Tarte tatin
The origins of this classic French dessert are somewhat uncertain. Some say that it was created by accident in the 1880s by an overworked hotelier called Stéphanie Tatin, whilst others dispute this, claiming that the idea of an ‘upside down’ tart had been kicking around since the 1840s.
Anyway, regardless of who invented it, this deceptively simple dish of crisp puff pastry, tender apples and sweet caramel is one of my all time favourites. Father Christmas kindly brought me an Emile Henry/ Raymond Blanc dish last year too, so I’ll be making plenty of these buttery beauties throughout 2012! I’ve used Raymond Blanc’s recipe from his book Kitchen Secrets for this, but it’s also available online.
SYF.
Cod, piperade and chorizo
This post is inspired by Ash Mair, winner of this year’s series of MasterChef: The Professionals, who cooked monkfish, piperade and chorizo as one of his final dishes. Piperade is a classic Basque dish consisting of peppers, onions, tomatoes and spices, which works exceptionally well with the dense, sweet fish. Ash used monkfish for the dish, but I’ve used cod loin, as I couldn’t get hold of any after work last night.
Ash’s piperade ‘essence’ recipe involves quite a bit of simmering and cooling down and also calls for the addition of two egg whites to clarify the stock. The version I’ve made below is a bit more rustic, but uses the same ingredients (minus the eggs) and is still incredibly tasty. I don’t think the recipe on the BBC Food website is exactly what he cooked in the final as it looked more like a chunkier piperade served with a puree rather than an essence, but it’s a good starting point to get the ingredients and quantities right. As well as tasting delicious, the piperade also looks great. Traditionally it would be made using green bell peppers too (red, white and green are the colours of the Basque flag), but this recipe omits them – perhaps to give more visual impact with the red or perhaps because red peppers are sweeter?
Anyway, huge congratulations to Ash for winning and hopefully we’ll all get to enjoy his food in the not too distant future. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a new Basque restaurant opening in London soon.
SYF.
Slow-roast lamb with chickpea mash
Sunday lunch – stuffyourface style
What’s on the menu?
Main: Slow roasted Gloucester Old Spot pork belly
Thanks to @markymarket for delivering the slab of Old Spot. Think it’s pretty safe to say that I’ll be eating roast pork sandwiches for the rest of the week – this makes me very happy. I did consider trying something a bit different with the belly this time (I’m a big fan of the cut), but ended-up using a tried and tested Jamie Oliver recipe with braised fennel instead. There’s a time and a place for experimenting with ingredients and this wasn’t one of them – not when there was delicious crackling at stake!
Pudding: Popcorn ice cream with salted caramel sauce
This is a recipe from Edd Kimber’s fantastic book ‘The Boy Who Bakes’. Salted caramel has been the talk of the town now for a good couple of years, but it was the idea of popcorn-flavoured ice cream that got me excited. I wasn’t disappointed with the end result, though it’s probably best not to think about how many calories there are in this toffee tinted treat…
SYF.
Malay lamb korma
Try not to be put off by the sheer number of ingredients in this Atul Kochhar recipe; it’s worth going to the extra effort. From the subtle earthiness of the coriander seeds to the fragrant green cardamom pods, each of the individual spices in this Malaysian curry work really well together.
To begin, dry roast the spices for the Malaysian curry powder (minus the turmeric! I’ll remember for next time)
Remove the spices after one – two minutes and grind them into a powder using a pestle and mortal – now add the turmeric
Cut the lamb into decent sized chunks and remove any sinew. This now needs to be browned-off in the pan in batches. Be patient! Overcrowding the pan will end up boiling the meat
Add the onions, ginger, garlic and Malaysian curry powder and cook for a further two minutes. This is the point that you’ll realise you only need to add 1 + ½ tablespoons of the powder, but the rest will keep in an airtight container
Return the lamb to the pan, add the water and cook for an hour and a half. Finish the dish off by stirring in the yoghurt and adding the chopped fresh tomatoes
Serve with basmati rice (I like to use Tilda) and chopped coriander
SYF.
The Wheel of Hunger
A rather neat infographic showing the most searched for recipes for each day of the year.
via The Guardian Word of Mouth blog
The Great British Chefs app
I’ve downloaded a large number of food/ restaurant related apps since owning an iPhone and a quick look at iTunes reveals that they fall broadly into two categories – ‘celebrity’ and ‘social’. Say what you will about celebrities like Jamie, Nigella and Gordon, but their apps are all well designed, easy to use and a good source of inspiration if you’re struggling for midweek meal ideas. Jamie and Nigella’s apps – ‘Jamie’s Recipes’ and ‘Nigella Quick Collection’ – are both there to help you to cook-up something tasty when you’re strapped for time and are packed with recipes that deliver exactly that.
But what about those rare times when you have a whole day or afternoon free to dedicate to a dish? Dishes that will most likely require you to spend a bit of time and care sourcing ingredients or call for you to challenge yourself to learn a new technique or two. Describing itself as ‘the cooking app for gourmet foodies’, the Great British Chefs app is the perfect pocket-sized companion for such moments, filling what I perceive to be a large gap in the market.
On launching the app you’re presented with a carousel of black and white photographs of the chefs, including Shaun Rankin, Nathan Outlaw, James Sommerin and Simon Hulstone – among others (though no Tom Kerridge, surprisingly).
Tapping on one of the photos takes you through to a new page containing a short video biography (all nicely edited), three menus and details of their restaurant.
The recipes themselves can be accessed either by tapping on a dish listed on one of the menus or by selecting ‘Recipes’ from the icons running along the bottom of the app. There are 180 recipes in total and each one is accompanied by a high quality photograph and a step-by-step method of how to make it.
As well as all the basic information that you’d expect to find on such an app, there’s also a number of extra features to help you with your cooking, including:
- A countdown timer
- A notes section (the digital equivalent of annotating a recipe book)
- Wine recommendations
- Shopping lists
- A pretty nifty use of the iPhone’s voice control feature that allows you to go forward/ back in the method by saying ‘next’ or ‘back’ out loud
- Video hints (these are particularly useful and range from butchering a duck to making foam with a gas canister)
To celebrate the two-month anniversary of Great British Chefs, the app is currently available to download for £2.49 and I'd highly recommend giving it a go. Do you have a favourite cooking app? Let me know if you think I'm missing out.
SYF.
Blackberry trifle
Whipped cream, thick vanilla custard, boozy Madeira cake and soft fruit. Trifle is very easy to make and remains as one of my all time favourite desserts. I’ve used plump blackberries as the fruit in this trifle, mainly because they’re still in season, but also because I like the contrast in colour they give.
From what I can tell, trifle is one of those desserts, like tiramisu, that really polarises people – you either love it or hate it. It’s no wonder that so many dislike it though. When I think back to my own experiences of trifle as a child, I remember it being mainly served in two ways:
- Saturated in sherry. To the point where the sponge fingers had softened to mush and the bottom of the trifle bowl resembled a mahogany stained puddle.
- Out of a packet. Like that bright yellow custard powder, you can still buy trifle mix in the supermarket today. Mum would often use this and I’m still mildly impressed at how three or four sachets of powder can be made into a trifle – magic! Less magical on the taste buds though, sadly.
Anyway, enough of the self-indulgent nostalgia, here’s how I like to eat trifle now – without a glace cherry or tin of fruit cocktail in sight!
The first thing that you need to do is to gently heat the fruit with two tablespoons of caster sugar and four of water. You could replace the water with Crème de Mure or Crème de Cassis, if you’re feeling flush.
Spoon the softened fruit over the Madeira sponge and reduce the remaining juice down to a syrup. Add a good few tablespoons of this to the sponge pieces.
Lightly whip double cream and begin to layer the trifle. Cake and fruit first, then cool custard, and finish off with the cream.
SYF.
Salade Nicoise
I’m a big fan of Simon Hopkinson. His latest book ‘The Good Cook’ is full of recipes that I want to try, including this one for salade nicoise. All of the required ingredients are easy to get hold of except the chervil. Aside from at farmers’ markets, Borough etc., it’s a real pain in the arse to get hold of – maybe I should start growing my own. Similarly, if anyone does know where it’s readily available in London, do feel free to let me know.
For me, the eggs are the really the star of the show in this dish, so it’s worth investing in some decent free range ones. Clarence Court eggs are my absolute favourite, specifically their Old Cotswold Legbar hen eggs. They’ve a beautiful, pale blue shell and a vibrant, rich yolk inside – perfect for salads or for making pastry or pasta.
The full recipe and method is available on the BBC Food website. If you’re looking for other recipes from the book to try, his breast of lamb with baked onions is also really good (and cheap!).
SYF.
A taste of Sicily – Marettimo
I’ve been back in London now for six weeks and I’m still longing to go back to Sicily. Marettimo was the second place that we stayed at on our holiday, and although we were only there for two nights, this small fishing island made a really big impression on us.
When I think back to all the holidays I’ve been on over the years, each one has left me with a very distinct set of memories. These memories aren’t complete or whole by any means, rather they’re just fragments, both good and bad, of journeys, conversations, activities and so on. One such fragment or moment that I hope will stay with me in years to come is the meal I had with "L" at Trattoria Il Valiero, overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
The view from our table. Truly memorable.
The freshest seafood that I’ve ever tasted. Perfectly al dente pasta, extra virgin olive oil, garlic, cherry tomatoes and fresh parsley. So delicious, yet so humble in its simplicity.
Moist, wonderfully seasoned tonno.
Charred prawns with Sicilian lemon.
Somebody take me back!
SYF.
