Cake House

Start with the oven at 150C. Once hot put in the cherry tomatoes. Then peel and boil the potatoes for the mash and then prepare the North African chemoula. Dry the cod with kitchen paper, put them in a plastic bag with some flour, shake and take them out. They only need to b lightly dusted. Finish the mash with lots of butter and olive oil. Fry the cod in about 5 mins in a lightly oiled pan. Serve as shown. Chermoula: there are many recipes, but we prefer the one that Amanda Ursell published in the Times. Roast 1 table spoon of sesame seeds, 2 tea spoons of cumin seeds and 2 tea spoons of fennel seeds in a dry pan. Grind them in a pestle. Mix them with a bunch of fresh parsley and a bunch of fresh coriander, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 teaspoons of paprika powder, some orange zest and enough olive oil to make a thickish dressing with the blender.

With 'homemade' we mean that this is not store-bought lasagna (that has lots of carrots and is quite sweet). Yes, we did go to the store and bought 3 red paprikas,  140 gr grated Comté cheese,  a 125 gr package of mixed grated Italian cheeses (Provolone piccante, Mozzarella, Pecorino and Formaggio Stagionato),  2 (400gr) pots of Barilla Bolognaise sauce,  2 packets of chilled ready made Béchamel sauce (66 cl in total) and  2 packets of 'fresh' (i.e not the dried variety) lasagna sheets and  a 400 gr tin of peeled tomatoes.  On our way back we stopped at the market where an English butcher sells excellent chili hamburgers . They release hardly any fat and we used 6 of them instead of minced meat (750 gr ). Back home we halved the paprikas, removed the stems and seeds and grilled them under the grill till blackened. We pre-heated the oven at 200C and started slicing 4 onions , that were softened on a low heat. Then we added the contents of the 2 pots of...

To accompany 2 leftover chicken legs we made Ottolenghi's sauce : 1 tbsp sunflower oil Salt and freshly ground black pepper 15g unsalted butter 1 large onion, peeled and finely diced Some thyme sprigs from the garden 200g mushrooms, halved 1 tsp paprikapowder 200ml chicken stock from our freezer 2 tsp wholegrain mustard 80g double cream 8 small gherkins, cut in half lengthways Some parsley leaves, roughly chopped Some tarragon leaves, roughly chopped (in the garden they were frozen, so we used dry ones from a pot) Put the oil in  a large sauté pan on medium heat. Add the butter, onion and thyme, and saute for five minutes, until softened. Add the mushrooms, cook for eight minutes, until they take on a little colour, then add the paprika, half a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper. Stir, cook for a minute, then add the stock and mustard. Cook for five or so minutes, to thicken the sauce, stir through the cream and cook, uncovered, for 10 minutes more; if the sauce needs furt...

Buy lobster. Fill pan with 4 liter water, half a bottle of white wine and 1 liter chicken stock, add 2 onions (halved), thyme, rosemary, 1 diced leek, 2 laurel leaves, 2 crushed garlic cloves. salt and pepper. Bring to the boil. Put in the lobster, head first. Boiling time: 1 min per 100 grams. Cut in half. Serve with mayo... Don't forget to use the leftovers to make a delicious lobster stock!