My new ebook - Packed lunches for gourmets

I couldn't believe it when I read that someone had worked out you could save £100,000 over your working life by taking a packed lunch into work. That's a sizable slug of money. That's more than most people's pension funds!

The trouble is that packed lunches can be incredibly boring. I worked with a guy once who ate the same cheese sandwich every day, every week of the year. (I really, really hope he ate something different on holiday. But I rather fear he may have gone off to the Costa del Sol with two weeks' cheese sandwiches in a Tupperware box...)

And of course packed lunches take a bit of time to organise and make up.

So I've put together an ebook which does two things.

• It has some ideas on how to make life easier for yourself, for instance by using the same ingredients different ways throughout the week.
• And it has lots of ideas for different packed lunches, including sandwiches, salads, soups, and desserts - all of which are easy to make and don't require a Cordon Bleu education.

It's available on Smashwords if you're interested, and you can read the first couple of chapters for free.

The tomato glut begins!

Our cherry tomato plants are just delivering the first trusses of bright red fruit. From now on, we'll have more tomatoes than we can cope with - the same as every year. Add to that the gradually ripening Andean horned tomatoes, the plum tomatoes, and the big beefsteaks, and we have a tomato challenge on our hands.

Short-term, roasting tomatoes is a good way to extend their life in the fridge. I roast or grill cherry tomatoes whole, and larger tomatoes halved, scattered with olive oil and salt, and sometimes with thyme or oregano; 160c to 180c is enough to get them nicely done. Roast tomatoes make a rich and dark flavoured soup, add flavour to any salad, work well with couscous and other roast vegetables.

Sun-drying preserves them for longer, though they're not then as easy to use - you'll need to rehydrate them before you cook with them. No sun? A low oven (140c or lower) for a long time, or a food dehydrator, works equally well. Halve the tomatoes and lay them skin down. Sun-dried tomatoes can be packed in a glass jar and covered with oil, though they don't keep as long - I do that to a single batch at a time and use the jar up within a week or so.

Tomato sauce is another way of using up excess tomatoes. A good tomato sauce needs the tomatoes to be peeled and deseeded, and then boiled till they are very soft and slightly reduced. Tomatoes don't have to be the only ingredient; you can add onions, garlic, pepper, harissa or chili if you like a hotter flavour, and herbs; a very nice tomato sauce adds a little ginger (I prefer to add stem ginger, with a little of the sweet syrup, though you could use fresh root ginger or powdered ginger if you wanted). You could put the tomato sauce in glass jars and providing you boil them for a while, and put a bit of oil on top of the surface, they'll keep, but frankly it's less hassle (and more safe) to freeze the sauce.

Don't restrict yourself to using the sauce on pasta. Watered down a bit, it makes good soup - add other vegetables, or pasta, or use up your stale bread by chopping it and adding that to the soup. It also makes a good sauce for risotto rice or for a pilaff - use it instead of stock (again, watered down a bit).

By the end of the season, there will be green tomatoes, too. It's far too early to think about those right now... but when we get there, green tomato jam, or green tomato rings dipped in polenta and shallow fried, will help to use them up. Right now, though, it's the red ones that I've got to use up... bursting with juice, I'm looking forward to my first ones straight off the plant, opulent, and warm with the morning sun. Mmmmm.

A glut of strawberries

There's a glut of strawberries in local shops at the moment. Lovely, particularly when we can get them cheaply at the end of the day. But of course they don't last. What can we do with a glut of strawberries then?

First things first. As soon as you get them home, go through the batch and take out any that are going mould. Mould spreads quickly and will ruin them in a matter of hours if you leave them at room temperature.

Oh yes, stick'em in the fridge. Now, what should we think about doing with our loot? In the longer term:

• They don't freeze all that well. They go soft. That's okay, though, if you want to use them in sauce, in ice cream, in cakes, or mixed up with fromage blanc. But for just eating, as they are... not good.
• Cook them up into a compote and they'll last a few days more in the fridge. Simply add sugar - the fruit will make its own juice, you don't need to add water. I usually cut the strawberries, add sugar, and let them macerate for an hour or so at room temperature before I start to cook - you'll be impressed at how much juice comes out of the strawberries.
• Simply macerating them in sugar and/or alcohol extends the fruit's life. Once you've done this you can leave them a few days in the fridge.
• Dried strawberries.Halve them and stick them in the oven at about 100c - really low, slow heat is the key to this process - if you don't have a food drier.  Make sure you start them off cut side up, otherwise you'll end up with a gooey mess. 
• Strawberry vodka. Chop up your strawberries and pour vodka over them. We make ours in large Kilner jars, which have the advantage that it's easy to mix the ingredients by simply turning the jar end over end a couple of times. After a week or two (or three...) strain off the liqueur; you can add sugar syrup if you want a sweet liqueur rather than a flavoured vodka. None of the recipe books tell you this, but you can now eat the strawberries (Lay them out in a baking tray and pour melted white chocolate over the top for a wicked and messy-to-eat treat.)
• Strawberry jam works too... but for me, it's a last resort. Setting point is tricky, and we have so many other fruits to make jam with.

And right now?

• Make strawberry smoothies with yogurt, or strawberry milkshakes.
• I love strawberries with grilled halloumi cheese - put them on the grill when you turn the halloumi over to do the second side, and add some balsamic vinegar for a very wicked warm salad.
• Eton Mess - bashed up meringues and strawberries and cream. 
• Eat them fresh with balsamic vinegar and black pepper.
• Roast them slowly with rum or armagnac.
• Use them in a cheesecake.
• Use them to dip in mascarpone cheese.
• Just eat them!

Fruit liqueurs

I've been making fruit liqueurs for a few years now and this autumn saw a few additions to the mix.

• Bramble whisky. You can use a pretty cheap whisky for this; no point putting a decent Glenfiddich or Balvenie into the bottle, use a cheap supermarket blend instead. There are various recipes around, but what works quite well is just to fill up a demijohn with blackberries and pour whisky in to cover them. You can do this over a few weeks, just adding whatever you manage to pick on any single day, and topping up with whisky till you reach the top. I'll add the sugar in a syrup later on, rather than adding at this point.
• Damson vodka, which I've made before. Again, rather than measuring out particular amounts, I'm just putting the damsons in a demijohn and then topping up with layers of sugar and then with alcohol. Seems to work just fine. Remember to prick the damson skins so the alcohol can get in and do its work.
• Spiced rum. I'm a great lover of Nelson's Blood, served in the excellent King's Head pub in Norwich and also available online, though without the excellent company and good evening out in the latter case. I'm also trying my own variation with vanilla, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg; and I've found recipes for coffee rum and vanilla rum. Both the latter are made by macerating the coffee/vanilla for three weeks, then adding a sugar syrup.
• Lavender isn't a flavour I'd considered before, but a friend suggested it and I'll be trying it next year. Lavender is such a strong flavour, it doesn't need more than a week or two macerating, and doesn't need a huge amount of lavender to start it off, either.
• My home made limoncello worked quite well. Compared to the limoncello we bought from Aldi, it's a less pronounced and slightly sweeter flavour, and is short on aftertaste; I made it by layering lemon zest and sugar and macerating with the sugar, so might try it next time with the sugar-syrup method and see if that makes a difference.
• I've had suggestions for an apple vodka (just infuse), and found an interesting recipe for caramel apple vodka which I really must try, perhaps with a couple of added spices. Apples are a glut around here! Always short of good things to do with them.

Making your own fruit and other flavoured liqueurs isn't incredibly cheap, as you need to buy the booze to start with, unlike making wine or cider where you only need the basic ingredients and yeast. But it's good fun, and relatively little work; and by using home grown or foraged fruit, or cheap past-sell-by-date fruit, you can minimise your cost while expanding your home 'cellar' of interesting flavours.

Biggest tip? For both liqueurs and jelly, buy yourself plenty of cheap muslin and some heavy duty string. We have a couple of roof beams with a big hook, or you can use an upside-down chair with the muslin tied to its legs, to hang the muslin from. Miles better than having to buy a jelly bag ready made. And cheaper.

Go forth and multiply

Getting a garden established is hard work, and - unless you have friends who can help with cuttings or seed from their mature gardens - expensive.

But once you've got a few good plants, multiplying them further is not difficult. Taking cuttings works for many plants; you just have to know when and how.

Grape vines can be propagated by taking bare wood cuttings in autumn, or from green shoots.

Raspberries practically propagate themselves; it's a question of taking the suckers that they produce naturally, and putting them where you want them! Or you can take softwood cuttings in the spring.

Softwood cuttings also work for buddhleia, fuchsia, and maples, while hardwood cuttings will establish new plants of redcurrants, gooseberries, and fig trees.

I've found that while cuttings aren't a 100% reliable method, if you take enough of them, and use hormone rooting powder, together with a good potting soil, you'll get a good few decent plants. If you end up with more than you need, you can always swap for something else!

At this time of year it's also worth thinking about dividing clumps of plants and stands of bulbs. We've managed, over the years, to naturalise some lovely drifts of tulips; in spring, the garden is full of bright pink, dark purple, and the light white and green of 'Spring Green', one of my favourites. I can now dig a few out and spread them around to other areas of the garden. Irisis (technically a rhizome, not a bulb) can also be dug out and divided up - just break them or cut them with a knife to sections of root with a single leaf-spike, and they will grow on quite happily wherever you put them as long as it's not waterlogged.

Sedums can be divided up, indeed should be divided after a few years to keep them healthy. I've done quite well transporting a little more sedum every year to the top of the limestone and flint walls in our garden.

An autumn foraging

I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool forager. But this autumn has been a good one for wild fruit.

• Blackberries everywhere, although I think I started picking them too late. Old railway lines, footpaths, the edges of woods seem to be areas that blackberries like to grow. I don't like blackberry and apple - I know it's a traditional combination, but to me, the apple just dilutes that fantastic hit of blackberry flavour. Instead, I make blackberry jelly (look, no pips - and the huge advantage is you don't have to take out all the little bits of stalk you're left with, or clean the fruit more than cursorily, just tip everything into the boil, and leave it to drip through muslin overnight. Then add 450g of sugar per 600ml of the vibrant purple juice, get it to boil away for ten to twenty minutes, wait for setting point, and stick it in a jar. Bright purple happiness ready to go on your morning baguette.)
• Apples and pears - windfalls make me happy. Not so easy to find in town, though there are a few places where I see them splatter on to the pavement - pass by early in the morning to pick them up. In the country, I find a few hedgerow trees that yield a crop of crab apples and occasionally eaters, all grist to the jelly making mill. The great thing with apple jelly is that it teams up so well with all manner of herbs and spices; mint, notably (better than mint sauce with lamb, since the sugar adds a pick-me-up to the flavour), or coriander, cinnamons and cloves for a Christmassy mulled warmth, rosemary or sage for a drier note. Pears go with cinnamon and cloves, but need a few apples added for pectin, or a bit of Certo or Vitpris commercial pectin, otherwise the jelly doesn't set.
• I didn't get any mulberries this year - but I know where they are. Just look for the telltale purple splatter on the pavement. I find that often, people don't realise that the fruits are edible - introduce yourself and explain you want them for a pie or for jelly, offer to share and you'll often find people are very happy to let you pick. These have now become one of my favourite fruits - totally inedible raw, but wonderful cooked with their tart, rich, sumptuous flavour.
• Hazelnuts are everywhere! Eat'em as they are, or make dukka, which comes in a variety of flavours: with mint and herbs, or cumin and coriander. Or roast and grind for a praline mix which can be used in the same way as ground almonds, as an ingredient in cakes, or to thicken sauces; an excellent kitchen standby. Or in chocolate truffles, if you are deeply sinful.
• Walnuts are also falling on to the road in a few villages; I sometimes find walnut trees in hedgerows, too. There's one walnut tree in the cathedral close in Norwich that is occasionally generous. Watch out for the skins, which will stain your hands, and anything else they come in contact with, black. For best results, walnuts need to be left to dry in a basket or slat-sided box. Once they're dry, they last for ever. Don't bother cracking till you need them. Like hazelnuts, they can be toasted or made into dukka.

Drying apple slices is another possibility, if you have a drier; they can also be made in the oven on a low heat (150c or below). These keep for a good while in a jar or in a tupperware box. Useful for cakes, in stews and sauces or tagines, in a fruity risotto (with dried apricots and sultanas, for instance), or just as a chewy treat.

Equipping your kitchen without blowing the budget

I'm always amazed, when I have to cook in a rented cottage or at someone else's house, how poorly equipped their kitchens are. It's nothing to do with lack of ice cream makers, deep fat fryers, professional ovens or tandooris - often, they have loads of luxuries, but the basics are missing.

First of all, get a good knife AND a knife sharpener. (You don't need a butcher's steel - Kitchen Devils does a nice little knife sharpener which works, and is safer for butterfingers. If you want to use a steel, there's a great Gordon Ramsay video on Youtube.) A good knife won't stay sharp unless you sharpen it - four or five strokes every time you use it, rather than waiting for it to get blunt.

Over time I've found the best knife is not a thin pointy one, but a larger (6 or 7 inch) fat-bladed knife with dents or holes in the sides which help stop vegetable slices sticking. Now, such a knife might cost £20-30, but you can use it for nearly everything, and it will last. Don't go for knife sets - they're not such good quality and you'll probably end up only using one or two of the knives.

Secondly, get a good chopping board that is heavy, and so won't move around on the worktop when you are chopping. (This comes from experience.)

Now for saucepans. This is where a set can cost in nicely. I use a set of stainless pans I bought from Jarrolds in Norwich - not non-stick, which doesn't last well and which you don't need for such tasks as sauteing or boiling. Find a good department store, and if (like Jarrolds) it has excellent salespeople, ask them about the pros and cons of different pans. Make a note of the ones that suit you. Then - and this is the money saving tip - WAIT FOR THE SALE. Often, you'll see particular ranges discounted down to half price.

I'd also recommend getting metal handles, not plastic. They are more robust.

To this I'd add a small and cheap non-stick pan if I wanted to do a lot of frying, for instance for breakfast bacon.

Knife, chopping board, saucepans. All of these I would get new. For some other items I've had great luck at car boots - vintage lemon squeezers in white earthenware or glass, salad bowls, butter dishes, pyrex mixing bowls and ovenware, garlic presses. But I have never seen good saucepans (other than lovely copper saucepans, which are for decoration, not use) or good knives.

Baking trays and tins, wooden spoons, and so on, I get from Poundstretcher or other cheap places. (I also have some lovely olive and orange wood utensils I bought on holiday in Turkey and Morocco, for very little - it's always worth keeping an eye open for such purchases if you're a keen cook and on your travels, though obviously it's not worth flying to Morocco just to get a few spatulas and spoons!)

Other bits and pieces which are luxuries, not vital (with one exception, for me; the spice grinder);

• Blender or food processor. Decide what you're going to use it for, then get whatever is appropriate. You may find you only have the need for one type of equipment. I use a blender a lot to make smoothies, soups, and hummus; I hardly ever use a food processor for chopping or mixing. But then, I'm cooking for one or two people most of the time; if you have a larger family, you may find a food processor is worth the investment. Look in local charity shops which handle electronic equipment (and test it first - which is why I tend not to buy electricals at car boots); you may get a bargain.
• Breadmaker. Useless piece of equipment. I used to have one. Now I make bread the hard way, but I have much more fun doing it, and it's much, much better bread. If you want to make your own bread, spend the money on a good mixer instead.
• Deep fat fryer. I really recommend you stay away from these. I love tempura - I get better results from a wok than I do from a deep fat fryer. They also waste huge amounts of oil, which gets progressively nastier and then has to be thrown out. If you eat chips every night.... I would suggest life would be healthier as well as cheaper without the deep fat fryer.
• Electric kettle. Definitely worth their while as an efficient way to heat hot water, and won't break the bank. Buy the cheapest - after all, what extra functionality are you looking for? 
• Spice grinder. I have two of these, one for coffee and one for spices. If you do a lot of spicy cooking or make your own curry mixes, a spice grinder is a vital part of your kitchen. Yes, you can also use a pestle and a mortar...

What should you be spending? Well, I'd say you can get everything you really need to cook and still have change out of £100. That doesn't include your crockery and table cutlery, but it will give you a working kitchen and the ability to cook pretty much anything you like. And it will all be good quality stuff - though it probably won't have a chef's name on the side, or be in pretty lime green or fuchsia pink.