This curry ticks every box I need it to. It’s packed with vibrant and warming spices and both the aubergine and sweet potato act as sponge vessels that carry them, so every mouthful is as exciting as the next. If you like it with a little less heat, remove the seeds from the chilli but … Continue reading AUBERGINE & SWEET POTATO CURRY WITH COCONUT RAITA
I don’t feel my life has any ballast unless I’m consuming vegetables. This is not a health thing, I promise you, but for some reason whenever I feel an absence of vegetables in my life, I am suddenly struck with an inconsolable guilt. I need an equilibrium, especially when it comes to food. If I’m … Continue reading CAJUN SWEET POTATO & CANNELLINI BEAN STEW
Rich, aromatic, pull-apart lamb in a dark, malty gravy bubbling under tangy, pillowy bulbs of soft cobbler pastry. Any story that starts this way is one I am happy to finish. The good thing is, it’s the kind of story that really benefits from being put down halfway through, allowed to temptingly play in your … Continue reading LAMB, COURGETTE & DARK ALE STEW WITH ROSEMARY & MUSTARD COBBLER
A risotto, in all of its unruly and uncontained fashion, is rarely a Picasso to look at, is it? Especially this one, made even drearier and browner thanks to the slow-cooked onions and the drip-drip-drip feed of dark, beefy broth that’s added slowly throughout. Nigella Lawson said it so much better than I did in … Continue reading CARAMELISED ONION & ROSEMARY RISOTTO
I tend to have a sixth sense when it comes to fussy eaters. When someone tells me that, for instance, they don’t like seafood, their plight as an eater is automatically established. I know that the fussiness is strong in this one. This not a fact, just a musing of mine own experiences. And I … Continue reading FRIDGE PICKLES & QUICK KIMCHI
Have we discussed my compulsive need to boil potatoes lately? I don’t think we have. I constantly have a need for little, tiny, baby boiled potatoes in my fridge. Throwing them in a pot of salted water, boiling until tender, allowing them to cool and dry until completely stone cold, and then stowing them away … Continue reading FRIED POTATOES & KIMCHI
My most turned-to curry. Without fail. Hands down. And then hands up to praise it. I kept fairly close to the traditional yogurt marinade and similar spicing profile to the Northern Indian curry Murgh Makhani with this recipe, but I went on my own tangent swapping the usual chicken for cauliflower and relying on a … Continue reading BUTTER & ALMOND CAULIFLOWER CURRY
The thread of Nigella is strong here. There’s a slight web of inspiration happening with this recipe that meets somewhere in between Nigella’s Italian inspired cookbook, Nigellissima (2012) and Simply Nigella (2015) with a little added layover in Jack Monroe’s Tin Can Cook (2019) which, in true culinary respect, is the definition of a fusion … Continue reading SPICY MACKEREL LINGUINE WITH SUMAC & GARLIC BUTTER
A ragù is emotional. I’ve always found, after many years of cooking, that a ragù/ meat sauce, is deeply personal to everybody that cooks it. Even people who hate cooking/ don’t cook will always say to me that they make ‘a good bolognese’ or ‘a good lasagne’, and while this makes me happy, because I’d … Continue reading BEEF & ‘NDUJA RAGÙ
This recipe was a practice in self restraint. When I’m cooking, I am always forcefully guiding my own hand to not add flavours when they don’t belong because my natural inquisitive instinct always thinks a recipe needs to be ‘mooore’. This one doesn’t. It’s perfect. I long for simplicity in cooking. Not just simple to … Continue reading COURGETTES IN BEEF BROTH & OLIVE OIL
MIKEY AND THE KITCHEN. 