Scallops on my recent visit to Cornwall were abundant and huge, with big, gleaming corals. These days they are most often sold without their shells, occasionally on the half shell. I don’t mind as I’ve got huge piles of these pleasing and useful shells of various sizes and use them for butter and salt, dips…

I’ve come increasingly round to the joy of making roast soups. If that sounds incongruous, just let me say that the ingredients are roasted, sometimes with seasonings, then liquidized. It makes soup making very simple, fills the kitchen with glorious aromas and requires very little chopping and faffing. For this soup, scrubbed or scraped carrots…

This unashamed cheat recipe is a hit with everyone who tries it. The little pasties are glazed with beaten egg and finished with fennel, poppy or sesame seeds, or a mixture. Good with a chunky tomato sauce or pickle, or a big crunchy salad. If you can’t find the unlikely sounding but quite excellent Eazy…

Gurnard is one of many superb but unfamiliar fish that in these post-Brexit days we should discover. It looks like red mullet with a big head so weighs badly on the slab but has a dense texture, good clean flavour and few bones. In Newlyn, where it’s prolific and where I saw it many years…

This is a variation on a theme, a favourite combination of creamy white beans, firm white fish and spicy chorizo. Here I’ve used butter beans added to a slop of diced tomato flavoured with a splash of white wine and plump little chorizo cooking sausages. Fillets of hake are then laid over the top, the…

I eat asparagus most days while our asparagus season reigns. Risotto is a perfect way of turning it into a glorious mid-week treat and adding torn leftover roast chicken towards the end, makes a very complementary addition. It’s not an occasion to hold back on butter and one to use freshly grated Parmesan. Special stock…