---
title: '25 Easy Family Dinners And More | Jamie Oliver'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=1IjomFvc2Ds'
video_id: '1IjomFvc2Ds'
date: 2026-07-01
duration_sec: 7192
---

# 25 Easy Family Dinners And More | Jamie Oliver

> Source: [25 Easy Family Dinners And More | Jamie Oliver](https://youtube.com/watch?v=1IjomFvc2Ds)

## Summary

Jamie Oliver demonstrates a series of easy, family-friendly recipes, focusing on batch cooking, using store cupboard ingredients, and minimizing waste. He provides step-by-step instructions for creating delicious versions of classic dishes, from a British-style bolognese to a chocolate birthday cake.

### Key Points

- **Starting the Bolognese** [0:00] — Begins with a British twist on bolognese, starting by infusing olive oil with rosemary for initial flavor.
- **Adding Mushrooms for Flavor** [0:36] — Adds chestnut mushrooms, chopped to the same size as other vegetables, for huge flavor and amazing color.
- **Deglazing with Beer** [1:16] — Uses a 500ml bottle of pale ale to deglaze the pan, adding deep, malty, and chocolatey flavors to the ragu.
- **Pasta Hack: Concertina Cut** [2:19] — Demonstrates a hack for fresh lasagne sheets: making small cuts to create a concertina effect when cooked, which grabs the sauce.
- **Very British Ingredient: Cheddar** [3:08] — Finishes the bolognese pasta dish with cheddar cheese, calling it the 'very British ingredient'.
- **Chicken Roasting: Pre-Cooking and Basting** [4:46] — Roasts a chicken, then adds smoked streaky bacon over the breast to keep it moist and bastes the mushrooms below with drippings.
- **Versatile Lentil Side Dish** [6:37] — Uses canned green lentils as a side, finishing them with vinegar and crème fraîche for a no-stir ripple effect.
- **Quick Pizza Dough with Self-Raising Flour** [7:52] — Makes a pizza dough with 150g self-raising flour, 80ml water, and a pinch of salt. Kneads for 2 minutes.
- **Unique Pizza Topping: Grapes and Sausage** [8:42] — Creates a pizza topping with Cumberland sausage 'meatballs', pine nuts, and grapes, pairing it with rosemary for a sweet and savory combination.
- **Fish Cakes: Sauce and Poaching** [11:49] — Creates a sauce from a white onion, flour, and milk, then uses it to poach smoked haddock for fish cakes.
- **Binding Fish Cakes** [13:01] — Adds an egg to the mashed potato and fish mixture to hold everything together, keeping fish chunks large for texture.
- **Eggless Chocolate Cake Ingredient Ratios** [15:46] — Uses equal 200g portions of butter, chocolate, hazelnuts, self-raising flour, and sugar, along with 200ml of milk, to create an eggless chocolate cake.
- **Oozy Chocolate Cake Baking Time** [18:57] — Bakes the chocolate cake at 180°C for exactly 18 minutes to achieve a crispy outside with an oozy, soft center.
- **Veggie Quesadilla: Hidden Veggies** [20:44] — Uses leeks, peppers, and grated carrot as a veggie-packed filling for quesadillas, with cheese as the 'glue'.
- **Deep Pan Pizza: Store Cupboard Base** [25:49] — Creates a deep pan pizza base from 500g self-raising flour, 250ml water, and salt. Cooks it initially on the stovetop for a crispy bottom.
- **Cauliflower Cheese Mac and Cheese** [30:50] — Combines cauliflower, celery, leeks, and pasta in a cheese sauce. Liquidizes the sauce for a smooth, creamy texture.
- **Breadcrumbs from Stale Bread** [34:36] — Makes breadcrumbs from stale bread, using them as a topping with herbs and garlic for the mac and cheese.
- **Ratatouille: Grilled Veg Base** [36:11] — Char-grills courgettes, leeks, peppers, and cauliflower to add smokiness before mixing with a tomato sauce for a ratatouille.
- **Puff Pastry Base for Ratatouille** [38:29] — Serves the ratatouille on a shop-bought puff pastry base, which is scored and par-baked before filling.
- **Chili: Caramelizing Veg for Flavor** [41:13] — Stresses the importance of slowly frying and caramelizing onions and peppers before adding any liquid to the chili for maximum flavor.
- **Chili: Adding Beans and Tomatoes** [45:31] — Adds beans, chickpeas, and two tins of plum tomatoes to the chili, letting it simmer for 20-25 minutes after the vegetables have been caramelized.
- **Perfect Rice: Absorption Method** [46:56] — Uses the 'absorption method' for cooking basmati rice: two mugs of water to one mug of rice, ensuring light and fluffy results.
- **Chocolate Birthday Cake: No Sugar Anxiert** [50:15] — Makes a chocolate cake combining golden caster sugar with icing sugar when he runs out of regular sugar, showing flexibility with ingredients.
- **Sweet Pea Fish Pie: Frozen Fish** [55:28] — Uses frozen salmon and white fish, poaching them in milk to create the base for a cheesy sauce. Advocates for using frozen fish as a thrifty and sustainable option.
- **Freezer Veg: Peas and Spinach** [56:37] — Adds frozen peas and frozen spinach directly to the fish pie sauce, highlighting their convenience and nutritional value.
- **Mushroom Cannelloni: Meat-Free Flavor** [63:10] — Creates a mushroom cannelloni with leeks, onions, and a cheesy white sauce, noting that the depth of flavor can satisfy meat-eaters.
- **Kimchi Glazed Roast Chicken** [67:04] — Marinates a chicken with a liquidized kimchi sauce, then glazes it with honey and kimchi. Uses the remaining sauce as a dressing for a rainbow slaw.
- **Butter Chicken: Charred Tomatoes** [71:13] — Begins a butter chicken-style curry by charring whole tomatoes and chilies in a dry pan to add smokiness and depth of flavor.
- **Prawn Toast Toasty** [75:01] — Creates a hybrid of a prawn toast and a toasty by filling bread with a mixture of prawns, ginger, and spring onions, then coating it in egg white and sesame seeds.
- **Rice Cake Curry: Using Poppadoms** [79:00] — Makes a veggie curry with a crispy rice cake bottom. Incorporates crushed poppadoms into the rice to absorb moisture and add texture.
- **Avocado Pastry Quiche** [82:48] — Replaces butter in pastry with avocado, using 200g of avocado flesh for 400g of self-raising flour. Fills the pie with a pea, cheddar, and basil custard.
- **Ultimate Sausage Casserole** [86:47] — Builds a sausage casserole with a gravy of leeks, carrots, brown sauce, and tinned tomatoes. Topps with potato dumplings that are brushed with herb oil and grilled.
- **Prawn Rice Cake: Crispy Bottom** [90:37] — Creates a crispy-bottomed rice cake for a prawn curry. Cooks the rice using the absorption method, then lets it fry on low heat for 10 minutes to form a golden crust.
- **Chorizo, Prawn & Pepper Bake** [94:29] — Combines roasted peppers, chorizo, and marinated prawns with rice. The rice is cooked in the chorizo oil for extra flavor, then the dish is baked together.
- **Rocky Road: 500g Chocolate to 500g 'Stuff'** [98:36] — Makes a rocky road using a 1:1 ratio of melted chocolate (500g) to mix-ins (500g). Includes marshmallows, popcorn, biscuits, and dried fruits for texture.
- **Surf & Turf Linguine with Mascarpone** [103:02] — Cooks a quick pasta dish using pancetta, prawns, and a blushing sauce made from red wine and mascarpone. Emphasizes not overcooking the prawns.
- **Classic Minestrone: Caramelized Base** [110:35] — Makes a minestrone soup, starting with smoky bacon and caramelizing vegetables (carrots, celery, kale) before adding liquid. Uses odds and ends of pasta broken up in a tea towel.
- **Sausage and Mash Pie** [115:25] — Creates a pie with a mashed potato crust (using flour to bind it), filled with a leek, apple, and sausage casserole in a mustard and thyme sauce.

### Conclusion

Jamie Oliver provides adaptable, family-friendly recipes emphasizing the use of pantry staples and clever techniques to create impressive, comforting meals.

## Transcript

I'm going to batch cook today a
beautiful twist on a bolognese. I'm
going to show you a very British
bolognese. In this nice big ragu pan,
I'll put in some olive oil.
I'll start the story with rosemary, two
or three sprigs into that oil.
And that will be the beginning of
flavor. Another really good trick worth
mentioning are these pre-chopped bags of
carrots, onions, and celery. I think
they're really handy. Do not rush this
bit. We have to soften this veg and we
have to start lightly caramelizing this
veg. If we don't, if we just boil the
veg, it's only ever going to be average.
Now, in this recipe, I'm using
mushrooms, wonderful chestnut mushrooms.
They're going to give you huge flavor
and amazing color. Kind of make them the
same size as the carrots and the onions,
give or take. So, look, if you look in
the pan now, you can see that all these
lovely veggies are really soft and
they're taking on color. Now, we go in
with the mushrooms.
The mushrooms are mainly water.
So, they're now going to start getting
water to the pan and then it will go
back to frying again.
So, I've got a kilo of beautiful minced
beef. Carry on cooking this for another
like 10-15 minutes to get back to frying
again.
So, now is when I love to add the beer.
A beautiful pale ale goes in. It's got
amazing malty flavors, really deep kind
of chocolatey vibe. I'm going to put a
bottle in, about 500 mils.
So, what I want to do now is bring that
to the boil and cook it down.
So, next up, we've got the tinned
tomatoes. So, four tins of tomatoes will
go in our ragu. Oh, hello. We know what
we're doing.
Bolly Bolly bolognese
and
Let's give one James Bolly's food. So,
now we go in with the tomatoes and we'll
let that simmer for like 1 to 2 hours
until really tender and delicious.
>> I flushed that in. Going to use that?
Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea. So, um
get your four tins of tomatoes in and
then it's nice to fill two tins up with
water. Bring that to a boil
and let that simmer for an hour or two
until it's succulent, gorgeous, and
tender. And what I'm going to do then is
show you how to make the most amazing
pasta. I want to show you what I think
is the coolest little hack. I've got two
packs of fresh lasagna. What we can do
is slice down gap, slice down gap, slice
down, and then kind of put it slightly
ajar and do slice down gap, slice down
gap.
>> Maybe wobbly. It can be wobbly. Once
this is cooking, it's going to separate
like a concertina. This is going to grab
hold of the ragu and the sauce in a very
different kind of cool way.
So, I've got a pan of boiling water. If
you want, you can put a little oil in
the water. This will help these not
stick together.
And then we'll literally drop this into
the water. It cooks in like 3 minutes.
Can you see how all the little cuts are
opening up? I'll put in a little bit of
the ragu here, just a couple of spoons.
Then I'll take that amazing pasta. Look
at the shape of it. A little splash of
water, by the way, just to make it oozy.
And then the last very British
ingredient, some cheddar.
It really melts beautifully. And then I
like to use two spoons
just to almost dress it like a salad.
But just look
how gorgeous this serves up. Look at
that. And I just find this way
you go from the everyday to something
really sublime.
A beautiful little take
on the great bolognese.
Right, let's have a little try.
Mhm.
The beer has this big malty flavor,
but there is an underlying bitterness,
right? But then when it's contrasted
with the sweetness of the ragu, the
vegetables, the tomatoes, that is so
tasty. I've got the kids running wild.
I've got to do a few jobs in the garden,
but I do want to get a lovely lunch on.
My kids always love a roast chicken. I'm
thinking lentils, spinach. We're going
to go wild mushrooms. I'm going to use
tarragon. Paired up with some whole
roasted garlic. Let's get this party
going. It's beyond simple, right? Let's
just lube up the chicken with some nice
olive oil.
A little swig of vinegar.
Basic sort of marinade. Uh hit it up
with salt
and pepper.
The whole bulb of garlic, the tarragon.
We're going to pick these lovely leaves
later. But then the stalk is going up
the jacksy of the chicken. So, rub this
chicken all over with the seasoning.
I've got the oven. It's at 180° C.
So, there you go, in the oven. That's
it. Now, I'm free for an hour to do some
jobs.
The chicken's had an hour, just over,
and that is a beautiful and very
familiar sight, right? I'm going to
drain all the juices out of this lovely
chicken, which is nearly cooked. It's
not quite cooked, right? I want to add
beautiful flavor to that. So, I'm going
to get some gorgeous smoked streaky
bacon. So, just lay it over the breast.
This will go golden and crisp. The fat
will render and continue to baste the
chicken. And in here, look at this. All
the drippings and our funky little
garlic clove here. All that goodness
should come out, just like that. That
whole bulb of garlic ends up being a
flavor hit.
We've got 650 g of beautiful mixed
mushrooms. We've got shiitakes, the
Asian mushrooms, beautiful portobellos.
And then we've got these king oysters
here. How fabulous are they? So, we'll
get those in.
We'll hit it up with some seasoning.
We're going to roast them under that
chicken for the last 20 minutes. So,
dress it like a salad.
Chicken gravy mushrooms, come on.
The mushrooms go at the bottom of the
oven. We're going to take this chicken
that's nearly cooked and we're going to
place it directly onto the bars.
And that bacon will start to render. It
will baste the chicken, protect the
breast, and the journey through out that
chicken to get more flavor then rains
down on the mushrooms. They're going to
be the best mushrooms you've ever had.
Time's up on the chicken.
Have a little look. Let's just plate
this up now. There we go, absolutely
beautiful. All I'm going to do now is
put these incredible mushrooms on a nice
platter. And look how lovely they look.
Take that chicken
as a real centerpiece
on those mushrooms like that. And then
take the tarragon.
And that is what we serve at the dinner
table.
And then we're going to use the same
tray. We'll go in there with some olive
oil, a bag or two of lovely spinach.
I'm all in for roast potatoes, always.
But to change it up, you can buy
beautiful green lentils in tins. You can
get them dried. Drain off most of the
water.
Bring them to the boil like this. We're
going to kiss it with vinegar. Season it
to your liking. And then at this stage,
crème fraîche, so delicious. What I like
to do is just let
the crème fraîche just melt and don't
stir it. We're just going to take it
over to a platter and let it naturally
ripple
on there. How gorgeous is that? Come on.
Okay, time to serve up. So, that goes on
first. So, with the chicken, let's just
take a nice little slice of the breast.
Look at that.
And then look, we've got this natural
gravy that's come out of the mushrooms
that's just
so good.
Knife,
fork.
I I'm very excited.
Come on, Mr. Mushroom.
Um I don't know what to say. It is
utterly delicious. I am so happy right
now.
Speechless.
What a joy.
Mhm.
So, let me show you a new take, a new
flavor combination on a beautiful pizza
that will definitely put a smile on your
face. 150 g of self-raising flour in a
bowl. We'll go in with 80 ml of water.
Pour that in. I'm going to guess it, but
80 mils is perfect. A nice pinch of
salt.
Just use a fork to bring the flour and
the water together. And we're going to
make a nice pliable, elastic dough. And
as it gets kind of firm like a dough,
then get rid of the fork and we're going
to use our hand and just knead it for 2
minutes. It's unbelievably quick. You
can see how now I've got quite a nice
dough. It's elastic. It's smooth. So,
let that relax for a few minutes, then
make sure your oven is on full whack.
About 240 is perfect. So, flavor combo.
First up, a beautiful Cumberland
sausage. So, I want a couple of nice
sausages. I only need two for this
recipe. So, what I want to do with it is
get it in a pan. I'll put it on a
medium-high heat
and I'm going to pinch the end like this
and I'll squeeze out part of that
sausage, right? To make essentially a
meatball. And you'll get about four from
each one. Get them heating up. Now, let
me just wash my hands.
Now, I'll put a little bit of olive oil
in the pan just to get the party going.
And then I just want to get a bit of
color on the sausage. I don't need to
fully cook it through. So, as those
brown up, I'm just going to finely slice
the red onion. Just do your best to go
as thin as you can. Sprinkle into these
lovely fats the red onion. You can do a
little handful of pine nuts. Buds, what
have you got, bro? Got some um sun-dried
tomato pesto. Oh, nice. Okay, I'll use
that. Thank you, mate. So, look, the
secret ingredient is the grapes. And
just a little handful is all you need,
straight into this pan. And that is
basically your topping. So, we'll put
that to the side for 1 second. So, Buds,
let me roll out this and you can
sprinkle these on top. Just come around
here, beautiful boy. So, with the dough
here, it's had a little relax. And
actually, for consistency, I would just
flour it and I'd roll it out. What I
want is more of a kind of slipper shape,
like an oval shape. So, Buds, if you can
grab us a rolling pin and just roll it
back and forth to about 30 35 cm long,
about 15 cm wide. There you go. Happy
with that? So, Buds, if you can just put
some oil on that tray and give it a
little rub. Good lad. Um so, I'll put
Buddy's lovely homemade pesto onto the
pizza. Just push this all over the
topping like that. Then,
I've got this topping here, which I'm
just going to shake on top like that.
I've really had a pizza with the the
grapes on them before.
No. Really excited to eat it. Are you?
Yeah. See, I was worried that you
wouldn't like the grapes, but the thing
is, once you try it, the sweetness, the
saltiness, the whole kind of thing is
beautiful. And there is one little
linchpin that makes it all work that I
nearly forgot.
Rosemary.
Rosemary and grapes,
they're like a match made in heaven. The
last thing you got to do
is mozzarella. Look at the colors. So
good.
Beautiful job. We've got a combo
topping, which I promise you is a thing
of beauty. Another great little tip, put
the gas hob on, right? And we're just
going to start the heat on the pan for
like a minute or two, just to get it
sizzling. That will guarantee you the
most beautiful crispy bottom. So, this
will now go at the bottom of the oven.
Do you want to rally the troops and I'll
bring it out? Yeah.
10 minutes is all I need in the oven.
Cool. Bless you, big boy. Mum, the pizza
looks so good.
Okay, 10 minutes up.
Here she is.
Come on, look at that. I like to use
like the cooking scissors just to get in
there and kind of like just snip away.
Let's go for it.
Mhm, that combination is a game-changer.
I've got a pizza. Delicious.
Such a good smell. Buddy, your pesto is
really good. Good.
Well done, Bud. In about half an hour,
I'm going to feed my family some lovely
homemade fish cakes. Crispy on the
outside and golden flakes of beautiful
smoked haddock in there. We're going to
start with the actual sauce. So, I'm
going to put one white onion just
roughly chopped up straight into that
pan and we'll start sweating that off
just for about 10 minutes. Once you've
softened off these onions, I'm going to
use a little bit of flour, one heaped
tablespoon, mix that in to the onions.
You can see the onions have taken on a
little bit of color. And then, I'm going
to go in with 600 ml of lovely organic
milk. So, this will be the basis of your
sauce. And not only that, that will
become the place where you poach this
beautiful side of smoked haddock. So,
this goes into that liquor, skin side
down, and let that just poach away for 5
minutes.
So, here we've got a kilo of Maris
Pipers, just peeled, boiled for like 12
13 minutes until they're tender, and
then drain, let it steam off, and that's
really important because we want the
potatoes to be dry. Then, it's going to
hold on to the flakes of the fish.
That's what you'll get from a good old
Maris Piper. Just take a regular potato
masher.
You don't want it to be super smooth.
And then, make a little well in the
middle, crack one beautiful free-range
egg.
It holds the whole thing together. And
just whisk that up like that.
Take that lovely fish.
Oh, look how it's flaking.
Over there like that.
Now, I'm just going to take the skin and
just ease it off.
But look at the nice big chunks. Look at
that. That's what it's all about. And
then, last but not least, a nice bunch
of chives. You can use parsley, you can
use basil. I personally think chives are
really perfect in this cuz they're
really mild. And then, just fold it all
up.
It's all about keeping as much of the
texture of the fish as possible. Look,
there's still big chunks of fish in
there.
So, get that into eight little balls,
give or take.
Let's wash my hands.
So, look, a little bit of moisture from
your hands
is going to help you make these lovely
little patties. Now, if you wanted to,
you can roast these just like that. You
can grill these under the grill. You can
do these in a pan.
Now, let's make the sauce first. A nice
bunch of chives straight in to this
lovely
milk. So, what I want to do now is use
the liquidizer. If I'm lucky, I can pour
that into here and not splash it
everywhere, but that's always debatable.
Let's put a few spoons in first. So,
let's whiz this up until nice and fine.
Look at that. That is the most amazing
color.
Mhm.
Wow. Get yourself a large nonstick pan.
Get that warm. A nice lug of olive oil
in there. Get your fish cakes. Let's
place them in the pan. Be delicate with
them. You don't want to break them up.
Let the oil just move around the pan and
keep them jiggling a little bit. Let's
turn these around.
Look at that golden sizzling color. Wow.
About 4 or 5 minutes on each side.
It's just a thing of beauty.
Get that lovely sauce back in a pan to
reheat it. Garnish this with some
chives. Let's plate one up. I'm going to
have a little cheeky taster. Take that
nice big fat fish cake like that. I've
got a little chive flower that I'll just
sprinkle over the top. A kiss of olive
oil.
Wedge of lemon.
And that is a beautiful homemade fish
cake. Let's get amongst it. Let's have a
squeeze up.
Lemon juice.
Gosh.
Look at that sauce.
Look at that.
Come on.
Oh, man. Right, who's the greediest
person in the family? Me.
Pesto, give me your plate, sweet pea.
I've given you two little ones cuz
you're special. I'm going to give you
the most incredible chocolate cake. It
is so easy, so delicious. It's going to
be crisp on the outside, oozy on the
inside, and it's going to make you happy
for sure. Now, here's the thing. There's
not as many eggs as usual around. So,
I've literally rewritten the recipe now
without eggs. This is an eggless
chocolate tart, tort, cake. It's going
to be amazing. You'll love it. I'm not
sure what it is yet, but it's good. So,
here we've got 200 g of butter, 200 g of
chocolate, 200 g of nuts. Now, I'm using
hazelnuts, but it could be almonds, it
could be pecans, it could be cashew
nuts. Then, I'm using 200 g of
self-raising flour, 200 ml of milk, and
then 200 g of sugar. Right, let's do it.
So, we're going to start with the nuts.
This goes into the food processor.
We're going to whiz this up.
We got 200 g of chocolate
and break it in.
Super easy.
In it goes.
Then, we can go in with the butter.
Then, the flour.
A pinch of salt.
Important.
And then,
200 ml of milk.
And then, 200 g of sugar.
So, all of it goes in.
So,
all done.
Just clean up the edge.
So, I am going to just take a little bit
of greaseproof paper. This stops the
sponge sticking to the tray. Now, if you
haven't got this, a bit of oil of any
type or butter, right? Give it a good
old rub up.
Right? Like this. And then, take a
little bit of flour
like that.
And you can make your own nonstick tray
by shaking this around.
There ain't nothing sticking to that.
Your own homemade nonstick, okay?
Adjusting adjusting ducking diving.
That's what we're doing. So,
scrumple up this
like that.
Unscrumple it.
Put that in our tray. So, in we go.
Now, like any cake, if you wished to
pimp your ride, you can. You can put a
few dried fruit bits in there. Sour
cherries are particularly good with
chocolate, but of course, it could be
raisins, apricots, stuff like that. You
know, things like tinned pears,
delicious. Come on. You know, little you
know, flakes of nuts. Just feel that you
can kind of embellish this a little bit.
So, look, get all of that sponge out of
there.
Sort of just shake it down
like this into the corners.
Look at that.
Equal it out.
Every last bit. And that, my friends, is
it. So, that's going to go in the oven.
Now, the oven is at 180° C,
and I'm going to put it in the middle of
the oven for 18 minutes exactly if you
want it nice and oozy.
And then, I'll show you what to do next.
But I'll tell you one thing,
it's going to make you happy.
Yes, it will.
Okay, so the 18 minutes are up.
The room smells amazing. Come on, LOOK
AT THAT.
COME ON.
THAT, MY FRIENDS, is beautiful. And if
you give it a little shake, can you see
the wobble on that?
So, that is a good sign. So, you can see
that it's crispy and spongy here and a
bit softer and oozy here. Right, let's
do this. So, as I take it out the tray,
it's going to crack
and smash up.
Look at that.
Absolutely gorgeous.
And what you can do
is just get a little bit more chocolate
if you've got some around.
Someone will definitely have a stash.
And just grate some chocolate on the
top.
And that will just melt in the most
beautiful way.
Okay, so let's serve it up. Look, it's
almost like a hot pudding now.
I just take the spoon like that.
Get under it.
Gorgeous.
You see how oozy that is?
Beautiful.
And then a little bit of yogurt.
I think the fresh yogurt
with the oozy chocolate is really nice.
And then if there's a bit of that old
chocolate again,
we'll just have a little grate up.
So there you go.
Come and have a look at this.
So look, it's firm there.
Kind of almost chocolate ganache custard
there.
Ripple that with a little bit of the
yogurt.
Come on, Eileen.
Oh, yeah. So what we're going to do
today is a really simple, really
delicious veggie quesadilla. This is
basically like a Mexican cheese on
toast. So this is also a brilliant way
to get veggies in the kids. So today in
the fridge, I mean, I'm going to be
honest, I haven't got loads and loads in
the fridge. You know, I've got like one
chicken, bunch of veg, bit of fruit. Um
I haven't got everything that I need to
make this and that's good, right? So I
haven't got spring onions or onions,
I've got leeks. And a little tip, if you
just take
the sort of outer part of the leeks out
and by the way, we'll waste nothing. The
inner part, the white part of the leek
is very delicate and very equivalent to
a spring onion. We're never going to
waste that. That will go into soups and
stews and nice things like that. So
that's the first part. We've got just
standard red peppers. We'll just sort of
split these in half and remove the
seeds, of course. If you haven't got
fresh peppers, jarred like antipasti
peppers are really, really good as well.
Um this is an opportunity for you to get
all kinds of lovely things in here. So
you could just dice up some tomatoes,
squeeze out the pips. Um I'm going to
grate in some carrot as well.
Um you know, you can do things like
grilled veggies that you chop up, um
even broccoli and stuff like that. So
with the leeks, um what I want to do is
just finely slice those
like that.
So with the peppers, I quite like seeing
like little dices of the peppers.
Just slice them up
into little lengths and then we'll slice
the other way. So look, um you can also
use a box grater just to grate the veg.
This will be the half of our filling.
Now the other part of our filling is
cheese. Cheese is really important.
That's kind of like the glue that makes
everything stick together and makes that
lovely ooziness. So I'm going to grate
some cheddar in.
So we'll have a little grate up.
And it's really nice to blend your
cheeses actually. Of course, in Mexico
they wouldn't use cheddar, but cheddar,
red Leicester, they really do melt
beautifully and they taste delicious. A
nice wedge of it.
I think always like 50/50 looks pretty
good right?
What I tend to do
is I'll rattle this up, I'll mix it up.
So normally you put coriander in this if
you were going to kind of stay on point.
Mint is really, really good. So herbs in
there, just parsley and and a little bit
of mint. So that's nice. So what I love
about this recipe
is I haven't actually met anyone that
doesn't like it. Everyone seems to like
quesadillas. I think I must just chip
in.
The good thing about this is it's that
same old boring hidden veg thing. So
children will eat this because sometimes
I have no clue what's in it.
>> But I've just knocked up a couple of
very simple salads out of the bag. Can
you make me dressing, please? Yes. You
know the drill, don't you? There's a
there's a jar jar out there somewhere.
Um I'm just adding a little bit more
cheese just as I go cuz actually it's
quite a lot a large proportion of veg
here and that you have to have the right
amount of cheese otherwise it just won't
ooze and it won't stick.
Stack looking good. Now I can whack on
this gas and we'll start to cook cuz
we're actually having this for lunch,
aren't we, Jay? Yeah.
Right then, you lovely folks. I'm on
kind of medium medium high heat. So I'm
going to put the quesadillas into a dry
pan. Good nonstick pan you need for
this. I don't want to add any more oil.
I like it to be crisp and fresh and have
all the kind of unctuous filling inside.
You don't want the pan too hot because
then what happens is the tortillas go
brown and crisp and then the inside is
just cold and raw. So you want the
perfect kind of speed. So medium heat,
golden brown both sides. That should be
nice. So let's have a little look
at this.
Look at that.
Really nice.
They're nice and toasty. You can see
what's happening on the inside. It's all
starting to melt slowly, slowly. So it's
still got a bit more time. Oh, it's
going nice. Look at that in there, babe.
So these are on about 3 minutes on each
side. Let's have a little look inside.
Yes!
Turn that out.
I can put the next one on
like that.
What's important is to let this cool
down for at least a minute. Just let it
cool down because it's molten lava in
there. It's too runny, too hot, will
burn your mouth. And then I'll cook
another one and then basically there's
like a kind of constant supply of
delicious quesadillas coming out at
their best. So I'll cut this into like
quarters or eighths. So um I'm going to
rack out these quesadillas.
I think they look beautiful.
Josie, are you happy with this, girl?
Yeah, it's amazing. Really nice. We're
going to serve this
with the hummus,
with the yogurt instead of the sour
cream. But if you've got sour cream,
it's brilliant. Um if you haven't got
hummus, you can even make it with tinned
chickpeas.
Um or
you could have a guacamole or you can
make a tomato salsa. Um but it's a very,
very
flexible dish. Look how lovely and hot
and steamy that is.
Gorgeous.
So there you go, beautiful quesadillas.
Guys, you like it?
Have a go.
It's quite nice with food to go back to
old friends. And this old friend, well,
is a little bit of a dirty old friend,
but I love him. We're going to make
homemade pizza and I'm going to make it
from just store cupboard ingredients.
It's a easy recipe and you can knock it
out in about 15 minutes. So it's super
quick. So let's make a beautiful deep
pan pizza from scratch that is so simple
and so delicious, you're going to have a
go at home, I can promise you. So, pan
on, medium medium high heat. First of
all, we're going to start with sausage.
I got two lovely Cumberland sausages.
Use whatever sausages you've got. Of
course, the better the quality, the
better the flavor. I'll go into the pan
with just a little bit of olive oil or
sunflower oil or whatever you've got and
then I'll get the sausage, grasp it and
then squeeze the meat from inside out.
So you're basically going to get these
beautiful little mini
sort of meatballs.
So I'm just going to have a little hand
wash with some of these sausages. Right,
we can break one up so you get like
almost little mincemeaty bits. I want to
leave a couple
sort of in nice big chunks, but rough
and ready. We like that. You can see it
kind of getting some color on it.
Now at this point in the story, what I
can do is add some store cupboard herbs,
you know, so like mixed herbs or some
oregano, whatever you've got. Just put
that in the fat and it will start
sizzling away.
So next up, two onions.
So just half and peel your onions
and finely slice.
So in we go
with the onions and they will start
sucking up all that beautiful flavor
already.
Oh, it smells amazing already. Come on.
When these onions start to soften,
I want to add a little something else to
it and that is some jalapeno. So I've
got it in the jar
and what I'm going to do is just pour
some of that vinegar in
to give it a nice little kind of sweet
and sour vibe
and a little spice.
So that's going to add to the flavor and
then we'll put jalapenos in there as
well.
So that's on a medium heat now
and as that just continues to cook and
get even better and better, let me show
you how to make this beautiful pizza
base. It is so, so simple. And this is
big enough, another store cupboard
ingredient, self-raising flour, 500 g,
okay? So get yourself a bowl. If you've
got a kilo bag, half of it, give or
take.
We're going to put in 250 ml
of water
or basically enough water until it comes
together as a dough.
Very simple and a good pinch of salt.
Three ingredients. Just bring together
that dough and you want to create a nice
elastic
dough.
That looks pretty good. A little bit
more.
So can you see how Look at that. In
literally 1 minute we've created quite a
moist
sort of elastic dough. Outrageously
quick. So there you go. That is your
dough and then in
here
is your topping. That goes on my board
because I only want to wash one thing
up. Yes, it's not just convenience and
deliciousness, also I don't want to wash
up much. So I'm going to take this dough
carefully without touching the hot pan,
of course, push this pizza
in the pan out.
Just like that. So you can see how
springy this dough is.
And actually, the heat is still on a
medium heat, right? I'm cooking this
dough now, okay? So this is part of the
cheat. And then I'm going to come
along
and I'm going to put the topping back on
top and push the topping all over the
place, right to the edges.
Now normally there'd be like mozzarella
over the top. Well, if you haven't got
that, what have we got? We've got
cheddar. So we'll have cheddar, we'll
take that. We want to be flexible now,
right? So whatever you've got,
you can get it in there. And I quite
like kind of getting little
bombs of it, small bits,
chunks of it.
You can get a grater if you want and put
a little dusting over the top. It
doesn't matter. This will be
a beautiful thing.
Few more bits of jalapeno just to kind
of, you know, make a point. So, I'm
going to turn the heat up to about
medium high now and then I'll cook it
for about 3 3 to 5 minutes until there's
a little crust starting to form,
which is about now.
Let's put that in the oven at full whack
for about 10 10 to 13 minutes until it's
crisp, golden, and sizzling.
So, this has had about 10 minutes.
Come on.
Look at that.
Sizzling away.
Such a great little cheat.
Get your spatula in there. Take it off.
Look at that.
So good.
Absolutely lovely.
Ah yes.
Brilliant.
Crispy base,
fluffy inside.
Mhm.
Still good. So, the recipe I'm going to
show you now is a delicious cauliflower
cheese mac and cheese. Absolutely
scrumptious. And it's all about getting
the good stuff in a classic comfort food
dish. So, of course, cauliflower is the
king. Got a little heart of celery and
two leeks. I've got one random bit of
fennel, but that's not, you know, you
don't have to use it. Uh me and Jules
just want to show you how we're kind of
doing nice food and cooking with what
we've got, what's available. Let's start
off here. I've already taken the liberty
to cook my pasta. So, the same pan I'm
now going to put on a heat
and I'll start adding
these veggies here and I'll chop that up
and we'll start adding to the pans. The
butter will go in. I'm going to fry off
these lovely veggies. And then the
celery can go in and then the fennel.
It is in the supermarket. If you do see
it, have a try. It's delicious. So,
we'll fry that off. Now, let's talk
about the cauliflower.
So, cut it in half and cut it into
florets like this.
Often that's what you see, which means
that nearly 1/3
of the actual cauliflower is over here
going in the bin. I finally slice these
leaves. Let this fry off for about 5
minutes
and soften up.
And then what we want to do
is
add the flour that turns it into a
thickened sauce. Just use regular plain
flour.
Um about 1 heaped tablespoon.
We'll mix that in. That will start to
suck up all the fat from the butter.
And then we're going to slowly add milk.
I have only got one full bottle of this
left and half a bottle. I know for a
fact I'd get a rollicking from Jules if
I put a whole one of these in here now
because
we haven't got much. So,
I'm going to put half milk half water.
So, now I'm putting, you know, the rest
that I need.
Water. Okay, so let that boil now and
simmer and cook it out for about 5
minutes just to soften all the veggies.
And then I'm going to season it up now.
I'll adjust it later with some nice
pepper, a little bit of salt, and then
for flavor and color,
a heaped teaspoon of English mustard.
Stir in.
So,
let's just carry on now with
the cauliflower here. Just get your
cauliflower florets.
Slice them up
into beautiful
little chunks.
Uh now it's time to talk about the
cheese. This is what we've got in our
fridge right now. Um because I kind of
grab and put things back, I've got odds
and ends of parmesan. I've got a tiny
little quarter of cheddar. I've got some
halloumi,
which I've only quarter used, and a
chunk of feta. So, I'm just going to
have a little grate up.
So, the sauce is blipping away
beautifully. We now turn it off
and the cheese goes in.
And
I'll put most of it in apart from a
little bit to go on top.
So, the pasta goes in
with
the cauliflower here. Frankly, you can
use whatever pasta you want. What I have
to do now is um
whizz this up. You can use a hand
blender, a food processor, or a
liquidizer. So,
be back in a second.
Liquidized it, lovely people. That's
what it looks like.
So, in with the sauce.
So, look, mix up your lovely sauce. Now,
you've probably been wondering what this
is. This is
starchy cooking water, okay?
And this is from the pasta. If it's a
bit wetter than you expect, then by the
time it's baked,
then it's going to absorb into that
pasta and it'll be just blippy and saucy
and gorgeous.
I'll just put some cheese on top. What
we could do
is take a waste product that is one of
the most wasted products in the whole of
Britain and that's bread. And every time
I've got away from stray,
I just pop it
in the window, let it go stale.
Literally, once it's properly stale,
that's what you get. Just get a tea
towel. What you can do
is give it a good bash.
And we're going to create breadcrumbs.
In here it's just straight breadcrumbs,
but here I've got some herbs that I've
got in little pots. Thyme here. Lovely.
Oregano or marjoram. Uh and some
rosemary. Um you could put in dried
herbs, no trouble at all. I'm going to
use some garlic. Beautiful.
So, a little bit of oil goes in
and that just kind of allows the natural
flavors to come out of the herbs and it
will make the breadcrumbs really golden.
There you go. A beautiful
traybake
mac and cheese bigging up cauliflower
and all those veggies. About an hour
before lunch, I'll whack that in the
oven at about 180° C and then I'll cook
it for about 50 minutes until it's
blipping and crispy and gorgeous.
Yummy.
Okay, she served up. Yes. Yeah. Go on,
buds.
Thank you. Woohoo! We're dressing kids
to mom and dad ages. So, guys, what do
you reckon?
Cauliflower mac and cheese.
Try it. I think you'll like it. So, the
recipe I'm going to show you today is my
take on a ratatouille. Now, ratatouille,
weirdly, the classic French veg dish is
one of the most searched dishes on the
internet at the moment. Why? I think
it's because you've got a load of veg
you don't know what to do with. So, let
me give you my version that I think is
really flexible, really open to taking
whatever you've got. I'm going to serve
it on a puff pastry base, so it's kind
of like a posh pizza and the kids love
it. I love it. I think you're going to
love it.
Do you want this on your pizza? No,
thank you. Put it back. Thank you very
much. Love you. A classic French
ratatouille would be courgettes, peppers
of all colors, onions, uh aubergine. I
haven't got aubergines. They've only got
a yellow pepper here, but I have got
asparagus, uh I've got courgette. I've
got leeks instead of onions. Got a
squash and a cauliflower. Mine's kind of
like a grilled veg ratatouille. We make
a base tomato sauce. Slice up about six
cloves of garlic. Go in with some olive
oil and I'm going to put the garlic in.
I'm going to put in some basil leaves.
Two tins of tomatoes. I'm just going to
put a bit of water in these tins and in
they go. So, Jules is breaking up the
tomatoes. That is the basic tomato
sauce. That will receive the veggies.
Let's start with the courgette. You run
your knife down so it's like quarters.
Put it into a dry pan on a high heat. If
you had a barbecue, use it. If you had a
griddle pan, use it. I'm going to do
exactly the same with the leeks and then
I'll just cut it so it fits the pan.
Now, this scalding, instead of it being
kind of oily and sweet, it kind of
scalds. It gives you a smokiness and it
gives you a nuttiness. And that, when
mixed with the tomato sauce, gives you
the most incredible dish. You could even
use, if you wanted to, frozen
cauliflower and still char it up in here
and still stew it up in there. So, it's
all good. I'll just cut the peppers into
quarters. The asparagus can go in whole
with the cauliflower. Take off the
little florets. I'm only going to use
about a quarter of this. And then slice
these into 1 cm slices.
Just like that. When these are kind of
all nicely charred, what I want you to
do is remove these from the hot scalding
pan. So, now these are out. I'll replace
them with these veggies. So, it's like a
little factory line. Now, down here, I'm
going to slice it about a centimeter
across and we'll simply stir it in and
it's going to be delicious. So, just
continue charring up the veg in the dry
pan and as soon as it's nice and
scalded, then just chunk it up and add
it to the tomato sauce. So, as that
simmers away nicely, that will cook for
about 20 25 minutes. Here, I've got two
shop-bought puff pastries. One is
regular and one is gluten-free cuz I've
got two kids that are gluten-free. Get
them out of the pack, unroll them, and
then get it on the tray and even keep it
on the paper that it comes in. So, I'm
going to get myself a regular eating
knife and about an inch away from the
edge, just very lightly score it. So, do
that to the other one. Now, at this
point, I can get some olive oil and just
give it a nice little drizzle and just
give it a little rub all over. Now, with
these two bases, I'm going to whack them
in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes
at 200° C until nice and lightly golden.
Okay, so these two beauties are done. I
nearly overcooked the gluten-free one
cuz the kids were running around. What
can I say? So, if you can have a little
look here, you can see where I did the
little line and I'm going to push it in.
Okay? And the reason that is is cuz I'm
going to fill it with our beautiful
version of a ratatouille. So, now the
veggies are nice and soft and tender and
cooked. This will be amazing in so many
different ways. Now, we do need to
balance the flavor. And the way to do
that is a little tablespoon of vinegar.
So, red wine vinegar, white wine
vinegar, whatever you've got to hand.
Then a good couple of tablespoons of
extra virgin olive oil. Tear some of
these beautiful basil leaves and then
just simply season it to taste. Then you
could toss that in pasta. You could put
it in lasagna. You could turn this into
a soup simply by adding some stock. So,
because I know River will be a pain in
the backside, we're going to blend it
up. So, I'll do one with and one without
and just show you the flexibility of
this dish.
That's done.
And then on the gluten-free one, I will
put this sauce. So, look, there is
gluten-free pizza with a pureed sauce.
This is my puff pastry one. It's a
brilliant way to use up veg. If you
wanted to put a little smoky bacon in
this, you could or some tuna, olives,
capers, happy days. Right, just take the
veggies to the edge.
>> Feta.
Be amazing. Of course, you could use a
mozzarella, you could use a feta like
Jules suggested. I'm going to use some
British cheeses and these will melt
beautifully. So, the last few little
bits of basil. Nice. So, just in the
oven 10 minutes just to melt that cheese
and heat it ALL UP. DELICIOUS.
LUNCHTIME!
WOWZERS, LOOK AT THAT.
THAT WAS A HIT WITH THE FAMILY, GUYS.
YOU HAPPY? YEAH! OKAY, onwards and
upwards. Enjoy.
>> Things like rice, tinned tomatoes,
beans, chickpeas, spices, herbs, all of
that stuff, you can make great things.
And one of my favorite things to do with
all of that is a good chili. A really
good chili where you can get loads of
veggies in there. It's proper delicious.
So, look, first job, the base of this
chili. Get yourself a nice onion, peel
it and roughly chop it. Now, if you
haven't got an onion, maybe you got a
leek, you could use spring onions.
Again, we can swap these things out,
guys. No problem. Let's be flexible. So,
hot pan, the onions go in.
Like that. Hot pan, I'm going to use two
cloves of garlic.
Just slice it up any old how. Doesn't
really matter.
Garlic goes in.
It sounds exciting already. We're going
to go chili. So, I'm just going to kind
of
roughly finely slice it. So, look, I'm
probably going to use that much. If
you've got any leftover chili, right,
two things I can do, throw them in the
freezer. They're really good. You can
grate them over things or just put them
in the salt like this and it kind of
just stops it kind of going minging and
moldy, right? And then you can use it
the next day. So, chili goes in.
Like that.
Let's get some spice into your life.
So, take a teaspoon and I want level
teaspoons.
Right, we want to go easy on the spice.
So, cinnamon goes in.
And then a level teaspoon
of cayenne pepper
or smoked paprika. Delicious.
And then
we've got the cumin.
Get a wooden spoon and then just stir it
up.
Now, guys, if you want to get mega
flavor out of veg, make it big and
robust, then this part is really
important. Have a look what's happening
in that pan, right? We're bringing out
the natural sugars
in the onion. And it's not just onion
that has natural sugars. Carrots have
it, squash have it, peppers have it,
too. So, even with the peppers here, get
your thumb and just thumb it, right? And
then that way is the best way to tear
out these lovely chunks like this. So,
we'll get rid of the seeds and we won't
waste any of these little bits here.
Don't want to waste anything.
And we'll do the same with the yellow
pepper.
So,
I want to roughly chop these up
into like kind of 2 cm chunks.
And this is just the beginning of the
story. It's going to get better and
better and better. And the most
important thing for me with a chili is
there's kind of an obsession
by throwing in the wet stuff now, early,
right? That's where the big problem is.
Do not get those tinned tomatoes in
there too early. What we want to do is
what you can see there, right? We want
to slowly fry. We want to caramelize the
veg. That's going to earn you massive,
massive flavor points. So, let's have a
little toss up.
Look at that, it smells amazing.
We'll keep stirring it.
And then I want to get some coriander
stalks.
So, any stalks of fresh herbs that
you've got, it could be mint, basil or
coriander. I'm using coriander today.
Just finely slice those stalks out cuz
often they end up in the bin, but
they're full of flavor.
So,
if you haven't got fresh herbs, please
don't worry. This recipe is flexible to
what you've got in your pantry and your
fridge, okay? So, stir in the coriander.
And we're going to cook this for about
10-15 minutes on a medium-high heat to
get really intense and delicious.
Now, if you sweet potato, of course you
could use a normal potato. Of course,
you could use squash, okay? Again, swap
outs are important. The sweet potato, I
think is delicious. It counts as one of
your five fruit and veg a day. We want
to get the veggies in you guys to keep
you healthy, to keep you optimal. So,
sweet potatoes, yum. I'm just going to
clank them up into like 1-in chunks.
Then I've got the oven on at 200° C
and I'm just going to kiss these with a
touch of oil, a good pinch of salt and
pepper and then
a little bit of cinnamon,
a little bit of cayenne pepper.
And here's a little bit of cumin. Now,
give these a little toss, right? And it
will stick to it and as that roasts for
about an hour, right, that is going to
be delicious.
So, it's had about 10-15 minutes. It's
shrunk down. It smells incredible.
Now, we can think about adding beans,
tomatoes, stuff like that. So, as far as
beans are concerned, these are
brilliant. But whatever you can think of
or got, use that. So, one tin, juice and
all, will go in.
That's your protein, incredibly
important, you know, for your nutrition
if you're not eating meat. Um we're
going to put in some chickpeas as well.
We'll go juice and all. Chickpeas are
amazing. They suck up all the flavor.
Then we're going to get the tomatoes in
there. I like to use whole plum tomatoes
if possible, but you can use the chopped
or the passata. Please don't worry.
So, two tins of plum tomatoes I will
use.
And then what I like to do is just rinse
out the tin with just a little bit of
water.
And we're good to go. That chili is
going to be fantastic. So,
so give it a nice little stir up and
then break up some of those tomatoes and
they'll continue to disintegrate as you
simmer away for about 20-25 minutes
until it's delicious and umptious. It's
going to be so, so good. I might give it
a little kiss of seasoning now. And then
importantly, what are we going to have
it with? Flatbreads? Could be delicious,
but rice is the thing for me. Just makes
me feel good. So, I'm going to get a pan
on
and then I'm going to get a regular
builder's mug and I'll fill that with
basmati rice. So, another classic store
cupboard ingredient.
And what we do is we go two cups of
water to one cup of rice. It works every
single time
and we call it the absorption method
because the rice will just absorb that
exact amount
of liquid.
And it will give you light, fluffy,
fresh, nutty rice. So, a pinch of salt,
lid on, get that thundering away. That
will be ready in 12 minutes and you can
just switch it off. This will tick away
for another sort of 20-25 minutes. Time
for a little clean down.
So, here we go, guys.
After 20 minutes, it's looking like
this, thick and gorgeous looking. The
rice is steamy and done. Can you see all
the little holes that come through? So,
that is going to be beautiful and
fluffy. Let's plate them up, but not
before we get the sweet potatoes out.
So, these have had
just under an hour.
Oh, come on. Look at that. They've
shrunk up. Look at the crispy skins as
well.
They're going to be amazing. So, I'm
literally going to put those straight
in.
And what's nice is they all kind of
almost rehydrate with the chili sauce.
Just gorgeous.
So, one of the great things about sweet
potatoes, you know, like pumpkin and
squash, is they'll keep a long time in
your home. Get them in soups, stews, you
know, make nice little oven chips, stuff
like that. Absolutely delicious.
So, we're good to go now, guys. Let's
turn it off.
Always an important time to
taste your food.
Mhm.
Correct the seasoning
if need be. Delicious. Now, if you want
to kind of give it a little bit of a
pick-me-up, you could use some herbs,
for sure. Any soft herbs, just a little
gesture of it, roughly chopped up would
be lovely. A little swig of vinegar
or lime juice or lemon juice really
helps a dish like this, which is quite
savory and a little bit spicy. So, I'll
just put a little squeeze of lime in
there, but literally use what you've got
to hand. And then
let's plate up. So, get your rice. Get a
fork and give it a nice little fluff up.
So, a nice wad on the plate. Look at
that fluffy.
Of course, you can go for brown rice as
well, very, very nice. And then
we want that chili.
Big chunks of that sweet potato. So
good.
And you've got the beans, really nice.
Massive plate of food, loads of
goodness. And for me, the thing that I
really want to have with it is a nice
little splurge
of yogurt. It could be sour cream, you
know, whatever you've got available to
you. And if you got a few bits of
coriander, happy days. So, whether it's
rice or tortilla wraps, or you know,
swap one veg out for another, or slip a
bit of meat in or not, it's a very, very
generous, flexible recipe that I think
you're going to love. Right, that's
enough yapping.
I love a good chili.
What I love is the sweetness you get
from the peppers, but then the hunks of
sweet potato and the crispy skin and
that little bit of fluffy rice.
Mhm, so, so good. So, today is a very,
very special day. It's little baby
Petal's birthday. She's 11 years old. I
haven't got everything that I would
normally have to do a birthday cake, but
the fundamentals are here. It's an
amazing chocolate cake that is so
simple, so reliable, so delicious. Now,
let's just start the story. I've got
some golden caster sugar here. I only
had 130 g. I've literally run out of
sugar, and then I made it up with 70 g
of icing sugar. So, it doesn't matter if
you go from white sugar, golden sugar,
icing sugar, it's all good, guys. So,
200 g of that. Then, I've got 200 g of
butter going straight in. In this pan,
I've got an inch of water, and I'm
bringing it to a simmer.
Just put a bowl on top of that. Don't
let it touch the water, and we're going
to melt the butter, the sugar, and the
chocolate. Normally, I would say I want
70% cocoa solids, but guys, 200 g of the
best chocolate you can get your hands
on. Although, I kind of got a feeling
that there's a fair amount of chocolate
in the cupboards around the country. So,
let this melt for about 5 or so minutes.
Give it a stir every now and again. It's
going to be amazing. While that's doing
its thing, I have a little heart-shaped
mold. I want to show you how you make it
so that the sponge does not stick to the
tin. Now, you can get some greaseproof
paper. I haven't got any. That little
bit of leftover butter, just rub that
generously around the edge. A tablespoon
of flour into this, knock it around,
and you see how it's sticking to the
butter, and that will protect your cake.
Give it a tap out. So, that is ready and
raring to go. The next stage, we're
going to add
to this bowl the chocolate. Have a look
at that. The butter, the chocolate, and
the sugar has all melted. All of that
chocolate goes in, every last bit. Use a
spatula for this, guys. So, after a
couple of minutes, this chocolate mix
would have cooled down a nice little
bit. We're going to add six eggs. Crack
those in, and then we'll go from a
spatula
to
a whisk. So, I'm going to stand up for
this. It's now going to do two beautiful
things, right? We're whisking that first
egg, and then we'll crack in the second.
Next one, whoa. Last but not least, egg
number six. That's the basis for the
most amazing chocolate cake. What we can
do at this stage is flavor it. So, I'm
going to add in two teaspoons of vanilla
paste or extract, and then I'm thinking
chocolate, chocolate orange. All you
need, literally all you need, is two or
three little gratings of orange. To give
it the structure, I've got 200 g of
self-raising
gluten-free flour. If you don't need to
be gluten-free, just use the regular
self-raising flour. For now, Petal is
gluten sensitive. I'll sift that in. I'm
just going to now fold this flour into
the mix.
Chocolaty gorgeousness. And I'm going to
pour this into our mold. We will bake
that for about 50 minutes at 160° C,
and then I'll show you what to do next.
So, I now have a new cameraman, and
that's little Buddy. Come right here,
Buds.
Mom's going to do some jobs. River's
running around.
So, it could go into chaos now, but the
buttercream part of this recipe is very,
very simple. So, bro, back to your
posts. So, I have melted, in the same
fashion, over a little water bath, 200 g
of chocolate again. Just get right. Be
really curious, Buddy. I've just used
any chocolate I can get my hands on. You
can stay at the end if you want.
Can I have
Can I have a little bit of lick? Yeah,
you can have a lick in a second. 200 g
of icing sugar.
Then, we're going to go in with our
chocolate here.
>> Daddy, can I have a lick of chocolate?
>> Are you going to be a good boy?
Be a good boy, aren't you? I'm going to
go in with 200 g of butter. I was going
to Yeah, Buddy's Buddy's so jealous
right now.
No, that's all I've got. That's all I've
got.
You can have the bowl. There you go.
That's your bowl. You can have that
later. So, I need actually a spatula,
but that's got spit all over it.
Can I have a spatula? River Where should
I sit? is like chaos.
So, now what we're going to do is just
mix all together. I want chocolate. No,
there's a camera, darling. There's a
camera. I got chocolate for me. A little
pinch of salt. Okay, so guys, that is
the buttercream. Yes. Guys,
come on.
Let it cool down. Once it's got to room
temperature, in about an hour's time,
I'll show you how to fill it and dress
it. So, this is all very exciting. The
cake is now cooled down. And sometimes,
it kind of soufflés in the oven, and
then it sags. You can see it's done that
now. Please do not worry about that at
all, okay? You can do one of two things.
Go with it and just fill that gap, no
problem at all. I'm going to do that.
Or, you can just trim it off. So, we're
going to put that on our platter. Here
we have our lovely buttercream. Look at
that. And almost butter it, it'll be
amazing. Look, put some raspberries in
there. Cover up a thousand sins. Do you
think it looks like a heart, Buddy? Oh,
yeah, it looks like a heart. Let's try
and get birthday right. Put that
chocolate up to your side. Get a flat
knife and just drag it towards you.
All the little folds. So, Jules, we're
done. That's so
That's amazing. Yes, you can go mad. So,
there you go. Lovely birthday cake.
Breathe.
What do you reckon, Pets?
It's really good. You like it?
Recipe that I want to share with you now
is a beautiful version of a fish pie.
It's thrifty, and it's delicious, and I
call it sweet pea fish pie. It's so
good. It's heroing most of the
ingredients from over there, the
freezer. Things like vegetables are
amazing in the freezer. I'm using
spinach and peas, and then fish. You can
have it sitting there in the freezer
waiting for you to cook something
delicious with it, and there's many
methods of cooking, especially when it's
in a nice sauce, or it's kind of baked,
where frozen fish really can be
fantastic. And as long as you get
something nice and sustainable, you're
laughing. So, I have 300 g of salmon and
300 g of white fish. And if you look in
the freezer aisles, you'll see some
really good frozen fish. So, in a pan we
go, and I'll cover that with 500 ml
of milk. And I'll just simmer it to
poach it until it flakes. So, about 10
minutes. So, this recipe's great at kind
of swapping in different fish and making
do and stretching fish a long way. Now,
what I want to do is show you how I make
the most delicious mashed potato
topping. I've got a kilo of potatoes
that are peeled, just cut into chunks,
boiling away for about 15 minutes. And
then we're going to use the second
freezer ingredient, and that's 400 g of
frozen peas, okay? So, just put them in
there for a minute. Happy days. These
can go back in the freezer. That's the
great thing about the freezer, isn't it?
Just use what you need, straight back in
there. I'll drain it straight away.
So, over we go to the sink.
So, in this pan here, we're going to
make the most amazing cheesy sauce, full
of the good stuff. I've got two onions,
finely chopped, and two carrots, finely
chopped. Just in a little bit of olive
oil, and I've let those slowly fry for
like 10 minutes, just to soften.
So, what I want to do now is to thicken
the sauce. 60 g of flour goes into that
pan, and then mustard, another store
cupboard ingredient. I like a good
teaspoon. It's not hot, you just get a
nice flavor from it.
Stir it in. And then the liquid that we
need is going to come from there, the
poaching liquid. So, I'll just take a
little spoon,
nick a little bit of that milk,
just steal a little bit of that liquid
like that,
and mix it around.
So, the fish has already flavored the
milk,
which is all going to add to the flavor
of the whole dish.
As it absorbs the milk, then we get the
spoon and take a bit more.
And it makes the most delicious sauce.
You can see it thickening up, and it
smells amazing already. The color from
the mustard is very, very good. And that
last little bit
of milk,
like that. You can see here, if I show
you the fish, can you see how lovely
this salmon will just poach. Look,
it's just falling apart. Really nice.
Gorgeous. I absolutely love good quality
frozen fish. It's handy. Can you see how
lovely this sauce looks? It's really,
really good. So,
the third frozen ingredient is frozen
spinach. 100 g go in. And again, frozen
spinach is so brilliant to have in the
freezer. It's particularly good for
soups, in the stews for last kind of
half an hour, really nice. Amazing in
curries. Amazing in curries. And if you
think about it, the amount of spinach in
this bag would be like a pillowcase
worth, right? Cuz it's all been
blanched, and it's been squashed into
these little kind of pellets. And if you
just put it straight in a hot sauce like
this, it starts to melt, and then you
get spinach flavored sauce, which is
going to be absolutely gorgeous.
So, look, the nice thing about this
recipe is you can use whatever fish you
can get your hands on,
fresh or frozen, but I just think frozen
fish is brilliant if you use it in the
right way. And in a dish like this, it's
the perfect way. Now, a little optional
extra to give it real delicious flavor,
cheese. So, a nice little grating of
cheddar cheese I think is really, really
good. But literally, use what you've got
to hand.
You can use it almost like a seasoning.
So,
sort of 40-50 g. Look at that.
So, next up, lemon juice. Just half a
lemon
going in there.
I think it's delicious. So, if you
haven't got lemon, that's fine. But,
just a little squeeze of lemon like that
just lifts just lifts the whole story. I
love it. So, the sauce is now done.
I'll have a little taste.
Mhm.
Delicious. So good. A little salt and a
nice little hit of pepper. But, good to
check your seasoning. You can see here
with the fish, we can just break it up
into chunks
like that.
And we can just get that in.
And of course, if you had different
fish, that's fine.
You can duck and dive. And I think these
times, that's what it's about, right?
Being flexible, being agile in your
recipes.
And, you know, you want to kind of be
able to do good cooking no matter what.
So look.
That looks incredible. Let's do the
topping cuz I think this is one of the
best bits. And actually, as far as my
kids are concerned, right? It's all
about the potatoes and the peas.
So, let's get a masher.
Let's get a nice knob of butter.
Pinch of salt and pepper.
And then have a good old mash up.
Just keep rattling away.
And then we'll put it on top.
I mean, for me, for all the parents up
and down the country, always trying to
get more veggies into their kids,
you know, this is a good way. But, it's
also blooming good for the adults, too.
So, what I tend to do is just take
a little bit of our topping and lay it
on the top like this.
I don't throw it all on top cuz you
don't want to displace all the lovely
sauce. So, sort of evenly distribute
the potato here. So, look, here we go.
That color
is just brilliant.
And once you've done that, just use the
spoon
just to sort of move it around.
It's sort of go up the edges.
Look at that.
So, you can make it rough and ready. You
can fork it up. You can do nice little
turns.
Because as this cooks, it's going to go
golden and blippy and bubbling and that
lovely sauce is going to find its way
out. It's going to be extraordinary. And
I can prove it to you cuz I did one
earlier, right? Check this out. Come on.
LOOK.
LOOK AT THAT.
CRISPY ON THE TOP. All the juices kind
of bake in their way out. Let's get this
down.
Let's have a little portion up.
Come on. Get in there.
Look at that.
Beautiful chunks of fish.
Absolutely delicious. Really simple,
good, honest grub. You know, stuff that
makes you really happy. Come on, let's
have a little try.
So good.
Mhm.
You would never know that was frozen
fish. It's so good. It's a clever,
delicious, thrifty dish.
In the freezer, the peas, spinach, and
the fish, you know, give it an hour or
so and you can have this. Joy. This is a
great dish. We're going to do a
beautiful mushroom cannelloni with a
gorgeous, oozy, cheesy sauce. If you've
got someone in your house that
completely disagrees with any kind of
meat-free day, this recipe's probably
quite a good one to get them on because
if this is made right, they probably
wouldn't even notice the difference,
right? Cuz this has the depth of flavor
that you'd get from a lovely cannelloni.
The residual moisture in these greens
will just steam and wilt. This will take
like 30-40 seconds. That can then go in
the bottom
of our tray. Just a little kiss of salt.
Right. That's the beginning of the
story. Let's get on to business. So, in
this pan, I want to cook down leeks,
which I love, and onions.
Olive oil will go straight in
with the onions.
And then as I prep each vegetable, just
add it to the story.
So, a little bit of pepper. And I've got
some garlic. Just
finely slice it up. Right. Let's get on
to leeks.
Just slice up
the white part
straight in there.
With the greener stuff, I tend to chop
this up finer anyway just to help it
cook.
And then we're going to add the
mushrooms. Right, big boy.
We're making cannelloni. Give it a
little seasoning with salt and pepper.
If you want to make this extraordinary,
just 15 minutes
of stirring and frying
will be amazing. Yeah. Go and find your
mad brother.
Okay. Stuffing's done.
So, chop that up.
And then it just feels so homemade.
And you get more texture. If you lay it
out flat, let that cool down.
Let me make a really simple white sauce.
In the same pan that we made the
mushrooms, go in with three tablespoons
of olive oil, three
tablespoons also of plain flour. You
don't have to make it with butter.
Classically, yes. But, in real life, no.
Olive oil's fine. Looks a bit like
breadcrumbs.
But, this is a thickening agent. In
there, we're going to add
some milk.
I'm just going to add it slowly slowly.
That's quite a rushed version. That's
what I always do at home. You know, I've
got a family here to feed. There's stuff
going on.
So, look. As the white sauce does its
magic, let's fill these cannellonis.
So, literally all I do
is stab around like that and then turn
it around. Do the other half.
It's as simple as that.
And that is your beautiful
mushroom-stuffed cannelloni.
Okay, so look. There we go.
A tray full of beautiful cannelloni.
Off the heat now cuz I'm very happy with
that consistency. And put a nice big
handful of grated cheese in there. I'm
using cheddar. Nice big handful
goes in.
So, let's get that
over the top here. Look how oozy it is.
Yeah. You can see the chunks of leftover
mushroom in there. Last but not least,
just a few little slices
kind of in and around. And then just a
little drizzle of oil. So, this will go
in the oven at 180° C
for about 40 to 45 minutes until golden,
blipping, and delicious.
I can hear it sizzling.
So, it's had about 40 minutes.
The wood oven's just a little bit
hotter. Look at that. Come on.
This kind of cooking is all about
family. Look at the crispy bits. Yes.
And then of course, we added that lovely
stack of greens.
It's got to be one of the best meat-free
meals ever, whether you're vegetarian or
not.
Right.
Let's get amongst it.
So good.
Oh yeah.
Kids! Coming. Lunch! I'm going to cook
for my family the most brilliant but
completely bonkers roast chicken dish.
We're going to marinate it with a kimchi
marinade. We're going to glaze it with a
kimchi glaze. And then I'm going to use
this kimchi also to dress like a whole
load of vegetables to make the most
beautiful rainbow slaw ever. So, let's
do it. Chicken, you can go aside for a
minute. First up, the kimchi. I'm going
to put it into a liquidizer. 300 g and
I'm going to add some water. 100 mils
goes in like that.
I'm going to take some ginger. A nice
big fat thumb-size piece of ginger goes
in here with the water. And I'm just
going to give it a little bit
of a hit of olive oil and a swig of
vinegar. Red or white wine vinegar.
And we're going to whiz that up.
Full of flavor. So, I'm going to use
this in three ways.
So, 1/3 in this roasting tray as a
marinade, right? And then over here,
I'm going to create a glaze. Just take
two or three tablespoons of really nice
honey.
One two.
The honey turns this
into a shiny, sticky, tacky glaze. And
then this last third, that will become
the most incredible dressing for a
beautiful rainbow slaw. So, let's do it.
Chicken into the marinade. This is the
time to earn your flavor. Get it in all
the cracks and crannies, in between the
little wings, around the legs,
in the cavity. So, let me just wash my
hands. Okay.
Just put a little swig of water in. So,
the chicken goes in the oven, 180° C,
which is 350° F,
for an hour and 20 minutes. Halfway
through, I'll take it out. I'll baste
all the beautiful juices on top. I might
add a little bit more water. And that's
going to be the most beautiful,
succulent, crispy-skinned chicken ever.
So, the chicken's had about an hour of
roasting. I've given it a nice little
baste. I want to show you the next part
of the story. First up,
I'm going to toast some sesame seeds.
So, just put that on a high heat and
just kind of toss it around like this.
It doesn't take very long.
Look at that.
So, in this same pan,
I'm going to do rice. Get your reliable
builder's mug and fill it up with
basmati rice. This is perfect for four
to six people. And then, two mugs of
water.
Tiny little pinch of salt.
Lid on top, medium-high heat, about 12
minutes works every single time. Let's
get this chicken and let's get to
business.
Just have a look at this lovely chicken.
Wow.
Come on. So, I'm going to go with the
lovely glaze
here, and I'm just going to
embellish. Now
is the fun bit. You take your everyday
chicken
and you give it a proper makeover. I
love this bit cuz essentially I'm pebble
dashing
this lovely glazed chicken with sesame
seeds. What I want to do is take that
last third of our kimchi sauce. And I'm
going to take a pack of tofu. I'll whiz
it up, and that will become the most
incredible dressing for a beautiful,
crunchy, rainbow veg slaw. It's going to
be amazing. The slaw, the rice, the
chicken.
Come on.
So, the tofu gives it an amazing,
gorgeous, silky texture. Now, what I'm
going to do is just add pre-prepped veg.
So, now, just get your hands in
and dress it up. So, let's plate it up.
Fork up that rice. Fantastic. Steamy,
light
rice.
Look at that. That is a roast chicken
dinner like you've never seen before.
It's just unbelievable.
That kimchi has been a flavor gift that
has kept on going. Come on, let's get in
there.
Ah, so good.
I've come up with a recipe that you
could do any day of the week. This is my
kind of version of a butter chicken. All
of this happens in a pan, so it's a
super convenient recipe. Let's get that
on a high heat, and then I'm going to
add 700 g of fresh tomatoes whole.
Essentially, what I want to do is scald,
char, and blacken the skins of these
tomatoes. Already, look at that. Can you
see how we're blackening those tomatoes?
That's going to give a char, a
smokiness. So, just take these tomatoes
off the vine. Now, at the same time as
we blacken these, we're going to do the
chilies. Split the chilies in half, and
with the tip of the knife, take out the
seeds. That's the hottest bit. So, in
these go. Now, as these tomatoes get
black all over, what you'll notice is
naturally the skins are starting to peel
off.
Let's get the last of the chilies on
there. Now, let them cool down. If you
want, you can cover them just to let
them steam a little bit. Right, the
marinade. Really, really simple. In a
bowl or a nice platter, I'm going to add
2 tbsp of the garam masala. Then, I'm
going to take eight cloves of garlic and
just use a grater.
Look at that. Then, I want a nice big
couple of thumb-sized pieces of ginger.
Just take a little spoon to scrape the
skin off the ginger. Then, I'll use the
same fine grater to grate the ginger.
Okay. So, into this, we will season it
with salt and pepper, 2 tbsp of lovely
yogurt. Now, when it comes to the
chicken breast, it's almost twice the
thickness here at this fat end than this
part here at the thin end. So, what I'll
do is ignore this thin end, and about
here, start to score it. About 1/2 a cm
to a cm now thick. This will allow that
lovely marinade to penetrate quicker.
There's no polite way to marinate. Get
that into all the little slits and the
cuts. I'm going to let that marinate for
about 10 minutes and have a clean down.
Right, let's get cooking the chicken.
I'm going to get this nice and hot. I'll
add a little bit of oil to a pan, and
then let's put the chicken straight into
that hot oil.
And I want to get it dark and golden.
So, while that's frying away, let's peel
these tomatoes. Just take the skins off
and the little stalk. The chilies I'll
keep to one side.
Hey! Poppy, do you want to turn the
chicken for me, darling?
So, when it comes to cooking the
chicken, we're only going to do it for
like 8 to 10 minutes. Well done, mate.
So, look, we've peeled through all of
these little tomatoes, and then you can
gather all of these little skins at the
end. Put them in your hand, and in
there, that is pure flavor. You go and
wash your hands, big boy.
Oh! Chicken's looking amazing. Gnarly on
both sides and just cooked through
perfectly. Right, let's get that on a
board.
Now, let's make the sauce. It's really,
really simple. So, use all those pan
juices there. Let's get the tomatoes and
all the juices
into the pan. And now, in with 2 tbsp of
cashew butter.
That'll cook down pretty quickly and go
ruby red. So, I've got 500 mils, give or
take, of boiling water. So, just enough
to really help this simmer down and turn
into a lovely thick sauce. Just get a
fork and just squash all those tomatoes.
And let that boil vigorously for a
couple of minutes. I am going to put
some chili in. The question is, how
much? I think what I'm going to do is
just go in with 1 and 1/2. If you want
to take the edge off the spice, put like
2 tsp of mango chutney. Now, what we can
do is get that chicken in there, and we
want the chicken to be really juicy,
right? And I want quite big chunks. I
don't want like little wavy bits. And
then, I'm going to put this in the sauce
and let that chicken simmer. What I'm
going to do now is just spoon 3 tbsp of
yogurt through the sauce. Just a little
bit of coriander on the top, and that,
my friends,
is going to be a beautiful curry. So,
look, I've got some rice here. I've put
some chickpeas in. And then, just get it
in there.
Look at that. Big chunks of meat.
Just get amongst it.
So, so good. That's good to go.
Let's feed the family. So, I'm about to
make for my family a prawn toast toasty.
Yes. It's basically a mashup between a
toasty that we all love in my house and
those beautiful prawn toasts that you
get in a Chinese restaurant, right?
We've got some lovely uncooked prawns.
I've got an egg, ginger, spring onions,
some chili dipping sauce, bit of soy
sauce.
And let's do this. I've got a loaf of
bread. Get a serrated knife and slice it
about a centimeter thick. So, I want
four slices. Now, the first job is to
create the filling. So, the filling is
super simple. Take yourself two spring
onions. Just trim the ends off, and then
just finely slice it. Then, we're going
to go in with some ginger. So, just like
a little 2-cm piece, just peel off the
outside like that. I keep these
trimmings, by the way. Just dry them,
and they're wicked for making lovely
cups of tea, or you can put them in
broths to make lovely noodle broths and
stuff.
Slice it up. You can grate it if you
want. And just run your knife through it
so it's nice and fine. Then, in with the
prawns. What I look for is just nice,
sustainable prawns. Just pull four nice
prawns aside. What we're going to do
with this is just slice it all up and
then bring it in to the ginger and the
spring onions and chop it all together.
And then,
I'm going to crack one egg and put the
egg whites into this bowl, and then the
yolk will go in the middle here. Just
make the whole thing bind together. The
only thing I want to do now is just
lightly season it with some soy sauce.
Just a splash. Super simple.
Just a little bit of coriander in here
will be lovely.
And again, just chop it through.
So, look, next bit could not be easier.
Take the bread, and we're going to fill
it.
So, take half of that mix.
Put it on to the bread.
In we go with the stuffing. Really load
it up. Look at that.
Be nice and generous. Okay, so that's
good to go. Then, place
this part on top. So, get a fork
and just beat up your egg whites
so they're nice and loose. And then, get
your bread.
Pop it one side on the egg whites, two
sides on the egg whites. And then, get
your sesame seeds.
And we're going to cover it so it all
sticks to it. One side, press it down.
Other side.
The sesame seeds stick
to the bread. And when we toast that,
it'll go golden, crispy, and delicious.
Time to get the pan on. I want to cook
this on a medium heat. I'm going to use
a large
nonstick pan, and then I want to kind of
push it up a little bit. So, I'm going
to take a little knife.
Take that little prawn and simply cut it
in half. And what I want to do is push
this
in
to the actual bread so the bread and the
prawn become one. Oh, yes. On top like
this.
Little bit of oil on top.
Look at that. And then, straight in to
our pan just like that. Super simple.
You can hear it frying already. About 3
minutes on each side until golden,
crisp, and delicious. Okay. Let me wash
my hands.
And now, let's check this beautiful
prawn toasty. Get under there. Have a
flick. Hey! Look how crispy that is.
So, look, that side has had 3 minutes.
I'm just going to go on the prawn side
just for 1 more minute
to get it really perfectly golden.
And then, I'll serve it. Come on, kids.
I've got prawns. Let's get amongst it.
Oh, god, I love it. The ginger, spring
onions, prawn. What a combo.
But it's the crunch of the sesame seeds
and the sweetness of the chili sauce.
And it's just everything you love about
a prawn toasty. Poppy, you're going to
go nuts for this. Like, for real. So,
the idea is you take your little
sandwich.
>> Yeah.
And yeah, and dip it aggressively in
that chili sauce. Okay.
That's really nice.
Amazing.
Do you want me to teach you how to make
it? Yeah. So, this is kind of like a
veggie curry. But the way that I cook it
and put it together, it turns out like a
beautiful rice cake. It's full of color,
full of flavor. So, when I first came up
with this recipe, it was all about the
cauliflower. And it's really nice to
single out one vegetable and hero it.
But you know what, at the same time, I
really want to celebrate lots of
different ways to express this dish. So,
we can do courgettes, we can use some
frozen peas. Here, I've got a 28 cm
nonstick pan
on a medium medium high heat. We're
going to go in with two onions, white or
red.
So, take the skin off,
half them,
and then just roughly chop them into
about 1 cm chunks. If you haven't got
onions, you can use leeks, you could use
spring onions. Little bit of oil goes
in.
And then,
the onions go in like that. Look at
that.
So, we'll just fry these off for like 5
minutes until nice and softened.
So, let's get to the veg. Courgettes,
for instance, we're just going to half
that,
then cut that half
in half,
and then again, little 1 cm chunks. Then
we've got the cauliflower. Trim off the
lovely cauliflower flowers, about 1 and
1/2 cm from the flower itself. But then
the stalk here, often this will go in
the bin, but we don't want to do that at
all. We don't want to waste it. Also,
it's really delicious and super
nutritious. Slice it up. So, look, these
onions are getting nice and soft.
Now, in with the tikka paste. This
stuff's amazing. We've got layer upon
layer of different spices. The smell
already is incredible. Then I go in with
my veg.
Just stir it around, jiggle it, and as
we get heat through to those veggies, it
will start to shrink down. The flavors
will really start to come out. So, look,
after a couple of minutes, let's go in
with our frozen peas, just a handful,
and then we go in with one regular mug
of basmati rice. Then to guarantee you
beautiful fluffy rice that works every
time, I'm going to go in with two
mugs of water.
So, mix that up.
And then, I want a little bit of spice,
right? As in heat spice. So, I've got
like three chilies here. Prick them with
the tip of a knife, and then that will
give a really really subtle chili flavor
to this. And one last thing, which I
think is a brilliant curveball,
poppadom. And when I was in Delhi last
year, I saw so many variations of
poppadoms. I'm going to take six here,
right? And you just smash them up, and
it will suck up that moisture, a little
bit like we use lasagna. So, just mix up
those poppadoms, pat it all down, and
then turn that down to like medium, lid
on top, and cook that for about 10
minutes.
So, this beautiful curry dish has had
about 10 minutes. And now, if you listen
to it,
you can hear it catching and crackling.
Just push the veg and rice down. On a
low heat, just let that fry up for about
10 minutes, and it's going to give it a
lovely crispy bottom. And then what I
want to do is kind of dress it up. On
the same trip, when I learned about how
to use those dry poppadoms in such an
interesting way, I also saw them take
pomegranates and take mango chutney and
put the two together. And the result was
like the best hack ever. Simply mix it
up, so so good.
So, this is at 10 minutes now. I'm
pretty excited it's going to be nice and
crispy. So, get yourself a plate or a
platter, put it above the pan like that.
Yes.
Look at that. So, what I love to do is
get that yogurt and just kind of give a
few splurges. We'll go in with those
bits of mango chutney and pomegranate,
and then just lots of lovely herbs. Get
in there through the crust. Look at
this. Yes.
Ho ho.
Mhm.
Wowzers. So, this one is for all you
avocado lovers out there. If this
avocado happens to be quite high in fat,
then could I use that as a fat source in
cooking? And if that's the case, could I
use it like butter or olive oil? Could I
make pastry? I had a little play, and I
started really liking the results. I'm
going to make avocado pastry, and we're
going to turn that into the most amazing
quiche with eggs and beautiful sweet
peas and cheddar cheese and basil. So,
get yourself two lovely ripe avocados.
Just rotate the avocado around the
stone, and join up the cuts. Give it a
little tap, and then just twist it apart
like that. It will come out. So, just
squeeze it out of the skin. Now, we need
double the flour, 400 g of self-raising
flour, a nice pinch of salt for
seasoning, and then just like flour and
butter in regular pastry, rub together
the avocado and the flour. As this comes
together as a normal pastry would, I'm
just going to take a little water
and bring it together. Four tablespoons
go in. Just knead and push together the
dough. Hug it all together.
Clean the bowl, and there you have your
dough. Like a regular pastry, let it
relax. Put that in a nice clean cloth,
and let it rest for half an hour, and
I'm going to pick some salad.
This lovely pastry has been resting.
Just roll it out, try and be even, and
then turn the actual pastry, not
yourself. Keep rolling away from you,
about half a centimeter thick.
And you want it to be bigger than the
tray that you're going to cook it in.
Roll this up. It's quite easy to manage.
Then we'll take it over here, and we'll
unwind it like that. The weight of this
overhang will keep that pastry in shape.
Put a little hole here and there to let
the steam out, and that goes in the oven
for 10 minutes at 200° C.
And that's the perfect amount of time
for me to make the filling.
We're going to go even more green,
frozen peas. I love them. 300 g is all
you need.
And that goes in frozen
to a liquidizer.
We want to flavor these peas.
I like a bit of basil, so like half a
bunch of soft basil leaves. Season with
a little salt and pepper,
and about 90 g of the nicest cheddar
cheese you can get your hands on.
Then six large free-range eggs.
And then simply whiz it up.
Look at the color.
Beautiful. So, look, that is the filling
done, ready and raring to go. Let's just
have a little check on our pastry.
I'm actually very happy with that.
Pour this filling straight in to this
tray.
Put that in the oven for about 10 to 15
minutes. Just check on it. When that egg
is set, we're good to go. I've got some
sort of everyday leaves here. I've got a
nice crunchy apple, and I always think
that kind of brings this salad to life.
And then cut it into little matchsticks.
Then when it comes to the dressing,
three parts olive oil to one part acid.
I'll just use lemon today. Squeeze it
through my hands to catch any pips. Get
the apple in there. Dressing goes in,
and then these lovely salad leaves.
Right, this is pretty much done. It
looks amazing. Look at the color. I'm
going to put the salad on top, and then
I'll go back to that cheddar and use a
speed peeler. Let's get in there. Cut
through here, down the little sides like
that, then grab a slice.
I love it. I mean, you can actually
taste the avocado in the pastry. Let's
take this now
to my lot.
Mom, let me see. Do you want to try
some? Mom, can I have a try some of
that? So, this is one of my family's new
favorite dishes. It's the ultimate
sausage casserole. We've got the most
amazing potato dumplings that are crispy
on the top, really gorgeous and gooey on
the bottom. We've got loads of veg in
there, a beautiful gravy, crispy
sausages. So, let's do it. I've boiled
800 g of nice Maris Piper potatoes. I've
got six big lovely Cumberland sausages
here.
In that same pan that we boiled the
potatoes,
just whack in a little bit
of
olive oil.
Get that on a medium heat. Take your
sausages,
and then gently fry these for about 10
minutes, give or take, until they're
nice and golden. The next thing we're
going to do is gravy. I'm going to be
using carrots here. Split that down the
middle, and then into quarters. Just cut
it into like inch or 2 cm chunks.
Now, on the leek here, I'm going to just
split them down the middle
like that.
Just roughly chop them.
So, look, we've got some nice color on
these sausages now. Put them on a little
bowl or plate. The sausages will flavor
the fats in the pan, and that's going to
make the veggies really really
delicious. Fry this off for about 10 15
minutes. They will shrink down. It will
be gorgeous. In the meantime, let me
show you how to make these dumplings.
Smash the potato.
Season it with salt and pepper, you
know, fairly standard. But then, if we
get some nice whole grain mustard,
I'll take about a heaped teaspoon, and
the mustard seeds I think really make
this. It's like a little surprise. So,
look, once you've mixed all that
together, roughly chop it in half with
your hand, in half again, and just kind
of put it in your hand like a cricket
ball. It's as easy as that. Four lovely
potato dumplings ready and raring to go.
So, we're now caramelizing. You can see
it on the leeks and the carrots. So,
we'll go in with one heaped teaspoon of
whole grain mustard. Then we're going to
go in, wait for it, with a good old
friend of mine, brown sauce. About three
tablespoons.
It smells incredible already. Then, tins
of mixed beans. Get that in there, juice
and all. And then last but not least,
we're going to go tinned tomatoes,
right? So, one whole tin goes in. Just
kind of squeeze the plum tomatoes in
there to break them up. And then what
you want to do is fill this up with
water to give you that little bit of
extra moisture. We're going to bring
that to the boil and simmer that for
like 10 10 15 minutes until it looks
scrumptious right?
Now, with our beautiful everyday
Cumberland sausage, score little half
centimeter slices. So, by scoring it
like this, it looks cool. It creates
more surface area, which is more crispy
bits, more crispy bits, more flavor.
Yes. And then on the underside, this
also sucks up more flavor from this
gorgeous sauce. Score both sides, take
the sausage, and just sink it in this
sauce.
Then we go in with the lovely potato
dumplings straight in there. Look at
that. Absolutely beautiful. Just brush
it with some oil to get it really really
golden. Now, instead of using a brush,
just use some herbs. Bit of thyme, bit
of rosemary, pour in some oil,
and brush it,
and that will not only make it go golden
and gorgeous, it will absolutely flavor
it.
Take some of those thyme leaves and just
put them in and around the pan.
Now, I'll put it under the grill for
about 10-15 minutes on high until golden
and delicious.
You hungry? Yeah.
Look at
this.
>> Woah! How do you make the mountain
thing? They are potato dumplings. So,
let's just plate some up.
You got your sausage in there.
You got your veg in there.
Absolutely beautiful.
So, little bit of greens in there.
Here we go.
So, let's have a little try of this.
Okay. I'm going to go for it.
Go on, mate.
Mhm.
It's really nice. So, what do you
reckon, bud? Are you happy with that,
mate? Yeah.
When you're juggling work and family,
you need a dish that's super simple to
rustle up. I want to make a curry, a
really beautiful fragrant curry, but I
want to do it in such a way that it's
surprising and exciting. And you know
what? It's just a handful of
ingredients, right? I've got ginger,
garlic, chili. There's always an onion
or that family in the house, and then
yogurt, rice, standard stuff. In the
freezer, I always have sustainable
prawns. These I've just put in a bowl of
water for 5 minutes, defrosted them.
They're fantastic. So, I'm going to do
an amazing rice cake, right? It's going
to blow your mind. So, one builder's mug
of basmati rice into a pan,
and then two of the same mug of water,
right up to the top.
So, in we go. Get that on full whack.
Super easy. Season it with a little
pinch of salt.
So, bring this to the boil, cook it for
about 10 or 12 minutes until the water's
cooked away, and when it has cooked
away, turn it down to low for 5 minutes,
then it will go crispy and golden. Super
simple. Let's get on to the curry. Take
four cloves of garlic
and finely slice it.
And we're on to the curry pan. Put some
olive oil in there, and then go in with
these wonderful fragrant ingredients bit
by bit. So, garlic in. So, about one one
and a half chilies. Always check how hot
they are, cuz they can catch you out
every now and again.
Nice thumb-size piece of ginger. Just
get a little spoon
and scrape the skin off.
And then just finely slice the ginger,
just nice little chunks like that.
So, that goes into the pan. Look at the
colors. Give that a little toss.
And then spring onions. Just cut one
bunch
into like 2 cm chunks. Sprinkle that in,
right? Then we're going to go in with a
good friend, right? Mango chutney. You
want a couple of nice tablespoons going
in there.
So, if you look at the rice, the water's
now gone. You've got the little holes
here.
And now we turn it down low. 5 minutes,
don't rush it, and you'll go from
standard rice
to rice cake. So, I'm just going to
steal half of this into here, and then
about 150 mils of water,
and this will make the most incredible
sauce.
So,
let me go and whiz this up.
Now, this is the time when we can go in
with our prawns. I left just one or two
prawns whole
with their heads on. The rest I just
peeled the shell. A nice couple of
handfuls in there.
Look at that. I'm going to wash my
hands. So, the sauce goes in now.
Couple of minutes and that's good. So,
just take your rice and then just flip
it
like that. Can you see how crispy that
is on the top? Right, the sauce. Turn
the heat off here now, and then about
150 g of yogurt like that. Just give it
a little shake
and just pour.
Gorgeous.
Easy prawn curry
with a lovely rice cake.
Get in there and just break it open. And
if you look in this, you know, you've
still kind of got
the fluffiness and the steam stuff
inside. See how lovely and steamy that
is? Go in for the prawn.
Look at the colors, guys. The colors are
bonkers. It's just blooming brilliant.
Come on, more sauce, more sauce.
Let's just do a little bit of poppadom
action.
Little bit of salad on the side
for a bit of crunch.
That
is a beautiful plate
of prawn curry.
Rice cake galore.
Come on, let's do this.
Mhm.
Gentle, fragrant, loads of flavors.
Prawns lovely.
It's joyful.
Really really joyful. I'm happy.
So happy. Right.
I'm going to go and serve this to the
family. Think they're going to love it.
This is like a little bit of sunshine in
your life. I'm going to show you how to
make the most delicious pepper, prawn,
and chorizo bake with beautiful rice
around it. It is so scrumptious. So, in
my freezer, I nearly always have prawns
of some kind. Put them in a little cold
water for like 15 minutes, they defrost.
Happy days. So, I've preheated an oven
to 220, right? If I cut halfway through
this pepper, just run your knife around
here, take the seeds out of your
peppers, and then cut this into four.
So one two three four.
The first part of the story is very very
simple. Open the oven and go straight
onto the bars, right? We just want to
give it a really good roasting
really quickly. So, little bit of olive
oil in a pan, and let's start the story
with chorizo, about 50 g. And in this
chorizo is the key to a lot of the
flavor. So, it's not just sausage, it's
got garlic, it's got herbs, it's got
beautiful, you know, pimento in there,
sweet cayenne, and get that into your
olive oil. So, I've got four cloves of
garlic, which I want to finely slice,
and I'm going to get that into the
chorizo.
So, let the sausage and garlic fry away.
I want to get about half a bunch
of parsley. Finely slice those stalks,
and they're going to go in with the
chorizo and the garlic. So, as this gets
gorgeous and crispy, I'm going to get
myself a bowl, and I'm going to remove
this chorizo and garlic now,
importantly leaving behind that amazing
flavored oil. So, get yourself a mug.
We're going to put in basmati rice.
One mug of rice is perfect for four
people into that oil.
Mix it up. Let the fat go around that
gorgeous rice. For the perfect rice, you
want two mugs of boiling water.
One.
Two.
So, let's go back to the oven now and
get those peppers. The natural sugars
in these peppers have been accessed, and
that's going to make a massive
difference in this bake. So, take your
little ring
and just nestle it into your rice. So,
turn that off now, and this will go in
the oven with a lid on top or tin foil
for 15 minutes, right? To let it all
plump up and get gorgeous. I'm going to
now show you how to do the prawns, about
300 g on the chorizo and the garlic.
My family love prawns. And then finally
grate the zest of half a lemon, and then
I'll put the juice
of half a lemon into this, right?
So, just give that a stir up. Lemon,
garlic, chorizo. Look at the colors.
Come on. So, let that marinate while the
rice cooks, and then I'll show you what
to do next because it's going to be
amazing.
Okay.
Look at that. Steamy, gorgeous, and
colorful.
Then take those amazing prawns
and just kind of like sprinkle it over
the top like that.
Just push it into the rice,
and we'll pop that back in the oven now
for 5 minutes so we cook the prawns all
the way through.
5 minutes is up,
and here we have it, my friends. A
beautiful chorizo prawn
and pepper bake. And then just take some
of that lovely chopped parsley, sprinkle
it on top. Let's go for it. Come on.
Get yourself a nice chunk of the pepper.
So good. Nice little wedge
of fresh yogurt. That with a nice little
lemon.
Bit of parsley on top.
Throw in a little bit of salad on the
side.
Right, let's have a little try.
Hallelujah.
The smell will draw in my teenagers, and
they will devour
all of this in no time at all. They love
prawns, garlic, chorizo, rice. Come on.
Rocky road. Naughty. Very very nice.
I'm about to attempt to make a delicious
rocky road, the easiest dessert, snack,
whatever you want to call it. So, what I
have here is 500 g of incredible
chocolate. And look at that, just
melted. Oh, hi, darling. Can I Can I
have the swirly thing now? The swirly
will come up.
So, what we have here is a big bowl,
500 g of chocolate. Now, this is 70%
cocoa solids. It could be milk
chocolate, it could be white chocolate.
You can have fun with it, right? So,
just give that a little mix, River.
Shiny. So, what we're going to do is
equal quantities of melted chocolate and
stuff. When can I have that? Well, what
is it What is it that you want? I want
that this way. The swirly thing. Okay.
Can I have half of it? No.
Just let You can have this.
I get that and you get that. Yeah. Okay.
So, to 500 g of melted chocolate
we're going to add 500 g of stuff. I
think the stuff is cool if it's not just
sweet stuff. Otherwise, it's sweet on
sweet on sweet and you never have the
contrast, right? So, yes, we've got
marshmallows here that you can put in
and they're cool. Popcorn, unsalted
obviously, go in. You can go through
your cupboards, any odds and ends,
things like your digestive biscuits we
can put in.
As indulgent as a rocky road is,
you know, it's never going to be
healthy, but you can make it full of the
good stuff. Dried fruits, nuts, seeds. I
[100:02] personally love things like dried
[100:04] pineapple. Mix it. Can you mix it? Yeah,
[100:07] go mix it.
[100:08] You like the dried apricots, buds? Yeah.
[100:10] Just tear some apricots in there like
[100:12] that.
[100:13] You like that? Yeah.
[100:15] So, you can go super kiddie, you can go
[100:17] a bit more grown-up if you want to spike
[100:18] it with a little dry chili. It's quite
[100:20] nice with the chocolate, it works. Go
[100:21] and crush that in. Don't eat it for
[100:23] yourself, crush it in. Can I try a
[100:24] piece? I want to show Mom. Okay, well,
[100:26] don't show Mom cuz I'll get in trouble.
[100:28] I want to see Mom.
[100:30] You want to see Mom? Okay. See you.
[100:35] So, get yourself a little tray,
[100:37] some greaseproof paper,
[100:39] and then Buddy's going to pour it in
[100:40] here.
[100:41] Ha! It's a bit heavy.
[100:43] We're going to pat this down
[100:45] like tarmac-ing.
[100:48] Doesn't it look a bit like like tarmac?
[100:50] It does it look a bit.
[100:52] Right. Once we've done that,
[100:54] I quite like just to put a little
[100:56] sprinkling of sesame seed
[100:58] on there like that. Put this in the
[100:59] fridge for about an hour, hour and a
[101:01] half until it goes nice and firm, and
[101:03] then we can cut it up and enjoy it.
[101:15] So, here we have our lovely rocky road.
[101:20] And look at that.
[101:22] I love it. Look at that. Oh, here we go.
[101:28] He's back.
[101:29] Perfect timing, young man.
[101:31] Cuz this is the rocky road
[101:34] of dreams.
[101:36] Look at this. Beautiful big old pile.
[101:39] Dad, can you pour some white chocolate
[101:41] on it?
[101:42] >> Yeah. You mean just get on with it, is
[101:43] what you're saying. Yeah. Okay, fair
[101:45] enough.
[101:46] Get on with it.
[101:48] Dad, can I have one now? I haven't tried
[101:50] it. So, there you go.
[101:52] I want to pop one. A lovely
[101:55] rocky road.
[101:58] Tell me like if you like it or not. Do
[102:00] you not enjoy it? I do enjoy it. I just
[102:03] want to show show Show Mom. Okay. What
[102:06] about you, buds?
[102:09] And you know what? If you do make a nice
[102:10] little batch,
[102:12] it's really lovely to whack in a little
[102:13] tin and give it away as a present.
[102:16] Rocky road, naughty, very very nice.
[102:21] Right. Who should we give these to? Me.
[102:43] When days are busy and you've got loads
[102:45] going on, it's easy to find yourself
[102:47] cooking up the same old dinners. But
[102:49] I've got an exciting little dish that
[102:51] you can knock out for your friends when
[102:53] you've not seen them in a while to show
[102:54] them just how much you love them. My
[102:56] mate Gennaro's here and a lot of his
[102:59] life he's spent cooking for me. Now I'm
[103:01] going to cook for him. We're going to do
[103:02] a beautiful pasta dish. This meal is
[103:05] done and dusted in the time it takes to
[103:06] cook some linguine or some spaghetti.
[103:09] So, we're doing a prawn linguine, right?
[103:10] That's where we're starting. So, we're
[103:11] going to do prawns, we're going to do
[103:13] pancetta, so surf and turf. We're going
[103:15] to do a sauce with mascarpone. And, wait
[103:19] for it, red wine. A kiss of garlic and a
[103:22] little bit of pasta.
[103:24] It's going to be so good that you will
[103:26] love to make it. It's one of those
[103:29] pastas that I think everyone has got to
[103:31] master cuz it's one of those things that
[103:32] just kind of hits the spot and it feels
[103:34] a bit posh. So, Gennaro, if you can just
[103:36] finely slice that into little
[103:38] matchsticks. Into little matchsticks.
[103:40] So, four slices of pancetta. So, here
[103:42] I've got two cloves of garlic that I've
[103:44] just finely sliced.
[103:45] What we'll do now, because this is a
[103:47] really really quick meal. Gennaro, if
[103:49] you can just grab like two portions of
[103:51] pasta. So, that is our timer, right?
[103:54] It's like 10 11 minutes to cook the
[103:56] lovely linguine. Of course, you could
[103:57] use any pasta you've got. I quite like
[104:00] with linguine like a ribbon pasta like a
[104:02] noodle style pasta. Look at the way he
[104:04] puts it into that water.
[104:05] Beautiful. Nice bit of salt.
[104:08] So, pasta's cooking.
[104:10] Yeah. I'll turn the pan on now, put that
[104:13] pancetta in the pan.
[104:14] I'll just kiss it with a little olive
[104:16] oil.
[104:19] How it goes. You don't need very much.
[104:21] Four thin slices are plenty.
[104:24] So, look, you can see the heat coming up
[104:25] in the pan, the fat's starting to render
[104:27] from that beautiful smoked pancetta. It
[104:29] already smells amazing. This is a
[104:31] perfect time to prep the prawns. Now,
[104:34] prawns we love. Everyone's buying prawns
[104:36] most of the time, frozen, fresh, cooked,
[104:39] uncooked, shell on. So, I just want to
[104:41] show you a little preparation. About 160
[104:43] g. You don't need loads of prawns for
[104:44] this.
[104:45] So, what I do, first of all, is just get
[104:48] the head, twist it. Most of the sweet
[104:51] delicious flavor is in the head, so you
[104:52] can put that in there with the pancetta,
[104:55] right? That's where the flavor's at.
[104:57] Then, with this part, what I'll do is
[104:59] just peel off
[105:01] that shell. Very very simple.
[105:04] They have beautiful prawns in Italy,
[105:05] don't they, Gennaro?
[105:06] It is It is the food It comes so natural
[105:11] when you cook because you cook with your
[105:14] heart. I love it when you talk about
[105:16] food Gennaro.
[105:17] Can you see how the prawn head is
[105:18] changing color? So, that's just a little
[105:20] bit of heat and it's gone orange. Now,
[105:21] let me show you how to butterfly the
[105:22] prawn. Get a knife, run it very
[105:25] carefully down the back of the prawn
[105:27] just like that. And then, more than
[105:29] often, there's a little vein in here
[105:31] that you can remove. Just pull that out
[105:33] and then that's butterflied, ready and
[105:35] raring to go.
[105:36] At the same time, for sweetness,
[105:38] deliciousness, texture, and flavor, I'll
[105:40] take the rest of the prawns and I'll
[105:41] finely chop them because it's going to
[105:43] stick to the linguine in the most
[105:45] beautiful way.
[105:46] One thing is for sure, and Gennaro
[105:48] taught me this, is you do not want to
[105:50] overcook prawns. They're really really
[105:52] sensitive, they cook so so quickly. So,
[105:55] this is where it gets exciting. Gennaro,
[105:57] give those prawn heads a little
[105:58] >> Yeah, the little squeeze. Look at the
[106:00] juice come out of those prawn heads.
[106:01] Just have a look at that.
[106:02] Just a little squeeze on top you can see
[106:04] the look.
[106:04] How they go. Oh my goodness me.
[106:09] So, bacon crispy, you got the juices
[106:11] from the prawns, happy days. Then we're
[106:13] going to go in with the garlic. Now we
[106:16] can kind of turn the heat of the pan up
[106:17] a little bit. Now, let's get this party
[106:19] going. Gennaro, how long on that pasta?
[106:21] Nearly ready. One more minute.
[106:23] >> So, I'll take these whole prawns
[106:25] and put them in that lovely fat.
[106:29] You can see how that little preparation
[106:31] with the butterflying opens the prawn
[106:33] out. It looks better, it takes on the
[106:35] flavor better, and it cooks quicker.
[106:38] Really smell nice. So, I want to do a
[106:41] blushing prawn linguine, right? So, I'm
[106:43] going to use some red wine, right? Which
[106:45] often people say white wine. But if you
[106:47] go to Italy, they use red wine in really
[106:50] creative ways. So, as the pan, you can
[106:52] tell it's hot, right? See it bubbling
[106:54] and sizzling. Now I'm going to go in
[106:56] with some nice Italian red wine.
[106:59] Half a glass.
[107:01] Very importantly, I do not want that to
[107:03] be whiny. I do not want the wine to
[107:06] overtake the deliciousness of the
[107:07] prawns. So, we're going to cook it away.
[107:10] The alcohol will go
[107:12] and then you're just kind of left with
[107:15] the love and the care from the wine
[107:16] maker, the kind of flavor of like oaky
[107:19] gorgeous ripe fruits, and the sort of
[107:20] flavor of like barrels and love and
[107:23] care.
[107:23] >> sweetness, the love and care. You say so
[107:26] good. You taught me. No, but this is
[107:28] pure love and passion in a pan.
[107:31] Now it's going to get exciting again cuz
[107:33] now we go in with mascarpone. Now,
[107:35] mascarpone is a very famous Italian
[107:37] cheese. Ah, cos it is. It's a kind of
[107:39] It's a cream cheese. It's so natural, so
[107:42] good.
[107:43] And then, go in with the chopped prawns.
[107:46] Right, they do not need that much time.
[107:48] Right, literally, the residual heat from
[107:50] the pasta will be enough to cook these.
[107:56] And look how the mascarpone and the wine
[107:58] is marbling together. Now, I will give
[108:01] this pan
[108:02] to Gennaro. Oh goodness, look at that.
[108:05] Proper al dente.
[108:10] So, what Gennaro is doing now, very
[108:11] stylishly, is emulsifying the fat from
[108:14] the mascarpone and from the pancetta
[108:16] with the water from the cooking of the
[108:18] pasta. By doing that, you get this
[108:20] incredible kind of light oozy pasta
[108:23] sauce. Now, I'm going to add a little
[108:26] bit of Parmesan. Now, a lot of people
[108:27] say you should never put Parmesan
[108:29] >> Rubbish.
[108:29] >> with seafood. Complete rubbish. Go and
[108:31] tell him, Gennaro. It is rubbish. Why
[108:33] not? If you like a Parmesan, why not to
[108:35] put It goes ever so well. And then, nice
[108:38] big handful of peppery gorgeous rocket.
[108:43] Oh, that is ready.
[108:45] Look at that. Gennaro is the chief pasta
[108:48] tosser.
[108:49] And then, from this part of the story,
[108:51] just grab some lovely tongs. Look at the
[108:53] color guys.
[108:55] Come on. The way that that blushing
[108:58] sauce just sticks to the pasta. Look at
[109:00] the juice. Look at the juices coming.
[109:02] Yeah, go on. Juice juice juice. Whole
[109:05] prawns, whole prawns. And then, it's
[109:06] quite nice just to finish it with just a
[109:08] few small rocket leaves. That, my
[109:11] friends,
[109:12] it's a dish. Surf and turf linguine.
[109:15] Prawn linguine with smoky pancetta,
[109:17] mascarpone, and red wine.
[109:20] Enough talking, my friend. Let me just
[109:22] plate up.
[109:29] Genna, that's for you. Love you. What I
[109:31] really love about this
[109:33] is the use of the red wine.
[109:38] Buon appetito.
[109:43] Silky. Mhm.
[109:47] Oh my god. Wow.
[109:49] You know what? Mhm. A lot of people
[109:51] would have thrown those prawn heads in
[109:52] the bin. You get kind of that
[109:55] depth of flavor like an amazing sort of
[109:56] seafood soup.
[109:58] The prawns are really sweet, aren't
[109:59] they Genna?
[110:00] >> They are, indeed.
[110:01] I don't even talk. I love it.
[110:05] Mhm. How nice is this? Got me best mate.
[110:07] Nice day.
[110:09] Cooking outside. Lovely little pasta
[110:11] dish. Heavenly.
[110:13] I dedicate that pasta to you.
[110:16] Aw, bless them.
[110:24] Salute! Salute! Give me the more pasta.
[110:33] This recipe is something that I make in
[110:35] my family every single month, at least.
[110:37] We love it. We always go back for
[110:39] seconds, and maybe even thirds. It's a
[110:41] classic minestrone. So, it starts here
[110:44] in a big pan. We're going to get that on
[110:46] a nice medium-high heat. We're going to
[110:47] kick it off with four rashes of smoked
[110:49] bacon. That smokiness is like a secret
[110:52] ingredient. So, in this pan, nice big
[110:54] one, we go in with some olive oil.
[110:57] We sprinkle in
[110:58] the bacon.
[111:00] Look. Look what's happening straight
[111:02] away. We're creating golden little
[111:04] nuggets of smoky bacon.
[111:07] That's called caramelization, right? And
[111:09] that is going to happen with the veg and
[111:11] everything that you put in here until
[111:12] you add the wet stuff. Let's start off
[111:14] with some lovely carrots. This recipe is
[111:18] brilliant at embracing what you've got
[111:20] in your fridge. You know, you might have
[111:21] a bit of swede or turnip. I don't know.
[111:23] I don't know what you got. Uh it could
[111:24] be some savoy cabbage, white cabbage,
[111:26] kale. Right, all of this stuff can be
[111:29] welcomed into the wonderful world of
[111:32] minestrone. So, I just chunk up the
[111:34] carrots. It's all good.
[111:36] A couple of garlic cloves. I'm just
[111:38] going to roughly chop into the pan. If
[111:40] you look in the pan, by the way, as the
[111:42] bacon gets golden, then I go in with the
[111:44] garlic. I'm using bay leaves, dried or
[111:47] fresh, it doesn't matter. Of course, you
[111:48] could put rosemary in there. Beautiful
[111:50] flavors. I'm going to go in with the
[111:52] carrots.
[111:54] Just mix it around.
[111:56] It smells amazing already.
[111:59] I'm going to use celery, just like a
[112:01] couple of little stalks. Let's get the
[112:03] onion in. Two small onions or one big
[112:05] one. Your cup of garden soup or
[112:07] minestrone should reflect what is
[112:10] available to you. And it doesn't matter
[112:12] whether that's frozen or down the
[112:14] market.
[112:16] As that is frying up,
[112:18] this is kale, purple and green. They're
[112:20] so beautiful, aren't they? What I like
[112:22] to do is take these tough stalks off,
[112:25] chop them up, and get them in there in
[112:26] the base. So, nothing goes to waste.
[112:30] Finely slice these, all in there.
[112:32] Beautiful. So, I've got a savoy cabbage
[112:35] here.
[112:36] So, you can give them a nice little
[112:37] wash.
[112:39] These outside leaves are perfect for the
[112:41] job.
[112:43] Again, I'll cut the stalks out
[112:45] and slice them up. Literally, nothing
[112:49] is going to go to waste.
[112:55] Now, look, that's what you're talking
[112:56] about. Can you see all the
[112:57] caramelization happening there?
[112:59] So, I'm going to go in now with a little
[113:01] cheat. So, of course, I'd love to use a
[113:04] beautiful, you know, chicken broth. I
[113:06] haven't got one. Right? So, I'm using a
[113:08] little organic vegetable stock cube.
[113:10] Sprinkle that in.
[113:12] And now we've earned that color, which
[113:14] is big flavor,
[113:15] I'm going to get two ingredients in.
[113:17] First is going to be some nice tin
[113:19] tomatoes. So, we're breaking the frying
[113:21] now, and now we're going into boiling,
[113:23] okay? So, I'll fill this up with some
[113:25] water as well. In with the water,
[113:28] and then I'm going to use some butter
[113:30] beans, nice and chunky, and then
[113:32] cannellini beans. So, I've used butter
[113:34] beans and cannellini beans, but you can
[113:36] swap out any bean you like. You can get
[113:38] tins of mixed beans as well, which are
[113:39] absolutely brilliant. And then onto the
[113:41] cabbage. So, I'll just roll it up
[113:44] like a kind of cigar,
[113:45] and just finely slice it
[113:48] like that.
[113:51] So, that will go
[113:52] into our pan.
[113:54] Beautiful.
[113:55] Then the kale.
[113:58] Look at that.
[114:00] And then, what I like to do
[114:02] is top up the soup with some boiling
[114:04] water,
[114:06] about a pint.
[114:08] Let that simmer
[114:10] for a couple of minutes with a lid on
[114:11] top.
[114:13] And then, let's talk about pasta. So, I
[114:15] tend to put all my odds and ends
[114:16] normally in a little jar, but then, what
[114:19] I like to do in this soup is just get a
[114:21] little tea towel
[114:23] and pour the pasta into the tea towel.
[114:27] I just take up the sides and give them a
[114:30] ruddy good banging, right?
[114:33] Go over
[114:34] to our beautiful soup.
[114:37] Hold it like this,
[114:39] and in it goes. So, all you've got to do
[114:41] now is just simmer this for the time
[114:43] that it takes to cook the pasta. It will
[114:45] thicken slightly, but that is going to
[114:47] be a really nice, hearty bowl of
[114:49] minestrone, and it's going to taste
[114:51] gorgeous.
[114:55] Okay, so it's had about 10-15 minutes.
[114:57] The pasta is cooked, and it's thickened,
[114:59] but it's still nice and brothy. Look at
[115:01] that. Beautiful. So, let's get a nice
[115:03] big old spoon in the bowl. Really,
[115:06] really good. Little bit of Parmesan
[115:07] cheese on top, or cheddar cheese, of
[115:09] course, if you haven't got it. This is a
[115:11] dish
[115:13] that I think people love. Look at that.
[115:15] Pasta is brilliant. Little bits of
[115:16] bacon.
[115:20] Mhm.
[115:22] Absolutely gorgeous.
[115:24] If you love sausage and mash, then this
[115:26] could be a new family favorite in your
[115:28] home. So, first job, in a pan, a little
[115:30] bit of olive oil, and on a kind of
[115:32] medium heat,
[115:34] get those lovely sausages in there. And
[115:36] I want these to be golden all the way
[115:38] around. We're going to use leeks, but
[115:40] also curveball,
[115:42] apple. Peel these. Chunk these up.
[115:45] And then, as these sausages are getting
[115:47] nice and brown, we're going to get our
[115:49] apple straight into that, and we want a
[115:51] little bit of color.
[115:53] Yes. Now, my missus doesn't like onions,
[115:56] so I use leeks a lot.
[115:58] So, put the tip of your knife in and go
[116:00] all the way down the length. Roughly
[116:02] slice it up to be the same size as the
[116:04] apple. So, just take the sausages out
[116:06] now, and the leeks all go in.
[116:09] Just give it a little swig of water just
[116:12] to stop that frying process.
[116:16] A little pinch of salt,
[116:18] and a little pinch of pepper. And now,
[116:20] turn that down to like a medium heat. 20
[116:23] minutes with a lid on. The next job is
[116:26] the mashed potatoes. Over here, I've got
[116:27] 1.2 kilos of Maris Piper potatoes,
[116:30] peeled and boiled and drained. Just 2
[116:33] Tbsp of flour, salt and pepper. Mash
[116:36] this together.
[116:38] Then we need to divide it into 1/3 for
[116:41] the top, and 2/3 for the bottom and the
[116:43] sides. This bit I will put over here
[116:47] with my sausage.
[116:49] And then, this 2/3 here
[116:52] I'll put in that tray. A little kiss of
[116:54] oil,
[116:55] and give it a little rub up around the
[116:57] sides. In we go with the potato. And
[117:00] then, just use your hands to just pat it
[117:02] out almost like a type of pastry. And
[117:05] then, as you get to the sides, up we go.
[117:08] Super easy. Super rustic.
[117:10] The leeks. Once they've had about 20
[117:12] minutes, and they're really tender,
[117:14] we're going to kind of amp this up now.
[117:16] We're going to go in with 3 tsp of
[117:18] English mustard. Right, that won't be
[117:20] hot, by the way. It will just give it a
[117:21] nice big sort of bold flavor. Then we're
[117:23] going to go in with flour again, just a
[117:25] couple of tablespoons, and that will be
[117:27] the thickening agent for this sauce. A
[117:30] little thyme. Just pick that
[117:33] off the stalk. Once the flour is all
[117:35] mixed in, add the milk, about 600 ml.
[117:39] And now, go in with the sausages. Let's
[117:41] save one of those back.
[117:42] Slice these into 1-cm slices.
[117:48] So, this will feed four people very
[117:50] generously. So, let that simmer for 5
[117:52] minutes,
[117:53] and let's think about the topping.
[117:56] Get a little bit of greaseproof paper.
[117:58] Put a bit of oil on here.
[117:59] Rub it.
[118:01] And then, I'll take this potato
[118:04] and press it down again and again and
[118:06] again like that. It's about a centimeter
[118:08] thick. You want it to be slightly bigger
[118:11] than this tray. Go in with that amazing
[118:14] sweet leek,
[118:15] caramelized apple,
[118:17] and sausage casserole. Look at that.
[118:19] Then simply pick up your greaseproof
[118:20] paper, flap it over the top like that,
[118:23] and then unpeel it.
[118:27] We want to seal it to kind of trap all
[118:29] that lovely goodness. So, get yourself a
[118:31] fork
[118:32] and your flour. Just dip it in the flour
[118:34] to stop it sticking to your fork.
[118:37] And that just seals it nicely. Just as
[118:39] if it was pastry, get a knife and kind
[118:41] of cut down like that.
[118:44] Now, there he is. One sausage left. So,
[118:47] slice it, and then I'm going to push
[118:49] this into the most beautiful potato.
[118:54] These will get nice and golden and
[118:55] crispy. Now, that will go in the oven
[118:57] for 40 minutes at 200° C. And then,
[119:00] about 5 minutes before the end, I'll put
[119:02] some of that time on top just to crisp
[119:04] them up, and it will look the business.
[119:10] Oh yes.
[119:15] Come on.
[119:16] Chunks of sausage, creamy leeky sauce.
[119:19] I've got some greens and some peas. I
[119:22] love a bit of mustard, as well. Let's
[119:24] just get in it.
[119:29] Come on. What's not to love? Sausage and
[119:31] mash, but not as you know it.