Episode 11 Rachel Allen: Home Cooking

You can't beat home-cooked food.

In this series, I'm going to make every meal you cook at home a real treat.

Today, on Home Cooking, I'll show you how to poach salmon to perfection

and share my recipe for quick hollandaise sauce.

I meet Michelin-starred chef Daniel Galmiche

and discover what his family love to eat at home.

And I teach my cookery school family how to make

two nutritious and healthy salads,

one with spiced chicken and the other using left-over lamb.

Poached salmon served with hollandaise sauce is a match made in heaven.

And salmon lends itself so well to being poached

because of its meatiness, and it's full of natural oils.

I'm going to make a very quick and simple hollandaise sauce

and cook some asparagus which is a fantastic accompaniment.

I'll begin with the fish.

And I have a really good, lovely fresh salmon.

This salmon, I know it's really fresh and lovely.

The eyes are bright and shiny.

The skin is lovely and shiny and smooth. It doesn't smell strong.

It smells almost sweet. It doesn't have a strong fishy smell.

So I'm going to first of all remove the head.

When you serve salmon with hollandaise sauce,

the best way to cook it is to poach it.

Turn it over and cut down on the other side.

As close to the head as possible so you don't waste any meat.

Use the head for fish stock.

A great tip when you're poaching salmon, cut a piece that will fit

really snugly into your saucepan,

so if you've got a small piece of salmon sitting in a big pot of water,

you'll lose lots of flavour.

So cut right down through the bone, like that,

then ease the salmon into the water,

but I want to season the water with some salt.

You need quite a bit of salt when cooking salmon in the poaching water.

Bring the water...up to the boil.

And once the water comes back to the boil,

carefully pop your salmon in.

OK. That's fitting good and snugly.

It's completely covered in water which is important.

We need to bring this water back to the boil,

then turn the heat down because I just want it to simmer.

I don't want it to boil vigorously.

If it boils too much, the fish will disintegrate around the edges.

So just have it at a good simmer for 20 minutes.

While the salmon is cooking, I'm going to make a hollandaise sauce.

I'm making a very simple hollandaise sauce

that just uses egg yolks, butter and a bit of lemon juice.

I'm making it using quite a foolproof method.

There's some water simmering in the saucepan,

so put the bowl into the saucepan

and now I'm going to put two egg yolks into the bowl.

And it's such a simple recipe. You just whisk the egg yolks in the bowl.

Whisk in butter bit by bit.

For every one egg yolk, use about two ounces or 50 grams of butter.

Just whisk the butter in bit by bit.

I normally add one or two pieces at a time.

The butter is chilled from the fridge.

If you allow the water to boil too much,

you run the risk of splitting the hollandaise sauce

or even scrambling it if it gets really hot.

Can you see how the sauce is already emulsifying?

It's already taking shape, looking creamy.

Once I've whisked in all the butter, I just turn off the heat.

Add a bit of lemon juice into your sauce.

I want it to have a nice zing.

Mmm! Oh, that's delicious. OK. That's the hollandaise sauce made.

The hollandaise sauce will sit happily like this for a few hours. It can be made in advance.

It needs to be kept at an evenly warm temperature

just over the hot water in the saucepan like this.

I'm going to add a little bit of cold water into this sauce

just to thin it out a tiny bit,

it's got quite thick from whisking.

I want it to be a really smooth coating consistency. Just...

like that. Yum!

Now, the salmon has been cooking for 20 minutes.

So I'm going to turn off the heat under the salmon

and allow it just to sit in the hot water for about another five minutes.

I'm going to prepare the asparagus.

I have lovely asparagus stalks or spears here.

You need to remove the tough, woody end.

So wherever it snaps at the end, that's where it is to be trimmed.

If you like, you can just trim the ends of the asparagus,

like that, after it's been snapped.

I'm going to put the asparagus in to cook.

The water has come up to the boil.

Just add in a pinch of salt.

Cook the asparagus in the boiling salted water just for a few minutes until it softens.

While the asparagus is cooking, I can take the salmon out of the water.

So really gently take it out of the water

and sit it on a plate.

If you've got a while before you're going to serve the salmon,

do not peel the skin off because the skin will keep all the steam in there

and keep the salmon really lovely and juicy, which poached salmon is.

It's going to be juicy, succulent, delicate and absolutely fantastic.

The asparagus is very nearly cooked.

So, I know it's time for me to peel the salmon.

The skin will lift off really easily, like this, as you can see.

And the salmon naturally divides itself into segments, into portions.

It's lifting off the bone easily, so it's beautifully cooked.

Make sure the salmon is sitting on a warm serving plate.

Now, the asparagus is ready to come out.

A knife is just going through it easily.

Pop the asparagus back into the pan.

Just add a little bit of butter into the pan.

Serve the asparagus. I like it all facing in the one direction.

A little wedge of lemon on the plate will be good.

A nice sprig of dill or fennel, bit of flat parsley. This is dill.

And lastly, a really gorgeous spoonful of hollandaise sauce.

So there. Poached salmon with hollandaise sauce and asparagus.

Delicious.

Today's cookery school students are the Hough family from Hampshire.

Son Martin is off to university this year

and wants ideas for healthy, cheap recipes to take with him.

Today, we are going to be making some salads. A chicken salad.

It's spiced chicken, so I'll use some spices.

And we're going to serve this with really lovely tzatziki.

The other salad is a lamb salad

and in this we have beans, olives, feta cheese.

It's also got a redcurrant jelly dressing which will be lovely.

I'd like to cook something healthier, more nutritious for us,

that we're all going to enjoy.

It would be better to lose weight before I go to uni

so the more healthier foods I learn to the cook, the better.

First, we should get started on using the spices

for the marinade for the chicken. Martin, do you like spices?

-Er, not really.

-OK.

-I'm not a spice person.

-Is it the heat of the spice?

-Yeah. The heat usually.

This actually could be quite a good introduction

because the cumin, paprika and turmeric are not hot,

but it's the cayenne that's a little bit hot.

So maybe if you wanted to go easy on the cayenne.

-Mm-mm.

-I'm determined to get you to like spices. By the end of today, you're going to love spices!

-OK.

I'll take two teaspoons of cumin seeds.

Just let them toast.

They cook for 30 seconds to a minute.

So it's just a dry pan. There's no oil or anything else in here.

It's a great idea if you can buy the cumin seeds whole.

Toast them and grind them yourself.

You will get much better flavour than buying ready-ground cumin because cumin seeds go stale quickly.

There's a bit of smoke coming from them.

They've turned a couple of shades darker and we can crush the spices.

The smells you will get when you're crushing the cumin seeds, really just amazing.

Just brush out the spices like this.

We've got two teaspoons of cumin seeds, so we need the same amount of paprika.

This gives it fantastic colour actually.

The next spice is turmeric.

So another two teaspoons of this.

And cayenne pepper. And really just about a quarter to half a teaspoon.

-Is there any in there?

-Yeah!

Grate two cloves of garlic and cut your lemon in half and juice your lemons.

This is a very healthy marinade, actually.

Really, really good at full-on flavour, very low in fat, really good and healthy.

Maybe a mean teaspoon of salt.

And just about quarter to half a teaspoon of sugar.

It just balances the flavours really nicely. And some pepper.

Put in our lemon juice and just a tablespoon or two of oil.

OK, that's the marinade prepared.

So if you want to all cut up the chicken into finger-size pieces,

then just throw the chicken into the marinade and that's it, that's ready.

So let's put them into the fridge here, and we'll wash our hands.

When I go to college and then university, I'll be in the same situation as Martin

where I'll end up cooking for myself.

So I'd like to learn how to cook proper meals rather than on-the-go foods.

Let's get on with the lamb salad.

We've got these gorgeous leaves here,

a mixture of mizunas and mibunas... and rocket and nasturtium leaves.

But also, because of the Greek theme, we'll put in some mint leaves

That will give the salad a lovely fresh flavour.

So tear the leaves off the stalks and I might ask you, girls,

just to tear a little bit, say, smallish leaves of the lollo lettuce.

And then we can add all these greens in together.

Always be light-handed with salad leaves because it bruises easily.

That's plenty, that's great.

And into the fridge.

While the salad leaves are sitting happily in the fridge,

we'll make a dressing using redcurrant jelly.

This gives you a lovely, slightly sweet dressing

which works really well with the salty feta, intense olives,

and the lovely beans we're going to be using.

So into the redcurrant jelly we're going to add just two

quite small teaspoons of red wine vinegar.

So a few tablespoons of olive oil.

Use a really good extra virgin olive oil, best for our health and also best for flavour.

Add some crunchy sea salt which you can crumble in.

And some pepper. So we just need to whisk this.

And... that's the salad dressing made.

Now next thing we need to do is just prepare some olives.

Do try and buy them, for the best flavour, with the stones in.

With the flat side of the knife, just bash it,

so the stone comes out easily, like that.

A good bash, Martin.

Get in there! Yes!

And then you just break the olive in half for this salad. OK?

Next, pop in the cooked, drained cannellini beans into the olives.

Crumble the feta cheese in, in nice large pieces. Chunks of feta.

OK. Next, we need to slice the left-over roast lamb.

This is what's called a "mise en place" - getting all the bits prepared.

That's that salad prepared.

All we need to do is throw it together at the last minute.

Later, we'll see if the Houghs' salads are a hit with the family.

Coming up, chef Daniel Galmiche welcomes me into his home

to share a family lunch of slow-cooked lamb.

And the Hough family put the finishing touches

to their healthy but very tasty salads.

Charismatic French chef Daniel Galmiche has won three Michelin stars

during his 18-year career and is currently cooking up a storm

at the Forbury Hotel in Reading,

where he offers a Mediterranean menu and contemporary French food.

Brought up on an organic farm in eastern France, Daniel was born into

a world of fresh produce and is passionate about recreating this in both his restaurants.

OK, service, please!

But does his passion for French cuisine continue at home?

I went round to discover his family piece de resistance.

-How are you?

-Very good, very good.

-This is Claire, my partner.

-Hi, Claire, how are you?

-Well, thank you.

Ah, here's the boy.

-Antoine.

-Here's...

-Hello, Antoine. Bonjour.

-Dis bonjour a Rachel.

-Bonjour, Antoine.

-Hello.

-So today it's only English for me.

-You always speak French with each other?

-Yeah, absolutely.

-Antoine, where do you live?

-In Scotland.

-So he comes for holiday every about five weeks.

-Yeah?

-Don't tell me you want to be a chef.

-I do.

-Do you do?

-Did you want to be a chef when you were little?

-Yes.

When I was young at my grandma's kitchen, I said the same,

-so it's quite bizarre.

-Really. Great. Let's get to it!

Et voila, this is my kitchen.

-OK.

-OK. So today we're going to do a shoulder of lamb, roasted, and some ratatouille.

-Mmm!

-And confit of aubergine. So it's a small shoulder of lamb marinated with olive oil, garlic,

a bit of thyme, sea salt and black pepper, and we're going to roast it now.

-So is this a family favourite?

-Yes, it's one of them

-but it's what we cook when Antoine is home.

-OK, he loves it?

Yes, everybody loves it, we just tuck in and good stuff, yeah.

OK, so now we can cover it. But I don't cover it completely.

Just leave it there cos I don't want it to braise. OK.

-OK.

-And when I need to, I just add a little bit more of lamb stock.

-This is going to be divine.

-Yeah, it's made good already.

-Yeah, it's smells amazing.

I'm really looking forward to it.

-OK, so now we're going to leave that to cook for about an hour and 20, an hour 30 minute.

-OK.

-Now we should go in the garden and chop veg for the ratatouille. Shall we?

-Fantastic.

So, Antoine, will you do a courgette for me?

OK. Rachel, do you want to do the pepper?

-Yeah, sure.

-And I do the tomatoes.

So who inspired you to cook in the first place, Daniel?

My mum and officially my grandma, that was the biggest influence,

because there was always something ready. She had a small farm and we went there every weekend.

It was like a tradition almost and we knew always there was something to eat

and the smell always drew me, in the kitchen.

And she used to go in the orchard, collect the apples, the apricots from the tree, everything was there.

-It sounds like an amazing childhood you had.

-I've been very lucky.

-OK.

-Let's go and cook it.

OK, everything for the ratatouille is done. We're going to do the aubergine confit.

-Put them in the oven.

-OK.

-OK?

-Lovely.

-There you go.

-Going to drizzle that on top.

Actually, with Claire being half-Italian,

I can tell you just now, olive oil doesn't last very long in here.

-In this house.

-Some pepper.

-Are you into quite healthy eating?

Always. Mostly I would say it was olive oil, actually.

We use very little butter... for a French guy.

Bit of garlic as well, and I don't mind, I always leave the...

-All the papery skins.

-Yeah, I think it's no worries.

We let them cook for 40 minutes, about moderate, then we leave them until they're completely confit

and now we'll do the ratatouille.

Onion. So I choose red onion because I really like the flavour

of red onion because it's a bit of sweetness in it.

Add the pepper to it as well, red pepper. Next we're going to put the courgette.

-OK.

-we've got quite a lot. I think Antoine's been a good helper.

-Nice colour that.

-Yeah, great colour.

That's why I like simple food with good produce in summer

because the colours straightaway just... They just make you happy.

-Yeah.

-It's kind of happy cooking. So I'm going to cover the ratatouille now.

We'll leave it at low heat. OK.

And that's it. Then, 10 minutes before it's ready, we add the tomato

-and chopped garlic, with chopped parsley, to finish it.

-OK.

OK.

Mmm!

-Smells lovely, no?

-Oh, that looks great!

-It's all the garlic.

That looks gorgeous.

That is so, so good, Daniel.

-Thank you very much.

-Claire, is this the kind of food you love?

I do, I love Mediterranean food.

I tend to cook Italian food more myself cos I'm half-Italian.

-Does she cook a nice Italian, good pasta?

-Sometimes.

-Who does the best spaghetti bolognaise?

-Claire!

-Good answer.

-Claire won hands down.

I gave up on that one.

-Daniel's taught me to cook actually quite well.

-Has he?

I've got lots of tips since I've been with Daniel.

-Do you do most of the cooking at home, Claire?

-No, not most of it.

I know when I'm beaten.

-Cheers!

-Thank you so much, this has been lovely. Cheers.

Now, it's back to cookery school

and the Hough family put their marinated chicken into the oven.

Just put a little, small drizzle of oil onto the tray.

You can put a little drizzle on, Becky.

Ooh! That's enough.

Great.

So let's spread the chicken and all the marinade in the bowl

out all in a single layer out on the tray.

OK, let's put our chicken in to cook.

These pieces of chicken go into an oven at about 200 degrees,

they're only going to really take about 10, 15 minutes. OK?

Concerns I have at the moment with the children is because they're rushing in and out,

they're just picking up rubbish food, trashy food, just for the sake of eating something.

And that's not healthy.

While the chicken is cooking, let's make the tzatziki.

Tzatziki is a little Greek cucumber yogurt, very garlicky sauce.

We all need some cucumber. Cut it into small cubes.

So cut it into pieces about half a centimetre thick.

Good girl, Becky.

Let's add the yogurt.

You've got natural yogurt there.

And then grate in the clove of garlic.

And just a little bit of lemon zest.

Cut the lemon in half and you can squeeze some juice in with your hand.

Stir it around and they will take some sea salt. Give it a good stir.

OK. That's the tzatziki ready. Let's take the chicken out of the oven.

Smells good, doesn't it?

Now, we'll just set the chicken there while we get the rest of this salad ready.

Would you like to just break up quite a bit of this cos lettuce?

And would you guys over here like to cut up some tomatoes?

So, scatter the red onion over the salad.

Look at this great colour.

Some great sea salt.

Freshly ground black pepper.

Place all the pieces of chicken over the top.

-Looks really good.

-Smells quite nice as well.

-Does it smell nice, Martin?

-Yeah.

-He might be converted!

You might still eat something spicy. Great!

And I'm going to drizzle it with lots of tzatziki.

A few little mint leaves.

So that's our lovely spiced chicken salad with tzatziki.

Next thing we need to do is assemble the lamb salad.

We have all got our lovely dressing and lamb, feta, beans and olives.

So if you want to take some of your dressing, not all of it,

drizzle in enough to just cover all these ingredients

just with a lovely light coating of dressing.

Add in maybe a pinch of sea salt. Some pepper if you like.

Green leaves.

Great.

OK, do you want to bring over your lamb, olives, feta, bean mixture

and we can scatter it and then give it a little tease again.

-My salads are so boring but these look very interesting. They just say, "Eat me".

-Oh, good!

Hey. So this is the fun part. We can sit down...

and enjoy the fruits of our labours.

Mmm!

-Oh, the lamb's beautiful.

-Martin?

-I can take it,

but it's still a little tingly in the mouth.

That's good. We're halfway there.

Oh, that's a big improvement from earlier.

I enjoyed making the salads because it's healthier for me

and it's also something I could do at uni.

-What do you think, Becky?

-The chicken's spicy, but it's too nice, I can't stop eating.

-Well, there's a compliment.

-That's good.

-What is nice is the spice with the tzatziki, it's um...

-Mmm!

-The combination is lovely.

I've learnt that you can really jazz salads up. They don't have to be boring lettuce on a plate.

I've also learnt that all five of us will eat those

and also learning about marinating meat to make it more flavoursome,

turning a piece of chicken into something quite delicious.

I think you've all done a fantastic job.

This is delicious. Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Thank you!

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