How to make TV chef Rick Stein's last-minute cheat tiramisu

“The cardiologist said, ‘You’ve got to have an op, because you’ve got no choice. You have got a choice, you could die, or you could have the op.'” 

Stein, who has just released his latest book, Simple Suppers, says prior to the heart operation, he “got progressively more breathless, got lots of aches and pains – which I didn’t realise was actually down to my heart”.

He says: “I was on a fishing trip with my boys in The Highlands. They sort of shimmied up a mountain and said, ‘Are you coming Dad?’ And I got about 100 yards up a very steep hill, and I just realised I was completely breathless.” A checkup revealed he had a faulty aortic valve and eventually after there was “nothing more” cardiologists could do, he had heart surgery in June 2022. 

“He said, ‘It’s actually not more dangerous these days than having your appendix out’, which is a very nice thing to say – not that I’ve totally believed it.” 

Now he’s free from breathlessness symptoms. “Lots of people have had the same operation and more or less all of them say that it’s completely rejuvenated them,” Stein says, who is famed for his acclaimed fish restaurants, six of them in Cornwall.

It was actually the hospital food he was served during his stint at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London – the largest specialist heart and lung medical centre in the UK – that inspired his latest book.

The night before the op, Stein thinks he “got lucky” with a good chef at the hospital that evening and was served up a beautifully simple, lightly fried haddock fillet, with salt and cracked black pepper, olive oil dressing, spring onions, red peppers and lemon juice.

“That first dish when I arrived in hospital was fantastic,” he said (even including a recipe for it in his new book).

In his ‘dizzy’ state after the operation – and a less delicious meal of overcooked lamb – he began dreaming up the simplest of dishes he wanted to eat.

“You think a lot when you’re in the hospital, and I was just thinking how wonderful [the haddock] was and how lovely it would be to write a book which was filled with these sort of similar recipes,” says Stein. “And I think the older you get, the more you realise, that the simpler recipes are often the best ones.” 

In Simple Suppers you’ll find his dad’s chicken soup that he ate as a child – summer chicken soup with tomatoes and tarragon – which he’d make with Sunday roast leftovers, gnocchi with crab and chilli (a recipe of just two paragraphs) and lemon posset made from three ingredients.

“This is desperately about accepting and understanding that the way we all eat these days is simple and quick,” Stein says. All the recipes are intended to be completed in 30 minutes, to an hour maximum, and all fit on a single page.

There’s no ingredients or no preparations in the recipes that required you to refer to another page, and “generally I’ve kept them down to five to 10 ingredients and uses lots of pre-prepared things – tins, cannellini, haricot, butter beans – and I’ve always suggested buying in puff pastry.” 

While he was previously keen to make everything from scratch, even Stein has embraced such ingredients at home – “Because I think over the years, shop-bought preparations have improved immeasurably.” 

“In the old days, I’ve always said don’t buy if you can make better at home. But if you can’t, there’s not a lot of point unless you actually love making pastry. If you’ve got a couple of hours spare from time to time, fine.” Naturally, he likes to keep fish cookery simple at home. 

“I eat a lot of fish. I really like sashimi, so i’ve always got some raw fish in the fridge which I eat virtually daily – tuna, salmon, lemon sole or bass.

“Other than that, I just quite often pan fry a fillet of fish, sometimes just dusted in semolina. I’m really wanting a fairly boring piece of fish to taste great, I’d flour, egg and breadcrumb the fish and fry it in butter.” Now in his mid-Seventies, Stein takes his health seriously. 

“I am quite health-conscious. I swim virtually every day, and I walk a lot. I like getting into a pool or the sea and that’s enough for me, and I try and do 10,000 steps every day. If you can achieve that, you do find your body shape gets better, you do feel healthy.” 

But he’s still partial to a nostalgic, late-night snack. “I really like coming home from the pub late at night having a bowl of cereal, Grape Nuts, which my parents always ate. [With] full-fat milk and sugar. I have three bowls of those watching TV.” 

Rick Stein’s puff pastry topped fish pie recipe

recipe by:Rick Stein

This easy recipe misses some of the traditional steps – without losing the taste.

Servings

6

Preparation Time

 25 mins

Cooking Time

 30 mins

Total Time

 55 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 600ml whole milk

• 500g whiting, coley or pollock

• 300g undyed smoked haddock

• 2 egg yolks

• 2 tbsp cornflour

• 85g mature Cheddar cheese, grated

• Splash of white wine

• Large handful of parsley, chopped

• 150g peeled prawns, fresh or frozen and defrosted

• 320g ready-rolled puff pastry

• Milk or egg yolk, to glaze

• Salt and black pepper

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C.

2. Heat the milk in a wide pan, add the fish and poach for 3–5 minutes.

3. Take the pan off the heat, then lift the fish out with a slotted spoon, leaving the milk in the pan. When the fish is cool enough to handle, peel off any skin and gently break the flesh into large chunks. Allow the milk to cool a little.

4. In a small bowl, mix together the egg yolks and cornflour to form a paste. Gradually whisk in about a ladleful of the poaching milk. Place the pan of milk over a low heat and whisk in the egg yolk mixture, then stir over a medium heat until you have a thickened creamy sauce. Stir in the grated cheese, wine and parsley, then taste and season with salt and pepper.

5. Add the fish, sauce and prawns to an ovenproof dish, about 20 x 30cm in size, and gently combine. Top with the pastry and brush with milk or egg yolk.

6. Slash the pastry a couple of times to allow steam to escape and bake for 25–30 minutes until the pastry is golden and risen. Serve with peas, broccoli or green leafy vegetables.

Rick Stein’s last-minute cheat’s tiramisu recipe

recipe by:Rick Stein

You can’t go wrong with this quick and easy dessert.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Total Time

 20 mins

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• 150ml whipping or double cream

• 250g mascarpone, at room temperature

• 40g icing sugar, sifted

• 50ml Baileys or Marsala

• 150ml espresso coffee, cooled

• 8–12 sponge fingers or 4 trifle sponges

• Cocoa powder, for dusting or a chocolate flake, crumbled

Method

1. Lightly whip the cream in a bowl until it’s only just starting to thicken.

2. Whisk the mascarpone with the Baileys or Marsala to soften, add the icing sugar, then fold into the cream.

3. Pour the coffee into a separate bowl. Dip the sponges into the coffee and then divide half of them between 4 glasses or small bowls.

4. Add half the cream mixture, again dividing it between the bowls, then repeat the layers of sponge and cream. Dust generously with cocoa powder or crumbled chocolate.

5. Refrigerate until ready to serve or serve immediately if making at the last minute.

• Rick Stein’s Simple Suppers by Rick Stein is published by BBC Books. Photography by James Murphy. Available now