Angela Hartnett - Angelas Kitchen

Angela Hartnett, the best-loved and most successful female chef in the UK today, brings her informal, grounded style of cooking into our kitchens with this gorgeous book.

Drawing inspiration from her childhood experiences of accessible home cooking with her Italian grandmother, she mixes Mediterranean influences with British to create delectable recipes that are straightforward, quick and easy to make.

Angela captures the essence of rustic home cooking with starters like Lamb broth and Puy lentils, spinach and goats curd salad; and in main meals such as Beef stew with butternut squash and Rigatoni with fennel and sausage. The sweet-toothed can indulge in meltingly delicious desserts, like Fried figs with honey and Chocolate pecan tart.

With over two hundred recipes and mouthwatering photography by Jonathan Lovekin, this is an indispensable addition to any home cooking enthusiasts shelves.

Angela Hartnetts rise from her early days training at Gordon Ramsays restaurants Fleur, Petrus and Amaryllis, has been justly swift and dazzling. She now owns Murano restaurant in London and was awarded an MBE for Services to the Hospitality Industry in 2007. In Autumn 2010 she was appointed judge of the BBC Food and Farming Awards.

For me, home cooking is more about sharing good meals with friends than showing off cheffy skills. If youre having people over for a meal you want to spend time with them, not chained to the kitchen, so you need recipes that are easy and enjoyable to cook. Cooking should be fun, not stressful, so dont get too anxious about it all. Mistakes happen to the best of us me included and as my mum says, you can always go and get a curry if you overcook the meat and burn the apple tart!

The recipes in this book are for the kind of food I like to eat at home simple, tasty and not too complicated to make at the end of a working day. These are dishes I enjoy cooking for friends and include some of my favourite foods Macaroni cheese, Steak salad, Figs with vanilla ice cream and Chicken noodle soup.

You wont need to spend precious time hunting down exotic ingredients. Nearly everything is readily available at supermarkets and farmers markets. There are recipes you can make from leftovers, too, and many are very easily adapted to suit the contents of your larder. Of course my inherited love of Italian food is evident so there has to be a chapter on pasta and risotto. No cookbook is complete without these in my opinion! But Ive included some slightly different variations that you may not have come across before, such as Spaghetti with mussels and Chestnut and truffle risotto.

Im lucky in having friends who are great cooks and Ive begged and borrowed recipes Ive enjoyed at their houses. Theres my neighbours Beef with butternut squash and my friend Lizs fantastic Banana bread to name just a couple of these fantastic dishes. Ive included quite a few cakes, too, as home baking is always hugely popular theres nothing like a home-made cake. When my mum hears about some great chef she often remarks: All very well, but can he bake a cake?

So I hope you enjoy these recipes and have fun trying something different. And feel free to adapt and change to suit your taste thats always when the best dishes happen.

NOTES

All olive oil is extra virgin

All butter is unsalted unless specified otherwise

All eggs are large, organic and free-range unless specified otherwise

Herbs should be fresh if possible, unless dried herbs are specified

All fresh herbs, fruit and vegetables should be washed before use

All milk is full-fat unless specified otherwise

All onions, shallots and garlic should be peeled unless specified otherwise

All lemons should be unwaxed

I like to use Maldon sea salt but occasionally a recipe may refer to rock salt

200g cornflour

100g rice flour

40g garlic powder

good pinch of salt

pinch of cayenne pepper

pinch of Szechuan pepper

300g baby squid, cleaned and cut into rings

vegetable or sunflower oil, for deep-frying

squeeze of fresh lemon juice

MIX THE CORNFLOUR with the rest of the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

TOSS THE SQUID in the flour mixture until evenly coated, shaking off any excess.

HEAT THE OIL to 180C in a deep-fat fryer or heavy-based pan and fry the baby squid for 23 minutes, until golden brown. Drain well on kitchen paper and serve immediately with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

4 sea bream fillets, skinned and pin-boned

3 blood oranges

3 tbsp olive oil

soy sauce (optional)

4 breakfast radishes, sliced

bunch watercress, leaves picked from the stems

small bunch of coriander, leaves picked from the stems

1 tsp sesame seeds

salt and freshly ground black pepper

SERVES 4

SLICE THE SEA BREAM at an angle into thick slices. Peel 2 of the blood oranges and divide them into segments. Cut the third orange in half and squeeze out the juice.

MIX 2 TABLESPOONS of blood orange juice with the olive oil to make a vinaigrette and add a dash of soy sauce if desired.

PUT A LITTLE OF THE BLOOD ORANGE MIXTURE on a plate, add the bream and season. Then pour on the rest of the juice mixture and leave the fish for 34 minutes.

GARNISH with the orange segments, radish slices, watercress, coriander and sesame seeds, then serve immediately.

2 tbsp olive oil

500g clams, washed

splash of white wine

1 garlic clove, sliced

1 thyme sprig

2 baby shallots, sliced into rings

100g chorizo

1 bag of rocket leaves

1 tbsp chopped flatleaf parsley

salt and freshly ground black pepper

HEAT A HEAVY-BASED PAN over a medium heat and add the olive oil. Throw in the clams with the white wine, garlic, thyme and shallots. Put a lid on the pan and steam until the clams are cooked about 5 minutes.