The Family Cook Book

This is a shot of the fabulous meringues that Lisa sent to the office to celebrate our appointment as Team GB's strategic marketing partner . They arrived brilliantly presented in a vintage crate and were pretty quickly devoured by all the hungry krows. The recipe is from the meringue girls book and I think you'll agree Mrs Cook has got them down to a fine art. Lovely!

We had this last night with the delicious Ottolenghi turkey and courgette burgers . I think they made a very good match for each other and worked well for a clammy summer evening. I made the burgers, the sour cream sauce, the crispy pittas and the dressing ahead of time and the salad just before we ate. I know it's just another one of those Middle eastern chopped salads but we love them in our house. The dressing is unusual and uses the aforementioned pomegranate mollasses which you can now get at Waitrose of course.  I also like the addition of the pittas which adds a few carbs and consequently just a little bit of substance. I've put in Moritos picture because it is just so much nicer than mine. I am definitely going to sprinkle za'atar all over the place next time!  and yes it does look like there's definitely more than half a teaspoon there and they haven't diced or deseeded the cucumbers Serves 4 Ingredients for the salad olive oil 1-2 p

Martha and I had this with our pizzette on Saturday night.  In my experience grilled courgettes are a bit polarising, personally I love them. The interesting bit here is the breadcrumbs it just lifts the dish a bit by giving you another texture of a little bit of a crunch. Ingredients 6 courgettes stale (good) bread 2 garlic cloves – finely chopped chilli flakes – 1 tsp rocket leaves – 150g olive oil lemon juice sea salt flakes and pepper You’ll need to make the breadcrumbs first: Preheat the oven to 180c/gas mark 4. Tear the bread into small chunks and scatter onto a baking sheet. Pour over a generous slug of olive oil and shake the tray a few times to ensure the bread is thoroughly coated. Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and crispy. Set aside to cool. When cool, place in a food processor along with the garlic, chilli flakes and pinch of salt and grind of pepper. Blitz for a few seconds until you have breadcrumbs. Turn out into a bowl, d

Another recipe from the Polpo cookbook. I was inspired to cook this by fellow food fanatic Will Saunders. Its a really, really....i'll say it again....really, easy recipe. Theres a bit of love required to make the tomato sauce but the polpette are a breeze and the combination of fennel and pork tastes great and just a little bit unusual. This made enough for a meal for Martha, Joe and I. A 'food parcel' for Joe to take home and a snack for Lisa when she returned from her screen priniting sojourn in Margate. So it would be plenty for six particularly if you paired it with some pasta or other veg. We had it with a fennel, green bean and rocket salad from the same book. The sauce (makes 1.5 litres) ingredients 100ml extra virgin olive oil 1 white onion, finely sliced 1 garlic clove, chopped 1/2 tbsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper Small pinch chilli flakes 750g fresh tomatoes 3 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes (try and get really nice ones, defo worth it here

Just me and Martha on Saturday, and the addition of Joe on Sunday. I was going to do tapas but I decided to cook from the excellent Polpo book instead. For those of you who don't know it (or haven't been to one of the restaurants ) the vibe is Venetian and has at its heart the notion of Cicchetti or 'little bites'. On Saturday we had a couple of pickled pork pizzete using the unbelievably easy dough  recipe. This is like an upmarket version of Pizza express's American Hot btw. For the pizzetta base (makes 12 bases) Ingredients 1 × 7g sachet fast-action yeast) tepid water 300ml extra-virgin olive oil 2 tbsp fine salt 2 tsp strong white flour, Italian 00 is good 500g Method In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt and dried yeast with the olive oil and the water and form the mixture into a ball.  Now knead the dough on a floured work surface. To do this, push the dough backwards and forwards simultaneously with your t