New Kitchen Basics - Claire Thomson Claire Thomson's new book takes ten favourite ingredients that are easily available - chicken, tomatoes, eggs, salad and vegetables, cheese, potatoes, minced meat, pasta, lemon and chocolate - and from the basics about those ingredients she then offers recipes that promise to brighten up mealtimes with new twists on classics and brand new ideas. Each ingredient section contains an introduction to the star ingredient - Claire writes of cheese "Cheese is a primal and also deeply sophisticated food, capable of sparking supreme alchemy in the kitchen. Certain cheese can lend gravitas to thrifty, everyday ingredients, while others can represent the utmost luxury to anticipate and savour." The recipes that follow include gorgonzola with polenta, walnuts and radicchio, stilton and fig wholemeal scones and fried halloumi with aubergine and butter beans. The book contains recipes both savoury and sweet to take you from snack or treat to full blown meal.