Between the sheets

No – not the cocktail of white rum, cognac, triple sec and lemon juice – sorry to disappoint!

It's sheets of baking parchment.

This is for those of you who like it really sweet and is my variation on the “Fridge cake” recipe. Is it a biscuit – is it a sweetie – you decide - I'd best describe it as fruity fudge with a “snap” texture.

250g digestive biscuits, crushed into a fine crumb

300g good quality white chocolate, broken

into similar size pieces

100g unsalted butter

100g golden syrup

100g cranberries, finely chopped

100g toasted almonds, blitzed or finely chopped

Place the biscuits in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin. Melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup in a bain-marie, mixing until smooth. Remove from the heat, add the digestive biscuits, cranberries and almonds - mix well, coating everything in the chocolate syrup.

A quick reminder about toasting almonds. Preheat your oven 160fan/180c/Gas 4 for 5 minutes. I set my timer a minute at a time – checked and gave the baking tray a shake - the colour of the almonds is up to you but don't forget them or you'll be really cross!

You will need :

4 x sheets of baking parchment -

45cms x 30cms

a pastry board as large as the parchment

Place a sheet of parchment on your board, divide the mixture in half and place one half on your parchment. Place another sheet of parchment on top of the mixture and press down then roll out thinly – 0.5cm approx. Take the board with the mixture between the sheets to the fridge and slide straight onto the fridge shelf. Repeat with the remaining sheets and mixture. Leave to set in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Peel off the top sheet of parchment and then cut out your “fruity fudge snaps” in shapes of your choice. I managed 25 biscuits per batch, 50 in total.

The final bonus is that you finish up with the same “jigsaw” of fruity fudge snap bits. Bag or box them and freeze. Blitz them as required for a fudge crumb to sprinkle over your favourite ice cream.

Photo guide coming next - not one crumb wasted!

A glug

I know that I mention “glug” frequently. For the uninitiated I feel I should explain, since recently I've defined “blob” and “splodge”.

A glug refers to liquid, usually oil or alcohol too in my culinary book. If you want to be reasonably accurate then a glug is what I'd call a generous tablespoon.

I appreciate that if you aren't particularly confident with this cooking malarkey then you would want the comfort of a more exact measure. Cooking is about personal taste, recipes are meant to be a guide not strict rules. As you gain confidence then you'll feel better about “flying by the seat of your pants” adding a drop of this and/or a pinch of that to make your own variations to favourite dishes to suit your taste and that of your family and friends.

There is however an exception that proves the rule and that is when you are baking – be it bread, cakes or desserts. Baking is a science and exact measurements are imperative for a good result.

The obvious example I can give you is that if you are making bread and you “dust” a board with flour to knead the bread then you're adding more flour to the recipe and in turn the finished loaf will be altered.

Ovens vary – get to know yours. Pay attention - bake and cook too at the correct temperatures given otherwise you won't get a good result, chemical reactions won't happen as they should and you'll be disappointed.

Not for nothing, back in the day, was it called “Domestic Science”!

Feedback and photos … the pie

Back to classes after the summer break. My aim, as always, is to inspire and make life easier for busy people.

On that note, the chicken and mushroom pie took centre stage, here's the filling

here's the topping

… “the chicken pie was to die for … sublime … and lovely”.

Definitely worth adding to your “speed week menu”. My friend and student M said that she was going to serve the pie in individual pots as a main course for a dinner party. I think I rest my case - there's no law that says you have to complicate food, keep it simple and keep your sanity!

The Pie

Here's the end result of your foray into “whilst I'm at it, I might as well” … and the slow cooked chicken.

Chicken & Mushroom Pie

2 x slow cooked chicken breasts and/or

a mixture of leg and thigh meat -

400g in total, diced and placed in

a large bowl

250g chestnut mushrooms

Sauce Supreme – using your

chicken stock

Sliced cooked baked potatoes – 3 medium size

skin on or skin off, whichever you prefer

salt and black pepper and a dot or two of

butter

Preheat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6.

Ensure that your chicken and stock have been taken from your best friend (the freezer) and fridged overnight.

There are only two elements to cook – the mushrooms and the sauce.

Heat a medium sized frying pan, slice the mushrooms and sauté with 50g of unsalted butter adding salt and black pepper. Turn the mushrooms – they'll produce water and the idea is that you use a high heat to reduce the liquid. Add a glug of dry sherry or red wine and reduce again. The sherry or wine enhances the flavour of the mushrooms. Whilst I'm at it don't be afraid to use mushrooms that might be past their “best before” date. They have more flavour.

Your sauce recipe :

15g unsalted butter

15g plain flour

½ tsp Dijon mustard

200ml double cream

salt and black pepper

Melt the butter, take the pan off the heat, add the flour and whisk. Return to the heat and cook out the flour for 2-3 minutes, stirring continuously making a roux sauce – do not walk away.

Tip your cold stock straight into the roux and whisk until smooth, then cook on a low heat for 30 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper.

Add the mustard and the cream and simmer for 5 minutes.

You can make the sauce ahead and freeze it if more convenient – it's every bit as good from the freezer, leaving only the mushrooms to sauté on the day.

You have choices for your pie lid. I'm using the potatoes you already have in your fridge from the “whilst I'm at it, I might as well” applied principle.

You could use the ever popular puff pastry sheet, again taken from your freezer stash. A third option would be to use the 3p topping from The Tickle Tray, Panko crumbs, Parmesan and Parsley.

Add the mushrooms to the chicken and then fold through the sauce. Pour the filling into a casserole measuring 23x23 cms approximately or, in my case, a foil tray - layer the sliced potatoes over the top, add a little salt and pepper and a dot or two of butter. Place in the oven for 25 minutes and serve.

Feedback and photos on their way.

Here's the thing: Autumn Planning Continued

Food should be a pleasure – it should make you happy – especially when the weather changes into Autumn and we demand comfort and warmth from our food.

The trouble is we live our lives at warp speed – constantly chasing our tails, juggling balls, whatever the description they mean the same. There are not enough hours in a day and it's so easy to resort to the ding of the microwave and a processed meal or rely on takeaways.

Please don't think that I'm being a pain in the posterior – everyone indulges in one or the other or indeed both, from time to time.

We don't have the time to cook from scratch every day.

I know I'm repeating myself - make the best use of your kitchen when you are in it, using the “whilst I'm at it, I might as well” principle. If you've read “Autumn Planning” then so far you're able to produce the following :

Whatever you cooked on Sunday, which

gave you leftover veggies

A vegetable bake using the leftovers, covered

in an Alfredo sauce finished with 3p topping

Stuff the baked jacket potatoes – add chopped chicken

to the leftover vegetables and the Alfredo sauce

Fish Pie – two alternatives

Slow roasted chicken – so far three choices

more to follow

That's Sunday through to Thursday so far -and we haven't scratched the surface yet. Another thing – you might want to make sure your BFF contains a couple puff pastry sheets, or, these days you can buy frozen rolled pizza bases too. Both are excellent products and for speedy “working week” food you'll find them invaluable.

As an example :

How about Friday night is pizza night – your own – sort of. All you have to remember is to take the base out of the freezer.

Pizza bianca

Use leftover cold Alfredo sauce, spread on a pizza base, add mushrooms, black olives and Italian meats of your choice – or diced chicken

Sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan and ditto of oregano and bake

in a preheated oven at 180fan/200c/Gas 6 for 20 minutes until hot and bubbling

This pizza takes no longer to assemble than the telephone call to the takeaway and infinitely cheaper and, take my word for it, tastes great.

I've just realised that it's academic since you've deleted the takeaway delivery number anyway – tee hee!

Chicken choices – definitely not boring!

You should be feeling very pleased with yourself – you've used every last morsel of the chicken and it's not taken you three weeks of preparation, cooking and the aftermath.

I say every morsel, what you were left with, literally, was the carcass of the bird. If you have the time and are sufficiently enthusiastic you could make a stock. Making stock from scratch is a worthy but long winded process, not appropriate for the time saving, speedy stuff we're talking about at the moment.

I should mention the cost of the chicken. I bought mine as part of a meal deal i.e. choice of starter or side, main meal, dessert and a bottle of wine or a non alcoholic alternative. This is the best value – you may think you don't want a meal deal and you probably don't on that occasion, but you may in the future. Choose wisely – with the exception of the liquid refreshment of course, you can store it in your BFF – your freezer!

Chicken choices

Stir fries are great - they are quick, you can choose noodles or rice, use up your leftovers – why not throw in roasted cashews, roughly chopped. Use a plum sauce to fold through the stir fry – live dangerously and add a glug (another technical, culinary term) of sweet chilli sauce too.

Who doesn't love a pie – how about chicken and mushroom. You get to use your chicken stock – it's now called liquid gold in my kitchen. It's intense and rich and what better way to show it off than by making the sauce for your chicken and mushroom filling. I apologise, I should have said that you get between 250/300ml of stock depending on the size of your chicken.

How about a hearty chicken soup – using your stock as a base. Serve your soup with home-made soda bread.

It's what you put with the boring stuff that turns it into delicious home cooked food - produced in the blink of an eye after a hard day at the office – a magician.

P.s. You can delete the takeaway delivery numbers you have on speed dial!

The four Ss – the photo guide

Here goes :

The whole chicken, lifted from slow cooker onto the foil lined tray, ready for action or to be cooled, covered and fridged.

The stock, strained into a jug, ready to be cooled, covered and fridged.

The stock the following day, decanted into a “pour and store” bag ready to freeze. The stock forms a golden jelly with some natural fat from the bird – you've not added any fat at all – nice colour don't you think?

Here's the chicken stripped and portioned into four.

Top right and bottom left are the breasts. I would freeze each breast individually – you may only need one in the future but should you need both it's not an issue. Top left is a leg left as is, again to be frozen. There's no doubt that if you leave meat on the bone it is less likely to dry out. Finally bottom right we have a mixture of leg and thigh meat. What you'll also find when you strip the chicken the next day is that you'll have blobs of the jellied stock – don't waste it, freeze it altogether, the flavour will be great, whatever you decide to cook.

Coming next – your chicken choices!

P.s. Don't forget the definition of a “blob” - a drop of anything soft and round – a perfect description of the residual stock.