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!

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!

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.

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!

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 Overnight Home Cured Bacon Chops

By Chris

Main Ingredients:

• 4x Pork chops
• Carrots, butternut squash and potatoes
• Leeks and cabbage
• Salt, pepper, sugar, juniper berries and bay leaves

This is the first recipe in a while that I got properly excited about and it turned out to be one of the best yet. As an avid fan of bacon, the name of this recipe jumped out at me as a challenge that had to be accepted and, overnight curing aside, this was quite straightforward.

Four normal pork chops were cured in a mixture that was 2/3 salt and 1/3 sugar. Shredded bay leaves, crushed juniper berries and ground black pepper was added for a bit of variety, but little of that was noticeable at the end. After roughly 24 hours in the fridge, the salt had drawn much of moisture out of the chops and it was washed off.

The chops were then grilled for six minutes on each side and served with three-root mash and some lovely buttery greens, as suggested. I was initially worried that the chops would be too dry without gravy, and bought a jar of wholegrain mustard to accompany the chops. We didn't even open it, and I'm a massive fan of mustard.

This has to go down as one of the tastiest and most satisfying meals I've done so far, with the tangy, salty pork being perfectly complimented by the sweet mash, which was topped with nutmeg (a seemingly left-field suggestion, which really paid off). 

At £2.36 a head, this was very reasonable, and I'd say you can leave out the juniper berries if you don't already have them and you won't miss much. 

If you've got the time to do it, I definitely recommend giving this a try - Like bacon? You'll love this!

Best for... Bacon lovers who are willing to try something a little different.

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

Helen says... Really tasty, not too fussy and worth all the effort

Hugh's Stewed Venison with Juniper and Bay

By Helen

Despite appearances this is not a photography blog

Main Ingredients:

• Venison
• Lardons
• Juniper berries and bay leaves
• Red wine
• Onions and carrots

All three of this week's eaters had run the Bupa 10k earlier the same day so were looking for a hearty meal to reward their efforts and repair sore muscles. 

Hugh's venison stew looked just the thing - warm, comforting and a little bit luxurious.

The slowcooker was loaded up with fried lardons, the browned venison, softened onions, carrots and herbs, then covered with stock and red wine and cooked for just over 2 hours. The quantities seemed a bit off (not for the first time) - a huge amount of meat and just 12 juniper berries for example. I can't help thinking that Hugh F-W doesn't actually measure things in his own kitchen and the numbers in the book aren't particularly accurate - next time I'll trust my gut and chuck some more in.

The finished result smelled pretty good and went well with creamy mash and cabbage. But just like an earlier recipe I couldn't help thinking that this was less than the sum of its parts: it would have been almost as good - and a lot cheaper than £3.54 a head - with beef instead of venison, and the juniper and bay didn't make much of an impression. 

I'm sure there are ways to buy venison more cheaply (especially if you live somewhere other than East London) but another hit of flavour seemed to be needed to make this more memorable. 

Best for... Welcoming hungry athletes home

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

Chris says... So, is this stag or bambi's mum? To be honest, if you swapped it for cow, I'd be none the wiser...

Delia's Stuffed Breast of Lamb

By Helen

Main Ingredients:

• Breast of lamb
• Parsley, mint and rosemary
• Breadcrumbs
• Egg

Our demanding guests asked for lamb this week and Delia delivered. 

First I made a stuffing of breadcrumbs, herbs and lemon zest bound together with egg, then spread this inside the meat. Breast of lamb is a slightly weird, flat piece of streaky meat around 30cm by 10cm but rather pretty once rolled and tied with the fresh herby stuffing.

Then I roasted the meat for two hours - at which point it had somehow grown to frightening proportions. I made the best attempt I could at carving the meat (which was determined to fall apart) and served with roast potatoes, parsnips and broccoli. The juices from the meat were made into a rich gravy with the addition of redcurrant jelly, which didn't go particularly far.

Overall this was pretty impressive - an untidy but fragrant stack of thick slices of juicy lamb and plenty for lunch this week. Plus it worked out at a bargainous £1.72 a head. Nice one, Delia!

Best for... A more relaxed roast

Taken from... Delia Smith - Complete Illustrated Cookery Course

Chris says... One of the best smelling dishes we've had so far and the gravy was super rich and tasty.

Hugh and Jamie's Pan-Mediterranean Feast

By Helen

As the food gets better, the photography is still lacking..

Dishes:

• Chorizo in wine and honey
• Fried halloumi with sesame seeds
• Tortilla (Spanish potato omelette)
• Rosemary and tomato focaccia
• Parma ham and olives
• Hummous

As a weak wintery sun shone hopefully down, our thoughts naturally turned to warmer times and climes. 

Cheered by the thought that it might not actually be winter FOR EVER I decided to celebrate the coming of spring with a mezze/tapas style meal, combining all the best dishes from Hugh and Jamie.

This was a really fun one to make and to eat - none of the dishes was especially complicated or needed to be served hot, so it didn't matter that each one made it to the table at slightly different times. For the second week in a row we made bread, which swelled up to an alarming size and could have done with some more tomatoes, but was excellent for mopping up leftovers.

Hugh almost threw a spanner in the works by suggesting (unnoticed by me) that I should boil the tinned chickpeas for three hours (!) before blending - again proving that although Jamie's meals may take over 30 minutes, Hugh's certainly aren't feasible for most people to make everyday. Thankfully an Internet recipe suggested that this was unnecessary and sure enough the chickpeas blended happily enough with oil, garlic, lemon, water, tahini and cumin to make around 1ab (one abundance) of moreish hummous.

Everything else was pretty self-explanatory - fried potatoes and red onion were set and grilled with six eggs and lots of rosemary for the tortilla, and the chorizo was fried with honey, a splash of red wine and balsamic vinegar which made a lovely sticky glaze. Sesame seeds (from last week) were pressed into chopped halloumi and fried until the cheese was golden.

Even between three hungry people there was a huge amount left for some rather impressive weekday lunchboxes - assuming that four hungry diners could have made more of a dent, the per-head cost comes out at a remarkably reasonable £2.93. Roll on spring!


Best for... Lazy summer picnics without a cloud in the sky (or as close as you can manage in the UK).
Taken from...Hugh, Jamie and BBC Good Food
Chris says... One of the best yet - the halloumi and chorizo were fan-bloody-tastic!

Delia's Crisp Roast Duck with Confit of Sour Cherries

By Helen
Main ingredients:

• Duck legs
• Dried cherries
• Red wine
• Watercress
• Potatoes and parsnips
  

This is a recipe I'd been meaning to try for a few weeks but never managed the necessary preparation - soaking the cherries in wine for 24 hours and drying the duck legs to achieve the desired crispy skin. 

Thankfully both were a good use of time - the cherries were sweet, sharp, and juicily delicious once they had been simmered for an hour with a little sugar and balsamic vinegar, and the duck legs (salted and roasted for around an hour) were excellent.

The watercress garnish looked oddly ornamental in Delia's photo but provided a fresh and welcome alternative to cabbage, and would have been even better if there'd been any leftovers for sandwiches the next day. We ate this with roast potatoes, honeyed parsnips and garden peas, and thoroughly enjoyed the whole meal - definitely quicker and tastier than your average roast chicken, and not bad value at £2.75 a head. 

The only change I'd make would be increasing the volume of sauce, or reducing it a little less to make sure there was more to go around.

Best for...A rich (but not bank-breaking) Sunday lunch with plenty of wine
Taken from... Delia Smith - How to Cook: Book Two

Chris says... Very rich and tasty, the cherries were definitely worth the extra effort, but a right bugger to wash up!

Jamie's Mustard Chicken with Quick Dauphinoise

Jamie's finished product

By Chris
Main ingredients:

• Chicken breasts
• Leeks
• Single cream
• Maris piper potatoes
• Greens
• Mustard, garlic and rosemary

As much as I like Jamie's 30 minute meals, I've already given up on the idea of trying to create even a two-course meal in under half an hour, as it's unrealistic and just adds unnecessary pressure. 

Having had quite a mixed experience in the past with Pomme Dauphinoise I gave it almost an hour in the oven, but I can't fault the result.

The recipe calls for potatoes chopped up in a food processor, but failing that I went for the slicing side of a cheese grater and that worked just as well to get nice thin potatoes. As for the chicken, it was cooked in a similar way to a fillet of fish: fry skin side down for 20 minutes, then flip for five minutes.

My finished product

A simple sauce of wine, leeks, garlic and cream worked really well with the meat, which had been covered in mustard powder and rosemary. Despite the name, the taste of mustard was not that strong - I was even tempted to add more onto my plate, but then again I am a massive fan of mustard.

The greens were simply boiled and served with a dash of olive oil (natch), and I also went for the recommended affogato pudding, which was very easy - crumbled up shortbread, ice cream, grated dark chocolate and a shot of espresso poured over the top.

All in all not a breathtaking or particularly memorable meal, but a safe recipe to draw on in future, which (at £2.42 per head) isn't likely to break the bank.

Best for... An inoffensive family meal for a winter's evening 

Taken from... Jamie Oliver - 30-minute meals (full recipe)

Helen says... Creamy, comforting and reassuringly filling.