Now. I have this huge vine outside my back door. The grapes are tart and pippy but I love them. The leaves are plentiful. Shelly from Gardiners, the cafe at the top of our street taught me how to make dolmades. But I am always slightly disappointed by the rice filling of the traditional vine leaf. so I put together a mixture of some of the things around at that time of year. I wanted strong nutty tastes, the celariac section really worked well. the fiddley bit is rolling the vine-leaves. My friend Linda, champion of the Jewish Kitchen, says that stuffed cabbage leaves are nice. I think they are supposed to have sultanas or raisins in, But I have never been a fan of the dried grape. (The moister the better in my opinion.)

Don’t know what made me try this. I wanted to cook the little potatoes whole and have them soft inside with their skins intact so that they pop in your mouth

The idea of the beefsteak tomato starter is always brilliant. I like the Almond Oil and Maggi salad dressing. the idea for that came from the brasserie in Soreze when I worked out how their dressing was made. They used Olive Oil, but I prefer the Almond Oil it is lighter and nutty.
The cream cheese and toasted sunflower seed spread is nice, especially with a tang of chilli.

Yes. Cooked Lettuce, with mung bean shoots. Don’t recoil in horror. its a real favourite! a variation on the theme is to braise the lettuce in oil and water with salt and pepper and thyme with cubes of Halloumi added for the last five minutes. I think that we got the original idea from a Sophie Grigson book.

Very easy mild sort of creamy curry. have you seen those reptilian fractal cauliflowers that are bright green. they taste delicious and should be cooked as little as possible. I must try to draw one some time.

Very easy mild sort of creamy curry. have you seen those reptilian fractal cauliflowers that are bright green. they taste delicious and should be cooked as little as possible. I must try to draw one some time.

I am not generally keen on stuffed peppers, but I had a lot of lovely, fairly small red peppers. I  tried to come up with something that had a really strong savoury taste to combat the sweetness of the peppers and a good texture so that the sogginess of the cooked pepper would be overridden. so the tin of butter beans is added to chopped onion lightly fried in olive oil, with a some finely chopped garlic and carrot stir in tomato puree, dill sage and thyme. Allow the mixture to simmer in water until it reduces to a soggy texture. fill the peppers and top with slices of cheese, parmesan might be nice. Wrap each pepper in tin foil stand all together in a dish and bake for about half an hour.

I love broad beans and always want them to be cooked with other green things. Cant explain why, but it works. the combination of natural yoghurt and the oil from sun-dried tomatoes is piquant…

Isaac doesn’t like Tahini, so I thought I would try to make a humous without it. it tastes good, but Ike still didn’t like it. Charlie-Rebekah did though.
I rather like this was of drawing a recipe.

Nice easy French bake. Good with roast potatoes… but what isn’t?

This was one of those strange ideas that I had that just had to get tried out. I really liked it, but it was a curious taste. Worth a try if you are feeling adventurous. I will make it again for sure.