Hi Cheekychubby. Supplements are not the answer. You need to make sure your new diet is nutritionally balanced. It is perfectly possible to eat healthily without meat: my partner has done so for over a decade now. Try this link for the vegetarian society's advice on nutrition:

http://www.vegsoc.org/info/basic-nutrition.html

and best of luck with your new lifestyle!

This is a recipe I wrote for the Daily Telegraph in 2005. You can find this on their website http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Game of two hearths Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 04/03/2006

Lamb tagine may sound more exotic than hotpot, but the two dishes have much in common, says Tom Norrington-Davies

Picture an earthen-ware pot filled to the brim with produce from windswept mountainsides and humble kitchen gardens. Everything is being cooked together, long and slow, with a few simple seasonings. From the stove comes the unmistakeable aroma of rustic cooking. All you hear is a murmur from the pot as the stock is nudged into reluctant action by the gentle heat.

Spring lamb tagine: vibrant

What I am describing could be either of today's recipes, but the dish known as Lancashire hotpot doesn't conjure up such romantic images as a Moroccan tagine. In fact, the two dishes have just about everything in common, from the way they are cooked to their respective backgrounds. Historically, clay "hot pots" kept a shepherd's lunch warm as he travelled from farm to fell. Not exactly nomad food, but a moveable feast nonetheless.

Peasant cookery will always be more inspiring when it comes from another culture, because it seems exotic to us, whether or not frugality was the mother of its invention. One's eye will be drawn, magpie-like, to the colours of the saffron-infused tagine before the homely hotpot.

Then again, sometimes it's all in the name. My editor tells a funny story about her grandmother, who was highly averse to shepherd's pie, but could be persuaded to eat the very same dish if it was served as "Délices de Montebello" - a made-up name. Proof that it is possible to revisit our own humble dishes and be pleasantly surprised, even if familiarity has bred a touch of contempt.

Recently I was delighted to find a version of hotpot at the Fat Duck in Bray. Heston Blumenthal had cooked oysters, once commonplace in meat dishes, with the lamb. The results were extraordinary. His version inspired my one here.
advertisement

This makeover might warrant a new name: one that might even get past my editor's grandmother. I'd love to hear from anybody who dreams one up, or who knows of a similar tale of culinary coercion to the one above.

tom.norrington-davies@telegraph.co.uk


Simple lamb stock

Both dishes that follow will be enhanced if you can make them with this easy stock using the bones from a shoulder of lamb and one onion (handy, since you need both for your recipes).

Preheat the oven to its maximum setting and roast the lamb bones with the whole onion for about 20 minutes.

Remove them and transfer to a large pot immediately. Cover with approx 4 pints or 2 litres of water and simmer gently for two hours before straining.

If you can do this a day ahead of making your hotpot or tagine so much the better, since you can chill the stock and skim any fat from the top before using it.

Both recipes serve 4

Spring lamb tagine

This is vibrant and colourful, despite the long cooking time. The principle of tagine cooking is the order in which items are added to the pot. The meat must cook for longest, the broad beans for a short while only. So you don't really need to stir or intervene generally. My kind of cooking.

You don't need a tagine (terracotta pot with a conical lid). A casserole will suffice.

* 1 x 2.5lb/1.3k shoulder of lamb. Ask the butcher to remove the bones and use them to make the stock if you have time.
* Half tsp ground cumin
* 1 tsp salt
* 4 tbsp olive oil
* 1 onion
* 2 leeks
* 6 cloves garlic
* 12oz/350g new potatoes
* 8oz/250g cherry tomatoes
* Quarter tsp (i.e. a pinch) saffron threads
* 1 tsp dried mint
* 4 small artichokes (or 1 small tin artichoke hearts)
* 1 preserved lemon OR the peeled zest of half a lemon
* 8oz/250g broad beans (podded weight). Thaw if using frozen.
* Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
* A small bunch of chopped dill, coriander or parsley to garnish

Cut the lamb shoulder into eight pieces, roughly the same size. Mix the meat with the cumin and salt. Heat the oil in a large pot or tagine and brown the meat briskly.

Chop the onion, leeks and garlic then add them to the pot. Lower the heat and cover the pot. Halve the new potatoes and tomatoes and add them to the pot with the mint and saffron. Continue to cook on a very low heat.

If using fresh artichokes, peel the tough outer leaves, trim the tops and cut each one in half down the length. Pull out any "choke" and halve again.

Add these quarters to the pot with about 8fl oz/250ml of the stock. (It doesn't seem much but don't add more as the meat and vegetables produce lots of juice.) Now cook the tagine for about one-and-a-half hours.

Meanwhile, dice the preserved lemon roughly. (If you can't get one of these, use the peeled rind of half a fresh lemon. To ape the taste of the preserved version you could chop it with a teaspoon of capers, or a handful of pitted olives, which will add the slightly briny taste.)

Shuck the broad beans out of their little membranes by squeezing them between forefinger and thumb. Add the lemons and beans to the pot and cook for another 30 minutes. By this time the meat and vegetables should be very tender.

Let the tagine rest for 10 minutes before seasoning, garnishing with chopped herbs and serving. Some people like to eat couscous or rice with tagines, but my favourite is pitta-type flatbread. That way you can mop up all the lovely stock.

The Blueprint cafe, at the Design Museum, just by London's Tower bridge, is a hugely popular joint. Jeremy Lee is one of Conran's longest serving and best beloved chefs. His food is uncompromisingly seasonal, simply presented and, most importantly, delicious.

As Sinita83 has said, the recipe you want is probably available through the sainsbury's magazine archive of recipes. The reader enquiry service is on 02077755530.

As Sinita83 has said, the recipe you want is probably available through the sainsbury's magazine archive of recipes. The reader enquiry service is on 02077755530.

Here is a pizza dough recipe, from cupboard love (hodder and staughton, 2005). You can tweak it to add herbs or olives, or sundried tomatoes, but personally I'd leave all that malarky for the toppings.
This recipe is very reliable and freezes well, so if you have a good-sized freezer you can make a big batch of dough, roll it out into pizza bases as described in the recipe, and put some aside for another time.

To make four pizzas you need:
300ml tepid water
500g strong white flour (sometimes called bread flour), plus extra for dusting
1 teaspoon salt
7g sachet of Easyblend dried yeast (very handy to use sachets unless you do a lot of baking)
1 tablespoon olive oil

First, make sure the water is definitely tepid, not hot. It should be blood temperatureÖish. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and yeast and make a well in the centre. In a jug, combine the water and oil. Pour a third of the liquid into the well in the flour and, using a fork, whisk in some flour from around the well until you have the beginnings of a paste or loose batter. Add more of the water and work in more of the flour, and so on and so on, until you have a dough. It should easily come away from the sides of the bowl. Keep working at it if not, and it will happen.
Dust a worktop or a very large chopping board with flour and knead the dough for a good 10 minutes: just push it out away from you with the palm of your hand, then fold it towards you and give it a quarter turn. If you have a food processor with a dough hook you could, of course, use that and let it run for about 5 minutes. When the dough feels smooth and elastic, put it back into the mixing bowl, cover with baking parchment or cling film and let it rest in a warm place for about 45 minutesñ1 hour, until doubled in size. Now you need to knock it back; just punch it lightly with your knuckles. Take it from the bowl and roll it out into a sausage shape. Divie it into 4 pieces and roll them into balls.
Cut 4 large pieces from a roll of baking parchment, each about the size of your baking sheet. Lay the first piece on your worktop and flour it lightly. Now you can roll out your first piece of dough on it. Aim for as thin a base as possible, 23ñ25cm in diameter. Rolling it into a perfect circle is no mean feat and Iíve yet to master it. Iím envious when I see practised pizza chefs spinning the dough so nonchalantly between their hands. If you want a round pizza, itís best to place a cake tin, pizza stone or tart tin on top and cut round it with a small knife (use the excess dough to make an extra base or two later). Set your first base aside and go on to the next one. At this point it is possible to freeze the bases. You can lay them in the freezer on the sheets of parchment, stacking them up as you go. A tower of pizza!

Bicarb makes the caramel fizzy, which puts the air into your hokey pokey. As the caramel sets, the air gets trapped as bubbles. Without this you would just have a sheet of caramel. For the uninitiated, hokey pokey is also known as "honeycomb" i.e. the gloriously naughty stuff in the middle of a cadbury's crunchy bar.

your third option is Argentinian Dulce de leche, which is what you get if you reduce milk to a toffee. It is a delicacy in South America, but only recently became available in the UK...which is odd when you think of the longtime popularity of boiled condensed milk (remember banoffee pie?!) Merchant gourmet import a good dulce de leche and it should be available in good supermarkets.

I wouldn't lose any sleep over this. one of the most charming things about Italian cookery is trying to get your head around all the funny little rules and rituals Italian cooks love to wax lyrical about. I can't claim to be the world's most authentic pasta chef but I cook it a lot and I nearly always add sauce to pasta! There is a simple, practical reason for this. You usually need a big pan or pot to cook the pasta and a small pan or pot to cook the sauce. I return the pasta to the pasta pan and use it like a large mixing bowl. One important thing to remember if you are stirring sauces through pasta is not to drain it too thoroughly. A couple of shakes in the colander is all you need. Pasta coheres more effectively with any sauce, from pesto to bolognese, if it is slightly damp rather than dry and sticky. There you go, another quirky rule...can't help it!

Hey, world traveller. It would be irresponsible for a cook to try and answer your question. This is a subject best discussed with your GP. I'm sure he or she can ensure you have a happy and nutritious trip.

Forgive the shameless self promotion, Tanja, but you need Cupboard Love! It is written by yours truly, published by hodder and staughton and is available in paperback. It tells you how to kit out your kitchen with stuff that will keep medium to long term, providing the basics for easy, cheap meals.

This is possibly a bad answer, and I'm a bit reluctant to implore, generally. BUT...save the money for the machine and get onto a bread making course! The one at Bath's Bertinet Kitchen is a one day, one way ticket to huge baking confidence. You will be able to make all those things you mention, since they are quick and easy: all you lack is the confidence to do them yourself, not the gadget. Gadgets take all the wonderfully therapeutic fun out of baking

The Hart Brother's Modern Spanish Cookery (Quadrille 2006) is good, Sam and Eddie Hart are the proud owners of Fino and Barafino in London. They are both hugely acclaimed tapas bars. For a truly comprehensive guide to Tapas, try 1080 recipes, published by Phaidon last year. It's a monster of a book; just about every Spanish dish you could dream up is there, from the titchiest tapas to the stickiest pud.

It depends whether you want fast or slow roasting! A leg of lamb is lean and pretty zippy to cook, especially if you get it boned out. It is best left pink. A shoulder needs a long slow roasting time, we do it for at least three or four hours at work, but the upside of this is meat that is rich and tender enough to eat with a spoon. Try this recipe, my current favorite.

This is perfect food for Easter time when you never know what the weather will get up to. Serve it with a pile of rice and its rich and comforting. With a salad and crusty bread, it is British summertime on a plate. Either way, the cooking and eating are effortless. The lamb is so tender it simply needs to be nudged apart with a spoon. The juices are surprisingly complex considering how few ingredients you need.

Serves 2 to 4

You need:
2 large carrots
2 large onions
4 cloves garlic
2 stalks celery
3 tbs olive oil
1 x 1.2 kilo shoulder of lamb, on the bone
1 tbs white wine vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
400 ml water

Pre heat the oven to 200c/gas6. Peel and halve each carrot, onion, garlic clove and celery stick. Heat the olive oil in a large pot or casserole and, when it is smoking hot, sear the vegetables so that they just catch and brown a tiny bit. Remove them, set them aside and add the lamb to the same pot, browning it generously all over. Mix the vinegar, salt, sugar, tomato puree and water into a slightly unpromising and cloudy looking stock. Pour it all over the lamb and bring it to a simmer. Add the vegetables, cover and transfer to the oven. Now cook the pot for at least two hours or until the lamb is so tender you can cut (or portion it) with a spoon. The juices should be slightly opaque and glossy. If there is a little more liquid than you like for a casserole, lift out the joint and rest it on the serving dish while you reduce the liquid. Either way you should rest the dish for a good ten minutes before serving. That way it will be extra tender.

The other answers you see here are excellent but don't forget your pulses. You will need to befriend the pulse if you are going to be a successful veggie. The best snacking pulse food has got to be hummus, spread on pitta bread or crackers. And you could liven it up with slivers of dried apricot, which sounds a bit odd but is delicious. I'm banging on a bit here but f you are going to become a seriosu veggie this is vital stuff to know. Research has shown that mixing a pulse and a grain gives people who don't eat meat a pretty good nutritional approximation of its protein content. Its all about chains of amino acids or something horribly scientific. If you think about it, every culture where meat is scarce for spiritual or economic reasons, has a pulse- grain combo at its culinary heart. Rice and Dal in India: Noodles and bean-curd in East Asia... beans and tortillas in south America. So Hummus and pitta is much more than a snack. It's a winning team effort. And don't forget the UK's contribution to this edible double act: Beans on toast. I'm not kidding!

The other option is a sourdough bread, which will have big bubbles through the read and a lovely chewy crust. It's very expensive but super trendy pain poilane is considered by many to be the king of these types of bread. It would make a fine base for your goat's cheese.

We have been experimenting with sorbets at work a lot lately and I think the answer to a really 'creamy' sorbet (without any cream of course!) is in the syrup. I have just started swapping traditional stock syrup for glucose syrup and the results are great. Try this: Squeeze the juice and pulp from 12 passion fruits into a good sized mixing bowl. Add 300 grams of glucose syrup and the juice of two limes. Mix thoroughly until you have an even mix, with no strands of syrup. If you don't want the seeds in the sorbet strain it, or simply transfer to the ice cream machine or freezer. If you are still freezing, leave the sorbet in a bowl, preferably a metal one, as it is easier to whisk...Here is what I mean: Pop your mix in the freezer for two hours or until a slush starts to form round the edges. Whisk the slush back in vigorously. Return to the freezer and, an hour or two later, repeat. You need to keep doing this until you have an even slush... then you can leave it to freeze until set. The reason you are whisking so vigorously is to break ice crystals as they form. This is what the paddle in an ice cream machine does. If, for any reason, you get an icy sorbet when still freezing it, don't get upset: Just tell everyone its a granita!

The only recipe I have ever used, with soaked but uncooked chickpeas is one for falafel. The soaked pulses are ground with spices and herbs before being deep fried. But this is obviously going to cook them! I'm not an expert on the subject but as a cook I can't recommend eating raw chickpeas, toxins or no. I am almost certain that they are indigestible until cooked. UNLESS, and it is a big unless, they have ben sprouted. The article you read may have been alluding to this. Most dried pulses can be sprouted after soaking and the results are a delicious, superfood-tastic addition to any salad or stir fry. Chickpeas are not the easiest to sprout, as they will take two or three days longer than, say, mung or soy beans. But the process is like so:
Soak the chickpeas for eight hours or overnight, then rinse them thoroughly and leave them for a day in a colander. Rinse them once again, by submerging them in water and swirling them round a few times, to make sure each pea gets a good drink. Drain again and leave for a day... and repeat the above process until you start to see sprouts, or small whitey green shoots forming. Now, once sprouted, the chickpea and its shoot are edible. You can apparently make an fathomably healthy 'raw hummus' with them, following recipes for the cooked version, but I have to say I have never done this.

I would say you are looking in the wrong places. Britain has to be one of the most veggie and vegan friendly places in Europe. And the establishments that offer the kind of food you need won't always advertise the fact. This might be because a lot of them are catering for all sorts of different communities. Indian restaurants, for example, are usually excellent for vegans since meat and dairy is anathema to so many people from the subcontinent. The southern style of Indian restaurant is best for veggie and vegan dining. Then there are falafel bars, and of course the veggie restaurants themselves. In London you could do a lot worse than check in with time out for their comprehensive eating out guide, but the website
www.veggieheaven.com
is a nationwide directory.
Now for your Pizza. The well established chain Pizza Express offer a guide to ordering vegan versions of some of their most popular dishes on their website. I would say that any reputable pizza joint will be happy to 'hold the mozzarella' if you ask them to nicely!

Here is a recipe from my book Cupboard Love, published by Hodder in 2005. It is not massively authentic, but is a good workaday green curry. I nearly always buy my thai paste, as the brand Namjai (available in most oriental supermarkets) makes excellent tubs of it that last for ages and, more importantly, don't contain any nonsense. Otherwise you will need to kit yourself out with quite a few store cupboard ingredients, of which gapi (or fermented shrimp paste) is essential...and smelly! If you are a big fan of the genre, you should try David Thompson's authoritative but massively readable Thai food (Pavilion books 2002) . Feel free to use small slivers of chicken breast instead of thighs if you are short of time. You could substitute another meat instead. Duck goes nicely with Green curry, as does pork.

For 2 people you need:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
6 chicken thighs
2 generous tablespoons green curry paste
400ml tin of coconut milk
2 tablespoons Thai fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
juice of 1/2 lime (or 1 tablespoon bottled lime juice)
3 lime leaves
1 small tin (about 200g) bamboo shoots, drained (optional)
3 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal
a handful of Thai basil or coriander leaves

Heat the oil in a wok, add the chicken thighs and brown them all over. Remove and set aside. Add the curry paste to the wok with a couple of tablespoons of the coconut milk, then stir and fry until the paste has loosened. Return the chicken pieces to the pan with the fish sauce, sugar, lime juice and lime leaves. Add the remaining coconut milk, then immediately half fill the tin with water and add this to the wok. Simmer for about 20 minutes, until the chicken pieces are cooked through. Add the bamboo shoots, if using, and heat them through. Now taste and adjust the seasoning if you want the curry sweeter, hotter, saltier. Add the spring onions and basil or coriander as you serve up.

The answer lies in the cut of beef. I'm guessing you were eating shin, which is rich in connective tissue and makes the stew gelatinous (i.e. sticky!) Other cuts that would work well would be oxtail, flank or brisket. Avoid the lean cuts if you can, but if this is not possible, add a pigs trotter or some beef bones to the stew and remove once everything else is melting and tender.

Yes, it should be fine. "Best before" is a guide to optimum quality rather than perishability. "Use by" dates are different matter, as they are supposed to tell you whether or not the food is still safe to eat. I'm sure your stilton will be good. Enjoy it.

I presume you mean what to have with haggis! The answer is mashed neeps, which usually means swede, that dumpy but delicious member of the root veg fraternity. Haggis is yummy, not at all gory as some people think. If you like coarse sausages or even such stern stuff as black pudding, you will love haggis. And if you really don't want to have anything to do with sheep's tummies, then McSween's, one of the most famous haggis manufacturers, make a veggie version that my other half ( a vegetarian Scot would you believe it?) swears by.

It's got to, got to, got to be the real Jewish classic, chicken soup with dumplings (or, at a push, noodles). And here is a recipe from a lovely food blog, by someone who has clearly done their research. It is not the quickest soup in the world but heavenly comfort food (not to mention a tried and tested cure for the common cold) is worth waiting for.
Try this link.
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/000634chicken_and_dumplings.php

You can use any milk to make yoghurt. The type of milk will effect the richness of the finished product. And, although I've never eaten it, I'm told that carnation, or "evap" as my gran used to call it, makes a rich, creamy (but not too fatty) yoghurt. It's really a case of method rather than quantities. You need to bring the whole tin of milk up to scalding point (it will fizz against the side of the pan when you move it around). The let it cool, covered so that it stays sterile, to around blood temperature (approx. 36c). Basically you don't need to be scientific about this, just test it with finger or elbow as you would baby milk. Now add two generous tablespoons of live yogurt and stir or whisk it in thoroughly. You need to leave the yogurt culture to prove in a warm place (an airing cupboard is ideal. And do this in a non metallic container (recycle a yogurt pot!). It can take up to eight to ten hours to get a good yogurt flavor (just taste it after this time). Then for best results let the new yogurt set a little in the fridge before you use it. And one more thing! Before you gobble it all, keep some of this yogurt to use as a starter for your next one.

This is a recipe from my book Cupboard Love (Hodder, 2005). This is of course a cynical and blatant plug of my own work (bite me!) but it is also a really easy, and really nice cake.

Chocolate souffle cake.

This is really a baked chocolate mousse. What is wonderful about it is the total lack of flour, which gives it an intensely chocolate taste. It is very easy to put together and cooks quickly, which makes it a great last-minute choice for baking, especially as all the ingredients are loitering in my kitchen at any time.
This cake is spectacular when it is as dark and moody as it gets, so for the coffee I make a strong espresso. You can use instant coffee but make it stronger than usual.

For 8to10 people you need:
6 eggs, separated
125g icing sugar (set aside 1 heaped tablespoon)
200g bitter chocolate
125g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons strong black coffee

Grease a deep 20cm springform cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. Preheat the oven to 180∞C/Gas Mark 4.
Beat the egg yolks and icing sugar in a large bowl until pale and fluffy. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water or in a microwave, then stir in the coffee. Now, while the chocolate mix is still warm, beat it into the egg yolk mixture.
Whisk the egg whites with the reserved tablespoon of icing sugar until you have a meringue with very soft peaks. Fold this meringue into the chocolate and egg yolk mix as gently as you can, to keep it airy. The easiest way to do this is to take 1 or 2 heaped tablespoons of the meringue and whisk them in fairly briskly to loosen the chocolate mix, then after that go as gently as you can, using a spatula or a large metal spoon.
Transfer the mixture to the cake tin and bake for 30 minutes. No peeking, by the way, as this cake really needs constant heat. Even if it seems very wobbly after half an hour, take it out of the oven. Leave it to cool completely before removing it from the tin. As the cake cools, the centre collapses and becomes dense. Once cold, it is ready to eat but, if you leave it until the next day, the flavour becomes somehow more intense.

Poaching salmon is the best way to cook it fat free. Bring a pan of water, deep enough to just cover the fish, to a simmer. Season it with a bay leaf and some black peppercorns. Add a generous pinch of salt. Then add the salmon fillets or steaks, in a single layer. As soon as you do, take the pan off the heat, cover and leave it until the water has cooled enough for you to remove the fish without burning your fingers. Perfect poached salmon. However, see my other answer from today for what I think is the best way to cook salmon. It involves a smidgeon (just a smidgeon, I promise) of olive oil.

Poached or steamed salmon must be the most virtuous way. And it just so happens that the most delicous way to do this is oven poaching. It makes the fsh super moist and tender. You simply place a roasting tin or pot full of hot water on the lowet shelf in your oven and set it to 150c (gas 2). This works best with a whole side (approx 1 to 1.5 kilos. simply brush a roasting or baking tray with olive oil and line it with baking parchment. Brush the fish with olive oil on both sides and season it, also both sides, with a generous amount of salt and pepper. Poach- bake it for about 45 minutes or until it is just tender and starting to show its juices on the top of the fillet. You can do it with filleted pieces or steaks as well but they will take about a third of the time and won't be quite as juicy.