Baked cannelloni




Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5. Mix half the Parmesan, the mascarpone, the taleggio, the lemon zest and juice, and the walnuts. Put ¼ of the mixture to one side, then combine the remaining cheese mixture with the spinach and season to taste. Fry the sage leaves in hot butter and crumble ½ into the cheese and spinach mixture, saving the rest for the top. Put a good spoonful of the cheese and spinach mixture along one of the longer edges of each lasagne sheet and roll up. Put them in a flat oven dish, dot with the leftover cheese mixture, drizzle over ¼ of a glass of water and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan and crispy sage leaves. Cover with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.

Hamilton squash




First of all, soak your porcini for 5 minutes in 140ml of boiling water. Preheat the oven to 230ºC/450ºF/gas 8. Using a teaspoon, score and scoop out some extra flesh from the length of the squash. Finely chop this flesh with the squash seeds and add to a frying pan with 4 lugs of olive oil, the onion, garlic, coriander seeds, chilli, rosemary and sun-dried tomatoes. Fry for 4 minutes until softened. Add the porcini and half their soaking water. Cook for a further 2 minutes before seasoning. Stir in your rice and pinenuts, pack the mixture tightly into the 2 halves of the squash and then press them together. Rub the skin of the squash with a little olive oil, wrap in tin-foil, and bake in the preheated oven for about 1¼ hours.

Stir-fried duck with sugar snap peas and asparagus






First of all, score the skin of the duck with a sharp knife. Then dust the breasts all over with the five-spice and a good pinch of salt. Put the duck breasts skin side down in a cold wok, then bring it slowly up to a medium low temperature so the white fat turns into wonderful thin, crispy, golden crackling. Cook for around 12 minutes, then turn the breasts over and cook for a further 5 minutes.

By which time they will be cooked medium, so remove them to a plate and pour away the duck fat. Get all your veggies and flavourings ready to go and wipe your wok. Now you want to get it really hot – if you want to open the window (and cover the fire alarm – joke!), then do. You may need to cook it all in smallish batches depending on the size of your wok.

Add a couple of tablespoons of sunflower or groundnut oil to your hot wok. Carefully swill the oil around so that it covers the whole pan. Add your asparagus and sugar snap peas or mangetouts and toss around, then add the garlic, chilli and ginger. Continue stir-frying on the highest heat for a couple of minutes, until the asparagus has softened a little but still has a nice crunch. By all means have a taste. Remove the veg to a plate. Slice up your duck breasts into little slivers and put these back into the wok with any resting juices and maybe an extra pinch of five-spice. Cook until nice and crispy.

Put all your vegetables back into the wok, and turn down the heat. Add the oranges, honey, half the mint and the soy sauce, and serve straight away on a large plate, sprinkled with the rest of the mint. Serve with rice or noodles, as a starter or main course.