Serves 2

I really do quite like tofu when it is fried and slightly crispy! Served like this in a spicy soup with veg it is great. Use purple sprouting broccoli or baby kale leaves; whatever you have.



1 carrot
½ small pepper
1 salad onion
1 clove garlic
1 small piece fresh ginger
100g broccoli
500ml stock
125g pack medium wok-ready noodles
100g tofu
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp oil
Fish sauce and chilli sauce to taste

1 Prepare the vegetables. Finely dice the carrot and pepper, finely slice the onion and finely chop the garlic and ginger together. Trim the broccoli into small florets.
2 Bring the stock to the boil in a pan, add the prepared vegetables and noodles and simmer for 4 minutes.
3 Heat a frying pan and add the oil. Toss the tofu in the cornflour and shake off any excess, then fry the tofu in the oil for 3-4 minutes, until golden on both sides. Add to the broccoli noodles with fish and chilli sauces to taste before serving.

Cuts into 16 pieces

This is comfort and energy food rolled into one, and a real treat. It makes me think of youth hosteling in the New Forest when I was a teenager, and buying huge wedges of pudding in a bakery in Lyndhurst when we were cold and wet. Use up crusts or slightly stale bread.



400g bread, crumb and crust
500ml/2¼ cups milk
2 large eggs
250g/2 cups mixed cake fruit
175g/1 cup Demerara sugar
125g/1 cup shredded suet
2 tsps mixed spice
Demerara sugar to finish


1 Break the bread into mouthful-sized pieces into a bowl, then add the milk. Cover and leave for 30 minutes or longer. Beat the mixture well to remove any lumps - I do this with a mixer but determination and a wooden spoon will do the trick. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4, 180℃, 350℉. Butter and/or line a 20cm square tin.
2 Beat the eggs and add them to the bread with all the remaining ingredients. Mix well. Add a little more milk if necessary to give a dropping consistency - the mixture should flick easily off the mixing spoon.
3 Scoop the mix into the tin and bake in the oven for 1½-1¾ hours, until a skewer poked into the middle of the mix comes out clean. Scatter with a little extra sugar and serve warm with custard or cold as cake.

Serves 4

When the wild garlic appears we eat this. Often. It’s all about the first flavours of spring.




250g red lentils
1 onion, finely chopped
4 green cardamoms
2 tbsp oil
4-6 cloves
1 tsp cumin seeds
a handful of wild garlic leaves, garlic chives or chives
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 Wash the lentils in a sieve and shake dry. Finely chop the onion and crush the cardamom pods lightly.
2 Heat a pan, add the oil with the cardamom, cloves and cumin and cook for a few seconds until fragrant, then add the onion. Cook, covered, over a low heat for 5 minutes, until the onion is softened.
3 Add the lentils with sufficient water to cover them by about 1cm. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the lentils are tender. Add a little more water during cooking if necessary.
4 Wash the garlic leaves and shred them finely. Beat the lentils, add the garlic then season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve with curries, or simply with freshly cooked vegetables in season.

I went through a phase of thinking that pesto had been done to death and I didn’t want to eat it ever again - silly me! It is just the most versatile of relishes to keep in the fridge but the secret is to make it fresh and use it quickly. It must also be made with top quality ingredients - beware those containing apple juice, peanuts and oils that don’t come from olives. I ring the changes by using a combination of wild garlic or lovage and parsley instead of basil - and in this version I have added a chilli too. For the taste of tradition, just use all basil and forget the chilli, but wild garlic is abundant right now. Pesto and mackerel - sounds oily, tastes wonderful.




1 large handful of wild garlic leaves
1 large handful of parsley
1-2 cloves garlic
1 red chilli
40g Parmesan
40g pine nuts
Fruity extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 Wash, shake dry and roughly chop the herbs and place them in a blender. Peel the garlic, seed the chilli then roughly chop both. Grate the Parmesan.
2 Add all the ingredients to the blender with sufficient oil to allow everything to blend to a thick paste. Season to taste. Keep refrigerated and use as required.

I love this pesto with mackerel which are brilliant at the moment.

Serves 6-8

Rhubarb is Here and this is the pudding to make with it! How do you choose between trifle and Queen of puddings? You don’t have to with this dish! Of course it's best when created with home-made gingercake but the Co-op cake, which I have just discovered, is full of ginger and not too sweet - it’s perfect for this.



500g rhubarb
4 large eggs
1 Co-op Truly Irrisistable ginger cake
75g granulated sugar
500ml milk
2 tbsp + 75g caster sugar
1 level tbsp cornflour
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 Wash and trim the rhubarb, then cut it into 2cm chunks. Separate 3 of the eggs, adding the yolks to the remaining whole egg in a medium sized bowl. Keep the egg whites in a large bowl until required. Slice, then roughly crumble the cake into the bottom of a 1 - 1 1/2 litre ovenproof dish.
2 Cook the rhubarb in a covered saucepan with 2 tbsp water over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, until soft. Add the granulated sugar, then pour the rhubarb over the cake in the dish.
3 Heat the milk in a pan until almost boiling. Meanwhile, lightly whisk the egg and yolks with the 2 tbsp caster sugar, cornflour and vanilla extract. Pour the hot milk onto the mixture, stirring all the time, then pour the custard back into the pan. Cook slowly over a moderate heat, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon to prevent the mixture from catching and burning as it thickens. Cook until the custard thickly coats the back of the wooden spoon, then pour it gently and evenly into the dish over the rhubarb. Allow to cool, then use a piece of kitchen paper to remove any rhubarb juice that rises around the edge of the custard.
4 Preheat the oven to gas mark 6, 200℃, 400℉. Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gradually whisk in the remaining sugar. Stop whisking as soon as the last of the sugar is incorporated. Pile the meringue carefully over the custard, then use of fork to pull it into peaks and ensure that every last bit of custard is covered. Bake for 5 minutes, until lightly golden. Serve warm or cold.