This famous French classic has always been a favourite of mine and I love to serve it with the grapes well chilled, which beautifully complements the warm rich sauce. However, if you prefer you could add...
It's funny how some humble dishes like this one can be very special simply because of their rarity - so here's to a comeback for good old Bubble and Squeak!
This is a very quick and easy vegetarian supper dish for two people, especially good if you grow your own tomatoes and courgettes and have a glut to use up. You could also serve it as a starter for four...
This is an adaptation of a famous omelette created by a chef at The Savoy Hotel for the novelist Arnold Bennett, who wrote an entire novel, Imperial Palace, while staying there. It's a truly wonderful...
I've made many a macaroni cheese in my time, but this, I promise you, is the best ever. To make this for 4 people, just double the ingredients and use a 10 x 8 x 2 inch (25.5 x 20 x 5 cm) dish, increasing...
I love New York and, in particular, New York delis, where I always order a hot pastrami sandwich on rye bread and my husband always orders corned-beef hash with a fried egg. Although we don't have the...
Apart from tasting superb this is particularly pretty to look at. I like to serve it as a first course, but with a salad and some good bread it would make a lovely supper dish for two people. Vegetarians...
This recipe, invented by my good friend Lin Cooper, started life under the grill, but now, in my attempt to more or less eliminate the grill, I'm happy to say that it cooks very happily and easily in a...
People are scared of skate, one of the finest and most delicious fish of all. But don't be: the flesh slides away from those ribby, gelatinous bones with simplicity and ease, so do give it a try. I love...
This goes very well with some basmati rice cooked with onion, or else with some very creamy mashed potato.
Making a soufflé out of some ordinary, inexpensive ingredients adds a touch of luxury when you want to cut costs. The potatoes give the soufflé a lovely crusty top with a squidgy inside. A salad with...
For waist-watchers and the health conscious, the growing popularity of filo pastry is, I'm sure, warmly welcomed. But I also suspect we could be in danger of overkill, so I like to use it only where it's...
This is what I call comfort food - the kind of thing to make on a cold, grey winter's day. You can vary the vegetables if you like (I quite like it with mushrooms replacing half the leeks).
This is an oven-baked risotto with the deep, fragrant flavour of mushrooms. It's extremely creamy and luscious but - can you believe it? - it contains no cream, no butter and, what's more, no cheese. The...
This is more or less the same as steak au poivre but quite a bit cheaper and - if you like liver - every bit as good.
No need to make a white sauce for this one - the beauty of half-fat crème fraîche is that you can simmer it into a creamy sauce in moments. This could be an accompanying vegetable for four, it could...
I first had these served al fresco on a flowery terrace in Tuscany on a warm summer evening. They are simplicity itself, yet really fresh tasting. Lovely with a pile of lightly buttered fresh noodles and...
In Italian, a puttanesca is a 'lady of the night', which is why at home we always refer to this recipe as tart's spaghetti. Presumably the sauce has adopted this name because it's hot, strong and gutsy...
Because it doesn't need marinating, this salad makes a very quick, simple first course or light lunch.