Rick Stein: 'I'm revealing my step-by-step secrets for 150 recipes in my new book'

Here are three of his favourites

Cornish pasties

“I like to use butter and lard for the pastry as this does create a great texture. Grating the lard and butter means that the pastry is flecked with streaks of the fat, giving a lovely flaky result,” says renowned chef and author Rick Stein.

“Traditionally, Cornish pastries don’t contain any stock – the juiciness in them derives from the connective tissue slow-cooking beef skirt or chuck provides.

"In fact, though one might be tempted to give pasties more gravy by adding stock, they don’t taste like the real thing. I say this because I had a Cornish pasty in Australia recently and it tasted like an Aussie meat pie, albeit in a pasty shape. And the beef was minced.”

Makes 4. Ingredients: 450g beef skirt or chuck steak; 225-350g swede (known in Cornwall as turnip) 750g potatoes, peeled; 225g onion or shallot; 1 beaten egg, or milk to glaze; Salt and black pepper

Pastry: 100g lard; 100g butter; 450g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting; A good pinch of salt; 175ml very cold water

Put the lard and butter for the pastry in the freezer and leave until they are very hard.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Trim any gristle off the meat. Cut the meat and any fat into 5mm pieces. Peel and chop the swede into similar-sized pieces.

Slice the potatoes and chop the onion or shallot, then mix all the filling ingredients together in a bowl. Season with plenty of salt and pepper.

For the pastry, sift the flour and salt into a large bowl, then grate the lard and butter straight from the freezer into the bowl.

Gently mix the fat through the flour, then using a table knife, stir in the water a tablespoon at a time until the mixture comes together.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and briefly knead into a ball. Put it back into the bowl, cover and chill for an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C. Cut the pastry into 4 even pieces and shape each into a ball. Roll them out, one at a time, on a floured surface into circles 20-23cm in diameter.

The pastry should now be the right thickness, about 3-4mm. Place an upturned plate of that size on each circle and trim into neat rounds.

Divide the filling between the rounds, then seal and crimp. Grease and flour a large baking sheet. Brush the pasties with beaten egg and place them on the baking sheet, leaving 5cm between each one. Bake for 1 hour.

Rick Stein’s cod with puy lentils and red wine sauce

“This recipe demonstrates how to pan-fry a thick fillet of fish with the skin on. Most of the cooking is done skin-side down over a moderate heat and only the last 15 per cent of the time is with the fillet turned over,” says world-famous chef Rick Stein.

“This ensures that the skin has a pleasing brown colour and crispness. The other point of this dish is the French ideas of using Asian spices in a sotto voce manner in butter sauces.

"I think you will find the Puy lentils go very well here. Alternative fish: barramundi, blue cod, blue-eye trevalla, coley, haddock, hake, hapuka, Murray cod and pollock.”

Serves 4. Ingredients: 4 x 175g pieces of thick skin-on cod fillet; 75g unsalted butter; 50g each onion, carrot and celery, finely chopped; A small pinch each of ground allspice, ground cloves and grated nutmeg; A large pinch of curry powder; 600ml red wine; 600ml chicken stock; 1tsp sugar; 1tbsp plain flour; Salt and black pepper

Lentils: 50g dried Puy lentils; 300ml fish stock; 1 clove and 1 bay leaf; 2 slices of peeled onion; ½tsp salt

Put all the ingredients for the lentils into a pan and simmer for 20-25 minutes until tender. Drain, then cover and keep warm.

Season the cod with salt and pepper. Melt 50g of the butter in a non-stick frying pan over a moderate heat.

When the butter is hot and starting to foam, add the cod fillets, skin-side down, and cook for eight minutes without turning.

Carefully turn to cook the white side for a couple of minutes, then remove the fish from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.

For the sauce, add the chopped onion, carrot and celery and spices to the melted butter in the pan. Fry over a medium heat for about 10 minutes, then add the red wine, stock, sugar and ¼ teaspoon of salt.

Bring to the boil and boil until the sauce is reduced by three-quarters and is concentrated in flavour. Strain into a clean pan and keep warm.

Mix the remaining 25g of butter with the flour to make a smooth paste (beurre manié). Bring the sauce to the boil, then whisk in the paste a little at a time. Simmer for 2 minutes until smooth and thickened.

To serve, spoon the lentils on to 4 warmed plates and place the cod, skin-side up on top. Spoon the sauce around the lentils and fish.

Rick Stein’s broad bean, wild garlic and leek risotto recipe

“A little obsession of mine – I don’t there there are enough recipes for broad beans in this world,” enthuses chef and TV presenter Rick Stein.

“I love them, but unless the beans are young and tender you do have to what I call double-pod them for this dish – that is, remove the grey outer skin of each bean.”

Serves 4. Ingredients: 300g podded broad beans, fresh or frozen and defrosted; 60g butter; 1 leek, trimmed, halved lengthways and finely sliced; 300g Arborio rice; 100ml white wine; 1-1.2 litres hot vegetable stock; Handful of wild garlic, washed and chopped (or 3 garlic cloves, chopped, plus a handful of flatleaf parsley); 60g Parmesan, grated; Salt and black pepper

Remove the greyish outer skins from the beans – you should have about 200g after doing this.

Melt half the butter in a large pan and add the leek. Sweat for about 3-4 minutes until soft, then add the rice and stir.

Once the rice is all coated in buttery leeks, add the white wine and allow it to boil and bubble up.

Add the hot stock a ladleful at a time, stirring frequently until each addition is absorbed before adding the next.

Continue until you have only a couple of ladlefuls left, then stir in the broad beans and add the remaining stock.

Take the pan off the heat and stir in the wild garlic, three-quarters of the grated Parmesan and the rest of the butter.

Stir until well combined then season with salt and pepper. Serve with the remaining Parmesan.

Extracted from Rick Stein’s Cookery Course: Recipes and techniques from a lifetime in the kitchen. Published in hardback by BBC Books, priced £30. Available October 29