What Dad Cooked is a collection of our dad’s recipes, thoughts, tips and cooking hacks that simply need to be shared with all you foodies!

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Seasonal Favourites

Some delicious seasonal summer family recipes to choose from the What Dad Cooked repertoire.

Vingnole Pasta

‘Seriously tasty this (originally) ‘Italian peasant dish’ is a proper winter warmer, or a spring/summer dish made with fresh seasonal vegetables…’

Asparagus and Cheese Pastry Parcels

Three asparagus and pastry recipes. Choose from goats cheese and spinach, Taleggio and mushroom, or Gruyère. All are quite simple and ideal for a light lunch or supper – or make in advance for a party or a picnic.

Lemon Posset, Summer Berries and Almond Shortbread

‘If you love puddings… Give this simple summer pudding recipe a go!’

Jerk Pork with Jerk Sauce and Mango & Pineapple Relish

‘Summer is here! Time to go to your local butchers, pick up some good meat and fire up the BBQ! Try out dad’s tasty Caribbean Jerk marinade with a yummy mango and pineapple relish!’

Latest recipes

Check out Dad's latest homecooked dishes and recipes below. Or click recipes in the menu to browse through 6+ years of Dad's homecooking recipes for families.

Cassoulet de Toulouse à la Pappa

A perfect winter warmer – Cassoulet!

The Laughing Cow Lightest Loaded Quesadilla

Try Dad’s loaded low-fat salsa quesadillas with The Laughing Cow Lightest x8 cheese.

Melanzane Parmigiana with Dolmio 7 Vegetables Sun Ripened Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce

An excellent way to turn a popular Italian slow food standard into an easy and quicker family classic.

Pumpkin Pie

My best pumpkin pie yet!

Asaparagus

A seasonal favourite ingredient of Dad's, so much so he made a 30 recipe series about the green spears! Try these recipes whilst asparagus can still be found locally.

Asparagus and Potato Samosas

This is an asparagus spin on a pea and potato samosa. I’ve held back on some of the spices to allow the asparagus to shine through.

Asparagus Niçoise Salad

The exact constituent parts of an authentic Niçoise salad is a matter of contentious debate. There must be as many points of view as there are cooks. So I am throwing my hat into the ring and offer up Niçoise with asparagus!!

Dad’s Japanese style Asparagus Tempura Soba

This is a classic Japanese way with soba and tempura. Strickly speaking the asparagus tempura is kaki-age, made like a tempura fritter rather than individual spears coated in tempura. But such academic details seem trivial when it comes to tempura – any tempura is amazing – especially asparagus!

Asparagus, Plaice and Maltaise Mousse Canapes

This is a spin on Escoffier’s white asparagus with sauce maltaise. The two are often served as an accompaniment for a white fish such as turbot. Here the fish is plaice rolled around asparagus and a maltaise mousse and served as a canapé.

Dad's Food Journal

Dad loves to write about food. Whether it's discovering a new road local to London or Surrey, where the treasures of foodie stores and independent shops delight—or Dad's macro observations in the world of food. Dad's articles (and foodie stories to his recipes) are a funny and knowledgable journey through the lense of how pops views the world.

Shanks, Hocks, Knuckles, Shins and Legs

We all know about lamb shanks – they’ve been mandatory dishes on gastropub menus for years. But what about the same joint in pork and beef?

Ode to an Omelette Pan

Those of a certain age will remember the post-Elizabeth David halcyon days of home gastronomy…

Cookbooks

I have hundreds. So many in fact, that cracks are beginning to appear in the walls around my various libraries from holding the sheer weight of the tomes.

Avocadogate

I must admit to enjoying some satisfaction over the backlash to Nigella’s ‘avocado on toast’ feature in her new television series, Simply Nigella. The furore caused by exaggerated twists and eulogies over a recipe that is as simple as…



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