How to Eat Outside - the movie… and a recipe for dark chocolate & marmalade bread & butter pudding

My next book, How to Eat Outside is published on 18th June. To celebrate its publication I made a little film about the idea behind the book. It also contains a recipe for a dark chocolate and marmalade bread and butter pudding, cooked in a dutch oven over a fire.

Here's the movie - shot and directed by Rob Wicks of Eat Pictures - a master food film maker and all round good egg.

And here's the recipe:

Bread and butter pudding with marmalade and chocolate

The idea for this pudding was conceived at the end of a week of camping when we were left with a collection of slightly sad looking leftover bits of this and that; a stale (and rather squashed) brioche loaf, half a jar of marmalade and two-thirds of a bar of dark chocolate, not to mention some just on-the-turn milk. All in need of a good home, and what a home it turned out to be! 

The beauty of brioche (croissants would be equally good too) is that they are butter-rich so you don’t need to add any extra butter. For extra richness, substitute some of the milk for a splash of cream (single or double), if you have some handy. Just as with the crumble, a foiled-lined springform cake tin placed inside a Dutch oven is the best way to cook this recipe. 

Serves 6

1 brioche loaf (about 400g), torn into bite-size pieces

About ½ a jar of marmalade 

About 70g dark chocolate, broken into bits

2–3 tbsp sugar (any sort is fine)

500ml milk

4 eggs

Line a 23–25cm springform cake tin with a double layer of foil. Scatter about half of the brioche pieces into the base of the prepared tin. Dollop on teaspoonfuls of marmalade, using about half of what you have, then scatter over about half of the chocolate pieces. Sprinkle on about 1 tablespoon sugar. Repeat with the rest of the brioche, marmalade, chocolate and sugar. 

In a bowl, lightly whisk together the milk and eggs, then pour evenly into the tin over the brioche layers. Place the tin inside the Dutch oven, cover with the lid and hang the oven over your fire, not too close to the coals otherwise the bottom will burn. Use tongs to put 8–10 hot coals on the lid to cook the pudding from the top as well. Cook for around 25–30 minutes until the custard has set and the top is crisp. Serve whilst piping hot. 

A summer spent outside & a shit-hot paella recipe!

For the last few months I've been plugging away on a new book project. Possibly my most exciting, and definitely most adventurous, book yet - EATING OUT (working title) is a celebration of food in the fresh air. My starting point for the books' pitch was simply this; pause for a minute, and think of the most memorable meals you have eaten in your life. Quite a few of them been outside? Yeah, thought so.

So, EATING OUT the book was born. The true joys of al fresco munching are not necessarily about the food, (although in my world, the tucker is always dead central), they are about the space you're in, the air you're breathing, the friends, human or canine, that you are with. The time and the place maketh the memory.

I'm having the best time ever - every weekend me and my family spark up the fire - quite often in the garden or on some campsite or beach somewhere. And I cook, and they cook with me. Or they gather firewood and pick wild garlic, and get muddy. Muddy kids are happy kids. Sometimes they try to sneak back inside to the TV and the kindle. They can usually be lured back out with the promise of marshmallow toasting. On Monday mornings my clothes smell pleasingly like a woodsman.

So, I may be the worlds worst ever blogger - frankly I'm having too much fun to blog - but by way of small apology, here is one of the recipes that will be in book - a steaming paella, cooked with charcoal and driftwood, on the beach a couple of weeks ago.

Photo credits go to the lovely, and ever patient, Jason Ingram whom I'm very proud to be working with again on this project. Jason worked with me on two of my previous books (Marshmallow Magic & A Good Egg).

Driftwood baked paella with samphire, chorizo, chicken & prawns

In in Spain, genuine paella is always cooked over a open wood fire and is always eaten outside. So, is there are more perfect celebratory dish to make on a beach camping trip? I think not. This version has samphire, for me the thin green strands are the very essence of the sea and add a really pleasing salty crunch. Replace with 2 handfuls frozen peas if you prefer, just chuck them in a food bag when you leave home, where they will keep happily for a few days in a cool box. 

Serves 4

3 red peppers, roughly chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

2 onions, roughly chopped

1 x 225g chorizo ring, sliced into 1cm discs

4 large chicken thighs, skin on, bone in

3 cloves garlic, chopped

A big handful of cherry tomatoes, halved

A generous pinch of saffron threads

250g paella rice (half a pack)

A large glass white wine (250ml)

2 cups water (500ml)

about 240g raw king prawns, shelled

100g samphire

Salt & freshly ground black pepper

A small bunch of flatleaf parsley, chopped 

Lemon, cut into wedges 

I cook this dish with my portable fire pit, with the tripod and grill hung over it - its a splendid looking beast, isn't it?

Once your fire is ready to cook, set a large (about 30cm) deep frying pan on the grill and add the olive oil, peppers, onions and chorizo. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 20 minutes, over a medium heat, until they are softening and starting to colour a little. Next, part a hole in the veg to reveal the bare pan and put in a chicken thigh, skin side down. Repeat with the other 3 chicken thighs, making sure the skin is in contact with the pan so that it colours nicely. Let it fry for another 20 minutes or so, shaking the pan gently from time to time to make sure the chicken isn’t sticking. After this time the onions and peppers will be beautifully soft and the chicken crisp on the skin side. 

Add the tomatoes, garlic and saffron, stirring through the vegetables and fry for about 5 minutes or until the tomatoes are collapsing. Pour in the wine, and simmer for another 5 minutes, before crumbling in the stock cube and stirring really well to break it up. Add the rice and season well with salt and pepper, mixing it all around thoroughly, and turning the chicken skin side up. Stir in 2 cups (500ml) of water, cold is fine, and push the rice under the liquid. Cover the pan with foil, using tongs to press it around the outside. Leave to simmer over the fire for about 25 minutes, giving the pan a little shake from side to side to check its not sticking, but don’t worry too much, a bit of stuck on rice is the best part of this dish! Remove the foil, scatter over the samphire and prawns, recover and let them cook in the steam for 10 minutes, when the prawns are completely pink all the way through they are done.

Scatter over the parsley, and spoon onto plates, giving everyone a lemon quarter to squeeze over.