Hairy Bikers - The Hairy Bikers British Classics

CONTENTS

Hello everyone and welcome to our great new collection of favourite recipes.

Weve both been cooking since we were children, but our adventures with food really took off when we first met in 1992 while working on the set of a Catherine Cookson drama called The Gambling Man . And we havent looked back. We chucked our day jobs and weve been cooking and writing and filming about food ever since.

Weve had a lifelong love affair with food and we want to share that with you, bringing you some of the classic dishes that weve cooked over the years and some new ones too. Weve been involved in the production of more than 2,000 recipes and from those weve selected our favourites and by heck its been a job to whittle them down. These are our go-to recipes, the ones we make over and over again at home for our friends and family. Some youll know from our telly programmes, others are new versions of old favourites. Most havent been published before but there are a few that we just love so much we had to include them here. Its an eclectic mix but each dish is a bit of a stunner and has really earned its place in our hearts and in our stomachs.

Since we started our cooking lives, the idea of what makes a British classic has changed hugely. Yes, we still love steak and kidney pud, roast chicken, toad in the hole and apple pie, but weve embraced the food of other countries too, and weve made some of their classics our own. Chicken tikka masala was voted Britains favourite dish a few years ago, and theres a tandoori house on every high street. Thai curries feature in supermarket ready-meal ranges, and pulled pork and Caribbean jerk chicken have made their way on to our barbecues. We all have packets of pasta in our cupboards, and lasagne and pizza are some of our best-loved foods.

Thats why in this book youll find curries, pasta and paella alongside roast pork and apple crumble. Theres quiche Lorraine as well as cheese and onion pie, and cheesecake and pavlova as well as Madeira cake and jam roly poly. Our choice of classics reflects the way we eat today and the reality of our multicultural land. We Brits have a great ability to cherry-pick the best of the cuisines of other countries. Its what keeps our cooking alive, fresh and inventive and why we never get bored in the kitchen. Both at home and on our travels, weve met so many great people whove inspired us, shared their cooking secrets and introduced us to dishes that have become part of our lives.

Our aim with this book is to bring you some of our favourite classic recipes and make them satisfying and achievable. This is NOT a diet book and not a collection based on food fads and cutting-edge cheffy techniques. Its a book of familiar food to bring joy and comfort in this increasingly hectic world. We want to make cooking, fun so time in the kitchen is not a chore but a chance to enjoy making food for those you love. Food is love, after all, and without love its just a plate of stuff.

Dave:

I was born greedy. When I was a lad, food was the centre of our family life as it was in most northern households. I was never allowed to go off to school without an egg for breakfast, and my mam cooked all our food every day. Monday was baking day and she would make Victoria sponge, white baps all really good.

Even now, the thought of Sunday lunch brings back memories of the delicious smells of the roast in the oven, the sound of the pressure cooker hissing, the sight of bread rising under a tea towel in the kitchen fireplace.

But when I was only eight years old, Mam was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and by the time I was 12 Id taken over all the shopping and cooking for the family. The first thing I ever cooked was a cheese and potato pie so my dad had something to eat when he got home from work. I soon learned to enjoy cooking and making what I wanted to eat. I would prepare beautiful salads to tempt my mam when she was feeling ill. Id take great care to cut everything nicely, then ruin it all with a great dollop of salad cream.

I even made a bit of money from cooking. I made curries with eggs and sausages, then invited my mates round to my house to eat cheaper than the local takeaway.

When I first went to uni in London I was blown away by the food that was on offer. In my first week I went for a curry I knew about curry because we had curry powder in the larder at home. I ordered a chicken madras and some things I thought were giant crisps (poppadoms) and loved it all so much I vowed to eat my way through the menu. That ate through my grant pretty quickly too!

Throughout my student days I spent more time cooking and eating than studying art and I subjected my flatmates to my triumphs. I started to buy cookbooks. My culinary adventure had really taken off. And then I met Si.

Si:

I was born into a family of foodies. Mam was a fantastic cook and so were my dad, my brother and my sister. There were four topics of conversation in our house: football, politics, music and food. At every meal, wed be talking about what to make for the next one.

My dad was in the Navy and would come home from his travels with exotic ingredients, such as unusual spices and lemongrass I guess thats where my passion for spicy food comes from. Mam was never fazed by anything she was a very creative, adventurous and instinctive cook. She did have lots of handwritten recipes handed down by family members but most of her dishes were in her head. I dont ever remember her making anything that wasnt delicious.

My dad died when I was quite young, and I started to cook a lot with my mam because we needed to spend time together after Dads death. I learned to bake, roast, braise and fillet. I learned to celebrate food and what it meant cooking for the people you love. In our house food was always an expression of love and care.

We always talked and laughed over our meals. And we always made too much. For generations, our family had cooked for miners, making big portions for hard-working men, and we still cooked plenty in case anyone else turned up for a meal. We couldnt bear the thought that anyone might go hungry not much chance of that in our house!

It wasnt until I met Dave that I could have a proper conversation about food with someone outside the family. It was so great to find a mate who was just as enthusiastic about cooking and eating as me but had a different way of looking at things. For instance, Dave loves to mess around with a sous vide water bath thingy doesnt appeal to me but he couldnt be arsed to dig a fire pit, which is much more my style. When we cook together, I do the butchery, he does the fish filleting. When were making a pie, Dave does the pastry and I make the filling.

Were a great team and it works.

Cooking for one or two

There are more than nine million two-person households in the UK, and more than seven million with only one person, so its no wonder that were often asked about how to scale down recipes, many of which are written for four. And in our own households the kids have moved out so were often cooking for one or two and then the next minute everyones home for a family feast!

First off, for many recipes such as soups, stews and pasta, its very easy to halve or quarter the ingredients. Just remember when adding seasoning and spice that its easier to add more than take it out, so go easy at first and keep tasting. Cooking time wont necessarily be half the time given in the recipe so again, use your judgement and check carefully.