This month’s recipes
December 2025 M T W T F S S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Category Archives: The Cook Shelf
Fuchsia Dunlop’s red-braised pork recipe
Possibly one of the most embarrassing conversations I ever had was about Chinese food at a Society of Authors‘ ‘young’ (i.e. under 40…) drinks party. I was talking to someone I had just met and bitching about how Time Out‘s … Continue reading
Posted in Every Grain of Rice, One pot, Pork recipes
Tagged Chinese recipes, Fuchsia Dunlop, pork belly recipes
2 Comments
HFW’s Mexican chorizo: a dream storecupboard ingredient
Once upon a time chorizo came cured and in slices. It was something you had on toast for a tapa and struggled to pronounce. Then, a few years ago, a new form of chorizo appeared on our shores: a cooking … Continue reading
Nigella’s chestnut and pancetta salad with kale
I am not one for defending celebs, nor do I care what they get up to in their private lives, but the current media circus around Nigella Lawson, and the fact that she has taken drugs is quite something. Especially … Continue reading
Posted in greens recipes, How to Eat
Tagged Anthony Bourdain, kale recipes, Nigella Lawson, winter salads
5 Comments
Polpo’s runner beans with Pecorino and red onion
Runner beans in my world have, until now, always meant two things: a stringy challenge that is like eating dental floss and a constant reminder of my grandparents’ incredible green-fingeredness. Not a summer went by when we didn’t either eat … Continue reading
Unbelievable herb salad with butter and almond dressing
There is a great thrill, to me at least, in discovering not so much a recipe as a tip. So when I recently learnt that the best way to peel ginger was by using a teaspoon (thanks Debora) I was … Continue reading
Posted in One pot, Ottolenghi The Cookbook, Salad recipes, Vegetarian recipes
Tagged salad recipes, summer recipes, Yotam Ottolenghi
2 Comments
In praise of craft…the joys of baking with a master
Yesterday I took my godson/nephew Matt for his long-overdue, ‘well-done-on-your-exam-results’ present: a class on bread-making at The Bertinet Kitchen Cookery School. Bread, or rather the baking of it, has become a bit of an obsession of mine and, having met Richard Bertinet at Port … Continue reading
Posted in Bread recipes, Dough
Tagged Bertinet Kitchen, bread making, real bread, Richard Bertinet, Ritz Escoffier
12 Comments
Bad Seed bread
My mission to bake better and easier bread continues apace and this week I found a magic ingredient. Many moons ago, when I was younger and idiotically naïve, I worked in a bar in Paris, which is probably the most … Continue reading
Savoy cabbage and Parmesan soup
There is a moment, about now, when the earth starts to wake up and smell, not in a too-many-dogs-not-enough-flowers way but more in a, well, earthy sort of way. I absolutely love it. I crave light more than warmth so … Continue reading
Turning cabbage into chou: helping you love your greens
Cabbage. Now what does that word conjure up? A soggy, smelly, unappetising vegetable? Or the trendiest green in the winter food wardrobe? I used to be in the former camp, having been raised on overcooked white cabbage at home and … Continue reading
Cold remedy 2: Nigel Slater’s aromatic rice
The ideal response to the end of a cold is a Vietnamese soup like this, a Thai one like this or a curry like this. However, since I didn’t have the ingredients for any of those in my cupboards, I was … Continue reading
Posted in Appetite, One pot, rice recipes, Spicy recipes
Tagged Nigel Slater recipes, one pot recipes, rice recipes
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