Shrimp Fritters

These are astonishingly good! The name sounds dull - possibly in spanish, it comes across better: 'tortillitas de camarones'. However you choose to call them, they are beyond mouth-watering, and are the best new culinary discovery I've made in a very long time. Served as a starter, they are very, very more-ish...
This recipe is another gem from Elizabeth Luard's 'Classic Spanish Cooking', which I highly recommend.

For about ten fritters:

Ingredients: 4 tbs bread flour; 1 tbs semola flour; 6 tbs water; 2 tbs oil; half tsp bicarbonate of soda; half tsp salt; quarter tsp paprika; 1 tbs finely chopped onion; 1 tbs chopped parsley; 125g finely chopped peeled shrimp. Oil, for frying.

Method:

1. Combine the flour, semola, salt, bicarbonate of soda and paprika in a bowl, and add to them the water and oil. Using a fork, mix well, to make a batter.

2. Stir into the batter the parsley, onion, and shrimp, and mix to amalgamate thoroughly.

3. In a wide, shallow pan (I use a large saute pan, for best results...you want something where the individual fritters have plenty of space around them), heat two fingers' depth of oil, until it starts to shimmer. It should be very hot.

4. Drop the batter into the oil in 1 tbs amounts. Allow to fry for about a minute, then flatten each one with the back of a metal spoon, and use a palette knife to ensure thay haven't got stuck to the bottom of the pan in the process. After a couple of minutes cooking, turn the fritters over - the underside should by now be a golden dark brown. Continue to cook for a couple more minutes, then take them out of the oil and drain them briefly on kitchen paper.

Serve while still hot. They are wonderful!

Leek & Mushroom timbales.

In Italy, this would be called a sformato; in France, a timbale; and in Britain, whence the recipe hails, there's every reason to think of it as a savoury baked custard. Apart, that is, from the fact that the dreary and workaday words 'baked custard' do not, never have and never could conjure up an image of something so unctuous and delicious as this dish actually is. The version given here is closely based on one in Stephen Bull's admirable 'Classic Bull' , where he does refer to it as a 'custard' - but then, in that book he was more or less on a british-ish food trip, where the frames of reference were things like jugged hare, and omelette Arnold Bennett, and drop scones...and so 'custard', with all its home counties overtones, fitted right in.
The book, by the way, has much to recommend it, and over the years I've come across a number of treasures within its pages which have subsequently been assimilated into my own repertoire - his breaded pork paupiettes, for instance, stuffed with basil and anchovy, are excellent and point-scoring, as are his recipe for lemon cheesecake, and his method of blanching cucumber before finishing it in butter to serve as a vegetable to accompany fish. The abysmally bad editing before the book went to press means that careful reading is necessary, however, before actually embarking on any of the recipes - in the aforementioned cheesecake recipe, for instance, it begins with an instruction to heat the oven to 350 degrees F, and thereafter the oven makes no further appearance in the recipe (rightly so, since this cheesecake is set, and not baked - but isn't entirely clear from the way the recipe is written and the unwary might conceivably guess otherwise and try and bake it...with what ghastly results I can only imagine); equally, in the recipe for 'Beef Stew, with Orange and Cinnamon', you would search in vain for any mention of cinnamon either in the list of ingredients or in the recipe itself; guesswork is required to know how much of it seems a good idea, and what in fact you do with it, once you've estimated the quantity.

Anyway: leek and mushroom 'timbale'. This is one of those starters to be made in individual ramekins, and, once turned-out, to be coated with a spoonful of whichever delicious sauce suits your palate. In this instance, standard hollandaise would be my choice, although equally a version using dijon mustard rather than lemon juice would also work pretty well.

For two 'generous'servings:

Ingredients: 110g finely diced leek; 2-3 dried mushrooms (I tend to use shiitake rather than porcini, but either will work); 25g butter; 120g field mushrooms; 150ml chicken stock; 150 ml white wine; 150 ml cream; 2 medium eggs; 2 tsp chopped tarragon (or 1 tsp, if using dried); Salt and Pepper.

Method:

1. Reconstitute the dried mushroom in hot water for twenty minutes or so, then drain, rinse thoroughly and chop finely.

2. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, then add to this the field mushrooms, roughly chopped, along with the chopped dried mushroom. Cook the mushrooms, covered, over a low heat for about five minutes.

3. Add to the pan the chopped leek, and cook, still covered, for a further ten minutes. Season lightly.
At this point, heat the oven to 180 degrees C.

4. Add the wine and stock, raise the heat, and simmer enthusiastically until the liquid has mostly gone, then add the cream, and continue to simmer until the cream has reduced by about half, so that the leek and mushroom mixture is enrobed in cream rather than sitting in liquid.

5. Allow to cool for a minute or two, then blend it in a liquidizer along with the eggs and tarragon. Check the seasoning at this stage and adjust as needed.

6. Grease two 10 cm ramekins, and run a narrow strip of foil inside each one (along the base and up the side, with the ends folded down and over the outside) as a means of subsequently assisting in unmoulding should they want to be recalcitrant. Divide the leek and mushroom cream between the ramekins, and then place them, in a bain marie, in the pre-heated oven. Cook for slightly more than 30 minutes (by which I mean 31 or 32 minutes - it depends on your oven precisely how much time they will need, and I find in my oven in Italy that at 30 minutes they are just, but only just, done to perfection; a minute or so more takes the finished product to the right side of wobbliness.)

Unmould onto heated plates, and serve with the sauce of your choice.  

Asparagus Sauce for Papardelle

This recipe - which is extremely delicious - in fact comes from a Michel Roux dish of poached salmon garnished with asparagus tips. The salmon dish was pretty good (especially with the addition of a bed of  mash!), but the leftover sauce, of which there was plenty, when served with fato a mano papardelle was stellar!

The sauce requires only the stalks of the asparagus, and so if you aren't using the tips (cooked) as a garnish for your papardelle , I would advise reserving them to use on another day either in risotto, or else as a stuffing for ravioli.

The following quantity is appropriate for four servings of pasta.

Ingredients: 8 asparagus stalks (tips cut about two inches down from the end); 50g butter; 2 shallots, sliced finely; 2 small mushrooms, finely sliced; 1 bouquet garni; 250 ml good quality stock (either fish or vegetable, depending on which you have available); 100 ml cream.

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan, and sweat for about three minutes the mushrooms and shallots, along with the chopped-up asparagus stalks. Do not allow the contents of the pan to colour.

2. Add the bouquet garni and the stock, and simmer for three minutes, then add the cream and simmer for a further two minutes. Check seasoning and adjust as necessary.

3. Allow the sauce to cool slightly, and then blend it in a liquidizer for a minute or so.  You can then sieve it, for a really velvety texture, or else leave it slightly 'chunky' - I'm not sure that the difference is discernible once it has been used to coat the lengths of papardelle.

4. If it needs it, reheat briefly in the microwave before tossing with the cooked pasta.

Fettucine with raw broad beans

Ages ago, I was given copies of all of the River Cafe pocketbooks (Pasta, Vegetables, Fish, and Desserts)...and, having given them only a cursory glance, they were consigned to the bookshelves. I don't know why, but certain books of recipes seem to need to wait for 'their time', and until then they have no resonance for me. And that was how it was with these particular slim volumes, until earlier this summer, when I decided to have a proper look at the pasta volume. And I found within it a treasure trove of wonderful things. Of which, this is one...

For four servings.

Ingredients: fettucine for four (or, indeed any other pasta shape you might prefer to use - there are a few pasta sauces which definitely work better with particular shapes of pasta, but there aren't really very many which are like that, and I don't include this sauce within the very few which are); 1.5 kg broad beans - frozen is fine, and indeed arguably preferable, since these days vegetables are frozen almost as they come off the plant, and so are remarkably fresh in flavour (if using frozen beans, defrost them thoroughly several hours before you make this dish); 150g parmesan (you can use pecorino if you wish, but my preference is always for parmesan, which has a rounder flavour); 2 garlic cloves; 3 tbs basil leaves, chopped; juice of one lemon; 120 ml olive oil; salt.

Method:

1. In the food processor, blitz two-thirds of the parmesan, and then to this add two-thirds of the broad beans, along with the garlic, basil and 1 tsp salt. Process, until reduced to a rough puree.

2. Remove the mixture to a bowl, and slowly stir into it the olive oil and then the lemon juice.

3. Cook the pasta, and leave a few spoonfuls of cooking water in the pan when you drain the pasta. Add to this the bean mixture, along with the remaining whole beans, and mix quickly. Return the pasta to the pan, along with the sauce, and toss. Serve, and sprinkle with the remaining grated parmesan.

Partridge Pastries with Pear and Spinach

Adapted from a recipe of Alain Senderens, this was a splendid first course for dinner on Christmas Day, with the added benefit of being Partridge-and-Pear christmas themed (which hadn't occurred to me in advance, and so was entirely fortuitous). Although the dish has a number of steps, nothing is very complicated, and it is largely an assembly-job immediately prior to serving - as such,  it lends itself well to entertaining.

For four.

Ingredients: 1 quantity puff pastry, made with 500g flour, 75g butter, 2 tsp salt, 1 cup water, 500g chilled butter; egg wash, made with 1 egg and a little cream; 4 generous tbs cooked spinach (frozen spinach is fine); 1 onion, finely chopped; 3 oz butter; pinch nutmeg; 1 pear; half tsp sugar; 50 ml cream; 2 tbs cognac; 1 partridge; zest of 1 orange; 5 juniper berries; half tsp dried thyme; quarter cup marsala; 1 tsp arrowroot; salt & pepper.

Method:

1. Roll out the pastry to a thickness of 2mm. Cut out 8 discs of 10 cm diameter each. Put four of them on a greased or lined baking tray, and brush with egg wash. From the remaining four discs, use an 8 cm cutter to remove the centres, then place the outer rings on top of the four bases; put the 8 cm 'inners' also onto the baking tray, brush with egg wash, and mark with cross-hatched lines with the tip of a sharp knife. Place the baking tray in the fridge for 30 minutes, then bake in a 200 degreeC oven for fifteen minutes or so, until risen and browned. Set to one side.

2. Bone the partridge. Put the bones in a small saucepan, cover with water, and simmer for half an hour or so to make stock. Free the partridge skin from the flesh beneath, and stuff under the skin with a mixture of 1 oz butter, the thyme, half of the onion, orange zest, crushed juniper berries, and a little salt (retain enough of the stuffing mixture to make a poultice on top of the bird). Place the prepared bird - with its poultice in place -  to one side, for half an hour at least, then heat the oven to 220 degrees C and roast the bird (it should only take about ten minutes)

3.  Melt half the remaining butter in a small pan, and sauté the remaining onion; when softened, add the spinach, nutmeg and half a tsp salt; stir to combine, and keep warm.

4. Peel, quarter, and core the pear. Cut each quarter into two slices. Melt the remaining butter in a small frying pan, and in this sauté the pear slices briefly, sprinkled with the sugar. Turn the slices over in the sugar-butter mixture, then add the cognac and boil to evaporate, then add the cream and boil for two minutes to thicken. Keep warm.

5. Strain the partridge stock, and boil to reduce. Mix a tsp of Marsala with the arrowroot, and then add this, along with the rest of the marsala, to the stock; it will take five minutes or so to thicken, and at that point check and adjust seasoning as necessary (if you want a more complicated flavour, add a little soy sauce, but in this case be careful not to add too much salt). If you prefer a lighter colourd sauce, add a spoonful or so of cream at the end of cooking.

6. If necessary, re-heat the pastry shells in a warm oven or warming drawer, before putting one each onto a heated late for serving. Divide the warm spinach between the shells, and then place the pear slices in their cream on top of the spinach; take from the partridge four good slices, and place one each on top of the pears. Spoon a little of the sauce over each slice of partridge, and another spoonful on the plate beside the pastry shell, on which place the cooked pastry 'inner'. 

Serve.

Courgette Tourte

This is a hybrid, from Roux (from their Carrot Tourte, which has apparently been on the menu at Gavroche since the dawn of time), Grigson (who gives a recipe for courgette tart which works on the basis that enough other things are added to give the thing a semblance of flavour, given that in Grigson's opinion, courgettes are a junior relation of the vegetable marrow and therefore essentially worthless), and Wolfert (for the idea of courgettes sliced thinly, and then sautéed gently in butter and thyme).  The structure is really that of a pithiviers with a steam hole in the top. Overall, the result is light, delicious, and generally likely to get the tastebuds working overtime.

For Four, as a starter.

Ingredients: Puff pastry, sufficient to make 8 x 10 cm discs, when rolled to a 2mm thickness (if using commercial pastry, I imagine this equates to less than a normal 'packet'; if using homemade, then pastry made with 250g flour and 250g chilled butter will give you more than enough for this recipe, with enough left over for something else); 60g butter; 1 clove garlic, minced; 2 medium-large courgettes; half a medium onion; quarter cup cream; 2 tbs grated parmesan; 1 tsp dried thyme; 2 tbs olive oil; 1 sprig rosemary; 3 tbs cream; half a cup of dry white wine; salt and pepper.

Method:

1. Finely dice the onion and one of the courgettes. Melt a third of the butter in a small pan. Sauté  the diced onion and garlic for several minutes, until softened, and then add three quarters of the diced courgette. Cook this mixture until thoroughly collapsed, add the cream and continue to cook until the cream has visibly thickened;  remove from heat, stir in the parmesan, taste and season accordingly.

2. Finely slice two thirds of the remaining courgette, and finely dice the remainder (to be added to the unused dice from step 1). Melt another third of the butter in a large frying pan, with the oil,  and sauté the slices at high temperature, just to colour; turn them half way through. When cooked, sprinkle lightly with salt and with the dried thyme.

3. Roll out the pastry to 2mm thickness, and cut out 8 circles of 10 cm diameter. In the centre of four of them, cut out a circle approx 2.5 cm in diameter (I don't have a cutter this small, and so use the large end of a piping nozzle as a guide instead). Egg wash, made from 1 beaten egg and a little water.

4. On each of the four intact circles of pastry, make a layer of sautéed courgette slices, leaving a rim of uncovered pastry of approx 1 cm all round. The point of this step is to make a membrane that will stop the courgette filling leaching into the pastry as it cooks and making it soggy, so there should be no obvious gaps in this layer. Divide the courgette-parmesan mixture in four, and place a heaped tablespoonful on each pastry base. Lay a second layer of courgette slices over the top of the mixture. Brush the exposed edge of the pastry with water, and then place the lids over each tourte, and ease down to meet the exposed lower rim. Press together to seal.

5. Place the tourtes on a baking tray. Brush the surface of each one with egg wash, and leave in the fridge for at least twenty minutes.

6. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C, and bake for fifteen or twenty minutes, until puffed and brown.

7. Meanwhile, sauté the remaining diced courgette in the remaining oil and butter, until softened, then add the white wine, and simmer for ten minutes or so. Blend this mixture, then add rosemary, finely chopped, and cream. Check seasoning, and simmer until slightly thickened.

8. Once the Tourtes are baked, spoon some sauce onto each of four plates, place Tourtes on top, and serve.

Scallops with Leeks

From Roger Vergé. Not only is this quick, easy and delicious, but it has the advantage of providing an excellent sauce - and I mean really excellent! - which can subsequently be used to lift other dishes that might otherwise be a little pedestrian. The first time of making it, I used the sauce afterwards for two other dinners: firstly with pigeon (boned and roast, and served on a bed of braised cabbage), and later on with ravioli, with a duck stuffing. Somehow, away from its original use the sauce loses any suggestion of fishiness, and becomes just anonymously good, but completely beguiling, whatever it accompanies. There's almost an argument for making  the recipe, just to have the extra sauce around for later.

For two.

Ingredients: 6 scallops, coral on or off, as you prefer; approximately 1 cup of dry white wine; 2 oz butter; 1 medium sized leek; quarter cup of cream; salt.

Method:

1. Melt half the butter in a shallow pan, add to it the finely sliced leek, cover with water (just - you don't want it to swim), salt lightly, and cook gently for about twenty minutes, until the leek is properly soft.

2. Towards the end of the leek cooking time, melt the remaining butter in a small pan, and to this add the scallops, each sliced horizintally in half. Add the wine, and cook for a minute oir two, just until the scallops are firm.

3. Drain the leeks of their cooking liquid (but retain the liquid), and divide between two heated plates. Put the cooked scallpos on top, and then combine the cooking liquids from the two pans, add the cream, and boil down rapidly, to reduce. As soon as the sauce starts to thicken, check the seasoning and adjust as necessary, then spoon some of the sauce over the scallops, and serve immediately.

With luck, you will have a decent amount of sauce left over, to be used subsequently practically on whatever savoury dish you feel like.

Chicken Liver Risotto

Rich and unctuous, with a satisfyingly complex mix of flavours. This comes from the Harry's Bar recipe book - a widely unknown treasure trove (perhaps unwisely 'introduced' by Michael Winner, in its most recent incarnation), which for the past few years has been an entirely reliable resource in my kitchen.
We had this as our 'primi' last night, as we dined by candlelight in the courtyard, while the glorious sound washed over us of the Kreutzer Sonata being expertly played next door in the garden of the Teatro Lux. Perfection!

For two:

Ingredients: risotto al bianco for two (2/3 cup of carnaroli rice; quarter of a medium onion; butter; oil; glass of white wine; approx 500 ml stock - something light; I used the broth leftover from poaching a chicken the day before; half a cup of grated parmesan): 125g chicken livers; butter; oil; half a cup of dark stock (mine was a combination of stock from pheasant and rabbit carcasses); half a cup of Marsala (or substitute medium sherry); 1 tbs plain flour; 1 tsp dried thyme; 1 tbs freshly chopped parsley; seasoning.

Method:

1. Make the risotto in the normal way: sautée finely chopped onion in half oz butter plus 2 tbs oil; add the rice, and stir; add the wine, and reduce; gradually add the stock, to cook the risotto over 20-25 minutes; when the rice is cooked, turn off the heat and stir in another half oz butter and all the parmesan; add seasoning, to taste.

2. Meanwhile: sautée the livers briefly in 2 tbs oil, then add the marsala and flambé the whole thing;  remove the livers to a small bowl, and add the dark stock to the pan juices; in a simmertopf, melt 1 oz butter, then stir in the flour, to make a roux; into this stir the pan juices and stock, along with the thyme; stir constantly for a few minutes, while the sauce thickens to a velvety texture; cut the livers into small pieces, then add these to the sauce, and keep warm while finishing preparation of the risotto. Check and adjust seasoning as necessary.

3. Plate the risotto (heated plates!), and divide the chicken liver sauce over the plated risotto. Garnish with parsley.

Luxuriate!

Tunisian Octopus

Discovery of this dish was, for me, an unintended consequence of buying Octopus rather than Squid in the supermarket, about a month ago. The Technical Dept took the opportunity to make some comment to the effect that I should wear my glasses more often - the sort of unnecessary remark which should not be dignified by being noticed - but in fact I put it down rather to the 'Stepford Wives' effect that takes hold whenever I enter any supermarket anywhere: the brain closes down, I glaze over, and I go into autopilot.
Anyway...Octopus. I contemplated ploughing on with the intended menu, and pretending that Squid and Octopus are interchangeable, although I know they aren't (generally) and that I risked a much tougher end-result than intended, and then resorted instead for inspiration to Alan Davidson's 'Mediterranean Seafood'. (Actually, I don't know why I say 'resorted', since it is a splendid volume...I suppose because I have a misplaced tendency to regard it as a reference book rather than a book for general browsing.) And I came across this recipe, which is quite simply delicious. And so easy, it barely warrants being called a 'recipe'.
I serve it on a bed of rocket, which cuts the richness and spiciness of the sauce, but I imagine it would do just as well as a pasta sauce, or else stirred (at the end) into a plain risotto bianco.

Sufficient for two generous servings.
Ingredients: 1 Octopus, about 1 kg in weight, and thoroughly cleaned and prepared; 1 onion; Olive Oil; Seasoning; 1 tbs Tomato Purée; 1 tsp Chili Powder (or harissa); 2 tsps ground Cumin.

Method:
1. In a couple of tablespoons of oil, gently sauté the finely chopped Onion for a minute or so.

2. Chop the body and tentacles of the Octopus into half-inch peces, then add to the pan, along with salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat for a few minutes, stirring, until they begin to take colour.

3. Mix the tomato purée and chili powder with a cup of water, and add this to the pan. Continue to cook, stirring from time to time for ten minutes. Then, add enough water to cover, bring to the boil, and then reduce to a low simmer, cover the pan, and leave simmering for an hour and a quarter.

4. Add to the pan the ground cumin, and continue to simmer for a further 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.

Serve immediately, in your preferred form, or else leave to serve later, after having reheated over a low heat for about ten minutes.
 

 

Savoury Clafouti

I first came across these in Allan Bay's 'Cuochi si Diventa 2'. Daft, not to have realised that the clafouti theme can be applied to rather more than just apples, pears and cherries - which I've been doing for years, on the back of Anne Willan and Bruno Loubet. I suppose the concept is a cross between a pastryless quiche, a kind of frittata, and a sponge pudding. Anyway, they are light, quick, extremely versatile, and highly recommended. In his book, Bay gives recipes for both a savoury and a sweet clafouti 'base' and then lists combinations of ingredients that can be used in combination with either one or the other. Made in individual egg dishes, these are dinner-party presentable, and if you can get them from oven to table before they deflate, then they give good theatre, too.

The following is the recipe for the savoury clafouti base. Recently, I've then been pouring this into a couple of individual egg dishes, which have first had a layer put into them of diced cooked ham and diced gorgonzola; others of his combinations are herring and onion, bacon and leek, tomato and mushroom, artichoke heart and capers....in fact, pretty much anything you like.

Savoury base for two individual clafoutis.

Ingredients: 1 Egg; 100 ml Milk; 50 ml Cream; 20g Flour; 20g Parmesan; a generous pinch of Salt; Peppr, to taste.

1. Roughy chop the Parmesan, and pulverize it in the liquidizer.

2. Add to the liquidizer jar all the rest of the ingredients and liquidize to a smooth, thick batter.

3. Pour this carefully over a layer of your chosen flavouring ingredients in the base of two greased individual egg-dishes, and bake for twenty minutes or so in an oven pre-heated to 220 degrees C. Take them out when they are risen, browned, and clearly done. Rush to table before they deflate.

Onion Tart - Paola's version.

Onions would definitely have to be one of my Desert Island Eight foods - whenever there's been a freshly-cut half onion left in the fridge, the smell when I open the door sets the pulses racing (well, mine, anyway)... and I have been known to bite into raw onion, on occasion (to the detriment of anybody nearby, as the Technical Dept has been swift to point out)! I've believed for years that really there are only two versions of onion tart (alsatian, with cream and eggs, and pissaladiere nicoise, where the onions are caramelised down to nothing, along with seasoning and thyme, before having anchovy and olives added for the final cooking)....and then, last Monday evening, for a first course at dinner, Paola produced this version, rich in indian spices. You can make it either in a pre-cooked phyllo shell, as she did, although I imagine it would be pretty good as well in a light, buttery shortcrust shell.

Apparently, and I bow to Paola's greater knowledge here (she and Paolo have eaten their way across various parts of India over the years), much of the secret to a dish like this is in cooking the spices almost dry to start with, before adding the bulkier ingredients which they are intended to flavour.

Filling for one large or four individual tarts:

Ingredients: 1 tbs Olive Oil; 2 cloves Garlic, finely chopped; 1 medium Onion plus 500g Onion, sliced ; 1 tsp Salt; 1 tsp each of Chana Masala, Garam Masala, and Biriany Masala (if you can get it; if not then leave it out and carry on anyway);  200ml CReam; 2 Eggs; pastry of your choice.

Method:

 1. In a  pan over medium heat, sauté in the Oil the medium Onion (finely sliced), Salt and Masalas. Cook for 10 minutes.

 2. Add 500 gr Onions and continue cooking, stirring from time to time,  for about half an hour.

 3. Pour into a bowl and add Cream and Eggs. Check seasoning and add more Salt if necessary.  Pour the mixture into your prepared pastry shell or shells, and bake for 30 minutes in an oven preheated to190° C.

Delicious!

Salmon Mousse with Tarragon Sauce

Simple, quick, reliable (as long as you respect the proportions to the letter, otherwise it won't unmould properly, but will merely collapse dispiritedly onto the plate!)...on its own, this mousse is perfectly serviceable, but a little one-note-ish; with the addition of a chilled tarragon sauce, though, it is lifted to a whole other level. The original for the mousse came from Evelyn Lauder's rather alarmingly day-glo pink 'In Great Taste'...which actually has a number of  good things inside, if you can make it past the front cover.

For four individual mousses:

Ingredients: 450g Salmon Fillet; 2 sprigs of Dill; 8g powdered gelatine; quarter cup of tomato puree; 2/3 cup of Sour Cream (or creme fraiche); 1/2 cup plain Yoghurt; half a medium onion; zest and juice of a medium lemon; seasoning. For the sauce: 1 cup of fish stock (from powder is fine); half a cup of white wine; half a cup of cream; a handful of finely chopped tarragon.

Method:

1. With a sharp knife, remove the skin from the salmon, then cover the fish with water in a shallow pan, add the dill, and poach gently for about six minutes until cooked through. Remove the fish, to cool, and discard the poaching liquid and dill.

2. Add the gelatine to about 50 ml warm water in a simmertopf, or a bain marie,  and stir whilst dissolving over medium heat.

3. Put all of the ingredients (apart from those for the sauce) into a food processor and blend throughly. Adjust seasoning as appropriate. Then divide the mixture between four ramekins, and chill in the fridge until set - probably four hours or so (or longer, if you want to be on the safe side).

4. Combine all of the sauce ingredients, apart from the tarragon,  in a small saucepan and reduce over medium heat for fifteen or twenty minutes until the consistency is like thick cream. Taste for seasoning and adjust as necessary (you won't need any if using commercially made stock), and stir in the sauce the chopped tarragon. Allow to chill.

Unmould onto cold dishes, and spoon the sauce over the top to serve.

Recipe: Tomato and Pepper Tart

The success of this recipe is all about concentrating the tomato flavour until it is rich and intense and edgy. A deceptively simple presentation, but when you go through the sliced tomato surface and get to the complicated combination of flavours beneath, it really is show-stoppingly good. I pefer to make it with phyllo pastry shells, which means the finished dish is light and more-ish - but a buttery shortcrust would work just as well, I'm sure.

For two individual tarts.

Ingredients: two pre-cooked phyllo pastry shells; three medium sized Tomatoes; 2 tbs finely diced Red Pepper; one small Onion; two Garlic cloves; a Bouquet Garni; 2 oz butter; Olive Oil; 1 tbs Tomato Paste; half a dozen Basil leaves, shredded; 1 tsp dried Thyme; Salt & Pepper.

Method:

1.Finely slice one of the Tomatoes (you want about twelve slices, in total), and put in a bowl with the diced Pepper; melt half of the Butter over low heat, then pour this over the Tomato and Pepper mixture, add a little salt, and mix together. Set aside.

2. Melt the remaining butter in the pan, with a little Oil. Sauté the onion, finely diced, for a few minutes until visibly softened. Dice the remaining tomatoes, and add them to the pan, along with the Garlic (minced), Bouquet Garni, and tomato paste. Cook, stirring frequently for a bout ten minutes, over medium heat, until the mixture has entirely collapsed and has lost most of its liquid - it should be quite thick at this stage.

3. Discard the Bouquet Garni. Check and add seasoning to taste, and stir in the shredded basil leaves. Divide the mixture between the two pastry shells.

4. Arrange the slices of Tomato (along with the diced Pepper) over the top of the Tomato mixture, to cover. Bake for ten minutes in a 180 degree C oven, until the slices are visibly dried out, and have started to colour at their edges. Remove from the oven, and drizzle a little Olive oil over the top of each tart, and sprinkle with the dried Thyme.

Recipe: Fond d'artichauts with foie gras & mushroom stuffing

This might sound extravagent, but it really isn't. For two servings, it takes only 50g of foie gras, which we regularly buy raw at Metro - the local cash-and-carry - and home cure. One foie served with brioche is appropriate for six people, and this sort of recipe is an excellent way of then using up any leftover trimmings. The combined flavours are first class, and although the presence of the foie gras is clearly detectable within the mix as a rich and unctuous undertone, it doesn't brashly push itself forward for attention.

This dish has the added advantage of being (low-carb) dietarily sound, as well, since it avoids the otherwise necessary consumption of carb-rich brioche. (And for those readers in Kent who recently, and repeatedly, made negative comments about my weight dynamic, I'll have you know I've gone down almost two notches in my belt within the past month!)

For Four servings.

Ingredients:12 prepared fond d'artichauts; 100g foie gras trimmings; 30g Butter; Olive Oil; 1 tablespoon Flour; 100 ml Milk; 1 shallot; 125g Mushrooms; 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan; Seasoning.

Method:

1. Cook the fond d'artichauts in boiling salted water for about ten minutes, until tender (omit this step if using bottle fonds, which will already have been cooked).  Drain, and place in a baking  dish (in fact, I divide  them between individual egg dishes to bake,  which can then go directly to table for serving).

2. Melt two-thirds of the butter in a small saucepan, and gently sauté the diced shallot; once the shallot is wilted, add to it the finely chopped mushroom, raise the temperature, and cook for a couple of minutes until the mushroom liquid has been released and cooked away. Take off the heat.

3. Melt the remaining butter in a simmertopf or bain marie, add to it the flour, and then whisk in the milk. Cook, stirring, until it thickens, then remove from the heat, and stir into it the mushroom-shallot mixture. Check and adjust seasoning as necessary.

4. Divide the foie gras between the fond d'artichauts, and then spoon over it the mushroom sauce. Sprinkle grated parmesan over the top, and then bake in a 190 degree C oven for fifteen minutes. Allow to rest outside the oven for a few minutes before serving, to avoid burned mouths!

Recipe: Salmon Carpaccio

I'm slightly out of time on this one, as it's been a new favourite starter during the hot summer months, and today appears to be the first day of autumn. The temperature has dropped dramatically, and for the first time since May, the doors and windows are closed, and we took morning coffee indoors. The promised rain has yet to materialise, though (annoyingly, since we haven't seen a drop in almost three weeks, and had another dry period before that of over a month), and this morning's heavy sky has given way instead to blustery sunshine.

Anyway....salmon carpaccio. In fact a second cousin to both ceviche and gravadlax, but not very close to either, I've come across versions of this recipe in both Anna del Conte and in Harry's Bar, in Venice. My version is closer to Anna del Conte. The trick to slicing the salmon is to leave it in the freezer for an hour or so beforehand, so the slices can be wafer-thin but without falling to pieces - and, in fact, I use a salami slicer when doing this, but a decently sharp long-bladed knife ought to be just as effective.

The way the textures and flavours in this dish complement and work against each other is first class. And, in practice, I'm sure will be just as delicious served against the background noise of autumn storms, with the shutters firmly closed, as it was when dining al fresco, under the stars.

For two:

Ingredients: 2 Salmon Fillets, each approximately 200g; 2 tbs Olive Oil; the juice of 2 large Lemons; 4 fl oz Single Cream; Salt & Pepper; Cayenne Pepper; 1 small Fennel bulb.

Method:

1. Slice the Salmon fillets as finely as possible, and arrange in a single layer to cover two dinner plates. Drizzle each plate with a tablespoon of Olive Oil, and divide between the two plates the juice from one of the Lemons. Season with Salt & Peper, then cover each plate with clingfilm, and refrigerate for three hours or so.

2. About an hour befores serving, mix the cream with the remaining Lemon juice, and add Cayenne Pepper to taste. Take the plates from the fridge, remove the clingfilm, and divide the cream and lemon mixture between the two plates, in a layer that should pretty much cover the salmon slices. Don't refrigerate again, but leave the salmon to get back up to room temperature.

3. Finely dice the Fennel, and just before serving, sprinkle it over the top of each plate.

Recipe: Chilled Pea Soup

High summer. Early mornings, followed by a retreat into the shade by ten o'clock, and then a siesta during the blisteringly hot hours of the afternoon. Dinner each evening is taken late, when the heat has diminished somewhat, and we sit in the candle-lit barn, with the backdrop of the fountain splashing gently into the lily-pond, and the very last few fireflies of the year flit gently among the undergrowth.

This is a perfect starter for this time of year. Minimal cooking required, and the result is elegant, delicious, light and refreshing. If you didn't know what the main ingredient was, then I suspect you wouldn't guess...just an elusively delicious flavour, just out of reach.

For two generous servings:

Ingredients: 500g frozen peas (petit pois are probably best); 3 cups of good light broth (I used stock from a couple of guinea fowl which had been spit-roast earlier in the week); Salt; a quarter cup or so of Cream; chopped Chives, to garnish.

Method:

1. Cook the peas in the stock for about five minutes or so, until done. Add salt to taste. Allow to cool in their cooking liquid.

2. Liquidize the whole lot, once cool, and then work through a sieve, pushing through with the back of a wooden spoon (tedious, I know, but it makes all the difference). Discard the fibrous stuff you're left with in the sieve at the end.

3. Stir in the Cream, and chill for an hour or so until ready to serve.

4. Adjust seasoning if necessary, then serve in chilled bowls, with chopped Chives sprinkled over the top.

Memorably good!

Recipe: Fondue Parmesan

This was excellent, at two meals during last weekend's Masterchef event - once, served formally on Saturday night, with a  rocket salad in sesame dressing, and then again for Sunday lunch, when we guzzled shamelessly on all of the leftovers. This is very straightforward - you just have to remember to start making the 'paste' on the previous day, in order to give it time to firm up sufficiently to fry without falling to pieces. The 'croquettes' (since that is essentially what these are) should be light and elegantly creamy, but with a good, edgy flavour that definitely sets the taste-buds tingling for more.

For about 24 individual pieces:

Ingredients: 150g Butter; 150g Flour; 750 ml Milk; 3 eggs; 300g grated Gruyère; 150g grated Parmesan; a pinch of Nutmeg; ground Pepper; 150g fine dry Breadcrumbs. Oil, to fry, in a deep-fat fryer.

Method:

1. In a bain marie or simmertopf, melt the Butter, then stir in the Flour, until amalgamated, and add the Milk. Keep stirring until the mixture thickens. Add the Cheeses, Nutmeg and a few grinds of Pepper and mix thoroughly; remove from heat.

2. Separate the Eggs, and stir the yolks into the cheese mixture. Put the egg whites in the fridge until the following day.

3. Put the cheese mixture onto a platter and form it into a rectangle which is about 2 cm thick; place this in the fridge and leave overnight, or for at least twelve hours.

4. After the mixture has come out of the fridge once more, put the egg whites into a soup plate and whisk lightly with a fork; pour the Breadcrumbs into another soup plate.

5. Cut the cheese mix rectangle into individual pieces, each one 2cm x 4cm (no larger or smaller, or they won't cook properly). Carefully dunk each piece first in the beaten egg white and then into the Breadcrumbs.

6. Heat the oil in the fryer to 170 degrees C, and fry the croquettes four at a time for six minutes each.

Serve immediately.

Recipe: Terrine of Chicken with Chicken Livers

Closely based on something from Simone Beck's collection of recipes published in 1972, this is an excellent terrine - up there with the best, and certainly as good as the rabbit and lemon terrine that has for me long been the acme of this kind of dish. Not particularly complicated to construct, once the  list of ingredients has been assembled, it is vital that it remain untouched for at least a week - and preferably ten days - after having been cooked; as the terrine matures, the flavours just get better and better. 

It's an advantage also if you have a mincer to process the ingredients that go to make the 'binding' element in the terrine, rather than resort to a food processor; the latter isn't impossible, but I suspect that, with a food processor,  you risk reducing the mixture to a purée, which will compromise the quality of the finished product in terms of both texture and flavour.

Serves 10.

Ingredients: 4 Chicken Breasts; approx 15 slices of rindless unsmoked Bacon (for lining the terrine; in Italy, I use slices of lardo, which aren't generally available elsewhere);250g diced Pancetta; 250g cooked Ham; 250g Chicken Livers; 2 tbs Butter; 0.5 tsp dried Thyme; Salt & Pepper; 0.5 cup Cognac; 1 large Egg; generous pinch of Nutmeg; 0.25 tsp ground Coriander; 2 tbs mixed finely-chopped Tarragon, Oregano, Parsley; medium Bay Leaf, dried and ground to powder; 250g Prosciutto (preferably in one piece, so that it can be cut into thick strips, but if you can only get pre-sliced, this will work as well).

Method:

1. Line the terrine mould with the slices of Bacon, leaving the ends hanging over the sides, so that once the mould is full they can be laid across the top.

 

2. Cut two of the Chicken Breasts into slices and then into half centimetre strips.

3. Put through the mincer the remaining Breasts, along with the Pancetta and Ham; mix together thoroughly in a large bowl.

4. Cut each of the Chicken Livers into four pieces and sauté in melted Butter for three or four minutes, until coloured, then add dried Thyme and season with Salt & Pepper, pour in half of the Cognac, and flame. Once the flames have died down, remove the Livers with a slotted spoon, and add the cooking juices to the minced mixture, along with the Egg and the remaining Cognac. Stir thoroughly, and mix in the nutmeg and herbs; add Salt and Pepper as appropriate.

5. Cut the Prosciutto into strips.

6. Assemble the terrine:  into the lined terrine mould put a third of the chicken mixture, levelled to fill the mould evenly; cover with a layer of strips of Chicken Breast (half of the total amount), then a layer of trsips of Ham (half of the total amount), then a  layer of Chicken Livers (half of the total amount). Repeat the process with half of the remaining chicken mixture, topped with layers of the remaining Chicken Breast, Ham, and Chicken Livers, and finally a layer of the remaining chicken mixture. Fold the strips of Bacon over the top of the filling, and cover the whole thing with a layer of aluminium foil, and then the lid of the terrine mould.

7. Place the mould in a bain marie, and cook a 180 degree C oven for two hours.

8. Remove from the oven, and allow to cool for an hour or so, then remove the lid from the terrine, and place a weighted board on top of the foil covering; remove the water from the bain marie, but leave the mould standing in the roasting pan while being weighted, as liquid can leach out at this stage. After 12 hours, put the entire thing in the fridge, and only remove the weight after 48 hours.

9. Serve only after a week has elapsed - this terrine doesn't unmould well, and so is best sliced directly from the mould. Serve with slices of cornichons, and a green salad.

Recipe: Poached Egg on a Potato Galette, with Leek Sauce

Think of this as a first cousin to Eggs Benedict - although, you could be forgiven for comparing it also with a more prosaic 'egg and chips' (which may sound rather ho-hum, but where the flavour-combination of runny egg yolk with cooked potato is in fact incomporable, IMHO). The addition of the leek sauce in this version lifts the dish to a whole different level, though, and makes it something you could readily serve to guests without blushing.

The success of the dish depends on getting the eggs right - cooked a point, so the yolks are still runny, but the whites are perfectly firm. Over the years, I've researched countless methods for poaching eggs, and found that everybody seems to advise a different approach: add vinegar to the water (or not); make whirlpools before you drop the the raw eggs in;  aim for (or avoid) the areas of water which are bubbling most fiercely; stir the water around the eggs as they cook, to wrap in their 'tails'....and in fact none of these methods has ever really worked for me. The method I use (which I recently discovered is very similar to that advocated by Richard Olney) is to heat water to a boil in a large sauté pan, and then to turn off the heat, and poach the eggs inside  individual serving rings for exactly three minutes, with the cover on the pan. Use tongs to remove the rings, once done, and take the eggs from the water using a slotted spoon. If you don't have individual serving rings, then use the forms from small tuna cans, with the top and bottom removed (which can also subsequently be used btw, on a baking sheet, to shape individual pastry shells, in the absence of appropriate false-bottomed flan tins)

For two.

Ingredients: 2 large Eggs; 2 medium-sized Potatoes; the white part of a medium sized Leek; 2 tbs Butter; 2 tbs Oil; 100 ml White Wine; 100 ml Cream; Seasoning.

Method:

1. Dice the Leek finely, and sauté it gently in half the Oil and Butter for five minutes or so, until softened; add the Wine, raise the heat to bring to a boil, and then add the Cream. Reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook, stirring regularly, for five minutes or so, until the sauce has thickened. Keep warm, and taste and adjust the seasoning just before serving.

2. Peel the Potatoes and cut them into matchstick-thin julienne (do NOT wash them once peeled, as it is the starch in the potatoes which makes the galettes stick together...washing them will remove the starch). Heat the remaining Oil and Butter in a heavy frying pan over high heat, and then arrange the julienne strips in two 'cakes' in the pan. Season the Potatoes, press down lightly on them, and after a minute or two, gently ease the blade of a palette knife underneath, to ensure they aren't sticking to the pan (as you do so, tilt the pan slightly, to allow more oil and butter to run beneath each galette). After four minutes or so, use the palette knife to turn each galette over, and repeat the process; adjust the temperature throughout to maintain a high heat, but not so high that the galettes start to burn. Four minutes on each side should be sufficient.

3. Poach the two Eggs using the method described above.

4. To serve: on warmed plates, place each poached egg on top of a potato galette, and spoon leek sauce over the top. (And for a more formal presentation, sprinkle with chopped parsley).

Recipe: Risotto of Celeriac and Tarragon

Not a classic combination, but delicious for all that. Intriguing, too - as the combined flavours are complementary but elusive; the Technical Dept couldn't idenify a single ingredient that had gone into the dish when I served it up to him several days ago (but he was enthusiastic for a second serving, anyway).

The secret is to dice the celeriac very finely, to start with, and then sweat it slowly so that the fibres break down, and the texture of the vegetable is indistinguishable within the finished risotto. For this initial stage, I used some leftover butter from a boned and stuffed chicken which we'd had several days beforehand, and which had the advantage of lots and lots of flavour; duck or goose fat would be good, too - but, failing that, just sweating the celeriac in plain butter should do the trick. 


For two.

Ingredients: half a small Celeriac, diced very finely (you want to have about one and a half cups, once the Celeriac has been peeled and diced); 2-3 tbs butter (or duck or goose fat, if you have it); two-thirds of a cup of rice (Carnaroli, by preference - these days, I use Baldo, but I doubt it's generally available, and Carnaroli is the next best thing); one glass of dry White Wine; approx one and a half pints of 'white' stock (chicken, duck, or veal); 2 tbs of chopped Tarragon; half a tsp of White Truffle Oil; Seasoning.


1. In a large sauté pan, over low heat, melt the Butter and in it sweat the diced Celeriac until thoroughly softened, stirring from time to time. This should take around 35 minutes. Try to avoid letting the Celeriac colour as it cooks.

2. Heat the Stock in a saucepan.

3. Once the Celeriac is properly softened, add to it the Rice. Raise the heat under the pan, and stir everything together for about a minute; add the Wine, adjust the heat so that the liquid is just bubbling, and continue in classic risotto style, adding the heated Stock by ladlefuls as the liquid in the pan is absorbed by the Rice.

4. Start testing for doneness after about twenty minutes, and continue the cooking process until the rice has lost its 'bite'. 

5. Off the heat, stir in the chopped Tarragon and the Truffle Oil; add seasoning to taste, and serve.