This is yet another riff on the River Café’s much-copied crab linguine with chilli. This version, inspired by one of my sons who worked at the River Cafe, adds diced tomato to the mix with plenty of flat leaf parsley to counter the chilli and creamy olive oil and lemon-laced white crab meat. It’s quick,…

Megrim, as few people can have failed to register, has been re-named Cornish sole. I learnt to love it many years ago in Cornwall, where it thrives (also in Scotland I believe) and is the cheaper alternative to lemon sole and super-luxe Dover. It’s flesh is extremely tasty, neither firm like Dover or soft like…

Roasting a few Romano (pointy) red peppers and tomato halves is always useful fridge food and if you are doing it, why not add a couple of un-skinned, quartered red onions? They are useful too, even if just as a quick start to one of the many recipes that begin with onion. The combo could…

The sweetness and intensity of carrots comes out in earnest when they’re roasted and lightly caramelized. Something similar happens with onions and here the two unite with a hint of Moroccan spice mix ras al hanout and lemon juice, resulting in a hauntingly flavoured, beguiling soup. I’m packing some in my thermos flask to take…

This is a gentle curry made with garam masala because I can’t find my curry powder and didn’t want to start grinding spices. The mild flavour of golden butternut squash goes well with the sweet acidity of tomatoes, flavours lifted with lime juice and different succulent sweetness of prawns. A handful of spinach added at…

There’s a background smack of chilli to wake up the taste buds in this otherwise gentle soup brimming with veg. Scraps of bacon contribute a surprising amount of richness while rosemary and bay give the stock cube broth a boost of flavour. I served it with a separately poached egg and crusty bread and butter…

Hopefully spring is truly on its way but there is still a lot of chilly weather and what I want to eat is food with mashed potato. This is a lovely fish pie, just smoked haddock and spinach with a Dijon mustard-seasoned parsley sauce and a couple of hard-boiled eggs. Definitely a fish pie amongst…

Roasting mushrooms with lemon juice and olive oil is a useful idea to remember. They end up juicy and tender, creating more juice than they eventually do when fried. For this soup, it meant I had exactly the right amount of time – about 15 minutes – to soften spring onions and garlic in butter,…

Plenty of leeks, a generous seasoning of thyme with a hint of lemon zest and garnish of crisp scraps of smoked bacon swirling round buttery and white wine-lapped rice, are a happy combination. I started cooking hours before the risotto was served, getting it to the stage where wine is added to buttery rice, so…

This chunky vegetable soup begins by browning smoked bacon lardons, releasing its fat to fry onion and giving nuggets of flavour. If you happen to have a chunk of Parmesan, grate some over the top, adding a swirl of your best olive oil. If not, it doesn’t matter, it will still be richly flavoured. It’s…