Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Blog, page 2

Get your honey's worth: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's honey recipes

Yes, it's great on your toast and porridge, but don't save all the honey for breakfast. It's fab for lunch and tea, too

You don't need an uncommonly sweet tooth to get excited about honey. In fact, you need an uncommonly weird palate not to get excited about honey. The very word is full of the promise of loveliness, unfolding gently in the mouth and suggesting the essence of pleasure. It looks gorgeous, with its light-refracting, pellucid quality, and its unique flavour adds a fragrant, intens...

Not just for porridge: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's oat recipes

Put some oomph into your cooking with a healthy dose of oats

No matter how you slice them (or roll or grind them), oats aren't glamorous. They don't look like much, and they have a decidedly chequered PR history – Samuel Johnson described them as "a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people". They are still valued at least as much by livestock farmers as by cooks. Lucky animals, I say. But they're not having mine.

I love oats. They are just so ful...

Zest for life: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipes for cooking with lemon

Lemon juice adds lightness and freshness to a dish, but it's the zest that brings pure, vibrant lemon flavour

I wonder which meaning of "zest" came first: youthful energy, vim and vigour, or the thin, outer layer of peel on a citrus fruit? Answers on a postcard, please. Not that it really matters. The point is that if you want to find a family of aromatic flavours that encapsulates feelings of effervescence and joie de vivre, look no further than the rind of our two most workaday cit...

Fresh start: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's new year recipes

Forget dieting. Just let the healthy ingredients crowd out the naughty

After the largesse and luxury of the festive season, many of us approach January as a time of parsimony and privation. While it's wise to recalibrate one's cooking after a period of indulgence, I don't find extended periods of self-denial very productive. They can make me resentful, so I tend to think about eating better, rather than eating less.

For me, that means lots and lots of veg, quite a bit of fruit and som...

The remains of the day: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Christmas leftovers recipes

The inevitable odds and ends after the big feast are one of the main pleasures of the Christmas kitchen

How often have you heard someone say, "No turkey curry for us this year – we ran out of food on Christmas Day!" It's not a familiar Boxing Day refrain, is it? We all tend to stock up to the rafters for the festive feast, and there's nothing wrong with that. I hate waste, but I love leftovers.

In fact, the inevitable appearance of tasty odds and ends is, for me, one of the pleas...

Choc troops: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's alternative Christmas treats

It pays to have a few festive tricks up your sleeve – and that means chocolate. Lots of it

'Now bring us some figgy pudding!" goes the carol, but not everyone is enamoured of boozy, spicy, fruity Christmas pud; or, indeed, of oozy, super-sweet mince pies. Even those who love them will not want to indulge more than a couple of times over the holiday period, so whether it's to offer as an alternative on the big day, or to cater for a Boxing Day or New Year crowd, you'll need something else by wa...

Spice invaders: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's cinnamon, clove and nutmeg recipes

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without this trinity of spices. But why not let them add depth and complexity to your cooking all winter long?

The Victorians, with their big trees, lavish decorations and plump turkeys, may have invented modern Christmas, but if you want to find the source of some of our most cherished festive flavours, you need to go much further back. Spices, which we have coveted and fought over for centuries, are among the defining notes of our festive kitchen, laced throug...

Sharp practice: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's winter leaf recipes

Pep up your winter cooking with some peppery, bitter leaves

It's very easy, when doing a spot of shopping on a cold, dank day, to load up with hearty ingredients with a view to filling bellies and warming cockles. But reserve a space for some leaves, too; great sheaves of them, if possible: crisp, colourful and tart. You'll thank yourself later on.

There's a phalanx of sharp, bitter, peppery leaves that thrive in winter, to be prized for their raw, vitamin goodness and for the snappy,...

The winter dishes we loved as children

Nigella Lawson's coffee and walnut cake, John Humphrys' bread pudding, Mary McCartney's vegetable soup… writers and cooks on their favourite childhood food

Nigella Lawson : coffee and walnut layer cake

Neither of my grandmothers, nor indeed my mother, were bakers, but this cake is nevertheless the cake of my childhood. When I was little, I used to make it for my younger sister's birthday every year, beating away vigorously with my wooden spoon and bowl. This is a simplified versio...

The ultimate food lovers' advent calendar

The ultimate food-lovers' advent calendar, with gift ideas and recipes from top chefs. We've even brought the DJ

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1 Food gifts for children to make, Claire Thomson

Panforte

This fabulous chocolate confection is an Italian Christmas favourite, and a great homemade festive gift. Yes, there's a long line-up of ingredients, but don't let that put the kids off: any grandparent, aunt or uncle (...