Eggs baked in garlic rice

My second wild garlic dish of this spring is a variation of a dish I've previously made with spinach. It's got plenty of big flavours, so the punchy wild garlic works a treat. But not to worry if you don't have wild garlic - just use spinach plus a few garlic cloves.

It's not necessarily the most beautiful dish, but the taste more than makes up for it - good cheesy, starchy comfort food with all the loveliness of a runny egg yolk. And it's even pretty healthy. As long as you use a full-flavoured cheese, this dish makes a small piece of cheese go a long way.

A bowl of brown rice

These days I rarely buy white rice. I can remember finding brown rice quite off-putting, as if it was some extreme of of health-foodism (I certaibly wouldn't have bought brown pasta then either.) Now I love the  nuttiness and flavour of brown rice, even if the extra cooking time can be a pain - and even my five-year-old nephew likes it. This recipe is for a sustaining, soothing bowl of brown rice, turned into a complete meal.

Savoury rice cake with spinach and cheese

This savoury rice cake is a kind of cross between a risotto and a frittata. It is almost infinitely adaptable - you can use whatever vegetables take your fancy (as long as they're cut small), or ring the changes by using a different cheese. The rice does need to be a starchy, short-grain variety though (such as a risotto rice or paella rice, or even pudding rice), to help it stick together.

It is good hot or cold, and is perfect for a picnic. Or make it to eat hot for dinner and have the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Asparagus and pea risotto

Here's the most luxurious, delicious early summer risotto you can imagine. I'm posting this now in the hope that you might still be able to find some British asparagus. If not, you could use imported, or save it till next year. Or it will still be delicious with peas and no asparagus, just not quite as luxurious.

Healthy risotto for spring

Risotto might be traditionally a buttery, cheesy dish, but it can still be delicious with a fraction of the fat. You don't have to go the whole hog and make some kind of vegan high-fibre risotto with pearl barley and no cheese. Those recipes have their place, but here I'm thinking of something more like a classic risotto, with arborio rice and still with the cheese. 

Eat like an Egyptian: the ultimate home-made koshari

I have fond memories of koshari from my trip to Egypt last year. Some describe it as Egypt's national dish. It's often sold from dedicated koshari restaurants, although it's a popular street food too.

I initially was uncertain about trying it at home. Even in Egypt it's something that people buy rather than make themselves. There are quite a few ingredients to prepare separately, it seems dangerously close to hard work. But then I found myself with some leftover cooked lentils (I often cook a big batch of lentils so that I have some for other dishes) and some leftover pasta from a different meal. Suddenly koshari preparation almost seemed simple.

Easy pea risotto

Risotto sounds like hard work, but it doesn't have to be. You can stir all the time if you like, but this recipe works just as well with a casual stir now and then. A bag of frozen peas is your friend here, adding flavour and vivid green colour.

How to prepare fresh chestnuts, and a chestnut risotto recipe

Wild chestnuts can be one of the most frustrating wild crops to forage, yet are one of the most rewarding. The most challenging part is finding a tree with decent-sized nuts. Some years in the UK they just never seem to get big enough to be worth eating. This year I happened across lots of trees which only yielded tiny nuts, including in several Central London parks. But then a walk out in Kent, when chestnuts were the last thing on my mind, put lots of plump nuts in my path.

The challenges continue with the prickles (wear gloves, or restrict yourself to the ones that have fallen out of the spiny cases). And finally, peeling them is a rather time-consuming process which leaves me with painful bits of chestnut case under my fingernail.

A vegetarian barbecue

It looks like it's going to be a lovely weekend, and I thought some of you might be looking for a vegetarian dish for the barbecue.

Here's something to celebrate the sunshine and the fact that it's still the English asparagus season. And it's delicious enough to please carnivores and vegetarians alike.

If you don't have the weather or the opportunity to get the barbecue going, well, it works just as well if you cook the vegetables on a ridged griddle pan. Failing that, cooking them under the grill or in the oven will do.
 

Four good things on a plate: eggs, cheese, garlic and rice

A year or two ago Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall published a recipe book called Three Good Things. His premise is that "three good things on a plate" is a kind of magic formula for good food, where the whole is more than the sum of its parts (as long as you get the combinations right, of course). I don't entirely disagree, but I find that for a complete main course, four is more often the minimum number for an interesting, sustaining plate of food.

Risotto for spring

Another weekend's walking - this time in the Kent countryside - has taken me through some more fragrant patches of wild garlic. The flowers are not out yet, but the leaves are so bright and green and vivid, it feels somehow joyful - and almost a shame at the same time - to eat them.

Risotto with peas and thyme

I think I've lost count of the number of times that a packet of frozen peas has saved the day. Versatile, cheap, almost as good as fresh, and there in the freezer when you need them  - what more could you ask for?

Last night I had very little in the fridge and even less inspiration. Peas and rice saved the day. Turning half the peas into a puree adds body to the rice and means that every grain of rice comes with the fresh, sweet flavour of peas. And my pot of lemon thyme on the windowsill turned it from a slightly pedestrian dish into something a bit more sophisticated. If you don't have lemon thyme, normal thyme will do, and you might want to add a bit of lemon zest. Or ring the changes with other herbs you have around - parsley, basil, chives...

Chick pea and spinach curry with cucumber raita

Here's a quick, healthy and cheap recipe - what more could you ask for? I've used curry powder to speed things up, but you could use a curry paste instead, or mix your own spices. I find the best approach with curry powder is to try a few brands and find one you are happy with.

This curry might be a good way to use the rest of the chick peas you have cooked for this previous recipe. Or you can use the tinned kind.

The cucumber raita is not essential, but the creaminess works really well in contrast to the curry, and it's cool and refreshing too.

Risotto with leeks, soft cheese and herbs

This was my Valentine's night dinner. You might not think it the most romantic meal imaginable, but I like its creamy texture, and the way the softened leeks give the dish a bit of oomph, but not too much. And then there's the cheese. You can use standard Brie or Camembert, or you can ring the changes.

Today I was admiring the cheeses at Partridges food market on the Duke of York Square, near Sloane Square. The Bath Soft (from the eponymous Bath Soft Cheese Co) is one of my favourites and is a cracking cheese to use in this risotto. Another stall featured Wildes cheeses, which were new to me but are made in Tottenham. They do a soft, mould-coated cheese which I think is probably called Londonshire, and I reckon that would work a treat here too.

Carrot pilaf

This dish takes humble ingredients and turns them into something remarkably tasty. Carrots and onions are cheap and good for you, even if they're not as trendy as kale or spirulina. Plus, they tend to be grown in this country. Add in some wholegrain rice, chick peas and spices, and you have a dish to nourish body and soul.
 

Rice 'n' spice: lentil 'risotto' with roasted spiced veg

I hesitate to use the word risotto here: it's certainly not a dish an Italian would recognise. Anyway, lentils and rice are great together, so I thought I'd try to find a different way of cooking them. The result is almost a savoury porridge, with some brightly-coloured spiced vegetables on top. But if you prefer, you could just cook the rice in a separate pan and have the lentils like a daal alongside.

Feel free to vary the vegetables according to what takes your fancy and what you have around.

Pumpkin part 2 - pumpkin and bean curry

Perhaps not surprisingly, I hadn't managed to use a whole pumpkin in my previous pumpkin tagine. So I had some leftover cooked pumpkin to use up, and this Indian-inspired dish turned out to be the answer.

I was actually planning something quite different, but I discovered at the start of the cooking process that I'd left the tin opener at work (don't ask...) So I couldn't open most of the tins in the cupboard. Luckily the tins of kidney beans turned out to have ring pulls on them. (I usually save kidney beans for chilli rather than curry, but I couldn't see any reason not to put them in curry, and I didn't have too many other options.)

Pumpkin part 1 - preparing a pumpkin the easy way, and pumpkin and chick pea tagine

My love for a bargain is alive and well, and in the days or weeks after Halloween you can usually pick up pumpkins for not much money. It's lucky that they keep quite well (especially if you store them somewhere cool) because it's taken me until now to cook something with it.

Peeling a pumpkin and removing the seeds and fibres from the middle can seem like a bit of a faff. My labour-saving tip for cooking a pumpkin is to cut it in half, take out all the seeds, and cut the whole thing into large wedges. Put the wedges on an oven tray (or two), skin side down, and bake in a medium-hot oven until the flesh feels soft when pierced with a fork (possibly 30-45 minutes, depending on the thickness of the wedges and the temperature of your oven).

Stuffed mini squash

Halloween may be a distant memory, but there are still some pumpkins and squashes around to brighten up the dark days. With different shades of orange, green and cream, they are among the most attractive of vegetables - a bowl of small ones is just as good as an ornament for the kitchen table as it is on the plate.

These miniature orange ones turned out to have a lovely, sweet flavour - much better than the larger ones sold for carving at Halloween. To make the most of their cute appearance, I decided to stuff them and serve them whole.

Spinach with rice and eggs

It's surprising how many dishes can be improved by a poached egg (toasted cheese sandwiches, spicy tomato sauce, various soups, most dishes involving pasta and pesto...). Spinach and eggs are one of those classic combinations which just seems right, whether it's in a salad, omelette, souffle or quiche. And if you add some cheese too, then you really have a match made in heaven.

I'm a big fan of spinach, with its mild but distinctive flavour and slight tang of iron. The frozen stuff is a handy ingredient to have in your freezer (and avoids the disappointment of watching fresh spinach shrink so dramatically) but sometimes only fresh will do. Having bought a couple of bunches of vivid green spinach from Brixton Farmers' Market, this dish is how I decided to celebrate.