This post has been a long time coming, but in case you somehow missed the last couple of months’ updates from me, my new cookbook The Joyful Home Cook is now out in the world! I know some of you have it, and have already written some lovely amazon reviews so thanks so much for that, it does make a massive difference to getting the message out there and helping people find it. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet – there’s some more info here – but if you need convincing…

That exclamation mark in the first paragraph is not used lightly, I promise. I’m very proud of this book, which is my second cookbook – that ‘difficult second album’ – and a lot of love and thought has gone into it, because A Lot On Her Plate needed a strong follow up. It took just under a year to write, but really, it’s the culmination of the past four years of learning, writing, cooking and feeding – and the result is a cookery book that is designed to bring joy to your kitchen and to your life. I wanted to create a book that is going to make you want to jump up and cook from it, but that is also going to gently encourage a deeper connection to the food you cook and eat, and a savvy, instinctive way of cooking that will mean you’ll only ever make delicious food from here on in.

While there are plenty of speedy, super easy and simple recipes in the book for those times when you’re just too tired or short on hours, there’s also a strong contingent of recipes that you can really get your teeth into, and an emphasis on making things from scratch (when you want to) and mastering certain skills like pastry, pasta making and sourdough bakery that will inform the way you cook for life.

Learning to cook well has been a life-changing thing for me which I know has massively enhanced my physical and mental wellbeing, and I wanted to share what I’ve learned and the hints, tips, hacks and crucial information that has contributed to becoming a JHC (see what I did there!?). The heartbeat of the book is a collection of over 130 (was meant to be 100 but once I got going I couldn’t stop) new, exciting and vibrant seasonal recipes for every conceivable occasion. They are recipes that let the natural beauty of ingredients sing, while extracting the maximum possible flavour out of them, all written with the home cook in mind, and giving the feeling that I’m there in the kitchen with you. But as well as digging down into the fun and gratifying business of making good things to eat, I wanted the book to also address some of the wider issues and implications around contemporary cookery.

I couldn’t sincerely write a book about so-called ‘joyful’ cooking without talking about some of the ideas which I think are most important when it comes to our food system, such as seasonality; sourcing; soil health; sustainable agriculture; minimising food waste and animal welfare. As such, the book explores and enables a conscious way of cooking, and it brings together loads of ideas while creating memorable, pleasurable food you’ll want to share with your friends. Of course seasonality is key, and as such, vegetables take centre stage, but as usual you’ll find good quality meat and fish also featured – a flexitarian approach, if we have to put a label on it. Feeding into this is one of the most crucial concepts that has inspired my food over the past few years: preserving and fermentation, so there are recipes that tackle both of these things, encouraging an exciting way to eke out the seasons and cut down on waste through the resourceful and transformative powers of pickling and fermenting.

Sourdough bakery is natural, traditional and a more nutritious than baking with chemical yeasts, but it can feel intimidating, so one of my biggest aims was to create some really accessible, entry-level sourdough recipes for a basic everyday sourdough loaf, pizzas and some delicious crumpets which have been going down a storm.

There is also a little bit of gentle, easy foraging in the book for those who want to connect a bit more to the wild food that is growing all around us, with some lovely new ideas for wild fennel, elderflower and fig leaves, like the fig leaf and cherry clafoutis, below.

The book was written and shot down in Deal in Kent, where I spend much of my time, and during the creative process I was spoiled for inspiration thanks to the incredible produce and suppliers we have down here – though that is perhaps another post in itself. The brilliant photographer Helen Cathcart, my longstanding creative collaborator and BFF who has shot all three of my books did a stunning job with the photography, and it’s with her permission that I can share these gorgeous shots. The brilliant chef and food stylist Becks Wilkinson was my most dedicated kitchen companion, while Linda Berlin did a marvellous job on the props.

The book came out in May and over the past few months I’ve been seeing some lovely posts on Instagram from people who are cooking from it, and every time someone tags me in a picture it makes my heart swell. In short, I do what I do to bring and spread joy, and this book is a distillation of that, as well as being a small attempt to make some positive impact in the world we live in. I really hope you’ll love it as much as me x