Shared Kitchen - Real food from scratch

Apple, Blueberry & Apricot Crumble

Autumn is the best time for apple crumble, made with crisp firm-textured fruit. Dried apricots add a delicious perfume and tang, and increase the nutrients of the crumble, so you can feel good about having seconds

Roasted Pork Belly Strips

Pork belly strips are easy enough to cook, but care must be taken not to let them dry out.

Rocket & Persimmon Salad

This striking autumnal salad can also be made with watercress, or a mix of rocket and watercress, or with rocket and cos lettuce.

Cauliflower Roasted with Spiced Butter

Garam masala (readily available on the spice shelves at larger supermarkets) gives a sweet spice flavour to this cauliflower.

Roasted Carrots with Thyme & Dukkah

These are good enough to eat on their own!

Chorizo Chicken Bake

This makes a great mid-week meal. Serve with a salad or green vegetable like broccoli.

Parsley Salad

This salad is not for wimps. It’s got a sharp, salty, grassy bite that can take on strongly flavoured foods such as venison, guinea fowl, pheasant, rabbit, wild boar and the like. It can also star alongside terrines and pâtés and interesting European ‘country-style’ semi-dry salamis and cured sausages to form a memorable and scrumptious lunch.

Grab a baguette, add a bowl of tomatoes, a bottle of character red wine (anything too light will be swamped), and finish with cheese. Happy days.

Baba Ghanoush – The Ultimate!

Baba Ghanoush – the eggplant dip imbued with smoky, garlicky and lemony flavours can't be improved. Oh yes it can!

Baba Ghanoush

Baba ghanoush (or baba ghanouj/i) is a creamy eggplant and tahini dip sharpened with lemon and garlic, originating in Lebanon. The eggplant is first charred in hot ashes, or in flames, which gives the dip a deeply smoky flavour which suits the eggplant’s rich flesh. Not many of us have a wood fire burning at the ready, but you can get a good effect by charring the eggplant in the flames of a gas ring or over a gas barbecue grill.

Cucumber & Tomato Salad with Tabil

You only need half the tabil mixture in this salad, but the remainder can be kept for a few days in the fridge. See ideas for using it in Recipe Notes below.

Lamb so tender it can be shredded with forks.

7-hour Spiced Lamb

This is an update on one of my favourite ways of cooking lamb, slow cooked to fork-tenderness. Massaging the lamb with a spicy rub adds flavour and also gives the lamb an appetising colour. You can use a shoulder of lamb, but a leg is less fatty. Start it the day before you want to serve it. Read all the tips about why that makes it easier below.

April Garden

There’s still plenty in the garden to keep the bees happy.