Despite all of the meze misfortunes I encountered earlier in my life when I tried to recreate a restaurant style meze for one, courtesy of the then ‘3 for £5’ offer M&S meze deal, I have to admit that I warmed to the baby feta and herb parcels. In other words, their gyoza-looking take on…
‘Mum Bolognese’ is my safe haven food. It restores my sense of security. It reminds me I have been loved. For me, it is attachment food. This recipe however, is what, in attachment terms, would be known as the secure base version of the dish: it is my culinary base from which to explore a…
My story How to be a Domestic Therapist inspired this dish. Obviously the title is a play on Nigella Lawson’s seminal book, ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’. There, the only offal offering is a very gutsy steak and kidney pudding. But that’s not the recipe link here. No, this is a recipe that reflects…
This recipe is inspired by the story of my Leiths practical exam, ‘I’ve set the chicken on fire. Do you want me to go?’ Although I haven’t eaten tarragon chicken since that day, I have found that a gentle aniseed flavour adds something very special to this Greek Cypriot dish, which was one of my…
Inspired to make a happier version of my client’s childhood lentil soup, I have swapped the school uniform bottle green pulses for sweet, smiling yellow ones. For this recipe, it is also helpful and heartening that psychological research supports the idea that yellow foods are associated with warmth. I love this soup; its cheery colour…
The story behind ‘I love you’ … ‘I know’ inspired this. The roots of this recipe are in a dish from a galaxy far, far away: Yoda’s rootleaf stew. But there’s no (science) fiction here – this is real, hearty food. This vegetarian stew is the kind of cooking that is elemental to Greek Cypriot…
‘It’s not Mum food’ is the story that inspired this recipe. This is my ‘Mum food’. It was on our family dinner menu each week, without fail, when I was growing up. Whilst for me this dish has key attachment ingredients of familial connection and care, it also contains a fair amount of culinary hijacking,…
‘I’m not eating that. Fish fingers are not circles.’ inspired this recipe. My mum battled hard against my own food neophobia as a child. In an attempt to get me to try calamari, she appealed to my inner dancer – she would call the tentacles ‘twirly ballerinas’. Eventually it worked and I grew to embrace the…
Take a look at the life lesson that inspired this recipe – you can find it here. This recipe is one of my favourite emulsions – it’s quick, easy and has a comfortable amount of closeness to classic Genovese pesto. Halloumi and mint have got a good amount of flavour distance from each other: the…