Episode 5 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 one of

my favourite family recipes, roast chicken with garlic roast potatoes.

One of Jamie Oliver's mentors, Gennaro Contaldo,

invites me to his home to learn the secrets

behind the perfect Italian family lunch.

And I teach my cookery school family how to make a delicious

homemade Chinese meal that will put an end to takeaways for good.

One of my very favourite meals of all time has to be roast chicken.

I absolutely adore it.

I'm going to be cooking the roast chicken with a delicious red onion and bacon stuffing,

and I'm going to be serving it with a fantastic creamy tarragon sauce and also garlic roast potatoes.

So I'm going to begin with the stuffing first of all.

I'm just going to put some butter in a pan.

This is just a simple variation on a classic breadcrumb stuffing.

So once the butter melts, some chopped garlic goes into the butter

and chopped red onion into a pan on a low to medium heat.

I'm putting in as well some chopped bacon lardons,

season it with some salt and some pepper.

And then put a lid of greaseproof paper, or even a butter wrapper,

on top of the bacon and the onions.

I want to allow the onions in here to sweat, so keeping all the steam in.

Pop the lid on and just allow it to cook for about ten minutes, until the onions are completely soft.

Ten minutes later, the onions and the bacon are all nicely cooked. Turn off the heat.

Pop the onions, the bacon and the garlic and the butter into a bowl and allow them to cool.

Do make sure the onions are completely cool before you carry

on with the rest of the stuffing,

because if the stuffing is warm in any way

when you've putting it into the chicken, that's dangerous breeding ground for bacteria.

Now, that's about enough thyme and some parsley.

Chop the herbs.

I love the flavour of the thyme and the parsley with the red onions

and the bacon for this stuffing.

Put them in.

Put in the breadcrumbs and stir it until it all comes together.

If you want to use less butter or no butter at all,

then do use olive oil.

You do need something to bind the breadcrumbs all together.

Buy the best chicken that you can.

You will notice the difference in flavour. That's really the most important thing.

The reason for a stuffing is that it absorbs

all the gorgeous juices of the chicken

while the chicken's cooking.

The trick is to not stuff the chicken too tightly.

If you stuff too tightly, the heat will not be able to penetrate

to cook the chicken properly.

You can always make sure that you can either put your fingers in

or there's space for the spoon in and out.

Take a little bit of very soft butter

and spread it over the chicken, just for an extra bit of deliciousness,

so the skin gets golden brown, crispy

and tastes a little bit buttery as well.

OK, I can pop the chicken on to the roasting tray before I season it and then wash my hands.

I like to use a slightly crunchy sea salt to sprinkle over the chicken

and some pepper.

Pop this into an oven from 180 degrees Celsius

up to even 200 degrees.

This chicken will take about an hour and a half to cook.

Next, it's time for me to make really delicious garlic roast

potatoes with thyme and some rosemary as well.

All you do is parboil the potatoes first

until they're a little bit soft, like this, on the outside.

Put the lid on, take a tea towel

and shake the potatoes really well in the pan.

And this is just going to rough up the edges a little bit,

so they're going to just absorb

that little bit more fat or oil and be even more delicious.

So put a roasting tray on the heat.

For the ultimate roast potatoes, use a bit of duck or goose fat.

So just two little spoons of duck fat

and then I'll just pop in the potatoes.

Just toss them in the duck fat,

even turn them.

Turn the heat off, sprinkle them with a little bit of salt.

I like to use a little bit of sea salt.

And pop these into a really hot oven, about 220 degrees Celsius.

If you think of it once or twice during cooking,

give the chicken a little baste and this just helps to keep it really moist and absolutely delicious.

The potatoes have been cooking in the oven for about 15 to 20 minutes.

Toss in the whole cloves of garlic, still with the skins on.

So now I think the chicken's cooked,

I'm going to take it out of the oven. Mm!

It smells delicious.

So just kind of press on the leg.

Give it a little tug and if it feels like if you tug any more

it's going to come away from the rest of the chicken,

then you know the chicken is cooked.

Remove the chicken and just sit it on a plate for a moment.

Cover it to keep it warm.

Now in the pan, this is the basis of the best gravy

or the best sauce that you could possibly get.

So I need to turn the gas on and take some of the chicken stock...

just a little bit...and whisk it. And this is called deglazing.

While it's boiling, it's going to just dissolve the really good,

little, caramelised juices stuck to the bottom of the pan.

Pour it into a bowl.

Now pop in an ice cube or two, this is a great little tip,

just to cool it down very quickly,

in order for the fat to rise up and then I can spoon the fat off.

While the fat is just coming up to the top of that,

I'm just going to sprinkle the herbs on the roast potatoes in the oven.

Now you can see that the fat has risen up to the top.

So what I'm going to do is spoon the fat

off the top.

To make a cream and tarragon sauce,

I'm going to pour these lovely chicken juices into a saucepan.

Pour in the rest of the chicken stock.

So I have about a pint or 500ml even.

And pour in some cream.

And I'm going to boil it up and then maybe thicken it with a little bit of roux.

Roux is basically equal quantities of butter and flour.

Melt the butter in the pan, add in the flour, whisk it on the heat for about two minutes and that's roux.

It keeps in the fridge for weeks.

When you're whisking roux in, the sauce needs to be bubbling and boiling just lightly.

Just a light coating consistency is all you need.

Turn off the heat, add in the chopped tarragon.

That is your sauce ready.

Oh, the roast potatoes look fantastic!

Yum!

They're crispy and crunchy on the outside and also... Oh, yeah!

This is what I'm looking for. Look.

If you squeeze a little clove of garlic, you can feel it's soft on the inside.

It's going to be deliciously sweet and caramelised. Time to eat.

It is very important though to rest your chicken for long enough.

At least 20 minutes resting time, somewhere warm,

in order for it to tenderise.

That is just beautifully cooked.

Some stuffing, very important.

And then take the sauce.

Spoon that over the chicken.

Serve it with some delicious, crunchy roast potatoes.

A clove or two of garlic in there as well.

I've got some delicious carrots here and green beans.

There. So that is one of my favourite meals ever.

Delicious roast chicken with a bacon and red onion stuffing,

all served with a fantastic cream and tarragon sauce

and crunchy, garlic roast potatoes.

'Today's cookery school students are the Kohler family from Cambridge.

'Mum, Alison, and dad, Neil, firmly believe in

'the whole family eating together, so I'll be giving them ideas

'for a meal they will all enjoy as a treat.'

So this is basically going to be a homemade Chinese takeaway.

We're going to make some crispy duck in pancakes, you know, with the

lovely plum hoisin sauce with the spring onions and cucumber.

We're also going to make a really good prawn stir-fry with lots of

lovely crunchy vegetables as well and some egg-fried rice.

Now the first thing we're going to do is, we have all got some chicken stock.

Do you want to pour about half of that into the saucepan?

The chicken stock and the spices that we're going to put

into the saucepan with it, these are for poaching the duck breast.

You've also got some ginger and spring onion.

It's important it's cold stock.

And as we bring it up to the boil, the cold stock is going to draw all the flavour out of these.

So we've got here, Szechwan peppercorns.

We've got some cloves, some star anise and some cinnamon stick.

I sometimes just break the cinnamon stick in half just to get...

Smell that. ..the maximum flavour out of it.

And also, we're going to add in Chinese rice wine.

So we're basically making a really wonderfully flavoured Chinese stock.

Today, I'd like to learn some new ideas

for the family's meals together.

Mealtimes are really important. It's a chance for us all to get together

and if we could have some new and imaginative recipes on a budget

that would be a great thing I think for us to take away today.

Now we all have a duck breast. We're actually going to poach the breast,

but we're going to roast the skin,

cos I want to get the skin really nice and crispy.

Like crackling?

Not as hard and crunchy as a pork crackling, but it's going to be really good and crispy.

Just cut through the skin just a few times, just to kind of score it.

This is going to just open up the skin a little bit

and all the fat is going to render out.

We want to be left with crispy skin, but with no fat.

And what we need to do just to encourage the fat

to render out is to put some salt on it.

So about a quarter teaspoon of sea salt

and you can rub it over the top.

And then for flavour, we're going to use Chinese five-spice.

Just a quarter teaspoon of that.

Now this is going to go into the oven at about 220 degrees.

So a good, hot oven. It's going to cook for about 20 minutes.

It's going to smell delicious as well.

Now, we have all got a lovely simmering stock at this stage.

Mm, it smells nice, doesn't it?

-Yeah, it smells like mulled wine.

-It does.

We then just lower that into the stock and we need to simmer the duck breast

now until basically it's cooked all the way through.

It'll take about ten, 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, the skin will be getting nice and crispy in the oven.

If Mum's busy or Dad's out, sometimes I have to cook the meal for the family.

I'll sometimes make the pudding as well. Coconut buns and things.

The duck skin is ready to come out of the oven and you can see

the amount of fat

that has rendered out.

George, may I ask you just to kind of shred the skin?

And then we're going to put this back into the oven for about another five minutes.

George, do you love cooking?

Yeah, we do a lot at school with our teacher, Miss Mackenzie,

and I'd like to be good at it and be able to cook for other people.

It's the nicest thing being able to cook for other people.

So, now we've got the shredded bits of skin.

So pop them on to another tray.

This goes back into the oven for five minutes.

Now at this stage, our duck breasts are cooked.

And once you've completely cooked that duck breast in there,

you can use that stock again for a lovely soup.

-Can you see how that's just cooked all the way through?

-Yeah.

Even as it's cooling, we can start to shred it.

And you want to shred it, rather than actually slice it, cos you want nice, long, thin strands.

-With the grain?

-Exactly, with the grain. Then you tend to get those nice, long, thin bits.

And this is quite a healthy way actually of cooking the duck.

And now I'm going to get the skin out of the oven for the last time.

There.

And we can put all the duck together with the skin and that's it.

So that's the duck part ready.

'Later on, the Kohler family put the finishing touches to their homemade Chinese takeaway.

'Coming up, Italian chef Gennaro Contaldo shows me his favourite

'family pizza recipes and the Kohler family put the finishing touches

'to their homemade Chinese takeaway.

'Gennaro Contaldo is full of passion for his native Italian cuisine.

'He started working in local restaurants

'when he was just eight years old and has since taught Jamie Oliver

'almost everything he knows about Italian cooking.

'But what does Gennaro cook at home for his partner, Liz, and their twin daughters, Chloe and Olivia?

'I dropped by to see the maestro at work in the Italian kitchen he has built in his London garden.'

-Gennaro, this is amazing.

-I know it. I'm sure you'd like it.

It's like a film set.

Well, it's not a film set. This is my kitchen, where I do work,

where my children enjoy to stay.

And, my God, what do you think?

-Come on.

-It's amazing. It is amazing.

-Right, we're going to make some pizza now.

-Fantastic.

Fantastic flour. Double zero flour, which is good.

-Double zero flour.

-You need that double zero flour.

Double zero got that strongness, you know,

that lift. So we get some salt.

Each kilogram of flour, 20g of salt. Then you mix a little bit.

-The smell of the fire is so good, isn't it?

-Oh, bless you, bless you.

Some water inside. Then we're going to get

our hands all dirty now. Go on, get your hands inside.

So do you make pizza quite a lot at home?

The girls love a pizza.

-Oh, lovely!

-With this fired wood oven how can I not make pizza?

-But also I make quite a few roasts as well.

-Do you roast meat in it and fish?

-Oh, yes! Roast fish, meat, everything.

-Bread?

-The bread there, I made them yesterday.

-Oh, wow!

-OK, can you get some of the yeast inside?

-Yes.

Go on, put some of the yeast inside. Let's mix it.

What kind of food did you grow up eating, Gennaro?

Because I was born by the sea, fish.

Meat...all kind of meat... chicken, rabbit.

We were hunting all the time and there was game.

I almost had everything.

Vegetables most everywhere.

Fantastic, it was. OK, Rachel, you have to do this.

Cut it a bit, OK?

A little one, not too big.

And fold them in. You do this, OK?

-Into a little ball. OK?

-OK. Thank you.

That's good. There's another one.

Now we're going to leave those for resting. About a couple of hours.

-If you could take this up.

-OK.

Take this one.

-Those one is about...

-Oh, lovely.

-Two hours. It's gone up lovely.

-Mm, lovely.

They're now ready to make nice pizza. Margherita.

-Let me show you. Top here, press it.

-A-ha.

Turn the other side, you press it and you do this.

And it looks lovely and relaxed, doesn't it?

It is. It's relaxed.

Do this, just a little notch on the side.

It's done. Look, it's all here.

I put a little olive oil on it, then a nice bit of tomato.

-Mm, gorgeous.

-A little salt.

-Nice mozzarella.

-Mm.

-Why don't you try? This is come from Italy, this mozzarella.

-Mm.

Parmesan. Also because it's the white and the red,

add the green of the basil.

-The Italian flag.

-It's the Italian flag.

To imagine ever tomato without basil is impossible.

-It's a match made in heaven, isn't it?

-My God, can you smell it?

Yes, I can and I am so excited about this, Gennaro, I can't tell you.

I just pull them on top. Look how easy.

And then I go inside the oven.

In the wood-fired oven

because it's quite hot, it takes about three minutes.

Look, it's already started to cook.

You pick him up and you just move him.

Lift him up just a little bit.

-Ooh!

-Oh!

-Ooh, my goodness me!

-Look at that!

-Shall we try?

Yeah, I'd love to.

My God, you're good!

You've got it!

Fantastic! It's there.

Working up an appetite.

-Yes! Rachel, oh, my goodness me!

-Oh, a little bit lucky.

No, it's actually a nice one. Let's do a pizza like my girls like it.

It's a salad pizza. One rocket.

-This is called a "castelfranco".

-OK.

Lemons from Amalfi.

Oh, my God! Smell this lemon.

-Oh, that's amazing.

-Squeeze them inside.

Ah, it goes on before it goes in the oven.

-Yeah!

-Oh, amazing!

Here, I made another one, just in case...

Just in case we didn't have enough!

Pizza margherita! Who's for pizza margherita?

-Me!

-Oh, my God! Pizza margherita.

-Now, pizza with a salad?

-Yes!

Yes! All the Amalfi lemons on it. Do you know what?

-I'm going to give you big pieces.

-Oh!

-Oh, oh, oh!

-Nice one.

Mm.

-Oh, the pizza with the leaves and all the lemon.

-Mm.

-Oh, wow!

-So, Liz, if Gennaro's the pizza chef in this house, what do you cook?

-I make pizza too.

Do you make pizzas, too? Gennaro lets you?

-He does, but not in that oven.

-Oh!

I make pizzas in the normal oven.

-Did you enjoy that?

-This has been absolutely fantastic.

-Cheers, Chloe!

-Cheers! Salute! Bon appetito!

-Salute!

Now it's back to cookery school and time for the Kohler family

to add more dishes to their Chinese banquet.

Next, we're going to make egg-fried rice.

Really simple, this is the quintessential fast food.

So while all the pans are heating up,

-do you want to crack two eggs into your bowl?

-Brilliant.

Whisk up the eggs. We're going to cook the eggs.

We're going to scramble them slightly in the pan first of all.

So we can all add just a drizzle of oil.

Throw in the egg and just kind of stir it

and you want to just lightly scramble.

We eat together as often as we can, although it's quite difficult because

Alison works full-time and I'm working at a local school.

So, generally I'll cook for the children and Alison will

have something on her own when she comes in later in the evening.

Take the egg out of the pan quickly, before it gets too dry into your clean bowls there.

And then actually just season the eggs with a bit of salt and pepper.

Next we're going to throw in the garlic

and stir it around for a second, followed by the cooked rice.

Great. You can toss it like that.

George, do you want to give that a go?

That's the really cheffy bit, George.

Next, you can shoot the peas in.

Does it have to be a hot, hot pan?

Yeah, it should be.

-As hot as you can.

-Yeah. Excellent! Yay!

Next, the spring onions.

We've got sliced spring onions there and just a little drizzle

of the soy sauce first of all.

The recipe normally takes about one to two tablespoons.

If you put too much in, it's too strong, too salty.

The egg can then get tipped in as well.

Give it a little taste.

Next, we're going to cook the prawn stir-fry.

The most important thing is to have a really hot wok.

Now, while the wok is pre-heating, we can prepare some of the vegetables and the prawns.

Neil and Molly, would you mind just splitting these green beans just in half lengthways?

These are tiger prawns, great in a stir-fry. They're warm-water prawns.

You need to just pinch them out of their little tail, like that.

If you split them in half, then they're going to cook very nice and quickly.

Alison and Izzie, I can give you the spring onions.

Top and tail them first and then slice them

nice and thinly at an angle. And I can cut the carrot.

All your ingredients have to be ready

just to fire in, cos it all happens so quickly.

You can't start kind of slicing carrots while the prawns are cooking.

I'm going to add a little bit of sesame oil.

In goes the garlic. The ginger.

And then the prawns go straight in.

So stir the prawns around in the garlic and the ginger and the sesame oil.

You want to make sure that you're scraping the bottom

of the wok all the time, getting all those nice, little golden, juicy bits.

The prawns are cooked just a couple of minutes. They're not translucent any more.

I take the prawns out now and then I add them back in at the very end,

because if they go in with lots of other ingredients, the temperature might leave the wok

and they might all start to stew and just become tough.

Put a bit more oil into the pan.

In goes the chilli, followed by the green beans, which you can fire in.

And, George, do you want to stir-fry this?

So you need to think about everything being a similar size

so that the beans and the carrots are going to cook at the same time.

Some soy sauce and a little bit of sugar is good.

And most of the spring onions,

but let's save a few of them for scattering over the top at the end.

In go the beansprouts and the cooked prawns.

Gorgeous. Would you like to dish that out?

Fantastic. Do you want to scatter it with spring onions?

And we've also got chopped, toasted peanuts.

That's it. OK. So we've got our fabulous prawn stir-fry.

We've got our egg-fried rice and our crispy duck,

which we're going to serve with pancakes.

-Shall we bring all the food outside?

-Lovely.

It all smells good!

Great! OK, enjoy, everyone.

Mm!

The flavours are so good and strong, and we made this in no time at all.

It's almost quicker to do this than to get in the car,

-go to the Chinese and get back again.

-Yeah!

-So, no, this is great.

I enjoyed making the Chinese today using lots of different vegetables

and things that you'd have in your fridge possibly.

Never cooked tiger prawns before, so that was something new as well.

But very, very easy and quick,

which is what you need really with a busy family.

Do you like it, George?

Yeah, it's nice. I like the stir-fry the best I think,

probably cos we made it.

-Thanks a lot all of you for coming along. You were brilliant.

-Thank you.

-Great cooks in your family.

-Thank you.

-Great.

Thank you very much indeed. It's been really good fun.

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