Pearl barley broth INGREDIENTS METHOD

SERVES FOUR Olive oil, for cooking Knob of butter 1 carrot, diced 1 celery, diced 2 small onions, diced 1 parsnip or turnip, diced 1 thyme sprig 1 bay leaf 150g pearl barley 75ml white wine 650ml chicken stock 50g chopped parsley

Heat the oil and butter in a pan then add the diced vegetables, sautéing them until they have softened. Add the thyme and bay leaf. Stir in the pearl barley and add the wine, cooking it until it disappears, deglazing the pan. Add the chicken stock and cook for 20 minutes until the pearl barley and vegetables are cooked. The barley should be soft to the bite.

Serve with the chopped parsley and a dash of olive oil.

Sunday 28 October 2018

Recipes are everywhere, but you can’t make good vinaigrette by following one. There is a standard ratio – three parts oil to one part vinegar – but it’s only a rough guide. You have to make adjustments depending on the oil you are using ( Tuscan olive oils are quite bitter) and the acidity of the vinegar (that can vary a lot) and you have to consider what the vinaigrette is going to dress (a bowl of starchy beans can take a much more strongly seasoned and acidic dressing than a bowl of leaves). You might want to add a little honey or maple syrup, or a pinch of sugar. And you don’t have to make a dressing with wine vinegar and olive oil, you can make a light one using rice vinegar and a bland oil, you can add cream or buttermilk or chopped soft herbs to a regular vinaigrette, you can mix oils (using hazelnut or walnut along with olive oil). A recipe book can tell you the basics of vinaigrette, but only by making and tasting them will you do it well.

I’ve been making bread and butter pudding the same way for the past 30 years but I can produce very different puddings just by changing what’s added to the basic dish.

Apricots soaked in marsala, instead of just raisins, takes it up a level. You can make a Christmassy version with mincemeat and fresh apples and cranberries (these provide some tartness, but be careful not to use too much fruit or its juice dilutes the custard and stops it setting properly). I even make a version with rhubarb and ricotta, spreading slightly sweetened ricotta between the layers but, because rhubarb throws out a lot of juice, it has to be baked before it’s added to the pudding. I know, from years of cooking – of quiches as well as bread and butter puddings – how eggs and cream behave and what will affect them.

If you can make one bread and butter pudding you can make at least 15 variations on it. Creative cooking is about adapting blueprints.