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!