Skip to main contentSkip to navigation
Print subscriptions
Sign in
Search jobs
Search
The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

The Delia project

Every week, Stephen Bush relearns how to cook from scratch, using only the pages of the cooking classic Delia's Complete How to Cook as a guide. 

26 May 2017

  • Stephen Bush... the cook?: ‘Somewhere between boiling eggs and making souffles, I picked up from Delia what I think of as “cook’s grammar” – the ability to improvise...’

    What I learnt from a year following Delia’s How to Cook

    The Delia project: As Stephen’s year-long mission to cook his way through Delia Smith’s How to Cook draws to a close, her lessons have finally taken hold – and the result is a more confident cook

20 May 2017

  • Guaridan Cook<br>Writer Stephen Bush testing puddings

    Three Delia puddings to ease the political pain

    The Delia project: With the end of the project – and a general election – in sight, at last we turn to desserts, bringing sweet relief from the political day job

12 May 2017

  • appetizerfinal island

    Delia’s chicken liver pâté is a great way to display your culinary dominance

    The Delia project: This starter ticks all the boxes – quick, easy and posh enough to impress your friends

28 April 2017

  • stephen bush paints a gigantic burger bun with almost mayonnaise

    Delia’s low-fat mayonnaise recipe is a step in the right direction

    The Delia project: This low‑fat dressing is nearly perfect – but it won’t help my waistline very much

7 April 2017

  • Stirring the chocolate.

    Delia’s chocolate mousse could save you from therapy

    After overcoming the trauma of separating eggs, the sense of closure is nearly as delicious as this dessert

31 March 2017

  • Balanced on the edge of a gigantic pot of braised lamb shanks and cannellini beans, Stephen Bush takes a sentient bean by the hand and dances for joy beneath the moonlight.

    Delia’s braised lamb recipe gets pulses racing

    The Delia project: Delia’s chapter on beans is not so much ‘How to Cook Pulses’ but ‘How To Sneak Pulses Past Your Tastebuds’.

24 March 2017

  • Stephen Bush attacks a perfectly good creme brulee with a blowtorch.

    How Delia taught me to fire up a creme brulee

    The Delia Project: Variously terrify and impress your friends by bringing a blowtorch into your kitchen

17 March 2017

  • Illustration: A comically oversized Stephen Bush is depicted wrestling with a bowl of zabaglione in his kitchen, one foot on a toaster and one hand on a worksurface to steady himself, while attempting – needlessly – to whisk the ingredients in the bowl with one hand.

    Delia’s advice on the essential tools every cook needs

    The Delia project: What better way to make an underused utensil earn its keep than with a fancy drinkable dessert?

24 February 2017

  • ‘Posh cheese on toast’ for the surprise vegetarian dinner guest... and what could be more surprising than a large woodland animal turning up at the door? For here it is: not only was there a deer at the door, it has now sat down at your table and demanded a cheese supper.

    How to make Delia’s ‘cheese on toast for posh people’

    The Delia Project: Perfect for the surprise vegetarian guest, Welsh rarebit looks a lot more effort than it is – even for a cheese refusenik

17 February 2017

  • An illustrated facsimile of Stephen Bush tries to hold back the tide of gigantic key lime pudding about to overwhelm him. Yet, like the Little Dutch Boy attempting to plug a leak in the dyke with his finger, he is doomed to failure. If only the builders had included Grape-Nuts in the pie mortar, he might have lived.

    The grape-nuts of wrath: Delia’s key lime pie palaver

    The Delia project: Who knew an obscure breakfast cereal would be the vital ingredient to avoid a sludgy pud?

10 February 2017

  • cremecaramelfinal

    Delia Smith’s recipe for creme caramel – what could go wrong?

    The Delia project: What exactly is the difference between caramel and burnt sugar?

3 February 2017

  • While sitting in front of a bath-sized bowl that once held his midweek portion of yoghurt fool with rhubarb, Stephen Bush appears confused by his alarmingly distended stomach

    ‘Delia Smith's pudding made me purr gently’

    The Delia project: Pudding at last! The pick of Delia’s dairy shows she was right about fat all along

27 January 2017

  • After waking the beast from its slumber betwixt the pages of Delia's cookbook, Stephen Bush is cowed by the zombified carcass of a monstrous kipper. It spits a lemon at him while cresting a wave of potatoes and dares him to turn it all into a salad. The weight of its terrible psychic energy presses him against the wall.

    Delia’s kipper salad recipe is the Neanderthal in the room

    The Delia project: This culinary beast belongs to a bygone era, but it was a step towards greater things.

20 January 2017

  • auberginefinal

    Delia’s recipe for chargrilled aubergines is a pain in the arm

    The Delia project: Chargrilling aubergine equates to a lovely smoky flavour – and an arduous hour scrubbing the pan

13 January 2017

  • vinfinal

    Delia’s guide to the perfect vinaigrette

    The Delia project: Which oil or vinegar to use? And, Delia, please explain the term ‘extra virgin’

6 January 2017

  • Stephen Bush regrets stacking his 10 gigantic (seriously, they're as big as his torso) cabbages one atop the other in a tribute to the leaning tower of Pisa. As the uppermost tumbles fatally towards his head, he feels significantly less smug about his cabbage balancing skills.

    Delia’s secret to tasty seasonal winter veg

    The Delia project: Eating seasonal veg can become a chore in the depths of winter – Delia’s trick is to add bacon

30 December 2016

  • Illustration of a cheeseboard, upon which a miniature Stephen Bush (or perhaps it is simply a giant cheeseboard) tiptoes gingerly through monolith-sized slabs and wedges of smelly cheese, their odour represented graphically in the time-honoured way with wavy thin lines floating skywards.

    Delia’s perfect cheeseboard – but what if you don’t like cheese?

    The Delia project: Unwashed, curdled, injected with mould: surely only a deviant could like this stuff?

23 December 2016

  • Christmas dinner

    Delia’s step-by-step guide to the perfect Christmas dinner

    The Delia Project: Cooking at Christmas can be daunting – especially in a tiny flat. Luckily Delia comes to Stephen Bush’s rescue, with an hour-by-hour guide to turkey and trimmings. If only his kitchen were as big as she thinks it is ...

16 December 2016

  • ‘In our household, fish pie tensions revolve around the use of cheese.’

    Delia’s fish pie makes a ‘luxury’ recipe less daunting

    Delia’s easy way to a ‘luxury’ fish pie also settles an old family tiff about whether to include cheese

25 November 2016

  • Illustration of man and giant fish

    Delia’s way of preparing fish beats my grandad’s

    The Delia project: A typically fuss-free method for prepping fish, with no bones, skin – or fingers – left behind
About 43 results for The Delia project
123
Explore more on these topics
  翻译：