I first met Jake Hodges when he was still working at the River Café alongside Sam and Sam Clark and they all left to open Moro. Shortly after that, now over 15 years ago, Jake branched out on his own to open Cigala, in Bloomsbury. That is where I had tumbet not long before the…

Not everyone likes lamb’s kidneys but I crave them (and lamb’s liver) when they’ve been off the menu for a while. Here their rich flavour is surprised by aniseedy caraway, the little dark dried seeds ground to flour to sprinkle over soft, slippery onion. A couple of tomatoes – my last ripe big ones –…

Cooking bacon lardons directly from the deep freeze is a new discovery for me. Those little 75g packs soon defrost in a hot pan with a scrap of cooking oil, leaving just the right amount of time to peel and chop an onion, cut chicken into double bite-size pieces, peel a few carrots and begin…

This is a wonderful soup to warm the cockles on a chilly autumnal night. It smells rich and enticing, is a golden terracotta colour and its creamy texture and intriguingly spicy, lime-spiked flavour cries out for crusty bread – particularly torn hot nan – to dunk and slurp. Best of all, it’s as quick and…

There’s a hint of chilli heat to tomatoes sweetened by red pepper, enriched with white wine and cooked into a thick sauce that clings to very tender chunks of lamb neck fillet, the dish thickened with chickpeas. It reheats perfectly and is very good over oven chips but healthier with shredded, quickly stir-fried sprouts. I also…

Gooey, sweet-sour, silky-soft onion on a crisp puff pastry base topped with salty molten blue cheese, is a superb combination. Make these lovely tarts as a starter or light supper with salad. Highly recommended. Serves 4 Prep: 30 min Cook: 40 min 3 large onions 3 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp dark brown sugar ½…

Fishcakes are often made with leftover fish but these are made from scratch with fillets from a whole megrim sole defrosted from my freezer. Megrim is interchangeable with lemon sole and common in Cornish waters; in fact I’ve never seen it on the slab outside Cornwall but is worth discovering. Any soft, white fish fillets…

This is a favourite home alone supper saving the leftovers to eat cold the next day for lunch. Gressingham duck breasts cook sublimely well although shrink quite a lot in the cooking. The potatoes and duck are cooked separately but both are stirred into the peas to make a one-pot dish. Serves 2 Prep: 20…

It’s years since I’ve made this lovely way of cooking broad beans. I always bother to peel them – removing the thick, rubbery sheath that covers the bright green beans – but that’s a matter of taste. It’s a lovely accompaniment to simply cooked white fish or chicken but I like it piled over a…