Perfect Poached Egg on Toast

A bit hungover and not in the mood to rustle up a full English? This is the next best thing. Ticks loads of boxes – easy, tasty, healthy and veggie. Plus it takes less than 5 minutes.

Ingredients

1 free range egg

3 or 4 chestnut mushrooms roughly chopped

A nice thick slice of granary bread.

Method

Heat a frying pan and when it’s hot chuck in the sliced mushrooms – no butter or oil needed – they will cook perfectly on their own. Cook for about 4 mins

Next get a small saucepan and boil about 2 inches of water – with a bit of salt in it.

Crack your egg into a ramekin dish or a mug – something that will allow you to slide the egg gently into the boiling water. Once the water is boiling gently pop the and cook for between 1m 45 seconds to and 2 minutes.

Now quickly put the toast on.

The toast, egg and mushrooms should all be ready at the same time. Butter the toast and season the egg and mushrooms nicely.

Top.

Where’s Your Pud At?

yorkie

The centrepiece of any Sunday Roast. All hail the Yorkshire Pud. A lot of people think Yorkshire Pudding is difficult get right. It’s not – it’s just about a few simple steps which need to be done right. Firstly, prepare it early – even before you’ve peeled a spud. This allows the mixture to rest which will really help it rise when you cook it. Secondly whisk it thoroughly to get all the lumps out. Finally DON’T open the oven once it’s gone in until it’s finished.

This recipe is so easy and if you follow it you will have a delicious and stylish Yorkshire Pud every time, which will be received with rapturous applause on your Sunday dinner table as you present it to your hungry guests.

Ingredients:

2 free range eggs
75g plain flour
190ml milk
pinch of salt

Method:

Heat the oven to maximum temperature – so about 250°c / 480°f/Gas Mark 9

Mix all the ingredients into a blender or a large bowl. Blend or whisk until you get a lovely creamy yellow mix. Whisk it good. Leave to rest at least 30 mins.

The key here is to get the oven hot – really hot – as hot as you can get it. Then get a 9″ square and 3″ deep baking tin and put in 3 tablespoons of beef dripping, goose fat or vegetable oil. Put in the oven for 10 mins to get it nice and hot.

While the fat is heating up give the rested mix another final whisk.

Now pour the Yorkshire Pud mixture into the hot baking tin and cook at max temperature for 15 mins, this is important because it gets the pudding to rise. Then turn it down to 180°c / 350°c or Gas Mark 4 for a further 15 mins allowing it to cook through to finish.

Take out and slice up according to number of guests. Chef gets an extra slice.

Ellie & Jessie’s Scrum Diddly Umptious Blueberry Muffins

muffins

Jessie and her bezza Ellie make these when Ellie comes to stay. So easy to make and bursting with juicy blueberries. Lovely with a cuppa.

Ingredients:

120g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
150ml milk
2 free range eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
300g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
200g blueberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 150°C (300°F, gas mark 2).

In a large mixing bowl beat together the butter, sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla until
light and fluffy. Then mix in the flour and baking powder and beat until lovely
and smooth. Next stir almost all the blueberries and spoon the mixture evenly into 10 muffin cases. Save a few blueberries to place on the top of each one before they go in the oven – so their sticking out of the top when their done!
Place on a muffin tray or baking tray and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes until golden
brown on top and firm to the touch.

Leave to cool down for a bit – then tuck in.

Hateful Eight Shin of Beef Stew

During Quentin Tarantino’s bloodthirsty western from 2015, there is a scene where they all tuck in to what looks like an awesome beef stew. Harry turned to me and said “That stew looks amazing, we’ve got to make it.” So here’s our version of it using shin of beef. This is melt in the mouth stuff – and easy to make – it just takes time. Feeds 8 (obviously!) Cooking time 3 hours.

Ingredients:

1kg beef shin – cut into chunks
2 medium white onions – peeled and roughly chopped
5 carrots, peeled and chopped into decent sized chunks
3 sticks celery, trimmed and roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
2 bay leaves and a sprig of thyme
2 tablespoon olive oil
Pinch of sea salt and ground black pepper
2 tablespoon flour
400ml beef stock
600ml Red Wine – (anything you would be happy to drink!)

Preheat your oven to as hot as it will go.

In an ovenproof casserole dish or saucepan, add the oil and gently fry the onions over a medium heat for 3 mins until softened, then add the carrots, celery, garlic and herbs and cook for a further 3 mins until everything has softened nicely.

Next, in a big bowl add the flour with some salt and pepper and toss the pieces of beef in it shaking off any excess. Now add the meat to the pan and brown it off for a few minutes, mixing it all together as you go along. Now add the beef stock and the wine.

Bring the whole lot to the boil , cover with a lid and put in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 150ºC or 300ºF. Cook for 3 hours until the beef is really tender.

Serve with either rice or mash, or just a chunk of warm crusty bread and a glass of red.

Harry’s Awesome Apple & BlackBerry Crumble

Fruit Crumble Who doesn’t love a crumble? This amazing pud is simple to make and takes less than an hour start to finish. Eat with vanilla ice cream or custard. Serves 8.

Recipe

For the Crumble Topping:

240g Plain Flour
120g Caster Sugar
120g Butter

For the Fruit:

6 Medium Apples
200g Blackberries
60g Butter
60g Demerara Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon of Ground Cinnamon

Method

1. Heat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Mix the flour and the sugar in a big bowl. Then add the butter and rub it into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Next, peel, core and cut the apples into chunks. Put the butter and sugar together in a saucepan over a medium heat and blend together for about for 3 mins until the mixture turns to caramel. Chuck in the apples and cook for 3 mins, then add the blackberries and cinnamon. Cook for a further 3 mins then remove from the heat and leave for 2-3 mins to continue cooking in the pan.
3. Now pour the fruit into an ovenproof dish and spread the crumble over the top. Put it in the oven for about 15 -20 mins until the crumble is lovely and golden.
4. Serve with vanilla ice cream, or custard (cold or warmed up – whichever you prefer).

Ace.

crumble