SMOKED MACKEREL KEDGEREE

This takes no time at all to whip up and makes the perfect breakfast for Christmas day. Change the mackerel for kippers, if you're anything like my Dad, or throw in trimmings of last night's smoked salmon.

Smoked mackerel kedgeree

Serves 2

2 free-range eggs

good drizzle olive oil

knob of butter

1/2 banana shallot, sliced

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp turmeric

250g cooked basmati rice

handful spinach leaves, washed and roughly sliced

150g smoked mackerel fillets, skin removed

handful dill leaves, roughly chopped

lemon wedges to serve

 
1. Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the eggs for 5 minutes until soft boiled. Drain and rinse under cold water before peeling and slicing in half.
2. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil and the butter in a frying pan and fry the shallot for a few minutes until just softened. Add the garlic, cumin, cayenne and turmeric and fry for a further 2 minutes.
3. Stir in the rice until coated in the spices and hot through. Add the spinach and fry until wilted then flake in the mackerel and stir in the dill. Season and squeeze in lemon juice to taste. Serve with the soft-boiled eggs.

APPLE AND FENNEL SEED SODA BREAD

Rustic, crumbly soda bread

1 small loaf

100g stoneground rye flour

50g strong white bread flour, plus extra to dust

100g wholemeal flour

2 tbsp ground linseed/flaxseed

1 tbsp toasted chopped hazelnuts

1 tsp sesame seeds

1 tbsp fennel seeds

1 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp flaked sea salt

1/2 grated apple

200ml whole milk

1.  Heat the oven to 210C/fan190C/gas 7. Lightly flour a baking sheet.

2. Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl then add the milk and stir to form a wet dough. Scrape the dough into a ball and lift onto the baking sheet. Dust the dough with a little flour and slice a cross in the top with a very sharp knife. 

3. Bake the loaf for 1 hour until crusty and baked through. Stick a skewer in it; if the centre is very sticky, put it back in for a little longer. Allow the loaf to cool before slicing or tearing, and spreading on lots of butter.

The Recipe Wheel

There are few things more satisfying or exciting as seeing a book come together. It never occurred to me how well a small, buzzy idea could evolve into a tangible object. My brain, there, in a book. After two years of brainstorming, drawing, painting, writing, cooking and reading over and over, The Recipe Wheel has taken on full, beautiful, book form.

It's moved from scribbling.

To stamping.

To testing, tasting and tweaking.

simple roast chicken

cavolo nero and pearl barley

rhubarb creme brulee

White loaf, molasses bread and soft white roll

To reading, and reading.

And, with the creative input of genius designer Will Webb, to crafting.

an early draft of the risotto wheel

the cover

It's finally here!

With any luck you'll enjoy reading and making the recipes, and you'll love, as much as I did, coming up with your own wheels. Post your ideas for wheel tangents, images of your recipes you've cooked, and illustrations with your own wheels on twitter, using #TheRecipeWheel.

Order The Recipe Wheel here, find a copy in Books for Cooks, pick one up in your local bookshop, or read more about it and buy from Waterstones.

GOAT'S CURD AND LEMON PANCAKES

Goat's curd - a creamy, fresh and mild goats cheese that is made by straining the whey from milk - is heaven. I smooth it onto rye toasts with a sweet/savoury honey walnut pesto, or I toss it through cooled, cooked potatoes with crushed garlic and thyme for an easy potato salad.

It's easier to make than buy - though Neals Yard Dairy do a delicious unpasteurised version at about £8 a yogurt pot sized tub (not cheap but it's worth it). Better to make your own by straining wholemilk goat's yogurt through a muslin or clean dishcloth overnight, neatly tied up over a bowl, so the whey drips away, and the solids thicken.

These pancakes make for a perfect weekend breakfast, piled high on a plate and drizzled with honey. You can swap the curd for ricotta for a classic version, but the goat gives a gentle tang that makes them completely moreish when balanced with sweet fruit and sticky syrup. Makes 6-8 small, fluffy pancakes.

Goat's curd and lemon breakfast pancakes

30g unsalted butter, plus extra, melted, for brushing

3 medium free range eggs

200g goat's curd, plus extra to serve

20g caster sugar

zest of a small lemon

50g plain flour

honey, raspberries and nectarines to serve

1. Melt the butter in a pan and leave to cool. Separate the egg whites into a large scrupulously clean bowl, and the yolks into another.
2. Whisk the goat's curd, sugar, lemon zest into the egg yolks until smooth. Fold in the butter, followed by the flour.
3. Beat the whites with a clean hand whisk to stiff peaks. Stir a tablespoonful of  whisked egg whites into the yolk mix to loosen, then gently fold the rest in, using a metal spoon, being careful not to knock the air out.
4. Brush a pan with a little butter and put over a medium heat. Gently dollop 6-8 large tablespoonfuls of the mixture into the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side until golden and speckled, and just cooked through.
 5. Plate up immediately, dousing the pancakes in honey and top with fresh fruit. Serve with extra curd if you like. 

CHICORY BAKED EGGS

CHICORY BAKED EGGS

SERVES 2 

as a starter, Sunday supper, or brunch

knob butter for greasing

1tbsp olive oil

1 head red chicory, sliced

1/2 garlic clove, crushed

1 tsp thyme leaves

60g soft crumbly cheese -I used Munster

2 medium free-range eggs

Preheat the oven to 200C/fan180C/gas 6. Butter 2 x 10cm ramekins.

Heat the olive oil in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Fry the chicory for 3 minutes until wilted, then add the garlic. Stir through and keep on the heat for another minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Distribute the chicory between the 2 ramekins and top with the crumbled cheese. Crack an egg on each and place in the oven for 5-7 minutes until the white of the egg has hardened and the cheese is bubbling. Remove from the oven and serve.

MARMALADE HOT CROSS BUNS

Hot cross buns are a joy to make. They dress you in a pinny, cover you in flour, and make you instantly loved by everybody. Bring out a towering plate of warm sticky buns on Easter morning and you're anyone's.

Cut in half, spread through a little (or a lot of) salted butter and melt into marmalade goodness.

MARMALADE HOT CROSS BUNS

makes about 16

ingredients

700g strong white bread flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp mixed spice or a combination of ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon.

100g sugar

zest of 1 large orange

7g easy bake/fast-action yeast

1 duck egg (or 1 large hen egg), beaten

300ml milk, warm

1 tbsp flour

1 tbsp water

2 tbsps thin cut marmalade for glazing

Sieve the flour, salt, and spices into a large bowl. Make a well for the sugar, and add the zest and yeast. Pour in the egg and the tepid milk and mix, leaving to sit for a few minutes to activate the yeast.

Now, using your hands or a wooden spoon, fold the flour into the wet well, mixing to make a soft dough. If too wet and sticky add a little flour; if too dry add tepid milk a little at a time. Knead for roughly 5 minutes, pulling the dough away from you and pushing it with your palms and knuckles.

Oil and lightly flour the bowl. Sit the dough in the bowl, cover with a tea towel and place in a warm spot for an hour to prove.

Set the oven to the hottest it will go (roughly 240C).

Knock the air out of the dough on a floured surface, knead briefly, and set aside again to prove for 30 minutes or so.

Then, divide the dough into equal amounts (a small handful) and shape into balls. Lay into lines in a large roasting tin, leaving a three-finger sized gap between each bit of dough. Rest for 20 minutes, covered.

Mix 1 tbsp flour with 1 tbsp water. It should stretch nicely over the buns to form a cross. Do this after the dough has rested and place in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes until brown.

Remove onto a wire rack and glaze with the marmalade whilst still warm. Cut in half, toast again and smother with good butter. You may weep.

Get BAKING.

EGGY FARLS WITH BUTTERY STILTON LEEKS

Eggy bread has me dreaming of late nights and late mornings, energy gone. It's exactly what you want from a meal when your head's in a fuzz and your limbs won't move.

Slip, slap, pan, flip, flop.

I love using potato farls instead of bread. A good, spongy sourdough soaks up and holds in the moisture of the egg which is delicious, but with this recipe the farls are coated and crisped, melting away underneath the leeks so you almost don't need to chew. The salty butter and egg lightly fry up the square edges leaving a bit of crunch. Slice into the soft farl and the minty melted leeks, and your knees go giddy. These will be the best ten minutes of your day.

EGGY FARLS WITH BUTTERY STILTON LEEKS


serves2

prep 5 minutes
cooking time 5 minutes

ingredients
3 medium free-range eggs
pinch of chilli flakes
4 Irish potato farls
large knob of salted butter
generous pinch of salt
generous pinch of butter

large knob of butter
1 large leek
1/2 white onion or 3-4 shallots
50g stilton

2 heaps Godmother's Christmas tomato relish.

Finely chop the leeks and onion and set aside in a bowl. Crack three eggs into another bowl, whisk, and season well with salt, pepper and the chilli flakes. Put the farls in with the egg and turn a few times so that each side has been coated.

Heat a large knob of butter in two large frying pans, both on a medium-low heat.

Place the farls, one by one, into one frying pan and pour over the remaining egg mixture that has not been soaked up. Once the egg starts to cook, turn the farls over and fold over the egg around them. After about 30 seconds flip the farls again.

Meanwhile put the leek and onion into the other saucepan with the melted butter, and slowly fry. Add more butter - you'll want them to turn almost creamy. Stir in the stilton. Even creamier.

When the leeks are soft and the farls are crispy, it's time to serve. Pour the leeks onto the farl and serve with a large spoonful of homemade tomato relish. Now, silence.

I ♥ La Fromagerie.

Walk through shelves piled high with jars of preserves, freshly baked cakes and large and bountiful vegetables. Tucked away around the corner, past the table of chocolate, the fridge of homemade yogurt, and through the sliding glass door, towers cheese from Totnes to Toulouse . Taste, smell and sale. The cold can be stood for a small while, but the men in white coats bear it well. Out of the sliding doors, one last peek, and back past the chocolates to the long wooden tables amongst pigeon holes with wine.

Rumble. Time for breakfast. True delight.

Jumbo Porridge with Wild Winter Berry Compote

and

"Bacon" Sandwich with Pancetta and Homemade Ketchup.




Not forgetting the freshly churned farm butter.

Nothing better.

APPLE SODA BREAD

If the bread in the basket is warm and grainy when I go to a restaurant I know I should order a light meal. With a knob of salty butter melting into the holes and dips, there's no holding back and frankly, how could anything that follows be better? I love soggy bread too. Bread and butter pudding, pappa al pomodoro, and another hunk of fresh bread to soak up the soup. And nothing beats cutting into a fresh loaf.

As much as I love bread though, it's easy to forget the effort involved. Hours spent mixing, kneading, waiting, and it's all disappeared before you know it. Which is why Soda bread is my favourite kind of bread; Still the same heavenly smells, still the tingly toes, still the desire to eat it all in one go...but in half the time. No need to knead, leaven, re-knead and re-leaven, just mix and put in the oven.

Cook it just before a dinner party and not only will your guests be fainting from the smell but they won't even notice your starter is shop bought and your main is burnt.

APPLE SODA BREAD

INGREDIENTS for one medium loaf

500g malt bread flour

2tbsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsps grape nuts

1 tbsp oats

200ml milk

300g natural yoghurt

handful mixed seeds

1 small apple, sliced, skin on
1 tbsp demerera sugar

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees C or 500 degrees F. Prepare a medium sized loaf, rubbing the bottom and the sides with unsalted butter and a dusting of plain flour.

Mix the flour, the bicarbonate of soda, the oats and grape nuts evenly in a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the yoghurt and milk. With a fork, mix in the wet with the dry. The mixture will be sticky and wet still but this is how you want it.

Take half the mix and spread it into the bottom of the tin.

Now, lay the sliced apples on top and sprinkle with the sugar. When cooked with the bread they will soften slightly but not lose their shape. Pour over the remaining dough and sprinkle with the seeds.

Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes, checking it at half time by pushing a clean knife or skewer through the middle. At the end of the baking time, it may still be slightly wet but take it out and let it rest for 30-45 minutes before breaking loose and diving in.

This bread is fantastic with savoury dishes as well as a good jam - try a apple soda cheese on toast for a lovely fromage/pomme combination, or with salted butter and marmite.

Warning: It may bring a tear to your eye.

GEORGIE'S SNOBROD

Has Autumn officially struck do we think? Wake up and it's sunny; go home and you wish you'd brought your woolly jumper? Leaves get stuck to the bottom of your shoe, your leisurely stroll unexpectedly skids into an awkward run, that excruciating laugh 'It's fine! Ha ha ha...', an autumnal shade of burnt umber rising up to your roots? I'd say it has.

Which is why I've chosen to cook Georgie's recipe for her Snobrod: the perfect nibble for those days when we're just not sure which season we're in. This authentic Danish recipe is originally cooked over the fire in the great outdoors, but can just as easily be baked in the oven for a bit of warmth if the weather's turned all umbrella.

Just before I left for life int smoke, I cooked this for friends on the beach. Not only did it cuddle our cockles then, but it's warming mine now just thinking about that first stringy bite.

SNOBROD

SERVES 4
200g flour
100ml water
1tbsp sugar
pinch salt
secret ingredient of your choice
(I used up some of our last Isle of Wight green figs, roasted and wrapped round with the dough)

'This is a recipe I used to cook with my sister as a little girl in Denmark...it is called 'Snobrod'.

'All you need is 200g flour, 100ml water, 1 tbsp sugar and some salt. Knead all the ingredients together to make a dough, divide into 4 portions and roll each portion into thin sausages.


'Wind each sausage securely around a stick (any stick that is lying around, normally best to pull the knobbles off them first!), and cook by turning the stick over the open fire until the Snobrod is brown and crispy.

'It is very basic, but it is tres rustique...you can add any bit of magic to make it more exciting. Perhaps chop olives, raisins and cinnamon or parma ham into the mixture for extra flavour...'

A wonderful one. Thank you my dear Georgie.

FIG OF THE DUMP.

The figs are just coming into bloom on the Island now; the flesh soft, sweet and earthy.
Breaking into them raw seems risky, clenchingly persuading oneself that the pink giblets in the centre are not worms, just the fruit. 'Whatever's in there will have only been eating fig anyway': words that are thrown confidently across the table. Oh what a relief we are eating by candlelight.


Few and far between the figs fall: some already eaten, and still being eaten by god-knows-what, some picked unripe from the tree by little hands trying to help harvest the sparing yield. Every year they are savoured. They'd be wasted on jam; 'FRESH AND FRESHLY BAKED ONLY'.

Apart from eating them as they come - unwashed, unpesticided, unchecked - there is another way to eat the figs that, in a whisper, taste better than the original. Eaten for breakfast with fried bread and bacon, or for pudding with marscapone, I welcome whole-heartedly the season for...

MUM'S BAKED BALSAMIC FIGS

Serves 4.
INGREDIENTS:

2 large GREEN figs
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 1/2 tbs balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to a low-medium heat - about 100 degrees C.

Slice the figs long-ways and lay them on a baking tray. Sprinkle evenly with the sugar, then drizzle over about 1 1/2 tbs worth of good balsamic vinegar. You don't want to drown the flavour of the figs - there should be just enough tang to complement the natural flavour without ridding it altogether.

Place in the oven and cook for 5-7 minutes until the balsamic turns sticky. Turn the figs over, and cook for another minute. The figs will be soft in the middle, slightly sticky and truly scrumptious.

We ate ours with smoked streaky bacon on fried white bread - toasted in the bacon juices - and a dollop of creme fraiche for a second breakfast at midday... Ever so naughty.

JUST PEACHY

Dessert is usually the piece de resistance when it comes to fine dining. When it's good, the whole meal becomes memorable.

Time, effort, patience and skill are written all over a truly good pud. But perfection doesn’t always need to be so demanding. These white peaches are already beautiful – served just as they are they are fantastic – but when simply poached in syrup, and peeled, they naturally produce a glossy sheen which instantly makes them irresistible.

They produce the most delicious flavour –an equal balance of natural fruit juices and sugary sweetness, and out of this world when paired with ginger ice cream, or posset.

Must stop drooling.

This recipe is inspired by Skye Gyngell's Nectarine and posset recipe featured in the Stella magazine last week. I loved these uniquely shaped peaches and they work really well with her nectarine instructions. They are less plump but the fruit is still soft and juicy.

8 POACHED WHITE PEACHES

INGREDIENTS:

400g (7oz) caster sugar

950ml (17fl oz) water

8 ripe white peaches

Start by making the syrup. Put the sugar and water in a pan large enough to hold the peaches. Place over a medium heat and bring to the boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. When it is dissolved, plunge the nectarines into the syrup and cook for one minute, no longer, as they need to be as pure in flavour as possible. Remove with a slotted spoon, carefully peel off the skin, then leave to cool. Place in the fridge to chill.

Keep the sugar syrup - it may need a little longer to thicken; it should have turned a soft pink colour from the peach skins. And serve the peaches whole - they look fab!

EATING HABITS

WOW. Thanks Tim. Anyone else?

(Published in Times newspaper 05/07/2010. Back letter regarding troublesome times with Weetabix from 2009)

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