Posh Nosh Lorraine's Fast, Fresh and Easy Food

I'm Lorraine Pascale and this is all about fast, fresh and easy food.

Delicious meals don't have to take a long time to make. And for me,

cooking from fresh ingredients is the way to go.

Great food can be fast and delicious with these effortless recipes

and a few simple shortcuts.

Follow my tips and hopefully,

you'll never want to reach for a ready-made meal again.

Making quick, tasty food for everyday meals

and last-minute entertaining - it can all be so easy.

Sometimes, rustling up some posh nosh is the order of the day

when you really want to impress friends and family.

Now, these recipes are great for when you really want to show off

and no-one needs to know how easy they really are.

I'm serving up a delicious bowl of French onion soup,

ideal for a sophisticated lunch.

These white chocolate dipped cherries and white chocolate lollipops

always go down a treat at parties and are a doddle.

For a special dinner,

I rustle up some quick-cook canape crostinis...

a mouth-watering and surprising simple dish

of maple and balsamic glazed lamb with feta and couscous...

..an indulgent chocolate dessert - "Let Them Eat Cake" cake.

But first, for a really simple posh snack -

my pancetta and Parmesan puffs.

OK, so pancetta and Parmesan puffs.

They're choux pastry, which I think is the easiest pastry to make.

So, start with crisping up the pancetta.

Right, now for the actual choux pastry.

First of all, 50 grams of butter.

And then 125 ml of milk.

Cook gently until the butter melts, then turn the heat up to bubble away.

Now measure out the rest of the pastry ingredients.

75 grams of plain flour...

25 grams of grated Parmesan...

..and chilli powder.

You can put in as much of this as you like.

Now the pancetta, lovely and crisp.

So I'm going to just pour it on there to get rid of the excess fat.

The butter's melted.

Let it bubble for not very long, a few seconds.

And then off the heat and pour in the flour mix.

Then give it a really good beating.

So now I've got to add the eggs.

But the problem is if I add the eggs right now,

the eggs are going to scramble.

So if I just sort of smoosh it against the sides of the pan

and then just leave it for a couple of minutes to cool down.

Right, so this should have cooled down nicely now.

And it's, yeah, just about body temperature.

So I can add the eggs. One at a time.

And then I'm going to beat it.

Another egg.

In it goes.

A really hard stir.

There you go.

It's just going smooth.

OK, so the last thing I need to add now is the pancetta.

That's the pastry made. Really easy.

I'm going to pipe my pastry blobs onto a baking tray.

Spoon it in.

Get as much of the mix out as you can.

There's valuable tastiness in this pan

and you want to get every last inch of it out.

And then twist the top so it's nice and taut.

Then snip off the end to give you a hole about one centimetre.

Just to make sure those pancetta bits can come out as well.

Just put four blobs and it acts like glue.

So what I'm looking for is kind of like bite-size portions.

And they're quite spaced apart because they do puff up a little bit.

It's all the moisture in the mix turning to steam

that will cause the puffs to rise, rather than any baking powder.

And, of course, choux pastry doesn't have to be savoury.

With this, I've added cheese and pancetta,

but if you just take choux pastry,

you can make eclairs, profiteroles.

There. And if you have any bits

that are sticking up,

just take water on your finger and just push it down.

Because these bits can burn.

So I want to get rid of those.

And these go into the oven at about 170 degrees

for 25 minutes.

Until they're lovely and puffy and golden brown.

Now, these little lovelies are a great any-time snack.

Mmm!

A perfectly yummy posh Parmesan parcel.

You can find a little bit of luxury in the simplest of flavours.

I love cherries, bursting with juice.

They're gorgeous on their own, but I'm going to show you

an easy and elegant way of making the ordinary extraordinary

with my white chocolate dipped cherries.

And I've got a posh take on a childhood favourite

with my white chocolate lollipops with dried cranberries.

# I try to keep my heartbeat

# But I can't get it right... #

You'll need a big bar

of cheap white chocolate, melted.

I like to use a microwave.

30-second blasts, stir between each blast.

# ..Oh, heaven

# Oh, heaven

# I wait with good intentions... #

White chocolate is not as easy to melt as other chocolate.

It can go lumpy or grainy if it gets too hot.

It should be smooth, runny and shiny.

# ..Oh, heaven

# Oh, heaven... #

But now for the really fun bit -

holding a cherry by the stalk,

pull it slowly through the melted chocolate.

# ..Oh, heaven

# Oh, heaven

# I wait with good intention

# Oh, heaven

# Oh, heaven

# I wait with good intention... #

Then put the cherries in the fridge for 15 minutes,

or until the chocolate hardens.

So pretty for the end of a dinner party.

# ..Oh, heaven

# Oh, heaven

# I wait with good intentions... #

For my white chocolate lollipops with dried cranberries,

lay some lolly sticks on baking parchment

and then drop a spoonful of chocolate on each of the sticks.

# ..Oh, heaven

# Oh, heaven

# I wait with good intentions... #

Scatter finely chopped dried cranberries over the chocolate.

# ..Then I'm gone

# Then I'm gone... #

Put them in the fridge to set, then carefully peel off the paper.

Simply heaven. A delicious posh nibble.

# ..Then I'm gone... #

It's surprisingly easy to add a little elegance to your day,

like my French onion and sage soup

with big fat Gruyere and mustard croutons.

Rich and yummy, with absolutely no fuss, no tears.

# ..My tears dry on their own... #

It's just simple store cupboard ingredients and some fresh herbs.

Put a knob of butter and a drizzle of olive oil

in a pan over a medium heat.

Take four large onions - even the big ones needn't make you cry

if you chill them before you start -

and make sure you use a really sharp knife to slice them finely.

# ..My tears dry on their own... #

Put them in a pan with a bay leaf

and cook them until soft.

It should take about 20 minutes.

That will give you time

to get started on those luscious, big fat croutons.

Cut some generous slices of baguette.

Grate 75 grams of Gruyere cheese

and mix it with a big pinch of mustard powder.

Then put the whole lot on the croutons.

Those go in the oven for eight minutes at 150 degrees.

# ..He walks away

# The sun goes down

# He takes the day... #

Back to the soup - chop two cloves of garlic and a handful of sage.

And when the onions are looking lovely and soft,

add the garlic and sage, with a tablespoon of plain flour,

and give them a good stir.

Add a litre of good-quality liquid beef stock.

Bring it to the boil and let it bubble away for a few minutes.

Season with salt and pepper.

It's so quick and easy,

you don't just need a special occasion to treat yourself.

Topped with the gorgeous crunchy croutons and parsley,

this simple soup packs a posh punch.

# ..My tears dry on their own

# Whoa, he walks away

# The sun goes down

# He takes the day

# But I am gone... #

When I was a kid, street food was a greasy burger in a roadside van.

Now there's a street food revolution.

I love it because it makes sophisticated food accessible.

It doesn't cost the Earth and you can eat your way around the world.

So I'm here in the Great British outdoors,

looking forward to some more fantastic street food.

And this is a real food market in London's South Bank.

Today, I'm in search of a traditional Spanish snack

with a touch of luxury - churros.

I've always thought of churros

as a kind of Spanish doughnut

and I've come here to find out more.

Do come into our little abode.

-Now, I'm coming in to help you today.

-Oh, good!

Depending on the accompaniment,

the little sticks can be savoury or sweet

and they're an extremely social snack, great for sharing.

Leslie McKay-Garcia learned from her mother

and has passed on the secret to son Henry.

-OK, so what goes in first?

-First, the flour.

-Flour.

-What kind of flour is that?

-Mostly foreign, just because English flour is very overground.

-You're not going to tell me, are you?

-No. Our secret recipe.

-A cup of sugar in.

-And then...?

-A bit of salt.

-It's effectively a bread mix.

-And then you put a bit of baking powder.

You do this all by eye? Because you're so used to doing it,

-you know exactly what goes in.

-He has my churros genes in him.

-Then you mix it together.

-Yes.

Once that's done, you get the water.

So what am I looking for here?

When you're mixing the dough, you tend to get under it and twist it over.

You're trying to make sure you don't get really powdery bits.

-Yep. So can I have a little mix? Can I just see?

-You can.

-It's quite a stiff dough, isn't it?

-Yeah, it gets stiff after a while.

Yeah.

With the dough at the right consistency, it's time to shape it into churros, ready for cooking.

The mix goes into a churrera -

a giant syringe with a star-shaped nozzle

that pumps the churros into boiling oil.

-It's like a giant garlic crusher.

-Yeah, or a Play-Doh hair extruder.

All the same theory.

There's a lot of different recipes for churros.

I learned from my mother in a churros shop -

a simple, plain way of doing it.

-You're really packing it in there.

-Really packing it in.

-And then we hand these...

-So these are hot, right? Very hot.

-Very hot.

I'm going to stand over here, away from the oil flicking.

And we have to do it quite quickly because they're so quick cooking

-that if you take too long, the first ones are cooked before the last ones have gone in.

-OK.

If you notice, they don't drop into the oil very far.

They just sit on top, like tempura. It's got to be a really hot oil.

-Fabulous!

-Every part of the process has to be done really carefully.

I've had Michelin-star chefs who've come to try out

and they just haven't...

-They just don't have it.

-They don't have it.

They didn't have the dough fingers!

So how long do they cook in there for?

Oh, about 30 seconds. Till they brown. Till they've gone brown.

-Brown and crisp.

-And then they come out. That's it!

-Mmm!

Now we let them cool down for a few seconds.

But the effect is when you open it, it should crack open.

The inside should be light and fluffy.

Some people think these are like doughnuts. That's what people call them, Spanish doughnuts.

-What do you think about that?

-There's no dairy in them.

Anything that's a doughnut or a pancake, they tend to be chewier.

They have that consistency about them.

-Churros are much lighter, they're a bread mix.

-Snap.

-So, snap.

Now they've cooled down for a second... Excuse the fingers.

-Excuse fingers.

-You have the...snap.

Leslie serves her churros simply with sugar, cinnamon

and a thick melted chocolate.

-So I've got my churros...

-Churros.

I'm going to...

I'm going to dip it in the chocolate... Mmm!

Nice. SHE LAUGHS

It is very nice, because you might think it would be really greasy...

-Yes.

-..but it's not at all.

-There's hardly anything on my fingers.

-There's nothing.

And it doesn't have that "huh" feeling that sometimes dairy products can do.

-Yum!

-Just dip your finger in when you've finished and finish it off.

Aww, it's lovely.

-Hmm. So a really simple, tasty, fresh, fast snack.

-Yes.

Fantastic.

Great things really do come in small packages.

What street food does so well

is to dress up basic quality ingredients and deliver

sophisticated luxurious flavours, without the restaurant price tag.

It's posh nosh on the street.

Here's another elegant little idea - my quick-cook canape crostini.

So easy to do and you can come up with your own combinations.

Get creative!

Slice a baguette and drizzle with olive oil.

Bake for around eight minutes at 190 degrees.

Now for the toppings.

Chop a couple of large tomatoes, add a little oil,

some torn up basil and mint,

salt, pepper, and a little pinch of sugar.

Combine.

Get the bread out of the oven.

It should be just crisp.

Cut a garlic clove in half and rub it over the bread.

And just spoon on the tomatoes.

Or how about this? Grab a tin of cannellini beans.

Add some olive oil, season and mash.

Dollop the beans on top of some rocket

and finish with half a slice of prosciutto.

Or another idea - take goat's cheese.

Season and crush with a fork.

Add a fig slice, scattered mint leaves

and a drizzle of honey and balsamic vinegar.

Fast, fresh and easy finger food that is so quick to prepare

that it gives you more time to join the party.

If you're the type of person

who likes the idea of cooking something really impressive,

but just don't think you have the time,

this next showstopper is for you.

This really does taste as good as it looks.

My maple-glazed lamb chops

with mint, toasted almonds and feta couscous.

And you start by putting the kettle on.

Whilst the kettle's boiling,

I'm going to get this pan on nice and hot for the lamb chops.

Drizzle of oil.

And then season the chops

really well with salt and pepper.

Obviously, it adds lots of flavour,

but also, it gives a nice crust once they're cooked.

Some fresh thyme.

And then I pop them in.

Nice little sizzle there.

They need to cook for about three to four minutes on each side.

And whilst they cook, I can get on with the glaze.

It's just a knob of butter, about 25 grams.

Along with two tablespoons

of maple syrup.

And then one tablespoon of balsamic.

And then in over quite a low heat...

And once it's all melted, I'll turn it up

so it bubbles away and thickens.

Right, the kettle's boiled.

So I'm going to put about 300 grams of couscous in a bowl.

And couscous, it's a nice alternative to having rice.

Hot water.

Just pour it over, about a centimetre or two over the top.

And then a bit of Clingfilm.

And that's all it needs to cook.

Really, really simple.

Now, with this, I like to serve some spring onions.

I just chop these up nice and fine.

And I like to use the white and green bit, just the pale green bit.

Cos some of the dark can be a bit bitter.

Check these chops. Flip them over.

Got that lovely golden brown crust.

Right, these are done.

I'm going to put them on a plate to rest, just for a few minutes,

while I get on with everything else.

There.

Right, I'm just going to put the spring onions in there,

with flaked almonds, about half a packet, 50 grams.

I'm going to give them a quick stir.

And just going to

finish off the couscous.

So we'll just get this feta,

and then just crumble it in.

A little bit of pepper.

Touch of extra virgin olive oil.

And then I'm ready to plate up.

Put the couscous in a nice big mound,

with the lamb on top.

Add the crunchy flaked almonds and spring onions.

Beautiful maple and balsamic glaze...

Just drizzle that over the top.

..pomegranate seeds for a touch of luxury,

and fresh mint.

My maple and balsamic lamb with mint,

toasted almonds and feta couscous.

So that's some deliciously easy posh nosh.

But the party hasn't started till you've got a drink in your hand.

Now, I do love a glass of wine now and again, or a cocktail, or a mocktail,

and these are a few of my favourites that you might want to try.

In the mocktail corner, lychee and mint slush.

Lychees, lychee juice, fresh mint and ice.

These ingredients combine in a super refreshing palate cleanser.

And I've another easy non-alcoholic tipple.

The old classic, Shirley Temple - ginger ale, Grenadine and a cherry.

Take a tall glass, fill with ginger ale,

a splash of Grenadine syrup and garnish with the cherry.

And then, in the cocktail coroner, the Caribbean classic, Rusty Nail -

whisky, Drambuie and lemon.

I go with two parts whisky to one part Drambuie.

Otherwise, it's a bit too sweet.

And a Very Berry Crush -

blackcurrants, blackcurrant liqueur, rum and soda water.

An effervescent summer favourite, it's delicious.

For a decadent finish to a meal,

I really don't think you can beat a gorgeous cake.

Of course, you can cheat and buy something.

But I like to pull out all the stops...

..with my home-made "Let Them Eat Cake" cake.

It's the most indulgent chocolatey showstopper I know.

So it starts with 150 grams of soft butter.

And I'm going to weigh everything into the bowl.

And then 250 grams of caster sugar.

So I'm just going to zero out my scales

and then weigh 250 grams on top of the butter.

And then 150 grams of self-raising flour.

And then soured cream.

This is going to help make the cake really moist and soft.

Almost the whole pot.

And then four medium-sized eggs.

What's quite important when you're making cakes

is that the eggs are room temperature.

If all your ingredients are quite cold,

they're not going to blend in nicely and the mix will curdle.

And then 50 grams of cocoa powder, not too much cocoa powder,

because it really dries out the sponge.

So just enough to give it some flavour.

A little bit of baking powder, so one teaspoon.

And now vanilla. Pure flavour.

A little pinch of salt.

Now into the mixer.

Put this tea towel over the top

so the flour and cocoa powder don't fly everywhere.

And start it off gently.

Just to get it beginning to mix in.

Once all the powder's been moistened with the egg,

just turn it up to quite high and then beat it for a few minutes.

Right, I'm just going to get this mix into the two cake tins.

Smells good.

Need 20-centimetre tins. They've got a loose bottom.

Just makes it much easier to take the cake out.

Then I'll pop these into the oven.

They'll go in for about 25 to 30 minutes at 180 degrees.

Next, melt 100 grams of plain chocolate.

I'm going to leave that to cool down just a little bit

so that when I add it to the buttercream, it mixes in nicely.

Now for the buttercream.

So I need 250 grams of softened butter.

Just the whole thing, put it in.

And then 550 grams of icing sugar, which is rather a lot,

but it's worth it for this recipe.

And then about two tablespoons of milk,

just to loosen up the buttercream a bit.

# Tonight... #

And then I'll give this a good mix.

Low to start off with.

# ..So I set the world on fire

# We can grow brighter than the sun... #

OK, chocolate time.

And then mix again

to get it all nicely combined.

Now, that is just what I'm looking for -

it's soft, it's light, it's fluffy. Just perfect.

Time to get those cakes out of the oven.

Leave the cakes to cool slightly in the tin for a couple of minutes.

Then gently remove them to cool completely on a wire rack.

Now I'm going to sandwich these cakes together.

I'm going to put a big blob of buttercream on the plate here,

that's going to stop the sponge from sliding off.

And just smooth it all around the cake.

It just needs to be thick enough so that the malted balls can stick on.

OK, I'm happy with that.

Now for the malted balls.

Right, let's go.

# ..Tonight

# We are young

# So let's set the world on fire

# We can burn brighter than the sun... #

This cake is a real showstopper

that will make any occasion really special.

I've shown you how easy it is to add a little luxury into your cooking,

whether it's an elegant snack like my Parmesan puffs,

indulgent chocolate treats...

or a fuss-free meal, fit for the most sophisticated dinner table.

I believe we all deserve a bit of posh nosh in our lives.

So, next time you really want to wow your guests,

I hope you'll try one of my recipes.

They're so easy and make a big impact.

Right, cake, anyone?

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