More from life
How to make proper vanilla ice cream
I could map out my life geographically and temporally in scoops of ice cream. From the oyster delights handed over…
Cobb salad: a bright idea for summer suppers
They do salads differently in America. Caesar salad, Waldorf salad, even their egg salads and potato salads: they’re big, they’re…
Yoghurt pot cake: the perfect sugary blank canvas
I’m pretty easygoing when it comes to most aspects of cooking. I don’t think there’s much to be gained from…
Confit: the best (and most delicious) way of cooking duck
Of all the myriad ways of preserving, confit always strikes me as wonderfully improbable. The ability to preserve meat just…
Yorkshire puddings: is there anything as satisfying?
My mother, a Yorkshire woman, would occasionally take shortcuts in the kitchen, but not when it came to a roast,…
Chess pie: how to make the flakiest pastry
Chess pie was, in one sense, new to me when I started learning about it a few months ago. I’d…
Bring back the savoury!
For a while now, we’ve been living through a renaissance of classical British cooking: a whole host of restaurants have…
Kugelhopf: a reassuring introduction to baking with yeast
Yeast scares even some of the most proficient cooks. I know home cooks and professionals alike, food writers and fanatics,…
In defence of chicken tikka masala
Chicken tikka masala has become something of a joke. When, in the late 2000s, it was topping lists of the…
A French revelation: how to make Breton galette complête
When we were little we used to go on holiday to the same place in Brittany, a picturesque, quiet coastal…
Sussex pond pudding: the perfect January pick-me-up
I always feel pulled toward citrus at the start of the year. Initially it was subconscious: I’d just find myself…
In defence of duck à l’orange
Duck à l’orange is so deliciously retro, it’s almost a cliché of kitsch. It seems hard to believe that there…
A last-minute alternative to Christmas cake: boiled fruit cake
This time last year, I was disgustingly well organised. Awaiting the arrival of my first baby, with a late December…
Answers to Spot the Book Title 2022
1. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin 2. Scoop 3. The Thirty-Nine Steps 4. Moll Flanders 5. The Girl on the Train 6.…
2022 Christmas quiz – the answers
Verbals 1. Boris Johnson, on resigning as leader of the Conservative party 2. Liz Truss, on being elected leader of…
The Spectator’s 2022 Christmas quiz
Verbals In 2022, who said: 1. Them’s the breaks. 2. I know that we will deliver, we will deliver, we…
You don’t need a fondue set to make fondue
‘This dish is very you,’ my husband says, as I serve up 650g of melted, boozy cheese to the two…
Bread pudding is the perfect bridge from autumn to winter
I am incapable of throwing anything away in the kitchen. In my fridge, there must be at least half a…
The ultimate American comfort food: how to make meatloaf
Meatloaf has some obstacles to overcome: it has an unprepossessing appearance, and an uninspiring, slightly off-putting name, which it shares…
Hot, cold, sweet, salty, boozy, spiced: Bananas Foster has everything
I’m a sucker for a challenge. I absolutely cannot resist a little competition. Throw down a gauntlet, and I am…
Moules mouclade, as big a hit as Beyoncé
Mussels were probably the first thing I ate as a child that I knew at the time was ‘an acquired…
The sweet satisfaction of a burnt Cambridge cream
If a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, then a Trinity or Cambridge burnt cream must taste…
The ultimate chicken pie recipe
Laurie Colwin wrote: ‘No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is…
How to make a true apple strudel
It’s possible that, like me, your first encounter with the Grande Dame of the Austrian pastry world, the apfelstrudel, was…
