Jill's recipes

This is a very simple dish to prepare. You put all of the ingredients in a roasting dish and pop in the oven to do the rest. All the flavours infuse together and the alcohol and mustard give the chicken a real kick. Serve with rice, peas and broccoli.

This was prepared last night for two talented BBC 2018 MasterChef finalist watchers that run their own kitchen at home and they came back for seconds. Need I say more?

Les Cornettes in Chapelle d’Abondance set the bar for this dish some 20 years ago and it has been set very high. So high that every time when the question is asked of the 30 or so dishes on the menu "what do you want for dessert”, the answer comes back Crème Brulee every time. Could have chosen Dame Blanche or something other but NO, it is always Crème Brulee. So this is the one to match or beat. This also allows you to show off your skills with the blow touch and acts as a warning to others not to mess with you when you have it in your hand. It is clearly man’s work.

I read something that said "Ricciarelli di Siena" were originally made in convents or apothecaries, the pharmacies of the past, using spices and aromas essential for their flavouring and storing. And it goes on to say that this tradition is visible today in ancient spice shops near Piazza del Campo, where there are preserved frescoed ceilings with gold lettering praising Ricciarelli, Panforte and other local sweets being made in these shops. Sienese playwright Parige has a Sienese character in his novels "Ricciardetto della Gherardesca", where the name Ricciarelli is said to come from, who, returning to Volterra from the Crusades brought Arab sweets that were curled in the shape of the Sultan’s slippers. Whether you believe any of this guff, all I know is that in the streets of Siena you will find bakers selling fresh Ricciarelli. And there is no better place to buy these from than Nannini. You can buy Ricciarelli fresh or boxed/packaged. The fresh ones need to be eaten very soon after purchase, the boxed ones last slightly longer. They are sweets made with almonds, sugar and egg white and real ones supposedly have orange peel. I have not found anyone yet who does not like them. This recipe here seems to be fairly widespread and was tested yesterday. The taste was bang on and they were very quickly consumed by all that sampled them. But as only excellence is good enough here, I need to further work-on getting them to have more cracks on the top and be slightly less chewy on the edges. Neither of which spoil their delight but I am working on capturing that Nannini experience to the letter.

The two pictures show my prototypes from yesterday (with the required grappa accompaniment in the background) and the required production version along with the appropriate cracking (but no grappa).

Although porchetta can be found throughout Italy (most notably in Lazio), it originated in the central region of Umbria. A hefty fennel flavouring sets it apart from other regional porchettas, with Umbrians basing the stuffing on the plentiful wild fennel that grows there. In Lazio, rosemary tends to be the most prominent flavouring. A true porchetta is made from whole suckling pig, stuffed with flavourings such as fennel, herbs, and indeed its own offal, cooked over a pit until perfectly tender. This is, of course, a bit of an ask for the home cook, so we've captured all of the flavours of a porchetta and adapted them into something much more easy to handle using pork belly and loin – the results are stunning.

A typical German type apple strudel that is easy to cook

Dutch Poffertjes, not to be confused with a desert with a similar name (French Profiteroles), are baked in a special Dutch Poffertjes pan, a pan with indentations of a diameter of ~3cm. They are often found in the German Christmas markets but as we have a Poffertjes maker in Châtel, we can sample them after a hard day's snowboarding. The important thing is that they have to be liberally splashed with either Amaretto or Grand Marnier before serving.

Some people can make a world winning roulade. So to make things a little more tricky, this recipe combines fixing a bike in the kitchen at the same time as trying to make the roulade. It also has the added bonus of shifting some spare egg whites after the previous night's world winning creme brulee.

Yummy limoncello pudding by Elaine as endorsed by Master Chef Andrew Booth (award wining pizza chef Michelin star 3)

Another family favourite. Maybe not be great for your waistline but real comfort food! This recipe makes 2 sponges but one portion of toffee sauce. I usually freeze one of the cakes and then make a fresh toffee sauce when I use it.

A traditional Italian dish made with veal. If you are unable to get veal it can also be made with turkey or chicken breast escallops.