It’s April and at last spring is in the air. My best allotment crop is lovage. Beware lovage! A little goes a long way but it can make a meal. Eleanor Perenyi in Green Thoughts even advises against accepting the gift of a lovage plant. It has a celery flavour and can be added to…

I have just discovered a classic recipe from Elizabeth David in her, Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen, 1970. This is a great dish to accompany lamb or beef kebabs and is perfectly good eaten on its own (ED suggests adding either toasted pine nuts or almonds, or soaked then cooked sultanas or…

I really enjoy the blood orange season and have a very vivid memory of eating blood oranges for the first time when I was five years old and we were in France at Easter. Excited to be using my new orange juicer for this recipe. Very sticky, very moreish; the glaze almost has a taste…

I have a new gadget, a Hackelmann slicer – a present from Bärbl brought back from Germany. Brilliant for making very thin slices of vegetables. Just tonight we are having beetroot slices (6mm thick) roasted, left to cool and then topped with hummus with our drinks before the meal. I also sliced fennel (5mm thick)…

This recipe comes from Clarissa Dickson Wright who tells the story of how her mother cooked duck for the son of the famous Russian opera singer, Feodor Chaliapin. It is quite delicious and Chaliapin’s son ate a whole duck to himself, much to the chagrin of the youthful CDW as duck cooked this way is…

Midway through Holy Week when leeks are in season is a splendid time to make this pie. I didn’t use puff pastry but the pastry I make for quiches (and much more) on page 209 of The Allotment Kitchen. It worked very well. I was pleased to use my first picking of chives from the…

My local greengrocer (what an old fashioned word that is!) has new season garlic from Spain on display. Perfect for making hummus. Good spread on pitta bread or any rustic toasted bread but also good to serve with drinks spread on very thin slices of roasted beetroot. 150g chickpeas Salt 4 garlic cloves Juice of…

A variation of salsa verde which is refreshing and especially good with barbecued chicken. 50g lightly roasted pistachios, roughly chopped 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 small bunch mint, stalks removed and leaves finely chopped 1 small bunch parsley, finely chopped 1 green chilli, finely chopped Juice of 1 lime 4 salad onions, finely sliced 4…

St Patrick’s Day yesterday and we did him proud. Mr Guinness’s Cake for tea and then off to the pub for a Guinness and back home, as the snow was falling, for colcannon – one of my very favourite dishes. This classic kale dish, delicious served with baked ham, is the bubble and squeak of…