Techniques

Some foods are naturally much higher in bacteria than others, and need to be handled with extra care. Raw meat and fish are the most important ones to look out for, as the bacteria found on them can easily lead to food poisoning if it’s allowed to spread to other foods.

Imagine for a minute that you’re cooking grilled chicken and salad for dinner. If you chop up the raw chicken on a chopping board before cooking it, then use that same knife and board to prepare your salad, the salad will be contaminated with bacteria from the uncooked chicken. This is called ‘cross-contamination’ and here are the golden rules for avoiding it:

• Store raw meat and fish on the bottom shelf of your fridge, and store food that is ready to be eaten whether it’s salad, cheese, dairy or cooked food on the shelves above. This is so the juices from the raw foods can’t drip onto cooked foods and cross-contaminate them.

• If you’re preparing raw meat, chicken or fish on a chopping board, wash the board, the knife and your hands thoroughly afterwards so that the bacteria doesn’t spread onto food that is cooked or ready to eat. Some restaurants have different coloured chopping boards for raw and cooked foods, or for meat, fish and veg, to minimise the chances of this happening. These are readily available from loads of home and kitchen stores so you might like to try this at home.

• Be aware that there may be germs and bacteria in the soil on any dirty muddy vegetables. Peel them in the sink, rinse them well before use then remember to clean the sink and your hands before you do anything else.

• Once meat, chicken or fish are cooked, lift them out of the pan and serve them using clean implements that haven’t touched any raw food. This applies to barbecuing too; it’s a scary thing to see the same tongs that put raw chicken on the barbecue one minute, lift off cooked chicken the next!

© Jamie Oliver. Illustrations by Peter Hamilton.

JAMIESHOMECOOKINGSKILLS.COM

• Wash your hands after touching anything that might have bacteria on it, like the dustbin or the dog, and never ever forget to wash your hands after going to the bathroom!

• Keep the work surfaces in your kitchen clean, wipe them down regularly and use an antibacterial kitchen spray. Kitchen cloths and sponges can harbour germs, too, so wash them in hot soapy water and replace them often.

© Jamie Oliver. Illustrations by Peter Hamilton.JAMIESHOMECOOKINGSKILLS.COM

FOLLOW THESE TOP TIPS TO KEEP YOU SAFE WHILE YOU’RE COOKING

• Wear an apron. They aren’t just designed to keep your clothes clean; chefs wear them so that if they’re splashed with hot oil or water they can quickly pull the apron away from themselves before the liquid soaks through to their skin. Obviously, if you’re rustling up something quick, like a sandwich, you don’t need to worry, but if you’re going to get stuck into cooking something, it’s better to be safe than sorry.

• If you spill a little water or oil on the floor while you’re working, tell anyone else in the room to watch out for it, then stop and clean it up right away. It’s not a good idea to have people slipping and sliding with pots of boiling water and sharp knives about. Accidents can happen very easily.

• When cooking on the hob, angle your pans so the handles face out to the sides, over the worktops. You don’t want them sticking out over the edge as it’s really easy to knock into them and cause a spillage. You also don’t want them over the hob itself as they may get really hot making them more difficult to move around.

• If you pick up a hot pan or a pot full of hot oil or water and you’re moving it to the sink or to another part of the kitchen, make sure people around you know about it – don’t wait for them to bump into you before you tell them!

• Unless you’re sure that a metal handle is cool, always pick it up with an oven glove or with a folded-up tea towel.

• It’s not a good idea to have small children or pets running around the kitchen while you’re cooking as you don’t want them to knock over hot water or oil and hurt themselves. You’ll also have sharp knives out, which can be dangerous in the wrong hands.



WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO HANDLE FOOD SAFELY?Every year, tens of thousands of people in the UK go to their doctor with some sort of food poisoning, and that’s only the reported figure; the real figure is probably much higher. Most of us probably know what food poisoning feels like: stomach cramps, sickness and an upset stomach if you’re lucky, and a trip to the hospital if you’re unlucky. Bacteria are everywhere. Some of them are good – like the bacterium that turns milk into yoghurt – but a lot of them are bad, and it’s this kind that gives us food poisoning. The more bad bacteria there are around, the more likely we are to get sick. HOW CAN YOU AVOID FOOD POISONING?It’s pretty much impossible to stamp out bacteria completely, but you can minimise the conditions they need to grow and multiply: food, moisture, warmth and time.

Make sure you cover food up to stop bacteria in the air landing on it, and finding the food it needs to grow. Everything should be well wrapped and cooked food should be covered as soon as it’s cooled down.

Food stuffs that bacteria particularly like to grow on are:

• raw fish

• raw meat

• dairy products

• cooked food of any sort, including soups, stocks and stews

• cooked starchy things like rice, pasta and beans

THE BEAUTY OF THE FRIDGE Keeping things in the fridge deprives bacteria of the warmth they need to multiply. And remember, the more time bacteria has to multiply, the more of them there’ll be. When you get back from the shops, make sure you get any refrigerated or frozen goods stored away as soon as possible.



Bacteria thrives between 8ºC and 75ºC – keep food hot if you need to, at above 75ºC, and make sure you get leftovers in the fridge as soon as they’ve cooled down.

When defrosting food, always make sure it has thawed thoroughly before cooking, otherwise you’re at higher risk of food poisoning – during cooking the food may not reach a high enough internal temperature to kill bacteria.

This is why it’s really important to check that food is cooked right through to the middle. It’s especially true with meat, it may look ‘done’ from the outside but there’s a high chance it may be undercooked or even raw on the inside if it hasn’t been defrosted properly first.

The best habit to get into is defrosting food in a fridge overnight, ensuring it’s well covered. Always refer to food packaging labels for further instructions on defrosting.

It’s also important to wait for food to cool down to room temperature before it goes in the fridge. This helps to conserve energy, as your fridge doesn’t have to work so hard to maintain a cool temperature. Just make sure food is loosely covered so flies and other bugs can’t get to it as it cools. WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT CANS, BOTTLES AND JARS?Sealed jars, bottles and cans don’t need to go in the fridge because they’ve been pasteurised. This is a heat-treating process that kills any germs inside. If you check the best before date on the bottom, it may be quite far off, but once that item is open, you need to treat the food as if it’s fresh again (see Understanding shelf life).

Anything you don’t use should be stored in the fridge and used within a couple of days. If it’s in a can, transfer it to a bowl or Tupperware container first – once cans are open to the air, they can react with food. REMEMBER You can’t see, smell or feel bacteria, so you have to be proactive in avoiding it – it won’t warn you of its presence, you have to anticipate it!



Believe it or not, two of the most important stages of cooking are setting up your cooking area, and clearing it down afterwards. Walk into any good professional kitchen and you’ll notice that every utensil has its own spot, all the ingredients are grouped together and the workspace is very tidy. This sort of organization is one of the first things chefs are taught at school, and it even has a fancy French name: mise en place, which translates as ‘everything in place’. Having a clear space to work in means you’ll be able to focus on the job you are doing, and do it well.

Good cooks clear away mess as they go, and clean up really well after they’ve finished cooking. This keeps the kitchen clean, safe and hygienic.

BEFORE YOU START COOKING:

• Clearawayanythingyoudon’tneed.Giveyourselfspacetolayoutingredientsand room to work. Mug trees, radios, magazines, piles of mail and other clutter should be put somewhere else.

• Wipedownyoursurfaces,preferablywithanantibacterialspray,soeverythingisclean when you begin.

• Readthroughtherecipeyou’reabouttocook,thengetoutalltheequipmentthatyou’re going to need. Make sure it’s clean and ready to go so you won’t have to stop and look for something halfway through cooking.

• Measureoutyouringredientsaheadoftimeandlinethemuponyourworkbench.This will make cooking so much easier and more enjoyable.

• Ifyou’regoingtobecookingintheoven,turnitonsoithastimetocomeuptothe temperature you need.

AFTER:

• Makesureallyourappliancesareunplugged,andyouroven,grill,andhobareall turned off.

• Putawayanyingredientsyounolongerneed.

• Storeanyleftoverfoodincleancontainersthenletitcoolbeforecoveringand putting in the fridge.

• Washupyourdirtydishesandpans.

• Wipedownyoursurfacesandhob,preferablywithanantibacterialspray,tomakesure everything’s nice and clean for the next time.

• Checkthefloor.Ifyou’vedroppedanyfoodorliquid,cleanitupsonobodyslipsonit.

©JamieOliver.IllustrationsbyPeterHamilton.


A sharp knife and good technique can make you fast and efficient in the kitchen, but you have to respect these tools and always keep your mind focused on what you are doing.

If you go to the video section of this website: www.jamieshomeccookingskills.com/videos you’ll find helpful videos of all sorts of knife skills. Practice these until they start to feel natural. DO NOT try to chop or slice quickly right away. It takes years of practice for chefs to be able to slice, dice and chop quickly and you’re bound to hurt yourself if you try to imitate this.

TIPS FOR KNIFE SAFETY

• Thismightsoundstrange, but one of the easiest ways to avoid accidents in the kitchen is to ensure your knives are sharp. If you use a blunt knife, you’ll have to use more force when you push down and that’s when things can slip. Keep knifes sharpened using a long metal rod called a ‘steel’ and watch the video in the video section to learn how to do this safely: www.jamieshomecookingskills.com/videos/how-to-sharpen-knives.

• Usetherightknifefortherightjob.Aparingknifeshouldbeusedtotrimandpeel smaller ingredients, a chef’s knife for chopping, dicing and slicing, and a serrated bread knife to halve a loaf of bread.

• Alwayslayadampcloth,teatowelorpieceofkitchenpaperunderneathachopping board before using. This will stop the board slipping as you chop.

• Keepthehandleofyourknifeclean.Ifyougetgreaseoroilonit,stopwhatyou’redoing and wash it off so your grip on the knife is good at all times.

• Donotwalkaroundthekitchenwiththebladeofyourknifefacingout!Holditfacing down, and tell people what you are doing so they don’t bump into you.

• Payattentiontowhatyou’redoing.Itonlytakesafractionofasecondtomakeamistake.

• Whenyou’vefinishedwithaknife,eithercleanitandputitawayimmediately,orput it somewhere where people can see it. The worst place you can leave a knife is in a sink under a whole lot of other stuff, or in soapy water where other people might reach in to wash something without thinking.

• If you don’t have a knife block for your knives, lay them flat in an uncluttered drawer where everyone can see them. Putting them in a drawer with tongs, whisks, wooden spoons and other utensils where you have to rummage around is a bad idea.

©JamieOliver.IllustrationsbyPeterHamilton.


When it comes to cooking, temperatures are measured in one of three ways: Celsius (°C), Farenheit (°F) or gas mark. These are simply different ways of expressing the same temperature, so it’s nothing to worry about. All ovens vary, and you may not have all of these temperature settings on the oven you are using. If a recipe tells you to cook something at 200°C, but your oven only has Fahrenheit, use the chart below to make the conversion and you’ll know you need to set your oven to 400°F.

This might sound strange, but the more you use your oven, the better you’ll get to know its personality. You might find that a fish pie that takes 20 minutes in the oven at school, takes 25 or 30 minutes when you cook it at home at the same temperature. So use recipe timings as a guide, and if the recipe tells you to cook something “for 25 minutes, or until crisp and golden,” check on the food. If it looks ready after 20 minutes, take it out. Your intuition will usually be right.

Very low 110°C 225°F gas ¼

Very low 130°C 250°F gas ½

Cool 140°C 275°F gas 1

Slow 150°C 300°F gas 2

Medium low 160°C / 170°C 325°F gas 3

Medium 180°C 350°F gas 4

Medium hot 190°C 375°F gas 5

Hot 200°C 400°F gas 6

Very hot 220°C 425°F gas 7

Very hot 230°C 450°F gas 8

Full whack 240°C 475°F gas 9


ACCURACY IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS Baking is a lot of fun, and the results can be really special. Things like cakes, cupcakes, muffins and puddings are all examples of delicious baked foods. But unlike a lot of cooking, where you can freestyle a bit and make it up as you go, baking can be quite temperamental. To get the best results, try to follow the instructions, measurements and timings in recipes as precisely as you can, and make sure you use the correct ingredients.

Jamie says, “I was never brilliant at maths, but desserts are kind of like an equation – if you combine the right things in the right proportions you will get the same answer every time. So, when you’re following a recipe for a cake, pastry or biscuits, you have to follow it strictly – otherwise what you end up taking out of the oven will probably not be quite what you wanted to make!”

WHAT ARE SPONGES AND CAKES MADE OF?

Sponges and cakes are usually made from a basic mixture of fat, sugar, eggs and flour. Often the flour has a raising agent added to it to create bubbles in the cake as it cooks, making it spongy and light. Baking powder is the most commonly used raising agent, and if a recipe doesn’t use self-raising flour, you’ll probably need to add baking powder to your plain flour to make your cake rise.

If the sponge you are making is quite simple, you can play around with the flavours in your topping or filling. You can make all sorts of delicious icings and use sliced fruit, shavings of chocolate or even edible flower petals to create a real showstopper of a dessert.

HOW CAN I ENSURE I GET THE BEST RESULTS? Measuring the ingredients exactly is the key to success, so, accurate scales are a very important piece of equipment. You can buy see-saw scales with weights that you balance, spring balance scales with a clock face, or electronic scales with a digital display. Make sure the scales are set to zero before you start.



Always start with clean equipment. A bowl that was clean when you put it away last time might have gathered dust since then, and this could affect the way your recipe turns out. For example, meringues are very temperamental and if the equipment used to make them isn’t sparkling clean, they may not turn out well. So check your bowls, whisks and other equipment before you start cooking, and wash anything you aren’t sure about.

There’s no point having clean equipment if your work surface and hands are dirty. So clear away any clutter before you start, then give the surface and your hands a good scrub.

Having the correct oven temperature is crucial when baking. All ovens are different, that’s just a fact of life. It’s a good idea to buy a small oven thermometer from a cook’s shop and put it in your oven while you bake. That way, you can turn the oven up or down to get the temperature you need (see Temperature conversion chart).

Resist the temptation to open the oven door because every time you do, the heat will rush out and cool the oven down. If your oven is old, it might take 5 minutes or more for it to come back up to the right temperature. Look through the window instead and only open the door if you absolutely need to.



This guide is here to help you understand more about the different cuts of beef available and the sort of cooking method each cut is best suited to.

1. SHOULDER This part of the animal works hard, so it’s full of muscle. This means it takes longer to become tender so it is usually boned and diced to be used in stews or made into mince (see All about mince).

2. RIBS AND RIB-EYE STEAKRibs are kept together to make a roasting joint or cut into individual ribs to serve two people. The centre of the rib is called the ‘rib-eye’. This can be filleted off the bone then cut into ‘rib-eye’ steaks. These have a marble of fat in the middle and can be pan-fried or barbecued.

3. SIRLOIN Taken off the bone, it can be cut into ‘sirloin steaks’ for pan-frying or barbecuing, or it can be roasted whole and carved.

4. RUMP STEAKThis cut is always boneless and, although not as tender as other steaks, it’s very juicy and tasty. Lovely grilled or barbecued.

5. FILLET The fillet is the long muscle you find inside a cow, running along either side of the spine. It’s very tender and soft and is often cut into ‘fillet steaks’ for pan-frying and barbecuing, or roasted in one piece.

6. LEGThere are basically three cuts of meat in the leg: top side, top rump and silverside. Top side and top rump are large muscles that are cut into pieces and tied up with string for roasting. Silverside is a little bit tough, so it is often used to make salt beef or corned beef.

7. SHINUsually taken from the front of legs, this is the toughest cut of beef. But when cooked slowly in a stew becomes meltingly soft and delicious.

8. BRISKETAnother tough but tasty cut of beef taken from the chest. Fantastic when boiled, braised or slowly roasted.

© Jamie Oliver.


Jamie says, “If you boil the life out of vegetables then plonk them on the table, they’re going to be soggy, flavourless and horrible. Give them some love by cooking them properly, then flavour them with something exciting and even the fussiest eaters will want a plate.”

WHY ARE VEGETABLES SO IMPORTANT?

Vegetables are a fantastic source of vitamins and minerals and often only contain a modest amount of calories. Eating a variety of different vegetables means you’ll get a great range of different vitamins and minerals.

There is such a plentiful array of vegetables to choose from throughout the year that you should never get bored. Jersey Royal new potatoes, asparagus and baby carrots

are at their best in the spring; fresh peas and broad beans are great summer vegetables and heartier root veg, like parsnips and squash, are around throughout the autumn and winter.

To see what’s in season each week in the UK, check out: www.eattheseasons.co.uk

WHAT VEGETABLES SHOULD WE EAT?

To have a healthy diet, we should all be eating at least ‘5 a day’ when it comes to portions of fruit and vegetables (see Getting your 5 a day). But quality is just as important as quantity. It’s best to buy local, in-season produce and consume it fairly soon after purchase, as the nutrient content of vegetables deteriorates quickly once picked. In-season produce will be also be at its best flavour-wise. Farmers’ markets are a brilliant place to pick up fresh local produce and you’ll often find lots of wonderful and perhaps unfamiliar veg that you may not see in the supermarket. Buying locally and in season should also work out a bit cheaper.

Lots of producers now run vegetable box delivery schemes. They’ll deliver local, in-season vegetables direct to your doorstep and you’ll be able to customise your selection to suit your tastes. If you want to be adventurous, you can just let them choose for you then try new recipes out every time you get something different.



HOW TO COOK VEGETABLES

There are lots of different ways to cook vegetables so you don’t have to stick with the same cooking method every time. The most common methods are: boiling, steaming, frying, roasting, baking and stir-frying.

The cooking process changes the texture of vegetables by softening the plant cells and releasing flavours. It’s worth remembering that the nutrient content of vegetables can deteriorate during cooking, so it’s always good to have a mixture of raw and cooked vegetables as part of your daily diet. Have a look into which vegetables can be eaten raw, you might be surprised. The Root vegetable salad with grilled chilli dressing is a great example of how vegetables we often cook one way can be used differently.

If you don’t have time to keep an eye on the vegetables when you’re cooking, it’s best not to boil them. If you leave them too long, by accident, they’ll lose their flavour and their nutrients will leach into the water. Keep cooking time to a minimum and try to re-use cooking water for stocks, soups and gravies, if you can.

Steaming and stir-frying are both quick cooking methods that help vegetables to maintain their nice, firm texture. Because of the shorter cooking time, nutrient loss is also kept to a minimum.

When you bake or roast vegetables in the oven, you can create a greater depth of flavour as none of the flavour escapes and the sugars start to caramelise.

When eating out, you might want to think twice about eating vegetables that are deep-fried or served in rich, creamy sauces. They’ll be full of added calories and fat. As a general rule, vegetables that have been dressed and served simply usually taste the best, and are better for you.

To find out more about vegetables visit: www.thinkvegetables.co.uk/index.asp



For thousands of years, grains and pulses have been harvested for food. Grains like wheat and rice, and pulses like lentils, chickpeas or corn, can all be dried, and then ground into the fine powder we call flour. When flour is mixed with water, it makes dough, and this can be shaped and cooked in hundreds of different ways.

in Italy, wheat flour is mixed with eggs and water then rolled into different pasta shapes (see Perfect pasta); in North Africa, semolina dough is turned into tiny grains of couscous and then steamed and served with stews called ‘tagines’; Native Americans make dough from corn flour, then roll it flat for their cornbreads; and in China, wheat or rice dough is stretched into long thin noodles, or rolled flat for the thin pancakes you often get with crispy duck.

But perhaps the most common use for flour across the world is as a main ingredient in bread.

WHAT IS BREAD MADE OF? In its simplest form, most bread is simply a mixture of flour and water, with a little seasoning. Once again, different parts of the world all have their own takes on this food staple:

• Italy: dough is made from wheat then rolled out and turned into all sorts of breads including ciabatta and foccacia.

• Scandinavia: rye flour is used to make thin, dry crisp breads that can then be kept and eaten over a long period of time.

• Middle East: wheat flour is used to make soft round pita breads.

• India: wholewheat flour is rolled out for chappatis and rotis then served with curries.

WHY ARE LOAVES OF BREAD SO DIFFERENT TO FLATBREADS? Flatbreads are the most straightforward type of bread. Flour is mixed with water, seasoning, and any flavours the baker wants to add then rolled into flat rounds and grilled over a fire, baked in an oven or pan-fried.

Breads that rise when baked are slightly more involved because there have to be bubbles in the water that gets added to the flour. As the bread bakes, these bubbles expand,



making the bread puffy, springy and soft. Those crucial bubbles come from yeast, which is a natural micro-organism. When yeast comes into contact with the starch from flour, it creates lots of tiny gas bubbles of carbon dioxide.

In the past, people mixed a small amount of water with flour then left that to ferment in the sun. This allowed any natural yeasts floating around in the atmosphere to land in the liquid and start producing bubbles of carbon dioxide. As the yeast multiplied, the liquid would become bubblier until eventually, that bubbly sludgy liquid could be added to flour to make dough. Bread made in this old-fashioned way is called ‘sourdough’ bread. The baker adds a little water and flour to the rest of the liquid and keeps it cool until the next day when he can use this ‘starter’ to make another batch of bread.

HOW IS BREAD MADE TODAY? You’ll still see sourdough in some supermarkets and bakeries, but for the most part, bread makers don’t bother making a starter as they can add packets of dried yeast to make their bubbles. People all around the world use dried yeast to make bread that rises.

CAN YOU BAKE BREAD AT HOME? Yes! All you need to make bread is flour, water, a pinch of salt, a pinch of sugar, yeast and an oven. Scales will help you get the quantities spot on, and baking the bread in a baking tray or tin will give the finished loaf a nice shape. Once you’ve mastered a basic bread dough recipe (see Basic bread) you’ll be able to add your own personality to the bread by adding all sorts of different flavours.



© Jamie Oliver.

This guide is here to help you understand more about the different cuts of chicken available and the sort of cooking method each cut is best suited to.

1. BREASTThis is probably the most popular part of the chicken. It can be sold as a whole breast, with the skin off, or on, or sliced up into smaller pieces. If you like white meat and no bones, the breast is for you. It can be pan-fried, stuffed with lovely flavours and then baked, roasted or barbecued. Smaller breast fillet pieces can be added to stews, stir-fries, and pies. Just try not to overcook it as it can sometimes be a bit dry.

2. WINGSThese are the cheapest part of the chicken and fantastic to eat. They come on the bone and when roasted, grilled or barbecued, they go crispy and delicious.

3. DRUMSTICKSThese are the chicken’s shins. They come on the bone and are cheap, easy to cook and a big barbecue favourite.

4. THIGHSThese are arguably the tastiest part of the chicken. You can buy them bone in, or bone out. Their meat tends to be darker than the white breast meat. Because the legs work harder than any other part of the chicken, the meat is firmer and needs longer than a breast to cook. But if you roast them, then finish them off under the grill or on the barbecue, you’ll have tender, juicy meat and wonderful crispy skin.

5. LEGSInstead of dividing the legs into drumsticks and thighs, try leaving them whole then roasting them in the oven.


You’ll probably see the same common varieties of fish and shellfish crop up again in shops and restaurants throughout the UK. The easiest way to categorise them is to divide them into different groups: round fish, flat fish, shellfish and crustaceans (plus a few extras!), then think of them as little families within these groups.

Round fish: These fish aren’t actually round, but if you were to cut across them, you would end up with round pieces, which is where their name comes from. In this group you’ll find:

• The pink-fleshed family of salmon, trout, sea trout and rainbow trout. These fish are real all-rounders and are brilliant used whole or cut into smaller fillets for poaching, frying, roasting or baking.

• The white flaky family of cod, haddock, hake and whiting. These fish have a very delicate texture, and need to be handled carefully once cooked as they can flake apart really easily. They’re great for roasting, delicious baked with simple flavours or deep- fried in batter for the nation’s favourite dish: fish and chips.

• The oily family of sardines, herring, anchovies and mackerel. These fish are relatively small and are wonderful cooked whole, either on the barbecue, in the oven or under the grill. These fish are often preserved in brine (salty water) or oil and then sold in tins or jars, or smoked and dried. Kippers, for example, come from smoked and dried mackerel.

• The warm water family of bass, bream, mullet and snapper. These fish have great flavour and are even tastier when cooked whole, either in the oven, on the barbecue or under the grill. Fillets are fantastic pan-fried.

• The meaty tuna and swordfish brothers. These fish always come in boneless meaty steaks that are perfect for barbecuing, griddling or pan-frying. Tuna – a brilliant and cheap source of fish – is also cooked then packed into tins or jars with brine (salty water).

Flat fish: Flat fish are actually flat. They spend most of their time swimming along the seabed. Think of them as one big family, with halibut, turbot and brill as the big brothers, and Dover sole, lemon sole, plaice and dabs as the smaller younger siblings. These fish are often sold whole because they are great roasted or grilled, but are also sold in several small fillets, which are good baked or fried.



AND THE REST…

There are a few other fish you may find that don’t fit into either of the above categories. They are:

• Monkfish are a very ugly but very tasty deep- sea fish. Monkfish is a meaty fish and its fillets are delicious grilled, roasted or pan- fried.

• Skate is a member of the ray family, it always comes on the bone and is great for grilling or roasting.

• John Dory is spiny and beautiful and normally sold in fillets for frying, grilling or barbecuing.

Shellfish: These are small creatures that live inside a hard protective shell.

• Scallops are delicious white nuggets of meat that come in big crinkly shells. You always take them out of their shells to cook them and they’re good steamed, fried, grilled or even raw (as long as they’re really fresh!).

• Mussels have deep-blue shells that must be scrubbed clean before use as they’re always cooked in their shells. The meat inside the shells ranges in colour from creamy white to deep orange depending on their sex and the time of year. Mussels are brilliant cooked in the pan with a little cream or tomato sauce and eaten straight out of the shell.

• Clams are very small and have very small grey shells. They’re prepared and cooked in the same way as mussels and are fantastic cooked simply with garlic and chilli then tossed through cooked spaghetti.

• Oysters have beautiful greenish silver crinkly shells with a creamy little creature inside. They’re considered a delicacy by many people and are normally eaten raw on their own, or with a little lemon, Tabasco sauce and a pinch of black pepper.

Crustaceans: These are sea creatures that have legs and claws and a protective shell on their backs. They can swim in the sea or walk around the seabed.

• Prawns come in a variety of sizes, from tiny little cold- water ones to huge tropical ones. They can be cooked in or out of their shell and are delicious served hot or cold.



They’re fantastic grilled, barbecued, fried or boiled. They’re incredibly versatile and can be used in anything from pasta to stir-fries.

• Lobsters are really like bigger, posher prawns. They are much bigger and have delicious meaty claws. Like prawns they can be cooked in or out of their shells and are delicious hot or cold. Lobsters are fantastic sliced in half and grilled, or boiled whole, then chopped into chunks and served with melted butter.

• Crabs are thick-shelled creatures that live on the seabed. They are always cooked in their shell, normally by boiling, and then picked and eaten. You get two kinds of meat from a crab – creamy brown meat from inside the head shell and fine, sweet white meat from the claws and legs. Crabs are delicious eaten cold in a salad or just picked out of their shell and eaten with crusty bread and mayonnaise. Crab is also great in soups and stir-fries.

Other sea creatures: Octopus and squid are boneless creatures with lots of suckered legs that swim through the sea.

• Octopus are quite tough and thick. They need to be boiled for quite a while to become tender enough to eat. They’re full of flavour and delicious in any kind of fish stew, pre-cooked then barbecued or even boiled.

• Squid are tender and soft, and only need a little frying or grilling to cook them. They’re incredibly versatile, and are fantastic sliced up and deep-fried for calamari, stuffed and braised, boiled and dressed, grilled, fried or barbecued.

To learn more about different types of fish, check out:http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/nutritionessentials/fishandshellfish



Sense is very important when buying fish and we’re not just talking about common sense; sight, smell and touch all come into it.

While some meat can actually benefit by quite literally hanging around for a few days or even weeks (see Shopping for beef), fish is another story. Freshness is everything because when fish has just been caught it has a fabulous delicate flavour and juicy texture. When it becomes old, it can be strong-tasting, smelly and dried out, which is not good.

As a general rule, Mondays are not a great day to buy fish because fishing boats don’t go out on Sundays. That means the fish being sold on a Monday was probably caught on Friday or, at the latest, Saturday, so might not be at its freshest. The exception to this is farmed trout and salmon, which can be caught any day of the week.

If you know what to look for, your eyes, nose and fingertips will tell you what’s been freshly caught and also what’s been hanging around for a couple of days.

USE YOUR EYES

• Freshfishhasshinyalmostslimyskinlikeit’sjust come out of the water.

• Scalyfishlikesalmon,sardinesorredmulletshould have all their scales intact not half rubbed off.

• Fishshouldhavebrightcleareyes,notcloudyorglazedover,andhealthyredgills.

• Filletsoffishshouldbeshinyandlookwet.Thefleshshouldnotbeflakingapart.

• Lookatthedisplayoffish.Ifthey’reneatlylaidoutontheiceitshowsthatthe fishmonger cares about what he’s selling. If they’re carelessly thrown in a pile so the fillets are bent and flaking apart, be wary. Just imagine what the fridge in the back must look like!

USE YOUR NOSE

• Freshfishnevereversmellsfishy.Itsmellsofthesea.

• Don’tbeafraidtogetclosetothefishand take a good sniff. Trust what your nose tells you.

• Strongfishysmellsinafishmonger’sareabadsign,andifyousmellanythinglike ammonia, it’s time to turn around and walk out the door!



USE YOUR HANDS

• Reachoutandtouchthefishifyoucan.Itshouldbeslipperyandwetlikeit’sjust come out of the sea.

• Pressitlightly.Itshouldbefirmandslightly rubbery to the touch.

• Fishthathashard,dryskinorissquishy and soft to the touch is fit for the bin, not your frying pan!

Trust your senses, they won’t lie to you. You just need to learn to interpret and understand what they’re telling you and have a bit of confidence. If you don’t feel you can do any of this because the fish is behind a counter, don’t be afraid to ask your fishmonger to let youseethefishupclose.Remember,iftheirgoodsareuptoscratchtheyshouldhavenothing to hide.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BUYING SUSTAINABLE FISH There’s a lot of information around suggesting we should be buying fish from sustainable sources. If a fish or shellfish comes from a ‘sustainable source’, that means it has been caught in an area of the sea where the amount of fishing taking place isn’t causing the population of fish to deplete, and by a fishery whose fishing does not cause too much damage to the surrounding environment or other wildlife.

Jamie says: “I’m right in the game, listening to fishermen and talking to suppliers and when I say sustainability feels like a moving target it’s because the fish are, literally, moving all the time.”

What Jamie means is that while a type of fish may be endangered in one part of the world, it could be thriving and therefore ‘sustainable’ 2,000 miles away. One way to try and keep on top of this is to use the Marine Stewardship Council’s logo (MSC) as a guide. When you see their logo on a pack of fish, you can be assured that it comes from a sustainable source. The MSC is a small organisation that independently certifies fisheries based on how well-managed or sustainable their sources are.

They are working their way around fisheries all over the world, working out what is and isn’t endangered. Because they are a small organisation, they haven’t made it to all of the fisheries yet. So if a pack of fish doesn’t have their logo, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not sustainable; it could mean the MSC hasn’t evaluated that particular fishery.

LikeJamiesays,it’samovingtarget.Thebestthingyoucan do is buy MSC-certified fish when you see it, and encourage shops to stock it and other people to buy it.

To find out more about sustainability, visit: www.msc.org



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