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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