Since I cooked a Jamie Oliver recipe for baked fennel that suggested dry white vermouth as an alternative to white wine, I’ve kept a bottle for when I need only a small amount of white wine. It’s a great alternative that works in just about any recipe that doesn’t rely on the wine as the primary flavour.

I also keep a bottle of ruby port open for adding to gravies, sauces and casseroles. It’s not as direct a substitute for red wine as vermouth is for white wine – it’s sweet, so has a very different basic character – but think of how many times the word ‘port’ has got your mouth watering on a restaurant menu.

Port is bubbling away in a casserole as I write this.

Not only are vermouth and port longer-lived than wine, they’re also very much cheaper, so I feel much more like adding them to everyday cooking. Everybody wins!

I love this seasonal thing. It’s constantly prodding me to rethink what I’m cooking, rather than letting me settle gently into a rut.

I cracked open six eggs from a local producer who delivers to where my wife works. You count the yolks!

Apologies for the picture quality – I’m still getting the hang of the new digi.

I’m not going to reproduce the whole recipe here, as for once, I pretty much stuck to the one in the book, except for halving the quantities (for two instead of four), and replacing the whipping cream with creme fraiche and the full-cream milk with half-fat milk to reduce the fat content a little.

For four

• Two large leeks
• 4 x 200g chicken breasts with wing attached, partially boned
• Plain flour
• Salt & pepper
• Sunflour oil
• 100g unsalted butter
• 125g pancetta rashers
• 200g black pudding
• 1/2 garlic clove, chopped
• 75g parmesan cheese
• 255ml whipping cream

Béchamel sauce, made with:

• 50g butter
• 50g plain flour
• Salt & white pepper
• Freshly-grated nutmeg

The recipe is obviously one from a restaurant kitchen, involving a number of (simple) stages, and a final assembly. My wife loved it; I remain less of a fan of cheese and/or cream sauces.

I’ll cook it again for a dinner party, though, for friends who like that kind of thing.

You should be able to find the recipe on page 161.

How do they do it in restaurants? Or is it a variety thing like the strawberries we get these days in the shops that never give up their hulls cleanly?

I remember the days…

Any suggestions, oh knowledgeable reader?

Tenderness? Akin to shoe leather.

Not something I’m desperate to try again.

This weekend, I’ve discovered that the Village Deli in Ferring fits the bill. The Camembert, in particular was great – really ripe and runny, not the stuff with the texture and taste of housebricks you get from the supermarket.

What with the Organic butcher’s and the coffee shop – and the nice bike ride along the Ilex – Ferring is going to be a more regular stop.

I’m now looking for something yummy to do with some lamb fillet and wondering whether I should do anything apart from char-grilling the wildebeest steaks. I kid you not.

Anyone have any suggestions?

From top left, clockwise: broccoli pesto, tomato and onion focaccia, Italian white bread with olives, Italian sausage with fennel, scirocco pesto (with tuna, olive oil, capers, mint and garlic), prosciutto, black olives, artichoke hearts, green olives, sweet garlic, cheese (I can’t at the moment remember what it is, but it’s pleasingly strong!), and red pesto.

And in the middle, a litre of wonderful unfiltered, fruity, peppery extra-virgin olive oil.

That should keep us going for a day or two.

But what do you do with a joint of pork? The traditional crackling bit does horrendous things to my diet, so I’m always look-out for something creative to do with pork.

I know what I like to do with roast chicken or roast lamb – the flavours that make these really memorable. I know not to mess about with beef – just get the biggest and best joint that I can afford, and show it to a little heat before serving .

Recently, faced with a bone-in loin of pork. I spread it with onion marmalade about 30 minutes before taking it out of the oven. That was nice; I’d do it again.

I also like to roast one dessert apple per person next to the meat. But this weekend, I know there’s a joint of pork that Sam bought sitting in the fridge. And I want to do something different with it tomorrow.