Sweet Potato Salad

I'm late to the sweet potato party but I'm making up for lost time. I'm not a huge fan of potatoes in general and the name sweet potato does not do this delicious, filling healthy object justice. With both of us working from home and me doing the majority of homeschooling I handed the cooking reigns over to Joe but since moving to Hampshire just before Christmas I have taken back one reign and will occasionally do a freezer filler or a filling salad for a healthy lunch and this is one of my go to's. 

You can of course tweak it to suit your tastes - I would always add pomegranate seeds, Joe can live without them - but this should be just what you need to liven up your working-from-home lunch break and you can cook the sweet potato, keep in the fridge and then make the salad when you need to which means it takes a matter of minutes. 

This is the basic recipe - I tend to do the sweet potato, I usually have feta in the fridge and some herbs and then add whatever else I have. Avocado is delicious in this as are a few spinach leaves. 

Sweet Potato & Feta Salad
serves 2

2 sweet potatoes 
1/2 block feta, cut into cubes
Pumpkin seeds and/or pine nuts
Pecans and/or almonds, chopped
Half a head of broccoli
1 tbsp teriyaki 
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin
basil or any fresh herb you like
salt & pepper

For the dressing:
soy
honey
olive oil
fresh ginger

Pre-heat oven to 200C/

1. Peel the sweet potato and cut into cubes, you can par boil it or not. If you do it will reduce the time in the oven. Then toss in oil, cumin and turmeric and cook in the oven for about 40-45 minutes or until slightly crispy. 

2. In a small frying pan over a low heat sprinkle the pumpkin seeds and pine nuts with the teriyaki and cook briefly til they are coated and the teriyaki is sort of hardened onto the pan - not too much! If you don't have teriyaki soy will do just as well. Tip into your salad bowl and using your wooden spoon get the teriyaki off the bottom of the pan into the bowl too. 

3. Add the feta and then tear off tiny mini heads of broccoli into the bowl. It can seem ponderous but small bits of raw broccoli are amazing so worth it. 

4. Mix up the dressing and then put the sweet potato into the salad bowl, add the chopped nuts and the dressing. Add the basil and toss. Season to taste. 

Chocolate Chip Brioche Pudding

I've lost count of the number of times I've vowed that my eldest (nearly 4) will eat less chocolate and yet he's so completely in it's thrall that I can get him to do pretty much anything for a chocolate croissant. I'm sure there are mothers out there who are stronger willed than I am but try as I might the mix of a biddable child and the sheer pleasure it gives him is just hard for me to resist. He's a fussy eater so to see him tucking into something new is wonderful, even if that new thing is chocolate brioche.

In many ways the french have parenting sorted. Their baby food aisle isn't that big and the food unappealing to anyone over 18 months. If you have ever had pleasure from eating you are going to move on from the green sludgy puree as soon as you can waft past the cheese section (usually about three times bigger than the kids pouch aisle). They also do mini chocolate brioche's in pocket size individually wrapped so I can have bribery to hand wherever I go.

I packed as many of these as I could in my suitcase when we returned, only to discover a week later that their use by date had been the day the we got back. What to do? As an Englishwoman on the brink of Autumn I am filled with thriftiness. No food can be thrown out of my house at the moment. Yet, even I was going to draw the line at watching the little chap stuff in 5 mini chocolate brioche's in one sitting so I thought I'd create some sort of bread and butter pudding that he and his brother could have.

Ned's Eat-Your-Veg Tart

Ned is a typical almost-two-year-old. He loves something one day, won't countenance it the next, will eat kale and broccoli but rejects most other vegetables, won't look at fruit and is most happy with sausages and chips (as long as some 'chup' is present). It sort makes you lose your mind a little - not only the problem of 'are they getting enough fruit and vegetables?' but the sheer waste of food. Thank god for my dogs. But we went to hang out with my friend Laura and her twin boys and she had been to her friends house the week before who had produced this tart that had been eaten by all the children. Laura made it for our boys and again it all went in and it's been a huge hit in our house ever since.

I now make sure that I have pre-rolled, puff pastry that I've cut into one child sized portions in the freezer so I can just pull one or two out and make one of these tarts to feel I'm getting enough goodness into the boy. It was also incredibly useful on holiday in France. We could get puff pastry sheets and the vegetables there are fantastic so it was a sure fire baby friendly hit... in fact I ended up making it for the whole family for lunch one day, it was so in demand.

This is incredibly versatile - you can use what vegetables you have in the house and leave off anything you know your child will reject (Ned will not countenance a mushroom). I'm putting Ned's favourite options below but you use what you like. I would say that a pesto base and cheese topping are always winners but anything seems to go in between! 

I was reluctant to post this because it seems very obvious but it's very hard to get stuck in a rut when cooking for children and this has been a real savior for us. It would also be a great option for if you had a vegetarian child for lunch or supper, though obviously leave off the tuna/ham. You can add red peppers, tomatoes to make it sweet and appealing.

Ned's Eat Your Veg Tart

1 x pack pre-rolled puff pastry (I pack will do 2-4 two year olds but I pre-cut and  freeze squares big enough for one child. You can always defrost a couple if there are friends for supper)
Pesto
Courgette
Tuna/tinned salmon/ham
Sweetcorn
Cheddar Cheese

1. Lay the pastry (cut to the size you need) on a baking tray and spread a thin layer of pesto over the base leaving about a centimetre around the edge for the pastry to puff up.

2. Thinly slice the courgette and lay that over the top of the pesto.

3. Next add the tuna, salmon or ham that you want to use.

4. Sprinkle over the sweetcorn.

5. Grate over the cheese.

6. Cook for 15-20 mins. You want this to be golden and puffed around the edges and the cheese to be melted. If you don't cook for long enough the pastry will be all limp and unappealing.

Leftover Cheese Sandwich Pudding

The title of this sounds a bit gross I know and I have to say when my mum first suggested it I thought she had gone nuts but it was totally yummy and has now made me believe that any form of leftover can be made into something delicious. Which is true to a certain extent. I made cheese, ham and cucumber sandwiches for Ned's first birthday party (along with lots of other things) and there were some leftover which I was determined not to throw out. I ate the ham for lunch but really they would have been lovely in this but I was hungry. So there.

This is a hard recipe to write up as the amounts depend on how many sandwiches you have. It would also work well with lots of other kinds of sandwiches - ham, tomato... probably not cucumber... so don't feel restricted by the fact that this recipe is mainly cheese. You can also add whatever you like - my husband doesn't think something is cooking if it doesn't involve an onion. Garlic would be nice too but this is the basics - do with it as you will.

Leftover Cheese Sandwich Pudding

Leftover cheese sandwiches (I had about 20 which were quarter squares on a mix of white and brown bread)
2 eggs
¼ to ½ pint of milk
Cheese (preferably something tasty and melty - cheddar, red Leicester etc)
Parmesan
Salt and Pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5 and butter an ovenproof dish that will suit the amount of sandwiches you have - you want at least two layers of sandwiches in the bottom and enough room for this to rise a bit.

1. Layer the leftover sandwiches in the bottom of your buttered dish and squish them in a bit.

2. Beat the eggs in a bowl and add the milk. Beat a bit more and season with salt and pepper.

3. Pour the egg/milk mix over the sandwiches and leave to stand for half an hour or so.

4. Grate cheese over the top (I even splodged on some cream cheese that I wanted to use up) and cook for about half and hour or until the cheese is starting to go golden and it has puffed up a bit.

5. Serve with a salad and some chutney. It was delicious.

Leftover Cheese Sandwich Pudding

Chicken Noodle Soup

My sister-in-law came to supper last week. I had chicken thighs that needed using and I've only every seen her eat soup - so soup it was. You probably don't need a recipe for this but sometimes I find a recipe a reassuring starting point so here's my incredibly easy recipe for chicken noodle soup - adapt at will.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Serves 4

1 litre good chicken stock
450ml stock cube stock
6 chicken thigh fillets roasted (or leftover roast chicken equivalent), torn into pieces
Oyster or shitake mushrooms
Straight-to-wok Udon noodles
2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
star anise
coriander
3 baby pak choi, torn into strips and washed

1. Pour the good chicken stock into a large saucepan and gently heat through for about 15 minutes adding the star anise, ginger, soy sauce and sugar.

2. While the stock is heating up, tea the mushrooms into strips, melt some butter in a small frying pan and gently fry the mushroom until golden. Then remove from the heat and put to one side.

3. When the stock is hot add the strips of  chicken, mushroom and pak choi and the noodles.

4. Add stock cube stock to taste (I ususally use most of it) and cook for another 5-10 minutes.

5. Serve in bowls and sprinkle with coriander.

There are sugarsnap peas in this soup.... I wouldn't bother next time

Oeufs en Cocotte or Baked Eggs

Years ago we went to a Le Creuset sale. I dragged Joe along promising him that basically we'd be saving money in the long run and we would only buy sensible things. All this was true except at the end there were these really sweet tiny little Le Creuset round casserole dishes in four colours and well I just snuck them into the trolley and persuaded Joe at the check out that they would be incredibly useful for single portions of things. To be honest it was a massive lie - I like small things and the colours were so pretty that I just wanted them to take up valuable space in my kitchen. Which they do.

They are, however, the perfect thing for Oeufs en Cocotte which is one of my favourite things to make when I either have too many eggs or leftover double cream that needs eating. It isn't slimming but a little goes a long way as it's quite rich (I can't usually finish two of these) there is something incredibley soothing about being able to eat something in the evening that involves toasted soldiers... which this really should.

This makes enough for two fatties or four people though I really like this as a late night quick comfort supper which usually means there's just you... you can add all sorts of things but I never bother as this is great as it is. There are loads of recipes for this all over the place - this is how I do it.


Oeufs en Cocotte

Serves 2-4

200mls double cream
2 tbsp grated Parmesan
4 large eggs
salt and pepper

I make this in my Le Creuset mini casseroles but they would be fine in ramekins too. Whatever you are using you will need four of them and they need to be buttered. You will need a roasting tin or something in which to make a bain marie - the water will need to go about ¾ of the way up the sides of your ramekins. Once buttered put the dishes in the tin ready to pour the water in. Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.

1. Warm the cream in a pan then add the salt, pepper and cheese.

2. Pour the cream into the prepared ramekin.

3. Crack an egg into each ramekin on top of the cream.

4. Place the roasting tin into the oven and then pour in enough hot water to come ¾ of the way up the ramekins.

5. Bake in the oven for about 10 mins or until the eggs are set.

6. Add a pit of salt and pepper and serve with toasted soldiers.

Tartiflette

I never have a problem deciding what sort of food is appropriate. Except for Saturday lunch. For some reason Saturday lunch really throws me off and, unless its suitable weather for a rare roast beef salad with lots of bread and cheeses, I never have any idea what to cook. I asked my family for inspiration and tartiflette came up as an option served with salads and bread and something nice for pud. Then a neighbour came round offering us half a Reblouchon, she'd bought some in a 3 for 2 offer and was going to be away before they'd have a chance to eat it all. So that sealed the deal. Tartiflette it would be, even though, I was slightly scared of it.

I was wrong to be scared of it - it's incredibly easy to do and is happy to be made up and then just sit about a bit waiting to be cooked. And it tastes divine and is perfect for Saturday lunch or indeed week day supper. There are lots of recipes hanging around so this is mine!

Tartiflette
Serves 4-6

1.5kg potatoes (I like Vivaldi for this)
1 Reblouchon
1 clove garlic
400-500g bacon lardons
300ml creme fraiche
salt and pepper

I use a fairly small but deep rectangular roasting dish for this. Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6.

1. Butter your dish and rub it with garlic. I tend to smash the garlic a bit to get the skin off so I then leave bits of smashed garlic in the bottom of the dish.

2. Boil a pan of water, add a good pinch of salt and then cook the peeled potatoes until they are just done. Drain them and leave them to cool.

3. Fry the lardons for 2-3 minutes and put to one side.

4. Slice the cooled potatoes into slices (about 1 cm thick) and put one layer of them, using about

half the potatoes in the bottom of the dish.

5. On top of the potatoes sprinkle the lardons and then cover with creme fraiche.

6. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, not too much salt as the lardons will be quite salty.

7. Add the rest of the potatoes as a top layer an then slice the Reblouchon in half and lay on the top skin side downwards.

Tartiflette pre-cooking

8. Cook in the pre-heated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the top is sort of gooey and golden... and looks done.

Just remembered to get a photo as it was being served

Quails Egg Pasta

I'm terrible at cooking for vegitarians. I have a couple of friends who are, or have been, veggie and I know from them that it's usually a choice of goats cheese, mushrooms or veggie sausages and this puts me into a cookery tail spin because then all I can think about is making a goats cheese tart... However, this is a yummy option that is actually really easy but exciting enough to cover up the fact that really it's pretty studenty!

Quails Egg Pasta

Serves 4

400-500g fettuccine
1 head of garlic
12 quails eggs
125ml single cream
25g grated Parmesan
salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. You can of course you any kind of pasta you like, fettuccine is my favourite long pasta that's why I use it here. And you can use double cream if you prefer, I usually do but for this with all the roasted garlic I like the consistency of the single cream. You can be extra cheaty and buy pre-boiled and peeled quails eggs but ideally you want these to be slightly soft-boiled.

1. Wrap the garlic in tin foil and roast in the pre-heated oven for 30 minutes or until it's all soft. Remove from oven and leave to cool a little bit.

2. Put the pasta on.

3. Open the garlic and squeeze it from its skins into a small bowl and mix with the cream, Parmesan, salt and pepper.

4. Cook the quails eggs according to the instructions on the packet. You want slightly soft boiled but so that the yolk stays mostly where it is. 1 minute in a pan of boiling water should do it. Peel when they are cooled slightly.

5. When the pasta is cooked, drain it and return it the sauce pan mixing in the cream and garlic. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

6. Dish up and then add the halved quails eggs to each plate with an extra grind of pepper and grate of Parmesan.

You can see that I've cheated and used pre-boiled quails eggs, still yummy but not perfect

The Ultimate Coffee Cake

I had to work on my birthday for the first time ever this year. Typically I've avoided being at school or work for the first 28 and then when I'm finally free from the office and working for myself I manage to land a 12 hour day. I'm not complaining as it was doing makeup on a film set so it was really fun but pretty exhausting when you are 6 ½ months pregnant. I was tired when I drove home but got back to a spankingly clean house, champagne in the fridge and my family there with lots of presents and ready to order me illicit sushi. As I didn't get home til 8 I assumed that I'd missed the cake slot but no, my Mumma had not only made me a cake but it turned out to be actually the best cake in the whole world.

Now I admit that I am one of those people who thinks their mother's cooking is the best (I know my mum's cooking is the best) and her coffee cake, which she has made me for pretty much every birthday for the last 29 years is unbeatable, but this year's took it to a whole other level. I know that a lot of people don't like coffee cake - that is because most shop bought cakes a) come with walnuts (why? WHY?) and b) are incredibly sickly because they use too much coffee but this cake has, so far, gone down well with everyone. This cake is really moist (I think because it uses margarine instead of butter... sounds gross but trust me it works) and has not too much coffee in the sponge or the icing and instead of walnuts either grated chocolate or just sprinkled with caster sugar. If you want to be as amazing as my mother's, topped with extra coffee icing and sprinkled with crumbled flake.

This cake was so good I had to cut it into individual slices and freeze them to stop me eating it all in one sitting. So she gave me the recipe and here it is... I should have take photos of my birthday cake as it was amazing but as I said it didn't last long so you'll have to make do with pictures of my less beautiful attempt. If you do want icing on the top and bottom then make double the amount of icing.

The Ultimate Coffee Cake

For the sponge:
100g soft margarine
150g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
150g caster sugar
2 large eggs
4 tbsp milk
1-2 tsp Camp coffee

For the icing:
200g icing sugar
85g butter
Camp coffee

Pre-heat the oven 180C/350F. I make all of this in a Magimix and use whatever size cake tin I feel like which I know isn't very helpful but I make one cake and chop it in half to ice it so I don't need two tins the same size. It needs to be lined on the bottom.

1. Put all the sponge ingredients into a Magimix (or food processor... or do it by hand) and blitz for 10 seconds.

2. Scrape round the edges of the Magimix bowl with a spatula and blend again for another 5 seconds.

3. Pour into your prepared cake tin and cook in the oven for 25-30 minutes until golden on top and a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean

Cake batter

4. While the cake is cooking wash and clean the Magimix and then make the icing.

Cake cooling

5. Put the icing sugar and butter into the clean Magimix and whizz until smooth. Add Camp coffee to taste, blending to mix thoroughly.

6. When the cake is cooled enough remove it from the tin. Leave to stand for 10 minutes and then cut in half with a bread knife.

7. When the cake is completely cooled layer one half with icing and then add the other half as the top. Then ice, sugar or grate chocolate onto the top.

8. I quite like this cake to be kept in the fridge and then removed 5-10 mins before I have a slice but it's perfectly happy in a cake tin.

Definitely not my most beautiful cake but my god it tasted good

Joe's BBQ Steak Marinade

Our lovely South African neighbours have got my husband obsessed with BBQ-ing... or braai-ing to be more precise and even though they can't stop us having his delicious burgers (sooooo un-SA) they have got him into the habit of having tasty marinaded steak strips as a sort of starter.

There are loads of different ways of marinading your steak and if you venture to a South African shop you can find pre-done ones that are to die for but here's one of our favourites. (This is another victim of us being too greedy... no photo of the finished product.)

BBQ Steak Marinade

for 2-4 steaks

4 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp honey
2 tbsp wine vinegar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp ginger, minced
2 spring onions, chopped
black pepper



1. Put the steaks into a freezer bag or container with a lid.

2. Whisk together all the ingredients and pour into the bag/container. Smoosh together a bit and leave in the fridge. Best done a couple of hours before you need them.

3. Cook the steaks on the BBQ and use the marinade to baste them every now and again.

Basic Sponge Cake with Coffee Icing

I'm not really into cake. Most of the time I could live without it. Most of the time... about 10% of the time I want to mainline coffee cake. My mother showed me how to make this when I was quite young, partly because it's a nice thing to do and I think partly so I could bloody well start making it myself.

We cheat and use Camp coffee rather than making it fresh but I really like it this way... you can make up the coffee yourself if you would rather. I also do this in a slightly old fashioned way by weighing the eggs - I like doing it this way because I find the sponge is more moist. Will try and get a photograph of a slice before it's completely gone...

Coffee Cake

3 eggs,
butter
self-raising flour
caster sugar

For the butter icing:
200g icing sugar
85g butter
Camp coffee or strong instant coffee

The first thing I do is take the butter out of fridge. You want it to be soft so your arms don't fall off. You can make this in a mixer but I prefer to do it by hand. You will need two springform cake tins or loose bottomed ones. Approximately 7 1/2-8 inches - the bottoms lined with greaseproof paper and the sides greased with butter. 

Preheat the oven to 120C/250C/Gas Mark 1/2.

Prepared cake tins

1. Crack the eggs into a bowl and weigh them. You will then need the same amount of butter, sugar and self-raising flour.

2. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and beat until light and fluffy.

Creaming the butter and sugar together

3. Beat the eggs and then gradually add to the creamed mixture. If it curdles then add a handful of sifted flour.

4. Fold in the sieved flour with a metal spoon.

5. Diving the mixture between the two tins and bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes until risen and golden. Check they are cooked by putting a metal skewer into the middle - if it comes out clean they're done, if not, put them back in the oven for a few more minutes.

6. Cool on a rack in their tins until they are cool enough to be removed.

7. While the cakes are cooling make the icing by mixing together the icing sugar and butter until you have a paste. Then add the coffee a tiny bit at a time until you are happy with it. Put in the fridge until the cake is completely cool and ready to be iced.

8. Ice the cakes when they are cool. I use a metal spatula and do the top first so I can use as much as possible for the middle.

Fish Pie No. 3 - Joe

Chef's perks

Finally the third in the fish pie triumvirate and another that really shows up Jamie Oliver's I think. Joe usually makes this when we are staying in the cottage in Blakeney, North Norfolk where you can get lovely fresh fish and all the other ingredients just by walking into the village. We always majorly overeat in Norfolk and when the boys were making this I thought I'd never be able to fit any in... but of course I did. There were no leftovers. It's also amazing what wonders happen in the kitchen while we girls were gossipping... and how much local ale gets drunk. For once Joe's bladder was fuller than mine during the night.

I put Tom in charge of being blog photographer and he took loads of pictures so this may be a rather picture heavy post but the recipe itself isn't exactly that complicated so the photos will be something nice to look at! Joe and I are going back to Blakeney next weekend for a friends wedding - as there will be only two of us there will be no excuse for quite such excessive over-indulgence!

What makes this pie amazing is the creamy mash (no Jamie I don't agree that it should be lumpy and 'rustic') the good amount of parsley and the fish-infused white sauce.

Joe's Fish Pie

Serves 4

450g white and smoked fish, skin on
1kg potatoes
parsley
4 eggs, hard boiled
180g cheddar cheese, grated
50g flour
50g butter, plus extra for the mash
400ml milk, and a little extra for the mash
salt
pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.

You can use prawns in this if you wish but Clare who was staying with us hates them (and calls them 'babies fingers') so we left them out. You can ask the fishmonger to remove the skin for you and package it up separately, you will need to flavour the sauce though. We were cooking this on an Aga so I've amended the heat and times to be for a normal oven. You will need a large ovenproof dish.

We chose smoked haddock, plaice and a tiny bit of cod

1. Peel and cut up the potatoes to roughly the same size. Put them on to boil. You can hard boil the eggs at the same time. I put them in cold water and bring to the boil, once they are boiling I count to 30 switch the heat off and leave for 12 minutes. Then drain and cover with cold water.

Potatoes and eggs boiling on the Aga

2. Chop up the fish and place in the bottom of the dish. Season well then chop and scatter the parsley over the top.

Seasoning the fish

3. When the eggs are ready slice them up and scatter them over the top of the fish and parsley.

Arty shot of parsley... thanks Tom

4. Make a roux with the butter and flour, then remove from the heat and add the milk, a little at a time, whisking continuously to avoid lumps.

Melting the butter for the white sauce

5. When the sauce is ready drop in the fish skins and leave on the heat stirring gently for 10 minutes or so for the flour taste to cook out and to let the fish infuse with the sauce.

White sauce with fish skins

6. Sieve the sauce directly over the fish, eggs and parsley and discard the fish skins.

7. When the potatoes are parboiled mash them adding milk and butter until it's smooth.

The dog is obsessed with fish... she may be part seal

 8. Push the mash over the top of the pie and then sprinkle the grated cheddar over the top.

Pre-oven pie

9. Cook in the oven for about 30-40 minutes or until just beginning to turn golden on top. In the Aga we do this for ten minutes in the top (hot) oven and then half an hour in the cooler oven at the bottom.

Clare and the pie (and me being fat on the sofa) there are peas in the fish pan...

Chicken and Greens Salad

My wonderful friend Joy has a reputation for leading me astray. 'I'll be back on the last tube... it's just kitchen supper' I say breezily to my husband as I leave. 'I got carried away' I say croakily as I return in a taxi we can't afford at 5am. So I think we were both a little concerned about what would happen to me if I turned up there pregnant. However, Joy has her own offspring, is trainer, councillor and all round healthy eater so I was in safe hands and she made this most fantastic salad for my supper that contained a billion things that I'm supposed to eat but don't get round to and gave me some for my lunch the next day.

She very kindly gave me the recipe as my cooking has been a bit lax recently... unless you count eating pepperami dipped in cream cheese cooking.

Joy's Chicken and Greens Salad

Serves 3-4

1 bag baby red potatoes
1 packet broccoli stems
1 packet dwarf green beans
1 packet wild rocket
1 packet of mini chicken breast fillets
2 good sized tomatoes, sliced
1 packet fresh basil
1 packet fresh chives
1 packet feta cheese
1 handful toasted pine nuts
1 fresh lemons
ground pepper
Worcestershire sauce

For the dressing:
olive oil
pinch of salt
ground pepper
juice of 1 lemon

1. Boil 2/3rds of the baby red potatoes, drain and let them cool.

2. Steam the broccoli and green beans until still slightly crunchy and then cut in half. Set aside to cool.

3. Stir-fry the chicken in olive oil until cooked through. In a dish squeezing over the juice of 1 lemon, a grind of pepper and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce. Toss together and leave to cool.

4. Cube the feta cheese.

5. Finely chop most of the basil and chives - how much you use is up to use. Most of each packet is good.

6. When the chicken is cool, chop roughly and add to a bowl with the rest of the ingredients. 

7. Whisk together the dressing ingredients, add to the salad and let it sit for half an hour.

Wild Garlic Pesto

My brother-in-law picked too much wild garlic so brought us some and I had no idea what to cook with it. Usually we use it with chicken but Joe was going away for a couple of days so I needed to make something that would last. Wild garlic pesto seemed the obvious option but having made it I wasn't sure. It was so garlicky that my taste buds were blown slightly and I love basil pesto so much this didn't seem to quite live up to it. But then I made my supper with it and it was tasty and amazing and now I'm really pleased to have it in my fridge for making things exciting when I can't be bothered to cook properly!

The recipe is taken from Sarah Raven's Garden Cookbook and I'm going to put my pasta recipe below it, which looks really unexciting but was in fact incredibly yummy with this pesto. I'm not sure how long it will keep for but I'm assuming quite a while as long as you keep it sealed tightly and covered with olive oil.

Wild Garlic Pesto

For a large jar:

2 handfuls (about 100g) of wild garlic with leaves and flowers
200ml extra virgin olive oil, plus a bit more for sealing
50g pine nuts or walnuts
2 garlic cloves, peeled
50g Parmesan cheese, grated
Salt and black pepper

1. Check there are no snails on your wild garlic. Blanch the wild garlic leaves in boiling water for about 10 seconds. Refresh in cold water and pat dry on kitchen paper.

2. Put the wild garlic, olive oil, pine nuts/walnuts, together with the garlic cloves, into a food processor and blend to a puree.

3. Transfer to a bowl and mix in the grated Parmesan and season carefully.

4. Put into a sterilised jar and pour a little extra olive oil over the top to seal, cover tightly.

Wild Garlic Pesto Pasta with Feta and Tomatoes

Serves 1

100g dried pasta, I use gigli
1/3 block of feta, cubed
2-3 vine ripened tomatoes
1 small tin of tuna in brine, drained
1 tbsp Wild Garlic Pesto
Salt and black pepper

1. Put the pasta on to cook in salted water.

2. Cube the feta, slice the tomatoes and drain the tuna.

3. When the pasta is cooked drain it and return it to the pan. Stir through the pesto and then the remaining ingredients.

4. Season with salt to taste and a lot of black pepper.

Afternoon Tea - No. 1 Fortnum & Mason

I love Afternoon Tea... or High Tea as it used to be called and I just don't get enough of them. With a hungry husband to feed when he comes home I think he'd be pretty unimpressed if I said we were just having a light miso soup for supper as I'd had sandwiches, scones and cake at 4. My friend however not only loves afternoon tea but she has it quite often, and in all the best places (she won't go to the Ritz darling, or the Savoy 'not very good' she whispers). And she's a thin as a rake which just seems a little unfair! I haven't seen her for years so we wanted to meet somewhere, mid-afternoon for a non-coffee related catchup. She suggested Fortnums, I imagined a cup of builders and a slice of cake... how wrong I was.

Fortnum and Mason is a British institution selling tea for over 300 years. And to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee they have revamped and reopened the St James's restaurant now to be called the Diamond Jubilee Tea Room and it is just gorgeous. Light and airy, modern but with an incredibly charming old fashioned air - there is a pianist in black tie to accompany your tea - I could have stayed there for hours. I was incredibly embarrassed to have turned up in jeans, trainers and my husbands shirt (I haven't made it out to maternity shopping yet). I had meant to change after a meeting that actually overran and although, as my mother points out, you don't really have to get dressed up for anything nowadays I really felt that Afternoon Tea at Fortnum's deserves a bit of effort in the dress department.

Now, I have to mention that I found the price a little hard to swallow at first, £38 per person, and the service was a little on the slow side (but they were busy). However, I can't remember a time I was as full and the tea was particularly delicious and the setting beautiful and after all this is tea at Fortnum's. It's a treat - it wouldn't be the same if you could afford it everyday and it just means you have to block a couple of hours out to blissfully settle in to sipping, chatting and grazing, in this fantastic atmosphere that really makes the price worth every penny.

The first thing I noticed, and if fact I couldn't take my eyes off it throughout was the turquoise china. Beautiful and stylish and actually very modern - important I think considering how easy it would be to make it too try-hard old-fashioned. Incredibly polite service and no one asking you if everything was alright every two minutes - you feel like you have all the time in the world and no one minds you being there as long as you like.

You get to choose your tea blend, we had Jubilee tea which was delicious, and then a stand is brought with finger sandwiches, scones and cakes. A separate stand holds the jams and clotted cream and tea comes with hot water to top it up with. The selection of sandwiches was delicious - smoked salmon, egg and cress, pastrami with horseradish, coronation chicken and cucumber - and are replenished once you have finished if you want more. The scones, a selection of plain and fruit, are really light and quite small so you don't feel weighed down and the jams delicious - although I was a bit sad that the apricot didn't seem to have made it to our table the raspberry was addictive!

Finally the cakes, which are small and manageable, where wonderful and more like little deserts - chocolate mousse, lemon tart, raspberries, eclairs. If you have managed to eat all of this you can go an select more cakes from the main cake stand - we didn't get this far (I had seconds of the sandwiches) but I could see and incredible battenburg and a lethal looking chocolate cake.

This was the most fun, and the biggest treat, I've had in ages. I am desperate for an excuse to go back although now I know that I am friends with surely London's top Afternoon Tea connoisseur we've decided to do a Tea Tour of which this is only the first stop. I'm hoping it wins so we can return to it triumphantly. We arrived at 3 and I had to leave at 5 and I just wasn't ready to go...

Simple Salad Dressing #2 - Zingy Balsamic Dressing

I feel a bit of a wanker calling this 'zingy' when I really mean 'balsamicy'. This is my favourite dressing and I usually try to make enough to half fill my dressing bottle so it's in the fridge ready to go any more and it can go a bit sludgy... we don't eat enough salad in this house.

Balsamic Dressing

10 tbsps olive oil
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tsps grainy mustard
1 1/2 tsps caster sugar
1 tsp garlic paste
Salt and pepper

1. Mix all the ingredients together either in a blender or by hand in a jug with a whisk (which is what I do). Add salt and pepper to taste and add a bit more oil. mustard and sugar if you find the balsamic too mind
blowing.

Heavenly Ham and Lentil Soup for Easter Monday

We spent the Easter weekend with my Mumma in Hampshire eating. She is the queen of Easter - beautiful tablecloths, eggs and decorations everywhere, tastefully done Easter tree, her sheer capacity for consuming chocolate. She cooked up a storm all weekend including her amazing fish pie and smoked ham, jacket potatoes, leeks, peas and parsley sauce. Last time she did a ham my lovely, helpful husband tipped the stock away in a frenzy of washing up but we managed to save it this time and soup was looming for the rest of the weekend.

We'd eaten so much I was not sure how I felt about soup which in my mind is always a bit heavy but we were all completely astounded by what appeared. Rather than something creamy and heavy this is clear and life-giving, the perfect antidote to a weekend of overeating. I love ham but can never really be bothered to cook it myself but now I know this is one of the outcomes I'm definitely going to add it to my repertoire.

Heavenly Ham and Lentil Soup
Serves 6-8

1 tbsp olive oil
knob of butter
2 litres smoked ham stock
1 onion, finely chopped
2 leeks, finely sliced
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
1 medium potato (ideally new potato), finely diced
3 handfuls green lentils
1 finely chopped tomato
1 bunch curly parsley
black pepper
Parmesan (optional)

All you need for this (apart from a sharp knife and a chopping board) is a big saucepan. It's important that the vegetables are quite finely diced and the potato is a firm variety as you want it to hold it's shape.

1. In a large pan heat the oil and butter over a medium heat and sweat the vegetables, excluding the parsley, for five or so minutes.

2. Add the ham stock and the lentils, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 1/2 and hour until the lentils are cooked.

3. Chop in a large bunch of curly parsley, including the stalks, just before serving.

4. Sometimes its nice to sprinkle a little bit of Parmesan over this - I prefer it without but some like it with so you may want some on the table for people to add if they want.

Quick and Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I used to make these a lot at uni. Boys would turn up on my doorstep at 3am demanding that I make them and I haven't really made them since. But when my boss came to my flat for a meeting and wanted homemade cookies and my Hawaiian friend was on hand to eat most of the cookie dough so I didn't have to, I decided to dig out the old faithful recipe and give them a go.

The only problem was that the boss doesn't like dark chocolate really and there were no milk chocolate chips to be found so we bashed up some Minstrels and used those instead. I have to say I may just use them all the time in future - I don't really like cookies and I had two of these!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 20-30 cookies

300g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
170g butter, slightly softened
215g light brown sugar
1 tbsp Vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
300g chocolate chips (or just under 2 large bags of minstrels)

Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5. You will need a couple of lined baking sheets - I prefer the reusable Teflon ones - two mixing bowls and a cooling rack.

1. Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and set aside.

2. Stir together the soft butter, sugar and Vanilla extract then add the egg and the yolk. Beat well to ensure the egg is evenly distributed.

 

3. If you are using Minstrels then wrap them in a clean teatowel and bash with a rolling pin - you don't want it to be too fine though. You could also pulse carefully in a Magimix.

Jo bashing up the Minstrels

4. Stir in the dry ingredients and then fold in the chocolate chips. It may be easier to do this by hand...

Mixing in the chocolate chips by hand

5. Form the dough into a rough sausage shape, cover in clingfilm and chill until firm - at least 30 minutes.

6. When the dough is ready, make hockey puck shapes and press onto the prepared baking tray.

7. Bake for approximately 10 minutes in the pre-heated oven until the edges begin to look golden.

8. Cool on the sheet for a minute then remove to a cooling rack.

Finished Cookies

Hokey Pokey

Crisis - was off to a friends for supper and had spent such a lovely day having lunch and pedicures with my mum that I'd completely forgotten to get anything to take to them... panic not. While the Mumma was getting ready to go out I made some hokey pokey which is another name for honeycomb and then thank god for my Lakeland obsession because it meant I had a little plastic bag and ribbon to put it in.


Really simple easy recipe and much nicer than shop bough chocolates.

Hokey Pokey

100g caster sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

You need a baking tray with some reusable baking paper or greased tin foil on it. This isn't for cooking this is for pouring the hokey pokey onto to set.

1. Put the caster sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan and while it's still off the heat, stir it around to mix it together a bit.

2. Put the pan on a high-ish heat and DO NOT STIR. Just watch it for about 3-5 minutes - it should all melt together and then when all the sugar has gone and it is bubbling and darkish brown (maple syrup colour) remove from the heat and whisk in the bicarbonate of soda. It will all whooosh up but that's what it's supposed to do.

3. Tip this onto the prepared baking tray and leave to set - about 20 minutes. Then break it up by hand, rather than with a rolling pin, and put into it's receptacle.

Apple and Raisin Muffins

I've wanted to make muffins for ages but never had a muffin tray... then I got one thanks to the lovely but evil le creuset sail a couple of weeks ago. Now the wedding season is finally over I spent most of Sunday in the kitchen baking and on seeing some granny smiths that needed eating I decided to launch into muffin making. They don't look like the ones in the shops that I've seen but that's fine isn't it? They went down very well with the boys at half time during the Fulham game on Sunday afternoon.


Apple and Raisin Muffins

Makes 12

225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g caster sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
60g unsalted butter
150ml milk
2 apples, peeled and grated
1 tsp ground cinnamon
60g raisins

Pre-heat the oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5. Line your muffin tins and melt the butter and set aside to cool a bit.

1. Sift all the dry ingredients together into a bowl and then add the apple and raisins.

2. In another bowl whisk together the egg, butter and milk. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients and quickly stir everything together. It should be quite thick. You can add a drop more milk if you think it's too stiff but you really don't want to overwork the mixture.

3. Fill the muffin cases until they are about two thirds full and then bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until risen and golden.

4. Leave to cool in their tin until they are cool enough to be handled and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Not bad for a first attempt!