What you see here are two overgrown courgettes (zucchini) weighing over a kilo each. They are two out of four, all the same weight, that I picked from my allotment yesterday. The other two, used in their entirety, I magically reduced into what you see on the plate.
I kid you not. I didn’t have [...]

June. Right now in England we are getting a sweet taste of summer in the form of strawberries, gooseberries and the short-lived elderflower, whether the sun shines or not. Cream-coloured clusters of elderflower are popping out all over the place in London, and not only in the green spaces - I’ve seen the blossoms dripping [...]

Any Ethiopian would spot this a mile off as injera, the spongy flatbread that accompanies every hot and spicy meal. Anyone from Derbyshire or Staffordshire will know it as a breakfast staple - oatcakes. Rather embarrassingly, as a London-based gastronaut, I am more familiar with the former. Whilst on a walking holiday in my campervan [...]

I’ve been inspired by The Gourmet Traveller’s blog about a no-knead bread to post my own recipe, from my book “Entertaining Vegetarians” (”Party Food for Vegetarians” in paperback. This photo by Jan Baldwin is from the book.) Gourmet Traveller aka @jswching has given a fabulous pictorial of her bread making procedure - check it out! [...]

A cheap, cheerful, nutritious snack

Microwaves are not just for ready-meals

On a recent trip to Amsterdam, I was introduced to the quintessential Dutch staple - Stamppot

What I did with the last of the zucchini, leaves ‘n all

It’s been a thrill a minute down at the plot this week. Firstly, the asparagus is emerging at a rate of knots. It’s torture, though, as the luscious-looking green spears must be left on the plant this year. We planted one-year-old crowns last year and according to my various manuals, they mustn’t be harvested until [...]

Fred looks after three plots adjacent to ours. He’s retired, so he’s got a little extra time on his hands. He goes back home to Jamaica for the winter, but now he’s back and hard at work. Last year we observed with interest how he planted sweetcorn interspersed with pumpkins and courgettes, with bean plants [...]