Piedemontese peppers

First made popular by Elizabeth David in the Fifties, this really is, as Simon Hopkinson writes in his new book The Good Cook, 'the most delicious event ever to happen to a pepper'. 

For me, the anchovies are essential, but if you're vegetarian, or just can't stand them, then crumble over a bit of feta cheese. It won't taste the same, but it will give a similarly intense, salty contrast the fruity tomatoes and sweet, roasted peppers. The size of your tomatoes is less important here than their ripeness, and the peppers should be roasted until they crumble and begin to blacken at the edges. Be generous with the olive oil.

Serves four as a starter or two as a light lunch.

two large red peppers

one large clove of garlic

tomatoes – enough to fill each pepper

good extra virgin olive oil – about five tablespoons

four anchovies

a few leaves of basil

Set your oven to 190C. Cut each pepper in half, taking care to cut through the stalks. Cut out the seeds and membranes from inside. Meanwhile put the tomatoes in a bowl and pour over boiling water. Move them around for a minute or so until the skins crack and then drain and rinse under a cold tap. Peal the tomatoes. 

Arrange the peppers in an oven-proof dish. Slice the garlic thinly. Pour a little olive oil into each pepper half and scatter in the garlic. Add a little salt and pepper. Now arrange the tomatoes in each pepper half, cutting some in half to fill any awkward gaps and drizzle a tablespoon of olive oil over each one.

Put the dish in the oven and bake for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 180C and bake for another half an hour or so until the peppers are collapsing. About half way through cooking remove the dish and, with the back of a spoon, squash the tomatoes gently so that they fill the inside of the peppers and their juices mix with the olive oil.

Remove the dish from the oven and criss cross each pepper with two anchovy fillets, then poke a basil leaf into each gap and leave for a few minutes. 

You'll need some good crusty bread to mop up the oily, tomatoey juices.

Slow roast lamb shoulder with pommes boulangère

Roasting a shoulder of lamb in a low oven for several hours gives you really tender, tasty meat, which is also easy to carve. At 150C, the oven won’t be hot enough for proper roast potatoes, but pommes boulangère – a dish of thinly sliced potatoes baked in stock – is perfect, as it can be left to cook in a low oven for a couple of hours or more while the lamb roasts to perfection. There’s no real gravy here, but rather a few spoonfuls of French-style jus made from some wine and either stock or water. Ask your butcher for some lamb bones and trimmings to use as a trivet, which will allow the heat to circulate the lamb and add flavour to the jus; mine didn’t have any so I sat the lamb on top of a few carrots and onions instead.

The story goes that in France, a dish of pommes boulangère – baker’s potatoes – would traditionally have been taken to the local baker to cook in the residual heat of his oven (many families would not have had an oven in their home). Anchovies aren’t traditional here, but they go brilliantly with lamb and add a meaty taste to the potatoes (they won’t taste fishy at all, I promise).

Serves four, or two with enough lamb left over for shepherd’s pie (see above).

For the lamb

Lamb shoulder (about 1.5 kg)

Rosemary, a bunch

Anchovy fillets in olive oil, 6

White or red wine, a glass of whatever you’re having with the lamb

Water or stock, 500ml (you may need more as I cooks)

Garlic, 1 whole head plus two extra cloves (I used new season’s garlic)

Olive oil (not extra virgin), or another light oil

Lamb bones and trimmings (or a few large carrots and an onion).

For the Pommes Boulangère

Potatoes, deseree are good, about 150g

1 small onion

Chicken stock,

Rosemary, a few sprigs

Anchovy fillets in olive oil, 6 (optional)

Garlic, 2 fat cloves

Anchovies, 4-6

Butter, about 20g

Set your oven to 210C (for a fan oven)

Score the fat that covers one side of the shoulder with a very sharp knife (or ask your butcher to do it for you when you buy the lamb).

Make some fairly deep incisions in the lamb with the point of a sharp knife and insert a sliver of garlic and half an anchovy into each.

Strip the leaves from one of the rosemary bunches, chop them roughly and pound them with some olive oil (from the anchovies if you like) in a mortar and pestle (if you don’t have one then just chop and bruise the rosemary with a knife and mix everything to a slush in a bowl).

Rub the rosemary slush all over the lamb and season the joint with plenty of pepper.

If you’re using the lamb bones, rub them with a small amount of olive oil, place them in a roasting tin and put it in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the bones brown lightly. Meanwhile, boil the wine in a small saucepan for 30 seconds to remove any harsh flavours.

When the lamb bones are lightly browned take the roasting tin out of the oven. Split the head of garlic in half across and add both halves, cut side up, to the tin. Set the lamb in top and put everything back in the oven for 20 minutes.

Take the lamb out of the oven, and turn the heat down to 150C. Baste the lamb with any juices in the tin, and then pour in the wine and stock. Cover the lamb loosely with foil and return to the oven to roast for four hours, basting every hour or so.

While the lamb is cooking, peel and slice the potatoes (they should be about 2mm thick; it’s easy to do this in a food processor with a slicing attachment). Leave the potatoes to soak in cold water for up to an hour.

Peel the onion, cut it in half and then slice very thinly. Slice the garlic cloves.

Strip the leaves from the rosemary and chop most of them, leaving a few whole ones to sprinkle over the top. Chop the anchovies (if using) and mix them with the chopped rosemary (or pound the two together in a mortar and pestle).

Melt the butter in a small saucepan.

Scatter a layer of potatoes over the base of a baking dish and scatter a few onions, some chopped garlic and some of the anchovy-rosemary mixture on top.  

Continue in this way, seasoning each layer with pepper and drizzling with melted butter until all the potatoes are used up.

Mix the stock and milk together and pour over the potatoes (you want it to just reach the top layer).

Cover the dish with foil.

When the lamb is about half way through its cooking time, add the potatoes and cook for one and a half hours. Then take off the foil and allow to cook for a further hour uncovered.

When the lamb is cooked, remove it from the oven and spoon the clear fat from the top of the jus (there will be quite a lot). Pour the jus into a small saucepan and leave the lamb, loosely covered with foil to rest for 20 minutes. While you wait for the lamb to rest, turn the oven back up to 210 to brown the top layer of potatoes.

When everything’s ready, heat the jus, taste and season – if it’s too intensely meaty then add a little red currant jelly.

The shoulder is not the easiest cut of lamb to carve, but after slow cooking it should come easily away from to bone and there should be lots of crisp fatty bits, too.

Hot smoked salmon fish cakes with hollandaise

There are two good reasons for using hot smoked fish rather than natural unsmoked fish in this recipe. One is that the subtle flavour of unsmoked salmon can get a bit lost in fishcakes, and the other is that hot smoked fish has already been cooked during the smoking process, so using it cuts down on some of the work. Hollandaise sauce has a reputation for being difficult, but I find this method works really well. You'll need a bowl (I use a Pyrex one) that fits snugly over a saucepan and a large, flexible whisk.

Serves two

For the fish cakes:

250g hot smoked salmon or trout
about the same amount of mashed floury potatoes (with no butter or milk added)
A good handful of flat-leaf parsley
a small squirt of tomato ketchup (optional)
salt and pepper
2 eggs, beaten
plain flour
breadcrumbs (either made from a stale white loaf or use Japanese panko breadcrumbs)

For the Hollandaise:

120g butter
2 medium egg yolks
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon lemon juice

To serve

salad leaves
2 very fresh eggs for poaching (optional).

Put the mashed potatoes in a large bowl and add the salmon, discarding the skin. Finely Chop the parsley and add it to the fish and potatoes. Add the tomato ketchup, season with salt and pepper and mix well. Now shape the mixture into two large cakes about one inch thick (or four smaller cakes if you prefer). Chill the fish cakes in the fridge for half an hour to firm up if you have time.

Set your oven to 150°C

Take three shallow bowls: add flour to one, then crack two eggs into another and beat well. Add the breadcrumbs to the third.

Take each fish cake and dip it first into the flour, then the beaten egg and finally the breadcrumbs, making sure it is well coated.

Now clarify the butter for the hollandaise: melt the butter in a saucepan set over a gentle heat. Skim off any froth that has collected on the surface and pour the butter into a small jug, leaving the white sediment behind in the pan.

To cook the fish cakes, heat some vegetable oil in a large frying pan and, when hot, carefully add the fish cakes and cook for about four minutes on each side. when they are done, put them in the oven to keep warm.

Meanwhile, make the hollandaise: half fill a saucepan with water and bring it to the a gentle simmer. Separate the yolks of two eggs and put them in the Pyrex bowl, then add the vinegar and two tablespoons of warm water (from the saucepan).

Place the bowl over the pan of simmering water and beat the eggs until they thicken (they should hold a ribbon trail when the whisk is lifted). Take the pan and bowl off the heat and begin to add the clarified butter, drop by drop, whisking all the time. When the sauce is thick and all the butter has been added, squeeze in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in a warm place (near the oven).

Now poach the eggs, if using: put the saucepan back on the heat and bring the water back to a gentle simmer. Add a tablespoon of white wine vinegar to the water. Take a clean whisk and use it to create a vortex in the water by vigorously whisking around the edge of the pan. Stop whisking and immediately pour one of the eggs into the vortex. Poach for about three minutes. Remove the egg with a slotted spoon and put on a plate. Now poach the second egg in the same way, and when it's a minute from being done put the first egg back into the water to warm up.

To serve, arrange the salad around the edges of two plates and put a fish cake in the centre of each. Remove the poached eggs from the water and place one on top of each fish cake. Whisk the hollandaise sauce and, if you think it's too thick, add a spoonful of warm water and whisk again. Spoon the hollandaise on top of the poached eggs, sprinkle with more pepper and serve.

Cha bo

These Vietnamese meatballs are traditionally made with beef or veal mince, but I like to make them with a mixture of minced pork and beef. They’re full of all the flavours of Southeast Asia. To eat, wrap a single patty in a lettuce leaf along with a slice or two of cucumber, a sprinkling of crushed peanuts, a couple of mint leaves and a squeeze of lime; then dip each little parcel into nuoc cham (see below) or sweet chilli sauce.


The meatball mixture is best left to marinade overnight, but a few hours will do it if you forget.


Serves four as a starter.

For the meatballs:
minced beef and pork – 250g
kaffir lime leaves – 6
bird’s eye chillies – 3-4 with their seeds, chopped finely
nam pla or nuoc mam (Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce)
a large shallot, chopped finely
coconut milk – 2 tablespoons (optional)
curry powder – a teaspoon (I use Yeo’s Malaysian curry powder)
sugar – a teaspoon
garlic cloves – 2-3 large ones, crushed or grated
a thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated.
the juice of half a lime


To serve:
soft lettuce leaves, washed
half a cucumber, peeled and sliced
roasted (unsalted) peanuts, lightly crushed
a large bunch of mint
limes – 3, cut into wedges
nuoc cham dipping sauce
sweet chilli sauce (optional)


Combine all the ingredients for the meatballs, cover and refrigerate for a few hours, preferably overnight.


You can now test the seasoning by taking a small amount of the mixture and frying it. Taste, then balance the flavours with more fish sauce, sugar and lime juice to taste.


Now make the meatballs: with wet hands shape the mixture into balls about the size of a walnut and flatten each one gently with the palm of your hand.


Arrange all the other ingredients on a large plate or serving dish.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and, when hot, add the meatballs. Cook for about three minutes each side and then break one open to check if it’s cooked – if it’s pink inside then cook for a few minutes longer.