Wines you’ll really want to Swig

Inclusive, inventive and imaginative… The online wine specialist Swig packs a might punchDomaine Gamiller Priune, Côtes du Rhône, France 2023 (£18.95, swig.co.uk) What do you look for in a wine merchant? Inclusiveness would be high on my list, by which I mean no snobby condescension or arch comments if you betray that you don’t know your chardonnay from your chablis (or, indeed, that you don’t know that chablis is always made from chardonnay in the eponymous part of northern Burgundy). Enthusiasm, a feeling that your merchant really loves what they sell and wants nothing more than to share it and find the right bottle for you, is another welcome quality, as too is a sense that prices are fair – if not “never knowingly undersold” at least not “always furtively oversold”

Shiki, Norwich: ‘Unexpectedly reasonable’ – restaurant review

A pre-match lunch with my father at a Japanese restaurant is in a league of its ownShiki, 6 Tombland, Norwich NR3 1HE (01603 619262). Sushi and sashimi from £2 per piece, small dishes from £3, larger dishes from £10, beer from £3.50, sake from £6.50We only get to truly value excellence by experiencing what it is to fall short. In politics

Ricotta dumplings and rhubarb trifle – Thomasina Miers’ Sunday lunch recipes

One of the things I love about cooking is how the simplest ingredients can be transformed into a feast. Recently, we went round to see a friend who is an Italian chef. He cooked pasta and a tomato sauce (amatriciana); we had a salad of shaved fennel, orange and olive oil; and a piece of delicious cheese, some good crackers and a few squares of chocolate to finish. It was a sensational weekend lunch. Today’s tender and light dumplings are just so – peas and onions make the sauce, but plentiful olive oil and butter, plus some generous seasoning, take them to another level

Meera Sodha: ‘I’m thrilled to have new ingredients in the kitchen’

I’m like a giant panda in that 98% of what I eat comes from plants. It’s a long story, but the short version is that I love animals alive and vegetables on my plate.If I think about who I am and how I eat, I am built from Gujarati ingenuity and Lincolnshire produce when it comes to putting vegetables at the centre of the table. While I eat mainly plants, I do leave a little room in my diet for other things that I enjoy – a fish curry shared with my husband, Hugh, an omelette for a quick dinner, or tidying the edges of a hunk of manchego – and three of my cookbooks, Fresh India, East and Dinner, overall reflect that way of eating.I have variously followed a vegan or vegetarian diet, but the moment I fell off the wagon by eating some meat, I feared I lacked conviction

How to turn old cheese ends into a savoury porridge – recipe | Waste not

Oats are a great vehicle for the earthy flavours of mushroom, celeriac and jerusalem artichoke in a risotto-style dish that can be enjoyed all day longPorridge is one of the most homely and comforting of dishes, and the discovery of savoury porridge takes it to a whole new level, making those oats something that can be enjoyed all day long. Inspired by both Heston Blumental’s snail porridge and Dan Barber’s “rotation risotto”, which I developed for his WastED pop-up at Selfridges in 2017, this particular savoury porridge even gained some notoriety after it featured in Private Eye’s Pseuds Corner that same year. The latter was a fun, fine-dining dish but, at its heart, the recipe is very simple and satisfying; it works brilliantly, too.At its heart, porridge is, of course, the humblest of dishes. It’s usually eaten for breakfast, perhaps sweetened with honey and molasses, but it works very well as a savoury meal

Australian canned cocktails taste test: from grownup drinks to ‘a hen party in a can’

There’s a canned cocktail out there to suit most palates. After tasting their way through 22 options, Samantha Payne and her panel pick their top shelfCanned cocktails were once a single shelf in the bottle shop – at most. Now the category has expanded into whole fridges of options. We tasted our way through 22 Australian-made canned cocktails, and learned that the diversity, even for a group of sommeliers, hospo workers and friends who love a cheeky canned bevvy, is overwhelming. That makes this a really exciting choose-your-own-adventure category of drinks