Cut the cucumbers in half lengthways and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon.
Discard the seeds.
Roughly chop into chunks and place in a blender.

Add the rest of the ingredients (except the garnish, if using) to the blender and season with salt and pepper.
Start initially with 12 lovage leaves. Blend until completely smooth — the soup should have a pleasing, pale green colour.
Taste.
Is there a good balance of acidity and mellowness from the yoghurt? Add more lemon if it seems too creamy-tasting.
Can you taste the lovage enough? It should be defined but not overpowering.
Add the lovage leaves cautiously, a little at a time so as not to overpower the delicate cucumber flavour

Once you’re happy you’ve achieved a balanced flavour, place the soup in the fridge for at least 2 hours so that it is well-chilled before serving.
Sprinkle with chopped hard-boiled egg, minced chives, and lemon zest to garnish, if desired.

First make the pastry:
Toss the butter in the flour with the salt until coated, then add just enough water (you may not need it all) to bring it together into a fairly firm dough.
Form this into a rectangular shape with your hands and, on a well-floured surface, roll it out in one direction, away from you, into a 1cm-thick rectangle.
Fold the two short ends into the middle so they overlap, like folding a letter. Give the pastry a quarter turn, repeat the rolling out five more times, then wrap in cling-film.
Rest in the fridge for an hour.
Heat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7.
Put the oil in a frying pan over medium-low heat, add the onion and bay, and sauté gently until soft, about 10 minutes.
Add the lovage stems, fry for a couple of minutes, then tip into a bowl with the potato, flaked fish, lovage leaves, dill and crème fraîche.
Remove the bay, season and cool.

Roll the pastry into a rectangle about 35cm x 45cm. Cut into six smaller rectangles. Cut a 1cm strip from the edge of each and reserve.
Place the rectangles on a large baking sheet lined with parchment, and lightly brush the edges with egg wash.
Place the strips around the edges to make a border, and brush lightly with egg wash.
Prick the bases of the tarts with a fork.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until they're starting to turn golden, remove from the oven and divide the filling between the tarts, piling it up quite high.
Reduce the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Bake for five to 10 minutes until warmed through.
Scatter over dill and lovage, and serve hot or warm.

Pick the individual seeds from the seedheads.
This requires a bit of patience, but you can speed things up with a small pair of scissors or by using a fork to strip a whole head of seeds from the main stem in one movement.
It's best to do this in a large bowl or a plastic bag - the seeds will shoot all over the place.
Don’t worry too much about any fine stems that remain attached to the seeds.

Wash the seeds thoroughly in several changes of water. Pick out any spiders or grass stalks that survive the process, then strain them into a sieve and leave to drain well.

Put a heaped tablespoon of the dry seeds into the sterilised pickling jar, and sprinkle over some of the salt.
Continue layering seeds and salt until the jar is full and all of the salt is used up. (Don’t worry too much about the salt being evenly distributed.)
Fasten the lid onto the jar, and put the jar into the fridge. Leave it there for three weeks, shaking the jar every day or so.

Once the three weeks is up, tip the salted seeds into a sieve and rinse them well. Spread them out on a clean tea towel and leave them to dry again. Meanwhile, wash and sterilise the jar again.

Put the dry wild garlic seeds back into the jar. Pour over enough vinegar to cover, fasten the lid and leave to mature for at least one month, but preferably three.
Stored in the fridge, the pickled seeds should keep for around twelve months.

First buy the rolled lamb breasts. Or, you know, buy lamb breast and roll it up yourself.
In which case you can salt the inside and cover it with the anchovies, lemon zest and herbs first. I guess.

Roughly chop the onions. Halve the head of garlic. We're going to strain the sauce before using it, so you can leave the peel on these.

Sear the rolled lamb breast(s) all over in olive oil in a large frying pan. Put them into the slow cooker.
Add thickly sliced onions, halved garlic cloves, anchovies, rosemary and thyme to the pan with more oil if required and fry until they soften and begin to colour up.
Stir through the tomato puée and cook down for a few minutes, then add the red wine and bubble the alcohol off.
Pour the contents of the pan into the slow cooker and add the bay leaves, lemon zest and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Maybe a tiny pinch of chilli flakes for some gentle warmth?
Rinse the frying pan with water or stock, using enough to cover ⅔ of the rolled breasts.

Cook in the slow cooker on low for 8 hours.
Decant the rolls and set them to rest for 10 minutes while you strain the liquid into a pan and boil hard to reduce to a nice jus.
Or you could thicken the liquid with cornflour slurry if you prefer.

Mix the Marinade ingredients in a small bowl. Rub thoroughly all over the lamb surface. You can do this in the roasting tin.
Leave the lamb to marinate for a couple of hours, or 24 hours in the fridge. Preheat oven to 210°C fan/230°C/450°F/Gas Mark 8.
Peel and halve the shallots (or onions) lengthways. Peel a few large garlic cloves.
Make a bed for the meat using these and lay the lamb shoulder on top. You can throw in a few extra rosemary sprigs too if you like.
Pour the water into the pan. Roast uncovered for 45 minutes until nicely browned.
Turn down the oven to 100°C/210°F/Gas Mark ¼ or as low as your oven will go.
Cover lamb with baking paper, then a double layer of foil and seal very tightly to avoid water evaporation.
Braise for 12 hours. Check the meat - test the side of lamb with two forks. The meat should be fall-apart tender. If not, cover and return to oven.
Remove lamb to a large dish. There will (should!) be a lot of liquid pooled under the lamb in the roasting pan.
Cover loosely with foil to keep warm. It will stay warm for 2 to 3 hours.

Strain the liquid into a small pan. Retain the vegetables.
There will tons of rendered fat which you will want to remove somehow. Let the juices settle or cool to scoop it off, or suck the juice from underneath with a turkey baster.
Now you can either reduce the liquid to a decent syrupy jus by hard boiling, or you can thicken it to gravy by heating with a teaspoon of cornflour added in a slurry.
Season to taste.

Tear the meat apart with tongs or forks. Dress with the jus and serve with the well-braised shallots and garlic cloves, if you like.

Thinly slice your potatoes into a bowl of cold water using a mandolin. Fill a casserole dish with alternate layers of potato and a filling of sliced dates ssprinkled with finely minced rosemary and dots of butter.
Pour in stock until it almost comes to the top.
Cook uncovered in the oven at Gas Mark 3-4 for a couple of hours until the stock has mostly bubbled off. It will take a while.

Pop the broad beans out of their long outer sleeves.
Drop them into salted boiling water, bring back to the boil and simmer for a bare 30 seconds. Strain them immediately into iced water to cool.
With a paring knife, slit one end of each bean's thick outer skin or rind I cut the end opposite where the sprout attached and pop out the bright green, tender kernels.
Keep these in the iced water until required, then blanche them briefly in salted boiling water to reheat before using.

Drain the double-podded beans and roughly mash with chopped mint, grated lemon zest, lemon juice, puréed garlic, grated parmesan and olive oil to taste.
Season if necessary.

Mix together the dry mix in a plastic bag without holes!.
Mix the tempura batter flours, season, then stir briefly with a splash of vodka and iced water (or iced soda water) to make a usable slurry.
Don't overmix - it's fine for the batter to have floury lumps.

Halve the mushrooms lengthways and make a pattern of shallow slashes in the cut surfaces. Shake the mushrooms in the dry mix bag, then roll them in the wet batter mix to coat thickly. Deep-fry the battered mushrooms in 350°F/175°C oil for 3-5 minutes until they are nicely crisped and coloured.
Drain on kitchen paper and serve with smoked salmon dip In which case you could decorate them with crispy-fried salmon skin!, or aïoli, or maybe Sriracha or wasabi mayonnaise.

Remove the salmon skin.
Blend the salmon, garlic, chilli just enough to give a little warmth, anchovies, sun-dried tomatoes if using, cream and orange juice to a smooth paste.
Blend in as much cream cheese as needed to enrich the mixture, season, then drizzle in olive oil whilst beating or running the food processor until you have a consistency like mayonnaise.

Simmer the corn cobs in a large pot of salted water for 10 minutes or so until it softens.
Drain, allow to cool enough to handle, and slice the kernels off the cobs. Reserve some for decoration.
Meanwhile sweat the shallots, garlic and fennel or celery slices in olive oil and butter in a small pan until they soften.
De-glaze with white wine and bubble off.
Add the corn kernels to the pan with enough water or light stock to cover.
Add a pinch of saffron strands with the water/stock. Cook until the corn is well-softened, then blend until smooth and pass through a seive back into the pan.
Reheat, season with ground white pepper and salt, and stir in cream, and perhaps a knob of butter until the sauce is thick and glossy.

Globe Artichoke Hearts
Add lemon juice to the pot of boiling salted water.
Pull off the artichoke's larger outer leaves and trim the stalk.
Use a Y-shaped vegetable peeler to peel off the fibrous outer layer of the stop of the stalk and the bottom of the artichoke bulb. Cut the stalk away leaving an inch or two attached to the bulb.
Cut the top of the globe off somewhere below the mid-point. Using a paring knife remove leaves and coarse skin from the bottom of the artichoke and right in to the hairy choke. Now quarter the artichoke base vertically and cut away the choke with the paring knife, which you can now easily access.
Add to the boiling water and cook for 10-15 minutes until softened. Strain and keep in acidulated water until required.
Core and quarter a red pepper and char the skin over a flame or under the grill. Let them rest in a plastic bag to soften the charred skin, then peel it off and slice them thinly.
Toast a handful of corn kernels in a hot, lightly oiled frying pan.
Boil up some spinach and mascarpone tortellinis, if you like, and serve them with the artichoke hearts dressed with the corn velouté and the red pepper slices and toasted corn kernels.

Blanch the peas then shock them in iced water.
Drain and blend them with the other ingredients, adding enough crème fraîche to lubricate the blender without diluting the puré too much.
Heat gently when required.

Add all the pickling ingredients to a heavy pot and bring to the boil.
Peel the artichokes under running water or using a large bowl of iced water.
Slice them straight into the pickle using a mandolin.
Return the pot to the boil, then immediately set aside to cool.
Press the artichokes to keep them submerged.

Peel and core the apples, slice into rings and fry in 55g/2 oz of the butter. Add the sugar and cook until golden brown and slightly caramelised. Reserve.

Melt the rest of the butter in a flameproof casserole large enough to take the birds. Brown the creatures on all sides, turning and coating with the butter. Cover with the lid and place in a preheated oven at 190°C/375°F/Gas 5 to cook for 40 minutes; or you can cook them on top of the stove, turning at half time.

Carve the birds into good-size pieces and lay them in a shallow gratin dish. Make sure to pick every little piece of meat from the bones. Place the legs at either end. Keep warm. Scrape any morsels from the carving into the casserole juices and heat until bubbling then pour in the warmed Calvados. Set fire to the mixture, but take care not to singe your eyelashes. Roll the juices round and round until the flames subside. Add the cream and continue cooking, stirring the while with a wooden spoon, until the sauce thickens. Season to taste.

Place the apple rings over the pheasant pieces, then pour the sauce over the whole dish and bring to the table. If you prefer, you can serve the apple rings separately. Wild rice with fried celery would be excellent with this dish, and a watercress salad should suffice.

Mix well and marinate for a minimum of half an hour, the longer you leave it the better the taste! (Marinate overnight for best results.)
Put on skewers and cook in oven under grill or barbecue.

Cut the stem off the chillies and take the skin off the garlic and ginger. Throw into a food processor and mix until it becomes a finely minced paste (not liquified!).
You can chop by hand if you do not have a food processor.

The above is how much a curry should contain.
If you are making a small batch then times the above by 5 or more and consume with a week.
The key thing my parents told me is that it should be greener than it is white, so if your paste isn't that green, then add more green chillies.

If you wish to make a larger batch that will cover you for a longer period of time then add a tablespoon of oil and a teaspoon of salt into your Green Masala to extend its life.

Keep your Green Masala in a pot in the fridge, or keep half of it in the fridge and freeze the other half for another time.
You can even put your Green Masala into an ice cube tray (one teaspoon per ice cube hole) and use one cube per curry, which will extend the life of your Green Masala hugely!

Heat oil.
Throw in cordyceps.
Swirl.
Remove.
Drain.
Serve.

To prepare the choy sum, you want to separate the quick-to-cook leaves and the slower-to-cook stems.
You can either make one horizontal cut to separate the leaves and clump of stems of each plant all at once, or you can separate the joined stems (at an angle for extra style points) and then cut away the leaves and set aside.

Slice the garlic: For maximum visual appeal, slice a couple of cloves and mince the rest.

Cut the (small amount of) ginger into roughly 1/8 slices. He (Daddy Lau) uses about 4 slices of ginger for 1 lb of choy sum.

Heat your wok over high heat for a bare minute. Add a dash of oil (about 1 tbsp), then turn the heat to medium low.
Lowering the heat here is important to avoid burning the aromatics.
Add the ginger and garlic.
Stir-fry for 15 seconds so that you can smell the ginger and garlic releasing their aromas.

Add the choy sum; stems first since they'll take longer to cook through. Stir-fry the stems for about 30 seconds.
Then, add the leaves. Raise the heat to high and add the mirin and sugar to balance the texture of the leaves; these ingredients help make the dish silky smooth.
Mix these in and stir-fry for another 30 seconds.

DON'T ADD THE SALT YET!
If you add salt now, all the water in the vegetables will release (thank you, osmosis) and you'll end up with less tender vegetables in a puddle of juice.

Lower the heat to medium or low heat. Cover with the lid and let it steam for about 1½-2 minutes, or until the choy sum is tender and just cooked through.

Uncover the wok and bring the heat up to the highest setting. Stir-fry on high heat for a minute, then add the salt. Drizzle a table of oil over the leaves to finish for a smooth texture, a glossy look, and to help preserve their vibrant green color.
Toss with the finishing oil for another 20 seconds, and then plate.
Enjoy!

Place ghee or butter in a skillet over medium-high heat.
Once hot, add the sliced mushrooms and cook until browned on both sides. Don't touch the mushrooms as they cook to let them deeply caramelize on each side.
Add the tamari and garlic to the pan and cook for an additional minute until the liquid is absorbed by the mushrooms, tossing them in the mixture.
Garnish with parsley and serve as desired.

Heat oil over high heat in a cast iron skillet large enough to fit the peppers in a single layer. Heat until lightly smoking, then add peppers.
Cook without moving until blistered on first side, about 30 seconds.
Flip and shake the peppers and continue to cook, turning occasionally, until well blistered all over and tender-crisp, about 1½ minutes total. Season with salt.
Transfer peppers to a serving plate. Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil and sprinkle with more flaked salt. The need to be well-salted!
Serve immediately.

Make the sauce:
Add palm sugar, tamarind, water and fish sauce. Let simmer, stirring and crushing, for a few minutes until the sugar is all dissolved and the sauce is thickened slightly.
After simmering for 3-5 minutes, the sauce should have a darker colour, becomes shiny, and has the consistency of maple syrup (it will thicken slightly as it cools).
Taste and adjust seasoning, keeping in mind that the sauce will be mellowed out by the eggs.

Make fried shallots:
Thinly slice the shallots and lay them on a plate lined with paper towel. Sprinkle salt over them and let sit for at least 10 minutes.
Once it has had time to sit, press a piece of paper towel onto the shallots to absorb all the liquid that has been drawn out by the salt.

Heat just enough oil in a wok or a shallow saucepan to cover the shallots. Turn the heat on medium high and add all the shallots to the oil without waiting for the oil to become hot.
Once the shallots are bubbling, turn the heat down to low and keep them bubbling gently until they are golden browned and crispy. Keep an eye on them as they burn quickly!
Remove the shallots with a slotted or mesh skimmer and drain on paper towel. Turn off the heat.
Make garlic chips:
To the same oil you used the fry shallots, add the garlic slices THEN turn the heat back on low.
Keep frying the garlic on low heat (gentle bubbling) until the garlic has turned a light golden colour and the bubbling has stopped.
Remove the garlic chips and drain on paper towel.
Turn off the heat.

Make fried chilies:
To the same oil, add the dried chilies and fry them on low heat until they turn a maroon colour and smell smoky.
This will take less than a minute so do not walk away!
Remove and drain on paper towel.
Fry the eggs:
Add more oil to the pot so that it comes halfway up the eggs. Heat the oil on medium high heat until the oil reaches 375-400°F.
While you wait for the oil, dry the eggs really well with paper towel to prevent oil from splattering too much. Then add the eggs to the oil, one at a time and fry them until they become golden brown (it should take just less than 1 minute).
Flip the eggs and brown the other side.
Remove from heat and drain on paper towel.

To assemble:
Cut the eggs in half with a sharp knife and arrange on a plate, cut side up.
Reheat the sauce (add a little more water if it has become too thick) then drizzle the sauce over the eggs.
Top with fried shallots, garlic, chilies and cilantro. Serve immediately with jasmine rice. Enjoy!

Put the water and liquorice pellets in your smallest pan and bring to the boil, stirring or whisking frequently to help the liquorice melt. Once it starts bubbling, turn off the heat and leave for 5 minutes, stirring or whisking every now and again.
Turn the heat back on and whisk in the sugar, then the cream, and bring to a bubble.
Remove from the heat.

Spoon the cornflour into a little bowl, cup or ramekin and slake it with the milk: which is to say, whisk in the milk until you have a smooth paste.
Pour this, whisking as you go, into the mixture in the saucepan. Still whisking, put the pan back on the heat and bring back to a bubble, whisking all the while, for 20-30 seconds, or until thickened.

Divide between 2 heatproof glasses or cups and - unless you want to eat this hot - cover, touching the surface of the puddings, with clingfilm or baking parchment that you've wet with cold water then wrung out (this is to prevent a skin forming, a thing she Ed: That's Nigella cannot tolerate), and put them in the fridge to chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Let the puddings come to room temperature before serving, and remove the clingfilm or baking parchment and smooth the tops with the back of a teaspoon.
Put the soft sea salt on the table to sprinkle over as you eat, if wished. For those of us Ed: Like Nigella! who love liquorice, this pudding is a sheer, spine-tingling joy.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan.
Add the leeks and garlic, stir well, cover and cook for 10 mins until the leeks are soft, stirring a few times to check that they don’t catch.
Tip into a large bowl.
Put the spinach in the pan and allow it to wilt. Leave to cool and, when cold, squeeze out as much liquid from it as you possibly can.

Tip the chestnut purée into the bowl with the leeks and add the 3 eggs, the nutmeg, chestnuts, spinach, breadcrumbs, cheese and seasoning, and stir until well mixed.
Chill for at least 1 hr until the mixture firms up.

Heat oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 6.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the pastry to a rectangle large enough to completely enclose the filling.
Carefully lift onto a large, long baking tray that has been lined with baking parchment, then brush round all the edges of the pastry with the remaining egg.
Spoon the filling down the centre of the length of the pastry, leaving the ends clear.
Tuck the ends over the filling, then firmly lift up the sides to wrap them round, trimming away any excess pastry as you go.
Brush with more egg to glaze, then make a few holes in the top so steam can escape as it cooks.
Bake for 40 mins until golden and the filling is firm. Remove from the oven, brush with more glaze and then bake for 10 mins more.


To make the sauce, heat the stock in a medium pan, add the leeks, boil for 5 mins, then take off the heat and scoop out 2 tbsp of the leeks. Blitz the rest in the pan with the cornflour using a hand blender, then cook, stirring, until thickened.
Pour in the cream and reserved leeks and warm through.
Can be made 2 days ahead and chilled. Serve the pastry in thick slices with the sauce.

Peel the celeriac and chop into chunks.
Simmer in salted water until soft and drain.
Blend together with a knob of butter and as many sun-dried tomato pieces as you need to get the colour or taste you require.
Lubricate and thin with cream or stock as needed.
Season and serve.

After you've fried your steak, add a large knob of butter and some garlic and herbs to the pan, if you didn't already.
Add shallots too, if you like.
Fry until the garlic becomes to colour, then de-glaze with red wine.
Add stock and redcurrant or rowan jelly if you like and bubble to reduce and thicken.
Grind liquorice pellets to a powder in a mortar and mix through the sauce to taste.
Season, strain, and serve with the steak.

Cut away the stalks from the kale, wash and drain them and roughly tear or chop.
Mix the lemon juice with about an equal quantity of the cream.

Heat a large knob of butter or a splash of olive oil in a saucepan or skillet and sweat the kale until it begins to collapse, but still retains its vibrant green colour. Add sliced garlic and sweat until fragrant. Add some cream, bubble and then add grated cheese and stir until it thickens and all melts together. Off the heat stir in the cream and lemon juice mixture.
Season if required and serve.

Mash up a garlic clove with some butter if you fancy some extra flavour.
Drag the blade of a knife along the length of the bacon slices to stretch them out a little.

Slice the fat mushrooms in half lengthwise, and cut or scoop out a groove the length of the insides.
Fill the grooves with Boursin.
Smear the cut surfaces with garlic butter if you're using it.
Press the mushroom halves back together and wind bacon slices around each mushroom starting from the bottom of the stalk, until it's completely wrapped, possibly excepting the head. Pin the bacon in place with a cocktail stick right through the mushroom.
Place in a small oven dish and drizzle with olive oil and a dab of garlic butter, if using. Throw in any of the mushroom cuttings too - waste not want not!

Roast at Gas Mark 4-5 for about 20-30 minutes until the bacon is starting to crisp at the edges and the mushrooms are cooked through.
Remove the cocktail sticks and serve the mushrooms dressed with all their lovely juices.
Perhaps with a few green vegetables. Maybe some broccoli.

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C).

Prepare the celery by discarding any outer stalks if they are coarse and damaged.
Separate the rest of the stalks, leaving the inner ones attached to the root. Clean any dirt off under cold running water. Cut the inner stalks and their roots vertically, then cut all the stalks in half horizontally.
Blanch the celery by putting it in boiling, salted water or use stock for about 5 minutes. Drain well, reserving the cooking water.
Now, in the flameproof casserole, heat 1 oz (25 g) butter and the oil, add the prepared carrot and onion and cook for about 5 minutes. I also fried up a few slices of bacon, cut into fat lardons.
Add the drained celery and 5 fl oz (150 ml) of the cooking water or stock. Sprinkle with the celery (or fennel) seeds and season with a little salt and black pepper.
Place the casserole in the oven and bake, covered, for 30 minutes or until the celery is tender.
When ready, transfer the vegetables to a shallow ovenproof dish, using a slotted spoon.
Empty the cooking liquid from the casserole into a measuring jug and make it up to 10 fl oz (275 ml) with the milk.

To make the sauce, heat the butter in a saucepan and fry the finely chopped onion until golden (I didn't bother with extra onion), then blend in the flour and cook for a couple of minutes before adding the milk mixture a little at a time, stirring well after each addition.
Bring to simmering point, still stirring, and simmer gently for a minute or two, then remove from the heat and beat in the Cheddar cheese and egg yolk.
I didn't bother with the egg either, but I wanted to re-use the mixture in smaller re-cooked servings later and didn't want the sauce setting.
Pour the sauce over the vegetables, sprinkle on the Parmesan cheese, and bake uncovered in the oven for a further 25-30 minutes or until it's heated through and the top is starting to colour.

Trim the sprouts, then slice them very thinly on a mandoline.
Break the slices up with your hands or a fork.
Grate over lemon zest and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Dress with olive oil until glistening.
Mix through some grated pecorino.
Add chopped herbs, if using.
Heat a small frying pan and dry-fry a handful of flaked almonds and toss over the salad before serving.

Roughly chop the onion, fennel and garlic and sweat in butter over a medium heat until softened.
Peel the beetroot, finely slice and add to onion and fennel.
Add bay leaves and cider and enough stock or water to cover the vegetables.
Simmer over a medium heat until the beetroot is softened.
Peel, core and slice the apples and add to pan.
Remove the bay leaves then blend the soup, in batches if necessary.
Season with salt & pepper.
Pour into bowls and garnish with a dollop of crème fraîche.

Cut the beef into chunks about 1-1½ large. Be sure to remove any silverskin or connective tissue. Especially if you're using shin.
Quarter the kidneys and remove their core along with any additional stringy bits.
Put the meat and the kidneys in plastic bags and shake up with well-seasoned flour.

Heat the dripping, or oil, in a large frying pan. Adding more along the way as required:
Fry the floured beef in batches to brown, then scoop into a pot.
Fry the floured kidney in batches until browned, then scoop into a pot.
Chop or slice the onion or leek and fry until they begin to caramelise, then scoop into the pot. De-glaze the frying pan with the stout and bubble until reduced by half. Add to the pot along with enough stock to cover everything.
Add a dash of soy and Worcestershire sauce, thyme, and a couple of bay leaves and simmer gently for 1¾ hours until the meat is tender. Adjust the position of the lid, so as to finish with a thick gravy. You may need to boil more vigorously at the end.
Taste and adjust the flavourings and seasoning. Remove the bay leaves and allow to cool.

Two hours before you want to eat, sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the salt. Add mustard powder if using.
Rub in the suet briefly to mix together with herbs/cheese/nuts if using. Add just enough cold water to bring together into a firm dough using a knife.
Pinch off a quarter of the dough and set aside, then roll out the rest to about ½ cm thick. Butter a 1 litre pudding basin generously, and use the pastry to line it, being careful not to stretch it.

Fill the pastry with meat and gravy, stopping about 2cm from the top, and then roll out the lid and stick it on with a little cold water. Cover the basin with foil, with a pleat to allow the pastry to rise, and fashion a handle out of string to lift the basin out of the water. Put the pudding in a large pan half-filled with boiling water, cover and simmer for 1½ hours. Check the water level regularly and top up with more boiling water as necessary. Turn out and serve immediately.

Either halve the tamarillo and scoop out the flesh and seeds with a spoon, or quarter it and remove the skin with a horizontal cut with a knife by holding the tamarillo piece flat on a chopping board. Chop the flesh. Mince the other solid ingredients.
Mix everything together.
Season with salt and sugar if required to take some of the edge off the bitterness.

Break up the black pudding with a fork - avoid turning it to mush.
Fry small cubes of apple in butter to brown, then mix with the black pudding and some chopped herbs.

Stuff the poussin with the mixture, lard the breast and top of the legs with bacon and roast at Gas Mark 5-6 for about an hour until the stuffing is hot in the centre.
Insert a cake tester, then touch it to your lower lip to check the temperature.
If the bacon starts to burn, cover the bird loosely with tin foil. Leave the bird loosely covered to rest for 10-15 minutes.

Peel the remains of your apple and cut ¼" slices across the near-middle. Remove the cores if necessary.
Roll in soft brown sugar, then fry both sides over high heat in clarified butter until nicely caramelised.

To serve, carve away the birds legs and breasts.
Scoop some stuffing from inside, pile onto fried apple disks and decorate with chicken pieces.

Cut a beetroot into cubes, or use the small end of a melon-baller to carve out spheres of beetroot.
Juice the leftover parts, and two more beets until you have enough juice to cover the balls.
Throw in a half dozen pieces of liquorice and simmer gently until the beetroot is cooked.
Drain to serve.

Peel and trim the celeriac and simmer in salted water until softened, but not collapsing.
Cut into chips and deep-fry twice: First at 140°C until cooked but not coloured, then 190°C until brown.

Slice garlic and shallots or red onion.
Fry until coloured in a little butter along with any spare parts of herbs you have.
De-glaze with red wine, and throw in a large handful of raspberries while you bubble off the alcohol.
Add the liqourice-y juice from cooking liquorice beetroots and continue cooking until the raspberries completely collapse.
Strain the sauce, return to the pan, and bubble until reduced to a sufficiently thick syrup.

Drain the cherries thoroughly and use kitchen paper to absorb any excess liquor. Blitz the black pudding in a food processor, then add 1 egg and the cornflour and blitz again.

Place a small amount of the black pudding mix in the palm of your hand and flatten out slightly.
Place a cherry in the centre and lift the sides of the black pudding mix around the cherry to enclose, like you would do to make Scotch eggs.
Repeat until all of the cherries are enclosed.

Add the remaining egg to a bowl and whisk lightly to make an egg wash. Lightly coat the black pudding balls in the flour and shake off any excess.

Dredge each ball in the egg 3-4 times to coat well, then place in the Rice Krispies bowl, shaking vigorously so the balls are well-coated.

Deep-fry the balls at 180°C for 2-3 minutes, drain on kitchen paper and serve warm.

Finely slice the shallots and garlic and sweat in butter until collapsed.
Cover with red wine, drizzle in balsamic vinegar add the cherries you can leave the stones in - we're going to strain everything later and bubble until the alcohol cooks off.
Add the beetroot juice and stock and cook until the red wine mellows and the cherries disintegrate.

Strain, taste, add flavourings, adjust the seasoning, then boil to reduce until it coats the back of a spoon, or as required.

First chop and fry the pancetta or bacon in a little olive oil until it crisps. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
Chop the salmon, gherkin leave capers whole, or just lightly crush, if using, roughly chop the rocket and mix everything with the reserved crisped bacon.
Add a light grating of orange zest.

Soffritto: Mince the shallots and sweat gently in the fat left in the pan until they turn transparent.
Tostatura: Raise the heat. Add the rice and stir well to coat and lightly fry, without allowing the onions to brown.
Umifità: Add the minced garlic, stir through then pour in a generous amount of white wine and cook it off. Lower the heat again.
Bagnatura: Have the stock simmering in a pot to hand and add one ladleful at a time to the rice until each is absorbed.
Continue this process until the rice is cooked. Leave the risotto as sloppy or firm as you like it.
Mantecatura: Remove from the heat and beat in the butter and grated parmesan until the risotto turns smooth and creamy.

Now carefully stir through the other prepared ingredients, season if necessary, and dress with a layer of thinly sliced mozzarella.
Once the mozzarella has begun to melt it might need some warm encouragement, serve with a few basil leaves for decoration.

Trim the fennel bulbs of tough or brown bits, strip the fronds for garnish, and par-boil them whole until you can pierce them with a knife. Drain and cut into fat segments vertically from root to stalks. Pack them into a single layer in a shallow oven dish.

Mix together minced anchovies, a good glug or two of honey, a splash of Aperol, the juice of an orange and the zest of about half, 1 or 2 minced red chillies, and a generous amount of olive oil. Season. Pour this over the fennel, and mix thoroughly.
Pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 4-6/175-200°C/350-400°F.
Bake for about an hour until the sauce melts into the fennel and they just begin to caramelize. Keep an eye on them and baste the juices over the fennel occasionally. Don't let the honey burn.
Serve dressed with the chopped fennel fronds. Perhaps extra grated orange zest. Maybe some parsley.

Chop or tear the crisp lettuce.
Chop the tomatoes into decent chunks.
Slice the olives.
Remove any coarse peel from the cucumber, de-seed and cut into chunks.
Grate pecorino and mix everything.
Break or cut the feta into chunks and add to the salad.

Mash a garlic clove or two with a grinding of salt & pepper using the side of a chef's knife. Mix the juice of a lemon with the garlic and about the same volume of olive oil and honey to taste.
Dress the salad and serve.

Slice the aubergines pretty thinly.
Set out bowls containing the flour if using, the beaten egg, and the breadcrumbs I used fresh, grated, bread.
Mash the garlic with salt & pepper.
Take each slice of aubergine, rub with the seasoned garlic, then roll through the flour if using, the egg wash, and finally the breadcrumbs. Lay in a single layer in a large frying pan and fry in a generous amount of olive oil until browned and crispy, turning to fry the other sides.
Lay the slices on a warmed serving dish, then repeat the frying in batches until all the slices are cooked.

Scatter with grated cheese, grated lemon zest and some chopped parsley to serve.

First de-bone your chicken.
Lay it out flat. Season generously inside and out, and if you have the time, leave overnight in the fridge.
You can also rub a little bicarbonate of soda into the chicken to tenderise it. You will need to wash that off if you use very much though, or you'll be able to taste it. And it's better to make this with a dry chicken. Hence leaving it overnight in the fridge.

Make the stuffing by frying the shredded ginger and sliced shiitake in a little oil until the mushrooms have nicely wilted.
Stir through some five spice powder, then deglaze the pan with rice vinegar and a dash of soy sauce, reducing so the mixture is not wet.
Mix with the rest of the stuffing ingredients. Lay the chicken skin-side down, sprinkle with more five spice powder, cover with a layer of pancetta slices, then spread over the stuffing. Not too much - you need to be able to roll it! Roll up the chicken from the wing/leg sides a sheet of clingfilm is useful for holding everything together, and tie up with string - not too tightly and after removing any clingfilm!.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4.
Fry the rolled chicken on all sides in duck fat or oil until nicely coloured, lay on a rack over a roasting tin (or the oven-proof frying pan) and roast for 45-60 minutes, until cooked through and golden.
Serve with a salad made from some of your spare stuffing ingredients dressed with sesame seeds and sesame oil, and some hoisin or satay sauce.

Pre-heat the oven to 180-200°C/360-400°F/Gas Mark 5-6.

Heat a large oven-proof casserole with a generous puddle of oil. Season the shanks with salt & pepper and sear them all, all over. Do it in batches so as not to overload the pan. Set aside.

Over high heat add the chopped carrots and fry until colouring.
Throw in the bay leaves, the chopped onions and the crushed garlic cloves and fry until colouring.
Add the chopped celery and the thyme and fry until softened.
Add the tomato purée and cook until the oil separates. De-glaze the pan with a glass of brandy, then add the red wine and bubble it up. Stir in the tin of tomatoes, the soy and fish sauce.
Then tightly pack the browned shanks back in to the pot along with any of their juices. Add enough stock or water to almost cover everything.
Bring to the boil, cover and put in the oven for 2 hours until the meat is tender.

Now lift out the shanks, pour out the cooking liquid and press it through a sieve. Return everything (except the exhausted pulp which you can keep for sandwiches Reader - do not use it in sandwiches) back into the casserole and put it back in the oven uncovered. Continue cooking and reducing for 30-60 minutes until the meat is almost falling off the bones.

In the meantime heat oil in a frying pan and brown the shallots all over, shaking occasionally, and add them to the casserole. Then add a generous knob of butter and the sliced garlic to the pan, allow the butter to foam and the garlic to begin to colour then add the mushrooms. Fry until they begin to colour, shaking occasionally. Add these and their juices to the casserole. Serve each shank on bed of mashed potato or cauliflower purée with a selection of the shallots and mushrooms and a drizzle of the reduced sauce.

Mince the mint leaves then grind them in a pestle and mortar with a grating of sea salt and coarse pepper.
Add crushed garlic, a squeeze of lemon or lime and some of the zest and churn to a paste.
Blend with melted butter, roll up in clingfilm or baking paper and chill.

Break or chop the cauliflower into similar-sized florets. Cook until completely soft in boiling salted water. Drain, then blend until smooth with just enough of the cooking water, cream, crème fraîche, or milk. Beat in the grated cheese.
Season to taste and serve with melted herb butter, chopped parsley or dill.

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.
Heat a grill or griddle pan.

Mix cherry tomatoes with olive oil, minced garlic and thinly sliced red onion, spring onions or shallots. Season with a little salt and pepper and some thyme leaves if you like.
Lay in a layer in a small ovenproof dish, and bake for 10-15 minutes until the tomatoes begin to split. Place the burrata on top and return to the oven for another 2-3 minutes until the cheese begins to soften, but don't let it collapse.

Meanwhile, halve the apricot, peach, nectarine, or plum, remove the stone, season the cut with salt and a generous amount of pepper, drizzle with olive oil and grill the cut-side or fry it in a roasting hot griddle pan until the griddle lines are nicely charred into the fruit.
Add a slice of ham and griddle that too. Slice up the ham across the griddle lines.

Dress the tomatoes with balsamic vinegar and serve everything up on a bed of rocket, topped with the warm burrata.
Scatter with herbs of choice and preferred salad dressing.

Remove the tail meat from the langoustine and set aside, reserving the shells to make a stock for the sauce. Lubricate the shells and heads with a little oil, then roast for 20-30 minutes at Gas Mark 4 until they colour deep red and slightly caramalise. Heat oil and butter in a large pan and fry the roast shells until nicely coated, then add the onion, leek and fennel. Add the garlic, star anise and paprika if using. Fry a little more, then deglaze with brandy if you like then white wine.

Pour in enough water to just cover. Simmer for 1 hour then strain through a sieve into another saucepan. Place back on the heat and reduce down to 200ml, then add the cream and reduce to a sauce consistency. Keep the sauce warm.

Cut the black pudding into 2cm pieces and deep-fry at 180°C until just crispy. Remove and drain on kitchen paper.

For the wild garlic crust, add the breadcrumbs, a few or many! parsley leaves and 6 leaves of wild garlic or a couple of garlic cloves to a blender and blitz until green in colour. Add any fronds from the fennel bulb. Place in a bowl, mix through the melted butter and season with a little salt and pepper.

Warm the sauce over a gentle heat, I sliced half my fennel bulb and added it to the sauce to cook. add the white beans and cook until the beans have warmed through. Add the crispy black pudding and the langoustine meat.

To finish the sauce, add a little chopped wild garlic and reheat for 2 minutes. Spoon the mixture into a shallow serving dish or 4 individual dishes or ramekins.
Sprinkle the wild garlic crumbs over the top and place under a hot grill to colour and crisp up the crumb. Serve immediately.

Trim the livers of membranes, gristle, connective tissue or excess fat. Cut into equal-sized pieces (if they're large); use the natural lobe-lines as guides.
Put in a bowl, cover with milk and leave for an hour. Sieve some flour into a shallow bowl and season it generously. Again you could add flavourings like cayenne or paprika.
Preheat a deep pan of oil to 350°F/175°C.
Drain the liver and roll the pieces in the flour. Drop them into the oil and fry for 2-3 minutes until golden. Scoop out the liver and drain on kitchen paper.

De-scale the salmon if necessary.
Mix the curry paste with the liquids until you have a smearable consistency. It will probably remain coarse, but you need to be able to scrape it thinly over the surface of the fish.

Cut the salmon into fat steaks. Pat them dry, then roll them in flour and shake off excess.
Smear the loosened paste thinly on all sides. Heat a frying pan with a fairly generous puddle of neutral oil until smoking hot. Fry the salmon pieces skin-side down over high heat until singed and crisping nicely, then turn and brown on all sides.
Check the centre of the salmon has reached 45-50°C then remove and allow to relax for 5-10 minutes before serving.

You can use this time to pan-fry some side vegetables in the flavoured oil if you like. Blanched, halved tenderstem broccoli stalks charred cut-side down in the same pan worked well for me.

Mix the curry paste and the coconut cream and cook it gently in a small pot until it starts to bubble and the aromas are released.
Stir through the fish sauce and leave to cool.
Cut the steak widthways into two fat pieces, put them in a freezer bag, smear them with the paste and squidge everything together.
Leave to marinate for 24 hours.

Put a large frying pan over a high heat, add a drizzle of neutral oil and when it's smoking hot put in the sirloin fat-side down. Allow to crisp for a couple of minute and then fry each side so they caramelize and blacken slightly.
Remove fat-side up to a low oven until the centre of the steaks reach your preferred temperature (50°C for rare), then allow the meat to rest tented in foil for ten minutes.

Meanwhile rinse out the freezer bag with hot water and use it to deglaze the pan. Bubble off to reduce, add a couple of tablespoons of peanut dressing if you like then pour in a little cream or coconut cream and bubble until it thickens to coat the back of a spoon.

Slice the steak, scatter with sliced spring onions and serve with the sauce.

Put out a bowl for the fruit.
Split and peel the rambutan skins. Cut the white inner flesh away from the central seed, and add the flesh to the bowl.
Split and tear away the mangosteen skins and inner purple sponge. Break apart the fleshy white segments and add them to the bowl.
Slice the spring onions on a bias. Include the white and green parts - stop before the leaves become gritty. Add to the bowl.
De-seed a red chilli or two, slice thinly and add to the bowl.
Halve or quarter cherry tomatoes and add.

If you're lucky enough to find a proper green papaya, peel it, and holding in one hand make long vertical cuts in the upper surface, then slice thinly horizontally, or use a peeler to create thin strips.
If it's a ripe papaya then halve, scoop out the seeds from the middle with a spoon, peel and cube the flesh.
If you're using a mango - run a large knife down either side of the mango stone. Cut the flesh in each (almost) half into squares down to the skin. Press flat and cut along the skin to release the cubes.
Add the flesh to your bowl.

Take a length of cucumber, wipe the skin, and quarter it vertically. Cut away the watery seeds from the middle, then thinly slice the outer part with the skin on. You can use a potato peeler for this. Add the strips to the bowl.

Cut away the (probably) dirty tip of the lemon grass root. Remove thick, hard and coarse leaves to reveal the pithy interior. Slice this thinly from the root end until you reach more leafy covering. Remove more tough leaves and continue to thinly slice the pith. Keep going until you run out of soft(ish) centre. You'll probably end up with a disappointingly small amount of edible stalk 🙁 (though you can crush the woody parts to flavour a neutral oil or a salad dressing).
Add to the bowl.

Roughly chop coriander leaves and mix with the fruit.

Starting from the top, slice the napa cabbage and break the slices apart. Dress or mix the lettuce with the fruit to serve.

Blend everything together except the oil until smooth. Adjust the flavour balance to your preference.
Beat in a neutral oil (avocado/grapeseed/sunflower etc.) until you have a dressing consistency.

You can grind your own peanut butter from roasted de-skinned peanuts if you like. Otherwise use something from a jar.
Whisk everything together, or if you've got some big lumps or just prefer a smoother result, blend it all up.
Adjust the balance, add salt, pepper or chilli flakes if you think it needs it (mine didn't).
Add a teaspoon or so of water if it's too thick.