Stuck for dinner ideas? Here’s four bullet proof recipes for the time poor.

The result of two epic days testing comforting, creamy, wholesome winter dishes

What’s for dinner? A question we hear all the time. For some, it’s the highlight of the day. For others, they just don’t want to hear it, they just want the problem to go away.

Well, one of the highlights of my job is recipe development days. This usually means many hours in my home kitchen, cooking, timing, weighing, and tasting new dishes step by step. There’s always music playing, and a coffee not too far away. I adjust ingredient quantities as I go, noting each tweak to make the dish as tasty as possible using as few ingredients as I can.

I do this so others can recreate these recipes without having to go through the same time consuming process, but still end up with something delicious to feed the people around them.

Here are four recipes I cook regularly. They came from a project that never got off the ground, but I still use them to this day.

They’re not blow the doors off, super aspirational pig on a spit, chilli crab, or smoked brisket bun type dishes. Just really reliable, comforting, tasty recipes for when you need to get something on the table and don’t want to give in to Uber Eats.

The recipes were designed to be scaled, so the measurements are quite specific, like 3ml of lemon juice instead of my usual cheeky squeeze. Feel free to treat these as guides, using pinches, drops, and splashes where it feels right. That said, I do recommend weighing your flour, milk, butter, and stock when you’re making the roux based dishes.

This week’s recipes:

Smoked Ham and Pumpkin Mac and Cheese

Chicken, Mushroom and Rosemary Stroganoff

Pumpkin, Corn and Smoked Ham Risotto

Chicken, Mushroom, Lemon and Bay Orecchiette

Dinners sorted for days

---