The Joyful Home Cook

2 Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and slide in the onion, garlic and preserved lemon or lemon zest with a pinch of salt. Cook for about 5 minutes, until softened and fragrant but not colouring, then add the greens. Season with salt, pepper and a little lemon juice, put the lid on and let them wilt down for a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer the greens to a sieve to drain, pressing down on the greens to get rid of any excess moisture. Roughly chop them, then tip into a bowl, add the cheeses and fermented chillies (if using) and toss to combine, grating over a little fresh nutmeg and salt and pepper. Leave to cool.

3 Remove the pastry from the fridge, unwrap it and divide it into four equal balls, pressing the balls into discs. Dust the surface with flour and roll each ball out to a circle about 20cm in diameter and just a little thinner than a pound coin.

4 Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment.

5 Fill each circle of pastry with the cooled greens and cheese mix, leaving a 2cm border around the edge of the filling, drizzle over a little more olive oil and fold the pastry around the filling to seal. It’s up to you how you do this. You can either fold one half of pastry over the filling, seal to the other half and crimp like a pasty, or you can fold the edges up into the middle like an envelope or a little bag. Once formed, place on the lined baking sheet and chill for about 10 minutes, until firm.

6 Remove the pies from the fridge and brush them with the beaten egg. Scatter over the za’atar and bake in the oven for 35–40 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and golden.

Asparagus, pea and lovage croquettes

on a garden salad

Serves 4

Broken open, these crunchy, golden croquettes reveal all the joys of spring. Oozing with a vivid green filling of peas, asparagus and fragrant, slightly spicy lovage, they are at once indulgent and virtuous, and serious fun. Here I serve them with a dollop of sour cream but they are also lovely with the homemade mayo (see here).

For the asparagus

420ml salted water

200g asparagus spears, trimmed

juice of 1 unwaxed lemon

1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

For the croquettes

150g frozen peas

25g lovage leaves and stems (or flat-leaf parsley), roughly chopped

40g butter

1 tsp crushed pink peppercorns

150g plain flour

1 tbsp white wine

50g Comté or Gruyère cheese, grated

30g feta, finely crumbled

grated zest of the lemon above

150g panko breadcrumbs

4 eggs

150ml vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing

For the garden salad

2 handfuls of mixed seasonal leaves (I love sorrel, spinach and nasturtium)

handful of lovage (or flat-leaf parsley), leaves picked

handful of pea shoots

2 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped

juice of 2 lemons or 1 tbsp elderflower vinegar (see here)

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve

150g sour cream

handful of edible flowers (chive, wild garlic or nasturtium work well) (optional)

1 First, cook the asparagus. Bring the water to the boil in a saucepan. Add the asparagus and cook for 3–5 minutes, or until tender. Remove with a slotted spoon and leave to cool slightly. Reserve the water in the pan. Cut away 2cm of the bottom of each spear, very thinly slice and set aside in a bowl – this will go into the croquettes. Place the remaining tips in a separate small bowl and toss with a little of the lemon juice and olive oil for the salad.

2 For the croquettes, bring the asparagus water back up to the boil and add the peas. Cook for 1 minute, then add the lovage. Cook for 30 seconds. Take out 50g of the peas with a slotted spoon, leaving the rest in the pan of cooking water. Put the reserved peas in the bowl with the sliced asparagus set aside for the croquettes. Pour the pan contents – the peas, lovage and cooking water – into the bowl of a food processor and blitz until you have a smooth green liquid – you’re going to use this for the bechamel.

3 Heat a non-stick frying pan or skillet over a medium heat. Melt the butter in the pan with the crushed pink peppercorns. Gradually stir in 60g of the flour and cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture has thickened and is smelling nutty. Reduce the heat slightly, add the wine and blitzed pea mixture and cook, stirring, for 5–6 minutes, or until you have a thickened, smooth sauce.

4 Stir in the cheeses, lemon zest, sliced asparagus and reserved peas, stirring until the cheeses have melted in nicely. Season well with salt. Pour onto a plate or tray, allow to cool and cover with cling film. Put it in the fridge to chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours (you could leave it overnight), until well set.

5 Once the mixture is set, grab it out of the fridge. It’s time to ‘crumb’ (or, as the French call it, ‘pané’) and because this is quite a chunky, veg-packed mix, you need to give the croquettes a double coating. Gather two plates, a bowl and a flat tray covered with greaseproof paper. Place the remaining flour on one plate, the breadcrumbs on the other, and crack the eggs into the bowl. Lightly beat them, then, using oiled hands so that they don’t stick to the mixture, pinch off about a ping-pong-ball-sized lump of mix, roll to form it into a croquette or cylindrical shape. Repeat with all the mixture to make 10–15 croquettes, placing them on the greaseproof paper. Chill for 15 minutes. Then, using one hand and keeping the other clean for handling the rest of the mix, dip each croquette in the flour, tossing all over to coat, followed by the egg and breadcrumbs to coat completely. Repeat the process with the rest of the croquettes, until they are all coated, then repeat once more with each one and chill them all in the fridge for 10 minutes.

6 Heat the vegetable oil in a high-sided frying pan over a high heat until it’s shimmering. Place a plate lined with kitchen paper next to the hob and shallow-fry the croquettes in batches for 3–5 minutes, turning them to produce an even golden crumb, until crisp. Drain on the kitchen paper and season with salt.

7 For the salad, place the seasonal leaves, lovage and pea shoots in a salad bowl. Add the reserved asparagus spears, spring onions and lemon juice or elderflower vinegar, drizzle with a little extra oil, season with salt and pepper and toss together lightly to combine.

8 Spread the sour cream on four plates and top with the croquettes. Pile on some salad and garnish with the edible flowers.

Wild garlic/harissa cheese straws

Makes 12–15 cheese straws

Yes, there are plenty of very good shop-bought cheese straws out there, but I wouldn’t be encouraging you to make these unless I thought they were worth it. Your guests will be in awe when you breezily tell them that the cheese straws are ‘homemade, darling’, and some inevitably crumble in the oven, making for bonus chef’s-perk nibbles. Once you get the hang of this method, the chances are you’ll be busting these out at every given opportunity and trying to feed them to everyone you know. I’ve included seasonal tweaks – wild garlic pesto for spring, and spicy harissa for the rest of the time. You’re welcome.

225g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting

large pinch of cayenne or red chilli powder

½ tsp sea salt

nutmeg, for grating

150g cold unsalted butter, cut into small dice

1 tsp Dijon or English mustard

100g Cheddar, Gruyère or Comte, finely grated

1–3 tbsp iced water

2 tsp Wild Garlic Pesto (see here) or rose harissa (I like the Belazu one)

1 egg, beaten with 1 tbsp milk

1 Sift the flour, cayenne or chilli powder and salt into a bowl and grate over some nutmeg, then stir. Add the butter and lightly rub it into the flour until the mixture has the consistency of coarse breadcrumbs – it’s okay if there are a few smooth flakes of butter in there. Stir through the mustard and half the cheese, then sprinkle over a tablespoon of the iced water, bringing the mixture together with your hands, squeezing until you have a smooth dough. Add a little more water if needed. Roll it around the bowl to pick up any stray crumbs or scraggy bits – you can dampen your fingers to help with this if you need to. Mould it into a ball and flatten to a disc, wrap it in greaseproof paper and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

2 Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6 and line a couple of baking trays with baking parchment.

3 Unwrap the chilled pastry and roll it out on a surface lightly dusted with flour to a large rectangle just a little longer than the length of this cookbook and about 5mm thick. Fold it in half like a book, rotate it by 90 degrees and fold it in half again, then roll it out once more to a large rectangle, just bigger than the size of this book. Spread the pesto or harissa all over the pastry, then cover with the remaining cheese. Fold the pastry in half like a book again, so the filling is contained (don’t worry if some escapes out the sides), and carefully roll it out lengthways to a rectangle about the size of this book, or 15 × 22cm. Place on a baking tray, trim the ragged edges with a sharp knife, brush with egg wash and chill in the fridge for 10 minutes, or until firm.

4 Cut the chilled pastry into strips – I think 13–15cm long and 1–1.5cm wide is just perfect. Either bake them as they are, or, if you’re feeling a bit swish, very gingerly pinch the ends and twist them ever so slightly to reveal the filling and underside of the pastry. Brush any exposed pastry that wasn’t coated in egg wash, place the straws on the lined baking trays and bake for 12–15 minutes, or until golden and oozy. Remove from the oven, allow to cool slightly, then serve still warm, or at room temperature.

TIP: the pastry can be a little delicate to work with, but it’s easy to patch up, and if they crack a bit once you’ve shaped them, a little extra grated cheese on top before you bake them can cover a multitude of sins. Remember, the beauty of making cheese straws yourself is that they should be perfectly imperfect.

My go-to dips

When I was a kid, it was my job to hand round dips at my parents’ dinner parties and I guess I’ve never grown out of it. Dips are an ideal way to start a meal because they can be made ahead, are communal and a great vehicle for lovely crunchy raw vegetables or the homemade spiced crackers (see here).

Roast squash and Parmesan ‘queso’

Serves 4–6

This dip is based on the creamy, cheesy Tex Mex dip ‘queso’, which is usually made with shedloads of orange American cheese. Here, I make it with roasted butternut squash with charred jalapeño, and serve it with spiced, popped pumpkin seeds for some much-needed crunch.

2 garlic cloves (skin on)

1 shallot (skin on)

500g butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks

pinch of cumin seeds

leaves from 2 sprigs of thyme

3 tbsp olive oil

1 red jalapeño chilli

2 tbsp water

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp cream cheese

50g Parmesan (or vegetarian hard cheese) grated

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the toasted pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp rapeseed oil

1 tbsp pumpkin seeds

½ tsp cayenne pepper

To serve

1 tbsp Fermented Green Chillies (see here)

1 tbsp coriander leaves

tortilla chips, to serve

1 Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6.

2 Put the garlic cloves, shallot and butternut squash chunks in a roasting tray and season with salt and pepper. Scatter over the cumin seeds, thyme leaves and pour over the olive oil, tossing to coat everything well. Cover the tray tightly with foil and roast in the oven for 40 minutes, or until a skewer can be inserted into the squash and meet no resistance.

3 Meanwhile, heat the rapeseed oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat and fry the pumpkin seeds for a couple of minutes until popped. Transfer to a bowl and season with cayenne and salt.

4 Scorch the jalapeño chilli over a gas flame until softened and partially blackened, then rub off the skin with kitchen towel, split it lengthways and remove the seeds.

5 Remove the squash from the oven and allow it to cool slightly for a couple of minutes, then squeeze the shallots and garlic from their skins and transfer them to the bowl of a food processor. Add the roasted squash and all the remaining ingredients (including the scorched, deseeded jalapeño) and blitz on high for a few minutes until you have a creamy, smooth dip. Season to taste and adjust the acid and salt accordingly. Scrape into a bowl and top with the fermented chillies, toasted pumpkin seeds and coriander. Serve with tortilla chips.

Charred onion and sour cream

Serves 4–6

This is an update on one of my favourite classic dips – sour cream and onion – which did the rounds at the parties of my youth, scooped hungrily into mouths on the curve of a similarly flavoured Pringle. This is great with proper potato Kettle chips.

2 tbsp rapeseed oil

4 medium white onions, thinly sliced

big pinch of sea salt

pinch of caster sugar

2 tsp pomegranate molasses

200g sour cream

50g mayonnaise

3g chives, finely chopped, plus extra snipped chives, to garnish

flatbreads or raw veg, to serve

1 Heat the oil in a heavy-based frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the sliced onions, salt and sugar and cook, stirring every now and then, for 10–15 minutes, until the onions are charred, softened and delicious. Stir in the pomegranate molasses and allow to cool.

2 In a bowl, combine the sour cream and mayonnaise. Slide in the cooled onions and chives and stir to combine. Taste for seasoning and leave to infuse in the fridge for a couple of hours to allow for the flavours to develop (if you have time). Serve in a bowl garnished with extra chives. Serve with flatbreads or raw veg for dipping.

Broad bean, mint and feta

Serves 4–6

Broad beans are one of the first things I successfully grew on my allotment, following in my father’s footsteps as he was an avid fan of the ‘broads’. They are very easy to grow. You simply bury the seeds (as early as February) and after a few months the green shoots start to emerge. I make this perky dip to celebrate my allotment haul, but it’s also very agreeable made with frozen broad beans that have been blanched and peeled.

500g broad beans (fresh or frozen)

2 garlic cloves, peeled

small bunch of dill fronds, reserving some for garnish

small bunch of mint leaves reserving some for garnish

2 tbsp tahini

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

1 slice of preserved lemon (shop-bought or (see here)), chopped

100g feta

juice of 1 lemon

sea salt and ground black pepper or pink peppercorns

1 Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil, add the broad beans and garlic and cook for 3–5 minutes, until tender. Add the herbs at the last minute just to blanch them until wilted. Drain, reserving the cooking water. Peel the broad beans and discard the skins.

2 Place the beans, garlic, cooked herbs and all the remaining ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and blitz until smooth, adding a little of the cooking water to loosen, if needed. Taste for seasoning and acid and adjust accordingly. Transfer to a bowl and leave to infuse in the fridge for a couple of hours to allow for the flavours to develop (if you have time), then serve in a bowl, drizzled with more extra-virgin olive oil and garnished with the reserved herbs and pink peppercorns.

TIP: This also makes for a lovely breakfast topped with a crispy fried egg and some rose harissa.

Chermoula cannellini bean

with crispy fried artichokes

Serves 4–6

Chermoula is traditionally a North African marinade for fish, but the zippy combination of coriander, cumin, cayenne and paprika is a fantastic way to flavour this creamy cannellini bean dip. I make a big bowl of this and top it with crispy fried artichoke hearts, which are coated in semolina and fried until crunchy and golden. Try and use the good-quality jarred artichokes that come packed in oil as they have a really fantastic piquancy to them, which works nicely against the richness of the dip. It also happens to be vegan and gluten free.

flatbreads or crispbreads, to serve

For the dip

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

¼ tsp coriander seeds

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1 × 400g tin cannellini beans, drained (reserving 1 tbsp water from the tin)

½ tsp smoked sweet paprika

½ tsp cayenne pepper

2 slices of preserved lemon (shop-bought or (see here)), chopped

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves

1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley leaves, plus extra, finely chopped, to garnish

For the crispy artichokes

2 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp semolina flour

½ tsp cumin seeds, ground in a pestle and mortar

pinch of sea salt, plus extra to serve

200g olive oil-packed cooked artichoke hearts

1 Heat the olive oil for the dip in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the cumin and coriander seeds and garlic and fry for a couple of minutes until aromatic, then tip in the cannellini beans and toss everything together over the heat for a minute. Remove from the heat and transfer to the bowl of a food processor with all of the remaining dip ingredients. Blitz to a smooth paste, adding a splash of water to thin until creamy. Taste for seasoning and adjust accordingly with more salt or acid, until it really sings. Leave to infuse in the fridge for a couple of hours to allow for the flavours to develop (if you have time).

2 To make the crispy artichokes, heat the olive oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Put the semolina flour, ground cumin seeds and salt in a bowl and toss to combine. Drain the artichokes from their oil and one by one coat them in the semolina. Once fully coated, slide them into the oil and fry for a couple of minutes until golden and crisp, turning them to make sure they cook evenly. Remove with a slotted spoon to a plate lined with kitchen paper and scatter with a pinch of sea salt.

3 Serve the dip topped with the crispy artichokes, with flatbreads or crispbreads for scooping.

Beetroot, coconut and curry leaf

Serves 4–6

Beetroot and coconut is a flavour combination I discovered in Sri Lanka, where beetroot curry is a staple. This vegan and gluten-free dip takes its lead from this curry (see here) and is a winner served with crisp seeded crackers (see here) or crisps.

500g raw beetroots, scrubbed

olive oil, for drizzling

1 tbsp coconut cream

juice of ½ lime

½ tsp red chilli powder

100g drained tinned chickpeas

1 tbsp extra-virgin coconut oil

1 tsp black mustard seeds

handful of fresh curry leaves

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

crushed pink peppercorns, to serve

1 Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6.

2 Toss the beetroots in a roasting tray with a drizzle of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover the tray with foil and roast in the oven for 1¼ hours, or until a skewer inserted into a beetroot comes out with no resistance. Remove and leave to cool, then peel the beetroots and roughly chop.

3 Place the beetroot in a blender or food processor with the coconut cream, lime juice, chilli powder, chickpeas and big pinch of salt, and blitz until you have a smooth purée.

4 Heat the coconut oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds and when they start to pop, add the curry leaves and fry until crispy but not browned.

5 Season the dip with salt and pepper to taste, scoop it into bowls and top with the mustard seed and curry leaf mix. Stir and serve warm or cold, garnished with pink peppercorns.

Ras el hanout roasted chickpea

Serves 4–6

A spoonful of ras el hanout transports you straight to the spice souk. A heady, fragrant North African spice blend composed of more than 30 ingredients, it translates from the Arabic to mean ‘top of the shop’.

Serve it with warm pitta bread or yoghurt flatbreads (see here), or as part of a meze plate with Labneh (see here), roasted veg and freekeh.

2 × 400g tins chickpeas, rinsed

1½ tbsp rapeseed oil

2 garlic cloves (skin on)

3 tsp ras el hanout

5 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling

2 tbsp tahini

140ml cold water

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp orange juice

1 slice of Preserved Orange (see here), chopped, or grated zest of ½ orange

2 tbsp coriander leaves, finely chopped, plus a few whole leaves, to garnish

1 Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6.

2 Dry the chickpeas with a clean tea towel and put them in a large roasting tray. Add the rapeseed oil, garlic cloves, ras el hanout and a pinch of salt and toss to coat. Roast in the oven for 25 minutes.

3 Leave to cool for a few minutes after roasting, then transfer to a food processor (squeezing the garlic out of the skins first), reserving a handful of chickpeas for garnishing. Add all the other ingredients and pulse until creamy, but still slightly chunky. Transfer to a bowl, top with the remaining chickpeas and drizzle over more olive oil for good measure. Scatter over the coriander leaves and serve.

Memorable Mains

This is the place for golden-crusted pork chops rubbed with fennel, thyme and cayenne (see here), and squishy fried aubergine with crispy roasted chickpeas and labneh (see here); things you can rustle up without too much trouble. Giving care and attention to those important details, however – like frying those aubergines to a silken splendour – elevates the ordinary to the extraordinary, making these meals, well, you guessed it: memorable.

As well as making the most of seasonal veg in the Burrata and Roast Root Rave Salad (see here) and Allotment Greens Orecchiette (see here), this chapter is alive with some of my favourite international influences, and will bring some revelations, like how off-the-charts salmon tastes when cooked gently in a marinade of tahini and preserved lemon; what fresh curry leaves can bring to your kedgeree; and how an anchovy-laced béchamel can transform our old pal broccoli. You’ll put your sourdough starter to good use again to make the Sourdough Pizzas (see here) – perfect for a pizza night with pals – and your vegan mates will love you for the delicious Sri Lankan-inspired vegan curry feast you cook up for them (see here).