The Family Cook Book

I love baked and poached fruit it's a great way of using up anything in the fruit bowl that's either lacking in enough flavour to eat fresh, or is slightly on the turn. Today I used some plums, apples and blueberries and gave them a bit of a lift courtesey of an idea I got from Alice Water's 'The art of simple cooking'. My inspiration came from a recipe for baked peaches, but I think it works pretty well for almost any fruit. You will need: Your fruit .... In this case 6 Plums cut in half and stoned, 2 apples peeled, cored and cut into segments, a handful of blueberries 3 Tablespoons Apricot Jam {or any flavor of your favorite jam, as long as it goes well with the fruit 2 Tablespoons Honey 1 cup water {I have also done it with half water, half dessert wine) zest of one lemon Method If you can call it a method pre heat oven to 180c Whisk the jam, honey, water, lemon zest in a small bowl. Put the fruit flesh side up in a baking dish and pour t

Arroz En Paella De Barcelona, Los Jueves (Barcelona-style Thursday Paella Rice) I wanted to try out one of my new cookery books, I also had two new paella pans from Lisa so it was a bit of a no-brainer that it was going to be 'Paella' from Steve and Neet that got 2012's first run-out. The book has a remarkable 118 different paella recipes. This is a bit of a bastardisation of the above recipe made to accommodate Martha's dislike of fish and the fact that this was a lazy saturday night in. However the thing I was most interested in was the use of hob and oven to finish the dish off. All in all I think it was successful. Serves four Ingredients 1litre fish or veg stock 100ml olive oil 1 clove garlic, finely chopped 400g chicken, deboned and cut into 30g pieces 8 king prawns (jumbo shrimps), heads removed and tails shelled 150ml passata 6 small chorizo, cut in half 200g green beans, trimmed and cut into 3cm lengths 1 green pepper, seeded, skinned and