The Family Cook Book

The Gjelina cookbook (yes them again!) describes this as a riff on a caesar salad.  I have never eaten a Caesar salad because I have never liked the look of the cheesy dressing! Consequently this has been an absolute revelation for me. However I suspect this recipe is a bit of an improvement on the bottled Paul Newman (plus processed bag of pale croutons) variety.  All I know is that the combination of tastes, and particularly, textures made for a delicious and reasonably healthy supper. One that I will definitely be revisiting. My slight spins/cheats on the book were that  A. I tried baby gem lettuce and romaine instead of the escarole in the recipe ... on balance we decided that baby gem worked best but either will suffice ... just needs to be a robust lettuce that will hold together on the grill B. I was a bit lazy and used good quality jarred roasted and peeled peppers C. I just chucked some bits of sourdough in the oven for 10 minutes or so to create my croutons for

This recipe is from Simple, the new Ottolenghi book. I have seen some criticism that it is almost too simple, which it certainly is in comparison to many of his previous outings, but that’s what I like about it, and there are still enough interesting touches to make it Ottolengish. Here its the addition of the green tahini which the book says is optional, for me its this combination that is genius, although I have to confess to being a tahini nut! Roasted cauliflower is something that seems to have appeared out of nowhere over the last year or two and I have to confess it has transformed this vegetable that I associate with something I loathe (Cauliflower cheese) to something that can be a real star ingredient. It’s also very cheap and local! We had it with drinks, I broke the cauliflower into florets, rather than leaving people to tear apart with their hands which the book suggests. Ingredients 1 large cauliflower with its leaves intact 45g unsalted butter, softened to

This very simple dish is from another of my Xmas presents. I have always loved the Polpo cookbook for the simplicity and originality of the recipes contained within it. It looks like this book from the brilliant Russel Norman is going to be just as good. This recipe is a lovely clean and fresh salad that is perfect as a starter to a heavier main course. Ingredients   A large handful of shelled walnuts 3 celery stalks with leaves if possible 2 fennel bulbs 1 Comice pear Juice of 1 lemon Extra virgin olive oil  Flaky sea salt Black pepper 100g Parmesan  Method Pre heat oven to 180 scatter walnuts on a baking tray and roast for 6-8 minutes. Remove and set aside. Remove the leaves from the celery and wash, dry and roughly chop. Peel the celery and slice at an angle.  Trim the fennel have, core and finely slice.Now the pear,  halve core,  and finely slice lengthways. Carefully place the celery, fennel and pear in a large bowl. Add the walnuts

Photo by Michael Graydon and Nikole Herriott Another great recipe from the lovely Gjelina cookbook.In common with most of their recipes, it isn’t ‘cheffy’ just a very neat combination of ingredients with some clever little twists. This is not one for those of you that don’t like to get messy but it very definitely is one for those of you that like to suck a prawn head! In the restaurant they would do this in a wood fired oven, the little trick here is to replicate that by putting a pan in the oven for an hour to get that immediate rush of heat. I’m not sure it requires quite that long but it definitely did the trick. Ingredients 12 fresh prawns, head and shell on 1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil flaky sea salt Freshly ground black pepper 8 cloves garlic confit, chopped, with some of the oil 2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 1 lemon, quartered Directions 1. Preheat the oven to 260°C. Put a large, dry

This recipe is from the Gjelina cookbook which is my favourite source of inspiration at the moment. It’s more of a storecupboard ingredient than a recipe as such but its a little bit of genius if you are a garlic lover. I hadn’t ever used confit garlic before but I am now addicted. It gives you all the flavour without the harshness of raw garlic and it will keep for ages in the fridge, meaning it’s always to hand. The only hassle is peeling eight heads of garlic! You will see this appear as an ingredient in a number of recipes I post from this cookbook Ingredients 500ml olive oil 8 heads garlic, cloves separated and peeled 12 fresh thyme sprigs or a bunch of any herbs that you like 3 bay leaves, bruised Instructions Preheat oven to 175 In a small to medium baking dish, combine olive oil, garlic, thyme and bay leaves. The garlic should be completely covered.  Bake until the garlic cloves are soft, fragrant, and lightly browned but still hold their shape, about 45

This is my first attempt at making sourdough bread. After around seven hours of kneading, proving and retarding I ended up with a pretty decent loaf of bread .... even though I do say so myself! There was a little bit of tension involved and the instructions could have been more precise but all in all not a bad first attempt. Now for sourdough pizza bases!

This recipe is from the Gjelina cookbook ‘Cooking from Venice’. The Venice it refers to is not the one with the canals and the Doge’s Palace but the one of surfers and skateboarders in California. We were there recently and had a lovely breakfast with Gus, Joe and Stephanie. For me this California cooking at its best; relaxed, great ingredients and food that unashamedly steals from the best of the rest of the world and then turns it out with LA style. I was lucky enough to receive the fabulous cookery book as a Xmas present and I can already tell it will be a firm favourite. The recipe below is a bit of a cheat on the original  A. I have used jarred chickpeas; for two reasons; firstly because It is just way less hassle but secondly because I think that these jarred Spanish chickpeas (courtesy of the lovely Alio’s deli in Walton on Thames)are infinitely preferable. B. I couldn’t get carrots at the deli so I improvised by using a fennel build and a sweet potato .. i think