If you’re looking for a quick light lunch for two or a tasty starter for four, this recipe could be your answer. I buy frozen raw king prawns, line a dish with kitchen paper and let them thaw out at room temperature. Make sure you have patted them dry before cooking....
Lockdown cookbook
You’re in social isolation and opportunities for shopping might be limited. But you have a well-stocked store-cupboard and freezer and it’s still possible to get most food if you look in the right places.
Lemon Sole (or Plaice) with Capers
I cooked this dish without realising that it had a fancy name and a long history in French cooking: Sole Meuniere. Just shows you can’t keep a good idea to yourself. It’s a dead simple way of cooking white flat fish, so it will work with lemon sole, dover sole or...
Crabmeat noodles with chili, garlic and herbs
perfect after a long day when you don’t feel like doing anything fiddly in the kitchen. It produces a fresh-tasting pretty dish speckled with bright green, red and pink. You can use any kind of crabmeat – fresh, chilled or tinned. The sauce is made by adding garlic,...
Tagliatelle with Rosy Seafood Sauce
Silky ribbons of tagliatelle embrace a pretty-with-pink seafood sauce here, made with half one of those handy packs of frozen mixed raw seafood and a fresh juicy salmon fillet. A few cauliflower florets give some additional texture and flavour. Thaw the seafood first:...
Sardine pate
I confess: I did do a mini-stockpile during lockdown. Over two weeks I bought 6 tins of sardines in water. The thought of not having this useful store cupboard standby was unbearable and I panicked, like so many others obviously did, as the tinned fish supermarket...
Fish stew from the freezer
Most of us probably have some fish, including shellfish, in the freezer. I buy my seafood and frozen white fish from Iceland because their range is extensive and their prices so reasonable. A light fish stew can often seem like a good idea for a quick supper made with...
Fishcakes for lockdown
Fishcakes are one of the simple glories of British cooking but they can be devilishly hard to make. They can be too gluey, too bland, fall apart too easily. This recipe gets around all those problems. It uses an easily overlooked special ingredient: a cheap as chips...
Vaguely Vietnamese noodles with prawns and spinach
Hackney is full of Vietnamese restaurants and after a lovely noodle dish with juicy prawns and hot sweet flavours I asked the owner what was in it. I’m not sure I scribbled it down accurately. But it was something like this recipe. It’s made with thawed raw king...
Broccoli and butter bean pasta
Note: This dish can be made for vegetarians by leaving out the anchovy fillets This quick and easy dish uses a combination of store cupboard with fresh ingredients. You can use any short pasta, for instance macaroni or fusilli (twists). This recipe works best with...
Simple fish pie with a veg mash topping
Fish pie is one of my favourite dishes, so simple yet so delicious. I’m not a fan of ready meals, but when I’m feeling lazy, I just love Charlie Bigham’s ready meals, especially his fish pie: a gummy gloriousness of fish, sauce and a very light, crisp mash. But none...
Herb-crusted panfried sea bass fillets with champ
Sea bass fillets are cheap to buy and are usually available from Sainsbury’s in vacuum packs - which make them easy to freeze. Sea bass is a delicate fish and it takes other flavours well. This is an easy quick way to cook it using whatever leafy herbs you have...