Mine is a typical postage stamp London garden with lousy soil depleted by ivy grown to hide the fence and block out the neighbours. Three things flourish, jasmine, honeysuckle and a vine, other things are grown in big pots. The vine, now 20-odd years old, produces small sweet green grapes but in late May, June…

This is one of my go-to what-can-I-cook-with-chicken suppers. I would always choose thigh rather than breast for stewy dishes like this because the flesh is less likely to dry out. I’m rarely without a whole chorizo in my fridge ready to fry into crisps to serve with a simple pureed soup or add chunkier slices…

This photo shows the leftovers, a packed lunch treat with a soft-boiled egg and cress but the real deal (which I forgot to photograph) was hot, slippery, chilli-hot, red wine soaked chunks of buttery aubergine piled over golden strands of pasta loaded with Parmesan. All it took was a couple of aubergine, the dregs of…

I can’t remember the last time I ate a burger in a bun. I prefer treating them like giant meatballs and serving them with salad or salsa or something creamy like tzatziki or hummus. These burgers were flavoured with slippery soft onion and garlic and formed into thick, round blocks, the oil from frying the…

I’ve got several courgette plants crammed into my tiny front garden and two whoppers in pots in the back garden. They are such productive plants but it’s the bright yellow flowers rather than the little marrows that I get excited by. Yesterday morning there were four flowers with baby courgettes attached and I couldn’t resist…

I’m on a pea jag at the moment, popping them out of their tight little cases, pinging into a bowl in the garden. I always cook too many because they are a perfect leftover; versatile in salads and a good bulk ingredient to anything from an Itsu miso easy soup sachet (with leftover rice, splash…

Leeks love ham, particularly the intense flavour of cured ham. There is unami-like alchemy when leeks are cooked with prosciutto and eaten with Parmesan, and you don’t need much of any of them. For this quick and easy pasta supper, the leeks are sliced in thick pennies and softened in butter and fat rendered from…

Today is the start of National Pic-Nic Week and for once the weather looks perfect for it. I made sausage rolls for my first family (socially distancing) pic-nic with my son Zach’s family yesterday. It was agony taking them out of the oven and allowing them to cool before slicing, fearing that I wouldn’t be…

Minced chicken or pork is what you need for these light and bright pattie-cum-burgers. They’re flavoured with finely chopped kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass with ginger, chilli and fresh coriander. Fried and chunkily sliced, the crumbly pieces are served piled over steamed rice with coriander and a sharp and spicy nuoc nam-style dressing. The latter…

I had a taste of my own medicine this morning; a message from a friend saying she’d been making chunky vegetable soups with richly flavoured chicken stock immediately got me cooking. I was just on the point of freezing two cartons of jellied chicken stock made with bones and debris from Sunday’s roast chicken, so…