Sanieh batata wa lahma bil ka’ak Baked potato with lamb and breadcrumbs This Lebanese-style shepherd’s pie is great comfort food. A simple recipe, it’s very easy and inexpensive to make. I simply served it with some fresh spinach. Ingredients 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 medium onion, finely chopped 200g minced lamb 1 tablespoon pine nuts [...]

I just looked out the window and nearly got hit by lightning. Yikes. What with all the fire and floods in the sky, Smoked Haddock Chowder will be the perfect dinner this evening. You’ll find that smoked haddock is one of the cheapest pieces of fish around: I got two big fillets for under €5 [...]

Wow! Look at all this food. Why don’t we have anything like this in Dublin? Corkonians need no introduction to The English Market, but the rest of us might. Last Saturday, I was amazed and enchanted by an extraordinary feast for all five senses. This huge indoor market has been around since 1788 and is [...]

I arrived home at 10pm after a 13-hour working day last night. All I’d eaten was a sandwich at lunchtime. I was soaked from the rain, cold, starving and exhausted, but didn’t have a ready meal to put in the oven. Once again, this cauliflower cheese soup, adapted from the Avoca Soups book, came to [...]

I’ve really loved puy lentil week. I’m definitely going to use these little emeralds a lot more. To round off the latest “Ingredient of the Week” feature, I’m posting a recipe for a perfect, hugely comforting weekend dinner/ alternative Sunday lunch. I know a lot of people can be reluctant to give lentils a go [...]

Odd as it may sound, puy lentils are my ultimate (savoury) comfort food. They’re rich and satisfying, meaty and nutritious, full of good proteins, and, unlike red or green lentils, they don’t turn to puree. They’re really cheap, (just over €3 a bag in The Health Store), a bag lasts for ages, and they’re highly [...]

I heart chorizo. This glorious tube of heavenly pork is a versatile and inexpensive ingredient that adds flavour and depth to a variety of meals. A Spanish dry cured sausage, it can be added to stews, soups, omelettes, pasta and risotto. Pancetta, Italian smoked bacon, is used in a similar way but is no match [...]

I needed to make something for dinner that would help soothe the agony of my aforementioned filthy cold, and remembered that French Onion Soup is delicious, soothing and surprisingly cheap to make. This is just my version of a classic recipe; the idea for roasting the onions came from Nigel Slater. This will make either [...]

Today, I made this White Bean and Roast Mediterranean Vegetable Pie with Basil Mash, which I’ve adapted from page 242 of Cornucopia At Home. This very comfortably fed four people two big helpings each, and I also had enough left over to fill two ramekin dishes for the freezer – that’s two lunches sorted next [...]

My dad sent us details of the offers in Marks and Spencer today. He picked up some great food for a small New Years Day party. Pick any three of the items below, plus a bottle of wine, for €12.50. Individual prices are shown in brackets – this is a good bargain. They included: 50 [...]