The sweetness of onions

I have got a lot of love for onions at the moment. Which is just as well, because when I went to my local fruit and veg stall the other day, I was offered a small sack of them for a pound - the price I had expected to pay for six or eight. As well as loving onions, I also love a bargain - and it would have been churlish to refuse, surely?

This meant I had a lot of onions to use. Luckily, I was already getting into the habit of roasting a trayful of them. I love roasted onions. Red onions look a bit better but brown (or white) work just as well, I think. You just cut your peeled onions into eighths, or thereabouts, stick them in a baking tray and give them between 30 and 45 minutes in the oven, until the corners are blackened and the onion flesh is soft and juicy. Any kind of slow cooking of onions will caramelise the natural sugars in them, making them taste sweeter.

Onion and potato soup

A double-headed pizza

A good pizza is one of my favourite things. Actually, I could probably eat pizza every day of the week without too much difficulty. A bad pizza, on the other hand, is as disappointing as a cold bath: whether it be a soggy, doughy base, a greasy topping, or (heaven forbid) a combination of the two.

One of the joys of moving to London has been the discovery of any number of good pizza restaurants, where the base is nearly thin enough to see through, crispy round the edges, and anointed with interesting toppings. Nothing, though, beats the satisfaction of making your own. I use a bread machine to make the dough, then give it a second rise after baking it, then a brief blast in an oven that is as hot as I can get it before adding the toppings.

A very red stew

It's still cold. I've enjoyed the long-overdue sunshine this weekend, but the daffodils are barely out of hibernation. Yesterday I even saw some very late snowdrops, presumably put into a state of suspended animation by the low temperatures.

My current attitude to the weather is to embrace it. At least I can enjoy cosy dinners and make hearty, warming dishes. So, stew it is then. My eye was caught by an unusual recipe called "beet bourguignon" from David Frenkiel and  Luise Vindahl's Green Kitchen cookbook. The book looks fab - quite a few unusual combinations, and they've thought about dishes that are healthy as well as tasting good.

A victory for people power

It was William Blake that said: "A good local pub has much in common with a church, except that a pub is warmer, and there's more conversation."

You might think that the status of both venues as a hub of the community has fallen since Blake's days. Churchgoing is certainly not what it was, and the statistic from the Campaign from Real Ale that 18 pubs are closing every week is one of the more depressing figures I have heard.

The Ivy House, Nunhead

The best millionaire's shortbread...ever

A visit to Brick Lane on a Sunday is a bewildering affair. So many things to eat...where do you start? A trip to one of the bagel shops or Bangladeshi restaurants is the traditional thing to do.

But the various markets are adding more and more options. American, Argentinean, Caribbean, Chinese, Ethiopian, Japanese, Malaysian, Mexican, Moroccan, Spanish, Thai, Turkish, all competing to display their wares in the most enticing way and attract the crowds of hungry young things.

A hearty stew for a cold spring night

No matter how desperate I am for blue skies and warmer temperatures, winter shows no sign of going away. All I can do is get out my trusty stockpot and cook something big and warming.

I have to admit I've got a bit bored with winter vegetables. Yes, I know I could probably do something exciting with Jerusalem artichokes. But it's March. Root vegetables have lost their appeal. So frozen and tinned vegetables have become something of a lifesaver. Dried pulses, too. At least I can get some colour and flavour on my plate, and it has the advantage of costing mere pennies per plate of food.

This is some kind of loose adaptation of a minestrone soup. But it's got lentils instead of beans, making it a really thick, hearty stew. Onions, carrots and tinned tomato provide the flavour base, with peas and green beans for freshness and colour. You could vary it though - add celery or leek to the base, or swap the green beans for chopped courgettes. Some broccoli florets or finely chopped spring greens wouldn't go amiss, either.

Rice with dill and good things

So I warned you that my bunch of dill might be making a reappearance. And here it is. I'm pleased to say that I have now conquered it! The sticking-it-in-a-mug-of-water-in-the-fridge trick worked really well, meaning that it was still perfectly useable, well over a week after I bought it.

I was pleased with this dish - healthy, filling and economical. And pretty damn tasty too. The garlic yogurt adds another layer of flavour as well as temperature and texture contrasts, though I did eat some of the leftovers for lunch without any yogurt, and that was still good.