I am a night owl and I have a fierce midnight snack habit. I just can’t help it and besides, I quite like to indulge, especially in lockdown where comfort eating is an available pleasure. Life is tough and weird right now, we need these cheesecakes and all the other delicious things. Please don’t feel bad about eating. Ever.

They are as quick as throwing together an open sandwich (if you have some cooked rhubarb roasted in your fridge as I suggested you should in yesterdays post!). Even if not, it cooks quickly. The cheesecake topping is a combination of cream cheese, whipped cream, honey and rosewater. You can stir your cooked rhubarb through, or you can put it on top, like I did. Continue reading

Rhubarb is a vegetable, even though we treat it as a fruit. I only ever had it as stewed rhubarb with custard or rhubarb fool in childhood, and I loved it. Understanding later on that rhubarb could be a savoury ingredient was a game-changer.

If you think about it, rhubarb isn’t sweet at all. Even the gorgeous bright pink forced Yorkshire rhubarb is markedly sour. Rhubarb loves sweet though. That makes it a wonderful ingredient in terms of a play on sweet and sour in a dish. It makes lovely ketchup too. It works with most meats, I especially like it with lamb and a roast like pork belly. Continue reading

Hello! Greetings from Lockdown London and my tiny kitchen! I am opening up my home to you live on Zoom to share with you some of my favourite easy dishes.

Come join us on Zoom for our new LIVE show, The Cooking and Cocktail Show, at 5pm this evening! Drinks extraordinaire Oisín Davis and I are co-hosting. I am doing the food, simple tasty and gorgeous stuff that you can easily recreate at home, and Oisín is applying the same philosophy to his drinks. He is already an expert at recreating fab cocktails using simple home kit that you have already.

We had our first episode last week and it was all about rhubarb. I made Spiced Lamb Chops with Rhubarb and Instant Mini Rhubarb and Rose Cheesecakes (and I will be sharing both recipes with you this week). Oisín showed us how to make his rhubarb cordial and how to make a gorgeous Tom Collins cocktail with it with a favourite Irish gin.

This week we are heading to SPAIN! We are going to share simple recipes with you to liven your lockdown evenings. I will be sharing some favourite tapas recipes inspired by my travels to Spain. Two veggie, one meat and one seafood tapas from me and Oisín has a fabulous easy to recreate cocktail and a twist on a Spanish classic drink up his sleeve to share with you.

We would love you to join us! We embrace all interaction, you can ask us questions and chat with us. But it is only live. So you have to be there! Come on over to Zoom at 5pm or just before and use our Meeting ID 85036832178. If you have not used Zoom before, don’t worry, I hadn’t either. It is dead easy! Give yourself a little time to set up your account so you are ready and in the room for 5pm.

Can’t wait to see you then!

Jump straight to the Gojuchang Mussels with Cider, Cream and Wild Garlic Recipe

That does seem like a long list for a lockdown recipe, but this is fast and it is flavour packed. I have found that I haven’t really had to change much in terms of how I cook. I always cook from my store cupboard anyway, and nothing here is complex. There are 13 years of recipes to explore here too, don’t forget that! 

Gojuchang is one of my favourite ingredients and it comes into its own in lockdown. It adds fierce depth and heat in an instant to anything, lending the time used in its long fermentation to anything we cook it with now. And it goes with everything. There is nothing gojuchang doesn’t like. Or at least, I have yet to find it. Continue reading

Jump straight to the Spaghetti with ‘Nduja, Prawns & Basil Recipe

Spaghetti and sunshine, sausage and prawns, chilli and tomato. Add a little basil there like a spritz of perfume on your wrist before you go out, and you have a gorgeous plate to devour.

‘Nduja? A fridge essential? (Trust me) 

Yes, of course, I could live without it, but I absolutely choose not to while I have the choice. A soft and very spicy cured and spreadable Calabrian sausage, it is brilliant just as is spread on bread, toast or crackers. Try it with eggs, mix it through a tomato sauce for a porky arrabiata, spread it on top of some white fish just before it finishes cooking with an oregano and breadcrumb top for a gorgeous spicy crispy crunch. Continue reading