Category: Lifestyle

It’s the holiday season. I really don’t need to say anything else. There will be many uncomfortable situations this year and in the coming years. There will be that one person at your holiday party that you’d rather not talk with or the neighbor down the street that you heard fighting that come to your door. […]

As we’ve been spending more time at home during the pandemic, for some people, eating habits have become increasingly strange. We would like to hear from readers about the changing eating habits. Do you tuck into canned sweetcorn straight from the tin and then follow it up with some pickles? What’s the oddest thing you’ve […]

At Violet, we use an ice-cream scoop to portion the cookies perfectly, but at home you can use two dessert spoons. Makes 16 large cookiesunsalted butter 250g, softenedlight brown sugar 200gcaster sugar 100gvanilla ½ tspegg yolks 3plain flour 325gfine sea salt 1¼ tspbicarbonate of soda ¾ tspdark chocolate chips 250g, or broken-up bar of your […]

The pleasure in gently cooked beetroots tumbled in leaves, a soft-boiled egg settled within, spiked with mustard and a flurry of freshly grated horseradish, is hard to better, let alone resist. Rare is the menu I have penned over the years that has not featured this delightful companion, effortlessly expressing a great deal of what […]

This dish, almost more than any other, expresses for me the gorgeous layering of flavours that is the signature of Sichuanese cookery. Pickled chillies, either on their own or with fermented broad beans in the famous Sichuan chilli bean sauce, give the dish its warmth and lustre; garlic, ginger and spring onions add a luxurious […]

My father is an often slightly eccentric, but excellent cook. When my son was born, him being half Thai, my dad decided that adding Asian ingredients to Ukrainian food was the way to go. He made a borscht and added a bruised chilli (which isn’t that out of the ordinary for Ukrainian borscht), but he […]

There is chicken, and there is chicken. The French chicken, from Bresse, is the finest in the world. It is nurtured and cosseted like no other living creature (save, perhaps, the Japanese kobe cattle which are fed beer and given a daily massage). Naturally, there are other fine farmyard-reared birds, in Britain, as well as […]

This is a recipe for one of the world’s finest dishes. Give it time and it will reward you handsomely with the most captivating, indulgent dal you’ve ever eaten, full of earthy, smoky flavours, rich deep tomato and warm buttery notes. This dal can also be made a day in advance. Serves 8urad dal (black […]