What you’ll find here

Recipes that have been cooked four times

Not once, for the photograph. Four times, in a home kitchen, until the quantities are right and the timings are honest.

If a recipe needs a stand mixer or a thermometer, that is the first line, not a surprise in step six.

What I cooked that week, what went wrong, and the recipe that came out of it.

One email most Fridays: what I cooked, what went wrong, and the recipe that came out of it.

A few hundred people swapping substitutions and photographs of their failures. Free to join.

The techniques that are easier watched than read — dough, pastry, anything involving a thermometer.

In the order I would cook them. The first three need nothing you do not already own.

Burnt custard tarts

The tops should be properly scorched. A pale custard tart is an undercooked one.
Charred corn and herb salad

Everything hot from the pan, dressed while it steams.
Overnight oats with stone fruit

Assembled in four minutes the night before.
Buttermilk pancakes, properly thick

Tall, tangy and worth the extra egg white.
Saffron risotto

Stirred, not rushed — the rice should ripple, not stand up.
Slow-roast shoulder with fennel

Six hours unattended, and the house smells like Sunday.
Miso mushroom ramen

A broth that tastes long-simmered after twenty-five minutes.
Weeknight red lentil curry

Thirty minutes, one pan, and pantry staples you already own.
Brown butter apple tart

Nutty, caramelised and barely sweet — the tart we make every October.
Charred tomato galette

Late-summer tomatoes roasted hard, then folded into rough pastry.