http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/recipes/recipeexchange/article6388749.ece


From The Times
May 30, 2009
Gordon Ramsay picks the best tastes of home
After sifting through hundreds of readers’ recipes, Gordon Ramsay has chosen five winners that, to him, epitomise home cooking

From Auntie B’s cheesecake to Nana’s rosti potatoes, from Dad’s Klops to Mrs Watson’s gingerbread, there is no doubting the number of family recipes regularly pressed into service throughout the country. We may flirt with celebrity chefs, and ooh and aah at the latest creation from Nigella, but it is clear that they cannot hold a ladle to the wealth of dishes that is stored in our collective kitchens.

For the past two weeks we have been inviting you to send us your favourites and we have been overwhelmed by your response. You have written in your hundreds, many with recipes lovingly passed down through the generations, others with new arrivals. They have ranged from the toothsome to the frankly bizarre, while some have had heart-rending stories attached, and others have been almost haiku-like in their simplicity.

As you would expect, comfort food featured large on the menu, with lots of nourishing stews, bakes and pies — always, but always, with home-made pastry. There was also a strong economising streak, with plenty of table room for old favourites, such as brawn and faggots.

Lisa’s hedgerow crumble was, as she said, the perfect answer to the credit crunch, with its windfall apples, blackberries and elderberries, and you could not fault Jane’s kippers and cabbage for value either — ingredients: one cabbage, one tin John West kippers. And who would have known that Spam still had such a following: it cropped up as both a hash and the much-vilified fritters.

Gordon Ramsay spent a happy time sorting through all your entries and after a lot of agonising — and yes, I’m sorry to report, a bit of swearing too — he has come up with five winners which, to him, epitomise the strength and depth of home cooking in this country.

So congratulations to our winners. But please don’t stop sending in your recipes.

WINNING 5 RECIPES

Abby Dyson's mustardy mackerel fishcakes

Mrs Graham’s rhubarb chutney

Louise Convisser's braised steak with apple, cabbage and caraway seeds

Geoff Lawrance's apple and lemon tart

Asaduzzaman Malik's murgi musallam

21 HIGHLY COMMENDED

Very sparkling white wine and elderflower

Prawn Balchao (Goan dish)

Howtowdie (Scottish)

Stuffed marrows

Toosey Blue Paté (Cured, smoked, citrus paté)

Kofta curry (also called ball curry)

Fresh hot bread rolls from the fridge (fridge rolls)

Gazpacho

Mumsoup

Rhubarb and fig jam

Myria’s mother’s tart

Chard Omelette

Cocido (Spanish stew)

Honey-glazed pork belly with sauteed spring greens and minted yoghurt

Bara Brith

Granny’s Orange Chocolate Cake

Lemon Ice-cream

Shortbread biscuits

Echaudés

Bramley apple brack