The Family Cook Book

We made this a couple of times when we were up in Vermont. the first time we used some delicious fingerling potatoes from the farmers Market. This is a pretty forgiving recipe but you must dress the potatoes whilst they are warm. Ingredients 1.8kg/4lb new potatoes 700g/1½ lb fine green beans salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste 1tbs Dijon mustard 175ml/6fl oz extra virgin olive oil 1 tbs red wine vinegar 2 tbs capers (optional) Method Place the potatoes into a pan of boiling well-salted water (one teaspoon salt per 600ml/1 pint water) and cook until just tender. Drain and leave to cool slightly, then cut lengthways into quarters and place into a salad bowl. Whisk together the extra virgin olive oil, dijon mustard and red wine vinegar. Add to the warm potatoes and toss together while warm then leave to cool.Now add the capers if you are using them. In a clean pan, cook the fine green beans in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes, or until just tender. Drain an

We are now back home having neatly avoided any chaos created by hurricane Irene. The same cannot be said for our friends the Priceys journey home which took about a day longer than it should have done and included unwished for visits to Niagra falls, Pittsburgh and Las Vegas before eventually getting back to LA. We made this fennel by Skye Gyngell for the 'Last supper' Here's the recipe If you're not serving this with the pork, it's also a perfect marriage with any white fish, chicken, or – because it's at its best at room temperature – simply chopped and tossed in a salad with olives and tomatoes. And I'd be just as happy to eat it on its own. Ingredients 4 fennel bulbs 1 dried red chilli, finely sliced 1/2tsp fennel seeds The zest and juice of one unwaxed lemon 60ml/21/2fl oz extra-virgin olive oil Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas6. Remove the tough outer layers of the fennel and cut into quarters len

For some reason the American staple of guacamole is something we rarely make. However, during this summer of cooking the US cookbooks it seemed like that needed to change, particularly as Martha is a bit of an avocado fanatic.  During the Pricey's sojourn with us we had it several times and Martha ended up being in charge of making it. Our recipe is a bit of a combination of two that I found in my Silver palate recipe book. When it comes to scooping implements this is of course a very personal decision. Ours was Tostito scoops but you could of course choose other 'chips' or vegetable shaped scooping paraphernalia. I can recommend this as an excellent accompaniment to an aggressive game of wii golf. Here's to more happy times in glorious Vermont with the Priceys, hurricane or no hurricane. Guacamole ingredients 2 ripe avocados 1 cloves garlic 2 tbsp. fresh lemon or lime juice 2 tbsp. finely chopped red onion 2 tbsp. chopped coriander few

The redoubtable Jane and Bob Kaufmann joined us for dinner last night and alongside the giant vat of red wine we had a few old favourites ( butterflied leg of lamb in a Moro marinade, chopped Turkish salad, grilled asparagus)and a new middle eastern inspired salad of fennel,chickpea and tomatoes from the shelburne farms cookery book that Stuart and Saskia Smith bought us. The fact that the barbecue ran out of gas one minute after I put the lamb on threw a bit of a curve ball but we managed to heat the griddle pan and the oven up pretty quickly and the meat still seemed to taste ok. As for the asparagus it ended up being seared in a dry non stick frying pan rather than grilled, but again it was fairly edible. We finished off with a Hero island sour cherry oatmeal crumble from the kingsbury Market garden- a farmer foodbank fellowship in the mad river valley, if you please. (www.kingsburymarketgarden.com) Here's the fennel recipe Ingredients 1 larrge fennel or 2 small o

Five days after arriving in the good old US of A we were in need of fish ... We have had wings, we have had burgers, we have had steak, we have had sausages, for this is the land of meat. But our European constitution demands that we have fish (well not Martha but definitely the rest of us) so tonight we had fish, we had some beautiful tuna steaks from mehurons which meant I could try this recipe that has been on my must cook list The verdict was that it was good Ingredients For the salad 600g/14oz baby tomatoes, cut in half horizontally 4 tbsp olive oil salt and freshly ground black pepper 200g/7oz ciabatta, torn into small pieces 1 large banana shallot, finely chopped 2 tbsp red wine vinegar 6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 4 tbsp capers, drained and rinsed 175g/6oz w piquillo peppers, chopped 2 handfuls basil, leaves only For the tuna 4 x 200g/7oz tuna steaks 1 lemon, zest only 1 garlic clove, grated 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil Method For the salad, pre

In love stories you have to kiss a few frogs before you meet your prince. I suppose the same can be said to be true of cooking, you have to fail on occasion in order to succeed in the long run. Last night was a frog night. I attempted a bit of a twist on a recipe in the Shelbourne farms cookery book and that twist failed miserably. It should of been simple it was a dish involving lentils and sausages which let's face it are both pretty forgiving ingredients. however I managed to bring the dish to the table with sausages that weren't cooked through and bland bland bland lentils. Tonight will be better.

one of the highlights of the farmers Market is a trip to the gizmos pickles stand. All the pickles are great but we particularly like the unusual, and I understand native, pickled fiddlehead fern. the dilly beans, hot mamas and horsey kraut are also all worth a try, so if you a ever at the waitsfield farmers Market the give them a try you won't be disappointed.

We were making a salad for lunch and I grilled an enormous misty Knoll chicken breast on the barbecue which fed all four of us. God knows what they feed them on up at Misty Knoll but I would hate to be attacked by one of these. The marinade came from the Hay Day country market cookbook. Ingredients 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp dried thyme 2 tsp ground black pepper 2 tsp hot paprika 2 tsp chili powder salt to taste 2 tbs olive oil 2 tbs lemon juice method mix all the ingredients together and marinade chicken, preferably for a good 30 mins or so. pre heat barbecue, then turn to low and grill slowly (this is the key to getting moist but cooked chicken)it will take 20 mins or so.

made this from the Hay Day Cookbook to have with the steaks last night. Our verdict was that this was a good idea but that the recipe was a bit too sweet for us (maybe thats an American palate thing) The jam is really easy to make, once you have got past the chopping of a large amount of onions. We bought our onions at the rather wonderful East Warren community market ... yes we are definitely in Vermont. Heres a revised version of the recipe that I will try later in the hols Caramelised onion Jam 2 tbs unsalted butter 2-3 spanish onions, thinly sliced 2 tbs red wine vinegar 1 tbs honey 2 tbs dark brown sugar sea salt and fresh cracked pepper method Melt butter in a covered pan over medium heat. Add the onion slices and cook, stirring occasionally, until they soften and begin to caramelize – about 10 minutes. uncover and add vinegar, brown sugar, salt, and pepper. raise hear and cook until vinegars reduce and mixture has a thick, jam-like consistency –

We are back in Vermont for our summer holidays.We have already been treated to the usual mountain mixture of sunshine and pounding, pounding rain, but it's great to be back. After a long journey up on Friday night we went to the farmers Market on Saturday morning and picked up some fabulous local produce. I have decided that whilst we are up here I am going to try to cook from the American cookbooks I have on the bookshelf. First up is a grilled vegetable salad from Mario Batali ..... Ok he's Italian, but it's an American book.....and this recipe made great use of the beautiful vegetables from the market We had this with some very nice t-bone steaks from mehurons supermarket. This recipe was adapted from Mario Batali's recipe for Capri-style grilled vegetables in his book Italian Grill.     Serves 6.     For the Sicilian Vinaigrette:   • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar • 3 garlic cloves, minced • 1 tsp. dried oregano, crumbled • 1 teaspoon ground cumin •