Two variations on the same basic soup recipe:
– fry a chopped onion until soft, add a large bunch of fresh spinach leaves and wilt
– add a similar quantity of frozen peas, a chopped chilli pepper (espelette is best) and some vegetable stock, cover until cooked
– mix the soup in a blender and serve with a dollop of soft goats cheese mixed with fromage blanc

As an alternative:
– follow recipe above but do not add a chilli pepper
– add more peas so as to make a slightly thicker soup
– chop and add two or three slices of chorizo
– heat some parmesan cheese on a greaseproof paper in a hot oven until bubbling and brown, allow to cool
– serve soup with parmesan “wafers”

A very mild and delicate curry
– Make a paste in the blender with two tomatoes, a few garlic cloves and a lump of fresh ginger.
– Chop a sweet potato into bite sized chunks and boil for 5 minutes until just tender.
– Fry an onion in some ghee (clarified butter, if you can’t get some use cooking oil) until soft and add some crushed cardamom pods, peppercorns, cloves, and cinnamon. Add a few curry leaves (or bay leaves), some ground coriander and cumin.
– Add the tomato mixture and some whole duck thighs (remove the skin first).
– Add a little water, cover and simmer for 50 minutes until the duck is well cooked.
– Remove the lid and boil on a high heat to reduce and thicken the sauce if necessary.

– Add a large handful of chopped dried fruit, prunes are best but dried apricots are also good.
– Heat through and add a little cream. Garnish with fresh coriander.

Usually you would serve this with rice but, to make a change, I accompanied this dish with spicy roast potatoes and carrots:
– Boil some potatoes and carrots, cut into large bite sized pieces.
– Drain the vegetables and toss them in a mixture of ground spices (I use chilli, coriander and turmeric) and polenta grains (this makes them nice and crispy on the outside).
– Heat some oil in an oven pan, lay the vegetables in the pan, make sure they are coated with oil.
– Cook in a hot oven for 45-50 minutes until golden brown.

I don’t normally do desserts, but my faithful and talented assistant invents things like this in two minutes.

– Whip some sugar, thick cream and fromage blanc together. The fromage blanc (or fromage frais) makes the whole thing much lighter.
– Cook some raspberries, a chopped pear and blueberries together with a little sugar for 5 minutes.
– Crush some biscuits in a plastic bag, use a rolling pin. The very best biscuits for this are Speculos, cinnamon biscuits from Belgium, but ginger nuts or any spicy biscuits will do.
– In individual verrines or glasses assemble layers of crushed biscuits, the stewed fruit and the cream mixture.
– Decorate with fresh fruit and anything else you can lay your hands on (see photo with “chocolate cigars”).

This is a fantastic vegetarian dish with a Middle-Eastern flavour.
– If using dried green lentils wash them and put them to soak for a while (see instructions on packet) and cook in boiling water until tender, put aside to cool. If using ready prepared lentils out of a tin, this is not necessary.
– Chop a sweet potato into bite sized chunks and boil for 5 minutes until just tender.
– Fry some chopped mushrooms in a little oil or butter until they have released their water and it has evaporated. Pour in some dark beer and reduce until nearly all the liquid has gone.
– Mix together the sweet potato, lentils and cooled mushrooms in a large bowl. Add breadcrumbs, an egg, some mustard, some grated cheese, some pistachio nuts and plenty of seasoning.
– Spread melted butter on several sheets of filo pastry or “brick” leaves and place buttered side down in an deep oven proof dish.
– Place the lentil and mushroom mixture.

– Fold the overlapping filo pastry sheets over the mixture and place another sheet on top to close the “pastilla”.
– Spread more melted butter on the top and cook in a hot oven (190°) for 35 minutes until golden.

I got an e-mail from one of my fans (would you believe that 15,000 people visit this blog every month??).
The question was “why don’t you give quantities in your recipes?”
The answer is simple: I just don’t know!
Use your imagination, trial and error.
My recipes aim to give basic cooking methods and ingredients, each cook in his or her own kitchen can adapt my recipes to make something that suits their own personal taste.
Go with the flow, be inspired!

I forgot to take a photo of this delicious Moroccan recipe.
– Ask your fishmonger to extract the central bones of a bream or sea bass. Keep the fish whole.
– Chop some dates and a lemon preserved in salt (citron confit, can be found in most North African grocery shops).
– Fry an onion until soft, add the date and lemon mixture.
– Stuff the fish with the mixture and tie it back together with some butchers string.
– Wrap in aluminum foil and cook in a hot oven (180°) for 25 minutes.
– Serve with a pepper-saffron sauce made from a little melted butter, ground mixed peppercorns and saffron.

This is a good one for Sunday lunch, it does need a lot of cooking but it’s well worth the wait.
– Using a deep oven proof dish, brown a whole veal knuckle on all sides in a little olive oil
– Add 50cl (about 3/4 pint) of stock and one slice of orange zest (make sure you use an untreated orange).
– Cover and cook in a cool oven at 150°C for two hours, turning the meat regularly.
– Squeeze out the orange juice and mix it together with a glass of white wine and three large spoons of honey.
– Pour the honey liquid over the meat and add some chopped carrots and spring onions (trimmed but whole, leaving a little of the green stalk).
– Season with plenty of salt and pepper and add some cumin seeds.

– Cook in the oven at 150°C for another 90 minutes basting the meat with the cooking liquid frequently.
– Place the cooked vegetables in a serving dish and carve the veal meat off the knuckle bone and place on top of the carrots.
– Reduce the cooking liquid over a hot stove and add a little cream or butter to thicken the sauce before pouring it over the meat and vegetables.

I just invented this one, it turned out rather well.
– Marinate turkey escalopes in a mixture of lemon juice, tomato paste, chopped basil and honey.
– Stir fry some chopped bacon or smoked ham, add some shredded Brussel sprouts, lower heat and cover.
– Now cook the turkey breasts on the griddle. Just for a few minutes each side until they are cooked through. Rotate once on the griddle if you want to obtain the pretty criss-cross pattern as seen in the photo.
– Add just a little cream to the Brussel sprouts
– Serve the escalopes on a bed of the vegetable and ham mixture.

I did a vegetarian variation of the Brussel sprouts recipe using very thinly sliced carrots instead of the ham/bacon bits, add salt.