Paula and I agreed on being absolutely fine with the Twi bits, however untranslated, and agreed it’s our job to look those bits up if we choose to, and any cultural artefacts we were unfamiliar with. Turn the mixer to low and pour in the flour in a steady stream to combine with the egg and sugar mixture. Flyn travels around ghost places, no man’s lands, fortress islands and exclusion zones and looks at what happens when nature gets to take over with few or no humans around.

Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item. The aubergines and courgettes must be very fresh - when they have spent too long on the shelf they go bitter. Boil fiercely for a minute or two until the liquid is reduced by about two thirds and is becoming thick and syrupy. Our books are looking for loving home where they will be read, scribbled in with little notes to the reader. About half an hour before you plan to eat, slip the baking sheet on which you laid out earlier the oiled polenta croûtes and “oven chips” into an oven preheated to 210 degrees C fan.Tap the bottom sharply and lift away the mould to reveal the summer pudding, standing proud and brilliantly coloured. I had read several of his recipes for slow cooking, in which he gave oven temperatures in centigrade. At the same time, make a weak tea by adding 575m1/1 pint of boiling water to the tea-bag in the heat-proof bowl.

I am even more disturbed that there was no moral or ethical code for the publishers that prevented the publication of the book. Reading this book on my tablet through the NetGalley shelf app was a slightly tricky job, as it came out in double-spread pages in an odd font, with the next page accessed by swiping downwards, so you had to go left – right – down diagonally to the left – right, etc.Jonathan Meades, greatest food critic of Little’s era, said of it: “What makes Alastair such a good cook (apart from talent, taste, application and curiosity), is that he possessed the un-English conviction that eating well is a normal part of a civilised society. From Alastair Little’s lovely book “Keep It Simple” published in 1993 but still fresh and relevant today. He is a disciple of El Bulli, the staggeringly innovative restaurant north of Barcelona, and this is a brave thing to be in the home counties.

Take the pastry shell from the freezer, put it on a baking tray and spoon in the apples, pressing down to make them level. Thus everything from peasant cooking to classic haute cuisine may, by this definition, be accounted simple. And here most people, and certainly most kitchen pedants, part company with Messrs Blumenthal and Olney, and also with Mrs David. It shouldn’t require too much last minute preparation as who wants to sit down next to a cook spattered with fat from flash-frying a steak?Paula explicity asked me for my thoughts on having attended the book event and heard Owusu discuss it in person. When the cream mixture is hot, pour it over the potato slices and turn to coat thoroughly and evenly. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.