New Tricks Nigel Slater's Simple Suppers

Ever since I was a kid, I've loved apple tart.

My dad used to bring them home from the baker's on a Saturday morning.

It's a lovely way to end a meal.

Very often, though, they can be a bit too much after a big meal.

So I end up having an apple and a piece of cheese.

It occurred to me recently that, actually,

I could have the best of both worlds.

'And that comes in the form of a classic sweet apple tart

'with a bit of a twist, a savoury pastry - a fab mid-week treat.'

Making pastry by hand just gives me such pleasure.

It's that whole tactile thing.

The hands in soft flour.

Don't think about food as just an end product.

You should have some pleasure while you're getting there.

'My pastry starts off with the usual ingredients -

'300 grams of plain flour, and half that weight in unsalted butter

'and two egg yolks to bind it all together.'

A little bit of beaten egg in there.

'This is where I go a bit free-style and chuck in some cheese.'

I'll use a very hard cheese with quite a deep flavour.

You can use Parmesan or one of our hard English cheeses as well.

They can be very, very good.

'It's your call how much cheese you put in, depending on

'how savoury you want the end result.'

Don't worry about the shape, it can be any shape you want.

This isn't professional French patisserie,

this is a big tart for tea.

'All pastry likes to rest before it goes in the oven.'

There is this very strict idea

that there are cooking apples and eating apples.

I don't agree with it at all. You can cook with ANY apple.

What you get is a very different texture.

'I'm using some crisp Coxes today. Don't bother peeling,

'this is as rustic as they come.'

Fantastic for a late picnic.

When the weather's just started to get cold enough

that you want to put your favourite thick pullover on and go outside.

'Soften the apples, add cinnamon for spice

'and a couple of cloves.'

It's a very strong flavour. You've got to be quite careful with cloves.

'My pastry's had a rest.

'So it's just a case of sliding in the apples and building a wall

'to hold everything in.

'A lick of milk and egg yolk and a sprinkling of cheese

'will add a golden glaze as it bakes

'for around 30-40 minutes.'

Very different from the apple tart

my father used to bring back from the baker's.

It smells sweet and it smells savoury at the same time.

Quite crisp pastry.

And then really quite soft and luscious apples inside.

I want something on this, but cream would be wrong.

I want something sharper to go with the sweet apples and the cheese,

so creme fraiche would be a good idea.

Or a very thick natural yogurt maybe.

That wonderful thing of something so familiar

and yet so different at the same time.

I know this well, but it's got a whole new feel to it.

It's extraordinarily good.

'Try adding a bit of cheese next time you do an apple tart.

'Who needs a pud and a cheese board?!'

You know, it's funny that we've stayed

with the same few varieties of fish

when there are so many around. Here in these waters

in Cornwall, where I used to live,

there's an amazing variety.

A whole world of things out there

that we just don't use and we don't think of.

We really should.

'More than 40 varieties of fish

'are caught in these waters every day.

'But because most of us don't know our coley from our cod,

'the majority gets exported.

'If only we tried something new occasionally.

'I think our taste buds would thank us.'

We really need to be more adventurous and less timid,

and we need to look at fish.

Sometimes it might not be the prettiest fish, it might be ugly

with the head on, but the taste could be fantastic

and we don't know sometimes what we're missing out on.

210 on the big haddock. 210. 220.

'Nathan has been fishing since he was 14

and reckons there are plenty of new varieties we could be enjoying.

We've got some lovely gurnards here.

Gurnards, 20 years ago, were being thrown away.

They were used for crab pot bait. Really trendy.

They're in restaurants - the next big thing.

Of course, we've got the megrim sole there.

And the megrim sole is the biggest secret, if you like, of Cornwall.

This is, by value and by volume, the largest species landed in Cornwall.

90-95% of megrim sole gets exported to Spain,

so we really don't know what we're missing out on. And here we are.

We've got lovely mackerel here. These are super fresh.

Just caught this morning. So you can just take that home,

fillet it off and that will be

a fantastic dinner really. Mackerel's probably one of the most

underrated fish in the sea but you've got to eat it fresh.

'Neither are we very adventurous about the way we cook it.

'Fresh mackerel is definitely one of my all-time favourites.

'Don't get me wrong, I love it plainly grilled,

'but some people find it too fishy.

'So I can't resist giving it an entirely different flavour.'

Out of all of the flavours that I like to use with fish,

particularly with mackerel, lemon grass is one of the very best.

Immediately I'm getting these great wafts of citrus coming up.

And it's not quite lemon and it's not quite lime.

It's just got a quality all of its own.

'A few spring onions and chilli

'will go with perfectly with this, too.'

What I'm making is a seasoning

to go on top of the fish fillets.

This is part of the joy of good old mackerel

because it loves all these big flavours.

You get a bit of heat with fresh ginger, but it's really...

more aromatic than hot.

I don't mind when I finish work,

just standing in the kitchen with a sharp knife and a chopping board

and just knocking a few ingredients into shape.

I find it quite relaxing, actually.

Straightaway those amazing smells just come up into the kitchen.

It's like whack! It's fantastic.

Whenever I think of these flavours - ginger and chilli

and spring onion - I think of limes rather than lemons.

And these limes are beautiful.

They're really ripe and yellow.

'I'm combining their juice with a few tablespoons of fish sauce

'for a salty mellowness.

'And a sprinkling of sugar helps balance these strong flavours.'

I'm just going to quickly grill...

..these fillets of mackerel.

They don't need seasoning

cos I've got my big seasoning going on later.

'Once the fillets start to colour, whip them out,

'spoon over your aromatics, and pop back under the grill

'until the topping is a little crisp.'

What's so remarkable about that

is I'm getting all those wonderful flavours

and they are really, really exciting in your mouth,

but it's not too fishy.

The whole sort of intensity of mackerel has been knocked back.

So anybody who thinks that that's too fishy

is in for a lovely surprise.

That is one gorgeous, gorgeous plate of fish.

The real key to this dish

is calming the overtly fishy flavours

with something bright and fresh.

My favourite bit of the whole week is Sunday lunch.

I like the cooking.

I love the food itself and I love that whole performance -

the idea of choosing the bird, of stuffing it.

But I love roast chicken

so much that I find it want it during the week as well.

'So here's a recipe that I can do quickly

'and just shove in the oven any night of the week.'

Because I haven't got the time during the week...

for the heat to get right into a whole bird,

I cut him in half. And I do that

by cutting through the bones.

Split him down the back like that, in half,

and then, again, through the bones here.

All I want is the meat in a form

where the heat can get to it very quickly.

And then squash him a bit.

There are certain things that, for me,

just go with chicken perfectly. One of them is garlic.

The two smells -

roasting chicken and roasting garlic - I can't think of any smell

that will bring me to the table quicker.

I'm just going to squash these cloves. Sort of flatten them.

That way I just get a very mild flavour.

I always keep my lemons out of the fridge

and I roll them, too, or squash them a bit

and that way they give up

much, much more of their juice when you squeeze them.

'It wouldn't be roast chicken without some fresh herbs.'

Something with a woody stem, like thyme.

Maybe a bit of sage.

Good.

And then rosemary. That's the other good one.

This isn't something that I'm going to delicately flavour.

So I'm going to leave the herbs whole.

'A generous seasoning and then just moisten the chicken.'

I don't have to worry about the heat penetrating

right inside the bird as if using a whole stuffed bird on a Sunday.

So cook it on a really high heat at over 200.

Then it will come out, hopefully,

with some lovely little crisp edges as well.

It means I've got 30, 40 minutes...

in which to pour myself a drink,

have a bath, check my emails

and then I'll come down and he'll be ready.

I feel as if I'm in charge of the chicken,

rather than Sunday lunch

when I feel as if the whole thing's in charge of me.

Cooking it at that high temperature means that

I've still got all the wonderful juices out of the chicken.

And inside those garlic cloves,

they'll be all soft and gooey and fudgey.

So all the best bits of the Sunday roast,

all the sizzle and savour.

All I want with that is a big bowl of green salad.

I've got the dressing there, all those juices in the pan.

Maybe a bit of bread to soak it up.

'The only thing I've done differently here

'is to carve the bird before cooking it.

'That one nifty change means that I can enjoy

'a roast any night of the week.

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