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Pistachio lemon shortbread bars, with nutty shortcrust base and tangy lemon topping filled with more pistachios. Those New York Times recipe inspired bars or slices are easy to make, easier to eat.
Plain scones, or biscuits as they are known in America. This version has cheese in it but a couple of spoonfuls of sugar and some cinnamon will make a decent sweet version.
Pork mince and red kidney bean chilli is a warming and easy dish. With dried chillies or just chilli powder, beans cooked from scratch or tinned, the end result will always be rewarding.
Pork parmigiana - Italian pork schnitzel baked in tomato sauce with mozzarrella and Parmesan. A.k.a. pork parmesan is the best possible dish to use pork tenderloin in!
A classic pound cake with simple apricot jam glaze, made with equal amounts of sugar, eggs, flour and butter. Also known as quatres-quarts or madeira cake.
Prawn Creole for two served with plain rice is my signature special main dish these days. Easy sauce base and roux, and homemade Creole seasoning recipe included.
The best and the easiest pulled pork with smoked paprika rub, seared and flambéed on the hob followed by slow braising in the oven. Perfect for amazing tacos, sandwiches and pasta or rice topping.
Pumpkin and cranberry pie with filling made with condensed milk and canned pumpkin purée. Homemade pie crust from scratch and a cranberry layer are the winning factors in this festive pie.
Pumpkin bread spiced with cinnamon and cloves, with walnuts and cranberries. I’ll say it very quickly: pumpkin bread is good. Very much the thing to do with this tin of puree knocking about the cupboard.
Raspberry crumble bars with oats, brown sugar and fresh berries; recipe adapted from the New York 'Baked' bakery cookbook.
Red velvet cake frosted with a cream cheese, mascarpone and whipped cream filling. It’s an excellent cake, totally suited for a birthday, layered and all, frosted and decorated – a beauty.
Reverse seared ribeye steak served with umami flavoured compound butter. The perfect steak, cooked in reverse: first low temperature, then a blast of heat.
Roasted sweet potatoes with chorizo and bacon are the perfect blend of sweet, salty and spicy.
San Francisco style sourdough is the top rated sourdough bread recipe. The history of the San Francisco sourdough bread goes back to the California Gold Rush of the late 19th century.
Seeded brown dinner rolls: these soft wholemeal bread rolls taste a little like a wholemeal version of challah rolls. They stay soft and fresh for a good few days and also freeze well.
Best red wine braised short ribs of beef with plum sauce, sweet and tender, called Obama’s short ribs, after the dish served to Barack Obama in a Harlem restaurant.
Silver Palate chocolate cake, a decadent and super moist cake with dark chocolate frosting. NY Times Cooking recipe adapted from The Silver Palate Cookbook.
Slow roasted strawberries become jammy but not too sickly, coated in luscious syrup, and they have a multitude of uses in desserts, cakes and afternoon tea confections.
Snickerdoodles, butter cookies with cinnamon coating. Make them with kids so they roll the dough balls in sugared cinnamon like dung beetles. Also tempting to add choc chips – but then you’d turn the funky snickerdoodles into plain old choc chip cookies which would be a shame.
Soft burger buns with a sesame sprinkle, made from dough enriched with butter and eggs. The classic homemade burger bun recipe is the best!
Strawberry fizz, a prosecco and grenadine cocktail sparkling with halves of frozen strawberries. Use cava or cremant instead of prosecco - it's the sparkle that matters, not the brand!
Cream cheese and Cheddar stuffed jalapeno peppers, baked in the oven for a delicious snack or appetiser. Much healthier than deep fried jalapeno poppers but none the less tasty.
Baked sweet potato halves loaded with spicy black beans and Cheddar cheese: vegetarian lunch, snack or dinner, blissfully comforting.
Sweet potatoes baked in foil, topped with tahini butter are a fabulous fiesta of flavours. Recipe adapted from NY Times Cooking.
Tartine style sourdough country bread including recipe for starter made from scratch. I promise: it's absolutely worth the time and the effort.
Chicken teriyaki, marinated overnight in homemade teriyaki which doubles up as sauce. Zinged with cinnamon, ginger and garlic, teriyaki sauce is much easier to make than you'd think and totally worth the effort.
Pasta potstickers, pan fried then steamed tortellini or cappelletti, make a shop-bought filled pasta into a special dish of Asian style crispy dumplings with pancetta.
Chewy and crispy chocolate chip cookies with white and brown sugar. These are triple choc, but you can add the chocolate chips of your choice: dark or white or milk.
Vanilla chocolate cupcakes with meringue buttercream frosting. These are good though for a dinner party dessert: you dish out individual items which is neat and stops people from devouring the whole large cake in one sitting.
Tartine sourdough loaf with toasted walnut chunks. Squirrels have dug holes in my lawn, the sure sign of autumn. I don’t blame them much – they manage just about to scuff the grass and topsoil, puny diggers they are.
Raspberry muffins with white chocolate chunks. Muffin is not a biscuit. It's not a cake. It's not quite breakfast fodder. It's this weird cakey thing that you grab when on the go, when hungry but its not lunchtime.
Wild rice with sautéed king oyster mushrooms is an exquisite treat of earthy flavours, chewy textures and a burst of nutritional values. It doesn’t taste like rice – because it isn’t rice.