The Cotswold food year

Pork tenderloin wrapped in parma ham with cider and apple sauce

2008-07-17T13:06:00.002+01:00

Free range chicken and duck at The Smallholding at Chadbury

2008-07-14T21:13:00.004+01:00

Barbecue

2008-07-14T20:18:00.013+01:00

Summer. Barbecue. Those two words that go together like cheese and bisuits, melon and parma ham, roast beef and yorkshire pudding. It's just something that is.

Back at the Benson household when I was young I had the eponymous role of barbecue lighter, before Dad would come home to take up the role of barbecue chef on the barbecue he made at the bottom of the garden himself from old reclaimed bricks. Along with breakfast chef and kransakake maker it was one of his best culinary roles. We would pick the overgrown herbs from the garden and add them to the flames underneath cooking meat to give it a great flavour, and after the main course had been polished off we would stoke up the coals, add a few logs, switch the lights and the music on, and sit round the fire will after midnight, the sound (and warm breath) of the cows chewing the nettles right behind us.

These days the barbecue spirit lives on, as shown in a recent barbecue at Upper Court.

Skewers of tiger prawns marinaded in chilli sauce with rocket salad and chilli mayo.

Inspired by the quality and intense taste of the Home Farm bacon on the indoor grill at Rectory Park back in January, I added a barbecued bacon, vine tomatoes and St. Eadburgh cheese salad as a starter this year with balsamic dressing. I was lucky enough to arrive at Home Farm one once last year as they were curing their bacon. They take a pork loin, rub in their salt cure, vac pac it and leave it in the fridge for a couple of weeks. The bacon you buy in supermarkets normally bleeds water as you cook it. This is because it has been dropped in brine to cure it - and the bacon takes on some of that brine before it is injected with more water to increase the volume (weight) so you get less bacon for your money and it never goes crisp because it has so much water inside. The bacon from Home Farm is dry cured so loses excess water which means it goes crisp, and that, along with the fact that their pigs are roaming around free in the open air eating natural food, means, along with the bacon from Carol Webb in Chipping Campden it is the best you will ever find.

Barbecued lamb loin fajitas with coriander, iceberg and yogurt pictured just before being rolled up and cut into 3.

Barbecued skewers of salmon interleaved with basil.

Chadbury free range, organically reared chicken poached in Plum and brandy wine from Barnfield winery in Broadway and wrapped in parma ham, then barbcued:

For dessert there were skewers of barbecued caramelised pineapple and barbecued strawberries with white chocolate dip.

Lemon tart

2008-07-14T20:05:00.005+01:00

Lemontartfest 21 July 2008

After 2 days of making 100+ tart cases, the mix was added and cooked off on the morning of the wedding in between making sushi and smoked trout roulade canapes.

The finished article in the marquee at Upper Court.

Assiette of mini desserts

2008-07-14T16:31:00.007+01:00

Glazed lemon tart, chocolate and nut torte, raspberry shortbread (with both the shortbread and creme patisserrie being made fresh that afternoon), homemade prosecco sorbet and crème brûlée. Which dessert should you choose? Decisions decisions. Why not choose all 5 in mini form?

As served at Littleton Manor on Saturday 12 July 2008. To see another version done last month click here.

Strawberry and mango cheesecake

2008-07-14T16:17:00.004+01:00

With a gingerbread base as used in my banoffee pie set in a ring, with a baked cheesecake filling combined with mango puree and topped with crystallized orange zest.

Sunday lunch

2008-07-14T15:23:00.007+01:00

Traditional is good.

Roast sirloin of beef with rosemary roast potatoes (rosemary picked from the garden), glazed chantenay carrots, french beans and mangetout in red onions served with a red wine sauce.
Vegetarian nut roast for a vegetarian. Too see how it is made and a photo of the finished dish follow this link.

Followed by apple pie. After many trial versions, I have found the best way is to serve it like this, with a crisp pasty top. That way you get more fruit and less pastry, so the result is much lighter.

with creme anglaise served aside:

Photos taken at Broad Marston Manor on Sunday 6 July 2008

Grilled asparagus with sauteed tiger prawns and oyster sauce

2008-07-14T15:04:00.003+01:00

Going over the menu for the evening the Saturday evening as I was travelling back from Cornwall, I suddenly realised there was too much cream in the menu. The art of menu planning is for there to be a balance of ingredients. I had to change the asparagus starter, from a creamy fricasee to something else. As I drove I put together flavour combinations. This is what I ended up with and I like it. So did the guests that evening.

Grilled asparagus with tiger prawns sauteed in oyster sauce. The dressing is made with spring onions, ginger, chilli, parsley, chives, tarragon, olive oil, sesame oil, oyster sauce. It is finished with a parma ham crisp.

Holiday chef

2008-06-23T16:32:00.050+01:00

'I take the catering out of self catering, leaving you time to spend on your self'.

Sunday 25th - Friday 31st May 2008, Derry House, Downderry, Cornwall

Everyone deserves a holiday. And everyone deserves a holiday from cooking. Large luxurious holiday houses are the new hotels, ideal for large groups of family or friends, only with the freedom of having your own house. But who out of your family or friends is going to give up their holiday to cook, and are they used to cooking for 10 or more people?

This was where I came in, cooking again for a family of 10 (incorporating 3 generations). They had all enjoyed it so much when I had cooked for them last year while they stayed in Gloucestershire, they wanted me to do the same this year in Cornwall.

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Derry House (aka The Beach House), a large Victorian House, recently refitted to the highest standard, is situated, as its name suggests, just up from it's own private beach on the Cornwall coast between Plymouth and Looe. Of its many features, nothing was more pleasing to see on arrival than the herb garden directly outside the kitchen which sits at the back of the house, the reception rooms and dining room all looking out over the sea.

Sunday

08:00. After finishing off the wedding which closed at midnight, unpacking, then re-packing for Cornwall (8 checklists and half a kitchen), and driving through the night, it was time to set up for breakfast.

There was apple and berry compote with greek yogurt, my speciality museli (easier to say what isn't in it), and a large selection of freshly cut fruit as seen here.

A traditional english breakfast followed with bacon (seen back here) and sausages from Home Farm in Bredons Norton, Oakfield organic portobello mushrooms, vine tomatoes and Clarence Court Burford Brown eggs.

Toasted homemade bread followed - I unleashed the chocolate bread (it was Sunday after all), which accompanied the sesame and poppy seed variety, home made pink grapefruit marmalade from Collis, the small market garden in Evesham, and homemade hedgerow jelly from Dove Cottage in Broadway.

Sunday dinner

What better way to start the english holiday than with an english roast. Each of the menus which I am serving over the week is chosen in advance by the organiser from a large repetoire which ensures I can procure the best quality ingredients.

For Sunday dinner there was parsnip soup with parsnip crisps, followed by a main corse of roast sirloin of beef with yorkshire puddings, red wine sauce, rosmary roast potatoes, horseradish, chantenay carrots and french beans with red onions, as seen in a photo at Broad Marston Manor a few weeks later:

Apple pie brought the classic english Sunday roast to a close, again a photo from a few weeks later:

Monday

While breakfast carried on in a similar vein to the day before, the weekday evenings took shape with an early meal for the children, then a later sitting for the 'big children'.

My personal mission was on again - how to get children to eat things they normally wouldn’t go near.

There’s a few rules of childrens cooking I‘ve picked up -

If it’s meat it has to be bland, if it’s a vegetable it has to have serious flavour
Don’t let different foods touch each other
If it looks appealing, there’s a higher chance that it will be tried - think shapes, colours, & glossyness (if that’s a word)
If you’re serving something they aren’t used to accompany it with something they are used to - one old, one new
Don’t use hot plates
Don’t serve the food too hot
Don’t put too much on a plate - think small portions: they can always come back
Don’t add much salt.

Monday childrens tea

Chicken goujons with chips (both handmade of course), butternut squash and peas (not shown).

Yes you read right - it was butternut squash, not carrots - but you liked it!

Knickerbocker glory - An improvement on my last version - now the original dessert with fruit, coulis, sponge, custard, jelly, ice cream, cream - and a cherry on the top. As well as a few scatterings of marshmallow, chocolate - that’s what holidays are for.

Monday adults dinner menu

To start - Grilled asparagus and parmesan - similar to this but with raspberry vinaigrette.

One of my favourite main courses - Ballottine of free range organically reared duck with rosemary noisette potatoes, kale and a cherry brandy sauce with fresh cherries.

Strawberry meringue roulade with strawberry coulis and prosecco sorbet - all made fresh in the afternoon

Tuesday

The chocolate bread I made and toasted went down well - it was the first request at breakfast on Tuesday morning as soon as everyone had sat down. I still had a couple of bananas I had brought with me and thought these might go down well - chocolate toast with bananas. Bananas on bread and butter had been a favourite for my grandfather, so this was just taking it a little further. They all went pretty fast.

Tuesday childrens tea

This was pronounced the best meal they had ever had. Playing around with old favourites is always fun. Having read about the black farmer brand in The Sunday Times, I was interested to try something out, and those were the sausages I found, pork and bramley apple. Perfect. Outside the kitchen door was a herb garden at arm level - perfect for picking and adding to whatever I was making. Here I used chive flowers, as they were in the peak of their all too short season.

I knew I wanted to use courgettes some time this week but was looking at various ways of doing them. I ended up adapting Tanya Ramsey's parmesan courgettes - in her book she sautés them and sprinkles in the parmesan at the end so it melts. I roasted thinly sliced courgettes (boiling courgettes is a criminal offence), sprinkled some parmesan on top and finished them under the grill. Perfect round shapes look much more edible.

Pork and bramley apple sauasages with cheesy mash, sweet corn and parmesan courgettes. Gravy served on the side.

Dark chocolate nemesis with white chocolate sauce - and pysalis (cape gooseberry) on top - which got eaten as well.

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The bread proved while I served the children, and was then baked off in between serving them and adults. As the dark chocolate bread was so popular I tried making a white chocolate loaf. There’s a sunflower seed loaf too and some parmesan bread rolls for Friday. It was the daily change of flavour of the bread rolls that everyone loved.

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Tuesday adults dinner menu

Starter of smoked duck and mango salad with coriander dressing - again using some of the chive flowers from the garden.

Main course - Fillet of cod topped with rarebit served with watercress creamed potato, spinach and a tomato and herb dressing

The reception to this dish as I served it was rapturous. I invented it one evening at The Lygon Arms, and still like it. You may say it is a bit like fish pie re-incarnated. The cod is grilled skin side up so the skin goes crispy before being finished with the welsh rarebit.

Served here with roasted courgettes, red peppers and asparagus.
Dessert - Tarte tatin with madagacan vanilla ice cream and toffee sauce

For easy ice cream serving tip see here.

The apples bubbling in caramel earlier in the afternoon.

Wednesday night is buffet night

Wednesday is a nice day for a suprise birthday party. Although, admittedly, the other 6 are good too.

As soon as breakfast was clear, it was time to start preparing for the evening buffet. Good food takes time.

Open sandwiches on French baguette:
1 - Smoked trout with capers
2 - Coronation chicken - tikka sauce, mang chutney, fresh coriander et al.
3 - Prawns with marie rose
4 - Plum tomato, mozzarella, basil and olive oil

Avocado (in sesame) and cucumber sushi with soy, wasabi and pickled ginger. The wasabi is hot so only take a tiny bit. I did say tiny.
Confit of duck, apple and hoi sin spring rolls - the first thing to be made that morning.
Mini Broadway sausages from Collins of Broadway with grain mustard mayonnaise in one corner and tikka marinaded chicken skewers with coriander yogurt in the other.
Tiger prawns in filo with cocktail sauce
Mini tomato, mozzarella and basil pizzas (some with olives - as not everyone is an olive fan)
Barbecue flavour chicken legs - using the organically reared free-range chicken from the Smallholding in Chadbury - this is the most succulent chicken you will ever come across.
Glazed lemon tarts and strawberry and champagne tarts (the champagne is in the crème patisserie and the glaze) - again all made in the afternoon for the best freshest taste.

Thursday childrens tea

Sole goujon with chips, glazed carrot batons and mange tout sautéed with soy (not shown) Fruit trifle - freshly made as soon as the main course has gone out, so it remains light and fresh.

Thursday adults dinner menu

Chicken liver parfait - made fresh that afternoon with elderberry chutney from Dove Cottage in Broadway made from elderberries picked from the fields around the village and my homemade poppy seed bread toasted.
My personal favourite - roast saddle of lamb with sun dried tomato and basil stuffing, nicoise vegetables, grilled new potatoes (luckily it was a fine day, so all the doors could be opened to let out the smoke made by the grill pan) and a light balsamic jus.

After the saddle has rested out of the oven I pour the juice from the roasting tray into the sauce - to give it the extra flavour. Grilled polenta with nicoise vegetables and pesto dressing for one non-lamb eater.

Dessert on this day was glazed cheesecake, similar to that seen last year, but taller and with a new improved recipe. The base was made in the morning after breakfast, left to set in the fridge and the middle cooked first thing that afternoon)

Friday - the last supper

With both menus served together in the rush I missed the photos, apart from this.....

Childrens menu - Chicken in a basket with rosemary roast diced potatoes (more rosemary from the herb garden), creamy peas with bacon and sautéed baby corn with sesame (not shown, but very tasty)

Knickerbocker glory - similar to the one you saw on Monday, but with orange jelly inside this time instead of raspberry. Save the best till last.

Parma ham salad (adults starter) - as seen before

Grilled fillet of beef with sautéed bok choi, rosti potato, beetroot and a red wine sauce - similar to the beef dish seen here.

Blackberry crème brulee - similar to this version photographed at Upper Court in September 2006

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Dear James,

Thank you so much for a week of fantastic food!

Every meal was fabulous and yet again you have converted the boys to new foods. On the Saturday morning the boys asked what was for breakfast and were most disappointed with the choice of cornflakes or rice krispies!

We all had a great time especiallly Dad who was over the moon with his surprise chef!

Thanks again, you played a huge part in making Dads birthday week the success that it was.

Kind regards,

Annette, Graham, Suzanne, Matt, Dan, Hayden, Lauren and Joshie.

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You too can make your holiday special with your own holiday chef - contact me for a quote. Contact details are on the right hand sidebar.

Raspberry trifle - childrens menu

2008-06-19T15:55:00.002+01:00

Murder mystery evening at Rectory Park

2008-06-11T19:51:00.012+01:00

Someone's dead - must be the food. Although it could have been the poison found in the drawing room.

Mini fish pie canape glazed using kitchen tip #8

Yes we catered for another Saturday evenings entertainment with Murder to Measure, this time at Rectory Park in Slimbridge.

Canapes, some of which you have seen before, were on the menu, eaten outside on the terrace in the last of the evening sun, while guests started their detective work.

Japanese spoons of wild mushroom risotto with

smoked salmon blinis in the middle

Asparagus and parmesan made a nice light summer starter, and grilled fillet of beef with runner beans, roast artichokes, rosti potato and a horseradish jus, the main course.

Then, after some revelations from the detectives, there was a specially requested assiette of desserts:

Dark chocolate tart

White chocolate and blueberry cheesecake

Japanese spoon of creme brulee

Strawberry and champagne tartlet

Shotgass of raspberry sorbet

All we had to do then was clear up the dead body.......

kitchen tips #27 - frozen mash

2008-06-11T19:38:00.004+01:00

Don't tell Delia - this was mash that I'd made myself the old fashioned way with a little butter and cream for flavour that afternoon.

But how to pipe it on top of mini fish pies last Saturday while making it look neat? I piped it on to a baking tray, then flashed it in the american style fridge/ freezer. Then when it had hardened up slightly, took a warm palette knife and slipped it on top of my mini fish pies.

There's no problems only solutions.

Kitchen tips # 26 - No more screams for ice cream

2008-06-11T19:26:00.005+01:00

Question: How do you get ice cream on top of a hot dessert and get it out to the table before it all melts away?

Tarte tatin with madagascan vanilla ice cream

Answer: Place a plate or baking tray in the freezer for at least 10 minutes so it is ice-cold. Scoop or quenelle ice cream into perfect ice cream scoops and place on the ice cold tray - the ice cream should stick to the tray (if you use a tray at room temperature it slides to the other side and melts fast). Fill the tray and place back into the freezer till you are ready to serve.

This can be done hours in advance, or minutes, like I had on this occasion. All you need to do then is go out to the herb garden, pick a hadful of mint sprigs, stick them in the top of the ice cream, then, using a palette knife dipped in hot water, transfer them to your culinary creation.

Any other questions?

Kitchen tips # 25 - Filo baskets - a real basket case!

2008-06-11T19:08:00.009+01:00

Chicken in a basket, childrens menu classic

How 2.

If you have catering quality cling film (I’ve never tried this with normal shop-brought cling film before but I‘m sure it would be OK) or glad-wrap if you’re from Australia & New Zealand this won’t melt in the oven! Double wrap a ramekin tight with cling film.

Place two squares of filo on top of each other so they look like a star, brush with egg and sprinkle with sesame. You can use poppy seeds too - if you want to keep brushing them off the table and floor for the next week.

WARNING! They don’t take long to cook. Set the oven on 180 oC - any more and you’re more likely to burn them. They take from 5 - 10 minutes depending on your oven. If they’re not quite ready and you put them back in, they don’t take long to finish off - as I can tell you from many trays of black filo baskets when I was a young commis.

1001 kitchen tips #24 - The avocado felt a right ‘nana

2008-05-09T11:20:00.009+01:00

They say there are 3 things guaranteed in life - death, taxes, and that which ever queue you get into at the supermarket it will be the wrong one.

I say there are 4 things you can guarantee. The fourth is that whenever you need a ripe avocado for a special occasion you can always guarantee wherever you go, however many places you try they will be all as hard a bullets. Sure enough it came to obtaining a couple of avocadoes for sushi, and I could have sworn the hunting brigade had been in everywhere and swapped lovely ripe avocadoes for avocado shaped and coloured bullets.

Luckily, it also coincided with a trip to banoffee city.

Banoffee pies were on the schedule so we had a box of a hundred sitting waiting.

Bananas are my saviour. Many a time they got me out of similar bullet like moments in the Claridges larder. When you need ripe avocadoes for 400 people in 2 days time and all the vegetable suppliers in London have avocado shaped bullets you have a serious crisis. But this is an old wives tale that works. The gas that bananas give off ripens anything very quickly. Put them together in a brown paper bag in the airing cupboard and the next day it will have ripened considerably. In my case, as I had so many, I used to put them in a tray on rice. The rice both cushions them (preventing them from bruising), and when you put it in a warm place (in desperation on the racks above the ovens as they cooled down overnight) the rice retains the heat, which helps the ripening process. I would place a few bananas on and cling film the top, so the banana-gas would get to work. It would work every time.

This time, as it was just 2 and they were sat on 100 bananas, and it was relatively warm anyway, I had a hunch they would be OK as they were. It worked. Luckily. And I made some great last minute sushi.

Ref:

Banoffee pie

Sushi

1001 kitchen tips #23 - Flour pie/ parcel force

2008-05-09T10:51:00.007+01:00

“What is that?” said my nana in the chocolate-and-rock-salt tone of voice. It wasn’t poisoned I can promise you. And it wasn’t flour pie either.

In the domestic kitchen you use baking beans (not to be confused with baked beans). But how many times have you picked them up from underneath the kitchen counters, and almost fallen over them on the way to the cat’s bowl?

Go to the pastry section of any restaurant or hotel kitchen and you will find these cling film (clingus filmus in latin, Gladwrap in Oz) parcels of rice, or as I prefer to use, flour. They are the pastry chef's friend taht is always there.

Fold your clingus filmus over on itself so you have a double layer. It should overlap the tart case generously. Fill the cling filmed tart with flour - tucking it into the corners. If it doesn’t reach the corners they are not pressed during cooking so you end with inverted edges, less space for the filling, and that‘s where the flavour is. And besides that, I don’t like cutting corners.

Draw all the corners of the cling film together into the middle and bake tarts in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes till the pastry is golden. Remove with asbestos fingers (or gloves) and use the hole in none egg-wash trick for that no-leak tart case. Place back in oven to finish.

Keep the flour parcels and use them again…..and again….. and again…. and….

Ref:

A hole in none

Lemon tart

Time to cut the 'gras/ Salmon provencal

2008-04-28T15:17:00.005+01:00

With the smell of the approaching summer drifting off the oil seed rape fields all over the Cotswolds, it can mean only one thing - it's almost time to cut the ‘gras.

Sightings had been reported on several local menus, and as I stopped at Collis, the market garden just before Evesham on the Broadway road, there were several bunches on the shelves in the shining sun and I couldn‘t resist.

In the vale of Evesham, home of English asparagus it’s time for the early crop already.

While on holiday in Venice, some 6 or 7 years ago I picked some asparagus up on the rialto market (we‘ve since found the market on St. Margherita‘s Square, or the veg barge) and wanting to try something new (yes, chefs do cook on holiday as well) rolled it in olive oil, stuck it under the grill till soft then, looking in the fridge, found some parmesan, as you do, and gratinated it, thus starting my obsession with asparagus and parmesan.

Last Friday I grilled it again. Though this time without parmesan - it accompanied a bistro style dish of Salmon provençal with dauphinoise potato, pepper coulis and balsamic.

The salmon is marinaded in and grilled in tomato sauce. If you grill it (on a conventional grill) skin side up the skin turns crisp and becomes the best part of the whole dish. If the skin is burning before the salmon is cooked, you just need to reduce the heat of the grill. If you are chargrilling dip into flour as explained earlier to avoid it sticking. In season you could use wild salmon. I did last year and it was a complete revelation. Worth every penny.

Ref: Asparagus and parmesan

Grilled asparagus with king prawn and scallop fricassee

Ratatouille macaroni cheese pronto

2008-04-28T14:53:00.012+01:00

Courgette, cheese, onion and tomato, as it was called, was a summer staple in the Benson family when I was young and the courgette plants were proliferating daily. On the days when the sun was strong you could watch them grow by checking them at various points from the morning till the evening.

In Devon my grandparents had a warmer, sunnier climate so they could grow aubergines too - which at that time was quite exotic as we were just on the verge of globalising our food tastes as a country. Aubergines were added to their ratatouille, when they weren't being used for aubergine fritters.

Hunger is the mother of food invention. This dish was cooked up in less than 5 minutes, and is a take on our old Courgette, cheese, onion and tomato with a few extra Mediterranean additions.

What I added:

Courgette sauteed (leave them without stirring to colour - that is where the flavour is)
Cooked frozen red onion
Parma ham
Tomatoes (fresh, tomato sauce, or left over cooked tomatoes from breakfast)
Sun dried tomatoes (if they come with capers in the oil for flavour add those too)
Cooked macaroni (Cook day before or in the morning and refresh under cold water before leaving in fridge to save time)
Water (to make a little steam to heat the macaroni. By the time it has all reduced the pasta is hot)
Grated cheese
Fresh herbs - depending on what you have - chives, basil

What you can add:

Anything you like.

You're all heart

2008-04-21T20:30:00.011+01:00

Offal has always featured in the Benson family repetoire for as long as I can remember - kidneys and scrambled egg, kidney and sausage, liver and bacon, steak and kidney, cold tongue with salads. But it wasn't till 2 years ago I ventured as far as tripe and that was on La Rambla - it was worth the wait. And it wasn't till last week I tried cooking heart - and it wasn't even Valentines Day.

Remove the top of the heart. You can leave in the aortas et al. I prefferred to remove them - as you remove the veins from kidneys or liver because they are tough.

You just need to slip a super-sharp knife around.

I filled them with a mixture of minced lamb, breadcrumbs and fresh herbs. Then sealed them (with gives you the caramelisation flavour) in a hob-to-oven cassrole dish.
Then braised in red wine sauce, onions & thyme for 4 hours. If you have ever experienced tough heart (the edible variety) it was probably because they were just not cooked long enough. Mustard creamed potato makes a great accompaniment.

Canary pudding

2008-04-20T19:21:00.009+01:00

Now with real canaries. Only in the dreams of Sylvester though.

Canary pudding gets its name it is thought from the canary yellow colour from the lemons it contains. For full recipe click here. The secret to the lightness is beating the butter and sugar as long as you can - and adding the eggs slowly enough so they increase in volume from the air. Short cuts are OK, but an all-in-one method just won't be as light.

I topped it with candied lemon zest and served it with lemon anglaise.

Boiled for 6 minutes in water then refreshed, the zest of 3 lemons are cooked in 1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup of water for 10 minutes till translucent.
transferred to a baking mat and pulled apart with a fork to stop them sticking together.
When cool rolled in caster sugar.

1001 Kitchen tips # 22 - Char-grilling or pan frying fish - signed and sealed

2008-04-16T22:00:00.010+01:00

There wasn’t much salamander space in the Lygon kitchen at the time I was there, and the saucier, veg and fish section all fought for there space on it during a busy service, so there was no chance for us larder chefs. So we would seal the red mullet fillets for our starter, then chill them and flash them in the Hobart convection oven when they were called away.

It was all going fine till one day the beautiful red skinned fillets stuck to bottom of the pan - all the non stick pans had been hidden by other sections for their service later on, and at that point I didn't have the salt trick. I was about to be in trouble - we only had exactly what we needed for the party. The same thing happened to the next ones. Disaster was looming. Then the French saucier showed me this tip which I have used ever since with everything from the red mullet to Dover sole.

If you are using a char grill pan let it heat up for at least 10 minutes. It has to be red hot or you fish, or meat will a) stick and b) only colour so lightly it’s not noticeable in appearance or flavour.
If you are using a pan you have 2 options - 1) have it on a medium-low heat, cook the fish slowly skin side down so the skin crisps, then turn the presentation side briefly to finish cooking. 2) Have the pan on a medium-high heat so you seal (brown) the outside of the fish, then finish it on a baking tray in the oven.

Dip the fish into seasoned flour and shake of the excess.

Then dip in oil (if you are frying you don’t need to do this, you add the oil to the pan instead). Sit on the char grill. I like to press the fish flat so the whole fillet gets even grilling - press lightly though or it will stick to the grill pan instead.

Using a roasting fork, skewer through the middle to turn it 45 degrees to get the criss-cross pattern. Using tongs or a palette knife can destroy the fish at this stage - fish needs to be treated with respect when cooking - it is really soft and can break easily. Slipping the palette knife underneath to turn it, it is easy to cut into to the fish and ruin the appearance.

While it can be cooked all the way on a chargrill - this produces masses of smoke, and often it burns before being cooked through, so we finish it in the oven. For a dinner party the sealing can done earlier in the afternoon before your guests arrive, and before the heat gets up in your kitchen.

If cooking later, allow to cool. If cooking straight away it can go straight in the oven. If you like crispy skin the best way is to grill it skin side up under a medium hot grill (top heat could burn it before it is cooked). On this particular occasion I was cooking at Watercombe House where they only have an aga, so cooked it skin side down on the base of the top oven - which gave a fierce base heat which crisped the skin very nicely. Every oven is different. On the other hand you could be using your barbecue…….

A sting to the palette - cooking with nettles

2008-04-08T17:27:00.010+01:00

Once cooked the sting is destroyed -so you can eat freely. You can serve nettles as you would spinach with fish, chicken etc. Nettles also make a nice omlette.

The best taste comes from sauteeing:

After washing (as shown previously), still wearing gloves transfer to a cloth to dry. Heat olive oil and saute.

The caramelisation on the nettle leaves is where the amazing taste is. Keep turning over so they all get cooked. After a minute when they are almost cooked add a couple of tablespoons of water and leave to evaporate which finishes the cooking while stopping the nettles turning into nettle crisps. Season with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.

Steamed -

Wearing gloves you can transfer the nettles from being washed in the sink to a large pan. There should still be enough water on the leaves to create steam once you put a lid on top. Cook for 3 - 4 minutes till tender. Squeeze off excess water and season with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.

Deep frying -

Nettles can be deep fried at about 150 oC as you do with basil leaves and used as a garnish.

Ref: 1001 kitchen tips #21 - top nettle picking tips

Sauteed purple sprouting broccoli and courgettes with creamy polenta and nettle vinaigrette

2008-04-08T17:22:00.009+01:00

Creamy polenta - about 50g polenta to 180ml chicken/ vegetable stock and 20ml cream for one rather large appetite or two smaller ones (youcan always re-heat the leftover). Add polenta to hot stock and cream. Add a knob of butter and chopped thyme and cook for a minute.

Nettle vinaigrette - Squeeze steamed nettles (the water they hold makes the vinaigrette dark). Whizz in the proccessor with vinigrette. Add warm water to thin the vinaigrette down to spooning consistency.

Sauteed courettes and purple sprouting broccoli - Saute courgettes first. Add PSB after a minute. Leave till well coloured - that's where the flavour is, add a little water at the end to make steam which finishes the cooking. Season with salt, pepper and a little balsamic syrup.

Sauteed nettles - you can add hese too under the PSB.

Ref: 1001 kitchen tips #21 - top nettle picking tips

1001 kitchen tips #21 - Top nettle picking tips

2008-04-08T17:00:00.009+01:00

Now is the season for nettles - pick them while they are young and tender.

1. Choose your nettle patch carefully. I found mine on the bank of the river Severn. Make sure:

You are away from dog walking routes (obvious reasons)

You are away from arable fields (crop sprays/ pesticides)

The soil isn't sandy - sandy soil gets splashed up all over the nettles when it rains and however much you wash them they will still be gritty.

There hasn't been recent floods around your nettle patch - the nettles near the bank were covered with sludge.

Avoid nettles under trees -they suffer from birds and whatever the tree decides to drop.

2. Get the marigolds out to avoid the sting.

3. Pick just the tips - they are the most tender part. The bigger the leaves get the more fibrous they are.

4. Wash them well in water when you get back - again use the marigolds.

Squid curry

2008-04-07T16:58:00.011+01:00

If your squid has been prepared already,

all you need to do is check for the cuttlebones which are found inside. You can then cut the squid into rings, leaving the tentacles whole - they are the best bit.

Dry-fried fennel, cumin, caraway and coriander seeds, ground cinnamon and nutmeg. This is mixed through the squid and left to marinade as I did with the pork.

After a few hours, fry the squid on a high heat to get a good caramelisation (flavour). Then add chicken stock and add half a red chilli (depending on size) and a curry leaf. Bring to boil then turn heat down to simmer and cook for 20 minutes - no less. This is for the same reason as cooking stewing beef - the proteins tighen up during cooking, then break down through longer cooking.

If too much liquid is evaporating and the pan is going dry add a little hot water, otherwise it will burn.

After 20 minutes add coconut milk and allow to heat through. Add chopped coriander, then sprinkle with coconut flakes (as made before).

Serve with rice pilaf.
Ref: Kalamarakia Krasata