The Family Cook Book

Another recipe from Jamie. We had it with the Salmon (see previous blog) Simple but delicious Barbecue-steamed fennel Fold a double piece of tinfoil in half and seal up the two sides to make a little bag. Cut a fennel bulb in half and then into slices and add these to your tinfoil envelope. Squeeze in the juice of ½ a lemon, leaving the lemon half in the bag. Add ½ a sliced fresh red chilli and a good drizzle of olive oil, then season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. If you want, you could add a few bits of fresh rosemary. Seal the last edge tightly and place on the bars over a medium hot barbie until cooked. This should take about 25 minutes.

crispy barbecued side of salmon with cucumber yoghurt. serves 4 to 6 My only observations on this would be a) I'm not sure I can achieve the 'popadom like skin'with my gas barbecue b) The first time I did it I tried turning the fish with a spatula and it broke. So the next time I did it I put it in one of those hinged grill-things that means you can turn stuff on the grill. I also oiled the bars of that to stop it sticking. c. We had some steamed fennel with it d. it was absolutely delicious By Jamie Oliver ingredients • 1 x 1.5kg side of salmon, scaled and pinboned • zest and juice of 1 lemon a bunch of fresh herby fennel tops or basil, leaves picked and finely chopped • olive oil • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper • 1 cucumber, peeled lengthwise at intervals • 300ml natural yoghurt 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped • a small bunch of fresh mint or oregano, leaves picked and chopped • extra virgin olive oil The original recipe I love cooking big pie

We did this recipe for Sunday lunch maybe a little more successfully than the last time. I think that this is partly down to practice and partly due to a few minor tweaks to the recipe. We love this whichever way you do it but these slight tweaks move it into the legendary status! The key things are 1. Potatoes should be king Edward or Maris Piper ie fluffy not waxy 2. Chorizo should be added 20 - 30 mins from end NOT at the beginning as they get over cooked. 3. Forget the greaseproof paper ... use a good well oiled non stick pan 4. make sure you give pan a good shake every 20 mins or so 5. Use two small 1.3 - 1.5kg chickens rather than one big one 6. Use your judgement on cooking time but an hour and a half might be a bit better 7. sprinkle the gremolata over the potatoes in the pan and mix rather than when on plates, it mixes it up better and has a slightly less harsh effect. Ingredients • 1kg potatoes, peeled and cut into 2.5cm dice • 4 lemons • a handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley

Though I am the one that blogs, I'm very much not the only one that cooks in our household. Enter the youngest member of the family into the frame; Martha is developing into a pretty good cook and is picking up her mothers legendary ability in the dessert department. A couple of weeks ago she made an amazing version of Jamies key lime pie and this weekend Mark Hix's Blueberry cheesecake. Both were delicious if just slightly calorific, both recipes are below key lime pie Jamie Oliver serves 10 ingredients • 4 egg yolks • 400ml condensed milk • 6 tbsp fresh lime juice (about 5 limes’ worth) • 200ml double cream • Lime zest (optional), to serve Crust • 12 digestive biscuits • 45g caster sugar • 135g melted unsalted butter Method 1. Preheat oven to 175C/gas 3. For the pie crust, lightly grease a 22cm (across the top) metal or glass pie dish with a little of the melted butter. Blend digestive biscuits, caster sugar and remaining melted butter in a food processor until the mixture re

We spent our family holiday in Puglia. Our masseria had a wood fired oven next to the pool and Luigi, the delightful house manager, came over and cooked pizza for us. Gus got stuck into making the pizza and I can tell you that the pizzas, which were fired by olive wood from the surrounding grove, were unbelievably tasty. I think we managed to go through nine small pizzas between us; toppings included peperoni, salami, anchovy and olive, margherita and Tuna ... we were full but incredibly happy!

Its been a while since I last blogged, partially down to work, partially holidays but also because I just haven't cooked anything new. This is a new comfort dish from the canon of Saint Jamie. It's a one tray job which also makes it a good choice for a family meal. note: The second time I did this dish I added a few cloves of crushed garlic to give it a little more punch. I also kept the thighs whole and cooked them in the pan for a little less than the ten minutes Jamie suggests but left the whole dish in the oven for a little longer to brown the potatoes a bit more (more like 50 mins than 40) Ingredients 800g new potatoes, scrubbed sea salt & freshly ground black pepper 12 boned chicken thighs, skin on, preferably free-range or organic olive oil 600g cherry tomatoes, different shapes and colours if you can find them a bunch of fresh oregano, leaves picked extra virgin olive oil red wine vinegar Method Put the potatoes into a large saucepan of salted boiling water and boil