The Family Cook Book

Seems like this has been a weekend of Ottolenghi recipes from his excellent book ‘Simple’. We had a lovely Sunday BBQ lunch featuring these lamb patties, cauliflower tabbouleh and sweet potato fries from Simple plus Josh Katz’s Saffron chicken and Moro chickpea salad. The interesting thing about the patties is the use of blitzed rocket, pistachios and onion. The recipe Ingredients For the sumac yoghurt 250g Greek-style yogurt 1 tablespoon sumac 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon lemon juice For the lamb and pistachio patties 90g shelled pistachios 50g rocket 1 1/2 onions, quartered 2 large garlic cloves peeled 800g ground lamb 3 tablespoons olive oil Salt and black pepper 1 Tsp ground cumin (my addition) Preparation Prep time: 15 min + Cook time: 15 min Mix together all the ingredients for the sumac yogurt sauce and keep in the fridge until needed. To make the patties, put the pistachios into the bowl of a food processor. Blitz for a ...

I was thinking about what to cook and I came across this recipe from David Tanis' book 'Market Cooking'. We made it when we were in LA last year. My good friend Peter and I got the meat from the coolest, and possibly most expensive, butcher in the world, I think it was called 'A cut above' in Santa Monica but I might have got that wrong. Anyway we made this deceptively simple recipe for a crowd and it was delicious. I seem to remember that we served it alongside the now legendary 'Roast potatoes and fennel from Lucca ' from Ruth Rogers at the River Cafe. The recipe  Ingredients 1 boneless pork loin (not tenderloin), about 4 pounds 1 tablespoon salt 8 garlic cloves, grated or minced ½ cup roughly chopped fennel fronds, preferably from wild fennel 2 teaspoons fennel seeds, crushed in a mortar or spice mill 1 teaspoon fennel pollen (optional) 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest 2 tablespoons roughly chopped rosemary, plus a few ext...

I love Josh Katz , the Berber & Q cookbook carries the multiple stains of a much loved and well used tome.....  they describe their food as follows 'Our menus take inspiration from pretty much anywhere we can find it, but with a bias towards the ingredients and flavours of the Middle East, North Africa and across the Ottoman. We favour vegetables as much as meat and fish, we like our wines natural and our cocktails kick ass. We cook over live fire because it makes food taste better. We love simple, honest cooking with loud colours and big, bold flavours.'  If you like the sound of that then you'll love any of the recipes I post from this brilliant book. Also if you are in and around shoreditch or Clerkenwell check out their restaurants which serve great food and drinks in a really fun and laid back atmosphere. Here's a great example of his work, this recipe elevates a simple piece of grilled chicken into something way...