The Family Cook Book

I made this dish whilst we were up in Vermont recently, I have blogged about both recipes before but this combination of dishes worked particularly well despite one being from Spain via East London and the other being from the middle east via the middle of Vermont. I think the fatty spicy lamb works well with the cool clean yoghurt taste and the aniseed-y fennel. The cumin in both dishes nicely brings them together Mechoui lamb For the marinade 2 cloves of garlic, crushed to a paste with ½ tsp salt ¼ onion, finely grated 1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika, hot or sweet 2 tsp freshly ground cumin seeds 2 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp lemon juice To cook the lamb 2 tbsp cumin seeds, freshly ground ½ tsp sweet paprika ½ tsp hot paprika 1 tsp Maldon salt 1 lemon, cut into quarters Method Mix the garlic, onion, spices, oil and lemon juice for the marinade together thoroughly in a bowl, then add the lamb chops and turn to coat them really well. Cover and lea

We had this at the weekend with Jamie’s four grain salad and an apple cider slaw. It was a pretty successful combination, a bit of a mash up of Jamaica meets Jamie meets the deep south. The sauce was delicious and a breeze to make , once again it was from Mary Ellen McTague (I'm liking the way Mary rolls!) The pork was pretty good too but didn't shred quite as I would have liked it to .. I need to do some work on that.  Plus I missed a bit of crackling, I think the extra fatty crunch would have gone down a treat. Something to think about for the next time. Jerk sauce This goes with just about anything. I had to beg our restaurant manager Siobhan Sewell for her awesome recipe, and she relented only when I promised not to give it to anyone else, so let's keep this between ourselves. Siobhan served it with her jerk  pork  (below), which was by far the best thing at a recent barbie, which was annoying because I'd done the rest of the food. I've left all qu

As mentioned in a previous post, I made this salad to go with my jerk pork. I think we all agreed that it was pretty good. Jamie at his best a pretty simple recipe with a couple of interesting tweaks. In this case I thought there were two clever little jamie-isms  1. Cooking the whole garlic with the rice to make the base for the dressing 2. The addition of the toasted oats and spices. go to this link for Jamie's recipe  or read it below ... sorry for the slightly weird formatting Ingredients 1 small bunch mint, leaves picked, stalks chopped 1 small bunch parsley, leaves picked, stalks chopped 200 g mixed wild rice 100 g red rice 100 g pearl barley or farro 1 bulb garlic sea salt freshly ground black pepper extra virgin olive oil juice of 1 lemon olive oil ½ teaspoon fennel seeds 1 teaspoon cumin seeds 75 g rolled porridge oats Method With a whole load of extra grains, textures and flavours in it, this is so much mo

I made this to go with the jerk pork on Sunday. I love slaws, I particularly like them with fatty meats and rich sauces like the jerk pork recipe, I think they add a freshness that balances out the sweetness and a crunch to contrast with the soft texture of the slow cooked meat. All you really need is a mix of really crunchy veg that definitely will include cabbage and a sour dressing. You then need to slice them very finely (I think this texture is important) either use a mandoline or a food processor … I’m a mandoline man Apple cider slaw Ingredients ¼ white cabbage, cored, leaves very finely sliced ¼ red cabbage, cored, leaves very finely sliced 1 granny smith finely sliced 1 bulb fennel halved and finely sliced 1 red pepper, finely sliced 1 carrot, peeled and cut into ribbons with a vegetable peeler 6–8 radishes, very finely sliced 1 red onion very finely sliced handful of coriander leaves handful of mint leaves Apple cider dressing