There’s a mini basil field flourishing in an old wooden wine box planted up in the sun-trap that is my front garden. I’ve just picked enough to make a decent quantity of pesto without making a dent on its profusion and it’s a good treat to have in the fridge. Last night we had a…

Traditionally, lettuce soup is the preserve of gardeners; a lovely summer soup made with bolted lettuce leaves. It’s usually thickened and improved by peas, sometimes potatoes too and young onions. This particular version was prompted by bad shopping, too many packs of lettuce stacking up in the fridge and petits pois a-plenty in the freezer….

My courgette glut has started. It’s not mega by any standards, one or two a day, and this year there is a proliferation of male flowers and rarely a sufficiency to stuff. Anyway, female flowers, ideally with little courgettes attached, are best. Last night, after a really hot day, the biggest of this morning’s clutch…

I’m not a huge fan of chicken breast fillets but one favourite way of cooking them is beaten thin into escalopes, giving them the f.e.b treatment – dipping in flour, egg and bread crumb – then quickly frying to a crisp to just cook the chicken. I sometimes smear the chicken with Dijon mustard first…

One of my favourite standbys for quick, flexible, healthy snack lunches is Itsu miso-easy soup sachets. They come in sets of five and one is enough, diluted with a mug of boiling water with almost anything you care to add to it. I’ve tried tofu, leftover chicken, leftover peas and carrots, chopped green beans, diced…

Who’d have thought that a fridge tidy cook up of a single corn on the cob, few fine green beans and peas from the freezer with chopped coriander mixed through it, could result in such a good muddle of crunch and soft textures and gentle flavours. Delicious hot, the leftovers – I always make too…

Here’s a good example of how handy it is to have some pickled cucumber stashed in the fridge. It doesn’t take long to make from scratch (see Almost Greek Salad with Pickled Cucumber) but how handy to have it done. This salad on toast became a favourite lockdown lunch; all it requires is tuna, pickled…

I love pickled cucumber, useful in salads and sandwiches.  My favourite quick way of making it, is peeling, splitting and scraping out the seeds of half a cucumber, then slicing across the halves in skinny half moons. I then lay the pieces out on a plate and splash with cider or white wine vinegar. It’s…

The soft but dense and creamy texture of hake goes particularly well with the creamy texture of butter beans but I know not everyone likes them. If preferred, this could be made with cod, haddock or Pollack and other canned beans could replace butter beans; haricot or cannellini would work very well. The fish is…

The dense flesh of thick salmon fillets won’t fall apart when it’s cooked in kebab-style chunks, so is ideal for quick noodle dishes like this one. It’s briefly marinated in soy sauce then stirred into soft red onion with a hint of garlic, using miso soup paste or half a chicken stock cube for the…