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Polenta & Vegetable Bake for Dani (#litres_trial_promo)
Ebi Chilli Men for Tom & Olly (#litres_trial_promo)
Doctor Helen’s Signature Butternut Squash Pasta with Chilli Flakes & Chorizo (#litres_trial_promo)
Korean Beef Salad (#litres_trial_promo)
Broccoli & Cauliflower Cheese (#litres_trial_promo)
Simplest Red Spaghetti with Thyme, Straight From Urbisaglia (#litres_trial_promo)
Alice’s Cottage Pie (#litres_trial_promo)
Sweet Laksa with Udon Noodles (#litres_trial_promo)
Cabbage & Sausage Hotpot (#litres_trial_promo)
Penne with Creamy Tomato & Tuna (#litres_trial_promo)
Lamb & Aubergine Pilaf (#litres_trial_promo)
Tuscan Bean Stew with Riso Pasta (#litres_trial_promo)
BALMY BITES (#litres_trial_promo)
Pea & Mint Dip (#litres_trial_promo)
Aubergine & Salami Stacks (#litres_trial_promo)
Pat’s Green Beans with Goat’s Cheese (#litres_trial_promo)
White Alubias with Anchovies & Herbs (#litres_trial_promo)
Sonar Lentil Salad (#litres_trial_promo)
Herby Spare Ribs, Porchetta-style (#litres_trial_promo)
Moroccan Salsa (#litres_trial_promo)
Dom’s Marital Potato Salad (#litres_trial_promo)
Mum’s Lemon Garden Vegetables (#litres_trial_promo)
Summer of Love Salad (#litres_trial_promo)
Nutty Brown Rice & Bean Salad (#litres_trial_promo)
Mr Dan’s Bulgar Wheat Salad (#litres_trial_promo)
Radicchio & Pancetta Salad (#litres_trial_promo)
Gillie’s Chicory & Orange Salad with Two Different Dressings (#litres_trial_promo)
Rosemary-roasted Sweet Potatoes (#litres_trial_promo)
Fruit Brûlée (#litres_trial_promo)
Apple Purée with Syllabub (#litres_trial_promo)
Orange Blossom Custards (#litres_trial_promo)
Semolina & Syrup Cakes (#litres_trial_promo)
Far Out Eton Mess (#litres_trial_promo)
Rhubarb & Whiskey Fool (#litres_trial_promo)
Essentials (#litres_trial_promo)
COFFEE, TEA OR ME? (#litres_trial_promo)
Drop Scones, Mum’s Way (#litres_trial_promo)
Yoghurt Cake (#litres_trial_promo)
Simplest Orange & Almond Cake (#litres_trial_promo)
Edna’s Chocolate & Hazelnut Cookies (#litres_trial_promo)
Classic Cricket Tea: Victoria Sponge with Strawberries & Cream (#litres_trial_promo)
My Spiced Apple Cake with Buckwheat (#litres_trial_promo)
Orange Shortbread (#litres_trial_promo)
Baby Banana Cakes (#litres_trial_promo)
Doctor Helen’s Mascarpone Mojito Cheesecake (#litres_trial_promo)
Honey Flapjacks (#litres_trial_promo)
My Favourite Places to Eat, Drink & Shop (#litres_trial_promo)
Index (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
INTRODUCTION (#ulink_547860dc-784b-544c-9632-36c069a208ba)
Another late night in Soho at the New Evaristo Club. Now, as usual, my alarm is pounding at me, calling me to the deli. Showered and squeezed into trusty jeans, I dash out of the door of my damp 1930s flat. Round on the main road I pass Simon, one of the more amenable local down-and-outs. ‘All right, Ma’am.’ He’ll be in later for his hot chocolate with five sugars. I nip into the Portuguese deli to pick up fresh rocket for the shop, and then into the Iraqi supermarket to buy free-range eggs for the scrambling rush later. Electric Avenue is particularly alive at this time of the morning, with sex workers, red snappers, pig’s tails and pulsing beats coming from every crevice. The fishmongers holler at me and, laden with my shopping, I nod my good-mornings to market traders and road sweeps.
Arriving at the deli, I fling the door wide open, turn the fans on and get The View playing, to beat out my tired head. Pastry out of the fridge for rolling, cakes onto the stands, tables and chairs outside, oven on, flick lights. The daily cheese and bread deliveries arrive – Sardinian Pecorino, Taleggio, Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire, Hereford Hop, sourdough, rye, ciabatta – just as I’m making myself a double-shot cappuccino to drink in the last bit of peace on my doorstep.
Brixtonians rush past on their way to the tube, with cheery waves. My moment is broken by the first telephone call of the morning – Alice. ‘What shall I cook for my date tonight?’ (She’s excited, so I’m thinking risotto with black pudding and ice cream drowned in espresso.) By this point I’m juggling, squeezing lemons for the daily batch of houmous with the phone wedged between my shoulder and cheek. My first early customers, the loyal Bharat and superwoman Kylie Morris, arrive, armed with newspapers and requesting their morning soya lattes.
As I steam their milk, I’m mulling over what salad to make this morning. Vietnamese carrot and peanuts, nutty brown rice with seeds, or couscous with mint and feta? And as they eat their toast with mackerel pâté, I’m wondering what will soothe my weariness tonight. Baked polenta, beans on toast or boquerones? Mum is calling. Have I got time to pick up the phone before the next customers descend? ‘Oh darling, you’ll never guess what we had for supper last night…’ Asparagus from her garden. The day is truly in swing now. I’m navigating cooking, serving breakfasts and all the usual flurry of telephone calls, Daddy’s usual herbal tea and the ordering, when I drop my ciabatta…a curly-haired boy has just ambled in…And how shall I woo you with my wares?
DAWN CHORUS (#ulink_04009b2f-9d3b-565c-9376-d4fdeff86abe)
Foods for the first wave of a hangover, or just to start the day with a bang, when you need some morning loving or have a dawn appetite. These breakfast recipes hail from the deli, my travels and a frugal upbringing. Favourite morning foods. Starting the day with an egg is surely one of life’s best treats. But sometimes we crave something more wholesome, to kick-start the morning and give sustained energy, like porridge or muesli. I often make a vat of muesli, which keeps me going for a few months and is a good economy drive when I’m a bit stumped for cash.
It all rather depends on who you’re with and how you’re feeling, and what’s actually in the fridge: hangovers usually demand fried foods like Rupert’s eggy bread, but friends for breakfast could prompt some steaming sweet muffins. My mum says breakfast is the best meal of the day, which it certainly is at her big oak table, with her homemade yoghurt, popovers, marmalade and bread and fragrant coffees.
Each country has its own take on breakfast too, often revolving around the glorious egg. I never tire of the magical egg. Egg-fried noodles on the Khao San Road in Bangkok, eggs Benedict in London, oeufs en cocotte in France. An omelette is one of my favourite ways to use up leftover vegetables.
Some of the recipes, however, like soda bread and muesli, require some pre-planning to stand you in good economical stead during the week. Other breakfast recipes will be more for that weekend drawn-out brunch affair, like the ultimate sausage sandwich along with a big cafetière. Many of these recipes are just as good for a last-minute supper or a lovers’ midnight feast. And of course the bread (on page 12) is fantastic as an addition to every meal of the day.
Muesli (#ulink_800856e7-22e9-51b3-9bfe-2f54cf39ea10)
Makes about enough for 30 breakfast sittings
Muesli is such a great breakfast hero. You will start the day with health and happiness. It’s wholesome, and I like it with lots of wheat flakes. My mum used to add cream to every cereal we ate, but I’m managing to restrain myself here, in favour of cutting up crunchy apple and sweet banana and spooning tart yoghurt on top. If you make a vat of this, you can keep it jarred up in the cupboard and it works out so much cheaper than buying packets of the stuff. And it can last up to six months – well, that’s if you still have any left after that long.
You will need a really serious piece of Tupperware to store this.
250g coconut flakes
3 tablespoons golden caster sugar
1kg jumbo oats
700g golden currants
1kg wheat flakes
First of all heat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Lay out the coconut flakes on a large baking tray and scatter over the caster sugar. Place in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the flakes are toasty and golden – keep checking them, as they are easily burnt. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, measure out the oats, currants and wheat flakes and pour into your big container. Give them a thorough mix around. This is best done by sealing the container and jiggling it around, like a barman with a cocktail shaker. When the coconut is cool, add it to the muesli and give it another good shake to distribute.
For 1 Bulky Breakfast Sitting
1 cup of your homemade muesli
1 small Braeburn apple
1 banana
1 tablespoon natural yoghurt
1 dessertspoon runny honey
2 tablespoons full-fat milk
Measure out the muesli into a bowl. Core the apple and slice it into 8 pieces, which you then again cut into little bits over the muesli. Then slice over the banana and pile on the yoghurt, honey and milk. I eat this in bed, with mint tea.
Pancetta & Quail’s Egg Tart (#ulink_fc231bb4-04d8-584e-bca8-60c543f9decc)
Makes 6 squares
I think I snitched this from a magazine, because it looks so beautiful and clever and is actually very simple to make on a Saturday morning in the deli. There are two ways my trusty customers devour this: either they grab a slice on the run, as if from a pizza stand, or they eat a square with a spinach and olive salad, more as a brunch. It’s a versatile tart. I’ve also made it for a light supper, along with a good Sunday night film, because it’s easy-peasy.
The quail’s eggs are just so lovable for their dinkiness. Being made of pancetta and these mini eggs means that the tart needs a little preplanning. Chinese supermarkets sell quail’s eggs, as do good butchers and niche delis. Smoked pancetta is also sold at good delis, preserved along with herbs and peppercorns. So it’s the kind of thing to cook if you know in advance that you are having a sleepover or want to impress a guest. Slice it into squares, if you are all on the run first thing, as I do in the deli. Regarding the puff pastry, I prefer the ready-rolled kind, but the thicker slabs are more widely available. It depends what you can get your hands on.
250g puff pastry (defrosting bought ready-rolled puff pastry will take 1
/
hours)
some plain flour for rolling
10 thin slices of smoked pancetta
6 cherry tomatoes
a little full-fat milk for glazing
6 quail’s eggs
Preheat your oven to 160°C/Gas 2. Ideally, you will have bought ready-rolled pastry. If not, roll out the pastry slab on a floured surface so that it is big enough to cover a baking tray that measures about 20 × 30cm. Spread the pastry out over the baking tray so that it comes right up to the edges. Lay the pancetta on the pastry, leaving a couple of centimetres clear all the way round which you should then incise with a sharp knife so that the pastry can rise around the pancetta to form a crust. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half and lay them on top of the pancetta, cut side up. Using your fingers (or a pastry brush if you have one), wipe a little milk around the pastry edge to help it brown. Place the tart in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the edges are puffing up around the pancetta and browning just a little. (You may need to further incise the pastry to release so that it can puff, after it’s been in the oven for 5 minutes.)
Remove the tart from the oven and carefully crack the quail’s eggs evenly over the pancetta layer (the shells have much more give than our more familiar brittle chicken shells). Return to the oven for just long enough for the eggs to solidify, which will be 4 or 5 minutes. The pancetta should now be getting crisp and dark too. It is a matter of a few minutes, though, so keep a close eye on the oven.
When the tart is ready, slice it into 6 pieces with a sharp knife. It is at its best when the yolks are still soft in the middle, and ooze out over the pancetta in your hands.
Cinnamon Toast (#ulink_33f0367d-0d01-5469-99d0-8a514da421d2)
Makes 6 slices
My brother Olly and I loved The Pooh Cook Book when we were little. The wording was great; all about ‘Smackerels, Elevenses and Teas’. I love those weird made-up words. Alice (my beautiful partner in crime) and I use ‘melge’, which really means to mix, and mush and marinade, but it’s our own more onomatopoeic version.
Mum amazingly let us make a mess and get enthusiastic about cooking even at this level. I hope I do the same with my children, as we definitely had a good time beating butter, licking bowls and watching cakes rise through tinted oven glass. This cinnamon toast is a classic. All you need to do is make a flavoured butter and lather it over what you have to hand, bagels, buns, toast, whatever. The butter keeps for ages in the fridge, so if you make a big batch, you have midnight feasts covered too.
150g unsalted butter
