Richard Olney’s Simple French Food is a great book in which to browse. By chance I came across this recipe which is both simple and different. It is made with dried figs but I look forward to making it with what could be our best fig harvest in years. If not to be made in…

It is always good to sort through piles of cuttings and old magazines, mostly kept for recipe ideas or book revues. I am always surprised by the recipes that end up being the most tempting. Pictures of colourful salads with slivers of radish or dotted with pomegranate seeds are everywhere. Then I found this recipe…

It is so satisfying to have a great meal of home grown vegetables. Artichokes with broad beans is possibly my favourite meze dish. The fiddly part is preparing the artichokes. I tend to be wasteful, not trying too hard to get all the flesh from around the ‘choke’. 7-8 artichokes 500g broad beans Olive oil…

It’s the AGM of the local residents’ association and finger food is required. Time to challenge the neighbours’ taste buds. I had never cooked with kasha before. It is roasted buckwheat and used in Russian and Polish cooking. Buckwheat in its raw state is basically a gruel. I remember gruel from children’s books with stories…

This recipe is pure Elizabeth David and, as she writes, (this tart) ‘makes a truly lovely first course’. I cooked it for the French group’s Summer Party. For the pastry use, 200g flour, 100g chilled butter, the yolk of one egg, chilled water and a pinch of salt. Proceed as for the quiche pastry on…

We had full-cream milk, cream and eggs in the fridge and a crème caramel was perfect for serving with stewed apricots. I hadn’t made a crème caramel for ages. It is worth practising from time to time to be sure of getting the oven temperature, quantity and consistency of the milk just right; too hot…

What better roast on a hot summer’s day than Tarragon Chicken! As Richard Olney writes in Simple French Food, ‘tarragon is quarrelsome in the company of bitter herbs and, but for its role among fines herbes, is best used alone’. And never use too much. My recipe is based on the one in Elizabeth David’s…

The chance find of a little book of meze ideas has a wonderful recipe for Greek mushrooms. As with any simple recipe, the quality of the ingredients is important. 150 ml virgin olive oil 120 ml dry white wine Salt and freshly ground black pepper 3 garlic cloves, crushed Small bunch thyme Small bunch parsley…

Inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi, this is a salad that can have many variations. The orange and dates give freshness and sweetness, the radish slices with some of the salad ingredients (such as rocket or watercress) give peppery flavours and the fennel seeds and herbs give extra taste. Choose varieties of lettuce that will give colour…

Suddenly the recipe pages of newspapers and supermarket magazines are full of radishes; finely sliced and scattered over salads,in oriental soups and much more. Revival of the radish! Shame on me, there isn’t a single recipe let alone a radish chapter in The Allotment Kitchen. It isn’t that I don’t like radishes but just that…