how the book works
The concept of this book is a focus on condiments and seasonings – an arsenal to help your cooking. There are one or two ‘fancy’ offerings, a few snacks to have with drinks, but mostly it’s the straightforward everyday stuff, the kind of food you might like to come home to or happily make after a busy day. When you have a collection of condiments at hand, something in your pantry or fridge ready to reach for at a moment’s notice, it will make your life that little bit easier. It will help you to get off the culinary treadmill of repeating dishes and, with any luck, even fuel your curiosity for the new.
Below I have pulled together a few different menus. I have selected four condiments or seasonings (we picked three of them for these recipes, see page 144) to make, then shown you how they can stretch across 14 days’ worth of dinners. But you don’t even need to take it that far. A wonderful condiment can be used to liven up a simple piece of grilled protein or some roasted veg – goodness knows, that is sometimes all we have time for. The key purpose is to have you making just a few ingredients into something really great to eat.
roasted beetroot with whipped feta, harissa, coriander seeds and honey
This is almost too pretty to eat. Almost. The sweet, earthy flavour of the beetroot is brilliantly matched with the harissa. You can serve this as a cold salad (oh
