Advertisement
Treat yourself!
Online temptation...
What's on at the football club?
Scaling cake recipes up and down
Perfect party food
Recipes that can be made ahead of time are always the best option for party food, allowing you to enjoy yourself, too! We've put together some easy and affordable recipes that everyone will love.
Scotch Eggs with Fresh Herbs
Scotch eggs are marvellous for travellers or picnickers. Take some spring onions to go with them and, if you've got plates, some chutney.
Sausage Rolls
Made with a melting quick flaky pastry, these are one of our major treats at Christmas. They can be prepared well in advance, frozen uncooked and then defrosted and baked from the freezer on Christmas Eve or whenever you need them.
Smoked Mackerel Pate with Ricotta
This is quite simply the easiest pâté I've ever made. All the ingredients are placed together in the bowl of the processor, then one little whiz and it's made! It also has an utterly sublime flavour – brilliant! Serve with hot toasted wholemeal bread.
Prawn Cocktail
This recipe is part of my 1960s revival menu. In those days it used to be something simple but really luscious, yet over the years it has suffered from some very poor adaptations, not least watery prawns and inferior sauces. So here, in all its former glory, is a starter quite definitely for the new millennium!
Warm Potato Salad with Lemon and Chive Vinaigrette
This recipe can be served warm, as an accompanying vegetable, or cold as part of a group of salads – in which case you still need to pour on the dressing while the potatoes are warm.
Foil-baked Whole Fresh Salmon with Green Herb Mayonnaise
The way I cook a salmon is extremely slowly, wrapped in foil in the oven. I cannot recommend this method highly enough. With skin and bones, head and tail intact there is not only a captured concentration of flavours, but also a guaranteed succulent moistness that no other cooking method can produce.
Chicken Salad with Tarragon and Grapes
This is the perfect main course salad for lunch, with perhaps some rice salad to go with it.
Curried Chicken Salad
This is unbelievably easy if you buy ready-cooked chicken.
Leek and Goats' Cheese Tart
This is what I call a wobbly tart – creamy and soft-centred. Leeks and goats' cheese have turned out to be a wonderful combination, and the addition of goats' cheese to the pastry gives it a nice edge.
Cornish Pasty Pie
I find Cornish pasties often have too much pastry and not enough filling. However, the traditional filling of steak, potato and turnip is so delicious I now make one big pie using this filling – which is also a lot quicker than making individual pasties.
