The Family Cook Book

We stayed in on Saturday, Joe had been playing football, the storm was heading in our direction. It felt like a curry night. I made three dishes; Chicken, daal and prawns with the addition of some plain boiled  rice plus shop bought popadoms and naan. The recipes were from Atul Kochhar's book and although there was a fair amount of preparation they were pretty damn tasty..... even though I do say so myself I also bought some nice bottled ales from Waitrose so it could be a beer and curry night (Martha had some Crabbies. Lisa had the less traditional accompaniment of prosecco) Our favourite was the Duchy Originals organic golden ale. It may not surprise you to know that I couldn't even make it to the end of Match of the Day before my eyelids started to droop and bed called. Ginger garlic paste (ingredient for the chicken) 100g garlic, peeled and chopped 100g fresh ginger, peeled and chopped 2 tbsp vegetable oil (if you’re not using the paste straight away) 1 tbs

I Cooked this April Bloomfield recipe today.  Joe and I had it between the two of us (there were leftovers of course!) although it would easily feed four. I made a few tiny adjustments, partly to accommodate what I had to hand (eg I added rocket and used anchovies in oil not salted anchovies) and partly because I couldn’t be bothered to blanch and peel the tomatoes. I used a few different types of tomatoes including the best of the last of the English season and some of the fabulous Pomi dei Mori from Waitrose. Also, be warned, in squeezing the tomatoes I managed to cover myself from head to foot in seeds and juice! nb. If possible it is probably best to make the salad whilst the croutons are still warm For the bread salad .  1kg firm but ripe tomatoes (they say blanched and peeled … I didn’t do this) 1 large clove garlic peeled Maldon salt 4 – 6 anchovy fillets very small handful basil leaves 4 tbs extra virgin olive oil 2 tbs r

Today's cookery experiment is from Tom Kerridges new TV programme and book, Proper pub food. Martha has a week of shows ahead of her and has been rehearsing all day so its an early slow roasted carb filled supper to keep her energy high. We have eaten at Kerridge's fabulous Michelin starred pub the Hand and Flowers which has a wonderful lack of pretension despite its year long waiting list. When you see this larger than life (very) character talking about cooking and hear his brilliant laugh you know why his cooking is so good. He is cooking with a huge dose of love.  Watch him here http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/slow_cooked_lamb_26033 Lamb is in the oven (pic below is after 2 hours ), lets see how it goes     The recipe This is a great dish to cook when you have guests for Sunday lunch – just stick it in the oven and forget about it. The slow cook allows the meat to tenderise slowly and evenly, and you could cook it for even longer than the recipe

This serves eight but I made it for four of us! Not because I thought we would eat it but because I wanted to see what it would be like. It was delicious but I would make the following small amendments ... I think I should have left it on a high heat for more like 45 minutes so the skin had really puffed up ... and I also think that next time I will try leaving it in for longer than the scant 8 hours that I did so it really breaks down ... delicious though Serves 8 Ingredients 1 small whole shoulder of pork, with skin, about 2.75-3.25kg/6-7lb 10 garlic cloves, peeled 100g/4oz fennel seeds Maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper 5-6 small dried red chillies, crumbled juice of 5 lemons 3 tablespoons olive oil Method Preheat oven to 230C/450F. If your butcher hasn’t already done this for you, score the whole skin of the shoulder with deep cuts (about 2cm between each cut). Smash the garlic with the fennel seeds, then mix with salt, pepper and chill

This salad features an unusual combination of sweet potatoes and fresh figs. The combination is really good. I'm not sure I got the combination of spring onions and chilli quite right, it seemed a bit too oily. Next time I will try a hotter pan, less oil and less cooking I think. I'm not a goats cheese fan but I can imagine that it would be a good combination (sorry all you fellow cheese naysayers out there!) Ingredients 4 small sweet potatoes (1 kg in total) 5 tbsp olive oil scant 3 tbsp / 40 ml balsamic vinegar (you can use a commercial rather than a premium aged grade) 20 g superfine sugar 12 spring onions, halved lengthwise and cut into 4cm segments 1 red chile, thinly sliced 6 ripe figs (240 g in total), quartered 150 g soft goat's milk cheese (optional) Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper preparation Preheat the oven to 475°F / 240°C. Wash the sweet potatoes, halve them lengthwise, and then cut each half again s

The second dish on the menu for our Jerusalem night was this rather unusual Saffron chicken salad. It tastes better than it looks in this picture! The marinade is what makes it interesting, it also features fennel which I love. Serves 6 ingredients 2 1/2 tbsp / 50 g honey 1/2 tsp saffron threads 1 tbsp white wine vinegar about 300 ml water 1 kg skinless, boneless chicken breast 4 tbsp olive oil 2 small fennel bulbs, thinly sliced 15 g picked cilantro leaves 15 g picked basil leaves, torn 15 picked mint leaves, torn 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
 1 clove garlic crushed salt freshly ground black pepper 1 red chilli, deseeded and thinly sliced 1 orange Directions Preheat the oven to 400°F / 200°C. Trim and discard 3/8 inch / 1 cm off the top and tail of the orange and cut it into 12 wedges, keeping the skin on. Remove any seeds. Place the wedges in a small saucepan with the honey, saffron, vinegar, and just enough water to cover the orange wed

Lisa was away so I was in charge of cooking for the four of us. I decided to do a 'jerusalem' night, cooking from Ottolenghi. The next three posts are the recipes I decided to do.  This fattoush, which is yet another Mediterranean spin on the day old bread and tomato salad is particularly good. In fact I think that this latest book is the best of the three in the Ottolenghi series. Ingredients 200g Greek yogurt and 200ml full-fat milk, or 400ml buttermilk (replacing both yogurt and milk) 250g stale Turkish flatbread or naan 380g tomatoes, cut into 1.5cm dice 100g radishes, thinly sliced 250g Lebanese or mini cucumbers, peeled and chopped into 1.5cm dice 2 spring onions, thinly sliced 15g mint, roughly chopped 25g flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped 1 tbsp dried mint 2 cloves of garlic, crushed 3 tbsp lemon juice 60ml olive oil, plus extra to drizzle 2 tbsp cider or white wine vinegar ¾ tsp coarsely ground black pepper 1½ tsp salt 1 tbsp sum