#30minuterecipes

ABOUT ME

During my travels as a Food Buyer for Waitrose I learnt so much from farmers, growers, food producers, chefs and food lovers.

Through them I developed the knowledge and expertise to find the most flavoursome good quality ingredients at the right time of year from the best countries to create the tastiest meals.

Lydia Gerratt

Oct 28, 2015
2 min

Tarragon, parsley and garlic butter

I love tarragon. I particularly love using it on salmon, as it seems to make the rich oiliness of salmon disappear and create a seriously tasty dish. And, it’s just as good with chicken…. I kept on seeing recipes for lovely herb butters over the years, food writers say how great they are for adding flavour, but I thought they were too fussy and I really couldn’t be bothered to make any. Until, I realised that I could make one big batch, freeze it and literally have enough

Lydia Gerratt

Oct 12, 2015
2 min

Savoy cabbage with smoked bacon

It’s autumn and truly beautiful outside. It’s also the time of British vegetable abundance during the harvest month of October. I love this simple side dish (though a lot of the time I eat it as a main dish because it’s just so good) as it’s all about the Savoy cabbage, smoked bacon and a good amount of butter to make it melt in the mouth creamy. Fattened well fed pigs were traditionally slaughtered at the end of the summer to provide meat during the long winter months and

Want to know how to cook juicy tender pork steaks?

Lydia Gerratt

Sep 28, 2015
2 min

Want to know how to cook juicy tender pork steaks?

Want to know how to cook juicy tender pork steaks? It's taken me ages (a few months of experimenting) to find a way to make pan fried pork steaks taste phenomenal. You need 3 things; good quality ingredients (free range or organic pork), the right amount of heat (pork doesn't like it too hot for too long) and a decent cast iron or stainless steel pan (the meat browns better than in a non-stick pan). I use free range Gloucester Old Spot rib eye pork steaks. These steaks have

Lydia Gerratt

Sep 14, 2015
2 min

Penne with broccoli and lemon zest

This pasta is simple; broccoli, lemon zest, garlic and olive oil. All these ingredients turn into a creamy tasting pasta dish even though there is no cream in sight. It’s the broccoli steam fried with olive oil that makes it taste so good. I use the normal every day broccoli as I think it is the sweetest tenderest one. Miraculous ingredients: Broccoli, extra virgin olive oil, Pennette rigate pasta, Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan) Penne with broccoli and lemon zest Ingredient

Lydia Gerratt

Sep 2, 2015
3 min

Thai style salmon broth

My all time favourite ingredient I developed when I was a Waitrose food buyer was stock. I am so flipping proud of them. It took a year to find a factory that could make stock in the same way a cook does at home and then it took an age to find the right ingredients. We made the fish stock from the obligatory fish bones, but also used lots of lobster and langoustine shells to give it that deep, delicious, shellfish flavour. And it’s a good fish stock that makes this broth al

Lydia Gerratt

Aug 23, 2015
2 min

Courgette (zucchini) summer soup

If you’ve been given a pile of courgettes from a friend’s allotment or bought a few packs from the supermarket because they are so cheap at the moment and need some cooking inspiration – then this one is for you! All you need are; courgettes, chicken stock, some herbs, garlic and parmesan to make the tastiest and easiest soup I know. I originally came across this Italian soup recipe years ago when I was a student. Like every other student the world over, I had no money, but I

Lydia Gerratt

Jul 27, 2015
2 min

Garlic & parsley sauce

I love Lebanese food - which you might think a strange thing to say as most of the food on my website is British or Mediterranean. What I love about Lebanese food is the beautiful tender meat grilled on a charcoal furnace, more-ish pillows of paper thin bread and the piles of incredibly fresh salads and vegetables. The garlic sauce is heaven. Living in London, it’s so much easier to go to a Lebanese restaurant or café and eat the most amazing food that I could never replica

Lydia Gerratt

Jul 20, 2015
2 min

Pan fried Red Mullet

Red mullet has a delicious creamy almost earthy flavour. It is one of my favourite fish. It’s not that easy to find in Britain, the supermarkets don’t sell it, but I have found red mullet in quite a few fishmongers. The absolute best way to cook this fish is frying. I know you think frying will make the fish greasy, BUT, if you get the temperature right (as in very hot) there is absolutely no oiliness. The secret to non-greasy fish is dusting them lightly with flour before

Lydia Gerratt

Jul 8, 2015
3 min

Pan fried fresh anchovy fillets

This is the one dish I crave whenever I go on holiday to Italy or Spain as it’s so easy to find heaps of local fresh anchovies in all the fish markets. When they are fresh they taste nothing like the preserved tins of anchovies, instead they have that very satisfying fresh fish flavour; clean and extra more-ish when fried to a light crispness. I watched my Italian friend from Liguria, Patrizia (the one who has taught me so many true Italian recipes) make these anchovies for

Orzo pasta with chicken, peas and tarragon

Lydia Gerratt

Jun 16, 2015
2 min

Orzo pasta with chicken, peas and tarragon

This is a killer recipe that has the most unbelievable tarragon flavour. It’s made with a few simple ingredients and literally takes 10 minutes to cook from start to finish. I have a tarragon plant sitting in a pot in the garden by my back door. As soon as it sprouts up, I use it in this recipe, in lots of egg dishes and in my parsley, tarragon, garlic butter recipe. Miraculous ingredients: Fresh tarragon leaves, orzo pasta, Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan) Orzo pasta with

Warm salad with chicken livers, garlic and sherry vinegar

Lydia Gerratt

Jun 2, 2015
2 min

Warm salad with chicken livers, garlic and sherry vinegar

The first time I ate this warm salad was in Café Rouge on the Chiswick High Road years and years ago – I remember thinking how totally lush it was, why had never eaten chicken livers before and how could I cook it for myself??! It took me a long time to perfect the recipe and the hardest part to get right was the vinegar. The chicken livers are so rich that you need a lot more vinegar and lemon juice than you think. Most of the vinegars I tried were too sharp, but a lovely

Lydia Gerratt

May 19, 2015
2 min

Spaghetti agli scampi (prawns)

Did you know it’s the prawn shells that release the savoury seafood taste which works so well with the sweetness of the prawn meat? The shells are full of the naturally occurring umami compound called glutamate. When you cook prawns, even for just a few minutes with their shells on, they take the flavour of the dish to a higher level of serious deliciousness. My best friend’s mum cooked this dish for me when I visited them in Liguria about 15 years ago. Patrizia’s family i

Chicken with soya sauce, honey, garlic and ginger

Lydia Gerratt

May 11, 2015
2 min

Chicken with soya sauce, honey, garlic and ginger

I love nothing better than cooking a ridiculously simple meal with a handful of ingredients and then getting that seriously happy ‘OMG my food is lush’ feeling when I clear my plate. This dish of chicken thighs with soy sauce, honey, some garlic and ginger is the one. As there are so few ingredients used to make the chicken, it’s really all about the cooking technique: the chicken thighs are semi- steamed/boiled in the soy sauce and honey. This cooking method makes the chi

Lydia Gerratt

Apr 24, 2015
2 min

Flattened pork with lemon and garlic

Sometimes you just need to eat something ridiculously flavoursome which is also super quick to cook – bashed and flattened pork loin steaks with loads of garlic and lemon juice does it for me. I am very fussy about where I buy my pork as the way pigs are farmed and cared for makes a huge difference in how it tastes. I only buy the pork loin steaks for this recipe from the Waitrose meat counter (they sell the Hampshire breed of pork from smaller farms), M&S (they definitely

Lydia Gerratt

Apr 6, 2015
3 min

Spaghetti alla puttanesca

This pasta dish comes from Naples and apparently the story behind the saucy name, Whore’s spaghetti, is that this recipe was whipped up by the Neapolitan ‘ladies’ in between clients as it was quick to cook, super tasty and filling…… I was taught how to cook this classic dish from Campania years ago when I used to work as a Food Buyer for Waitrose and I was sent on a week long cooking trip to the South of Italy. We were based in a cooking school close to Naples, up in the hil

Lydia Gerratt

Mar 30, 2015
3 min

Seared marinated pork fillet

Pork fillet is such a great cut of meat. It’s lean so you don’t get that urghh feeling when you’ve eaten something too rich, it has a creamy mild flavour and when cooked right, a tender soft bite. Compared to a similar cut of beef or lamb it’s a tiny fraction of the price. But, pork can be tricky too cook. Pigs are sensitive sweet animals and if they’ve had a quiet happy life then their meat tastes stunning. I’ve realised through my hit and miss efforts at making various

Broccoli with garlic and extra virgin olive oil

Lydia Gerratt

Mar 26, 2015
2 min

Broccoli with garlic and extra virgin olive oil

I’ve dabbled with the different broccoli varieties over the years; tenderstem and purple sprouting, but I’ve come back to the original broccoli crown as it just tastes so much better than all those other broccoli pretenders out there. In addition to the deliciously delicate florets, the stems become sweet and meltingly tender after 10 minutes of gentle steam frying. Broccoli is delicate so I use an Italian style of cooking to create this dish. The garlic and extra virgin ol

Lydia Gerratt

Mar 23, 2015
1 min

Carottes Vichy

The one thing I’ve realised about making delicious tasting vegetables over the years is, it’s all in the cooking technique (plus one or two extra ingredients to tease out their flavour). The absolute best way to cook carrots is how the French do in a recipe called ‘carottes vichy’. It’s a ridiculously simple way to make carrots and you only need a little unsalted butter and some fresh parsley. The cooking style brings out the sweetness and leaves each tiny carrot baton glos

Mussel gratin with garlic, parsley and lemon zest

Lydia Gerratt

Mar 16, 2015
3 min

Mussel gratin with garlic, parsley and lemon zest

It’s spring, which means that the days of eating in-season fresh mussels are numbered….. By the end of April you won’t be able to find those black shiny nets of Scottish mussels in the supermarket and fishmongers. So I’m planning on getting my last few mouthfuls now. I LOVE mussels but after my tenth dish of spaghetti alle cozze I want a new recipe and mussel gratin is ridiculously tasty, easy and fast. This dish is cheap too. 1kg of fresh mussels is £3.80 for a net of pur

Cauliflower with chorizo, olives, capers, garlic and extra virgin olive oil

Lydia Gerratt

Mar 2, 2015
3 min

Cauliflower with chorizo, olives, capers, garlic and extra virgin olive oil

For years I used to look at the cauliflowers in the supermarket, wanting to buy (particularly when they are sometimes as little as £1 in season), but I didn't know any good recipes apart from cauliflower cheese. Then one year I was listening to the Food Programme on Radio 4 and they devoted it to cooking cauliflower - I was inspired to try something different. I couldn't quite remember the recipe that was cooked, but I do remember the chef saying how cauliflower can take str

LYDIA GERRATT

Inspiring you to transform your food from bland to miraculous

ABOUT ME