My grandsons call anything fried with breadcrumbs Gruffalo fingers. It started as a way of encouraging them to eat fish and spread to chicken and was at the back of my mind when I turned four chicken thigh fillets into a grown up version. The bumpy unevenly shaped pieces of chicken were briefly bashed between…

If you are casting around for a quick and unusual soup and are lucky enough to have plenty of tomatoes – I do, as you can see, a lovely gift from a friend from thetomatostall.co.uk – plus a couple of cans of coconut milk, a pack of silken tofu and a few other bits and…

     My fruit bowl is overladen with apples at the moment and although they aren’t Cox’s, my usual choice to make tarte Tatin, the famous upside down apple tart invented in France by the Tatin sisters in the 1880’s, they will have to do. It’s so revered, this tart, it has its own web site…

My tomato plants have just set their first tresses, which means fruit. In the meantime – probably about 2 months if I’m lucky – I’m more than making do with tomatoes from the Isle of Wight (www.thetomatostall.co.uk). You can buy some of their fruit via Ocado and posh shops but they have nationwide delivery and…

This is possibly one of my favourite quick and easy, any-season fish suppers. It’s lazy but luscious and adaptable depending on what you have in the store cupboard. It’s worth laying in a jar of Navarrico lentils (from Brindisa) or use a sachet or other can, enriching the flavour by starting the cooking with gently…

A lovely gooey aubergine and tomato stew enlivened with creamy pitted green olives and sharp sparks of caper. Make it for now or later and serve it with pasta, gnocchi or polenta but it makes a good bbq accompaniment or a change with roast chicken. Serves 4 Prep: 20 min Cook: 45 min 1 large…

     The smell of shepherd’s pie cooking is overlaid with memories, wafting me back to my own and my children’s childhood suppers. This version is pretty much my mum’s recipe made with the remains of a roast lamb joint instead of fresh minced lamb. Traditionally it’s a plain dish, the minced or chopped meat stirred…

Pilchards canned in tomatoes is cheap nutritious food with an image problem. The acidity of tomato goes extremely well with the rich, meaty flesh of pilchards, herring and mackerel and in this unusual recipe, carefully boned fillets of mackerel are rolled and cooked in a highly seasoned tomato coulis with peas. The mackerel are eaten…

Once again I find myself facing leftover roast chicken. We cooked a chicken on Saturday night, using my ancient beehive oven in the garden for the first time in years. God it was good, the bird succulent, the skin deliciously charred and I had enough leftover chicken for two salads. Last night it was a…

A pack of prawns is a useful freezer standby. They defrost quickly, are none the worse for their freeze and immensely versatile. When I faced a bowl of squashy cherry tomatoes en route for sauce and added it to sloppy onions with ginger and garlic, a pack of frozen prawns poshed it up no end….