Jack Monroe - A Year in 120 Recipes

Jack Monroe

A YEAR IN 120 RECIPES

Photography by Susan Bell

Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, Block D, Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, Gauteng 2193, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

www.penguin.com

First published 2014

Text copyright Jack Monroe, 2014
Photographs copyright Susan Bell, 2014
Busking with Billy Bragg photograph copyright Linda Nylind, 2014

The moral right of the copyright holders has been asserted

www.agirlcalledjack.com

recipe from The Complete Ilustrated Cookery Course by Delia Smith.
Published by Ebury. Reprinted by permission of The Random House Group Limited.

Jacket photography: Susan Bell

All rights reserved

ISBN: 978-1-405-91911-1

Let the conversation begin...

Follow the Penguin Twitter.com@penguinukbooks

Keep up-to-date with all our stories YouTube.com/penguinbooks

Pin Penguin Books to your Pinterest

Like Penguin Books on Facebook.com/penguinbooks

Find out more about the author and
discover more stories like this at Penguin.co.uk

First, thank you, you great person holding a copy of my book in your hands, for supporting me in my culinary and writing adventure.

To Adrian and Charlotte, for your support, guidance and kindness, as ever.

To Tamsin, Emma and Emily for patience; to Katya and Francesca for dealing with all the press enquiries on my behalf; to John for beautiful design work, and bringing some of my mad dreams to life. To Rob, for help cooking and shooting dishes, and Susan, for beautiful photos.

To Xanthe, for continuing to be a great friend and support, thank you. To Ros, for being there when I needed an ear to bend or a petition to wield, thank you. To Juliet and Jim, for letting me take over your house for Charity Curry Nights. To Sarah, for always being there when I need a good friend.

To Suse, for patience, guidance and encouragement, for taking my concept and fashioning it into a column in the Guardian, and for helping me grow.

To the Food Tube team, for taking me under your wing and into the family, and opening so many great doors loved working with you guys and look forward to collaborating some more!

To the Sainsburys team: thank you for the opportunity to work together. It was a mad experience but I loved it, and thank you so much.

To my readers, Twitter followers and Facebook fans, for being there with love, support and kind words day after day thank you.

To Rosemary, Joanna and Aoife at United Agents my knight(esses) in shining armour to the future, and thank you.

To Tom and Megan at Blackfoot for always being so welcoming. To Matt and Rad for all the Salty Dogs and Moscow Mules consumed in the creation of this book. To Inma, Sarah and Hannah for giggles and great service. To Rory, James and Rob for all the pork.

To Lea, for all your help with the smallests while I got this thing written, and to Floss and DanDan for being such good friends in my new surroundings thank you and love.

To Jonny and Delilah, for making me smile, for cuddles and kisses and sweetness, and for reminding me whats really important in this life and madness.

And, last, Allegra, for putting up with me crabby and angsty and bashing a book out in the very early days, for your love, your experience, your support, your kindness, your strength, for you. Not a hand-scrawled and smudged dedication this time. Thank you for making this my pretty good year.

Jack xxx

Beetroot is a great natural food colouring. If you use fresh ones, keep the peelings and put them in a bag in the freezer to save them for later, then pop them into a pan of pasta water or a risotto to turn it pink! Great for kids parties, or just because well, who wouldnt fancy a bowl of Barbie-pink risotto every now and again? The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted that this is a pasta recipe, not a risotto unlike me to get distracted

250g beetroot, fresh or vacuum-packed

2 tablespoons oil, sunflower or groundnut

1 tablespoon runny honey

a pinch of salt

a pinch of dried chilli flakes

1 onion

150g spaghetti or penne pasta

100g soft cream cheese

100g hard, strong cheese

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4.

Peel and cut the beetroot into small chunks. Place in a roasting dish or, to cook on the hob, in a shallow non-stick pan. Mix together the oil and honey, add a pinch of salt and the chilli flakes, stir and pour over the beetroot. Peel and cut the onion into larger chunks. Add it to the dish, or pan, and stir everything together to distribute the oil and honey mixture evenly. Roast for 40 minutes until the beetroot is soft and the edges charred. (If you are using vacuum-packed beetroot, reduce the cooking time by half.) If cooking on the hob, saut over a medium heat for around 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the pasta according to the packet instructions, usually around 810 minutes.

When the veg is ready, tip it into a blender with any residual honey and oil. Add the cream cheese and a tablespoon or two of the pasta cooking water to loosen, then blitz to an amazingly bright pink pure. Grate the hard, strong cheese.

Drain and rinse the pasta, then toss the sauce through it.

To serve, top with the grated cheese.

Growing up beside the sea makes battered fish a rite of passage from my childhood, as far back as I can remember. Here is my grown-up take on it for a speedy supper. Ive left the crunchy coating plain, but chilli or black pepper will add a bit of heat, or scatter in some finely chopped parsley for a light, fresh flavour.