004. Comfort food?

📚 Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros
📺 The Morning Show
🔊 Mae Stephens & Meghan Trainor present Mr Right

Firstly, yes, you’re right, I didn’t write you a newsletter last weekend. The weather was just so terrible here on the south-east coast that all I wanted to do was hibernate on the settee under my new lambswool blanket from Pass Muster, with the new Garth Nix. So that’s what I did.

The wild weather last week also delayed the start of an evening course I signed up for: Regional French Cooking at East Sussex College. There’s no certificate or qualification (more’s the pity) but, while I feel pretty confident about Italian flavours, French cooking encompasses such a range of cultures and cuisines, with their own palates and techniques, that I’ve always found it a bit intimidating. Turns out, it’s just about having a good teacher.

One of the greatest pleasures in my life is doing things for other people, especially hosting and cooking. There’s something incredibly special - I feel - about being able to both nourish and delight the people you love. And I also find the process of cooking immensely satisfying. It’s a creative, transformative act of which the result is something that may look beautiful, and should smell enticing and taste delicious. I think the fact that it’s transitory appeals, as well: rather than an object that will sit on a shelf, when you cook, you’re creating something to be used, to be savoured while you have it because it won’t last forever.

I’m also trying to be more adventurous about what I choose to eat. I was worried, moving out of London, that Hasting and St Leonard’s might not have a huge choice but in fact, the food scene here is bougie AF. There’s loads of places to buy incredible local produce and the sea food is out of the this world.

Since moving, I also have much better access to my collection of cookbooks. I thought I’d give you a few recommendations of books I use all the time, those I pick for particular inspiration and those I just love to flick through…

Cookbooks for beginners

• The Green Roasting Tin
• The Roasting Tin Around the World

Speedy meals

• The Quick Roasting Tin
• Real Fast Food

Special occasions

• Feast
• Nigella Christmas

Veggie meals

• Simple
• The Modern Cook’s Year
• The Green Barbecue

European flavours

• Taverna (Cypriot)
• An A-Z of Pasta
• The Food of Italy

Easy Asian

• India Express
• Ammu
• Mandalay

Baking

• The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook
• Love is a Pink Cake

Feeling fancy

• Bitter
• Polpo

Recipes and Reading

• Cook, Eat, Repeat
• The Christmas Chronicles

If you try any of these, let me know how you get on?

And now I’m off out with Rob for a wedding anniversary dinner — don’t worry, I’ll take photos for you.