Serves: 1
Cooking time: 8m

2 slices of soft white Pain de Champagne bread
1 teaspoon butter
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons crème fraiche (or ready-made béchamel or cheese sauce)
50g grated Gruyère cheese
1 slice of good quality carved ham from a deli or deli counter (from the bone)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large British Lion egg

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Spread the butter on both sides of the bread then spread one side with Dijon mustard. Spread on 1 tablespoon of crème fraiche, béchamel or cheese sauce. Sprinkle on half the grated cheese and lay on the slice of ham, then sandwich together. Spread the top layer of the sandwich with the rest of the crème fraiche, béchamel or cheese sauce, then sprinkle with the rest of the cheese. Place the sandwich on a baking sheet and bake for 6-7 minutes until the cheese has melted and gone gooey on top.

2. While the sandwich is baking heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the egg (Gizzi uses free range) for 1-2 minutes basting the yolk with the hot oil as it cooks. Drain on kitchen paper and serve immediately on top of the sandwich.

I am working on a new project that has been such an eye opener for me. I didn’t know much about autism before the guys at Raw productions for T4 contacted me to help them in their campaigning show ‘Battlefront’. One of their campaigners, a 16 year old girl called Bella, is campaigning as her brother is autistic and has had trouble getting employment.

So with the help of  Scott Mills, Kate Nash and myself she is opening up a cafe with autistic volunteers. I have written a menu that has things like a slow cooked lamb ragu lasagna and chorizo, cheese and spring onion quesedilla’s with guacamole and salsa and will be cooking with and training the volunteers.

I am so looking forward to working with the guys and proving to employers that these kids are totally employable.

If you are around this weekend ‘Bellas cafe’ will be at the Clerkenwell kitchen and you should pop your head in. www.theclerkenwellkitchen.co.uk

Love

Gizzix

So finally, after months of filming and basically being off the radar and most of you thinking I must be dead Cookery school finally comes out on Monday the 31st. That a week away!

Me and Richard Corrigan (Bentleys, Corrigans Mayfair) set up a cookery school for a variety of skilled students and push them to the maximum level. There is sweat, tears, tantrums, casualty visits, bonkers personalities and some really special food. I think what you will get most from the show is some really great tips on how to develop your skills as a cook and not only are we showing you super recipes but we explain why things work and what to do if they don’t.

I hope you all like the show. Its the scariest thing I have ever done and am more nervous about this than anything. Its 50 episodes of telly guys. Thats almost 3 months of me and Richard on your telly everyday.

The answer is that there is not a wrong one. They all rock, but the finer ones are the ones that aerate your cheese and make a little go a very long way. Non of them claim to do this, it is merely something I discovered by default, when it took me ages to grate a lump of cheese which went from a small block into a mountain of fluffy airy cheese. I took the same handful, but it must have been at least half my usual amount from when using another type of grater.

They are brilliant in all their guises though and are a fab way to get loads of flavour into your food without the fat. They are super sharp when you first get them so watch your fingers!

I hope you like them….xx

So its started and all with THE most hilarious montage. Noone wants to see themselves stuffing there gobs in slow motion! Kind of wanted to die on the spot when I saw it!

So it kicked off today with my super-duper sausage rolls. They are special as they are stuffed with ketchup and chutney and just really scrummy. If you have never made them before then you should have a go as a fresh sausage roll it such a treat. Not like the frozen rubbish your probably used to. I sometimes serve them with gravy, mash and peas for a real treat! Not very CYT I know but once in a while it has to be allowed.

So tomorrow Im doing my rosemary infused millionares shortbread, which is probably one of my signature dishes so I hope you like it.

Anyway, over and out for now. xxxx

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all your lovely comment recently. I want you all to know that I am reading each and every one of them and listening to everything you have to say.

Something that keeps popping up on twitter, facebook and here is that you would like to see more veggy recipes. YOu are absolutely right. All you veggies out there will be plaesed to hear that I am opening up a pop up cafe in East London with innocent smoothies for about a week at the end of October and low and behold, ALL of the food is going to be Veggie. There will be recipes galore too.

I have spent the past month developing seasonal, local produced veg recipes that are all mouthwatering and I hope, quite surprising. Today for example I am playing around with some root vegetable bhajis on a piece of grilled paneer with a sag dhal, yoghurt and rose harrisa. So expect really gutsy flavours!

I will post more about the cafe closer to the time and I hope this makes up for the lack of veggie recipes so far and I vow from now on to include more in anything I do.

Love

Gizzix

Actually - I cant take credit for that - my boyfriend did. Easy name to remember and all, but somehow forgot and they are Green in a environmentally friendly way too.

http://www.green-pan.com/cookware/intro.asp

So many of you have been asking about whether this series of cook yourself thin is getting a book. Unfortunately not this series, but the very first series has one, which i co wrote with the other girls and I have just released my own book Kitchen magic which you can get off Amazon.

So the deal is, if we get another series we will be getting another book for sure, so I am praying to the Gods of Channel 4 commissioning. I hope you do too. xxxxx

Hi Guys once again thanks a million for all the encouragement. I have to say in reply to one comment about the 1 cal sprays that I am really anti them. They are a processed product, (just look at the labeling) and contain a tiny amount of natural ingredients, so please guys do not be suckered into buying them. They are also really rubbish to cook with not giving nearly enough lubrication. To save money you can buy a clear plastic spray bottle from a place like Muji or the spray bottle we used in the show were from Gill Wing kitchen supplies, but you can get a whole array of them of places like amazon. Just type in pump oil sprays. The pans are driving me nuts. I cannot remember where they are from. The TV peeps at Tiger aspect keep saying Le creuset, (thats what I have at home BTW) and Im sure they are not, but I will get back to you with this I promise. Will write a new post soon. Have been doing This morning, photo shoots, helping host Taste Festivals awards ceremony and it was the CYT wrap party all this week and am totally whacked.xxxx

…well its only blooming started hasn’t it!  Thank you to all of you that have sent me messages on facebook and twitter. Its really interesting hearing your stories. I think its so poigniant  that so many of you can relate to what were trying to do. Eat deelish food and be able to drop some pounds. All the recipes have been tried and tested to death and I even lost weight writing and testing them so if thats not proof enough I don’t know what is? I’ve learnt so many interesting things, like that a home cooked version of something is generally 100 cals less than a ready meal or takeaway as you are able to monitor what goes into it. So there is the drive we should all need to be cooking from scratch as much as we can.

I would love to hear what you all think of the new format too. Anyway, I really hope your enjoying it.

Masses of love

Gizzix