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Really easy – bloody delicious – very few things in the world are more comforting on a cold winter’s evening…

Ingredients (for 4) – don’t make less than this, just save/freeze any leftovers (which may be less than you expect)

• fresh sage leaves (optional)
• 1 x chopped onion
• 1 x celery (optional – I hate the stuff, but will add to the flavour)
• 1 x chopped carrot
• 2 x chopped cloves garlic
• handful of rosemary
• red chilli (or dried chili flakes) – quantity is up to you, remove seeds to reduce heat
• 1kg squash (peeled and cubed)
• 1 litre stock (swiss vegetable bouillon)

Add some olive oil to a large pan at medium heat and fry the sage leaves for a few seconds until crispy. Set them to one side using slotted spoon. Gently fry onion, (celery), carrot, garlic, rosemary and chili with salt and pepper to prevent colouration until softened (about 10 minutes). Add cubes of squash and stock and simmer for about 1/2 hour.

Once the squash is cooked (soft) you can whizz the soup either using a hand blender or in a liquidiser/blender until smooth. Serve hot with a drizzle of virgin olive oil and the saved sage leaves.

You can add croutons if you’re feeling fancy – get some slices of ciabatta, add a little olive oil and press in some grated parmesan (make it stick). Fry without additional oil in a non-stick pan while waiting for the soup to cook.

Very easy, very flexible – either a meal on its own or a hearty accompaniment.

Ingredients

• Assorted vegetables – eg onion, peppers, courgette, aubergine, sweet potato (anything really)
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Feta cheese
• Couscous
• Water/vegetable stock

Pre-heat oven to 200C. Chop up the vegetables into bite size pieces (you may wish to parboil potatoes) and arrange in a large oven dish. Pour over a generous splash of olive oil and some crushed garlic. Cook for about 45 minutes checking and shaking/mixing occasionally. It’s done when it’s all nicely cooked and crispy. Sprinkle some feta cheese over the top.

Make couscous by boiling some water (add veg stock if you fancy). Pour couscous (handful per person) into a bowl and add water/stock until just covered – leave for about 30 seconds and stir gently with a fork – repeat until cooked (less than 2 mins).

Mix couscous with vegetables and serve.

This is the easiest meal you will ever make (after toast) and is surprisingly delicious considering how simple it is and how few ingredients there are…

For 2

• 250g Frozen peas
• handful of fresh mint leaves
• Olive oil

Boil some salted water, add the mint leaves and after a minute add the peas. Cook for 2-3 minutes until peas are cooked. Sieve the pea/mint combo into a blender saving the cooking water. Leave to rest for a couple of minutes. Cover the peas with the saved water in the blender and whizz until you have a smooth soup. Add a few drops of olive oil and whizz for another couple of seconds. Serve immediately & season with salt & pepper. Ridiculously nice.

Again, a very dull area – like most people I have bought good and cheap pans over the years, but I think I may have bought my last one. Le Creuset 3-ply saucepan range (16/18/20cm) is beautifully constructed, will probably outlive me, and is probably perfect in every way. Feels good and solid, cooks very evenly and most of all looks fantastic – prices are around £40-£50 in my local department store (Bentalls in Kingston)

Now I’ll be honest – I never expected to be writing about this – I mean why would you. I go out and buy something which sharpens knives and hey, guess what, it sharpens knives.. but the thing is, this is amazing, I mean it. I like to cook (as some of you may know) and any good cook will tell you that sharp knives are important – but this thing is incredible. And I know that no matter what I say you won’t believe me or be impressed – buy one – if you don’t agree I won’t guarantee you 100% refund – but I would be slightly surprised. I have been a kitchen gadget fanboy for a while, and love those which do one thing really well – my #1 favourite is still my scrambled egg stirrer if I’m honest. But this makes knives really sharp. Even crappy cheap ones. Buy it. Now.

Accusharp – £8.95 from Tactical-Ops – get one.

Another one from Mr Oliver – simple, delicious, looks and tastes great. Sea bass is a wonderful fish, soft and delicate (and not too fishy!) you can buy fillets or get whole fish and fillet them yourself (haven’t tried this but probably not that difficult – if you have a fishmonger they will do this for you).

Ingredients (for 2)

• 2-4 fillets of sea bass (you want about 200g each so depends on size)
• 2 lemons (zest & juice)
• green beans (top & tailed)
• handful of asparagus (english preferred if in season)
• handful of mint (quite unbelievably easy to grow, but keep in pots or will take over your garden)
• 4-8 rashers streaky bacon (must be thin or won’t crisp up)
• glass of chardonnay (or similar)
• salt & pepper
• butter (optional)
• couple of swigs of olive oil

Pre-heat oven to 250C, score fillets and put into sealable plastic bag (sandwich bag or similar) with lemon juice and zest from 1 lemon and some olive oil. Leave for 10 mins.

Meanwhile par-boil asparagus and beans for about 3 mins (until a little soft). Then drain in a colander.

Mash up mint with a little olive oil and lemon juice (about 1/2 lemon’s worth – rest for serving) in a pestle and mortar.

Empty the asparagus and beans into a large roasting tray, add most of the mint sauce and swish around so everything is nicely coated.  Wrap the asparagus and beans with the bacon (nice & snug) and arrange around the tray leaving some gaps for the fillets. Take the fillets out of the bag and fill in the gaps (you don’t want the fish sitting on top of the bacon wraps or they won’t get crisp). Pour the wine over this and season with salt & pepper.

Cook for 10 mins until everything is crisp and golden. Give the tray a good shake, add a few small knobs of butter (optional) and take to table to serve with remaining mint sauce and lemon juice. Make sure you use the wine and mint sauce from the tray.

and arrange in a large roasting tray (this is the fun bit). Drizzle over most of the mint sauce

I started buying my current setup about 8 years ago and I’m thinking it might be time for an update. I’m pretty happy with the sound, but it’s not amazing, so I’m curious to try something new and see what it can do.

Current Setup

• Cambridge Audio Azur 540D DVD Player
• Sky HD
• Marantz AV Amp SR4200
• AppleTV
• Mission M73 Cinema (M73 floormount fronts, M7C1 centre, and M7DS bipolar rears
• REL Quake Sub
• QED HDMI-P video cable x2
• Profigold Component cable (for DVD player)
• QED Silver Anniversary XT speaker cables

Here’s what I’m thinking of replacing them with

• B&W685 Front Speakers (£379)
• Atacama Nexus 6 Stands (£70)
• B&W HTM62 Centre (£249)
• B&W ASW608 Sub (£299)
• Monitor Audio BRFX Rears (£199)
• Denon AVR-2308/2808 Amplifier (RRP £599/£899 – is available for £399/£599)
• Panasonic DMP-BD30 BluRay Player (£349)

Here’s my thinking – I have read several reviews of the 685’s and really admire the brand, and think these speakers just look fantastic. So they were going to form the basis for the setup… the centre and sub are both the smaller options from the 600 range as my living room isn’t huge. I need to have flat rear speakers as they sit above my sofa and B&W either have normal bookshelf speakers which are too proud or satellites which seem a little too small (I haven’t properly auditioned them but will do for comparison). Sevenoaks suggested the Monitor Audio’s and they sounded terrific. And whatever tonal balance is, didn’t seem to present an issue.

I have auditioned all the speakers with the Denon 2308 which sounded absolutely fantastic – I mean, really mind-blowingly good. The bombing scene from Pearl Harbour was astonishing. And listening to a couple of my favourite CD’s revealed enormous levels of detail and an incredibly well integrated sound – hard to describe but it was very pleasing which I guess is what you’re ultimately looking for.

But it’s not as simple as that… the Denon doesn’t support the new uncompressed HD Audio formats (Dolby True-HD and DTS-HD) – and I’m pretty sure I want these. I will listen to both next week and see whether it’s worth £200 for this. If it is then I simply go up a notch on the Denon range to the 2808 which is pretty much identical but with the HD Audio support.

I have also listened to the Onkyo TXSR605 which has won many awards – but it was disappointing – movies sounded fine, but nowhere near as involving or exciting as the Denon, and 2-channel music was quite frankly dull – I wouldn’t say it was any better than my current setup – so that’s ruled out.

Pictures

This is brilliant – and much easier than it sounds. Serves 6.

• 6 ramekins for serving
• 400g rhubarb
• 100g caster sugar
• 25g butter
• 6 ginger nut biscuits
• 150g custard (pref vanilla)
• 1 egg yolk
• 4 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon plain flour
• salt

Preheat oven to 180C.

Cook rhubarb and sugar with a little water for 10-15 mins until soft. Cool in fridge.

Smash up biscuits using a pestle and mortar (or any other method). Line ramekins with butter and then biscuit mix and a small handful (save some for later). Add a small blob of rhubarb to each ramekin.

Mix the rest of the rhubarb with the custard, egg yolk and flour. Whisk the egg whites and salt in a large clean bowl until you have soft peaks. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar and whisk again on high speed until stiff. Fold the egg whites into the rhubarb/custard gently – start with a couple of spoonfuls and then add the rest.

Fill up the ramekins with the mixture and bake it in the oven for 15-20 minutes (don’t open the oven door!!!) until risen and golden brown. Add remaining biscuit mix on top of souffles and poke a hole in each and add a drop of custard.

Simple, quick, delicious – a perfect starter or snack

• Extra virgin olive oil
• Fresh ginger (thumb size)
• 2 Cloves of garlic
• Fresh red chilli
• 4-6 Raw tiger prawns per person
• 1-2 lemons
• handful of fresh parsley
• Loaf of Ciabatta – 1 slice per person

Finely chop ginger, garlic and chilli (discard seeds). In a large frying pan heat the oil and add spices and prawns for a couple of minutes (until prawns are pink). Take off the heat and squeeze over a little lemon juice (you will add more at the table), the parsley and some extra virgin olive oil. Toast the ciabatta slices. Assemble prawn mixture on toast and lemon quarters on the side.