Growing rocket isn’t rocket science – if you’ll pardon the pun.

It can be grown outside in your garden, but it will grow just as easily in containers or window boxes.

Supermarkets charge up to £2 for a small bag of rocket and as a result they’re racking it in. Rocket takes ten minutes to sow and will yield salad all summer long.

Grow your own

Sow anytime between March and September:

1. Use a line to mark out where you are going to sow your seeds. Sowing in a straight line helps you identify the weeds.

2.Use a trowel to dig a small trench along the line, approx 1cm deep.

3. Sow the seeds in the trench, leaving at least 3 cm between each seed.

4.Use the edge of the trowel to cover over the seeds and water well.

Harvest when the leaves are roughly the length of your finger. Don’t allow the rocket to grow tall and stringy. The more you harvest the more the rocket will grow. And at the end of the summer cover your plants and you should be able to keep cutting your salad right up until the first frost.

Eat

The peppery leaves are so delicious they are great tossed with a little olive oil and a splash of lemon. Check out our seasonal recipes for Herb Salad and Rocket and roasted vegetable salad.

Fish Fight campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has launched a new i-phone app that is a quick and easy guide to what fish is sustainable.

The app uses the Marine Conservation Society’s sustainble fish lists and is also packed with illustrations, top tips and videos.

Also plugged into the app is Fish 2 Fork’s guide to eating sustainable fish when you are out.

Pretty nifty.

Find out more:

Download the app.

A day of meetings in London: the first on the Southbank, so I visited my favourite brasserie for breakfast.

I kicked off with a large bowl of fruit (great colours  to paint), followed by scrambled egg and lightly grilled Prosciutto – a real treat.

My day ended in Chinatown with friends, a few beers, crispy duck, prawns and chickens in the mix.

A coffee at home and a delicious slice of black current tart to round off my colourful day.

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To see the full collection of David Meldrum’s food diary, check out The Food Illustrator.

An early start driving around most of the M25 meant I caved in to the golden arches.

The sign appeared on a busy A road and I just couldn’t resist.

I tucked into a McBreakfast whilst feeling like I shouldn’t really be enjoying it quite so much!

Adding to that mountain of calories, the stop off at the petrol station led to an impulse Snickers purchase.

Then I stopped off to catch up with an old mate over a beer before arriving home feeling jet lagged.

A healthy salad for supper almost balanced the Maccie D’s start to the day.

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To see the full collection of David Meldrum’s food diary, check out The Food Illustrator.

I met a mate for a pint and a sandwich in The Dog in Dulwich Village.

The sandwiches were great-so hefty they had to be held together with wooden skewers.

On to the Cellar Door in Aldwych for an early evening drink with friends. The pub turned out to be converted from a public toilet!

Dinner followed at Joe Allen’s, a restaurant where our large table was the noisiest – great fun, great wine and great food.

And I really enjoyed the trickiness of drawing baked goats cheese and asparagus.

Monday morning seemed a long way off.

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To see the full collection of David Meldrum’s food diary, check out The Food Illustrator.

1st March 2011

A crazy busy day. I worked late into the night and so woke up ravenous – and exhausted.

It had to be a huge bowl of porridge for breakfast.

But for lunch, I only had time for two biscuits and a cream egg.

The day ended with a late lazy dinner – two ready roasts.

I love airline style food!

2nd March 2011

Cheese and crumpet for breakfast.

No lunch but a ghastly salmon and mayo Weight Watchers tin of slop on Ryvita late in the afternoon.

I dashed home at tea time and grabbed a few sausages and baked beans from the boys’ left overs.

Then later in the evening, I met up with my mate Dave for Chinese, a few beers and a visit to the casino.

I came out winning £105. Let me see…that could buy 617 Freddos!

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To see the full collection of David Meldrum’s food diary, check out The Food Illustrator.

The last day of Feb and the end of my half term holiday. This called for a treat –  a day shopping in London.

A light breakfast of porridge and a pair of bananas – just the right colour balance – 50:50 yellow and green. I can’t bear soft, over ripe bananas.

Snuck in a Freddo Frog to keep up the retail therapy. And then met a great bunch of mates in the evening to celebrate our friend Phil’s birthday.

Dinner was at Tom’s kitchen at Somerset House and was the perfect environment to eat, drink and be merry.

I had a fabulous fish pie and side dish of braised cabbage, washed down with a glass or two of crispy white.

The perfect end to a holiday.

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To see the full collection of David Meldrum’s food diary, check out The Food Illustrator.

Cooking for all past MasterChef winners? Now that was genius in its cruelty.

Torode was right: “Hell was let loose,” as the contestants sweated into their would-be mise en place.

The number of close ups on shaky hands and furrowed brows increased without question.

And that sheer terror meant lots of dog’s dinners: Tom’s edible pina colada; Sarah’s risotto, looking more bitey than a mouthful of pebbles and Fiona’s dumpy bread and butter pudding were just a few of the winners and losers of tonight’s programme.

While Greg sat stuffing his face with the past winners, John barked orders in the kitchen. We know who the real chef is but is there any need to make it quite so obvious?

As past winner, Thomasina Miers, now owner of restaurant chain Wahaca, put it: “If that was me cooking behind those doors – I’d be terrified.”

But was she talking about the contestants’ nerves or referring to puddingface’s attempt at food porn. No Greg. Food does not come and snog you. In fact we don’t care to think of anyone (or anything) snogging you.

Oh and one last thing. Will someone tell me why there were so many rice puddings on the menu?

Is MasterChef trying to kick start some kind of boarding school food revival?

Find out more

Check out spoof MasterChef – as you’ve never seen it before.

MasterChef means we rubber neck, awaiting a cooking car crash. And tonight there were quite a few.

One hour, one dish, one egg, twenty chefs. Eight to be eliminated.

Jackie’s pre planned Pad Thai bit the dust…yep on the floor. What was that about MasterChef being your destiny?

Tim’s madcap cooking is worth watching if just for the possibility of total disaster.

One big tasting session ensued. Greg – you really are going to swallow that spoon one day.

And as the comments came in, so did those nervous, rictus grins and strained eyes.

Thanks Ondine, bummer about your potatoes. But your tears are our entertainment. How evil are we?

One regret was that the mass cull didn’t leave too much guessing as to who was going or staying until we got to the final five and that, of course, meant a cook off. They do like their second chances in this series.

It’s beginning to feel like a culinary coliseum and we are the crowd, willing John and Greg to hold thumbs aloft or down.

Did your final two survive? Mine didn’t, dammit.

Such is the pressure of the programme these days, the tears flow freer than a dozen red wine reductions.

Find out more

Check out spoof MasterChef – as you’ve never seen it before.

Today was so busy, that I was constantly eating on the run.

Breakfast was coffee, and um a few more coffees, so by mid morning I was absolutely starving – thank goodness for my obsession with dried mango.

Lunch was prawn cocktail on crackers but it was only at dinner time that I finally managed to sit down and eat.

Met my friend Simon at the Arch Duke on the Southbank and had a wonderful meat platter.

Finished off the day at Gordon’s wine bar for a bottle of red.

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Read:

To see the full collection of David Meldrum’s food diary, check out The Food Illustrator.