Week 1 Your Cookalong food questions answered - week 1

Date Published:

13/10/2008

Our cookery expert answers all your questions about the menu for Cookalong Live: The series week 1.

Yes, absolutely. All the recipes are easy to double up, but you’ll need to be super-organised. The starter shouldn’t pose a problem, but you might want to make all the toasts in advance and keep them warm until the goat’s cheese is ready. Better still, why not pop the goat’s cheese on the toasts and cook together for the six minutes.

You may need two trays for your salmon and ideally another person to make one of the parcels, so you can keep up with Gordon. If you are cooking on two trays, you’ll need to swap oven racks halfway through the cooking time – so the pastry cooks evenly - and perhaps add up to an extra 10 minutes to the cooking time.

You’ll need two pans for pre-cooking the rhubarb and eight small dishes – using one larger dish will increase the oven baking time to around 30 minutes.

The goat’s cheese is ideal for this recipe as it holds its shape well when baked. Give it a go if possible as the mild, creamy varieties are particularly delicious. If he really doesn’t like it, you could try using Stilton or Dolcelatte instead – they’d taste especially good with the walnuts. Even a ripe Brie would work well, and a decent quality mozzarella would make a great alternative.

If you do decide on a different cheese, it’s really important to bake it on the toast and not before - as it could melt excessively and become impossible to lift off the oven tray.

Softer cheeses like Stilton can be crumbled or cut into small cubes, Brie cut into wedges and mozzarella drained well and thickly sliced. Watch carefully while in the oven as the timings will be slightly different according to the cheese you decide to use.

Yes, there are a couple of great alternatives. For the starter, use sunflower oil instead of the walnut oil for the dressing and swap the walnuts for some well drained sun-blush tomatoes (the semi-dried ones in oil) or a few olives. When it comes to the pudding, I’d recommend you use 50g of porridge oats instead of the hazelnuts to help give the crumbles a crunchy topping.

This recipe is particularly delicious made with salmon, but you could try using another skinless thick fish fillet instead. Cod, pollock or hake would make reasonable alternatives, but look out for the Marine Stewardship Council label before you buy – it will indicate that the fish has been sustainably caught.

Aim for the same weight, but be prepared to use smaller fillets arranged closely together on the pastry rather than one large fillet. Pat dry with kitchen paper before using to soak up as much moisture as possible. By using white fish fillet, the parcel could lack colour, so try spreading with a couple of tablespoons of sun-dried tomato paste instead of the mustard.

It should be no problem to leave the alcohol out altogether. Just add a splash of fresh orange juice instead of the rum after the rhubarb has caramelised and allow it to bubble for a minute or so until the sauce is thick and syrupy.

You certainly can, but you’ll probably need to add around 15 minutes to the cooking time in order to get the topping really crunchy and golden brown. A traditional ceramic or pyrex pie dish, or even a small lasagne dish, would work well. It won’t look quite as elegant, but the pudding will still taste great.

Absolutely not. The crumble mixture can easily be made by hand. You’ll need to chop the hazelnuts really finely and transfer them to a large bowl. Stir in the flour, cinnamon and sugar, then rub in the cold butter using your fingertips. The mixture should resemble breadcrumbs.

Yes definitely. Make sure you’re well organised though – check out the Cookalong videos so you know what to expect and have all the ingredients unwrapped and (washed and peeled where stated on the recipes) and equipment laid out on the work surface so it’s ready to hand (no time to hunt for pots and pans during the hour). It’s also a good idea to grab an extra person to help with any last minute preparation and the washing up.

If you can’t find fresh rhubarb, why not try making the crumble with a different fruit. Plums would work particularly well, stoned and sliced into wedges before pan-frying. Aim to cook 2 medium plums per person. Or, how about giving some Bramley apples a go? They’ve got plenty of flavour and cook beautifully.

Peel, quarter, core and slice 2 large apples for four people. Pears could also be used – go for a traditional British variety such as Conference - and try tossing with a few blackberries before baking to make the filling extra juicy. If using plums or pears, reduce the caster sugar to around 75g - they won’t need sweetening as much as rhubarb or Bramleys.

Find out what's on week 1's menu

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Watch Gordon's training videos

Fancy a glass with your meal? Get the expert's wine choice to accompany the Cookalong week 1 menu

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