Midlife Motivation

Ingredients

• Olive oil
• 250g piece of smoked bacon,
  the best quality you can
  afford, rind removed
• 2 thick slices of sourdough
  bread, cut into 1cm pieces
• 4 large handfuls of lamb’s lettuce,
  watercress or rocket,
  washed and spun dry
• 2 large handfuls of radicchio,
  washed and spun dry
• A large handful of shelled
  walnut halves, sliced
• A bunch of fresh chives,
  finely chopped
• 100g Roquefort cheese

  
  For the dressing

• 6 tablespoons extra
  virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red
  wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• Sea salt and freshly ground
  black pepper

Serves 4 for mains

Put a large frying pan on a high heat, and once hot, add a good couple of lugs of olive oil. Cut your bacon into thick 1cm lardons (have a look at the picture – that's roughly the size your croutons and bacon should be), and add to the pan. Fry, stirring occasionally, for around 3 minutes, or until you’ve got a good bit of colour on the bacon and a lot of the fat has rendered out.

Turn the heat down a little and add your bread to the pan, making sure you spread the croutons out so they take on some colour. Fry for another 3 minutes, or until they’ve sucked up all the wonderful flavour and are lovely,
crisp and golden.

Put the extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and a good pinch of salt and pepper into a clean jam jar. Put the lid on and give it a shake, then have a taste and make sure you’ve got the balance right. You want it to be slightly too acidic at this stage, as you’ll get quite a bit of saltiness from the bacon and French dressings tend to be quite sharp.

I was so excited about this new series (the giant prawn advert was classic) and this book to accompany the series certainly doesn't disappoint. Beautifully executed with gorgeous photograph. Jamie also introduces each section to set the scene for the great recipes.

Having lived in Andalucia for a year, I can confidently say that Jamie has hand picked the best that there is available. From tasty tapas dishes like mini meatballs, gambas (prawns), patatas bravas (spicy potatoes) to classic paella and gazpacho all the recipes are beautifully photographed and easy to follow. Anyone who loves drinking Tinto de Verano (a refreshing long drink of red wine combined with fanta lemon and loads of ice) will love the sorbet Jamie suggests.

The other chapters include the recently aired Morocco (I really can't wait to try the "Snakey Cakey" cake!) Italy, Sweden, Greece and France. Cute little additions include page numbers in the language of the relevant section.

Made the chicken, olive and preserved lemon tagine for dinner tonight - never made one before and it came out really well.

Buy it for yourself, buy it for your friends. I guarantee that you will have hours of enjoyment from it; both reading and cooking.

By Mariana Ranken - Farnham

Once your dressing is made, get everyone around the table so they’re ready to tuck in as soon as the salad is ready. Put your salad leaves on a big platter, tear in the radicchio, then pour over that wonderful, thick dressing. Scatter over most of your walnuts and chives and all the croutons and lardons. Quickly mix it all up with your clean hands so that every single leaf is coated.

Use the tip of a knife to crumble off little nuggets of Roquefort and let them fall straight on to your salad. Finish by scattering over the rest of the walnuts and chives from a height, and tuck in.

To take a look at more reviews, or purchase a copy of Jamies new book, just click on the advert.

Tags: recipes