stage 1

Heat the stock. In a separate pan heat the olive oil and butter, add the onions, garlic and celery, and fry very slowly for about 15 minutes without colouring. When the vegetables have softened, add the rice and turn up the heat.

stage 2

The rice will now begin to lightly fry, so keep stirring it. After a minute it will look slightly translucent. Add the vermouth or wine and keep stirring — it will smell fantastic. Any harsh alcohol flavours will evaporate and leave the rice with a tasty essence.

stage 3

Once the vermouth or wine has cooked into the rice, add your first ladle of hot stock and a good pinch of salt. Turn down the heat to a simmer so the rice doesn’t cook too quickly on the outside. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring and almost massaging the creamy starch out of the rice, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next. This will take around 15 minutes. Taste the rice — is it cooked? Carry on adding stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite. Don’t forget to check the seasoning carefully. If you run out of stock before the rice is cooked, add some boiling water.

stage 4

Remove from the heat and add the butter and Parmesan. Stir well. Place a lid on the pan and allow to sit for 2 minutes. This is the most important part of making the perfect risotto, as this is when it becomes outrageously creamy and oozy like it should be. Eat it as soon as possible, while the risotto retains its beautiful texture.

Jamie Oliver

Ingredients

225g long grain rice
500g quick-frying beef steaks, cut into thin strips
1 tsp mixed peppercorns, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely sliced
150g closed cup mushrooms, wiped and halved
284ml carton soured cream
2 tsp paprika

The Method:

1. Cook the rice according to packet instructions. Meanwhile, put the beef strips into a shallow dish, add the crushed peppercorns and toss to coat. Set aside.
2. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat and cook the sliced onion for 3-4 minutes or until soft but not coloured.
3. Add the mushrooms and cook for a further 5 minutes. Increase the heat, add the beef strips and fry for 4-5 minutes or until the juices have evaporated and the meat is brown. Add 3 tablespoons water and bubble to deglaze the pan.
4. Stir in most of the soured cream and half the paprika, and gently heat until warmed through. Check the seasoning.
5. Spoon the beef stroganoff onto plates. Top with the remaining soured cream. Season with the remaining paprika and black pepper and serve with the rice.

• 1/2lb(225g) Tagliatelle (Pref fresh)
• 4oz (110g) Streaky bacon, de rinded
• 2 Large Eggs
• 1 onion
• Parmesan Cheese (for the sauce and for grating on the top when serving)
• small pot of double cream

Method:

Er, I’m sure you can work it out!

The Ingredients:

• 4 British chicken drumsticks
• 4 British chicken wings
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 150g smoked back bacon, diced
• 2 level tbsp flour
• 2 cloves garlic, finely diced
• ½ bottle full bodied red wine
• 350ml chicken stock
• 150g button mushrooms
• 12 small shallots, peeled, or 1 large onion, sliced
• 3 sprigs parsley
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

The Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 140°C / 275°F / gas mark 1.
2. Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a heavy-bottomed ovenproof casserole dish, over a medium heat on the hob. Once hot, add the chicken a few pieces at a time, and fry on all sides until golden brown. Remove the chicken and set aside in a large dish.
3. Add the shallots and bacon to the casserole dish, and cook for 10 minutes. Once golden and beginning to soften, remove and place in the side dish with the chicken.
4. Reduce the temperature to low, add another 1 – 2 tbsp of oil and the flour into the casserole dish, and mix with the juices already in the bottom. Heat for another couple of minutes, or until it is lightly coloured, then stir in the garlic and the wine, followed by the stock. Return to the boil and cook briskly until it has thickened slightly.
5. Add the mushrooms, chicken, shallots and bacon into the casserole dish. Bring to a gentle simmer, add the herbs, and season to taste.
6. Once the casserole returns to the boil, cover and place in the oven for 45 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and cooked through.
7. Serve with mashed potatoes and green vegetables.

• 1 large onion or 2 banana shallots, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 red chilli deseeded or keep half with seeds if you like it spicy
• 2 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked and roughly chopped
• Olive oil, for frying
• 500g good quality beef mince
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 3 fresh tomatoes or 1 beef tomato, roughly chopped
• 400g chopped tomatoes
• 100-200ml chicken or beef stock
• 3 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 bay leaf
• 400g kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• Salt and pepper
• Handful of chives, chopped
• 200ml soured cream
• Boiled rice, to serve

The Method:

1. Sweat the onion, garlic, chilli and thyme in 2 tablespoons oil in a large saucepan. At the same time, brown the mince in a separate pan over moderate heat in a little oil.
2. Add the dried spices to the onion mixture and cook until they release their aroma. Then stir in the beef and mix well. Add the fresh and tinned tomatoes and leave to cook down a little for about 5 minutes.
3. Pour in the chicken or beef stock and stir in tomato puree to taste. Drop the cinnamon and bay leaf in then bring to the boil and leave to simmer.
4. Once the sauce is beginning to thicken add the kidney beans and leave to cook for another 5-10 minutes to allow the beans to soak up the flavours. Check for seasoning.
5. Mix the chives and soured cream together. To serve, spoon the chilli into the centre of a mound of rice, with the soured cream and chives in a separate bowl on the side.

The Ingredients:

• 1 tin of kidney beans, drained
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes and if you can throw in some whole tomatoes that have ben roughly chopped it will improve the texture.
• 500g lean minced beef
• Vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• ½-1 tsp hot chilli powder or cayenne pepper
• 1 rounded tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 300ml/1 pint beef or chicken stock
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• soured cream or crème fraîche, to serve
• roughly chopped fresh coriander, to garnish

The Method:

This doesn’t really need instructions – just chuck in the onion & garlic, brown the mince and bung everything else in, and spice to taste. Job done

Preparation

You will need a large pan, using vegetable oil (I usually use sunflower oil) but don’t use olive oil as it can do wierd things and become unhealthy when exposed to the very high temperatures we will be cooking with.

Always use Maris Piper potatoes and rinse them in cold running water once cut.

The Chips

Boil the chips vigorously with quite alot of salt in the water – do this until the surface of the chips starts to become loose – this will allow the oil to get in and cook the chip properly and form a nice thick crispy exterior.

With the chips, you can remove the water by drying the chips out in the fridge for 30 minutes before cooking – the moving air in the fridge helps remove the water, so don’t cover them up.

Next is the two step frying process – this is the best way to get the centre of the chip cooked, without burning the outside of the chip. It also helps remove the water in the first step, so that their is less steam, which prevents the chips from becoming wet and soggy.

Heat the oil to about 200-220 celcius (dam hot – so be careful, and don’t leave the kitchen whilst your doing it!) Get the chips in the pan, preferably using a metal sieve to keep them under control. Keep them in for about 5 minutes until the chips just start to go golden, then remove, drain and if you are really keen on getting your chips crispy, put them back in the fridge for half an hour to remove the rest of the moisture.

Once the oil is back up to temperature (and your chips are ready) get the chips in the pan for a further 5 minutes until golden and crunchy!

The Fish

Lots of fish is good for frying, so take your pic Cod, Turbot etc. The secret is the batter and this recipe takes inspiration from Tempura style batter.

For the perfect batter, you want only a little water for the same reasons as making crisp chips. So, use 200g plain flour and 200g white rice flour  together with 300ml of lager, and 300ml vodka. The beer induces bubbles for extra crunch and the vodka will evaporate quickly to keep things crisp.

Make the batter for when you need it, otherwise the beer will go flat and you will have no benefit from the bubbles. Get everything whipped up, dip in the fish, then get the fish in the hot oil (220C and just enough oil to cover the fish). Drizzling batter little-by-little on top of the fish as the batter is getting crisp and firm will give you loads of crunchy flaky batter – tempura style!

After 1-2 minutes as the fish is getting golden, turn it over and drizzle batter on the other side for about a minute and that’s all it should take!

If you really want to go crazy, put the batter in a soda syphon first and charge with CO2 and put in the fridge for 30minutes and then empty into a bowl for dipping the fish in – this will induce loads of small bubbles that will give your batter loads of crunch!!

Mushy Peas

500g of peas, keep 1/5th aside. Defrost then boil with 50ml of water and 65g of butter then remove from pan and blend, add mint, salt and pepper to taste. You can then add the rest of the peas – you may want to par-boil these first as you like.

Easy (peasy).

Dressing – 1 tbsp olive oil and 1/2 tbsp balsamic vinegar.

Method
Oven at 180c. Slice the ‘pockets’ into the side of the chicken breasts. Stuff with a spoonful of the ricotta mixture (made with basil and a tbsp of pesto with ground black pepper). Season the chicken and then wrap with a slice of prosciutto/pancetta/bacon to seal the pocket and tuck the rosemary or thyme under it too. Glaze with remaining pesto mixed with a little oil.

Bake in the oven for 20-30min until cooked through.

For the dressing, whisk the oil and vinegar with seasoning and drizzle over Serve with a light salad.

Ham
2kg mild-cure gammon
1 onion peeled and cut in half
2 litre-bottle coke
The glaze
Handful cloves
1 heaped tbsp black treacle
2 tsp English mustard powder
2 tbsp demerara sugar

Serves 8

Directions

1. If you know that you’re dealing with a salty piece, then put it in a pan covered with cold water, bring to the boil then tip into a sieve and start from here. Otherwise, put it in a pan, skin side down if you can, add onion then pour on the Coke. Bring to boil, then simmer and put the lid on, though not tightly, and cook for slightly less than 2 1/2 hours. If your joint is larger or smaller work out timing by reckoning on an hour a kilo altogether, remembering that it’s going to get a quick blast in the oven later. If the gammon’s been in the fridge right up to the moment you cook it, you will have to give a good 15 or so minutes’ extra so that the interior is properly cooked. Near the end, preheat your oven to 240C.

2. When the ham’s had its time take it out of the pan but DO NOT THROW AWAY THE COOKING LIQUID (great stock for soups or gravy) and let cool a little for ease of handling. (Indeed you can let it cool completely then finish off the cooking at some later stage if you want).

3. Then remove skin, leaving a thin layer of fat. Score the fat with a sharp knife to make fairly large diamond shapes, and stud each diamond with a clove. Then carefully spread the treacle over the bark-budded skin taking care not to dislodge the cloves. Then gently pat the mustard and sugar onto the sticky fat. Cook, in a foil lined roasting tin for approximately 10 minutes or till the glaze is burnished and bubbly.

4. Should you want to do the braising stage in advance and then let the ham cool, clove and glaze it and give it 30-40 minutes, from room temperature, at 180C/gas mark 4, turning up the heat towards the end if you think it needs it.

• Salmon fillets
• Lemon
• Thyme
• New Potatoes
• Your choice of Veg – Asparagus / green beans etc).

Method.
You can use frozen fillets for convenience – place on baking foil and drizzle with a little lemon, sprinkle some thyme and add a touch of butter. Wrap the foil fairly well and place on a baking tray and cook at about 200 degrees (C) for 25 minutes if from frozen.

Serve with new potatoes and veg.