Spicy Orange Chicken Noodles

This is really very tasty and although it looks like a fairly substantial list of ingredients it’s quick to put together. You could even omit the marinating step altogether if you were really short of time.I’ve used shirataki noodles: often heralded as wonder noodles due to the fact that they have virtually no calories (they are made from the root of an Asian plant called konjac so may also be...

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Jamaican Goat Curry

I’ve made a lamb Jamaican-style curry before, adapted from my Curry book but I’ve really wanted to give the real, goat-deal a try ever since I made that. In Ludlow at a food festival with some friends earlier this year there was a stall selling packs of goat meat (and also the most amazing Goat Burgers - delicious) so naturally I grabbed a pack and stored it in the freezer until I could get hold...

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Tagliatelle with Prawns in a Sweet Tomato Sauce

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe that I have been adapting from a Sunday supplement pullout for many years (but I think it is from Jamie’s Kitchen or you can find it on his website) and really a rather good one at that. With this one you should try and get hold of small (and therefore it seems by necessity cooked) shrimp or prawns as they will be that little bit sweeter and I think their small size...

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Bourbon Basted Pork Chops

I made the marinade for this in the morning and let the chops sit in it all day - this will of course increase the depth of flavour but in all honesty it is not strictly necessary and this could just as easily be whipped up after work and let sit for 30 mins or so Summer, at the time, was here so we chucked them on the BBQ (the bf is an Aussie after all) but you could cook them however you want....

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Sichuan-Style Braised Tofu with Mushrooms

This is a pretty quick meal to whip up when you’re short of time and fancy something without meat (note - to be truly veggie, substitute the chicken stock for vegetable or just water). Plus it is pretty versatile as you can use the tofu of your choice (I would have preferred silken but could only get firm), ditto mushrooms. You could even make it with chicken instead of tofu if you wanted a non...

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Cauliflower Puttanesca

There isn’t a huge amount to say about this dish really. Ultimately I love the punchy & rugged flavours of puttanesca: salty olives, piquant capers, tangy tomatoes and whereas my usual (and much loved) version of this has tuna, on this occasion i wanted something vegetarian. Of course I do have a bit of a soft spot for cauliflower as well so I thought this may fit the bill quite nicely. And...

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Grilled Chicken with Nectarine Salsa & Truffle Fries

It may now be winter, Christmas is approaching after all but here is a nice and pretty simple dish that should easily transport you back to the height of summer. Well, perhaps. I think the piece de resistance here is the nectarine salsa - a really juicy, zesty relish that will go with all sorts of grilled white meats or fish. Peach is, naturally, a good alternative. Obviously my choice was to...

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Smoky Bacon & Wild Garlic Udon

This is adapted from a recipe I saw on Guardian’s recipe swap feature online - as chance would have it, at the time, I actually worked with MiMi who has a secret life (well not) as a food blogger: a rather more professional one than me of course with a good-looking site and a published book. Anyway I’ve adapted the original on the Guardian site a bit - I’ve used wild garlic instead of watercress,...

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Beef Braised with Daikon

I’d searched high and low for the daikon that I originally used for the Korean Ramyun: it was massive, nearly 2 foot long, so I was damned if I was going to waste the rest of it after all that palaver.A few internet searches came up with this Cantonese dish - it should be made with “chou hou sauce” which is a braising sauce made from soybeans, garlic and ginger and sometimes sesame too. My generously...

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