The Kitchen Diaries

garlic – 2 cloves

a small salami – about 200g

fresh sausages – 350g

crushed tomatoes or tomato passata – 500g

green or brown lentils – 150g

bay leaves – 3

Peel the onions and cut each one in half from tip to root, then cut each half into four or five pieces. Warm the oil in a heavy-based casserole, add the onions and let them cook over a moderate heat until tender. Meanwhile, peel the garlic, slice it thinly and add it to the onions. You’ll need to stir them regularly.

Peel the thin skin from the salami and cut the inside into fat matchsticks. Add this to the softening onions and leave for a couple of minutes, during which time the salami will darken slightly.

Start cooking the sausages in a non-stick pan. You want them to colour on the outside; they will do most of their cooking once they are in the sauce. Tip the crushed tomatoes into the onions, add the washed lentils and stir in 500ml water. Bring to the boil. Remove the sausages from their pan and tuck them into the casserole with the bay leaves. Cover the pot with a lid and leave to simmer gently for about half an hour, until the lentils are tender. Stir the lentils and season with black pepper. You may find it needs little or no salt.

Enough for 2, with seconds

A lime tart

Not difficult this, but do make absolutely certain there are no holes or cracks in the pastry case, otherwise the filling will escape, I guarantee.

limes – 5–7

large eggs – 6

caster sugar – 250g

double cream – 175ml

For the pastry:

plain flour – 175g

golden icing sugar – 40g

cold butter – 90g

egg yolks – 2

cold water – 1 tablespoon

To make the pastry, put the flour and icing sugar into a food processor, add the butter, cut into chunks, and blitz for a few seconds. Stop when the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Mix in the egg yolks and water. Tip into a mixing bowl and bring the dough together into a thick log with your hands. Wrap it in greaseproof paper and refrigerate for a good half hour. Warning: skipping this bit will make your pastry shrink.

Cut thin, round slices from the log of pastry, then press them into a loose-bottomed 23–24cm tart tin with high sides (3.5cm), pressing the pastry gently up the sides and over the base (this pastry is too fragile to roll). Make certain that there are absolutely no holes, otherwise the filling will leak through. Prick lightly with a fork and refrigerate for half an hour.

Set the oven at 200°C/Gas 6. Place a sheet of greaseproof paper in the tart case and fill it with baking beans (I use old haricot beans but you can buy ceramic or metal beans especially for the job from cookware shops). Bake the tart case for ten minutes, then remove the greaseproof paper and beans and bake for a further five minutes, until the pastry is dry to the touch.

Turn the oven down to 150°C/Gas 2. Finely grate the zest from two of the limes. Squeeze enough limes to give 180ml juice; this could be anything from five to seven limes, depending on their ripeness. Mix the eggs and sugar together, beating lightly for a few seconds – you don’t want it to be frothy – then stir in the lime juice and cream. Pour the mixture through a sieve and stir in the lime zest. Pour into the baked tart tin and bake for forty-five to fifty minutes. Remove whilst the filling is still a little wobbly and leave to cool.

Enough for 8

January 31

A ploughman’s lunch is something to be kept away from the whims of an imaginative cook. The most tinkering I will tolerate is the occasional oatcake in lieu of bread and the odd radish or pickled onion as a crunchy distraction. If the cheese is firm and British then I’ll willingly take an apple too. Today I slice a Cox’s apple and let it colour in a little butter in a non-stick frying pan. I put a jagged piece of Mrs Appleby’s Cheshire cheese and a slice of warm, tender apple on to each oatcake and eat them whilst the apple is still hot. Yes, a mucked-about ploughman’s but surprisingly none the worse for it.

february

Chicken patties with rosemary and pancetta (#ulink_f24a89f0-f66e-505a-9094-24c84071917f)

A herb and barley broth to bring you back to health (#ulink_b476e920-cbef-553b-b985-dd843a45acd2)

Spiced roast potatoes with yoghurt and mint (#ulink_12b977cb-add9-543a-afbc-a9a510453e78)

Lamb shanks with mustard and mash (#ulink_de64a592-a675-5eb5-9e1f-6da8f85c7a5a)

Smoked haddock with flageolet beans and mustard (#ulink_730ea071-5313-5008-91e8-9c5184ea45b4)

Roast pumpkin, spicy tomato sauce (#ulink_ecd97539-0456-590d-9fea-b8dc70c259c3)

Kipper patties, dill mayonnaise (#ulink_2ad283f5-505e-522d-bf1a-08a96236a36c)

Pork chops, mustard sauce (#ulink_5a71043f-4508-50c9-9ebe-62da8e21a7b1)

Linguine alla vongole (#ulink_c2dd31c0-3091-5556-ac2c-4e06f1389bd3)

Hot chocolate puddings (#ulink_7e3ad843-6e52-57d8-bb73-62004a92cfd4)

Sausage and black pudding with baked parsnips (#ulink_19e1e5be-52bb-5625-819f-89ad12e604d3)

Braised lamb with leeks and haricot beans (#ulink_454ac53d-f449-56b7-9d7b-066bd52b0277)

Spiced pumpkin soup with bacon (#ulink_6d0041ed-1cc0-59bc-b6a2-cf590d1c7aac)

Slow-roast lamb with chickpea mash (#ulink_08b6e281-76dd-5a44-a164-9738731e176a)

Braised oxtail with mustard and mash (#ulink_d0dfbdc3-0727-5b86-82bd-d1017b29f1c9)

Treacle tart (#ulink_0c0ab14f-8d5c-55e7-82f3-927718e14906)

Warm soused mackerel (#ulink_a16cef63-d832-5d96-a660-29fee6ed8758)

February 1

The thought of shopping for home-grown fruit and vegetables in February makes my heart sink. There is only so much enthusiasm you can muster for kohlrabi and potatoes, floury apples and crates of stinky old sprouts.

As I turn the corner by the farmers’ market, I am greeted by a stall almost hidden by tin buckets of daffodils, the traditional variety with large trumpets, the sort that look so cheerful in a jug by the kitchen sink. Beyond them is David Deme’s apple stall with bright boxes of Cox’s as crisp as shattered ice, russets still in fine nick and plump Comice and Conference pears. There is much pleasure to be found in a pear on a cold winter’s day, with its crisp flesh and sweet, nutty juice.