Rose Prince - The New English Kitchen - Changing the Way You Shop, Cook and Eat

Bowl 3 – contains the breadcrumbs. For 4 pieces of chicken, fill to 2cm/ 3/4inch 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.

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.

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.

Use steamed courgettes, shredded Savoy cabbage, spring greens, calabrese or string beans instead of the broccoli.

A treat for large mussels or clams on the half shell. The butter and crumbs make expensive shellfish go further because you can mop up the juices with crusty white bread. You can also serve scallops in the same way.

Serves 4

120g/4oz unsalted butter, left at room temperature overnight

6 sprigs of parsley, finely chopped

6 heaped tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

24 large mussels or 40 clams, cleaned (see here)

sea salt

Pound together the butter, parsley, breadcrumbs and garlic and work in a pinch of salt.

Put the mussels or clams in a large pan, then cover and place over a fairly high heat for 2–3 minutes, until they open. Allow to cool. Remove the top half of each shell, leaving the mussel or clam in the other half. Spread a little stuffing into each ( 1/2–1 teaspoonful, depending on the size of the shell). Arrange on ovenproof plates – individual ones are best – and place under a hot grill. If you do not have a grill, preheat the oven to 240°C/475°F/Gas Mark 9. Cook until the breadcrumbs are singed and the butter bubbling.

If you have any leftover steamed mussels, cockles or clams, you can fill them with the breadcrumb stuffing and store them in the freezer if there is no immediate use for them. Even a few make an unusually good snack to have with drinks. Grill or bake as above.

I love recipes with soaked bread. It’s funny but I could never stomach puddings or any dish made with soaked grains but sopping wet bread is in a realm of its own. Why else would just about everyone love bread and butter pudding? Bread dishes usually look a total mess but no one minds. The following recipes are for both fresh and stale bread.

Another bread salad, this time one that uses breadcrumbs from sourdough or ciabatta bread. It is lovely and soggy, with oil, peppers, tomatoes and herbs. You can tailor-make it to your taste. Some prefer to leave out the garlic so you can really taste the quality of the olive oil. Serve it for dinner and most will think they are being given a plate of cold porridge but will come round after the first mouthful.

Italians call this dish panzanella , and the restaurant of the same name in Northcote Road (a wonderful market street in Battersea) gave me its approximate method, which I reproduce here. The restaurant uses Puglian bread but any rustic-style sourdough bread will work.

Serves 4

1/ 2day-old ciabatta or sourdough loaf

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1 garlic clove, finely chopped (optional)

1 carrot, finely grated

6 sprigs of parsley, chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:

1/ 2fresh red chilli, chopped, or a strip of sweet red pepper,

chopped

halved cherry tomatoes

small black olives

Tear up the bread, put it in a food processor and whiz to rough crumbs. Put them in a bowl, cover with cold water and leave for 5 minutes. Pour the breadcrumbs into a sieve and, using a ladle, press down to squeeze out all the water. Return the breadcrumbs to the bowl. They won’t look too appetising but once you add the oil and vinegar, have a taste. Add the other ingredients, stirring them in well. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Scatter the chopped chilli, halved cherry tomatoes and olives on top.

This is much, much nicer than French onion soup. Instead of one large croûton with cheese in each bowl, the bread is layered, club-sandwich style, with the cheese and baked separately. The hot soup is then ladled over the top.

Serves 4

5 tablespoons olive oil

1.4kg/3lb pink or white onions, sliced

a large pinch of dried thyme

175 ml/6 fl oz red wine

1.2 litres/2 pints well-flavoured beef stock

4 large slices of sourdough bread

1 garlic clove, lightly crushed but left whole

4 heaped tablespoons grated hard cheese (see Kitchen

Note overleaf)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large pan and add the onions, thyme and some salt. Cook over a very, very low heat for about 45 minutes, until pale gold, soft and sweet tasting. Add the wine, deglazing or scraping any cooking bits from the base of the pan with a wooden spatula. Add the beef stock and bring to simmering point. Taste for seasoning and add salt if necessary. Grind over a little black pepper.

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5. Rub each slice of bread with the garlic, brush with the remaining oil and cut into quarters. Place 4 pieces of bread in a baking dish. Spoon a dessertspoonful of the cooked onions on to each, followed by a teaspoon of grated cheese, then place another piece of bread on top and repeat, continuing until you have used up all the bread and have 4 multi-layered croûtons. Bake them in the oven for about 15 minutes, until the tops are golden and bubbling.

Put a croûton in each serving bowl. Bring the soup back to boiling point if you have set it to one side. Ladle the onion broth over the croûtons and serve immediately.

I recommend using a hard sheep’s milk, Pecorino-style cheese, such as Lord of the Hundreds or Somerset Rambler, for the croûtons. You could also use a traditional farmhouse Cheddar or other cow’s milk cheese, hard or crumbly. See herefor information on cooking with British and Irish cheeses.

This moulded pudding made from dry white bread and a mixture of lightly stewed berries doesn’t require an exact recipe. You will need enough fruit to fill the pudding basin you wish to use, plus a little over. You could use a traditional pudding basin, a soufflé dish or any shallow dish. I sometimes make summer pudding in large plastic containers for children’s meals, serving helpings from them as and when needed. Raspberries, blackberries, tayberries, red and blackcurrants are all suitable for the filling – it’s best to use a mixture, but the pectin-rich raspberries are pretty much essential. You can use strawberries, but they tend to disintegrate wastefully when cooked.