Most of the time, I use fairly standard cuts of meat, the usual things that you find anywhere and everywhere, but the advantage of shopping at a proper butcher’s is that there’ll often be some odd bits on offer. This dish revolves around one of those oddities – neck of lamb. Neck isn’t used that [...]
Every now and then, I have to make a cake. The urge often strikes at this time of year, with the indulgence of Christmas a fading memory and no sign of the rotten weather passing soon. This cake provides a hint of what’s to come, using last autumn’s fruit. Line the bottom of a 20cm [...]
This is a very heavy duty chocolate cake…a huge slab of chocolate punctuated with praline and nuts. There is nothing light here, but much to enjoy. A Nigel Slater recipe, from the Observer. Toast 100g of shelled and skinned hazelnuts in a dry pan until golden. Keep the nuts moving – they’ll burn in an [...]
Everybody has a couple of cookbooks that are just a little bit more stained and greasy than the rest, books that have seen more distinguished service than all the others on the shelf. I have two – the distinctly unfashionable Delia’s Complete Cookery Course by Delia Smith, which I grew up with and still refer [...]