Beyond the bacon sandwich: the many uses of brown sauce

I like my bacon sandwich with brown sauce, but that means keeping a bottle for a long time. What else can I do with it? Will, via emailIn the early 1980s, Tom Harris, co-owner and chef at the Marksman in east London, made a beer mat from penny coins for his dad (and in the quest to secure a Blue Peter badge): “The instructions said to put the dirty coins in brown sauce overnight,” he recalls. “The next morning, they were all shiny and looked brand new, so there’s another use for it right there!”Brown sauce is “an absolute marvel”, agrees Sabrina Ghayour, author of the recently published Persiana Easy, and not just for its cleaning prowess: “If you break it down, the sauce is packed with some pretty interesting ingredients, including my beloved tamarind.” It’s worth exploring your bottle options beyond HP, too, not least because there was much controversy back in 2011 when the brand gave its recipe, which had remained unchanged for more than a century, a tweak. “They reduced the salt [from 2

Georgina Hayden’s epic crab, chilli and lime sarnie – recipe

This time of year has to be one of my favourites for British produce – all the joys of late summer sweetness with early autumn favourites just around the corner. I’m happy to keep the summer party going, though, with tomato salads, crisp sundowners and crab sarnies. Despite never having visited Cornwall as a kid, there isn’t much better than sitting by the beach and devouring a Cornish crab sandwich. This is the slightly elevated version I make once the holidays are over to keep some sunshine in my life.Prep 20 min Makes 2150g mixed crab meat, picked through for bits of shell 70g mayonnaise 1 green chilli, pith and seeds removed, flesh finely chopped Sea salt and white pepper½ lime1 small handful flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and finely chopped¼ cucumber, trimmed½ little gem, finely shredded1 tbsp olive oil 40g salted butter, at room temperature4 slices fresh white or wholemeal breadPut the crab meat, mayonnaise and chopped chilli in a large bowl and season well with salt and ground white pepper

Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy eggs in a basket with smoky chard – recipe

Eggs in a basket are a treat. The easiest way to make the necessary holes in your sliced bread is with a round pastry cutter – or a heart-shaped one for fun. Break the eggs into their bread ‘baskets’, then fry up their “hats” to go alongside. To make this a grownup rather than a nursery dinner, serve with lemon-and-paprika-spiked chard, or spinach or kale, if that’s what you have; I am growing a surfeit of chard, so I always need new ways to use it up.Prep 10 min Cook 10 min Serves 2 (but scale up if you’re hungry)2 tbsp olive oil 1 garlic clove, peeled and finely sliced150g rainbow chard, roughly chopped1 tsp hot smoked paprika 1 tsp flaky sea salt Juice of ½ lemon2 large slices good white bread or sourdough2 medium eggs50g Greek yoghurt, to servePut a tablespoon of the oil in a large frying pan on a medium heat, add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds

Sweet-and-sour figs and roast chicken: Ben Lippett’s savoury fig recipes

There are a handful of moments on the culinary calendar that feel like striking gold: rhubarb in January, peas and broad beans in spring, summer cherries and tomatoes, and, for just a few short weeks in late-summer, figs. Typically, they might be torn over yoghurt and granola for breakfast or baked into a tart with frangipane, but they belong in the savoury kitchen, too. Combined with salt, savoury ingredients and a little vinegar, a good fig will bring a gorgeous sweet-sour note to your dinner table.As the warmer months come to an end, I like to cook with both comfort and freshness in mind. Rich, buttery, warming polenta is offset with a vibrant, bright, jammy topping of onions, rosemary and torn figs

How to make perfect nanaimo bars – recipe | Felicity Cloake's How to make the perfect …

Canadians are famously nice – think laid-back Keanu Reeves, sunny Pamela Anderson, the charmingly incompetent Inspector Gadget – except when it comes to their beloved nanaimo bars. Get the ratio of this three-tier national treasure wrong, as the New York Times stood accused of doing in 2021, when its Instagram account posted a picture of squares that one user described as “an insult to Canadians everywhere”, and you’ll discover you can push them only so far.The Times is not alone in attracting ire. So popular are nanaimo (pronounced nuh-NYE-mo) bars, named after the British Columbian town where they are said to have originated, that Canada Post put them on a stamp in 2019 … only to face similar howls of outrage, albeit in Canadian: “One hesitates to be critical,” Nanaimo’s mayor explained carefully, “but it’s not a very accurate depiction.”In short, Canadians, who in 2006 voted the nanaimo bar the “nation’s favourite confection”, feel very strongly about these sugary little treats, a mainstay of kids’ birthday parties, wedding buffets and funeral teas from Nanaimo to Nova Scotia, though if Justin Trudeau had any problem with the version served up by White House chefs during his state dinner with Barack Obama in 2016, he was too polite to say so