Baby monitors
The rise of the nursery spy app
Breton galette complête
When we were little we used to go on holiday to the same place in Brittany, a picturesque, quiet coastal…
The price of love
The heartbroken father endlessly relives his son’s suicide, raking over every moment of Jack’s battle with depression and drug addiction
Sussex pond pudding
I always feel pulled toward citrus at the start of the year. Initially it was subconscious: I’d just find myself…
Come buy, come buy
Unfairly dismissed as hucksters and fishwives, itinerant traders drove the capital’s expansion for centuries, says Charlie Taverner
Duck à l’orange
Duck à l’orange is so deliciously retro, it’s almost a cliché of kitsch. It seems hard to believe that there…
Boiled fruit cake
This time last year, I was disgustingly well organised. Awaiting the arrival of my first baby, with a late December…
Cheese fondue
‘This dish is very you,’ my husband says, as I serve up 650g of melted, boozy cheese to the two…
Bread pudding
I am incapable of throwing anything away in the kitchen. In my fridge, there must be at least half a…
Meatloaf
Meatloaf has some obstacles to overcome: it has an unprepossessing appearance, and an uninspiring, slightly off-putting name, which it shares…
Pride and joy
Since 2011, black Africans have been the dominant black group in the UK. Many of them are the descendants of…
Bananas Foster
I’m a sucker for a challenge. I absolutely cannot resist a little competition. Throw down a gauntlet, and I am…
Moules mouclade
Mussels were probably the first thing I ate as a child that I knew at the time was ‘an acquired…
Burnt Cambridge cream
If a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, then a Trinity or Cambridge burnt cream must taste…
Chicken pie
Laurie Colwin wrote: ‘No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is…
Apple strudel
It’s possible that, like me, your first encounter with the Grande Dame of the Austrian pastry world, the apfelstrudel, was…
Butter
Butter was not a major part of my childhood. In fact, I don’t remember it ever being in our fridge.…
Sole Véronique
One of the joys of writing about old-fashioned food is coming across dishes that are new to me, and turn…
Wine-poached peaches
I’ve never been very good at leaving things be. I tend to gild the lily. I may plan to do…
Knickerbocker glory
I grew up by the seaside. More precisely, I grew up near South Shields, on the north-east coast – somewhere…
Scotch eggs
One of the perils of being a recipe writer is that people regularly ask me why I bother making things…
Eccles cakes
When I first made Eccles cakes, I’m not sure I really knew where Eccles was. I certainly didn’t think I’d…
Hot cross buns
What makes a hot cross bun a hot cross bun? Is it in the bun: the spice, the dried fruit…
Crisp sandwiches
A crisp sandwich is a private and personal endeavour. In my experience (and I have considerable experience in this particular…
