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Greek Salad

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Another of the world’s great salads. Greek salad does not traditionally have any leaves but, I confess, I do like to add some. This is entirely a matter of personal choice, depending upon whether you want more bulk or more traditional.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 30 mins
cooking time: n/a

Ingredients

  • 6 large tomatoes
  • 1 cucumber
  • 2 green peppers
  • 1 red onion
  • salad leaves (optional)
  • fetta cheese
  • 24 black olives
  • a handful fresh oregano leaves
  • 4 tbs olive oil
  • 1 tbs red wine vinegar
  • salt & pepper

Method

Quarter each tomato, then halve each quarter. I like to peel the cucumber but that’s up to you. Then quarter the cucumber lengthwise and cut it into 1½cm chunks (ish). Core, deseed and halve the pepper, then slice it finely. Peel, halve and finely slice the red onion. Cut the fetta cheese into chunks of about 1cm. If you’re using them, tear the salad leaves into manageable pieces. In a salad bowl, combine all the above and add the black olives and oregano leaves.

In a salad shaker, mix the oil and vinegar with a pinch of salt and few grindings of black pepper. Dress the salad and mix all together immediately prior to serving.


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Posted in Salads Tagged with:

Fish Tagine

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Any excuse at all to use some home-made preserved lemon or lime is welcome. In my view, they are the reason for eating so many tagines. This fish version benefits from quite strongly flavoured fish, such as gurnard or mackerel.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 30 mins
cooking time: 30 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 red onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 tbs groundnut oil
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 1 stick cinnamon
  • 1 preserved lemon (or lime)
  • 12 green olives, stoned and chopped
  • 1 tbs harrisa paste
  • 4 fl oz dry white wine
  • 8 fl oz fish stock
  • 1 pinch saffron threads (optional)
  • 4 fish fillets (eg gurnard, mackerel)
  • 4 oz cherry tomatoes, halved
  • salt and pepper

Method

In a heavy based pan large enough to hold the fish fillets, gently cook the onion until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Stir in the cumin, ginger, cinnamon, preserved lemon and green olives, and cook for a further two minutes. Add the harrisa paste and cook for another minute. Add the wine, fish stock and saffron (if using) and bring to a gentle simmer. Add the fish fillets and cook for a couple of minutes, then add the tomatoes. Now cover the pan, lower the heat and cook gently for about 7 minutes.

Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper and serve on a bed of cous cous soaked in fish stock. (Soaking cous cous is one of the very few acceptable uses of a stock cube/powder, if absolutely necessary.)


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Posted in Fish Tagged with:

Fennel Risotto

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Untried as yet – from Waitrose Food Illustrated . It may be difficult – I’ve never seen baby fennel!

Planning

serves: 6
preparation time: 45 mins
cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients

  • 8 baby fennel bulbs, tops and fronds chopped and reserved
  • 10g tarragon, chopped
  • 3 star anise
  • 25g butter
  • 2 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
  • 175g Arborio rice
  • 200 ml white wine
  • 2 tbs crème fraîche
  • 40g Parmesan cheese, grated

Method

First, amke the stock for teh risotto. Simmer the baby fennel in 500ml salted water for 5-6 minutes. Remove the fennel bulbs with a slotted spoon and refresh them in cold water, then set aside. Add the fennel tops, star anise and half the tarragon to the cooking water and bring to the boil. Remove the star anise, whizz the stock in a blender, then strain into a saucepan. Keep the stock hot over gentle heat to make the risotto.

Melt the butter in a clean pan and sweat the shallots for 2 – 3 minutes. Stir in the rice and cook for a further 1- 2 minutes until transparent. Add the white wine and let it evaporate almost completely. Now start adding the hot fennel stock, ladel by ladel, stirring frequently and allowing each addition to be absorbed before adding the next. It should take about 15 minutes to use all the stock. Stir in the crème fraîche and Parmesan, tehn season the risotto and let it rest for 3 minutes. Stir in the remaining half of the tarragon.

(Roast the blanched baby fennel and serve along with the risotto to accompany some roast spring lamb.)


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Posted in Starters, Untested Tagged with:

Faisan au Vin Rouge

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This is a minor adaptation of a recipe from Supercook and was my favourite “saucey” recipe for pheasant. First class pheasant are very good plain roasted but older or less well shot birds benefit from different preparation and presentation. Here they are braised in red wine which then goes to make a wonderfully flavoured sauce, though somewhat strangely coloured when the cream is added. The sauce is so good, I like to serve mashed potato to soak it up.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 15 mins
cooking time: 40 mins

Ingredients

  • 2 pheasants
  • 2 medium onions, finely chopped
  • 2 oz unsalted butter
  • 1 tbs vegetable oil
  • 1 bottle full red wine (eg Fitou)
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 4 oz mushrooms, thinly sliced
  • 4 slices streaky bacon
  • 5 fl oz double cream
  • 2 ozs beurre manié
  • salt and pepper

Method

Clean and dry the pheasants, season them inside with salt and pepper and place half of the chopped onions in their cavities. Brown the birds evenly in a large frying pan over moderately high heat (6 – 8 minutes) with the butter and oil mixed. Transfer them to a flameproof casserole (an oval one is ideal).

Fry the remaining onion, stirring occasionally, until it is lightly browned. Add the wine, increase the heat to high and, stirring constantly, bring to the boil. Add some salt and pepper (sparingly at this stage), the bay leaf and the mushrooms. Cook this over moderate heat for 5 minutes.

Cover the breasts of the pheasants with the bacon slices and add the wine mixture. Bring the casserole to simmering point and then reduce the heat to low, cover it and braise the pheasants for 45 minutes or so until they are tender. Remove and discard the bacon. Transfer the pheasants to a serving dish and keep them warm while finishing the sauce.

Strain the braising liquid back into the frying pan, increase the heat to high and reduce the liquid by half. (While this is happening is a good time to cut the pheasants into serving pieces.) Reduce the heat to moderate and add the beurre manié a piece at a time, stirring constantly, until the sauce reaches the desired consistency. Add the double cream (be prepared for a slightly odd colour at this point!) and cook for a further 2 – 3 minutes. Do not let the sauce boil. Adjust the seasoning to taste. Pour some sauce over the pheasant pieces and serve the rest in a sauce boat.


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Posted in Game Tagged with:

Faisan à la Normande

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Following a very successful New Year trip to Normandy and being slap bang in the middle of game season, this seemed like a particularly appropriate dinner party dish.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 20 mins
cooking time: 75 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 100g butter
  • 2 pheasants, prepared and trussed
  • 1 large shallot or small onion, finely chopped
  • 3 eating apples
  • 50ml calvados
  • 100ml dry cider
  • 150ml crème fraîche
  • salt & pepper

Method

In a pan large enough to hold both pheasants (an oval casserole usually works well), melt 25g of the butter in the oil and brown the birds as evenly as possible all over. Remove the birds and set them aside. If the pan contains burnt residue, wipe it out.

Core and peel two of the apples and cut each into eighths. Melt 50g butter in the casserole and sweat the shallot and apple wedges, without colouring them, for about five minutes. Return the pheasants to the pan breast side up. Warm the calvados slightly in a small pan and set it alight before carefully pouring it, flaming, over the pheasants and apple mixture. Shake the pan until the flames die down. Pour in the cider and bring it to simmering point. Cover the casserole, lower the heat and cook it gently for 45 minutes in all. After 15 minutes, turn the pheasants onto one breast and continue cooking and, after a further 15 minutes, turn them onto the other breast for the final 15 minutes.

While the pheasants are cooking, core and peel the remaining apple and cut 4 thick circles (across the core). Fry the apple circles in the remaining 25g butter. Sprinkle them with a little sugar to glaze them. Set aside to garnish.

After 45 minutes, remove the pheasants and keep them warm while you finish the sauce. Increase the heat and boil the cooking juices to reduce them a little and concentrate the flavours. While the sauce is reducing, joint the pheasants (breasts, thighs and drumsticks) and put the pieces on a warmed serving plate. Blitz the contents of the pan to puree the apples and shallot and make a smooth sauce. Stir in the cream and heat gently before adjusting the seasoning to taste.

Pour a little of the sauce around the pheasant pieces and top each breast with one of the glazed apple circles. Serve the remaining sauce separately.


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Posted in Game Tagged with:

Crème Cressonière

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I’d been wanting to make this French classic for some time. On investigating the recipes, though, the true classic seemed very rich, containing not only cream but also being thickened with potato and egg yolks. That would be perhaps a little too heavy-duty for modern styles so here is what I think is a lighter but very successful alternative.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 10 mins
cooking time: 40 mins

Ingredients

  • 30g butter
  • 1 medium leek, finely chopped
  • 300g watercress
  • 800ml light chicken stock
  • 150ml single cream
  • salt & pepper

Method

Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat then sweat the leek and watercress together for about five minutes. Keep stirring occasionally so that all the watercress wilts and collapses. Pour in the chicken stock and increase the heat to bring it to simmering point. Cook everything together gently for about 25 minutes.

Blitz the soup in a liquidizer. Now return it to the pan over low heat and stir in the cream. Adjust the seasoning to taste being careful of the pepper ‘cos watercress is quite peppery anyway.

(You can make this ahead of time and reheat it without fear of boiling, unlike the original which would curdle thanks to the egg yolks.)

 


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Posted in Soups Tagged with:

Crème Caramel

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The classic light baked custard using Anton Mossiman’s newspaper-in-the-bain-marie technique.

Planning

serves: 6
preparation time: 10 mins
cooking time: 1¼ hours

Ingredients

  • 4 oz sugar
  • 2½ fl oz water
  • 1 pt milk
  • 3½ oz sugar
  • ½ vanilla pod
  • 2 whole eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 1 newspaper

Method

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/gas 2.

First, make the caramel. In a heavy-based small saucepan, heat the 4 oz sugar with the water over low heat stirring until the sugar is dissolved completely. Increase the heat to moderate and bring the syrup to a boil. Cook until it turns a light nut-brown colour. Immediately, remove the caramel from the heat and pour it into 6 individual ramekins to line the bottom.

Now make the custard. In a medium heavy based pan, bring the milk and the 3½ oz sugar to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the vanilla, remove from the heat, cover and allow to infuse for 20 minutes. While the milk is infusing, beat the eggs and egg yolks together in a mixing bowl until they thicken and become pale yellow. Remove the vanilla pod from the infused milk and, beating continuously, add the milk to the beaten eggs. Pour the mixture into a suitable jug and fill the ramekins. Skim off any froth which rises to the top.

Prepare a bain marie. Line the bottom of a deep baking or roasting pan with the newspaper, folded to fit as neatly as possible. (This protects the bottom of the ramekins from any severe heat while the custard is baking.) Place the ramekins on top of the newspaper and add enough boiling water to come half way up the sides of the ramekins. Bake in the lower part of the oven for about 40 minutes or until the centre of the custard is just set. (The water should not simmer; if it does, reduce the heat.) Remove the dishes from the water (carefully) and allow them to cool completely befoore chilling for 1 hour in the refrigerator.

To serve, run a knife around the edges of the ramekins, place a serving plate on top and invert to turn out the crème caramel.


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Posted in Desserts Tagged with:

Coq au Vin

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This really should be made with a cockerel cooked for about three hours. However, cockerels being notably absent from most supermarkets, this more readily available version uses the ubiquitous chicken. Do try to buy a good one; it really is worth it. Guinea Fowl makes a well flavoured alternative serving 2 or 3 rather than 4 being a little smaller. In consequence, reduce the cooking time by 10 minutes or so.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 15 mins
cooking time: 75 mins

Ingredients

  • 16 small onions, peeled
  • 8 oz. smoked bacon in the piece
  • 2 oz. butter
  • 1 chicken or guinea fowl
  • 3 tbs. brandy
  • bouquet garni (4 parsley sprigs and 1 bay leaf)
  • 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 16 fl. oz. red wine (Burgundy style – pinot noir)
  • 1/2 oz. flour
  • 6 tbs. stock (made from the chicken carcass)
  • 2 tbs chopped parsley
  • 8 oz. mushrooms
  • 1 1/2 tbs. shallots, chopped
  • salt and pepper

Method

Clean the chicken and cut it up into eight pieces (thighs, drumsticks, wings with some breast and the remaining breast portions). Make stock out of the remaing carcass and giblets.

Prepare the bacon and button onions. Choose a pan that you can put in the oven. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4. Cut the bacon into lardons (about 1 1/2 ins. by 1/4 in. square). Fry these in 1/2 oz. butter until the fat runs and they are brown and getting crisp. Remove the lardons from the pan, keeping the fat, and drain them on kitchen paper. Brown the onions in the reserved fat over moderate heat shaking occasionally, then bake them in the oven for about 15 mins. until barely tender. Remove them from the fat and set them aside.

While the onions are baking, brown the chicken pieces in butter. Pour off most of the fat and flame the chicken in the brandy. Put the chicken in a heavy enamelled pan with the lardons, bouquet garni, thyme and garlic.

Reduce the wine to about 10 fl. oz. Stir the flour into the fat remaining in the frying pan scraping in any browned pieces. Blend in the reduced wine gradually and add the chicken stock. Bring to the boil, simmer for a few minutes to thicken it and strain it over the chicken in the casserole. Bring this back to a simmer, cover with the lid and cook it in the centre of the oven.

Meanwhile prepare the mushrooms. Cook the chopped shallots in 1 oz. butter for about 30 secs to soften them. Add the mushrooms (whole if small, quartered if large) and cook for 2 – 3 mins. Add them to the reserved onions.

After cooking the chicken for about 30 mins., add the onions and mushrooms and cook for a further 15 mins. or until tender.

I like to serve this with steamed green beans and loads of mashed potato to soak up the sauce.


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Posted in Poultry Tagged with:

Citrus-Braised Lamb Shanks

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Untested as yet – from Waitrose Food Illustrated .

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 30 mins
cooking time: 2¾ hrs

Ingredients

  • 3 tbs olive oil
  • 1 carrot, finely chopped
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 celery sticks, finely chopped
  • 2 tbs thyme leaves
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
  • 1 tbs tomato purée
  • 375ml dry white wine
  • 250ml lamb stock
  • 1 lemon, juice & zest
  • 1 orange, juice & zest
  • 4 lamb shanks
  • 2 tbs chopped parsley

Method

Heat some olive oil in a large casserole and sweat the chopped vegetables, without colouring, until tender (6 – 8 minutes). Add the thyme, bay leaves, garlic, tomato purée, wine and lamb stock. Add all but a pinch of each of the citrus zests and all but a tablespoon of each citrus juice. Bring to the boil then reduce to a gentle simmer.

Preheat the oven to 130°C/gas ½. In a separate pan, heat a little more olive oil and brown the shanks all over, seasoning as you go. Add them to the casserole, cover with its lid and transfer them in the oven to cook for 2½ hours until the meat is completely tender and falling off the bone.

Remove the shanks from the pot and keep them warm while you finish the sauce. Skim any accumulated fat from the surface of the braising juice. Taste the juice for intensity – if you think it needs boosting, boil to reduce it. Adjust the seasoning to taste after any reduction. Stir in the reserved citrus juice and zest. Return the lamb shanks, sprinkle with parsely and serve.


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Posted in Meat, Untested Tagged with:

Choucroute Garnie Alsacienne

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Preserved for posterity having been taken from French Regional Cookery – Alsace .

Planning

serves: 8
preparation time: 30 mins
cooking time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

  • 2 onions, peeled and sliced
  • 100g goose fat or butter
  • 500 ml Riesling
  • 500 ml water
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
  • 1 pinch thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 10 juniper berries
  • 3 cloves
  • 3 knuckles salt pork
  • 300 gms smoked streaky bacon
  • 1 kg salt pork loin
  • 2 kg raw sauerkraut, rinsed
  • 1.5 kg medium potatoes, peeled
  • 6 quenelles de foie
  • 6 Strasbourg sausages, scored
  • 300 g boudins blancs

Method

Sweat the onions without browning in the goose fat or butter. Add the wine, water,garlic, thyme, bay leaves, juniper berries and cloves, and bring to the boil. Now add the pok knuckles, bacon and pork loin and place the sauerkraut on top. Do not add salt! Cover and simmer gently for 1 ½ hours checking that it does not boil dry.

When all is cooked, place the potatoes on top of the sauerkraut to steam. Poach the liver quenelles and Strasbourg sausages ifor 10 mins in some lightly salted water. Similarly, poach the boudins blancs and keep them warm.

When the potatoes are cooked, place the sauerkraut in a warm, deep serving dish. Cut the various meats into pieces and arrange them ontop of the sauerkraut. Surround this with the sausages, potatoes and liver quenelles, and serve.


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Posted in Meat Tagged with: