How To Make Good Food Go Further: Recipes and Tips from The New English Kitchen

½ teaspoon ground cloves

a pinch of ground cinnamon

1 glass of sherry

175ml/6fl oz chicken stock

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a pan, add the garlic and cook until golden. Stir in the breadcrumbs, almonds, parsley, spices and some black pepper. Add the sherry, bring to the boil and simmer for a minute. Then pour in the stock and simmer for a further minute. Season to taste with salt. Serve with rice, beside roasted poultry or game.

Traditional bread sauce

Serves 6

600ml/1 pint whole milk

1 onion, peeled and halved, studded with 5 cloves

a pinch of grated nutmeg

about 10 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs

1 tablespoon butter

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Put the milk in a pan and add the onion halves and nutmeg. Heat to boiling point, then turn off the heat and leave to stand for at least half an hour. Reheat, adding enough fresh breadcrumbs to form a thick sauce, then stir in the butter and season to taste. If the sauce becomes too thick, let it down with more milk.

Breadcrumb coatings – suspicious minds

In Italy, difficult food is made appetising for children by coating it in breadcrumbs: veal, chicken or lamb is hammered until thin, then concealed in a crust. It is a proven means of getting children used to the flavour of real meat and away from fast-food nugget culture. You can also use the technique for plaice, prawns, green vegetables such as courgettes – in fact anything that you may not normally get past their suspicious minds on the basis that it is not chips. Crumbed food can be fried in a shallow layer of olive or sunflower oil. Keep an eye on the temperature; the food should emerge from the pan golden, not mahogany.

You need three bowls:

Bowl 1 – contains about 3 tablespoons of plain flour with a tiny pinch of salt. Dip the raw food in this first; it allows the egg to stick to the breadcrumbs and puff away from the meat.

Bowl 2 – contains 1 beaten egg. This is the glue, which firms up when cooking and prevents the breadcrumbs falling off. Dip the floured food in the egg, coating it fully. Use your fingers, tongs or 2 forks.

Bowl 3 – contains the breadcrumbs. For 4 pieces of chicken, fill to 2cm/¾ inch deep. Use fresh or dried breadcrumbs; you will discover your own preference. Dip the egg-coated meat into the breadcrumbs and roll it around until evenly coated.

*kitchen note*

Any food that has been crumbed will keep safely in the fridge for the usual time without spoiling. You can also freeze the crumb-coated food before you cook it.

Breadcrumbs and garlic with pasta

If possible, use orecchiette pasta for this dish, because the little, saucer-like shapes catch the breadcrumbs so neatly.

Serves 4

400g/14oz broccoli, broken into florets

400g/14oz short durum wheat pasta

2 garlic cloves, crushed

4 tablespoons fresh or dried breadcrumbs

4 tablespoons olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

freshly grated Parmesan cheese, to serve

Bring 2 pans of water to the boil and add salt. Cook the broccoli for 5 minutes and the pasta for whatever time is recommended on the packet (reputable Italian brands give very accurate cooking instructions). The idea is for both to be ready at the same time, so you can drain them in the same colander.

Just before you serve, fry the garlic and breadcrumbs in the oil until golden. Drain the pasta and broccoli and return them to the pasta pan. Stir in the breadcrumbs, season with salt and pepper and serve with grated Parmesan cheese.