The Family Cook Book

Roasted fennel, red onions and sweet potatoes with couscous Treat this recipe as a blueprint for an infinite number of roast vegetable dishes. The point here is to balance slow-cooked veggies with something crisp and fresh. Ingredients 2 fennel 2 medium red onions 150ml olive oil 4 thyme sprigs 2 rosemary sprigs 1 head garlic, halved horizontally 2 medium sweet potatoes (600g in total) 20 cherry tomatoes, halved 2 tbsp lemon juice 4 tbsp small capers (roughly chopped if large) ½ tbsp maple syrup ½ tsp Dijon mustard 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (optional) Salt and black pepper Method 1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5/190°C/375°F. cut the fennel in half and each half into 3 wedges (or four if they are particularly big) Peel the onions and cut each into six wedges. 2. Place the fennel and onions in a large mixing bowl and add 120ml of the olive oil, the thyme, rosemary, garlic, 1 tsp of salt and some pepper. Mix well and spread out in a large roasting tin. Roas

Serves 8 Pan toasted almonds These must be the quickest things in the world to make. Believe me, there's nothing more scrumptious with any cold drink and good company than a plate of hot, toasted, tasty almonds. Try throwing them into salads too -- nothing better. Ingredients    1/2 tablespoon olive oil 255 g / 9 oz shelled and peeled almonds 1-3 small dried red chillies 2 generous pinches of Maldon sea salt Method Add the olive oil and almonds to a hot frying pan. Fry and kinda toast the almonds until golden brown, shaking the pan regularly to colour them evenly and accentuate their nutty flavour. Crumble in the chilli to taste and add the sea salt. Toss over and serve hot on a large plate. Bloomin' gorgeous. Ingredients 4 large red peppers (green are not suitable) 8 cherry vine tomatoes 8 tinned anchovy fillets, drained 2 cloves garlic 8 dessertspoons Italian extra virgin olive oil Freshly milled black pepper To serve: Small bunch fresh basil leaves

We cooked this last night for a dinner party. It received a pretty good reaction from everyone. The The thing I like about the recipe is that you can prepare the sauce ahead of time and just cook the fish when you're ready to eat. The Moro recipe has clams but I don't eat them so I replaced them with an equal quantity of prawns. To get a bit of extra flavour I peeled the prawns and put the heads and shells into the fish stock and cooked them for a few minutes before straining to giveaway little extra depth to the stock as a replacement for the extra flavour the clam shells would add. The other thing I would encourage is patience, let the onions brown slowly, let the peppers soften likewise. You will be rewarded by a really lovely rich flavour. serves 4 6 tbsp olive oil 1 large spanish onion, roughly chopped 2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced 2 dsp fresh rosemary 3 bay leaves 2 red peppers, quartered, seeded and thinly sliced 1/2 sweet smoked paprika 1 x

I made these two sauces to have with a bone in Rib-eye steak cooked the April Bloomfield way. I cooked indoors on a griddle pan ... big mistake. The kitchen not only had a certain beefy aroma it also took on a blue hue with those little highlights of smoke under all of the downlighters. In the end it got so bad  I decided to cut the time down on the grill and finish it off in the oven. However I have left the recipe as it is in April's book. I won't do it again until its barbecue weather. Having said that Martha, Lisa and I polished off every last morsel ... including the rocket salad and McCain rustic style oven chips (yes I know what you're thinking ... frozen chips! well if its good enough for most restaurants I guess its good enough for a Saturday night in East Molesey) The verdict on the sauces was 2-1 in favour of the chimichurri with both Martha and Lisa voting in favour of the flavours of Argentina rather than those of Spain..... obviously the

I saw this in this weeks Time Out and thought it looked up our strasse and worth a try. Ingredients 500g waxy potatoes, thinly sliced 1 large onion, thinly sliced 6 tbsp olive oil Knob of butter 8 small vine tomatoes, halved 6 white (marinated) anchovy fillets, finely chopped (see tip) 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 lemon, zested and sliced into discs ½ large bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped (about 40g) 100g fresh breadcrumbs 4 thick white fish fillets, such as sustainable cod or coley 1 red chilli, sliced Method 1. Scatter the potatoes and onion into a large roasting tray. Drizzle with 1 tbsp oil, season, then toss to coat. Dot with butter, then cook in the oven for 15 minutes at 100C/fan170C/gas5. Add the tomatoes, then return to the oven for 10 minutes more. Meanwhile, whizz the anchovy, garlic, lemon zest and parsley in a food processor with 3 tbsp of the olive oil to make a gremolata. Taste and season. 2. Mix the breadcrumbs