Welcome to this is not a cook book!
What the bloody hell happened yesterday? 5 emails! Off to a smooth start… I blame Substack, not my podgy fingers!
Before I begin the newsletter, let me explain how this is going to work (to start with, anyway). We will publish four newsletters monthly on Saturdays.
For paid subscribers, you will have our general newsletter, lessons with Mart, podcast notes, and, more importantly, access to the full recipe content, which is bloody good.
For our free subscribers, you will receive our general newsletter, Lessons with Mart, and podcast notes, in which I will give you an overview of links and recipe notes from the pod. Once a month, I will show you the recipe content just to tempt you in.
What this will look like;
1 - What’s been going on - my weekly ramblings.
2 - Lessons with Mart - Boiled eggs
3 - Recipe - Tuna Nicoise (paid only, free once a month)
4 - Stuffed Podcast - Episode 1
As this is the first newsletter, I thought I should explain the title and how I got to this idea because it will help explain what I'm trying to achieve with this platform.
‘This is not a cookbook’ is a nod to my very short stint on Jamie Oliver’s cookbook show, where contestants got to pitch their cookbook ideas! Truth is I never wanted to do a cookbook, which I fully admitted on the show. As you can imagine, the judges had some confused reactions.
So many cookbooks are out there, churned out to sit on your shelves and gather dust. Generally, they are in the same classic format, with 70 pages of recipes that people have already done a million times and updated with different titles and pictures. We can all make a Victoria sponge, thanks to Mary Berry, and I know how to make a banging seafood spaghetti, thanks to Jamie Oliver! We DON'T NEED ANY MORE COOKBOOKS!
What we bloody need is ideas and solutions…
So I pitched “this is not a cookbook book”, a book full of ideas, lessons and principles for the kitchen to unlock anyone in their kitchen. It would also contain very loose recipes for people to take inspiration from but put their own spin on to make it work for them!
I got some great feedback from the show, but I quickly learned that the idea “wasn’t commercial enough,” and I was cool with that. Ultimately, you can't bottle ideas; you need a space for them to breathe. I don’t want to just give you a recipe; I want to show you how to rip it apart, understand it, and rebuild it.
A recipe is a great starting point, but if you don’t know what is going on in the recipe, it will just be a recipe, and that’s cool. But if you love your kitchen like I do, you probably want more than those few words on a page. You want ideas…..
My main driver is to teach you how to cook so you don’t waste food. It is a huge problem but a very fucking easy fix - EAT THE FOOD YOU BUY.
Anything you bring into your home is your responsibility; there is no secret shopping gnome filling your fridge. It’s you! So before you go shopping, can you slide that rogue broccoli into a pasta dish you are making instead of going out to buy some spinach?! More than bloody likely.
So, to kick things off in the winter, we will be coming in hot with a salad!!!!!
Yep, that’s right. It's a bloody salad! If you have followed me on any of my socials, you will know that I am not your typical let’s cook in-season produce kind of chef! I want you to eat what you want to eat when you want to eat; we live in a world where we can get hold of whatever we want when we want. Will it be perfect? NOPE, do I care? NOPE, can we still make something delicious absobloodylutly?
Each week, you will watch a video that teaches you something, which will be used in the recipe content. Learn something and apply it.
So, without further ado, take 5 minutes out of your day to watch this tutorial on Boiling an egg haha. I know it's exciting, huh, but stick with me. It will make sense.
Video notes:
For those of you who didn’t watch the video and want a few key takeaways
Residual cooking, or carry-over cooking, is an important part of cooking. Food doesn't stop cooking as soon as it is removed from the heat source. When you cook steaks, you remove them at a certain temperature, so carry-over cooking is considered.
Blanch and refresh. I will bang on about - cooking something in boiling water and then dunking it into ice-cold water.
These are medium eggs that have not been in the fridge!
I like to cook my boiled eggs in boiling water to ensure that I can control and be specific about the timings.
All timings for a medium egg, and I repeat, have not been in the fridge.
3 ½ minutes will give you a perfect dippy egg
6 - 6 ½ minutes will give you a soft-boiled egg if refreshed in ice-cold water immediately.
8-9 minutes will give you a hard-boiled egg
When cool to touch, crack a little, pop back into cold water, and leave for 1-2 minutes to help peel the eggs more easily.
Start to peel with your hands in a bowl or sink of water.
This classic salad is steeped in history. Some have even said it has the best combination of ingredients (Wikipedia said it). It is an epic salad that can be torn apart and built up differently.
Serves: 2 or 1 greedy soul
Time: Not too long
Ingredients
1 tin on Tuna
Handful of cherry toms
Handful of Green beans
6-8 New Potatoes
1 tbsp Capers
8 Olives
Crunchy salad
3 Eggs
Olive oil
Apple Cider Vinegar
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
Method
1 - Chuck your potatoes into a pan of salted water and bring to a boil; after about 8 minutes, carefully drop your eggs into the same pan and set the timer for 6 ½ minutes.
2 - When the timer goes off, drop the eggs into ice-cold water. Then drop your green beans into the pan and cook for 1 minute.
3 - Beans can go into the same ice water as the eggs, and the potatoes can now be drained; they should be beautiful and tender.
4 - Now it's time for a dressing - simply do a 3:1 ratio of Oil to vinegar, so it could be 3 tbsp or 3 litres, you choose. Whisk this together with and add Dijon to taste, season with salt and pepper and give it a taste. It should be tart with a hint of bitterness.
5 - I don’t really like raw red onion because it can all feel a little harsh and intense, so a great way to take a bit of that harshness out is to soak the sliced onions in cold water for 20-30 mins.
6 - It’s now up to you to construct the dish, slice the spuds, cut the eggs in half, destone the olives, and roughly chop the capers. The world is your oyster.
7 - Mix everything together in a bowl; don't be heavy-handed; otherwise, you will bust up the tuna and spuds. Load a plate with crunchy salad and top with your tuna nicoise.
Notes/takeaways
When making this fresh, I love the mix of warm potato and egg mixed with the cold snaps of the beans and tomatoes!
Practice your timings when cooking; use one pan for everything you do if possible; if you are worried about chicken poo, give your eggs a wash.
Remember residual cooking temps really play a huge role in delivering food in an appetising way.
Onions in cold water is a great technique for removing that harshness
Don’t forget to take the stones out of the olives. I just bust mine up, but if you want to keep them whole, shove a chop through the middle.
Different-sized eggs will cook at different times, so make sure you follow the steps. If using a medium egg, add 30-60 seconds for a large egg.
Salad - pick something with a crunchy texture
The dressing is a classic dressing - you can mash some anchovies it, garlic, lemon zest, and whole grain mustard it’s up to you.
Chef notes
One thing I will do with every dish is show my work and thought process, look at how you can bunch together ingredients, and think about their roll in the dish.
I like to look at dishes and see how far you can pull them apart. Yes, they will be a long way from the starting point, but who cares? This is what cooking is all about.
Tomatoes: What has a similar property to it? Beetroot? Baked Aubergine?
No green beans? Mane tout, sugar snaps, fresh peas..
Capers? What are they doing? They're salty goodness. What else is salty and briney that you can pop in? More olives, something pickled? If you're not a fan of their flavour, try frying them until nice and crispy; it really mutes the flavour.
Tuna: Swap out this for any protein. Maybe something smoked like a chicken or duck breast.
Potatoes: Maybe try something like a chickpea or a bigger bean like a butter bean.
Salad: It provides crunch, freshness, and bulk, so use whatever you fancy.
Podcast Notes..
Every week, I do a podcast with the marvellous George Egg, and I just wanted to share some links or notes on what we spoke about.
George Egg, the snack hacker - Follow here
Butternut squash, olive oil, salt and pepper, cumin, coriander, cinnamon stick
The idea of balancing sweet with fatty and salty notes from gorgonzola and prosciutto (salty ham)
Toasted squash seeds with soy sauce, sugar, sumac
Thoughts on changing the gorgonzola for something less pungent, maybe parmesan or pecorino.
Take all the elements and make a ravioli filling, spiced butternut squash with crispy prosciutto.
Croquette filling with bechamel.
How to make a gravy: cheating red wine jus - link here
Gadget of the week - link here