I love peppers

This is me with my sister, Valerie. When I have a particular success with a recipe, I send it to her, so she has the responsibility to preserve them for all eternity.... it was her idea that we start a website with our recipes on it.

How come chefs or writers are always telling us to use the best and freshest ingredients...I mean, like any cook would use mankey old peppers or slippery onions. No. If there exists a cook in this universe unable to appreciate the sparkling crispness of a fresh yellow pepper.......well, as if.

I adore cookbooks, and am always buying inspirational ones. The chef who inspires me most is Jamie Oliver ( "Jamie", as he's known at home). Lots of fresh herbs, and really quite straight-forward. But I seldom follow a recipe. Prue Leith does a roe deer with polenta...it looks excellent, but it requires 53 different ingredients! Home cooking is all about what happens to be there, and this dish turned out perfectly well.

Greek pork - simple and tasty
Fry 2 onions, add minced organic pork. Fry a bit, then add 4 whole cloves (unchopped) of garlic. Add a yellow pepper nice and chunky, then the juice of one lemon, a big bunch of chopped parsley, 2 vegetable stock cubes and mix in one cup of brown basmati rice and maybe a good handful of Puy lentils for a bit more guts. Boiling water to cover, then after 20 minutes or so, a bag of fresh spinach. Top with cinnamon and cook till all absorbed. I have since learned that you should not cook with lemon juice, as it goes a little bitter. I can't say I've noticed it, but maybe add the lemon at the end so you don't offend some universal law. I don't remember using the cinnamon, and I've never used it in a dish before, but cinnamon is a real Greek stalwart....

Greek pork was inspired by a vegetarian lentil dish I made and loved. I've lost the copy I sent to Val (and I daren't check to see if she has in fact kept it)....but really, it is so shockingly simple, just five ingredients. This is how it goes:

Puy lentils with yellow pepper
Fry 2 chopped onions, add one or two chopped yellow peppers...nice fat pieces. Two cloves of garlic and a stock cube, add half a box of Puy lentils and cover with boiling water. Yellow peppers are simply made for lentils, and when all the water has boiled off, and the lentils soft and creamy, it's a really tasty dish.