Recipes

Louise Hurst · Buns

Brown butter is incredibly delicious because it undergoes a heat process that causes the milk solids to caramelize and develop a rich, nutty flavour. This transformation adds depth and complexity to the butter. That said, the flavour is delicate, so don’t overdo the vanilla.

Sue Quinn · Second Helpings: Delicious Dishes to Transform Your Leftovers

Here’s a beautiful way to use up surplus bread and vegetables. It’s miraculous how bread can be repurposed in such an elegant way. I’ve made this tart case with white bread, sourdough and a sliced seedy loaf — both stale and fresh — and they all work well. The type and freshness of your bread will dictate how much water you need, so add it gradually. You can top the tart with leftovers other than greens, too, such as roast squash/pumpkin, sweet (bell) pepper, red onion and root vegetables, or griddled/fried mushrooms, asparagus or courgettes.

Cherie Denham and Andrew Montgomery · The Irish Kitchen

These are a traditional potato pancake, originally created in the Irish home, where potatoes were a staple. Enjoyed throughout Ireland, boxty are so versatile and can be eaten at any time of day, often served in pubs with bacon and eggs, cabbage and bacon or poached haddock and parsley sauce. Each family would have their own method of making boxty; there are no hard and fast rules. Some are made only with raw potato, known as Donegal Boxty, and others are made from a mixture of raw and cooked potato, called Leitrim Boxty. In this recipe, I whizz the potatoes in the food processor with flour and milk to make a batter. Don’t let the batter hang around too long or it will go black. It’s personal choice how thick you make your boxty; in our house we like ours quite thin. The perfect breakfast at any time but especially on St Patrick’s Day. My Granny Marshall always drank the cabbage water - she said it was great for your skin.

Tim Wilson and Rebecca Seal · German Baking

Sometimes, bubble and squeak is made with added mashed potato to help bind it, which we aren’t adding here because on Boxing Day the whole point is using up leftovers, rather than cooking anything more from scratch. That makes this bubble a bit more like a hash, but that’s fine by us. Hollandaise makes this an extremely luxurious bubble and squeak. Ginger Pig Christmas Cookbook by Tim Wilson and Rebecca Seal is published by Mitchell Beazley, £25.00, www.octopusbooks.co.uk

Bonnie Frumkin Morales · Kachka

If I had to pick one thing to eat all summer long, it might just be this soup. First off, it's Just. So. Refreshing. Served bracingly cold, it'll cool you down on the hottest of hot days in much the same way that a bowl of steamy stew will warm up the doldrums of winter. Add to that a balance of savory-sweet-rich-tangy-smooth-crunchy, and a stunning shade of magenta to boot. To really take advantage of the ease of this soup, make the base ahead (it will keep for up to a week in this state). Do this, and you'll always be just five minutes away from a bowl of awesome. For my go-to meal, serve with pieces of salt-cured herring and freshly boiled new potatoes.

Bonnie Chung · Tofu Tasty

I would not dream of eating in an izayaka (Japanese pub) and not ordering this dish. For me, it is compulsory. Outside Japan, I still find excuses to order it, or, even better, to make it at home. Agedashi tofu is essentially a crispy deep-fried tofu, served in a seasoned soy-based sauce, with grated radish and toppings such as spring onions and bonito flakes. If you don’t mind deep-frying at home, this is a quick and easy starter or side dish, and incredibly easy to get right.

Erchen Chang, Shing Tat Chung and Wai Ting Chung · BAO

We like to hide a few of our favourite dishes in the sides section of the menu. They’re the kind of thing you order without thinking about it too much, and then when it comes it’s a nice surprise. Tucked away on the side menu at BAO Fitz is a dish inspired by St. JOHN’s classic roast bone marrow on toast with parsley salad. It brings back memories of our student years, when we would eat at the legendary bar. Here we place the bone marrow on torched, dressed rice, which we match with the umami flavour of aged white soy sauce and balance with fermented daikon and soy-cured egg yolk. The daikon gives the dish the acidity it needs similar to the freshness of the parsley salad at St. JOHN. When our BAO OG Alice’s mum came to visit us from Taiwan, she said our bone marrow rice tasted like an upgraded version of Lu Rou Fan, which brought a tear to my eye. I cannot think of a better compliment. The daikon and bone marrow need to be prepared in advance of making this dish.

Bob Kennard · Much Ado About Mutton

From ancient times, 'broth' meant meat liquor, i.e., the liquid produced from boiling meats — the most common method of cooking mutton. In historic recipe books, a broth could also mean a thick soup — the medieval 'pottage' — where vegetables and whatever meat could be found would be cooked in a large communal pot, and which often included barley grain: wheat is a relative newcomer to the British diet. This is one such recipe; as is typical of recipes before the mid-18th century, quantities are not given, but were left to the discretion of the cook. Such soups were served with oatcakes.

Blanche Vaughan · In One Pot

This is the ultimate Sunday night supper. Everything is easy to get hold of, and it's wonderfully quick to make. The blue cheese gives this dish incredible depth and saltiness, but if you haven't got any, of course, it's still delicious made with alternatives. A few sorrel leaves make a wonderful addition to the spinach, and Parmesan works well too — just remember to increase the quantity slightly.

Trine Hahnemann · Midnight Sun

A cake table must always have a roulade, it's practically a Danish law! This is a summer version with blackcurrant jam, but you can use any jam you've got in your cupboard. Roulade will last for several days, just keep it chilled.

Tim Hayward · Steak: The Whole Story

A bistecca alla Fiorentina is so good that it needs almost no intervention. Under the right circumstances, you can just cook it and sprinkle it with salt. Those circumstances, though, would be a wood-fired oven, a griddle and a small trattoria in Florence that’s been in the family for three generations. For complete authenticity, it would also require the best porterhouse steak cut from a fully grown Chianina ox, measuring three or four fingers thick. Not easy to replicate. The Fiorentina is ideal for cooking on a big barbecue or grill, as long as the temperature is controllable — you need to be able to drop it fast and accurately — and the top can be closed. If you do this, sear the steak directly on the grill first, then finish it in a pan placed on the grill. A small amount of oak or other aromatic wood would not be inappropriate. For a small dinner party or a special family meal, a Fiorentina is little sort of magical. Visually, it makes a stunning centrepiece. It’s an absolute b

MiMi Aye · Mandalay: Recipes & Tales from a Burmese Kitchen

I associate Burmese fried chicken with road trips, as when we're travelling around Burma and make a pit stop in any village, it seems that women always come rushing to our rolled-down windows to sell us baskets of their freshly fried chicken (I call them The Chicken Ladies). I'd say BFC is better than KFC and it definitely has far fewer ingredients. It's commonly eaten with a plate of hot rice that's been drizzled with some of the oil used for frying and sprinkled with a little salt. BFC is also great eaten cold...if you can manage to wait that long. Make it once and you're addicted for life.

Benjamina Ebuehi · A Good Day To Bake

Not many cakes are as comforting as a pound cake. It’s simple in both name and appearance, but that’s where its beauty lies. Heavy with butter, the dense crumb is at home when thickly sliced and served alongside a big mug of tea. The trick in getting the best texture and avoiding the dryness that is so often associated with pound cakes is to really, and I mean really, beat the butter and sugar for a lot longer than you may expect or be used to. You want it super-pale and fluffy, so get that electric whisk on high speed and scrape down the sides of the bowl often. This is one of those cakes that gets better with age, a perfect one to make ahead.

Benjamina Ebuehi · The New Way To Cake

Plantains are the food of my childhood. If you grew up in an African or Caribbean household, you know that the smell of sweet fried plantains wafting through the house was enough to make you do a happy dance. While traditionally eaten as part of a savory meal, when ripe enough, underneath that black mottled skin lies a sweetness that lends itself beautifully to desserts such as this.

Benedetta Jasmine Guetta · Cooking Alla Guidia

One of the best culinary inventions from the women of the Roman Ghetto are pizzarelle, small, sweet matzo fritters soaked in honey. These treats can be found in bakeries year-round. I know it might be difficult to believe that anybody would want to eat matzo when it’s not Passover, but give pizzarelle a try, and you’ll instantly be converted into a matzo lover.

Ben Tish · Sicilia

A simple but beautiful dish inspired by a trip to Favignana, a little island off the west coast of Sicily. This is essentially an assembly of seasonal ingredients at their prime. Tuna cooked over charcoal is a typical Mediterranean method of showcasing the meaty texture and beautiful flavours of the fish. Look for thick slices of tuna so that you can caramelise the outside whilst keeping the inside nice and pink and juicy.

Ben Mims · Sweet & Southern

My mom used to make this pie all the time for picnics when I was growing up. Hers consisted mostly of vanilla pudding and whipped cream, with only a small amount of peanut butter stirred into confectioners’ sugar. It still tasted like heaven, but when I made my version, I wanted to showcase the peanut butter itself, so I use brown sugar to add even more warm, nutty butterscotch flavor.

Özlem Warren · İstanbul

We love pancar (beetroot) and great big bunches of it can be found in our pazar (farmers’ markets) in İstanbul. The modern eateries and cafés of the city also serve it in salads, usually cooked and then dressed in oil and vinegar, but sometimes grated and mixed with yoghurt too. Inspired by this, I combined cooked beetroot with briny green olives and crunchy, toasted hazelnuts, ingredients that bring layers of flavour and texture to this easy meze. The nar ekşisi (pomegranate molasses) in the dressing adds a natural sweet-and-sourness that goes well with the beetroot, complementing both the cooling yoghurt and the heat of the pul biber oil. You can replace the hazelnuts with your choice of nuts, if you wish.

Zacchary Bird · The Vegan Butcher

Boot the beef for some beet! Serve with your choice of good old gravy.

Becky Excell · How to Bake Anything Gluten Free

What would Christmas be without mince pies? Fortunately, I never struggle to find gluten-free mince pies in the supermarket, but trust me — you absolutely can’t beat making your own, especially when it comes to pastry. Feel free to use store-bought mincemeat from the supermarket, which speeds up the process massively — just ensure it's gluten-free. TIP: Chill! Using cold butter and chilling the dough makes your gluten-free pastry stronger and more workable. Making any type of pastry on an incredibly hot day isn’t advisable as the warmer your dough is, the more fragile it will become. However, make sure that, once chilled, you allow your pastry to warm up a bit before rolling, otherwise it can be very hard to work with.

Becky Excell · How To Make Anything Gluten Free

My Yorkshire puddings have developed a reputation of their own on the blog, so naturally, they had to be in this book. Everyone loves them because they rise even more than muggle Yorkshire puds and they’re super crisp on the outside. Oh and they only need 3 simple ingredients! Vegetarian Low fodmap Dairy-free: use dairy-free milk | Lactose-free: use lactose-free milk TIP: You could use tapioca starch instead of cornflour. This recipe also works perfectly for toad in the hole!

Beatrice Peltre · My French Family Table

Cannelés - pastries traditionally from the Bordeaux region of France - are the perfect size for little hands to grab; these are especially good since they are baked in mini cannelé molds. It’s best to prepare the batter the night before and bake the cannelés the following day. Don’t forget the rum, since this is what gives a cannelé its unique flavor.

Jody Williams and Rita Sodi · Via Carota

This is a remarkably hands-off approach to preparing beets; aside from making sure they're very clean before you cook them, there is no prep needed. The beets' skins are nutritious. Healthy greens are a sign of freshness — use those too.

Georgina Hayden · Greekish: Everyday Recipes with Greek Roots

I’d say this ice cream is more of a pudding than one for scooping on a cone (though by all means). Take it out of the freezer a good 30 minutes before you want to serve it and turn it out of its loaf tin onto a serving board. The caramelised filo bottom becomes the attractive top, and you can scatter with more nuts if you like, even a drizzle of honey. The texture of the filo gets in the freezer is so pleasing — much of it remains crunchy but some bits soften to become chewy and it’s just marvellous, every part.