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…

Big warning signs flash when I talk about Negroni. Red alert in terms of alcohol but high up there (after Gin Gimlet and Campari and Soda) with the drinks that, when conditions are right, I would love to have. Warning over and, as my daughter’s twitter informs me, the first week of June was Negroni…

Sometimes a recipe just jumps at you and this is exactly what happened when I was turning the pages of Madhur Jaffrey’s Illustrated Indian Cookery. She writes,’Even people who do not have a weakness for (beetroot), manage to succumb to the charms of this recipe’. No problem for us as we are already converted. This…

Nothing like a wet day to buckle down on the floor to sort through a pile of magazines and recipes. We should have been at the Bath and West Show but were wise to take heed of an amber weather warning. We were very sorry not to have caught up with our friends, Julie and…

This recipe is well traveled. Astrid Øyehaug, who kindly sent it to me, and her family live in Oslo but spend much but time in the house they have restored in Sicily. I was reminded that I had kept an article by Rachel Roddy from The Guardian extolling the virtues of fennel risotto and how…

This is my all time favourite summer comfort food. This sauce epitomises Italian cooking. It is so simple but all the ingredients must be of the best quality, used generously and cooked with feeling. Take about 20 ripe tomatoes. Cut off the tops where the stems had been and place the tomatoes flat side down…

This dish is perfect for an easy summer dinner. It need only go in the oven when the first course is being eaten.. Serve with new potatoes and a green salad. ‘Chips’ of polenta would make a good accompaniment. 4 swordfish steaks Olive oil 75g black olives, pitted and chopped 300g plum tomatoes, peeled, chopped,…

Friday evening and a horrible drive back from riding in Wells. Met our neighbour, Roger, as I got out of the car who invited us into the Marlborough Tavern for a drink, Yes! Too late to cook the supper I had planned when we got back but this quick recipe from Claudia Roden’s The Food…