YOU wouldn’t think a top chef would dare serve a Michelin inspector instant custard power – but that’s exactly what Phil Vickery did.
“I did a steamed sponge pudding, and I served it with Bird’s Custard – and I got a [Michelin] star for that meal. OK, I adapted it – I put a few vanilla seeds in it and bits and pieces – but essentially, it was a thickened starch-based custard – and he loved it!” says Vickery (60).
Not only that, but in the same meal in 1999, he served something out of the freezer, too.
“I had a frozen baby cockerel, because I couldn’t afford to throw them away – I froze and defrosted them – and the head of Michelin had that cockerel as well.”
The chef, who’s been a mainstay on ITV’s This Morning for 23 years, first started using canned and frozen ingredients in the early 90s when he took over as head chef of a hotel in financial difficulty.
“That hotel owed a huge amount of money to the bank, all the staff had gone, it was the recession and the bank were going to shut the doors in six months, so I just couldn’t afford to buy expensive ingredients,” he says. So, he delved into the store cupboard and used what was there instead.
“I never cooked halibut, I couldn’t afford it, I never cooked turbot.”
Even when a famous chef came to lunch with a renowned food critic, Vickery served them soup made from water, stock cubes, tinned butterbeans, onions and garlic, with a sprinkle of thyme and olive oil on top.
“That food critic said, ‘Oh my goodness, that’s the nicest butterbean soup I’ve ever had – can I have another bowl?’ So I thought, ‘Hang on a minute, if it’s good enough for him, it’s good enough for my customers’.”
What was originally conceived out of financial necessity made him “view things in a different way”, and he’s been cooking this way for years at home. His new book, The Canny Cook, celebrates all things canned and frozen, and the cheap, sustainable, easy meals you can make from them.
On This Morning, Holly Willoughby, Dermot O’Leary and co give rave reviews of Vickery’s dishes using store cupboard ingredients (“They don’t fake that!” he says). You might have seen him rustle up rhubarb crumble with strawberry jam and instant custard, or corned beef hash, on the show – “As long as you explain it, it’s fine,” he says, but he’s been criticised by fellow chefs for ‘deskilling’ the industry.
“I don’t give a toss,” he says.
“I’ve been called some awful things on Twitter… Some people say to me, ‘You’re the s***test chef on This Morning. I just laugh at it.”
Purists may well sneer but, even today, he believes high-end restaurants use far more canned produce than diners realise. “Chefs are quite dishonest as well, [if you asked] ‘What are you storing this stuff for?’ They’d never tell you,” he says.
Early stages of the pandemic saw the public panicking to refill their cupboards with tinned ingredients – and even now we’re over the worst of it, “People are squeezed, budgets are squeezed, and it’s just a perfect way of utilising what’s around”, Vickery says.
“And you can make very good dishes – simple stuff, without having to spend too much money. [So] don’t turn your nose up at some things you can buy canned or frozen.”
While some preserved ingredients can simply be thrown into whatever you’re cooking to save time and money (he recommends swapping half the meat in a lasagne for a tin of lentils), others need a bit more love.
“I hated frozen cauliflower,” he admits, “but I bought some in Iceland, a bag, a kilo, I roasted it in the oven – to get rid of the moisture – and I put salsa verde and chopped anchovies on it out of a can, and it was amazing. And that was a pound.”
He continues: “I bought 360 grams of individually frozen yellowfin tuna steaks (£2.99) from Aldi, wanting to hate them. Oh my goodness, I made ceviche, I made a poke – it was fabulous.”
There are a few things he doesn’t recommend buying frozen – scallops or monkfish, for example, but cod, haddock, salmon and tuna all freeze perfectly well, he says. His recipes include canned crab meat and lobster, and although “you can definitely taste the difference – it doesn’t taste as good as fresh lobster – it gets pretty close to it for a fraction of the price”.
“And squid can be as tough as old boots, but in a can? Fantastic. So the canning process can actually soften things, like pears and tinned peaches, too.”
While we all probably have tins of beans, tomatoes and sweetcorn languishing in our cupboards, Vickery suggests trying canned potatoes, asparagus, pumpkin and peppers, and even canned or vacuum-packed hotdogs.
Children of the 70s and 80s might want to recreate school dinners with Vickery’s Spam fritters recipe, inspired by his childhood.
“As a kid growing up, my mother refused to cook on a Sunday evening, because she cooked all week, and Spam was a treat.” And you probably wouldn’t expect to see a recipe for fish fingers and waffles (exactly as it sounds) from a Michelin-starred chef.
Still, Vickery’s everyman charm is what This Morning fans love, and he’s no stranger to cooking disasters on live telly.
“I drop stuff, burn myself, the oven’s not on, I’ve tipped stuff or forgotten to put stuff in, but people love it – tea towels catching fire is quite normal,” he laughs.
Vickery turned 60 last year, and while he does consider what he eats, he definitely isn’t about to give up his favourite chilli-flavoured Doritos, and enjoys a pint of beer every single night, saying: “Life’s too short – you’ve got to have some sort of enjoyment.”
The Canny Cook by Phil Vickery is published by Kyle Books, priced £16.99. Photography by Kate Whitaker. Available now. Below are three recipes for you to try at home...
SPAM FRITTERS AND SPRING ONION MASH RECIPE
(Serves 4)
500g frozen mashed potatoes
200ml milk
50g salted butter
4 spring onions, finely chopped
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
340g can Spam, chilled
300ml sparkling water
200g self-raising flour
2–3 tablespoons cornflour
Method:
Reheat the mash in a microwave-safe bowl according to the packet instructions and mix well. Add the milk and butter, and then microwave for a few seconds to melt the butter. Mix well and taste for seasoning. Stir in the spring onions and set aside. Heat the vegetable oil in a deep pan or wok to 180°C. Cut the Spam into four equal slices. Place the flour in a bowl, add the sparkling water to the flour and then mix into a soft batter. Dust each slice of Spam with a little cornflour, then dip into the batter. Carefully slide into the hot oil and cook for four to five minutes until browned and crispy.
Drain well on kitchen paper. Serve with the spring onion mash.
SWEET POTATO, CAULIFLOWER AND PEANUT CURRY
(Serves 4)
4tbsp any oil
250g frozen chopped onions
1tbsp dried garlic granules
½tsp dried chilli flakes
2tbps frozen chopped ginger
400g can coconut milk
2 heaped tbsp peanut butter
10g vegetable stock cube, crumbled
500g frozen cubed sweet potato
500g frozen cauliflower florets
1–2tbps cornflour
300g (about 6 × 50g balls) frozen spinach
1–2tsp sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 × 250g packets microwaveable basmati rice, warmed, to serve
Method:
Heat the oil in a pan over a high heat and then add the onions, garlic granules, chilli flakes and ginger. Cook for six to eight minutes to drive off the moisture and colour a little. Add the coconut milk, half-fill the can with water, then add to the pan along with the peanut butter and stock cube and whisk. Bring to a simmer, then cook for five minutes.
Add the frozen sweet potato and cauliflower and bring back to a simmer for 10 minutes. Mix the cornflour well with two tablespoons of cold water and then add to the simmering curry: it will thicken pretty much straight away.
Check the seasoning and adjust if needed, then drop in the frozen spinach pucks. Cover and simmer for five minutes, then stir in the sugar, turn off the heat and leave for 15 minutes. Stir well and serve with the basmati rice.
SQUIDGY CREME EGG BROWNIE
2tbsp golden syrup
110g salted butter, softened
150g caster sugar
150g bitter chocolate
75g plain flour, sifted
4 eggs, at room temperature
Finely grated zest of 1 large orange
4 Creme Eggs, halved
Vanilla ice cream, to serve (optional)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4. Line a 20 centimetre square baking tray with greaseproof paper, or oil well. Melt the golden syrup, butter, sugar and chocolate together in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Remove the bowl from the pan, then stir in the flour, eggs and orange zest. Mix well but do not overmix, or the finished brownie will be chewy. Pour into the prepared tray, then carefully place the eight Creme Egg halves into the top of the mix, pressing down slightly. Pop into the oven and cook for 35–40 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, then chill in the fridge for 30 minutes before cutting. Serve with vanilla ice cream, if you like.
