Drying is the oldest form of preservation and, at its simplest, this recipe needs no more than perfectly ripe unbruised apples. Wash the apples ( I use late eating apples such as Tydeman’s Late Orange), cut off the bottom and core. You may also choose to peel the fruit. Using a wide (coin thick) setting…

This sauce is brilliant, packed with flavour and rustic simplicity. As with so many Italian recipes, the ingredients are important and this recipe needs sun ripened tomatoes that are sweet and juicy. From supermarkets, the small plum tomatoes work well as a substitute but are a fiddle to prepare and you may need to use…

Apple butter is a North American treat, invented by the Dutch settlers in Pennsylvania. Basically it is a spiced apple purée made into a sweet spread with cider. Stored in jars, it will keep for a few weeks in the fridge but can also be frozen for use during the winter. Use on toast or…

2024 and it has been a great year for apples. My favourite cooking apple is the Wellington which was the most popular before the arrival of the Bramley and still thought to be the best for making mincemeat. Oven at 180°C 4 cooking apples, preferably Wellingtons or Bramleys, cored and scored with a sharp knife…

This is the most wonderful, comforting soup when evenings become colder. Elizabeth David was hardly complementary: ‘The onion soup generally regarded as ‘French’, with sodden bread, strings of cheese, and half-cooked onion floating about in it, seems to me a good deal overrated and rather indigestible. ‘ Of course, there are many variations of how…

Slices of watermelon were on sale at the fruit stall in Bath and, by chance, my daughter had sent me a photograph and recipe for a watermelon and tomato salad she had made which looked very much like the one by Rumini Iyer that featured in the Guardian’s Feast section (issue 330) a few weeks…

An evening on the allotment and I am offered runner beans, courgettes and potatoes. Together with the vegetables I had planned to make, they made a wonderful meal. Oven at 180℃ 1 cauliflower, broken into small florets2 courgettes, cut into slices 1.5 cm thick1 tbsp rape seed oil6 potatoes, scrubbed2 leeks, washed and sliced into…

This dish, much loved by the Guardian reviewers and recipe writers, is based on the famous warm chicken salad served in the Zuni Café in San Francisco. The restaurant is famed for its roast chicken dishes created by their late head chef, Judy Rodgers. The chicken is always rubbed with salt for at least 24…

It has been a great year for radishes which can be ready to eat four weeks from sowing The trend for mixed salads favours them by using the leaves (especially from thinnings) as well as the root. They have never been universally popular. Mrs Beeton was dismissive. She remarked that radishes are ‘usually eaten raw…

Digging over the patch next to the sweet cicely, I found the tag that must have come with the first plant 20 or more years ago. It explains how not only the leaves and seeds can be used but also the root. Gerard in his Herbal knew this well: ‘The roots are likewise most excellent…