The “to do” list

Here's my cunning plan aka “to do” list :

Print out all the recipes and keep them in order.

Go through each recipe and make a shopping list checking pantry and store cupboard as I go – there will be two lists – a “buy now” list and by that I mean non-perishable ingredients and staples and the other - 2/3 days before the treats are due for delivery - for the fresh and perishable ingredients, ready to begin cooking.

I know the date of my friend's birthday, what I'm not sure of is when she'd like her treats delivered – top of the “to do” list is ask for a delivery date!

“Cook ahead” stuff. I can make the dessert and the pastry now – by “now” I mean two weeks ahead and into the freezer. Note to self – it's all very well cooking and freezing ahead – you have to remember to take it out of the freezer in time. This is where a daily planner comes into its own.

The birthday falls on a Wednesday and I now have a delivery date – Tuesday after lunch (the day before her birthday). The previous Friday is when the daily planner begins and it's up next.

The daily planner …

 … and the countdown begins!

Friday

final shopping for fresh ingredients

Sunday

bake the jacket potatoes – cool, peel and cut into small

cubes, bag and fridge

sauté the onions and add the mustard – cool, box and fridge

grate the cheeses, bag and fridge

Monday

shred the cabbage, carrot and finely slice the

spring onions

make the mayo

make the paté

complete the pie filling and place in your

dish of choice ready for the lid, cover and return

to the fridge

mise for the bread, cover

pm – take the dessert and the pastry from

the freezer and place in the fridge

Tuesday morning – bright and early!

make and bake the bread

roll out the pastry, add to the pie filling, egg

wash and then bake for 20 minutes only, the pie

will be reheated before actual serving – set aside to cool

garnish the paté with chopped chives

combine the slaw ingredients, add the mayo

then adjust seasonings, box and fridge

The other thing I had to think about was transporting the treats - thinking “outside the box” has now become thinking “inside a box” – except the box is a cool bag with an ice pack and the brown paper packages tied up with string are now sealed boxes without string!

All that remains is to pack the cool bag – it may be stating the obvious but the largest and heaviest item goes in first, on top of flat ice packs. I layered each tier with clean cardboard to give support.

A small tip – I reverted to the original menu and the recipes I printed out - the daily planner helped too. I used a highlighter (a different coloured pen would do) to mark off as I packed the bag – I checked it twice! My final addition was a note of how long the pie would need in the oven to finish off.

Oh – I included a pot of clotted cream to complete the dessert.

Time to go … verdict up next!

The birthday menu choice

“Wow, this all looks amazing! I have read and read and read them again and Menu 2 keeps jumping out at me! Please can I opt for that – it's such a wonderful idea!”

Menu 2 it is – it will be an absolute pleasure!

I sent the original email and the menus well in advance, a month ahead - deliberately, it gives me time to consider and plan my order of work and then cooking. I make no apology for it sounding like a military operation – that's because I am totally out of practice!

Remember the days when we had a social life and family and friends came to visit? I hardly dare say this but, if all goes accordingly to plan, may be we'll be able to cook for our family and friends again – do you remember how? I'm not sure I do so the birthday menu is a dress rehearsal!

Here's Menu 2 with my notes on each course :

Menu 2

Cream Cheese & Cashew Nut Paté

with soda bread

the paté should be as fresh as possible

so made the day before delivery, leaving only

the garnish of freshly cut chives to sprinkle

on the day

the soda bread is home-made and should be

baked on the day of delivery – looks like I'll be

up early!

Cheese, Potato and Onion pie

with coleslaw (using home-made mayo)

the pie has several elements :

baked jacket potatoes

finely diced onions, sautéed in butter

and rapeseed oil with Dijon mustard

grated cheeses – Mature Cheddar, Red

Leicester and Gruyere

each element can be prepped ahead

flaky pastry lid – pastry made ahead and

frozen

the coleslaw has a simple base, finely

shredded white cabbage, fine julienned carrots

and finely sliced spring onions – prep ahead,

bag separately, then fridge

the home-made mayo is the magical

ingredient and can be made the day before

delivery ready to incorporate and add final

seasonings, then box

Flourless Chocolate Cake

with Raspberry Coulis

dessert is easy – the cake benefits from being

made ahead, portioned and frozen

and the coulis can be frozen too

Me and my big mouth! Suddenly I'm alarmed at the thought of pulling this together - what began with “treats” has now morphed into a three course supper!

Next up … the “to do” list

Carrying on where I left off …

… in January and birthday gift ideas.

I said after the doorstep delivery of the birthday gift in January, where possible within current constraints, I'd continue to make stuff for gifts if they could be delivered safely.

It's my friend's birthday coming up soon and so I decided to bite the bullet and emailed her before I could change my mind … “I know I'm early but have an idea for your birthday. I wondered if you'd like me to cook a few treats which I could “doorstep” deliver? If it's a yes I can put together a couple of menus … let me know what you think”.

The same day a response … “That's such a lovely idea! What a lovely surprise and I look forward to seeing the menus”.

Here they are :

Menu 1

Individual Veggie Frittata with

a Balsamic Glaze

Arancini (stuffed with Taleggio cheese)

Alfredo Sauce

Tiramisu – a choice of lemon or orange -

no coffee at all!

OR

Menu 2

Cream Cheese & Cashew Nut Paté

with soda bread

Cheese, Potato and Onion pie

with coleslaw (using home-made mayo)

Flourless Chocolate Cake

with Raspberry Coulis

Watch this space!

The second “grown up” sauce …

… is Tarragon. This sauce uses cream and butter and is not as thick as the Calvados Cream Sauce since it's not made with a roux base. Its “grown up” element is Vermouth or dry white wine if you don't have Vermouth in your wine cellar! I use Noilly Prat as my Vermouth of choice – France's first and has been in existence since 1855.

For a pie filling that's a cut above and compliments the sauce, seal 600g diced chicken fillet together with two finely sliced leeks.

Here's the sauce recipe :

Tarragon Sauce

Serves 4

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 or celery salt

240ml/8fl oz double cream

white pepper

drop of Rapeseed oil/Canola and a knob of butter

**optional variation – mash 2 cloves of roasted

garlic paste into a Knorr chicken stock pot

it's delicious – if you like garlic!

600g diced chicken fillet

2 finely sliced leeks

seal in a drop of rapeseed oil and

then set aside

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 cream and fresh tarragon and finally white pepper. Add the sealed diced chicken fillet and the leeks and simmer gently for 20/25 minutes.

If you'd prefer a veggie version then substitute the diced chicken fillet with Quorn pieces – they take 12 minutes from frozen to cook, so you'll need to tweak the method. Seal the leeks with the onions and dried tarragon at the beginning of the recipe and then continue, simmering the sauce for 8 minutes, adding the Quorn pieces and cooking for the remaining 12 minutes.

Whether you choose chicken or Quorn your pie filling is ready to use when you are, all that remains is your lid of choice and you'll need 500g of pastry or cooked jacket potatoes from your stash.

Hints and tips

If you wanted the sauce a little thicker add a heaped teaspoon of slaked cornflour gradually to your sauce whilst at the simmering stage at the end of the recipe, to the thickness required.

“Slake” is to mix, in this instance cornflour, with cold water and then add it to a simmering sauce, gradually, to thicken it.

This sauce is versatile and in its original state makes a delicious drizzling sauce over chicken or any poultry and veggie alternatives of course.

Sauce ideas to suit everyone I hope, however, I should say that tarragon has an aniseed flavour so if you're not a fan this may not be for you.

Next – carrying on where I left off …

Grown up sauce ideas … with fillings too

Here are a couple of other sauces you might like – both “grown up” in that they include alcohol and the pie fillings to match. The first sauce uses the “roux” principle, the second does not.

First up, the filling. If you're using your slow cooker these days, you could create a pie filling using diced pork shoulder – sealing it and slow cooking until melt in the mouth tender. Slow cook 600g of diced pork shoulder for 4 hours - serves 4-6. You can use the stock from the slow cooked pork in the sauce recipe – make sure the stock is chilled. The slow cooking can be done ahead, to suit your timetable and then set aside and fridged until required.

For the Calvados Cream Sauce :

Calvados Cream Sauce

15g/¾ oz unsalted butter

15g/¾ oz plain flour

1 tsp garlic paste or 1 clove, crushed

glug (2 tbsp) of Calvados

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

200ml/7 fl oz stock

300ml/½ pint/10 fl oz 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 mins, stirring continuously – add the garlic paste and mustard and then, on a high heat, add the Calvados and cook for 1-2 mins. Add the cold stock straight into the sauce and whisk until smooth, then cook on a low heat for 10 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper. Add the cream and simmer gently for 20 minutes.

Set aside to cool, then fridge.

You will need 500g of pastry for your lid of choice.

All that remains is for the sauce to be added to the pork and then placed in your casserole or pie dish, add your lid of choice, egg wash and then bake for 25 minutes in a pre-heated oven 180fan/200c/Gas 6 to cook the lid – the filling is pre-cooked. You may have leftover sauce which is great – serve in small jugs as extra “gravy”!

The second sauce coming up …

RVP – choose a sauce!

Before you do, a clarification – in “Bring on the pies” I mentioned a Velouté sauce and I should have given a full explanation.

A Velouté sauce is a savoury sauce using a roux and a light stock. It is known as one of the Mother Sauces – in other words a base sauce from which other “secondary” sauces are made – a Sauce Supreme is one of those, enriching a Velouté sauce, usually with chicken stock (you can use vegetable, as I would in this recipe) and double cream. It's a luxurious sauce, ideal served with chicken too. You won't be surprised to know that “velouté” translates to “velvet”!

Other examples of classical secondary sauces are “Saffron Sauce Supreme” or “Sauce Supreme with sherry and mushrooms”.

I'm sorry it wasn't clear in the original piece – now I've probably given you too much information!

Moving swiftly on, any of the sauces mentioned so far would be perfect with your veggies, it's personal taste. The curry sauce would be amazing and would definitely get my vote – for no other reason than it makes a change.

I'm repeating the Sauce Supreme recipe but this time making a larger quantity – there's a method to my madness – you'll use half the quantity to complete your veggie pie filling. The remainder is extra sauce to drizzle over the served pie – everyone loves gravy!

Sauce Supreme

500ml stock – vegetable or chicken

ideally cold

30g unsalted butter

30g plain flour

1 tsp Dijon mustard

400ml 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 then cool, cover and fridge.

You can make ahead and freeze the sauce if it's more convenient – it's every bit as good from the freezer.

An extra couple of “grown up” sauce ideas next … with fillings too