Masterchef-Cooking Doesn't Get Any Easier Than This!

Last week saw the start of a new series of 'Masterchef', now celebrating its 10th anniversary the show is still popular and as I've said before one of my favourite cookery programmes. This series is for amateur contestants and will be followed later in the year with the celebrity version which brings me to my favourite contestant of all time: Janet Street Porter!

Janet took part in the 2013 celebrity masterchef series and certainly lived up to her reputation as being a stroppy, opinionated force to be reckoned with! In her own words Janet is 'The queen of recycling and leftovers' a woman very much after my own heart! Whilst other contestants delivered dishes such as: sous vide sea trout, scallop mousse, fennel confit and smoked mussel cream sauce, Janet set to with a roadkill pheasant!

Masterchef is great as a light entertainment TV programme, however if you are a novice cook this programme is more likely to put you off cooking than encourage you!  I have been asked why I haven't applied to be a contestant by several friends, well let me tell you, I don't cook like this show demands! I mean come on! My hotch-potch pies hardly measure up to vanilla miso yellow tail with cavolo nero or kyushu-style pork ramen with truffled lobster gyoza! And heaven forbid if my presentation, which invariably involves dribbles on plates, burnt bits and no precise stacking of vegetables, should come under the radar of John Torode or Gregg- bootiful buttery base- Wallace.

Janet wasn't born to cook and infact didn't learn until she was twenty, she says: 'food is about taste, texture and well sourced ingredients, and cooking is not an opportunity to make a climbing frame out of vegetables or building blocks out of meat.' Janet never minces her words and in her article in the Daily Mail this Monday wrote an interesting article about modern day sin, hilariously, and spot on In my opinion she cites: telling others how to live their lives, from dieting to divorce. Pretending you're interested in your relatives (I'd go one further and add friends too) when you're not. The modern sin of fake concern. Texting and the use of phones at meal times (again I would add to that, when in company!) And REFUSING TO LEARN TO COOK, to which I say here here!

So, if you are following masterchef don't be fooled into thinking you're inadequate because you can't knock up a quince compote croustades with a caramel cage, pistachio kulfi, coconut sorbet and berry coulis. By the same token don't throw your hands in the air and say you can't cook. I hope my recipes are an inspiration to you, I know that they are easily achievable, affordable and delicious and with a slight play on masterchef's much quoted slogan: 'cooking doesn't get any easier than this'

You know every now and then I do serve up a dish that takes me by surprise, this next recipe was sensational yet I suspect it would not meet with John or Gregg's approval. I combined a simple puttanesca sauce with salmon (actually Italians often include pieces of tuna) but because the sauce is salty, piquant and hot, not a genteel sauce but coarse and robust- John and Gregg would say it was too overpowering for the fish. Puttanesca is normally served with pasta, however I served mine on mashed potatoes and the combination of fantastic flavours, wonderful textures and even the rugged presentation, made it restaurant worthy. This dish is as easy to make as a cup of tea and I promise you it was divine!

Salmon puttanesca

Recipe
4 salmon fillets, cut into pieces
2 cloves garlic, crushed
I red chilli, chopped
8 anchovy fillets
4 tablespoons olive oil
800g chopped tomatoes, tinned or fresh
100g olives

Warm garlic, chilli and anchovies in a pan with oil, stir and cook for 2 minutes until anchovies start to disintegrate

Place salmon pieces in pan, turn up heat and add tomatoes and olives, simmer gently for 20 minutes

Meanwhile rapidly boil some peeled potatoes and when cooked mash with a splash of milk and knob of butter, season
Dish potato onto plate with a generous serving of puttanesca

This was me on a 'surpassing myself' day with very little effort involved, I will warn you this isn't a timid dish, it's big and gutsy and demands boldness in the cook and a love of piquant flavours by the diner, I'm sure you'll love it!

'Sometimes I've looked at a plate of food and wondered if it wouldn't look better as a hat'
- Janet Street-Porter

Love Donna xxx