Home Made: Good, honest food made easy

My mother is my inspiration for how to run a home; no matter how busy she was, she would always have time for us and would make sure that we had everything we needed. My mother puts me to shame: not only did she manage the farm, the home and cook all our food from scratch, but she also still made sure that she always had her lipstick on! When my brothers and sister and I would come home from school or play, tired from our exertions and having worked up an appetite, there would always be a meal ready and waiting for us, and I can even remember a time when everything on the table – from the butter to the wine – was made by her.

Like my mother, I have this idea that there are some things that only I can do for my children, and if you ask my friends and family about this they’ll tell you that I like to do everything myself. Unlike my mother, I have no desire to make my own butter, bread, or even wine, but I do feel passionately about providing the family with healthy, nutritious and home-cooked food. Before I had children, good soulful home-cooked food was something that I reminisced about; certain smells and dishes have always reminded me of places and people in my life and spark happy memories of growing up with my family and of my mother’s amazing cooking, but now I see it as an essential part of creating a sense of home for my own family.

Because my weekdays are usually spent juggling work and ferrying the children between school and post-school activities, I find that the best way of ensuring these meals are on the table every night is to plan them in advance. Getting ahead a few days at a time means that I always know what I’m going to be cooking and don’t have to think about it as the children spill through the door, tired, hungry and expectantly sniffing for the comforting smells from the kitchen that will reassure them their dinner is on its way. Sometimes this planning might only go as far as knowing that I’m going to cook chicken one night and fish or pasta another, and then it’s a case of raiding the cupboard or the fridge and perhaps using up what’s in there to go with it. But that’s often enough to make life easier, and I love being able to pull out various ingredients to produce something quick and delicious from a few odds and ends. Of course, I’ve cooked all the recipes in this book at some time or another, but if I’m honest, the majority were created just by experimenting with what ingredients I had at the time.

So that’s why this new collection of recipes is based around my favourite core ingredients: chicken and duck, beef, fish and seafood, lamb, pork, vegetables, potatoes, fruit and chocolate, and also essential dishes such as soups, pizza and pasta. My aim is to give you inspiration for those times when you stand staring into the fridge wondering what to do with the chicken thighs, pork, or salmon fillet that you want to cook tonight, and to give you a few new options for easy ways to pep up essential basic ingredients with just a few extra ones. Good honest home cooking doesn’t need to be complicated; even putting the simplest meal on the table should warm the heart and restore the soul, just because it gives you the opportunity to sit down together as a family.

My attitude to cooking – and to family life in general – is quite relaxed and not precious, and I suppose I’m more of a ‘chuck it all in the pan’ kind of cook. This is probably because, on busy weeknights when the family are all returning home at different hours, I don’t have time to mess around with complicated dishes and getting everything just so. If I do follow a recipe, I use it as the skeleton of a dish, and I’ll happily substitute one vegetable for another that I have in the fridge that needs using up, for instance, or use something that looked particularly appealing when I was out shopping. So when following any recipe, mine included, my advice would be to not get hung up on quantities – if there are three mushrooms left in the bag more than the recipe calls for, chuck them in too, or if the recipe demands two celery sticks and you have only one, don’t rush down to the supermarket to buy it. Getting a meal on the table for the family after a long day at work or doing other things can be stressful enough, so why make it more complicated than it needs to be?

So if, like me, you think about your meals in advance and like to have meat or chicken a couple of times a week, or pasta once, or keep desserts only for the weekend, then I hope this book will help you to make a few decisions on what you’re going to cook. The chapters here are divided up by the ingredients I cook with most at home and reflect how I plan the meals for my lot. Whether you’re cooking a revitalizing supper for a horde of hungry schoolchildren, a lovely, homely meal for the frazzled family winding down on a Friday night, a lazy weekend lunch for friends and extended family, or a cosy meal à deux after the kids have gone to bed, I hope you can find something here that suits your needs, keeps your family happy at the end of a day, and that the look on their faces as they tuck in will remind you just how good home cooking can be.

Simply SOUPS (#ulink_7da95c75-6361-5c8e-bb25-393cb2a6e28e)

Where would we be without soups? I love them for their sheer all-roundness; they’re possibly the ultimate comfort food – winter or summer. A hearty warming bowl of soup is always gratefully received after a cold wet couple of hours running around a sports pitch (or, for us, standing on the sidelines!), or after an energetic swimming lesson that leaves the children starving and in need of heat and sustenance. Equally, a refreshing, chilled gazpacho on a hot summer’s day can perfectly bridge the gap between the food and fluids you need to keep going – satisfying a light appetite and quenching your thirst.

My kids have eaten soup from an early age because it was always something they could tackle by themselves – which meant one less battle with toddlers trying to exert their independence! Even now soup is one of their favourite meals for supper or lunch, especially eaten from a mug, which they love to wrap their fingers around on a cold day, with warm good bread to dunk in the soup as they eat. Even the heartiest soup makes a great light supper late at night when you don’t want anything too heavy before you go to sleep.

Some of these recipes need an hour or so to cook through, which makes them ideal evening meals that can be part- or fully-prepared earlier in the day. If I’m at home and not rushing out somewhere, I’ll often prepare food in the morning so that when everyone returns home dinner is either bubbling away on the stove, or can be reheated quickly to feed them instantly. Most of these soups, especially the gazpacho, can also even benefit from being prepared the night before – either while the children are eating their dinner or made, with a glass of wine in your hand, once they’ve gone to bed …

Comforting chicken soup (#ulink_f66df376-5330-5cfe-b2a6-f0eac8cab59b)

A perfect pick-me-up.

1 chicken weighing about 1.25kg/2

/

lb

1 stick of celery, sliced

1 carrot, peeled and halved

2 leeks, white parts only, cleaned, trimmed and chopped

2 medium onions, peeled and chopped

1 bay leaf

6 peppercorns

1 sprig of tarragon

50g/2oz butter

2 tbsp plain flour

100ml/3

/

fl oz whipping cream

1 tbsp dry sherry

salt

1 small bunch of chives, finely sliced, to garnish

Serves: 4-6

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour

50 minutes plus cooling

1 Choose a saucepan, with a lid, that fits the chicken and allows a little room for other vegetables. Put the chicken into the centre of the pot and surround with the celery, carrot and half the leeks and onions. Throw in the bay leaf, peppercorns, tarragon and a generous pinch of salt and pour over enough water almost to cover the bird, leaving the top of the breast clear. It will poach in the steam. Put on the hob and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to a slow simmer. Put on the lid and cook very gently for 11/2 hours.

2 When the time is up, remove from the heat and allow to cool for as long as it takes to remove the chicken safely. Put the chicken to one side.

3 Pour the cooking liquor through a fine sieve into a clean pan and discard all the vegetables and seasonings. Boil the liquor until reduced to about 1 litre/11/2 pints.

4 Meanwhile, in a clean pan, melt the butter on a medium heat and add the remaining chopped onion and leek. Fry until soft, but not coloured. Add the flour and stir well to make a smooth paste around the vegetables. Fry for a couple of minutes, then gradually stir in the reduced cooking liquor. Increase the heat and bring to the boil, stirring all the time. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly, then liquidize in batches.

5 Return the liquidized mixture to the saucepan and bring back to a simmer. Add the cream and sherry.

6 Using your hands, remove the breast meat from the chicken carcass, discarding the skin. Shred the meat into very small pieces and add to the soup. Season with salt to taste and serve in warm bowls, sprinkled with the chives.

When we’ve had a really full day, or we’ve battled through bad weather and traffic to get home, or if someone is feeling ill or down, nothing beats a simple supper to revive the spirits.

We all have foods we crave when we’re not feeling 100 per cent; Megan loves my chicken soup, and Holly egg and soldiers, while Jack and Matilda are comforted by anything on toast. In our family, soups are right up there on the list of comfort foods, along with juicy steak sandwiches, fluffy mash, deliciously fresh and zingy salmon steaks, or a perfectly cooked roast. Desserts are a weekend thing for us, and none of us crave them during the week, so simple, savoury food is usually enough to lift the mood and cast aside the cares of the day.

I’m a great believer in the power of food to heal and soothe; and by this I don’t mean reaching for the chocolate as soon as you get through the door to make yourself feel better. Normally I find that listening to my body and having just a little of what I crave works wonders.

Spicy fish soup (#ulink_9b3def92-6475-54c2-b567-34c86b20c0e2)

This is perfect for serving as a meal for the entire family. Add Tabasco to taste for those who prefer a chilli kick – my grandfather and son always used to fight over who could handle the most Tabasco!

3 tbsp olive oil

4 large onions, peeled and roughly chopped

4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped

2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped

3 each red and green peppers, deseeded and chopped