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Authentic Cajun Gumbo

Authentic Cajun Gumbo

The "everything" Louisiana gumbo, chicken thighs, andouille, lump crab and shrimp all in one pot, and the dish where the technique matters more than the recipe. The roux is the single defining step and the line between Cajun gumbo and every other stew on earth: a full cup of oil and a full cup of flour cooked at medium-low for around 30 minutes, stirred without stopping, until the colour goes from blond to peanut butter to milk chocolate to dark chocolate. That's not flavour theatre; the long-cooked roux produces a deeply nutty, slightly bitter, profoundly savoury base that thickens the gumbo and gives it the distinctive almost-charred note no shortcut can replicate. Around the roux: the Cajun "holy trinity" of onion, bell pepper and celery; filé powder (ground sassafras leaves) added off heat as a second thickener; okra adding a third (and contributing its own slight slip); plus the four proteins, each adding a different layer. Flavour is dark, smoky, herbaceous, and slightly briny from the seafood. Smell is the roux toasting. Not difficult on technique but tremendously demanding on patience and attention; 30 minutes of unbroken stirring is the gateway, and if you walk away or rush it the roux burns and you start over. A dish that runs deep through Cajun and Creole Louisiana, with origins in the French settlers, the Choctaw (who contributed filé), West Africans (who contributed okra), and Spanish colonial traditions of Louisiana from the 1700s onwards.

Cajun 1 hour 45 minutes Serves8-10
Gai Yang

Gai Yang

Gai yang ("grilled chicken") is one of the cornerstones of Isaan cooking, the cuisine of north-eastern Thailand that has spread across the whole country and into Thai restaurants worldwide. The defining flavour is coriander root, an ingredient barely used in Western cooking but central to Thai marinades. Pounded in a granite mortar with garlic, white peppercorns and a pinch of salt, it forms an aromatic paste that's then mixed with fish sauce, oyster sauce and a touch of sugar. The chicken is butterflied (spatchcocked) so it lies flat on the grill, marinated for at least 4 hours, then cooked slowly over moderate charcoal. The proper Isaan technique is patient: 30 minutes or more, turning often, sometimes pressed flat between two bamboo splints, so the skin slowly crisps and the meat takes on smoke without burning. The flavour is savoury-funky from fish sauce, peppery-warm from white pepper, deeply garlic-and-herb from the paste, with no chilli in the marinade itself; heat comes from the dipping sauce. Difficulty is low for the home cook: a good mortar or a small food processor makes the paste in 2 minutes, butterflying a chicken is a single cut down the backbone, and any covered grill or kettle does the cooking. Eaten by hand with balls of sticky rice and dipped into nam jim jaew, the toasted-rice-and-tamarind dipping sauce.

Thai 5 hours Serves4
Ohn No Khao Swè

Ohn No Khao Swè

Myanmar's coconut-chicken noodle soup, the dish closest in spirit to a Thai khao soi but with its own Burmese identity. You poach chicken thighs in stock with shallot, garlic, ginger and turmeric for twenty-five minutes, lift them out and shred the meat. The stock cooks down with coconut milk, fish sauce and paprika, thickened with a slurry of chickpea flour and water into a silky soup. Yellow egg noodles cook separately. Everything piles into the bowl at the end: noodles first, soup ladled over, shredded chicken in the middle, then heaping garnishes (sliced shallot, crispy fried shallot, halved boiled egg, lime wedges, cilantro, chilli flakes). The garnishes are half the dish; eat with chopsticks in one hand and a spoon in the other.

Burmese 1 hour 15 minutes Serves4
Thai Red Curry

Thai Red Curry

Gaeng phed gai, this classic Thai red curry features tender chicken simmered in a rich, aromatic coconut sauce infused with homemade red curry paste. The chilli paste that forms the basis of this dish has superb flavour and is worth making in quantity, as it's useful in all sorts of spicy dishes. Taking the extra time to pound herbs and spices using a mortar and pestle releases their fragrances perfectly, creating an authentic, restaurant-quality curry.

Thai 45 minutes Serves4-6
Tom Yum Gai Soup (Hot and Sour Chicken Soup)

Tom Yum Gai Soup (Hot and Sour Chicken Soup)

When you go out for Thai food this is sure to be on the menu. I love the spiciness of this soup, you get a good hit of spice but it doesn’t linger. Some chefs add sugar to it but, for me, this is a spicy, savoury and tart soup with only a hint of natural sweetness from the fried shallots and tomatoes. Do, of course, taste the soup and adjust the flavour to your liking, adding sugar if you want. It makes a delicious starter but you could bulk it up by adding other ingredients such as noodles to make it a light main. The word ‘gai’ means chicken, so this is a chicken tom yum soup. You could substitute prawn (shrimp) stock and prawns to make a delicious tom yum goong, or go vegetarian and use water and tofu.

Soups 30 minutes Serves4-6
Vietnamese Chicken Curry

Vietnamese Chicken Curry

A fragrant Vietnamese curry that blends French colonial influences with traditional Southeast Asian spicing. This dish showcases the Vietnamese love of balance, aromatic spices like star anise, cardamom, and cinnamon partner with earthy lemongrass and fresh chillies. The result is a warm, comforting curry with subtle sweetness and complex layered flavours. Even though Vietnam was colonized by the French, the traditional cuisine has more in common with their Chinese neighbours.

Vietnamese 45 minutes Serves4