Jack Monroe Cooks In My Kitchen

Much excitement in The Mad House last week when the Guardian columnist and food blogger Jack Monroe came to film some recipes for a collaboration with Groupon to raise money for Oxfam, for whom she is also an ambassador.

She arrived at about 10am walking on a stick having broken about 47 bones in her foot and sprained her shoulder when she fell down the stairs after trying to stop the cats fighting. EnidCat heard this and kept well out of her way.

But you would never know from her smiles and sheer professionalism that she was in so much pain. She cooked three recipes;  the most delicious barley and kale soup, soda bread and pear and sultana turnovers.

They were part of five for a fiver that Jack has created and I can’t recommend the soup highly enough. As I speak as one who doesn’t really include soup on her desert island list. Or perhaps I should say didn’t. I’ll eat that any time. The key is the really clever garnish she makes and you’ll have to go to the site to find all the details but basically your fiver goes to Oxfam and you get the recipes, which are both affordable and healthy. Well what are you waiting for…?

And for those of you who perhaps aren’t familiar with Groupon I can tell you (because I paid close attention to Jack’s talk) that it’s not just about vouchers for cheap leg waxing and restaurants (although I’m all for a bit of that too) there are also plenty of other things to find on there such as cooking tips and recipes etc.

So I’ll leave you with a handy tip from Jack: when you’re struggling to peel a clove of fiddly garlic just soak it in hot water for a few minutes and the skin will just slide off. She only remembered that when she’d spent ten minutes trying to peel her clove but that, people, is because she’s a real cook and not all cheffy.

And the proof of it all is when the boys came home from school and saw the leftovers my 13-year-old just said: “Cool, Shall I just eat everything?”

And this is a picture I took on my phone which is very blurry but I think it’s a lovely picture of Jack so I’m including it!

The link for the recipes is at the top but if you want it again here you are.