The Family Cook Book

picture courtesy of BBC Good Food I was making supper last night we had roasted green beans and kale with a garlicky dressing a la Alison Roman alongside some chicken thighs, that were going out of date,   roasted with red onions. As I started to cook them I spied a jar of chickpeas with about a third left in it at the back of the fridge. I had seen a couple of recipes recently that featured roasted, or fried chickpeas, and I am a big fan of Morito's version but I certainly wasn't about to start frying! So I googled a few different recipes and came up with this basic approach. It is  about as simple as it gets — toss with olive oil and salt, roast, eat — but it seems that there are a few key things to keep in mind First,  dry  the chickpeas as much as possible. a couple of sheets of kitchen roll will do the trick. Also, don’t skimp too much on the   olive oil you don't want to drown them but you do want to make sure they are all coated. Lastly, wait

Photo by Michael Graydon and Nikole Herriott I made this for a supper on Friday night but we had to cancel at late notice, the recipe says that you can make it ahead. So I decided to prepare it anyway and put it in the fridge. We had it the following night and it was bloody delicious! A perfect get ahead meal. As Alison suggests we had it with her garlic bread and escarole salad with Guanciale breadcrumbs. I think it would be fair to say that it was an unqualified success. The combination of the different tastes and textures was really good. I particularly liked the salad .... more of that later.  Here’s the recipe Ingredients  6 cloves garlic (2 grated, the rest thinly sliced) 1 handful finely chopped chives 1 handful finely chopped fresh parsley (tender leaves and stems) - plus extra to garnish 125 grams full-fat greek yoghurt 2 teaspoons fennel seeds - plus extra to garnish 2 teaspoons hot smoked paprika 1½ teaspoons sea salt flakes 1 teaspoon chilli f

We had this spin on an Alison Roman dish with smashed cucumbers , and the combination was very good. My only change was to add some charred tenderstem broccoli to the spring onions to give the dish a bit more ‘heft’ I really like the Asian influenced spicy sharp flavours here. I promise I will cook something from another cookbook some time soon btw .... I’m just loving this book  though. Ingredients  spring onions 6 10 stems tenderstem broccoli  skin-on salmon fillet  olive oil 60ml, plus 3 tbsp low-salt soy sauce 60ml lemons or limes 1-2, zest finely grated to make 1 tbsp, plus 4 tbsp of juice orange juice 2 tbsp dried chilli flakes to taste Method Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.  Trim the broccoli and blanch for a couple of minutes or until stalks are tender but not overdone. Now toss the broccoli and spring onions in a little oil and cook in a heavy frying pan or griddle  with some seasoning for 4-6 minutes, tossing now and then, until they are

More Alison Roman. Made this on Friday night as part of the cooking the fridge series. We had it with a piece of salmon we had in the freezer. I used ground turmeric and it worked really well. It worked really well with the Asian style salmon we had. (Serves 4 to 6) 1/2 cup grapeseed oil 6 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped 1-inch knob fresh turmeric, coarsely chopped, or 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt, plus more for seasoning 9 Persian cucumbers, or 3 hothouse cucumbers, cut into 1-inch chunks 2 scallions or 1 spring onion, green and white parts thinly sliced 3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar, white wine vinegar, or rice wine vinegar, plus more to taste Freshly ground black pepper 1/2 cup fresh mixed herbs, such as dill and mint, tender leaves and stems or more to taste Heat the oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, swirling the pot occasionally, until the garlic is sizzling loudly and looks (and smells) deli

I don’t know about you but I am always left with the stalks of a bunch of coriander left over once I have used the leaves up. I also often end up with a few chillies lurking at the bottom of the vegetable drawer. what to do with them? I have combined these ingredients with some store cupboard staples olive oil, garlic, a lemon and the only glamorous ingredient which is sweet moscatel vinegar (this can be substituted by white wine vinegar with a bit of caster sugar dissolved in it) Mojo verde is one of our favourite sauces that we discovered in the Morito cookbook and we often combine it with avocado and shrimp or prawns as a starter but the sauce is equally delicious with roast chicken or in a sandwich as a sophisticated alternative to plain old chilli sauce. Ingredients A large bunch of coriander stalks, washed A clove of garlic chopped The juice of a lemon 3-6 Chillies, preferably the green not too hot ones but as you can see I used red ones here. 1tbsp Mosc

I have loved tomatoes on toast since I was a child. In those days it would have been grilled tomatoes smothered in salt and pepper on a slice of good old mothers pride. The tomatoes would have been grilled until blistered and soft and then I would smash them up into a pulp on the toast. These days the ingredients may be a bit different but the joy is still there. Today I tried Alison Roman’s tomatoes dressed in toasted fennel and anchovy    (yes that woman again) she like me is a BIG anchovy fan. The recipe, if you can call it a recipe, follows. I added some rocket and half an avocado and had it on a couple of slices of    lightly toasted Gail’s seeded sourdough. Ingredients  4tbsp olive oil 2tbsp fennel seeds crushed  2tsp Aleppo pepper or crushed chilli flakes 8 anchovy fillets plus more to serve. 1kg of smallish ripe tomatoes.   2tbsp red wine vinegar Flaky sea salt Ground black pepper  Method Heat the oil in a small pan over a medium heat.

I am writing this at my daughters suggestion, I posted a picture of my impromptu supper on Instagram last night  and she suggested it would make a good blog subject. So here we go! The idea of cooking the fridge is part of my very small contribution to trying not to create so much food waste. It helps that we are eating increasingly less meat (probably a couple of times a week if you exclude chicken and fish) but I have also been inspired by some of the writers, blogs and books I have been reading recently. So last night Mrs C was out (but coming home later for leftovers) and we had quite a lot of veg in the fridge as a Saturday night dinner had to be cut back as our guests was ill. I found myself with some Great British greens in the form of Cavolo Nero, chard, a few tenderstem broccoli stems, and half a bag of pentland Brig Kale, this was going to form the heart of one dish. I also had some vine tomatoes, a sweet potato,  a bit of creme fraiche and some confit garlic I