Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Blog, page 6

Have a heart: offal recipes to convert any sceptic

If it's flavour and texture you're after, you can't beat kidneys, or tongue, or liver, or brain…

I like to write about offal because I love to eat it, I want more people to enjoy it and, frankly, I still feel I need to remind you, once in a while, that it's out there. That meat-eaters ought to eat all the parts of an animal, not just the pretty bits, is obvious to me. But eating brains is a not a no-brainer for everyone. So let me rattle through a potted version o...

Curd processor: recipes for British cheeses | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

You could eat a different British cheese every day of the year, and never be disappointed

It's mind-boggling how we use one basic foodstuff – milk – to produce everything from the crystalline rock face of a slab of parmesan to the silken ooze of a velvet-rinded vacherin. Cheese is perhaps the best example we have of the way the alchemy of time, place and technique can transform ingredients in a thousand ways; of how food is often the ultimate expression of tradition, environment and culture.

Mu...

Come rain or shine: spring recipes for any weather | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

The weather adds its impetus to what I'm cooking in the kitchen almost as much as the early spring harvest from the veg garden

When TS Eliot said, "April is the cruellest month", it was intended as more than a meteorological observation. The natural upheaval of spring creates stirrings and yearnings in us that will often, in the end, be confounded or painfully thwarted. At the same time, to add insult to psychological injury, it certainly takes the mickey weather-wise.

As I write this, I've no...

The late show: recipes for a last-minute Easter feast | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

There's no need to fret if you haven't made any preparations for the family's Easter meal

Did you do it? Is that laidback, prepare-ahead-of-time Easter menu from last week all in the fridge, waiting to be dished up tomorrow? If the answer is yes, give yourself a pat on the back and crack open a bottle of Easter fizz, or at least make yourself a brew. If, however, due to unforeseen circumstances – life, say – you haven't got round to it, and you find yourself with expectant mouths due to arrive...

Easy does it: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipes for a relaxed Easter feast

There's no need to leave everything to the last minute. Prepare ahead and give yourself time to enjoy the company of friends and family over the Easter holiday

Next weekend is Easter: Hooray! It's definitely my favourite feast day/holiday of the year. No matter how you read this ancient festival, whatever your stance on reincarnation or chocolate eggs, it's surely a time to celebrate new beginnings, the lengthening days and the warm, yellow glow of a newly minted season – daffodils, primr...

Free for all: foraged wild greens recipes | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Whether you're a foraging rookie or a seasoned pro, get out there and expand your wild greens repertoire

I've done a lot of travelling in the past year or so. I've found myself on a boat, pitching through the wild waters of Antarctica, and I've sweltered in the steamy heat of Thailand and the Philippines. I've relaxed with my family in France, and spent some inspiring days with groundbreaking young chefs in Denmark. Sojourns such as these, whether for work or pleasure, are always a privilege a...

Keep Mum: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipes for a Mother's Day breakfast in bed

I'm not one for soppy cards or overpriced bouquets. For me, a special treat pretty much always comes back to food

Sunday is Mother's Day and I, for one, am prepared. I share the dual role of many fathers on this day, being both a son and a guide/facilitator/referee to my own kids in their joint venture to lavish some extra TLC on their mum.

I'm not one for soppy cards or overpriced bouquets. For me, a special treat pretty much always comes back to food. It needn't be fancy or sophisticated, exp...

Purple patch: purple sprouting broccoli recipes | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

At this time of year, when we're tired of carrots, spuds and parsnips, and crying out for some fresh green veg, thank heavens for purple sprouting broccoli

In a couple of months, chefs, foodies and veg gardeners will be getting very excited about asparagus. As it thrusts its first tender, sweet green spears skywards, we'll reach for the butter, poach eggs and whip up delicate sauces to anoint this most revered of vegetables in ever more delicious ways.

What we must not do, however, as we w...

Top banana (and plantain) recipes | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Yes, they've an inherently comical shape, but bananas and plantains are no laughing stock on the flavour front

It's probably best to get the jokes out of the way early on. While I am, of course, very pleased to see you, I do also have a banana in my pocket. And in the other pocket, I have a plantain! Watch (in your mind's eye) while I perform a quick John Wayne-esque, double-handed, shoot-from-the-hip, pow-pow manoeuvre, before laying my weapons on the table. Hilarious, no?...

After the horsemeat scandal, are you still a meat-lover?

Recent weeks have revealed some ugly truths about food production. Carnivore Nell Frizzell was so horrifed, she's gone vegetarian. Others, however, are taking less drastic action

Unless you've eaten a lukewarm, soil-like bowl of Beanfeast, cooked over a single gas ring stove on a windy beach in Scotland, you will never understand the drudgery of being a vegetarian in the 1990s.

Back when Portobello mushroom burgers and halloumi skewers sounded more like elocution exercises than dishes, I was be...