Jessie Ware: 'My mum is so cool, we have a right hoot together'

On the subject of M&S, what made you agree to be involved in the new launch with Ocado?

Jessie: They approached us and it was a no-brainer as we are huge fans of the food. As a kid growing up it was always such a treat when mum brought food back from M&S. It was a lovely memory from my childhood. So to be asked to provide our favourite recipes for the campaign to promote food pairings was so exciting. Mum and I got to decide which two pairings of food went together the best and provide our favourite recipes.

I love making a chicken dish so we provided a chicken and apricot recipe as the ingredients are so easy to buy and then we came up with a favourite of ours, miso and white chocolate cookies.

How do you find the time to juggle everything, from creating recipes and music to the podcast and being a parent?

Jessie: I have lots of help from my husband and my family, although stupidly I can't use my mum anymore because she's now part of my work! I'm lucky though as I love to work and to keep busy. I mean, thank goodness in lockdown I was able to continue to cook and record the podcast, and shoot my videos for my new album, otherwise I would of gone stir-fry crazy.

Jessie and Lennie Ware have created two #perfectpairings recipes for Ocado to mark the launch of the full M&S Food range on ocado.com on 1st September.

6 chicken thighs (skin on or off)

3 heaped tablespoons of thick-cut marmalade

1.5 Tablespoons whole grain mustard

Juice of one large orange

1 orange cut in thin circle slices with skin on

Juice of one lemon

1.5 tablespoon of soy sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil

Pepper to season

Optional 1 red chilli finely sliced, seeds removed

Preheat the oven to 180 fan.

Combine all the ingredients apart from the orange slices in a bowl, mix thoroughly.

Place the chicken thighs in a baking tray and coat thighs with the mixture.

Add a grind of pepper.

Cook for 50 mins. Half way through, scatter the orange slices around the baking tray. If the chicken is browning too quickly place an orange slice over the thigh or put some tin foil over the tray.

Garnish with the finely sliced red chilli and serve with green beans, tenderstem brocolli and either rice or mashed potato.

Ingredients

250g melted butter

200g light brown sugar

100g caster sugar

2 tablespoons White Miso

350g plain flour

2 eggs + 1 extra egg yolk

3 tablespoons toasted white or black sesame seeds

200g white chocolate chips (optional swap out 50g of white chocolate for 50g dark chocolate chips)

1.5 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Melt the butter in a pan or microwave (you can use room temperature butter though).

Cream the butter and the sugar together with a whisk, until it changes to a paler colour.

Add the eggs and egg yolk to the butter and sugar and whisk for a minute.

Stir through the miso paste.

Add all dry ingredients to the mixture and stir to combine along with the chocolate.

Toast the sesame seeds in a pan for a couple of minutes until they turn to a golden brown colour, then add to the mixture.

Cover the mixture with clingfilm and let it chill in the fridge for at least an hour. Overnight even better!

Preheat the oven to 160 fan.

Spoon the dough into generous and relaxed walnut sized balls onto baking paper on a baking tray. Leave them in ball shape and keep a generous space between the balls. Put into the oven and bake about 6 cookies at the time for 10-12 minutes, turning the tray around half way through if browning one side too quickly.

After 12 minutes, take them out of the oven and let them sit on the pan for a few minutes, then transfer onto a wire rack to cool. They may seem underdone in the middle but that will give the chewiness when they cool down.