Growing up, I always sat down to dinner with my family. No matter what anyone was doing we always made it back to the table. The kitchen was the hub of our home; we cooked, we laughed, we cried, we ate and drank and caught up on the day’s events together. Mealtimes equating togetherness is such an important mentality to have. Because of this I always associate food with family, talking and laughing – positivity. Snacking and eating on the go makes food become fuel. I’m very much a person who lives to eat and doesn’t eat to live; it’s such an important part of my life. Home cooking is, after all, what we all do. We survive on it every day. It is something we all have in common.
And this is why I want to celebrate the home cook again, dedicate my time to making real food and always aim for lagom (a Swedish term meaning “just the right amount”).
When I moved to London aged 18, I started to try lots of new food from all over the world – from Japan to France via Portugal. My cooking, however, wasn’t quite so cosmopolitan. Shepherd’s Pie, stir-fries and tray bakes were pretty much all I could cook and I quickly tired of the beige monotony. Something had to change. Cooking became my hobby; I experimented with flavours, learnt a few of the basics and began curating dishes, many of which have made it into this book.
I’m not a chef – I never have been and I’ve never tried to be. (And, for the record, I have appalling knife skills and I’m not afraid to admit it.) What I am, is passionate about home cooking, mixing flavours and experimenting with recipes that can be enjoyed with friends and family. Creating something that makes us happy and brings us all together.
So I wanted to create a book with recipes that were a fitting testament to that philosophy, using accessible and affordable ingredients – no weekly pay cheques spent at health food shops on coconut oil and spirulina. It’s all about fresh, easy to find and reasonably priced produce, the best of British grub cooked to perfection and embracing Scandinavian, European, Mediterranean, Asian and Middle Eastern cuisines.
I also wanted to create a book that the generations of female cooks and chefs before me would be proud of. It’s these ladies who have blazed a trail, and who have given me the courage to stand confidently by my values regarding what we eat, how we eat, and our relationship with food. This is my way of saying thank you to them. Above all, Milly’s Real Food is a little bit of everything; how I like to eat at home and what I cook my friends and family. As my hero of a grandfather, Walter, would say: “A little bit of what you fancy does you good.” Let’s get cooking some Real Food.
P.S. Share your recipe photos, favourite foodie haunts, meal ideas, and real food tips, tricks and hacks with me on Instagram @millycookbook or Twitter @MillyCookbook, with the hashtag #MillysRealFood
WHAT TO KEEP IN YOUR FRIDGE
| FRUIT & VEGETABLES | Berries: strawberries, blueberries and raspberries – perfect for breakfast, they can be frozen for smoothies and made into jams when they’re on their way out. Lots of lemons and limes for easy seasoning and bringing a dish to life immediately. Anything green: broccoli, green beans and sprouts – fantastic sources of iron and easy to use as a base, just add a dressing or a sauce; grill or fry to make dinner a bit more exciting. Mini Cos lettuce and cucumber for their refreshing crunch, plus celery, carrots and banana shallots as the base for casseroles, ragu, pasta sauces and risotto. |
| DELI | Prosciutto or Parma ham – eat the slices as they are, or, for a twist, try frying them as a bacon alternative; add to stews and sauces for an extra kick of flavour. Chorizo – essential for Mike’s Paella and a game-changer with seared scallops and in chicken dishes. |
| DAIRY | Halloumi and feta cheese and the full-on stinky blues. Full fat, salted butter. Parmesan to make any savoury dish sing, and it lasts forever. |
| MEAT | Chicken – buy a whole bird, roast it and live off the leftovers for days: cost-effective and extremely versatile. Beef brisket, chuck and oxtail for slow-cooked and hearty ragu. Pork or beef mince for Bolognese: double up the ingredients and you can freeze portions for later meals. Good-quality sausages have more uses than just bangers and mash: squeeze the meat out into pasta sauces and slice them into stews. |
| FISH | Salmon, cod and prawns – quick to cook, packed full of goodness and easy to rustle up a meal in minutes. |
WHAT TO KEEP IN YOUR CUPBOARD
| VEGETABLES | Potatoes – sweet potatoes, new potatoes and Desirée for the best dauphinoise. Mushrooms: chestnut, shiitake, enoki, oyster – the weirder, the better. Do try different ones. Tomatoes in all shapes and colours, if you can find them – perfect as a light lunch with mozzarella and a staple for homemade tomato sauce. |
| OILS | Extra-virgin olive oil – the best you can afford, for drizzling. Rapeseed oil for cooking because it has a higher smoke point, which means it retains its nutritional qualities even after being heated. Toasted sesame oil makes Asian dishes really wonderful. |
| HERBS & SPICES | Chilli flakes, dried rosemary, thyme and oregano are my cupboard essentials and go into so many of my recipes. Chinese five spice, curry powder and turmeric lend themselves to lots of dishes, adding colour and a delicious depth of flavour. Ground and whole cinnamon works brilliantly in savoury and sweet dishes and drinks. Saffron is, without doubt, the most decadent, but a little goes a long way. Add to the cooking water when preparing rice for a fragrant dish or work into seafood pasta sauces. Salt must be flaked sea salt. Don’t bother
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