Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Blog, page 7

The proof of the pudding: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's recipes for February survival

I have a cunning plan to help me get through the dullest month of the year: puddings. Lots of them

February can be a tough month: cold, damp, cloudy, raw, devoid of major celebrations and thereby providing very little excuse for not knuckling down and getting some work done. Every month has its crucial place in the glorious annual round, of course, but sometimes it's hard to remember exactly what the point of month number two actually is. It of...

The quack pack: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's duck recipes

Deep flavour, great texture and the ultimate in delicious crisp skin – what more do you want from a bird?

Duck is on the up. No longer is it seen as a rare treat or a dinner party special: we're ordering it and cooking it with less gastronomic reverence, more easy-going enthusiasm. It's long been a favourite of mine, with its dense, rich meat and crucial layer of lovely fat. And what that fat delivers is deep flavour and a wonderful yielding texture, combined with the ultimate...

I should coco: coconut milk recipes | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Coconut milk has become a bit of a store cupboard staple in my kitchen. Here's why

It's funny how things shoulder their way into your larder. First they make a small, quiet space for themselves, then they take up semi-permanent residence, and finally they claim indispensable status so that if you look for them and they're not there, you start to panic a bit. Last week I wrote about tinned tomatoes, something I really don't like to run out of, ever. This week I'm going for a...

Can do: tinned tomato recipes | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

They may not quite match a juicy ripe fresh tomato for flavour, but tinned tomatoes still taste the business, and they ain't half versatile

Last week I revealed my love for lentils. Now I want to talk about a second store-cupboard saviour, an unassuming but unbelievably valuable ingredient: tinned tomatoes. There are very few vegetables that tin well. Apart from beans and chickpeas, I can count them all on one… finger. Because tomatoes are the only veg (OK, fruit, if you're a pedant) I us...

Mackerel overfishing: greed is the problem | Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall: politics and greed are getting in the way of common sense and risk putting a responsible fishery out of business. We should still eat sustainably caught mackerel occasionally

The situation with mackerel stocks in the north east Atlantic is a farce rapidly becoming a tragedy. It's one of the best examples of human greed in fishing on the planet. When we started the mac bap campaign two and a half years ago, mackerel was certified as sustainable and part of a well ma...