Trusted British chef recipes, tested at home
James Martin recipes from Saturday Morning and his cookbooks, tested at home. Rich comfort food with honest timings and proper Yorkshire portions.
James Martin’s butternut squash and lime soup cooks cubed butternut squash with onion in butter and oil, simmers it in milk, water and stock cubes for just six minutes, blitzes it smooth, then finishes with a squeeze of lime. It makes a big batch of ten portions, freezes well, and BBC Food puts it at …
James Martin’s baked blueberry cheesecake folds whole blueberries through a vanilla, lemon and cream cheese filling on a baked digestive biscuit base, bakes it in a water bath at 180°C (gas 4), then cools it slowly in the turned-off oven for at least two hours, preferably overnight. It serves six to eight with a warm …
James Martin’s baked Alaska wraps a block of vanilla ice cream on an Armagnac-soaked sponge base in a proper Italian meringue, torches it golden, and serves it with a rich chocolate sauce. The meringue is made from a sugar syrup boiled to 121°C and poured into whisked egg whites, and the whole thing serves eight. …
James Martin’s banana cake blends ripe bananas with maple syrup into a smooth purée, folds it through a creamed butter-and-sugar batter with chopped pecans, bakes it in a springform tin at 170°C (150°C fan, gas 3) for 45-60 minutes, then glazes it with a boiled-down maple cream. It serves six to eight. The recipe comes …
James Martin’s avocado and bacon salad sits crisp fried bacon and ripe chopped avocado on Little Gem lettuce with pan-fried bread croutons, dressed in a sharp lemon, garlic and Dijon dressing. It serves one, takes under 15 minutes, and has no cooking beyond crisping the bacon and toasting the bread. This is Martin at his …
James Martin’s American baked cheesecake sets a rich filling of cream cheese, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and bourbon-soaked sultanas over a sponge base, baked in a water bath at 180°C (gas 4) for 50 minutes until golden on top. It’s served in wedges with caramelised bananas and maple syrup or caramel sauce. It serves ten. …
James Martin’s fried chicken breast with pumpkin pickle sears skin-on chicken breasts golden, then finishes them in the oven on a bed of roasted squash wedges, alongside a warm, spiced squash pickle made with fenugreek, nigella seeds, turmeric, ginger and mango chutney. The same squash, two ways, one plate. It serves two. The recipe comes …
James Martin’s ultimate burger is 800g of the best steak mince shaped into four thick patties, chargrilled on a barbecue, and served in toasted brioche buns with homemade mustard mayonnaise, Monterey Jack, gherkins and chilli relish. The patties chill for an hour, cook in 3-4 minutes a side, and the whole thing serves four. The …
James Martin’s beef ribs with barbecue sauce poaches Jacob’s ladder beef ribs for three hours in aromatics until the meat is falling-tender, then dips them in a homemade chipotle barbecue sauce and blasts them in the oven until sticky and lacquered. Served with baked potatoes and a chive soured cream made from scratch. It serves …
James Martin’s chocolate profiteroles pipe choux pastry into small balls, bake them until golden with steam in the oven for extra lift, fill them with orange-zested whipped cream, and drown them in a dark chocolate sauce made from a sugar syrup. The recipe makes about 20 and is built in three separate stages: pastry, filling, …