Author: Menu Mistress

Cooking has always been something I've enjoyed, I have an extensive collection of cookbooks, some are well thumbed whilst others collect dust on the shelves; I can’t bear to get rid of any cook book, just in case one day I might use it for that one obscure recipe - light on a rainy day! I enjoy eating out and discovering new flavours, whether it’s just a local haunt or a ‘dress up’ to dinner restaurant - food is my hobby! In my opinion food is the one of the most important pieces of knowledge you need to know about any culture in order to really understand it, so when we go away, it’s not the local sights that I’m googling but the best place to eat! I'm not one of those fortunate cooks who can throw something together by looking at the contents of their fridge, I need a plan to work with, then I organise my fridge around the recipe. I am however a very organised person, you might even call me a control freak! I love the orderly fashion of a recipe, I find it soothing to have a plan in front of me, so the thought of trawling through my recipe books and trying new recipes is my idea of a perfect afternoon. But I realise that this is not everyones idea of fun, hence the birth of this blog. This blog is essentially for people who adore food but don’t have the time, patience or energy to search through cook books to find that winning recipe – that’s the job of Menu Mistress!

‘Blast From the Past’ Recipe

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Linguine with Asparagus and Prosecco (Serves 4)

I thought that with the summer days getting shorter and our need to make the most of them it would be a good idea to share this wonderfully simple recipe from Skye McAlpine’s cookbook ‘A Table in Venice’ (I first shared it back in the summer of 2021). As she herself says, cooking with Prosecco always seems rather extravagant, but the delicacy of Prosecco definitely lends something extra special to the sauce. I also use Prosecco when I cook ‘Spaghetti Vongole’ (recipe here), as it gives the sauce a lightness (from the bubbles) and a subtle sweetness. You could, of course, use white wine instead of Prosecco, but do try it with Prosecco at some point. The mini bottles of Prosecco are perfect for this recipe, or of course you could get a full bottle and enjoy the remainder of the bottle with your meal!

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

400g asparagus, trimmed and cut into 3 cm lengths

100ml Prosecco

Handful of parsley, chopped

400g linguine (gluten free if required)

30g butter

30g parmesan cheese, grated

Sea salt and black pepper

  1. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat, then add the onion and a generous pinch of salt. Cook, stirring over a low-medium heat for 5-10 minutes until softened but not coloured.
  2. Add the asparagus and Prosecco, and season with salt and pepper.
  3. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the Prosecco has evaporated and the asparagus is tender (if it is not quite cooked by the time that the liquid has evaporated add a splash of water and cook for a little longer). Finally stir in the parsley.
  4. Meanwhile cook the linguine according to the packet instructions, until al dente. Just before draining the pasta, scoop out about half a cup of cooking water and set to one side.
  5. Drain the pasta, toss it back into the pan and add a good splash of the reserved cooking water to ‘loosen’ it. Little by little stir in the butter. Finally add the asparagus mixture, give everything a good stir and serve topped with grated Parmesan cheese.

Cocktail of the Month

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White Lady Cocktail (Serves 1)

A classic and for good reason. With its lemony overtones it’s a rather refreshing cocktail – great for a summers day!..

1 coin sized piece of lemon peel

45ml gin

22.5ml Cointreau

22.5ml lemon juice

10ml sugar syrup

10ml egg white

Handful of ice

A twist of lemon to garnish

  1. Squeeze the lemon peel over a cocktail shaker to express its oils and discard. Add the gin, Cointreau, lemon juice, sugar syrup and egg white, and shake with ice, then strain back into the shaker and shake again without ice (‘dry shake’).
  2. Finally, strain into a cocktail glass, garnish with a twist of lemon and enjoy!

Tuesday Treat

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Lemon & Honey Clotted Cream Ice Cream with Flapjack Crumble (No Churn)

This is my new favourite ice cream. Thanks to the clotted cream it’s particularly creamy whilst the hint of honey and lemon makes it very moreish plus of course there’s the subtle crunch from the flapjack crumble. It’s an all-round winner, suitably sophisticated for adults and sweet enough for kids!..

300ml double cream

225ml clotted cream

1 x 397g tin of condensed milk

Zest of one lemon

Juice of half a lemon

3 tablespoons runny honey

5 tablespoons cut comb honey, crumbled into chunks

For the Flapjack Crumble:

3 tablespoons plain flour (gluten-free if required)

30g rolled oats

25g desiccated coconut

3 tablespoons golden syrup

3 tablespoons butter, melted

¼ teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary (optional)

Pinch of salt

  1. First of all make the crumble. Mix the ingredients together in a bowl then spread roughly onto a lined baking sheet. Cook in a preheated oven, 180’c fan, for 10 minutes then stir and bake for a further 5-10 minutes until golden. Let cool.
  2. Meanwhile, Whisk the cream until stiff peaks begin to form (take care not to over whip as you want the texture to be smooth).
  3. Fold the condensed milk into the cream, then add the clotted cream, lemon juice, zest and honey and fold all the ingredients together. Finally, gently mix in the honey comb.
  4. Pour the mixture into a freezer-safe container and cover with a lid. Place in a freezer for 20 minutes then sprinkle over the flapjack crumble and leave to firm up in the freezer overnight.
  5. Scoop to serve straight from the freezer.

July 2025

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I think you’re going to love this month’s recipes! They’re so easy and so satisfying – what’s not to like? It’s the summer, a time when we all deserve a little ‘me time’; whether we’re at home or on holiday. I know that over the next two months, in between a wedding, an 80th birthday celebration and a few weeks in Italy, there’s not going to be much time to spend in my kitchen. I’m guessing that we all have more things to enjoy over the summer so bearing this in mind I’m sharing super simple recipes which will inspire you to visit your kitchen just once or twice!.. Menu one, ‘Elote-Style Chicken with Corn’, is a take on the Mexican street-food preparation of sweetcorn grilled then basted with seasoned mayonnaise and dusted with freshly grated cheese, lime and chilli. Inspired by this finger-licking sweetcorn, Claire Thomson created this recipe for her cookbook, One Pan Chicken. With the addition of chicken, it really is finger-licking good and a recipe that is incredibly simple to prepare. Menu two is ‘Spaghetti with Bottarga, Prawns Parsley and Chilli’. Although bottarga isn’t cheap, a little goes a long way. Its creamy, salty flavour makes this pasta dish incredibly delicious! Bottarga can last several months in the fridge so it’s worth having some at hand for this ultra-quick recipe. Thank you to Diana Henry (again!) for this perfect lazy day recipe!

Enjoy… See you next week for my Tuesday Treat!..

Menu One

Elote-Style Chicken with Corn (Serves 4)

This is a take on the Mexican street-food preparation of sweetcorn grilled then basted with seasoned mayonnaise and dusted with freshly grated cheese, lime and chilli. Inspired by this finger-licking sweetcorn, Claire Thomson created this recipe for her cookbook, One Pan Chicken. With the addition of chicken, it really is finger-licking good and a recipe that is incredibly simple to prepare.

2-4 tablespoons of chipotle paste, to taste, plus more to serve if you like it extra hot

4 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 kg whole chicken thighs, legs or drumsticks

100g mayonnaise

200g feta, crumbled

4 corn on the cobs, halved

½ small bunch of coriander, leaves roughly chopped

30g fried corn kernels (I use ‘Love Corn’), crushed to a coarse powder

2 limes, cut into wedges

Sea salt and black pepper

  1. Mix half the chipotle paste and all the garlic with the oil.
  2. Mix this into the chicken cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour, although the longer the better. Remove the chicken from the fridge about 20 minutes before you plan to cook it. Alternatively, forgo the marinating time and continue with the method below.
  3. Mix the remaining chipotle into the mayonnaise along with half the crumbled feta.
  4. Lightly brush the corn with a little oil and season, along with the chicken with salt and pepper. Arrange the corn and chicken in a baking tray and roast for 40-45 minutes in a preheated oven, 200’c fan, until the chicken is golden brown and cooked through.
  5. Dollop the mayonnaise mixture all over the corn and chicken, along with more chipotle paste if you like, then sprinkle with the remaining cheese, the chopped coriander leaves and crushed fried corn kernels.
  6. Serve with lime wedges.

Menu Two

Spaghetti with Bottarga, Prawns, Parsley and Chilli (Serves 4)

Although bottarga (salted and dried grey mullet or tuna roe) isn’t cheap, a little goes a long way. Its creamy, salty flavour makes this pasta dish incredibly delicious! Bottarga can last several months in the fridge so it’s worth having some at hand for this ultra-quick recipe. Thank you to Diana Henry (again!) for this perfect lazy day recipe.

300g spaghetti (gluten-free if required)

1 onion, finely chopped

Extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon chilli flakes

500g raw, shelled prawns (defrosted if frozen)

Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves finely chopped

Juice of ½ lemon

85g bottarga, grated

Sea salt flakes and black pepper

  1. Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions, until al dente.
  2. Meanwhile, sauté the onion in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until soft and just turning golden. Add the chilli flakes and prawns. Stir the prawns and onion around until the prawns turn pink and are cooked – it will take about 2 minutes. Add the parsley and lemon juice.
  3. Drain the spaghetti and while still warm season it with salt and pepper, then moisten with a good glug of extra virgin olive oil. Add the prawn mixture and tip into a heated serving bowl. Scatter with the shaved bottarga. Toss lightly and serve.

Tuesday Treat

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Vanilla Pavlova with Passion Fruit Cream, Pineapple and Mint Salsa (Serves 8)

This is a real show-stopping dessert. The combination of the fresh pineapple and passion fruit alongside the whipped cream and marshmallow-like texture of the meringue is sublime – plus there’s the fresh tang from the mint! This glorious recipe is from Paul Ainsworth’s cookbook ‘For the Food I Love’.

6 egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

330g caster sugar

1½ tablespoon cornflour

2 teaspoons lemon juice

Zest of 1 lime

For the Pineapple and Mint Salsa:

1 ripe pineapple, peeled, cored and diced

1 pod of vanilla, seeds removed

4 passion fruit

12 mint leaves

For the Passion Fruit Cream:

125g crème fraiche

20g icing sugar

150ml double cream

  1. First, make the meringue. Whisk the egg whites and vanilla paste together until light and fluffy. Now slowly start to whisk in the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, until fully incorporated. Continue to whisk until the meringue forms soft peaks. Sift the cornflour and using a spatula fold it through the fluffy egg white. Finally, fold through the lemon juice.
  2. Onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper, spoon (or pipe) the meringue, forming 8 domed circles (approx. 10cm). Bake in a preheated oven, 110’c fan for 55 minutes, then turn off the oven and leave the pavlovas in the oven to cool and dry.
  3. To make the pineapple and mint salsa, take a bowl and add the pineapple and vanilla seeds (from the pod). Cut the passion fruit in half and scrape out the fruit into a sieve over a small bowl to collect the juice. Keep back 1 tablespoon of juice for the fruit cream (see below) and add the rest to the salsa, along with the passion fruit seeds. Chop up some of the mint but reserve a few leaves for decoration. Now give the salsa a good stir.
  4. Next make the passion fruit cream. Take a mixing bowl and add the crème fraiche, icing sugar and reserved 1 tablespoon of passion fruit juice, whisk together to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk the double cream until you have soft peaks. Fold the whipped double cream through the passion fruit mixture and whip until stiff. Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.
  5. To serve, place the pavlovas onto a large platter or individual plates. Divide the passion fruit cream between the pavlovas in neat dollops, then spoon over the pineapple and mint salsa. Finish with lime zest and reserved mint leaves.