Episode 2 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 deliciously rich risotto with red wine, chorizo and peas.

I get to sample what a Michelin-starred chef

cooks at home with his family when I visit Galton Blackiston,

and I teach my cookery-school family how to make a chocolate layered semi-frodo.

This light frozen dessert makes a family pudding to die for.

Risotto is a great thing to be able to make.

It's so wonderfully versatile, you could add into it whatever

ingredients are in season, what you have in your fridge.

It is something that takes a bit of time to make - about half an hour -

but you can be standing chatting to your guests while you're making it. It's not hard work.

In this risotto, I'm going to use red wine, chorizo, peas and parsley.

You get fantastic flavour from the chorizo.

First, I'm adding olive oil into a pan that's just on a low heat,

one or two tablespoons, and then some butter.

Make sure you add the butter in after the oil to stop it

from burning if the pan's hot like this one.

Add in chopped onion...

and then some salt and pepper.

Give it a little stir, turn the heat down to low,

cover the saucepan with a lid and cook until the onions

are really nice and soft, completely soft.

This will take about 8-10 minutes.

Now the onions are completely soft at this stage, and they even have

a bit of golden colour on them and that's absolutely perfect, so I can put the rice in.

This is rice that you use for risotto, either an Arborio rice -

this is actually Arborio - or carnaroli rice.

It's slightly fat short-grain rice

and it's really fantastic because it absorbs a lot of the stock.

Pop the rice into the cooked onions and stir it around,

and the trick for a good risotto is to stir the risotto rice

around in the onions on the heat, before anything else goes in,

for about one or two minutes until the grains get ever-so even toasted.

While the rice is cooking, I'm going to put the chicken stock into a separate saucepan because I want

to heat it up and add hot chicken stock into the risotto gradually,

over about, say, 25 minutes.

Bring the chicken stock up to a light simmer.

The rice has just been cooking for one or two minutes in the pan here,

so I'm going to add in some wine. I'm putting a glass of red wine in.

Quite often white wine goes in, but the red wine's going to give it

a fantastic colour. It works very well with the chorizo and the peas that are going in as well.

The alcohol is going to burn off the wine while it's cooking,

which is great because it means it's suitable for all the family.

The wine has now completely evaporated from the rice.

At this point, the chicken stock has just come up to a light simmer.

I want to keep it at that temperature all the time while

I'm making the risotto, and I'm going to add, ladleful by ladleful,

stock into the risotto.

Stir it around and allow the chicken stock to almost evaporate,

and it's also going to be absorbed by the rice,

and you just stir the rice, almost cutting through the risotto.

And now I'm at the right stage to add the next ladleful of stock.

Can you see how it has been soaked into the rice?

It's creamy, but there isn't any stock bubbling around

in the centre of the pan there, and that's exactly what I'm looking for.

So ready to add the next ladleful.

The risotto is on a low to medium heat, so this is going to take...

This whole stage will take about 25 minutes, rather than adding it all in one go.

It can go a little bit gluey.

While that is simmering, I can prepare the chorizo.

Chorizo is a fantastic pork sausage that's got a lot of paprika in it, so it's got a good bit of a kick.

I absolutely adore chorizo.

I love chorizo in everything, but it really gives an incredible flavour to this red wine risotto.

So into a pan - I don't need to add any other oil -

just pop the chorizo.

Fry it like this and it's going to get a little bit crisp.

It's also going to release all the fantastic paprika-coloured oils which I'm going to save

for drizzling over the risotto when serving.

So allow the chorizo to fry on the heat, medium to high heat, for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, stir the risotto. If it needs more stock, add it in.

At this point now, all of the stock has been added into the rice.

I'm going to taste the rice and see. I hope it's at the right stage.

Mmm, perfect.

It's got a tiny bit of a bite, which is exactly how I want it to be.

It's got quite a loose, creamy consistency.

It's not too stiff or thick.

So, with a slotted spoon, I'm going to add the chorizo into the risotto,

and I want to save the oils that have come out of the chorizo.

They've got incredible colour from all the paprika. There...

And I've also got some peas here, peas that you've just boiled

for about a half to one minute until they're cooked.

And...some Parmesan cheese to grate.

You can use fresh or frozen peas perfectly for this risotto.

Stir it around gently and taste it for seasoning.

It does need another pinch of salt and some more pepper.

OK. Take it off the heat and now I'm going to add in just a little bit

of roughly chopped parsley, and that's it, it's ready.

Spoon the risotto into warm serving plates or bowls.

I like to add the chorizo oil,

a good drizzle of it, for colour and for flavour.

A bit more grated Parmesan cheese.

So there is my red wine risotto with chorizo, peas and parsley,

ready to serve.

Today's cookery-school students are the food-mad Dudley family from Exeter.

Mum Gabriella, dad Shaun, son Alexander and daughter Isabella

love to cook and eat together as a family, so I'll be showing them how to make the perfect family pudding.

We're going to be making a semi-frodo, and semi-frodo literally means semi-frozen,

and this a chocolate-layered semi-frodo.

It's essentially like a vanilla ice cream, but a very light one

because it's got egg white in it as well.

We'll put it into a tin with a layer of chocolate, a layer of the ice cream, a layer of chocolate,

ice cream and a layer of chocolate again.

I think my mum's meals could improve, you know!

Sometimes your food, you just repeat the same things, a little bit.

-And slap it on the plate!

-Oh, slap it on the plate!

-And microwave it three hours later.

-That's a terrible thing to say...

-Oh, come on!

I... Oh!

All we need for this recipe are eggs, sugar, cream, chocolate,

but we can also use other ingredients. Would anyone like to use some nuts or candied peel?

-I love nuts so I'd love to put nuts in.

-What would you like?

-Pecan nuts.

-Pecan nuts. OK, we're going to toast those.

Would you like some orange rind too?

Yes, I'd like some orange zest. That'd be great.

Great. OK, so pecan and orange and chocolate.

-Oh, that will be a nice combination.

-What's the candied things?

The candied peel - it's literally peel of oranges and lemons that's

-been cooked in a sugar syrup until it's really sweet and candied.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-That with chocolate is really good, actually.

-OK.

But first of all, we need to line our loaf tins with a double layer of cling film, actually, and pop it in.

OK, that's the tin prepared.

The next thing I need to do is to separate three eggs.

Into the three egg yolk pop the sugar -

150g or five ounces of sugar.

So we've got the egg yolks and sugar in one bowl,

the egg whites in another, and then into the third bowl pour...

We've got 500mls, or just under a pint, of cream.

Now, a bit of the egg yolk got into the white.

It doesn't matter if it's the other way round, if there's some white in the yolk.

But a bit of egg yolk can prevent the egg white from whisking up nicely, so spoon those

little bits of egg yolk out and then we can drop them in there. That's great, your egg whites are lovely.

OK, so let's whisk up, first of all the egg yolks and the sugar.

This just takes about four or five minutes,

just until it gets pale in colour and a little bit light.

-Pop the pecans into the pan.

-Shall I leave these whole?

Yeah, and then I would chop them afterwards.

Isabella...start to chop the candied peel.

Oh, Shaun, very nice. Perfect.

That's very cheffy, and they're perfectly toasted!

Would you like to, Alexander, have a go at chopping the chocolate?

Great. OK, Isabella, you get to whisk the cream. Fantastic.

I'd like to be far more experimental.

As a mother cooking week in and week out, one does...

at times tend to do the same sort of recipes so, if I had more time,

I'd like to be more adventurous there.

Grate your orange rind into the egg yolk and the sugar. It would be a good idea to mix the orange rind

through the whole ice cream rather than layering it up, cos it might just go in clumps.

-It's get flavour in it, then?

-Yeah. And you've got your candied peel.

You could always mix it into the egg yolks and the sugar.

I'm going to fold my whipped cream into the egg yolk and sugar,

-and you want to actually fold it in.

-If you whisk it, what happens?

You'll break down the volume of the cream and it'll just be too runny.

You want this to be light and a little bit airy.

-OK.

-Now we need to whisk our egg whites.

Hold the bowl at an angle like this, OK? Whisk using the whole bowl.

Not just a bit like that, but actually...

..however's comfortable.

If you use your arm and your elbow, you'll get exhausted very quickly.

You need to rest your wrist like that. Kind of go like that.

-Yeah.

-All right.

So when the egg white has come to about this stage, then you can stop.

Take the first little bit of egg white and just stir it in,

and then the rest of it, fold in very lightly.

Just folding the egg whites in, and now, once we've folded them in,

we're all ready to assemble our little semi-frodo.

You can assemble it in a glass or in the loaf tin.

Put about a third of the chocolate into the base of the loaf tin.

Cover the base - that's going to be the top when you turn it out.

-OK.

-And then half of the semi-frodo mixture into loaf tin...

over the chocolate,

and then a second third of chocolate is going in.

This'd be great for a dinner party cos you can make it so far in advance...

Absolutely...fantastic for a dinner party.

Now, they call this an ice cream so why aren't we using a churn to make the ice cream first?

Because it's just this fantastic consistency that you don't have to. If you did churn this,

it'd ruin it, it'd break down the volume.

This is going to be light cos you've got the egg white in.

We need to cover these with cling film,

put them in the freezer, serve them when they're frozen. That's it.

-How long does it take for them to freeze?

-At least six hours.

-OK.

-If you can allow overnight, that would be good.

Fantastic. That was quite easy, wasn't it?

Easier than I thought it was going to be.

Later on, we'll see how the Dudleys' semi-frodos turned out,

and make a delicious chocolate sauce.

Coming up, I meet Michelin-starred chef Galton Blackiston

when he invites me to share his family lunch of toad in the hole

made with local Norfolk produce.

And the Dudley family make an indulgent chocolate sauce

to go with their perfect family pudding in the cookery school.

Morstonhall in Norfolk has been owned and run by chef Galton Blackiston since 1991,

when he and his wife Tracy bought and restored the property. It was awarded a Michelin star in 1998

and put Norfolk firmly on the foodie map.

Galton is passionate about Norfolk produce

and using local suppliers,

but is the food he serves at home as fancy as in the restaurant?

I popped around to his house to investigate.

-How are you?

-I'm very well, thank you.

-Come into my office.

-Thank you!

-SHE LAUGHS

Come and meet Tracy, my wife.

-Tracy, hi.

-Lovely to see you.

-Lovely to see you too.

-And Harry.

-Hi, Harry.

-Hello.

Now, there is another one, Sam, but he's playing cricket at the moment.

-What are you going to be cooking for me?

-I'm going to do a really good toad in the hole.

It's something that I remember as a kid, and it's all about the batter

so you need really good eggs, and of course good-quality sausages.

I just happen to have the best eggs because we have our own chickens,

so if you follow me, we'll go out there and go and get some eggs.

Now then, I hope they've laid some eggs.

Oh, fantastic, yeah!

-How many?

-I've got three.

-You've got three...

Ah, you've got a good mixture there.

For a really, really good toad in the hole,

we need to make a batter, so I need about 250g, 8oz, of plain flour.

Do you make toad in the hole quite often at home?

It's one of my favourites so I suppose the rest of the family

are burdened with toad in the hole probably once a week!

-Oh, really? As often as that?

-Yeah, I really like it.

-What we have here is a million miles away from what we have down the road at Morstonhall.

-Really?

-The food's completely different?

-I want simple stuff here.

-So you've got flour, salt, pepper, nutmeg, sugar, and can you crack in your three eggs there, Rachel?

-Yeah.

Some milk, actually, Rachel, in that fridge,

-OK.

-The colour of this is great.

Then I'm going to put that in the fridge.

Now, these are really good sausages.

This is a pork and apple one, so that will appeal to the youngest,

Sam, and you, and these are just the normal pork sausages.

-Can you scrape these potatoes?

-I think I can.

They're really good local potatoes.

-These are gorgeous.

-They just need scraping.

-OK.

I'll get you a knife.

And, Harry, what will you be like with peeling some carrots?

If I give you a peeler, there...

-..and these.

-Harry, do you think you'd like to be a chef?

-I would like to, if I don't get a job in sport.

-OK.

-I enjoy it.

-Yeah.

So I'm just putting some dripping into this baking tray.

-Do you always use dripping?

-Yeah, dripping or a bit of duck fat or something that.

The only reason I do that is because we've always got it because of work.

What I do with this is just pop it into the top of the oven, a hot oven - get it really, really hot.

And by the time you guys have done your vegetables, that will be

plenty hot enough for us to put the sausages in and then add the batter.

-Oh, it's going to be lovely!

-Harry, look at your beautiful...

Look at the perfect pile of carrots!

Galton, I think this is a Michelin-starred chef in the making.

And all just the perfect amount of green left on top!

This is about the only time he ever listens to me.

Harry, do you like vegetables? Are you a good eater?

Um, yeah. It depends what vegetables they are.

Bit fussy on the old tomatoes and mushrooms and things like that.

And, Galton, do you think your boys are move adventurous with food because you're a chef?

I would say yes, they probably are.

The nature of the beast is that I quite often bring stuff back

from work and so they get to try all sorts of different things.

Sam in particular is a really good vegetable eater.

He really loves vegetables.

What's your secret for the prefect toad in the hole?

I don't know if there is a secret, but the way I like to do it

is just to make sure my fat is hot so that, when the sausages go in, they sizzle straight away,

and then also I think it is important that you do get

your batter into the hot fat.

And make sure your oven is high,

and then don't be tempted to look for the first 20 minutes

so it gives it a chance to really rise.

And I would say that will take at least 40 minutes.

I'll put my asparagus on to steam.

-Are you hungry, Sam?

-Ah-ha, here we go.

Gravy - very important.

-Oh, gravy with it?

-Gravy.

Oh, yum! I'm so excited about this!

Thank you.

-Please may I start, Mummy?

-Yes, you can start.

-Yey-hey!

Mmm, this is delicious. The sausages are delicious, aren't they?

I like a sausage that isn't too messed about with.

I used some of these pork and apple ones because I thought the boys would

like the sweetness of them, but they are essentially good sausages.

-Tracy, have the boys always been great eaters?

-As they get older, they develop, so I think the idea,

for me, is always so they can see the food is most important.

When they have asparagus put in front of them, if they've grown up with it, it's not alien to them.

-You've eaten all your carrots and asparagus!

-Yeah.

Is there any more asparagus?

Galton, what kind of food did you eat growing up?

My mum was good with roasts and she would always have a really good pudding at the end,

-so I remember those really well.

-Like what?

Oh, my dad used to specialise in this sort of Dutch apple cake...

Rice pudding!

Mum was really good at rice pudding and I pretended not to like it,

but then, when nobody was looking, would then dive into it.

-I don't know why I said I didn't like it.

-Thanks for inviting me. This has been really lovely.

It's all right that, isn't it?

I'm going to make this toad in the hole when I go home.

Now it's back to cookery school.

We're ready to take the chocolate semi-frodos out of the freezer,

but before we do, we can make the chocolate sauce which we'll serve with it.

So just the chocolate goes into this bowl,

the bowl is just suspended over boiling water,

but once the water comes up to the boil, let it boil for a bit

to heat up the bowl, and then turn the water off under the chocolate.

That's a good, safe way to melt the chocolate.

It ensures you're not going to burn it or overheat it.

-Then I'm going to whisk in the cream and that's it.

-And that's it.

I'm using dark chocolate, but you could use milk or white.

OK, so there's the chocolate.

Do you want to pour it in gradually while Isabella whisks it in?

This chocolate sauce just over plain ice cream

is just the best thing, served hot of course. Lovely!

OK, that's great.

-Easy, isn't it?

-Yeah.

So that can go...

Oh-oh!

That's how to make a pint of chocolate sauce!

We've got a jug each. Let's go to the freezer. The sauce is made.

-Let's take out the semi-frodos, and we're ready to taste.

-Fantastic.

-Sounds fantastic.

-OK. Come this way.

-OK.

I like to learn something new, something that I haven't done before,

you know, but I wouldn't like it to take really long.

I like something that, if I'm bored one day, I can just make it really easily.

So they're nicely frozen. They look gorgeous.

That looks absolutely gorgeous.

And this is where the double layer of cling film comes in handy.

Just lift it out...

-like this and you can see the layer of chocolate.

-Fabulous.

And then really simply just flip it onto the plate.

Remove the cling film,

serve it with the chocolate sauce,

even some strawberries on the side.

Lovely! OK, let's go and eat them outside.

Thank you, Alexander.

-It's the perfect weather for ice cream.

-Absolutely fantastic.

-Ice cream and strawberries.

-And chocolate!

-And chocolate.

-It's always perfect weather for chocolate.

-It is!

They look very good.

OK...shall I cut a slice?

-Yum, yum.

-Oh, this looks delicious.

-Mmm.

-Mmm, are you happy, Shaun?

-I'm very happy.

-Are you?

-Yeah, absolutely.

-This is delicious.

Absolutely gorgeous.

The semi-frodo we made was absolutely perfect.

So simple to make. I didn't realise something that tasted that good could be so easy to make,

so it was a really good recipe and one that I'd do again.

I didn't realise you could make your own kind of ice cream at home.

-It's so simple.

-This is something you'd have at sleepovers.

This would be great for a sleepover! Are you happy there, Alexander?

-Very.

-Plateful of chocolate!

I've never made a semi-frodo before.

I haven't cooked with my family together.

I usually cook maybe with my mum baking and my dad actually cooking,

and it was something new and it was really fun, actually.

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