Category Archives: ramblings

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Aromatic spiced chard, leek & feta pie

Aromatic spiced chard, leek & feta pie
I love spanakopita, the delicious Greek pie, filled with feta, ricotta and spinach and veiled in wonderful flaky filo pastry.  Taking the base recipe as a starting point, I’ve changed things up a little by using a spice blend more akin to Middle Eastern cooking; sumac and ground allspice give the filling a wonderful warmth…
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Roast pumpkin, leek, Parmesan & sage tart

Roast pumpkin, leek, Parmesan & sage tart
Pumpkin, sage and nutmeg are a match made in heaven; add some softened leeks and Parmesan, a rich set custard and some pastry and you’ve got a tart to die for! Making tarts can be quite time consuming, especially if you’re making your own pastry. It’s also, in the case of vegetables, often necessary to…
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Beetroot, wholegrain rice, goat’s cheese & dill bake

Beetroot, wholegrain rice, goat’s cheese & dill bake
This super easy recipe was inspired by a couple of sources; The first was a wild rice casserole that I cooked not so long ago from Heidi Swanson’s book Super Natural Every Day; the second is a recipe I learnt at a course at Cookery at the Grange in Somerset over 20 years ago that…
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Fusilli bucati with onions, saffron and Pecorino

Fusilli bucati with onions, saffron and Pecorino
I’ve been reading a fair number of Italian cookbooks of late and found myself inspired to cook a pasta recipe where the principal ingredient in the sauce is onions.  Cooking onions slowly leaves them incredibly rich and sweet and transforms their texture into something silky and indulgent. I was lucky enough this week to be…
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Swede recipes. Yes, swede!

Swede recipes. Yes, swede!
I recently started collaborating with Crop Drop, the Haringey based organic veg box company.   They were after someone to write recipes using their lovely veg so I jumped at the chance.   The first week I was tasked with a challenge; swede!  Swede isn't the easiest of vegetables to turn into something delicious.  It can…
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Salads, a great vehicle for flavour balancing

Salads, a great vehicle for flavour balancing
I'm often asked about the process I go through to create a recipe and have been giving this some thought over the past couple of weeks.  And I've realised it's quite hard to articulate! However, things started to become clearer last week after attending a mobile phone photography workshop run by Matt Inwood . Matt took…
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Cheese and quince scones; a little off-piste

Cheese and quince scones; a little off-piste
It might seem an obvious thing to say, but the food I love to create, is the food I want to eat. I'm often plagued with troublesome voices trying to convince me that my food isn't cerebral enough, that it needs to be more refined and plated up as if it's on the culinary catwalk.…
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Braised squid with preserved lemons, garlic and bay

Braised squid with preserved lemons, garlic and bay
This one pot recipe is a great way to cook squid if you're not in the mood for quickly chargrilling or (deep?)frying it.  Squid needs to be cooked for a short amount of time at a high temperature or braised for a much longer time at a low temperature.  This ensures you get lovely tender…
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