The Family Cook Book

The obvious answer to this question is of course a resounding yes, yes, yes.. I think I have already 'come out'  on this before. I suspect its a bit of a bloke thing. I am constantly looking for new inspiration, for another River Cafe, another Jamie. Predictably the course of cookery book love never runs true but I continue to pursue my quest like some star crossed lover. I have recently added two to my overflowing collection, 'Grill, Smoke, BBQ' by Ben Tish of the Salt Yard group and April Bloomfield's ' A girl and her greens'. I have already waxed lyrical about Bloomfield, the English Chef/owner of many New York restaurants (I particularly recommend The Spotted Pig) but Tish is a newcomer to my collection even though I have been to some of the restaurants and seen him on TV. I particularly like the layout of his book and I am also drawn to the fact that he uses a Big Green Egg a fair amount. There's quite a bit of smoking stuff in there that

Ah! the British Summer! Lazing in the garden till 8.00 at night reading the paper on Monday, fighting the cold and rain for the Tuesday commute. I suppose we should be grateful that we reversed the usual order of things and the bank holiday was nice and the return to work was grim. I made this recipe from Lucy Boyd on the Friday evening when the holiday weekend was ahead and the weather was lovely. It appealed to me because everything could be seasonal and everything could be British. Sadly Waitrose couldn't supply me the fresh peas but I made do with Duchy organic frozen ones. This is a really nice one pot vegetable dish. We had it with some Sea Bream fillets that I just brushed with olive oil and seasoned and then cooked quickly in a high temp oven (220c) for 10 - 12 mins. One tip on the vegetable recipe. Don't be tempted to change the quantities. I normally never do this when I am doing a new recipe but I used more potatoes and less asparagus ... mistake! not