All praise to Nigel Slater!

he's great isn't he? I am reading his kitchen diary book at the moment which is just so well written and makes you want to cook everything.

The simplest recipes are often the best and here's one of his that I made on Sunday for dinner and it was soooo lovely. I added the potatoes and served it with brocolli (something of a Raad obsession). It was in this months Sainsbury's magazine. Enjoy!

Serves two

Chicken with lemony leeks

4 skinless chicken thighs
1 lemon, juice and zest of
bunch of flat leaf parsley
200 ml chicken stock
100ml of white vermouth
3 small leeks
seasoning
small potatoes, halved and boiled.

Fry off chicken until sealed and golden in about 1 tbsp of olive oil - set aside.
Add leeks to pan (cut into 3 inch lengths then cut through into quarters so you have lots of long thin strips.
Cook on very low heat in oil and chicken juices, with lid on, stir every couple mins for about 10 mins until leeks are fairly soft.
Turn up heat again and put all remaining ingredients into pan with leeks. Put chicken thighs back in too. Cook for another 15 minutes with lid back on, again, stirring every couple of minutes. (drink some more vermouth on ice with lime as you do this, lovely!) add a little water if you think it needs it. Tah. dah x

Beetroot and Black Cumin soup

Soup is the thing of the moment. Easy to make, easy to eat and great to take to work. I don't know about you but with all the miserable weather around and the january going back to workness of it all, I like to have something cheery at lunchtime to look forward to and propel me through the morning! This soup in particular is fantastic for cheering as it's the most amazing colour, guaranteed to make you smile. I can't take credit for this, it's straight from the Moro cookbook. You can use normal cumin but try to source some of the black kind - it's entirely different and a really mystical taste...

1 kg raw beetroot, peeled and finely diced
1 large potato, peeled and diced
1 large spanish onion
2 tsp black cumin, toasted
1.5 litres water
3tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt & pepper
chopped flatleaf parsley
natural yoghurt to serve

Heat oil in pan on medium heat. Fry onion gently until is begins to colour. Add garlic and cook for a minute or so longer.
Add beetroot, cumin, potato and water. Bring to boil and simmer until betteroot is tender (30 mins or so).
Blitz with hand blender and smile as it becomes a smooth, rich magenta soup.
Add vinegar, salt and pepper and some chopped parsley.
Heat through again.
Serve with a blob of yoghurt and a sprinkling of parsley.
Fabulous. I also made some flatbreads and rolled more cumin seeds in and served with soup for a truly middle eastern vibe.

Feeling porky....


No not a pork recipe (by the way, the only pork products I eat are hotdogs. I am one of those rare people who can't stand bacon and sausages - yuck!)

No I am refering to my slightly expanded waistline due to the season of gluttony.

So, with that in mind, here is a lovely low fat soup recipe. hearty enough for this cold weather, really tasty and soothing, but no bad things to worry about. (I actually do a great soup with hot dogs in but I'll save that for another time ;-) )

Tomato, Cumin & Lentil Soup

2 tins of toms, chopped
one red onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, ditto
a tablespoon of cumin seeds
2 tablespoons of dark muscovado sugar
2 pints of stock (beef stock cubs give a nice kick)
200g red lentils

Simmer the onions in about 1/2 pint of the stock for 10 mins or so until they have softened.
Toast the cumin seeds until aromatic and either grind in pestle and mortar or in a spice grinder (our wet and dry grinder is a godsend for this sort of thing. I must use ot at least twice a week. We had one on our wedding list but no-one bought it. I think people thought it sounded like a sex toy. I digress...)
Add the cumin, chopped garlic, tomatoes, lentils, rest of the stock and the sugar.
Simmer all for 30 mins or so or until the lentils are tender.
Serve with virtuous granary toast whilst wearing an arran sweater. Enjoy!

Isn't Christmas brilliant? The food (obviously) is the main event for me. here are some of the things I love about christmas..

eating stilton with quince paste, ferrerro rocher, the glass of sherry whilst peeling sprouts, the smell of roasting chestnuts, the first satsuma of the season, christmas pudding, drinking mulled wine on Christmas eve, sprouts with everything, roasted parsnips, homemade cranberry sauce (with orange juice and thyme), making christmassy chutney in November, grating orange rind into pastry for making mince pies, eating cold meat and cheeses on boxing day, buck fizz with the pressies, porridge for breakfast with honey, Whittards Chistmas tea, cracking nuts in the afternoon whilst watching some old film or children's animation, walking off the stuffed feeling at twilight, having a curry at some point after the 26th to re awaken the taste buds, sneaking rubbishy sweets from children's collections like smarties and toffee crisps, listening to Carol's from Kings whist prepping veg etc on Christmas eve.

Top Tips for Christmas culinary serenity

1. don't cook something you haven't made before unless you don't mind if it all goes wrong!

2. Don't try to accommodate everyone's tastes or you'll go mad, just make enough variety and let people have as much or as little as they want

3. Don't drink too much champagne whilst cooking the lunch - fatal!

4. Make a time plan of when things are cooked in relation to each other. Sounds anal but save the sprouts being soogy/ pudding being not ready until 4 hours after the main course, roast vegetables burning before meat is cooked through etc etc etc

5. Don't take it too seriously. It's only glorified Sunday lunch!

Chestnut & apple stuffing balls

We are having pheasant this year - how about you? I am almost delirious with the idea of Christmas food. We made a long shopping list yesterday as a family - everyone's needs and foibles must be accommodated. The drinks list was a bit scary, but we decided that we are all now officially too old for champagne in the morning as we used to do - we can't take the pace! I am going to embrace my inner child and have a Snowball though, which I was allowed one of each Christmas, once I was about ten years old or so. One year,dad bought glace cherries in red, orange and green and we had traffic light style garnishes to our snowballs - yes, I was a sophisticated child and no mistaking it!

Anyhow, to go with the pheasant that me and my husband will be eating and the turkey that everyone else will be eating, I will be making these stuffing balls. Perfect for Maggie and all other Coeliacs and the people with wheat intolerances!


1 red onion, finely chopped
grated zest of 1 orange
25g butter
120g cooked rice (cook it badly so it's sticky!)
2 apples peeled, cored and chopped into small chunks (Braeburns or Cox’s are good for this as they have the requisite level of sharpness to sweet)
1 tbsp chopped fresh sage (or 2tsp dried if you can't find fresh)
100g chopped chestnuts (buy them ready done if you must! roasting your own is much more fun. official.
50g pine nuts, toasted and bashed up slightly
2 free range eggs, beaten
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 180C/350F or Gas 4

Gently sweat the onion and orange zest in the butter for 10 minutes. Don’t allow to colour if possible

Add the onion mixture to the other ingredients. Use eggs to bind – add slowly as you might not need it all, it shouldn’t be too sticky, just enough so it clags together.

Roll into balls and place on an oiled baking sheet. Cook for 20 - 25 minutes or until brown. Shake the tray once in a while to move them round. Gorgeous. Wrap bacon round them if you must, but I'd prefer it if you didn't.... ;-) Enjoy!

Bubble & Squeak cakes

Apparently it's going to snow later on this week in England and it's already so cold that my poor wee car is spluttering and coughing when I try to start her in the mornings. With that in mind (the snow not my car) here's a nice winter warmer. Can be an accompaniment or a main event. Nice served with sausages (tescos finest aberdeen angus beef for me please!) or with a poached egg or two. I'm not giving weights of things, you know what to do and how many you are cooking for, I always make this based on instinct and possibly a little greed...

mashed potato
cooked and drained savoy cabbage
onion
garlic
mushrooms
worcester sauce
black pepper
plain flour
olive oil
a glass of sherry

Turn up the heating, put on a jumper and open the sherry. The sherry is to drink as you cook and is not added to the cakes - sherry is like alcoholic central heating. Tescos Muscavado is nicest...

Fry onions, garlic and mushrooms until soft but not coloured. Add few dashes of worcester sauce.

Combined onion mixture with mash and cabbage and black pepper (if not a fan of worcester sauce add salt at this stage too).

form into cakes about the size of your palm.

dust in flour (you can leave this off if you are a coeliac or have a wheat allery but it adds to crispyness

fry in oil, low heat, until crispy and golden brown on outside and until you think inside is hot. If you do with warm mash it's easier, cold mash needs a bit more cooking.

ta dah. cosy from the inside out...

Rustic white bean soup


This is a great one when you don't have a great deal of time or many fresh ingredients in the house.

small red onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic
fresh rosemary and sage (very easy to grow in any garden or window box)
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of baked beans
1 tin of canellini beans - drained
1/2 pint of stock - vggie or chicken works best
glug or two of olive oil
drizzle of balsamic

sweat onions, garlic and rosemary in the oil.
Add everything else at the same time
bring to the boil, simmer for 10 minutes
serve with crusty bread.

Now this can have anything else in you want to use up so if you have some mushrooms, or maybe courgette, pepper etc, just chop failry small and add at the sweating stage. the trick is not to have too much going on flavour wise. The baked beans sound weird but the sauce gives a really nice sweetness to the soup and also means there are two different sizes of beans in there which looks nice. You can also make some fried bread crumbs wtth sage, but like very rough and smaller croutons, to scatter on top.

serves about 4 very hungry or 6 normal hungry!