Based on Moroccan bream from Jamie’s 15 min meals this is my Moroccan bream:

I used 2 whole bream, scaled and gutted with heads and fins removed and rubbed harissa inside the fish. The outside of the fish needs to be oiled before being wrapped them in foil, then baked in the small oven for about 30 mins (until the internal temp reached 45 ish), turning halfway through the cooking time, with the dial at 150C. Then rested in the foil for 10 mins.

Roast celeriac was based on Nigel Slater roast celeriac recipe with the large oven at 175C + fan and the flavouring was ras al hanout.

Served with greek yoghurt with chopped mint stirred through it and cous cous containing fried off onions and garlic, petit pois, pea shoots, chopped up stoned olives (instead of salt) and drizzled with pomegranate molasses. One thing about couscous: it swells by about 3 times when it’s cooked, so best to stir through appropriate amounts of the other ingredients afterwards.

I used the Waitrose roast parsnips recipe, except I would set the oven to 175C with fan.

I unexpectedly ended up with a whole sea bass that was scaled, gutted and had the head, fins and tail removed. I decided to do it Moroccan style, after the success of the Jamie Oliver lamb shank & tomato tagine.

I marinaded the fish by rubbing the inside with ras al hanout and leaving it at room temp for half an hour. In the meantime I made the sauce to braise it in using onion, garlic, ground cumin, ground coriander and tinned tomatoes. It was very good.

Based on Jamie Oliver’s chicken cacciatora

I used 8 chicken thighs with excess skin (not covering any flesh) snipped off and coated in flour seasoned with salt and browned in oil in a large frying pan. Cooked at 150C for 1.5 hours. I used 4 anchovy fillets plus a little anchovy paste. It turned out quite salty, so think will use either 4 fillets OR the paste next time, otherwise it was very good.

One time I made mussels and added salt to the onions when I fried them as I do in all other dishes. But mussels are salty anyway so the finished dish was almost inedible; NEVER ADD SALT. Also I didn’t cook the mussels enough so they were slimy and fell apart when eaten. Another time I cooked the mussels enough but added water to the wine. When the mussels were cooked I removed them and reduced the liquid but not enough. So the ‘sauce’ was too watery. It didn’t help that I didn’t add enough cream either.

Based on Felicity Cloake’s moules marinières but with the addition of garlic obviously. Also I didn’t put the butter in at the end but in the sauce.

The wood pigeon was based on Nigel Slater’s recipe. I cooked it flesh side down for 15 mins with the dial at 175C, then turned it over and grilled the breast to give it some colour. Then I rested it for 5 mins.

Salad dressing for leaves was based on Perfect vinaigrette but we had no red wine vinegar so used balsamic. It was quite sweet but perfect to go with gamey meat.

Lamb tagine based on Jamie Oliver’s lamb shank and tomato tagine but didn’t add potatoes. Other adjustments I made were that I didn’t make the onion into a paste, just finely chopped them and the the apricots were chopped into sultana sized pieces and at the end I sprinkled with toasted almonds on top of the lamb. We thought the dish needed more chilli so we sprinkled a few chilli flakes on top at the table. The tagine turned out well, except I only had two lamb shanks so the liquid didn’t cover the two shanks in my casserole dish. So I had to add lots of water so that that the meat was covered while cooking (otherwise it will dry out – I have had this happen before) then I took the shanks out after two hours and left the sauce to reduce down while I removed the meat from the bones. Next time I will definitely make it or anything similar with at least 4 lamb shanks or 3 huge ones.

I made the couscous with chicken stock (Kallo) instead of water and added peppers which had been grilled until skin turned black, then the skin was removed and the peppers were cut up into strips and blanched baby courgette pieces. I also added lemon juice to the dry couscous and veg before adding the stock and it ended up slightly too acidic (I added 2 tsp lemon juice to 250g dry couscous) but it didn’t spoil the meal thankfully. The thick yoghurt with mint (I had no coriander) complimented the ‘sauce’ perfectly.

This is Nigel Slater’s recipe. It turned out really well: beautifully moist and balanced.

Last time I cooked snapper I tried to pan-fry it. It was a disaster. The fillets weren’t cooked inside but the outside was overcooked. Since I’m in a bit of a ‘slow & low’ phase, I thought I would give this good looking fish a second chance.

I’m adapting this Ainsley Harriott recipe: jamaican curried snapper. I will modify the ingredients slightly but the main difference will be that I’m going to make the sauce first, then gently poach the fish in it until the fish gets to 45 degrees.

Sauce ingredients:

1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
2 tsp black peppercorns
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp ground turmeric
groundnut oil
40g/1½oz butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
6 – 8 garlic cloves, crushed
Root ginger, about 1.5 times the volume of garlic, peeled and finely grated
1 tsp light brown soft sugar
200ml coconut milk
2 bay leaves

salt and freshly ground black pepper
juice to taste, added just before serving

The sauce is for 500g red snapper fillet, skinned and cut into pieces.

I’m serving with jerk roasted cocquina squash based on Jamie Oliver’s roasted squash, except I’m using 1.5 tsp jerk seasoning instead of his flavourings and serving with chapattis, plain rice and salad leaves.

What I did: The snapper was at room temperature before cooking. I made the sauce then poured it over the fish pieces in a baking dish. The dish went into the oven which was at 50. After about 20 mins I turned the oven up to about 75 degrees because the temperature of the fish wasn’t changing at all. After 10 mins at 75 degrees the temperature hadn’t changed much either. In the meantime the squash had finished ages ago so I transferred the curry to the hob instead. The temperature went up a lot quicker and I took the fish off the heat at about 50 degrees.

Result: The snapper turned out ok but still a bit chompy. I was aiming for very soft, melt-in-the-mouth fish like you get at Asha’s. I think perhaps very gently poaching the fish in the sauce on the hob is the best way to go, for control and because the temperature needs to be checked frequently. Also next time I might add the lime juice and season the sauce properly before I poach the fish in it, as it lacked salt and tang. I thought the squash turned out fantastic but it was too hot for Mark, so perhaps just 1 tsp of jerk seasoning next time!

We were given a goat shoulder bought from am organic goat farm in Dorset. I marinaded it in a decent jerk seasoning mix for 1.5 hours at room temperature, then baked in the small oven with the dial at 100 degrees for 3 hours. I had to scrape the seasoning off for serving as it was too hot to eat but the meat was absolutely perfect: soft and succulent. I’ve had goat in the past and it has been chewy but I think this was a very good piece of meat to start with.