The Family Cook Book

I promised I would put this Alice waters recipe (if you can call it a recipe, it's more of an assembly than a recipe) on the blog. Ingredients 70gms pitted black olives 1 clove Garlic 4 Anchovy fillets (preferably salt-packed anchovies that you have washed and drained. If not use tinned, drain off the oil and pat them dry but don't tell Alice!) 1 tablespoon Capers (drained well) extra virgin olive oil a little chopped fresh thyme leaves Directions There are no measures for this, it's about tasting, and trusting what you like. Chop the olives coarsely by hand. Chop the garlic very finely, or pound to a puree in a pestle and mortar and add to the olives. Chop the anchovies and add to the mixture. Chop the capers. Add some to the mix,now the thyme then taste. Do you need more of anything? Add some, taste again. Do you need to balance out the flavour with garlic or anchovies? After all it's your tapenade. When you are satisfied, add a squeeze of lemon juice and taste. A

This is the first outing of one of my culinary Xmas presents. You can never go wrong with Rose and Ruth although you might argue that now having five books from them is verging on overload, slightly obsessional even. Anyway here is a sunday night experimentation with this Sicilian classic ... the interesting twist is the slight cooking of the celery before adding to the mix Caponata There are as many ways to make caponata as there are cooks in Sicily. The basis of caponata is the popular aubergine, and the dish evolves according to what other vegetables you wish to include. All caponatas have wine vinegar as part of the seasoning and most include capers, olives and pine nuts. This recipe has celery as its other strong flavour, which makes a light, refreshing version. Serves 6 1 large round, pale aubergine, about 12cm in diameter, or 2 medium round, pale aubergines Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 2 whole heads of celery, with leaves 1 large red onion, peeled 2 ripe plum tomatoe

I almost forgot to mention how good Jamie's stuffing recipe was this year. We loved his Xmas programmes despite the ridiculousness of some of it. Why, because there were some banging recipes in there Bruvva! I particularly liked his stuffing, so here it is. ingredients • 2 large onions, peeled and quartered • 50g stale bread • 200g vac-packed chestnuts • 1kg shoulder of pork, the best quality you can afford, trimmed and diced (We actually used Waitroses best minced pork) • a bunch of fresh sage, leaves picked • 3 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, the best quality you can afford, roughly chopped • freshly ground white pepper • sea salt • 1 fresh whole nutmeg, for grating • 1 lemon • 1 orange or clementine method Making your own minced pork like I’ve done here really turns your stuffing into something special. It will give you amazing flavour and texture, and it’s wicked to be able to see everything you’ve got in there. Usually I’d sweat the onions off first (ED. I did sweat mine off)

I 'cooked' this dish for our new years eve dinner. Whilst you have to pay a kings ransom for this much fillet of beef from Mr Dale (or any other good butcher)it really is worth it. Obviously this is a dish for carnivores but don't let its raw-ness put you off, it really is delicious and this spin on it using beetroot and horseradish gives it a seasonal and british twist. Make sure that the beetroot is really cooked as this will bring out the sweetness of this fabulous vegetable ... to test if its done just stick a sharp knife in to the biggest one, if it's done it will slide out easily. Don't worry if you have any left over as it is absolutely delicious the next day, either on its own or in some ciabatta. (Alternative: Jamie does a version where he substitutes Cress for the rocket, Rosemary for the thyme and adds a little shaved parmesan at the end) Ingredients * 700gms beetroot (10 - 12 'balls') * olive oil * 10 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

This rather spectacularly bad year for the world was seen in chez Cook by a small but perfectly formed coterie of close friends; Joel and Nushi, David and Cathy, Jerry and Belle and sons Gus (ours) and Freddie (David and Cathy). With Jools and his Hootenanny in full swing, Lisa's spectacular dessert made the dawn of next decade suddenly look much more inviting. The River Cafe's pear and almond tart or Torta di pere e mandorle as it is more correctly, and let's face it, poetically described, is one of those confections that will charm even the most hardened dessert hater .... and this particular tart was up there amongst the finest of its ilk .... ok, just one more slice. btw a little cheat for the time starved is to buy pre-made sweet pastry ...shhhh don't tell Rose and Ruth Ingredients 350g plain flour a pinch of salt 175g unsalted cold butter cut into cubes 100g icing sugar 3 egg yolks For the filling: 350g unsalted butter softened 350g caster sugar 350g blanched whol