Back to Basics - Fool Proof Poached Eggs

One of my weekend breakfast favourites is poached eggs with parma ham and hollandaise sauce on rye bread...or poached eggs with bacon, or smoked salmon. Anyway, you get the idea, I love poached eggs. I worked for a long time to try and perfect poached eggs and here are my tips to try and make things easier for you at home:

1. Make sure your eggs are as fresh as possible. Always use your freshest eggs. This is to do with the mollecular structure of the white of the egg holding together more when it is freshly laid.

2. Always keep your poaching eggs in the fridge. Again, this is to make sure the white of the egg keeps together as much as possible.

3. Boil a medium pan of water on the hob and add a couple of tablespoons of white wine vinegar and a generous pinch of salt. Leave to boil for a minute or so, so that the acidic flavour of the vinegar evaporates.

4. Turn the heat down so that there are only a couple of bubbles coming to the surface of the water.

5. With a wooden or metal spoon, stir the water to create a vortex of sorts in the middle of the pan and then leave to calm slightly.

6. In the meantime, crack your egg into a laddle (or a cup if you dont have one) and pour it into the middle of the gently swirling water.

7. For soft boiled eggs, leave for 2 minutes, medium 3 and hard 4. Take a slotted spoon and strain the egg onto some kitchen towl and serve.

Please let me know how you get on and let me know if you have any problems. Good luck!

Its been a long time baby..

It's been a while (sorry about that) but i'm back! I've had some fantastic, inspirational meals over the past few months (Gavroche) and some not so impressive (Bistro Du Vin - although the decor was lovely). It's reminded me more than ever that produce is key and seasonal ingredients treated respectfully will always win over trying too hard. And a knockout sauce can completely transform a dish.

With that in mind, i'm going back to basics...my next post is going to be about eggs, specifically a great brunch. Poached eggs, perfect bacon and hollandaise sauce.

See you soon!

Thai Green Chicken Curry

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11252/the-ultimate-makeover-thai-green-chicken-curry

This has to be one of the best thai green curry recipes I've ever tried and wonderful for filling the freezer, better than a recent restaurant visit! Also good with prawns. I substitute the rice for brown rice to make it low GI.

Enjoy!

A case of the Emperors new clothes? Zucca, Bermondsey - A review

Whilst I don't usually write reviews on here, I felt compelled to write about the restaurant I went to last night. It had taken me an age to get a suitably timed table and it was infamous for its rave reviews so I went along to Zucca with great expectations (as no doubt did my companion considering how much I'd been going on about it!). Unfortunately, I left deflated and disappointed.

It started well with us being shown to a nice table against the back wall and then we saw the menu. It was somewhat limited (don't get me wrong, I have nothing against small menus, in fact huge menus fill me with dread most of the time) and if it wasn't for the daily special I would have really struggled to have chosen a main.

While we were choosing, we were brought an assortment of breads and some of their olive oil which was delicious and can be bought at the restaurant. Within minutes our starters arrived, I had ordered the Zucca fritti and my companion had the salami with fennel seeds. The first bite of the pumpkin was lovely, crisp with tempura batter and seasoned well but halfway through the very generous portion I was bored and longing for a different texture or added flavour. The generous portion worked well though as my companion was given two thin slices of salami (albeit with some accompaniments) and was able to help me out.

Meanwhile, we still hadn't been able to order our wine. When we finally were able to and asked for recommendations, they were good. A Valpolo for me and a slightly less full bodied one for my companion worked well. What didn't help was that the staff waiting area was right next to our table so we spent most of the evening with a nice close view of their backs. As they were so close you would have hoped that the service would have been good - not once were we asked if we were OK or what we thought of the dishes.

This is more pertinent when it comes to the main course though. I'd ordered the special which was duck ravioli. Absolutely delicious, I cannot fault it. It was full of flavour, excellent home made pasta in a lovely herb butter. However, my companion did not fare so well. He'd ordered the lamb which was fatty and tasteless. Polite as he is, even he didn't finish it and left the majority on his plate. When the waiter came to clear the table, no questions were asked as to why most of it was left.

The waiter then asked if we wanted anything else, I asked for the dessert menu - apparently there isn't one, they just tell you what they do. Why this is I have no idea and we struggled to remember the list of things that were read out. My companion had the Pannacotta which had a perfect texture (like a quivering woman's bosom) and I'd gone for the cheese as nothing on the "list" had appealed. The cheese was nice enough but I do wish that restaurants in England would take note from France and arrange their cheese plates in order of strength. That way your palate isn't assaulted by a strong cheese and then unable to savour the rest. Another oddity, it was served with raisin fruit bread. A first for me and not one I'll be repeating, a bit like the chutney. I have no idea exactly what it was but it managed to be overly sweet and sharp at the same time and did nothing for the cheese.

At arrival we'd been told that they'd need the table back in two and a half hours. That's fine, I'm used to that sort of turnaround time and was looking forward to a nice leisurely dinner. The pace at which the courses were served made me feel like we were at Nandos and within just over an hour, we'd paid the bill and were on our way. It wasn't cheap either; for the above (and my main was a starter portion) and a glass of wine each, it was around £72 including 10% for service.

Its a shame and I wont be going back, but there are far more deserving Italian Restaurants out there. Santore in Exmouth Market, Farringdon is fantastic, well worth a visit. I'll probably come under scathing criticism for daring to point out that Zucca isn't the best little Italian around, but I'll live.

The Perfect Steak...

                   

Served with a red wine sauce and vegetable slice

I love steak...a nice juicy, medium rare fillet steak, caramelised on the outside and flavoured with garlic served with creamy mashed potato and spinach and a rich red wine sauce. Or with crispy chips, fluffy on the inside served with mayonnaise or Dijon mustard. It was the first thing I ate when I started to eat meat again. Anyway, whatever you like with your steak, its hard to make it at home as good as in the restaurants (and even they get it wrong sometimes!). If you've spent out on good quality meat, you want to be pretty sure that you're going to end up with something decent. You can do the below in a frying pan or on a BBQ but if you're doing it on the latter, make sure you rub your steak with the garlic first. Get yourself a pair of cooking tongs, they're the best things for turning and checking pieces of meat. You can of course use other cuts of steak if you wish and apply the same principle.

Ingredients

Fillet steak - 1 per person, around 180g - 225g per steak
Clove of garlic, chopped finely
Salt & pepper
Knob of butter
Olive oil

1. Firstly, heat a large non stick frying pan with a knob of butter. Chop the garlic and fry gently in the butter.

2. In the meantime prepare your steak by freshly grinding salt and pepper on both sides and rubbing thoroughly with olive oil.

 

Oiled


3. Place the steaks in the hot pan - it must be as hot as possible without burning the garlic - and leave them. Do not move them around in the pan, leave them to caramelise.

4. It is difficult to give timings for steaks as they all vary in size so the easiest way to tell how your meat is cooked is to use your hands!

5. Link your thumb and index finger lightly together (it doesn't matter which hand) and prod the fleshy part at the bottom of your thumb. The way this feels is how your steak should feel when it's rare.

6. Next, link your thumb to the third finger. The fleshy part of the hand below the thumb is how a medium steak will feel.


Medium














7. Repeat with thumb and forth finger for medium to well done.

 

Medium to Well Done





8. And with the little finger for well done...


Well Done



9. Once your steak is cooked how you like it, take the meat out of the pan to rest on either a warmed plate or foil for 5-10 minutes to allow the juices to release back into the fibres of the meat.

   10. Serve with whatever takes your fancy!

Enjoy!

 



 

Chilli Con Carne

This is quite possibly the easiest, quickest, most filling and comforting recipe I know. It can be made out of store cupboard ingredients and whatever is left over can be frozen in individual portions (plastic freezer bags or old takeaway containers) so you have your own ready meals on hand. Much better (and cheaper) than buying something processed, filled with E numbers and preservatives and made by a complete stranger. You'll get 6 reasonably large or 8 small portions out of the below recipe and you can serve with brown rice or roasted Cajun sweet potato wedges to make it low GI, or white rice or flour tortillas.

Ingredients

Olive oil

450g beef mince (I use lean, around 10% fat. You can obviously use normal at 20% or extra lean at 5%, depending on what you prefer)
400g tin chopped tomatoes or passatta
400g tin red kidney beans, drained
2 x peppers (I use red and green, mostly for colour)
100ml water
Tomato ketchup
2 Chopped shallots (As before, I use the frozen pre chopped ones from Waitrose)
Clove of garlic, chopped
Butter (generous knob of to finish off)
Salt & Pepper (freshly ground, to taste)
4 x tsps Chilli powder,  tsps Paprika, 1 tsp Cumin powder, 1/2 tsp Cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper,  1/2 tsp white pepper (if you're struggling and want a quick way to do it, Schwartz does a good ready mixed powder)
Creme fraiche to finish (you can also use half fat)
Grated cheese (your favourite, to finish)


1. Take a large non stick frying pan and heat a drizzle of olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the garlic and shallots and cook for a few minutes until the flavour is released into the oil.

2. Take the peppers and chop into rough pieces. When you chop the pepper, make sure you remove any pith (the white part on the inside, it's bitter). Add them to the shallots and garlic and fry off.

3. At this point, add the mince and break down with a wooden spatula until it is in small pieces. Stir into the vegetables and fry until the mince is brown all over. Once this is done, there will be some residual water in the pan from the meat. Carefully drain this away down the sink, retaining everything else in the pan.

4. Put back on the heat and add the kidney beans, tomatoes, water and spices. Add 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce and stir. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for around 15 minutes until the mince is tender.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once the cooking has finished, add the butter and stir. This adds a lovely glossiness and richness to the dish.

6. Serve with whatever accompaniment you choose and top with grated cheese and a generous dollop of creme fraiche. It really works well to cut through the slight heat of the chilli.

Enjoy!

Spinach & Ricotta Pancakes

This is a lovely simple recipe to be used throughout the year, not just on Shrove Tuesday. They're baked in the same spicy tomato sauce that we used in the chicken & spinach lasagne which goes very well with the creaminess of the filling. Hopefully you'll have some frozen from making a large batch when we did the lasagne but if not, please refer back to that recipe for details. There are also many "perfect pancake" recipes but I use this one http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9015/easiestever-pancakes which turns out pretty well. The first few will probably turn out a bit wrong but don't give up, they will improve!


Ingredients

1 x quantity of spicy tomato sauce (around 200ml but use as much or as little as you like)
2 pancakes per person if its a main course, 1 if its a starter/snack.
100g of spinach per 2 pancakes
100g of ricotta per 2 pancakes
Small handful of grated cheese (as usual, I use Gruyere!)

• Take the spinach and wilt in a pan with some butter. Season with salt and pepper when cooked and mix thoroughly with the ricotta in a bowl.
• Lay out the pancakes and split out the spinach and ricotta mix between the two down the centre. Fold in both sides around the filling and place in an oven proof dish with the fold on the bottom.

• Repeat with the second pancake and lay it next to the other one.

• Spread the tomato sauce over the pancakes and cover with the grated cheese. At this stage you can cover and keep in the fridge to heat up the next day.

• Place under a medium heat grill until the cheese melts. If you have kept it in the fridge beforehand as you've prepared it in advance, you'll need to keep it under the grill for 10-15 minutes until thoroughly piping hot.

Enjoy!

Roast Chicken & Oven Baked Spelt Risotto

This is a fantastic way of doing a roast dinner in one dish without worrying about the timing issues that go with trying to tie together all of the different side vegetables. It’s also a true comfort food dish, perfect for eating out of a bowl in front of the fire after being out in the cold. You can also use the chicken carcass for making a lovely chicken noodle soup or a good stock which can then be frozen, but more of that another time.

Ingredients

1 x whole chicken seasoned with salt and pepper – this also works with a crown or even thighs (anything with bones in it adds to the taste, and the size depends on how many people you’re serving. Always better to have too much rather than not enough, cold chicken is lovely and very versatile).

200g (for 4 people) of pearled spelt barley i.e. 50g per person

2 peeled courgettes

300g of chestnut mushrooms

Up to 600ml fresh chicken stock

Salt & Pepper

Butter

3 garlic cloves

Light olive oil

Dried oregano, thyme, rosemary – healthy pinch of

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. You will need to check the individual packaging of the chicken to see how long it needs to be cooked for.
2. Take a very large oven proof dish and pour about 4 tablespoons of the light olive oil in it along with the dried herbs and whole peeled garlic cloves. Place the dish in the heated oven for the oil to warm and be flavoured by the herbs and garlic.
3. After around 5-10 minutes, remove the dish from the oven and take your whole chicken and roll it starting from breast side down in the hot oil so that it is roughly coated in the herbs (obviously mind your hands as the oil is hot!). Place the chicken breast side up in the dish and take a generous tablespoon of Maldon salt and rub it into the chicken. Place the dish back into the oven.

1. Wash and slice the courgettes into 4 pieces lengthways and then slice into chunks. Wash the mushrooms and slice into quarters. Put to one side. You could also add leeks if you wanted to but you’d need to chop them finely and blanch them in boiling water for 2 minutes first.

 

1. Around 40 minutes to half an hour before the chicken is due to be cooked, remove the dish from the oven, add the vegetables and pour a cupful of fresh chicken stock over the chicken.

1. Rinse the spelt in a sieve under cold water and around 25-30 minutes before the end of cooking, remove the dish again and sprinkle the spelt grains around the chicken over the vegetables. Mix in and pour over the chicken another 2 cups of stock before placing back in the oven.

1. After 10 minutes, check the spelt and vegetables to make sure that the spelt is covered with stock and that the vegetables aren’t drying out. If it looks low on liquid, pour another cup of stock over the chicken and stir the spelt and vegetables to make sure they’re covered evenly. Place back in the oven.
2. Repeat after another 10 minutes, the aim is to end up with residual juice around the chicken after cooking so don’t be shy with the stock.

1. After the chickens full cooking time has elapsed, remove the chicken and with a knife, wedge the leg away from the body and check the juices. If they are not clear, the chicken is not fully cooked and must go back in the oven until they do run clear. As the dish has been in and out of the oven it may take a little longer due to the heat lost.
2. When they do run clear, keep the dish out of the oven and cover gently with foil and leave the meat to rest for 5 minutes. This helps the chicken stay moist as its juices go back into the meat (along with the basting throughout the cooking process) and dotting a few knobs of butter on the chicken and around in the spelt adds to the flavour (this isn’t essential, if you want to skip it you can but it does make the taste richer).
3. Once you are ready to serve, ladle out the spelt, vegetables and stock into bowls and using 2 forks, shred the chicken roughly into large chunks and lay on top of the spelt. You should end up with a lovely warming, rich, soupy meal and very little washing up!

Enjoy!

Crab, Dill & Creme Fraiche Canapes

Crab, Dill & Crème Fraiche Canapes

If I’m giving an informal Sunday lunch for family or friends, instead of a starter I’ll do some canapés. This crab recipe is so quick and easy and can be made in advance and kept covered in the fridge until you need it. You can serve it on blinis or bruschetta (but don’t top too far in advance otherwise they’ll go soggy), whichever you prefer. If you’re trying to go for something lighter, taking small Cos lettuce leaves and filling with the crab is a good alternative. This also goes well with the previous smoked salmon pate recipe as part of a seafood platter.

Ingredients

100g fresh white crab meat

1 heaped teaspoon of crème fraiche (as with all my recipes, you can substitute this for low fat)

Squeeze of lemon

1 x tsp chopped fresh dill

Salt & pepper (freshly ground)

1.      Take the crab meat and work through it finely with a fork, breaking into small pieces and make   sure there aren’t any bits of shell left in.

2.       Stir in the crème fraiche, lemon and chopped dill and season to taste.

3.       Spoon onto whatever you’ve chosen to top.

Smoked Salmon Pate

Following on from the weekend Chicken & Spinach lasagne recipe, I thought i'd do a quick mid-week amuse bouche to whet your appetite for a bit of cooking! This recipe is really easy and quick to do with not much washing up at all and can be served as a canape, starter or part of a main with fresh seafood. The below serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a main. I also serve mine on the side with a cheese souffle which goes surprisingly well!

As always any queries please let me know. Happy Cooking!

Ingredients

200g Smoked salmon (your favourite type)
2 heaped tsps Crème fraiche (you can use low fat if you'd rather)
2 heaped tsps hot Horseradish sauce (or less if you like things not so "hot")
Tbsp chopped Dill
A generous squeeze of lemon
Black pepper
A food processor (I use the mini Kenwood food processor, works a treat for small dishes like this)
 

1. Roughly chop the smoked salmon and place it in the food processor. Whizz it up until it is corsely chopped.

2. Add the Crème fraiche and horseradish and whizz again.

3. Add the chopped dill and a squeeze of lemon. Finish with black pepper and whizz again until you get a smooth consistency.

4. If you're being very picky you can whizz it up until it is completely smooth and pass it through a fine mesh sieve but its perfectly fine without.
5. Serve with toasted ciabatta as a canape or with salad as a starter shaped into a quenelle.

Chicken & spinach lasagne

Chicken & Spinach Lasagne

For my first recipe, here is my personal twist on the traditional lasagne. It might seem long but each step is broken down and timing is not so much of an issue so it’s ideal for people starting out. Often the biggest struggle isn’t the actual cooking but the timing itself.

This is also a very versatile recipe and the various components can be used for different meals so this isn’t just a recipe for lasagne, its also for pasta sauce, pizza topping, soup base (although more liquid would be needed) and it can all be frozen in plastic freezer bags either in sauce form or as a finished lasagne.

The below allows for 6 people and I tend to put some in the freezer for my own “ready meals” for during the week as they can be put in the microwave after to be reheated. It’s also useful to read through the recipe a couple of times first before you go shopping for the ingredients. The dish I’m using is 30cm x 22cm and will serve 6. You will need 2 x frying pans, a vegetable peeler, sharp knives, a colander or sieve and a magic whisk or similar (see recipe for details).

I’ve tried to explain the rationale for using certain ingredients or certain methods so whilst it might seem a bit long; there is good reason for it. (For those of you in a bit more of a hurry, I have put the extra guidance in brackets so you can skip over it for now and come back to it when you have more time!) If you have any questions at all, please ask and all feedback or recipe requests welcome.

Happy Cooking!

Ingredients (In order of cooking)

Light olive oil (to be used throughout)

2 large cloves of garlic (one for the tomato sauce and another for the chicken

Frozen chopped shallots x 1 bag or ordinary shallots chopped (half for the sauce and half for the chicken)

Passata x 600g

2-3 x large red chillies

Bunch of basil

Salt & Pepper

Tomato ketchup (I use reduced sugar & salt one)

600g Chicken (skinless and boneless)

1 x courgette

300g fresh spinach

50g butter

50g plain flour

50g grated cheese (I use Gruyere)

400ml milk (any kind)

Grating of nutmeg (optional)

Watercress & spinach fresh pesto (if you can’t find it, use any pesto but this one goes particularly well)

Organic fresh egg lasagne sheets

75g x Barrel aged feta cheese

Handful of pine nuts

Bag of salad to serve

1.      Make your spicy tomato sauce. If you don’t like your food too hot you can adjust the amount of chilli (or leave the seeds out) or leave it out altogether. Equally, if you like your food particularly hot you can always put more in. This recipe is for a medium heat so it suits most people. (I use passata rather than chopped tinned tomatoes as they are sieved and you get a smoother, sweeter sauce. You can also get passata with basil, onions and garlic already added if you want a further short cut. Ocado do a carton of passata which has a lid and can be resealed and put back in the fridge afterwards which is useful if you’re not cooking in large quantities).

2.      Start by frying off one large chopped garlic clove (Waitrose do ready peeled garlic cloves in a little tub which are handy) which has been cut down the middle with the green interior removed (as this tastes bitter). If you want to grind it into a paste after you’ve chopped it, you can put it in a little bowl with a pinch of sea salt and mash with the back of a spoon.

3.      Heat a large frying pan with some light olive oil (extra virgin is fine but it will be stronger and will contribute an additional flavour to the sauce – no bad thing but it’s personal taste), fry off the garlic and add chopped shallots (around 5 heaped table spoons, I use Waitrose Cooks Ingredients frozen chopped shallots. Much easier!) Cook through until opaque, which should take around 4 minutes.

4.      Now for the chilli – with a sharp knife, cut the end of the chilli off with the green stalk and cut it in half lengthways. It is at this point that you can remove (or leave) the seeds (which are the hottest part). Chop finely and then add three chopped large red chillies with most of the seeds removed. (WARNING: Make sure you wash your hands before rubbing your eyes or going to the toilet!) Fry off and then add around 650g of passata. It doesn’t matter if you have surplus, you can always freeze the sauce and use it for other recipes.

5.      Next add some torn (not cut as it can bruise) fresh basil leaves (get a plant from your local supermarket, well worth it. Make sure you water it from the bottom) and season with freshly ground black pepper and Maldon Sea Salt to taste. (It isn’t vital that you use this salt but I find it the best, it’s a little bit saltier than “normal” salt and so you use less of it). Then add a pinch of dried, oregano, rosemary and thyme. (It’s a good idea to build up a store cupboard of dried herbs and you’ll use these ones quite often). Finally, continue to simmer the sauce and taste. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper and if it tastes slightly acidic (which is due to the tomatoes) then add a heaped teaspoon of ketchup and stir. Put your sauce to one side.

6.      Now its time to fry off the chicken. Take 600g mini chicken fillets (or breasts, whatever boneless and skinless chicken you have) and chop into bite size pieces. Make sure that you change or thoroughly clean chopping boards and knives after chopping raw meat to avoid contamination.

7.      Next, heat a frying pan and fry off another chopped clove of garlic and a generous tablespoon full of chopped shallots. Fry the chicken so that it has been sealed (and is white/brown) all over. Then add the chicken to the tomato sauce that you made earlier which should be off of the heat.

8.      If you want to serve this on its own with fresh pasta, cook the chicken through in the tomato sauce for another 15-20 minutes (depending on the size of the pieces) and then add the freshly cooked pasta to the sauce (always add the pasta to the sauce).

9.      Anyway, back to the lasagne. Time to wilt the spinach and prepare the courgette. Wash one courgette in cold water, take a vegetable peeler and peel off long strips of the courgette so they look like ribbons. Put to one side for later when we assemble the lasagne.

10.  Take 300g of fresh spinach and wash in cold water in a colander (large metal sieve). Take a pan and add a little light olive oil and heat. Once the oil is hot (but not smoking) add the spinach for around 30 seconds until the spinach is wilted. Season it with salt and pepper in the pan, drain off the excess liquid and put to one side. Do not rinse in cold water.

 

11.  The next step is preparing the white sauce for the topping. I have a brilliant utensil called a “magic whisk” http://www.amazon.co.uk/CKS-Magic-Mini-Sauce-Whisk/dp/B002G6G6KE which makes sure I never end up with lumpy sauces, I really recommend getting one.

12.  Take 50g of butter (unsalted or salted, doesn’t really matter as you’ll be tasting to adjust seasoning) and melt in a saucepan on a medium to low heat.

13.  Once it has melted, add 50g of plain flour and whisk with the Magic Whisk, fork or spoon until the mixture has come together and there are no lumps. Turn the heat down slightly and cook the mixture, stirring regularly, until it is a light brown in colour (which should take around 3 minutes).

     









14.  Once this has been done, incorporate the 400ml of milk (can be full fat, skimmed, goats...whatever! If you’re using soya please make sure it’s unsweetened) by adding a small amount and stirring in with the whisk. Do not stop stirring. Once the small amount of milk you have just added has been absorbed into the mixture, add a little more. It is always better (for avoiding lumps) to add too little than too much. Make sure the heat is on low while you are doing this. The mixture may seem to get thicker after the first couple of milk additions but don’t panic, you haven’t done anything wrong. Do not dump the rest of the milk in, keep adding it slowly. Once you have added half of the milk, you can start to increase the amount of milk you are adding each time until it has all been absorbed. You should end up with a smooth, white, creamy base sauce.

15.  You can use this for a number of sauces and I will be covering this in more detail next week. At this point and still over the heat, add 50g of your favourite grated cheese (I use Gruyere) and stir until it has melted. Then add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. You can also add a small grating of nutmeg but it’s not essential.

16.  Pre heat your oven to 180-200 degrees.

17.  Now its time to put it all together! Take the serving dish and put half of the chicken and tomato sauce mixture and spread it across the bottom of the dish so that it is spread evenly. Then take the courgette “ribbons” and lay them across the chicken until it is completely covered.

18.  For this dish you need three and a half pasta sheets for each layer (i use Organic Biona white pasta sheets, great flavour and texture and they don’t need pre cooking) laid side by side until the bottom layer is mostly covered.

19.  Next, pour the rest of the chicken and tomato over the pasta and then spread the spinach randomly over the chicken and again cover with pasta sheets.

20.  Take the white sauce and pour it evenly all over the pasta sheets. Take the feta cheese and crumble it over the top of the white sauce in even, medium size chunks (use your hands to break it up).

21.  Then take a teaspoon and some fresh watercress and spinach pesto (sold in Sainsburys, Waitrose, Ocado etc and you can freeze it) and drizzle odd blobs of it randomly over the top of the lasagne. Sprinkle liberally with pine nuts around 10 minutes in to the cooking time. More pine nuts can be added to the other layers if you are a particular fan! If you do this you will need to toast them separately before you add them. Do this in a medium heat dry frying pan (do not add oil, the nuts have enough natural oil of their own) shaking frequently and taking care not to burn them. It shouldn’t take longer than a couple of minutes. You don’t need to do this to the ones added to the top as the oven will toast them during cooking.You can of course also add other things to the topping like sundried tomatoes in oil and sweet peppadew peppers or more chillies if you want to.

22.  Put the lasagne in the oven and cook for around 40 minutes. Start to check the lasagne by poking with a sharp knife after around 35 minutes (especially if you have a fan assisted oven). When the pasta feels soft to the touch and the knife goes through easily and the top is bubbling, the lasagne is done. Cut into pieces and serve with salad.

Welcome!

An artisan is someone who is highly skilled and specialises in high quality, small volume production. I am not yet an artisan but I love food and am extremely passionate about cooking and encouraging people like you to do the same. I am entirely self taught from family, TV and many, many cookery books. I have spent years trialling recipes and getting them wrong and I finally know what works (although not for everything, of course). I found that no one told me what to do or what went wrong when things didn't turn out well and a lot of the recipes are overcomplicated when easy shortcuts can be taken for the same result.

My blog will feature high quality food and the trialling and reviewing of recipes along with some of my own.  I will also propose for you some exciting and varied and menu ideas. From time to time there will be restaurant reviews but only when it is relevant e.g. when I am trying to recreate one of the dishes. The whole idea of this blog is to get people like you trying new dishes and if there are ever any queries on anything I write, please do get in touch no matter how small the question seems. Something is only easy if you know the answer.

My blog is going to lend a hand to aspiring cooks of all levels of skill and experience.  If you are a person with very little cooking ability you will be able to carry out the featured recipes but equally for those of you who are enthusiasts there will be recipes and menus to challenge and inspire you. However, you do not need to cook and struggle along on your own, I will be on hand to advise you.

Happy Cooking!