Canapes

Cocktail Sausages

If you want to have something hot to pass around on a tray, then cocktail sausages are what you're after. There's nothing fiddly to make, nothing to go right or wrong, and everyone loves them. These a…

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Cosmo Cocktail Sausages

I couldn’t help myself. I can’t have a party without some cocktail sausages and wanted to make them just a little bit differently from usual. The inspiration comes from a Cosmopolitan cocktail: in pla…

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Devilled Eggs

I cannot begin to tell you how good these are. There’s not much that can get me squeezing a fancy-nozzled icing bag, but I can’t get enough of these — and nor can those I make them for. Yes, they are…

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Cheesy Feet

I have mentioned my cookie-cutter collection elsewhere, and knowing of children's predilection for the grosser things in life, how could I resist — when given a set of foot-shaped cutters by a friend…

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Thai Crumbled Beef in Lettuce Wraps

One of the joys of this is how easy and quick it is to make. You may need to be rather brutal with the lettuce as you tear the leaves off to provide the edible wrappers for the beef, which is why I sp…

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Peanut Butter Hummus

Peanut butter hummus doesn't have an elegant ring to it, but elegant is exactly what this is. Rather than using tahini, which is in effect sesame butter, I use peanut butter. Although I think this ver…

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Bar Nuts

You might think that nuts, untampered with, are perfect picking food as they are, and up to a point you'd be right. But try these, modestly adapted from the recipe for the spiced nuts served at the Un…

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Quesadillas

Just thinking of these makes me salivate: these toasted sandwiches have the perfect more-ish mixture between thin crisp crust and gooey yielding middle. What's more, they're pretty well instant to mak…

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Roquamole

Although I have called this incredible blue cheese and avocado dip roquamole, I actually make it with St Agur rather than Roquefort. But do feel free to use any blue cheese you want, of course, bearin…

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This is the best dip ever! Try it and you’ll be hooked for life.

Parmesan Shortbreads

This is an Italian-inspired recipe that comes to me from Australia via Brazil. To explain: a Brazilian friend, and the best cook I know, Helio Fenerich made it for me, and I had to keep (rudely) askin…

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Cheese Stars

This is a new variant of an old and easy party favourite. The dough is mixed up in the processor and rolls out easily. It may crack a bit for the first roll-out, but just resquidge together and roll o…

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Bacon Brownies

I don’t deny bacon in brownies sounds weird, but it does really work in a quite straightforward way. Even people who shrink from the very idea find the actual outcome all-too-compelling. I like to use…

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Coxinha

Although a regular coxinha is more the size and shape of a bulbous, dumpy pear, these are mini versions, like fat little figs, and you can get a fabulous 70 of these emblematically Brazilian chicken c…

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Soccermole

In celebration of the World Cup, and as tradition decrees, I suggest by way of a sofa-side snack my Soccermole. This, you won't be surprised to learn, is a version of Guacamole, by way of my proudest…

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Baci Di Ricotta

I don't deny that having to stand stoveside frying 30 teaspoons of ricotta at the end of dinner is a slight drawback, but these are so good, I really do think it's worth it. Besides, there's no gettin…

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Forgotten Cookies

These little cookies — described by one friend as tasting like a cookie within a cookie — are really a mixture between a meringue and a cookie. Hence they've become known at home, where they're immens…

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Baklava

This is so temple-achingly sweet that one small marked-out diamond, or maybe two, is enough. But even so, I love its perfumed sugariness — as much as I love the tender, rose-shot green of its equally…

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I felt like I was transported somewhere else when I first ate these...

Brownies

I don't know why people don't make Birthday Brownies all the time — they're so easy and so wonderful. Brownies are much quicker to make than a cake, and they look so beautiful piled up in a rough-and-…

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Christmas Rocky Road

It’s not that I felt my usual Rocky Road Crunch Bars needed any improvement (though fiddling with recipes is one of life’s pleasures) but I thought they would benefit from some seasonal adjustment. So…

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Rocky Road Crunch Bars

If ever there were questions raised about the need for Rich Tea biscuits, then Rocky Road would be all the answer required. A doddle to make, and easily transportable, a batch of these has saved me of…

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Star-Topped Mince Pies

This is the way I make my mince pies, and there is no changing me or them: they are small, to be popped straight into the mouth in one go; the pastry is plain, the better to contrast with the rich, fr…

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Chocolate Peanut-Butter Cups

These are really a homespun version of the famous Reese’s confection of the same name, embellished with gold to give a touch of glitz. Pressing the peanut butter layer into the petit-four cases is not…

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Christmas Puddini Bonbons

These are delectable little bonbons made by mixing up cooked and cooled Christmas pudding (see Additional Information below), liquor, syrup and melted chocolate, rolling them into small balls, then dr…

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Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

I am willing to believe that a confectioner wouldn't call this proper fudge, but it tastes divine, and you won't need a sugar thermometer or have to test for frightening soft or hard ball stages. I li…

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Lunchbox Treats

It's a long time since I popped one of these crunchy, crisp, sweet and chewy treats into a lunchbox, but I have a great residual fondness for them, and not just because they taste compellingly like se…

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Panettone Stuffing Squares

I have written a recipe for panettone stuffing before: the sweet seasonal fruit bread was cubed, toasted and mixed with Italian sausage; this is very different, not least because I see it not as an ac…

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Vanilla Fudge

For some reason this is known in the Antipodes (and I got this recipe from a Kiwi) as Russian Fudge and, although I like this name better, I feel that it perhaps leads the rest of us to expect somethi…

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