Recipes to see you through a difficult time

CHEF and food writer Ryan Riley says it’s been “incredibly hard” forging a successful career while grieving his mother, who died of cancer when Riley was 20.

The Sunderland-born foodie enrolled on a catering course shortly after his mum passed away but dropped out after one term and decided to pursue food writing instead.

While interning at Sainsbury’s Magazine he had a lightbulb moment inspired by his mother’s experience of losing her sense of taste while going through chemotherapy.

Together with childhood friend Kimberley Duke, he set up Life Kitchen, a not-for-profit cookery school for cancer patients, which opened in their home city in 2019.

“I’ve literally spent the last six years of my life talking about my mother’s death every single day and being around cancer patients, which is incredibly rewarding, but incredibly hard,” says Riley, 30.

“I don’t think I realised how much it was really getting to me. I ended up becoming friends with some of the people who’ve come to the classes over the years and they’ve sadly died. I’m 30 years old and I’ve been to 50 funerals.”

Motivated to help as many people as possible, he published the Life Kitchen Cook Book in 2020, which became a bestseller, and the following year released a free ebook of recipes for people with taste or smell loss due to Covid.

Even before the cookery school opened its doors, big-name chefs were clamouring to be involved, including Nigella Lawson (she cut the ribbon on opening day and has become a friend) and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (early classes were held at River Cottage).

But it has also been tough at times.

“We often get a lot of emails from families after people have died saying, ‘The time they spent with you was so important to us,’ and it’s a very heavy thing to have on you,” he says. “Especially the last two years of my life have been really, really difficult. You know, you’ve got to put on that brave face and go and teach those classes, and that’s what I did – it really sent me into a not great place.”

While extolling the virtues of nourishing, flavourful food outwardly, he lost the desire to cook for himself (“I didn’t pick up a pan for about three months”) and decided to seek help from a therapist.

“Nigella said to me once, ‘You can’t keep giving from an empty cup.’ I’d spent so many years giving myself to other people that I fell into this sort of depression in myself,” Riley recalls.

“I really fell out of love with food, which is really difficult when you’re trying to write a cookbook. So the whole idea of this book came to me. I was like, ‘I think I want to teach myself to love food again.’”

The culinary equivalent of ‘physician, heal thyself,’ the result of that dark period is Small Pleasures: Joyful Recipes for Difficult Times. The book i s published by Bloomsbury. Photography by Craig Robertson.

Split into three chapters – comfort, restoration, pleasure – it’s based on the same science-backed principles of Life Kitchen’s previous offerings.

“Cancer patients quite often lose their sense of taste to chemotherapy or radiotherapy, it’s often that real dulling of flavour,” he explains. “Everything in the book is really strong and really delicious.”

In December, Riley marked 10 years since his mum’s passing. What does he think she would say about her son becoming a bestselling author, appearing on telly and hobnobbing with celebrities?

“I think she’d be absolutely baffled for one. She’d say, ‘I don’t understand how you’ve done this, you have to get a real job.’ And she’d be very, very proud,” he says with a smile.

Thai basil and coconut chicken stew

FRESH herbs and red chillies star in this flavourful Asian-inspired dish.

“This is a 30-minute midweek meal that doesn’t hold back when it comes to a warming, satisfying flavour explosion,” said Ryan.

Ingredients (Serves 2) 

6 boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces 

4tbsp garlic paste 

4tbsp ginger paste 

1tsp ground coriander

 ¼tsp white pepper, plus extra to season 

½tsp salt, plus extra to season 

1tbsp vegetable oil 

3 long red (Thai) chillies, finely chopped with seeds (keep back a few slices to garnish) 

100g Thai basil leaves, finely chopped, plus extra to garnish 

1 × 400g tin of full-fat coconut milk 

300ml chicken stock 

10 mixed-colour cherry tomatoes, halved 

1tsp fish sauce 

1tsp light soy sauce

 1tsp light brown soft sugar

 Steamed vegetables and boiled jasmine rice, to serve 

Method:

1. Place the diced chicken into a bowl and add the garlic, ginger, ground coriander, white pepper and salt and mix well. Leave to marinate overnight if you have time, but for at least 10 minutes.

2. When you’re ready to cook, heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium–high heat. Add in the marinated chicken and fry it for five to six minutes, turning, until the chicken begins to brown. Add the chillies and half of the basil, followed by the coconut milk and chicken stock. Simmer for 15 minutes, then add the cherry tomatoes, fish sauce, soy sauce and sugar, and simmer for a further five minutes, until the tomatoes are just softened and the chicken is cooked through. Remove the stew from the heat, season with salt and extra white pepper, and stir through the remainder of the basil. Scatter over the extra basil leaves and the chilli slices to garnish.

3. Serve with steamed vegetables and cooked jasmine rice.

Cauliflower and potato coconut curry

This hearty veggie dish is a brilliant winter warmer.

“Never underestimate the simple, restorative power of a curry,” says chef Ryan Riley, co-founder of Life Kitchen, a not-for-profit cookery school for cancer patients.

“This cauliflower and coconut version sings with fresh flavours for an instant pick-me-up, without detracting from everything that is welcoming and familiar in a bowl of warm curry deliciousness.”

 Ingredients (Serves 2) 

4 shallots, finely diced

 5 garlic cloves

 1 lime, zested and quartered 

2cm piece of ginger root, peeled

 1 long red (Thai) chilli, destemmed, plus optional extra slivers to serve 

1 long green (Thai) chilli, destemmed 

1½tbsp garam masala

 1tbsp medium curry powder

 3tbsp vegetable oil

 1tbsp ground coriander 

1 cinnamon stick (about 10cm long) 

1 × 400g tin of full-fat coconut milk

 1 large potato (I like Maris Piper), peeled and cut into 2cm pieces 

1 cauliflower, florets separated 2tbsp smooth peanut butter 100g coriander, finely chopped Salt Boiled jasmine rice, to serve Method:

1. Put the shallots, garlic, lime zest, ginger, both chillies, garam masala, curry powder, oil, ground coriander and a sprinkle of salt into a food processor and blitz until completely smooth. Place the mixture into a large saucepan and add the cinnamon stick. Give everything a stir to make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan and then place the pan over a low heat for about 20 minutes, until the mixture smells sweet and aromatic.

2. Remove the cinnamon stick and then add the coconut milk and about 100ml of water and stir to combine.

Add the potato, simmer over a low heat for 20 minutes, then add the cauliflower. Stir well and simmer for another 10 minutes. Finally, stir in the peanut butter and mix well until the sauce is combined. Remove the pan from the heat.

3. Stir half the chopped coriander through the curry, then ladle it into bowls and sprinkle with the remaining coriander to serve.

Serve with boiled jasmine rice, the lime wedges for squeezing over, and sprinkled with slivers of extra red chilli, if you wish.

Sweet-and-sour apple crumble with sweet basis cream

Tamarind paste adds a tangy twist to the classic pud.

“Tamarind isn’t something you’d usually find in an apple crumble, but then neither are you likely to find fennel seeds in a crunchy crumble topping,” says chef Ryan Riley.

“I can assure you, though, that these simple twists do nothing but wow. Sweet-and-sour apple crumble is about to usher you in to a whole new era of dessert deliciousness.”

Ingredients (Serves 2) 

2 eating apples, peeled, cored and chopped into 1cm pieces 2tsp tamarind paste 

1tsp ground cardamom 

1tsp vanilla paste 

1tsp caster sugar 

For the topping:

2tbsp caster sugar 

45g plain flour

 1tsp ground fennel seeds 

30g unsalted butter, chilled and chopped 

1 lemon, zested, to decorate 

For the sweet basil cream:

10 basil leaves 

2tbsp golden caster sugar 

100ml double cream 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan.

2. Place the apples, tamarind, cardamom, vanilla, sugar and a splash of water in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Cook for four to six minutes, until the apples are soft.

3. To make the topping, in a bowl, work the sugar, flour, ground fennel and chilled butter together with your fingertips, rubbing until the mixture resembles rough breadcrumbs.

4. Put the apple mixture into a medium-sized ovenproof dish (about 20–25 centimetres diameter), top it with the crumble mixture in an even layer and bake for 20–25 minutes, or until the top has turned golden brown and the filling is bubbling.

5. Meanwhile, make the sweet basil cream. Make a basil sugar by pulsing the basil leaves and sugar in a food processor until just combined. Set this aside while you whip the cream to soft peaks. Then, gently fold one tablespoon of the basil sugar through the cream until evenly combined. (You can store the remaining basil sugar for another dish; it will keep for up to three days in an airtight container, although it may lose some of its vibrant colour – but not its flavour – in that time.) 

6. Scatter the lemon zest over the warm crumble, then serve in spoonfuls with sweet basil cream on the side.