Recipes of the year in two lists
and on always being a bit late
Hi and welcome to my newsletter, a celebration of cooking, vegetables and life. It’s great to have you here. If you have found yourself here but are not yet subscribed then you can sort that out below….
My cookbooks (there are five) are available here. The latest is Easy Wins - a Sunday Times bestseller. There are hundreds of free recipes on my website which you can find here.
My window of lateness has shorted as the years have passed. In my 20’s I’d range from a sizeable 30-40 minutes, almost always. Looking back it was rude and annoying and I regret it. But it wasn’t malicious or intentional. I had what my mum calls ‘beam me up syndrome’ - an entirely fictional non-medical creation of my Mum’s. Beam me up means my brain does not factor in any travel time at all and if I do then it only leaves time for a 10/10, streamlined trip where all the connections flow and you arrive at a platform as the train pulls in and step right on.
I grew up always late, I have ‘a-leave-things-to-the-last-minute’ personality (it works for me but makes a lot of my friends nervous). My Mum (Geraldine, affectionately Gezza) who back then was juggling 3 kids was often late too. While it didn’t really bother me to be late, it did bother my sister. She hated it more than anything. More than once she threw a bucket of water over my head in my bed as I hit snooze for the 7th time, in the hope we would not have to face the mortifying traipse onto the school bus that had been sitting waiting for us for 10 minutes. Standing out was the peak of humiliation for her.
Why am I recounting you with these enthralling stories of my family's timekeeping? Well because it’s left me with a feeling of always being happy to come to things a little late. There is something in doing ‘the thing’ a little after it's anticipated that feels ok to me - in this case, this week's round-up of all the recipes you loved in 2024 on January 17th.
As a lifelong people pleaser, I’ve often been put off doing things by not hitting the deadline. And the need to be on time or in line with everyone else has, without doubt, stopped me doing things I want to do and love. Feeling like I’m too late or I’ve missed the boat. It's taken me 44 years to realise that I’m doing my own thing and no one is keeping time but me (ok and anyone I was 40 minutes late for, to those people I apologise).
So here, a few weeks into 2025, I’m looking back at the last year. Quickly before that I wanted to say that over Christmas we tipped over to more than 50,000 of you reading this newsletter. I needed to visualise that so I worked out that it's the 02 Arena filled 2 and a half times… That is a lot of people. You have joined me over a long time, ten years in fact since we sent the first one. I’m so thrilled and proud that all of you join me here, where I can share things in longer form and in a way that feels a little more considered.
Back to the recipes. I found it so interesting to look at what you loved and cooked last year. The number one recipe is a dhal I wrote up 12 years ago. I find that so pleasing. So many recipes and food media seem to last a fleeting moment so to know that some recipes might be used and loved so much ten or more years on feels great and spurs me on to keep writing recipes which I hope are useful and become like old friends.
Along with the sweet potato dhal, other loved recipes from the archive were the tomato and kale one pot pasta and the tomato and coconut cassoulet. There was a bit of occasion cooking with the cranberry-topped nut roast and the whole roasted squash. And there are some new recipes from Easy Wins, the sesame chilli oil noodles and the double lemon cake. As well as a couple from One like an easy rosemary + chocolate cake (which I make for every single birthday and would have been a layer in my wedding cake if I’d come up with the recipe earlier). The sesame-baked cauliflower surprised me. It’s something I make a lot for my kids, crispy crunchy cauliflower (I often add tofu too), rice and a not-too-hot sticky sauce. Somewhere between the texture of a nugget and the glaze of a wing but nothing like either. And I just broke my own rule of never comparing my food to meat. Sorry, it won’t happen again.
Most-clicked recipes of 2024
While my newsletter has been running for 10 years, we moved over to Substack five months ago and it's here in this newsletter that I am sharing most of my brand new recipes so I wanted to include those here too. Top spot was the Corner shop pasta I shared between Christmas and new year, proof to me that, always and forever - the simpler the recipe, the more people will cook it. A constant reminder to me when cooking and writing. What surprised me though was how loved the cakes were, taking spot 2 and 3. I never think of myself as a baker but they seem very well loved.
Top 5 Newsletter recipes
So moving into 2025 I would love to hear what it is you are missing, what recipes do you need? What would make your life better? What would you like to cook but don’t know how? Is the way I write my recipes working for you? What veg would you like some more ideas for? I’m genuinely interested to know. What I love about writing recipes is that my recipes are an honest reflection of what's going on in my kitchen. The things I cook. But I want them to be loved and useful too, otherwise what's the point?
So please comment here or use the new ‘ask Anna’ section of my website to post questions there.
Things to click on:
Generate excellent playlists for gardening, cooking, dressing up etc
A trip along the Danube
Your very own winter rainbow
How we can help the community in Altadena from here
and help from the brilliant Block Shop team if you’re in LA
Shortcrust secrets from one of my go-to bakeries
A magical exhibition in Dulwich
Pizza and galette epiphany parties are real, thanks Forno
The biscuit drawer at Pitt-Rivers Museum
Exquisite words describing the perfect plum
The sweet potato Dahl has been one of my favourites since it first came out. Every time I have moved or gone somewhere new it is the first proper thing I cook (to christen the kitchen with). It smells and tastes like home and will be on rotation for many years to come.
I am preparing to make the number one dhal this week as my caesarean is next week and I know it will nourish (and be delicious!). Thank you for this and all your recipes. The simplicity and clarity with which you explain things, that doesn’t at all mean the food is those things, I find so helpful - no one else is so clear! What I would really like to ask for is more advice on freezing - at what stage of the process, how to defrost, as much basic detail as possible! I’m useless at using my freezer properly. Oh and I’ve just thought - would you ever do a weaning book?! Thank you!