Recipes

It’s impossible to think of a more suitable recipe for Farmer’s Weekly. Give this one of a million versions your full attention and win the praise of your lucky fellow diners.

Unless you have the entire Mafia Womens’ League on your unpaid payroll, this Italian-American pasta and meatballs classic is a great moment to display your skills as a solo cook.

Cooking a rabbit is a minor challenge, second only to getting a rabbit in the first place. Like most survivalist foods inherited from the peasantry of Europe, these floppy, cartoonish animals are a welcome addition to the repertoire.

Oxtail is a classic casserole and a firm favourite. Here’s a variation I’d never come across before, but after making it, and more importantly, loving it, I recommend it to all fellow oxtail fans.

Biscotti are what Italians dip into their espresso, because in Italy there are no rusks. Use this recipe to qualify as a baking mafioso, or in time even a don. Capiche? Of course you do …

There’s something gloriously accessible in the word ‘stew’. It represents the best values of the home cook: simple but well-chosen ingredients, and classic and extraordinarily potent kitchen skills and techniques.

I have known grown men to drink Tabasco straight from the bottle, while others in brave response chewed maniacally on raw chillies. But if you are a chilli fan, one of the most complex ways to enjoy this curious combination of flavour and pain is mazavaroo.

To make prawns with pak choi and five-spice seasoning for four, you will need: 600g of peeled, cleaned and thawed prawns 1 teaspoon freshly...

Cooks perfected the art of pickling food products long before they had fridges. Try this great South African classic – pickled fish – with its mouth-watering sharpness and exquisite oceanic tang.

Tandoori chicken is one of the Asian subcontinent’s many contributions to fine dining. A ‘tandoor’ is the Hindi word for the special clay oven used in this style of cooking. If you have no tandoor to hand, fear not. Here’s a way to produce a pretty fine imitation in your own kitchen.

A friend of mine recently returned from Hanoi, bringing with him happy memories of pho, an aromatic, beef stock-based noodle soup made with beef or chicken, and chillies. He came for dinner the other night, and we set to work creating a local version of this famous Vietnamese dish.

With the possible exception of a chocolate brownie, nothing accompanies tea or coffee better than a crisp shortbread biscuit.