Recipe: Mandarin Sorbet

The citrus trees are all coming into fruit right now, and although we don't number a Mandarin in our own agrumi garden, hanging over the wall across the lane just across from the front gates at Santa Caterina is a Mandarin tree of venerable proportions which is currently dripping with fruit. And since the owners of the tree don't have access to the lane, and we seem to be the only people going along it right now.....well....it would be a shame to let all that fruit go to waste...

I like the look of bowls piled high with Mandarins - but the truth is, in this household, they tend not to get eaten. Hence this particular dish (which, in fact, could be used for pretty much any citrus fruit, I think, as long as you respect the proportions of fruit to sugar, water and egg white). I don't really know why, but this particular recipe produces a sorbet of unequalled creaminess, which doesn't become granular even after some time in the freezer. I made a batch of the stuff about two weeks ago, the last remnants of which we finished for dessert last night - and it was as smooth and creamy yesterday as when first made. You just have to remember when serving sorbet which has got rock hard in the freezer to let it sit for about an hour in the fridge beforehand.

For four.

Ingredients: 8 Mandarins; 500 ml Water; 250g Sugar; 1 Egg White.

Method:

1. Combine the Sugar and Water in a pan, and add the grated rind from four of the Mandarins. Bring to a boil, stirring all the time, and then reduce the heat to simmer for five minutes, stirring frequently to ensure the Sugar is completely dissolved. Allow to cool completely.

2. Add the squeezed juice from all eight Mandarins to the cooled sugar syrup, then sieve it to remove the grated rind.

3. Lightly beat the Egg White until frothy (but not yet stiff) and add this to the sugar syrup as you put the mixture into the ice cream machine. Process until it has reached the desired consistency.

Recipe: Guinea Fowl with Lemon & Garlic

A splendid combination of flavours, this dish is eminently practical for a dinner party, as it can be made almost entirely as much as an hour in advance, and the bird kept warm until the sauce is prepared, just before serving. The recipe is loosely adapted from one by Anna Del Conte, to whom I find I'm returning for ideas ever more frequently these days.

For four.

Ingredients: 1 Guinea Fowl (medium to large in size); 30g Butter, chilled and finely diced; 1 generous tsp Salt; 75 ml Olive Oil; 8 Garlic Cloves, minced; 150 ml Lemon Juice; grated rind of 1 Lemon; Salt & Pepper.

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees C.

2. Reach into the bird, and with your fingers separate as much of the skin from the flesh of the thighs and breasts. Into these cavities distribute the diced Butter. Rub the Salt all over the bird, and then package it loosely inside a buttered sheet of aluminium foil.

3. Place the wrapped bird in a roasting pan, and roast for an hour in the pre-heated oven. Once done, open the package carefully - you want to keep all of the cooking juices which have gathered inside the foil - and allow the bird to cool sufficiently to be able to remove the breasts and legs. (Retain the carcase and use it to make stock for use in other recipes). Collect in a bowl all of the cooking juices and the juices which have been released in the course of cutting up the bird.

4. Heat the Oil in a sauté pan, and lightly colour the garlic in the heated Oil. Add the pieces of Guinea Fowl and fry them gently for five minutes on each side, then add the Lemon juice and rind and cook for a further couple of minutes. Remove the pieces of Guinea Fowl to a covered bowl, season to taste and keep warm until about to serve.

5. Just before serving, add all of the retained cooking juices to the frying pan, and heat briskly, stirring vigorously, until the mixture bubbles and has slightly thickened. Serve the pieces of Guinea Fowl on heated plates, and add to each serving a spoonful of sauce.

Hard to believe...

...that we're cruising towards the end of the year. Despite the recent appearance of Christmas lights the length of Borgo Stretto, and across into Corso Italia on the other side of the river, the fact that December starts in only a couple of days doesn't really compute. Not when the days follow sunnily one after another, and it's still shirtsleeve weather in the garden...even warm enough to sit and drink tea on the terrace at the end of yet another day of hard-garden-labour, a couple of days ago, and trying not to dwell on h0w much more yet remains to be done before the garden will have started to take shape. (In truth, there are days of distinctly un-balmy weather...like the autumn storm, last weekend, which blew in part of the east window in the church at Santa Caterina...but for the most part, one mild and sunny day follows another.)

In the garden, new beds have had to be dug to accommodate the influx of plants, and the all-too familiar sight of strips of weed-cloth indicates the future location of paths and pergolas. The dogs love it; freshly-turned earth is their idea of heaven - both snuffling at it, and rolling around in it - and their challenge is clearly to shift as much of the stuff as they can from the garden to the inside of the house by the shortest route they can manage. My ambition is to have as little of the stuff accessible to them as possible (by dint of planting in it, comprehensively) and thus to cut off their supply!

At the moment, we're awaiting Signor Tempestini's quote for supplying trees for the new orchard, and plants for two (maybe three?) new shrubberies...and assuming there are no horrendous surprises in the price, then planting might get underway before Christmas. In the meantime, I've planted 500 crocus bulbs under the Douglas Firs and around the base of the Lemon trees ('Joan of Arc' - one of the larger and pure white crocus varieties, which look spectacular towards the end of February) and 100 double flowering narcissus, under the Nespola trees, and along the side of the raised causeway that runs through the centre of the garden. By the time they flower, my blisters from the bulb planter might perhaps have disappeared...

Tonight's Dinner:

Aubergine & Parmesan Tarts.

Poached Chicken Breasts, with a Tarragon cream sauce; Celery, braised with Pancetta in a broth of Guinea Fowl and Duck.

Layered Meringue Cake (from Harry's Bar - layers of Pan di Spagna and Creme Patissiere, baked inside a coating of Italian Meringue)

Recipe: Potato Gratin

This is a wonderful dish for grey, wintry days. Simplicity itself, but with a glorious smell which pervades the house as the gratin slowly does its thing in the oven over a period of several hours. Although meat-free, the presence of a dash of nutmeg somehow implies the use of a rich beef broth somewhere along the line, which gives to the dish a surprising additional dimension.

This goes excellently with pretty much anything... and is equally fantastic when sneaked cold from the fridge on the following day.

For six.

Ingredients: 1 kg Potatoes (something like Maris Piper is fine); 6 medium Shallots; 2 large Garlic cloves; generous pinch of grated Nutmeg; 1 tsp dried Thyme; 8 fl oz Milk; 8 fl oz Cream; 2 tsp Salt; Pepper, half a dozen grinds of the mill; 2 tablespoons of Butter.

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 150 degrees C.

2. Peel the Potatoes and slice them finely, either (carefully) by hand or by using a mandoline. Put the slices immediately to soak in a large bowl of cold water, and leave them soaking while you prep the shallots and garlic.

3. Peel and finely chop both the Shallots and the Garlic; mix them together in a small bowl, along with the Nutmeg, Thyme, Salt & Pepper.

4. Drain the Potato slices into a colander (shake it to remove as much excess water as possible), and arrange a third of them in a layer to cover the bottom of a buttered baking dish. Cover this layer with half of the Sallot-Garlic mixture....then another layer of Potates, then the remainder of the Shallot-Garlic mixture, and finally a last layer of Potato.

5. Combine the Milk & Cream in a jug, and pour it over the top layer of Potato slices. Dice the Butter and scatter it over the top of the gratin. Bake in the pre-heated oven for two hours (and if you don't want to serve it immediately, it can then hold in an oven at 100 degrees C for a further hour, and will come to no harm).

Autumn storms are upon us...

Gale-force winds and torrential rain outside - if I hadn't seen it before, I'd worry for the survival of the garden (but since it happens every year at this time, then one can afford to be sanguine). Indoors, the combined aromas of pastry shells and a potato gratin baking in the oven, a pear poaching gently in red wine (for the top of a tart for supper), and celery tops, diced and sautéeing in butter (to form part of a stuffing for ravioli).

Two dogs sleep peacefully on the floor, having exhausted themselves by energetic games with a tennis ball, up and down the hallways.

Life isn't all bad...

Tonight's dinner:

Ravioli, stuffed with Celery, served in a Parsley & Cream sauce.

Slices of Chicken Breast, in Lemon & Capers; Potato Gratin.

Tarts of Vanilla-poached Pear, on a brandy-flavoured Crème Patissière

Recipe: Apple and Calvados Souffle

Along with grapes, the other glut that we're currently experiencing is apples. Vast quantities of them...and I'm not complaining. Chicken pieces sautéed with garlic and then baked with apple & thyme; thin-crust pies, filled with apple and guinea-fowl, and a sage flavoured cream; strawberry and apple tarts; apple and vanilla tarts, with brandy; apple and cinnamon cake....and now, an apple and Calvados soufflé which is both light and delicious, but with an unexpected edge.

This recipe has the additional benefit that it uses only egg whites, not the yolks, and so is another one for the list of dishes which eats into the ever-present egg-white mountain which lurks in a plastic container at the back of the fridge!

For two individual soufflés.

Ingredients: 2 apples (my preference is for something pink and robust like Gala or Pink Lady); 1 oz butter; 2 oz +1 tablespoon sugar; 4 sponge fingers (or thin pieces of sponge cake - something which will readily absorb liquid); 2 tablespoons calvados; 4 egg whites; icing sugar (to serve).

Method:

1. Grease (or Trennwax) two individual ramekins. Line the base of each ramekin with the peices of sponge finger (or sponge cake) and add a spoonful of Calvados to each ramekin, trying to soak the pieces of sponge evenly.

2. Melt the butter in a small pan, and add to this the apples, peeled, cored and finely diced, and the 2 oz of sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, for ten minutes or so, until the apple is good and soft. Allow to cool slightly and then purée in the food processor.

3. Beat the egg whites until quite stiff, then add the remaining tablespoon of sugar and beat for a further ten seconds or so.

4. Stir a quarter of the egg whites into the apple mixture, then fold in the rest of the egg whites and divide the mixture between the two ramekins. Place the ramekins in a bain marie and bake 15 minutes in a 220 degree C oven.

Serve straight from the oven, after dusting the tops with icing sugar.

How to de-seed grapes

We have a glut of grapes, both white and dark. In the fridge currently is of a box of about ten kilos of the things which the Technical Dept harvested from the garden in about three minutes, at the start of the week, and I've been working my way through relevant recipes ever since. A white grape sorbet was pretty good, frothed with some beaten egg white and enlivened with a glass of vin santo, and last night's Duck, pot-roast in white grapes also got significant points. I've tended to stick with recipes where the process of crushing or liquidizing or sieving eliminates the need to deal with the seeds, since de-seeding grapes has always been for me one of the most thankless of all kitchen chores. Until now. Research has unearthed this elegant version of keyhole surgery which is both quick and efficient:

1. Take a standard paper-clip and unfold it into a 'S' shape.

2. Insert one end of the 'S' into the end of the grape which was where the stalk had previously been, and bear down into the grape.

3. Bury the clip into the grape to the depth of the first arm of the 'S', and then invert it, so the bit you first inserted is now pointing back up in the direction whence it came, and you have the curve of the clip in the centre of the grape, positioned to act as a hook.

4. Twist the clip slightly, to loosen the innards of the grape, and then carefully pull the clip out of the grape, bringing the seeds with it.

5. Once the seeds reach daylight, discard them and move on to the next grape.

Couldn't be simpler!

Tonight's dinner:

Celery Risotto (with stock made from last night's Duck)

Sausages of Wild Boar, with a Potato and Shallot Gratin

Clafouti of White Grapes, baked in Lemon & Cognac Cream