Trusted British chef recipes, tested at home
Mary Berry’s smoked salmon starter is a cold, composed plate of curled smoked salmon, prawns in a homemade cocktail sauce, sliced avocado and tomato, all finished with a mustard dressing. There’s no cooking at all, just 10 to 15 minutes of assembly, and it feeds six as an elegant first course. She plates these individually …
Mary Berry’s salmon en croûte is two salmon fillets layered around a mushroom and watercress filling, wrapped in crisp golden puff pastry and baked whole. A horseradish kick runs through the middle, and it’s served in thick slices with a bright watercress and pea sauce. It takes about an hour and a half start to …
Mary Berry’s salmon fish cakes are soft and flaky inside with a crisp golden crust, made with two kinds of salmon, mashed potato, and a sharp hit of horseradish. They’re bound with mayonnaise and fresh chives and parsley, then served with a cool horseradish sauce. From mixing bowl to plate is about an hour and …
Mary Berry’s vanilla cheesecake is a rich, dense baked cheesecake on a buttery digestive crust, smooth and just-set through the middle with a cool soured cream top. It’s made with full-fat cream cheese, caster sugar, eggs, and real vanilla extract. Start to first slice takes about 3 hours plus a long chill. This is Berry’s …
Delia Smith’s salmon steaks with creme fraiche sauce is cold foil-baked salmon served with an avocado and creme fraiche sauce sharpened with sherry vinegar. It serves 6 and takes 20 minutes at 180C, plus cooling. The recipe comes from Delia’s Summer Collection. Delia uses this foil method in her Winter Collection too, swapping avocado sauce …
Delia Smith’s salmon in champagne sauce is fillets poached in champagne for 8-10 minutes, served with a cream sauce made from the poaching liquid. It serves 6, garnished with keta and dill, from The Delia Collection: Fish. Delia says she was served this at “the house of a Champagne producer in Rheims” and this is …
Delia Smith’s spiced pickled apricots are dried apricots and mi-cuit plums soaked in Lapsang Souchong tea, then packed in spiced vinegar with Armagnac. The recipe makes 5 jars and needs a month to mature. It comes from Delia’s Christmas Easy Magazine, 2003. Delia has a companion recipe in Complete How to Cook using Agen prunes …
Delia Smith’s Old English summer soup is potato, lettuce, cucumber and spring onion sweated in butter, simmered in stock for 20 minutes and blended smooth. It serves 4, works hot or cold, and comes from The Delia Collection: Soup. Delia wrote this for gardeners “whose summer crop threatens to overwhelm them.” She has three summer …
Delia Smith’s summer fruit compote is peaches, apricots, plums and blueberries baked uncovered at 180C for 25-30 minutes, with raspberries stirred in after. It serves 6 from The Delia Collection: Puddings. Delia also has a lemongrass version in her Summer Collection, where she blitzes the stalks into the sugar before baking. She says the lemongrass …
Delia Smith’s summer fruit brûlée is soft berries warmed with caster sugar, topped with whipped cream and Greek yoghurt, then finished with caramelised demerara. It serves 6 and takes about 20 minutes of hands-on work from her Complete How to Cook. This isn’t a crème brûlée. Delia swaps the custard for cream and yoghurt, so …
