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Cod with Leek & Potato Sauce

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I have never understood the popularity of cod, other than as fish and chips. To me, it is a rather bland, uninspiring fish. So, when a cod recipe has me searching for superlatives, I know it must be something special. This is one such recipe from the manically brilliant Mr. Blumenthal. (Fear not, this one is actually pretty conventional.)

Planning

serves: 2
preparation time:
cooking time:

Ingredients

  • 1 small potato, peeled & finely sliced (~50g/2ozs)
  • 10g butter
  • ½ onion, peeled & finely sliced
  • 160g/6ozs leeks, very finely sliced
  • 200ml fish stock, warmed
  • fresh bouquet garni (small bay leaf, 1 sprig thyme, 2-3 sprigs parsley)
  • 1 tbs whipping cream
  • 1 tbs milk (semi-skimmed is fine))
  • 1 tbs groundnut oil
  • 2 cod fillets (~200g each)
  • chives, finely cut/chopped
  • 20g pea tops to garnish
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Rinse the sliced potato under running water for ~30 seconds then drain well.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over gentle medium heat and cook the onion and potato for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Toss in the leeks and cook for 5 minutes more. Pour in the fish stock together with the bouquet garni, bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes (or until the potatoes are tender). Add the cream and milk and cook very gently for another 10 minutes.

To finish the sauce, remove the bouquet garni, blitz and strain into a clean pan. Season with salt & pepper and keep warm while you cook the fish.

Heat the oil in a fying pan on high heat. Season the fish with a little salt and sear it for about 2 minutes on both sides. The precise time will depend on thickness – you want it just cooked, only just “setting” in the centre.

Get all chefy and serve the cod on or surrounded by the sauce, sprinkled with chives and garnished with the pea tops. It goes well with some waxy potatoes (which could sit under the fish) and green beans.


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Posted in Fish

Chicken Liver Paté

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Every time I make chicken liver paté, I go through the same head-scratching search. So, finally, here is the answer written down.

For parties I make three times this amount which is enough to fill precisely my large Le Creuset terrine which, I think, holds about 2lbs. (That makes sense if you add up the weigths of the ingredients.) This, however, is the single amount.

Planning

serves: 6
preparation time: 15 mins
cooking time: 30 mins

Ingredients

  • 250g unsalted butter
  • 400g fresh chicken livers, trimmed
  • 50g tin salted anchovy fillets, coarsely chopped
  • 2 medium banana/long shallots, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp fresh oregano leaves, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 tbs brandy
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Put aside one third of your pack of butter. (This is to seal the paté once potted.) Make the paté with the remaining two thirds butter.

Trim and halve the chicken livers. Melt about 30g butter in a frying pan and add the chicken livers. Add a few grindings of black pepper and cook them gently, turning occasionally, for about 7 minutes until cooked through. Tip them, along with all the pan juices, into a food processor.

In the same pan, melt a further 30g butter and sweat the chopped shallots, along with the anchovies and oregano, until the shallots are soft but not browned (about 5 minutes) and the anchovies have melted. Stir in the smashed garlic towards the end and cook it for about 2 minutes. Toss in the brandy and simmer it for a minute to drive off the alcohol. (Sniff it, don’t waste it.) Tip this lot into the blender with the livers.

Roughly dice the remainder of your two thirds of butter and add it to the processor. Blitz it all until smooth. Adjust the seasoning with pepper. (You probably won’t need salt because you have a lot of anchovies in there.)

Fill your chosen paté container(s) with the blitzed paté and smooth the top. Melt the reserved one third butter over gentle heat before poring it over the paté to cover the top completely.

Allow the paté to cool and then refrigerate until needed. Remove it from the fridge about an hour before you want to serve it though – it tastes better at room temperature.


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Posted in Starters

Moules Marinières

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This is one of those absolute classics, and deservedly so. This is so classic that I really can’t see any reason to cook mussels any other way (except as an ingredient to another dish such as Paella , of course). If you’re having mussels as just, well, mussels, then this is the way to cook them.

Planning

serves: 2
preparation time: 30 mins
cooking time: 5 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 net rope-grown mussels
  • 1 tbs butter
  • 1 banana shallot (or 2 regular shallots), very finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, very finely chopped
  • 8 sprigs fresh thyme (optional)
  • 100ml dry white wine (e.g. Muscadet)
  • 2 tbs cream (single or whipping)
  • 2 tbs finely chopped fresh parsley

Method

Wash the mussels under cold running water in a sink, removing the beards with a paring knife. Do not scrub the shells – apparently the colour will taint the juices in cooking. Discard any broken mussels or mussels that remain open when tapped sharply a few times.

Melt the butter in a casserole (one that has a tight-fitting lid) that is plenty big enough for the mussels with room to spare. Toss in the shallot, garlic and thyme (if using) and sweat for a minute. Add the wine and bring to simmering point to drive off the alcohol.

Add the mussels, cover with a lid and cook for 3 minutes or until the mussels open. Hold the lid and shake the pan a time or two to stir the mussels up a bit. Discard any mussels that do not open.

Add the cream and parsley and stir well. Do not season – the salty mussel juices mixed with the wine are all you will need.

Serve with crusty French bread and/or, for the total French experience, frîtes .


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Posted in Seafood Tagged with:

Grilled Squid Salad

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If I had a pound for every time I’d heard somebody say, “I don’t like squid ‘cos it’s rubbery”, I’d be a rich man. It isn’t!! Especially if it’s cooked correctly, i.e. hot and fast.

This marinated squid makes the best tasting squid I can remember. Red chilli is a classic with squid but I think it’s the small amount of sugar in this recipe that makes all the difference. Do try to get fresh squid complete with their guts and purple outer skin – they really do taste far superior to the bland white, frozen variety.

Planning

serves: 2
preparation time: 15 mins
cooking time: 2 mins

Ingredients

  • 4 medium fresh squid
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 2 tsp golden caster sugar or brown sugar
  • 1 medium red chilli, deseeded
  • large pinch salt
  • 1 bag mixed slad leaves (rocket is good)
  • ½ garlic clove
  • 1 tbs balsamic vineger
  • 3 tbs olive oil
  • salt & pepper

Method

Prepare the squid. Grasp each squid body firmly but gently in one hand, its head and tentacles in the other hand and gently pull them apart. Most of the guts should come out of the body and still be attached to the head. Cut the tentacles away from the head by cutting as close to the eyes as possible without bursting them. (Yukko!) Discard the head and guts. Leave the tentacles whole. Slice open each squid body lengthways and pick off any gut remnants. (Yukko again!) Cutting about half-way through the flesh, score a criss-cross pattern on the inside of each squid body, then cut each into three pieces.

Mix together the the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, chilli and sugar. Put the squid pieces in a glass bowl and stir in the marinade. Leave it to marinate for 30-45 minutes.

Heat a ridged griddle pan until it is very hot. Grill the squid pieces for 30 seconds on each side, scored side down first. It is important that the pan is extremely hot so that the squid cooks very quickly. If it cooks for too long (2 minutes) it can become “rubbery”. (Phone the fire brigade and tell them that the smoke is NOT a fire.)

Make the vinaigrette dressing. Crush the ½ garlic clove to a paste with a little salt. Stir it into the balsamic vineger and leave it to infuse for about 15 minutes. Whisk in the olive oil and a few grindings of black pepper to make an emulsion.

Dress the salad leaves with the vinaigrette and serve with the grilled squid scattered over. Make sure the highly prized tentacles are fairly distributed. (Yummy!)


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Posted in Seafood Tagged with:

Pignon Tart

Posted on by JC — No Comments ↓

My hero doesn’t just do well with fish but he does a very creditable job with desserts, as well, particularly tarts. Pine kernels are certainly not cheap but lashing out on loads for this is well worth the investment.

Planning

serves: 8
preparation time: 1 hr
cooking time: 1 hr

Ingredients

  • 50g sultanas
  • 2 tbs eau de vie (clear spirit – proper German schnapps)
  • 1 quantity sweet pastry
  • 110g butter, softened
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 2 medium eggs
  • 50g ground almonds
  • 100g pine kernels
  • icing sugar (to dust)

Method

Mix the sultanas and eau de vie together and let the sultanas soak for 2 hours, turning them occasionally.

Use 10g of the butter to grease a loose-bottomed flan tin measuring 2½cms deep by 22cms diameter. Roll out the pastry thinly and use it to line the flan tin. Prick the flan base well witha fork and chill it for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 200°C/gas 6.

Blind bake the pastry case, lined with greaseproof paper and baking beans, for ~15 minutes until the edges are biscuit coloured. Remove the greaseproof paper and baking beans and return the case to the oven for a further 3-4 minutes until golden brown. Remove the flan case from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/gas 4.

Make the filling. Beat the remaining 100g butter in a bowl until very soft. Beat in the caster sugar until light and fluffy. Lightly beat the eggs and beat them into the mixture gradually to prevent curdling. (Adding a few ground almonds along with later additions of egg apparently helps.) Mix in the ground almonds and any unabsorbed eau de vie. Fold in the sultanas and 75g of the pine kernels before filling the flan case with the mixture. Now distribute the remaining 25g pine kernels on top. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until golden on top. Now cover the flan with some domed foil to prevent burning while it finishes cooking for about another 15 minutes (until an inserted skewer comes out clean). Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Dust with icing sugar and serve at room temperature with crème fraîche or just regular cream, if you prefer.


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Posted in Desserts Tagged with:

Sweet Pastry

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My pastry chef says that this recipe makes a very maleable, easy-to-handle dough. It is basically a cheating approach to a more traditional French pâté sucrée.

Planning

serves: n/a
preparation time: 10 mins
cooking time: n/a

Ingredients

  • 175g plain flour
  • pinch salt
  • 50g icing sugar
  • 100g chilled butter, cut into pieces
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1-1½ tsp cold water

Method

Sift the flour, salt and icing sugar into a food processor/mixing bowl. Add the chilled butter and blitz/work together to the fine breadcrumb stage. Stir in the egg yolk and sufficient water for the mixture to start coming together into a ball.

Turn it out onto a floured surface and kneed it briefly until smooth. Rest the dough for about 30 mins in the fridge before using it as needed.


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Posted in Basics Tagged with:

Preserved Lemons

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Preserved lemons are, in my view, indispensible in the making of tagines. You can buy them bottled in supermarkets but these are a pale shadow of those you make yourself. Fortunately they are very easy to make requiring no more than lemons, salt, water, a suitable preserving jar and time.

This recipe is for 3 preserved lemons because that’s what fits most of my Kilner/Parfait jars. They need to fit the jar snugly otherwise they float and don’t remain submerged. The recipe is basically 25g/1oz salt for each preserved lemon so you can scale it according to what will fit your jar.

Once made, leave them for at least a month. They will keep indefinitely so you won’t waste them.

Planning

serves: n/a
preparation time: >1 month
cooking time: n/a

Ingredients

  • 4 fresh lemons, unblemished & preferably unwaxed
  • 75g/3ozs salt
  • water

Method

First of all, I sterilize a Kilner/Parfait preserving jar by washing it then drying it in a 125°C oven. Let it cool down before proceeding.

Cut each of three lemons almost into quarters lengthwise – leave the quarters attached at the stem, though. Splay each lemon and spread salt liberally on all the cut surfaces before squeezing it back together and cramming them tightly into the jar. I usually find it necessary to split one lemon completely in half and use these two halves to wedge the other two lemons. However you do it, make sure they are tight. Tip the remaining salt into the jar. Juice the remaining lemon and pour the juice into the jar. Now top up with water to just above the lemons – they should be completely submerged.

Seal the jar and leave it for at least one month.

When using preserved lemons, it is traditional to use only the skin. Remove and discard the flesh.


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Posted in Accompaniments Tagged with:

Sea Bass with a Black Olive Crust

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This recipe is based upon one in Nico by Nico Ladenis. My main change is to use wholemeal breadcrumbs instead of white and, rather than pressing and refrigerating the crust mixture before use, just to press it roughly straight onto the fish by hand; the result seems to be a better texture to me. This would work on many fish fillets but it is particularly good on sea bass.

You can, of course, use white bread if you prefer. Also, the herbs are just a guideline so feel free to mess with those to your liking.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 20 mins
cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients

  • ~7cms/3ins thick chunk of wholemeal loaf, crust removed
  • 20 black olives, pitted
  • 1 tbs fresh parsley, chopped
  • ½ tsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
  • ½ tsp fresh basil, chopped
  • 1 small clove garlic, peeled
  • 50g butter
  • juice of ½ lemon
  • olive oil
  • 4 sea bass fillets, pin bones removed if possible
  • Salt & pepper

Method

First make the black olive breadcrumb mixture. Blitz the bread into breadcrumbs, preferably in a food processor and turn it out into a glass bowl. Chop the olives reasonably finely and add them to the breadcrumbs followed by the chopped herbs. Crush the garlic clove and add it to the breadcrumbs together with a few twists of salt and pepper, then stir all together to mix well.

Heat the butter in a small frying pan to make a beurre noisette. When it is nicely nutty brown, turn off the heat and add the lemon juice to stop it cooking further. Pour the beurre noisette into the breadcrumb mixture and mix well with a fork. You should be able to form the mixture into a reasonably firm mass. You can do all the preceding ahead of time and leave the flavours to blend a little.

When you are ready to cook the fish, get your grill blastingly hot. Lightly oil the skin side of the fish fillets before putting them skin side down. Season each fillet lightly with salt and pepper, then coat the flesh side with the breadcrumb mixture. Just press a modest coating all over with your fingers.

Get a cast iron griddle (plain, not ridged) or a shallow cast iron skillet hot and place on each fillet skin side down. You want the griddle/pan hot enough for the skin to sizzle a little. Place the hot griddle/pan under the blastingly hot grill and brown the crumb topping for about 5 minutes. Make sure it doesn’t burn – your grill may be more powerful than mine. Brown is good, black is bad! The residual heat and grilling will finish cooking the fish through.

This is good served with a green vegetable and, perhaps, some finely sliced fresh fennel sautéed and flamed in a little Ricard.


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Posted in Fish Tagged with:

JC’s Seafood Risotto

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I just love risottos and this is one of my favourites. The trick with risotto is to adjust the cooking heat such that the stock, added gradually, is absorbed over a period of about 20 minutes to make sure that the rice is cooked.

This needs a mixture of seafoods; three different kinds is good. I like to get fresh and raw seafood whenever possible but you can do it with ready prepared stuff. Supermarkets now sell very reasonable frozen packs of mixed seafood if you are either in a hurry or stuck for fresh ingredents. Naturally with the fresh option more preparation time is required.

If using fresh mussels, clean and steam them before removing the meats from their shells. If I have fresh scallops with roe, I separate the roe so I can cut the scallop meats into two thinner discs. I use only quite small fresh squid; clean and cut the bodies into rings but leave the tentacles whole. Fresh whole prawns are great because you can use the heads and shells to make the seafood stock.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 15 mins
cooking time: 45 mins

Ingredients

  • 100g butter
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 1 rib celery, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 320g risotto rice, preferably Vialone Nano
  • 1 wineglass dry white vermouth
  • 2 tomatoes, skinned, deseeded & finely chopped
  • 900mls – 1l seafood stock, very hot
  • ~600g mixed seafood (eg. prawns, mussels, scallops, squid), prepared
  • ~15g fresh basil leaves
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Keep the stock hot in a separate pan ready to add to the risotto in batches. In your chosen risotto pan, melt half the butter over moderate heat. Reduce the heat to low, add the finely chopped onion, celery and garlic and fry gently for about 10 minutes to soften without colouring. Now add the rice; increase the heat slightly and, stirring constantly so as not to burn it, cook the rice for about 2 minutes when it should begin to look a little translucent. Toss in the vermouth and let the alcohol bubble off so the angels can have it. 🙂

Once the rice has absorbed the vermouth, start adding the stock, which should be very hot so as to keep the simmer going. Add the hot stock a ladle at a time. With the first ladelful, add the finely chopped tomatoes together with about half a teaspoon of salt and a good few grindings of black pepper. Adjust the heat so that the stock simmers and the rice does not cook too quickly. Stir the rice frequently to help release the starch and make the traditional creamy consistency of risotto. As each ladelful of stock is absorbed, add another and continue simmering and stirring.

The amount of stock required varies a little, maybe because of the rice but also depending upon the size of your wineglass and the tomatoes. You will learn to tell when not to add any more because it wont get absorbed. Don’t add it all if you don’t need it.

Add any raw seafood as you add the final ladelful of stock – the time taken to absorb the last stock will be sufficient to cook the seafood. Stir in any cooked seafood, together with the chopped/torn basil leaves, when the last of the stock is pretty much absorbed.

Finally stir in the remaining butter, adjust the seasoning, cover the pan with a lid and let it sit for two minutes. The resting both reheats the seafood and makes the risotto rich and silky.

Parmesan is traditionally NOT used with seafood risottos.

This really just needs a good leafy salad, appropriately dressed, for accompaniment.


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Posted in Fish Tagged with:

JC’s Octopus Salad

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We got lucky when Morrisons took over our Safeway and we won a reasonable fish counter; they frequently stock octopus which makes for an interesting change and talking point.

This recipe is based upon an octopus salad in Sophie Grigson’s Fish , modified by the eminent Mr. Stein’s tenderizing/cooking method. I also thought, “why waste the flavour in the cooking juices?” and amalgamated some into the original dressing.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 2 months!
cooking time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

  • 750g octopus
  • olive oil
  • 1 shallot, finely chopped
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 tbs finely chopped fresh parsely
  • Salt & pepper

Method

Having purchased your rarely-seen-in-the-UK octopus, prepare it for cooking. Basically this means turning the body inside out and gutting it, cutting out the eyes and beak, then washing it. I find a mushroom brush (got one?) handy for getting any bits of dirt out of the suckers.

Having cleaned your octopus, pop it into a freezer bag, label it and freeze it for about two months. Many people acuse squid of being rubbery; I strongly disagree but octopus can be. Freezing is said to help tenderize it and I’m not about to argue with Mr. Stein.

When you have a suitable audience and the day arrives to use your octopus, thaw it out. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/gas 2. Oil a shallow casserole that has a tight-fitting lid and pop in the octopus. Drizzle more olive oil over the top of the octopus. Don’t season it; cover it with the lid and pop it into the warm oven to cook for 2 hours.

Remove the casserole from the oven, take off the lid and let the octopus cool. Magically, quite a bit of cooking liquid will have been produced.

Octopi have a purple-ish skin, much of which will have split, contracted and clumped during cooking. Remove the octopus to a chopping board and, without being too finicky (it’s perfectly edible), rub off the worst of the skin. Many of the suckers will come away with the skin. Chop the now largely white octopus into chunks about 2½cms/1in long.

Make a dressing based on the octopus cooking liquor. The liquid will be a mixture of octopus juice and the olive oil you added. Whisk it into an emulsion and grab about 4 tablespoons of it. Whisk in further olive oil to get to the consistency of a vinaigrette dressing. Whisk in enough lemon juice to give it a pleasant, lemony tang. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, being careful with salt because the juices are already quite salty.

Toss the octopus in the dressing then stir in the chopped parsely. Serve with crusty bread and butter.


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Posted in Starters Tagged with: