Episode 12 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 make

'a gorgeously decadent but simple

'baked raspberry and ricotta cheesecake.

'I get a taste of France when I'm invited to lunch

'with two-Michelin-starred chef Eric Chavot and his boys.

'And I teach my cookery school family

'how to make roast pork with perfect crackling and all the trimmings.'

I'm going to make a baked raspberry and ricotta cheesecake,

and this is a really delicious, indulgent and creamy but not heavy cheesecake.

I love the pretty colour from the raspberries

that are rippled through it after it's baked.

I'm going to begin with the base of this.

And this is a classic cheesecake base, using butter and digestive biscuits.

So, turn the heat on under a saucepan.

And melt a little bit of butter.

Then I'm going to crush digestive biscuits

which you can do in the food processor that you're going to use to make the cheesecake filling,

but it's so quick and easy just to crush them in a plastic bag, using a rolling pin.

OK, there are the lovely little biscuit crumbs.

Once the butter has melted, you can turn off the heat.

Add the biscuit crumbs into the butter.

Stir it together to mix it.

The butter just brings the biscuit crumbs together.

You don't want too much butter, otherwise it'll leak out during baking.

Fantastic. This tin has a removable base, and also, I want to show you another tip...

which makes it much easier to take the cheesecake out when you are ready to serve it.

But the base of the tin upside down.

Not this way, because if the little lip is sticking up,

then it's really difficult to take the cheesecake out in one tidy piece.

Brush with melted butter or rub with soft butter and pop it into the tin.

There! Now, I'm going to put the butter and the crushed biscuit mixture into the base of the tin,

and I just want to press it in so that it covers the base of the tin completely.

For the filling, I'm going to just mix everything up

in the food processor together, except for the raspberries,

which I'll put in at the last minute.

So I've got ricotta cheese.

And ricotta cheese is a lovely, soft, creamy, Italian cheese.

Some caster sugar.

So as well as the ricotta and caster sugar, put in some creme fraiche.

And then, I like the little hint of sourness

that you get from creme fraiche in a baked cheesecake.

Two teaspoons of vanilla extract.

One and two. A tablespoon of honey.

Yum! Three eggs.

One, two, three.

Add the finely grated zest of one lemon.

The finely grated zest of the lemon really helps just to kind of perk up the raspberry flavour.

It gives it a little lift. Make sure you don't grate down to the bitter white pith.

It really is bitter and you'll get a nasty, bitter aftertaste.

So just whizz up all the ingredients.

OK. That's whizzed up. Now I'm just going to crush the raspberries.

Not absolutely completely. That's enough.

See, they're just kind of a little bit coarse, like that.

So actually put the raspberries in and just pulse it, just whizz it up for a couple of seconds.

Take your cheesecake mixture and just simply pour it into the tin in which you've already got

the melted butter and the biscuit crumb mixture.

And I want the raspberries to still be in little lumps like this, which is good.

Now pop this into the oven.

We've got an oven pre-heated to 180 degrees Celsius.

This will take about 40 to 45 minutes to cook.

Not too high up in the oven, otherwise it'll brown too much.

I want it just to be kind of a little bit golden, which will be perfect.

About 40 minutes later, I can see that it's cooked enough,

because it's got a nice wobble in the centre.

Perfect.

Now, just cover the top with a plate or a bit of tin foil and set it aside to cool for about half an hour

before popping it into the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

It'll go on cooking as it cools and then it sets really beautifully in the fridge.

So now, this is ready to serve.

And...bring it over to your serving dish.

Swivel the knife all around the base, like this, and then you know it's free.

And then quite quickly, pull out the base like that.

Sprinkle it with the remaining raspberries.

Like that.

Couple of little sprigs of mint can look quite pretty.

And a dusting of icing sugar.

So there it is. My baked raspberry and ricotta cheesecake.

Simple, but really delicious.

-Hi.

-Hi!

'Today's cookery school students are the Nolan family from County Carlow.

'They all share a passion for cooking,

'so I'll be giving them ideas for a Sunday roast they can make together.'

Come on in.

This is going to be roast pork. Do you like roasts?

-Yes.

-On Sundays?

-Yes.

-That kind of thing.

We're going to make really good roast pork with the best crackling ever.

We're going to make sticky roast carrots and parsnips, pea puree and a lovely apple sauce.

I do often feel limited in recipes that we cook at home,

especially if the kids like something to eat.

You'd love to be able to add something, new twist to it to just improve it.

This is a loin of pork and it needs to be long enough down here so that you can actually

roll it up like this, because we're going to stuff this.

So what I need to do is just, first of all, with this good sharp knife,

just to cut through the rind a little bit. Now it's the rind that makes the crackling.

Can you see what I'm doing? I'm cutting through, all the way out to the end.

I don't want the slices to be too thick,

and when this loin of pork roasts in the oven,

then the crackling will separate into lovely, long strips.

I'm going to turn the piece of pork over, the rind side down, and I could pass one over to you,

and what we're going to do is spoon some stuffing just in the centre here.

-What do you put in your stuffing?

-Chopped herbs, breadcrumbs, chopped onions that were cooked

in little bit of butter, and some crushed garlic.

And you need to make sure that the onions in the stuffing have cooled down before you stuff the meat.

Brilliant! So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to take quite a big piece of string, like this.

And tie it into a knot like this first of all, OK?

So then, what I'm going to do is with my finger, just put that down here.

Thank you very much, Ciara, excellent assistant I have here.

And...

see, I'm going to just put it under here. It's like tying a parcel.

How tight do you tie it that the stuffing won't fall out?

Actually, not too tight - if you tie it too tight,

it's going to end up looking like the Michelin man, it's going to just be a bit too bumpy.

So not too tight, but you do want it to hold it together.

And then, what you can do is put it down, like this.

Loop it and tie it in a knot here.

We're going to salt the rind, and this is how to get your lovely crispy crackling.

Would you like to do this, Ciara? Take some salt, and if you rub it onto the rind like this.

If the rind is wet in any way, it needs to be dried off completely.

Otherwise you won't get crispy crackling. That's probably enough there.

How are you doing there, Michael?

-Terrible.

-You're doing OK!

-Can I just tie this here like this, then?

-You can just tie it there like that.

-Just to make it easier.

That's perfect. That's great. So if you want to put yours on one side.

The oven is already pre-heated to 190 degrees.

They take roughly about 25 minutes per 450 grams.

For the last ten minutes, we'll turn up the oven to quite high and that's what gets the crackling

really lovely and crispy and crunchy.

I would like to be a chef when I grow up, because I love food.

I like cooking and I'd love to have my own TV programme and write cookery books.

We're going to roast some carrots and some parsnips, sprinkled with cumin seeds,

and when they're nearly cooked, we're going to drizzle over a mixture of lemon juice

and apricot jam, which gives them a little bit of tang

and a bit of sweetness, and it's going to make them a little bit sticky.

So shall I pass a few carrots over to you, there? There you go, Daryl.

Cut the carrots through the stalk, like that.

And they look really pretty once they're roasted.

-OK, Daryl?

-Yeah.

So we can cut the parsnips in half and then in quarters.

Careful there, well done.

And then it'll be a good idea just to cut the core in the centre of the parsnip, which is a bit hard.

That's a good method, making sure the knife goes away from you.

Bit of a natural here. Fantastic.

Throw the parsnips into the tray, and the carrots.

And then, Daryl, would you like to drizzle them with some olive oil?

Good drizzle all over the carrots and the parsnips.

Lovely. Would you like to, Ciara, with your hands, just kind of toss the carrots and the parsnips

while Danni maybe seasons them with...do you know cumin seeds?

-Yes, we've heard of them on the telly but we've never tasted them.

-They're not hot and spicy.

They've kind of got a nice kind of nutty flavour. So there's about a teaspoon of cumin seeds there.

And Michael, if you want to season them with some salt.

We'll then throw these into a good, hottish oven, about 200 or 210 degrees.

And these will take about half an hour to roast.

But about ten minutes before the end of roasting, we're going to add in

a mixture of melted apricot jam with some lemon juice.

'Later on, we'll see how the Nolans' roast turns out,

'and I'll show them my recipes for home-made apple sauce and pea puree.'

'Coming up, Eric Chavot, a chef with two Michelin stars,

'lets me into a few French food secrets

'when he invites me to share a family lunch of barbecued steak

'with his boys.

'And the Nolan family make apple sauce and pea puree

'to serve with their pork roast.'

Eric Chavot was appointed Head Chef of The Capital in August 1999.

From the outset, his innovative, French-inspired dishes received widespread acclaim

from international food critics and won him two Michelin stars.

But does he cook this style of food at home with his biggest critics, his two sons Sebastian and Theo?

'I was invited around for lunch to sample some home truths.'

-Nice to see you.

-Lovely to see you.

-How are you?

-Well, we're very well. The boys are going to be there any minute,

-so we're going to go and start getting ready for them.

-Yeah!

-OK?

-Great.

-You'll be doing the cooking, OK?

-OK.

-I'll do the drinking.

-Welcome to our castle.

-Thank you.

-That's it. OK?

Small and compact, OK, so we're going to go start, we're going to get going.

Nice piece of Scotch beef, I buy.

I was going to roast it, but I think we're going to do barbecue.

In England, you will make a nice roast potato.

-Being French, I'm going to make a sauteed potato.

-Sauteed potato.

Par-boiled, part roast and finished with a compote of onions.

-Are you going to top and tail the beans?

-OK.

So, Eric, what kind of food do your boys like, and your partner?

Is roast, we go roast, barbie, pasta, they love pasta.

Friday night has got to be toasties.

-Toasties?

-Yeah, you know, so we can not cook at all.

You spend so many hours at work, you come home and thinking... So I will do the bare minimum.

OK, so we leave each for half an hour.

Yeah. So the potatoes are...

The potatoes should be par-boiled, see, nice. Lid on, lid on for me.

And we're going to keep the skin. See? Just go vice versa. Little wedge, yeah?

-Make them a bit funky.

-Perfect.

-Voila. Kind of a wedgie.

-This is lovely and simple, isn't it?

-Yes, at the end of the day, I'm at home, no Michelin star,

no chef's hat. I just want... I want to spend as much time as possible and to relax. Look at that.

Just starting to turn gently.

Now, couple of sprig, couple of sprig.

Little knob of butter in the end there.

Little knob of garlic everywhere.

Look, voila. And now we got that little Frenchness and little garlic.

-For the Frenchness.

-Little bit garlic.

They just...you could physically forget about them now.

I'm going to cut those steaks very quickly, but before, quick check on those onions.

Lovely, golden.

And that caramelisation at the bottom is the natural sugar and that's why we do. OK.

So Eric, where did your passion for food come from?

Well, it's going to be from my grandmother and my mother,

who were both excellent housewives and everything at the home revolved around the table.

Now I can still remember the grandmother taking the roast beef.

And it needs to be cooked rare, I'm talking moo-oo!

-Yeah, just tepid.

-Yeah.

-OK? We're just going to take the steak outside and cook them.

-OK, and meet the boys?

-And meet the boys, who'll be probably outside waiting by the pond.

Meet my little monsters, my little boys, Sebastian and Theo.

-Nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you. Hi, Theo.

Can you show Rachel quickly your mini garden, guys, because we need few salad leaves, Sebastian, yeah?

Well, this is all the lettuce.

We got some Italian rocket as well.

These are the tomatoes.

They seem to be just starting to flower a little bit.

So do you two love cooking?

-Sort of.

-Or just the eating part?

-Mmm...

-Bit of both.

-Bit of both.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Eric, do you have a secret to cooking the perfect steak?

The first thing for a perfect steak is a perfect piece of meat.

-Yeah.

-And you don't keep flipping over.

-Yeah.

-Just twice. Right, steaks are done, OK, we're going to put that in

house and we quickly finish potato and the green beans.

-Fantastic!

-And voila. And look at that.

-They look divine!

-Look at that.

You see, we could have picked the thyme, but it picked itself.

Now you just left with the leaves inside. Look at that.

So, I need that lovely pan. See, look at that.

OK.

They're done, finished, yeah?

And look at that.

-That looks great!

-Rather than serving the beans on the side,

I'm going to sprinkle the beans down here and you got everything at once.

So like that, the boys are forced to eat their vegetable.

And look at that. Toss everything.

-And Rachel, I think it's time for us to go and eat.

-OK.

-If you want to go and take a seat on the far side.

-OK.

And look at that, guys! Look!

-Oh, yes.

-And look at that.

-Lovely!

-Theo. Look at that.

Oh, that looks gorgeous.

-Voila.

-Eric, that is fantastic!

-Theo, what kind of food do you like eating?

-This kind.

-This kind!

That was the right answer. So Eric, the boys aren't fussy eaters?

No, you see, we come to an agreement.

You taste it, if you don't like it, at least you tasted it, and I meet them halfway.

-Thank you so much, Eric.

-No, it's a pleasure.

-Thanks, Theo and Sebastian.

You're very welcome.

Now it's back to cookery school and time for the Nolan family to finish their roast pork dinner.

So while the carrots and the parsnips are roasting, we can make the apple sauce.

-Daryl, would you like to peel an apple too?

-Yes, please.

So, Daryl, what do you like making in the kitchen?

-Erm, chocolate brownies.

-Chocolate brownies.

And what's your favourite part?

-Licking the spoon.

-Do you know what? That's my favourite part too.

We'd cook and eat as a family most evenings, at the weekend, Sunday especially.

We always have about...like on a Sunday dinner, when we're doing the roast and stuff and the dessert.

Bang it down on the board and the knife will go through it. Not with your hand there.

Just... Ooh! Not that hard.

Pop those apples in here.

Daryl, this is about a tablespoon of water in there.

You can pour all of that onto the apples.

And then you could sprinkle a little bit of sugar in.

If you didn't particularly like apples, could you use a different sauce?

Gooseberry sauce could be good.

Even a rhubarb sauce is quite good with pork.

We can put this just onto a lowish heat.

Allow the apples just to gently stew and they'll soften.

They'll take maybe about ten to 15 minutes.

Put the lid on. While the apples are cooking, we could melt the apricot

jam with some lemon juice in a saucepan and this will make

the lovely glaze that we'll pour over the carrots and parsnips in a few minutes.

Would the pork be nearly finished by now?

The pork is not cooked just yet.

-We have to wait a little bit longer. Are you getting hungry?

-Yeah.

Do you want to go over to the oven and take out the carrots and parsnips?

And then pour over that lovely lemon juice and apricot jam mix.

Just pour it all over?

Yeah! They need to go back into the oven for about another ten minutes.

Meanwhile, we can pop the peas on to cook.

Add a pinch of salt into the water.

So we want to cook the peas just enough.

We want to keep the lovely fresh, bright green colour.

My mum and dad both have different styles.

Daddy has more of a clean chef style but my mum has more of a home style.

So now, we're going to liquidise the peas.

Do you want to give the lemon a really good squeeze? Oh, yes!

Perfect.

OK, so the peas can go in.

Daryl, would you mind pouring a little bit of olive oil in here?

Couple of good glugs.

Excellent. Thank you Daryl. So we'll add a little bit of seasoning.

And then we can whizz up the peas.

Great. OK.

OK, so the pea puree is made.

At this stage, the carrots and the parsnips are cooked.

Can you see they've got this gorgeous golden glaze and they're soft?

So we can just turn off the oven and leave those to sit there. They'll keep warm and they'll be perfect.

I'm just going to have a look at the pork and see how it's doing.

The pork might be ready.

So I'll take it out of the oven.

And turn the oven up to about 225, even 230 is good.

Transfer the pork onto a clean roasting tray.

I'm going to put this tray back into the oven at the high temperature

and it'll stay in there for another ten minutes until the crackling's really nice and crispy.

OK. How's the apple sauce getting on?

I think it could do with a bit more sugar. Ciara, do you want to add some more sugar in?

Michael, would you mind chopping some coriander?

OK, so the pork can come out of the oven now.

Ooh! Wow, that looks great.

Great. So here are the two gorgeous pieces of roast pork.

Ooh, nice crackling, Michael. We've got quite good crackling here, too.

The carrots and parsnips, they can be put into the serving bowl.

Then they can be scattered with the coriander.

The fresh coriander is good with the slightly sweet-sour flavour with the carrots, parsnips and cumin seeds.

Mm-mm-mmm!

-Smells good.

-It does smell fantastic.

Thank you, Daryl. So, great colours here.

You getting hungry, guys?

Yeah!

So make sure that the meat rests for at least 15 to 20 minutes.

It'll just be more tender.

The juices kind of all mingle in through the meat.

It'll be really, really good.

-I think we should go and eat. What do you think?

-Yes!

-Definitely.

-Great, OK.

OK. Michael, would you like to carve?

-Who'd like some carrots and parsnips?

-Me, please.

-Please.

-Danni, can you hold me your plate, please?

-Bon appetit, everybody.

-I didn't get any crackling.

-Oh, right.

How is it, Danni, what do you think?

I think it is absolutely lovely.

Oh, good. How are you all finding the crackling?

-It's lovely.

-Lovely, absolutely lovely.

-It's very crackly.

Mmm, it is nice and crackly, isn't it?

Well, today was great day. It was absolutely fantastic.

We had so much fun, the whole family could cook together with Rachel, it was a great family experience.

-Michael, how does this compare to your usual Sunday lunches?

-This tastes absolutely gorgeous.

-Mm.

-Much more flavoursome.

-I've enjoyed today so much.

I'd love to do it again any time. I'd make that roast dinner again, definitely.

Thanks for coming along. You've all been a really good sport.

-Thank you very much for having us.

-For having us.

-No, it's great.

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