This month’s recipes
February 2026 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
Category Archives: The Cook Shelf
Celeriac and apple soup and Sarah Raven’s Garden Cookbook
Although I am sure that a) if there was never another cookbook published, we would have plenty of recipes for several millennia, that, b) a bit like stories, there are only so many techniques and recipes that anyone can invent, … Continue reading
A salad to make your tastebuds, and eyes, sing
The frost is here, the snow about to arrive and although I love that blue-sky-white-ground contrast I’m starting to crave bright colours and tastes. I’m also in need of some winter salad inspiration. My defaults are red cabbage, apple and … Continue reading
Posted in Everyday and Sunday, Salad recipes, Vegetarian recipes, Winter vegetables
Tagged fast recipes, Riverford, salad recipes
6 Comments
Dorie Greenspan’s Vietnamese chicken soup
Fed up with all that heavy food? Yes, me too a bit. Probably that second, or was it third?, slice of blue cheese tart that did it. This gorgeous Vietnamese soup is the perfect antidote to all of that buttery, … Continue reading
Posted in Around My French Table, Dorie Greenspan, Soup recipes, Wheat-free
Tagged Dorie Greenspan, Vietnamese recipes
2 Comments
Improving sausages and mash
Sometimes, in fact a lot of the time in my case, all we want when we get home is something familiar, something that requires very little thought and yet is immensely pleasing. For me, in the winter, that often means … Continue reading
Posted in Appetite, Nigel Slater
Tagged fast recipes, Nigel Slater recipes, quick and easy recipes, sausages and mash
2 Comments
Curried parsnip soup…no, come back, it’s really delicious and healthy!
This soup could have been designed for January detoxes. Wheat- and dairy-free (well, if you use olive oil for the sautéeing), it is still comfortingly thick and warming without being loaded with fat and potatoes. Yes, the parsnips are starchy … Continue reading
The oven is your friend: roast pork belly with braised red cabbage
If ever there was a week when fast and easy food was required, it’s this one. Most people will be finishing work, or travelling, or writing and buying the last Christmas cards and presents or, poor sods, all of the … Continue reading
Birthday treats: Dan Lepard’s pear turnovers
A little off-piste post today. It’s my birthday and, well, it’s all about the treats. First, a little light baking: Dan Lepard‘s delicious and never-before-tried sugar-crusted pear turnovers. Easy-peasy and just yum with a homemade latte. No, I didn’t spend … Continue reading
Posted in Cake recipes, Short and Sweet
Tagged cake recipes, Dan Lepard, Moro, pear recipes, St Pancras
3 Comments
An amazing leek and Parmesan soup
What lingers in your fridge? What are the foodstuffs that you either a) always have too much of and/or b) hang on to because it/they will, of course come in handy at some point? I am guilty of always having … Continue reading
Posted in Cheese recipes, One pot, Soup recipes, The Kitchen Diaries
Tagged fast recipes, Nigel Slater
1 Comment
Roasted poussin, or chicken, with lemon and sumac
I went to a party to celebrate (rather than, as is more usual, launch) Dan Lepard’s Short and Sweet the other night. It took place in the newest Comptoir Libanais, in South Kensington, a very simple yet striking restaurant, canteen-like … Continue reading
Posted in Arabesque, Chicken recipes, Claudia Roden, One pot, Yotam Ottolenghi
Tagged chicken recipes, fast recipes, Lebanese recipes
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Baked onions with cream and Parmesan
One of the quickest, and to be fair yummiest, dinners on the planet has to involve buying a ready-roasted chicken from the supermarket rotisserie and eating it with some salad. But, although that’s fine in the summer, in the winter, … Continue reading
Posted in Nigel Slater, The Kitchen Diaries, Winter vegetables
Tagged fast recipes, Nigel Slater, onion recipes
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WTF Do I Eat Tonight? 