Episode 6 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 warming, autumnal

'pasta dish, butternut squash ravioli

'with sage and pine nut butter.

'I meet award-winning chef Adam Byatt, whose five-year-old son,

'Jack, could give any food expert a run for their money.

'And I give my cookery school family a mince masterclass.'

Making pasta isn't something that you necessarily do every day, but it is really easy,

great fun to make, and once you can make your own pasta, you can make so many different shapes.

It could be just a simple tagliatelle or pappardelle,

or a little ravioli like I'm going to make.

And I'm going to fill these little ravioli

with a gorgeous butternut squash filling and serve them with a delicious sage butter

which has got pine nuts in it, and then little shavings of parmesan,

rocket leaves over the top, wonderful.

I'm going to start with the butternut squash filling and I have one whole butternut squash.

So I'm going to peel the very hard skin off it first.

So, once you've removed all the tough skin, cut off the top

and carefully cut it into quarters and then I'll scoop out the seeds.

Cut the butternut squash into pieces about one or two centimetres in size.

So, to cook the butternut squash for the puree, I'm going to put a little bit of olive oil into a pan

that's on the heat, followed by just a tiny bit of butter.

Pop the butternut squash into the pan

and you just gently fry the butternut squash until it's soft.

If you steam it, it can be too wet,

it will spill out of the ravioli during cooking.

Salt and some pepper.

There. Gently fry the butternut squash for 15 to 20 minutes,

until it's completely soft all the way through.

So, about 15, almost 20 minutes later, the butternut squash is completely cooked.

It's just been fried gently, you don't want to burn it.

But look, you can see it's completely soft.

So I'm just going to season it with a little pinch of freshly grated nutmeg,

which is lovely with butternut squash. OK.

Take it off the heat and I'm going to put it into a food processor

and whiz up to a puree.

So, tip the puree into a bowl, set it aside for about half an hour until it's completely cooled down.

I'm going to make the pasta.

All I need for this is some flour and a couple of eggs.

Into the flour, I'm just going to put a good pinch of salt

and I like to whisk the eggs first to break them up.

So, I'm just going to mix up the flour

with a pinch of salt and the eggs in the food processor.

Just turn on the food processor with just the flour in it

for a couple of seconds to break up any lumps in the flour, and then add the egg in gradually.

Once the pasta looks like it's practically coming together, that's enough.

Stop mixing it,

tip the dough out on to the board

and knead the dough. You really don't want the pasta dough to be too wet.

If it is too sticky, it will start sticking to your hands, then it is too wet,

so you need to knead in a bit of flour.

I don't need to knead in any flour, this is...this is a good texture.

So now I can cut the dough into four small pieces and roll it out.

If you're using a pasta machine, each pasta machine has got a wide setting

and then with each turn of this little dial, the little rollers in here get thinner and thinner.

And you, basically, just keep rolling the pasta until it's really just about a millimetre thick.

A lot of people say you should be able

to read the headline of a newspaper through a thin sheet of pasta.

So, now it's time to start assembling the ravioli.

Put your butternut squash puree spaced a couple of centimetres apart

from each other on the pasta, like this.

And then with a little bit of beaten egg, or even water, brush between the butternut squash

because what's going to happen is I'm going to put another sheet of pasta on top

and press it down so that the two sheets of pasta stick together.

You don't want extra air inside the ravioli,

otherwise they're going to burst when they're cooking in the saucepan of boiling water.

Then take a cutter and cut out really simply your little ravioli shapes.

They will keep in the fridge like this for about 24, 36 hours, or you can even freeze them.

So, I have a pot of boiling, salted water here ready to cook the pasta,

but I'm just going to first make a little bit of sage butter.

All I have to do is pop in some butter.

Also I like a few pine nuts, it's good for a little bit of crunch.

A few sage leaves.

Put those on the heat, allow them to bubble for three or four minutes, by which point,

the sage leaves will be completely wilted and the little pine nuts or pine kernels will be toasted.

The water's boiling. Pop in your ravioli, and they will only take about two minutes to cook.

So, check the ravioli to see if they're cooked.

I normally take one out and give it a little pinch

and if it feels cooked between your fingertips at the edges then you know they're all cooked.

The sage butter is, ooh, just nicely cooked too.

The pine nuts have just turned a shade or two darker, so turn that down.

And just pop the ravioli on to your plate...

Absolutely gorgeous!

..followed by a generous drizzle of the sage butter.

And the sage leaves are delicious when cooked like this,

but the flavour becomes less intense, less strong, and it's absolutely gorgeous.

And I like on this as well, for a little bit of crunch and some extra flavour, a pinch of sea salt.

So, lovely little delicate shavings of parmesan

and a little sprinkle of rocket leaves over the top.

Yum!

So, there, ready to serve.

Butternut squash ravioli with a sage and pine nut butter.

'Today's cookery school students are the Shiels family from County Cork.

'Not surprisingly, Mum Catherine finds that cooking for a family of seven can be a chore,

'so I'll be giving them a masterclass in quick and easy family recipes.'

This is going to be a mince masterclass.

We're going to be making little burgers or making little meatballs or sausages.

Mince is one of the best family food staples.

It's versatile, cost-effective. I'd say it must be pretty expensive feeding a family of seven.

-Yeah, it can be.

-I can imagine.

I suppose cost limits the recipes we can cook to an extent.

You have to, I suppose, shop around and try to be as economical as possible.

It's hard to buy very expensive foods often, only as a treat now and then, I suppose, really.

What we're going to start off with is a burger of sorts, and it's made from chicken and pork.

If we just used chicken on its own, it would just be too dry,

so the pork adds lovely moisture to this.

And this is from the belly of the pork or the shoulder.

We're all going to make a bechamel sauce. It's basically a white sauce.

So what we need to do first, in our saucepans that we have here we're going to melt this butter,

and this is one of the most classic, basic sauces in cookery that is the basis for so many recipes.

I've made white sauce a few times before and it's gotten very thick and lumpy, so it kind of turned me off.

This is a pretty foolproof method. Into your melted butter add in the flour.

Just whisk the flour around in the butter.

So, this is making a roux, and it's always just equal quantities of butter and flour.

Whisk it around on the heat for about half a minute,

and then we're just going to add in the milk, whisking all the time.

And just keep whisking it over the heat until the milk has thickened.

Oh, Brendan, what a nice bechamel that is!

I know what to do in the future, Rachel.

-Get Brendan to make it!

-Yes!

That's it. OK, Brendan, yours is thick enough.

You can turn the heat off, season your bechamel with a bit of salt and pepper.

This is a much thicker bechamel sauce than I would often make because, for the burgers,

I don't want it to be too runny or we won't be able to shape the burgers.

Scrape it all out, pop it into the bowl to allow it to cool. I've got in front of me here lots of herbs.

Tarragon is great with chicken, so some tarragon would be good in these.

Thyme, parsley would also be lovely. And fresh herbs are going to make the difference here.

Now, Sarah, how are you at chopping?

-I'm good enough.

-Great.

She's a pro!

SHE LAUGHS

So, we can all break the egg into your bowl and whisk it up with a fork.

Into the white sauce pop in the breadcrumbs, followed by the meat.

Now, if you're making these in advance, you must always make sure

that the white sauce is cool before adding in the minced meat.

The chicken can go in. Great.

OK, all the herbs can go in and also grated nutmeg is really good.

Do you want to pour in a little bit of egg, Sarah?

-Yeah.

-And then we need to season it with salt and pepper.

A good thing to do now is just to put your hands in and mix it

really, really well. At this stage,

just put a little bit of it on the pan and then we'll see what it's going to taste like.

Once we're happy with the taste, we can shape them into burgers.

It's not difficult cooking for a large family.

I just make one meal, I don't choose different meals

'for different tastes, and if there's something in it that they don't like, then they get to pick it out'

and leave it on the side.

Now, Sarah, let's give this a taste.

-Do you like it?

-Yeah, it's lovely.

-Would you like more seasoning?

Maybe, yeah, a small bit.

-A little pinch of salt?

-Yeah.

This is good. So all of you can taste your little testers.

Once you're happy with them, then it's time to shape into burgers.

So we could just shape these into whatever size you like. Great, I'll wash my hands.

-You're making quite sweet, little ones.

-It's gooey.

Quite gooey! It is a bit messy. It's good, messy work, though, isn't it?

If you're making lots of these, you could wet your hands first, which makes it a bit more tidy.

Later on, I'll show the Shiels my recipe for juicy, homemade sausages and meatballs.

Coming up, I join chef Adam Byatt in his home for a heavenly family lunch

of Asian-style steamed fish,

and the Shiels family complete their mince masterclass.

Adam Byatt has been cooking his way to the top since he left school.

Trained by some of London's finest chefs,

Adam is on to his third gastronomic venture, and he's only 34.

One dory, one salmon, one beef pie to finish.

Trinity in Clapham, south London, serves its discerning locals with seasonal, modern, European cuisine

and last year won the AA's London Restaurant of the Year.

'But with two young children, can Adam be as adventurous at home?'

-This is Jack.

-Hello.

-How are you?

I'm very well, thank you very much.

-Hi, Rosie.

-Come in.

-Thank you.

OK, I have to run to keep up with you.

So these are all your vegetables growing, Jack?

This is Jack's vegetable plot.

-These are peas.

-Yeah.

All this is lettuces.

-Tomatoes.

-Yeah.

That's potato. Beetroot.

-Chard.

-Chard. Great.

-And...borlotti beans.

-Borlotti beans. Oh, wow!

What we're going to cook today

is a really simple dish of steamed fish with a sort of Asian dressing,

some lovely vegetables underneath to steam at the same time - kind of one-pot cooking.

Just stick it all in the steamer, steam it all for about eight minutes,

stick it on the table, a few razor clams, and we all just tuck in.

It's just about bringing home what's left over at the restaurant,

cooking up some bits and pieces quickly, tiny portions for the kids,

and I think they feel more confident that way and feeling a little...

getting a bit of ownership of the dish and tasting what they like and keeping it quite simple.

They're the clams that we've got to cook quick, before they slide out of their shell.

Pepper I like. Ginger.

It's smelly. It smells like it tastes.

That is samphire.

-You see that little bit there?

-Yeah.

That is actually where it's really salty.

This is the biggest thing in the bowl, which is lovely fennel.

You normally see, like, here, which are actually edible.

I think I'd better watch out. Jack's going to have his own cookery programme in a few months!

Jack, do you want to pop the peas for me?

-OK.

-Yeah, you do the peas.

-Great.

-Rachel will do that.

-OK, I do I'll do the samphire.

So, do you do a lot of the cooking at home?

-I do very little of the cooking at home.

-Right.

I really have to ask how to turn the oven on.

But if I do cook at home, generally it's because

there's stuff left over or I've got a few days off in a row and I want to cook a barbecue.

-That's great.

-Rachel, look.

Oh, it's so beautiful, isn't it? Perfect peas in the pod.

OK, Jack, so what I want to do is marinate all this fish together

just to get a little bit of soy and sesame and sweetness into it.

Jack, do you want to pour some soy sauce into the bowl and I'll...

put a bit of sesame oil, not too much.

A little bit of fish sauce. Have a smell, look. Poo! Phwoar!

That's a bit strong, that fella, isn't it, eh?

-Do you want to squeeze a little bit of honey in?

-Yeah.

A little bit of plum sauce.

-Look.

-Do you want to give that a whisk, mate?

-OK.

-Adam, were you this interested in food when you were younger?

-No, I really wasn't.

Food was important at home, Mum was a great cook and she did a lot of baking, bread and that sort of stuff,

-so, yeah, I loved it...

-Yeah.

I've always wanted to sort of be with food and enjoyed it, but I don't think to that degree, no.

-Not to this degree!

-No. Do you want to help put the fish in there, Jack?

-Oh, that smells amazing.

I need to put a bit of ginger in.

-Ginger? OK. Finely grated?

-Yeah, as you wish, yeah. Straight in.

So, Adam, when did you get really into food? When did you decide it was going to be a career?

At school, I think I always wanted to be in and around food and I didn't really understand why.

I went to Claridges Hotel.

Eventually, I left and went to work in restaurants,

and it really sort of began to open up something in me

that wanted to feed people and enjoyed feeding people

and for the last nine, ten years, that's all I've done.

So what happens next, Adam?

Really simple. Get it all in a steamer.

-Oh, look at the colours.

-Yeah.

And all we're going to do now is just put our lovely pieces of fish on top.

-Oh, I see.

-Can I put...?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah, put them in, mate. That's it.

-Like that?

-Put them all in.

We'll save the marinade and use that as a dipping sauce.

-OK.

-I reckon that's probably enough, guys.

-OK.

-We need a few razor clams in there.

-Yes!

-Could you hand me another one? So, put that on top.

-OK.

Fennel underneath.

How long will all this take to cook?

-Eight minutes.

-Eight minutes?

-Yeah.

-Fennel on the bottom...

-Cos it takes a bit longer.

-The colours are just incredible.

Everything drops down on it.

-We'll save that bowl of juice for dipping.

-OK.

-Away we go.

-Great!

-Lid on and we'll steam it.

All cooked. There we go, look.

There's one over there and one down there.

Oh, this looks gorgeous.

Try one.

So, Victoria, your children seem pretty adventurous with food.

-Yes.

-Jack definitely is!

Yeah, I mean, Jack particularly, he eats oysters, snails. You know, he's very happy to eat anything.

Rosie's quite good. She's eating almost anything at the moment,

you know, what her brother eats, so hopefully, she'll be the same.

It's fantastic that they'll eat so much. This is delicious!

Jack, are you enjoying this?

-Really nice.

-Which bit's your favourite?

I haven't got a favourite.

-You like it all?

-All of it?

-Yeah.

Thank you so much. This has been really, really lovely.

-It's a pleasure.

-Thanks a lot.

And, Jack, it's been a good experience. Thank you.

Now it's time for the Shiels family to learn some more mince recipes.

I want to demonstrate to you another couple of very easy, simple, versatile things to do with mince.

I've got minced pork and minced beef.

I'm going to use the minced beef first of all.

So, into the minced beef

I could add a little bit of beaten egg,

and I could add in some breadcrumbs, maybe some marjoram and some chives.

We have marjoram growing in the garden, Rachel, but I've never known what to do with it.

-Oh!

-So it's been growing and blooming, but never been used.

-Oh, really?

-Yes.

-Well, it's fantastic and versatile.

Great in tomato sauces, gorgeous with chicken,

but even in these little meatballs or in the burgers that we made,

they would be absolutely delicious.

We just started growing our own vegetables on a small scale.

Mainly onions, lettuce, carrots and so on, so...

This year we got some hens, so it's nice to get fresh eggs in the morning.

OK, so there's some chopped marjoram, breadcrumbs.

It is worth making sure that the meat has a little bit of fat in it

for flavour and for moisture, otherwise these will be dry.

A little bit of egg.

This is something, now, Catherine, that your children can start making for you!

So, just roll these literally like this.

They could be served just as they are with little sauces to dip into

or like little mini burgers, but also,

you could put them in a tomato sauce with pasta, grated cheese on top.

That's one of our favourite family meals - just meatballs with tomato sauce and pasta.

If you're putting them into the freezer, freeze them flat on a tray

that's been lined with parchment paper, so they don't stick to the plate.

Once frozen, they can go in a bag together.

And I'm just going to make another little thing with minced pork this time.

Maybe some sausages. There are some more breadcrumbs going in.

Some beaten egg left over from the meatballs.

And mustard,

apple, all great with pork.

Grate a little bit of it into the sausages.

Mustard. Are any of you interested in cooking as a career?

I am, I'm really interested in it.

Really? What would you like to do?

-A celebrity chef.

-A celebrity chef!

Sometimes I cook chocolate cake and pavlova,

and I enjoy helping Mum when we're cooking Indian curry.

So now I'm just going to add some salt and pepper.

The pans are getting nice and hot.

I'll shape these into sausages, and these could be whatever shape you like.

Sausages are going on.

Now, once your pans are good and hot, let's pop the burgers on.

Cook them completely on one side and then cook them on the other side.

I find often cooking family meals can become a chore rather than something that you can be passionate about.

Cooking can become a routine, you can buy the same groceries every week.

It's finding the time to try something new.

I'm just going to pop the meatballs in, and every couple of minutes,

give it a little shake.

The rule is the thinner something is, the higher the heat needs to be,

but with these larger burgers, once they're brown on either side,

you do need to turn down the heat

so that the heat can get into the centre to cook these completely without burning them on the outside.

I've got some buns that have been toasting

and we've got some tomatoes here, and then we can assemble them how you like.

Just check they're cooked completely through to the centre. They are.

They are. That's great. On to this plate I can pop the sausages.

They can be served with some extra mustard or apple sauce.

So there are the little meatballs.

That looks great, Sarah. OK, shall we go out and taste?

This is all making me hungry.

Oh!

Fantastic! This is the best bit. Enjoy.

-What do you think, Paul?

-Lovely.

-The sausage is really nice.

-Do you think you'll make the burgers?

Do you like the chicken and pork combination?

Definitely. It's a wonderful flavour.

And the nutmeg is lovely. The nutmeg puts a lovely taste in it.

It's something I wouldn't have ever thought of putting with meat, but it's lovely.

Sarah, are you enjoying it?

-Oh, yeah, it's lovely.

-Good. Ellen?

-It's juicy.

Oh, good!

-This one's nice and juicy, too.

-Today has been fantastic.

It was great for the family to be out together and, um...

doing those recipes that we'll be able to do again in the future, and picking up tips from Rachel.

So it was very enjoyable, overall.

Thank you all so much for coming to the cookery school.

-It was really great to cook with you all.

-It was a great experience.

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