8 PAGES OF KNOW-HOW TO GET YOU COOKING SMARTER, FASTER AND WITH GREATER CONFIDENCE

MEET OUR EXPERTS

JEN BEDLOE Acting food editor

LOTTIE COVELL Acting food lifestyle editor

ELLA TARN Cookery assistant

LUCAS HOLLWEG Chef and food writer

XANTHE CLAY Chef, writer, and preserves & freezing queen

CHEF’S STEP BY STEP

Richard Bertinet’s traditional fougasse flatbread is an easy and satisfying home bake

TECHNIQUE

Learn to make foolproof puff pastry for perfect tarts and pies

delicious. KITCHEN

Go foraging for autumn fruit, enjoy some seasonal seafood and give garnishes a new twist

THIS MONTH IN THE delicious. KITCHEN

While the delicious. team are testing recipes, they’re often debating the best ways to do things as well as answering cooking questions that arise in the test kitchen. What’s with all the different olive oils and which one should I be cooking with? How do I stop my fruit from discolouring when baking a pie? What do I do with leftover horseradish? It’s the kind of information you won’t find anywhere else, and it will help take your cooking to the next level.

MAKE THE BOUNTY LAST

PHEASANT

When young and tender, pheasant can be roasted like chicken and served with a rich, unctuous sauce. Older, tougher birds have more flavour but will need longer, slower cooking.

FREEZE Once plucked, pheasant freeze well whole or jointed. If you’re getting your pheasant from the field rather than the butcher or supermarket (see p16) and can’t face plucking them, pull the skin and feathers off in one. (Unlike with chicken, the skin isn’t the best bit of the bird.) Pack the prepared birds in bags marked with the date and freeze for up to 6 months.

PRESERVE Escabeche is a Spanish/Latin American dish made with a tangy slosh of vinegar. The vinegar helps cut through the rich taste of game and acts as a preservative so the meat will keep, covered in the fridge, for up to a week. It’s an ideal make-ahead dish.

Fry a sliced carrot, onion and 3 whole garlic cloves in 3 tbsp olive oil until just tender but not brown. Add 500ml good quality chicken stock, 4 tbsp cider vinegar and 1-2 bay leaves, then simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Joint a pheasant and remove any skin, then fry the pieces in olive oil until browned and just cooked through. Put the meat in a close-fitting dish and pour over the hot vinegar mix. Leave to cool, then refrigerate, covered. Serve cool.