Potato & goats cheese salad

Ingredients Garden peas, fine beans, exquisa   potatoes, goats cheese, creme fraiche, black pepper, chives, lemon.

1) Prick the potatoes and boil them for 20 minutes in hot salted water. during the last 10 minutes, add the fine beans, during the last 3, add the garden peas.


2) Strain the potatoes and run under a cold tap then set aside.


3) Whip goats cheese with creme fraiche and a squeeze of lemon juice, then stir the potatoes, green beans and garden peas into it. 


4) Serve warm or cold with freshly chopped chives and freshly ground black pepper.

Hazelnut & goats cheese salad

Ingredients Salad leaves, goats cheese, hazelnuts, balsamic glaze, basil oil, pomegranate jewels

1) Roll the goats cheese into pearls and crush a small handful of hazelnuts.


2) Wash the salad leaves and toss them in a little basil oil.


3) Add the goats cheese, hazelnuts and and pomegranate jewels and drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Chicken & pancetta sartu

Ingredients Risotto rice (arborio, carnaroli or vialone nano - I would recommend carnaroli), white onion, vegetable stock, butter, basil oil, sherry, mushrooms, chicken, garlic, double cream, old bread.

Sartu is a sort of kiev made from risotto - baked in a bowl to form a crust on the outside and a soft gooey filling.

1) Prepare the bowl by rubbing butter on the inside, then coating with breadcrumbs (blitz old bread in a blender to form crumbs). Put the bowl in the fridge.


2) Crush 4 cloves of garlic and mix with butter and a tablespoon of parsley. Add into a pan with the strips of chicken. Sizzle the chicken for 2 minutes and then add a handful of finely chopped mushrooms and a drizzle of double cream. Stir through and simmer for 5 minutes before taking off the heat and setting aside. Stir through the pancetta once cool.


3) To make the risotto crust, finely dice a white onion and sizzle in a pan with some basil oil. Add the rice and stir until the rice becomes transparent, revealing a white dot in the centre. Pour in a glug of sherry and stir as it cooks off.


4) Add the first ladle of vegetable stock and stir through. Continue to stir the risotto, adding stock one ladle at a time as it cooks off. Once the risotto is ready, stir through 2 tablespoons of double cream and set aside to cool.


5) Take the crumbed bowl from the fridge and spoon a layer of risotto over the crumbs. Press firmly against the sides and imagine you're building an igloo! This has to stand up under its own weight so it needs to have firm sides.


6) Spoon the chicken, mushroom and pancetta mixture into the centre, then pack more risotto down over the filling. This will form the base of the sartu so make sure it is flat.


7) Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, then turn it over onto a plate and cut into it to serve.

Spinach & ricotta risotto

Ingredients Risotto rice (arborio, carnaroli or vialone nano - I would recommend carnaroli), white onion, vegetable   stock, butter, basil oil, spinach   leaves, nutmeg, ricotta, black pepper, sherry.

All risottos (no matter what the ingredients) can be made in 3 simple stages. The first is called tostatura - coating the rice in fat, the second involves cooking off some alcohol (white wine, brandy or vermouth produce the best flavours) and the third involves releasing the starch from the rice one ladle of stock at a time.


1) Finely dice a white onion and saute in a pan with a little butter and 3/4 of a nutmeg, grated. 


2) Add the rice and a glug of basil oil. Stir until the rice becomes transparent, revealing a white dot in the centre and pour in a glug of sherry.


3) Stir through as the sherry cooks off and then add a ladle of vegetable stock.


4) Continue to stir through, adding stock a ladle at a time as it cooks off. Stir in 2 handfuls of spinach with the final ladle of stock, add a teaspoon of black pepper and 2 tablespoons of ricotta then stir through and serve.

Dippy duck egg

Ingredients Duck egg, asparagus

I love asparagus, particularly with hollandaise but sometimes, I just crave simplicity!


1) Trim your asparagus and either grill, steam or parboil it for 2-3 minutes


2) The perfect boiled egg usually takes 4-5 minutes depending on the size and freshness of the egg. I boiled this duck egg for 5 minutes - a good indication is   if you take the egg out of the water and the water immediately evaporates from the shell.


3) Lop the top from your egg, then dunk the asparagus in. Mmmm dippy goodness.

Chicken satay

Ingredients   Chicken, broccoli, bell pepper,     noodles, peanut butter (I like Whole Earth Foods), sherry, dark soy sauce, white wine vinegar, basil oil, cayenne pepper.

1) Scoop 3 tablespoons of peanut butter into a pan and allow it to melt. Stir the chicken pieces into the peanut butter and leave to marinate for 20 minutes.


2) Add 2 tablespoons of basil oil, a tablespoon of sherry, a tablespoon of dark soy sauce and a tablespoon of white wine vinegar to a wok. Add the chicken and stir through for 10 minutes.


3) Cut the florets from the broccoli stalk and put in some water to boil.


4) Slice a bell pepper and a handful of mushrooms and add to the pan with the chicken. Stir fry for a further 10 minutes then add the noodles. Stir fry for 5 minutes, drain the broccoli and stir it through before serving.

Riccioli al forno with bacon

Ingredients Riccioli pasta, bacon, passata tomatoes, basil, basil oil, parsley, oregano, white onion, cheddar.

Al forno means baked in the oven - like lasagne or cannelloni. Sometimes you just need a little melting, bubbling comfort food!

1) Put on the riccioli to boil in hot salted water for about 8 minutes - leave it al dente so that it softens in the oven.

2) Peel and finely dice a white onion and saute with a splash of basil oil until soft. Add a tablespoon of basil, oregano and parsley and stir through.

3) Add the passata tomatoes and stir through, adding thin strips of bacon.

4) Strain the pasta and add to the sauce. Stir through and transfer to a casserole dish. Top with a generous layer of grated cheese, cover and bake in the oven for 6-7 minutes before serving.

Spinach & ricotta gnocchi

Ingredients   200g Spinach, 125g ricotta, 1 potato, 3 oz plain flour, nutmeg

1) Add the spinach and ricotta into a blender with some freshly grated nutmeg and black pepper.


2) Bake a small potato and allow it to cool. Remove the skin and add to the blender along with the plain flour. Blitz through and roll the mixture into balls.


3) Roll the balls in flour, then drop in boiling, salted water. Once the dumplings float to the surface, they're ready.


I served this with some leftover tomato sauce from making spinach, stilton and cashew cannelloni

Stuffed tomatoes

Ingredients   2 Beef tomatoes, cheddar, 2 mushrooms, parsley

1) Slice the top from the tomatoes and set aside.


2) Run the knife around the inside, stick a fork into the core and turn it until the core comes out. Use a teaspoon to scoop out the seeds and juice.


3) Finely chop 2 chestnut mushrooms, mix with grated cheddar and finely chopped parsley and stuff the tomato - packing the mixture down tightly.


4) Bake in the oven for 20 minutes and serve.

Leek & duck eggs en cocotte

Ingredients 2 duck eggs, half a leek, butter, parmigiano, bread.

1) Slice the end off a leek and then cut the leek in half (widthways) and then in half (lengthways). Peel the layers of leek away and sautee in a pan with a little butter, using a wooden spatula to flatten the leek slices so they soften as strips and not tubes.


2) Use the strips to line a ramekin (be careful not to burn your fingers, but do add them whilst hot rather than allowing them to cool down. around the sides and bottom, then crack a duck egg into the ramekin.


3) Bake in the oven for a few minutes. The trick is for the white of the egg to become solid but for the yolk to remain liquid, like a poached egg.


Serve on toast.

Green bean pistou

Ingredients Linguine, green beans, toasted almonds, basil oil, basil, lime, parmigiano.

Pistou is a French version of pesto, traditionally spooned onto soup - I happen to also think it is pretty fabulous stirred onto pasta as a change from pesto.


1) Roughly chop some basil and then grind in a mortar and pestle thoroughly, adding a pinch of salt, the toasted almonds and a squeeze of lime to taste.


2) Cook the linguine in hot, salted water for 10 minutes, adding the green beans after 2.


3) Strain in a colander and add back to the pan. Stir through the pistou and serve sprinkled with parmeggian.

Leek & pancetta croquettes

Ingredients Potato, leek, pancetta, butter, old bread, egg,

When making Leek & pancetta mash, I like to use the leftovers to make croquettes with. Here's how to make them from scratch though.


1) Peel your potatoes and cut them into chunks before boiling in boiling salted water for 20 minutes.


2) Finely slice the leek and sautee in butter for 10 minutes, adding the pancetta during the last 3 minutes.


3) Mash the potatoes and stir through the leek and pancetta.


4) Once the mash is cool, roll it into a sausage shape. Whisk an egg and set aside.


5) Pulse some old bread in a blender to make breadcrumbs. Dip the potato sausage into the whisked egg, roll in the breadcrumbs and then deep fry until golden brown.

Honeyed pork curry

Ingredients   Pork, cumin, garam marsala, cinnamon, coriander, chopped tomatoes, Rachel's Organic Greek yoghurt with honey, white onion, ghee/butter, red chillis.

1) Peel and chop 2 small white onions into chunks, deseed and finely dice 2 red chillis and then fry in ghee or butter for 2 minutes.


2) Add the pork and sizzle with the onions, chillis and butter for a few seconds before adding a teaspoon of cumin, a teaspoon of garam marsala, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Stir well.


3) As the meat begins to brown, add a tin of peeled, chopped tomatoes and a handful of chopped coriander.


4) Leave to simmer for 20 minutes, then stir in 3 tablespoons of Rachel's Organic Greek yoghurt with honey.


5) Serve with extra yoghurt to cut the heat if you're not great with spicy food - personally I'd be more likely to make this with 4 chillis!

Peshwari Naan

Ingredients 250g wholemeal flour, 2 tsp caster sugar, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 150ml Rachel's Organic coconut yoghurt, 2 tbsp butter, 35g sultanas.

1) Sift together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder, stir in the melted butter and the coconut yoghurt.


2) Kneed for 10 minutes, adding extra flour if it's too sticky.


3) Leave the dough in a covered, oiled bowl somewhere warm for an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.


4) Knock the dough back and separate into 5 balls.


5) Roll out each dough ball and fold each in half - pinch the edges together with water and grill on a pizza stone/hot baking tray until brown spots form.

Steak with stilton sauce, leek & pancetta mash

Ingredients    Steak, double cream, milk,  plain flour, butter, stilton, potato, pancetta, parmigiano, leek.

To make the leek & pancetta mash


1) Peel your potatoes and cut them into chunks before boiling in boiling salted water for 20 minutes.


2) Finely slice the leek and sautee in butter for 10 minutes, adding the pancetta during the last 3 minutes.


3) Mash the potatoes and stir through the leek and pancetta.


To make the stilton sauce


1) Melt some butter in a pan and whisk through flour to make a roux. 


2) Add a little milk and continue whisking until a thick sauce has formed. Stir through the stilton and serve on top of grilled steak


If you have any mash left over, why not try my leek & pancetta croquettes?

Mozzarella in Carozza

Ingredients Mozzarella, old bread, plain flour, 1 egg

1) Using room temperature mozzarella, pat dry and dust with plain flour.


2) Whisk an egg and dip the mozzarella in the egg mixture


3) Blitz some old bread in your blender to make breadcrumbs, then roll the mozarella in the breadcrumbs until coated.


4) Deep fry for 2 minutes, or until the crumbs are golden brown.


I served this with some leftover tomato sauce from making spinach, stilton and cashew cannelloni

Spinach, stilton & cashew cannelloni

Ingredients   Spinach, stilton, cashew nuts, hazelnut butter, bell peppers, red wine, passata tomatoes, white onion, cheddar, basil, basil oil

1) Crush a few handful of cashew nuts in a blender, stir in a teaspoon of hazelnut butter to bind into a paste and then add the spinach and blue cheese. Stuff the mixture into cannelloni tubes and set aside.


2) Remove the top and seeds from 2 bell peppers and slice into chunks. Roast in the oven, drizzled with basil oil for 20 minutes, or until the edges just begin to blacken.


3) Finely dice a white onion and sautee in butter until soft. Add a glass of red wine and reduce, stirring regularly until half the liquid remains. Gradually add the passata tomatoes, chopped basil and parsley and season with a pinch of salt.


4) In as casserole dish, first place the cannelloni tubes, side by side and then spoon a layer of roast peppers, followed by a few ladles of the tomato and red wine sauce. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then add a layer of grated cheese. Bake in the oven for a further 10 minutes and serve.

Pork & apple cannelloni

Ingredients  Sausage meat, parsley, braeburn   apple, butter, bell peppers, red wine, passata tomatoes, white onion, cheddar, basil, basil oil

1) Peel, core and finely dice a Braeburn apple and sautee in butter for 2 minutes. Mix the apple with freshly chopped parsley and the sausage meat and stuff it inside cannelloni tubes. Set aside.


2) Remove the top and seeds from 2 bell peppers and slice into chunks. Roast in the oven, drizzled with basil oil for 20 minutes, or until the edges just begin to blacken.


3) Finely dice a white onion and sautee in butter until soft. Add a glass of red wine and reduce, stirring regularly until half the liquid remains. Gradually add the passata tomatoes, chopped basil and parsley and season with a pinch of salt.


4) In as casserole dish, first place the cannelloni tubes, side by side and then spoon a layer of roast peppers, followed by a few ladles of the tomato and red wine sauce. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, then add a layer of grated cheese. Bake in the oven for a further 10 minutes and serve.

Turkey roulade with apricot & cashew

Ingredients  Turkey steak, cashew nuts, hazelnut  butter, dried apricot, black pepper, basil oil, dried basil.

1) Crush a few handful of cashew nuts in a blender (or using a mortar and pestle), stir in a teaspoon of hazelnut butter to bind into a paste and set aside.


2) Grind some black pepper, dried basil, a pinch of salt and stir through some basil oil. Give your turkey steaks a good pounding with a meat mallet and then spread the pepper and basil oilto one side.


3) Flip over the turkey steak and add a tablespoon of the cashew nut mixture and a dried apricot. Roll the turkey steak around the filling. Repeat for each turkey steak and bake in the oven for 15 minutes, basting with the juices after 7 minutes.

Lemon curd

Ingredients   4 Lemons, 4 eggs, 350g caster sugar, double cream, 8oz butter

1) Juice your lemons and set aside in a jug whilst you boil a kettle of water.


2) Whisk the 4 eggs together in a mixing bowl and set the bowl over a pan of boiling water to make a bain marie.


3) Whisk the caster sugar into the eggs and add the lemon juice. Continue to whisk until you cannot see any sugar grains, then add half of the butter and continue to whisk.


4) When the mixture has begun to thicken (about 10-15 minutes), add 2 tablespoons of double cream and continue to whisk until the lemon curd is thick enough to draw a line through it with a spoon. Take from the heat and whisk through the remaining butter to make it glossy.


Pour into hot, sterilised jars and allow to cool completely before consuming.
Lemon curd makes a fabulous cheesecake topping - if you are using it as such, keep some set aside as it's cooling.

Butternut squash arancini

Ingredients Leftover Butternut squash risotto, sausage meat, old bread, egg.

Risotto is rubbish when reheated - it tends to congeal and lose the lovely soupy-ness so I like to put that to good use and once it's cool, roll it into risotto balls or arancini di riso if you speak Italian.


1) Pulse old bread in your blender to form breadcrumbs. In this case I used some mediterrean rustiques - garlic, tomato and herb bread.


2) Roll out the sausage meat and form it around the risotto ball. Dip in whisked egg and roll about in the breadcrumbs.


3) Deep fry until golden and crispy - or sizzle for 1 minute and bake in the oven for 4 minutes if like me you're not a fan of fried food.

Sweet potato & cheddar croquettes

Ingredients Sweet potatoes, ginger, cheddar, old bread, egg

1) Bake the sweet potatoes and remove from the skin. Mash roughly with finely chopped ginger and allow to cool a little.


2) Slice a baton of cheddar cheese and form a sausage sized roll of potato around the cheese. Set aside.


3) Pulse old bread in your blender to form breadcrumbs. These work wonderfully with a little cayenne pepper and some coriander in the crumbs. In this case I used some mediterrean rustiques - garlic, tomato and herb bread.


4) Drip the potato rolls in egg and then roll in breadcrumbs. Fry until golden and crispy.

Lamb & mint burgers

Ingredients 500g lamb mince, white onion, mint leaves

Making burgers is so quick and simple that I refuse to entertain the idea that there is any excuse for the kind of specimens that come under the category of "convenience food" and "fast food". They're unhealthy, low quality and truly no faster.


1) Finely dice half a white onion and fry in a little basil oil.

2) Add the onions to a blender along with the lamb mince, some freshly chopped mint, a pinch of salt and pepper and blitz.


3) Form patties with your hands, packing the meat quite tightly and either BBQ, grill or cook in the oven. 


I served with fresh lettuce from the garden and ketchup in a burger bun but these are also fabulous with feta and pitta!

Chicken stuffed with spinach, fig & goats cheese

Ingredients Spinach, goats cheese, nutmeg,  chicken, parma ham, dischi volante, bell peppers, balsamic vinegar, pine nuts, passata, basil, basil oil, onion.

Spinach and figs are in season right now, so make the most of it!


1) Combine the spinach leaves, freshly grated nutmeg and goats cheese in a blender, slice a pocked into the side of your chicken and pack with the spinach mix, pine nuts and sliced figs. Rub a little of the spinach stuffing over the skin of the chicken, wrap the chicken in parma ham and bake.


2) To make the pasta sauce; roast slices of bell pepper in the oven until the skin blackens and blitz in the blender along with a handful of fresh basil. Set aside.


3) Sautee half a finely chopped white onion in basil oil and allow to completely soften. Stir through half a glass of red wine, then add passata tomatoes.


4) Stir in the roasted peppers, season with a pinch of salt and finish with a splash of balsamic vinegar before stirring the drained pasta into the sauce.

Rosemary fougasse

Ingredients Cream, lemon, garlic, bell pepper, passata, basil, balsamic vinegar, rosemary, yeast, strong white flour, salt, olive oil.

1) To make the fougasse, mix 1 teaspoon of yeast in 300ml tepid water.


2) Mix 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt with 500g strong white bread flour and make a well in the centre of the flour. Pour in the water along with 3 tablespoons of olive oil bit by bit as your mix the dough together. 


3) Transfer to a well floured surface and knead firmly for 10 minutes. Once the dough is no longer sticky, and is elastic transfer to a lightly oiled bowl and leave to rise somewhere warm for an hour to an hour and a half or until it has doubled in size.


4) Knock it back and kneed for 2 minutes, then form a flattened triangle with the dough and slice through the middle like the spine of a leaf. Cut 3 slashes in both edges and transfer to a pizza stone. Sprinkle with chopped rosemary and rock salt and bake for 20 - 25 minutes with a bowl of water in the edge to form a nice crust. Tear off pieces of bread and dunk into the dips.


To make the dips


1) Roast a bulb of garlic in the oven for 30 minutes, squeeze the garlic from the skin and crushing it in a garlic press. Stir into soured cream and chill.


2) Roast 2 bell peppers for 30 minutes and blend along with a tablespoon of passata tomatoes, a splash of balsamic vinegar and a handful of chopped basil.

Cheese & chive dip

Ingredients Double cream, lemon, chives, salt, cheddar

When I got this request through, I actually thought that it was a joke! Like the time I got a request for cheese on toast... but it was genuine so here is my recipe for cheese & chive dip. The ideal partner for Fudge's cheddar wafers.


1) To make soured cream, all you need to do is whip a squeeze of lemon juice and a pinch of salt through and continue whipping until the cream has thickened a little. You can use single or double cream for this.


2) Grate a lump of good strong cheddar (this dip works best with 1 part cheese to 2 parts soured cream) and chop fresh chives onto the dip.


And that's it! You're done - it's best left to chill in the fridge for an hour before serving. If you would prefer to be a little more low-fat, this dip can be made using creme fraiche but it will not have the thicker consistency of soured cream.

Cream of mushroom soup

Ingredients White onion, mushrooms, vegetable stock, sherry, sage, double cream, butter, potato, parsley.

1) Finely dice one white onion, some sage and sautee in butter. 


2) Add a finely diced small potato and the chopped mushrooms and stir through. Cook off 2 tablespoons of sherry.


3) Add a pint of vegetable stock and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.


4) Blitz in your blender with a glug of double cream, then return to the hob.


5) Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley.

Chicken & mushroom linguine

Ingredients    Chicken breast, linguine, mushrooms,   double cream, sherry, white onion,dill, garlic, butter.

1) Finely dice a small white onion and sautee with butter and a little finely chopped dill until soft. Add a tablespoon of sherry and cook off.


2) Slice wafer thin pieces of mushroom and razor thin slices of garlic and stir through the butter, take off the heat and pour through some double cream. Pour the sauce over a chicken breast and bake in the oven.


3) Serve over linguine.