Cooking for Friends – Terry Edwards & George Craig

Cooking for Friends: Bring People Together, Enjoy Good Food, and Make Happy Memories by Terry Edwards and George Craig explores the duo’s humble beginnings of cooking for friends – to creating one of the trendiest pop-up restaurants in London named Check On.

The dynamic pair take traditional British dishes and give them a modern make-over to please the palate and encourage conversation – they even include playlists to go along with suggested menus. These boys are all about the atmosphere – food, friends and music. What more is there?

Cooking for Friends delivers one hundred recipes with gorgeous photography from the talented Georgie Clarke and Terry and George’s own Instagram account to make this book sizzle with a youthful vibe that is appealing even to this old (yet very hip) cookbook lover. Their secret recipes are shared which incude Jalapeño Mac and Cheese, Burnt Salted Ice Cream, King Beef Wellington, Fish Fingers and Curry Sauce and more. They didn’t slam the door on English food traditions, they simply creatively revamped them to make them more enticing to the world’s evolving palate.

Since their pop-up restaurant, they have created similar sell-out events across London, Manchester, New York and Hollywood. (Hello, boys – we love food here in Denver!) In 2014, they opened their first non-pop-up restaurant called The Pearl in London. This book is totally devoted to food, friends and good times and that checks all the boxes for a fantastic title.

Special thanks to the authors and Harper Design for sharing the recipe for Green Pea and Ham Hock Soup with Crackling Crumbs. Photograph by Georgie Clarke. Please be sure to enter our giveaway for a chance to win one of five copies of this book!

GREEN PEA AND HAM HOCK SOUP WITH CRACKLING CRUMBS

This is a great and inexpensive hearty soup for a winter’s evening. Everyone’s got a bag of frozen peas in the freezer and this is the perfect way to use them up. The sweet pea and salt of the ham plus the texture of the crackling is the perfect combination. You can get a ham hock from your local butchers.

SERVES 6-8

For the stock

1 ham hock
1 carrot
1 onion
1 bay leaf

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4 oz. (1 stick) butter
1 onion, diced
10 fresh mint leaves
2½ pounds frozen peas
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. First make the stock. Place the ham hock in a large pan with the carrot, onion and bay leaf and cover with 3 quarts of cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 2-3 hours, or until the meat falls from the bone under its own weight. Check from time to time and top up with water as necessary so that the meat is always covered. Remove the ham hock and place to one side to cool. Strain the liquid, discarding the vegetables, and set aside.

2. Once the ham is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and meat from the bone and discard the bone. Flake the meat into small bite-sized pieces and set aside in a bowl until ready to serve.

3. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

4. Place the ham on a baking tray. Sprinkle with sea salt and cook in the oven for about 25-30 minutes, or until completely crispy. Remove from the oven and place in a colander to cool and allow any excess fat to drain away. Once cooled, chop to a crumble consistency.

5. Melt the butter in a heavybased pan and cook the chopped onion over a low heat, until soft and translucent.

6. Add the mint, frozen peas and 2 quarts of the reserved ham stock to the pan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 10 minutes before blending to a smooth silky soup with a hand-held stick blender. Season to taste with salt and pepper and then return to the pan to reheat gently.

7. Place about one-third cup of the flaked ham hock into each warm soup bowl and cover with the piping hot soup. Finish with a generous sprinkle of the crackling crumbs and serve immediately.