Recipe: Cheese Biscuits

These are biscuits-containing-cheese, not to be confused with biscuits-to-be-served-with-cheese. To be consumed, preferably still warm from the oven, these are delicious (and very more-ish) with a glass of chilled white wine, or two, as an aperitif. Spicy and with a good 'edgy' flavour, they are best eaten just as they are; you can use them as a base for something spreadable, but I think the point rather gets lost in the process.

This is another of those recipes that's so simple and quick that it barely merits being called a recipe. A minute or so to make the biscuit dough, time to let it rest, and thereafter, the time it takes to roll and cut out the biscuits, and twenty minutes or so to bake them. You'd never guess the simplicity of the process, though, from the quality of the end result. First class!

For about 20 biscuits.

Ingredients: 60g Butter, cut into approx 1cm dice; 60g strongly flavoured hard-ish Cheese (extra mature Cheddar is good, or a strongly-flavoured Pecorino - I suppose Parmesan could also work well, but I tend to use it to make Parmesan Crisps for this kind of purpose), also cut into approx 1 cm dice; 75g plain Flour; 1 tsp Salt; 1 tsp Paprika; 1 tsp dry Mustard.

Method:
1. Process all ingredents together in a food processor, until they form one homogeneous lump - this might take 15 seconds or so. Wrap the ball of processed dough in clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge for an hour.

2. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.

3. On a floured surface, roll the dough to a 5 mm thickness and cut out 5 cm diameter biscuits from it; place these on a greased (or trennwaxed) baking sheet.

4. Bake for twenty minutes in the pre-heated oven until brown and crisp, then remove to a cooling rack, before serving.

Recipe: Chicken Liver Kebabs with Juniper

This is a canapé recipe. I'm not sure how canapés are considered, these days - and I suspect (and fear) from their increasingly rare appearance as a pre-prandial offering at dinner parties that they're in danger of being written off as too mannered for today's informal dining style. This would be a shame, I think. Partly because canapés occupy a place in my heart, and I recall with fondness the days - and nights - professionally spent churning out regiments of the things, serried ranks of them, for corporate events, and wedding receptions and birthday parties ........it might sound like madness, but in fact it was a deeply satisfying process.

More importantly, though, canapés, if they're good, are very good! They have to be, given how hard they have to work. Only one mouthful each, and that's their single chance to make any impression at all. In one bite they have to stop you in your tracks.......flavour-bomb, sensation on the tongue, combination of textures and tastes....the best ones should stop the flow of small talk and have you reaching hurriedly for another before the tray is wafted away and out of reach.

These miniature kebabs were always one of my favourites, and I think they score highly against all of the criteria listed above: the combination of fresh grape along with cooked Bacon, Sage and Juniper is both surprising and delicious! Definitely worth the effort.....

Makes 24 canapés.

Ingredients: 275g Chicken Livers; 400g streaky Bacon, rindless (either 12 wide rashers, which can be cut in half lengthwise to make 24 strips, or else 24 very narrow rashers which are sometimes available these days) ; 24 medium sized Sage Leaves; 10 Juniper Berries, ground small in a cleaned coffee grinder; Black Pepper; 24 seedless Black Grapes.

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees C.

2. Lay out all of the 24 Bacon Rashers in rows on the worktop. If they are uneven in thickness, lay them with the wide end pointing towards you (this is the end on which you'll place the stuffing, and which will end up at the centre of the rolled Bacon).

3. On the end nearest to you of each rasher place a Sage Leaf, and top this with a teaspoon-sized piece of Chicken Liver. Over the top of the Chicken Liver sprinkle a little crushed Juniper and a grinding of Black Pepper. Then, roll each rasher up to make a neat roll, and secure each one with a small wooden cocktail stick.

4. Put all of the Bacon rolls on a baking sheet, and place in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes. Half way through this time, turn them over to ensure that they cook evenly.

5. After 15 minutes, take the Bacon Rolls out of the oven, and let them cool slightly before you replace the short wooden sticks with longer wooden skewers for serving (about 4" long is best); push the skewer right through the roll, with about an inch of skewer exposed on the far side. On this exposed bit of skewer, spear a seedless Grape.

Serve either hot or cold. Amazingly good, either way.....

Recipe: Duck à l'Orange

It's the season for bitter oranges. Louisa's tree is laden with them, and there's a garden just off Piazza Cavalieri where the branches of the orange tree are heavy with fruit every year at this time, looking like something from the background of a Mantegna fresco.....

At lunch at Mazzolla, at the start of the week, I was the happy recipient of a bag of oranges which had come from the Brancolis' tree - they were doing a brief fly-past to their hillside, to do some vine-pruning, and took time-out to join in the birthday lunch. Beautiful and blemish-free, the oranges sat in a glass bowl, for the next few days, crying out for attention. No point in making marmalade, since a supply of premium-quality marmalade makes its way to us down the hill from Brancoli, anyway - and so my thoughts turned to Duck à l'Orange.

This is another dish desperately in need of being saved!

There once was a time when it was deservedly famous; served at the most distinguished restaurants, it was a classic. Now, most chefs grimace at the very thought of it. How did something once considered synonymous with sublime become so, well......... naff?

The recipe is easily tracked back to the end of the 19th century - but almost certainly it goes back much further than that. The main ingredient, bitter orange, was introduced to Europe at the time of the Crusades and became widely used, so it wouldn't be surprising to find a 500 year old recipe. Fatty duckling and astringent bitter orange seem a natural combination.

In the early 1900's, the recipe comprised duckling, braised or pot-roast, served with one of the then basic brown sauces - Sauce à la Bigarade: a sauce flavoured with bitter oranges. The basic sauce was made of well-reduced stock, or braising liquor, which was flavoured with the juice of bitter oranges, a little lemon juice and a little caramel to cut the acidity. Bitter orange juice is pretty sour and the fruit is not particularly juicy.

Unfortunately, substituting modern oranges for bitter can lead to some alarmingly different results. Six bitter oranges will yield about a cup of sour juice, six supermarket oranges will give you two cups of very sweet orange juice. This is probably where things started to go wrong: too much sugar and too much orange, and before you know it you have a sticky marmalade sauce, which is really rather disgusting.

Sauce à la Bigarade, when correctly made, is a deliciously, intensely savoury sauce with a hint of orange and a complex bitter-sweet tone.

On conducting some research on the library shelves here, I found that Mrs Kafka's version is very similar to that of Alice B Toklas, except with the addition of Cumin and the specification to use blood oranges; Robert Carrier introduces Cognac, and makes a Caramel to stir in at the end; the version in Larousse Gastronomique (1988 Edition) incorporates a generous quantity of Mandarin Napoleon, and a spoonful of Vinegar; Escoffier gives the Sauce à la Bigarade quoted above .......and Alan Davidson gives no recipe, but merely refers witheringly to the place Duck à l'Orange has shamefully assumed within 'debased international cooking'.....

Something niggled at the back of my mind, though. Without exception - and I suppose not surprisingly - all of the sources specify squeezing quantities of orange juice, and then laboriously reducing it to a usable, concentrated amount. There are better ways to do it than that, I concluded, and ended up devising the following version. Very simple, and delicious.

For two servings of roast Duck.

Ingredients: 5 fl oz of Duck Stock (I boned the Duck before roasting it, and used the bones to make the stock for the sauce base); 1 tablespoon of Cognac; 1 teaspoon of Boyajian Orange Oil; half a teaspoon of dark Molasses (or Fowler's Black Treacle - wonderful stuff, and surprisingly useful in the kitchen, in general).

Method:

1. Bring the Stock to a slow boil in a small saucepan, along with the Cognac and Orange Oil.

2. Reduce it carefully, over about half an hour, until you have only a very small amount of liquid remaining in the bottom of the pan - remember, you need only a spoonful of intensely flavoured liquid per person.

3. Stir in the Molasses, as you take the Duck from the oven to rest for five minutes or so.

Serve; one spoonful per person.

Of course, this leaves me still with the bitter Orange question. ......
Something tells me we'll be having Nigella's Bitter Orange Ice Cream for dessert tomorrow evening!

Recipe: Parmesan Crisps

This is one of those things where the process is so simple that it barely merits being called a recipe, and yet so delicious that the end result can stop you in your tracks. Perfect to be handed round with drinks - and the understated way in which you can do so, arousing no comment along the way, is the perfect preparation for the first bite, and the raised eyebrows as the taste buds register what's happening!

Makes approximately 40 Crisps (depending upon how finely you grate your parmesan)

Ingredients: 150 grammes of Parmesan

Method:

1. Grate the Parmesan finely. (The finest Microplane grater does a good job because it produces thin ribbons, not granules.)

2. Put a sheet of greaseproof paper (or a silpat sheet, if you have one) over the back of a baking tray (better to put it over the back than inside the tray, as it is easier subsequently to slide the Crisps off if you don't have to negotiate the rim of the tray at the same time).

3. Using a 2" circular pastry-cutter, place the cutter on top of the greaseproof paper and sprinkle a heaped teaspoon of cheese inside the cutter to make a complete disk; make sure the edge of the disk particularly is well covered. (Do NOT press the cheese down into place - it will melt and collapse delicately into itself as it bakes.)

4. Move the cutter along, and repeat the process. Continue until the greaseproof paper is covered in cheese disks. Leave a few millimetres between each disk - they don't spread in baking like biscuits do.

5. Bake at 175C for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. They start to brown when they stop bubbling, so watch them carefully. When golden brown transfer them to a wire rack to cool and crisp. Store in an air-tight container, and try not to eat too many before you have to serve them to your guests!

Recipe: Mustard Sauce with Prunes.

OK - it isn't a title destined to set the pulses racing. In fact, reactions to 'Mustard' and 'Prunes' are more likely to range from disinterest to revulsion than to raise any flicker of interest.....However, read on! This is a flavour and texture hit, purely and simply. It goes wonderfully with sautéed rabbit, or with slices of pork tenderloin......it would work with a strongly flavoured chicken, and is good with duck. The mustard sauce has a rich and silky texture, which coats luxuriously, while the prunes become little flavour-bombs which explode in the mouth......

For four.

Ingredients: 20 stoneless soft prunes; Marsala* (sufficient to cover the prunes in a small bowl); 2 tablespoons Olive Oil; 1 small Onion; 1 clove of Garlic; 1 medium Carrot; 1 stick of Celery; 1 teaspoon of ground Ginger; 1/4 of a pint of Vermouth; 1/4 of a pint of Chicken Stock; 1/4 of a pint of Cream; two tablespoons of Dijon Mustard.

*In London, I use Cream Sherry instead - I won't pay London prices for Marsala, and Cream Sherry is an effective substitute.

Method:

1. Macerate the Prunes in the Marsala for at least three hours.

2. Sauté the chopped Onion and minced Garlic in the Oil over medium heat until softened; add the diced Carrot and diced Celery, along with the Ginger and Vermouth. Continue to cook until the Vermouth has reduced in volume by a half.

3. Add the Chicken Stock, and cook until this too has reduced by a half.

4. Add the Cream, and cook, stirring, until it has noticeably thickened. Allow to cool slightly, and then sieve into a second pan. To the sieved sauce add the Mustard and stir well to incorporate.

You can set the sauce aside at this point, to be reheated just before serving - it will actually be OK in the fridge in an appropriate container for several days.

5. Just before serving, re-heat gently, and add the macerated prunes, taken out of their macerating liquid. Check and adjust the seasoning before you serve.

Cherries.....

Many years ago, I catered a drinks party at the Royal Academy - a private preview to the Summer Exhibition, I think. Several hundred people for Canapes and Pimms and Fizzy Wine. It was long before the Madjeski rooms had been opened for regular viewing, and I recall being somewhat in awe when I was given the Reynolds Room, in all its patinated gilt splendour, as our slops room, filled with towering crates of glasses, and strips of drugget, and dustbins filled with ice and bottles of Cremant d'Alsace.

As a decorative motif in the reception rooms, I had huge glass bowls on all of the side tables, lined with vine-leaves and then full of mountains of fresh cherries and bunches of grapes - all of which I'd got in industrial quantities from the bum-end of Covent Garden market at about four o'clock on the morning of the event. All went well, but I was left with pretty much the same industrial quantities at the end of the evening as I'd had at the start, and my scottish ancestry refused to allow me simply to ditch them. Even after all of the waiting staff had been given copious amounts to take away, as had the security people from the RA, I was still left with much more of the stuff than I had any idea what to do with. And so...... research was necessary, and the solution included the following recipe. Completely new to me at the time, I adopted it as a staple thereafter.

Ingredients: 1 kg fresh Cherries; 1 litre White Wine vinegar; 500g soft brown Sugar (light, not dark); 6 cloves; 6 Juniper Berries; zested rind of a Lemon; 1 tablespoon ground Cinnamon.

Method:

1. Discard any bruised fruit, and remove the stems from the rest. Rinse the fruit and dry it, before putting it into one or two kilner jars (depending on the size of the jars you have - the jar can be pretty well filled at this stage).

2. Combine all other ingredients in a large saucepan, bring to the boil, and then simmer for ten minutes.

3. After ten minutes, turn off the heat, and leave the mixture, covered, overnight, for the flavours to mingle. In the morning, strain the liquid and pour it over the fruit in the jar(s).

4. Leave in a dark place for a month.Then - over time - serve the fruit with aperitifs, as you might otherwise serve olives.

I guarantee none of your guests will know them of old, and they'll rave!

Recipe: Yorkshire Pudding

As an adjunct to the post on 'Roasting', what more appropriate than directions for the acme of all Yorkshire Puddings? This is a slightly unorthodox method, but produces an amazing result: the pudding rises a good five or six inches in the oven, and you practically need planning permission to make it! It retains its shape and crispness once it comes out of the oven, too....

For Four.

Ingedients: 2 Eggs; a tablespoon of Oil or Dripping, for the roasting dish; a quarter of a pint of Milk; 4 oz Plain Flour; generous pinch of Salt; a quarter of a teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce.

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 230 degrees C. (If you've been roasting meat and it's done, remove the meat either to a warming oven or to keep warm under foil, and re-set the oven temperature to 230). Place the Oil or dripping in the dish in which you intend to cook the pudding, and put this into the oven to heat.

2. Place in a blender the Eggs, Milk, Worcestershire Sauce and Salt. Blend at high speed for twenty seconds, then leave to sit for fifteen minutes.

3. After fifteen minutes, add the Flour to the blender and blend again at high speed for twenty seconds.

4. Pour this batter into the pre-heated roasting dish, and cook for twenty minutes at 23o degrees C.

The pudding will be so crisp that, if you've made it as one large pudding, rather than individual ones, the best way to cut it up will be with a large pair of kitchen scissors, rather than with a knife.

Making Mayonnaise....

This post was prompted by the current availability in the market of Globe Artichokes, my preferred complement to which is a rich home-made mayonnaise, flavoured either with Lime, Orange, or Saffron.

Mayonnaise forms because the Oil is broken down into an emulsion made of thousands of tiny droplets separated by Water from the Egg Yolk. Natural emulsifiers found in Egg Yolk and Mustard act to keep the Oil droplets separate. If the Egg is old the emulsion may not form as easily because fresh Egg Yolks are richer in emulsifiers than old ones. (If you want to know more about the science of oil in water emulsions, consult chapter 11 of Harold Magee's 'On Food & Cooking'.)


The Ingredients:

I Egg Yolk
I teaspoon of Mustard - preferably French
180ml Oil - any sort. (Strongly-flavoured Oils, such as Olive, will need the addition of strong flavouring agents such as Citrus Oils or rind, or Spices and will be best with strongly-flavoured dishes.)
12ml Lemon Juice or Vinegar.


NB: In making Mayonnaise, it makes things simpler if you use an oil bottle fitted with a pourer with a narrow spout, so you can control the oil flow precisely while holding the bottle in one hand. Since you need the other hand to mix the sauce, position the bowl (narrow based, with a capacity of between 500 ml and a litre) so that it can't slide about, for example on a damp dishcloth.

Method:

1. Using a fork or whisk, mix the Egg Yolk with the Mustard until slightly thickened.

2. Start adding Oil, literally one drop at a time, while mixing. As the Oil drops are absorbed by the egg mixture it will thicken. When, and only when, it does, you can increase the Oil flow to a drizzle.

3. If at any time you can see a pool of Oil which has not been absorbed, stop the Oil flow. Don't try to incorporate all the surplus Oil into the emulsion in one go. Tip the bowl slightly so the surplus Oil flows away from the area you are mixing and start bringing this surplus Oil into the mixture a little at a time. When all the Oil is thoroughly incorporated and the mixture is even and thick, go back to adding Oil.

4. You will find by experience that the more emulsion you have in the bowl the faster you can add Oil. I normally use a fork and start by mixing only in one small area of the bowl, occasionally bringing mixture from the rest of the bowl into the emulsion. This reduces the chance of trying to incorporate too much Oil too quickly.

5. When you have added all the Oil, flavour the Mayonnaise with Lemon Juice or Vinegar, and the flavourings of your choice.
( NB.If you are using a flavour agent which is in powder form - such as Saffron or Curry Powder - add this to the Egg Yolk at the beginning, before you start the addition of the Oil. If you add it at the end the powder can form into lumps and be difficult to amalgamate.)
You can thin the Mayonnaise with any liquid such as Lemon Juice, Water or Cream. The whole process should take 5-10 minutes.

6. It can happen that the emulsion 'breaks' because the Oil has been added too quickly. You will know the mixture has broken if it becomes runny, oily and the ingredients have obviously separated. This is more likely at the beginning of the process, hence the importance of starting by adding Oil only one drop at a time. The solution is to start again with fresh ingredients. After you have made ¼ of a cup of Mayonnaise, you can then incorporate the 'failed' mixture instead of the remaining oil. Alternatively bring 2 tablespoons of Vinegar to the boil in a pan or in the microwave and pour it into the mixture while whisking vigorously: the emulsion will re-form.

7. If 1 Egg Yolk and 180ml of Oil doesn't give you enough Mayonnaise, you can add more Oil if you mix in a teaspoon of Water first before adding any more Oil. The Mayonnaise with raw Egg Yolk will keep at least 24 hours in a refrigerator.


Tonight's Dinner:

Globe Artichokes with Saffron Mayonnaise

Pomiane's 'Spanish' Stew, with Fennel slow-cooked with Dill

Apple Strudel

Recipe: Dry-Roast Almonds

Makes sufficient for serving with pre-prandial Prosecco over the course of several days - if you can manage to keep them that long!

Ingredients: 500g whole blanched Almonds; 1 teaspoon good Olive Oil; 1 generous teaspoon powdered Paprika (try and find paprika with a good strong flavour - I use Paprika Dolce, from Carrefour); one and a half teaspoons of granular sea-salt.

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 150 degrees C.

2. Tip the Almonds into a large oven dish or roasting pan; spread them out as widely as the pan will allow.

3. Roast the Almonds in the oven for approximately 45 minutes, until they begin to colour. Meanwhile, grind the sea-salt to a powder using an electric coffee or spice mill (appropriately cleaned out first).

4. Once the Almonds have begun to colour, add the Oil to the pan and roll the Almonds around until they are all evenly coated with Oil.

5. Combine the Paprika with the ground sea-salt and add this the Almonds; again, roll the Almonds around, until coated with the mixture, and then return the pan to the oven for another five minutes or so.

Allow to cool before serving. Best served immediately, although they can be kept in an air-tight container for several days if you wish.

Recipe: Scrambled Egs with Smoked Salmon

For Four.
Ingredients: 8 large Eggs; 4 tablespoons Cream; 1 oz Butter; Salt & Pepper; 6 oz Smoked Salmon; Dill (optional)

Method:

1. Melt butter in a heavy frying pan.

2. Beat Eggs with cream and seasoning - be careful with the quantity of salt, as the Smoked Salmon will also be quite salty; better to under-season at this stage and adjust later if necessary. Mix well, to break down the egg white thoroughly.

3. Cook eggs over a medium heat, stirring to break up the 'membrane' as it cooks - but not so much that the texture resembles a kind of porridge. The cooked eggs should look rich and fluffy.

4. Cut the Smoked Salmon into small strips and mix into the cooked Eggs just before serving.

5. Serve, garnished lightly with (optional) Dill.

Recipe: Triglie (Red Mullet) alla Maremmana

For Four.
Ingredients: 800g Red Mullet, cleaned and gutted (generally, there are two sizes available at the fishmonger; I tend to go for the larger ones, as the bones are less fiddly, and they are easier to stuff. This means two fish per person, as opposed to three per person if you go for the smaller variety); 100g Prosciutto Crudo (supermarket plastic-packed is fine for this - no point in using better quality crudo in this kind of dish) ; 1 tablespoon Butter; 6 fl oz White Wine; 3 fl oz Olive Oil; juice of half a Lemon; 1 Garlic clove, minced; Breadcrumbs; Seasoning.

Method:

1. Mince the Prosciutto in a food processor, and divide it between the fish cavities, adding a small knob of Butter to each one.

2. Place the fish in a flat dish and pour over them a marinade made from Wine, Oil, Lemon Juice, Garlic and Seasoning. Leave to marinate for a couple of hours, turning occasionally.

3. Coat the fish in breadcrumbs, and bake 25 minutes in a pre-heated 180 degree C oven. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the marinade over the fish at the start of the process, and add the remainder of the marinade in the course of cooking, as the fish dries out.

Recipe: Involtini with Leek and Parmesan

Serves two.
Ingredients: 2 large or 4 small scaloppine, beaten to wafer thinness (I prefer to use small scaloppine for this - they cook through more thoroughly); 1 medium Leek; 2 oz Parmesan, shaved thinly with a potato peeler or cheese slicer; Plain Flour; 1 tablespoon Oil; 1 oz Butter; 50 ml White Wine; Seasoning.

Method:

1. Slice the Leek centrally along its length, and cook until tender in boiling salted water. This should take 10 minutes or so. It should be very tender when finished.

2. Lay Scaloppine flat on the work surface, and lay slices of cooked Leek over each one, then cover these in turn with the Parmesan shavings. Season, and then roll up and fix each roll with a wooden toothpick. These are your involtini.

3. Lightly flour the outside of the involtini, and cook over a high heat in the melted Butter and Oil until the outsides are generally quite dark in colour. This might take 8-10 minutes. Remove the involtini to a separate dish and keep warm.

4. Add wine to the pan, and boil down to half its original volume, scraping the cooking juices from the base of the pan as the wine reduces.

5. Return the involtini to the sauce and heat them through, turning in the sauce, for about a minute. Serve.

Recipe: Flamiche (a la Pomiane)

For two:
Ingredients: 3 sheets Phyllo pastry, approx 12"x6" each; 2 medium Leeks; 2 oz Butter; 1 Egg Yolk; 1 tablespoon Cream; seasoning.

Method:

1. Melt half the Butter. Prepare two pastry shells, using one sheet of Phyllo for each shell, brushed with melted Butter (cut each sheet in two, and then use two halves in each shell to make a double layer of pastry for the base of the Flamiche).

2. Finely chop the white of the Leeks and par-boil five minutes in salted water. Drain, and then stir round in the remaining melted Butter, to coat. Season to taste.

3. Fill pastry shells with cooked Leek, packed quite loosely, then brush the remaining sheet of Phyllo with the last of the melted Butter and cut it in half, to use each half to fashion the tops of the two Flamiches. Cut a cross in the centre of each top sheet of pastry, and fold the corners back to leave a small open square in the top of the pastry.

4. Bake the Flamiches approx 20 minutes in 200 degree oven, until well browned. Meanwhile mix together the egg yolk and cream.

5. Once the Flamiches are cooked, remove from the oven and immediately pour the egg and cream mixture carefully into the openings in the centre of each pie - don't worry if some pours over the top of the pastry, it will still be unctuous and delicious.

6. Leave to stand for 3-5 minutes, allowing the egg to coagulate in the heat of the interior of the Flamiches. Serve.

Recipe: Squid with Peas and Tomatoes...

For two:
Ingredients: 2 small Squid, cleaned and sliced into rings; 1.5 tablespoons chopped Onion; 3 tablespoons Olive Oil; 1.5 teaspoons minced Garlic; 1 tin peeled and chopped tomatoes - approx 300g; 290g frozen Peas; 2 tablespoons chopped Parsley.

Method:
1. Saute Onion in Oil until golden, add Garlic and Parsley and stir briefly. Add tomatoes and simmer 10 minutes.

2. Stir Squid into this mixture and simmer for 35-40 minutes.

3. When the Squid is tender, add the peas (from frozen) and cook through for about 5 minutes.

4. Check and adjust seasoning, and serve.

As with all things stewed, this is probably even better re-heated the following day - if you have any left, that is!

Recipe: Lardon Sauce for Fish

Ingredients: 3 tbs Olive Oil; 100g Lardons; 1 large Shallot, finely diced; 2 large Garlic cloves, minced; 1 sprig fresh Thyme; 1 sprig Rosemary; 1 Bay leaf; 3 tbs Port; 120 ml Red Wine; 400 ml Fish Stock; 500 ml Chicken Stock.

Method:

1. Saute Lardons 2 minutes in Oil, until browned.

2. Add shallot, garlic and herbs and cook until softened - approximately 7 minutes.

3. Deglaze with Port, then add Wine and cook until reduced by two thirds.

4. Pour in Fish and Chicken Stock, add pepper to taste, and then simmer approiximately 20 minutes until reduced by half.

5. Strain through a fine seive, and the sauce is then ready for use.


This recipe makes quite a large quantity - normally enough to last me for several months. I generally keep it in the fridge in a sealed container, and reheat it as I need it. This is excellent with grilled or seared fish, and having some ready-made in the fridge means you can have a finished dish in the time it takes to cook a piece of fish on both sides.....

Recipe: Portobello Mushrooms stuffed with Walnuts and Herbs

For two:
Ingredients: 4 large Portobello Mushrooms; 4 tablespoons grated Parmesan; 90g dried Porcini; 12 sprigs Tarragon; 10 sprigs Chervil (if available); 7 sprigs Thyme; 100g Walnut pieces, chopped in food processor; 3 cloves Garlic; juice of Half a Lemon; seasoning.

1. Reconstitute dried porcini in hot water for at least 30 minutes; drain and rinse to remove any grit.

2. Chop porcini, along with portobello stems and garlic.

3. Chop herbs. Mix 1/4 of them with the parmesan.

4. Saute mushroom/garlic mix in a little olive oil, then add lemon juice and seasoning. Cook 3-5 minutes until liquid evaporates, then add cream and cook 1-2 minutes more until thickened. Stir in chopped walnuts and reserved herbs.

5. Use mixture to stuff mushroom caps, and top with parmesan and herb mixture.

6. Bake 20 minutes in an oven pre-heated to 180 degrees C.

Recipe: Tartes aux Pommes

For two:
Ingredients: 2 sheets Phyllo Pastry, each approx 12"x6"; melted Butter; 4 Apples (blush variety, by preference); additional 60g Butter; 2 tablespoons Rum or Brandy; 60z Sugar or equivalent volume sweetener; 2 large tablespoons Apricot/Fig/Raspberry jam, whichever flavour you prefer; 1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon; juice & rind of 1 Lemon.

Method:
1. Brush phyllo with melted butter, cut each sheet in half and use to line two individual false-bottomed flan tins - make two layers of pastry in each tin.

2. Peel, core and dice three of the apples. Heat in covered saucepan twenty minutes or so over moderate heat, until they have given up their juice, and are quite soft. Add all the remaining ingredients, raise heat and cook, stirring constantly, for another ten minutes, until the puree has become quite thick.

3. Divide puree between the phyllo pastry cases, and then top each one with half an apple, peeled and cored and sliced very thinly before being put back together again and arranged on top of the puree. Brush with melted butter.

4. Bake half an hour or so in an oven pre-heated to 200 degree C, until the pastry is dark brown and the tips of the apple slices are coloured.

What's for dinner?

And so........for today's menu:

To start with, crisp Phyllo pastry shells, with duck livers and mushroom. Simple preparation: bake the shells separately until richly dark brown; saute sliced duck livers and mushrooms in butter in two separate pans, and then add half a wine glass of marsala to the pan with the livers in it, along with half a teaspoon of ground ginger. Let the marsala bubble slightly, then pour in some double cream and stir. Add the mushrooms to the mixture, correct seasoning, and pile into the cooked pastry shells. Top with a sprinkling of chopped parsley to serve.

This is always better using mushrooms found growing wild - but conditions aren't right for that at the moment, so this evening it will be the ordinary cultivated variety instead.

Then:

Boned chicken, roast with a poultice of butter, minced shallot, coriander and chopped rosemary - half of it pushed between the skin and the flesh, and the rest pressed over the surface of the boned beast. Use the ribcage to make stock for future use. Prepare the chicken several hours in advance, and then roast for approximately forty minutes at 200 degrees C. The combined fat and melted butter that collects in the bottom of the pan is fantastic for future sauteeing of vegetables, and will keep for weeks in the fridge.
This is a variaton on a recipe that I've been doing for many years, originally - I think - seen done by Paul Bocuse on the Food Channel in the States . It works equally as well with duck, when some bitter orange zest included in the poultice is excellent. Not only does this method make slicing the bird extremely easy, but you get a lot more for your money, as none of the meat gets left behind in the process of carving.

And to finish:
Egg-white chocolate souffle. The fridge in this household generates its own egg-white mountain on a very regular basis, and so egg-white only dishes are much in demand. This one is as follows, for two: 50 g melted dark chocolate, 4 egg whites, one tablespoon sugar, 1 tbs strong coffee. Melt the chocolate, stir in sugar and coffee, and then fold into stiffly beaten egg whites; pour into greased ramekins and bake eight minutes in a bain marie in a pre-heated 175 degree C oven.

I always use Felchin chocolate - better by far than any alternatives, even the much hailed Valhrona. Difficult to find, but worth the search. Felchlin is an old family run swiss business, and from the first mouthful you'll find yourself saying 'THIS is what chocolate used to taste like!'. It's imported in the UK by Dohler, but after that heaven only knows what happens to it. You can sometimes get it through Vin Sullivan, I think. For the past couple of years I've been sourcing mine through Felchlin's distributor in Italy.

Fyi, when I mention sugar, it will nearly always in fact be equivalent-volume Splenda that I use - it works just as well as sugar for anything which is baked or where the finished product doesn't require the silky texture that only sugar can produce. It's no good for ice creams,or sorbets, for example, and is hopeless for meringues. Otherwise, it's an important element in ensuring that eating well isn't entirely inconsistent with having a waistline!

Equipment note: for melting chocolate or making sauces, I use an integrated bain-marie of german design called a zimmertopf. I'm not sure how widely known they are, but they are excellent for this kind of job, where you want heat, but with no danger of anything boiling. Excellent for jobs like Hollandaise, or Creme Patissiere.