Ingredient of the week

Each week we bring you an ingredient that we think is worth highlighting to help your cooking, with recipe suggestions too

Root for this season's un-beet-able vegetable

July marks the beginning of the bountiful beetroot season in the UK. Crammed full of goodness, flavour and bold colour, beetroot should be your one-stop root vegetable for sweet and...

They're more than a side dish: Pea recipes and cooking tips

Morcilla: The Spanish black pudding

Ingredient of the week: kale

Ingredient of the week: blood orange

Smaller than your usual orange, the blood orange does not lack in taste what it lacks in size. Its deep crimson, almost sanguine colour is caused by the presence of anthocyanins – pigments frequently...

Ingredient of the week: lemongrass

It might seem a little odd to go from Christmas and New Year’s eating, the hams and turkeys, roast potatoes, bubble and squeak and Christmas pudding straight into lemongrass. But the leap is a simple...

Ingredient of the week: sprouts

A relative of the cabbage (a descendant of the wild variety), debate rages over the Brussels sprout. Some love their hint of bitterness, leafy flesh and healthy bite; others detest these same faculties...

Ingredient of the week: turkey

So you can have a rib of beef, a shoulder of pork, a leg of lamb or even some game; but would it really be Christmas without the turkey? Debates rage – the bird is too big! It’s much drier...

Ingredient of the week: the leek

An essential ingredient in any stock pot, the leek is a huge giver of flavour and an under-rated and under-used veg. A member of the allium family, the similarities it shares with its relatives, onions,...

Ingredient of the week: Chinese Broccoli

It might seem an odd choice, but our resident food blogger won’t stop going on about the stuff after what sounds like a tip top tasting experience. Chinese broccoli aka kai lan is eaten across China...

Ingredient of the week: squid

It’s an odd concept to think of sea dwellers as seasonal, but as with things above sea level, seasons affect things beneath the surface too. Squid are in season – the tasty cephalopods...

Ingredient of the week: Glorious grouse

Grouse heralds the start of the game season – the Glorious 12th, the 12th of August, is the first day of the shooting season for red grouse. If the weather is anything to go by, Autumn is definitely...

Ingredient of the week: blackberries

These beautiful black baubles are a forager's favourite - indeed, anyone with an afternoon going spare and a park nearby can head off with a tupperware box and collect a bounty. And then home for pie...

Ingredient of the week: courgette

The humble courgette, aka the zucchini if you happen to be from across the pond or down under or the zuccina if you happen to be an Italian, is an easy to grow at home but wonderfully versatile veg. This...

Ingredient of the week: crab

The crab must rank as one of the kings of the sea. More interesting than his crustacean counterpart, the lobster, crabs are less expensive and arguably more flavoursome by a long shot. The pincer...

Ingredient of the week: squid

After several days on the Spanish coast, our Byte to Savour food blogger can’t keep shtum about squid. This versatile cephalopod is best eaten, where possible, with your feet in the sand and the...

Ingredient of the week: runner beans

These slender green beauties have been grown in South America for over two millennia and are amongst the favourite of Summer vegetables. They lends themselves to light, fresh salads alongside a barbecue...

Ingredient of the week: Stilton cheese

Stilton is one of the quintessential English cheeses alongside a few well known friends. It can only be produced in the three counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire and must be made...

Gizzi Erskine's pork chops with sage and stilton

Ingredients (Serves 4) 1 tbs olive oil Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 4 pork loin chops 8 fresh sage leaves 1 ripe pear, cored, halved and sliced into 12 150g...

Ingredient of the week: sweet summer strawberries

Eating strawberries in the middle of winter can bring a little ray of sunshine to a cold day – but their flavour is only so sweet because they’ve been absent for so long. The perfect...