Anybody that tells you soup is not a complete meal has clearly not had an inviting, steaming bowl with an inappropriate, wobbling stack of bread. A soup can fill you when you didn’t even realise you were empty. I turn to this soup often, its spicy warmth providing both calm and excitement at the same … Continue reading 5-SPICE SQUASH SOUP WITH GINGER BUTTER
When I was growing up, my Mam did not cook separate meals. As the matriarch of our home, if she had the ‘burden’ of preparing the evening meal, then what was being cooked was what was being cooked. If you didn’t like parsley, scrape it out, and if you didn’t like beans, eat around them. … Continue reading CHORIZO & BLACK BEAN CHILLI WITH SKILLET CORNBREAD
Remember quarantine? Banana Bread. Zoom calls. Sweatpants. Three spectres of the pandemic that harrowed us, as much as they hugged us. But I have to add a particular bowl of rice to this list. A bowl of rice that felt like a work colleague, meeting me in the canteen for lunch every day. For as … Continue reading A BOWL OF FRIED RICE AND FRIDGE STUFF
It has always felt so weird to me that we call a potato salad a salad. It feels unfair to other salads, does it not? It’s wildly superior if we had to rank salads. But is it a salad, though? I know a salad is ambiguous in it’s description, and to be honest, with the … Continue reading DILL & MUSTARD POTATO SALAD
Don’t let the word stew fool you. This is not a bowl to enjoy cosily by the fireside, this is a light and springy bowl to enjoy in the last few moments of sun in the garden over a glass of cold wine. The flavour profile is quite tangled, but in the best way. The … Continue reading BARLEY, COURGETTE & CHICKPEA STEW WITH ROASTED LEMONS
Leeks. Cheese. Potato. Pie. Four words that if said softly enough, sounds like a prayer. I grew up on Cheese & Potato Pie, a standby supper for my Mam, as it was the first thing she ever learned how to cook as a young housewife; it’s simple methods but familiar ingredients providing reliable safety for … Continue reading LEEK, CHEESE & POTATO PIE
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
MIKEY AND THE KITCHEN. 