Chicken, leek and chestnut pie

This is a brilliant way to use up leftovers after a Sunday roast and it looks like you’ve put loads of effort in when actually, it’s very easy to make.

I made this pie for the first time in the days following Christmas when we had turkey and ham to use up (instead of chicken) and it went down a treat. Feel free to substitute any of the ingredients for whatever’s in your fridge, I’ve also added broccoli florets instead of the chestnuts before and mushrooms would work well too.

Serves 4, or 2 with leftovers for the next day

Ingredients

• 1 pack of ready rolled butter puff pastry- I get frozen sometimes and defrost it before making the pie
• Approximately 300gms leftover roast chicken or whatever meat you prefer to use
• 2 large leeks, washed well and finely sliced
• 100gms cooked chestnuts, roughly chopped
• ¾ pint of chicken stock made with one stock cubes
• 3-4 sprigs of thyme
• 2 tbsp crème fraiche
• Salt and pepper
• 2tbsp plain flour
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 beaten egg

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200oC. In a large saucepan or wok melt the butter, add the leeks and sweat them over a low heat for 10mins- you don’t want them to brown, just soften.
2. Add the chicken and chestnuts. Sprinkle over the flour and stir well until it has coated all of the ingredients.
3. Add the stock and bring to the boil, it should thicken up nicely thanks to the flour. Simmer gently for 5mins to get rid of the floury taste, then add the crème fraiche, thyme and season to taste.
4. Pour the pie filling into a large, shallow oven proof dish. Unroll the pastry and lay it over the dish. Tuck the excess pastry in around the filling and cut a cross in the top to let the steam out.
5. Brush the top of the pastry with the beaten egg and, if you’ve got a bit of pastry leftover, cut out some pleasing shapes and decorate the top.
6. Bake the pie in the oven for about 40mins or until golden and puffed. Serve with piles of buttery mash and green beans.

Tuna, borlotti and basil salad

This is a big, joyous throw-together of delicious ingredients which I break out every summer for lunch boxes. I think I originally had a proper recipe, one which came from a book, but many years have passed and this salad has evolved to suit my tastes and which ingredients I can remember when I hit Sainsburys.

The quantities given here make enough for three lunches. I make the salad in a big bowl then divide it into three separate plastic pots ready to be taken to work. I was a bit worried about the salad going soggy by day three at first. However, I think it actually gets better as the flavours mingle. See what you think.

Ingredients

• 1 tin of borlotti or cannellini beans
• 1 small can (120g) of tuna steak in brine
• Approximately 100gms sun dried tomatoes in olive oil
• Approximately 100gms green or black olives- I’ve found that some supermarkets sell little bags of herby olives with their antipasti- these are perfect
• Approximately 1/3 of a large cucumber cut into small cubes
• Zest and juice of ½ a lemon
• Small bunch of basil finely chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 2tbsp good quality olive oil

Method

1. Empty the beans into a sieve over the sink and give them a good rinse. Once they have drained put them into a large mixing bowl with the cucumber.
2. Drain the tuna, break it up into small flakes with a fork and add it to the beans.
3. Drain the tomatoes of their oil, chop them roughly along with the olives and add to the salad with the basil.
4. Grate the lemon zest (use the finest grater blade) over the salad and squeeze over the juice. Add the oil along with a good pinch of salt and pepper and mix well. Serve.

P.s. it really doesn’t matter in which order you add the ingredients- just chuck it all in the bowl.

Pork with ginger

This recipe requires a bit of preparation before you start cooking but don’t let that put you off. Once the ingredients are ready it only takes ten minutes and it’s a fantastic week night dinner. Because the meat is so lean and there’s hardly any oil involved, the dish is actually quite low in calories and the ginger is great if you’ve got a cold or are just recovering. 

If you’re feeling thrifty, buy a big pack of pork loin steaks from the supermarket (it’s cheaper that way) then freeze them in bags of two. All you have to do in the morning is take a pack out from the freezer and they’re ready to go when you get home. Also, if there’s just two of you eating, still make the full amount- the other 1-2 portions can be potted up and taken to work for lunches the following day.

Feeds four with moderate sized portions, three if you’re greedy like me

Ingredients

• 2 pork loin steaks, fat removed and cut into thin slices- about 2-3mm thick
• 1 small onion sliced finely into half moons
• 4 spring onions finely sliced
• 1 pack of chestnut mushrooms washed and finely sliced
• A large thumb sized piece of ginger, skinned and chopped into matchsticks
• 2 cloves of garlic finely sliced
• 200ml chicken stock made with one stock cube
• 3tbsp oyster sauce
• 1tbsp sesame oil
• Enough rice for 3-4 people

Method

1. Put the rice on to cook and prepare all of your meat and veg.
2. After about 10mins of the rice bubbling away, put a large wok on to your largest hob to heat up- it needs to be screaming hot before you add the oil so be patient.
3. After about 3 mins or when you have reached the limits of your bravery, pour the oil into the wok, add the pork and stirfry hard for 2-3mins or until the pork has browned. Be careful, it will spit.
4. Add the garlic, both types of onion and ginger and stirfry for a further 2 mins. Add the mushrooms and keep stirring until they start to wilt down.
5. Add the stock and oyster sauce and allow the sauce to reduce slightly- no more than 2 mins.
6. Your rice should be ready by now so serve it up and top with the stirfry. Guzzle.

Warm spinach salad with feta and roasted tomatoes

I arrived back in the UK last week following a two-week jaunt to Thailand. The bank holiday seemed like the perfect excuse to do a BBQ and catch up with friends and family. I asked my mum to bring a salad and this is what she made. Simple but very effective.

Ingredients

• 4-5 handfuls of raw baby spinach leaves
• 4 whole garlic cloves
• 2 red peppers halved and deseeded
• 1 pack feta cheese (or any other kind of goats cheese you fancy)
• 10-12 cherry tomatoes on the vine
• Balsamic vinegar
• Extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200oC. Place the pepper halves on a baking tray. Place the garlic cloves inside the peppers (keep the skins on the cloves), drizzle with a little olive oil, season with salt and pepper then bake for about 25mins. After this time, place the tomato vines on top of the peppers and bake for a further 10mins.
2. Remove the tray from the oven and allow the peppers and tomatoes to cool for a few minutes.
3. Meanwhile, wash the spinach leaves, dry well and put them into a nice salad bowl. Remove the feta from its packet and crumble it over the leaves.
4. Cut the peppers into strips and place them on top of the spinach. Squeeze the garlic cloves from their skins (they should be soft and juicy) and add them to the salad.
5. Drizzle over the salad about 2tbsp of olive oil and 1-2tbsp of balsamic vinegar depending on your taste (I like more but some prefer less). Mix carefully with your hands so that all of the ingredients are dressed.
6. Place the tomatoes still on their vines on top of the salad. Grind over a little black pepper and serve.

Eggs benedict

This is one of my favourite meals. When eggs benedict is done right it is oh so good. Done bad, it’s bloody awful.

It takes a little while to make but it's well worth it. Nick was working this morning so I decided to treat myself and make a feast for breakfast, which I then gobbled with a hot cup of tea while sitting out in the early morning sunshine. Bliss.

Breakfast or brunch for one greedy person

Ingredients

For the hollandaise sauce

• 2 egg yolks
• 1tsp white wine vinegar
• 60gms butter melted
• Pinch of salt and black pepper

For the rest

• 2 eggs (I like Cotswold Legbar ones that come in a blue box from Sainsburys. They’re much tastiest that the normal ones and the yolks are such a dark orange they’re almost red)
• 1 English muffin split in half
• Butter to spread on the crumpet
• 4 slices good quality ham
• 2-3 chives to snip over the top

Method

1. Make the hollandaise first. Put the vinegar and egg yolks into a small heatproof bowl that will fit snugly on top of a saucepan with an inch of water in the bottom. The bottom of the bowl must not touch the water.
2. Bring the water to a gentle simmer, place the bowl on top and start whisking briskly. Keep doing this while very gradually adding the melted butter and whisk for 5 mins continuously or until the sauce is thick. Beware of overheating the sauce- if it looks like it’s going to split, remove the bowl from the pan and whisk hard off the heat for a minute.
3. Once thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, stir in the salt and pepper then take the sauce off of the heat and cover with a tea towel to keep warm.
4. Bring another large saucepan of water to a rolling boil, stir fast in a circle to create a whirlpool in the water then slip the two whole eggs in to poach. Keep an eye on the pan so that it doesn’t boil over. The eggs will take about 3 mins to cook with a runny yolk, 4 if you like them set.
5. Meanwhile, put the muffin halves into toast. Once done, butter lightly and pile two slices of ham on each side. Use a slotted spoon to remove the poached eggs from the water, drain well and place on top of the ham.
6. Pour over the hollandaise, snip over the chives and devour.

Watercress and pecorino pesto

This is easily the best pesto recipe I’ve come across, and once you’ve tasted it I guarantee you will never go back to shop bought. It works well with pasta or can be used to jazz up soups, vegetables (works really well with steamed green beans) or chicken dishes. The nice thing is you don’t need to be too exact on the ingredients, just taste as you go along and add more if necessary. And it only takes ten minutes to make- perfect for a week night supper.

Ingredients

• Small handful of pinenuts
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• Small bunch of basil (I use a small bag from the supermarket)
• ¾ of a bag of watercress- not to be confused with those little plastic tubs of salad cress (I use the bags that you get in the salad section of the supermarket)
• Large handful of grated pecorino or parmesan cheese
• Salt and pepper
• Olive oil
• Dried pasta for two people- don’t bother with penne or spaghetti, go for a really twisty style with lots of nooks and crannies to hold the sauce

Method

1. Put the pasta on to cook. Toast the pinenuts in a frying pan, tossing them frequently. This will only take a matter of minutes, keep a close eye on the nuts as they will burn very easily once they start to brown. Once browned remove to a bowl and allow to cool for a minute.
2. Use a hand blender (or a pestle and mortar if you don’t mind the extra work) to blend the garlic, basil, watercress (don’t bother removing the stems, it’s all going to get blitzed anyway), parmesan and pinenuts with a good glug of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. It’s up to you how much you blend- if you like chunky pesto just give it a rough blitz, if you like it smooth, go a bit longer. If the pesto looks a bit dry add a tablespoon of water to loosen it.
3. Drain the pasta and mix in the pesto stirring well so that the heat from the pasta melts the cheese. Serve with lots of black pepper and extra grated pecorino.

Stirfried pork with green beans and oyster sauce

I made this for dinner last night and it was good!

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 3 tbsp oyster sauce
• 2 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 100ml water
• 400g pork fillet, cut into thin slices
• 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
• 1 red birds eye chilli finely sliced (seeds left in)
• 1 red onion, cut into chunky pieces
• 140g green beans, halved
• Cooked rice to serve

Method

1. In a small bowl mix together the lime juice, oyster sauce, soy sauce and caster sugar. Set aside, and unless you don’t mind your smoke alarm going off, I’d open a window now- it’s going to get smoky in a minute!
2. Heat a large wok until it is screaming hot. Add the sesame oil and quickly stirfry the pork until it is lightly browned.
3. Add all of the vegetables and stirfry for about two minutes. Then add the sauce and the water. Keep stirfrying for another 2-3 minutes until the beans are just tender and the sauce has reduced slightly.
4. Serve with boiled or steamed rice- I put this on to cook before doing all the chopping and cooking for the stirfry, then they will be ready at about the same time.

Vietnamese chicken noodle salad

Taken from Bill Granger’s Everyday cookbook and presented in homage to spring which appears to have arrived in London.

Ingredients, serves 2

For the spicy chicken

• Two large chicken breasts, skinned and sliced into thin strips
• 3 tbsp fish sauce
• freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled, crushed
• 2 large red chillies, finely chopped
• 2 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp sesame oil

For the salad

• 3 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 200g fresh vermicelli rice noodles- these can be found in the refrigerated veg stir fry section in the supermarkets. They’re very fine, white and come in bags. You could use dried but they’re not as nice in this recipe.
• 1 cucumber, thinly sliced into match sticks
• small handful or bag of fresh mint leaves roughly chopped
• 4 spring onions, sliced finely
• 2 tbsp cashews, crushed

Method

1. For the spicy chicken, whisk the fish sauce, pepper, garlic, chillies and sugar together in a small bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, pour half the marinade over the chicken pieces and mix well (you can leave this to rest for 20mins or so at this point if you like). Reserve the rest of the marinade.
3. Meanwhile, get a heavy bottomed frying pan heating up, boil the kettle and place your noodles into a sieve over the sink or a large bowl. Once the kettle has boiled, pour the hot water over the noodles to refresh them, then leave them to drain for 10 mins.
4. Now the frying pan is hot add the chicken. You want it to cook through and gain a nice honeyed glaze as the sugar caramelises. Keep an eye on it and turn the pieces occasionally. It will probably take about 10mins (I suggest you open the window- this can get smoky!) . Once cooked, remove the chicken from the pan and set aside to rest.
5. For the salad, make a dressing by adding the lime juice, soy and sugar to the reserved marinade, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
6. Mix the drained noodles in a large bowl with the cucumber, mint, spring onions, cashews and the dressing until well combined.
7. To serve, divide the salad among four plates, and top with the chicken.

Chilli with chorizo and dark chocolate

Sounds wrong but tastes so right! The cocoa solids in the chocolate lend a rich smoky edge to the sauce and, contrary to what most people think, it won’t make the chilli sweet. Good quality dark chocolate contains very little sugar, hence the reason it is so bitter. So, the darker the better, and for gods sake don’t use milk chocolate or it will taste awful.

Ingredients

• 500gms lean beef mince
• 1 packet chilli con carne seasoning mix (I used Schwartz)
• 1 can kidney beans in water, drained and rinsed
• ½ a chorizo sausage skinned and roughly chopped
• 1 family-sized jar (or two regular-sized ones) Lloyd Grossman tomato and basil pasta sauce
• Cold water
• 2 squares dark chocolate- must be 70% cocoa solids or higher
• Rice and grated cheddar cheese to serve

Method

1. Brown the mince in a deep casserole or saucepan, then add the chorizo, seasoning and tomato sauce.
2. Half fill the empty sauce jar with cold water and pour this in too.
3. Add the kidney beans and grate in the dark chocolate. Stir well and bring to a gentle simmer.
4. Put the lid on and leave to simmer while the rice cooks (about 20 mins but longer won't hurt). Serve with a big handful of grated cheese on top. 

Note: the quantities don't need to be too exact in this recipe and if there's anything else that you would like to add go ahead. For those who like it hot, try adding 1/2 tsp crushed chilli flakes

Chicken and chorizo bake

I’ve been working on this recipe for a while. It’s very similar to Greek chicken (for those who know what that is) but it’s quicker and lighter. Perfect for a week night dinner,

Serves two but can easily be multiplied to feed more

Ingredients

• 4 large chicken thighs (2 per person)
• 1 large red onion quartered
• 2 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 2 peppers (1 red, one orange) deseeded and chopped into large chunks
• ½ a courgette chopped into large chunks
• Small bag of new potatoes (or 3 large bakers chopped into small dice)
• 10 cherry tomatoes (left whole)
• ½ a chorizo sausage, skinned and chopped into thick rounds
• 1 red chilli chopped finely, seeds left in
• 3 tbsp paprika (I use sweet but smoked is fine)
• 2 tbsp dried oregano
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200oC. Put the potatoes into a large baking tray, halving any which are particularly big.
2. Add to the baking tray the chicken, chorizo, chilli and all of the vegetables.
3. Pour over the olive oil, season well with salt and pepper and mix with your hands to make sure everything is coated. Then sprinkle over the paprika and oregano.
4. Bake in the oven for 45mins, turning carefully with a spoon halfway through. Make sure the chicken is golden and cooked through before serving.
5. When the chicken is cooked and the veg are tender, pour over the vinegar and give everything a good stir. Serve in a lovely big dish so that everyone can help themselves. Crusty bread and a green salad would go well here.