OLIVER’S TWISTS!

HE’S SOLD 46 MILLION COOKBOOKS. NOW, BY GIVING SEVEN DIFFERENT RECIPES FOR EACH OF OUR FAVOURITE FOODS, JAMIE OLIVER SAYS HIS NEW ONE’S THE MOST FUN AND FAFF-FREE YET

Can we talk about sausages? You guys just love a sausage! You love them so much that I’ve dedicated a whole chapter to them in my new cookbook – which is being serialised exclusively in Weekend today, then in tomorrow’s Mail on Sunday and next week’s Daily Mail. And I’m so excited to share it with you.

Back to the sausages. I’ve come up with seven ways that you can cook with them – seven new recipes to help make mealtimes more exciting, whatever the day of the week. You’ll find sausages chopped, sliced, crumbled, turned into balls and even hasselbacked (which is actually super-easy and no hassle at all!). I’ve taken sausage and mash to the next level in a pie, done a cute little sausage silky omelette for one, a super-comforting sausage casserole and a gnarly and satisfying one-pan hash, and that’s not all – more on that later.

So why all this sausage chat? Well, they make up just one chapter out of 18, but it gives you a flavour of what to expect from the book – which is called 7 Ways. Now, this is my 24th cookbook, and for the first time I’ve tackled the writing in a different way. My starting point with this one was real data – I’ve looked at what people are actually buying every week. I’m talking about those staple ingredients in our shopping baskets.

And it was fascinating to me, because the data shows that we do buy a lot of the same ingredients on repeat – so up and down the country, those same staple ingredients keep on popping up.

I’ve chosen 18 ingredients from that list, and they’re what I like to call our hero ingredients. These heroes are the chapters within the book and I’ve given you 7 recipes for each one – that’s the 7 Ways, you see where I’m going! My thinking was simple: if you already know and love the hero ingredient, be it our humble friend the sausage or on-trend avocado, and I can show you how to reimagine it in a bunch of interesting ways, then you’re more likely to give one or two of these new recipes a go.

Writing this book for me felt like a real opportunity to help people have fun and try new things in the kitchen, and hopefully to get a few new recipes into your repertoire. I think it’s the most user-friendly cookbook I’ve ever written. It’s simple and straightforward, too. No faffing, no unusual ingredients you haven’t heard of. All of the recipes use ingredients you should be able to pick up on your way home from work, and should be easy to find in any food shop in any town.

So, what other ingredients have made it onto my hero list? Well – drum roll please – alongside sausages, you’ll find favourites such as steak and the ever-popular chicken breast plus, in a separate chapter, whole chicken. I want to show you that there is more to life than your regular Sunday roast, so I’ve got seven really fun ways you can take a roast bird. White fish fillets are on the list, as are prawns, and salmon fillets, no surprises there. Mince gets a medal. As does pork. And that’s the meat and fish sorted.

Now on the veggie front, it was really interesting seeing what produce is consistently up there. Family favourite broccoli has a much-deserved place on the list, as does the versatile cauliflower. As well as good old faithful spuds we’ve got sweet potato, along with aubergines, peppers and mighty mushrooms.

Last but by no means least, lovely eggs. I’m told that 36 million eggs are eaten each day in the UK! Now of course, there were other ingredients that appeared often as well, like fridge drawer favourite the onion, so those have become our supporting actors, bolstering the heroes throughout the book.

I started the book well before lockdown (and finished it with my editor over video calls!), but interestingly, lockdown has really changed how we shop, what we eat, and how we approach food more generally. So I hope that 7 Ways will be a useful companion to you in the kitchen. In the last few months, we’ve seen more people cooking at home than ever before. Whether that’s reconnecting with your kitchen, or learning to cook for the first time, this is a real positive – we’re rediscovering our love of food and have been given a brilliant opportunity to shop and support local businesses and food providers.

If this means that more of us are eating fresh meals, cooked from scratch, and ditching ultra-processed foods, this shift can only be a good thing. Whatever your approach when it comes to cooking, I’m confident that 7 Ways is going to serve you well. The recipes use a wide range of fresh ingredients, and allow you to recreate restaurantquality food at home.

A couple of years back when I wrote my 5 Ingredients cookbook, I found the philosophy of that book – ultimately keeping things simple when it comes to ingredients, method and time – really hit the spot. Not only did it suit first-time cooks, experienced cooks told me that they loved it as it gave them new inspiration for midweek meals.

Ever since, wherever I go, people have been asking me when I’m going to follow that up with more of the same, and for me 7 Ways gives you everything that 5 Ingredients did, and more.

I’ve kept every recipe to 8 ingredients, maximum, and have used lots of shortcuts and cheats to help you achieve big flavour, fast. I’ve basically set out to give you solutions. We all face barriers in the

IWANTTO HELP PEOPLE HAVEFUN AND TRY NEW THINGS IN THE KITCHEN

kitchen, so I’ve tried to come up with ways to overcome them.

You might feel that you don’t have time to cook properly, or you’re stuck in a recipe rut. Maybe it’s time that’s the issue, so I’ve created recipes ranging from just 10 minutes in total to those with minimal prep where the oven does all the hard work.

You might be put off by the idea of having to wash up dozens of pots and pans. This is where the traybake and one-pan wonder dishes come into play – they’re so useful for easy, fuss-free meals. I’ve also gone big on fakeaways – of course if you really want a takeaway I’m not going to argue against that, but I hope these recipes might inspire you to try a few favourites from scratch at home too.

I’ve also embraced timesavers like microwave pouches of grains and rice, and products like pre-packed stirfry veg – they’re great because you get a variety of different veg in one happy parcel, meaning more flavour and hopefully less waste.

Over the years, I’ve had the mickey taken out of me for using ‘cheat’ items like supermarket curry pastes, black bean and teriyaki sauces, miso and pesto. But these are items you can find in all supermarkets and of an extraordinary quality. Of course you can make your own, and if you’ve got time on your hands then absolutely that’s a brilliant thing to do, but when you’re in a rush to get dinner on the table, fast, these shortcut ingredients have a real role to play.

I’ve kept things straightforward

when it comes to methods too, and this is a book you can cook from any day of the week. More than 70 per cent of the recipes are classed as ‘everyday’ from a nutritional point of view, so you know you can go ahead and fill your boots on those ones, while the rest are considered ‘occasional’ – think weekday versus weekend. You know the drill – stick to the mantra ‘a little bit of what you love’ and you won’t go far wrong.

Now, down to the exciting bit. I’m thrilled to be sharing a selection of recipes from the book with you today, ready for you to cook up at home. First up, it’s back to our humble friend the sausage. And the great thing about the sausage chapter is that actually, we’ve tested all the recipes with both regular and veggie sausages, so we know you can swap veggie sausages into every one of the 7 recipes with great success. I know a lot of veggies out there are already really adept at switching up recipes to make them vegetarian, but I wanted to give readers confidence that we’ve tested them, too, so you know you’re definitely going to get a good result.

I’ve got a few of my favourite sausage recipes for you here. There’s a speedy pizza with grapes, red onions, pine nuts and rosemary (trust me, it’s epic), a super-simple pasta with a bit of broccoli (this one is a great family meal), a folded pizza called a calzone with melty cheese and – yes, really – an egg in the middle, and a beautiful sausage and mash pie. Come on guys, you just know that’s gonna be good.

Next up, we’re celebrating avocados – they’ve become so popular in the UK in recent years and yes, you can absolutely build a meal around them. Check out my avo quiche, which uses avocado instead of butter in the pastry meaning less saturated fat. There’s also a wicked little tempura, and my retro-style baked avocado stuffed with creamy prawns, which reminds me of the kind of food we used to dish up in my parents’ pub when I was growing up.

Steak was a big-hitter, and a pleasure to write recipes for. I’ve shown you different ways to cook and celebrate it, from a fun take on a steak sarnie to a simple quick-cook minute steak for one with a mega rosti. There’s also my beef Wellington for two, which is the ultimate in indulgence and a real special occasion dish. Save that one for someone you really want to impress.

You can find even more ideas for using my hero ingredients in tomorrow’s Mail on Sunday and four-page pullouts in the daily paper next week – as well as, of course, in the book itself, which hits the shelves on 20 August. I’m really proud of it guys, and I cannot wait to see which recipes you cook up!

nExtracted from 7 WAYS: Easy Ideas For Every Day Of The Week by Jamie Oliver, published by Michael Joseph on 20 August 2020 at £26. © Jamie Oliver 2020, available from all good bookshops. Jamie: Keep Cooking Family Favourites will air at 8pm from Monday 17 August on Channel 4. #JAMIES7WAYS

shortcuts and cheats can help you achieve big flavour – fast

Jamie, and (inset above) his new book