I rarely cook traditional risotto, but I love other grains cooked similarly – barley, spelt or split wheat. I find they have more character than rice and absorb other flavours more wholeheartedly.
I’ve been accused of having very long ingredient lists, and I guess there’s some truth in that.
The only way reliably to gauge the heat of any particular chilli is to cut it in half, so exposing the core and membranes, and to dab the cut surface on your tongue.
A well-made salad must have a certain uniformity; it should make perfect sense for those ingredients to share a bowl.
Turkish cuisine is, to my mind, one of the most exciting and accomplished in the world.
A food processor, or even one of those small bowls that fit on a stick blender, is a real treasure. No, that’s not an overstatement.
As with lemon juice, the more sorrel you use, the more it has to be balanced with something sweet, starchy or creamy – it’s a yin-yang approach to cooking that I find rather calming.
On some subconscious level, I’ve been prejudiced against turnips, parsnips, swedes and other roots. Do they taste of much? Are they really special? How wrong I was.
Some breakfast cereals only come into their own as children’s party treats: what are cornflakes and Coco Pops for, if not to clump together with melted chocolate and spoon into a cupcake holder?
Buckwheat, like Marmite and durian, is a seriously divisive foodstuff, so it needs a seriously capable defence team if it’s ever going to make it on to most people’s dinner tables.
Pot barley takes longer to cook than pearl, but an overnight soak in water will speed things along. It’s a robust grain that, if overcooked, won’t collapse but will become more tender.
Chefs don’t use white pepper just to avoid spoiling the whiteness of pommes puree or bechamel. It has a more peppery aroma, with sharpness and sweetness, too.
I like to talk about food, ingredients, and how to adapt recipes. It’s a dialogue.
A great fig should look like it’s just about to burst its skin. When squeezed lightly it should give a little and not spring back. It must be almost unctuously sweet, soft and wet.
Pasta with melted cheese is the one thing I could eat over and over again.
For me, the end of childhood came when the number of candles on my birthday cake no longer reflected my age, around 19 or 20. From then on, each candle came to represent an entire decade.
Polenta is one of those ingredients that in many homes spends its days at the back of the kitchen cupboard, on the ‘no one knows quite what to do with it’ shelf.
Food was always important in my family, but I didn’t think of it as a vocation until a later point in life.
Plums are a good substitute for gooseberries.
I adore recipes that make use of one cut of meat or a whole animal to create a complex dish, loaded with flavour.
These days, meals are more open to personal preferences. People like to serve themselves.
Tahini is fantastically versatile, its deep, nutty flavour a harmonious match with roasted vegetables, grilled oily fish or barbecued meat.
Swiss chard is undervalued in Britain. It’s a great substitute for spinach and keeps its shape well.
Normally, when congee is served, the different condiments and garnishes are placed in little bowls on the side so diners can make their own personal creations.
Leeks, like other oniony things, reach a certain peak when fried. It’s the subtle sweetness that suddenly becomes evident and works so well with their creamy texture.
Souffles don’t deserve their reputation as potential disasters.
Fusion food as a concept is kind of trying to quite consciously fuse things that are sometimes quite contradictory, sometimes quite far apart, to see if they’d work.
One of the troubles with food is that people take themselves too seriously. This is why I’m very happy for people to change my recipes, alter them, replace one ingredient for another.
Forget mung beans’ reputation as healthy yet bland – used right, they soak up loads of flavour.
The taste of any simple tomato-based salad is dependent on the quality of the tomatoes.
Chana dal are skinless dried split chickpeas used in Indian cooking. They have a great texture and delicate flavour.
Most men say they can cook pasta, but I think you should find a little bit of an unusual angle on your pasta and make that your signature dish.
Most fish require a short cooking time, but cephalopods are the exception to this fishy rule. As with some cuts of larger land beasts, the longer they’re cooked, the more tender they get.
Seasonality in winter doesn’t have to mean sleep-inducing, stew-like, starchy casseroles.
I tend to mean what I say: in life, generally; in recipes, certainly.
I used to have a very unmediated experience of food but, because of the recipe testing, I’ve lost that now. I can’t switch it off even when I’m on holiday.
I now understand how varied the world of cultivated rice is; that rice can play the lead or be a sidekick; that brown rice is as valuable as white; and that short-grain rice is the bee’s knees.
Small okra pods have a much more attractive texture than large ones, which, when cooked, can be gloopy, stringy and totally spoil a dish.
The tang of tamarind is a great way both to flavour and lighten up slow-cooked savoury dishes.
Pomegranate molasses is ubiquitous in Arabic cooking: it’s sweet, sour and adds depth.
Hardly any of my most memorable meals have been eaten in a restaurant, and definitely none in one of those fancy marble-floored, polished-silver establishments.
I just don’t tend to cook eggplant at home.
Most pumpkin dishes involve scooping out the seeds, cutting off the skin, and chopping up the flesh before cooking.
Raw fish suppers admittedly require a little planning, not least in the acquisition of the main ingredient.
In certain European cuisines, vegetables are cooked a long time. I take the term ‘al dente’ and use it for vegetables.
A quick shallow fry is a great way to transform leftovers, and no more so than in the case of risotto.
I’m a firm believer that the world should be your oyster when you’re cooking. People should open themselves to other cuisines – there are a lot of hidden secrets all over the world.
Like all rice, black rice is great at absorbing flavours, but it’s just as happy to act as a satiny bed for a poached egg, say, if you want to keep things simple.
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