More from life
The death of royalty
The cohorts of Hamas have invaded my neighbourhood. I was walking my dog, Maxi, in the afterglow of a shower…
Dark, bold and perfect for autumn: how to make the perfect honey cake
I did not plan to cook a loaf cake when I embarked on concocting a traditional honey cake recipe. The…
They call me the ‘problem teetotaller’
My guts went on strike last July. I was staying in a hotel and I spent several days sprawled on…
Corned beef pie
A few weeks ago I was at the super-market juggling a toddler, several heavy bags and, it transpired, no pound…
French apple tart
There is, as the saying goes, more than one way to skin a cat. The same could be said –…
Aubergine parmigiana
In the middle of an unpredictable Indian summer, here is a recipe from sultry southern Italy which is suitable for…
Tarte tropézienne
Is there a more glamorous piece of pâtisserie than the tarte tropézienne? Born in the inherently chic Saint-Tropez, named by…
Fish and chips
The last meal my parents had before I graced the world with my presence was fish and chips, so I…
Pavlova
Whenever I tell someone that I’m making a pavlova the response is the same: sheer joy. Even the most fervent…
French tomato tart
Last year, we grew tomatoes for the first time. And we did so with our characteristic enthusiasm, lack of knowledge…
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
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…
Duck confit
Of all the myriad ways of preserving, confit always strikes me as wonderfully improbable. The ability to preserve meat just…
Yorkshire pudding
My mother, a Yorkshire woman, would occasionally take shortcuts in the kitchen, but not when it came to a roast,…
Chess pie
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
Yeast scares even some of the most proficient cooks. I know home cooks and professionals alike, food writers and fanatics,…
Chicken tikka masala
Chicken tikka masala has become something of a joke. When, in the late 2000s, it was topping lists of the…
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
I always feel pulled toward citrus at the start of the year. Initially it was subconscious: I’d just find myself…
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…
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
1. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin 2. Scoop 3. The Thirty-Nine Steps 4. Moll Flanders 5. The Girl on the Train 6.…
