5 O' Clock Apron

In this episode of 5 O’Clock Apron Podcast Claire cooks with the wildlife cameraman, TV presenter, author and winner of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing, Hamza Yassin. The podcast is recorded in a tent at The Hay Literary Festival. Hamza is there to talk about his latest book ‘Be a Birder’ and Claire was there to cook a date and tomato tagine with him after he finished his long and busy day. Hamza is an extraordinary guest to cook alongside, gracious and charming, he’s a once in a lifetime, next-generation David Attenborough type contender. The world and all it’s wildlife salute you Hamza. Claire and Hamza talk Sudanese food, the perils of having your grandmother marry you off each time you return home, silent food to eat in a hide, pet monkeys, how bird spotting is really like Pokemon, rugby, Scotland and Pop-Eye The Sailor Man.

Hamza’s book, 'Be a Birder' is available here.

https://www.octopusbooks.co.uk/titles/hamza-yassin/be-a-birder/9781856755108/

Follow Claire at 5 O' Clock apron on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/5oclockapron

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Recipe:

TOMATO, DATE + CHICKPEA TAGINE

2 onions, finely sliced or chopped 

4 garlic, finely chopped 

Olive oil, 2 - 3 tbsp

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground ginger

1 large cinnamon stick

Salt and pepper, to taste

700g chickpeas, I used @boldbeanco

400g polpa (chopped) tomatoes

40g dates 

1/2 preserved lemon, finely chopped 

Couscous, cooked as per packet instructions, to serve 

Harissa, to serve

Coriander, roughly chopped, to serve

In a heavy bottomed saucepan with a lid (or use a tagine dish) heat the oil over a moderate heat and cook the onions until golden brown (around 10 mins), add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes more. Blitz the tomatoes with the dates. Add the ground spices and the cinnamon stick to the onions and garlic and cook for 2 minutes more. Add the tomatoes and dates, rinse out the container in which you blended them with around 80mls of water, add that to the pan. Add the chickpeas (I didn’t bother draining them). Season the mix with salt and plenty of black pepper. Lid on and cook over a moderate / low heat on the stove top, or in the oven, at 180C for around 25 - 30 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat, check the seasoning, remembering the preserved lemon is salty, add the preserved lemon and stir well. Prepare the couscous as per instructions on packet (or do as I do in the reel, and toast the couscous in a dry pan until nutty shade of brown before carefully adding the boiling water and lemon juice). Serve the tagine with the couscous, coriander and harissa.

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In this episode of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast Claire cooks with NHS respiratory consultant and clinical academic Anna Bibby. Anna chooses to cook red wine risotto with chorizo, and as you hear in the recording, tongue firmly in cheek, Claire ends up apologising to both Italy and Spain.

Apologies done and dusted, through their conversation we learn the different characteristics of carnaroli, vialone nano and arborio rice, the physiologically accurate way to stir love into a risotto, and Claire asks Do lung and kidney doctors ever enjoy eating offal?

Claire lives around the corner and plays netball with Anna but before recording this episode had never been to her house or indeed seen Anna out of netball gear. There’s a bit of netball chat, because this is after all how the two know each other, both centre court players, WA and WD. 

Anna's laughter is infectious and her enthusiasm for colour coding the risotto to cook for this podcast is sure to make you smile, as all good cookery should. Recipe below.

Follow Claire at 5 O' Clock apron on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/5oclockapron

If you have enjoyed this podcast it would be an immense help if you could rate, subscribe or leave a review.

Recipe

Red Wine, Sausage & Sage Risotto*

Enough for x2 generously 

*Anna’s version included chorizo, mushroom and black olive, I kept things a bit more simple, with Anna’s blessing. 

1 onion, finely diced 

3 garlic, finely chopped 

2 tbsp good olive oil 

200g risotto rice, ideally arborio, carnaroli or vialone nano

2 best quality sausages with little or no rusk, meat squeezed from casings

3 or 4 sage leaves

Salt and pepper, to taste 

150ml dry red wine

Around 800ml of hot stock, chicken or veg, up to you, quantity will depend on the absorbency of the rice 

Some lemon juice, to taste 

Big knob of butter, to finish 

Lots of parmesan, to finish 

Cook the onions in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over a medium heat in the olive oil for around 8 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the garlic, sausage and sage and cook, breaking the sausage meat up as you do, for around 5 minutes. Add the rice and cook for 2 minutes more until the outside of the rice grains turn translucent and the contents of the pan are making a snapping, sizzling sound. Add the red wine, mixing vigorously until all the liquid has been absorbed.

Turn down the heat to medium / low and add the hot stock ladleful by ladleful, season to taste with salt and pepper and stir vigorously each time you add more stock until the liquid has been absorbed before you add the any more liquid. The more you stir, the creamier the risotto. Stirring all the while, start checking your rice after 12 mins of cook time, anywhere between 15 and 20 minutes, the rice grains should not be chalky, but still have a slight resistance in the centre, the rice will continue cooking as the pan rests before serving.

Remove from heat when your rice is ready, you want the consistency to still be little soupy still, it will thicken up as the risotto rests. Add a squeeze of lemon juice, big knob of butter and plenty of parmesan. Stir well, put a lid on the pan and rest for at least 5 mins before serving. Serve each bowl topped with more parmesan and plenty of black pepper.

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In this episode of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast Claire cooks with journalist and icon of broadcasting, Mishal Husain. A reassuring voice to so many listeners on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, Mishal cooked not 1 but 4 dishes, home-style Pakistani qeema*, daal*, raita and rice. All this was no mean feat given the 45 minutes from a standing start it took Mishal to cook and present the most beautiful lunch which Mishal and Claire then sat down to eat together. Listen in to hear Mishal discuss family recipes, feeding teenage boys and how to extend meals for unexpected guests, what broadcasters listen to on their day off, darning socks in the front of the TV and what leeway there is when recreating your mother and mother-in-law’s favourite recipes. This recording is an audio treat.

Mishal’s book Broken Threads, a memoir of love and family resilience detailing the days leading up to and surrounding the partition of India, is published on June 6th by 4th Estate.

https://www.4thestate.co.uk/products/broken-threads-my-family-from-empire-to-independence-mishal-husain-9780008531706/

*In Pakistan, due to the way the letter ق is pronounced, the dish is spelled with a "q" (qeema), but in India and Bangladesh it is written with a "k" (keema). Likewise, there are different spellings for dal / daal across South Asia. 

Follow Claire at 5 O' Clock apron on Instagram to get the recipe. https://www.instagram.com/5oclockapron

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In this episode of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast Claire cooks with wildlife TV presenter, adventurer and naturalist Steve Backshall. Keen to use his brand new BBQ in his garden on the banks of the Thames, Steve cooks a fish curry, inspired by his extensive travels in India, particularly during his time as 'Adventurer in Residence' for National Geographic. Discover what an adventurer eats in the wild and cooks at home with the family. Hear Steve's take on sustainable fishing, river pollution and how the Thames has changed over the last few years, while he educates Claire on the swan mussel and other Thames edibles. Learn what Steve found in a suitcase under his house, and about his wife, rower Helen Glover’s 4th Olympic bid for a gold medal in Paris this summer. On cue, a kingfisher swoops past the pair as they cook the curry together, the Thames flowing and a rather chilly wind blowing. A great day, with a top guy.

Steve is on tour with his Steve Backshall Ocean live show this autumn, so if you want to see the man in real life, it’s strong recommend from us, especially Dot! https://www.stevebackshall.com/liveshows

Follow Claire at 5 O' Clock apron on Instagram to get the recipe. https://www.instagram.com/5oclockapron/

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In this episode of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast Claire cooks with New York clown and physical performer, Tyler West. Tyler is currently on tour with the very fabulous Giffords Circus here in the U.K. Needing to be in one piece for his shows later that day, Tyler was less than keen to be standing too near sharp knives and a smoking hot wok. So, in this episode, Claire cooks and Tyler chats, and this works just brilliantly. Tyler was extremely keen on making Pad Thai for the recording as bowls of cereal in his circus wagon can get a little samey he joked, and Thai food is is absolute favourite! We learn about his life as a circus performer, being a little person in clowning, his upbringing in Arizona including an intriguing dish called Hippopotamus, and his love of the odd English custom of stopping for tea and cookies and crisps. He gives tips on using coconut oil to remove false eyelashes, and juggles with the eggs.

If you get the opportunity to see Giffords Circus, it’s a strong recommend from us.

you can find more about Tyler here: https://theoriginaltylerwest.com/

and Giffords Circus here: https://giffordscircus.com/

Follow Claire at 5 o'clock apron on Instagram to get the recipe. https://www.instagram.com/5oclockapron/

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In this episode of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast Claire cooks paneer curry with the author Nikesh Shukla. Nikesh has recently written the new Marvel Spider-Man India and has also written books for children and young adults. Nikesh has just moved house and has the builders in, so Claire and Nikesh meet at producer Ellen’s house to record this cookery conversation. It’s a moving one from the get-go with Nikesh instructing Claire that “we will be following an old family recipe, passed down from my dear mother”, the recording starts off with an enormous responsibility to get things exactly right, from shopping to chopping to the finished dish. Make Nikesh’s mum’s recipe for paneer curry and learn her failsafe rice cooking method. This is a moving episode that explores grief and cookery, Nikesh remembering his mum cooking and shouting from the kitchen at his teenage self up his bedroom in their house in Harrow. Listen too for the remarkable story of Nikesh’s uncle who was the first person to bring a case under the 1968 Race Relations Act and in doing so meets Malcom X in a curry house in Selly Oak.

Follow Claire @5oclockapron on Instagram to watch her cook the paneer curry and get the full recipe.

Find out more about Nikesh here: Nikesh - The Good Literary Agency

Find out more about Spiderman India here: Meet Pavitr Prabhakar, AKA Spider-Man: India | Marvel

Find out more about Nikesh's uncle here: Why diverse stories matter | Nikesh Shukla | TEDxLondon (youtube.com)

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In this episode of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast, Claire cooks with Philippa Perry, psychotherapist, broadcaster and the Observer’s wise and witty agony aunt. Philippa is also a million-copy bestselling author of The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did), and one half of the Perry presenting duo on hit TV programme Grayson’s Art Club. I absolutely loved cooking with Philippa in her kitchen in London a couple of weeks ago. To say Philippa was confident in her kitchen is an understatement, deftly whipping up homemade tartare sauce, flatbreads and battered fish fingers with a chopped salad that combined so many different flavours and textures, my chopping skills were really put to the test, all under gentle but firm instruction from Philippa. So much so, it’s in this episode of the podcast that the tables are turned, teacher and student, I know my place and very happy I am in it too. With a wall to wall kitchen mirror, cooking alongside Philippa on the day was an insightful and illuminating experience.

This is the 6th episode in the 1st series of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast, we’ll be back in a month with x6 more guests teaching me their favourite recipe to cook at home, just you wait, what a line-up!

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