Mary Poppins would be proud of this recipe; there are many spoonfuls of sugar here – they are necessary to help the watermelon rind go down to a soft sticky version of its former self. A lot of sugar, a little patience and some gentle nannying is what you need to make ‘glyko’. These Greek…
This cake, with its deep dark mahogany appearance, looks like it ought to be part of the family of devil’s food cakes. Although it in no way is. There isn’t much that is devilish, or unhealthy, about this cake; it contains no fat or refined sugar. I suppose you could call it a ‘clean’ cake,…
Inspired by my client’s nice/Nice Christmas cookie ritual, these are my Kourabiedes. These sweet almond shortbreads are synonymous with celebrating Christmas – they are a traditional feature of any Greek festive table. With their thick, snowy coating of icing sugar, I like to think of these as Nice biscuits on steroids. These shortbreads are delicately…
This was the dish I made when I auditioned for MasterChef. Yes, I auditioned for MasterChef. It was many moons ago but I look back on that time fondly. It was, however, a time characterised by many other F-words too; fight and flight were the frontrunners. Auditionees were not required to cook a dish there…
This is inspired by the banana porridge my client shared with Goldilocks, her imaginary childhood friend who took the loneliness out of breakfast time. You can read that story here. The chickpeas are a nod to her breakfast preference today as an adult, but also, together with the sesame seeds and the figs, provide little…
These golden nests contain so many elements inspired by my client’s tale of letting her daughter go: there is, of course, the nest itself, and its individual nature. The milk, rather than dark, chocolate chips are a hark back to Fry’s, as is the fragrance of rose. And, in the spirit of a childhood story,…
The story behind ‘I always put two cocktail cherries in his because he loved them. Probably more than he ever loved me.’ inspired this recipe. Retro is the spirit of therapy – much as it is of kitsch cocktails (which are also therapeutic, in their own way). At its heart, therapy is all about retro…
The recipe that links to the life lesson of ‘No man is an île flottante’ couldn’t be anything else really. Just as therapy involves bringing two people to the room, this recipe brings together both mine and my client’s stories. The island is the anchor in both this sweet dish and in the sweet stories…
‘Let’s talk’ is the life lesson that inspired this recipe – you can find it here. If we’re talking talking over tea and biscuits, this is one of my favourite biscuit recipes. Confiding can mean being vulnerable. Biscotti however, are far from vulnerable. I love making biscotti because, first, they are indestructibly dunkable; and second, because…