I've been doing both for 30 years.
To cook well, it helps if you love and value food,
as that is where it all starts.
My approach to cooking is simple and not new.
Use the best ingredients you can, get organised and follow the recipe.
That way you'll be sure to get wonderful results.
I love hake.
When you see it on the fishmonger's slab it's not a thing of beauty
but what it lacks in looks, it more than makes up for in flavour
with sweet white flesh and a firm texture.
It can be cooked in so many different ways but
grilling is one of the simplest and least fussy,
making it an ideal method if you're serving it as a starter.
I've got a piece of lovely hake.
This could be whiting, haddock, salmon.
They all can be cooked in this very simple way.
I've got a frying pan on heating just so that it's hot when I put
the fish onto the pan. That way the fish won't stick.
I like to dip the fish in a little seasoned flour.
It's quite simply some flour that's got salt and pepper in.
Sprinkle in a little bit of salt and a twist of black pepper.
Then just dip your piece of fish into the flour, on both sides.
Then I like to tap off the extra flour.
I find the seasoned flour gives me a little bit
more colour, a little bit more texture on the fish.
You can absolutely cook fish exactly the way I'm doing
it here and omit the flour altogether if that suits you better.
I'm going to spread a little bit of butter onto the surface of the fish.
It's like you're buttering a piece of bread rather too meanly.
This is important. Ensure that your pan is very hot.
Don't just pop it in. Do that and when you hear the sizzle, you know it's hot enough.
If it doesn't sizzle, wait a couple of minutes and
let the pan get hot enough.
It will completely repay you those couple of minutes that you've waited.
Pop it on, flesh side down. I want that golden brown.
When you're pan-frying or grilling, you need to keep an eye on the heat
so the fish doesn't start to stew.
If it starts to stew the juice will run out and we want the juice in the fish.
Also there's a chance it might stick on you.
We're getting a nice bit of smoke action here.
If you're pan-frying or grilling there's going to be a bit of smoke.
There needs to be.
Turn on the extractor. It'll take all that out of your kitchen.
If you don't get smoke you're not going to get colour.
If you don't get colour, you're not going to get flavour.
This is the sort of food that I eat mostly myself.
Quick, easy, impeccable ingredients and incredible freshness of taste.
Full of goodness.
Let's have a look and see if this is ready to turn.
Yes it is. Look how golden that is. It's absolutely beautiful.
The way it's shrinking a little bit when I turn it over,
that's a good indication of the freshness.
It's also a good indication that the pan is hot enough.
Even though the fish was dipped in seasoned flour,
it's worth adding a little extra seasoning at this stage.
While that's finishing cooking, I'm going to make a herb butter to go with this.
A little bit of butter melting in a pan.
I'm using a rich combination of flavours here.
Chervil and fennel will bring that wonderful anise taste
with works so well with fish.
The parsley and thyme will add fragrant earthy undertones.
Add the herbs to the butter and stir until they are thoroughly coated.
I've got what you'd call a herb relish. It's thick with herbs.
The butter is a beautiful liquid vehicle for the herbs.
I'm not going to put that back on the heat now.
I don't want to cook the herbs. I want the raw flavour of the herbs.
That's where the really eye-popping deliciousness will be in this
simple sauce to go with a piece of simply but perfectly cooked fish.
Let's see if the fish is cooked.
You want to just look in and it should no longer look translucent.
That's pretty much perfect.
I have a nice hot plate.
There we go. Lovely piece of simply cooked fish.
Absolutely a thing of beauty.
A little of our herb relish.
A simple wedge of lemon to go with it will help to cut through the
richness of both the fish and the butter.
Then I like to put a little bit of chervil which is delicious with it.
It's the sort of food that will sustain you and give you pleasure.
There's just so much to recommend it.
Casserole roasting is an invaluable technique.
The object is to cook the main ingredient, in our case chicken,
in a tightly seal casserole so as to achieve succulent flesh and
at the same time trapping in all of the precious cooking juices.
The juices become the basis for the sauce or indeed, can be the sauce.
I'm going to use some Indian spices today.
Another day it might be tarragon, watercress, wild garlic.
They can be added to the bird at the beginning of the cooking
or to the juices at the end.
When you cook the bird on the bone with the skin still on
it produces a uniquely good flavour and texture.
It's a wonderful technique.
Sometimes I want a really hot, spicy chicken dish.
Other days I want a milder, more aromatic flavour where
it's more about the spices than the heat of the chilli.
That's exactly what I'm going to do with this chicken.
I'm going to cook it in our casserole roasting technique.
Lovely free range chicken.
I'm going to start off by smearing the chicken breast
with a little bit of soft butter.
I have my butter here at room temperature.
Smear the butter onto the breast.
That's plenty.
As in the previous recipe, it's vital to ensure your casserole is hot
before you put the chicken in. Otherwise it will stick.
Gentle heat, going along there nicely.
While that's happening I can make the spices
or get my spices ready.
The remainder of my butter in there.
Then I've got my turmeric and a little bit of chilli powder.
They're going to add not only colour but flavour to the dish.
Absolutely lovely.
Then my spices. I've got ground coriander and ground cumin seeds
which I've toasted lightly and ground. They go in there.
You make a little spice paste.
Already I can smell the sweet aromas coming up.
Now let's look and see what's happening in here.
Turn over the chicken. That's lovely.
I've got a lovely golden coating on the surface of the chicken.
That's exactly what I want.
Now I can put on my spice mixture. Smear that on.
It doesn't look so beautiful at this stage but don't worry.
Perfect. Looking good.
A sprinkle of salt, a grinding of pepper,
a squeeze of lemon juice and if you're feeling adventurous,
a couple of whole green chillies.
That's it. Ready to go into the oven but not before
we put on our extra layer of insulation.
A bit of greaseproof paper or parchment and our tight-fitting lid.
Because it's such a nice heavy lid, it fits down nice and snugly.
Put that into a preheated oven, set to a moderate heat for approximately 90 minutes.
This technique for cooking rice is fantastic.
It's called a pilaf rice.
Butter just sizzling there.
Put in your shallot.
I'm just going to soften it down very slightly.
I don't want to sweat it completely.
I just want to start the cooking process.
Turn it for a moment.
I'm going to add in my rice. Long grain basmati rice.
All I'm looking for at this stage is that the grains of rice
just start to blanch slightly. They get slightly whiter looking.
That seems to just lift the flavour of them slightly.
Now I'm ready to add in the stock.
All goes in in one go.
Turn the rice in the stock and add a pinch of salt to flavour.
We're going to bring that up to a simmer and then
keep it at a simmer and simmer gently for 10-12 minutes,
until all the liquid has been absorbed by the rice
and it looks beautiful and fluffy.
It is as simple as that.
Curly kale is so easy to deal with.
You just break off the individual stalks like that.
Then just pull the leaf off the stalk.
Simple as that.
Then I break it up for cooking into bits about that size.
Bite-size pieces.
If they're left too big sometimes it can be a little awkward to eat.
I've got some water boiling here.
A good pinch of salt and then we pop in the kale.
That looks like a lot of kale but it does boil down.
Very importantly, I'm not going to put the lid back onto the pot.
That would draw some of the lovely colour out of the kale.
Give it a stir.
Don't be tempted to put the lid back on.
Let that cook for about 8 minutes until the kale has been fully cooked through.
Strain it immediately.
This stops the cooking and ensures that it maintains its vibrant colour.
Drop that into my saucepan just to season it up.
Add a generous dash of extra virgin olive oil and finally,
a good squeeze of lemon juice to lend it a bit of zing.
That's it. The light glaze of oil ensures that it's not heavy,
while lending the kale a lustrous shine.
Pop that into a preheated serving dish and keep it warm until serving.
Coming up after the break, I'm going to show you how to
make a fragrant coriander and cream sauce to serve with the chicken.
We're going to follow that up with a kiwi granita
served with lacy nuts biscuits.
A refreshing way to counterbalance the spicy chicken.
It's time to check on our chicken which has been roasting away
in its own juices for 90 minutes.
To make sure the chicken is cooked properly, the way to test
it is to test between the leg and breast.
That's the part of the chicken that takes longest to cook.
Count 2, 3, 4, 5.
We're testing the temperature.
Then red hot on there.
If you're scared about doing it on that delicate part of your arm,
do it between your two fingers. Still lovely and hot.
No grey area with chicken. Must be cooked through.
I'm going to pop that back in the oven on a low heat to keep warm
while I make the sauce.
What have I got in the saucepan?
Remember this chicken went into a dry casserole.
No liquid of any description and look at the amount of liquid that we've got in here.
That is absolutely fantastic.
The chicken has given us that. Nothing else.
I could strain the fat off the top of that by just skimming the surface
with a spoon if I want to.
Or I like to use my maigret.
It looks like a little jug with two spouts.
This will help me to degrease the liquid.
It settles here for a moment and like oil on water,
fat on liquid just rises to the surface.
We pour through the end that's got the spout attached.
That holds up the fat which is on the surface of the liquid.
Pour it in there.
See how the colour has been tinged by the turmeric
to give that pale, almost lemon colour.
As soon as you see little bubbles of fat starting to dribble through, then you stop.
That's the juices.
I'm going to take this sauce a little bit further by adding a little cream.
The chicken juice is going back on the heat.
It could be just those juices brought to a simmer, some chopped coriander
and that would be fantastic. I'm going to make it slightly richer by adding cream.
All I need to do is to allow this to simmer and thicken lightly.
I'm not going to add in any flour or anything.
I'm going to thicken it by reduction.
While that's happening I can be carving my chicken.
I find the best way to get maximum value from your chicken when carving
is to serve both the brown and the white meat.
With the rice, you can serve as it is.
It's been sitting in the saucepan staying warm.
Usually at this stage I like to add in a little
chopped fresh herbs. I have some chopped flat parsley.
Fold that in nice and gently.
It's amazing how well this rice keeps. It just sits so beautifully.
Into a nice serving dish.
Individual grains of rice, that's the joy.
My kale has just been keeping warm. Give it a little stir.
Perfect. That's still really lovely.
It hasn't gotten dry. It's still got a lovely glaze on it.
How's the sauce doing?
Just very, very lightly thickened.
A little bit of chopped coriander to freshen up the appearance
and to freshen up the taste. This looks absolutely lovely.
Just coat it.
The last minute addition of the coriander really freshens up the appearance.
The final thing, a few sprigs of fresh coriander
just as a little garnish.
This meal, full of great techniques, highly nutritious and really fantastic to eat.
Most people like ice-cream or ice desserts and whether it's
to cool you down on a lovely hot summer's day or to serve
proudly after dinner at any time of the year,
without doubt it really is worth trying to make your own.
A cooling dessert would be the appropriate thing to serve
after our casserole roast chicken with those lovely Indian spices and chillies.
Because there was cream in that sauce, I'm suggesting a dairy free ice here.
These little biscuits I'm going to serve with the granita
are like little flat sweet crisps.
They're full of little air holes.
Like something you'd expect to see in a cafe or restaurant.
Really, really easy to make at home.
The predominant flavour here is nuts.
You can use a mixture of different nuts.
I've got some brazil nuts, pecan nuts and almonds.
I find the textures and flavours are better if you use a varied mixture.
You can chop them by hand if you want.
I put them into the food processor and rendered them into a grit I suppose you'd call it.
Add the nuts to the butter.
Then add some caster sugar.
Two teaspoons of water.
One teaspoon of apple pectin.
The pectin gives the mixture a lovely elastic quality.
The final ingredient is liquid glucose.
This will help to make the biscuits keep
really well when they're cooked.
They'll keep for 24, even 36 hours.
At this point it's a strange looking composition of ingredients.
I just want to dissolve the liquid glucose and
make sure all of my ingredients are mixed together.
Also just to break down the sugar.
We're just melting them until it's literally that consistency.
As simple as that.
Using a teaspoon, dollop the mixture onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
Allow a little space between them for the biscuits to expand.
You don't have to spread it out. It will find its own level.
I've got space to do a couple of tiny ones.
This can be the cook's taste.
That's those ready to go into the oven.
I've preheated my oven to 180.
When the biscuits come out of the oven they'll be slightly molten.
In a matter of moments they set to this really, really lovely air-filled crisp.
It's like a sweet crisp.
I can go ahead an make my granita.
Granitas are really easy to make.
It's an ice. A slightly coarse ice.
If I was making a sorbet, I'd be trying to get something super smooth.
This is supposed to be gritty and icy.
I'm making it today with kiwi fruit.
Watch out for the woody piece just in there.
Just get that out of the equation.
Peel the kiwi and roughly chop it.
You don't have to be too precise because the next stage is blitzing.
What's very important is you don't over blend the mixture.
Part of the beauty of a kiwi fruit visually are the beautiful seeds.
They're like the colour of Kilkenny marble.
But if you break those up they're really peppery and
I don't want the granita to be too peppery.
I'm going to render it to a puree for sure but I don't want to break up the black seeds.
Then add in my caster sugar and the perfect flavour accompaniment, a lime.
Zest the lime using a microplane.
The fantastic aroma that it gives out makes complete sense when
it's in the same place as the kiwi fruit.
You can understand straight away why those two ingredients
are going to absolutely love each other.
That's all my zest.
Whenever I'm juicing citrus fruit, I like to press on them heavily.
To render it soft.
See the way it's soft and squishy like a squash ball.
It's much easier to get the juice out then.
I feel you get more juice out.
Squeeze in a generous dash of lime juice.
Gently pulse with a hand blender.
Remember, don't overdo it.
If you break up these seeds you'll end up with a bitter granita.
That's the consistency I'm after.
Just liquidy looking. No large bits except for one I just found.
There's always a rogue and there it is. Sorry rogue!
Another stir. We've got that lovely liquidy consistency.
No large bits of kiwi that are just going to freeze into
icy bits of kiwi. That's absolutely perfect.
To make it into a granita you need to freeze it.
Leave it in the freezer until the mixture is semi-frozen and slushy looking.
Then take it out and beat it up with a fork.
Bring the frozen granita back into the middle and mix it all up.
So you don't have any large, really big lumps.
Repeat this freezing and mixing process three more times.
When the granita is finally ready, you'll see that the mixture has
crystallised and you're left with these lovely shards of kiwi.
This is absolutely so simple.
We could have that on its own. I've often eaten it on its own.
But I want to just take it another step further by serving a little sauce with it.
I've got some orange juice here which I've just squeezed.
Orange juice by the way comes out of a round orange thing,
not out of a box.
Freshly squeezed like that.
Add some caster sugar for some extra sweetness.
And some passion fruit.
These are really, really perfect.
That dimple like that, love it. Exactly right.
I just want the juice.
I'm going to just scoop out the seeds with a spoon.
That is really, really delicious.
Sweet tasting, flavour filled juice.
It pairs brilliantly with the granita.
By the way, you don't have to sieve out the seeds.
Some people love the crunchy seeds. Some people don't like them.
I usually do sieve them out.
Particularly given that I've got little seeds in the kiwi fruit in the granita anyway.
Then all I do is pass that through a sieve.
The combination of orange juice and passion fruit is a really good combination of flavours.
When you get to that stage and you think I'm there, go a little further.
Keep at it and the more of the flesh that you get out, the more
flavoursome it's going to be.
The flesh that's closest to the seed is the most flavoursome.
Stir the juice until all the sugar has been completely dissolved.
Now, we're ready to serve.
Take some of the granita. Pop it in.
This is so fresh tasting. Really, really refreshing.
Now drizzle our delicious orange and passion fruit juice over the top.
It would be absolutely lovely just like that or with
our little lovely lacy nut biscuits.
It's really fantastic with it.
: Tracey Carr, RTE 2015.