The Family Cook Book

It's bank holiday Monday and theres just the three of us. Following yesterdays carb overload we are having a simple lunch of roast chicken and new potato and asparagus salad. Ingredients 10 small/medium sized baby potatoes 1 tsp fine salt 1 large bunch asparagus (about 10 spears), woody ends removed, spears cut into 3/4″ pieces Handful of rocket leaves, washed and torn Caper Dressing 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 2 tbsp lemon juice 1/4 c salted capers, rinsed and finely chopped Handful of dill fronds, chopped Sea salt and freshly ground pepper Method Half-fill a large saucepan with cold water and add potatoes and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are just cooked through. Drain and leave to cool completely before cutting into halves or quarters (depending on their size – you want bite sized pieces) Meanwhile, half fill a medium sized saucepan with water, bring to a boil and add the aspar

I saw this lamb recipe in a recent issue of the Times, it's from Thomasina Miers new book Chilli notes. I thought it would go well with this rice recipe from Ottolenghi. It was a bit carb heavy but delicious. I also served it with a cucumber and yoghurt recipe also from Jerusalem . If I was going to be picky I think I could probably let it cook for a little bit more as it wasn't quite as 'falling apart' as I would like but I thought that the marinade gave the lamb a great taste. Middle Eastern, rose scented falling apart lamb Serves 6-8 Ingredients 1 shoulder of lamb (about 2kg) 2 heads of garlic 2 tsp cumin seeds 2.5cm cinnamon stick 1 tbsp coriander seeds 1 tbsp sea salt 3 tbsp harissa 1 lemon, zested and quartered 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 tbsp rose syrup (optional) 1kg butternut squash, peeled and cut into (roughly) 2cm chunks 500ml dry white wine Method 1 Trim the shoulder of lamb of its outside layer of fat and make incisions

I have just come back from a quick trip to New York for the lovely Gabriella's graduation.... Go Ella!! I stayed at The Marlton and ate at Gemma's , Cercle Rouge, Margaux, the brilliantly named Butchers Daughter and had a pretty serious, five bottles between three, dinner at Il Buco Alimentari e vineria However, one of the things that always makes me smile about eating in the USA is all the great hoopla that surrounds the food business. Every time I go there's a new piece of terminology, everyone is now not only eating 'family style' but are pretty keen that their food is 'farm to table' but in terms of culinary terms my favourite is on the Butchers Daughters website ... they aren't just a vegetarian restaurant they are a ......   “vegetable slaughter house” .... hear them courgettes squeal, watch those avocados suffer! Actually I had a lovely time sitting at the bar with Gus and I thought the food was pretty good but the nomenclature i

I did this Ottolenghi recipe from "Jerusalem" a couple of weeks ago. I'm not sure I put enough love into doing it so the fish cakes didn't hold together very well and i thought that the aubergine was a little bland but I didn't do the lemon pickle and I was in one of those moods where nothing was quite right, so I think this may deserve re-visiting and cooking with a little more care. The recipe Quick Pickled Lemons Ingredients 1/2 red chile, chopped 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice 3 small-medium unwaxed lemons, halved lengthwise and sliced widthwise as thinly as possibly 3 tbsp superfine sugar 1 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt 1 clove garlic, crushed 1 tsp sweet paprika 1/4 tsp ground cumin 1/2 tsp ground turmeric   Use a mortar and pestle to smash the chile with 1 teaspoon of the lemon juice; you want to get a rough looking paste. Transfer to a large bowl along with all the other ingredients. Use your hands to mix everything together well so that all the

Latest I finally tried this on saturday night .... not one of my more successful dishes! I think that the lack of a deep fat fryer probably didn't help ... and maybe the oil wasn't hot enough but my chickpeas were not brown and crispy they were soggy and oily, which made them very, very carb heavy. Yet another recipe from the Morito cookbook. I have had this in the restaurant and the combination of the fresh cool chopped salad and the comforting chickpea carbs is delicious. However it is the surprising twist that the frying of the chickpeas provides that raises this recipe up to another level. I have also have a 'stash' of jars of chickpeas from the brilliant Brindisa  online store which is not only the best place to get your Spanish supplies like Ortiz anchovies and proper cooking Chorizo it is also where Moro get a lot of their supplies, so it must be good. So I definitely will be doing this soon The recipe The gorgeous chef David Cook first enlightene

We all love tapas or mezze or indeed the lovely cicchetti of Russell Norman's Polpo. If you read my blog you will know that  I have been rather obsessed with cooking Morito recipes over the past few days but there are also some wonderful little bites in Ottolenghi's Jerusalem and indeed the excellent Polpo book. We love lunches and dinners made up of these little dishes and I don't think that's just because the layout of our kitchen makes it look like a tapas bar.Most people seem to love the opportunity to graze on a variety of different flavours from salty to sour, soft to crispy, meaty to veggy not forgetting of course the very,very fishy joys of the oft featured but much maligned anchovy. I have to confess that his beetroot recipe from Ottolenghi should have goat cheese crumbled on top but I'm afraid that just isn't my bag. Serve with some great bread or even better some lovely freshly made flatbreads  Ingredients 6 medium cooked be

Allegedly Nandos is the food of choice of premiership footballers and rappers alike. I have to say that in this respect, and probably only this respect, I am 'down with the kids' Now courtesy of the new Morito cookbook you can cook this portuguese delicacy yourself at home. Martha and I particularly love chicken wings in all their bony splendour. For me they are lightyears ahead of a drumstick on the finger lickin' good yardstick but I'm sure this will work well on whatever your favourite part of the bird is .....  as long as it has some skin on. It would probably work on skinless breasts too but c'mon what are you doing eating them when there are other gnarly, bony, skinny bits to feast upon? This makes more than you need but it will keep in the fridge. Marinate the wings overnight if possible Ingredients 200ml white wine 3tbs white wine vinegar Pinch of sugar 4 small dried chillies crumbled 2 tsp ground coriander 8 fresh bay lea

This recipe is probably not high up in the British heart foundation's heart friendly cooking but who cares? We all love pork belly and this is a great tapas style version of it than can just be picked at with your fingers. It also has the distinct advantage that you can do most of the cooking ahead of time and just fry them off at the last minute. I made this for us to have at a Morito sunday lunch (bank holiday Monday really)and we all really loved it. Be really generous with the lemon juice and cumin at the end it adds flavour and provides a great contrast to the fatty crispy pork. the basic recipe for the belly is the same as a jamie oliver one that I have blogged about before but I thought that the idea of putting it on an onion to create the convex shape is a really good idea Ingredients 2 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste with a teaspoon of salt 1 tbs ground fennel seeds 1kg piece pork belly skin scored 1/2 medium onion peeled Lemon cut int

I've been meaning to do this for some time, in fact since I first saw a version of the recipe in the Moro East cookbook. I cooked this on Sunday for a veritable festival of cooking from the new Morito cookbook. In fact the kitchen very much resembled a tapas bar with me slaving at the pass (and loving it of course!)  I'm not sure I got this recipe quite right I think it was because I didn't have the water salty enough and the potatoes, whilst soft,  did not have either a wrinkled or salt crusted appearance. However when combined with the mojo verde they were delicious. I think they are particularly nice if you just gently crush the potatoes and put the mojo on top rather than dipping in ... you get more sauce that way .. although i guess they are less tapas-y this recipe makes enough sauce to use for other things by the way ... like the Chorizo and pepper boccadillo  Ingredients 1/2 kg small whole potatoes 1/2 tbsp salt Method Place the

I love courgettes, I know they are not everybody's cup of tea but I really like them. I love them roasted on the oven, or slow cooked on the hob and smashed and I love them in soup . I particularly like them grilled in a salad.   They are obviously at their best in summer and this weekend it felt like summer was definitely around the corner. This recipe from the new Morito cookbook is a little bit of a different middle-eastern-y spin on an old favourite. They went very well with the piri-piri chicken and a taboulleh salad. The recipe We like to use the pale (white) courgettes or a mixture of yellow, green and white during the summer when we have a choice. ingredients 4 large courgettes 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil the juice of lemon ½ tsp sumac, plus extra for sprinkling 2 tbsp pine nuts, lightly toasted 1 bunch of mint, finely shredded Method Cut the courgettes in quarters lengthways and scoop out the seeds. Place in a colander, t

First out of the blocks from the brilliant new Morito cookbook is a comforting chorizo, eggs and potato combo - Huevos Rotos .... which sounds wonderful but literally translated means broken eggs. We had this on Sunday night after a very tired Martha returned from an outward bound style leadership course but it would also be great for lunch or brunch. It would also be fabulous after a big night out ... if you know what I mean. One where you may have imbibed just a teeny-weeny bit too much alcohol. My only tip would be to try not to cut the peppers and onions too small as they will burn ... my guide would be to make them a similar size to the potatoes ... and don't cook them on too high a heat. The recipe also seems to suggest that the chorizo is optional, i'm afraid that in my book its essential! By the way if you think I have blogged about something similar before I have the recipe is here The recipe Weekend brunch at Morito usually starts with huevos r

My good friend Peter Price has pointed out to me that I haven't exactly been prolific in my blogging over the last couple of months. In fact it looks like I have only cooked some asparagus since February the 20th. Obviously I have been cooking, I just haven't been blogging. In fact I have tried some new dishes but to be honest some of them have been a bit of a failiure .... my salt cod croquetas being a particularly annoying waste of time. However fear not legion of followers ....  I'm back! (When I say legion I obviously use that term advisedly as a legion apparently consisted of four or five thousand men, I don't even think I could claim a cohort of followers, not even a century ... more like a small personal guard.) That aside I have been inspired to get blogging by a combination of the bank holiday, the weather and perhaps more importantly the arrival of the fabulous new Morito cookbook. If you haven't been there Morito is the fabulous baby brother of Mor