Spring has sprung! Wild garlic, chicken and cheese quesadillas

Wild garlic has finally arrived in the hedgerows, and I am in heaven. It's definitely my favourite foraged food, and I am trying to create a new recipe every day at the moment to keep up with the supply. Quesadillas are a kind of toasted sandwich made with wraps and my kids absolutely love them as they're so easy to make, but they tend to stick to the standard-issue ham and cheese variety. So this recipe is to get them experimenting with a protein-packed snack with a seasonal twist.

You can use a pizza wheel to slice the finished quesadilla into triangles, which also travel well, stacked and wrapped in foil. Serves 4

8 soft white tortilla wraps

300g grated strong cheddar, divided into four equalpiles

250g cooked chicken chopped in small pieces

4 tbsp finely chopped young wild garlic leaves

salt and pepper

4 tbsp sour cream

4 tsp olive oil

Lay out the tortillas and scatter half the grated cheese evenly over all four wraps.

Sprinkle over the cooked chicken and wild garlic. Finish by adding the rest of the pile of cheese, and smooth until everything is evenly distributed.Season with salt and pepper.

Lay out the four remaining tortillas and spread a tablespoon of sour cream over each one, then place one each on top of the existing cheese covered wraps

Heat a large frying pan, big enough to take the whole wrap without folding it and add a teaspoon of oil. Carefully place a filled quesadilla in the pan and cook over a medium heat until it is crispy and the cheese is starting to melt. Check if the bottom of the quesadilla is cooked by lifting up a corner with a spatula. It should be golden, not blackened.

When the bottom is cooked, slide the whole tortilla onto a plate and cover tightly with another plate. Flip it over and slide back into the pan to cook the other side. When both sides are golden and the cheese has melted, eat!

I love chicken pie

February is the time to celebrate love in all its forms, and this was my Valentines supper last month for the three local magazines who feature my recipes. This is universally loved by everyone in my home, and hopefully will be in yours too.  This recipe for 'I love chicken pie' is taken from my book ‘Food for your brood’ and is one of the most popular meals I have ever cooked.

Chicken Pie is the ultimate comfort food. With a pie on the table, friends feel welcome, children are reassured and grown ups come over all nostalgic for days and recipes long past. Old fashioned pies,  particularly those made from Christmas leftovers, traditionally mix poultry and pig, using remaindered turkey with chopped up boxing day gammon to impart a salty sweetness. My take on this is sausage meatballs, which are tasty and provide a good excuse for kids to help by squeezing meat out of the skins. Use flavoured or super herby sausages if you want extra flavour as they will finish the pie off beautifully.

It's a tradition in our house that all those who are eating the pie get their initials on the top of the pie, which is another good job for the kids. Give them free rein and you'll get a masterpiece on top of your masterpiece. I guarantee every time you serve this up one of your guests will sigh and say 'I love chicken pie' 

Feeds 6-8

2 tbsp olive oil

30g butter

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 medium red onion finely sliced

1.5kg skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into four pieces each (or six if they are huge)

1 tbsp chopped parsley

1/2 tbsp picked fresh thyme leaves chopped

1 leek finely sliced

6 medium carrots peeled and sliced into coins

4 tbsp flour

350ml white wine

100ml chicken stock

4 tbsp single cream

1tbsp wholegrain mustard

6 fat best-quality-you-can-afford sausages

400g ready rolled butter puff pastry sheet, defrosted

1 beaten egg

Heat the oven to 200 degrees

In a big hob- to -oven casserole, heat the oil and butter gently, then add garlic and onion and sauté gently until translucent.

Add the leeks, chicken, parsley, chicken and carrots and cook gently for twenty minutes until the chicken is cooked but not boiled.

Sprinkle over the flour and mix in thoroughly until everything in the pan is coated, then slowly add the white wine, then the chicken stock.

Bring to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, to reduce the sauce a little

Check the chicken pieces are cooked through then turn the heat right down and stir in the cream without allowing it to boil.

Add mustard and season to taste, then pour the mixture into your pie dish and set aside.

Cut your sausages from their string and (if there are kids around at this point, call them over) squeeze out walnut sized balls from each sausage skin so that you have about 30 little sausage meatballs.

Heat a non-stick frying pan and brown the sausage balls, then drop them evenly over the pie mixture. Be scrupulously fair about distribution as it will save arguements later.

Roll out the pastry to the size of your pie dish, saving a little strip for decorations. If you have a pie bird place it in the middle at this point. Drape the pastry over the dish and trim the edges, adding the trimmings to your decorating strip. Use a fork to make indentations all around the edges of the pastry and cut a hole in the centre to let the steam out whilst cooking.

Decorate the pie with pastry letters, hearts, whatever you feel like and then egg wash the pie with the beaten egg.

Put in the centre of the oven for about 50-60 minutes, checking to see if it is golden brown on top before taking out. This goes well with any carbs, but is without doubt, at its absolute best with a pile of buttery, smooth mashed potato and a big bowl of peas on the side.

Chelsea cakes for London Design Week

ESPRESSO DESIGN’S CHELSEA CAKES

Espresso Design recently opened a fabulous new showroom in the gorgeous Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour and they asked me to come up with some tasty treats for launch week. I love Welsh cakes - yummy little dry-fried currant cakes sprinkled with sugar, so I decided to create a spicy Chelsea Bun inspired version with cinnamon and brown sugar.  I think they liked it - over 400 cakes disappeared over London Design Week, and pictures of the little heart shaped cakes were all over social media. 

The dough can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for a day if you need to. Makes approximately 30 cakes.

220g self raising flour

½ tsp mixed spice

¼ cinnamon

80g golden caster sugar plus more for dredging

100g butter, diced

40g sultanas

1 egg yolk

4 tbsp. milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

Sift the flour, spice, cinnamon and sugar into a large bowl. Add in the diced butter and mix to coat it with flour. Using your fingers, carefuly rub the butter in to the dry ingredients until it looks like fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sultanas. Mix the egg yolk in a small bowl with the milk and vanilla essence, then using a knive, stir it into the flour mixture, until it makes a soft dough. If it’s very dry, add another tablespoon of milk.

Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll out until it’s about 1cm thick. Cut out 4cm wide shapes (I use a star or heart cutter, but a round one will work just as well)  gather up the offcuts, re-roll and cut out more shapes. Keep going until you have used all the dough.

Heat a frying pan or griddle and grease it very slightly. Cook the Chelsea cakes in batches for 1-2 minutes on each side until they are nicely golden, then dredge with caster sugar and eat warm.

Wonderful wild garlic oil

Wild garlic starts appearing in March and April, and although it grows happily around my village, you might find that the locations are as closely guarded as the best wild mushroom sites. It’s hardly suprising, as this fabulous little plant is seriously tasty and hugely versatile. It’s also very seasonal, as it’s not really farmed commercially, which makes it even more special.

 Many cooks use it like spinach, sauteed in a little butter, or add handfuls of freshly washed leaves in simple salads. But if you want to keep yourself in wild garlic long after it disappears from the hedgerows, these recipes are ideal.

The first, for wild garlic oil, isn’t really a recipe, more a preparation, but we made a few jars last year and it lasted in the fridge for about three weeks. Wild garlic pesto will also keep for a week but I suspect you won’t be able to hold out that long without finishing it all.

 Make sure you wash the leaves gently but thoroughly as it often growns on verges. Later in the season, it will develop pretty white flowers which are perfectly edible and look great sprinkled over salads too.  And if your foraging friends are strangely unforthcoming on where to look, just grab your wellies and head out for a few walks. There’s plenty to go around, it’s just a question of finding your own patch.

 WILD GARLIC OIL

 Four big handfuls of wild garlic, washed and dried

400ml olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

 Add everything to a mini processor or hand held blender, and blitz until the garlic is finely chopped. Store in a jam jar in the fridge and use as a base for pasta sauces, stews and soups. Also good mixed with vingera for a tangy salad dressing

 WILD GARLIC PESTO

 3 big handfuls of wild garlic, gently washed and dried

75g finely grated parmesan

100ml olive oil

salt and pepper

2 tbsp pine nuts.

 Blitz the garlic, parmesan and oil for a few seconds in a mini processor just until its finely chopped – you don’t want it to be completely pureed. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

 Gently dry roast the pine nuts in a frting pan with no oil until they are goldne brown. Watch them very carefuly as they cook as they go from brown to black very fast.

 When they are ready, pour them into the pesto mix whole. They will spit and crackle a little but that’s all part of the fun. I like to keep them whole for the texture, but you can also blitz the nuts in the processor if you prefer you pesto to be super-smooth.

 Pour into a jar or airtight plastic container and pour a tin layer of oil over the top, which will stop the pesto from going brown before you use it. This will serve 3-4 when run through a plate of pasta or use it to dollop little bits of a mozzarella and tomato salad.