Newsletter: Magical food from award-winning chef Jean-Georges + brilliant recipes for artisanal canned fish

Get home cooking with Jean-Georges Vongerichten

Brought up in Alsace, and famed for his elegant infusion of classical French cuisine with Asian inspiration, Jean-Georges Vongerichten is undoubtedly one of the most influential chefs in the world. His eponymous restaurant Jean Georges in New York City boasts three Michelin stars, and he is the chef-owner of dozens of restaurants across more than fourteen cities globally.

We are excited to bring you his celebrated book Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef. Published in 1998, the year Vongerichten was crowned James Beard Best Chef in America, the book is written with former New York Times columnist and best-selling cookbook author Mark Bittman. The fruits of this collaboration are a book packed with recipes that tempt like a Jean-Georges menu, but that have been carefully written to be fully approachable for the home cook.

Start off with Rice Paper Rolls of Shrimp and Herbs, then move onto Beef with Ginger – a flavor-packed combination of a French pot-au-feu and a Vietnamese pho. Then treat yourself to a Warm, Soft Chocolate Cake for dessert.

Pictured above: Salmon and Potato Crisps from Jean-Georges: Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef by Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman

A spotlight on canned fish

Canned fish might seem like an unlikely subject for significant culinary attention, but in Portugal it is a true delicacy. The Best I(n) Can cookbook is a collaborative project of Can the Can restaurant and the National Association of the Canned Fish Industry (ANICP), aiming to showcase all that can be done with this fine quality product.

Chef Akis Konstantinidis was tasked with creating new and innovative dishes each month with products from a different canning company. The project was a true celebration, with each month also celebrated with a different musical collaborator. The result is a book filled with ravishing photography documenting Portuguese restaurants and canning, and containing a group of very tempting recipes.

Try Courgette Rolls with Spicy Sardines, Young Broadbean Salad with Tuna Fillets in Olive Oil or Algarve Tomato Granitas with Anchovy. Dessert has not been forgotten, there are a cluster of Portuguese treats, such as the decadently syrup-soaked Xerém Semolina Pudding.

For further reading on the subject take a look at our feature Consuming Passions: Sardines.

Discover all 22 recipes from The Best I(n) Can

Get 20% off the finest tinned fish

We've teamed up with our friends at The Tinned Fish Market so you can enjoy their artisan tinned fish with a 20% discount. Use the code CKBK20 by March 27 on any online order with them. Offer valid for UK users only.

Recipe ideas for Ramadan

During the holy month of Ramadan – this year starting on March 22 – Muslims around the globe will fast after a filling pre-dawn meal until the sun goes down that evening. Breaking that fast is a time to share food and socialize with family and friends.

For many, it begins with dates and nuts as a restorative snack, followed by hearty stews and rice dishes, such as this Lamb and Rice Pilaf Wrapped in Phyllo Pastry. The meal typically concludes with an indulgent sugary dessert, such as Sawine, a Trinidadian sweet noodle pudding.

For these and other dishes to cook for Ramadan, take a look at our Ramadan Feasting collection.

What to eat now: spring onions (scallions)

Spring Onions – scallions in the US – are also variously known as ‘green onions’ or ‘salad onions.’ Despite the fact that they are now available all year round, the ‘spring’ references the fact that this vegetable is actually an immature onion, picked at the earliest point in the year. If the spring onion was left to grow it would develop into a fully grown onion.

Always milder in flavor than a mature onion, spring onions are often eaten raw, in salads and strewn across fresh dishes. They are also delicious cooked, and lend themselves particularly well to the intense heat of a stir-fry.

For a flavor punch try this Quick Scallion Kimchi. Or try Steamed Fish Heaped with Scallions and Ginger, or any of these 12 Ways with Spring Onions.

Tech tip - narrowing your search

With such a huge collection of recipes in ckbk’s collection, powerful search tools are a necessity. The filters at the top of the search results page are just one way to define your search. But did you know this handy tip? Just prefix any word with a minus sign to exclude it from your recipe search. e.g. soufflé -cheese , chocolate cake -nuts, vegetable soup -celery

This comes in useful when cooking for those with food allergies, or if there’s an ingredient you simply don’t like! Get more search tips here.