Mary Berry - One Step Ahead: Over 100 simple make-ahead recipes and tips to save you time and effort

This book is dedicated with a big thank-you to Lucy Young, who has been working with me now for some seventeen years.

First published in 2007 by Quadrille Publishing Limited,

Pentagon House, 5254 Southwark Street,

London SE1 1UN

Quadrille is an imprint of Hardie Grant

www.hardiegrant.com.au

This edition was first published in 2016

Editorial Director: Jane O'Shea

Creative Director: Helen Lewis

Editor and Project Manager: Lewis Esson

Art Director: Mary Evans

Photography: Martin Brigdale

Styling: Helen Trent

Food Styling: Annie Rigg

Production: Vincent Smith, Ruth Deary

Text Mary Berry 2007

Photographs Martin Brigdale 2007

Edited text, design & layout Quadrille Publishing Ltd 2007

The rights of Mary Berry to be identified as the Author of this Work have been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

Cataloguing in Publication Data: a catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

eISBN 978 184949 896 8

Contents

My cooking is very much about really good food, using quality ingredients to achieve wonderful results.

We all have busy lives, and in my case the family is growing, so we enjoy informal entertaining, often round the kitchen table, and as a result I really do regularly get One Step Ahead with my cooking. So, when Quadrille asked me to put pen to paper 18 months ago, I was delighted. This book was right up my street.

I am, anyway, generally a fairly organised person and I find this invaluable when having friends or family for supper. However, I only prepare ahead when the dish is just as good cooked in advance as it is when served immediately. Youll see that in each recipe I give a holding point to which the recipe can be taken and tell you how long this can be. This information will give you confidence and the knowledge that your food is going to be served on time as well as be delicious. Often the whole dish can be made ahead, but sometimes it may just be the sauce. Cooking One Step Ahead earlier in the day or on the day before means you can relax and enjoy time with your friends when they arrive.

In each recipe I also mention whether or not a dish can be frozen. If it can, always make sure your dish is completely cold and well wrapped before freezing, and remember, the quality of the dish you are freezing will be the same as the quality of the dish you are defrosting! If time allows, I always prefer to defrost the dishes I have frozen in the fridge.

It is important to use the freshest of ingredients and the best quality you can afford this is the secret to good cooking. In the recipes in this book, you will see that I have often made use of basic store-cupboard ingredients. The advantage of this is that you are always prepared and have the staples to hand. However, I dont use too many different such ingredients. I like to stick to the same spices that I use fairly often and keep to basics likemango chutney, Worcestershire sauce, dark soy sauce, hoisin sauce and fish sauce, so you wont end up having a cupboard full of ingredients that you may only use for one recipe. Any opened jars or bottles should be kept in the fridge, and spices should be kept in the dark to prevent them from discolouring and losing their flavour. For example, in some recipes I have cheated a bit and used ready-made pesto this is to make life easier and preparation quicker. Also, some of the ready-made ingredients like this you can buy now are of very good quality indeed.

As an aside, I am thrilled there are so many photographs in this book. The photography is stunning and on some recipes there are also step-by-step pictures to guide you along the way, so the illustrations are as useful as they are enticing.

Cooking should be a pleasure a joy for you to do and a delight for your guests to enjoy. I hope that this book will make life easier for you in the kitchen and give you peace of mind and that you always enjoy being One Step Ahead.

Mary Berry

courgette and QUAILS egg tapas

Soft-poached quails eggs should be runny in the middle. Do warn your guests about this before eating, so that they dont get drips down their posh clothes! I learnt how to poach quails eggs when I was at The Raymond Blanc Cookery School at Le Manoir Aux Quat Saisons. It was a great tip from the head tutor. Most good supermarkets sell long thin baguettes that will cut into about 50 slices to make these crostini bases.

MAKES 24

long thin baguette

a little butter, softened

olive oil for frying

2 small courgettes, chopped into very small dice

2 tablespoons pesto

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

24 quails eggs

Line a baking tray with non-stick parchment paper.

Cut the baguette half into 24 slices about 5mm ( inch) thick and spread one side of each with a little butter. Arrange, buttered side down, on the prepared tray.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the courgette dice for about 3 minutes until soft and light golden brown. Stir in the pesto and season with salt and pepper. Set aside to cool.

When cool, spoon the courgette mixture on to the pieces of bread.

To poach the quails eggs, bring a large shallow pan of water with the vinegar in it up to the boil. Crack 12 of the eggs into a small bowl. Whisk the boiling water, and then quickly pour in the eggs. Bring the water back up to the boil, then, using a draining spoon, scoop out the eggs and put them into a bowl of cold water. Trim any extra untidy white from the eggs. Repeat this process with the remaining quails eggs using the same water.

The eggs can be poached a day ahead, then reheated when needed. The bread slices can be topped with the courgettes up to 8 hours ahead. Neither are suitable for freezing.

When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7 and cook the topped bread slices in the oven for about 8 minutes until hot.

While they are in the oven, fill a bowl with hot water from the tap and carefully drop in the eggs for about 5 minutes to reheat them, then put one on each piece of bread when it comes out of the oven. Youll need to make a slight indentation in the courgettes ready to take the egg. Season lightly.

AGA COOKING Bake the tapas on the floor of the roasting oven for about 8 minutes.