CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Born in London to a Finnish mother and Greek-Cypriot father, Tessa Kiros grew up in South Africa in a family that cultivated her love of good food and provided her with a rich store of recipes from both sides of the family tree. After spending her twenties working in restaurants in London, Athens and Mexico, and completing a degree in anthropology and sociology, she travelled to Italy to study Italian and learn about Italian food. She met her husband, Giovanni, while in Tuscany and they still live there today with their two children.

Inspired by the recipes and charms of her adopted homeland, Tessa wrote the first of her many cookbooks, Twelve, in 2002. Passionate and enthusiastic about her cookbook, she self-published and quickly attracted the attention of her publisher, Murdoch Books. She returned to Italian life as inspiration with her 2012 cookbook, Limoncello and Linen Water, a tribute to the domestic traditions and recipes of her Italian family.

Tessa’s diverse family heritage and love of travel provided rich material for the eight cookbooks that followed Twelve. Some of these capture her visits to countries close to her heart and take readers along for the journey as she explores villages, laneways and local restaurants. Other books draw inspiration from the quiet pleasures of day-to-day family life, and her heritage — expressed through recipes, stories and traditions handed down from past generations.

This collection is a celebration of Tessa’s publishing journey to date. It offers a taste of the hundreds of recipes she has written, collected and treasured over the years and reflects her love of many cuisines and cultures. Above all, it highlights her passion for family and good simple food. The recipes have been carefully selected from five of her best-selling books — Falling Cloudberries, Apples for Jam, Piri Piri Starfish, Venezia and Food from Many Greek Kitchens — and they cover Italian, Greek, Portuguese, South African and Finnish cuisines at their homemade best.

Whether you have well-thumbed copies of Tessa’s earlier cookbooks on your bookshelf, or have yet to enjoy her warm and relaxed cooking style, we hope this book opens up a world of recipes, reunites you with old favourites, and introduces you to many, many more.

GLOSSARY

BRESAOLA

Bresaola is cured beef that has been air-dried and salted. It is aged for around two to three months and is usually deep red in colour when you buy it. The top inside round of beef is used for this particular cut, and the end product has a very full, rich flavour. Italians eat bresaola on its own, sliced very, very finely, sometimes with a drizzle of nice olive oil and perhaps a few leaves of rocket (arugula). You can find it in good food stores, delicatessens and some supermarkets.

CHOURIÇO

This is the Portuguese equivalent of Spanish chorizo. It is a cured meat sausage made with pork, fat, paprika and salt. Once the sausages are stuffed, they are dried slowly over smoke, achieving a wonderful smoky flavour that shines through in many Portuguese dishes (like Cozido). Chouriço is often cut open and grilled over a barbecue and can also be flame-cooked with alcohol. Portuguese specialty shops or good delicatessens should have chouriço, but you can always substitute with chorizo.

GLISTRIDA

Greens are so important in Greek cooking, and glistrida, also known as purslane, is widely used in many dishes. It can be served raw in salads, sautéed and served with meat or fish, or pickled and served as part of a bigger family meal. The leaves are thick and oval, and have a lemony, peppery flavour that add a lot of personality to dishes.

KASSERI

The Greeks make many beautiful cheeses, some of them so unique that they are protected by law — kasseri is one of these. It is made from fresh unpasteurised sheep’s milk, but sometimes a little goat’s milk is mixed in, too. It is aged for around four months and ends up medium-soft and a little stringy; similar in texture to provolone. Aged kasseri is similar to parmesan, so you can always use that as a substitute if you can’t get it. In Greece it’s used in sandwiches, and also in the fried cheese dish saganaki.

KEFALOTIRI

Kefalotiri is another cheese that is perfect for making saganaki. It is made with a blend of sheep’s and goat’s milk and very popular throughout Greece and the Greek Islands. Pale in colour, and slightly harder and saltier than kasseri, it can be treated in a similar way to parmesan or pecorino and shaved over salads or grated it into sauces and hearty stews for added depth and flavour. It is often mixed with feta and used inside traditional spanikopita.

LINGUIÇA

Similar to chouriço, linguiça is another Portuguese sausage that is also made with pork, but flavoured with garlic and paprika. It is smoke-cured and makes a good alternative to recipes that call for chouriço or chorizo. As with those sausages, it can be sliced and fried or grilled, or barbecued and served with other nice meats as part of a bigger feast.

MIZITHRA

This fresh Greek cheese is made from the milk and whey of unpasteurised goat’s or sheep’s cheese (and sometimes a blend of both). It is hung in muslin cloths for a few days to drain the whey and a soft, creamy, sweet cheese is left behind (similar in texture to buffalo mozzarella). At this point it can either be eaten as is, or added to dishes and baked. Alternatively, it can be rubbed with coarse salt and hung in muslin for a longer period of time creating a firmer, saltier white cheese that can be grated over dishes to add flavour and character.

PIRI PIRI

Also known as peri peri, the term piri piri refers to the African bird’s eye chilli, which forms the basis for the sauces, marinades and spice mixes that have come to be such a cornerstone of Portuguese cuisine. It comes in many forms: a ground powder, flavoured oil, or as part of a spice mixture that creates piri piri marinade, which adds so much flavour to chicken and meat dishes.

PRESUNTO

Presunto has much in common with its cousin, Spanish jamón. It is produced by dry-curing and hanging legs of ham. Once aged, these legs are then sliced finely and used for the most delicious plates of meat. The type of pig used for presunto varies from region to region, and some, such as Chaves in the north of Portugal, claim to have the most delicious presunto. It can be bought fairly cheaply in Portugal and is often served as part of a larger meal, or as a snack with some olives and bread.

TALAGANI

Similar in texture and flavour to haloumi cheese, but slightly creamier and less salty, talagani is a traditional handmade cheese from Southern Greece. It’s made from sheep’s milk and, like haloumi, it is best served sliced, grilled and eaten right away with salads, cooked vegetables or as a side dish to a larger meal. Greek specialty shops may stock it, but if you can’t find it haloumi makes a good substitute.

CINNAMON & CARDAMOM BUNS

These gorgeous buns were always a part of my childhood. They are found everywhere in Finland — and probably all over Scandinavia — in tea rooms and houses. Everyone makes their own and they freeze beautifully so you can just pull out a few when a craving sets in. Don’t be put off when you see that the buns need to rise for a couple of hours. You can get the dough together really quickly and then leave it alone without even a glance. The rolling and cutting can be a little tricky the first time you do it, but the second time will be easy.

MAKES 36

Put the milk and sugar in a bowl and crumble in the yeast. Leave for 10 minutes, or until the yeast begins to activate. Add the egg, butter, cardamom and salt and mix in. Add the flour, bit by bit, mixing it in with a wooden spoon until you need to use your hands, and then turn it out onto the work surface to knead. It may seem a little too sticky initially, but will become compact and beautifully soft after about 5 minutes. Put the dough back in the bowl, cover with a clean cloth and then a heavy towel or blanket, and leave in a warm place for about 2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.

To make the cinnamon butter, mix together the cinnamon and sugar. Divide the butter into four portions and keep on one side.

Put the dough on a floured work surface and divide it into four portions. Begin with one portion, covering the others with a cloth so they don’t dry out. Using a rolling pin, roll out a rectangle, about 30 x 25 cm (12 x 10 inches) and 2–3 mm (¹/₈ inch) thick. Spread one portion of butter over the surface of the dough with a palette knife or blunt knife. Sprinkle with about 3 teaspoons of the cinnamon mix, covering the whole surface with quick shaking movements of your wrist. Roll up to make a long dough sausage. Set aside while you finish rolling out and buttering the rest of the dough, so that you can cut them all together.

Line two large baking trays with baking paper, or bake in two lots if you only have one tray. Line up the dough sausages in front of you and cut them slightly on the diagonal, alternating up and down, so that the slices are fat ‘v’ shapes, with the point of the ‘v’ about 2 cm (¾ inch) and the base about 5 cm (2 inches). Turn them so they are all the right way up, sitting on their fatter bases. Press down on the top of each one with two fingers until you think you will almost go through to your work surface. Along the sides you will see the cinnamon stripes oozing outwards. Put the buns on the baking trays, leaving space for them to puff and rise while they bake. Brush lightly with beaten egg and sprinkle a little sugar over the top.

Leave the buns to rise for half an hour and preheat your oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4). Bake them for about 20 minutes, or until they are golden. Check that they are lightly golden underneath as well before you take them out of the oven. Serve hot, warm or at room temperature and, when they are cool, keep them in an airtight container so they don’t harden.

YEASTED MILK BREADS

Some people like these with ham and cheese, but they are also beautiful for breakfast, with butter, jam or marmalade. You will need a large non-stick frying pan — use the closest thing to a baking stone you can find. I love these: they taste like raw cinnamon bun dough for some reason and the sugar feels elusive, almost like a whisper. You can make the dough into one large cake and cut into wedges to serve. They don’t keep very well, so either eat them straightaway or freeze them in plastic bags.

MAKES 12

Crumble up the fresh yeast (or sprinkle in the dried) into a small bowl, add the lukewarm milk, a handful of the flour and a stolen pinch of the sugar and whisk it all together. Leave until the yeast starts to activate and bubble up a bit. Meanwhile, put the rest of the flour, the sugar and salt in a large bowl and make a well in it.

Pour the foamy yeast mixture into the well with the melted butter and egg, mixing in well with a wooden spoon until you have a soft rough sticky ball. Sprinkle some of the extra flour onto your work surface and, with floured hands, gently knead for a minute or so until the ball is smoothish. (This is a gentle bringing together of the dough without much flour or force.) Put into a large bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave for 2–3 hours in a warm place until it has puffed up well. Line two large baking trays with baking paper.

Divide the dough into about 12 portions, roll them gently into balls with your palms and a little of the flour and put them on the trays, leaving a little space in between. Cover loosely with another sheet of baking paper and a cloth on top of that. Leave to rise for another hour.

Heat up a large heavy-based frying pan or stone to hot then reduce the heat to low. Take each ball of dough (working with four or so at a time depending on the size of your pan). Flatten each ball as smoothly as you can without knocking the air out too much to make a flat disc about 10 cm (4 inches) wide. Dust a little flour on both sides and put into the hot pan over gentle heat. Turn over carefully when the undersides are deep golden (remember they need to have cooked halfway through if they’re not to have doughy centres). Cook until the new underside is deep golden and remove to a cloth-lined basket while you cook the others. Cut a cooled one open to check it’s cooked.

These are good both warm and cold. Left out they tend to harden and don’t keep well, but are great toasted and spread with butter and jam.

HOMEMADE RUSKS

These are what we had in South Africa for breakfast, often dipped in warm milk or coffee. I love having a jar of them in the house always. They are crisp and rustic and beautiful. My friend Sue says her kids always liked to scatter the remaining crumbs over their breakfast cereal.

MAKES ABOUT 50

Preheat your oven to 190°C (375°F/Gas 5). Mix the butter into the flour with your hands or in a blender. Add the sugar, salt and baking powder and then mix in the milk and vinegar until you have a smooth soft dough. Grease a large baking tray with butter and flour.

Roughly divide the dough into three portions. Wet your hands with a little cold water and quickly roll long dough sausages, each about 30 cm (12 inches) long. Your tray needs to be big enough to accommodate them — mine is 34 x 25 cm (13½ x 10 inches) and looks very big when I put the mix on. Arrange the dough rolls parallel on the tray with a few extra dots of butter between them.

Bake for 45 minutes–1 hour until the tops are golden and crusty. Remove from the oven and turn the heat down to 150°C (300°F/Gas 2). The dough rolls will have joined together but their outlines will still be visible. Cut down their lengths to separate them, then cut each roll into 3 cm (1¼ inch) pieces. Don’t touch them for now, leave them on their tray to cool a bit and make them more manageable. Then lift them up and break them in half through their middles so that they look rustic and imperfect. If you find it easier, begin with a knife, chopping through a little and then breaking them apart with your hands.

Return them to the baking tray (lay them on their sides) and the oven for about 30 minutes on each side to dry out a bit. They should be not too toasted, but crumbly and firm. Let them cool completely before storing in a closed container or paper bag, where they will keep well for up to five days.

MIXED BROWN BREAD

I love going to the organic shop and coming out with the various brown paper bags with all the different goods to make this bread. It really makes me feel like I’m doing well when my kids have this for their school sandwiches. Apart from its healthy aspect this is just simply lovely — nice for sandwiches or toasted with butter or jam. You might like to try other flours or combinations, too. This makes one large loaf or two smaller ones, and, if you like, you can easily freeze one and keep it for another moment.

MAKES 2 LOAVES

Put the water in a smallish bowl and add the yeast, honey and oil. Stir until the honey melts and then leave it for 10 minutes or so, until it begins to froth up a bit.

Put the farro, buckwheat, rye, wholemeal and bread flours in a fairly large wide bowl and add the linseeds and salt. Toast the sesame and sunflower seeds lightly in a dry frying pan and stir them into the flours.

Add the yeast mixture to the flours and mix through well, kneading it in the bowl for at least 5 minutes until it is elastic. It may still be a little sticky, but only add more bread flour if you can’t knead it because it’s sticking to your hands. Cover the bowl with a couple of cloths and leave it in a warm and draught-free place for about 1½ hours, or until it has puffed up well. Punch down the dough to flatten it, divide it in half and dust a large baking tray with flour. Shape the dough into two longish loaves and sit them on the tray, leaving space between as they will rise. Make a few slashes on their tops and cover with a cloth, making sure it loops in the middle of the two loaves. Leave it in the same draught-free spot for another 45 minutes or so, until the dough has puffed right up again.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas 6). Remove the cloth and bake for about 25 minutes, until the bread is golden and crusty all over and sounds hollow when you tap it. Remove from the oven and cool a bit before serving. Best warm or at room temperature.

WHITE MILK BREAD OR ROLLS

You can make this as one loaf or shape into smaller rolls. Children love small soft white rolls, it seems. Naturally, you can make different sizes, or a different shape — long are nice for hot dogs. You can easily make a batch and freeze them in small bags, a few together, to whip out at almost the last moment of need.

MAKES 1 LOAF OR ABOUT 18 SMALL ROLLS

Put the milk, yeast and honey in a small bowl and stir until the honey melts. Leave it for about 10 minutes, or until it begins to froth a bit.

Put the flour and salt into a larger bowl. Add the yeast mixture, the egg and butter and mix through well. Knead for 10 minutes or so and, if it seems sticky, just hold the bowl firmly and move the dough around with your hand, rather than add more flour. Cover the bowl with a cloth and leave in a warm draught-free place to rise for 1½–2 hours, or until it has puffed up well.

Lightly grease a 30 x 11 cm (12 x 4¼ inch) loaf (bar) tin and dust it with flour. Punch down the dough to flatten it and shape it into a rough loaf of a size to fit the tin. Cover with a cloth and leave in the warm place for another 45–60 minutes, or until it puffs right up in the tin. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F/Gas 5).

Put the tin in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes, or until the top is firm and crusty and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Remove from the oven, knock the loaf out of the tin and cool on a rack in a fly-free zone.

This is best eaten sliced, warm and spread with butter, but you can keep the loaf for a few days in an airtight container (not a plastic bag) for excellent toast.

BOBBA’S BABKA

I remember this exaggerated puffed-up bread so well from the Jewish bakeries in South Africa and the homes of many friends. This is a recipe from my friend Lisa’s gran (Bobba is Yiddish for grandma). The cinnamon just streaks through the babka and it’s great alone, slightly warm, or spread with a little extra butter and jam. You can freeze the cooked bread and pull it out to thaw a couple of hours before serving.

MAKES 1 LOAF

Mix together the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl. Crumble the yeast into a smaller bowl, add the milk and oil and mix through. Leave for 10 minutes or so to begin activating, then pour the yeast mixture into the flour mixture, scraping out the bowl well. Using an electric mixer with a dough hook, mix until well combined. Alternatively, mix with very well-floured hands.

Add the eggs and mix a little longer to combine. The dough should be thick and a little difficult to mix, even with the mixer. It will seem very sticky. Turn it out onto a floured work surface, incorporating more flour if necessary, so that it is still very sticky but not actually sticking to your hands. Work it around, kneading for about 10 minutes. Grease a large clean bowl with a little melted butter.

Put the dough in the greased bowl, turning it greased side up. Cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm place for about 1½ hours, or until it is light and doubled in size. Divide the dough in half and roll out one half on a lightly floured surface. It will still feel quite sticky. Roll it out to make a 45 x 25 cm (18 x 10 inch) rectangle that is 5 mm (¼ inch) thick.

Mix the cinnamon with the brown sugar. Spread half the butter over the rolled out dough and scatter half of the cinnamon sugar over the surface.

Roll up the dough into a long sausage along its longest edge. Set aside and do the same with the other half of the dough. Braid the two dough ropes together, pressing hard to seal the edges together. Twist the dough braid to tighten the loaf.

Put into a greased 30 cm (12 inch) loaf (bar) tin. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for another hour or so, until it puffs up again. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4). Mix the egg yolk with the milk and brush over the top of the babka, then sprinkle with brown sugar. Put the tin in the bottom third of the oven with no shelves above it and bake for between 30–40 minutes. It will have risen more and be beautifully golden. A skewer inserted should come out clean and not have any dough sticking to it. If the ends look too brown but the dough doesn’t seem cooked, cover the ends with a bit of foil and cook for a little longer. Cool for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

This is a dream served just slightly warm but it is a little more difficult to cut. It will keep for 24 hours, or toast it lightly and spread with a little butter or even a citrus curd.

COLOURED FRUIT SALAD

I love serving bowls of colour. You could use all green fruits: say, kiwi, melon, green apples with some berries for contrast. Or golden mangoes, pineapples and oranges with a handful of strawberries thrown in.

Figs are also lovely in here — you can add anything you like as long as you use beautiful juicy sweet fruit that smells gorgeous and is the freshest of the fresh. This is also nice after a meal, with a scoop of ice cream.

SERVES 5

Cut up the watermelon into nice-sized chunky slithers and remove the seeds. Put in a bowl with the cherries, strawberries and peaches. Halve the pomegranate and squeeze the juice from one half into the bowl. Carefully pick out the seeds from the other half, making sure there is no white pith attached, and add to the bowl. Add the orange juice and sugar and mix together gently but thoroughly.

HALF-MOON ROLLS

My kids love these for breakfast with butter and jam. You can freeze them easily and take out a couple as you need them. For people who have never made their own bread and think it sounds daunting, these are so much easier to make than you would think. You can even freeze the dough once it’s been shaped … that way it has its second rising as it thaws.

MAKES 16

Put the milk, water, yeast and honey in a small bowl and stir until the honey melts. Leave it for about 10 minutes, or until it begins to froth a bit.

Put the flour and salt into a larger bowl. Add the yeast mixture and melted butter and mix through well. Knead for 10 minutes or so until you have a soft elastic ball. Only add extra flour if the dough is so sticky that it is unkneadable. Cover the bowl with a cloth and leave it to rise in a warm draught-free place for 1½–2 hours, or until it has puffed up well. Punch down the dough to flatten it, and roughly divide it in half.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll or stretch each piece of dough into a circle like a pizza base, about 35 cm (14 inches) in diameter and 3 mm (¹/₈ inch) thick. If the dough is hard to stretch, leave it for 5 minutes to relax before rolling it out. Cut each circle into eight wedges like you would cut a pizza. Working with one wedge at a time, stretch out the two outside corners a little, then roll up the dough tightly from the outside and finishing at the point of the triangle. With this point to the top, curve the roll slightly into a crescent shape.

Line two baking trays with baking paper and arrange 8 rolls on each. Cover with a cloth and leave to rise in the warm place for 30–45 minutes. Brush with the egg and scatter the seeds over the top.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4). Bake one tray at a time for about 15 minutes, or until the rolls are lightly golden and the bottoms sound hollow when tapped. Serve warm or at room temperature with your favourite filling.

SESAME SEED RINGS

I adore these for breakfast or with a meal. They are lovely bread rings that are sold by vendors on the streets in Greece. They sometimes differ in size, but generally are round, a bit flattened and slightly irregular in shape. The nice thing is that when you get them in a packet, many sesame seeds fall to the bottom, then you can pour them out and eat them off your hand.

MAKES 12

Crumble the fresh yeast or sprinkle the dried into a bowl. Add the sugar, water and a handful of flour. Whisk to smooth any lumps. Leave until it starts to activate and bubble, about 10 minutes. Add the rest of the flour, the salt and oil and mix with a wooden spoon until a loose dough forms. Knead on a lightly floured surface for 7–8 minutes or until the dough is smooth and spongy. Wipe out the bowl with an oiled paper towel and put the dough in. Cover with plastic wrap then a tea towel and leave in a warm spot for about 2 hours until puffed and doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F/Gas 6) and line two baking trays with baking paper. For the flour paste, mix the flour and water in a bowl until smooth. Knead the dough briefly then divide it into 12 equal parts. Roll, stretch and coax each piece into a thin rope about 40 cm (16 inches) long. Make the first six and while baking, prepare the next batch. Brush each rope lightly with the paste, and sprinkle sesame seeds all over, then roll through the seeds that have dropped on your work surface so that they’re covered all over. Turn each rope on itself forming a ring, pressing the ends together to seal. Place on a tray and bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Sesame seeds that have fallen onto the trays can be used elsewhere.

JAM SHORTBREAD

This is so simple and so good. I love it with any jam that’s not too sweet but I usually use strawberry, raspberry or plum (it’s very special with fig jam, too). It’s my children’s favourite kind of thing — a bit like those biscuits sandwiched together with raspberry jam that shows through the round window in front. You can use more jam if you like a lot.

MAKES 12–15 PIECES, DEPENDING ON THE SIZE YOU CUT THEM

Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F/Gas 3). Have a 40 x 30 cm (16 x 12 inch) baking tray ready — you can line it if you like, to help you lift out the shortbread when it’s cooked, but it’s not absolutely necessary.

Put the butter and sugar in a good-sized bowl and work them together by hand or with a wooden spoon until combined. Add the flour and baking powder and work them in. Add the egg and vanilla and knead them in until it is all compact and smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in the fridge for at least half an hour until the dough is firm enough to roll out.

Divide the dough in half. Roll out one half on a lightly floured surface so that it will fit into your tray. It should be 2–3 mm thick (about ¹/₈ inch). Fit it into your baking tray, making sure that it is a fairly even thickness all over. Spread the jam over the top, as if you were spreading it over a slice of toast. Roll out the other half of the dough and fit it as exactly as possible over the bottom one. If it is difficult to lift, roll it loosely over your rolling pin and carry it that way. It isn’t essential that all your edges are exact; you can break off a bit from here and patchwork it in there. It will taste the same.

Bake for about 15 minutes, or until the shortbread is golden in places. The edges will start to turn golden brown first, followed by the top. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes in the tray. Lift out of the tray, using the baking paper.

Cut into shapes with a cookie cutter, or just into squares or diamonds. Or you can leave it in one piece and keep cutting chunks out of it as you go past. It will keep in a biscuit tin for five or six days.

WHITE LOAF WITH HONEY, BUTTER & PECANS

I use a homemade white loaf to make this. If you prefer, you can use an unsliced bought one — white sourdough is good. My friend Sue taught me how to make this. I think it’s fantastic — especially for a picnic. But my favourite is for breakfast.

MAKES ABOUT 16 FINGERS

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4) and line a baking tray with baking paper. Remove the crusts from the bread and cut it in half horizontally to give two layers (if your loaf is extra high, you can make three layers). Put the pieces on the tray.

Mix the butter, honey, sugar and pecans to get a gooey mixture. Pour and spread over the tops of the two bread halves. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the bread is crusty and golden on top. (Don’t burn it or the nuts will be bitter — so take it out sooner if you see that it’s ready.) Let it cool a dash, then cut into thick fingers. It will crisp up and become crunchier.

GREEK YOGHURT WITH HONEY, CINNAMON, PECANS & POMEGRANATES

This is a quick ‘healthy’ snack that you can literally produce in one minute if you have all the ingredients. The Greek yoghurt is important — its thick and creamy nature allows the honey, nuts and cinnamon to sit on it like a crown. The pomegranate seeds dress it up well and any from the rest of the pomegranate can be served up later to nibble on with a glass of prosecco or saved for filling little tartlets.

SERVES 2

Pick all the seeds out of the pomegranate, making sure there is no white pith still attached. In a small dry frying pan, lightly toast the pecans just enough to bring out their flavour and crisp them up (take care not to overdo them or they’ll be bitter and taste burnt). Leave them to cool.

Spoon the yoghurt into bowls, scatter a small fistful of nuts over the top, drizzle with honey and finish with a small scattering of pomegranate seeds and cinnamon. Best served immediately.

CHOCOLATE LOAF

This is a wonderful addition to your breakfast table. Despite its looks, it is definitely a bread and is quite a surprise, so you might need to prepare people who are expecting it to be a cake. It is beautiful plain, or toasted with butter or homemade mandarin or strawberry jam.

MAKES 1 LOAF

Crumble the yeast into a large bowl and add the sugar. Gently heat the milk in a small saucepan until it feels just a bit hotter than your finger, then add it to the yeast. Stir through and leave for 10 minutes or so, until the surface starts to turn spongy. Add the flour, cocoa powder, butter and a pinch of salt and mix in well. Knead with your hands for about 6 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic with no lumps. If your dough is very soft, leave it in the bowl and just punch it around and squeeze it with one hand, holding the bowl with the other. Cover the bowl with a heavy tea towel and leave it in a warm and draught-free place for 1½–2 hours until it has puffed right up. Butter and flour a 30 x 11 cm (12 x 4¼ inch) loaf (bar) tin.

Knock the dough down to flatten it and shape it to the size of the tin. Drop it in, cover the tin with the tea towel and leave it again in a warm place for anywhere between 30 minutes and an hour, until the dough has puffed up over the rim of the tin. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4).

Remove the tea towel and bake the loaf for about 25 minutes, or until the top is firm and the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. Tip out onto a rack to cool. Once it has cooled down completely, this loaf can be frozen (even just a chunk of it) in a plastic bag and saved for another moment in time.