Recipes of the Year 2011!

So, much to the disappointment of our guests, we come to the end of the year of New Food. Has it been a success? Most definitely - we've learned a load of new recipes (at least some of which we have already reused), caught up with friends old and new, and found an excuse to drink lots of wine on a Monday night.  What's not to like?

Ingredient of the year
Cheese! From feta to paneer to Parmesan to Wensleydale, it's been our constant friend, especially during Veggie Lent. Just don't ask us to go vegan next year...
An honorary mention goes to coriander, for going with everything.
Unmitigated disaster of the year
Do you have to ask? A slight misreading of the recipe led to delicious gnocchi becoming inedible grout. Dislike.
Most popular post (People's Choice Award)
By a long shot, it's the Squash and Lentil Pasties - good choice The Public, it makes a great shepherd's pie too!
Pudding of the year
Jamie's frangipane tart. I've lost count of the number of times I've thrown this together from memory: with lemon curd, with fresh raspberries, for a deliciously chewy warm dessert or a lovely treat when cold with a cup of coffee. Endlessly adaptable and deceptively simple.
Veggie dish of the year
Stilton and leek quiche - for making our shaky photography look good and reassuring not to be scared of vegetarian recipes or pastry.
Best value recipe
Jamie's veggie curry,  for performing some kind of food alchemy and miraculously turning half a squash into enough curry to feed us both for a week.
Feelgood recipe of the year
Jamie's chicken skewers. Even after several weeks, I still drool a little at the mention of them.
No-sweat recipe of the year
Hugh's stuffed squash. Almost embarrassingly easy, I was standing around at a  loose end when our guest arrived.
Surprise of the year
Heart doesn't taste horrible.
Chef of the year
Jamie Oliver - we've literally fought over whose turn it was to use one of his books. No, they can't all be done in 30 minutes, but they're reliably fresh, impressive and fun.
Recipe of the year (top 5)
5) Delia's cheese and herb fritters
Hooray for cheese! Slightly scary to cook but a great veggie option at a barbecue.
4) Jamie's piri-piri chicken
Double hooray for my blender!
3) Hugh's DIY bacon
A dream come true.
2) Jamie's sea bass and pancetta
Only not number one because Chris hasn't actually tried it!
1) Delia's roast duck
Well worth a little preparation the day before. Delicious, crispy, beautiful to look at.

Jamie's Turkey Wellington with all the trimmings

By Chris,

Main Ingredients:

• 1kg turkey breast
• 1/2 jar cranberry sauce
• Smoked lardons
• Duck liver pate and puff pastry

I hadn't planned to do a festive post, but after watching Jamie's Christmas with Bells On, I was inspired to try something new on Christmas Day. The turkey Wellington recipe takes all the best parts of a roast and wraps them all inside a puff pastry crust. It was quite stressful to make, but in the end it was a total triumph.

First separate the turkey breast from the carcass and the skin. It's best to buy a crown (as I did) so you only get breast meat, but if you have a full bird then Jamie suggests making gravy out of one of the legs.

Next, split open the breast, season, oil, and smear it with the cranberry sauce. The breast I was using fell in half when I took the skin off, so I had to pin it back together with several cocktail sticks before seasoning with thyme, covering with tin foil and whacking it in the oven at gas mark 4 for an hour.

Next the meat was left to cool while the bacon and the pate were prepared. Jamie suggested making a mushroom pate out of dried porcini, but I HATE mushrooms, so I used a pack of duck liver pate instead - much easier and tastier.

The bacon was then fried in olive oil until crispy and a few sprigs of rosemary were added at the last minute. Thinly chopped streaky bacon was called for, but I used a pack of lardons instead and whacked them in the food processor, once fried, to make a nice crumbly topping.

To assemble the Wellington, simply lay out half the roll of puff pastry, spread over a layer of pate, then plonk the bird on top. Then top with more pate (this uses up about half a pack) and the bacon bits. The remainder of the pastry goes on top and is crimped to resemble a giant cornish pastie.

I then baked this mammoth concoction for another hour at gas mark 4 until crispy and golden on top. I was terrified that I might either undercook the meat and ruin everyone's Christmas by salmonella, or overcook it and ruin £20 worth of turkey meat.

But it turned out to be one of the best roast turkeys I've ever had - the meat was kept nice and moist by the cranberry and the pate, and the combinations of flavours was fantastic. The pastry was a bit soggy and could have done with more time, but I'd definitely try this again. 

I'm not even going to bother trying to calculate the price per head, but let's say it was more than a fiver each, when you add roasts, sprouts, parsnips and all the essential add-ons.

So thanks for reading us all through the year, have great time over the Christmas holidays and we hope you try some new food in 2012!

Best for... Christmas lunch with a luxurious twist that you won't regret

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - Christmas with Bells On

Helen says... Everything you want from your turkey - moist, sweet and smoky. Well done and Merry Christmas!

Jamie's King Prawn Linguini with Feta Filo Parcels

By Chris,

Main Ingredients:

• 500g King Prawns
• 500g Linguini
• 300g Cherry Tomatoes
• Feta, Filo Pastry and Honey

This week wasn't quite as obscure as I had planned, since my fish dealer down at Borough Market had run out of langoustine. Nonetheless, King Prawn did the job and at least this was my first time cooking with filo pastry. The main dish was pretty straightforward, standard Jamie Oliver fare, but the pudding was the read stand-out here.

First fry one chopped onion, three cloves of garlic and a deseeded red chili for five minutes until softened. Next add the raw king prawns, a glass of red wine and a punnet of halved cherry tomatoes. This then simmers for five minutes while the linguine boils. Next mix it all together with the zest and juice of one lemon, a handful of parsley and salt and pepper. That was the easy part, now for the clever bit.

Jamie described these Greek filo parcels as a perfect mix between a cheese course and a pudding, and it more than lived up to this billing. Mix 300g of feta with two teaspoons of dried oregano and two tablespoons of honey. I was meant to add thyme leaves, but I didn't have any. 

Next the mixture was split into four and individually wrapped in two oiled sheets of filo pastry each. This stuff is possibly the most fragile thing I've ever cooked with, but it made for a lovely crisp wrapping for the sweet, salty and curiously herby parcels.

After about 15 minutes in the oven at 200 degrees, they came out golden and oozing. Topped with honey, they were quite sweet but also slightly savoury. The recipe said to add toasted sesame seeds on top as well (which I forgot to buy) and this would surely have made it even more special.

All in all, a fairly easy, filling and fairly impressive duo. At £3.97 a head it was one of the pricer meals we've done this year, but if you go for normal prawns instead of king prawns you could probably save a few bob without compromising on taste.

Best for... A light, refreshing alternative to a greasy summer barbecue

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - Jamie Does... Greece

Helen says...  The cheese pastries were really good - like a refreshing bowl of sweet-sharp yoghurt after the rich pasta.

Hugh's Rabbit and Partridge Stew

By Helen

Main Ingredients:

• One rabbit (skinned)
• Two partridges (plucked)
• Tinned tomatoes
• Onions and carrots
• Thyme and bay

A trip to Borough Market on a December morning - especially without breakfast inside you - is always going to end in a shopping spree. 

But what to choose? Squid? Drunk cheese? Still-twitching lobster? In the end I decided on rabbit and, for any sentimental dinner guests, partridge. I didn't think I'd eaten, never mind cooked either of these before until my mum sheepishly admitted: 'We fed you rabbit. We just didn't tell you what it was.'

The first job was jointing the rabbit - removing the last few organs and chopping into manageable pieces, which wasn't too bad - thankfully the head had already been taken care of and I had some step by step instructions. I browned the pieces (as well as the halved partridges) and added to a casserole dish with stock, wine, peppercorns, garlic, tomatoes, thyme, bacon and bay leaves, then chucked in the oven for 90 minutes.

The smell was immediately distinctive - definitely not chicken! The final product divided opinion - I preferred the larger, milder chunks of rabbit but others preferred the gamier partridge. Having picked at the bird carcasses I'm not convinced it was the best use of them. Neither was especially tender and might have benefitted from longer cooking. But in terms of trying something new, a success on several fronts, and not as expensive as I'd thought at around £3.30 a head.

Best for... Facing up to where your dinner comes from
Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day
Chris says... The partridge was my favourite; very rich meat, but quite fiddly to get off the bones.

Hugh's Devilled Lamb Hearts with Lentils

By Chris

Main ingredients:

• 6x lambs' hearts
• 200g lentils
• 2x onions, 3x carrots
• Thyme, bay, black pepper, mint

You want obscure ingredients?! I'll show you obscure ingredients! I've not only never cooked heart before, I've never eaten heart before - in fact, I've never even eaten offal before, so this was a real plunge into the unknown. The process of slicing up these poor lambs' tickers made me feel a little bit queasy, but this recipe was well worth persevering with.

Hugh suggests serving the lambs' hearts as a lunch, which is frankly ridiculous, seeing as it takes around two hours to cook. First quarter the hearts and trim off the tubes (*shudder*) and then boil them in a stew of onion, carrot, bay and thyme for 90 minutes. 

While this is simmering away gently, prep the lentils by boiling them with a bay leaf for 15 minutes. Next up, fry a whole onion for five minutes and prepare a dressing of cider vinegar, olive oil, English mustard and salt and pepper. When all the ingredients are done, mix together with a few sprigs of mint and set aside. With the heart bubbling away ominously, I lost my nerve and roasted some potatoes as a backup, just in case this all went horribly wrong. 

It was with a great sense of relief that I removed the heart quarters from the broth and saw that they looked more or less like meat that you would actually want to eat. Then comes the tasty bit - fry the heart in salt, sherry, redcurrant jelly, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne, black pepper, mustard and double cream. This made a very tasty and spicy sauce which really lifted the whole dish.

In case you're wondering, heart meat tastes half way between venison and liver. Distinctly rich and dense, but also quite dark and gamey. Served up with the potatoes, this was a hearty supper than went down surprisingly well and resulted in four very clean plates. At around £2 a head, this was fairly economical, but it was also very satisfying to know that I had successfully cooked something completely new.

Best for... Adventurous carnivores who want to broaden their horizons

Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day

Helen says... Pretty good - not all that scary-looking and not something you'd have to be starving to enjoy. Excellent sauce!

Hugh's Stuffed Butternut Squash

By Helen

Main Ingredients:

• Squash
• Stilton
• Walnuts
• Thyme and honey

Veggie Lent flashback.

I am standing in Tesco the day before cooking for a vegetarian friend trying to understand how meals are structured without meat at the centre. We have squash, yes, and it's full of good things, but what goes on the side? Potatoes? Nice bread? A pork chop? Thankfully the recipe was simplicity itself.

The squash (squashes?) were cut in half, brushed with oil and garlic and then roasted for 45 minutes. The centre was then scraped out and mashed with a good chunk of Stilton, toasted walnuts and some thyme, the mixture spread back into the skins and the whole lot cooked for another 15 minutes with a drizzle of honey.

After much thought I added a side of peas with spring onions, cream and parmesan, although a salad would have been just as good (if less seasonal). I was pretty pleased with this one - the sweet squash fell apart at the first touch of a fork and made a delicious hash with the cheese and nuts. 

The combination would be equally good on long pasta (rich cheese sauce, bright cubes of squash and just a sprinkling of nuts) or even spooned into ravioli - maybe when I have more time!

At £2.05 a head this was pretty affordable and very easy - I'd definitely do it again, or something like it.

Best for... Wintery nights in setting the world to rights

Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day

Chris says... Who knew we could find so many uses for butternut squash? I still fancied a pork chop on the side though...

Delia's Pollo Cacciatora with Tagliatelle

By Chris,

Main Ingredients:

• 2x Chicken legs
• 350g Vine tomatoes
• Garlic, onion, bay and rosemary
• White wine and white wine vinegar

Given how often I cook while watching Channel 4, I knew this would happen eventually. Someone on Come Dine With Me was cooking the same dish as me at the same time! Chicken cacciatora (or hunter's chicken to you and me) isn't exactly what I'd call dinner party food, but it is very comforting on a foggy autumn day. 

First up, Delia says to quarter a chicken and then cut each leg joint in half. Since I wasn't feeling adventurous enough to try butchering a bird, I just bought a couple of legs and bisected them.

The hunks of meat were flash fried in some very hot olive oil until golden and set aside for half an hour.  Next, I made a start on the sauce by chopping a whole onion and frying it for eight minutes - much longer than I'd normally give over to frying an large member of the allium family, but this resulted in lovely brown, partially caramelised onions, which formed the basis of a rich, but sweet sauce. 

Then one clove of garlic was added, before the fresh tomatoes. Delia's instructions were deceptively simple - this was the fiddliest bit of the recipe by far. Stripping the skins off, even with the aid of boiling water, was an annoying process and made me very thankful for the small mercy of tinned tomatoes.

For seasoning, I then added salt and pepper, one teaspoon of tomato paste, a sprinkling of fresh rosemary and a bay leaf. Finally, a glass of white wine and a splash of white wine vinegar was added to the mix. This was simmered for 20 minutes to reduce, before the chicken pieces were added and the whole thing was then stewed for 40 minutes.

Everything I've described so far suggests a fairly straightforward pasta sauce, but it really came together at the end, with the sweetness of the wine and tomatoes balancing out the punchy herbs. When served with tagliatelle and a fresh garden salad, this was more than worth the hassle. And at £1.89 a head, a veritable bargain!

Best for... A rich Italian treat to get you dreaming about next summer's holidays.

Taken from... Delia Smith - How to Cook: Book Two

Helen says... Chris's effort looked much better than the one on TV!

Jamie's Sticky Pan-Fried Scallops (and Chocolate Brownies)

By Helen
Main Ingredients:

• Frozen scallops
• Honey
• Chinese five-spice
• Broccoli and asparagus
• Rice, spring onions and eggs

A good chocolate brownie recipe is closely-guarded and much envied. 

This one - although at the time seeming unnecessarily complicated and slowing me down when I wanted to get started on my main course -was pretty impressive. Dark chocolate was blitzed with butter, sugar, cocoa powder, four eggs, a morsel of flour and a handful of crystallised ginger, then poured into a tin with dried cherries and pecans sprinkled over the top (as below).

While that was in the oven I could get started on the rest of the meal - covering the scallops in oil, lemon zest and five-spice, before frying with honey, chopped chilli and a little garlic.

This was my first experience cooking scallops and the fact that they were frozen rather than fresh meant they were juicy rather than sticky. They were also smaller than I expected (only about the diameter of a penny) so at least they didn't take any longer to cook.

Carbs were provided by boiling some rice and stirring in beaten eggs, soy sauce and chopped spring onions, before sprinkling over a little coriander and sweet chilli sauce. Some simple greens (asparagus and broccoli) was dressed with oil and lime juice to add some colour.

I wouldn't usually have suggested such a rich dessert after a meal like this but it worked surprisingly well - the added fruit and nuts in the brownies meant they weren't cloyingly sweet and the hint of ginger went down well after the chilli too.

If you can bear to just have the main course, it came out at £2.77 a head - not bad considering most of that was scallops. Factor in the dessert and it's more like £4.48 a head (but that includes an extra piece of brownie each to make your work colleagues jealous the next day).

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - 30 Minute Meals

Best for... Convincing people they DO like shellfish - and rewarding them for trying something new

Chris says... I've never seen four plates quite so clean, yet somehow everyone found room for Brownie...

Jamie's Tray-Baked Chicken with Creamed Spinach

By Chris,

Main ingredients:

• 6x Chicken breasts
• Maris Piper potatoes
• 400g Baby Spinach
• Garlic, Parmesan and Streaky Bacon

Ahh chicken and bacon, what a timeless combination! This recipe is a great use for a really good quality chicken breast, and a great way to introduce people to spinach - in the least healthy way possible... Many of Jamie's 30-Minute Meals are heavily reliant on herbs, but this one is worse than most, with four herbs employed, not to mention two spices and plenty of garlic.

Start off by boiling about a kilo of washed and diced potatoes, then fry a fistful of spring onions in olive oil. To the onions add three cloves of garlic, some thyme leaves, butter, nutmeg and a splash of boiling water. Next up, roll the chicken breasts in salt, pepper, olive oil, oregano and paprika, then fry in butter for two minutes on each side to seal in the juices. While these are going, wilt the spinach down in the pan with the onions.

Next up the chicken is moved to a baking tray, then lined with steaky bacon, and four lemon quarters are stuffed in, along with some rosemary and cherry tomatoes (which I forgot, d'oh!). The whole thing is then grilled at 200 degrees (gas mark six) for 14 minutes. Once the spinach has wilted down, pour on cream and grate over a decent helping of parmesan to make a nice gloopy sauce. Finally, dry off the potatoes by frying them in a pan for a few minutes with garlic, salt and rosemary.

This is one of the fiddlier 30-Minute Meals I've done so far, which took 45 minutes in total, but the potatoes, and chicken came out perfect and the spinach is tempting enough to turn even the most ardent veggiephobe into Popeye. 

Without the tomatoes (which will make a cracking salad tomorrow) it all came to a fairly reasonable £2.50 a head, including a bonus sixth chicken breast for everyone to fight over.

Best for... Using up all the frozen herbs in your freezer and introducing people to spinach

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - 30-Minute Meals

Helen says... Not spectacular but pretty tasty - and the timings made sure the chicken was perfectly cooked

Pieminister's Salmon, Prawn and Haddock Pie

By Chris

Main Ingredients:

• 300g salmon fillet
• 300g haddock fillet
• 400g prawns
• Mashed potatoes
• Chives, parsley and cheese

After nearly 11 months of Hugh, Delia and Jamie, we branched out this week with a guest recipe. We first came across Pieminister at 2000 Trees Festival and their gourmet grub went down a storm in a field in Gloucestershire. Now the franchise has published its first cookbook and we took a leaf out of our friend Jessie's book (quite literally) and went for the Pieminister fish pie, which is also known as Pietanic.

Like its namesake, this pie was quite an epic creation that took a few hours to make and was more than a little bit problematic. The salmon and haddock was skinned (fiddly!) and the skins were used (alongside half an onion and a bay leaf) to infuse a fishy flavour into 750mls of milk. Any recipe that says: "heat the milk until it is almost boiling" is asking for trouble and sure enough I made a right mess of this stage.

The raw fish was then arranged in a giant casserole dish with chopped chives and parsley, and whole capers. The recipe called for a further 300g of smoked haddock, but this seemed like fish overload to me, so I left it out. As if simmering the infused milk wasn't hassle enough, I then had to turn it into a white sauce by slowly adding it to some butter and flour. The final touch was a few teaspoons of wholegrain mustard to give the sauce a lovely speckled appearance.

That's where the complicated bit ends - top with mashed potatoes and bake for 25 minutes at gas mark 6 (200 degrees C). Served up with buttery kale and a glass of white, this went down a treat - the individual chunks of salmon and haddock held their shape nicely and there was a veritable ocean of prawns. 

Best of all there will be plenty left over for days to come. This would have comfortably served six at £2.48 a head, but it's worth noting that this is a recipe that is only worth making in a seriously big batch.

Best for... Autumn comfort food with a classy twist

Taken from... Pieminister - A Pie For All Seasons

Helen says... This is a favourite meal of mine anyway but I especially liked the contrast between the sweet white fish and salty capers and prawns. Well done to Chris for overcoming his phobia too!

Delia's Pork Chops with a Confit of Prunes, Apples and Shallots

By Helen
Main Ingredients:

• Pork chops
• Pint of dry cider and cider vinegar
• Cooking apple
• Tinned prunes
• Shallots

Pork chops. Flour, salt and pepper, fried in butter and oil. Done.

Now onto the good bit - a bubbling pan of sliced Bramley apple, dry cider, prunes, brown sugar, ground cloves,  shallots and cider vinegar. Half mulled wine, half apple sauce, it simmered down over the course of an hour into a rough chutney which is apparently also good with pork pate or duck.

The rest of the cider was then reduced in the frying pan as a glaze, but to be honest it would have been easier and quicker just to drink it.

Sweet, sticky prunes, tender shallots and lots of lovely gravy for the mashed potatoes AS WELL as the traditional apple sauce - finally we've matched a meal to exactly the right time of year.

The meat itself was pretty nondescript but it didn't take much extra expenditure to make them much more memorable (£2.48 a head).

Best for...  A bright, mild day at the end of October (and the only day this week we have time to cook)
Taken from... Delia Smith - How To Cook: Book Two
Chris says... Very rich and so won't suit every palate, but tasted great and wouldn't look out of place at dinner party.

Jamie's Chicken Skewers with Satay Sauce and Fiery Noodle Salad

By Helen
Main Ingredients:

• Chicken breasts
• Noodles
• Peanut butter and cashew nuts
• Little Gem lettuces
• Coriander, lime, chilli, soy sauce, ginger

They say you shouldn't go shopping when you're hungry. 

This week I had little choice, dinner being delayed by some super-manly exercise on Chris and Laurence's part. But I'm fairly confident that the overwhelmingly positive response to this week's meal wasn't solely down to how late it was by the time we started eating.

First I made the satay sauce (hello again, my blender friend) - coriander, chilli, garlic, soy, ginger, lime juice and peanut butter. Half of this was slathered over skewered chicken breasts which were then pan-fried (rather than grilled as suggested) with a drizzle of honey.

The blender was then pressed back into service - combining red onion, chilli, lime, coriander, fish sauce and oil to dress the noodles, as well as some cashew nuts which were chopped, toasted and turned in some more honey.

You could eat this as a conventional bowlful but I loved the reverse-sandwich effect: taking one of the scoop-shaped lettuce leaves and filling with a piece of sticky chicken, a couple of noodles and a dollop of creamy satay sauce, then eating in one greedy mouthful.

In fact I loved I loved this full-stop. Yes, there are a lot of ingredients, and a fair few things to keep your eye on at once - it would be very easy to burn the nuts or the chicken - but I didn't care.

In just 35 minutes I'd made a huge pile of tasty food which everyone piled into and was more satisfying than even a generous takeaway. And at £2.68 a head it was vastly cheaper!


Best for... Distracting your guests from a remote-control helicopter...for a little while anyway
Taken from... Jamie Oliver - 30 Minute Meals
Chris says... Believe the hype, this really was that tasty! My local takeaway just lost a customer.

Hugh's Roast Breast of Lamb with Lemon and Apricots

By Chris,

Main Ingredients:

• Two lamb breast joints
• Fennel bulbs
• Onions and lemon
• Dried apricots, shallots and garlic
• Thyme, butter and egg

This week it was my turn to try the snazzy new blender and I must say, it's really quite addictive. I'm never chopping anything ever again! Hugh's recipe said to chop up all the ingredients for this stuffed lamb joint, but it blended to a fine mixture in seconds. Three bulbs of garlic and three shallots were whizzed up and then lightly fried. This was then mixed in a bowl with chopped dried apricots, thyme leaves (a very fiddly thing to prep) and the zest of three lemons. An egg was used to bind it all together and I was meant to add a few handfuls of breadcrumbs, but I forgot...

The lamb breasts were then rolled out flat, seasoned, covered with the stuffing mix and rolled back up. Lamb breast is quite a cheap, fatty cut of meat, but if you cook it for long enough it can be really quite tender. The two bundled up joints were tied with string and roasted at 200 degrees for half an hour to seal in the flavours.

Next up, I chopped two fennel bulbs, two onions and two of the three lemons I had zested for the stuffing. These were used as a trivet for the lamb to sit on after the half an hour was up. This kept everything nice and moist and I could pretty much leave it alone for 90 minutes at a nice gentle 150 degrees.

To go with it, I honey roasted some carrots and whipped up some lovely herby cous cous. When dished up, it looked almost as good as in the book, even though the joint fell apart into strips when carved. The meat was still quite fatty and a bit chewy, but the stuffing was delicious and not too runny, even without the breadcrumbs. If I was to do this again, I'd give the meat a little longer and maybe try a different root vegetable, as the fennel bulbs were still tough and crunchy, despite having had 90 minutes in the oven. With a few small tweaks, this could be a real winner and even cheaper than the £2.49 a head that this cost.

Best for... A generous Sunday roast, followed by a nice long walk to burn it all off

Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Everyday

Helen says... It looks stunning and smells even better. Plus the cous cous made it a lighter option than the traditional roast veggies.

Jamie's Piri Piri Chicken with Dressed Potatoes

By Helen

Main ingredients:

• Chicken thighs
• Yellow pepper
• Potato and sweet potato
• Red onion, chilli, lemons
• Basil and coriander
  

I LOVE my new blender. 

Blending up the piri-piri marinade (red onion, chilli, garlic, basil, Lea and Perrins, lemon juice, wine vinegar and paprika) was a breeze compared to laboriously chopping everything by hand, and it looked fantastic.

That was really the most complicated part of the recipe too - the spud and sweet potato were simply microwaved with half a lemon, then mashed with chilli, coriander and feta cheese (not quite as rich as this version). And the chicken thighs were fried skin-down til golden (and spitting furiously) then baked with the marinade and some sweet peppers.

For once I'd suggest that Jamie's quantities were (whisper it) on the stingy side - we ate four chicken thighs between two of us when they should feed four, but it all looked fantastic. 

The marinade/sauce was rich and smoky even though it was only in contact with the chicken for ten minutes. The mash was if anything even better when cold, and my usual unscientific approach to doses of chilli paid off.

With all the fresh herbs (and our greedy chicken consumption) it came to around £2.60 a head. There were a lot of ingredients, it's true, but none especially exotic or pricy.

Best for... Breaking in (and showing off) a new kitchen gadget 

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - 30 Minute Meals

Chris says... This truly was lip-smackingly tasty - Nandos, eat your heart out!

Delia's Jerk Marinated Pork Chops with Chargrilled Pineapple Salsa

In case you hadn't guessed - we forgot to take a photo again

By Chris,

Main Ingredients:

• 5x Pork Chops
• 1 large tin of pineapple
• Chilli, red onion, garlic, ginger and mixed spice
• Coriander, lime juice and honey

With the weatherman predicting some late summer sunshine, we decided to fire up the barbie for one last time and Delia's pork chops sounded ideal for the occasion. As with many of her dishes, this required preparing well in advance, to give the marinade plenty of time to soak in.

Half a red onion was blended together with a red chilli, a clove of garlic, a chunk of ginger, a teaspoon of mixed spice, the juice of one lime, one tablespoon of soy sauce, a tablespoon of brown sugar and a tablespoon of oil. This made a nice runny sauce which was spread over the chops and then left overnight.

The next day, I started off by prepping the salsa. The recipe said to chop up a fresh pineapple, but using a tin seemed so much easier. The chunks were drained and then glazed in a mixture of equal parts oil and honey. Then they were spread out under the grill for ten minutes, turning half way through, to blacken them up. These were then mixed with a whole diced onion, half a red chilli, the juice of another lime and a fistful of coriander leaves.

When it came to cooking the chops, it was all about taking it slowly and being patient. Thankfully they didn't give off too much fat and they were cooked all the way through after just 20 minutes. Served up with a simple potato salad, these went down a storm and weren't as spicy as I'd feared. The salsa also worked nicely with a normal burger for those who missed out on the pork chops. Best of all, at £1.61 a head, this was pretty good value.

Best for... An exotic twist to liven up a soggy barbecue

Taken from... Delia Smith - How To Cook: Book Two

Helen says... Very impressive-looking: they gathered quite an audience and the salsa was a perfect, colourful accompaniment.

Jamie's Pea and Herb Risotto

By Helen
Main Ingredients:

• Risotto rice
• Mint and parsley
• Parmesan
• Goat's cheese

Do you like cheese? Do you like peas? Then you'll love this risotto!

This week, New Food Monday takes to the road (in a caravan!), so I had the additional challenge of cooking in an unfamiliar and not particularly large kitchen. But this was a relatively simple recipe which thankfully didn't require too much worktop space.

I fried half an onion with some celery, then stirred in the rice and a added glass of wine. Once it had been absorbed I started ladling in some hot stock over around 15 minutes. Last went chopped mint, parsley, butter, grated parmesan and frozen peas. With a couple of minutes' sit, the mixture went lovely and oozy, ready to be finished with a slice of goat's cheese.

I hate to play to internet memes, but this was pretty nom. Soft, comforting and cheesy, with enough fresh peas and celery to give it some bite, and some fragrant herbs. At £1.97 a head it was pretty thrifty, with the relatively expensive cheese and wine balanced by peas and rice to make a pretty satisfying (and vegetarian) meal.

Best for... When you need something warming and homely, in a tight space!
Taken from... Jamie Oliver - Jamies Does... Italy
Chris says... Very filling, full of flavour and easy to wash up - certainly no complaints here!

Jamie's Wicked Souvlaki Kebabs

By Chris,

Main Ingredients:

• 400g Diced Pork
• Green and red peppers
• Warm flatbreads
• Greek Yoghurt
• Dill, Mint, Oregano and Lemon Juice

As Jamie says in the preamble to this recipe, kebabs are often regarded as a guilty pleasure, but there's nothing guilty about these kebabs. In fact, they're probably the healthiest kebabs I've ever eaten. First up, the meat was marinated in the juice of half a lemon, 50ml of olive oil, half a tablespoon of dried oregano and half a tablespoon of dried mint. This combo was pepped up with some red wine vinegar, a finely chopped garlic clove, a pinch of salt and some cracked black pepper, and then left for half an hour.

Next up, I made some tzatziki by grating and wringing out a quarter of a cucumber, which was then mixed with 50ml of Greek yoghurt, chopped mint, more red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. The next step would probably be much easier (and quicker) on a gas cooker, as I had to blacken two peppers under the grill. This took about ten minutes under an electric grill, so in the meantime I prepared the dill and mint garnish, which would go on these peppers later.

Once the peppers were done, I took them out from under the grill and put them into a covered bowl to sweat for a while. The pork was then skewered and fried in a dry pan for ten minutes and the flatbreads were warmed in the bottom of the oven. After the meat had nicely soaked up all the marinade, we were ready to roll. The flatbreads were filled with a dollop of the tzatziki, a generous skewer's worth of meat, the peeled and sliced peppers and the garnish.

The result was a lovely, zingy, herby wrap that was both filling and taste-bud tingling. With my predilection for spice I would be tempted to chuck a red chilli into the marinate next time, and if I was feeling a bit more plush, I'd upgrade the pork to diced lamb. Otherwise, this was fairly simple and very satisfying. The catch? At £4.13 a head, this is one of the priciest dishes we've made so far...

Best for... A super indulgent lunch on a stonking hot summer day

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - Jamie Does... Greece

Helen says... Surprisingly filling and beautifully rich and herby. Plus I'm sir you could cheat and use jarred peppers if you were in a hurry!

Hugh's Chicken and Mushroom Casserole with Cider

By Helen

Main Ingredients:

• Chicken legs
• Dry cider
• Mushrooms
• Cream
• English Mustard

"This rich and warming dish is perfect to serve in autumn, perhaps with mushrooms you've gathered yourself." Or, if you don't fancy risking kidney failure, plain old button mushrooms will do, it turned out. A relatively simple recipe this week, with plenty of time to sort out some vegetables while the chicken was cooking.

The chicken legs were coated in seasoned flour and browned in a pan, then moved to the casserole along with a bottle of cider, chopped, sweated mushrooms, bay and thyme. This took care of itself for an hour and a half before the juices were reduced with double cream and a little mustard.

Although mine looked a little wetter (and less effectively browned) than the picture in the book, it did mean the chicken was lovely and moist and basically fell off the bone. With some potatoes to mash into the sauce and something green on the side this was pretty satisfying, although a more adventurous choice of mushrooms might have complemented the cider better.

Not a spectacular meal by any standards but a good use for chicken legs - other than the usual curry - and only £2.25 a head including all vegetables.

Best for... Comforting a friend who has to go back to work tomorrow

Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day

Chris says... Pretty straightforward and even suited a mushroom wimp like me!

Delia's Mexican Enchiladas with Mozzarella and Wensleydale

By Chris

Main Ingredients:

• 4x Soft flour wraps
• 150g Mozzarella, 110g Wensleydale
• 200g crème fraiche
• 1x red onion, 400g chopped tomatoes, 1x green chilli
• Lime juice and fresh coriander

This dish was inspired by that well-known pantheon of classy food, Reading Festival, after I enjoyed a rather sumptuous chicken burrito there on Saturday. Delia's take on Mexican food looked intriguing and not too tough to manage amid an epic hangover. Furthermore, the subtle and smooth flavours sat nicely in our slightly scrambled stomachs.

Enchiladas are essentially baked fajitas, and this version substitutes chicken for a nice gooey cheese filling, making it veggie friendly. First up, I made a fresh and zingy salsa out of a tin of chopped tomatoes (which were drained), half a red onion, one green chilli (de-seeded), a handful of fresh coriander leaves and the juice of one lime.

Next up, the four wraps were dry toasted for a few seconds on each side, then filled with a tablespoon of salsa, a table spoon of crème fraiche and a sprinkling of the two grated cheeses in each one. The remainder of the salsa, cheese and crème was then spooned over the top, along with another half a chopped red onion, and the whole thing was baked at 180 degrees for 25 minutes.

Being a greedy soul, I served up this concoction with some fried spicy rice, red peppers and refried beans. This would have been plenty to feed three people, despite the lack of meat, and it was gentle enough for even the most sensitive of spice wimps. The choice of cheeses was a little unusual for a Mexican dish, but it did let the fresh taste of the salsa shine through.

If I were to do this again, I would have added some cheddar and left the seeds in the chilli for an extra kick (but a few glugs of Tabasco did that job anyway). All in all, fairly easy to make, pretty decent value at £2.45 a head, and a nice change from bog-standard chicken fajitas.

Best for... A lazy night in for tired and weary campers

Taken from... Delia Smith - How to Cook: Book Two

Helen says... Creamy and fresh - lovely!

Jamie's Tapas Feast

By Helen
Main dishes:

• Chorizo and lentils
• Smashy chickpeas
• Pork and parsley meatballs
• Rosemary and tomato bread
• Cheese and ham croquetas
• Tinto de verano sorbet

Why learn one new recipe when you can attempt five or more at once?

Now it's finally the right time of year for nibbly, share-y food that doesn't have to keep out the chill, I decided to revisit the tapas-style meal. The chorizo fried with a tin of lentils was my personal favourite - the spicy oils making otherwise dull pulses more substantial. The chickpeas - a sort of hot hummous - weren't that spectacular but were very simple to make and added some useful carbs along with the bread.

The meatballs were a little more complicated than I'd expected (peel my own tomatoes? Me?) but very tasty and only the croquetas (deep-fried cheese balls) were disappointing. I think I needed to make the thick cheesy mixture a bit thicker and leave it to chill for longer (then coat with some slightly less... 'rustic' breadcrumbs) and they might have been more successful. But that's the point of tapas I suppose - there's a certain amount of trial and error from a cook's point of view as well as a guest's.

The real surprise was the sorbet - a mixture of lemonade, sugar syrup, water, lemon juice and not especially expensive red wine which came out a beautiful raspberry colour and velvety smooth after 24 hours in the freezer. Really refreshing and not nearly as sharp as lemon but it still looked pretty classy in small glasses.

At £2.69 a head this really wasn't too pricey and I'd definitely use a couple of these dishes again, alongside some more adventurous ones - baby clams or deep-fried squid anyone?

Best for... A long evening gradually eating to a standstill (if you can stop being punctual!)

Taken from... Jamie Does...Spain

Chris says... There's something for everyone on a lovely tapas platter, just pity the poor soul who has to do the washing up!

Delia's Stir-Fried Chicken with Lime and Coconut

By Chris

Main ingredients:

• 4x Chicken breasts
• 400ml Coconut Milk
• Thai fish sauce
• 2x limes, coriander and green chilli

This week was a real turn-up for the books as Delia beat Jamie at a quick, easy meal with plenty of fresh herbs. A few months ago I tried Jamie's Thai green chicken curry and it was surprisingly fiddly for a 30-minute meal. Delia claimed that her version was "an absolute winner", so I was sold.

I did make an early mistake by forgetting to marinade the diced chicken breast in lime juice for an hour, but the 20 minutes or so that they had added a nice fruitiness. The chicken was then stir-fried for four minutes, then two green chillis were added for a bit of heat. One tin of coconut milk and two tablespoons of Thai fish sauce made up the sauce, which was flavoured with fresh coriander and spring onions.

After a few minutes of simmering, the slightly sloppy mixture was served up with egg-fried rice and that was that. Dead simple, garnished with more spring onions and coriander, and with just enough spice to make it really rather exciting. This was far simpler and cheaper (£2.30 per head) than Jamie's over-elaborate recipe and Delia's is the one that I will definitely repeat.

Best for... A lively, quick and tasty meal, perfect with a few cold beers.

Taken from... Delia Smith - How To Cook: Book Two

Helen says... Arriving a little late, my version was filled out with fresh peas and prawns - a real winner.

Jamie's Spinach and Feta Filo Pie

By Helen
Main Ingredients:

• Ready-made pastry
• Spinach
• Feta cheese
• Cherry tomatoes and cucumber
• Mint and basil

This week's New Food Monday starts (as is becoming traditional) with me blaming our local supermarket for not having a key ingredient. 

This week it was filo pastry, and I have to admit I had but low expectations for the puff pastry we substituted, after rejecting Plan A (throw tomatoes at staff).

Three eggs were mixed with crumbled feta and grated cheddar, toasted pine nuts, oregano, lemon zest, nutmeg and a big bag of spinach which had been wilted in a little butter and oil. While the frying pan was still hot it was lined with half the thinly-rolled pastry and the eggy mixture poured back in, before the other half of the pastry was artfully arranged on the top.

I considered tackling this recipe during Veggie Lent and I'm very glad I came back to it now. The pie was much prettier than I expected, the spinach was soft and sweet and the cheese not too overpowering. Admittedly this meal was made special by the salads - tomatoes with basil and garlic, and cucumber with olives, chili and mint.

The mix of herby flavours and fresh veggies made the whole thing feel just a little bit luxurious (or at least like one of my favourite Whitecross Street lunchboxes) - and for once it didn't require every pan and worksurface in the kitchen.

For a veggie recipe, it wasn't cheap - coming in at £3.12 a head - but it was surprisingly filling, relatively uncomplicated and gave the illusion of being fantastically healthy!

Best for... Dining on the terrazzo, or with a mix of veggie and carnivorous friends
Taken from... Jamie Oliver - 30 Minute Meals
Chris says... Tasty, summery and surprisingly filling, even sworn meat lovers will be happy!

Hugh's Herby Barbecued Chicken

By Chris
Main ingredients:

• 1.2kg Chicken legs
• Tarragon, thyme and parsley
• Oil, lemon juice and black pepper
• Garlic and English mustard

With barbecue season in full swing at last, I turned back to Hugh for inspiration and once again he did not disappoint. Having had great success with his lamb and beef burgers, the chicken was a bit more of a gamble, given the likelihood of it ending up worryingly undercooked on the inside and carbonised on the outside.

My brave adventure of salmonella avoidance began with a mound of fresh herbs. Hugh called for four herbs - tarragon, thyme, parsley and chive, but my local Tesco was out of chives and it was three for two on herbs, so it fell by the wayside. Three tablespoons of the herby pile was added to a large bowl and mixed with four tablespoons of oil, lemon zest, lemon juice, black pepper, garlic and half a teaspoon of Coleman's mustard. The whole she-bang made a nice zingy marinade for the chicken.

After two or three hours letting the chicken drink up the juices, we sparked up the barbie and whacked on the meat. The problem with cooking chicken, or indeed any sizeable chunk of meat on the BBQ, is balancing inner cooked-ness with outer blackness, and this wasn't helped by the amount of oil used and the woody thyme sprigs, which resulted in a flamy start. After the flames died down, we moved the now slightly crispy chicken to the side of the barbie and let them sizzle for 25 minutes.

Served with a mustard, egg and caper potato salad, these went down a treat, with the skin blackened in places, but not burnt so much that the flavour didn't survive. If I were to do this again, I'd give it more time to marinate (possibly overnight), but it was well worth the risk: so far no-one has died and this would have happily made dinner for four people for just £1.95 a head.

Best for... Something a little adventurous for the barbecue if you're bored of burgers and sausages and aren't in too much of a hurry.

Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day (full recipe)

Helen says... Our guests approached the chicken cautiously at first but were all pretty pleased with the result!

Hugh's Pot Roast Poultry

By Helen
Main Ingredients:

• Guinea fowl
• Chorizo
• Butter beans
• Butternut squash

First things first: this recipe was actually for pheasant but I still live in East London and am largely reliant on Tesco.

While staring at the supermarket shelves the guinea fowl seemed about the right size - and I have to admit that cutting each one in half and plonking on a plate was a lot easier than carving a chicken for four (surely the worst bit of the usual roast?)

The birds were browned on each side in a frying pan and pot-roasted with onions, thyme, garlic, wine, chicken stock, a tin of butter beans and half a chorizo. Today was Hugh-inspired from start to finish as I accompanied the birds with mashy squash (with sage and garlic) and buttery greens. Plus the carrier bag of greengages I was given by my parents at the weekend was turned into a clafoutis - basically a sweet toad-in-the-hole where the halved fruits were baked in a batter of flour, eggs, milk and sugar til it was set.

I hate to say it but to me the meat didn't taste that different to chicken, although I very much approve of the way it was cooked. The chorizo was rich and sweet and the beans absorbed lovely cooking juices and mashed into the gravy nicely. Plus the pudding was a surprise hit too - even plum-phobic Chris enjoyed the custardy, sweet, tart-without-pastry effect.

At £3.16 a head it wasn't the cheapest meal but definitely worth trying - all in all a different take on a roast chicken which felt like a real treat.

Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day
Best for... Treating some good friends who have moved out of the city
Chris says... Very nice and rich, but I wouldn't have noticed if it was chicken instead...