Salmon wellington, or salmon en croute, feels like a really impressive dish to make, but it’s deceptively easy. Serving it with a lemony cream sauce sends it over the top, especially if you add the shrimp to the sauce. But with or without the shrimp, this is still delightful.
Read moreMini egg & hazelnut blondie
I’m very attracted to mini eggs every Easter, especially the ones with tiny speckles on them. They are pleasingly pastel and consistent, they seem to have not changed in any way since my childhood. They have the same mild, milky chocolate, the same crispy-shattery exterior, then same mild, gentle colours. I often think of putting them in cookies or bars, but I have held back because it seemed almost too frivolous. But it isn’t too frivolous, it’s exactly the right amount of frivolous. They are pleasing in the way that rainbow sprinkles are - childishly delightful.
Read morecaramel cornflake brownies
As a cereal, I find cornflakes a little underwhelming. Their pleasant, mild corn flavour, and crunch just sort of gets lost in a bowl of milk. But they have so much potential when being used in other ways. They make a great breading to roll chicken in, they are wonderful folded into some marshmallow and chocolate chip cookies.
Read morefluffy peanut butter pie
This pie has all the delight of a peanut butter cup, but whipped up into a sweet and salty, extra flouffy pie. I added a salty pretzel crust and a layer of salty caramel hiding out underneath the peanut butter fluff. It’s totally optional, but I like to add a tiny bit of extra flaky salt between the layers.
Read morecrispy artichoke salad
I think artichokes are my very favourite vegetables. Their flavour is quite mild and mellow - very slightly nutty. They are really beautiful plants - architectural and stately. I always feel tempted to buy them when I see them, partly because they just look so great.
Read moregoat cheese & tomato baked gnocchi
The squashy, starchiness of gnocchi is so pleasing, and pleasing food is what I want to be eating at the moment. This far into the COVID-19 pandemic, I think that I/ we all have lost some of the cheerful early energy of “We are all pulling together!” and at least it was Spring and Summer and we could do things outdoors. Now it’s nine months in and it’s apparently always winter but never Christmas and all I want to do is hear really great news about vaccines and eat my feelings by way of carbohydrates. I want to eat cheesy, starchy things all the time with enough vegetables around the edges so I’m not afraid of getting scurvy. This gnocchi is exactly the sort of thing to eat during cold, quarantine times.
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