On stage, Steve Royle has the right mix of ingredients, and he’s no different in the kitchen.
As a performer who has spent more than 30 years in the spotlight, he’s built a reputation for his quick wit, madcap antics and his breathtaking juggling skills. And at home in Wheelton, he’s a creative cook who has added his own twist to a range of satisfying dishes.
‘I enjoy cooking and trying new things,’ he says. ‘I’m always tinkering with recipes and seeing how things work if I do something a bit differently. If you’ve got the basics, you can mess around a bit and change things.’
It sounds a lot like his approach to pantomime, where he has notched up more than 1000 performances at Blackpool Grand Theatre and no two have been exactly the same.
‘The rest of the cast might not like it so much because I go off script, but it’s no fun doing the same thing every night, is it? It keeps it fresh and it ensures the show is different every time which is great for audiences.’
Outside panto season, the father-of-three has a busy programme of gigs and produces a weekly podcast, but juggling family life and a hectic schedule of gigs is no trouble for a man who can juggle just about anything – in the Britain’s Got Talent semi-final it was bean bags and when Lancashire Life were invited for a brew in his kitchen, it was pans and utensils.
Steve’s talents on stage and in the kitchen developed when he was a young boy in Milnrow. He appeared as Rumplestiltskin in the school play at Moorhouse Primary and was hooked immediately.
‘I loved having the attention of the audience and I never really had that feeling of embarrassment,’ he says. ‘I put on a silly voice and got some laughs, and I thought that was great.’
He went on to join the Oldham Theatre Workshop where he was cast as Bugsy in Bugsy Malone and developed a real love of acting.
‘I remember seeing Lenny Henry in pantomime at Middleton Civic in the 80s and thinking I wanted to be up there. Not as a bit part, but in the main role.
‘I wasn’t really the class clown when I was at school but I think I was always quite witty. My parents were called in to school once because I wouldn’t stop talking back to teachers in a squeaky Donald Duck voice. They’d tell me off and I’d squeak back ‘Sorry, nobody’s perfect’.
‘Both my parents were teachers, so I never really had that fear of teachers that other kids had. My dad was a college lecturer and my mum was a domestic science teacher so from being very young, she taught me and my siblings to cater for ourselves.
‘Mealtimes at home were dictated by the school year and what she was doing with her classes: in September there’d be something simple like beans on toast, then by July when they were doing more advanced stuff in their lessons, we’d be having coq au vin. And between all that there’d be a lot of Christmas cakes.
‘The first time I impressed her was with a chili con carne and that became my signature dish – my secret was to add a spoonful of sugar to it.’
His parents were concerned about showbiz being a precarious career and encouraged him to go to university where he studied economic and social history. ‘I ate a lot of chili while I was at uni, and cheesy beans. Those things got me through my degree, along with liver and onions. I’ve always loved that, and it was cheap.’
But his parents needn’t have worried. Steve has forged a successful career, first as mad Edgar, the medieval jester, comedian and entertainer at the now-closed Camelot theme park at Charnock Richard and later as a stand-up comedian and as warm-up man for television shows, a radio and podcast host and a prolific panto star. He’s got a lot on his plate.
He has a much broader repertoire in the kitchen nowadays too, with recipes found online and in his shelf-load of cookery books – the most-thumbed is his big Delia Smith book – and tips picked up when he hosts Bolton Food Festival. And he is constantly tweaking his recipes and experimenting.
‘I did a beef stew in the slow cooker the other day and there was a bit left over so I made some pasties and they turned out really well. The chicken parcels are one of my favourite things to make and I have enhanced that recipe recently.’
* Steve will be appearing as Wishy Washy in Aladdin at Blackpool Grand Theatre this Christmas. Before then he has gigs lined up across the region and he’ll be part of a Britain’s Got Talent variety show on North Pier in the summer. You can hear him on his podcast – Finding Funnies – with co-host Jamie Sutherland.
RECIPES
Slow cooked sausage casserole
Ingredients:
2 tbsps olive oil
1 onion
2 garlic cloves (chopped)
1 red pepper
1 chorizo sausage (sliced thinly)
6 pork sausages
400g tin chickpeas (drained)
400g tin kidney beans
400g tin baked beans
250g passata
3 tspns mixed herbs
250ml chicken stock
1 tablespoon black treacle
Method:
1 Fry the onions with the chopped garlic in the olive oil for 5 minutes until soft then place in slow cooker.
2 Fry the pork sausages until lightly browned on all sides. Add to slow cooker.
3. Add the chickpeas, kidney beans, baked beans and passata.
4. Add the chorizo and sprinkle the herbs. Pour over the chicken stock.
5. Add the treacle and stir.
6. Cook on slow power for 6-8 hours or high power for 4-6 hours, stirring occassionally.
7. Serve with baked potatoes, rice or crusty bread.
Stir fry satay sauce
Ingredients:
2 tbsps olive oil
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger (Chopped thinly)
1 garlic clove (chopped)
3 tbsps soy sauce (light or dark, according to taste)
2 heaped tbsps smooth peanut butter
150ml coconut milk
1 tbsp honey
Method:
1. Heat the oil in a small sized pan and fry the garlic and ginger for 2 minutes until starting to brown.
2. Lower the heat and add the soy sauce and peanut butter and continue to stir until butter has melted.
3. Pour in the coconut milk and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down, add the honey and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Use as a dipping sauce or pour over fresh noodles and other stir fries.
Steve’s chicken parcel surprise
I call them a “surprise” because you can fill them with whatever ingredients you fancy: cream cheese, tomatoes, garlic butter, peanut butter, even black pudding or haggis would work, but here I’m using pesto and mozzarella.
Ingredients:
4 chicken breast fillets
1 jar of pesto sauce (green or red)
1 ball of mozzarella
Tin foil
Method:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C/180C Fan (Gas mark 6)
2. Cut four rectangles of tin foil approximately three times the width of each chicken fillet and about four inches longer.
3. With a sharp knife, cut a pocket into the underside of each fillet taking care not to pierce all the way through.
4. Spread a couple of teaspoons of pesto into each pocket as deep and as thick as possible but leaving enough room for the mozzarella.
5. Cut the mozzarella into slices about 1cm thick and add two or three to the pockets on top of the pesto.
6. Close the pockets around the fillings and lift onto the tin foil squares.
7. Roll the chicken up in the tin foil as if making a Christmas cracker and twist the ends to make them cylindrical.
8. Fry the parcels quickly (2-3 minutes) turning occasionally in a dry frying pan.
9. Place the parcels on a baking tray and cook for 30minutes.
10. Unravel each parcel and slice the chicken to create circles about an inch thick, which should show the beautiful filling inside.
11. Pour any remaining juices from the foil over the chicken to serve.
12. Serve with air-fried potatoes. Tip new potatoes in a bowl, halving any larger ones. Drizzle with a little olive oil, add a pinch of salt and some thyme. Mix well and put in the air-fryer for 20 minutes, or until ready.
