Russian rose tea

Ingredients Tea leaves, 200g black cherries, 100g sugar, dried rose petals.

Preparation: X

"In Russia, we sweeten our tea with cherries" said Mikhail Baryshnikov in Sex And The City and amen to that! Being somewhat of a real tea enthusiast, I am pretty passionate about the culture and history of how tea is enjoyed around the world. From Kyoto to Paris and Morocco to Assam I think I have tried it every which way (always loose. Fnar) but having said that, I can't say that I'm a fan of Lapsang - Russian Caravan tea is too bitter and smoky for my tastes, but when served with my rose and black cherry syrup it is transformed and I could sup it by the gallon!

1) Pit the cherries and add to a milk pan along with the sugar, dried rose petals and 50ml water. Bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved and a syrup forms. Pass through a sieve.

2) Make your pot of tea and add the syrup, to taste.

Irish rarebit

Ingredients Bread, 200g Irish cheddar, 100ml Guinness, spring onions, butter, 1 tsp mustard, pepper, 50g breadcrumbs, 2 egg yolks.

Preparation: 10 minutes

Once upon a time, I believed that the best rarebit sauce was created with Newcastle Brown Ale and Lancashire cheese. Despite the booze and cheese being English, it was still a Welsh Rarebit in my book and bloody lovely it was too. And then, then I learned of Irish rarebit. Oh glorious Irish rarebit with your cheesey bread sauce and your tangy, stouty flavour. Bread on bread! GENIUS. This recipe is so 100% Irish* that I am considering my nationality - soda bread, Irish cheddar, Irish stout and even Irish butter. LUSCIOUS.

*erm... except for the spring onions and the mustard... shut up.

1) Slice the spring onions and add to the pan along with the stout and mustard. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat.

2) Grate in the cheese and whisk until amalgamated with the stout, then whisk in the two egg yolks and breadcrumbs and season with pepper and if necessary, another teaspoon of mustard.

3) The sauce should be thick, but pourable. Toast the bread on one side, then butter, allowing it to rest for a moment until the butter has melted before adding the cheese sauce. Grill until the top begins to colour and serve hot.

Pancetta pangrattato

Ingredients Pasta, parsley, lemon, butter, egg yolks, old bread, garlic, pancetta, parmigiano.

Preparation: 15 minutes (5 if using fresh pasta)

Bread is the stuff of life in this house. Rarely a meal goes by that does not include bread, whether by design or because my husband habitually makes everything into a sandwich (even soup!) and I delight in slathering my leftovers on toast. Bowie forbid either one of us ever develops a random gluten intolerancy. It would be intolerable.
Our leftover bread is torn up for panzanella, strata or blitzed into crumbs to coat everything from croquettes to goujons. This week, however, breadcrumbs have been thickening sauces. Once upon a time, when the Italians were poor they would substitute breadcrumbs for parmigiano in pasta, but my pangrattato (translation: grated bread) features parmigiano and bread and parsley and pancetta so it's more of a prosperous man's pasta and packs a real punch of flavour - it's also super quick to prepare.

1) In one pan, bring the pasta to the boil in hot, salted water and leave to simmer for 8-10 minutes. If using fresh pasta, prepare the other ingredients first as the pasta will only take 2-3 minutes to cook.

2) In a second pan, melt a tablespoon of butter and fry off the pancetta, stirring to allow the fat and butter to combine. Take off the heat and crack in an egg yolk per person and whisk briskly for around 30 seconds.

3) Stir in the breadcrumbs, parmigiano, and freshly chopped parsley and add a squeeze of lemon.

4) Drain the pasta and stir into the sauce until coated. Serve hot.

Rosemary lemon curd

Ingredients 4 Lemons, 4 eggs, 350g caster sugar, 8oz butter, rosemary.

Serves: 1 pint Preparation: 30 minutes (plus overnight)

Lemon curd is already glorious, so thick and silky with that most mouthwatering flavour, but adding rosemary to the mix gives it an almost undetectable extra dimension that seems to make it even more lemony somehow without being too tangy or bitter. This makes a wonderful present, as rosemary is a symbol of love and loyalty. (yes, I meant to post this before Valentine's Day...)

1) Measure out the sugar and pour over three sprigs of rosemary. Leave to macerate overnight.

2) Juice the lemons, pour into a pan then pluck the rosemary sprigs from the sugar and allow to infuse with the lemon juice for 5 minutes. 

3) Whisk the 3 eggs and one yolk together in a mixing bowl and set the bowl over a pan of boiling water to make a bain marie.

4) Add the rosemary infused caster sugar to the eggs with the rosemary infused lemon juice. Whisk until you cannot see any sugar grains, then add half of the butter and stir through.

5) Leave on the hob, whisking occasionally 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, then pour into hot, sterilised jars and allow to cool completely before consuming.

Baby Breakfast Muffins

Ingredients 75g butter/oil, 125ml orange/apple juice, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 2 bananas, 2 eggs, 1 tbsp honey (or agave syrup), 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda, 250g self-raising flour, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 100g dried cranberries, 100g mixed seeds.

Makes: 16 Preparation: 45 minutes

OK, so this is not a baby recipe. Shaddap, it's not. It's NOT OK. It's a recipe for muffins which are sugar free and if you want them to be, dairy free. Healthy seeded breakfast muffins that are totally delicious and I just happen to feed to my twelve month old son... 

1) Preheat the oven to gas mark 5/190 degrees and add the cranberries to the orange/apple juice.

2) Add the bananas, vanilla essence and honey to a blender and puree thoroughly. Add the eggs and melted butter/oil and pulse again until completely combined

3) Sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and bicarb of soda, then mix in the seeds.

4) Pour the puree in with the dry ingredients, add the juice and cranberries and mix roughly.

5) Spoon into muffin cases and add to a muffin tin, sprinkling some extra seeds onto the top. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the tops begin to colour and a skewer inserted to the middle cupcake comes out clean.

Aubergine & bean croquettes

Ingredients 1 can cannellini beans, 1 aubergine, 1 tsp paprika, 1 garlic clove, breadcrumbs, 1 egg, cooking oil.

Makes: 10 Preparation: 30 minutes

When Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty brought the charred aubergine into my life, I was a happy little bunny. Personally I prefer not to remove the burned skin as I think it adds so much gorgeous smoky flavour to the delicacy of the bean mash. If you liked my Butterbean Croquettes, you're going to love these!  

1) Using tongs, hold the aubergine over the open flame of your hob or a barbecue, turning around until the skin is evenly charred and the aubergine is softened.

2) Simmer the beans for 10 minutes in hot salty water, then drain and add to a blender along with the aubergine, 1 crushed garlic clove and the paprika. Pulse thoroughly until combined and season with salt.

3) Set out three dishes, one with a beaten egg, one with breadcrumbs and one to rest the croquettes on. Scoop out a handful of the mixture and form it into a ball, packing tightly - then roll out into a sausage shape or small bites as above.

4) Dip the croquette into the egg, then roll in the breadcrumbs until covered evenly. Either shallow fry or bake in the oven until the crumbs are golden and crispy, then serve hot.

Jack Daniels cranberry sauce

Ingredients 200g cranberries, 50ml Jack Daniels, 100g caster sugar.

Preparation: 10 minutes

Cranberry sauce is one of the easiest things to make, in that it takes all of 5 minutes, one pot and it goes with everything from rich meats to cheese. I quite often switch it around, adding orange juice and zest, or sweet spices but the day I added Jack Daniels was just about the best day ever. Here it is served with some roast duck - enjoy!

1) Add the cranberries to a pan along with the sugar and whiskey.

2) Crank up the heat high and stir until the sugar is dissolved, the berry juices have begun to burst forth and the alcohol has started to cook off (about 10 minutes.)

3) Spoon into a sterilised jar and store in the fridge.

Fine bean & beluga lentil salad

Ingredients 400g spinach, 100g garden peas, 1 tbsp almond butter, 200g fine beans, 200g beluga or puy lentils (I loveMerchant Gourmet's ready to eat pouches), 1 tbsp butter.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 30 minutes

After the excesses of Christmas, I always veer towards clean, green food. Lentils need not be boring however - this steamy hot salad has an irresistible gloss of silky almond butter, meltingly soft spinach and a crisp crunch of fine beans.

1) Roughly chop the spinach and fine beans and add to a pan with 1 tsp butter and 1 tbsp almond butter. Stir until the spinach has just begun to wilt.

2) Simmer the peas in boiling water for 2 minutes, drain and add to the pan along with the lentils. Add a little extra almond butter if you wish, season with black pepper and serve hot or cold.

Gnocchi with cashew & avocado sauce

Ingredients Gnocchi: Potato, pasta flour, egg, plain flour. Sauce: 4 tbs cashew cream, 100ml water, 1 avocado

Serves: 2 Preparation: 10 minutes (plus 1 hour for gnocchi, overnight for cashew cream preparation)

This is a combination of two of my recipes: gnocchi and cashew cream as a serving suggestion, but it's also a great way to use up a ripe avocado. If like me you eat them pretty much daily, there will always be one in your fruit bowl (ahem... bucket might be a more apt description in my case...) and this is a great, healthy supper with a protein-rich sauce.

1) My recipe for gnocchi here. If you would like to make this vegan, just omit the egg.

2) My recipe for cashew nut cream here.

3) Bring the gnocchi to the boil in a large pan of salted water. Once the little dumplings float to the surface, they're done.

4) Slice the avocado in half and use a tablespoon to scoop it from the shell. If the avocado is ripe enough the stone will pop out with a spoon but another good method is to prick it with a knife and pull it out. Pop into your food processor, squish through a potato ricer or mash with a fork/masher and add to the cashew cream. I like to flavour this up with a little mustard and salt sometimes but the delicate creamy flavour is lovely just as it is. Drain the gnocchi and stir into the sauce.

Gnocchi with kale & artichoke pesto

Ingredients 200g kale, 1 tbsp almond butter, 1 artichoke, olive oil, gruyere, 1 potato, 3oz pasta flour.

Serves: 2 Preparation: 1 hour

This serving suggestion for my kale and artichoke pesto is one of the lightest gnocchis that I have ever made, as I usually associate gnocchi with heavy cream sauces. I concocted this recently for a vegan friend (minus the gruyere for her of course!) and it turned out beautifully. Give it a try!

1) To make kale & artichoke pesto.

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

3) Roll the balls in flour, score with a fork, then drop in boiling, salted water. Once the dumplings float to the surface (about 2 minutes) they're ready.

4) Drain the pan of gnocchi and stir in the pesto and grated gruyere. Serve hot