Recipes

Rachel’s recipe, as taken down by Rina.

You can use this for practically anything - as a dip for samosas, to drizzle on roasted vegetables, to use in pitta bread with falafal and tahini, or a fried chicken sandwich. It is something you can keep in your fridge for a few days, especially if you scale it up, though it's usually scoffed the minute you make it.

From Rina: these are very easy, but tasty, for those nights when you have very little in but want to cook a proper meal

Adapted by Anna from Jamie Oliver’s The Return of the Native Chef. The great thing about this recipe is that you don’t have to poach the fish first, which also makes it much less dry than other versions.

Works well with any firm white fish, also frozen - Rachel used to do this in Manchester, far from the coast so not good for fresh fish

Aubergines fried plain in olive oil are always delicious. Sol likes them particularly in a sandwich with thin slices of hard sheep’s cheese, preferably Basque (Idiazabal or Roncal) from the cheese stall in the little Azoka market in Gros. Serve with a tomato salad (with onions if you like, and maybe some avocado), nicely dressed (perhaps with a za'atar, olive oil and lemon dressing)

This was always Anna’s favourite – she remembers happy lunches with Mark eating bowlful after bowlful. The quantities and vegetables can be varied, according to what you have that needs eating up. Grandma used to make lentil soup first, and then use the last bowlful as the base for the vegetable soup, but Anna tends to just add dried lentils to the base of this soup, as specified below. Grandma also used to add a couple of handfuls of baby soup pasta – bowties or shells – always popular.

Alice’s version of Grandma (Rachel’s) recipe. Alice says: this was one of the first recipes I ever learnt when I first learnt to cook, and Freddie and Lily very kindly dubbed them ‘watery beans’.

Rina’s version of Rachel’s recipe

From William: Rebecca’s mother’s McGuire family recipe.