Go straight to the recipe for your new twist on Brunch Eggs – Courgette, Carrot and Sesame Egg Menamen

You know how it goes. You are cooking brunch. It is the weekend. A sleepy start, slower than normal. Hatching plans. Just what will be the perfect soldier to dip in to your runny egg yolk? I take great care with my eggs to avoid any potential problems. The yolk is the very best bit and I need it to be runny and perfect, I also need my white to be set. This, I figured out years ago. The trick is simple, just add a lid and cook it just long enough.

Pure beef meatballs? What do I even mean? I mean a meatball that has nothing but beef in. Isn’t that a burger? No! Bear with me.

This speedy supper was inspired by my lush little chilli garden. 8 plants in a raised bright yellow planting table (I have about 16 chilli plants scattered around the garden, just call me hot head). It comes with a transparent deep lid, and like a mini greenhouse, helped my chilli plants off to a rich start. My plants are bushy and lush, and are laden down with gorgeous hot chillies. They are starting to turn red, but have been wonderful green too.

My favourites are the jalapeños sliced fine and placed the other day on my juicy intensely red Santorini tomatoes which had grown a metre away, and a little parasol of neighbouring nasturtium leaves on top. Crisp large flakes of sea salt made these a perfect bite. I also love the serrano chillies, fever hot and intense, they were perfection in the sauce that accompanied the meatballs. Enough to wake my senses on that crazy rainy day we had earlier in the week.

My chilli table, and surrounding vociferous tomato plants (which I will prune today!).

Jump straight to Seaweed Cornmeal Soda Farls recipe

I love soda farls. Speedy Irish soda bread cut into triangles and fried, quicker than the time it would take to go to the shop for bread. And SO fresh. As the name implies, the bread is raised with soda (bicarbonate of) as opposed to yeast, the bicarbonate triggered by the acidity of buttermilk.  I have played around with the recipe many times in the past, making black pudding soda farls, bacon soda farls, and farls with spring onions and herbs. These new versions are my current favourite. 

Buttermilk can be difficult to source here, real buttermilk at least. In Ireland it is sold in the milk fridge in most shops, even small ones, in litre cartons the same size as milk. Here in the UK, it is more likely to be sold in a small cream carton, if you can find it. No need to worry though, it is easy to replicate it by souring some milk with yogurt, or a squeeze of lemon. Dairy free? No problem either. In fact these farls are dairy free as I am currently on a medical exclusion diet (the details of which are too boring for here). I used coconut milk with a generous squeeze of lemon. The coconut milk replicates the texture of the buttermilk perfectly when diluted down a little with the lemon, and the farls don’t taste remotely coconut-y. Perfect. You can also substitute a good almond milk, or any other dairy free milk of your choice.  Just don’t forget the lemon. 

This post is published in partnership with our sponsor OpenTable. The world’s leading online restaurant booking platform, OpenTable has functionality that enables diners to search, discover and make reservations at restaurants across the globe, in their local language. Becoming a ‘Global Dining Passport’ to help the global traveller, become a global diner. The global booking functionality gives access to over 38,000 restaurants across more than 20 countries at the tap of on a button. 

It has happened to you I am sure, it most certainly has happened me. A photo of a dish, an anecdote about a restaurant, somewhere that you are just dying to try because you saw it on instagram or read a story about it causes you to plan your travels around it. I have a fierce memory for dishes that have sparked me. Dishes that are so complete, so arousing, that they are all encompassing as you eat. Dishes that when they come along change a greyscale day to technicolour. 

A monk at dawn outside Bangkok

There are many dishes in my memory bank that I remember fondly and want to eat again. From the street to the stars, chief among them grilled pork cheek with smoky tomato sauce in the musky night air by the swimming pool at Nahm in Bangkok, immediately before I left for the airport for my overnight flight. The intensity of a tagliatelle with ragu forged with love, lard and perky white pepper eaten in the Emilia Romagna countryside, with long grasses waving in the field across from my table outside.

Jump straight to Cucumber, Avocado and Basil Soup. 

What do you think of cold soups? Some people absolutely rage against them, don’t they? But they can be so good. Gazpacho? CHECK. Aja Blanco? Hells YES. That delicious confection of almonds, raw garlic, extra virgin olive oil and sherry vinegar, with green grapes halved on top to finish. And of course, vichyssoise, aka wonderful leek and potato soup. We usually eat it hot here, but the tradition in France is to have it cold and it is gorgeous. 

It isn’t hot I know, at least it feels cool at 22 deg C with a breeze. My internal thermostat was forever reset by those days early in the summer in the mid 30’s and a few days over 40 in Ottawa in June. Yet, I wanted something cooling, and my friend, who is ill with a poorly intestine did too. 

Jump straight to the Pasta e Ceci recipe

My love of beans, lentils, and all pulses has been expressed many times. They are nutritious, delicious and so flexible, they are a dream for anyone who loves to cook. They can become soups, dips, stews, patties and burgers, the dried beans can be ground into a flour and become pancakes and lots of other wonderful things. Take the humble chickpea, and all its possibilities. Falafel, chickpea burgers, hummus, panelle, socca, before we even consider what we can do with it when it is simply its joyful self. 

I wrote about my love for beans in my first book and how I batch cook them and freeze them to be used as and when I need them. Home cooking dried beans may seem like a fiddle, but all it takes is time, no intricacy, and the results are far superior, cheaper too. Beans are the ultimate frugal food, and for this reason maybe they don’t garner as much respect as they deserve. The underdog of the kitchen cupboard, some countries know how good they are and they elevate them. Principally Spain, I adore wandering through markets dotted with sacks of varied pulses, proud and shiny, and I always bring kilos of them home. Italy too, also France, and that is just looking at our nearest neighbours. 

Jump straight to the Tomato and Paprika Braised Sausages with Charred Lettuce recipe

Let’s talk more about simple things and speedy suppers. Now in this time of glut when markets and gardens are full of wonderful things to eat we can be indulgent, but why would we be when letting perfect and simple ingredients shine is often the best way? In summer I like to eat lighter and simpler. I feel that way generally these days. 

Summer Sunshine Captured on a Rainy Day

I eat tomatoes more than anything all through the year, but especially in summer. My kitchen garden is packed and the tomatoes are flying but I have only a few tomatoes nearing red (and over 25 tomato plants growing, so exciting!). My counter is still stacked with tomatoes of all colours shapes and sizes from my local farmers market though. Rough and tumble beef hearts, wobbly and one sided. Bright round enormous yellow tomatoes, perfectly smooth and sweet as a mango. Small pops of colour and joy in every shade, green and tiger striped, reds approaching pink and gorgeous cherry tomatoes, plump and bulging from red to yellow to purple.

Tomatoes growing in my kitchen garden

Jump straight to Lemon and Coconut Tadka Dal recipe

Dal is a favourite of mine, I have blogged about it more than once. Sometimes as a whole meal with egg (you know I love them), often with tadka (a perky mixture of spice and aromatics), always a cheerful sunshine yellow (although I am partial to a black spiced dal makhani too swirled with a little cream and I will share more on that soon). 

This dal is cheerful and elegant with lemon and coconut. It is one to make in a big pot for friends for a summer weekend lunch, or one to make and store in the fridge for comfort, or in the freezer for a later date. I must have had four bowls of this. I don’t bother soaking the dal, which means it takes longer to cook it, but it will still be done in 40 minutes. And it just cooks away, right? It needs little attention. 

This post is published in partnership with Bombay Sapphire, who sponsored this post. It is the second of two posts. In the first, I shared my preview of The Grand Journey from Bombay Sapphire and shared my Saffron and Coriander Crusted Lamb Chops recipe which featured two of the 10 botanicals. Here I share my experience of The Grand Journey itself. Enjoy!

An evening on a train with expertly crafted gin cocktails and food from a Michelin star chef sounds like a pretty perfect evening. Add that this train, the Laverstoke Express (named for the home of the Bombay Sapphire distillery) brings you from Spain to Tuscany to the Moon.

The Grand Journey details were kept firmly under wraps and turned out to be a multi sensory experience in a vintage style train carriage in London’s Banking Hall, led by hugely entertaining hosts serving expertly crafted food and drink featuring the 10 botanicals from Bombay Sapphire. It was a fun and surreal immersive gin filled evening showcasing the 10 botanicals used to flavour Bombay Sapphire in both food and cocktails. 

On arrival, we were presented with a G&T in a signature Bombay Sapphire G&T glass with bright blue stem. The train was beside, complete with steam and train noises. The lights were low, and the mood dark, spirits were high. We were beckoned in and took our seats in the low light. I wondered, why so dark? Once we were all seated it was immediately obvious why. Film of the destinations was broadcast on the windows and also on the tables. Koi carp swam around our plates and Moroccan tile patterns danced around one of our drinks. 

Jump straight to the Proper Spaghetti with Tomato and Chilli Sauce Recipe

My heart feels heavy today and so I need something light. The past few weeks have been intense in a busy and complicated kind of way, and it all takes a toll eventually. As it did today. Tomorrow will be brighter.

On a gorgeous summers day like today (27 deg C in my part of London), my body calls for something fresh and bright and breezy. I didn’t want complications but I did want to eat something fresh and delicious and soothing. I wanted spaghetti and I wanted it with tomatoes, some fragrant basil and the punch and flavour of a hot red chilli. Fresh chilli would only do, I wanted more than the heat, I wanted the fruitiness and the gorgeous aroma. I wanted it to taste of summer and sun, and not of something that had been dried some time ago. 

Tomatoes at my farmer’s market. The two central rows are the tomatoes that I bought for this week.

This post is published in partnership with Bombay Sapphire, who sponsored this post. In it I share my preview The Grand Journey from Bombay Sapphire and share my recipe which features two of the 10 botanicals. The saffron and coriander crusted lamb chop recipe follows at the end of the post. Enjoy!

The Bombay Sapphire Grand Journey returns to London this summer after a sellout season last year. Ivano Tonutti is the Master of Botanicals for Bombay Sapphire, and he travels the world to sustainably source the world’s finest botanicals for their gin. The Grand Journey is a fun and delicious multi-sensory dining experience with dishes created by Michelin Star Chef Tom Sellers of Restaurant Story and Bombay Sapphire cocktails created by Sean Ware to reflect these journeys and to showcase the flavours and the gin. The journey takes place on the Laverstoke Express, and takes you through the 10 sustainably sourced botanicals that are used to flavour Bombay Sapphire, from Java to Ghana to Tuscany, all the way to Laverstoke Mill, the home of Bombay Sapphire.

Sounds dreamy doesn’t it? And it was. Perfect for a sunny afternoon. It comes together quickly and it is as pretty as a picture. Any edible flowers will do and there are many. If you don’t already have a nasturtium plant I heartily suggest that you procure one. They grow easily, need little space and they are productive. Flowers and leaves taste and look great (a little peppery), and there are lots of different colours, mainly cheerful shades of orange, yellow and red. When they go to seed, you can treat the seed pods as capers, and pickle them. Here I use nasturtium, both flowers and leaves, but also cucumber flowers (a real garden treat, gentle and tasting of cucumber) and joyful chicory flowers. 

Let’s get this garden started! Although it never really stopped, it has been chugging away all year long. My garden has been producing a variety of joyful greens all winter (beet greens, rhubarb chard, kales and cabbages), then beautiful bright yellow flowers from the greens in Spring. Spring woke my lemon balm, which burst into action and is now an irrepressible force, contained for a while in its terracotta pot but now like a shrub dotted with small white flowers demanding a new larger home.

My chicory plant, almost 3m tall!

Edible chicory flowers

A tumble of edible chicory flowers

Socca is a wonderful thing. So easy to make, and very delicious. Using chickpea flour it is also gluten free. This recipe whisks me back to Nice, to a summer there when I was 19. It was only my second summer away from Ireland, my first trip abroad ever I had spent on a farm outside an idyllic looking English village outside Canterbury picking apples. I say summer, it was 3 weeks and a brief trip to London after, but it allowed me to peek at the possibilities available to me and dream of a travel filled future. The following year, after 1 year in university, I headed to Nice for the summer. 

Nice was a whole different thing. I lived in a small studio apartment not far off the Promenade des Anglais (a boulevard bridging the city and the bright blue sea). I worked in a market in the evening, wandering during the days, loitering in bookshops and anywhere I found interesting. I read biology texts in French to try and develop my language skills (I was studying for my degree in Biology at the time). I read and I walked and I swam in the salty Mediterranean Sea. I burned my feet on the stones on the beach and I jumped from one stone to another to reach the sea before discovering that I would be spectacularly out of my depth after a couple of feet. I worked from 5 until midnight every day, every week, and then I went for pizza most days with friends that I had made there after we finished. I discovered jugs of rosé, pizza with thin gorgeous ham and bottles of chilli oil hiding sprigs of rosemary and dried chillies.  

I won’t apologise for waxing lyrical here. Asma Khan has been cooking some of my favourite food in London for some time now, and her gem of a restaurant Darjeeling Express finally has a permanent home in Kingly Court in Soho. 

Opening night at Darjeeling Express in Soho! Asma on her food, and the food we ate on the evening (it was impromptu so forgive the sound quality, I will do this again with my microphone).

As with her many pop ups before this, at Darjeeling Express Asma and her terrific all woman team of cooks are cooking authentic food from her Bengali childhood as well as the food of her father’s region Uttar Pradesh, and the food of her Royal Mughlai ancestry. The result is an exciting menu where the food of royal kitchens meets the street food of Calcutta.

I never need an excuse to fire up my BBQ. I love cooking over fire and it gets me out of my tiny kitchen. I grill when it is sunny, and when it rains. I don’t mind. I just love to be out there. Over the bank holiday I gathered lots of random stuff from my fridge and cupboard and cooked it. The result was some terrific new recipes, one of which I will share now. 

Gojuchang is one of my favourite store cupboard ingredients. A fermented hot paste made from gochugaru (a wonderful Korean red pepper powder which I use a lot too), glutinous rice, fermented soy bean powder, barley malt powder and salt. So far, so mesmerising and confusing, but this is one of the most delicious things that you could have in your kitchen. Hot (but not face melting), rich and deep, I add it to many things. Korean food, of course, but also unexpected things like soups, stews and bolognese. It is perfect for BBQ marinades. 

This post is a happy sponsored collaboration with Sherry Wines UK. I have three great new recipes for you for your Bank Holiday picnic! Peach and manzanilla slushie, smoky pork rillettes & olive tapenade. Read on for details and have a great weekend. 

Well, what about this sunshine? Isn’t it gorgeous? Summer has come, and with summer my attention turns to outdoor eating and cooking. Barbecues and picnics. Cold drinks, lots of food, and your favourite people to share it with. 

Sherry Wines UK asked me to come up with some recipes for a picnic. I had to think twice. Not because I don’t love sherry, precisely because I do. What if everyone realises just how good it is and then the prices go up, as with my other favourite things? Sherry is priced excellently (some say underpriced), given the quality and the age. It is terrific value for money and very delicious. 

Yesterday was a perfect London day. 24 deg C, bright sunshine, and a lovely tease of a breeze. No humidity that my hair could sense, or my skin. Yesterday was a day that rushed in and yelled summer, and then pulled away again. It is ok, it is coming back later this week, I believe. 

A day like yesterday tickles my memory and brings me to places like Greece. Specifically the islands, I love an island, being a child of an island myself. I love being by the water, and that feeling of being carefree. A feeling I don’t think I have felt in a while and that I ache for. Memories of bright Greek salads (so good in Greece but they rarely translate outside), bowls of thick Greek yogurt with generous sploshes of local honey, moussaka with a cloud light topping of eggy bechamel. And fava, one of my favourite things to eat in Greece. 

Who doesn’t love an asparagus mimosa? I am a little egg obsessed, this is well established. In low moments, I love egg mayonnaise. It was one of the first things that I started to make myself as a teenager. Chopped onion, chopped boiled egg and mayonnaise, with salt and pepper, sometimes with tomato, always between two slices of bread. It was my thing, along with potato salad. I combined them at times (and I suggest you do too, if you never have). When I was hungry, egg mayonnaise was what I wanted. Every time. Now, when I am tired or sore or sick, I reach for egg mayo too.

Egg mayo is so much more than invalid food. It is deeply satisfying and nourishing, not just on its own or between slices of bread, it is wonderful with asparagus in an asparagus mimosa, and fun in delicious served inside a scooped out tomato. Mimosa is a simple thing, chopped boiled egg, dressed and scattered on top of asparagus is all it is. This time I elevated it with a crisp chorizo crumb, something which I suggest you bulk make, and then try not to eat it all in one go. Chorizo crumb goes with pretty much everything. Scatter some on a fried egg, serve it as a meaty pangrattato in place of parmesan, even better with.

When I was 13 I was working on an obsessive little project that had nothing to do with food. The only food I was interested in then was eclairs, lemon meringue pie, my home made toffee and taytos (Irish cheese and onion crisps, as many as I could get, however possible). This project was unrelated to all of that but I was fascinated. It was a school project about Bach, for music class. All my research was piled into a bright red binder all about the baroque period. I have loved Bach since, music keeps me sane and as with food, I am not a music snob. Some of it grabs me by the gills and I love it, from Bach to Kate Bush to The Shins.