5 O' Clock Apron

In this episode of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast Claire cooks with NHS respiratory consultant and clinical academic Anna Bibby. Anna chooses to cook red wine risotto with chorizo, and as you hear in the recording, tongue firmly in cheek, Claire ends up apologising to both Italy and Spain.Apologies done and dusted, through their conversation we learn the different characteristics of carnaroli, vialone nano and arborio rice, the physiologically accurate way to stir love into a risotto, and Claire asks Do lung and kidney doctors ever enjoy eating offal?Claire lives around the corner and plays netball with Anna but before recording this episode had never been to her house or indeed seen Anna out of netball gear. There’s a bit of netball chat, because this is after all how the two know each other, both centre court players, WA and WD. Anna's laughter is infectious and her enthusiasm for colour coding the risotto to cook for this podcast is sure to make you smile, as all good cookery should. Recipe below.Follow Claire at 5 O' Clock apron on Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/5oclockapronIf you have enjoyed this podcast it would be an immense help if you could rate, subscribe or leave a review.RecipeRed Wine, Sausage & Sage Risotto*Enough for x2 generously *Anna’s version included chorizo, mushroom and black olive, I kept things a bit more simple, with Anna’s blessing. 1 onion, finely diced 3 garlic, finely chopped 2 tbsp good olive oil 200g risotto rice, ideally arborio, carnaroli or vialone nano2 best quality sausages with little or no rusk, meat squeezed from casings3 or 4 sage leavesSalt and pepper, to taste 150ml dry red wineAround 800ml of hot stock, chicken or veg, up to you, quantity will depend on the absorbency of the rice Some lemon juice, to taste Big knob of butter, to finish Lots of parmesan, to finish Cook the onions in a heavy bottomed sauce pan over a medium heat in the olive oil for around 8 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the garlic, sausage and sage and cook, breaking the sausage meat up as you do, for around 5 minutes. Add the rice and cook for 2 minutes more until the outside of the rice grains turn translucent and the contents of the pan are making a snapping, sizzling sound. Add the red wine, mixing vigorously until all the liquid has been absorbed.Turn down the heat to medium / low and add the hot stock ladleful by ladleful, season to taste with salt and pepper and stir vigorously each time you add more stock until the liquid has been absorbed before you add the any more liquid. The more you stir, the creamier the risotto. Stirring all the while, start checking your rice after 12 mins of cook time, anywhere between 15 and 20 minutes, the rice grains should not be chalky, but still have a slight resistance in the centre, the rice will continue cooking as the pan rests before serving.Remove from heat when your rice is ready, you want the consistency to still be little soupy still, it will thicken up as the risotto rests. Add a squeeze of lemon juice, big knob of butter and plenty of parmesan. Stir well, put a lid on the pan and rest for at least 5 mins before serving. Serve each bowl topped with more parmesan and plenty of black pepper.

In this episode of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast Claire cooks with journalist and icon of broadcasting, Mishal Husain. A reassuring voice to so many listeners on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, Mishal cooked not 1 but 4 dishes, home-style Pakistani qeema*, daal*, raita and rice. All this was no mean feat given the 45 minutes from a standing start it took Mishal to cook and present the most beautiful lunch which Mishal and Claire then sat down to eat together. Listen in to hear Mishal discuss family recipes, feeding teenage boys and how to extend meals for unexpected guests, what broadcasters listen to on their day off, darning socks in the front of the TV and what leeway there is when recreating your mother and mother-in-law’s favourite recipes. This recording is an audio treat.Mishal’s book Broken Threads, a memoir of love and family resilience detailing the days leading up to and surrounding the partition of India, is published on June 6th by 4th Estate.https://www.4thestate.co.uk/products/broken-threads-my-family-from-empire-to-independence-mishal-husain-9780008531706/*In Pakistan, due to the way the letter ق is pronounced, the dish is spelled with a "q" (qeema), but in India and Bangladesh it is written with a "k" (keema). Likewise, there are different spellings for dal / daal across South Asia. Follow Claire at 5 O' Clock apron on Instagram to get the recipe. https://www.instagram.com/5oclockapronIf you have enjoyed this podcast please like, subscribe and leave a review.

In this episode of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast Claire cooks with wildlife TV presenter, adventurer and naturalist Steve Backshall. Keen to use his brand new BBQ in his garden on the banks of the Thames, Steve cooks a fish curry, inspired by his extensive travels in India, particularly during his time as 'Adventurer in Residence' for National Geographic. Discover what an adventurer eats in the wild and cooks at home with the family. Hear Steve's take on sustainable fishing, river pollution and how the Thames has changed over the last few years, while he educates Claire on the swan mussel and other Thames edibles. Learn what Steve found in a suitcase under his house, and about his wife, rower Helen Glover’s 4th Olympic bid for a gold medal in Paris this summer. On cue, a kingfisher swoops past the pair as they cook the curry together, the Thames flowing and a rather chilly wind blowing. A great day, with a top guy.Steve is on tour with his Steve Backshall Ocean live show this autumn, so if you want to see the man in real life, it’s strong recommend from us, especially Dot! https://www.stevebackshall.com/liveshows Follow Claire at 5 O' Clock apron on Instagram to get the recipe. https://www.instagram.com/5oclockapron/

In this episode of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast Claire cooks paneer curry with the author Nikesh Shukla. Nikesh has recently written the new Marvel Spider-Man India and has also written books for children and young adults. Nikesh has just moved house and has the builders in, so Claire and Nikesh meet at producer Ellen’s house to record this cookery conversation. It’s a moving one from the get-go with Nikesh instructing Claire that “we will be following an old family recipe, passed down from my dear mother”, the recording starts off with an enormous responsibility to get things exactly right, from shopping to chopping to the finished dish. Make Nikesh’s mum’s recipe for paneer curry and learn her failsafe rice cooking method. This is a moving episode that explores grief and cookery, Nikesh remembering his mum cooking and shouting from the kitchen at his teenage self up his bedroom in their house in Harrow. Listen too for the remarkable story of Nikesh’s uncle who was the first person to bring a case under the 1968 Race Relations Act and in doing so meets Malcom X in a curry house in Selly Oak.Follow Claire @5oclockapron on Instagram to watch her cook the paneer curry and get the full recipe.Find out more about Nikesh here: Nikesh - The Good Literary AgencyFind out more about Spiderman India here: Meet Pavitr Prabhakar, AKA Spider-Man: India | MarvelFind out more about Nikesh's uncle here: Why diverse stories matter | Nikesh Shukla | TEDxLondon (youtube.com)

In this first episode of Series 2 of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast, Claire cooks with the brewer Alex Lawes. Dublin is a city famed for its pint and Claire wanted to record a cookery conversation with someone synonymous with the city’s brewing industry. Alex Lawes is just that, brewer and joint owner of Whiplash Beer. Their instagram profile reads “@whiplashbeer - Ballyer brewery brewing banging beers.” Join Claire and Alex as they cook in his gorgeous, dinky cottage. They drink a Whiplash Basil and Lemon table beer and set about making the most delicious ravioli this side of Italy. Learn about brewing beer, Dublin’s fish and chip shops all being run by Italian families, freezing your leftover wine, sailing round Sicily and there’s big love from Alex and Claire for the Pasta Grannies.

In this episode of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast, Claire cooks with Philippa Perry, psychotherapist, broadcaster and the Observer’s wise and witty agony aunt. Philippa is also a million-copy bestselling author of The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read (and Your Children Will Be Glad That You Did), and one half of the Perry presenting duo on hit TV programme Grayson’s Art Club. I absolutely loved cooking with Philippa in her kitchen in London a couple of weeks ago. To say Philippa was confident in her kitchen is an understatement, deftly whipping up homemade tartare sauce, flatbreads and battered fish fingers with a chopped salad that combined so many different flavours and textures, my chopping skills were really put to the test, all under gentle but firm instruction from Philippa. So much so, it’s in this episode of the podcast that the tables are turned, teacher and student, I know my place and very happy I am in it too. With a wall to wall kitchen mirror, cooking alongside Philippa on the day was an insightful and illuminating experience.This is the 6th episode in the 1st series of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast, we’ll be back in a month with x6 more guests teaching me their favourite recipe to cook at home, just you wait, what a line-up!

In this episode of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast, Claire cooks with Rebecca Wilcox, journalist, broadcaster, deputy president of Childline and the daughter of Esther Rantzen. The Guardian newspaper have her down as “brilliant… both brainy and funny (a rare combination in a presenter), and a proper investigative journalist as well as a silly trigger-happy prankster." On the day of the recording, Claire drove to Rebecca’s farmhouse, which as all best farms must, comes complete with an aged Argentinian polo horse horse named Chunk. Rebecca wanted some help to make her carbonara not “gloopy, grey or scrambled”, Claire, though bemused by Rebecca’s suggestion for beans in a carbonara to begin with, is fully on board by the end of the episode. Armed with pancetta, the beans, some dried pasta and two types of cheese, Claire and Rebecca make carbonara together chatting teenage years in the 90’s, winning Ready Steady Cook, drug deals for a television series and how to feed children in a way that makes sense in the maelstrom that is family life. Chop and chatter, on repeat.

In this episode of The 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast, Claire cooks with comedian, writer and theatre maker Amy Mason. A Funny Woman finalist, Amy has written and performed for Radio 4 and has written for The News Quiz and Hypothetical (Dave). With 3 acclaimed autobiographical shows with Bristol Old Vic, she is a credit to the Bristol comedy scene - STOP PRESS - ‘Amy Mason is a born comic. Can’t wait to see her progress to a national treasure.’ In 2014 Amy won the Dundee International Book Prize with her novel The Other Ida. On the day of the recording Amy was wearing an enormous pair of sheep shaped slippers and waiting to hear if she had been given a slot at the Edinburgh Fringe. One month on from this recording, we now know she has, of course she has, she is a startling comic and very, very funny. Amy cooked a pasta dish with leeks and crème fraiche, it was simple and delicious in delivery, as all good food should be.