This week’s book was Jane Grigson’s English Food by, of course, Jane Grigson. I bought this little paperback second-hand a few years ago. I think I heard about it when someone on Saturday Kitchen was cooking Sussex Pond Pudding – a lemon suet pudding and mentioned this classic book. I knew of Sophie, her daughter, but wasn’t aware of Jane nor her book. She writes so well; she reminds me a bit of Nigel Slater in the way she talks about food but is also a deep food historian, delving deeply into the fascinating backstory of dishes. We started with her Ragout of Lamb, a light summery dish. I boned the leg of lamb to allow us to cut some lovely large pieces for the dish. It was truly delicious. Later in the week was the rather fantastic Cornish Charter Pie. This pie was delicious. Now, normally, I would make my own pastry, but this was going to be a weekday dinner, so time was going to be of the essence. I bought Picard’s shortcrust (pate brise) from Ocado. I love this french company’s frozen products – great pain au chocolat and croissants, and their frozen pearl onions are just fantastic. Suffice it to say this pastry was out of this world good and made an exceptional pie. The pie was chicken and leeks and onions, with cream and parsley. Jane’s book is fantastic; next week its another cooking classic from Julia Child!