Raspberry hurray

What I love most about playing in my kitchen is the connection I make with myself and with nature. I live in a busy city. It’s hard to escape the circus of pollution, car alarms, traffic wheezes and suffocating concrete. Slicing into a juicy orange and spraying citrus mist into the air; scooping out the licky-sticky yumminess of an over-ripe mango; hunting for seeds in a gloriously crisp and fragrant watermelon — each experience fuels my connection with nature. It feels grounding amid the fug of modern city living.

Cooking for yourself runs beyond sheer physical nourishment. Cooking provides emotional nourishment, too. It’s how, for generations, we’ve shown love and adoration to the people around us. When words fail to console, brownies do the trick. Where my presence at a relation’s sick bed is exhausting, my chicken soup is, instead, energising. And when my heart and paws need pampering, I show them love by choosing food that heals and helps. This raspberry-whip toffee always does the trick. Whatever you’re into, you can’t deny the reverie in this stuff. It’s all-powerful and pervading.

Freeze-dried raspberries are fantastically strong. They taste like stoked-up raspberries on overtime with double pay. Raspberries house all the stuff that cancer researchers and food scientists get giddy about — antioxidants, anthocyanins, vitamin C and ellagic acid. Think of them as an army of nutrients, guarding your immune system. So treat your body to them! This is where you get to put your underpants on over your tights and fly.