The Family Cook Book

If you're a serial offender in the cookery book purchase stakes (I declare right now that its more of an addiction than a hobby for me) you will, I'm sure, have many books that you have never cooked from ... or perhaps more tellingly only cooked from once. In my collection many of these are actually amongst the best looking books in my collection, I have dubbed them 'Lookery' books. They lure you in with fabulous design, often combined with a cover that not only looks good but feels so good you want to lay your face on it. In my collection many of them are from restaurants that I have enjoyed being to, loved the food and thought I must cook that at home. They are the culinary equivalent of ouzo and limoncello great when you're there not so great when you're back home ( actually limoncello isn't great anywhere) This weekend I tried the Slanted Door by Charles Phan. We went to the restaurant, which is in the old ferry building in San Francisco when we...

We have now had these pears a couple of times. On Saturday we did the whole dish for Grandma Betty’s birthday and it went down very well. Firstly it’s great to be able to use seasonal British pears, secondly, as with everything we have cooked from this book this is very easy to do and a great dish to prepare ahead of time if you are cooking for a bit of a crowd. I should declare now that I didn't cook the meringues (or indeed the pears) my own personal meringue girl Mrs. Cook did so and did so beautifully. Recipe for 6 people Ingredients 8 medium free-range egg whites – at room temperature 650g caster sugar 250ml white wine 6 firm pears – comice are perfect pinch of saffron 200ml whipping cream Method Preheat the oven to 130°C/Gas 1/2 and line two baking sheets with baking parchment paper. Tip the egg whites into a large clean mixing bowl (not plastic). Beat them with an electric hand-whisk on medium speed until the mixture resembles a fluffy cl...

It was my Mums birthday on Saturday .... in fact it was her 85th birthday so we threw a surprise lunch for a selection of family and friends both young and old. It was a lovely occasion, I wanted to cook something special but fairly traditional and easy to prepare for ten. I turned to Raymond Blanc's 'Kitchen Secrets' ... it’s not a book I use that much but on the basis of these recipes maybe I should. Both the lamb and the potatoes turned out really well and were gratifyingly easy to prepare. We served it with some tenderstem broccoli, chantenay carrots and salsa verde. We had beetroot marinated salmon to start and poached pears to finish. Raymond Blanc's slow roasted shoulder of lamb This dish epitomises good home cooking. Shoulder is one of the cheaper cuts of lamb, yet here it is transformed into a wholesome meal – the long, slow cooking rendering the meat tender, juicy and incredibly tasty. Maman Blanc never used st...