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Showing posts from 2009

Jamies absolutely fantastic pear Tarte Tatin

The lovely Rimmers came to see us on Sunday for a lovely lunch. Lisa made this spectacularly delicious dessert from Jamies Xmas magazine. Tarte Tatin is one of those things that sometimes is rather disappointing. The only disappointment with this was that Lisa hadn't made two, or even three tarts. We would definitely have eaten them. recipe below Conference or comice - no pear is a spare in this delicious crispy tart with caramelised goodness from Jamie Magazine Serves 6-8 Ingredients * 125g caster sugar * 40g cold butter, chopped * ½ tsp ground ginger * ½ tsp ground cinnamon * 3 large pears, peeled, cored and cut into wedges * 375g all-butter puff pastry * Double cream, to serve Method 1. Preheat oven to 200°C/gas 6. Put a 21cm diameter frying pan with an ovenproof handle on a hob over a medium heat. Add the sugar and heat to a lovely caramel colour, stirring constantly. Add the butter, ginger and cinnamon and stir to combine. 2. Place the pears in the

Superfood salad for sunday

I made this salad for the three of us today. It’s from the Leon cookbook. As they say ’It’s just a perfectly balanced lunch: great, goodie-packed ingredients, some simple cooking and away you go.’ The aioli is particularly moreish and the recipe below will leave plenty left over. Serves 3 Ingredients 2 tablespoons quinoa 1/2 a head of broccoli 300g free-range chicken thighs, each cut into 4 or 5 pieces 2 handfuls of rocket 2 handfuls of baby spinach ½ an avocado sliced 6 vine-ripened small tomatoes, roughly chopped 1 lemon 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 3 tablespoons aïoli 2 tablespoons toasted seeds (I used a combination of sunflower, pumpkin, sesame and pine nuts toasted in a non-stick pan for a couple of minutes) a hefty sprinkling of chopped mint and parsley salt and pepper Method Put 80ml of water into a little pan and bring to the boil. Stir in the quinoa and boil fast for 5 minutes, then turn the heat down and simmer for 5 minutes more. Turn the heat off, fluff with a fo

I cant stand the rain. Fish stew with peppers, almonds and saffron

Its that Ann Peebles time of year again. We were generally feeling a bit rubbish this weekend and the weather was monumentally awful so we needed something comforting to eat on Saturday night. This recipe is from Moro, not only is it pretty tasty, it is also really easy to make, you could even prepare the sauce ahead of time and only add the fish when you wanted to eat. This is the kind of food that is made for the guilty pleasure of eating whilst sitting in front of the telly. Ingredients serves 4 6 tbsp olive oil 1 large spanish onion, roughly chopped 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 2 dsp fresh rosemary finely chopped 3 bay leaves 2 red peppers, quartered, seeded and thinly sliced 1/2 sweet smoked paprika 1 x 400g tin plum tomatoes, drained of juice and finely chopped 150ml white wine 100ml hot fish stock 50 saffron strands, infused in 4 tbsp of boiling water 150g whole blanched almonds, lightly toasted and roughly ground (I pulsed them in the magimix ... you want some texture but not

Spanish Chicken for a returning son

Joe is back from Uni on a reading week, a pleasure for all of us and a perfect opportunity to cook something new. I have been meaning to make this recipe from Jamieoliver.com for a while. The chicken came from Dales of Hampton Court and the chorizo from waitrose .... you want the cooking chorizo not the cooked stuff by the way. You will find it in the deli section. The only thing that went wrong was that I used parchment paper instead of greaseproof and as a result the potatoes got a bit stuck. Next time I might even try it with no paper just cooked in a good non-stick roasting pan. ed. Recipe now amended following a bit of a burnt chorizo problem for my lovely PA Sophie .. sorry Soph We also added a few oven roasted vine tomatoes and as suggested served it with a big bowl of rocket salad and some lemon/olive oil dressing The tastes were great and it certainly filled us all up, even a slightly starved and skinny student. Ingredients • 1kg potatoes, peeled and cut into 2.5cm dice • 4 le

Casa Moro Sea Bass with potatoes and tomatoes

Saturday night and Martha is out at fireworks so the three of us can have fish. I wanted to get bream but could only get Bass at Waitrose. However this recipe from Casa Moro worked a treat. The moro recipe Baked bream with potatoes and tomatoes - bream cooked this way is a traditional Spanish Christmas dish. It's easy to make and a treat to eat. The method also works well with cod or hake steaks or filleted sea bass - these take about 15 minutes less to cook, so roast the other ingredients for 15-20 minutes before you cook the fish. Serves four. 2 bream (red, golden or black), each big enough for two (ie around 500g), scaled and gutted Sea salt and black pepper 4 large Cyprus potatoes (about 1kg), sliced into rounds 3mm thick 2 medium red onions, thinly sliced 6 medium sweet tomatoes (or 12-18 cherry tomatoes), sliced into rounds about 5mm thick 2 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste with salt 2 bayleaves (preferably fresh), halved 6 tbsp olive oil A few parsley stalks 4 slices lemon

For Suzy. The Ivy's spiced lentils recipe

This recipe has long been a big favourite in the Cook house. Joe is a major league fan and has even cooked it at Uni. However it has never made it to the blog. The eagle eyed of you will notice that a request from Suzy Price was posted yesterday because she had lost the scrap of paper I had written the recipe on many drunken moons ago. So here it is; remember that things have moved on in the Tuna world since this was written so try to make sure the tuna is sustainable or serve it with another Asian influenced source of protein. If you are feeling particularly virtuous you could just add a handful of chopped rocket leaves and have it on its own. Thinking about it has made me want to have it again.... 9.00 in the morning might be a bit early though. Loin of Tuna with Spiced Lentils and Rocket Serves 8 The best quality bluefin or yellowfin tuna must be used for this dish. Ask your fishmonger to skin and clean the blood line, and to cut the tuna into 10 cm by 4 cm blocks: the fish will be

garlic, thyme and anchovy baked potatoes.

This stroke of genius comes from Jamies extremely user friendly website www.jamieoliver.com.The only adaptation I have made is to take this recipe inside from the barbecue and cooked it in the oven instead. This for me is a perfect example of what makes him so good. He takes the humble baked potato and elevates it to mid-week heaven with the simple addition of anchovy (streaky bacon if you don't like anchovy, but to be honest there's something wrong with you if you don't)garlic, butter and thyme. This is cooking that anyone can do. It would be great on its own or you could have it as I did, as an accompaniment to some chicken thighs roasted with a little finely chopped garlic, salt and thyme shoved under the skin. Add a little rocket salad and some roasted vine tomatoes and we're talking feast and kings. ingredients • 1 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed • 2 tablespoons butter, softened • freshly ground black pepper • sea salt • 4 baking potatoes • 4 anchovies . a handfu

... and then there were three. Fish in tomato and tamarind sauce

Joe has now finally started life as an undergraduate ... after a slightly longer than expected trip to drop him off we needed some emotional and physical restoration. The eagle eyed of you will spot that this is a spin on Bill Granger's meatball recipe. All we did was made the tomato and tamarind sauce and then popped the fish in and cooked it through ... about 5 minutes. We served it with the raitha, the sambal and plain boiled basmati rice. I suspect it was slightly more nourishing than Joe's first university meal. Ingredients 300gms Fish of your choice per person (we had prawns and cod) Tomato and tamarind sauce 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 spanish onion, finely diced 2 cloves of garlic, sliced 1 tbsp grated ginger 1 tbsp ground cumin 1 tsp turmeric 2 x 425g tins chopped tomatoes 1 tbsp tamarind pulp (or 2 tbsp lime juice) 1 tsp sugar 1 tsp sea salt Freshly ground black pepper Heat the olive oil in a large heavy-based pan over a medium to low heat. Add the onion and cook,

Fish tagine. Joe's last supper

The time has finally come for Joe to go off to Uni. This was our last Saturday night meal for a while (sniff sniff) As Gus had already headed back to Falmouth it gave us the chance to have something fishy for his last supper. I decide to try this Morrocan dish from the Moro cookbook. There is a little bit of preparation to do but it ends up being very easy and pretty tasty. The original recipe is for Hake which I think might be better but I couldn't get it on Saturday. Halibut would probably work well too. To make the Charmoula (marinade) 2 garlic cloves tsp salt 2 tsp ground cumin juice 1 lemon 1 tsp paprika 1 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp red wine vinegar some fresh chopped coriander Make the charmoula in a mortar and pestle (you could also do it in a blender). Pound the garlic and salt until smooth, then add cumin, lemon juice, paprika, vinegar, coriander, and olive oil. Rub two thirds of this mix into the fish and refrigerate for up to two hours. Main ingredients 300gms monkfish tail

Risotto Nero.

I know I have blogged about this before but we took advantage of the fact that Martha was at a party to enjoy this very particular dish on Saturday night. Even Gus, who doesn't really like fish enjoyed this. The ink imparts a delicious depth of flavour to the dish. The recipe below is from the first River Cafe book. We added finely chopped onion to the garlic and cooked until soft to start the risotto off and as well as the chopped squid we added some flash fried prawns too. We all ended slightly black toothed but very happy. Ingredients 1L fish stock (qv) sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 75g butter 4 cloves garlic peeled and finely chopped 300g risotto rice 120ml wine 3 sachets squid or cuttlefish ink 2 tbspns finely chopped flat leaf parsley Method Heat fish stock and check for seasoning. Melt the butter in a saucepan and fry the garlic for 1 minute. Add the rice and continue to cook gently stirring for a further minute. Pour in the white wine and cook until it has been a

Super Sunday lunch - Roast chicken with lemon and rosemary roast potatoes

The Super Sunday refers to the football of course .. although the lunch wasn't half bad either. Gus is heading back to Uni this week and requested a 'proper roast' before he returns. Joe will be heading off for his first year in two weeks so this was the last opportunity for a while for us to have a proper Cook family Sunday lunch, even if it was timed to work with the footy. Martha evn decided not to row today just so she didn't miss out. I thought that I would try this recipe from Jamie. I was intrigued by the whole boiling the lemon thing. Although I reckon we needed about 10 minutes longer than the recipe said I thought that it was pretty damn tasty. I made a gravy by de-glazing the pan with a little wine( heating on really high and boiling the wine rapidly for a minute or so whilst scraping the nice gooey bits off the bottom of the pan) and then added the garlic flesh from inside the chicken (I didnt spread it on the chicken as per the recipe),some veg water and a

Jamies ultimate rib of beef with rosemary garlic potatoes

We had this for a late Sunday lunch (dinner actually) as Martha had been rowing and the boys were up late dealing with various alcohol induced tiredness problems. Although at one point it felt like Hades in the kitchen, and I also managed to get red wine up the wall, we all thought that this was pretty delicious. We had it with courgettes, green beans and broccoli. We followed it up with a delicious Tarte Tatin from Lisa and washed it down with a rather nice bottle of Langhe Nebbiolo from Vinoteca. Entertainment followed in the form of dancing with hats, this was closely followed by a bout of narcolepsy. Ingredients * zest and juice 1 lemon * zest and juice 1 lemon * a small bunch of fresh rosemary, tied together at the base. * olive oil * 1 × 1.2kg/2lb 11oz rib of beef * peppery extra virgin olive oil * a sprig of fresh rosemary * olive oil or duck or goose fat Directions Put the garlic, lemon zest and the tip of the rosemary brush in a pestle and m

A better pizza dough by Alice Waters

On Saturday I tried this pizza dough recipe from Alice Waters 'The art of simple food', I know it's heresy but for my money it's better than Saint Jamie's, which has been my reference recipe to date. I think it must be something to do with the 'biga' (I think that's what you call the yeast concoction ) that you make to start off with. two other tips: Firstly,get the biggest heaviest oven tray you have and put it on the bottom shelf of the oven when you turn the oven on, you want it to get really hot. Secondly, ignore anything I have said before, make your pizzas on a well floured board and only prepare them immediately before they are due to go into the oven. If you leave it too long they will go soft and wont slide off the board easily. we all made our own very personal choices ( tomato sauce, anchovies, courgettes, slow cooked red onions, Salami, Parma ham, black olives, basil, oregano, courgettes and of course buffalo mozarella) and then tucked into t

Sea Bass on mushroom potatoes with salsa Verde

I felt the overwhelming need to cook something new on Saturday night. I didn't want the tired and tested I wanted to explore new culinary waters. However combined with this desire was an equal and opposing force, driven by being absolutely knackered, that meant it had to be simple too. I returned to one of Jamie's early books, to a recipe that IO had meant to do on countless occasions but never quite got round to. I have done several versions of Sea Bass on a bed of potatoes, some that I have written about on this blog. The one question I would have is about the thickness of the potatoes and the length of time they need to be cooked through ... in my oven I reckon they need about 10 minutes more than the recipe suggests. I would suggest a bit of a trial run if you are going to do it for a dinner party ... however once you have given it a whirl I think this makes for a very easy recipe for a crowd. Here's the recipe. Roasted slashed fillet of sea bass stuffed with herbs, bak

A different spin on beef carpaccio courtesey of Jamie

Have to declare that, although I bow at the altar of Jamie's talent, the new series on America has not impressed me that much ... a bit too much Jamie hangin' with the homeboys and not enough hob action for my taste. However this didn't stop me from cooking two of his older recipes on Saturday night. The first was this simple beef carpaccio. As usual Mr Dale of Hampton Court provided the meat. beneath is Jamies unexpurgated recipe serves 4 ingredients • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper • 250g green or mixed beans, topped but not tailed • 1 x 500g piece of beef fillet • a few sprigs of fresh thyme • olive oil for the marinade • 2 small shallots or ½ a small red onion, peeled and very finely chopped • a handful of fresh soft herbs (chervil, parsley, yellow inner celery, tarragon), leaves picked and chopped • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard • 1½ tablespoons white wine vinegar • extra virgin olive oi Carpaccio is very thinly sliced raw meat. I like mine Italian style, with the

Grilled sweet potato Mario Batali style

As usual I couldn't resist adding a cookbook to our Vermont bookshelf when we were up there. This holiday it was Mario Batali's Italian Grill. For the uninitiated Mr Batali is the Don, the Grande formaggio, the Umberto testacalo enormo of Italian cooking in the USA. A bit like our Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray but with considerably more testosterone. But that's by the by, one of the dishes I tried was a simple recipe for grilled sweet potatoes en Cartoccio (in a parcel) It's very easy and perfect for a barbecue. We had it as a slightly different accompaniment to a grilled New York strip steak. When your guests open them they should get a lovely waft of sweet smelling steam Ingredients 1 sweet potato per person I heaped tsp brown sugar 1 heaped tsp butter Olive oil Salt and pepper Aluminium foil Method For each guest tear off a sheet of foil about 12 x 14 inches Peel and slice potatoes into 1/4 inch thick slices Put in a bowl with olive oil and mix to cover lightly with oil

Salad dressings. The Alice Waters approach

My good friend Suzy asked me what salad dressing I made when I was in LA ... to be honest a combination of age and alcohol means that I can't remember. However here is one of my favourite sources of inspiration for simple basics like this. Alice Waters: her book, “The Art of Simple Cooking,” explains why simple food is often the best. This is her simple approach to salad making. I think that the really clever (and new to me) bit is the combining of the salt with the vinegar before adding the oil....it really does work I usually use lemon juice rather than vinegar but its up to you My only other tip would be to put the dressing in the bottom of the bowl you are serving in and then put the leaves on top an turn gently with your hands until all the leaves are lightly covered rather than pouring the dressing over the leaves after they are in the bowl. Vinaigrette This is the sauce I make most often, and if it’s made out of good olive oil and good wine vinegar, it’s the best salad dre

Lemon Posset with the Rimmers

A very warm and stormy Saturday evening was made all the more enjoyable with the addition of the Rimmers (and Joe's mate Nathan) to our family gathering. We barbecued far too much chicken, served with roast sweet potato, spicy slaw and cauliflower salad. This was preceded by aubergine and pepper salad and asparagus with anchovy and milk sauce .... all recipes that we have done before. However the evening was rounded off by a new discovery from Bill Granger's 'Feed me now": Lemon Posset. We served it in little coffee cups with pistachios on top and a few raspberries on the side. Bill recommends shortbread which I'm sure would also be delicious. Anyway lets say that it went down pretty well, in fact the enamel on the inside of the cups was in danger of being worn away The evening ended with Jerry and I side by side on the sofa watching Glastonbury .... sweet! Ingredients 180ml (6fl oz) lemon juice (about 4 lemons) 125g (4½oz) caster sugar 500ml (18fl oz) double cream

Summer is here. Butterflied leg of lamb with grilled asparagus, turkish chopped salad and romesco sauce

It feels like summer is finally here ... at last. On Saturday night we went to a fabulous party at the home of the lovely Little's, Tim and Julia.It was really fantastic a balmy evening, really nice people, great food (salads courtesey of Ottolenghi)and in my case rather too many Mojitos followed by a considerable amount of red wine. We eventually returned home at what is for us the very ungodly hour of 3 AM. On Sunday we had Gus back from Uni, Joe, Martha and both Grandma's for lunch. This combo of recipes(some of which I have written about before)seemed to suit the mood and my hangover perfectly. They are nice and light, summery and very very easy to do. I made the Romesco the night before and prepared the salad about an hour in advance leaving the dressing to about 30 mins before we ate. I think everyone both young and old enjoyed the lunch .... which was finished off by a lovely polenta cake that Lisa made. However I particularly enjoyed the sleep in the sun tha

Cooking in LA. Romesco sauce with asparagus and prawns

I have just returned from a hugely enjoyable but physically punishing four day trip to LA to see my good friend Pricey. Although the length of the journey played its part in that punishment it has to be said that it was due, in the main to the sheer volume of red wine that we also consumed. However I think it is fair to say that we put several of the worlds wrongs to right and shared our own problems both medical, financial and commercial and lets face it a problem shared with a really good friend is a problem much more than halved. We had several excellent meals at some of our usual hangouts including a particularly fine six hour lunch at S'or Tino to welcome my arrival. On the Saturday we abandoned our 'divisible by two' approach to dining and we cooked for ten at the Pricey's house, this of course meant that Peter and I could indulge in a day of expensive shopping in some of LA's most excellent emporiums of food including Gelson's and Santa Monica seafood but

Baked meatballs with Tomato and tamarind sauce. It's that man Granger again

ok ok I know its getting boring but Bill Grangers new book 'Feed me now' really is the culinary gift that just keeps on giving. Either that or Bill and I are twins that have been spookily separated at birth but left with identical palates .... as I am an old slaphead and he is a tousle haired, blond, Aussie beach babe it seems unlikely, but you never know. Anyway back to the cooking. This is perfect comfort food for a night like Saturday. The sunshine and soaring temperatures of last weekend were a distant memory, the thunder woke me up and the rain was bashing down like it was the middle of winter.We were all a little bit knackered and this meal was just what the doctor ordered. It is also the kind of dish that happily straddles the desires of all ages with the side orders allowing the adults to add some spice and interest whilst the basic dish will be acceptable to all but the fussiest of kids Serves 4 Mint sambal 150gms finely sliced shallots big handful of mint leaves 1 sma

Dinner with the Levy’s 4 . Barbecued Chicken with Salbitxada sauce and couscous salad.

First a confession, amongst all of the drinking and general jollity and the candle light I very nearly poisoned my lovely guests by not cooking the chicken all the way through. Let this be a lesson to you … or two in fact: Firstly don’t blindly believe what recipes say even when they are from a smiling Australian like Bill Granger… always check. Secondly barbecues can be lethal when it comes to chicken. Like all of Bills recipes this is very easy and I think its pretty tasty with lots of clever little touches. I have adapted the couscous slightly .. he uses peas …I have added the toms and the pomegranate seeds. Overall the dish has a very nice summery Spanish vibe to it Ingredients 1 x 1.5kg chicken (you could do this with chicken pieces if you prefer) Marinade 4 garlic cloves roughly chopped 1 red chilli finely chopped 1 tsp coriander seeds Sea salt 125ml extra virgin olive oil 1 tbsp sherry vinegar 2 tbsp lime juice 2 tbsp orange juice (freshly squeezed) Freshly ground black

Dinner with the Levy’s 3. Home made hummus Leon style.

Home made humus is one of those things that is an absolute walk in the park to make but really does taste much better than the shop bought variety. Ingredients 1 tin chickpeas drained and rinsed 2 ½ tablespoons lemon juice 1 clove garlic finely chopped 1 tablespoon tahini 70ml extra virgin olive oil 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper salt and pepper. Method Whack everything apart from the salt and pepper in a blender and blitz until it reaches the consistency you prefer (it doesn’t have to be baby food smooth as in commercial recipes) If it’s a bit thick loosen with extra olive oil Put into a bowl season an stir in a shot of olive oil Serve with fresh bread or even better home made flatbread (elsewhere on this blog)

Dinner with the Levy’s 2. Eggplant caviar …. Or aubergine caviar for us Europeans.

This is a recipe by the lovely Alice Waters from The Art of Simple Food. Ingredients 2 medium aubergines (eggplant) 4 tablespoons ex virgin olive oil 2 tablespoons lemon juice salt 1 garlic clove pounded to a puree with a little salt 2 tablespoons coriander pepper method Pre heat oven to 200C Cut aubergines in half lengthwise Sprinkle cut surfaces with olive oil and a little Maldon salt and ground black pepper. Place cut side down on a non-stick baking sheet and put in the oven for about 30 to 40 mins. You can tell when they are done by testing if they are very soft at the stem end. Leave to cool. Scrape the flesh out of the skin into a bowl and chop and stir vigorously to make a puree. Add the rest of the ingredients excluding salt and pepper and stir to mix well. Taste and season accordingly

Dinner with the Levy’s 1. Asparagus with anchovy and milk sauce

We had an impromptu dinner with Joel and Nushi on Saturday night. We sat outside, drank copious amounts of Champagne, Red wine and dessert wine, laughed a lot and toasted Nushi’s latest thespian success. We also ate a ton of food! We started with Lisas favourite: picky things. Given the time of year one of those things just has to be asparagus. I have referred to this River Café recipe for asparagus with anchovy and milk sauce before but here is the recipe…..slightly amended. Do not be put off by the slightly weird sound of this, it is absolutely delicious. Btw depending on your appetite this may make enough sauce for another outing and my experience would suggest that it will keep in the fridge for at least a day. Ingredients for 4 24 spears of asparagus sauce 6 anchovy fillets(1/2 a small tin) grated peel of 1 lemon (I do mine on a microplane but a grater will do) 1 small dried chilli (or ½ teaspoon of chilli flakes) 1 garlic clove (peeled and crushed with a little salt) 125ml milk 4

Lunch with the Osbornes .... not Sharon and Ozzy.Chicken, fennel, pancetta and red onion with Bill's lemon roasted potatoes

We had a delightful lunch last weekend with Andy and Julia ... it was made all the more pleasurable by the fact that they brought Olly (just back from Afghanistan) and Rupert (just back from Cheltenham) and the dogs (just back from a walk) No Ally as he is somewhere in Australia and no Gus (Falmouth) or Joe (St Maarten) but of course we did have Martha (not gone anywhere yet!) and Phoebe Olly regaled us with stories about Afghanistan peppered with military acronyms and we all had a very very nice time. We started the meal with the Moro Aubergine and red pepper dip and some Hummus (elsewhere on this blog)and continued with an improvised version of the Chicken with fennel pancetta and red onion recipe.... the improvisation was in the form of the replacement of rosemary with thyme ..... seemed to work.... and the addition of Lemon roasted potatoes to add a bit of bulk which we thought that four blokes( including one Marine ) might require This is also one of those meals where you can just

Leon moroccan meatballs. Pitch food

Gus is home for a night and has brought a mate with him. They are up in town tomorrow making a competitive pitch.A bit of a case of like father like son I suppose.I hope it goes better than my first pitch ... I was spectacularly nervous and totally crap! I decided to provide some hearty sustenance in the form of the Leon meatballs recipe from their excellent and eponymous book. As with most of Allegra McEvedy's cooking it is good easy family food ... this one will definitely make it to the 'regular' list. I served it with a salad and some couscous made with chicken stock, a little preserved lemon and a large handful of fresh mint stirred through after it had been fluffed up ps I made one change which was to leave out the flatbread as I prefer my meatballs 100% meat but I'm sure they are equally brilliant with the bread left in pps I also dialled down the Harissa a bit (1/2 tablespoon instead of 1) for Martha's sake and put some on the table for the boys to spice thi

Spiced chicken dumpling soup. Sunday night soup, except it's monday.

Bank holiday monday night, Joe had been working all day in the white heat of the t-shirt folding mecca that is The Gap. Martha back to school tomorrow and me back on the 7.52. I had seen Mr. Granger do this recipe on Saturday Kitchen ... then we got the book at work and it spurred me on to try it. This is classic Aussie fare: a fresh light Asian fusion kinda thing. I left the chillies out of the dumplings for Martha's sake and added some asparagus spears that I had in the fridge. We all loved it and dinner ended with clean plates and us all laughing at Joe's usual operatic comedy routine ... hard to explain why it's so funny but if you imagine Pavarotti with tourettes then you'll start to get the picture Ingredients For the dumplings 350g/13oz minced chicken 60g/2½oz vacuum packed bamboo shoots (thank you Waitrose), drained and finely chopped 2 tsp freshly grated root ginger 1 long red chilli, seeds removed, finely chopped 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves 2 tsp fish sau

Bills brilliant new book. Baked Sea Bass and lemon roast potatoes

We got Bills new book 'Feed me now' at work to provide inspiration for some of the projects we're working on. It looked so good I decided to pinch it and take it home to try out some of the recipes. I think he's a bit like Jamie in that he has a really good sense of what normal people like to eat but delivers it in surprising ways that are still very easy to prepare. This recipe is a perfect case in point, on the surface it's just fish with oven roast potatoes but there are lots of clever little things going on that take the dish to another level. Joe, Lisa and I devoured this on Saturday night. As always with whole fish you have to balance out the fabulous taste versus the whole bone thing. If you dont like bones or staring fish in the face I'm sure you could also do this with fillets just adjusting the cooking time to about 15mins ..ish. For what its worth we also tried one Sea Bass and one Sea bream and the consensus was that the Bream had it by a short fishy

Skye meets Moro via Hummus

This is a bastardisation of two recipes that was born out of the neccesity of a not quite full enough store cupboard combined with a bank holiday weekend. One recipe was from Moro but called for more Tahini than I had, the other was from Skye Gyngell but required a spice mix, that to be quite frank, I couldn't be bothered to make. So I made this combo and do you know what? It wasn't half bad. I will now try a few amends and see how good we can make it.... Skye adds some Greek yoghurt as well as a spice mix to make a sort of dip rather than hummus. The summer will give me plenty of chance to experiment ps The bowl is a bit empty in the picture because it was the second time we had eaten it that weekend ... not because the recipe makes a stingy amount. Serves 4 Ingredients 1 tin cooked chickpeas 2 cloves chopped garlic one bunch of coriander (including roots) one bunch of mint (leaves only) juice of one lemon 1 tbsp of tahini paste 2fl oz olive oil salt and pepper. Drain the chic