April 2025 edition, with recipe recommendations.
The wonderful Nigella Lawson’s “Old-Fashioned Sandwich Loaf” from her book “Cook Eat Repeat”. She gives the option of spoilt milk or yogurt, and as we’ve usually got Greek yogurt remains around I am using that. I can’t stop baking this loaf, just made some last night.
The woods round here are lousy with wild garlic. This was whipped up using the Riverford recipe. I’ve had this on pasta, of course, and also drizzled on pork chops.
We stayed in a cabin in North Wales which came with a chicken coop, and the eggs were ours to do with what we wanted. Naturally we wanted scrambled eggs (to Delia’s recipe).
We roasted some courgettes and corn-on-the-cob over the embers in the firebowl, brushing it with some of the wild garlic pesto I mentioned above.
A much-loved and now sadly closed local bistro, Man Bites Frog, used to do the best Dijon Chicken. This baked chicken thighs recipe from Simple Home Edit hit the spot when I had the urge one day.
Accompanied with some chargrilled purple sprouting brocolli.
My friend Scott was in town, and to accompany a picking lunch I baked a lovely rosemary and olive focaccia. It came out well.
Nigel Slater’s “a tart for lunch, support or a party” is simple (lay some things on shop bought puff pastry) and delicious. There was no Taleggio cheese available locally, so I used brie.
I thought my tart of courgette ribbons, goats cheese, and caramelised onions was revolting. Eugh. Altogether too sweet with nothing to recommend it. Others in the house disagree (they’re wrong, it was awful).
A Sunday lunch of slow roasted pork belly per Recipe Tin Eats, with more purple sprouting broccolli, roasted with wild garlic butter… OMG so good. Roast potatoes are always to Delia’s saffron roast potatoes recipe, they come out intensely golden and crunchy. Carrots were braised with cider and thyme and came out delicious.
An evening meal of chargrilled vegetables with brown butter parmesan orzo. Orzo is so comforting.
Finally, some split pea dal. I “adapted” this slow cooker dal recipe, as our slow cooker is buried up in the loft somewhere (when I say adapted, I just put it in a pot on the hob for a few hours rather than in a slow cooker). This was portioned out and frozen for meals over the next few weeks.
