Recipe: Lemon Souffle Glace

For Four.

Ingredients: 3 Eggs, separated; juice and rind of 2.5 Lemons; 50g Sugar (or equivalent volume sweetener); 1 tablespoon powdered Gelatine; 275 ml Double Cream.

Method:

1. In a simmertopf (or double boiler) make a custard, using the egg yolks, sugar, and lemon juice & rind. Once done, set aside to cool down.

2. Dissolve the gelatine in 70 ml warm water (I normally use the zimmertopf for this, as well, having transferred the custard to a bowl to cool; the zimmertopf doesn't need cleaning before you use it to dissolve the gelatine. Over a very low heat, let the powdered gelatine dissolve in the water, stirring constantly.) Mix the dissolved gelatine into the custard base.

4. Whisk the cream until firm, then fold into the lemon custard.

5. Beat egg whites until stiff, and fold thoroughly into the custard/cream mixture. Chill for at least two hours before serving.

For presentational effect, you can pour the mixture into ramekins prepared with paper collars around them, allowing the mixture to stand an inch proud of the top of the ramekin once it has chilled and the collar has been removed. I have to say, I don't generally bother ......

Programmed Eating....

...was what Jocasta Innes called it in The Pauper's Cookbook. I think she had in mind a positive, forward-looking process whereby meals are planned for days (weeks, even?) ahead, on the basis of knowing '.....what baked meats (will) coldly furnish forward...' future meals - or, more prosaically, what leftovers will be available from one meal to form the basis of something else down the line. Personally, I tend to do it the other way round, and am pleasantly surprised to find in the fridge things available for future use which have survived from previous dinners, and which have withstood the ravages of the Technical Department on a midnight raid.

For me, part of the satisfaction in cooking is the sense of efficient management of resources, and the avoidance of waste. This past week has been a prime example of this: leftover sauce from Salmon in Walnut Oil was splendid subsequently with green taglietelle, tasting of celery and tarragon and faintly of salmon; Poulet Antiboise provided leftover onion, which two days later was used in Pissaladiere Nicoise, whilst the chicken carcase made stock which was used firstly to blanch broccoli (for broccoli puree, to have with garlic and anise flavoured pork belly, a frozen leftover from a month ago) , and then in turn for a Celery Risotto (using the leftover Celery from the aforementioned salmon dish), and finally was used up in making Spinach Soup. Possibly rather perverse, but I take as much pleasure in a freshly emptied fridge and freezer as I do from a freshly filled one - as long as I know all the contents have found their place in one dish or another.

I remember encountering Jocasta Innes once, many years ago in Nevile's Court at Trinity, in the middle of a May Ball. Gushy woman, and rather irritating, I recall. Nevertheless, her recipe for potato and bacon hotpot will always rank high on my list of comfort-food-to-be-eaten-in times-of-great-personal-stress.......even if its consumption is to be strictly unobserved and with the curtains closed.....

Dining out again tonight. Ms Robinson's Chocolate Bread & Butter Pudding last week was stellar!

Recipe: Paupiettes of Pork

For Four:

Ingredients: 1 Pork Tenderloin, trimmed of any fat or membrane; 6 Anchovy Fillets; 6 large fresh Basil Leaves; 1 Egg; 1 tablespoon of Milk; 25g grated Parmesan; 50g Plain Flour. Butter (for frying)

Method:

1. Slice the Tenderloin into 12 even slices, crosswise. Using a meat tenderiser, beat each slice until it is quite thin (about 6 mm), and has probably doubled in size.

2. In the centre of each slice place half an Anchovy Fillet and half a Basil Leaf. Fold each slice over, to contain the Basil and Anchovy, and then press the sides together to seal (I generally beat round the edges lightly with the tenderiser, to make a better seal)

3. Beat Egg and Milk together in a shallow dish. In a separate shallow dish put the Parmesan and Flour, thoroughly mixed together.

4. Dip each Paupiette first in the Egg and Milk mixture, and then in the Flour and Parmesan mixture. Make sure they are well covered on each side.

5. Fry in melted butter, 3 minutes on each side.

Goes well with any green vegetable - Spinach works well, or lettuce braised in butter with Broad Beans, for example.

Cook's Perks......

There was an interesting article recently in the New York Times, about cooking with wine. I have to confess, I had no idea it was quite such a rarified subject - and I'm not entirely sure my memory agrees with that of the journalist who wrote the piece, with regard to the advice given by the late-great Julia (Child). Journalist has Mrs Child advising that a 'good' wine should be used for cooking, and the image is conjured up of serious consideration being given to which precise vintage from the Child cave was going to be solemnly opened for the purpose. In practice, my memory of l-g-j's approach was that you should chuck in a generous glassful of pretty much whatever you had on the go at the time (which, in her case, was never going to be undrinkable plonk, anyway!), and that should do nicely. I recall somebody telling me of attending a recording of her show on one occasion - when in fact, a number of shows would be recorded back-to-back in the course of an entire day - and by the end of the process, Julia was comfortably pickled. The ensuing incident in which a duck carcase flew from her grasp right across the kitchen and her remark that she was grateful to have a 'self-clean floor' gave rise to such a flood of eager enquiries about the supplier of such floors that the following week she had to issue a shamefaced acknowledgement that her remark had actually been 'ironic'. Oh, well.....

In short, on the cooking-with-wine front, I entirely agree with the verdict that vermouth should generally be used when a recipe calls for white wine - more economical, in general, and the flavours are nicely complicated - and I can see little point in buying especially 'poor' red wine to cook with. After all, as the cook, you're more likely than not to want 'Cook's nip' as kitchen work progresses, and why on earth would you condemn yourself to something you'd never have bought to pour into a glass in the first instance!


Tonight's Menu:

Celery Risotto

Roast Beef (Mrs Kafka's method - succulent and caramelised), with Carrots roast in Duck Fat.

Tartes aux Citron.

Recipe: Beef & Porcini Strudel...

For Four.

Ingredients: 7 sheets Phyllo Pastry, each 12"x6"; 30g Butter, melted; half a cup of dried Porcini; 250g minced Beef; 1 small Onion, diced finely; Salt & Pepper; half a teaspoon of ground Nutmeg; 2 Eggs; generous teaspoon of Truffle Oil; 2 tablespoons Cream.

Method.

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C.

2. Soak the dried mushrooms 20 minutes or so in a cup of very hot water.

3. Lay four of the Phyllo sheets out on a tea towel, to form a large rectangle; the sides of the sheets should be slightly overlapping. Brush the Phyllo with melted Butter. Lay the remaining sheets of Phyllo on top, facing in the opposite direction, so that the seams of the first 4 sheets are covered by the top layer of Phyllo. Brush this in turn with melted Butter.

4. Mix together the minced Beef, chopped Onion, Eggs and seasoning.

5. Drain the mushrooms, retaining the soaking liquid. Rinse any grit from the mushrooms, then chop and add to the Beef mixture, along with the Truffle Oil.

6. Spread the mixture over the Phyllo rectangle, leaving two inches uncovered all round the edges. Fold all of the edges in over the filling, and carefully roll up to make a 'sausage'. Place this, seam-side down, on a greased baking tray and brush with the remaining melted Butter.

7. Bake the Strudel 45 minutes in the pre-heated oven. Meanwhile, strain the mushroom soaking liquid through kitchen paper and then reduce it in a small saucepan until about 5-6 tablespoons remain; stir in the Cream and check for seasoning.

8. Once the Strudel is baked, remove from the oven, and slice into 1 cm thick slices. Serve two slices per person with a spoonful of the cream sauce.

NB. Delicious served cold on the following day!

The Archive.....

Do people still keep battered notebooks, containing motley collections of once and future favourite recipes? I consulted mine yesterday, to check the 'official' details for Poulet Antiboise, which I know for a fact was inscribed there sometime in 1979, sitting at a cafe table in a courtyard garden, fountain trickling, in a blisteringly hot Greek summer......

My notebook is a standard issue blue-covered school exercise book, bought from the Lykos general store, half way up Matogianni, on the right hand side of the street, with the eternally bad-tempered old woman on the cash desk and her bushily be-whiskered husband, the twinkle in whose eye clearly suggested a colourful past (and possibly explained her mood). The pages were quite soon filled, and the book then became a repository for handwritten notes, recipes on postcards from friends, and pages torn from long-vanished magazines - all of which spill out in a stream every time (rarely, these days) the archive is consulted. And they all come with memories: the ratatouille that accompanied roast pork loin at a candlelit dinner party for fifteen in the garden at Piero's old house, followed by a mountain of cold poached pears; Anne Willan's delicious recipe for Walnut Tart, from kitchen supper at 49, Bankside; the fax with Claudia Roden's Semifreddo alla Mandorle on it, which became so faded that I finally had to track down the book from which it originally came (but the illegible fax remains folded inside the exercise book, all the same....)

It must be ten years at least since I graduated to the greater efficiency of a computer-based recipe archive. Much easier to search, and much more efficient when it comes to passing on a recipe to somebody else. But, somehow, it lacks the dog-eared charm of the older method.....There's progress for you - I suppose!

The Mucco Pisano ravioli were very good. Quite 'edgy' in flavour - almost gamey, in fact. Worth watching out for.

Dining out tonight, so the menu is Ms Robinson's responsibility.

Recipe: Poulet Antiboise

For Four.

Ingredients: 1 roasting Chicken, approx 4 lb weight; 2-3 lbs Onions (red, by preference; the flavour is 'meatier'); half a cup of Olive Oil; Salt & Cayenne Pepper; half a cup of Black Olives; 1 tablespoon Cream. Triangles of Fried Bread, for serving.

Method:

1. Thinly slice the Onions. Put in a heavy casserole, along with the Oil, Salt (to taste) and a generous pinch of Cayenne. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until the onions have collapsed but not browned.

2. If you know how to make a neat job of it, remove the wishbone from the Chicken (this makes it much easier to carve, subsequently), then season the bird inside and out and bury it in the softened onions in the casserole. Cover, and continue to cook over medium heat until the Chicken is done - an hour or so should be fine. To test for done-ness, prick the fattest part of the thigh, and the juice which emerges should run clear.

3. Carefully remove the Chicken to a dish in a warming oven, add the Olives to the Onions, and increase heat to reduce the liquid. Stir in the Cream towards the end and reduce to thicken slightly.

Carve the bird and serve along with the Onion/Olive mixture and triangles of thinly sliced bread which have been fried in butter.