The perfect dozen
Using a dozen core ingredients, Anna Jones has created 125 recipes to make every day food delicious
In her new book, Easy Wins, Anna Jones takes 12 hero ingredients that are guaranteed to make your food taste great, with chapters on lemons, olive oil, mustard, tahini and more. She gives 125 all-new dishes that you will want to cook on repeat.
Easy Wins: 12 flavour hits, 125 delicious recipes, 365 days by Anna Jones is published by 4th Estate, priced £28
Courgettes agrodolce with sticky onions
Agrodolce means sweet and sour in Italian. The hit of vinegar is offset with a little bit of sugar, which mellows the acidity and rounds off the flavour.
Serves two as a main, four as a side
5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus a little extra to serve
4 small or 2 regular courgettes (500g), cut into 1.5cm-thick rounds
1 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp golden caster sugar
1 tsp dried chilli flakes, plus extra to serve
1 clove of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
½ a bunch of mint (15g), leaves picked
250g ricotta
1 Heat a frying pan over a medium high heat and add 5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil. Season 500g courgettes cut into 1.5cm-thick rounds with sea salt and fry them for 3-4 minutes on each side or until blistering and golden brown, then remove with a slotted spoon on to a plate.
2 Add 1 thinly sliced red onion to the same pan and lower the heat. Fry for 10 minutes until soft, then add 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon golden caster sugar and 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes and return the courgette pieces to thepan.cookfora few minutes, then taste and season and divide the courgettes and onion between two plates.
3 Sprinkle over 1 peeled and thinly sliced clove of garlic and a few more dried chilli flakes, tear over the leaves from half a bunch of mint and drizzle with a little olive oil. Season 250g of ricotta with salt and pepper and spoon it next to the courgettes.
Traybake lemon dal with pickled green chillies
This dal is made in the oven, so it’s very hands-off. The tinned tomatoes are roasted first to give a deeper hit of tomato flavour. Serve this with a pot of rice, some parathas, some salted yoghurt and chutney. Serves four 1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 x 400g tins plum tomatoes 2 tbsp ghee or other cooking oil 2 unwaxed lemons a thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled
8 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
2 green chillies, sliced
2 tsp golden caster sugar 50ml white wine vinegar
1 tsp sea salt a bunch of coriander (30g), chopped
1 tsp ground turmeric a cinnamon stick
1 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder (or ½ tsp if using other chilli powders)
1 tbsp yellow mustard seeds 300g split red lentils
1 x 400ml tin coconut milk 800ml hot vegetable stock 250g paneer or firm tofu warm rice, parathas or roti, yogurt and chutney to serve
1 Preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan. Add 1 tablespoon coriander seeds and 2 teaspoons cumin seeds to a high-sided baking tray and roast in the oven for 2-4 minutes until fragrant, then remove and tip into a pestle and mortar and crush before returning to the tray.
2 Drain 2 x 400g tins of tomatoes and add to the tray. Use a potato masher or the back of a large spoon/fork to crush the tomatoes to release their juice and flatten them a little, and spread them evenly over the tray. Add the flavourings and roast.
3 Add 2 tablespoons ghee or oil, then grate in the zest of 1 unwaxed lemon and 1 thumb of ginger and add 8 thinly sliced cloves of garlic. Toss the tomatoes in the spices and roast for 30 minutes until sticky and intensified in flavour.
4 Once the tomatoes have had their time, remove them from the oven and stir in 1 teaspoon ground turmeric, a cinnamon stick, 1 table spoon Kashmiri chilli powder and 1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds. 5 Add 300g split red lentils and pour over a 400ml tin of coconut milk and 800ml hot vegetable stock. Cover tightly with foil and return to the oven for another 40 minutes.
6 After 40 minutes, carefully
take the tray out of the oven and remove the foil. Stir the dal, then season well with sea salt. Tear 250g paneer or firm tofu over the top of the dal and squeeze over the juice of the 2 zested lemons. Return to the oven for a further 15 minutes or until the edges of the paneer are beginning to turn golden, the dal is creamy and the lentils are soft. Serve with rice, parathas, yogurt and chutney and the pickled chilli and coriander mixture. Will keep in the fridge forupto7days.
For the pickle
Put 2 sliced green chillies, 2 teaspoons golden caster sugar, 50ml white wine vinegar and a teaspoon of salt into a small bowl and mix well. Add the zest of a second unwaxed lemon. Stir through a bunch of chopped coriander, stems and all. Put in the fridge to keep cool.
Cherry and chocolate peanut butter sundae
This is the quickest pudding – the peanut and chocolate sauce is so easy and requires no skill. Serves four 400g fresh or frozen cherries 3 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp smooth peanut butter 1 tbsp cocoa powder a big pinch of flaky sea salt 8 scoops vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt, about 1 x 400ml tub
1 Put the cherries into a small saucepan with 1 tablespoon maple syrup and cook on a medium low heat until they are warm and soft, still with a little liquid. Remember the liquid will thicken as they cool.
2 In a bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter with 2 tablespoons maple syrup (or 3 tablespoons if using fresh cherries), 1 tablespoon cocoa powder and a big pinch of flaky sea salt. You might need to add a little water here if your peanut butter is thick.
3 Get yourself 4 glasses or bowls, scoop some cherries into the bottom of each glass, then add a scoop of ice cream, the peanut chocolate sauce, more cherries, another scoop of ice cream and the rest of the cherries and chocolate sauce.