Tag: alex mackay

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cookbooks cooks food

my favourite cookbooks of 2012

my cookbook shelf, december 2012

I look forward to writing this post every year; a chance to reflect on the year’s cookbook shelves. Polpo gave us a travelogue round Venice’s cicchetti bars, Madhur Jaffrey returned to explore the UK’s curry scene, and LEON released their fourth impressive volume.

As baking fever truly took hold, with Jubilees and the like to celebrate, the market groaned with cupcake and muffin recipe manuals designed to capture Great British Bake-Off mania. It sometimes felt as though this was the only part of the market churning out books! From the non-cake section I’ve compiled my favourite cookbooks of 2012 that have in turns entertained, educated and enlightened me.

3. Jerusalem – Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

Yotam Ottolenghi has become one of those chefs for whom I pay close attention. Whatever he’s up to I’m interested, as it will certainly have an unusual angle that is completely new to me.

And this book goes some way to explaining why. Part holiday guide, part autobiography and all good eating, Jerusalem is a culinary tour of his and long-term collaborator Sam’s childhood home, knocking on all the doors of their youth and exploring the complex political and religious web that covers the city. They grew up in opposite corners of Jerusalem and their “same but different” upbringing is a fascinating story.

Most recipes have some potted history alongside it, and the recipes themselves are of course outstanding. Packed with bold flavours and its sings of people making the most of what little they have. In many cuisines crowd-pleasing dinners have peasant roots; warming, familiar, generous. These qualities abound throughout the book.

Perfect for: adventurous types with a love of aubergines!

Standout recipe: Aubergines with lamb and pine nuts

2. Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals – Jamie Oliver

Some may well groan at this inclusion – I imagine like 30 Min Meals it has set some sort of sales record – and the same tired old moans about adhering strictly to 15 minutes as an absolute time limit will surface no doubt.

But I cannot ignore this book. Like its almost slothful predecessor it had genuinely changed the way I prepare the evening meal, freeing me of the usual rules and conventions encouraging me to think in more adventurous ways. Deconstructing a chilli con carne, not in the modern British way so loved by Masterchef finalists, but in a sensible way to separate all the elements you love about it and bring together at the end is simply brilliant. This approach echoes throughout the book, touching on loads of great world cuisines along the way.

There is a reliance on kitchen gadgetry but none of it is gratuitous. It is sensible and well-judged. I defy anyone not to take at least one of these great recipes into their weekly repertoire.

Perfect for: people looking to do more in less time.

Standout recipe: 15 minute chilli con carne meatballs

1. Everybody Everyday – Alex Mackay

This came out of nowhere. I was a little familiar with Kiwi chef Alex Mackay so had almost no expectations for this book. I knew it was going to be great when I’d got about half way through my first flick-through and had to stop putting post-it notes against the ones I wanted to make, because ten is too big a for a to-cook list.

The premise is simple: take one ‘mother’ recipe, then spin it into five proper meals. But not in a prissy, cheffy way. Each one is approachable, and broken down to a very low level. Every description has steps in there for how children and babies can have the same food (for all his professional training with Raymond Blanc and Delia Smith, Alex runs many cookery classes for children, and it shows). Do you know the best thing about the recipes? They are all for two people. This is the number I cook for most often, so it’s so appealing to have recipes easily multiplied up.

But that’s all technical details, what about the food? It’s all just excellent, home-style food with influences from every continent. There are stir-fries, roasts, pizzas and many more. I’ve learned so many things from this book that I’ve stuck straight into my everyday repertoire – like how to cook a potato pancake perfectly every time, I must’ve made nine times this year. Or how to make an unctuous and delicious sauce like I’ve always dreamed of.

It is a book that reads very well, and eats even better. It’s smart cookery, by spending a lot of time on the base recipe you can have five very different meals with it, all of which are great. This is a truly good cookery book – add it to your shelf now.

Perfect for: everybody, everyday. Cheesy but true.

Standout recipe: Burger with red onion and red wine sauce

Such great books to choose from this year. What was your standout cookbook this year?

Categories
cheese food leftovers olives potatoes veal

veal potato pancake

Got veal leftovers? I do. This is a great potato pancake recipe that works with any cold meat, or even without!

I’ve tried making rosti before and never achieved decent results: soggy, or tasteless, or not quite cooked enough but this recipe from Alex Mackay is the business. I’ve cooked it twice now and it’s pleasingly consistent. It’s another recipe from Everybody Everyday. His version is with roast chicken but the excellent veal (from Farmer’s Choice) tastes just fine.

Veal potato pancake (serves 2):

700g floury potatoes

150g cooked veal, diced

8 sundried tomatoes, sliced

50g mozzarella, diced

20g cheddar, grated

2 spring onions, sliced

14 black olives, diced

40g butter

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Peel the potatoes and grate them into a tea towel. Gather up the tea towel and squeeze as much liquid as you can out of them. Season the potato really well.
  2. Get a frying pan super-hot and add a little oil. Add half the potato into the pan and pack down with a fish slice. Combine the veal tomatoes, cheeses, onions and olives in a bowl and season. Layer this mixture on top of the potato, then add the remaining potato on top. Press it down and dot half the butter around the edge of the pancake. Fry for a couple of minutes until golden.
  3. Using a plate flip the pancake over and slide the raw side back into the pan. Add the remaining butter around the edges and transfer to the over. Bake for 15 minutes or until the potato is cooked through. Serve with a fried egg and gravy.
Categories
cream food

tartiflette

What do you cook on one of the hottest days of the year? Why, food designed for high-carb high-energy skiiing of course. Such is the life of weekly meal planning; what seems fine on a rainy Tuesday feels bonkers on a melting Thursday. But there it is.

Seasonality aside, this was inspired by Alex Mackay’s version from his book Everybody, Everyday. It’s taken me nearly a month to read the whole thing, despite cooking about 10 things from it so far. I keep stopping, dash off to cook the gorgeous recipe on that page, then come back to the book later. It’s looking like a dead cert for my cookbook of 2012 unless something amazing pops up in the second half of the year.

As for the tartiflette itself? Comforting yumminess. I’ve deviated from Alex’s recipe slightly to skip one of the simmering stages but I think we end up in a similar place. There’s also call for pre-prepared sticky onions which I didn’t have time for so improvised. If I had one criticism it is that the Camembert left a slightly bitter edge, perhaps something creamier would be nice next time. But a great dish which I will enjoy bringing out when it snows. Probably during the Olympics.

Tartiflette (serves 4 with a green salad):

1½ onions, peeled and sliced

600g waxy potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

4 rashers of bacon, diced

150ml chicken stock

200ml whipping cream

125g Camembert

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Heat a little oil in a wide frying pan and add the onions along with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar. Cover with a lid and fry for about 10 minutes until softening. Stir if required to stop them sticking.
  2. While the onions cook bring the stock and cream combined in a saucepan to a simmer and add the potatoes. While it warms taste for seasoning and add salt, pepper and nutmeg as required.
  3. Back at the onions, take the lid off and turn the heat up. Continue to cook for another 10 minutes until brown and sticky, adding a splash more oil if everything is getting stuck. When cooked remove to one side and use the same pan to fry the bacon until crisp.
  4. When the potatoes are just starting to turn tender, turn off the heat and transfer half the potatoes to a baking dish. Add the bacon and onions as a layer, then top with the remaining potatoes and cream mix. Break up the Camembert and dot over the surface, then bake the lot for 20-30 minutes until the top is golden and potatoes cooked through.
Categories
bread chicken food lettuce peas

roast chicken with petits pois a la francais

Sometimes, when you’re cooking dinner you just know it’s going to be good, you can feel it. This was one of those times.

It was an excuse to eat peas, this one: the peas are a recipe from attending Waitrose Cookery School recently (more on that in a future post). I know it’s a classical French recipe but this is just so damn tasty. This from someone who isn’t that bothered about peas. Seriously, they’re amazing. Try this on their own. I would of course usually roast a chicken in my favourite Heston way, but on this occasion I was caught short and had to cook the chicken on the quick and roasted it in the traditional way. It was fine, but I do miss the succulence afforded by lovely brined meat. All that aside, this combination of chicken and braised peas is just brill. The gravy is inspired by a method described in Alex Mackay’s new book Everybody, Everyday.

By the way, note only the breasts were required for this recipe. I used the other parts of chicken for meals elsewhere in the week.

Roast chicken with petits pois a la français (serves 4):

For the chicken:

1.7kg chicken

1 onions, quartered

1 head of garlic, halved horizontally

For the peas:

25g butter

1 onion, peeled and finely diced

4 rashers bacon, sliced

1 sprig of rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped

250g petits pois

2 little gem lettuces, shredded

A large handful of parsley, finely chopped

For the gravy:

600ml chicken stock

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon cornflour

Sourdough bread, to serve

  1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
  2. Free the chicken from its trussing, put it in a roasting tray, slather it in olive oil and season well. Pop a quarter of the onion and half the garlic in the cavity, and scatter the remaining alliums around the chicken. Pop in the oven for 1 hour to 1hr 30mins, until a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the breast reads 70°C+. Allow to rest, covered, for at least 15 mins before carving (only the breasts are required for this recipe).
  3. When the chicken has been in for about 30 mins, melt the butter in a large saucepan and gently fry the onion for a couple of minutes until softened. Add the bacon and rosemary and cook for a couple more minutes, then add the peas and lettuce. Cover and allow to raise for 30 mins, stirring occasionally. When the peas are tender check for seasoning and add the parsley.
  4. For the gravy, boil the stock and soy together until reduced by a quarter. Mix the cornflour with a splash of water and whisk this in. When the chicken has been removed from the oven add the juices from the pan to the gravy. Serve everything together with sourdough bread to soak up the gravy.
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