Prue Leith's latest cookery book is a collection of simple, wholesome, and most importantly, realistic recipes – think zero-waste whole banana smoothie (including the skin) and homemade hummus (“It’s so much cheaper to make yourself”), to crispy pork belly and traditional coq au vin. Littered throughout are handy hacks, time-saving shortcuts and basic kitchen skills – many with QR codes for video instructions.
Perfect scrambled eggs recipe
Prue Leith scrambled egg technique might surprise a lot of people.
“I once had an argument about how to scramble eggs with the famous French chef Albert Roux,” says Leith. “He claimed anything other than eggs gently and lovingly stirred in a double saucepan over simmering water for 20 minutes or so, until you have a mixture as smooth as Hollandaise sauce, was sacrilege. So, I apologise to any like-minded perfectionists – my eggs are scrambled in seconds.”
“The trick is to yank them off the heat and tip them on to the toast while some of the mixture is still just liquid. And the toast is important. I like it well toasted, so there is a bit of crunch round the edge. Sourdough bread makes the best toast because it’s tough enough not to disintegrate under the wet scramble.
Marmite and rocket aren’t traditional, but “after hundreds of Sunday-night scrambles in front of the telly, I think this version is probably my favourite”, she says.
Ingredients:
(Serves 4)
4 thick slices of bread with about 60g butter
Marmite (optional)
8 large eggs
100ml whole milk
A few good handfuls of rocket leaves (optional)
Salt and black pepper
Method:
1. Toast the bread. Use about half the butter to butter the slices and spread them lightly with Marmite, if using. Put them on heated dinner plates. Keep warm.
2. Blitz the eggs and milk briefly together in a blender, or whisk them in a bowl until there are no streaks of egg white. Season with salt and pepper.
3. On a medium heat, melt the remaining butter in a large non-stick frying pan and pour in the eggs.
4. Using a spatula or fish slice, keep the mixture moving. Don’t stir wildly – just scrape the mixture from edge to middle as the eggs solidify. When they are almost all cooked, with only 20% or so still runny, spoon the mixture on to the toast – by the time you are done, all the egg will be cooked, but still moist and shiny.
5. Drop a handful of rocket on to each plate, if you like, and serve at once, perhaps with a little extra black pepper over the top.
Prue Leith’s grilled lamb chops with toum and herb recipe
“Toum is a Lebanese condiment similar to aioli but uses garlic to stabilise the sauce rather than egg yolk,” explains Prue Leith, “Which means it’s very garlicky. Yum.”
Grilled lamb chops with toum and herb salad
Ingredients:
(Serves 4)
8-12 lamb chops
1tbsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper
For the toum:
1 garlic bulb, cloves separated, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2tsp salt
200ml vegetable oil
1tbsp lemon juice
For the herb salad:
A handful of flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
A handful of mint leaves, chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
2 tomatoes, diced
1/2 large cucumber, diced
1tbsp olive oil
Method:
1. Prepare the toum by blending the garlic and salt to a paste in a blender or food processor. Scrape down the inside and blend again. Slowly drizzle in the oil while the motor is running until the mixture becomes thick and emulsified. Stir in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Heat the grill (broiler) to medium-high and line the grill tray with foil.
3. Arrange the chops on the lined tray and brush them with the olive oil. Season with salt and black pepper.
4. Grill (broil) the chops for three to four minutes, turn them over, oil and season the second side, and grill for a further three to four minutes, until cooked through to medium. Remove the chops from the grill, cover loosely with foil and leave to rest for five minutes, while you make the salad.
5. Mix together the parsley, mint, red onion, tomatoes and cucumber. Drizzle olive oil over the top and toss to combine. Season with salt and black pepper.
6. Arrange the chops on warm plates. Spoon some toum over them and serve with the herb salad.
Prue Leith’s dark chocolate and orange trifle recipe
“Rather egotistically, I consider myself the trifle queen!” says Prue Leith. “Any leftover cake, croissants, brioche, panettone or raisin bread in our house ends up spread with a suitable, sweet spread (jam, honey, Nutella), soaked in a compatible booze (sherry, brandy, rum, fruit or coffee liqueur), and sunk in lashings of custard and cream.
“I’m not above using bought cake and custard either. And I love to decorate the top with a colourful mixture of the traditional trifle toppings (glacé cherries, angelica, walnuts) or more modern ones, like freeze-dried raspberries, fresh fruit and edible flowers.
“Indeed, I mostly just assemble anything I can from the larder and pile the lot on – and I think it looks wonderful.”
Dark chocolate and orange trifle
Ingredients:
(Serves 4-6)
4 large oranges
3tbsp Cointreau or other orange liqueur
300g 70% dark chocolate
500ml double cream
50g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
1 chocolate Swiss roll (about 250g)
500ml vanilla custard
Method:
1. Segment the oranges, keeping any juice separately from the segments.
2. Add the Cointreau or other orange liqueur to the juice.
3. Roughly chop 250 grams of the dark chocolate, then melt it in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally until the chocolate is smooth and fully melted. Remove from the heat and let it cool.
4. Whip 200 mililitres of the cream with the sugar and vanilla until it will just hold its shape.
5. Fold the melted chocolate into the whipped cream until combined, creating a rich chocolate mousse.
6. Cut the Swiss roll into one centimetre-thick slices and use two thirds of them to line the bottom and sides of a deep trifle bowl.
7. Pour half of the orange-juice mixture over the Swiss-roll layer
8. Spread the chocolate mousse over the cake.
9. Arrange the segmented oranges over the mousse, keeping a few back for garnish.
10. Add another layer of Swiss-roll slices, then drizzle them with the remaining orange-juice mixture.
11. Pour the custard all over, spreading it out evenly.
12. Whip the remaining cream until it will just hold its shape (the soft peaks stage).
13. Using a vegetable peeler, shave the remaining chocolate to create chocolate curls for decoration. Or simply grate it.
14. Top the trifle with the whipped cream, remaining orange segments and a sprinkle of chocolate.
15. Chill in the fridge, preferably for two to three hours, or overnight, which gives the dessert time to set. (Although, it will still taste terrific if you have to eat it straight away.)
