Recipes

Helena Garcia · German Baking

Brownies always seem like an untouchable recipe for me — not only are they a staple of American baking, they’re also a very difficult bake to decorate. I’ve faced my fears and done both, altering the classic recipe to include a touch of ginger and decorating them as presents with an eggnog icing. It’s a simple way to elevate them — ideal for Christmas! For my Eggnog recipe, go to Gingerbread Eggnog Cocktail. The Book of Gingerbread by Helena Garcia (Quadrille, £16.99). Photography © Patricia Niven.

Helena Garcia · German Baking

Eggnog is synonymous with Christmas in America. Apparently, George Washington used to make his own and was adamant that you should let it rest for a few days to intensify its flavour. I personally love eggnog, on its own, as a latte or in this case as a gingerbread cocktail. Since eggnog is not readily available in the UK, I’ve included a recipe on how to make it. The Book of Gingerbread by Helena Garcia (Quadrille, £16.99). Photography © Patricia Niven.

Tim Wilson and Rebecca Seal · German Baking

This is a beautiful and hearty option for a Christmas Eve supper. You can make one large pie (about 21cm/8¼ inches across and 9cm/3½ inches deep), which will serve four; you can make two smaller pies and cook them both; or you can cook one smaller pie and freeze half the filling and half the pastry, both uncooked, to use later. (And thank your past self profusely when you’re eating the saved pie in the depths of dreary January.) Ginger Pig Christmas Cookbook by Tim Wilson and Rebecca Seal is published by Mitchell Beazley, £25.00, www.octopusbooks.co.uk

Gill Meller · Time

Our lifestyles can be so frenetic that it can be hard to find a moment to step out of the grind and slow down the rhythms. Taking our time to make something good to eat is actually a great way to do this; I'd go so far as to say, it's a form of recovery. This recipe is gentle and warming and perfect for those slower, darker nights at home. I like to use whole shin of beef on the bone. Ask your butcher for it, I find it's the best cut for cooking in this way.

Gill Meller · Root Stem Leaf Flower: How To Cook With Vegetables and Other Plants

This is such a good way to turn tomatoes into an utterly delicious main-course sort of affair, and it’s fun to make too. The idea is, of course, toad-like, but I think it offers a little more than bangers in batter. The tomatoes are so sweet and juicy they almost make a gravy of their own accord. I add wedges of red onion and lots of garlic, rosemary and thyme, which all work wonderfully. A little finely grated aged cheese is a nice touch – you could even use a blue cheese if you liked. Plus – after more than 20 years of cooking – I’ve finally found a batter recipe I want to be associated with. It actually works, every time. Thank you, Barney!

Gill Meller · Gather

The last of autumn’s blackberries are ripe, salacious and full of flavour. Once all the berries are picked, the bramble retires back into the hedgerow, unnoticed and still for winter. It’s easy to forget then how productive this thorny weed really is. In this gorgeous, colourful salad, I tumble the berries through a tray of roasted early winter parsnips, where they burst in the hot honey and olive oil, and are cut through by the bitterness of red chicory. A scattering of rye flakes adds a nutty crunch, which I really love. This is a real River Cottage favourite.

Georgina Hayden · Stirring Slowly

I first tried okonomiyaki at a food market near our home many moons ago, and would drag myself out of bed on Sundays to get my fix. It's essentially a large veg-packed Japanese pancake, which I have simplified to make at home. Kimchi is optional, so don't feel obliged to use it, and try adding different veg (always keeping the cabbage, though). You could even change the protein if you like - shredded pork or beef are great - or leave it out altogether if you're vegetarian (it's seriously good with grated Cheddar). And from start to finish it takes no more than 20 minutes - what a dream.

Georgina Campbell · Ireland For Food Lovers

Said to be Dean Swift’s favourite meal, this traditional dish is every bit as comforting as it sounds; made on pay day or on Saturday nights, it is a very forgiving dish and always welcoming, whatever the time. It combines two foods known since the earliest Irish literature - bacon and sausages - and, like all very simple dishes, success depends on the quality of the ingredients, so use the very best sausages you can find, and good dry-cured bacon. The traditional version is a simple stew; this modern variation (“Campbell’s Coddle”) is made with the same ingredients but has a crispy topping.

Kon and Sia Karapanagiotidis · Philoxenia: A Seat At My Table

I have childhood memories of my mum, Sia, making galaktoboureko as a special treat for us, and till this day it remains a special treat. This semolina custard baked in phyllo with a sugary sweet syrup is dessert heaven. Remember when making this dish that either the phyllo or the syrup must be cold and the other hot when you pour the syrup all over the pastry. When I am pouring the syrup, I love to bend down and listen to the dish as the hot phyllo and cold syrup meet together and you can hear it crackle. The longer you leave the syrup to sit in the phyllo before eating, the sweeter and better it is to eat. My mum’s tip is to make the syrup and let it cool while the pastry is cooking, then it’s ready to pour over once it is fresh out of the oven.

Ursula Ferrigno · Dolci Italiani

A glorious combination of chocolate and walnuts that couples beautifully with the bitter coffee. Using maple syrup gives a lovely fudgey texture.

Fuchsia Dunlop · Every Grain Of Rice

Chestnuts are one of China’s native crops and have been cultivated there for millennia. They are grown in many parts of the country, but particularly in the north, where they are used in soups, stews and stir-fries, or ground into flour for breads and sweetmeats. Chicken and chestnuts are a classic Chinese combination. One September morning, I drove out with my friend A Dai into the Zhejiang countryside, through a lush greenness of paddy fields, bamboo groves and lotus ponds, into the teabushed hills. Up a rough track we left the van and walked out into the twittering, humming undergrowth. A little further and there was an orchard of chestnut trees, where we plucked the prickly fruits and peeled open and ate, raw, some of the crunchy young nuts. Later, back at A Dai's restaurant, we tasted more of them, stir-fried with ginger and the meat of a young chicken, a tender dish that can only be enjoyed early in the chestnut season. When the nuts are plumper and more mature, they find their w

Ruby Bhogal · One Bake Two Ways

This one is for my mum. I spent years of my childhood standing by her side in the kitchen when I was growing up. She leans more towards the savoury side of life, and when she does eat something sweet, chocolate does not float her boat. I know, right, like how are we even related? The mystery remains unsolved. So, I’ve taken something inherently savoury and teamed the flavour of olive oil with a heady mix of stone fruit and lemon thyme. The combination may seem unusual, but drown a piece in icing sugar and it’s like a more sophisticated version of a tea cake. If the fruit listed overleaf doesn’t tickle your pickle, swap them out for whatever does. My fruited focaccia is a real all-year-round belly-pleaser, so mix up the fruit as the seasons change and continue to reap the delicious rewards as the months go by.

Donna Hay · Sunshine, Lemons and Sea Salt

Who doesn’t love dreaming themselves away to a palm-fringed island with their friends? These super zesty and refreshing coconut margaritas with their salty lime rims will transport you there.

Ursula Ferrigno · Cucina di Amalfi

There were many, many forms of fried doughs in Campania during the epidemic of cholera as frying food was a way of ensuring that the food was sterilized. These fritta are truly delicious. This elegant version (made without yeast), is a true celebration of anchovies and mozzarella, two of the region’s most wonderful ingredients, so worth shouting about.

Marcus Samuelsson · The Rise

A native New Yorker with strong ties to South Carolina, Melba likes to say she was "born, bred, and buttered" in Harlem. Her aunt is Sylvia Woods of Harlem's Sylvia's. Chicken and waffles originated in Harlem when jazz musicians wanted something delicious after playing all night. It's a dish that perfectly reflects Melba and her Harlem roots. Note: This recipe may seem intimidating, but if you make the glaze first, then boil the sweet potato for the waffles while frying the chicken, you can keep the chicken warm in the oven while making the waffles.

Amelia Christie-Miller · Bold Beans

Whip out this hearty, veggie, one-pot dish as the autumnal season is approaching. It's one of those meals that is super simple and has minimal ingredients, but offers guaranteed satisfaction and heartiness.

Maria Bradford · Sweet Salone

Fonio is a West African ‘superfood’. It’s cultivated from two species of grass with small grains. It’s extremely nutritious with a very favourable taste. It’s gluten free and high in dietary fibre. The grains can be used to make porridge, bread and beer and it can be made into flour as well. I often use it in salads and as an alternative to couscous or rice. In this dish it's combined with pumpkin, another well-known ingredient in Africa (and elsewhere around the globe). Pumpkin is also known for its nutritional value; it’s high in beta-carotene, vitamins C and E, iron and folate. This dish is just packed full of goodness.

Poppy O'Toole · The Potato Book

It’s French, it’s fancy, it’s beautiful. If it were a person, it would smoke a cigarette and look down on you. But oh, it’s so cool! If you’re feeling really posh, you might want to serve it by its proper French name, fondant aux pommes, but on a regular day, the English/French mash-up of pommes fondant does the job, too. I remember little GCSE French except for ‘C’est bien!’ which is very much the case here. You’ll need to make clarified butter: I’ve given two options for how – choose your favourite.

Flora Shedden · Gatherings

For a year and a half I worked in a lovely little tearoom in the middle of nowhere, halfway up a glen. It was hard graft but, in many respects, my dream job. We got a good reputation, so summers were chaotic and we often worked 12-hour shifts, yet still, it seemed we couldn’t bake fast enough! But during the autumn and winter pace would change. We would pad about making big hearty soups, cakes and soda bread, stopping to speak to the regulars that had braved the weather to visit us. The owner, a good family friend, is from the Isle of Barra and so we would refer to this time of year as “island pace”. I was working with all my childhood friends and we did nothing but bake, blether and eat. Whenever I make soda bread now, I think back fondly to that wee café in the hills and of cooking, making coffee and looking out on to snowy mountains.

Angela Hartnett · The Weekend Cook

My Uncle Ren has always loved this dessert, so when I was making it for the photography shoot for this book, I called him up and asked him over. It was during lockdown (when we could meet outside), so he didn’t come near us, but just enjoyed it quietly in the garden, packed the rest into a container and left for his home, very happy and full! I like to serve this when I want a bit of a showstopper; the meringue quenelles, the caramel and the custard make it a great dessert to impress.

Roopa Gulati · Indian Kitchens

This fried fish doesn’t have a batter or crumb coating. Instead, nutty-tasting cumin, turmeric and warming chilli are mixed with lime juice and rubbed over white fish fillets to great effect. My friend Yael Jhirad made this simple and delicious snack for me at her home in Alibag, a balmy coastal town about an hour’s ferry ride from Mumbai, across the Arabian sea. She used rawas – a local white fish, known colloquially as Indian salmon, even though it has nothing in common with the Atlantic variety that we’re familiar with. Any firm-fleshed white fish will hold up well to this winning blend of spices, though.

George Egg · The Snack Hacker

I’d made a spaghetti dish using fancy prawns topped with a crunchy pangrattato (fried crispy breadcrumbs – miniature fried bread essentially). Mrs Egg and I were eating it and making all the right noises when I had the thought that fish fingers might tick the two boxes of seafood and crunchy breadcrumbs at the same time, while simultaneously delivering a roundhouse kick to the target marked Snack Hacker. To keep it simple, I’ve employed the use of my beloved frozen garlic briquettes. However, if you want more of a garlicky injection, I’d make the added effort of slicing up some fresh cloves, because they do have a bit more punch.

Gill Meller · Outside: Recipes for a Wilder Way of Eating

These delicious things are stuck between realms. They’re not flat breads as we know them — they’re something else. Once you’ve shaped the dough, you bake it over a hot fire. It doesn’t take long, particularly if you cover the flat breads with an old saucepan or a fire cloche. As soon as they come off the grill you split the surface of the bread and quench their middles with tomatoes and extra-virgin olive oil. They’re incredible eaten fresh like this, but if tomatoes aren’t in season, they’re equally good drenched in a garlic and parsley butter.

Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver · The Book Of St John

Welsh Rarebit is a noble version of cheesy toast. Everyone loves cheesy toast! Our Rarebit is a proud thing and, if we might say so, extremely popular. So it is odd that Fergus gleaned this recipe from a chef who had previously worked at Buck’s Club, which was well known at the time for selling the worst rarebit in London. There is another thing that we might add, if you are amused by a little mathematics. At St. JOHN Smithfield we sell an average of forty-five Welsh Rarebits per day. Taking into account annual closures, in this, our twenty-fifth year, we will have sold somewhere in the region of 405,000 rarebits. By the time we are thirty we will have surpassed the half-million mark. Onward!