Beans on toast and other pleasures!

I love beans on toast.  However I think everyone has their own tweaks that they like to make to it.  I like to cook the beans slowly until the sauce becomes more sticky than runny.  I like to toast the bread on both sides (some people only one, what's wrong with you!?) I like lots of black pepper on mine and lots of cheese.  If I'm feeling flash I'll fry an egg and put it on top.  Delicious.  

The reason I am writing about beans on toast is because no matter how exposed one is to the tippity-top of gourmet cuisine, no matter how wonderful the produce you are eating on a regular basis you always return to your favourites.  Although I hate the term, 'guilty pleasures' comes to mind.   

Other such delicacies I enjoy are pâté on crackers, and before you think that I'm buying my
pâté in a delicatessen, sourced locally or ethically or whatever.  No, its the 50p job from asda.  I care not about your protestations!  It is one of my many pleasures,  those things you don't often hear TV chefs mention.  

I have gained new ones since meeting my wonderful boyfriend.  Most notably scotch eggs.  Those wonderful fried meaty eggy parcels.  Yummy.  

However saying all that my absolute favourite, the absolute peak is a bag of pork scratchings.  They are so wonderful.  You see I don't understand how people can be so squeamish about them.  They might have a wee bit of hair here and there, but they are glorious.  They sell the best ones round the corner from my house in the most awful 'hive of scum and villainy' pub.  They are big, salty, crispy.  A really big bite.  

More importantly it is the ability to eat these things on my own.  So no one can ask for any.  It is the scoffing of these things in private that adds to the satisfaction of it all!

So I have heard of jam and cheese sandwiches being a favourite of some peoples, I can't imagine it myself.  I would love some feedback either on here or on twitter about your guilty pleasures food-wise.  What do you love to eat secretly?  

Oh you beauties...

Today is curry day!

My lovely curry!

I spent ages perfecting this recipe, it was always either too spicy or too bland.  I could never get the balance right.  I know that this problem is not just me.
The thing this curry requires no skill whatsoever.  It's really just throwing things into a pot at different stages.  You can make this vegetarian, or meat it up.  It really doesn't matter.  It's foolproof.

I use chicken thighs and legs roasted in the oven.  I throw away the bones and chuck in the meat.  Done!

I hope you try this recipe, I love it.  

Rachael's Curry

Ingredients:

2 tbsp of Vegetable oil
1/2 tbsp of mustard seeds
Small handful of curry leaves
3 medium onions chopped finely
1 tsp of light brown sugar
1 heaped tbsp of garlic and ginger paste (Alternatively 4 medium cloves of garlic and 1 2cm piece of fresh ginger chopped and combined.  I find the paste so handy).
1 red chilli chopped finely
500g of cooked chicken (can substitute here with heaps of veg or another meat)
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 pint chicken or vegetable stock.

 In a cup I put:
3tsp of madras curry powder
1 heaped tsp of cumin
1 heaped tsp of corriander powder
2 heaped tsps of tumeric
1 heaped tsp of garam masala

Add enough hot water to make this into a paste.  I find this helps stop the spices burning or clumping together.

 Method:

1. Put oil into pan and put in curry leaves and mustard seeds.  Turn heat on and when the seeds start popping throw in your onions and the sugar, cook until soft.
2. Add the garlic and ginger, stir to combine.  Then do the same with the spice mixture.  Then add your chilli, leave out if you don't like too much chilli.  But I feel it adds heat and it really isn't too hot.
3.  Throw in your cooked chicken and make sure it is covered in all the spice and then add the tomatoes and combine.  When it is bubbling add about a 1/4 of the stock and leave to simmer for 20-25 minutes.
 4.  Return to the pot and taste, add more stock if it needs it, or season to taste.  Leave it on the lowest heat while you prepare your extras.

Popadums, chapattis, naans or rice.  What you serve your curry with is up to you! I like to have lots of rice made with coconut milk, or chapattis with lots of butter.  It really is up to you!  

Peach Crumble

I wanted something sweet today.  Plus I didn't mind spending some time in the kitchen because my beloved was catching up on UFC, and I didn't fancy it.  Sundays after a UFC event normally leave me with plenty of free time, it goes on for hours.  

There wasn't much in the cupboards to make dessert.  Loads of savoury things to snack on but nothing sweet.  I spot a lonely tin of peaches in the cupboard, hiding between two tins of tomatoes.  Oh you cheeky devil!

This is so easy to make.  I only had one tin of peaches, but I would recommend if you're making this to use two.  I wasn't going to the shop, it's Sunday!

Ingredients:

2x tins of peaches
100g wholemeal flour
100g butter cold from the fridge, cubed.
70g light brown sugar
30g granulated sugar
1 or 2 tiny drops of almond essence (optional, I love the scent of almond, it is an acquired taste so if you don't like it, don't add it)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200c.  Rub together the butter and flour until crumbs form.
2. Add the sugars to the crumble topping and mix with a spoon.  Stick bowl in the fridge until you're ready for it.
3. Decant the peaches into a bowl and separate from the juices, (I just lifted each segment out of the juice and put in the pan), Place your peaches in a sandwich tin, or suitable ovenproof container.  
4. At this point I drop the tiniest couple of drops of almond essence over the peaches.  It adds such a lovely scent.  Top with your crumble and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until your topping is crispy and brown.

I love custard so any excuse to have it I do, but you can serve this with cream or ice cream, heathens.  Joking, maybe.  Also keep the peach juices, stick them in the fridge, then drink them later, out of the fridge, at night, like a beast!

Marry, sir, 'tis an ill cook that cannot lick his
    own fingers: therefore he that cannot lick his
    fingers goes not with me.

 Romeo and Juliet Act 4, Scene 2

Quick pizza sausage rolls

So I was hungry earlier, it wasn't tea time but it was after dinner time and I had finished work for the day, as had my lovely boyfriend.  
I pottered to the kitchen opened the fridge and saw that I had some leftover pizza sauce from the other night.  This was due for the bin today however I saved it!

Pizza Sausage Rolls

Ingredients:

For the pizza sauce (makes enough to top three 10" pizzas and this recipe):
500g passata
4 medium garlic cloves chopped finely
1 onion minced (I don't have any 'new fangled' kitchen equiptment but just grate it like I did)
I also use a heaped tsp of Slap Ya Mamma seasoning (you can buy this from Amazon or http://www.americansweets.co.uk/) adds a really good kick.  
Alternatively you can use 1tsp of chilli powder and 1tsp paprika, or maybe some Tabasco.  It's up to your beautiful taste buds!
Pinch of salt.

375g puff pastry (ready rolled from Asda or other supermarket, Asda is closest to me)

5 pork sausages 

1 egg beaten


Method:

1. Unfurl your puff pastry roll.  Skin each sausage before placing onto the pastry.

2.  Place your sausages onto the pastry (I fit two and a half one side and the same on the other).  Squish them a bit.

3.  Cut the pastry down the middle.

4.  So drop some of the sauce over the sausages and roll up in the pastry, making sure the seal is at the bottom, seal with egg.

5.  Slice into the size you desire.  I cut each roll into 4.  

6.  Place in the freezer for 20-30mins.  Pre-heat the oven to 200c.

7.  When the oven is ready to go and the rolls have had their time in the freezer, brush with egg and place onto non-stick baking try and bake for 25-30mins or until golden brown and bubbling.

8.  Remove from the oven and scoff.

I cooked these and the rolls separated slightly in the oven because maybe the pastry wasn't cool enough, or because the sauce is so wet.  I have to say that regardless of this, they were so good.  Please try!

Dreams you can eat.

Heading towards payday and I am stoney broke!

Such a time to dream and fantasise about the things I am going to eat when I have money.  I am thinking of this as I write this.  

I want the world...

 I am thinking of buying two full chickens, roasting them then eating them like a feral beast in the corner of a darkened room.  Oh red meat!  How I adore thee.  
Cakes.  Buttery fluffy cakes with buttercream icing so thickly applied you can barely open your mouth wide enough to get it all in.  But of course, you can.  

All of these things I think about when I am loaded with pasta, rice or potatoes.  Cheap to eat, with nutritious accompaniments that fill and satisfy you, albeit temporarily.  

I am sitting satisfied after making pizzas from scratch with lots of cheese and a sauce of minced onion, garlic and tomato.  However I sit somewhat sad.  How greedy have I become? That after a lovely meal I am unhappy because I can't make some cake, or have a few squares of chocolate, or make ice cream, or bake something!

As a cook, having an empty kitchen is deeply unsettling.  You can't just go in there and knock something together for the pleasure of it.  I am not a total glutton, I don't even really want to eat what I bake or cook.  It is the process, the tasting, the presentation and the faces of the people eating my food fill me more than anything.  

As food gets more expensive a cook has to be more wary of the 'big shop', it is so easy to go in there on payday and buy all the things you've dreamt about for the last week leading up to it.  But you have to feed yourself, partner and brother for a month.  So it is chastening.  I still can't help it though.  That slither of dolcelatte, plus some booze, some snacks for the kids (there are no kids in this house).  Before you know it you've racked up a couple of hundred pounds worth of shopping and half way through the month you're regretting that bottle of wine.  The 'cheesefest' you had whilst watching a film.  The snacks.  Feeling guilty about the extra garlic, bread, peppers, meat and so on it could have bought to make your meals go further.  

So one of my joys in life, food shopping, has that tinge of sadness to it because now there is always a limit to what I can buy.  

So on I dream... custard tarts, fruit salads with yoghurt, apple tart tatin (which I haven't made yet but I got the Raymond Blanc cookbook from the library and I cannot wait to give it a go), a cheese selection with chutneys and lovely breads and crackers.... I can go on.  

I can promise you this, dear readers, I will make the same mistake again when I go shopping on Friday.  I will buy the wine, I will buy the cheese, I will buy all the things!!!

I am, in fact, a brunette otherwise this is an accurate depiction of me on pay day

 

 

Chilli cook off!

Best episode of the Simpsons ever!

I wish I knew of a chilli cook off nearby in London that I could enter.  I don't get arrogant much but I can say that I make the best chilli con carne ever.

I am only sharing the recipe in the hope that someone will share an easy brisket or pulled pork from scratch recipe.  That would be lovely.

Chilli Con Carne

Ingredients

1kg stewing steak (small cubes)
4 slices of smoked bacon finely chopped
1 medium onion finely chopped
3 fat cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 400g tin of Kidney Beans
1 400g tin of Black beans
1 400g tin of tomatoes
400 ml beef stock (you won't need all of this but keep it to hand in case your chilli becomes dry)
2 tsp chilli powder
1 heaped tsp paprika
1 heaped tsp cumin
1 heaped tsp brown sugar
2 tsp tomato purée

Method

1. Dredge the beef in flour and brown in the pot, do this in batches so you get an even colour.  Set aside.
2. Add oil to the pot and add the onion, and the teaspoon of brown sugar.  Soften onion, then add garlic then the bacon.
3. Take a small cup and add your chilli, paprika, cumin and tomato purée, add some hot water and mix to a loose paste, then add this to your pot and stir until all the onion, bacon & garlic are covered in the spices.  
4. Once the bacon is cooked through add the beef, coat in the spice mixture.
5. Add the tomatoes and 200ml of the beef stock and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
6. Keep adding stock as the stock appears to reduce.  A little at a time.  The consistency is up to you, but I like it thick and stew-like. 
7. Once you can see that the beef is tender, normally 2 1/2 hours into cooking, add the beans.
8.  Bring sauce to the boil and voilà! 

This chilli is fantastic and a meal with rice, tortillas and some cheese.  Or it is wonderful leftover.  If your are cooking this chilli from the fridge pour in some water to loosen the chilli.  Pour over some roast potatoes, or chips! It is so delicious, I promise.

Do try this recipe it is really wonderful. 
 

Total meltdown

I struggle when it's hot.  I have tremendous trouble sleeping and I get cranky because of this.  Much to his indoors chagrin.  Also when it comes to food and cooking I struggle. with the heat.  Mostly because my audience can't be doing with anything green.  Salads, vegetables and fruit seem to be out.

I enjoy a salad, the fattening kind obviously.  Lots of dressing, bacon too, OH and cheese!  My boyfriend will eat anything I put in front of him and say 'it's amazing' because he likes a stress free environment and he enjoys it.  But my brother Callum (23) who is living with us at the moment is the fussiest fusspot of fussington.  I am doing the guy a favour letting him stay at my home, rent and bill free, while he tries to find a job.  

However his dietary requirements are becoming a problem.  


'Don't like Onions, unless they are chopped really small, or deep fried'

'I'm not a berry man, I mean I could have Raspberry if it was like in a doughnut or something'

'This chicken isn't as good as the one Dad makes' (My dad buys cooked chicken breasts, I use thighs and legs, decide for yourselves)

'Is that all I get?'

'Your cakes aren't big enough, only 8 slices'

'This tastes funny'

'I could make this'

'I don't like rice'  eats all of it.  

'Why do you have to put THAT in it, ruined it'  

'Ruined it' 

'Pasta, again?'  

'Why did you put lemon in MY cake?' (cake was for everyone)

'Make me a cake'

'Make pancakes'

'Make another one of those'

And so it goes, well hopefully I'm helping his palette become more developed.  I long for the day when I can make anything I want for tea and everyone would be happy.  

As a cook one wants to make everyone happy.  We long for that approval so whatever I do I cannot help but want to please our house guest.  He is my brother after all!
 

'You've ruined it'

 

  
 

Chicken... it doesn't have to be boring!

Mmm... chicken...

 I have written before in this blog about leftovers, how TV Chefs manage to pull all sorts of wonderful leftover ingredients out of their store cupboards.  However one thing that will always be leftover in my house is some roast chicken.  Mostly because there is only three of us.  I am not suggesting that if you have a bigger household that this will be the case.  If that is so Asda, and  I am sure other supermarkets do a bag of frozen chicken pieces (legs and thighs) that are reasonably cheap.  Roast these up and add the pieces to the soup. 

I love roast Chicken.  It enjoy it on the day with crispy potatoes and onions, the day after in a soup or in lots of other recipes, the possibilities are endless. 

Get yourself a nice big fat chicken.  I am not going to go into the benefits of an organic bird simply because that isn't going to fit into everyone's budgets.  Especially not mine.  

This isn't a recipe as such because it is so so simple.  Put your bird onto a deep roasting tray rub with olive oil and season.  I use sea salt and black pepper.  Slice a head of garlic (you can use to roasted garlic for the base of a chicken soup, yummy!) and a lemon and stick it in the carcass.  Peel and prepare enough potatoes and onions to fit around the bird.  Cover them in olive oil, coating all of them and scatter them around the chicken.  Cover with foil and roast for 1 hour.  Then remove your foil and roast until brown and crispy.  Normally 45 minutes to 1 hour.  Again this depends on the size of your bird.  

I think there is nothing nicer than crispy chicken skin.  It is delicious.  Serve your roast chicken and veg with some greens of your choice.  I am a fan of steamed broccoli.  I also love peas with chicken.  


The next day... 

Hehehe weird Carrot!

Chicken Soup 

Ingredients

Chicken carcass plus meat from thighs, legs and wings etc.
3 stock or bullion cubes
1tbsp olive oil
Garlic left over from roast (optional)
Big handful of parsley
1 small onion
1 leek
2 large carrots

Method

1.  Get your big pot on the stove and place your carcass in, pour over 1 1/2 litres of stock made from your cubes and boiling water.  Bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes.  
2.  Remove from the heat and remove the chicken carcass and discard, it's given all it can, poor thing.
3.  Chop and prepare all your veg and chicken so it's ready to chuck in.
4.  Fry the onion in the oil until soft and glossy, add the garlic stir and then add the leeks and carrots.  
5.  When your veg has softened slightly throw in the chicken.  Then add your stock and finally the parsley.
6.  The last step is down to personal preference.  I add maybe a bit of pepper and that's it.  However if you want you can add dumplings.

This is a great recipe to know as your lovely chicken won't go to waste.  Chicken soup is the best thing to be able to pull out of the bag when the weather is pants or you want something homely and easy on the pocket and the belly.  I had it on Sunday with some soda bread I had made (recipe below).  

I threw some potatoes into this one.

Contact the Elderly and the Banana bread

The aftermath of my tea party

In May this year I hosted a tea party for some elderly people from my local area.  If you are unfamiliar with Contact the Elderly they are a national charity that organises regular events, tea parties and such for older and more vulnerable elderly people throughout the UK.  As they say on the website, for people who live on their own Sunday can be a particularly lonely day and if all I have to to is give up a few hours of my time then I am more than happy to do it.  As a host it was my responsibility to entertain these lovely people and put on a bit of a spread.  

I baked for two days.  I loved every minute because I love baking.  My boyfriend was delighted because there were loads of leftovers.  Not that what I cooked was terrible but because I cooked way too much.  No banana bread can be seen in the picture though.  That went.  All of it.  As it seemed like the most popular recipe I thought I would give you all the recipe too.  

Banana bread

Ingredients

280g of Plain Flour
1tsp of Baking Soda
1/2tsp Salt
120g Soft unsalted butter
225g Caster Sugar
2 large eggs
80ml whole milk
1 &1/2tsp vinegar
4 medium bananas mashed
1tsp Vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C and grease your loaf tin (20cm x 12.5cm is best but slightly bigger or smaller should have no ill effects on the outcome)
2. Combine the milk and vinegar in a bowl or jug, leave to curdle. (About a minute or so should do this but I do it when I'm starting the process so I have it when I need it)
3. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl
4. Add and combine the eggs, vanilla, bananas and milk to the butter and sugar.
5. Add your dry ingredients, flour, baking soda and salt.
6.  Combine these ingredients until you see no flour in the mixture.
7. Pour your mixture into the tin and place in the oven to bake 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean.
8.  When cooked turn out of the tin carefully and leave to cool for as long as you can.

You can also add chocolate chips to this recipe (dredging the pieces in flour before you add them to the mixture will stop them from sinking to the bottom) which would be delicious but I like it on it's own with a cup of YORKSHIRE tea.  

This is an easy yet impressive recipe.  A real lip-smacker. 

Waste.

Watching the BBC's Eat Well for Less this evening and I was struck by one thing.  Waste.  Gregg Wallace went to Tom Kerridge's Michelin starred kitchen to talk about chips.  A noble quest I say.  Chips are great.  

However I was watching Mr Kerridge's technique, he was coring the potato with an apple corer.  The leftovers were obvious.  I am not suggesting that with his stars and all that he makes a bad chip, his customers on the twitter seem to think they are the Bee's knees.  However I feel that the programmes title, Eat Well for LESS did not seem to come to a satisfying conclusion, the test audience prefering the more expensive option of fish and chips as opposed to the cheaper.  I would love to spend my money on line caught fish (although I wouldn't cook it, see previous post) and fry my potatoes in duck fat but I don't have the money for that.  

This is the BBC's Cost of Living season of programming the intentions of which are lost on me.  I recently watched Nick & Margaret – Benefits: How Much Is Enough? and was infuriated by some woman (Debbie) tagging along to the supermarket with a woman (Kelly) who was doing the shopping on a budget she was quite clearly used too.  Debbie said she would return the full chicken ad buy chicken fillets instead.  Now most cooks with an ounce of sense know that a chicken (in this case one that was just under a fiver) would feed a small family for more than one meal.  The cost of chicken fillets is really high and tend not to be very versatile.  

I feel that I do need to challenge the Michelin route of wasting ingredients.  It does infuriate me when I see it on the telly.  The BBC's Great British Budget Menu was a good watch.  Seeing people struggle in the various situations they are in.  Both working families and the elderly are highlighted in this programme.  They were, at the end of the programme, presented with a cookbook full of useful nutritious recipes.  It was really wonderful to watch.  On the BBC website there is a link to perfect and cheapest store cupboard items* and on the BBC Food site a list of said recipes, wonderful and essential stuff.

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/tv/budgetmenu/gbbmstorecupboard.pdf 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/programmes/b036x3pv 

Irish Soda Bread

This bread is my favourite.  I make it every weekend.  My boyfriend loves it.  He has also made it himself to some success.  This is the man who burns toast regularly.  It really is so so easy.  

Ingredients

250g wholemeal flour (have some extra for dusting)
250g plain flour (have some extra for dusting)
1tsp baking soda
1tsp salt
400ml whole milk 
1tbsp white vinegar

Method

1.  Preheat the oven to 200°C
2.  Measure out the milk, and drop in the tablespoon of vinegar.  Leave to curdle.  Or if you are as grumpy as me in the mornings just look at the milk, it should curdle.  Just joking.  Use the vinegar.
3.  Mix up all the dry ingredients then add the now gloopy milk.
4.  Mix and combine the ingredients by hand.
5.  Drop out onto a floured surface (plain flour).  The mixture may seem very wet but cover it in the flour.  Do not knead this mixture just create a fat ball and drop onto a lined baking tray.
6.  Now you must let the devil out!  Cut a deep cross in your pretty ball, say 3/4 of the way down and sprinkle over some wholemeal flour.  And place in the oven.
7.  Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until a tester comes out clean.  TIP: Place another baking tray or oven proof dish with some water in the oven.  The steam will stop the crust being too hard.  

I love this bread, it goes great with eggs and bacon.  With some butter and cheese.  With soup and so on.  It is versatile and tasty.  Or you can slice it thickly and make my dad's speciality soda bread pizza, this is especially nice when the bread is a day or two old. 

Fear of Seafood

I love seafood.  I love fish, shellfish.  Raw, cooked.  Any cuisine.  I am not bothered.  When I eat out I almost always order the fish dish.  I could quite happily be a pescatarian.

The point of this post is to mention how terrified I am of cooking it at home.  As it is such an expensive ingredient I would be incredibly upset, moved to tears if I brought home a lovely, albeit pricey, morsel and completely messed up the cooking of it.  It would break my heart.  I would take a run at any other kind of meat.  Not a problem.  However my favourite I won't attempt at home.  

It is something I must challenge simply because as such a passionate cook I should have a seafood dish in my repertoire.  I should because I love it so much.  

There must be home cooks out there with the same fear.  Or maybe not.  Maybe I am destined to live without home cooked seafood. 

The best seafood I have ever had was back home in Ireland.  A seafood chowder made in a pub by the sea.  The chowder was so creamy and the fish was so soft with clams, mussels and prawns.  The whole thing was packed full of flavour.  Peppery and sweet at the same time.  Served with dense wheaten bread and soft butter.  It was absolutely delicious.

Seems so simple doesn't it?  I just don't have the stones!

    

The Kitchenaid

Thanks BBC, I pay my licence so I can use this right?

Ah the Kitchenaid.  Everywhere you lurk.  Next to cardigan Jim from last years Great British Bake Off, they all had them, the swines! Next to Nigella, the lovely Anna Olson has one, everyone has one.  EVERYONE!

Kitchenaid must have the best marketing team in the culinary world.  They have noticed that these programmes are on all the time, and they've thought 'these people should be using our equipment '.  They have probably given all these beautiful little machines away for free.  The reason for this is clear.  They know they have a glamorous product and the want is there.  I mean I sit there jealous, counting the Kitchenaids.

So I decide I need one.  I go to Google.  Goodness gracious me, all the colours.  All the lovely little features.  £429.  I'll stick with my homely whisk thank you.  It was only £3 from Asda.

So the clever little devils at Kitchenaid with their lovely mixer that costs a fortune are rubbing their (probably clean and flour-free) hands with glee.  Counting the money as each episode of Great British Bake Off airs.  

It is quite clear that there are other companies at this too, but Kitchenaid are ever present, looming large, in the homes of my favourite chefs, saying 'you can't make this recipe without me'.  I haven't seen such a professional piece of product placement in a long time.  Hats off to them.  I am currently saving for one.  The price be damned.  
  

Chicken, Ham and Leek Pie

This is a simple (really, there are massive cheats) pie to make for friends, family or if you are anything like my partner and I for two of us to eat for a couple of days.  If it is for a group then you can decorate the pie as shown in the picture.  Normally I don't bother.  

Ingredients

350g of Cooked Ham (you can buy a cooked ham joint in the supermarket and use the leftovers for toasties, see sometimes I have leftovers!)

500g of chicken thighs (skinned and boned, you can buy them prepared this way or do it yourself which is slightly cheaper)

2 medium leeks

1 small can of condensed chicken soup

1 small can of condensed mushroom soup

1tsp English mustard

50g butter

1 egg beaten

1 pack of ready made puff pastry

Salt and Pepper to taste.

Method

1.  Thinly slice the leeks, and put into a pot with the butter and cook until soft and coated with the lovely butter.

2.  Whilst the leeks are softening chop the chicken into small pieces and fry until just cooked.  Drain the juices.

3.  Chop the ham into cubes and throw in with the chicken to heat through.  

4.  Set the chicken and ham aside and open the cans of condensed soup.  Decant them into a pot and heat slowly.  Add the mustard and stir through.

5. Stir in the leeks, chicken and ham.  Season with salt and pepper and taste.

6.  Put the contents into an oven proof dish or tray and cover with the puff pastry sheet.  Any excess can be used to decorate the pie.  I like making leaves and bows.  

7.  Brush the pie with the beaten egg and sprinkle with salt.  Poke a little hole in the pie and bake at 200°C for 20 minutes or until golden brown and bubbling under the surface.  

8.  Serve with new potatoes and veg.  Or on its own because it is lovely.

I have made this many times and it is my fall back recipe in case of emergency.  It really is a crowd pleaser and can be made with readily available ingredients.  Can also be made and frozen for extra handiness.

For my friends coming over...

We've all seen that episode of Nigella, Jamie or Barefoot Contessa to use just a few examples, where they have a group of friends, family or some random group of people coming over for dinner.  Whether it's lunch, dinner, brunch or high tea the presenter will give us specific party information as an excuse to present their lovely recipes.  

Nigella is the main culprit.  She always has people coming by at the last minute, but it's OK because she is amazing and can handle it.  Some of my favourite Nigella recipes are her ones for groups of people, or a party where you don't have the time or you want to enjoy your guests.  A chicken, chorizo and potato one-tray bake, throw it in a tray, bung it in the oven, that really is it.  So if I was a teenage girl I would have posters of her on my wall.  

My only issue with these episodes is simply the inclusion of these extras, the part where they have their glamorous party.  All I want to know is the recipe, just tell me what to do so I can copy the recipe.  Show me how it is served.  It is really boring from a TV point of view.  

I think my main gripe is that I am not invited.  I would love to be drinking cocktails and eating delicious canapés at Nigellas.  I watch these episodes jealously, maybe because I long so much to be able to count Ms Lawson as a mate.  'Yeah come round for tea.' I'll say.  'We'll have some chicken and potatoes then drink litres of prosecco and sing along to show tunes'*.  My goodness.  I know it is very sad to say these things but that is what these episodes give me.  They tell me that I can have this lifestyle.  It is very unfair.  

I feel that way about going around to Ina Garten's** or Jamie Oliver's house also, but not as much because I haven't thought up elaborate fantasies about our friendships.  Maybe it is because I cook all the time, I enjoy it, even love it, but to have someone do all that for me more often would be nice.  

Possibly the most interesting thing about these episodes is the feeling that you may not be able to cook these recipes if you don't have a party coming over.

My boyfriend James, who has to endure the everyday culinary programming, dislikes both Jamie Oliver (for obvious reasons) and Ina Garten.  However Barefoot Contessa is the show that really gets him riled up.  I think he believes that she can't cook.  First of all in one episode she cooked steak for 15 minutes, which was enough to throw him into a grump.  However he did mention one episode, which I hadn't seen until now.  'Barefoot in London'.  Where she cooks a bacon sandwich and prepares a ploughman's lunch.  So I may have to watch some more Barefoot Contessa, and watch it closely.  

*Nigella is my favourite TV Chef and can do little wrong in my eyes so if you aren't a fan, I apologise.  Also I believe that she is too brilliant and is obviously going through a really rough time so she is more than welcome to come round to mine and drown her sorrows.  As long as she buys the booze.  I'm not made of money!

**I am reluctant to start a critique of Ina Garten since finding out that she wrote the Nuclear energy budget and policy papers on nuclear centrifuge plants for Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.  Whilst doing this she was throwing soirées and dinner parties and 'flipping' houses and making bank.  Hardcore lady.   

Leftover Cheese?

Sitting on my sofa watching another cooking programme this afternoon really pushed me over the edge.  It was Valentine Warner's What to Eat Now.  This programme has a really great concept, if you haven't seen it, it is a show that focusses on the best seasonal produce we should be eating, now.

It wasn't the lovely recipes that Valentine was showing us, including some lovely tomato pizzas with a batty lady in a greenhouse to Gooseberry meringues which I didn't like the look of but my boyfriend was all over them.  The thing that had me gesticulating and ejaculating (I'm bringing that word out of the seedy world it has been banished too) at the television was not the lovely produce on show it was the use of the term 'leftover'.  Now TV chefs are really getting on my nerves with the use of this term.  From Mr Warner, to Gordon Ramsay (leftover baked potatoes), Jay Rayner on The One Show (leftover cheese to make Cauliflower Cheese, to which even Professor Brian Cox exclaimed 'LEFTOVER CHEESE!?'), finally the worst culprit, Nigel Slater.  

Perhaps Nigel, who seems to live on his own if his shows are anything to go by, (not that there is anything wrong with that), as an accomplished and well known cook may of course have many surplus ingredients knocking about.  However people do not tend to cook a couple of roast chickens for Sunday dinner, or two or three more baked potatoes than we need for that meal.  

I will watch any and every cooking show going.  I cook almost every day for my partner and now my brother who has moved in with us.  From baking cakes to making meals that will feed my household and keep hunger at bay.  We don't have to be on a budget I will be as sensible as possible, cooking in large quantities and so on.  I know of few occasions that I have something leftover that can make a delicious, yet markedly different, meal.  

My intention for this blog is to keep an eye on these cheeky TV chefs, critique and recommend recipes that I will try myself.  I will also show you some of my own recipes that will be so wonderful if there are leftovers, you'll eat them on their own! 

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