The Secrets Issue was Tamara Vos' last at Oh Comely before leaving us (sad sigh) for a career in food styling. So it seemed too tempting a chance to miss to ask her to style some of your secret ingredients. We'll be serialising the photos and recipe ideas she created with photographer Sophie Davidson during December. 

Jon Mee makes marmite korma.

Jon says, "When my girls were small they didn’t like spicy food, so we always had to have a mild korma curry. It was so bland that it needed an extra something, and Marmite was the only thing in the cupboard. It gave the curry a bit of beefy richness, an extra kick, and I’ve done it ever since. I love Marmite. I spread it on toast as thick as you would chocolate spread, and have it in every sandwich, even if it’s a tuna one. I used to make Marmite Korma every Saturday night when we rented out a film, but now everyone is grown up and I’m retired, so any night could be Marmite Korma night!"

Alice Naylor is Oh Comely's resident culinary fusspot, but in the best way. She takes casual olive picking holidays in which she climbs trees to pick the best of the batch by hand, generously bakes the most incredible cardamon buns with a whole pound of butter and endless love, and once audibly groaned with disapproval while a team member ate tinned soup.

In short, she knows what she's talking about, and here she shares her year in food with you. Prepare to drool, you lucky things. 

Bread Ahead Donuts, Borough Market, London

"These infamous Donuts had a recent 3,500 shares on Instagram.  These are my attempts below. Yeasted dough, hot fat, digital thermometer, the works … I didn’t get any shares on Instagram but my friends got to share the real thing."

Rochelle Canteen, East London

"A BYO restaurant in East London.   The restaurant has the atmosphere of a cool school canteen that doesn’t smell of cabbage. I ate a fine plate of lamb with grilled leeks and salsa Verde with my friend Paul."

Oh Comely’s 5^th birthday cake, London

"We had a wonderful afternoon with Oh Comely readers. This was my favourite cake, baked by the gorgeous Tamara Vos.  It was almost too beautiful to eat but we dived in."

Wild Asparagus frittata, Cortona, Italy

"The tall and gentle Lucco, a gardener who looks like a priest, showed us how to find wild asparagus.  It’s hidden amongst prickly bushes, and forty minutes of scrabbling amongst the undergrowth yielded only a modest handful. Lunch was hard won but worth it."

New season olive oil, Cortona, October 2015

"I help a friend pick olives every year in Cortona.  It’s backbreaking work, we pick the olives by hand. Your hair is full of dust, your arms covered in scratches and you’re so tired after eight hours in a tree, you can’t think. But we get to take the olives to the press and watch them pulverised by whirring blades to produce neon green, peppery olive oil. It’s good on the unsalted Tuscan bread with peppery salami and cheese."

All Images: Alice Naylor

The Secrets Issue was Tamara Vos' last at Oh Comely before leaving us (sad sigh) for a career in food styling. So it seemed too tempting a chance to miss to ask her to style some of your secret ingredients. We'll be serialising the photos and recipe ideas she created with photographer Sophie Davidson during December. 

A stranger introduced Tamara Vos to salted coffee.

Tamara says, "A few years ago when I was working in a cafe, I served a couple two black coffees as they sat outside sharing a cigarette. I asked if they’d like any sugar. “No, salt,” said the girl. I laughed at her joke and walked away. A few minutes later she followed me inside to ask where the salt was. It turned out she’d been quite serious, and that she and her boyfriend like to add the smallest pinch of salt to their daily coffee as it brings out the flavour, much like salt in caramel or chocolate. I have to admit that I haven’t worked up the courage to try it yet, but I love knowing that the option’s there."

The Secrets Issue was Tamara Vos' last at Oh Comely before leaving us (sad sigh) for a career in food styling. So it seemed too tempting a chance to miss to ask her to style some of your secret ingredients. We'll be serialising the photos and recipe ideas she created with photographer Sophie Davidson during December. 

Abby Chamberlain stirs horseradish into Bloody Mary.

Abby says, "I first added horseradish to my Bloody Marys when I started working at a restaurant. The chefs always have the fresh root to make horseradish cream for the roast beef on Sunday, and I started experimenting with it. I love its pungency and the sensation that if gives you, as if it’s clearing out your sinuses! I love making Bloody Marys. I like that a lot of the time, they’re ordered because someone, somewhere in the restaurant, is suffering from the night before. As well as horseradish, I add fresh lime and smoked paprika, and sometimes a bit of cayenne for a kick. And I always, always add a dash of dry fino sherry."

The Secrets Issue was Tamara Vos' last at Oh Comely before leaving us (sad sigh) for a career in food styling. So it seemed too tempting a chance to miss to ask her to style some of your secret ingredients. We'll be serialising the photos and recipe ideas she created with photographer Sophie Davidson during December. 

First up: Sonya Hallett makes peanut butter porridge. 

Sonya says, "The first time I tried peanut-butter porridge was probably the first time my partner Fergus made me breakfast. I caught him spooning lots of peanut butter into a pan and thought it was a horrible mistake, but then I tried it and had to admit that it’s amazing! I didn’t even like porridge that much before. We cooked it for my parents while on holiday earlier this year. They were convinced we’d ruined breakfast when we announced that we’d added peanut butter to the porridge, until they tried it. After that they made us cook it every morning for the rest of the holiday."

At Milk, we like to call this omelette “ghetto omelette” as we couldn’t be bothered to learn how to make a proper French omelette - this is a total cheat but it's delicious anyway! 

This recipe is perfect for the morning after a dinner party, when you might have some confit duck and roast onions kicking around. We've included our confit duck recipe below, but it would really work with anything - get creative, but make sure it's decadent. 

For the Confit Duck

4 duck legs
100g flakey sea salt
¼ bunch thyme
3 bay leaves, torn
5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 tbs black peppercorns, cracked
2 litres duck fat

One. Sprinkle the bottom of a roasting pan with half the salt, pepper, herbs and garlic.

Two. Place the duck legs flesh side down and sprinkle the fat side with the remaining salt, pepper, herbs, and garlic.

Three. Cover dish with cling film and refrigerate for 12 hours.

Four. Rinse off the duck legs under cold running water and dry with paper towel.

Five. Heat duck fat in an oven safe tray. Once melted, place the duck legs in a single layer. If the duck legs are not completely submerged, add more duck fat. Do not double stack.

Six. Place tray in oven at 150 and bake for 3-4 hours until the duck is falling off the bone. Shred the meat and put to one side - reserve the duck fat for another day. 

For the Omelette

2 free range eggs
100ml double cream
generous butter for frying
50g blue cheese
a few pieces of leftover roasted red onion 
a few sprigs fresh thyme

One. Whisk together the eggs and cream.

Two. Melt the butter in frying pan over medium heat. Pour in egg mix and fry, pulling in the egg from the edges to create an even layer of set eggy, creamy goodness.

Three. Top the omelette with generous chunks of duck, blue cheese and roast onion. Place under a grill for a few minutes, until the cheese has melted and the duck is crispy. 

Four. Season with salt, pepper and fresh thyme, then serve in the pan with lots of buttery, toasted sourdough. 

This Balinese Black Rice Pudding might be the best rice pudding possible. The combination of cascara, cocoa nibs and citrus really sings and, while it takes a bit more work than your average rice pudding, it really is so worth it. 

Cascara is a coffee cherry tea - the word means 'husk' or 'peel' in Spanish, and refers to the dried skins of the coffee cherry, which is what's left over when the coffee bean has been removed from the cherry. Although it's from the coffee plant, cascara has a sweet, fruity flavour more akin to tea - you should be able to find it in most specialist tea shops. 

For the Cascara Jelly

550ml water
50g sugar
12g dried cascara with citrus notes
2 sheets gelatin

One. Bring the cascara, water and sugar in a saucepan. Bring to the boil, then switch off the heat. Leave to infuse for 30 min.

Two. Soak the gelatin sheets in cold water and set aside until ready to add to the cascara syrup.

Three. Once cascara has infused strain and discard of it, adding sugar to the liquid stirring to dissolve.

Four. Heat the syrup back up with the added gelatin this time Stirring until the gelatin melts into the syrup.

Five. Pour syrup into a shallow container and leave to set in the fridge for at least three hours, until set.

For the Black Rice

½ cup black rice
4 cups water
20g coconut sugar
200ml coconut cream

One. Boil the black rice in the 4 cups of water until it is soft to the bite, once it has reached this stage strain the liquid from the rice and return rice to the pot.

Two. Add the coconut cream and sugar and return to the heat cooking until the coconut cream is almost all absorbed by the rice. The mixture should be dark purple, thick and creamy.

Three. Serve the black rice with cut up chunks of cascara jelly, clementine pieces and cocoa nibs, and dollop on yoghurt, cream, or - as we like to do at Milk - lemon posset! 

Real honey can sometimes be a challenge to find, but more and more people are starting to keep their own bees in and out of the city, and the results - as well as being undeniably more delicious - are far more sustainable than commercially produced honey.

At Milk we like to buy whole combs of honey from the hives of a primary school down the road. It makes all the difference! Make sure to get your hands on the good stuff to enjoy these crumpets with - you've gone to the effort of making them, after all! 

The following makes roughly 16 crumpets. 

You Will Need: 

10g dry yeast
10g caster sugar
175 g warm water
230 g plain flour
230 g strong flour
1 g cream of tarter
325 g warm water
10 g sea salt
170 g warm milk
3 g bicarbonate of soda

One. Whisk yeast, sugar and 175 g warm water in bowl and leave in a warm place for approx. 10 min until frothy.

Two. In large bowl mix plain flour, bread flour, cream of tarter together. Add 325g warm water and the activated yeast in water. Mix together for around 2 minutes, until it's all come together.

Three. Cover with cling film and leave in warm place for around one hour or until doubled in size.

Four. Kneed in salt and then let stand for a further 20 minutes in a warm place.

Five. Warm the milk over a low heat and mix in the bicarbonate of soda until dissolved. Add the mixture to the batter and kneed in.

Six. Heat two frying pans with a generous amount of oil on medium heat. Spray your rings with oil spray and place on the frying pans. Put a ¼ cup of batter in each ring and leave until there are lots of holes and the top starts to firm. Remove from ring, flip over and cook until they are a light brown colour.

Note: if the crumpets do not form holes properly, thin out the batter with a tablespoonor two of water.