Episode 9 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

gorgeously sweet and sticky nougat, a perfect homemade gift.

I meet Michelin-star chef, Anthony Demetre, to find out what's on

his French-influenced home menu.

And I teach my cookery school family how to make dishes

that are very popular in my house...

salmon fish fingers and crispy chicken goujons.

Nougat is a really gorgeous gift to make for someone and I'm going to

make nougat, today, with pistachio nuts.

It's a very simple recipe to make but you do have to be quite precise and it definitely helps, in fact,

it's practically essential to have a sugar thermometer.

You need a few simple ingredients.

Sugar, powdered glucose, water, egg whites and nuts.

First of all, I'm going to put the sugar into a saucepan...

with...

powdered glucose.

It's usually half the amount of powdered glucose to sugar.

And water.

Put it on the heat. And just stir it,

just until it comes up to the boil.

Once it comes up to the boil, you stop stirring.

Just when you're waiting for it to come up to the boil, crack two egg whites into a food mixer.

And two.

The syrup has just come up to the boil now so stop stirring.

Take out the spatula or the spoon and allow it to boil for another

few seconds until it reaches 110 degrees Celsius.

Once the syrup has bubbled and boiled and is up to 110 degrees

turn on the food mixer to whisk up the two egg whites.

Continue whisking it until the syrup reaches 121 degrees.

At that point, I'm going to pour a quarter of the syrup onto the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Then, pop the syrup back on the high heat and it's going to boil up

for about another five minutes until it reaches 149 degrees Celsius.

Looks meringue-like.

It looks really white, fluffy, marshmallowey.

You need to be very precise about the temperature of the syrup

when you're making nougat or you don't get the correct setting point.

It'll be either too soft or too chewy or too hard.

Now, the syrup is at 149 degrees Celsius, so turn off the heat and pour the remaining syrup

onto the egg whites and the first little bits of syrup.

Whisking it at full speed, just pouring in at a steady stream.

I need to whisk this now for another 30 minutes, by which point,

the mixture will be stiff, like a stiff meringue and will have decreased in volume.

Right. I'll leave that to continue whisking and I can chop and toast the pistachio nuts.

You can also use hazelnuts, you can use almonds, you can use a mixture.

Nougat keeps incredibly well once you've made it.

It'll keep for a few weeks if kept in a cool, dry place.

Now that they're roughly chopped...

pop them all into a dry frying pan.

And toast them. I'm just going to cook them until they're a couple of shades darker.

Just lightly toasted. Just a couple of minutes.

Just toss them every so often.

Just turn off the mixer.

Just do this a couple of times while it's whisking. And scrape

down the sides with a palette knife, or a spoon, or a spatula, that you dipped into boiling water...

so it doesn't all get whisked up the sides of the bowl and cool down.

Turn this on again. Check the nuts.

The pistachio nuts are toasted, so you take them out of the pan...

and just set them aside until the mixture is ready.

30 minutes later, it's ready and has gone right down in volume.

Stir the pistachios in, using quite a heavy...

I find a kind of metal spoon best for this cos it's quite a thick mixture.

So then get your tray that you're going to set the nougat in.

You need edible rice paper.

You need to cover the base of the tray with small sheets of this

or if you can get larger sheets of rice paper...fantastic.

That will actually cover the base.

It's quite a good idea to take tiny blobs of the mixture on the paper

and then turn the paper around so the paper will stick to the tray.

Not too much, just enough to help it stick.

Now, tip the mixture out.

It's quite stiff.

Yum. This looks amazing.

And then, flatten it out in the tray.

So dip your spoon into the jug of hot water and press it out...

like this. OK.

And then take the top sheet of rice paper...

pressing it at this stage with your fingers so that it sticks to the nougat, all over. That's it.

It's made. Now it needs to cool down before putting it into the fridge for about four to six hours...

by which point, it will be completely set and you can cut it

into little squares or little rectangles.

Look at that gorgeous square of nougat.

Yum!

So there is my pistachio nougat. The perfect gift.

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

They love to cook as a family, so I'm showing them recipes

that even the kids' fussiest friends will approve of.

We're going to make delicious, kind of posh fish fingers.

Little salmon fish fingers.

Also, we're going to make little chicken goujons.

So they're both lovely and kind of crispy on the outside.

Breadcrumb coating on the fish fingers and the chicken goujons

we'll cook in the deep fryer. They'll be lovely and crisp and yum!

We're also going to make some homemade mayonnaise to go with both of these. It's easy.

I find the most difficult thing, cooking for the family is trying to please everybody...

which means if you're wanting to eat healthily and wanting to eat imaginatively,

you need to have lots of ideas of things to cook and I think that's where we struggle,

because we often end up eating the same thing over and over again.

First of all, we're going to make the mayonnaise.

And we have all got two eggs here.

-You see there, Molly.

-That's good.

-We've just got some chickens at home so we're getting lots of eggs.

-Brilliant.

-So this'll be really good.

-How many chickens do you have?

Six, altogether.

So you'll be making quite a bit of mayonnaise.

So what we can all do is break the egg white into the bowl, here.

And the yolk in here.

And for every two egg yolks, we need a generous half teaspoon of Dijon mustard.

And we also need a dessertspoon of white wine vinegar, or lemon juice.

And, George, do you want to pop a nice generous pinch of salt into the egg yolks.

Now, we all have seven fluid ounces of sunflower oil and one fluid ounce, a little bit of olive oil.

So it'll give a subtle olive oily flavour.

Turn on your mixer, first of all.

We're going to whisk all the time, while adding the oil very gradually in a very thin stream.

It's going to look creamy and that means it's emulsifying.

If you add the oil too quickly, it's not going to emulsify and it'll split. Slowly.

Lovely over there, Alison.

We'd like to learn some new recipes which we can create in the evening,

quite quickly, which all the children can be involved in.

See what you think. See if it needs a bit more mustard, a bit more salt.

-It's quite nice, isn't it?

-That's delicious.

And this mayonnaise will keep for a week, ten days, easily, when it's covered in the fridge.

-I think it'll be gone in a day.

-Perfect.

There's a fridge down here at the end of the counter,

if you could pop your bowls in.

Next thing we need to do is cut the salmon up into pieces

and then we're going to toss it in flour seasoned with salt and pepper.

And then in beaten egg and then in breadcrumbs.

So I have here, just as added extra flavours, some finely-grated parmesan cheese...

a little bit of cayenne pepper or even paprika,

some crushed cumin and coriander seeds.

Finely grated lemon zest and parsley.

-Which one do you want, Molly? That one.

-The cheese.

Throw yours into the breadcrumbs.

-Is there any basil?

-There is some basil.

You see the plant over there, the plant on the left...

if you want to pick off, say about...

-eight, or so, leaves.

-OK.

-Great. OK.

You could tear it and put it into the breadcrumbs or put the basil leaves

on top of each other and slice them like that.

-Do you want to carry on?

-Yeah.

-Excellent.

Like an expert.

Brilliant. Toss the basil into the breadcrumbs...there.

So what we'll do first of all with the salmon is cut it in slices,

lengthways, first of all.

And then...like that.

-Yeah.

-Yeah. These are going to be our little fish fingers.

Would you take the chicken, pop it on the board and slice it?

If you want them quite crisp, then make them a little bit smaller, thinner.

Now, we're going to coat the fish fingers

in the flour, the egg and then our flavoured breadcrumbs.

And cook the chicken goujons once the fish has gone into the oven.

So, best thing to do first of all is just to toss them...like this...

in the flour and then you shake off excess flour.

And what I'm going to do is, actually, cos you get quite messy hands doing this,

do the egg stage in one go.

Then shake off the excess and allow the excess egg to drip off.

-Yours are looking good, George.

-They are.

-Ours are going to look better, though.

-You reckon?

-Yeah.

-It's making me really hungry.

-Is it?

We've got a hot oven, 220 degrees.

So we're going to pop them in to the oven and these will take about, you know, eight to ten minutes to cook.

Later on, we'll see how the Kohlers' fish fingers turn out and cook

the chicken goujons to golden perfection.

Coming up, chef, Anthony Demetre, invites me to share his

favourite family dish - rabbit.

And the Kohler family will be putting the finishing touches

to their fun family lunch.

Anthony Demetre began his career as a humble apprentice for the legendary chef, Raymond Blanc.

Now, Arbutus in Soho, is one of two Michelin-starred restaurants, owned and run by Anthony.

-Oui, chef.

-He is passionate about using lesser cuts of meat

in innovative ways to create unpretentious and affordable dishes.

-Service, please.

-It's an ethos he takes home.

I popped round to see how he feeds his family and makes the most of his ingredients. Hello.

-This is Max. This is Otis.

-Hi, Otis.

-And Frederike.

-Hi, Frederike.

-Hello, there.

-How are you?

-Shall we go in and cook?

-Thank you.

So, Anthony, what are we going to be cooking today?

We're doing a rabbit stew.

-Rabbit in mustard sauce.

-Yum. Quite an unusual family favourite, though.

It is but it's not dissimilar to chicken.

It's one of those dishes where it's all hands dive in and it's really simple.

-Great. A meal in the pot.

-Yeah.

-Convivial and what family lunches should be about.

-Yeah.

So here we are. As you can see, it's beautiful.

We use everything.

-So, Max likes rabbit?

-Yeah. And he's not phased by it.

During our holidays to France, the Auvergne, it's littered with rabbits for the pot...

you know, and he knows that.

-He knows, inevitably, they'll be eaten.

-Yes.

So, we take the legs... take the shoulders.

And it's really plump, full of meat.

And then chop that into another segment. And the legs.

The reason I've gone through is because I want to catch that marrow.

-Lovely. More flavour.

-Exactly. It goes into a casserole pan that'll hold the heat.

And the offal will go in afterwards.

So, Anthony, what kind of food did you eat growing up?

My mother's got a bit of Irish blood, so we had lots of Irish stews and colcannon.

-Oh, really?

-My most vivid memories were with my grandparents who were Greek Cypriots,

but I was riveted to the table at a very early age and intrigued by my grandmother's cooking and I think

-that's where my love affair with cooking was born, really. I'm going to go to check on the meat.

-OK.

I think it's almost there, actually.

-Do you get to cook much at home?

-I cook at weekends.

If I do something like a rabbit, obviously we'll cook a whole rabbit

but we won't eat it all in one go, so there'll be some left for Monday.

-Yeah.

-And I'll sort of roll things for the week.

I want to take the rabbit out.

It smells delicious, doesn't it?

-Oh, it's wonderful.

-Yeah.

-The next stage is to make the sauce.

That excess oil we've got there, we don't really want all of that.

So you can see all the sediment which is on the bottom there, that's all the flavour.

We want to keep that.

Just a splash of vinegar.

It's lifting all the sediment off the base of the pan and it's got a beautiful colour.

Because it's a mustard sauce, we want a good couple of spoons in there.

-Rachel.

-Yes.

-Could you peel me two cloves of garlic?

OK. The water's going in.

About a pint of water, 500ml, there.

And I'll pop the rabbit back in.

And finally, the cream, I'm going for about 200ml, there.

-Here's the garlic.

-Yeah. Pop that in.

-OK.

-Lovely.

-That looks amazing.

Lovely. Lovely. Lovely. We'll pop into the garden and get our herbs.

-This is lovely, actually.

-This is a small little London garden

but it's somewhere where I grow all my own herbs.

So we're going to take a bit of thyme.

Now, this is a herb I really love.

-I love savory, too.

-Yes.

And it's so, so underused.

And it's almost like...

really citrusy, like a lemon thyme...

-It is.

-Without the sweetness.

-Gorgeous.

We're just going to take one bay leaf.

That's it. One bay leaf.

Are you going to take that for daddy?

I'm just going to pop those in.

OK. Lid on. And the next stage.

While the potatoes are warm, they will absorb all that really fruity olive oil.

I love French olive oil for this because it hasn't got that fieriness of Greek olive oil.

It's kind of mild and a great introduction for children, as well. Lovely. Lovely.

We're fighting here over who's crushing the potato.

-Shall I season?

-Yeah. Go for it.

OK. The next stage is for me to cook the peas and the broad beans. And that's it. That'll be done.

So sweat the onions, garlic and add in the blanched peas and the blanched broad beans.

Lots of yummy food. Oh, it smells good, doesn't it?

Wow. Delicious. Absolutely delicious.

That's delicious.

That's really tender.

Really tender and lovely.

Frederike, did you grow up eating a lot of rabbit?

We do tend to eat rabbit quite a lot in France, especially in

-the Auvergne area, where my grandparents are from.

-OK.

-And yes, I think it was about once a week.

-Really?

-Yes.

Do you find yourself cooking for the children the kind of food you ate growing up?

Yes. My mother is not a great cook but her mum is a fantastic cook,

so yes, I did watch and learn from her quite a bit.

Anthony, Frederike's grandmother...

has she had a bit of an influence on your cooking?

A major inspiration. By the produce, the way they live off the land.

For me, it's paradise.

-Really?

-Yeah, because it's not ostentatious.

It's real people with real food and just everyday life. It's just fabulous.

Thank you so much, Frederike and Anthony.

This is absolutely delicious.

-It's a pleasure.

-Thank you.

It's good to cook for you.

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

to decide which flavours to add to their chicken goujon coating.

While the salmon is cooking, we can cook chicken goujons.

Basically, the chicken coating is just milk and flour.

We dip each separate goujon in milk and then in flour.

Why don't you use the egg here, then?

It's a different coating. We'll get a different...

-You could use flour, egg and cream.

-Right.

-To give you breaded chicken goujons.

-Right.

But we're going for a different coating for a change.

We like the children to try different foods.

We went to France a few years ago

and Isabelle was apprehensive about eating mussels, but she tried one and loved it.

Now we can't stop her. Mussels with everything.

Now, we've got a few other things here.

We've got some curry powder.

We have some toasted sesame seeds.

And we've got some paprika.

Alison, Issy, would you like to use one of these?

Which one would you like to use, Issy?

-Sesame seeds.

-Sesame seeds. Yeah. Good choice cos they'll make it crunchy.

-George, would you like to use either of these?

-The curry powder.

Curry powder. OK. Great. And that'll just give it

a subtle flavour.

With these flavours, could you use honey as one?

Yeah. You could use honey. What could you do?

Would you drizzle some honey over the chicken first?

Yeah, or you could put it in the milk.

Yeah. You could do that on your cooking programme.

I could. Yeah.

Once we dip these, the chicken goujons in milk and then flour,

they need to go straight in the deep fryer and are best eaten straightaway.

Once they go into the oil, then I can drop a few more in.

-How hot does the oil have to be?

-It's about 170, 180.

Basically, the bigger they are, the lower the oil.

So if they're tiny, thin, little goujons, put the oil up to 180 or 190 degrees.

They don't take long, do they?

No. They'll take about four minutes, maybe.

Once ours are cooked, we'll pop them on kitchen paper,

allow them to drain and put yours straight in.

I like to eat a lot of things, mostly everything.

Pastas and pizzas and Italian food, as well.

But I like to make sure I'm eating healthy food, as well,

cos I'm conscious of how I look and things like that.

-Our chicken is cooked, George.

-Nice.

It's great, isn't it?

Lovely. Nice and golden brown.

It's really important you don't flour them too far in advance because otherwise the chicken goes

-kind of stodgy so just flour them like this and pop them in.

-Yeah.

The cost of food is really important.

I'm training to be a teacher, so it's really important for us

to eat healthily but to cook on a budget.

The chicken is now cooked and you can take one of the bigger pieces out, cut it in half,

just to make sure it's cooked all the way through.

-George, would you bring this round.

-Yeah.

And we can serve up the chicken. And Neil, if you take

your fish fingers out. They're cooked. Nice and golden brown.

Alison and Issy, would you mind taking the sauces out of the fridge.

And we're ready to start serving everything up.

We'll put ours on this side.

They look really nice and crispy.

-Ours are crispy too, though, aren't they?

-They are.

Are we getting hungry?

-Very.

-Very hungry.

-Fantastic.

OK. Shall we bring them outside?

-Oh, yes.

-And have a little taste.

Issy can't wait.

-This is the best food, ever.

-Good, Issy.

You like that, don't you?

George, do you think these are something that you would make if you were having friends over?

-Yeah. These would be quite good cos they're quick and easy.

-Yeah.

And apart from being fried, they're quite healthy.

-They are reasonably healthy. Yeah.

-You've got your salad, as well.

-Actually, there's loads. It really does go a long way.

-Yeah. It does.

It's good because you can make this on quite a good budget.

I was surprised at how easy it was to make mayonnaise.

I always thought it was very complicated and it would curdle and separate immediately,

but actually, we did it very simply and it tasted delicious.

I think Rachel's inspired us with that recipe today.

It's such an easy thing to do.

It's so simple, it makes you wonder why we haven't thought of it.

Rachel prompting us is probably all we needed, so it's great.

That was great. You were brilliant. I hope you enjoyed it.

-It was excellent. Thank you very much.

-My pleasure.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd