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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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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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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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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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Chilli con Carne

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A classic blast from my past and still one of my favourite week day winter feasts. Why stop making tasty meals just because fashions change?

This will vary considerably from what might be considered a norm because it is based on a recipe my late lamented mother received and then interpreted. That happened in the 1960s when British food supplies were a little different; I suspect the peppers should have been red rather than green, for starters. In half this quantity, my mother also chucked in 2 tablespoons of hot Rajah brand chilli powder, which I think should’ve been mild chilli powder for flavour rather than heat. (I discovered this many years later on a trip to San Francisco.)

I’ve since modified my approach, tending to use fresh red chillies, though powder, or course, still works – add it to taste. I also now add a couple of star anise based on the eminent Mr. Blumenthal’s approach. I prefer to make this with dried rather than canned beans but, if time is pressing, go ahead and take the short cut; it will reduce the cooking time by a couple of hours. This is also a large volume recipe (I tend to eat some and freeze some) but, given the quantitites, it can easily be halved. Naturally, you should adjust the chilli content (how many, seeds or no seeds, powder instead) to suit your personal preferences.

For some variations, try using minced pork instead of beef and/or black turtle beans in place of the red kidney beans. Black beans cook considerably faster than red kidney beans so keep checking after about 2 hrs simmering.

Planning

serves: 8 – 10
preparation time: 30 mins
cooking time: 4 hrs

Ingredients

  • 500g dried red kidney beans, soaked overnight
  • 2 tbs oil
  • 2 large onions, halved and finely sliced
  • 2 green peppers, deseeded and sliced
  • 6 medium hot red chillies, chopped
  • 6 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 2 tbs cumin seeds, lightly dry toasted and crushed a little
  • 2 star anise
  • 1 kg ground beef
  • 4 tbs mild chilli powder
  • 1 tbs ground paprika
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 3 400g tins plum tomatoes, chopped
  • salt

Method

Drain the soaked kidney beans, put them in a large casserole, cover them well in fresh water and boil them rapidly for 10 mins. (This is said to remove toxins from the skins.) Drain them again and reserve.

Clean out the large casserole and heat the oil over moderate heat. Add the onions together with the star anise. Sweat the onions until they begin to soften, stirring frequently. Now add the green peppers, stir, and sweat them until they soften also. Stir in the chillies, garlic and cumin seeds and cook for about 2 minutes more. Add the ground beef and continue to cook, stirring frequently to break up the beef and brown it. Stir in the mild chilli powder, paprika and black pepper and stir this into the beef and vegetable mixture. Add the tomatoes along with about half a can of water and the red kidney beans. Stir all together. (On no account be tempted to add salt at this stage – it will toughen the beans.) Bring everything to a simmer, reduce the heat to very low, cover the pan and simmer it, stirring occasionally, for about 3 hours unti the beans are tender.

Once the beans are tender it is safe to add salt. I’d suggest about a tablespoon; I know, sounds a lot – this is a large volume – so do your own thing. Stir and cover again and cook for about a further 30 minutes to allow the salt to develop the flavours.

I’m a fan of rice with this, particularly Camargue Red rice if you can find it. It seems to me to be a pleasant equivalent of brown rice (which I personally don’t particularly like).


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Chicken Tagine

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On a visit to Uzès in France one year, we ate lunch at a Moroccan restaurant serving tagines. I became completely hooked and tagines have become a regular part of our diet. Preserved lemons are, in my view, so essential that I’d suggest cooking something else if you don’t have them. (They are easy to make yourself, requiring little more than time.) This is my version of tagine using chicken.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 30 mins
cooking time: 1¼ hrs

Ingredients

  • 1 medium sized chicken
  • olive oil
  • 2 tbs plain flour
  • 1 tbs ground coriander
  • 1 tbs ground cumin
  • salt & pepper
  • 2 medium onions, chopped
  • 10 fl oz water
  • 1 stick cinnamon
  • 250g cooked chick peas (or 1 can, if you must, drained)
  • 400g sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
  • 1 preserved lemon

Method

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

While the oven is heating, butcher the chicken. Remove the skin and bone from the breasts and legs (just joint the wings). (Make chicken stock from the carcass.) Cut the chicken meat into large-bite-size pieces.

Fill a large polythene bag with the flour, coriander and cumin and add several grindings of salt and pepper. Put the chicken pieces into the bag and clamp the top keeping as much air in the bag as possible. Now shake the lot to coat the chicken with the seasoned flour. Tip everything out onto a plate reserving the excess flour which will be used later.

Shake excess flour from the chicken pieces before browning them in the olive oil. As they brown, remove them to a tagine (a lidded casserole will do as a substitute). Once all the chicken has browned, add the onion to the same oil and fry over medum heat to soften. Lower the heat and stir in the remaining seasoned flour. Cook this gently for a couple of minutes to develop the flavours. Stirring all the time, add the water, increase the heat a little and bring to the boil. Pour this over the chicken and add the cinnamon stick. Cover and bake in the oven for 40 minutes.

Remove the tagine from the oven and stir in the chick peas and sweet potato dice. Return it to the oven for a further 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, chop the preserved lemon (skin only – discard the flesh) into small chunks. After the 25 minutes, remove the tagine and stir in the preserved lemon. Return the tagine to the oven for a final 10 minutes to develop the flavour of the preserved lemon.

Serve this with some Herbed Couscous.


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Chicken Green Curry

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In Thailand, I kept trying other meals but I kept returning to their well known green curry. The term curry is something of a misnomer being borrowed from Indian cuisine by the British. The Thai name refers to a spice paste made from green chillis. This recipe is a development of a green curry by Nigel Slater.

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 1 hr mins
cooking time: 45 mins

Ingredients

  • 4 fresh lemongrass stalks
  • 6 medium-hot green chillies
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
  • 5 cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
  • 2 shallots, peeled and chopped
  • 4 tbs fresh coriander, chopped
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • zest and juice of 1 lime
  • 1 tbs Thai fish sauce
  • ½ tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 free range chicken
  • 3 tbs groundnut oil
  • 8 – 10 Thai aubergines
  • 400 ml tinned coconut milk
  • 400 ml home-made chicken stock
  • 8 lime leaves
  • 1 tbs Thai fish sauce
  • 1 tbs brined green peppercorns, drained
  • ~20g basil leaves, shredded
  • ~20g fresh coriander, chopped

Method

First, make the green curry paste. Slice the lemongrass as finely as you can. According to preference, with or without the seeds, chop the green chillies. Place the lemongrass and chillies, together with the other ingredients down to and including the black pepper, into a food processor. Blitz this lot together, scraping down the sides regularly, until you have a thick paste. (You can add a little water to help slacken it if necessary.) Cover and refrigerate this until you need it.

Butcher the chicken. Remove the skin and bone from the breasts and legs (just joint the wings). Cut the chicken meat into bite-size pieces. Lightly brown the chicken in the groundnut oil, then drain and reserve. (Make chicken stock from the carcass and bones.)

Wash, trim and quarter the Thai aubergines, then quickly fry them in the pan you used to brown the chicken. Add the coconut milk, stock, lime leaves, four heaped tablespoons of the chilli paste, fish sauce, peppercorns and half the chopped herbs. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 mins. Return the chicken to the pan with two more tablespoons chilli paste, stir and simmer for a further 15 mins stirring occasionally. Stir in the remaining herbs and serve with boiled Thai fragrant rice.

(If you can’t get Thai aubergines, about 200g fine green beans would be a suitable, reasonably authentic substitute – they are like the Thai long beans. In this case, don’t fry off the beans, just wash them and cut them into about 3 cm lengths, then add them to the curry along with the chicken.)


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Charcoal Roasted Duck

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Normally I’d call this “barbecued” but, since this requires indirect cooking in a kettle barbecue, “charcoal roasted” seems to be a more accurate description. This is simply a pleasant way to cook a duck so the fat runs out and the skin goes crisp (we hope). It should look after itself for two hours so go for a relaxing walk in the sunshine while it cooks gently and you work out what veggies to have with it.

Planning

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

Ingredients

  • 2 – 2½ kg duckling
  • salt & pepper

Method

First of all, fire up the charcoal. I use a charcoal funnel and it takes about 30 minutes to burn up.

While the charcoal is burning up, slash the duck’s skin into a diamond pattern; about 1cm between the slashes. Try not to cut through the fat layer to the flesh but do go through the skin. Remember to do the sides and underside of the duck and not just the top.

When the charcoal is ready, tip it into the side rails/bins of your kettle barbecue and place a drip tray in the centre. Season the duck well with salt and pepper nd put it in the centre of the barbecue over the drip tray. Cut the air controls back to about a third to keep the temperature a little lower to cook the duck gently and allow the fat to run.

Go for a walk in the woods or along the canal for about 1½ hours. This will give you time to prepare some veggies after your return and before you rescue the duck after cooking for 2 hours.


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Cassoulet II

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For years I’ve been cooking a cassoulet recipe from the Roux Brothers’ French Country Cooking. Then, up pops my fish hero upstart, Rick Stein, with his French Odyssey containing a recipe that is much simpler, probably more like a typical example of the dish from Castelnaudary and, in my estimation, slightly better. (The parsley is my addition – a nod to the more complex version.)

Planning

serves: 4
preparation time: 1 month!
cooking time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

  • 500g dried haricot beans, soaked overnight & drained
  • 250g home-salted belly pork (petit salé)
  • 4 Toulouse sausages
  • 1 medium onion, peeled & chopped
  • 1 bouquet garni (leek, celery, thyme, bay)
  • 6 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 2 tbs goose or duck fat
  • 2 preserved duck legs (duck confit), divided at the joint
  • salt
  • 25g fresh parsley, chopped (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 175°C/gas 4. Cut the belly pork into thick slices then halve each slice crosswise.

Heat the duck fat in a flame-proof casserole large enough to hold all the ingredients. Add the onion and fry gently until softened but not brown. Stir in the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the beans and the belly pork, cover with about 1 litre of fresh water and push in the bouquet garni. Bring to the boil skimming off any scum that rises to the surface. Now cover with the lid and bake it in the oven for about 1 hour or until the beans are tender. (This depends upon the age of the beans but it worked in this time for me.) Keep an eye on the water which may all get absorbed by the beans – top up if necessary.

Meanwhile, brown the Toulouse sausages either by grilling, griddling or frying (in duck/goose fat – the most authentic approach). Lift them onto a board and cut each diagonally into three.

Remove the cassoulet from the oven and increase the temperature to 220°C/gas 7. If you are using it, stir in the parsley now. Add the sausages and the pieces of duck confit pushing them down into the beans. Return the casserole to the oven uncovered and cook for a further 45 minutes or until the liquid has reduced and the cassoulet is covered in a dark golden crust.

Traditionally, this should be served straight from the casserole at the table.


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Cassoulet

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This must be one of the classic carnivore fests – large quantities of various meats buried in meltingly tender haricot beans. (The other carnivore fest is Choucroute Alsacienne which has large quantities of meat buried in sauerkraut.) Start your Cassoulet a month early by preserving your own duck! I have adapted this recipe from a Roux Brothers recipe, largely to assist with some of the more difficult-to-find ingredients.

Planning

serves: 6 – 8
preparation time: 1 month!
cooking time: 4 hrs

Ingredients

  • 500g dried haricot beans, soaked overnight
  • lamb – 2 neck fillets or ½ shoulder
  • 500g pork – belly or shoulder
  • 6 Toulouse sausages
  • 200g fresh pork rind
  • 1 large carrot, peeled
  • 1 medium onion stuck with 2 cloves
  • 1 bouquet garni
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 10 black peppercorns, crushed
  • 2 tbs goose or duck fat
  • 150g tomatoes, skinned, deseeded & chopped
  • 25g fresh parsley
  • 50g dried white breadcrumbs
  • 2 preserved duck legs
  • salt

Method

Bone any of your chosen meat cuts that require it. Cut the pork and lamb into chunks of about 3 cms. Roll the pork rind into a sausage shape and tie with kitchen string.

Drain the beans, put them in a large casserole and cover with plenty of clean unsalted water. Add the whole peeled carrot, the onion, bouquet garni, crushed peppercorns and halved garlic cloves. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer gently. Skim the surface as necessary. After 20 mins, put in the pork rind and continue to simmer.

Meanwhile, heat the duck fat in a frying pan and quickly brown the lamb in it on all sides. Remove the lamb to a plate and sear the Toulouse sausages in the fat also, just to give some colour (they will be cooked later). Remove the sausages and save them alongside the lamb.

When the beans have been cooking for one hour, add the pork chunks and tomatoes. Continue to simmer, keeping the beans covered with boiling water.

When the beans have been cooking for 1½ hours, add the lamb chunks and continue simmering.

When the beans have been cooking for 2½ hours, add the browned Toulouse sausages and simmer for another 30 mins.

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/gas 2. After 3 hours, teh beans should be melting and the meats succulent and tender. Discard the carrot, onion and bouquet garni. Remove the pork rind and reserve. Now salt the beans to taste.

Mince the pork rind (or process in a blender). Mix in the parsley and breadcrumbs. Slice any very large pieces of meat in the cassoulet and cut the sausages into chunks. Shred the preserved duck legs and stir them into the cassoulet. Spread the breadcrumb mixture over the top and bake in the oven for about 45 mins. A crust should form. Serve it straight from the casserole, perhaps with a green side salad.


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