kidcalledjoe asks: We have several of your books and use them regularly. One thing we always struggle with (not only in your books) is how long we should allow for prep. In your books, for example, where an ingredients list says ‘vegetable A, chopped’, does the prep time allow for this chopping (in which case we must be really slow!) or does the prep time assume the vegetable is already in that chopped state and we need to add that time to the prep time listed? Rukmini: This is a good question! A standard recipe would list ‘prep time’ as how long it took to chop your vegetables ie ‘Prep 10 minutes’ in which time the recipe writer thinks a reader might finely chop two onions, slice a red pepper and halve a packet of mushrooms before starting the recipe. With my cookbooks and I imagine others is, as you say, the differing times it takes for people to chop! Lots of readers comment that my prep times are just right for them, but some (including a neighbour and an in-law!) say that my 10 mi