Crazy, mixed-up squid

Yep, you normally cook squid for a short amount of time and when you go over it's like an inner-tube. Squid is like a lot of other ingredients; lots of people don't like it but that's because a lot of people including restaurants don't know how to cook it.

...so we decided to have a roast but not a roast. It didn’t feel like a day for thick gravy and roast potatoes so we went back to the old Bradford spring/summer favourite; crushed potatoes.

Vinegary rabbit is not everyone’s thing

Umbrian Rabbit is from The Classic Food of Northern Italy (Anna del Conte). I love it but the vinegar hit, and the rabbit for that matter, are not to everyone’s taste so I’ve adapted it by using chicken instead of rabbit and wine instead of vinegar. It’s worth trying the original though.

It's not exactly cooking

Well, this is predominantly a food site, even if I am using it to blog about spending a couple of months in Spain.

Yes, I know it sounds weird: Bonkers but beautiful

This is adapted from a recipe in Sophie Grigson's Eat Your Greens - the only book on cooking vegetables anyone needs

Like porridge but nice!

When I had it in Hong Kong it seemed as though the rice had been broken up which made it smoother. I just use rice

What do you mean you don't speak Thai? You eat Green Curry don't you?

You can buy perfectly reasonable thai green curry paste and the shop-bought stuff includes kaffir lime leaves which makes life easier, But Thai food is all about freshness; bright, fresh flavours - herbs, chillis lemongrass. You should try it

Can curry paste be religious?

This is translated as “Muslim” curry paste. It may have been brought in by Persian traders. "Mussulman" is arguably another word for Muslim. It’s interesting – either way it feels like it comes from well to the West of Thailand.

The real reason we have roasts on Sunday

There are several ways of making this, but the traditional description of gravy is that it’s made from the juices from the meat. Well, if you’re Achilles on the beach of Troy sacrificing 20 white bulls for the death of Patroclus then you might have enough juices for that but the rest of us use oxo.

This is what cheap olives are for

There's no real recipe for this in terms of proportions, make it how you like and adjust as you go

No, nothing at all to do with French Nazi sympathisers

It's all about the Dimethyl Sulfide, stupid!

Basically when you cook cabbage it produces Dimethyl Sulfide which is that nasty smell and not a great taste. However all you need to do is cook it properly - either quickly or slowly. Anything in between is pants. I'll put another recipe on for cooking it quickly but this is lovely

… nope the song just wouldn’t come.

Rice. Lovely, sticky, deeply-flavoured rice. Lick the plate

Risotto is sold to cooks as a dark art that normal people can’t do – it’s all about timing, hot stock and standing around for 20 minutes while it comes together.

Ripped off from Dhal

Another made-up Mexican side dish because I don't really like the limited number I have in my Mexican cookbook

Ever wondered what tinned peas were for? Well, it's this

Use tinned marrowfats for this recipe. I've used sage because it goes better with the ham or bacon than mint would, but peas and mint go really well. In summer use frozen peas instead of tinned and leave the meat out, swap the sage for mint and you've got something beautiful

If you like cheese, you like peas, you'll love Cheezy Peaz!

Paneer is now widely available in supermarkets and is a bit like halloumi in that it stays together when you cook it, so if you fry it in spices it will collect them like tofu would

Beef in loads of soy sauce. It’s lovely.

But, do as I say, not as I do!

Yum Yum! This is a beautiful thing

This is a very beautiful hot and sour soup from Thailand. You can just about make it vegetarian, but the fish sauce is important in my view.

Taazi Khumben Alu Mattar Kar - or curried mushrooms, potatoes and peas to you and me.

This is slightly adapted from a recipe in Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian Cookbook

Sunny Sunday in Frigiliana

This is a nice bean stew that may or may not be “authentic” but uses Spanish flavours and since I’m in Spain cooking it with things I bought here, I’m claiming its authenticity.

Made it up before I knew it had a name. Not authentic but it went down well

I couldn't anything I fancied in the Mexican cookbook - seems like all the veg had cheese and/or bread of some sort so I thought about ratatouille with Mexican flavours instead. The Spanish do something called Pisto but it's very tomato-ey and I wanted it a bit less gloopy

Any excuse to use nuoc cham and rare beef

Use any salad you like - we are weird in Europe in that we make a salad from veg and variations on lettuce and then add a few herbs whereas in other parts of the world herbs are the salad. Tabouleh in the Middle East for example isn't parsley in salad, it's parsley as salad.

This is a version of Puttanesca.

A puttana is a sex worker in Italian and it is thought to have been named because it was quick and easy for people with a "busy schedule" to cook and eat between appointments.

Don’t use cheap Lager, Not just for this, it's a general rule.

Beef in beer, Guinness works well or anything brown. You can adapt it with Pork and Cider for a nice change

The best soup in the world

This is inspired by a Rick Stein recipe that is absolutely lovely.

“We don’t have this in Mexico, it’s an American thing. But if we did it would be like this . . ."

This is a briliant recipe based on a recipe by Lourdes Nicholls who says something along the lines of “We don’t have this in Mexico, it’s an American thing. But if we did it would be like this . . .

Tomayto-Tomarto

I’ve written about Sofrito before, but I didn’t realise that both the Italians and Spanish use the same word. Well, actually I did know that, but didn’t realise it was for slightly different things.

This is probably the most important thing you need to know how to cook

There are ways of doing it; fresh tomatoes, passata, tinned tomatoes, in my view it doesn’t really matter but let’s face it, most British tomatoes don’t really taste of much; they’re not like the ones you eat on Holiday where the sun shines more predictably so I think it’s always better to use tinned tomatoes or passata.

Everyone thinks their recipe is the best.

But they’re wrong. This is.

Salsa, chatni, it's all the same; fruit, veg, acid and herbs.

This could pas for Asian as well as American but either way it's really lovely

Easy-peasy Lemon (or orange or lime or whatever you want or vinegar for that matter) squeezy!

Ahh, it trips off the tongue but you'll never eat mint sauce out of a jar again! So is it just a posh version of mint sauce? Not really. It has basil and parsley as well as mint and can be eaten with anything: try it with fish, it is fabulous.

Anything but plain - you've got to love them Mexicans!

This is the same principle as Plain Rice where you measure the rice and liquid beforehand and cook it until the liquid is gone.

Rendag-diggidy-dang-a-dang, baby: Cook beef in coconut milk until there isn't any liquid left

This is adapted from Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian Cookbook

I love Massive Attack's Karmacoma.

I think of it when I cook this: Keemakorma (“What? Jamaica and Roma”). No? Just me then

Not that yellow stuff, this is much, much better

Don't get me wrong, I love standard paella; the yellow one with seafood, saffron, chorizo and tomatoes. It tastes of sun, sangria and sex

Named after one of Meg's school friends, its a bit like coq au vin but tarragon gives it a lovely fresh lift

Do this in a heavy-bottomed casserole and if you can get chicken with skin on so you can roast it and get it lovely and crispy on the outside and gives the stock a lovely flavour. Whole legs are good but if you don't like bones then skin-on breasts are ok

No. No I don’t know why it’s called that, and I don’t care – google it if you care.

but whether or not you ever find out why it’s called that, just make it: It’s astonishingly tasty Thai Surf’n’Turf!

Fish on toast is the best thing in the world

Well, you know...but this is fabulous!

Holy Guacamole, Batman! (As Robin never said)

This is basically Tomato Salsa with mashed avocado mixed in. Don't buy it, there's no comparison to the real stuff

Makes me happy when we have this: "Tonight we're dhaling, Darling"

You've got to love this stuff. It costs pennies; you can make more than you need and it will keep; and it is delicious!

Potatoes and bacon with wine, cream and cheese. And not just any old cheese - it's Reblochon!

You can make this as a side dish (this recipe) or you can beef it up a bit with chicken and make it almost like a fish pie (a bit more wine and cream) with the potatoes on the top of a creamy chicken and bacon base