Spooning with Rosie

To Raf – the harshest critic and the hungriest companion

Table of Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

Dedication

INTRODUCTION

DAWN CHORUS

Muesli

Pancetta & Quail’s Egg Tart

Cinnamon Toast

Creamy Scrambled Eggs with Chilli Jam

Mum’s Seedy Soda Bread

Soda Bread with Tomato & Oregano

Rupert’s New York Eggy Bread with Bacon & Maple Syrup

Omelette with Potatoes, Peperoncino, Tomatoes & Cheese

Fried Bread with Sweet Chilli Sauce

Mum’s Piping Popovers

Australian Marmalade Muffins

Porridge with Golden Currants & Muscovado Sugar

Gazpacho for a Barcelona Morning

Raspberry Risen Pancakes with Clotted Cream

Colombian Scrambled Eggs with Frills

Buckwheat & Banana Pancakes with Runny Honey

The Ultimate Sausage Sandwich

Economical Oeufs en Cocotte

LOVESOME TONIGHT

Risotto Milanese with Morcilla & Rocket & Asparagus Salad

Tomato & Pont I’Evêque Proposal Tart

Garlic Fried King Prawns, Hot Spanish Squid & Balsamic Onion Tortilla

Vietnamese Salad with Steak

Pyrenean Duck with Champ

A Ceviche Fish-off with Corona & Guacamole & Tomato Salsa

Frozen Berries & Grapes

Sweet Pastry Swirls

Affogato

Lemon Tart

Bunty’s Brandy & Oranges

FEASTING FIESTAS

Esme’s Hot Wings, Daddy’s Jamaican Ackee & Saltfish, Fried Plantain & Coconut Coleslaw

Moroccan Honey Chicken, Pomegranate Couscous & Chickpea Purée

Lots of Houmous, Halloumi with Red Onion, Stav’s Babaghanoush, Daddy’s Meatballs & Carrot Purée

Roasted Salmon & Fennel Pâté & Puff Pastry Pie

Chicken Pieces Two Ways, Potato Gratin, Carrot & Celeriac

Hot Chips & Tips

Rice Cubes, Tofu with Mangetouts, Mango, Cucumber & Mint Salad, Sweetcorn & Carrot Fritters

Apricot-stuffed Belly of Pork, Spring Cabbage with Caraway Seeds, Spinach in White Sauce

Indian Stuffed Squid, Jeera Rice, Turmeric Cabbage

Ice Cream with Chocolate & Honey Sauce

Yoghurt, Saffron & Cinnamon Sorbet

Carrageen with Nutmeg, Cream & Maple Syrup

Poached Pumpkin with Crème Fraîche

Barbara Fitzgerald’s Clafoutis

Marmalade Queen of Puddings

Rice Pudding, Indian-style

Sweet Little Coconut Cakes

JAMMING SUPPERS

Pulpo on Toast

Sardine Pâté on Baguette

Smoked Mackerel Pâté on Toast

Baguette with Boquerones

Pan con Tomate

Fontal & Grated Braeburn on Toast

Bruschetta with Cucumber, Basil & Chilli

Bruschetta with Spinach & Sultanas

Crispy Chicken Pieces, Polenta & Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Squid Ink Spaghetti with Prawns, Chilli & Bacon & Roasted Fennel Salad

Fillet of Pork with Mustard & Honey Sauce, Lemon Smashed New Potatoes

A Little Roasted Chicken with Lemons & Penne, Tzatziki-style

Smoked Mackerel & Chard Bake with a Crunchy Top

Smoked Haddock & Watercress Risotto with Griddled Courgettes

Moules Marinière with Spaghettini

Pumpkin & Gorgonzola Lasagne

Herby Homemade Pasta Sheets with a Perfect Yellow Tomato Salad

Homely Saffron Chicken

Pearl Barley Risotto with Tomato & Ricotta

My Lasagne, with Chestnut, Pancetta & Cabbage

Super Easy Mushroom & Chicken Korma with Raita

Coconut & Cardamom Custard

Biddy’s Microwave Steamed Pudding

Dark Chocolate & Raspberry Cups

Sweet Yellow Lentil Dhal

Baked Amaretti & Goat’s Cheesecake

Really Easy Brandy & Almond Tiramisù

Golden Brown Tarte Tatin

Mallika’s Baked Yoghurts Two Ways

SOULFUL GRUB

Stav B’s Pumpkin & Red Lentil Soup

Raf’s Lettuce Soup

Gascon Soup made with Wild Mushrooms, Tomatoes & Sherry Vinegar

Onion & Butter Bean Soup

Courgette, Chickpea & Mint Soup

Spiced Carrot Soup

Beetroot & Pear Soup

Warming Orecchiette with Sausage & Sage

Raf Daddy’s Groundnut Curry

Polenta & Vegetable Bake for Dani

Ebi Chilli Men for Tom & Olly

Doctor Helen’s Signature Butternut Squash Pasta with Chilli Flakes & Chorizo

Korean Beef Salad

Broccoli & Cauliflower Cheese

Simplest Red Spaghetti with Thyme, Straight From Urbisaglia

Alice’s Cottage Pie

Sweet Laksa with Udon Noodles

Cabbage & Sausage Hotpot

Penne with Creamy Tomato & Tuna

Lamb & Aubergine Pilaf

Tuscan Bean Stew with Riso Pasta

BALMY BITES

Pea & Mint Dip

Aubergine & Salami Stacks

Pat’s Green Beans with Goat’s Cheese

White Alubias with Anchovies & Herbs

Sonar Lentil Salad

Herby Spare Ribs, Porchetta-style

Moroccan Salsa

Dom’s Marital Potato Salad

Mum’s Lemon Garden Vegetables

Summer of Love Salad

Nutty Brown Rice & Bean Salad

Mr Dan’s Bulgar Wheat Salad

Radicchio & Pancetta Salad

Gillie’s Chicory & Orange Salad with Two Different Dressings

Rosemary-roasted Sweet Potatoes

Fruit Brûlée

Apple Purée with Syllabub

Orange Blossom Custards

Semolina & Syrup Cakes

Far Out Eton Mess

Rhubarb & Whiskey Fool

Essentials

COFFEE, TEA OR ME?

Drop Scones, Mum’s Way

Yoghurt Cake

Simplest Orange & Almond Cake

Edna’s Chocolate & Hazelnut Cookies

Classic Cricket Tea: Victoria Sponge with Strawberries & Cream

My Spiced Apple Cake with Buckwheat

Orange Shortbread

Baby Banana Cakes

Doctor Helen’s Mascarpone Mojito Cheesecake

Honey Flapjacks

My Favourite Places to Eat, Drink & Shop

Index

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Copyright

About the Publisher

INTRODUCTION

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

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.

Pancetta & Quail’s Egg Tart

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 11/2 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

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

100g golden caster sugar

35g ground cinnamon brown bread for toasting

Leave the butter out for a few hours at room temperature, to soften in a large mixing bowl. Then gradually cream in the sugar and cinnamon with a sturdy fork until it is a homogeneous paste. Alternatively, you can whiz it all up by using the pulse mode of a blender, if you have one. Decant the butter into a small pudding basin, toast your toast, and lather on the sweet, flavoured butter.

Creamy Scrambled Eggs with Chilli Jam

For 2

This comes originally from the little deli I first worked in, in Rotherhithe. It was set right by the Thames, and was a dream world of fun with fellow delistress Lulu, fantastic evenings of cooking and dancing. She taught me how to woo in an apron. These creamy eggs were a best-seller there, and are in my shop too. It’s so cherished that on a Saturday morning it’s pretty much all we make. The chilli jam surprises everyone, as the sweet spiciness works just right with the velvety eggs. I use Tracklements, but if pushed, sweet chilli sauce would do. It’s the ultimate hangover cure according to my oldest girlfriend, Doctor Helen, combined with a feisty Fentiman’s ginger beer, a macchiato, and a sparkling water, all consumed in unison by those in the know. Sometimes I make it mid-afternoon for a snack too.

6 medium free-range eggs

200ml single cream a generous pinch of Maldon sea salt

1 ciabatta loaf butter for the ciabatta

4 fine slices of prosciutto

2 tablespoons chilli jam freshly ground black pepper

Crack the eggs into a microwaveable bowl. Lightly beat them with the cream and salt, so that there are still some defined yellow and white bits. Slice the ciabatta and place under a low grill, dough side up, in order to crisp up and lightly brown. Place the eggs in the microwave for 1 minute. With a fork, scrape around the edges of the bowl and break up any firmer bits. Return it to the microwave for another minute and repeat the process. It may need a further 20 seconds. Be careful not to overcook the eggs. They should be creamy and delicious and lightly risen, which, remarkably, the microwave is perfect for. They continue cooking once they are removed from the bowl, so if in doubt, do slightly undercook them.

If you do not own or prefer not to use a microwave, making them old-school style is great too. For this, melt a little extra butter in a medium pan. Beat together the eggs, cream and salt while the butter is slowly warming. Add this to the pan, and continually stir with a flat-ended wooden spoon to keep pulling up the cooked layers of egg that are created at the bottom of the pan. When the eggs are still pretty liquid but forming enticing sunny lumps, remove from the heat to sit for a few minutes. Just as with the microwave method, the eggs will continue cooking even when removed from the heat. And so, by removing them early, this is how to get them perfectly creamy and not overdone.

Once removed from the grill, lather the ciabatta with butter, arrange on two plates with the prosciutto and chilli jam, and divide the eggs between the plates. Scrunch over a hefty dose of ground black pepper for seriously perfect eggs.

Mum’s Seedy Soda Bread

Makes 2 loaves

Soda bread is a wonderful cheat’s bread. It makes for an encouraging initiation into the world of baking, so get cracking. My mother skilfully leavened abundant firm loaves practically daily, decorated with beautiful wheatears and laden with seeds. But for me, it felt like a whole other level of kitchen excellence, slightly out of my reach. By its very nature, soda bread does not require all the leavening and kneading of a normal yeast loaf, so don’t be shy. And once you can see the texture that it needs to be, sloppy but nutty, like a moist porridge, you can be free to throw in whatever you want: poppy seeds, dried herbs, sesame seeds, olives, pumpkin seeds. And you can substitute the sugar here with good honey, for a deeper flavour. Making two loaves, you can put one in the freezer for a rainy day, but if you just want to bake one loaf, divide the quantities below in half.

Of course there’s something deeply impressive about baking your own bread, so I frequently find myself making Mum’s soda bread when I’ve got people over for dinner. It’s so easy: make the bread first (as soon as you get in the door), and while it’s in the oven you’ll have time to prepare some other knick-knacks for dinner. It’s particularly delicious with my favourite salmon and fennel pâté (see page 95) and a crunchy salad. And incidentally, it’s slightly lower in gluten due to the spelt flour.

a small knob of butter

200g wholemeal flour, plus a little more for dusting the bread tins

300g spelt flour

4 tablespoons bran

2 tablespoons wheat germ

2 heaped teaspoons baking powder

Maldon sea salt

1 tablespoon muscovado sugar

4 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 tablespoon caraway seeds

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

100g linseeds

565ml semi-skimmed milk (milk on the turn is even better)

Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Butter two traditional 900g bread tins (about 19 × 11cm) and then lightly flour each one, banging it around so that the base and sides are lightly dusted. Set these aside. Measure out the flours, bran, wheat germ, baking powder, salt, sugar and seeds into a big mixing bowl. With a fork toss around to evenly distribute the flours and seeds. Then measure out the milk and gradually mix it in with the fork. It should look sloppy, so don’t worry if it doesn’t look how you imagine bread dough to be. The reason it is so wet is so that it makes for a really deep flavour, once everything has been dehydrated by the baking process.