When you have five minutes to spare …

… slow cook chicken fillets - once cooked, cool and freeze.

Tarragon Chicken

Serves 4

For the slow cooking

4 chicken fillets

drop of Rapeseed/Canola oil and a knob of butter

500ml/1 pint of chicken stock

Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan until hot. Seal the fillets on both sides, set aside in your slow cooker. Add the stock to the residual juices in the pan and bring to the boil – add to your fillets and slow cook for 2/3 hours, depending on the thickness of the fillets.

Defrost in the fridge before use if you freeze after cooking.

For the completed dish

Bunch of spring onions, finely diced

1 tsp dried tarragon

Fresh tarragon – chopped – approx 2 tbsp

160ml/¼ pt/5 fl oz approx Vermouth or dry white wine

½ tsp of sea salt flakes

120ml/4fl oz double cream

white pepper

drop of Rapeseed oil/Canola and a knob of butter

**optional variation in sauce see below

Heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan, add the onions and then dried tarragon. Add the mashed garlic and stock paste at this stage. Add the Vermouth, let it bubble up, add salt. Add the cooked breasts and let them simmer for 20/25 minutes – depending on the size of the fillets. When you're ready to serve remove the fillets, wrap in foil and keep warm, bring the liquid to the boil, add the cream and fresh tarragon and finally white pepper.

**You can vary your sauce by adding 2 cloves of roasted garlic paste, mashed into a Knorr chicken stock pot – it's delicious – if you like garlic!

You can always slow cook more than four fillets – there are deals out there! Finally, don't forget to freeze in smaller quantities for convenience, you won't be sorry.

Your Autumn Treasure Chest (ATC) … slow cooking spree

If you're not familiar with slow cookers, or crock-pots in the USA, it's a method of cooking that you'll find very useful, particularly through the Autumn and Winter.

What follows gives you basic hints and tips and then a series of recipes and how to fill your Treasure Chest.

First up, the boring bits - the hints and tips :

You can slow cook all sorts of stuff apart from meat and poultry – soups, veggies, desserts, the world is your lobster!

I've used mine, all three of them in various sizes, principally for meat and poultry.

Cheaper cuts of meat take longer to cook to become tender and flavoursome.

For example, beef cheeks (or pigs' cheeks) are now popular, braised for 8 hours they melt in your mouth. Cuts of meat like shin and skirt make great casseroles or pie fillings. You're using cuts that come from the hard working muscles of the animal.

Two other cuts I'd recommend :

Lamb shanks – fashionable these days. I slow cook 4-6 (depending on the size of the shank) at a time. You can either leave in tact or strip and then freeze. Place a defrosted whole shank in a pre-heated oven so that the outside can brown.

Pre-heat your oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6. Wrap the shank in foil and bake for 20 minutes, remove the foil and let the shank brown for a further 15 minutes.

The meat from the shank falls away and is tender and sweet. Bear in mind that when you slow cook meat containing a bone it will take longer.

Ham hock is another cut that is perfect for slow cooking and its uses are many and varied. If you want to be cheffy you can turn it into a terrine. Strip it and leave in sizeable chunks to partner your slow cooked chicken as a pie base. Pea and ham soup anyone?

I've used a slow cooker for years and still apply the same principles as I've always done (which does not include the whole chicken recipe – rules are meant to be broken!). I seal my meat/poultry before it goes into the slow cooker and although these days you can buy slow cookers that are suitable for hob to hotplate I use a frying pan to seal – I know it creates washing up but the method in my madness is that I can set aside the protein and then use the juices in the pan adding stock and whatever else I feel like, de-glazing and getting the best flavour possible. I can see what I'm doing too.

Don't overfill with liquid – as a guide half to two thirds maximum.

Thickening. I'm not a lover of coating meat in flour and then sealing it. As far as I'm concerned you're slow cooking the coating and not the meat. I prefer to thicken with a teaspoon or two of slaked cornflour at the end of the cooking time.

If you don't own a slow cooker you might be tempted to buy a small version. It's my experience that you'll regret it – if you are cooking for yourself but feed family and friends too it's the perfect vehicle for saving you time, effort and of course dosh.

I find that stainless steel and a separate hotplate is most practical for me. I can decant from the slow cooker to freeze but leave enough for a meal and then transfer the cooker to my hob to re-heat later.

There are lots to choose from so take your time!

P.s. If you're new to this slow cooking malarkey invest in a slow cooking recipe book. There are some excellent ones out there – Lakeland publish at least two.

The Tapas photos!

Check these out :

Champinones al Ajillo - Button Mushrooms in garlic and olive oil served with parsley and lemon

Queso al Horno – Soft baked goats cheese served with onion chutney and tomato jam

Tortilla Espanola – Classic Spanish potato omelette served with salad leaves and aioli

They tasted as good as they look.

La Estrella is definitely worth a visit – I should say that it doesn't have a large dessert menu but personally I went to sample the tapas. It's a small venue but I think that works in its favour – don't forget to book – they were turning people away who hadn't!

Before I go any further ...

… I thought I'd let you know about La Estrella Tapas Bar.

Early supper out on a Friday night with friends. La Estrella is located at the bottom end of the High Street in Rushden, Northamptonshire. To give you an idea how popular it is, we booked on the 25^th September for ten days hence and got the last table.

It is modern, bright and has a relaxed, informal atmosphere - café style dining.

It helps when one of the staff is Spanish - it gives a certain chutzpah, not wishing to confuse cuisines!

Mixed olives and bread are brought, along with pre-tapas drinks. I'm not a “fizz” drinker but decided to throw caution to the wind and chose a glass of Prosecco from the specials board, which was delicious and I'm difficult to please.

The menu caters for everyone - to cut a long story short here are our choices :

Gambas al Ajilio

King prawns cooked in garlic, virgin olive oil

and fresh chillies

Chorizos del Demonio

Spicy chorizo served with fire roasted red peppers

Whitebait from the specials board

Patatas Bravas

Twice cooked potatoes smothered in garlic aioli

and bravas sauce

Champinones al Ajillo

Button mushrooms in garlic and olive oil

served with parsley and lemon

Queso at Horno

Soft baked goats cheese served with onion

chutney and tomato jam

They were generous portions, so much so that we've decided that when we go back we'll order two tapas each and then may be a patatas bravas in the middle for all!

You must be expecting photos – and you'd be right – up next.

Toffee Apples – photo guide

I'm so sorry you can't smell the apples.

Less is definitely more – treacly sugar, fragrant and zesty oranges and the richness of the butter – finally the hero - Cox apples.

What's not to love!

Your Autumn Treasure continued

Turn a glut into treasure trove.

It always seems to be that when you've had a great summer it produces so much of a glut it's difficult to know what to do with the bounty.

Have you been given yet another bag of eating apples? I have – here's what I did with mine :

Toffee Apples

but not as you think of them

6-8 large Cox's apples, peeled, quartered and each

quarter sliced into 4

115g/4oz unsalted butter

125g/4½oz soft dark brown sugar

1 medium orange, zest and juice

Place the apples, butter, soft dark brown sugar, orange zest and juice into a large frying pan and cook for 10 minutes until tender.

The recipe given will give you 1.5k/3.3lbs of toffee apples. I box up in smaller quantities – it's more economical and so no waste - you can pull out whatever you need. It's whatever suits you.

The world really is your lobster with the toffee apples :

You can serve hot or cold over ice cream or custard

You can use as a base for crumble

You can serve on top of waffles with ice cream or cream

You can serve as a filling in a crepé

My original use for these toffee apples is as a base for a tart tatin – it's on the blog if you'd like to check out the recipe on the blog – Sunday 18th October 2015 Speed Sweet TATT.

Photos up next!

Cheese Feast photo guide

I hope you'll love these – and I hope you get what I'm trying to say – fill your freezer with one element – the pastry cases – or two if you want to make up the filling and freeze it – result – fab food quickly and easily.

You don't have to make the pastry if you'd rather not – a ready-made shortcrust sheet will do, it just won't have the cheese.

The verdict of the jury was … yum – a light crispy pastry – a double cheesy hit, definitely worth a shot.

There were two leftover, so lunch for the next day. I warmed them for 20 minutes at 160fan/180c/Gas 4. The feasts were still light and crispy – they held their shape very well – I cut one into quarters and it was perfect to pick up with my fingers.

I'm already thinking of other uses for home-made shortcrust pastry – hold that thought.

Feeling creative?