The Family Cook Book

Project kitchen is coming to an end. The steel guys finished off today and I can't wait to see it. Clearly this post isn't of any use if you are looking to cook anything, but if you love cooking you will appreciate just how exciting the prospect of getting behind a new hob is. Shame that work has to interfere with my cookery....oh well!

The whole cook massive (minus Gus) descended on northern Spain for grandma Betty's 80th birthday.Despite some teething problems with the villa and a bonkers weather system that involved rainstorms of biblical proportions, we all had a great time. We didn't find any fabulous markets to buy gorgeous produce but we did find a big supermarket that provided most of the essentials although precious few fresh herbs. top tip: I had downloaded a few favourite Spanish recipes to the notes pages of my iPad which is a he'll of alot easier to carry than a load of bits of paper and significantly lighter than dragging the Moro cookbook with you. We cooked very small lamb chops mechoui style over charcoal and had it with chickpea salad made with very nice jarred chickpeas and served with plain yoghurt.We bulked it out a bit with some cooking chorizo and aubergine caviar or baba ganoush ...... Delicious! We also cooked paella with a special twist courtesey of Charlie Cook mistaking ...

this is excellent stuff http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=IfeyUGZt8nk

Lisa home from Ibiza and we had one of our favourites, chopped Turkish salad (elsewhere on the blog) but instead of the usual chicken and flatbread we had this delicious mechoui lamb and a loaf of Gails sourdough from waitrose. I had been meaning to do this classic moroccan recipe for some time. It's right up my strasse, its very simple, but i love the way that it elevates fairly ordinary barbecued lamb chops to something rather special....... It also goes perfectly with the Turkish salad btw. Lamb Mechoui with Cumin and Paprika Salt from Casa Moro cookbook Serves 4 Ingredients 2 tbsp. whole cumin seeds, freshly ground 1 tsp. sweet paprika 1/2 tsp. hot paprika 1 tbsp. sea salt, roughly crumbled 12-16 lamb chops, depending on size 40 g. butter, melted Mix the spices and the salt together in a bowl. Just before you are ready to grill the chops, brush them with the melted butter, sprinkle liberally with half the cumin mixture and grill 5-8 minutes either side for pink. Serve immediate...

Having just finished stuffing ourselves I can now confrm that the verdict on the aioli was that it was delicious and goes perfectly with barbecued chicken.

lisa is still in Ibiza and having a well deserved fine old time. weather here amazing too, so martha, Joe and I are eating in the garden. I have barbecued a chicken and we are having it with some left over potato salad ( see last entry) a tomato and red onion salad and I have made some aioli by hand with a bit of help from Joe on the oil dribbling front .... I hope it tastes good because I made a bit of a mess of the book at the same time... The recipe comes from Alice waters again In the book she mentions a number of optional 'spins' on each recipe ... In this case we added a handful of fresh chopped flat leaf parsley ... It won't take away the garlic breath but hey ho! Alice Waters AIoli Peel: 2 or 3 small garlic cloves Separate into a mixing bowl: 1 egg yolk 1/2 teaspoon water Mix well with a whisk. Into a cup with a pour spout, measure about: 1 cup olive oil Slowly dribble the oil into the egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. As the egg yolk absorbs the oil, the sauce...