It’s extraordinary the effect a spoonful of Seville marmalade has on a stew of lentils and sausages. It fills the kitchen with its powerful orangey aroma and brings sweet sour marmalade flavours to the onion and tomato stew that laps the sausages before the lentils are added. Lurking at the back of my food cupboard…

Look away now if you like a super-smooth fool. This one isn’t made with the usual pureed fruit, instead soft and sloppy, orange-flavoured roast rhubarb unfurls as it’s stirred through thick, creamy sheep milk yoghurt. It’s a pud to make when you have the oven on anyway, and want something healthy and easy, fruity and…

Hanger steak is the American name for onglet in France, the bistro steak that is always cooked rare and served with frites. We call it skirt, although butchers refer to it as the ‘hanging tender’ because it hangs below the ribs, an extension of the tenderloin, in the diaphragm of the animal. It used to…

This is heavy on red vegetables; red onion, Romano red pepper, tomatoes, carrot and a couple of red bird’s eye chillies cooked into a juicy slop moistened by chicken stock. The stew is finished with spinach and leftover roast chicken to make a deliciously vibrant mess. I served it with jacket potatoes but there is…

I love meatballs and love introducing extra textures and flavours to whichever meat I’ve chosen. Here it’s minced lamb with cabbagey greens cooked until very tender with chilli and garlic. It’s wise to chill the meatballs so they get a chance to firm up. They are, though, cooked in the oven, which is much simpler…

Khoresh is an Iranian stew that I first came across in a tiny, very old Persian cook book that a friend picked up in Iran many years ago. Lamb, usually, is thickened with sloppy, soft onion and hauntingly flavoured with saffron. It is often made with fruit but this version has the sweetness of roasted…

A big, chunky bowlful. A soothing meal-in-a-bowl. Serves 2Prep: 20 minCook: 35 min 1 tbsp olive oil100g dry cured smoked bacon lardons1 large onion2 garlic cloves300g trimmed leeks400g potatoes2 chicken thigh fillets1 chicken stock cube1 litre boiling water1 tbsp flour½ tsp salt Heat the oil in a spacious pan over a medium-low heat and add…

Mayo with chopped shallots, cornichons, capers, parsley and lemon, is what you need here. It’s very good with fried fish, particularly breadcrumbed fillets; take a look at Megrim Fish Fingers with Garlic Butter. This is easy to scale up for more or less. Serves 2Prep: 10 min 4 tbsp mayonnaise1 shallot6 cornichon1 tbsp capersfew sprigs…