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Chocolate cake with dark chocolate topping and spider web white chocolate drizzle. The cake is so easy to make it’s embarrassing – but excellent for the kids to be engaged.
Spinach and blue cheese pancakes aka crêpes. European pancakes are thin and - you guessed it - flat as a pancake. The savoury pancake filling is easy and makes a gorgeous dinner not just dessert.
A delicate, fluffy omelette with fresh spinach leaves and grated Cheddar cheese is a perfect lunch or supper for one. And who cares that it doesn’t fold perfectly?
Oven baked spinach and mozzarella balls, coated in breadcrumbs. Healthy baked spinach and cheese balls go well with a steak as a side dish but also delicious as an appetizer.
Spinach and ricotta lasagne with cooked cream instead of bechamel. Lasagne is the best pasta. It took me a while to work out that ‘lasagne’ is actually used in the same grammatical fashion as ‘tagliatelle’ or spaghetti’ – it means the type of pasta in the plural.
Spinach and cheese bake, a healthy casserole served as a side dish or for brunch. Cheese is able to cover a multitude of sins. There aren’t many dishes that can’t be improved by throwing some cheese at them.
Spinach and cheese empanada wrapped in filo pastry and baked in the oven, with honey and pine nut topping. As good in filo as in handmade dough!
Spongata di natale, Italian honey and nut Christmas cake is like an oversized mince pie, with shortcrust pastry case and filling of dried or candied fruit, and mixed nuts.
Deep fried sprats can be eaten whole, head, tail and all but it’s very easy to lop the heads off and clean the sprats a bit. An easy, cheap and delicious treat.
Spring cabbage salad is easy and incredibly healthy, with herbs and a touch of garlic. A welcome change from lettuce or mixed greens, it's perfect for BBQ.
Spring lamb chump chops seared in a hot pan and topped with a pillow of herby crumbs. Light, fresh and delicate in flavour herb crusted lamb chops, the best with new season lamb.
Spring potato salad with radish, gherkins and very light mayo dressing – it’s the taste and flavour of a summer barbecue even in midwinter.
Easy calamari recipe: fried calamari rings with chorizo slices and spring onions. Call it calamari or squid, this recipe will make an excellent starter or a light lunch dish.
Steak and ale pie with flaky homemade shortcrust pastry. Supremely flavourful, hitting all the right spots with the salty, the meaty and the earthy from the mushrooms
Steak salad: thickly sliced medium-rare sirloin atop a pile of grilled vegetables dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. A quick weeknight supper that tastes special.
My mouth-watering steak tartare recipe is the perfect choice for meat lovers who crave a delicious and sophisticated dish. With fresh ingredients like raw beef and egg yolk, crispy capers and gherkins, this classic French recipe is easy to make and impresses every time. Serve it as a starter or main dish, and enjoy the tender texture and bold flavors that make steak tartare a timeless favorite.
Rib-eye steak with green vegetables and blue cheese sauce. This is the easiest sauce for steak: simply toss cooked green vegetables in blue cheese until it melts.
Steamed globe artichokes served with sriracha mayo. What you do with the chokes couldn’t be simpler: steam or boil them and dish them out with some spicy dips. It’s messy – finger job no doubt, and since the heads stay on the communal plate.
Steamed side of salmon in a foil parcel with dill, chilies and soy sauce. Steaming takes only 15 minutes and the salmon can be served hot or cold.
Steamed whole sea bass asian style, with coriander and spring onions. Wok’s shape makes it possible to simply prop up a plate against the sides so it’s beautifully suspended over the water, no rack or even steaming basket needed.
Sticky fig upside down cake. The figs get sticky and melt into the almond layer; and if they don’t look quite as appealing as I was hoping – well, the proof of the pudding and all that.
Pan fried mackerel fillet with sweet sticky sauce. There are two secrets to successfully pan-frying fish. One is a smoking hot pan and the other – the skin of the fish PERFECTLY dry. Otherwise you’ll be scraping the fish bits off the pan forever.
Sticky pear and ginger cake is dark, moist and incredibly easy to make. With juicy chunks of pears and crunchy pecans scattered over the sticky syrupy surface, it’s the perfect winter dessert.
Sticky pork and vegetables stir fry, with honey and soy marinade. A wok is a truly weird and wonderful utensil. Vessel. Cooking implement? Surely it's not just a ‘pot’?
Stir fry cabbage - super quick, super tasty, with herbs, garlic and honey. First off – buy the right stuff. The new season, loosely packed cabbage is the best, in fact the less on the head, the better. What the supermarkets call spring cabbage will do too.
Stir-fried cucumbers Asian style, with ginger, garlic and a pinch of chilli. Spicy but also refreshing which is logical as cukes are 96% water.
Stir fried ginger vegetables: a mixed vegetable stir-fry with ginger and sesame. This healthy Chinese vegetable stir fry is a side dish or a vegetarian main when served over rice or noodles.
Salmon stir fried with ginger, lemon and palm sugar served with green veg. I was a bit worried that my nice bit of salmon I had my mind set on this time would disintegrate. So I had to watch that bit of the documentary again. How did they do it? Below's how – just leave it alone for a while, then turn and that’s it.
Classic Victoria sponge sandwich cake filled with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, also known as strawberry shortcake sandwich.
Strawberry butter cake is a buttery sponge with fresh strawberries scattered over the batter and it's simple and easy to make. Delicious melt-in-your-mouth sponge with seasonal fruit.
Strawberry crumble cake, the easiest cake batter in the world thickly covered with fresh strawberries and finished with crunchy crumble topping. The only summer cake recipe you'll ever need.
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!
Strawberry fool is the supreme of strawberries and cream, with layers of vanilla scented whipped cream and gorgeous fresh strawberry puree, barely sweetened.
Homemade strawberry jam with a twist of lemon and a sprinkle of black pepper enhancing the strawberry flavour. Jamming is preserving fruit in sugar. Jam is fruit cooked in sugar. There isn’t anything fresh, low-calorie or low-carb about jam, let alone keto or other paleo-nonsense.
Cabbage rolls stuffed with a pork mince and rice filling, baked in simple tomato sauce – that’s Polish golabki; the ultimate comfort dish. Also, the best use of the outer cabbage leaves.
Stuffed guinea fowl with spiced and fruity pork stuffing for a special feast. Deboned and rolled guinea fowl, with the special stuffing, won't be out of place on Christmas table.
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.
Pork chops stuffed with salami and a sage, lemon and garlic paste. Pork chops are pretty boring and I’m not usually that keen on them because the meat gets dry, and you can’t really cook pork medium-rare.
Boneless turkey breast fillet butterflied, stuffed and rolled up to a perfect roast joint for Christmas. Did I say how easy it is to carve?
Summer berry ice cream, made in a blender, churned in an ice cream maker. The base contains no eggs but a balanced mix of dairy and natural emulsifiers.
Summer cherry cake with a hint of cinnamon and minimal effort involved. This cake mix is pathetically simple – it takes 5 minutes to prepare and always comes out well.
Toasted crunchy oats with summer fruit compote, perfect for breakfast. I call it ‘fruit compote’ but it most probably is a completely wrong term technically.
Roasted summer vegetables with couscous, with dressing made from the juices of vegetables marinated in harissa, honey and spice mix.
Swedish almond caramel cake, Toscakaka, is a lovely and easy cake to make ahead. Bake the base in advance, then add caramel topping and blast it under the grill just before serving.
Sweet and sour duck stir fry with pineapple and red peppers topped with duck scratchings. Skinless duck breast is used in the stir fry and the skin makes crispy topping.
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.
Sweetcorn and nduja salad made with fresh or frozen corn, served on a bed of lettuce and topped with homemade tortilla crisps – an easy and gorgeous lunch dish.