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Cookbook Challenge: Prue Leith's all-time favourite recipes put to the test

Prue Leith’s new cookbook was published to tie in with her role as a judge in the just-finished season of The Great British Bake Off.

Personally, I’m not sold on the new series, but I grew up knowing about the UK's latest tv treasure because of Leiths School of Food & Wine, the cookery academy she co-founded in 1975.

After years of writing the accompanying Leiths Cookery Bibles, some of which featured within my mum's trustworthy line-up of Delia Smith, Mary Berry, and Jamie Oliver tomes, Leith's passion stalled, and she turned to writing novels instead. “I knew I could knock out another reliable, solid cookbook, but I didn’t feel inspired,” she admits. “Somehow, with all the years of cookery writing, catering, teaching and restaurants, I’d lost that deep interest that makes a great cookery writer.”

Prue Leith (David Loftus)
Prue Leith (David Loftus)

If this is Leith's cookbook comeback, then there is most definitely joy to be found in it - in particular in how much she is willing her readers to get it right, to make cooking easy, and to enjoy the ride. Unlike other cookbook challenges I've taken on in the past, there were - boring challenge klaxon! - no disasters in my kitchen and nothing chaotic to report. In fact, all of the dishes came out roughly as she said they would.

Her writing style is like that of the friendly teacher - gently guiding, with honest, gently witty and accessible text.

‘Cooking is not a religion,’ she insists. ‘Friends are occasionally shocked that I will reach for the custard powder or packet of stock cubes, frozen mash of puff pastry, or that I seldom bake my own bread. But I’m often in a hurry, so I’m up for anything, however it’s been arrived at, that works.’

Leith’s recipes sit somewhere between the Elly Curshen (Elly Pear) and Peter Gordon schools of recipe writing: offering tasty dishes that are realistic to make when you’re busy and will need to cheat. Will it keep for later? She’s thought of that. Can it go in the freezer afterwards? She’s thought of that, too. As you’d expect from a cookery teacher-caterer-restaurateur, she’s thought of most things.

What Victoria Made:

A word of warning about the below, more than one of the recipes I tried out centred around spinach. An odd choice, perhaps, but the intention was an attempt to minimise waste.

Spinach and coconut soup

Its lurid colour may look like one of Road Dahl’s concoctions but this dish is in fact a gorgeous pairing of a French soup base with the Caribbean flavour combination of ginger, nutmeg, and coconut, all of which worked well as a weekday lunch. It’s easy to whip up - a case of frying onions with ginger, garlic and potato, before adding spinach, stock, and liquidising the lot. I think the overall flavour would be even better with homemade veg stock, but my Bouillon powder did the trick. The addition of toasted coconut flakes is key - the crunchy texture and flavour of the natural oils bring the whole thing together.

Victoria Stewart's spinach and coconut soup
Victoria Stewart's spinach and coconut soup

Pan-fried halibut with green spaghetti

Theoretically this should be simple, but my finished dish turned into more of a ‘fish-in-green-bath’ situation, rather than a gentle sprinkling of green spinach colour on spaghetti. That said, the combination of pan-fried cod - I couldn’t get halibut from any shop or local fishmonger - with garlicky, spinach-enhanced spaghetti works well. That it’s pretty and feels wholesome is a bonus.

Victoria Stewart's pan-fried halibut with green spaghetti
Victoria Stewart's pan-fried halibut with green spaghetti

Green spinach, sprouts and frozen peas

Yes, this is yet another spinach dish but this one - essentially a green veg hodgepodge with cream - is the best of the lot, and simple to put together. Things I like: Leith gets me to reuse pans, creating less mess; she doesn’t boringly insist on properly peeling every Brussels sprout; it suits being in the freezer; and the additions of nutmeg and garlic are essential. Things I was less sure on: even as a sprout lover, I’m not convinced this would convert a hater, no matter how much cream it contains (for me, there was too much cream for me - I might try it again with creme fraiche). This worked well as the basis for a weeknight supper, with a fried egg. On another day, I added a sprinkling of savoury crumble, too, from another of Prue's recipes'

Victoria Stewart's attempt at green spinach, sprouts and frozen peas
Victoria Stewart's attempt at green spinach, sprouts and frozen peas

Pink peppercorn and chocolate mousse cake

This is an incredibly rich but inherently delicious chocolate brownie mousse cake that turned out to be very easy to give away to friends, colleagues, even a date. After making a meringue mix, I added in melted butter and chocolate (worth getting top quality stuff if it’s possible), ground pecans, pink peppercorns, and some whisky. I ate mine as soon as it came out of the oven, but my friends had it for breakfast and immediately asked for seconds… and thirds.

Victoria Stewart's pink peppercorn and chocolate mousse cake
Victoria Stewart's pink peppercorn and chocolate mousse cake

Veg crumble

Swap out a fruit crumble’s sugar for tarragon and grated cheddar cheese, and you’ve got a banger of an idea here. The finished crumble topping has a surprisingly intense and deeply savoury flavour, so think of it as another layer within the overall dish, rather than simply as a fun textural extra. This is the easiest and most useful recipe of hers that I tried, as I now have a load in the freezer which I’ll re-heat when I’m next looking to give a pile of veg a bit of oomph. Feel free to add some porridge oats into the mix, too.

Prue: my all-time favourite recipes by Prue Leith is out now (£25, Bluebird Books)