Rich, aromatic and packed with warming spices, bobotie is the ultimate autumn and winter comfort food. This traditional South African dish combines beautifully spiced minced beef, fruity chutney and a hint of citrus, all finished with a golden, savoury egg custard topping.
Moules Marinière cooked with cider, shallots and garlic, finished with crème fraîche and fresh parsley — a simple French classic with my own twist.
Handmade spinach and ricotta tortellini served with a smooth butternut squash sauce, toasted pine kernels, Parmesan and a crisp.
A quick chicken and cashew stir-fry inspired by a cookery course in Goa, with toasted cashews, vegetables and a glossy soy and chicken-stock sauce.
Poulet au Pot Prep Time: 20 Minutes Total Time: 3 Hours Cook Time: 2 Hours Meeting “My Learned friend” Neil at Gatwick
Cassoulet Prep Time: 5 Minutes Cook Time: 2 Hours It is said that this dish comes from Languedoc, taking its
Pork Souvlaki Prep Time: 10 Minutes (Overnight for more flavour) Cooking Time: 12/16 Minutes In my late teens / early
Aubergine Trofie Prep Time: 5 Minutes Cook Time: 30 Minutes This works well with either fresh or dried pasta. If
Thai Red Chicken Curry Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cooking Time: 20 Minutes This is a milder version of the green
Rich, aromatic and packed with warming spices, bobotie is the ultimate autumn and winter comfort food. This traditional South African dish combines beautifully spiced minced beef, fruity chutney and a hint of citrus, all finished with a golden, savoury egg custard topping.
I first discovered bobotie while working on a consultancy for Stanley Dorman at Fisherman’s Wharf in Hout Bay, South Africa.
Getting there was an adventure in itself. A bank error over a long weekend left my Pretoria-born girlfriend and me without a rental car, forcing us to embark on an epic bus journey from Pretoria, through Johannesburg, all the way to Cape Town.
The following day, a much-needed walk took an unexpected turn when we found ourselves being chased by a rogue ostrich! Cue a frantic sprint and a desperate leap over a fence to escape.
Thankfully, we lived to tell the tale, and later laughed about our narrow escape over plates of this incredible Cape Malay dish.
My version uses Madras curry powder for an extra punch of warmth and spice, but a milder curry blend works just as beautifully if you prefer something a little gentler.
The result is a wonderfully comforting dish that’s sweet, savoury, fragrant and satisfyingly zingy.
When I had my first restaurant on Tower Bridge Road, I became friends with some wealthy Parisians whose parents had an old farmhouse in Normandy, complete with a cider press and a still for making Calvados.
I remember eating this dish with them there, and years later I put it on the menu at The Tree Bistro. Classically, Moules Marinière doesn’t contain crème fraîche, but my customers loved the addition — so it stayed.
Working for my friend’s father near Ferrara, in Emilia-Romagna, I learned to make pasta—20kg a day, to be precise. Most of it was made by machine, but the tortellini and cappelletti were cut and formed by hand. No one spoke Italian, and I wanted to learn, but they all spoke Ferrarese, the local dialect. I was the only man in the kitchen while the chefs were away doing three months of national service, and the older women used to rib me—but it was all in good fun.
Traditionally, tortellini are cut from squares and the name means “little pies” or “little cakes”. For this recipe, I use an 8cm round cutter and fill them with spinach and ricotta, then serve them with a smooth butternut squash sauce. You could also use a butternut squash and ricotta filling and serve the tortellini with sage butter.
After a gruelling three weeks in rehab, I treated myself to a short cookery course in Goa. That was 25 years ago, so this recipe is recreated from memory. I have added chicken stock, which gives the dish a little more sauce.
I first had this dish with naan bread in Jaipur, Rajasthan — the Pink City. While travelling around India, I became vegetarian because I did not trust the meat I saw in the markets.
You can substitute the spinach with peas. In some UK Indian restaurants the sauce is enriched with cream or even condensed milk; this version uses strained yoghurt.
After eight years in Dubai, I became accustomed to the great outdoors, even when summer temperatures reached 57°C with 100% humidity. I became friends with a sheikh who owned an RV camp in the desert in the northern emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, where I was also head of food and beverage at the hospital. We cooked market fish, barbecued chicken and vegetables around a fire pit fuelled with wood gathered from the desert. Winter evenings under the stars, wrapped in a blanket, were magical. This recipe saved us a trip into town. Served with bread, pickles, salad, garlic and chilli dressing, it made the perfect late-evening snack.
This easy dish is well worth the effort, but it needs some forward planning.
When I was a kibbutznik, we would go into town on Thursday evenings for a drink with the other volunteers. The highlight was a falafel with all the wonderful condiments. I developed this recipe while studying at the College of Naturopathic Medicine. Sprouting reduces some antinutrients, making chickpeas easier to digest. It was on the Tree Bistro menu and is vegan-friendly. If you are in a hurry, you can simply soak the chickpeas overnight.
I met my learned friend Neil at Gatwick Airport before flying to Lyon for a Sideways-style wine tour of Burgundy and the southern Rhône. We went during Semaine du Goût, the annual week-long festival that promotes culinary appreciation and education.
That year, the dish commemorated Henry IV’s wish that every French person should be able to eat chicken on a Sunday. We drove to Bresse, home of the black-feathered chicken, and bought probably the most expensive chicken I have ever purchased.
You can enrich the dish with cooked mushrooms. Stir a tablespoon of flour into a small tub of crème fraîche, then whisk it into the cooking liquor.
This dish is said to come from Languedoc and to take its name from the glazed earthenware pot known as a cassole: narrow at the bottom and wide-mouthed at the top. It became special to me when I walked across the Pyrenees from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. After a hard day’s trekking, finding a refuge serving cassoulet with a glass of wine was the perfect end to the day. This is my version.
In my late teens and early twenties, I went Interrailing around Europe, taking ferries, sleeping on rooftops and camping on beaches. I had very little money, but a two-mile walk into town was rewarded with pork souvlaki in pitta, washed down with a cold beer from the local shop. Serve this with tzatziki, chilli sauce, parsley salad and pitta bread. To save time, you can buy the pitta and tzatziki. See my other recipes for accompaniments that complement this simple dish.
This works well with either fresh or dried pasta. If you can’t find cooked aubergines, prick them with a fork, rub them with olive oil and roast them whole at 200°C for 45–50 minutes. I found ours in a market in Catania, Sicily, roasted in a wood-fired oven, which gave them a smoky flavour. You can also cook them on the barbecue. Pasta alla Norma is named after Bellini’s opera Norma; it is normally served with a tubular pasta.
This is a milder curry than the green version. You can spice it up with fresh red chilli and extra red curry paste. Serve with Thai jasmine rice. It is an easy midweek dish for two, with plenty of leftovers. For a vegan version, omit the chicken and use vegetable stock, then add extra vegetables such as courgette, aubergine and bean sprouts; check that your curry paste is vegan.
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