Jam tarts and summer pudding cake: Nicola Lamb’s recipes for baking with mixed berries

First up, a crostata-inspired jam tart that’s perfect for afternoon tea or nibbling throughout the day. Fennel seeds in the buttery pastry give a subtle flavour surprise, although you could omit them, or try coriander seeds or ginger instead. A small batch of jam is surprisingly quick to make, but you can, of course, use shop-bought, or make use of one of those jars living rent-free in your cupboard. Then, a summer pudding-inspired cake that makes a delightful centrepiece – the juices from the berries absorb into the top third of the sponge, giving it a gorgeous, ombre tone that looks as beautiful as it tastes.Use a mixture of whatever berries are plentiful; frozen will work well, too

Georgina Hayden’s recipe for spiced crab egg fried rice

Crab deserves to be celebrated, but that doesn’t mean it has to be a super-fancy, laborious meal. Crab midweek? Yes, please, and fried rice is my fallback whenever I am in a dinner pickle. That’s not to belittle its deliciousness, complexity or elegance, though, because this spiced crab version can be as fancy as you like. That said, the speed and ease with which I can create a meal that I know everyone will love is the winning factor. Plus, I often have leftover cooked, chilled rice in the fridge, anyway, which is always the clincher (cooked rice has a better texture for frying once chilled)

Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for courgette linguine with trout, lemon and dill | Quick and easy

This is such a lovely, summery dish: it takes under 30 minutes from start to finish, and I found it immensely reviving after a long day. The grated courgette melts into the pasta, and works perfectly with the lemon, trout and a hit of chilli. If you have one of those multi-nut and seed mixes (the M&S 35-plant one is excellent), by all means add a scoop to finish; otherwise, a scattering of toasted pine nuts will add a welcome crunch. An elegant dinner for two.Prep 10 min Cook 20 min Serves 22 trout fillets 2½ tbsp olive oilSea saltJuice and finely grated zest of ½ lemon, plus 2 lemon slices180g linguine 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely grated1 tsp chilli flakes1 large courgette, trimmed and coarsely grated10g fresh dill, roughly chopped 4 tbsp pine nuts, or 4 tbsp omega nut and seed mixHeat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6

Bangkok Diners Club, Manchester M4: ‘This will soon be one of Manchester’s hottest dining tickets’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

Bangkok Diners Club feels a bit as if it’s tucked down a humid Rattanakosin sidestreet in the Thai capital’s old town, rather than in a room above a pub 6,000 miles away in Ancoats, Manchester. Husband-and-wife team Ben and Bo Humphreys have brought their joint skills to the Edinburgh Castle, an elegantly restored 19th-century pub with an upstairs restaurant that in recent years has made quite a name for itself; before the Humphreys’ arrival, this same space was the lair of Winsome’s Shaun Moffat, where plaudits and gongs were in ready supply, but then Moffat got his hands on his own place and this upstairs room needed a pair of cool, capable hands to take over.Look no further than Ben and Bo, who have a pedigree in forward-thinking Thai cuisine. Bo was born and raised in Thailand’s north-eastern Isaan region, before moving to Bangkok in her teens, while Ben has cooked at Manchester’s Thai fusion restaurant District and, before that, at Tattu, Rabbit in the Moon and Lucky Cat. After the closure of District in 2022, the couple spent three years eating their way across Thailand and the US, picking up inspiration for dishes in which authentic Thai flavours, and occasionally Bo’s family-favourite recipes, could merge with the Korean and Mexican barbecue flavours of Miami smokehouses

How to make coffee and walnut cake – recipe | Felicity Cloake's Masterclass

Today is my birthday, so I’m celebrating with a classic that, for all the sticky tres leches and sophisticated sachertortes I’ve enjoyed in recent years, remains my absolute favourite, my desert island cake: that darling of the WI tea tent, the coffee and walnut sandwich. The great Nigel Slater once named it his last meal on Earth, and I’m hoping to have it for tea.Prep 30 min Cook 25 min Serves 8225g room-temperature butter 4 tbsp instant coffee (see step 1)100g walnut halves 4 eggs 225g soft light brown sugar 225g plain flour 3 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp fine salt Milk (optional)For the icing165g room-temperature butter425g icing sugar ¼ tsp salt 4 tbsp double cream (optional)If you’ve forgotten to get your butter out of the fridge, begin by dicing and spacing it out on the paper to soften (remember, you’ll need some for the icing, too).Mix the coffee with two tablespoons of boiling water and leave to cool – I like the nostalgic flavour of instant coffee here, but you can substitute three tablespoons of espresso or other strong coffee, if you prefer.Toast the walnut halves in a dry pan until they smell nutty, then set aside a quarter of the most handsome-looking ones to use as decoration later

From mochi ice cream to strawberry sandos, Japanese sweet treats are tickling UK tastebuds

If you said to a friend that you fancied Japanese food this weekend, they might be forgiven for thinking you meant sushi. But lately a new culinary export from Japan is catching up with fish and rice in the hearts and tastebuds of British foodies.Soft, sweet and full of character, Japanese-style desserts – from mochi ice cream to matcha cookies – have been steadily gaining ground on UK shelves.Such is their popularity, M&S has launched its own take on the strawberry sando, a Japanese convenience store favourite, a sandwich made with soft milk bread, whipped cream and neatly layered fruit.According to some industry commentators, British retailers are taking note of consumers’ growing appetite for “joyful” sweet treats as a simple pleasure to brighten their days