mwnch

Of all the cooks I’ve considered as part of this series, husband and wife team Sam and Sam Clark have perhaps opened my eyes to new tastes and flavours more than any others. I first developed an interest in Spanish cooking a number of years ago when my wife and I spent a number of holidays in the sun and dust of Andalusia. This led to a frosty Christmas purchase of the first Moro book (actually as a gift for my Mother that soon found its way back to me) and a transcription of recipes to well travelled pieces of paper that enabled me to make Tortilla and Gazpacho under a roasting Andalusian sun on subsequent trips without dragging a cookery book to Spain.

Harissa and bravas sauce are now never far from my thoughts, a dull chicken or piece of lamb soon spiced up and filled with Mediterranean sunshine and North African fire.

The Clark’s offer classic exotic (to the average British palate) recipes - for the uninitiated a great place to start exploring theircusine is the Guardian Unlimited article from 2004 that heralded the release of the Casa Moro book. Their cookery is that “of Spain and the Muslim Mediterranean” and their three books The Moro Cookbook, Casa Moro: The Second Cookbook and Moro East track a tasty, easy course through the Med and its abundant table. For further web based reading, the diversity of these rich and varied culinary traditions is well demonstrated by the vegan recipes and ingredients given in Samatha Clarks Vegan Inspirations article on the BBC website.

The Italian classic, which in my house serves as a sauce for fish or white meat as well as a snacking accompaniment to crusty bread, crackers, crisps … pretty much anything.

Plenty of parsley is essential so get one of those bunch of flowers sized bunches from a green-grocer rather than those puny supermarket plastic wrapped packs.

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It is through the two fat ladies that I can begin to understand the British Empire. So few people with plumy accents and indomitable attitudes ruling over so many. With ladies like Clarissa Dickson Wright and Jennifer Paterson you can start to see how they did it - all that fox-hunting, gin and those stiff upper lips.

Their food, whilst old fashioned, bourgeoisie and liable to fur up your arteries and steeply reduce your life-expectancy has a solidity and properness about it that’s undeniably attractive…For example, one of the few recipes available on the ‘net is the high tea (how long is it since you heard that term?) dish of Rigo Jancsi Chocolate Slices = jam, sugar, cream and chocolate and to hell with the calories.

The story of the Ladies on the web is one of desolation and moved or missing pages which is a shame - the BBC Food Site seems to have removed all recipes except for a rather forlorn one for Potted turkey (which I won’t even link to in disgust at the BBC) and the food network message board and dedicated page is long gone. To even up this absence, I’ll research some Two Fat Ladies Inspired recipes and bring them to mwnch soon … watch this space!

In the meantime, you might like to peruse some of the Ladies books.