SIMPLICITY is key for Lorraine Pascale. "It's the way I live and the way I eat," explains the chef, discussing the essence behind her latest book, Eating Well Made Easy. "There's no faff – just chop it up and throw it in."
It's this understated approach to delivering uncomplicated, nutritious food that has seen the model-turned-TV-cook take the culinary world by storm;.
Looking far younger than her 43 years when we meet at her home in London, a glowing Pascale's off-screen demeanour is as fuss-free as her recipes. Dressed in jogging bottoms and a casual T-shirt, she looks every inch the (admittedly quite glamorous) homebody – the only visible sign of her celeb status being a pair of studio lights in her kitchen, which she reveals are used to self-shoot her YouTube cooking channel.
"I've started doing it regularly; I'm full-time now and I'm focused," she says of her move into the vlogger sphere. "I only do two one-minute videos a week because I film and edit them myself."
Model, baker, chef, mechanic (yes, really), fostering activist and now director/producer, Pascale is a one-woman band.
Her latest venture, she tells me (while chopping tomatoes for her take on popular Mexican dish huevos rancheros) is all about providing fast, easy and affordable recipes for busy people who want a nutritious diet.
"I wanted to include recipes that are easy to follow. Most of the ingredients listed you can get from Tesco, Sainsbury's – local shops," Pascale, who has presented various high-profile BBC shows, says of the book.
She insists she has no regrets in forfeiting her catwalk career for the confines of a kitchen and she's not too strict either.
"I'm just normal," she says. "I eat out a lot and I buy food ready to go. If I was to write a book like Nigel Slater's A Year of Good Eating, only 100 days out of 365 would be spent cooking," she says, grinning. "And 265 would be 'ate out', 'ate a can of tuna and some sweetcorn'.
"I feel bad because I don't cook every day like Nigella [Lawson] and Nigel!"
Try these recipes from Pascale's new book:
HUEVOS RANCHEROS WITH JALAPENOS AND GARLIC
(Serves 2)
2 soft corn tortillas
2tbsp olive oil
4 ripe tomatoes cut into cubes
3 spring onions, finely chopped
2 green jalapeno chillies or 1/2 regular green or red chilli, deseeded for less heat if preferred, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Good pinch of ground cumin
Leaves from 1/2 bunch of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
4 free-range eggs
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 200C/fan 180C. Wrap the tortillas in a piece of tin foil, sit on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for about 10 minutes or until they are heated through.
Meanwhile, heat one tablespoon of oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the tomato, spring onion, chilli, garlic, cumin and a little salt and pepper, and cook them for about five minutes, or until the tomato begins to break down.
Stir in half of the coriander, remove from the heat and keep warm.
Rinse out and dry the pan and put it back on a low-medium heat. Add the remaining tablespoon of oil and once nice and hot, crack in the eggs, spaced apart. Cook them gently for about three to four minutes, until the whites are cooked but the yolks still a little bit runny. Remove the pan from the heat.
Remove the tortillas from the oven and place one on each serving plate. Divide the salsa mix between them, spreading it out with the back of the spoon. Slide two eggs on top of each one, sprinkle with the remaining coriander and serve.
:: MIXED BERRY CRUMBLE WITH OATS AND ALMONDS
(Serves 4-6)
For the filling:
600g fresh berries
2 Medjool dates, pitted and very finely chopped
1tsp ground cinnamon
1/2tsp ground nutmeg
For the crumble:
180g porridge oats
80g ground almonds
7 Medjool dates, pitted and very finely chopped
4tbsp butter
3tsp ground ginger
Seeds of 1/2 a vanilla pod
Preheat the over to 190C/fan 170C. Put the filling ingredients into a pan over a low heat and cook for about four minutes, or until the fruit just begins to soften. Tip the fruit into an ovenproof dish and set this aside.
Put the porridge oats, ground almonds, dates, butter, two teaspoons of the ground ginger and the vanilla seeds into a bowl and, using your fingertips, rub this gently together to just combine, so everything is evenly mixed in. Tip the crumble topping over the fruit and then sprinkle over the remaining one teaspoon of ground ginger.
Pop into the oven and cook for about 25 minutes, or until the crumble is just going golden brown. Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cook for a few minutes before serving.
:: Eating Well Made Easy by Lorraine Pascale is published by HarperCollins, priced £20. Available now.
