A Cook’s Plot

Asian aubergines

2026-04-12T15:26:50+00:00

]]>A speedy way to cook aubergines without having to fry them in loads of oil

Asian aubgerines

2026-04-12T15:03:23+00:00

]]>I love aubergines but unless I can cook them on the barbecue (hardly the weather for that, as I write this!), they soak up so much oil as they cook that they start to become decidedly unhealthy. Since I’ve discovered that you can chop and then microwave them in a matter of minutes, though, I’ve start using them in my cooking much more often. This recipe is packed with Asian-inspired flavours and is great as a side dish with roast meats, as a base for grilled fish or topped with baked halloumi or melted goat’s cheese for a meat-free main course.

Cloud eggs

2026-03-11T18:18:22+00:00

]]>My French friend Sophie, who lives in my village, mentioned the other day that she had made Oeufs Nuages, which reminded me that we once made ‘Cloud Eggs’ in my school cookery lessons. They’re like savoury ‘meringues’ with an egg yolk centre. I don’t think I’ve ever made them since, so I decided to revisit the recipe and was immediately reminded how delicious they are - and how simple they are to make. In the photo, I’ve shown how they look just as they are about to go into the oven. Once cooked, the meringues have a lovely golden tinge to them and the yolks are as set as you’d like them to be, depending on how long you cook them for

Pea and tarragon soup

2026-02-11T19:19:51+00:00

]]>I don’t know about you, but at this time of year I start to crave fresh flavours after all the comfort food of winter. This soup is lovely for a spring lunch (as a main course or as a starter), and fits the ‘fresh flavours’ bill perfectly. Frozen peas are a great standby although of course you can substitute fresh peas when they’re in season.

Mincemeat Slices

2025-12-11T14:38:17+00:00

]]>If you have mincemeat left over from making Christmas mince pies or if, like me, you bought a good-quality jar or two when you spotted that all the festive food had been reduced on the supermarket shelves this month, this is a great way to use it… A slice is lovely with a cup of tea mid-afternoon, or serve it warm with custard as a delicious pud. It’s somewhere between shortbread, sweet shortcrust pastry and cookie dough, sandwiched with a layer of mincemeat. It’s definitely worth saving some mincemeat for, but it’s also good with a thick layer of apricot jam at other times of year!

Courgette and tomato bake

2025-09-11T10:33:53+00:00

]]>I sowed seeds I bought online for ‘Mountain Magic’ tomatoes this year - but when they grew, it turned out they were actually either huge Marmande-type beefsteak tomatoes on some plants and a plum tomato on others. I was annoyed at first - until I tasted them, and they were both delicious. I’ve now saved seeds from both, so goodness know what will come up next year! I’ve made lots of tomato sauce for the freezer with them, and this recipe is great for using some of that alongside homegrown courgettes. Adding smoked paprika to the sauce gives it a really lovely, intense flavour

Sun-dried tomatoes in an airfryer

2025-08-14T09:44:27+00:00

Quick tomato chutney

2025-08-14T09:37:52+00:00

]]>I grow tomatoes each summer, and as well as eating them freshly picked I also fill my freezer full of tomato sauce to last through the rest of the year. But even so, there are often lots of tomatoes left and this is a wonderful way to use them. It’s the fastest chutney you’ll ever make but although it won’t keep like normal chutney does, it’s fine in the fridge, covered, for up to 5 days - and it freezes really well in little pots or jars too.

Tarte tatin

2025-07-13T09:28:59+00:00

]]>Tarte tatin is usually made with puff pastry but my recipe is a little different as I find that puff pastry tends to burn around the edges where it’s come into contact with the caramel, leaving a bitter taste: instead, the pastry here comes out of the oven deliciously spongy, having absorbed some of the caramel and the juices from the cooked apples. I like to serve this with whipped double cream, with a good spoonful of apricot brandy stirred into it!

Chicken with feta and cherry tomato sauce

2025-06-13T10:37:03+00:00

]]>Super-simple to make and very adaptable, this is the perfect year-round supper dish recipe. Add the puff pastry top and you’ve got a lovely dinner party dish; serve it without the pastry and it’s a great midweek meal. Leftovers from Sunday roast chicken? Use them in this! Fancy a change? Use fillets of a firm white fish (like cod) or salmon, instead of chicken. Weather too hot to put the oven on? Stir-fry the chicken in strips and cook the sauce on the hob. No crème fraîche? Use milk instead… See what I mean about it being adaptable!

Spinach, feta and pinenut fritters

2025-01-22T15:18:25+00:00

]]>These are super-easy and take less than 10 mins to cook in an airfryer (or just a little longer in a conventional oven). Serve them just as they are or with a dip as nibbles, or with a salad and crusty bread rolls for lunch (a green salad with walnuts works especially well with them)

Roasted cauliflower with yogurt marinade

2025-01-12T15:07:02+00:00

Serve this as one of your accompaniments to a roast dinner, or with my Spicy Chickpea Casserole (https://acooksplot.com/2025-01-12-spciy-chickpea-casserole), as in the photo. Roasted cauliflower works really well in an airfryer, but can also be made in a conventional oven

Spicy chickpea casserole with roasted cauliflower

2025-01-12T14:28:50+00:00

]]>This can be served as a main course with feta and toasted almonds sprinkled over (plus pitta bread to mop up the juices) or, as in the photo, with roasted, yogurt-marinated cauliflower (see separate recipe). It also makes a great side dish to serve alongside roast chicken breasts or grilled fish. In other words, it’s a super-useful recipe! Like so many casseroles, its flavour gets even better if it’s allowed to cool and then sit in the fridge for 24 hours before serving it. So make it a day ahead if possible and then heat it through in a saucepan on the hob when you’re ready to eat.

Lemony bean soup

2024-09-09T17:41:49+00:00

]]>A nice hearty soup like this is ideal as the weather turns colder, and I like to serve it with flatbreads on the side. Homemade flatbreads can be a little dry, but this slightly unusual recipe ensures they stay lovely and moist - like a cross between a flatbread and a waffle

Blueberry Muffins

2024-07-07T14:40:58+00:00

]]>I recently bought a Cosori Airfryer and I absolutely love it. This is a great recipe to make in an airfryer - the muffins take just 12 minutes to bake and come out perfectly every time. But they can be made in a conventional oven too - bake for 20 mins at 180C (fan oven). The addition of ground almonds really helps to keep them soft and fluffy - I have my sister Philippa to thank for that idea!

Spinach and lemon soup with goats cheese croutons

2024-06-11T15:46:39+00:00

]]>I have spinach growing in several parts of my garden this year and it’s been doing amazingly well. Having picked armfuls of it the other day, making soup (some to eat now and some to freeze) seemed the best way to make sure none of it went to waste.

Orange and almond cakes

2024-04-20T11:06:32+00:00

]]>I came up with this recipe after seeing a loaf cake recipe in a slow cooker cookbook - I liked the idea of the orange and almond flavour combo but didn’t have the patience to cook it for hours, so I adapted it (well, changed it quite a lot in fact!) so that it could be cooked in a conventional oven

Wild garlic pesto

2024-04-19T09:28:47+00:00

The bases of the hedgerows here in East Sussex are full of wild garlic at the moment – as is my garden. This pesto is my favourite way to use it and I’ve been meaning for ages to put it on here as a separate recipe - until now, it’s been buried as the filling for my tear-and-share Wild Garlic Rolls (https://acooksplot.com/2019-03-27-wild-or-ordinary-garlic-rolls), which is where it started out. What’s prompted me to put the recipe on A Cook’s Plot now is that a lovely B\&B guest who has just stayed here with her husband mentioned how much she liked the wild garlic pesto bruschetta I made for their dinner here on their first evening. So, Caroline - this is for you!

There’s only really one plant that could be confused with wild garlic and that’s lily of the valley - the flower is very different, but do be careful as lily of the valley is poisonous. Be sure to pick only the leaves of wild garlic and not to pull up the bulbs if you’re taking it from the wild.

Baked polenta with tomatoes and feta

2024-03-14T16:03:04+00:00

]]>I bought a jar of za’atar a few months ago for a recipe and have been experimenting with it ever since. It’s a mix of oregano, thyme, sesame, sumac and coriander and gives a lovely, exotic flavour to all sorts of dishes, especially when tomatoes are among the ingredients. (You can find it in the spices aisle in larger supermarkets.) I’ve been trying out different ways of using polenta recently too, and this is now one of my favourite recipes. The key to tasty polenta, I’ve found, is to season it really well, and to stir in lots of cheese…

Bakewell Tart

2024-01-13T12:41:28+00:00

I first made this at Christmas using a jar of mincemeat in place of the traditional jam layer and it worked really well. Since then I’ve experimented with using different flavours of jam, as well as a layer of dried apricots cooked until soft in amaretto liqueur (see https://acooksplot.com/2021-12-12-chocolate-amaretti-and-apricot-desert). All were delicious, so feel free to change this recipe to work with whatever sweet filling you have to hand

Beef stroganoff

2023-11-17T13:58:10+00:00

]]>A friend and I decided to have a 1970s night recently to give us an excuse to bring out all our favourite 70s music to play at full volume (like you do!). Appropriate food was naturally the order of the day too, so Beef Stroganoff was on the menu (along with Prawn Cocktail and Banana Split). I’ve given the Stroganoff a few modern-day tweaks (adding dill and horseradish, for example).

Courgette ratatouille bake

2023-09-15T11:34:34+00:00

]]>I always have an excess of courgettes on the allotment at this time of year and although they freeze well (sliced and in polybags), I like to use them fresh in as many dishes as possible too. This is a lovely twist on a traditional ratatouille recipe. I’ve used yellow courgettes here, but green ones taste just as good

Peanut ginger chicken

2023-08-18T12:56:52+00:00

]]>I always have peanut butter in the cupboard, and almost always have chicken breasts in the fridge, so I think this is going to become my go-to recipe when I want a quick supper dish. In the photo I’ve served it on a bed of noodles, but it’s also really delicious with sauté potatoes. The sauce on its own works well poured over green beans as a side dish too.

Strawberries with lime and amaretto syrup

2023-06-14T15:59:02+00:00

]]>Not much can beat a bowl of perfectly ripe strawberries and and a spoonful of cream for pudding on a summer’s day. But this recipe elevates them into a pud that’s out of this world (if I do say so myself)!

Carrot and coconut purée

2023-04-20T06:27:14+00:00

If you’re making my Pork fillet with soy, ginger and orange sauce (https://acooksplot.com/2023-04-15-pork-fillet-with-a-ginger-soy-and-orange-sauce), serve it on a bed of this purée - it’s a match made in heaven! It goes brilliantly with roast chicken or turkey too

Pork fillet with a ginger, soy and orange sauce

2023-04-15T08:46:05+00:00

Although really, really easy to make, this is absolutely delicious and is my go-to recipe when people I don’t know very well come to dinner, as everyone loves it! I usually serve with sauté potatoes, and green beans. It works especially well served on a bed of my Carrot and coconut purée too (https://acooksplot.com/2023-04-20-carrot-and-coconut-puree)

Filo feta twist

2023-03-07T12:21:38+00:00

]]>What I love about this recipe is that you can serve it on cold days with veg such as steamed broccoli and sauté potatoes, or on warm days with a leafy salad and boiled new potatoes. It’s just as good cold as it is hot from the oven too - so all in all a very useful recipe to have in your repertoire.

Lemon and almond biscuits

2023-02-06T04:04:11+00:00

]]>These are so simple to make and taste really lovely - a bit like a lemony shortbread. I usually make the full quantity of dough but only bake half of it and and freeze the rest for another time - I love knowing I’ve got some ready-to bake dough stashed away in the freezer when I next need it!

Mince pies with a twist

2022-11-29T11:08:24+00:00

This is a combination of two of my recipes, with the shortbread-style pastry and filling I used in Mini Mince Pies https://acooksplot.com/2018-12-21-mini-mince-pies and a topping adapted from Cinnamon and hazelnut crumble https://acooksplot.com/2019-08-20-cinnamon-and-hazelnut-crumble. I think the end result is a really rather lovely twist on traditional festive pies…

Medlar and almond tart

2022-11-14T10:10:30+00:00

Last week, a neighbour gave me some medlars. Jam is the classic thing to make with these strange-looking orchard fruits (the French name for them pretty much sums up their appearance…). But not needing any more jam (I am already awash with damson jam this year), I decided instead to try making a tart with them. The result was unexpectedly and intriguingly delicious. Cooked in a sweet pastry case with ground almonds and apple juice, the medlars gave the tart a fabulous lemony-toffee flavour.

I just wish I had some more of them to experiment with now. (Apparently the sticky flesh is good simply served, uncooked, with creme fraîche - but I may have to wait until next year to find out how true that is).

Their stickiness is the one downside of medlars. They are hard and very astringent when they first come off the tree in November, so you have to wait until they are ‘bletted’ (which actually just means that the rotting process has started, but I prefer not to dwell on that thought!) before you can use them. Consequently, by the time you come to peel and remove the pips from them they are very soft and it’s a very messy business - but absolutely worth doing, I promise, if you can get your hands on some.

Apple and onion chutney

2022-09-09T06:08:02+00:00

I’ve had a huge crop of Grenadier cooking apples in my garden this year, and chutney has proved to be a great way to use some of them. The trick with chutney is to hit the perfect balance between sweet and sour and I’ve tried all sorts of different flavour combinations to try and get it just right. With this recipe, I think I’ve cracked it!

The chutney is beautifully versatile - it’s great with cheese on toast or in a sandwich, but tastes special enough to serve on a cheeseboard when friends come to dinner.

I called round to see my friend Sophie across the other side of the village today - I gave her a jar of the chutney last week and was pleased to see that it was nearly empty. She and her family really like it, apparently! There was just enough left for us both to have some crackers, Cheddar and chutney for lunch - and the addition of a slice of cucumber was an unexpectedly successful (see photo below)! Thank you, Sophie.

The spices I’ve chosen for this recipe make all the difference to its flavour - change just one of them, and it would be a very different chutney. I’ve been asked about the spices I use most often by several people recently so I’ll be writing about that in my next post. Watch this space…

Plum cake

2022-08-18T08:07:18+00:00

I have so many plums in my garden this year (2022) and I am making all sorts of things with them, but I suspect this is going to turn out to be my favourite recipe. I wasn’t sure whether to put it in the Baking category or the Pudding category - I’ve opted for the former, but it’s just as nice served with custard, cream or crème fraîche as a dessert.

Actually, I first made the recipe using pears and that was fabulous - but with plums it’s even better!

I’ve used Marsala for the caramel topping, which really adds something special to the flavour, but lemon juice would work too if you prefer.

Courgette flower fritters

2022-07-24T11:17:19+00:00

The courgettes on my allotment and in pots at home have taken ages to get going this year but now they are in full flow, and this is a great way to use up the male flowers that don’t bear fruit.

The crispy batter is light and tasty, and contrasts beautifully with the creamy, minty filling. The whole thing is then set off by a chilli sauce to dip into and a side of tomato salsa with a little chopped chilli (you can leave out all of the chilli if you prefer, but a little heat does really add something to the finished dish).

Because filling and frying the flowers a tiny bit fiddly and you need to work fast, I wouldn’t serve these to a big group of people - a lunch for two or starter for 4 is ideal.

Use the batter recipe for all sorts of other veg in season too - it’s really versatile.

Mushroom and Tarragon Pâté

2022-05-04T08:43:41+00:00

I love this recipe, not only because it can be served as a starter or used as a canapé topping (shown here with olives and wild garlic tartlets), but also because it is fab stirred though pasta too

I used chestnut mushrooms when I made it as a pâté, and button mushrooms when I made it as a canapé topping, hence the difference in colour in the photos. But either works well - the key thing is to cook them over a high heat to drive off as much moisture as possible and concentrate the flavour.

Cauliflower, lentil and fennel seed soup

2022-04-03T03:08:33+00:00

Whenever I’ve put a soup recipe on my website before, it’s either been very definitely a wintry, warming dish, or very light and summery. This, though, is one that works at any time of year. I made it this weekend (at the start of April) and served it with a spoonful of the pesto filling that I use for my my wild garlic rolls:

https://acooksplot.com/2019-03-27-wild-or-ordinary-garlic-rolls

It’s the start of the wild garlic season here in East Sussex, and it grows really well - too well, in fact! - in my garden, so I’ve come up with lots of delicious ways to use it in the kitchen over the years. The pesto is really useful (perfect for pasta, for example) and the rolls themselves are great with soup. They keep well in the freezer (as does this soup) - always a bonus, in my view!

I’ve topped the soup with pumpkin seeds as well, which add a lovely crunch and an extra layer of flavour, and I sprinkled over some celery salt just before serving - that’s not essential, but I love the way it emphasises the flavour of the fennel seeds.

Caramelised onion chutney

2022-03-20T10:00:20+00:00

I offer an optional evening meal to my bed and breakfast guests and, thanks to the amazing Airbnb reviews I’ve been getting since I opened in August 2021, almost everyone is ‘dining in’ during their stay. Most people order a main course and dessert but a couple coming next week have asked for a starter and main course instead, so I’m serving mushroom pâté with caramelised onion chutney. After a bit of experimentation, this is my new favourite chutney recipe - it’s so easy to make and just needs a little patience (not usually my strong point, but worth the wait!) while the onions first soften and then turn into a gorgeous sticky chutney.

It’s great with pâté, as part of a ploughman’s lunch, with fritters, with cheese on toast - you name it, the chutney will probably go with it beautifully!

The bread rolls were made using half the quantities for my Perfect Loaf (https://acooksplot.com/2019-12-03-the-perfect-loaf “https://acooksplot.com/2019-12-03-the-perfect-loaf”) and baked for 15 mins.
To find out more about The Garden Suite B&B, please visit www.acooksplot.com and click on the Menu tab (the three horizontal lines) at the top right of the home page

Courgette fritters

2022-02-28T01:35:00+00:00

This is a recipe that I made for party recently, and I liked the fritters so much that I’ve made them several times since to serve for friends for for lunch, with just a vinaigrette-dressed salad. It’s based on a Nigella Lawson recipe, but I’ve changed it a little (as I always seem to!).

I normally avoid making anything that needs last-minute frying when I have people eating here, but the great thing about these fritters is that they taste best when they’re just above room temperature, which means they can be made just before your guests just arrive.

There are a few key things to remember. The first is to get the oil really hot before you fry the fritters so that they set on the underside quickly, then you can turn the heat down to finish cooking them. Check they are really golden underneath before you try to turn them - do it too soon, and they will break up. And cook the fritters in batches, only half filling your pan with them each time - if you overcrowd them, the temperature of the oil will drop very quickly and the fritters will stew rather than crisply frying.

Cheese and chive muffins

2022-02-20T03:56:09+00:00

The guests staying in my B&B suite last night left at the crack of dawn today to get the train to France, so they’ve asked for a take-out breakfast that they can eat on the go. I’ve just delivered a big bag to their room full of these muffins and some apricot flapjacks, which will hopefully keep them going until they get to the other side of the Channel.

This is such an easy recipe for muffins and they make the tastiest-ever snack when you want something savoury rather than sweet.

* The muffin cases I’ve used come from Amazon:https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B018A6TV64/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

* The recipe for the flapjacks I made to serve with these for the guests’ take-out breakfast is here (except that I used dried apricots rather than the mixed dried fruit): https://acooksplot.com/2020-01-25-super-quick-flapjacks

* For more information about The Garden Suite B&B:

https://acooksplot.com/the-garden-suite

Chicken with herb and ginger topping

2022-02-10T10:55:44+00:00

I was making lots of different dishes for a 50th birthday party in the village recently, and needed to come up with a lovely dressing for a gigantic bowl of couscous. This combination of ingredients was the basis for that dressing but it occurred to me afterwards that the flavours would also work really well together as a topping for chicken. I tried it with roast chicken a few days later, and it was fantastic. It’s one of those recipes that I’ll be making again and again now because it will be so useful for all sorts of occasions. I do like a versatile recipe - it’s what A Cook’s Plot is all about, really!

It makes a fab topping for veg (especially roast squash), and for fish, too as well as being delicious stirred through pasta.

Best-ever tuna fishcakes

2022-01-18T02:58:34+00:00

]]>Whenever I see fishcakes on a restaurant menu, I always order them. But so often I’m disappointed. They can be pappy and tasteless - not these, though. They’re made with lemon and dill (which I grew in the garden last year, chopping up what was left at the end of the season and putting it in the freezer for recipes like this). The trick is then to get the oil really hot to start the fishcakes off and make them crispy, then turn it down a little so they cook right through. Sprinkling them with sumac (a lovely, lemony spice) or, failing that, cayenne, gives them just the extra kick they need - and be sure to squeeze over a little lemon juice before tucking in, too.