The Family Cook Book

Week two of lockdown ... no Ocado delivery in sight. What to cook? We had some uncooked prawns in the freezer and 3 quite large courgettes we got from the Ripley farm shop, I combined this with 3/4 of a pack of linguine from the cupboard to make this easy pasta. ingredients   1 pack uncooked prawns 250g 1 pound medium-size courgettes, about 6 (or 3 large) diced Salt 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 1 finely chopped onion 3 cloves garlic, finely sliced 500g fresh linguine Freshly ground black pepper 3 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley leaves Chilli flakes Method Step 1 Place zucchini in a colander, toss with salt and set aside to drain in sink or over a bowl 30 minutes. Step 2 heat 3 tablespoons oil in a heavy pan, add onion and garlic and sauté over low heat about 10 minutes, until onion is soft and . Rinse and drain zucchini and add to pan. Sauté about 20 minutes, until tender. Add the prawns for the last 3 or 4 minutes until they go

Dear cauliflower, I’m sorry, I didn’t appreciate you and your myriad charms. My only excuse is that I was bought up in an era of overcooked cauliflower cheese (something that still fills me with dread) However thanks to the mighty Yotam Ottolenghi and the equally marvellous josh Katz of Berber & Q I have recently succumbed to the wonder of the whole roast spiced cauliflower in a middle-eastern stylie. This recipe for the lockdown world is a little less elaborate but no less delicious for that. Cauliflower is local and seems to be pretty plentiful and as yet there has not been a big run on chickpeas that I am aware of. We had it with ottolenghi’s green tahini sauce but it would have been delicious without it too. To roast an average-sized cauliflower, break it into medium to small florets, (thumb-sized is good)or slice it into ½-inch-thick slabs, drizzle with 3 to 4 tablespoons olive oil and season with salt and pepper ( make sure that you coat it in plenty of olive oil you

So here we are in lockdown .... plenty of time to cook but not many to cook for. Obviously that is no reason to stop cooking! I have gone a little bit Jamie, a little bit war-time rationing. My aim is  A. To cook everything we have ... zero waste! B. To find interesting ways to combine store cupboard staples with other ingredients. C. To find interesting things to freeze that might come in handy for our aged Mums. We are also trying to use local shops and farm stores and to eat local where we can. I have also promised myself that I am to enjoy the very mindful process of cooking every day. One of my birthday presents was subscription to the excellent New York Times food site and my first recipe comes from it, or to be more precise the inspiration for it comes from there as I have adapted it to fit what I had. I love this kind of Thai soup/pho kind of thing .... it’s always a crowd pleaser, it’s easy to adapt to what you have and you can easily dial up or down flavour