Every Thursday I volunteer with Swindon Young Carers, helping at a group for 12-18 year olds, giving them a break from home. Usually that involves cooking, with some of them helping out.

The challenge is finding things to make that teenagers will eat, can provide enough for up to 30 people, is ready in just over an hour, and comes in at about an £8 budget. Oh and did I mention the main oven doesn't work so I have to cook in batches in the top oven?

These absolutely fitted the bill. The dough takes no time at all and you can put anything you like in the centre - with the Young Carers I used Rolos for a gooey caramel centre, though here I've used milk chocolate.

The biscuit has a real chocolate hit but isn't that sweet. The most important thing is to not over cook them, so that whatever you put in the middle stays melty and creates the 'ooze' of the title.

Ingredients:

60g of light muscavado sugar
100g of butter
1 tbsp of golden syrup
125g of self raising flour
25g cocoa
Pinch of baking powder
10 squares of Dairy Milk chocolate

How to make it:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.

2. Cream the sugar and butter together to make a smooth paste.

3. Add the golden syrup and stir.

4. Add the flour, cocoa and baking powder.

5. Mix to a dough either with a food processor or your hands, until it comes together.

6. Roll the dough into a sausage shape and divide into 10 pieces.

7. Take a piece of dough, flatten it with your thumbs, then mould into a ball around a square of chocolate. It's important that the dough doesn't have any gaps that the chocolate could leak out of.

8. Arrange the balls on a baking tray covered in greaseproof paper - don't flatten them.

9. Put them in the oven for 8 minutes. They won't look like they're cooked but if you leave them in a heart-beat too long they'll be hard.

10. Leave them on the baking tray for 10 mins once they're out of the oven, then move to a cooling rack (if you can wait that long).

I don't remember why I call this French Chicken. There doesn't seem much French about it - it might be because it reminds me a bit of Petit Pois a la Francais. Anyway, that's what I always think of it as, so that's what I'm calling it.

I never really cooked until I moved in with my husband. When we started living together we'd cook from scratch only occasionally, but over time we found that anything we bought pre-made didn't live up to making it ourselves, and now we divide the week's cooking between us. The downside is that we normally spend up to an hour and a half in the kitchen after a day at work. So it's great when a recipe is really quick to put together but still has bags of flavour.

Husband isn't currently eating lactose, so I have tried substituting the creme fraiche for lactose free cream, which tasted the same but did give a thinner sauce.

If you can, use pancetta lardons rather than bacon as they tend to make it a bit salty.

Ingredients:

100g pancetta lardons
400g sliced chicken breast
1 tsp garlic purée
4-5 shallots finely diced
200ml chicken stock
100ml white wine
2 tsp thyme
250g frozen peas
1 little gem lettuce shredded
4 dessert spoons half fat creme fraiche

How to make it:

1. Fry the pancetta until it starts to crisp, then add the shallot.

2. Turn the heat down and allow the shallot to soften but not brown.

3. Turn the heat back up, add the stock, wine, garlic and thyme and stir.

4. Allow to bubble for a few minutes, then turn the heat right down and add the chicken.

5. Cover and allow the chicken to gently poach in the liquor for about 5 mins.

6. Add the peas and lettuce and leave on the heat for another 5 mins.

7. Stir through the creme fraiche and check the taste - season only if needed.

8. Serve with crusty bread to soak up all the lovely juices.

We very rarely have dessert in our house, mainly because our lack of portion control means there's no room for it at the end of a meal.

But my mum gave me a jar of Aldi Grandessa Blackcurrant Conserve which was delicious, full of fruit and not too sweet. The question was, how to make best use of it? So I knocked up these little puds.

Really you could use anything in the bottom - different jams, some fruit, custard, anything you've got hanging about. The sponge is the work of minutes and you could sprinkle the top with different nuts, coconut etc.

So, a doddle to make and husband absolutely loved it - can't ask for more than that.

Ingredients:

6 dessert spoons of conserve
85g soft butter
85g soft light brown sugar
5 tbsp beaten egg
85g self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
2 tbsp chopped hazelnuts

How to make it:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4.

2. Lightly grease 4 small ramekins and put 1½ dessert spoons of jam in the bottom of each.

3. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and cream until smooth.

4. Add the egg, flour and baking powder and beat well.

5. Spoon the mixture carefully over the jam, smoothing out the top and scatter the nuts.

6. Bake for 20mins, then cover loosely with foil to stop the top burning and cook for a further 20mins.

7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10mins before eating as the jam will be molten.

One of my favourite things to make for Friday Night Curry is pork vindaloo.

I spent a relaxing holiday in Goa a few years ago - it was very different to lots of the other parts of India I'd visited, a much more easy going than the big cities. The food was also delicious. There's a big cashew industry, so you find a lot of them in dishes. I also got to visit a spice farm and it was really interesting to see things like pepper and nutmeg growing - and made me realise just how little I actually know about where spices come from.

The Portuguese influence is very obvious in Goa and it's said that vindaloo has its roots in a Portuguese dish: Carne de Vinha d' Alhos, pork cooked with wine and garlic. Vindaloo subsitutes wine vinegar for wine, which gives a lovely tang against the sweet pork.

Although pork is more common, it's also traditional to make it with duck, with gives a similar sweetness. If I'm making this with pork shoulder, I would normally marinate the pork in the spice paste for a couple of hours first but there's really no need to do that with duck.

Ingredients:

2 duck legs
1 tsp cumin seeds
5 black peppercorns
Seeds from 2 cardamom pods
2 cloves
1 tsp corriander seeds
Half tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ginger puree
1 tsp garlic paste
Half tsp chilli flakes
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 finely chopped onion
1 tin chopped tomato
1 tsp muscovado sugar
1 tsp black mustard seeds
A handful of unsalted cashews

How to make it:

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 180c/gas 4

2.  Season the duck legs with salt and pepper, place skin up on a baking tray and roast for 1 hour 30 mins.

3.  Grind the cumin, peppercorns, cardamom, cloves and corriander with a pestle and mortar until fine.

4.  Put half the onion, ground spices, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, chilli and vinegar in a blender and blend to produce a smooth paste.

5.  Fry the other half of the onion until golden brown.

6.  Add the spice paste and fry until the oil starts to come out but don't let it burn.

7.  Add the tomato and sugar, cover and simmer on mimimum heat for 40mins.

8.  Remove the duck from the oven and allow to rest for at least 30mins.

9.  Taste the sauce and adjust the sugar/vinegar/chilli balance as needed.

10.  Remove the duck meat from the bones - try and keep it quite chunky if you can.

11.  Stir the duck into the sauce and let it warm through.

12.  Meanwhile, in a separate pan add a little oil and fry the mustard seeds until they pop.

13.  Add the cashews and fry until they turn golden brown - keep them moving or they will burn.

14.  Add the cashew/mustard seed/oil mix straight into the sauce and stir.

15. Serve immediately with rice or bread.

I love a new ingredient. I like to see something, think 'I have no idea what to do with that' and buy it anyway.

That's exactly what happened with Pomegrante Molasses. Having bought it, I needed to find a recipe to use it in. As luck would have it, there in the Sainsburys magazine was a Bill Granger recipe for duck legs with Pomegrante Molasses and walnuts. I adapted it a little as I preferred to roast the duck to crisp up the skin, rather than cook it in the sauce. The tangy pomegranate molasses is nicely balanced by the sugar and the nuts - adjust the quantities to suit your own taste.

I first tried this after a walk in the park on a cold sunny November Sunday. Well, I say a walk in the park, I walked for a bit then husband and small dog left me on a bench with my Kindle while they did a few more circuits (I think I was holding them back). This was the perfect dish to come back to with rosy cheeks and big appetites.

Ingredients:

2 duck legs

For the sauce:
Half an onion finely sliced
Squeeze of garlic purée
Half a cinnamon stick
Zest of half an orange
100ml of pomegranate juice
100ml chicken stock
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1 tbsp light muscavado sugar
50g walnuts, toasted and chopped

For the lentils:
Half an onion finely sliced
100g chorizo diced small
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp parsley
1 tin chopped tomato
1 tin puy lentils
Salt and pepper

How to make it:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180c/gas 4.

2. Season the duck legs and place skin up in a roasting tray. Roast for 1 hour 30mins.

3. In a frying pan fry half a sliced onion for about 8 mins until it's golden.

4. Stir in the cinnamon stick, orange zest, pomegranate juice, stock and garlic. Bring to a simmer.

5. Reduce to a low heat, cover with a lid and cook for about 1 hour.

6. In the meantime, fry the second half of the onion with the chorizo in a separate pan until the onion is soft.

7. Add the thyme, parsley, tomato and lentils. Season to taste and cook on a gentle heat for about 30 mins.

8. Remove the cinnamon stick from the sauce and add the sugar and pomegranate molasses.

9. Turn up the heat and bubble for about 10 mins until it's thick and syrupy. Add the walnuts and stir lightly to coat in the sauce.

10. Serve the duck leg on a bed of the lentils and drizzle liberally with the sauce. You could also serve a jug of extra sauce on the side for those who want it (me).

Recipe adapted from Bill Granger for Sainsburys Magazine.

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas food as much as the next girl - mince pies, turkey, Xmas pud, the lot. But if you're looking for a new recipe to try at this time of year it's all a bit samey - there's only so many things you can do with mincemeat.

Husband was off to his Christmas party, so I wanted to find something interesting to make that would taste great but not take too much effort, as there was likely to be some naughty puppy behaviour to contend with.

This certainly hit the spot. I've recently been mesmerised by Yotam Ottolenghi's Mediterranean series. It's impossible not to be engaged by his passion for flavours and the dishes don't rely on time consuming techniques - the ingredients speak for themselves.

I've tweaked it a bit, mainly as I didn't have fresh herbs but I also used roast peppers from a jar to cut down the cooking time. It's quite a simple recipe but the flavours are beautifully intense.

This dish is traditionally for breakfast but I'd be more than happy to have it any time of day. Maybe twice.

Ingredients:

1 tsp cumin seeds
Oil
1 large onion sliced
100g chorizo cut into small pieces
4 large roast peppers cut into 2cm strips
1 tsp muscovado sugar
2 bay leaves
2 tsp thyme
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tin chopped tomatoes
½ tsp saffron threads

A pinch cayenne pepper
Up to 250ml water
6 free-range eggs
salt and black pepper

How to make it:

1. In a very large pan dry-roast the cumin seeds on a high heat for 2 minutes.

2. Add the oil, chorizo and onions and sauté for 5 minutes.

3. Add the peppers, sugar and herbs and continue cooking on a high heat for a few minutes.

4. Add the tomatoes, garlic, saffron, cayenne and some salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. During the cooking, keep adding water so that the mix has a passata consistency.

5. Taste and adjust the seasoning. It should be potent and flavoursome.

6. Remove the bay leaves, then divide the pepper mix between 2 deep frying pans, each large enough to take a generous individual portion.

7. Place them on a medium heat to warm up, then make three gaps in the pepper mix in each pan and carefully break an egg into each gap.

8. Sprinkle with salt and cover the pans with lids. Cook on a very(!) gentle heat for 10-12 minutes, or until the eggs are just set. Sprinkle with extra parsley and serve.

Recipe from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

I don't think there's anything I like making more than cake. If it comes to that, there's nothing I like to eat more than cake. There's something so satisfying about food that is unashamedly about enjoying it with no pretence of nutritional value.

I was stuck in the house for the day looking after our 10 month old border terrier who had been neutered the day before (ouch). It seemed a good opportunity to do some baking, but not having planned it, ingredients were thin on the ground.

Having a root around the fridge, I found a half-full jar of homemade marmalade that someone had given us. Score! These came out a treat. Ah, the serendipity of cake.

You can also use this recipe to make invidual cakes using rectangular mini loaf cases from ASDA.

Ingredients:

The cake:
170g room temp butter
170g caster sugar
6 tbs thick cut marmalade
2 medium beaten eggs
225g self raising flour

The topping:
225g icing sugar
5-6 tbs lemon juice
About 50g candied peel

How to make it:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.

2. Grease and line a shallow traybake tin with grease proof paper.

3. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and smooth with an electric whisk or mixer (or by hand if you're a masochist).

4. Add the marmalade and mix in thoroughly.

5. Beat in the flour a third at a time.

6. Slowly beat in the eggs until the mixture becomes a smooth batter.

7. Spread the mixture evenly into the tin and bake for about 20-25mins, until the top is golden and a cocktail stick comes out clean.

8. Let it cool in the tin for 10mins then move to a baking rack to cool completely.

9. Whisk the icing sugar, adding the lemon juice a tablespoon at a time, until you get a smooth paste.

10. When the cake is completely cool, spread the icing evenly over the top.

11. Sprinkle with the candied peel as generously as you like.

12. Allow the icing to firm up a bit, then cut into squares.

It's National Curry week which is a good enough reason to have a curry. But at our house every Friday is curry night. My husband and I take it in turns to whip up a spicy feast and it always says 'hurrah the weekend has started!'

I wasn't really a fan of Indian food until I spent quite a bit of time there. I haven't by any means seen all of India but have been to Delhi, Mumbai, Agra, Shimla, Amritsar, Goa and Dharamshala amongst others, so I have tried different styles of food. I also spent 5 weeks teaching English in a slum school in Jaipur, staying in a £10 a night hotel with an amazing vegetarian  restaurant.

Making a curry every week means we spend a lot of time looking for different recipes and this is one of our favourites. Xacutti is a curry from Goa and makes the most of toasted spices and the tang of tamarind.

Last week I spent the weekend in Portugal with girlfriends and, tiring of endless menus of steak and fish, we went for an excellent Indian (check out Masala if you're ever in Cascais).

I was surprised to see Xacutti on the menu, as it's not a dish that you'd usually find on a menu in the UK, but it makes sense as Goa was formerly a Portuguese colony. The dish incorporates coconut flesh, as so many Goan dishes do, and toasting the spices before grinding gives it a really deep earthy flavour.

Ingredients:

Marinade
Squeeze of garlic purée
Squeeze of ginger purée
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp tamarind paste
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1/2 tsp chilli powder
450g diced chicken breast

Masala mix
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1/2 tbsp poppy seeds
1/4 tsp chilli flakes
1tsp cloves
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tbsp grated coconut
1tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp peanuts

Sauce
1 onion very finely chopped
1 tbsp grated coconut
400g tin chopped tomato
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Method:

1. Mix all the marinade ingredients together and smother the diced chicken thoroughly with the mixture. Leave while you prepare the masala.

2. Heat a frying pan (no oil) and add all the masala ingredients. If you don't want it so warm, leave out the chilli flakes. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and swirl the spices around in the hot pan until they are toasted and fragrant. Make sure they don't burn, especially the smaller sesame and poppy seeds.

3. Remove the spices and wipe the pan clean with kitchen towel.

4. Grind the spices using either a coffee grinder or a pestle and mortar. If you're doing it manually, make sure you spend enough time so that the spices are all finely ground - biting into a whole clove or peppercorn will be a nasty surprise later.

5. Fry the onion in a tbsp of oil until it softens, then add the ground spice mix and fry for a few minutes.

6. Add the tomato a little at a time to stop the temperature dropping and then add the cinnamon.

7. Add the marinated chicken and the extra coconut.

8. Cook for 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked. If it starts to dry out too much, add splashes of warm water.

9. Check the seasoning and add some salt to bring out the flavours if needed.

9. Served sprinkled with some extra peanuts and some rice or chappatti.

No, not fatty in the house, though that is a bit how I feel after 10 days on the Amalfi coast eating, drinking and sitting about in the sun.
 
'Fatti in casa' is Italian for homemade, and there was no end of homemade deliciousness to be had in this part of Italy. Luckily, staying in Positano there were also a lot of steps to climb on a daily basis, which meant it was easier to justify three course lunches and afternoon gelato. Difficult to choose what I enjoyed the most, but here are my top 5 food delights of   Positano.

A hotel and restaurant right on the beach front (Buca di Bacco means 'wine cellar'). We ate in the ground floor restaurant on a couple of nights but the star was the first floor terrace for drinks and lunch - shady with sea views and great pasta.

Dave had a vibrant trofie pasta with pesto and sundried tomato which I wished I’d had, the pesto was so green tasting, as well as looking. My favourite was this spaghetti with meatballs (pictured). The pasta was salty as the sea, with a fresh tomato sauce and two
huge flavour-packed meaty meatballs.

It's true that cake will figure in my top 5 of
anywhere or anything. Positano was certainly a paradise of handmade cake. Sfogliatina, crostata di frutta, capricciosa, rum babas - the list goes on.

I loved the delizia, which you find in most places in a sharp lemon version (lemon features very heavily on the Amalfi Coast). This version (pictured) in pistachio is from La Zagara bakery: fluffy pistachio sponge filled with cream, covered in pistachio butter icing. La Zagara was open with live music in the evening,  so you could have late night cocktails and cake. Bliss.

Yes, I know that cake has already featured, but it's only part of the story here. Bar Internazionale is a tiny bar open all day and night, which we found on our way from the apartment to the bus stop. The cake was
great, I particularly enjoyed a tiny pie filled with custard and black cherry, and the cornetto al cioccolato (pictured) which was even better dunked in the cappuccino.

And what a cappuccino. Served by a slightly surly coffee maestro behind a bar, I've never had a better tasting coffee anywhere.

Our first day in Positano was also our first wedding anniversary.  My husband made it a truly memorable one by booking dinner at La Sponda, the
Michelin starred restaurant at Le Sirenuse hotel.

One of the reasons I've always wanted to visit Positano is the film Only You with Marissa Tomei and
Robert Downey Jr (the number of times I've seen it has gone into double figures). But it was only when my husband mentioned the swimming pool behind us
that I realised it was the actual hotel used in the film. Yes, I was schoolgirl excited.

Some of the food would be best described as 'interesting but challenging' - the prawns pictured were on a bed of chopped baby squid in what I can only describe as slime. Other dishes were delicious though; green plums with almond ice-cream were beautiful.

They also made us a special anniversary dessert of very dark chocolate tart with raspberries and the musicians played The Wedding March while they carried it to our table.

That's where La Sponda really comes into its own. The service has the magic touch and you feel thoroughly spoilt every moment of the evening.

And the setting is stunning, perched high on the hills,
looking out at the sea and the lights of Positano. It was an incredibly romantic  way to spend our anniversary.

My only regret about Next2 is that we didn't find it until the last three days of our holiday - though we did still manage to fit in two visits.

I'd read a couple of reviews saying that it wasn't the place to go for authentic Italy but I totally disagree, it uses all local ingredients, and the menu is based around local specialities but usually with a more modern twist. This made for fresh, stunning dishes.

It's hard to pick a favourite dish but with a gun to my head I'd probably say this starter (pictured). I had it on both occasions because it was just so good. Courgette flowers were stuffed full of a mix of ricotta and mozzarella and served on very fine julienne of raw fennel and carrot.

My main courses on both nights were beautifully full of flavour.

The first night I had the ravioli stuffed with cabbage and ham in a parmesan sauce with shaved truffle. The strong flavour of the cabbage was a magnificent hit against the softness of the sauce and pasta.

The second night I had the pumpkin soup with porcini and a ricotta gnocchi (pictured). Again the balance between the smoky porcini, earthy pumpkin and sweet ricotta was perfect.

And oh I love a good dessert. This simple but fabulous concoction (pictured) was vanilla ice-cream and slivers of poached peaches layered between the thinnest, crispest pastry, liberally sprinkled with icing sugar and a drizzle of raspberry sauce. Right up there with a peach melba I once had at The Fishes in Oxford as best dessert ever.

The wines were beautiful, the service bang on and the candle-lit courtyard setting stylish and romantic. 

Definitely my number one food experience in Positano - though god knows there was a lot of competition. Torna a Positano? I absolutely hope so.

There is nothing more satisfying than making cake. Well, maybe eating cake, but making it comes a close second.

For my birthday I asked my  husband to buy me a food mixer – beautiful metallic red and shiny. As always, he didn’t disappoint me and I couldn’t wait to try it out. 

This recipe was originally for gooseberries but the supermarket didn’t have any. They did however have some lovely plump blackberries and they worked a treat.

It did turn out a bit too moist, which made it tricky to eat, so I’ve also cut down the amount of drizzle – I guess it depends on how juicy your oranges are though!

Ingredients:

225g softened butter, plus extra for the tin
225g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
4 large eggs
Grated zest of an orange
The juice of half the orange
200g blackberries
70g caster sugar

How to make it:


1. Heat the oven to 180C or gas 4. 

2. Butter and line a 20 x 30cm traybake tin with baking parchment. 

3. Put the butter, larger amount of caster sugar, flour, eggs and orange zest in a bowl. 

4. Beat thoroughly with an electric whisk or mixer until creamy and smooth. 

5. Stir in the blackberries, then spoon into the tin and level  the surface. 

6. Bake for 35mins until a cocktail stick inserted into the cake comes out clean. 

7. Prick the cake all over with the cocktail stick to allow the drizzle to drip through.

8. Stir the juice of half the orange into the smaller amount of castor sugar.

9. Spoon the liquid over the surface of the warm cake and leave to cool for 10mins in the tin. 

10. Take the cake out of the tin by the parchment and allow to  cool on a cooling rack.

11. Cut into squares once properly cool.


Recipe from Good Food