinach dal with squashy grilled tomatoes and crusty lamb chops. It’s a great combination of creamy, spicy dal, slippery, sweet tomatoes and juicy, crusty lamb. Leftover dal is easily turned into delicious soup; I like it with scoops of mango chutney as you can see in this photo….

One of my greatest gastronomic experiences was a meal at Georges Blanc’s restaurant at Vonnas near Bourg en Bresse. While the entire meal was perfection, these little pancakes stole the show. They always remind me of ice cream in wafers because the base forms a crusty surface and the potato ‘filling’ puffs but remains smaller…

A chilly stay in the Cotswolds included a visit to a delightful pub called the Chequers Inn at Churchill, Oxfordshire. As rain lashed down outside and my dog snuggled close to the roaring fire, we tucked into plump, bouncy, interestingly devilled kidneys on toast. This is my interpretation of that heartening lunch, perfect for these…

Beetroot ticks so many boxes if it’s treated right. I love it foil-wrapped and roasted with thyme and garlic, served with a squeeze of lemon and splash of my best olive oil; at the moment extra virgin Contadino from Monte Pollino. This is a variation on that theme using boiled beets topped with creamy sheep’s…

Whenever I roast a bird, I always save the bones for stock. Pheasant produces remarkable stock. Clear like consommé, virtually fat-free, golden and richly flavoured. It gives zuppa alla Pavese, an exquisite but simple soup from Pavia, a new lease of life. Apart from good stock, it  requires very few ingredients, an egg and slice…

This is a lovely jam that sets well and ends up clear and glossy, a light burgundy colour. Apart from the occasional piece of plum skin, it is more like jelly than jam. This recipe makes several jars, how many obviously depends on size but I always include several smaller jars so I can give…

In an ideal world there will always be a big jar of home made pickled onions in the cupboard. Everyone loves them so much and they are one of the first things I learnt to make from Betty, my mother-in-law. I used to have a copy of her spice mix but now I buy ready…

When I think back to the palaver my mother went through with the annual ritual of making the Christmas puddings, not to mention mincemeat for mince pies and Christmas cake, it is shockingly easy to make them today. All you do is stir all the ingredients together and steam the mixture in pudding basins. The…