- Interview with MasterChef’s John Torode
- Recipes by past MasterChef winners
- Recipes for Allergy Awareness Week
As the latest series of MasterChef draws to its nail-biting end, judge John Torode talks about life on and off set
JOHN Torode and Gregg Wallace may have spent the past decade hosting MasterChef together, but they don’t hang out together when the cameras stop rolling.
‘We’re like an old married couple who travel away from each other all the time,’ says Torode, when asked why their partnership works so well.
‘We don’t really spend time together. I have no idea where he is when we’re not filming. We have very different lives, different tastes, we listen to different music. I’m cool and he’s a bit old and doddery.’
The pair never try to impose their views on each other, adds the 49-year-old, who is back on our screens for the BBC One cookery show. ‘The only things he imposes upon me are his stupid jokes.’
Series 11 has featured 40 amateur cooks competing over 24 episodes. Torode, who grew up in New South Wales, Australia, says he still gets inspired by the home cooks who enter the competition.
‘This year, more than anything, we’ve seen such a diverse group of cooks with really different ideas, with food from all around the place – from street food to really elegant fine dining, to brilliant stuff from Austria and Germany, through to Japan, Italy, France, China, Malaysia and Russia.’
He also has MasterChef to thank for his romance with actress and cookery writer Lisa Faulkner, whom he met when she competed in (and won) Celebrity MasterChef in 2010.
Torode is also working on a new book, My Kind of Food, which is due out later this year, ‘about the food I cook at home, like clams and spaghetti, really good salad, curry, and pies’.
And later this year he will celebrate his 50th birthday. The chef, who has four children from two previous relationships, insists he is not bothered about his age. ‘I hated turning 40, but I’m fine about turning 50. I am what I am.
I don’t feel old, I feel great,’ he says. ‘I’m very privileged to do things like MasterChef, and I’m travelling the world, writing books. I’m doing all right.’
Nadia Sawalha’s sea bass with a tahini sauce, carrot and onion seed salad, and saffron rice
Ingredients (serves 4)
- 4 sea bass fillets, skin on
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the salad:
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 250g onions, finely sliced
- 250g carrots, finely grated
- Salt
- Juice of half a lemon
- ½ tbsp mustard seeds (optional)
- ½ tbsp nigella seeds (black onion seeds)
For the tahini sauce:
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 garlic clove
- 100 ml tahini
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 tbsp finely
- chopped flat-leaf parsley
For the saffron rice:
- Pinch of saffron threads
- 400 ml hot chicken stock
- 25g butter
- 50g blanched almonds
- 200g basmati rice
- 1 tsp baharat spice
- 50g raisins
Method
1. To make the salad, fry the onions in half the oil until golden and caramelised. Put the carrots in a bowl and add salt and lemon juice. Fry the mustard and nigella seeds in the remaining oil until they begin to pop. Tip over the salad and mix well, then stir in the onions.
2. To make the sauce, put the salt into a mortar and pound with the garlic until really smooth. Pour in the tahini and mix with a whisk. Add the lemon juice and whisk until sticky, then whisk in 75ml of warm water. When it
looks like thick double cream, stir in the parsley.
3. Put the saffron in the stock. Melt half the butter in a heavy
pan and fry the almonds gently. When they are golden, remove and set aside.
4. Put the remaining butter in, add the rice and spice, stir, and add the raisins. Pour in the hot stock, season, bring to the boil, give it one more stir and then put the lid on and reduce the heat to as low as possible. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Mix the fried almonds through.
5. Dry the sea bass fillets with kitchen paper. Rub the spices over them and season well. Gently heat the olive oil in a heavy frying
pan and slide the fish in, skin side up. After about three minutes
turn the fillets over and cook on
the other side for another three
minutes or so, depending on their thickness. To serve, form the rice into a mound on the plates and place the fish on it. Top with
the salad and drizzle the sauce around.
James Nathan’s strawberries with sablé biscuits and orange and lemon syllabub
Ingredients (serves 4)
For the sable biscuits:
- 100g plain flour
- 75g unsalted butter
- 100g golden caster sugar
- Grated zest of 1 lemon
- 2 egg yolks
For the orange and lemon syllabub:
- 50g caster sugar
- Grated zest and juice of 1 orange
- Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 300 ml double cream
For the strawberry coulis:
- 350g strawberries
- 50g icing sugar
- 3 tbsp Grand Marnier
To decorate:
- Icing sugar, for sprinkling
- Mint leaves
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F / Gas 6). To make the biscuits, mix the flour, butter, sugar, lemon zest and egg yolks together in a food processor until a soft ball of dough is formed. Rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Roll out thinly. Cut out eight biscuits with a 7 cm pastry cutter and bake in the oven on a greased baking tray until golden, for six to eight minutes.
2. To make the coulis, hull
200g of the strawberries. Purée with the icing sugar and the Grand Marnier in a food processor. Check for sweetness and adjust if necessary. Pass through a fine sieve and chill the mixture until required.
3. For the syllabub, combine the sugar and zest and juice from the orange and lemon. Whisk the cream until it forms soft peaks. Add the citrus mixture and whisk to firm peaks. Chill until required.
4. To serve, put a swirl of the coulis on each plate. Set a biscuit alongside it. Put a few spoonfuls of syllabub in the centre of the biscuit and surround with the remaining strawberries, halved lengthways to make pillars. Top with another biscuit. Sprinkle with icing sugar and add some mint leaves to finish.
Recipes for Allergy Awareness Week
ALLERGY awareness week, which starts on Monday, educates the public about food allergies that are life-changing and can be fatal.
Although there are no cures for food allergies, having the information to eat, order food and shop wisely can make a great difference.
Here are some delicious gluten-free and dairy-free recipes for you to try:
Gluten Free Beetroot & Chocolate Cake, from www.lovebeetroot.co.uk
Serves: 8
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 50 minutes
Ingredients:
- 250g plain cooked (vacuum packed) beetroot, drained and puréed
- 200g quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
- 200g Doves farm gluten free plain flour
- 200g unsalted butter, melted
- 100g dark brown sugar
- 100g caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2tbsp cocoa powder
- 2tsp gluten free baking powder
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- Icing sugar for dusting
Method:
1. Pre heat the oven to 180?C/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line a 23cm loose bottomed cake tin.
2. Break the chocolate into pieces and put in a food processor. Blitz until crumbed but not totally powdered – some larger pieces will give the cake a great texture.
3. Add the beetroot and blend together. Then add the remaining ingredients to the processor and whizz until well mixed. Pour into the prepared cake tin and lightly level out the surface.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. The surface of the cake may have cracked a little. Allow the cake to cool for a few minutes in the tin before removing to a cooling rack.
5. Dust lightly with icing sugar and serve in wedges. For dessert, this cake is great with a little crème fraiche on the side.
* For a beetroot and chocolate cake using oil instead of butter, visit the Cooking & Recipes section of www.lovebeetroot.co.uk.
Streamline raspberry breakfast yoghurt, from www.streamlinefoods.co.uk
Make ahead and take to work for a healthy start to the day. These breakfast yoghurt pots served in the jar look pretty and taste just as good.
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:
- 400g 0% fat Greek Yoghurt
- zest of two limes
- 12 tbsp gluten free granola or muesli
- 8 tbsp Streamline seedless raspberry jam
- 4 empty Streamline jam jars
Method:
1. Put the yoghurt in a bowl, add the zest of two limes and stir well.
2. Put three tablespoons granola or muesli in the bottom of each jar, layer two tablespoons of lime yoghurt on top then one tablespoon of Streamline seedless raspberry jam. Repeat with another layer of yoghurt and jam then finish with yoghurt.
3. Use a skewer to slightly marble the jam with the yoghurt. Put the lids back on and refrigerate. These are great eaten the same day but would keep overnight for breakfast the next morning.
Note: Use your favourite granola or muesli but beware of those with added sugar. We used one with spelt grains, nuts and seeds for extra fibre.
Streamline blackcurrant breakfast muffins (dairy-free), from www.streamlinefoods.co.uk
Cook up a batch of these muffins and they’ll keep you going for breakfast all week. Lovely with a cup of tea too.
Serves: 6
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Ingredients:
- 100g spelt flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- 50g golden caster sugar
- 1 tsp mixed spice
- 50g rapeseed oil
- 1 dessert apple, grated
- 1 medium egg beaten
- 1 banana, mashed
- 50ml oat or soya milk
- 8 tsp Streamline Blackcurrant Jam
- 1 tsp demerara sugar
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4.
2. Line six holes of a muffin tin with muffin cases or greaseproof paper. In a mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, caster sugar and spice. In a separate bowl combine the oil, grated apple, milk, beaten egg and mashed banana. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and combine quickly but don’t over mix.
3. Pour one dessert spoon of mixture into each case and make a well in the centre. Put a teaspoon of Streamline blackcurrant jam in the middle and gently top with another dessert spoon of mixture. Divide any leftover mixture between the cases and sprinkle the top of each muffin with a little demerara sugar. Bake for 25-30 minutes until the tops are browned and the muffins are cooked through. Put on a wire rack to cool.
