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.

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 Cheese and Herb Fritters with Sweet Pepper Marmalade

By Helen

Mmm cheese doughnuts...

Main Ingredients

• Feta, Gruyere and Cheddar cheeses
• Basil, thyme and parsley
• Red peppers
• Onions
• Cider and cider vinegar

"If you want to serve a meal without meat or fish, this is just the thing," Delia claimed, so it seemed rude not to try it.

A batter of egg, flour and cayenne was combined with a frankly staggering amount of grated cheese (who knew you could grate feta?) and lots of chopped herbs, then formed into patties. I wasn't sure what to expect here as the nearest things I could compare them to were fishcakes - except without any fish or mashed potato. Thankfully the cayenne and herbiness stopped them from becoming overwhelmingly rich, even when deep-fried.

The pepper marmalade was pretty tasty too - red onion and red peppers, garlic, brown sugar, cider and cider vinegar were simmered quietly until the liquid evaporated and the vegetables were soft and sweet. This time we didn't have any leftovers but I would happily have combined a fritter and some of this marmalade in a bun as a veggie burger substitute.

That didn't seem quite enough on its own so we had a green salad with onions roasted in balsamic vinegar too (possibly unnecessarily). For habitual meat eaters like myself who are used to treating vegetables as extras, it's difficult to decide just what is the central feature of a veggie meal and how many sides you actually need!

Overall, creamy, tangy and probably incredibly bad for you but not half bad. At £2.94 a head it was expensive for a veggie meal but reasonable in the grand scheme of things. Plus with the addition of some boiled potatoes it would have gone a lot further - or a half batch would have made a very impressive starter.

Best for... A more creative take on the veggie burger
Taken from... Delia Smith - How to Cook: Book Two
Chris says... Eating deep-fried cheese never felt so healthy!

Delia's Fast Roast Pork with Rosemary and Caramelised Apples

By Helen
Main ingredients:

• Pork Fillet
• Rosemary
• Granny Smith apple
• Cider vinegar and dry cider
• Garlic

Ah, good old Delia. 

That boeuf en croute must have just caught me on a bad day, since this is the second of her recipes in a row which has been easier and more delicious than I'd anticipated.

A fillet of pork was studded with garlic and roasted for 25 minutes with cider vinegar, onions, rosemary, a little sugar and a few wedges of apple. Once cooked it was hoisted out and left to rest while all the lovely juices were combined with double cream and cider to make the sauce.

We tucked into thick slices of the pork with roast potatoes (as recommended) and minty savoy cabbage (from a couple of weeks ago). The end piece of the fillet was a little chewy but the slices from the middle were no match for even our feeble butter-knives. I didn't have the patience to craft the sauce as lovingly as instructed but that was mainly because it smelled SO GOOD and I was hungry. 

It came off none the worse and as Queen Smith points out, a couple of fillets would make a substantial roast for six people in less than an hour - and works out around £2.78 a head. 

Next week: something not Delia and not a roast!

Best for...A bit of Sunday indulgence on a soggy weeknight

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

Chris says... Lovely subtle flavours and very moreish - went well with minty cabbage too!