It seems to me that the best thing about recipes for salads is that I do follow them, though perhaps not slavishly, and take extra care; a salad for guests has to be good with the contents and flavours well balanced. It also needs to look attractive. This salad was a great way to start…

I have become a convert to baked soft cheese. A Christmas present of a cheese baker – an earthenware round bowl with a domed lid – has proved a revelation. I checked the whole idea of baking soft French cheese with Stephane, the Frenchman who runs the cheese shop in the Guildhall market in Bath.…

‘Six eggs’ means a big cake and this is great for a crowd. Rich enough to be a pudding but also good at tea time. The recipe comes from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Simple where he acknowledges a recipe in Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cake Bible. It is a ‘pound cake’ which I first tasted when the owner…

This is almost the best part of Christmas. The stuffing is so good that one year Henry, my youngest stepson, made it his entire Christmas meal. 450g potatoes, peeled, blanched and dried 2 onions, chopped 2 cooking apples, cored and chopped (no need to peel) 3 tbsp chopped parsley 2 tbsp chopped sage Salt and…

This dish is so quick and easy that I never thought to put in on the website. Here it is by popular request (frozen peas always win hearts). It is a recipe by Meera Sodha that, as it has been published in The Guardian several times, I would guess is a staple in her household too.…

We made a gesture towards celebrating Thanksgiving with turkey escalopes (the only choice in our local Waitrose was between fillets and a whole turkey), all the trimmings and a pecan pie. The cranberry sauce gave authenticity! This would be a good sauce to have a child help make as it is fun and quick. 300g…

Our local green grocer calls turnip tops ‘Jimmy the Rapper’ – not a surprising nickname when you learn that the Italian for turnip tops is ‘cime di rapa’. Sarah Raven and Franchi certainly sell seeds with this name which are grown for the tops, not the roots. A good alternative is to use tenderstem broccoli.…

A turnip grew in the middle of our beetroot; a welcome surprise! As well as using most of the root in  soup and rest grated in a slaw, the tender leaves from the green top provided a wonderful addition to a mixture of sauteed vegetables.  Turnip greens are getting popular. A few weeks ago, Alys…

A neighbour on the allotment has grown wonderful radicchio but his family are not its biggest fans. My gain!  My friend Trish was delighted to be given a plant and passed on the most delicious recipe.Take off the outer leaves and cut the radicchio down the middle into quarters or sixths (if large). Wash and…

It’s pumpkin time and this recipe from Monisha Bharadwaj’s new book Indian in 7 is already a firm favourite. Any recipe by Monisha Bharadwaj is likely to use ginger-garlic paste. I make mine in batches and use an ice cube container to freeze it. Be careful to keep the paste wrapped and well away from…