I fell in love with lebanese omelettes since I visited Mazar in Battersea High Street. As I don’t get to London very often I have to make up my own version of their delicious omelette. I didn’t have any Lebanese spicy sausage so I replaced it with chorizo. I used Mr Singh’s chilli sauce for a little kick but you could use fresh chilli instead if you’re feeling brave!

{Serves 1}

15 mins – Prep time: 10 mins – Cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients

• 3 free range eggs
• 50g chorizo cut into cubes
• 1/2 red onion, finely sliced
• A handful of fresh parsley, chopped roughly
• 3tbsp hot chilli sauce
• A knob of butter
• A good dash of black pepper
• A dash of salt

Instructions

1. Over a medium/low heat, soften the onions in a frying pan with a little of the butter (with the lid on) for about three minutes then add the chorizo cubes and cook for another couple of minutes. Set aside.
2. In a bowl, whisk the eggs with the salt, pepper and chilli sauce. Warm the frying pan on a medium heat and use the rest of the butter ensuring its spread all over the pan.
3. Pour the egg into the pan and whisk a little before allowing it to nearly (about half cooked). Sprinkle the onions and chorizo and parsley over. Allow to cook a little more until almost set (I like mine to be a little bit runny on the top), then serve.

When it comes to risotto, I have little patience standing over the pan stirring in the stock, that’s why I love oven baked risotto: you can just fry everything off in the pan and then bung it in the oven. Job done. Risotto for me is perfect recovery food – extremely comforting and homely.

This recipe is adapted from BBC Good Food’s Oven-baked risotto.

{Serves 4}

40 mins – Prep time: 15 mins – Cooking time: 25 mins (18 mins unattended)

Ingredients

• 600ml hot chicken stock
• 300g arborio risotto rice
• 150g frozen peas
• 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 8 slices chorizo
• 2 slices of bacon
• 1 small onion
• 1 small head broccoli
• 70g stilton
• 25g butter

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°c.
2. Make broccoli florets, cutting any large ones in half. Blanch broccoli for a 3 minutes to soften a little. Then run under cold water and shake off any excess water.
3. Chop the bacon and chorizo into small pieces. Finely chop the onion and sweat with the butter on a medium/low heat in a heavy-bottomed pan (like a Le Creuset) for 3-4 minutes with the lid on to soften it.
4. Add the bacon and chorizo and cook for another 2 minutes, then add the risotto rice and cook for further 2-3 minutes, stirring to ensure all risotto is coated in the butter.
5. Add broccoli florets, cherry tomatoes, frozen peas and hot chicken stock. Season well, stir, then put the lid on and place in the oven for 18 minutes.
6. When done, crumble the stilton into the risotto, leaving a little for garnish and stir through.

With the new series of Mad Men just beginning, it seems like an excellent time to tell you about a recipe book I’ve inherited from my maternal grandmother. Published in 1951, the YWCA Cookery Book of Malaya is an amazing insight into advertising during that period. I often wonder if any of the shops listed are still in there in Singapore.

Anyway, since visiting Tampopo restaurant I’ve wanted to learn how to make my own laksa, a kind of curry spiced soup with noodles. Laksa originally refers to the noodles used, but over time has come to mean the soup. I took this recipe from the book, although I’ve tweaked it a fair bit; firstly the asian ingredients were listed with their malaysian names and it calls for “5 cents worth of shrimp paste” and a tahil (a chinese measurement) of beansprouts. It’s still fabulously tasty but just modernised a little.

{Serves 4}

Ingredients

For the paste

• 20g peanuts
• 1tbsp shrimp paste
• 1tsp turmeric
• 10 thai shallots
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3tsp dried chillies
• 1inch galangal
• 2 sticks fresh lemongrass
• 4tbsp oil

For the soup

• 200g king prawns
• 800ml coconut milk
• 40g beansprouts
• 60g medium egg noodles
• 1 large red chilli
• A small handful of mint leaves
• ½ cucumber
• ½ lime

Ingredients

1. Finely chop all the paste ingredients (apart from the oil!). I use one of these classic choppers and it reduces chopping time to just a few minutes.
2. Take the cucumber and chop in half width ways, then cut into thin batons. Top and tail the fresh chilli and cut into rings.
3. Heat the oil in a wok until very hot, then fry the paste ingredients for 3-4 minutes, then stir in the coconut milk. Leave to simmer for 10 minutes.
4. While the laksa is cooking, cook the noodles in a separate pan according to the instructions.
5. When the laksa is done, add in the noodles, prawns and beansprouts and cook for a further 3 minutes.
6. Add in the cucumber and fresh chilli, then serve. Shred a little mint onto the top, but not too much, then add a squeeze of lime juice.

I remember trying samphire last year on my summer visit to Norfolk and I haven’t got it out of my brain since. I got mine from the little fish hut on the quay at Wells-Next-The-Sea – it came in a huge bag for a bargainous £2. Samphire has a very short season, which is around late June until the end of July. I can’t find any nutritional information about samphire, but I think it’s quite high in iron.

If you haven’t tried it before, I can only describe the texture as like spaghetti, it’s very smooth and salty to boot. Here’s my recipe with a pinch more flavour, but it’s still good with plain ol’ butter.

17mins – Prep time: 5mins – Cooking time: 12mins

{Serves 2 as a sidedish}

Ingredients

• 200g samphire
• 4 rashers bacon
• 1 clove garlic, pressed or finely chopped
• 3tbsp butter
• 1tbsp olive oil
• 1tbsp fresh lemon juice
• Black pepper to taste

You’ll need a steamer for this!

Ingredients

1. Cut roots from samphire and any brown looking stalks as these are hard to chew once cooked.
2. Cut the excess fat from the bacon rashers and then cut into small pieces.
3. Steam the samphire for 8 minutes. Whilst it’s cooking, heat 1tbsp butter with the olive oil on a high heat and fry the bacon for a couple of minutes, then add in the garlic. Continue frying until the bacon starts to become crispy.
4. Once the samphire is cooked, add it to the pan with the remaining butter and fry for a couple of minutes.
5. Finally, add the lemon juice and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

This is one of my absolute favourite things to eat, plus it’s really healthy too. I learned to make this whilst I was travelling, at a little place called Pum’s on Kho Phi Phi island (famous for its satellite island which you may have seen on The Beach, and which was almost completely destroyed by the tsunami in 2004. If you ever get a chance to go there, please go and support the people whose lives were affected by this tragedy). This soup isn’t so much sour as zingy – make sure you use fresh kaffir lime leaves, it really does make a difference to the taste.

{Serves 2}

Ingredients

• 600ml boiling water
• 100g cooked mussels (shells removed)
• 8 cooked king prawns
• 4 birds eye chillies
• 1 stalk of lemon grass
• 4 kaffir karrif lime leaves
• 4 thai shallots (if you can’t find these, replace with ¼ onion)
• 4 slices galangal (if you can’t find this, replace with ginger)
• 4tbsp lemon juice
• 4tbsp fish sauce
• 2tbsp chilli paste
• 2tbsp sugar

Instructions

1. Add all the ingredients except the prawns and the mussels into a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for two minutes.
2. Add in the prawns and mussels and simmer for 1 minute longer. You’re done! (Yes, it’s that simple!) Don’t eat anything except the shallots, prawns and mussels and serve with rice.

Slow cooking ribs just makes them fall off their bones, so they’re wonderfully tender and really take in all the flavours of the sauce. The best thing is you can go out for the day and these will be almost ready when you get home. Lip-smackingly good!

{Serves 2 people}

Ingredients

• A pack of pork ribs
• 1 jar Sharwood’s Hoi Sin & Five Spice Cook-In Sauce (425g)
• 120g tomato ketchup
• 30g bulldog sauce (optional)
• 1tbsp paprika
• 1 large chilli, deseeded and sliced
• 10 drops tabasco sauce
• 10 drops Worcestershire sauce
• 200ml water

Instructions

1. If the ribs aren’t already separated, slice carefully between the bones with a sharp knife.
2. Place the hoisin sauce, ketchup, bulldog sauce, chilli, paprika, tabasco, Worcestershire sauce and water together in the slow cooker dish and stir well.
3. Add the ribs. If the ribs aren’t fully covered by the sauce, add more water. Put the lid on and turn the slow cooker on low. Leave for 7-8 hours.
4. Pre-heat grill to high.
5. Pour the sauce from the ribs into a saucepan and reduce sauce by half.
6. Spread ribs onto baking tray covered with foil and spread reduced sauce on top.
7. Place under grill for 5 minutes, then turn ribs over and grill for another 5 minutes.
8. Serve with salad, or corn on the cob, rice, whatever takes your fancy!

A recipe that sure does what it says on the tin. Yes, it looks like the world’s dullest meal, but I’ve been brought up on this traditional Malaysian food and the recipe I’m telling you has been passed down through 3 generations of my family (my Grandma was Singaporian and my mother spent some of her childhood there too). If there was one food I had to live on for the rest of my life (apart from Dim Sum), it’d be this. It’s a reasonably cheap eat, I ate a lot of this whilst I was in my final year of university, because it was quick and nutritious.

{Serves 1 person}

Ingredients

• 1 chicken breast
• 200g rice (I use Basmati)
• 3 spring onions
• A couple of slices of cucumber
• 2 chicken stock cubes (I always use Knorr)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp sesame oil

Instructions

1. Wash the rice in a sieve, under a warm tap, allowing the starch to run out. Wait until the water becomes reasonably clear (it’s never 100% clear), then remove from sieve and allow to dry naturally on a plate.
2. Top and tail the spring onions and add into a pan with the cucumber, chicken breast, 1 1/2 stock cubes and enough water to cover the chicken comfortably. Don’t use too big a pan as the stock you create will be too weak.
3. Boil the chicken for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat, cover with a lid and leave for 25 minutes allowing the chicken to poach.
4. Measure 1/2 pint of the stock into a jug and add the other 1/2 stock cube in and dissolve.
5. In a clean pan over a medium heat, add the butter and allow it to melt and gently fry the rice, turning continuous for a couple of minutes. Add the stock from the jug and bring to the boil, then turn down to a gentle simmer. Cover with a lid and cook for 10 minutes, or until all the stock has evaporated.
6. Whilst the rice is cooking, take two forks and gently pull the chicken apart on a plate and then cover with sesame oil.
7. Serve with beansprouts and baby sweetcorn and lashings of soy sauce!

We’ve packed away the decorations and laid the Christmas songs to rest for another year, but what’s left in your fridge? Admittedly, I didn’t have the stilton left in the fridge, it was on the clearance shelf at the supermarket and I do so love blue cheese!

27mins – Prep time: 15mins – Cooking time: 12mins

{Makes: 12}

Ingredients

• 1 pack ready rolled puff pastry (375g)
• 180g bacon lardons
• 60g stilton
• 1/2 red onion

Instructions

Oven temp: 140°C/390°F

1. Grease 12 hole bun tin and cut out circles just larger than the holes in the tin. Gently push the circles into the holes using your knuckles.
2. Gently fry off the bacon and onions in a pan over a medium heat. The onions will cook in the lardon fat and will soften. Don’t overcook the bacon, the oven will finish the job!
3. Divide the bacon and onions evenly between the 12 holes.
4. Crumble the stilton over the tops of the tartlets.
5. Bake in the oven for 12 minutes, until the pastry starts to brown a little and the stilton has melted down.