I often go for months without eating grapes but there have been summers when the vine in my garden has been so productive it’s forced me to think outside and way beyond the box with what to do with the sweet, little green grapes. I’ve crushed them for squash, cooked them with pigeon, turned them…

Molten, creamy Brie cheese with wafer-thin slivers of pickled cucumber and sweet succulent roasted grapes is a magical combination. I like it between slices cut from a country-style loaf, the outer sides of the sandwich buttered so they crisp and turn golden if the sandwich is going to be made in a toasted sandwich maker….

Borstch for me means a pureed beetroot soup, sometimes with onion and garlic, sometimes with tomatoes and/or red peppers. By fluke, as far as I was concerned, my beetroot order from Ocado (ie M&S) brought two huge turnip-looking beetroot that turned out to be golden inside. I boiled them and the flavour was incredible, very…

This is one of those surprisingly quickly made, hearty stews that simmer away in the background filling the house with tempting smells. It reheats perfectly and could be served with cous cous, as I have done, with rice, with noodles or with green veg and bread to mop up the copious juices. It’s spicy and…

Despite what aficionados will tell you, risotto made with a stock cube instead of tremblingly jellied home made stock will be delicious too. This one is a case in point but flavours are boosted by adding some of the prawns right at the beginning of the cooking with the onion and fennel. Flavours are subtle…

Forfar is a place in Scotland and Bridie is the surname of a travelling food seller in the nineteenth century who is credited with making and selling minced meat and onion pies with a distinctive deep pasty shape and crimped edges. I discovered them when I was researching my little book Pasties. I remembered them…

This is a sandwich to cook ahead for; everything is mise en place: aubergine poached, pepper and tomato roasted, all kept in plastic boxes ready for assembly after the bread is toasted. The feta, too, is creamed with thick, natural yoghurt, garlic and lemon and kept on standby in a plastic box in the fridge….

It is ages since I made lasagne. The way I make it, with a tomato sauce as well as a meat one plus béchamel, it’s quite an operation. This version, though, is a bit different. For a start, I used pork mince – moral: wear glasses when selecting mince from the freezer – and instead…