After flavour, I consider texture to be the most important element of any recipe. This salad combines three layers of my favourite texture — crisply crunchy, preferably from being recently fried — to make something very simple but rather spectacular. As the weather gets colder, it can start to feel like there’s literally nothing fresh […]
Being born in April, one’s mind can’t help but turn, currently, to thoughts of cake. Actually, my mind turns to thoughts of cake most days of the year. For those of you who aren’t April babies, there’s still a general sweet-tooth mood in the air with the presence of Easter eggs — which have inevitably been […]
There’s a particular kind of Italian recipe that I love, where there are hardly any ingredients and it’s all so aggressively simple that it feels like it almost shouldn’t work, but it’s done so well that it’s far preferable to anything more fussy. This is one such recipe. It’s based on something I found many […]
I love traditional asparagus rolls, and will guard a plate of them possessively while rapidly depleting its contents if they’re ever served up at a party. However, asparagus sold in spindly green bundles, heralding summer’s arrival, is something else altogether. Here it’s strewn across puff pastry and blasted in the oven, transforming its stringy, grassy […]
I didn’t know what to make of sago when I first encountered it — strange slippery see-through little bubbles, like shiny beads or bubbles in a rock pool or, well, frogs’ eggs. If you allow yourself to embrace the texture though, rather than fear it, you’ll grow to love this strange stuff. Especially when it’s […]
When putting together my Menu of Memories to celebrate 22 years of the White House, this dish was high on my list of potential stars. In the end I decided to save it for FishHead readers. Scallop season starts just before spring and the shellfish is one of my favourite seasonal foods. Cauliflower has a […]
September is that strange time when spring is officially here but winter is still insisting on making itself felt. You’re either freezing and rain-soaked or skipping through meadows gathering flowers with baby lambs, you know? These pancakes are perfect whatever’s happening outside, using sweet, fragrant, new season apricots and warm, spicy cinnamon. The apricots turn […]
One Sunday a few years ago my Aro Valley flatmate Edward cooked pork all day — eight hours in the oven. I wondered if he was slightly mad. If nothing else, he was very determined. It was pulled pork, he said, served alongside home-made coleslaw, soft white rolls, and a very impressive and gorgeously tangy […]
The classic French dessert tarte Tatin is simple to make and, with its combination of light golden puff pastry, soft juicy apples and delicious caramel, is a family favourite. It’s lovely served hot or cold with vanilla whipped cream or ice cream, or in the case of a pear tarte Tatin, with some lovely walnut […]
There’s something extremely satisfying about baking bread from scratch — playing around with the yeast, getting your hands into a completely sticky mess kneading the dough, and ending up covered in flour. My kitchen always looks like it has been attacked by a flour bomb when I embrace bread baking. As satisfying as it is, […]
