Tomatoes for breakfast
I harvest our tomatoes in the evening, when I water them. They are collected in the fold of my jumper and transferred to a bowl on the kitchen worktop to be admired and eaten. The harvest is just three or four a day at the moment and most mornings the bowl is bare. “Where are the tomatoes?” “I ate them for breakfast. You told me I could eat some.” Danny quite often gets up at four to start work. But tomatoes for breakfast Yuk! If I want to eat our tomatoes I have to hide them in a dark spot in the fridge or my secret...
read moreSimple and delicious lamb cutlets with fresh figs recipe
I love fresh figs. As a child, I watched my mother occasionally savour these exotic and expensive fruit. When she shared her delight and passed me a fragment to taste, I just couldn’t understand the passion. How she could like the pinky flesh, the seeds, the thick skin? Years later, wanting to impress, I picked a fig and gently took a bite. It was both surprising and sensuous. I fell instantly in love with the fruit. Suddenly I realised that it is the disparate combination of deep purple skin, blushing flesh, texture and sweet juice that...
read moreSpecial pork chops with herbs and white wine recipe
When I started buying my meat from Fred Fitzpatrick (Butcher, Exning Road, Newmarket) we began to eat chops regularly. His pork chops are chunky and cheap and his lamb chops are an absolute bargain compared wth supermarkets. All his meat has much more flavour. Fred clearly has a great eye for selecting the best. We discovered a good recipe in Nigel Slater’s The 30 minute Cook. Pork chops with tarragon and white wine. Danny is a creative cook and his recipe has evolved over the past few years. It is also quite a handy recipe for me as it...
read moreBlackberry and apple jam recipe
It was Anne Mary that pointed out that apple and blackberry jam would be full of blackberry pips. “They’d get stuck in your teeth and drive you mad. Stick to bramble jelly.” I love jelly. We make loads of jelly every year. More often than not it is used as a base for a sauce rather than dolloped on a plate of roast lamb or pork. Imagine my delight when I found this recipe for Blackberry and Apple Jam in my aunt’s ancient handwritten cookbook. As it is sieved there are no seeds and the jam is delicious, spread on hot...
read moreCheat’s pork meatballs with tagliatelle
A few years ago, one of the Sunday papers had a weekly column “How to Cheat at Cooking”. Canny recipes created by Delia Smith. Danny and I loved trying these. They introduced us to new ingredients and showed us how to cut corners. They encouraged us to experiment and become a bit more relaxed about all our cooking. After a while we lost interest as we were striving to cook everything from scratch. Great if you are home early. If you totter in at eight, scratch cooking means that you could well be eating at ten. As we have found to...
read moreBest recipes for leftovers: Chicken with creamy mushrooms, puy lentils and cous cous recipe
Leftovers. They tend to lurk in the fridge. Danny seems to have a mental list of them. “I just wondered who is cooking tonight? We have loads of leftovers. Pork and chicken and then there’s that ham…” D gets up earlier than I do. He has hours to examine the contents of the fridge. “We MUST use these leftovers up. It’s such a waste.” I know that it’s a failing but I rarely think, “Cold roast chicken. That could be transformed into a risotto/pie/sandwich.” I spot the chicken dressed in...
read moreMashed potatoes infused with basil and rape seed oil recipe
Potatoes are important to Danny. Not just having some on the plate. They have to be the right variety. When he talks about potatoes it’s like a man describing a tribe of much loved children. And then there are the best ways of cooking them. “Creamed potatoes need lashings of cream and butter. That’s why they’re called creamed.” The milk bottle is silently returned to the fridge. The urge to create a new potato dish bubbles to the surface every now and then. This can only be attempted when I am cooking and D is...
read moreSlow roast belly of pork on a nest of Victoria plums recipe
Last night we were at a super party where the hostess had cooked a wonderful lamb tagine with squash, chick peas and spinach. It was intense, rich and delicious. She mentioned later that she hated the combination of fruit and meat. “Apricots in a tagine will lift it and not overpower the dish.” “I know that you can use anything seasonal but I just don’t want fruit.” “Have you tried dried fruit?” I love fruit and meat. Coincidentally, we had decided to try cooking belly of pork on a nest of plums the...
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