I happen to love fish. And that’s good since I grew up in Sweden where we eat lots of it. But I have discovered that in many countries, people are afraid of cooking and eating fish, lest they come as fingers or breaded and fried. Once, when I served another one of my favourites, Haddock in Saffron sauce, a female guests told me how brave I had been, serving fish to men at a dinner party. Their plates were clean though, so I figured it had gone down all right. And I had served the obligatory meat dish too, since the starter had been Seared Herb Crusted Carpaccio of Beef, so perhaps that was why it seemed I got away with it. Or perhaps they all complained to their wives on the way home, about foreigners not really understanding the need of meat and three veg!
I can’t remember when I first invented this dish, or indeed whether I did invent it. Perhaps I had something similar in a restaurant and then tried to make it at home. Still, it remains as one of my staples at home, and I can finesse it up for a dinner party, or cheapen it for family supper depending on which kind of flat fish I choose to use. I use sole for dinner parties, and plaice for family supper, but any kind of skinny flat fish will do.
The beauty of using Crème Fraiche is that it melts when under heat and so makes a crab flavoured sauce… just fantastic!
Ingredients:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sole or Plaice fillets, skinned and boned by the fishmonger. If they are very big, count a half fillet per person (see below how to divide it later!), and otherwise, one roulade per person.
White and Brown crab meat (I like to mix both, as the colour and most of the real flavour comes from the brown meat)
Crème Fraiche
Lemon Juice
Sprigs of Dill
Salt and Pepper
How to:
Heat oven to 200 Celsius
Coat the base of an ovenproof dish with Olive Oil
In a bowl, mix the crab meat with Crème Fraiche, Lemon Juice, salt and pepper (TASTE IT!) until a sloppy goo.
Now, place one of the fillets in the dish (you will not be able to move it from one place to another once you have finished making the roulades so you need to work in the dish where they are to be cooked).
Spread the crab goo over it into a thin layer
Place a few sprigs of dill on the goo
Roll the fish up, starting from the thinnest bit, the tail, towards where the head once was.
Now, do the same for the others.
Place in oven for about twenty minutes.
To plate up, cut the roulades in half where you see the line down the side of the fish. If they are BIG fillets, give half to each person, but even if not, halving the roulades makes it prettier on the plate as the dark crab and the green dill will be visible in the white of the fish. Dollop the sauce around the fish.
Serve with what you fancy: rice, new potatoes, pressed potatoes or mash, and some steamed tenderstem broccoli.
Friday, 30 April 2010
CHIAPPALO PESTO
Many years ago, I worked for Mr Chiappalo (real name Franco Borca) in Diano Marina, Italy. He owned a restaurant called Fra Diavolo, was an eccentric with an awesome love for food. To boot he was an Italian Sommelier of distinction, has a moustache which, had he not waxed it into curls either side, would have had the wingspan of an eagle. He had many signature dishes, one of which were Gnocchi di Patate con Pesto Piemontese.
Traditional pesto has pine nuts in it. Mr Chiappalo makes it with salted peanuts, adding a kick to the mix. And what with pine nuts costing a small fortune, it makes sense. It may be that I have bastardised his recipe over the years, but this is how I remember it:
Ingredients:
Absolute buckets of fresh basil
Quite a bit of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
One clove Garlic
Lots of Parmesan cheese – and please not that already grated stuff they sell in the supermarkets but freshly grated at home.
A handful of Salted peanuts
Salt and pepper
How to:
Place garlic and olive oil in your magi-mixer and swish them around until they make a paste.
Add the nuts and swish.
Add the basil and do the same. You will see how the leaves disintegrate in front of your eyes – and need to do this in several batches until the colour is lurvely and green and the consistency more creamy solid than wet.
Add parmesan, and (key to any cooking) TASTE IT, to see when you have added enough.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
You can freeze it too, if you have made lots, without any damage being done, but it keeps for quite a while in the fridge. When you take it out of the fridge to use, let it warm up to room temperature or the Olive Oil in it will have congealed. Stir it before using, the oil tends to rise to the surface and you want the stuff that's in it too!
I eat it with pasta, of course, but also as a marinade for chicken breast on the barbecue, drizzled over a tomato mozzarella salad, or stuffed in chicken breast or a meaty white fish wrapped in Parma Ham… Delicious!
Traditional pesto has pine nuts in it. Mr Chiappalo makes it with salted peanuts, adding a kick to the mix. And what with pine nuts costing a small fortune, it makes sense. It may be that I have bastardised his recipe over the years, but this is how I remember it:
Ingredients:
Absolute buckets of fresh basil
Quite a bit of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
One clove Garlic
Lots of Parmesan cheese – and please not that already grated stuff they sell in the supermarkets but freshly grated at home.
A handful of Salted peanuts
Salt and pepper
How to:
Place garlic and olive oil in your magi-mixer and swish them around until they make a paste.
Add the nuts and swish.
Add the basil and do the same. You will see how the leaves disintegrate in front of your eyes – and need to do this in several batches until the colour is lurvely and green and the consistency more creamy solid than wet.
Add parmesan, and (key to any cooking) TASTE IT, to see when you have added enough.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
You can freeze it too, if you have made lots, without any damage being done, but it keeps for quite a while in the fridge. When you take it out of the fridge to use, let it warm up to room temperature or the Olive Oil in it will have congealed. Stir it before using, the oil tends to rise to the surface and you want the stuff that's in it too!
I eat it with pasta, of course, but also as a marinade for chicken breast on the barbecue, drizzled over a tomato mozzarella salad, or stuffed in chicken breast or a meaty white fish wrapped in Parma Ham… Delicious!
SLOW COOKING BEEF STEW/BOLLY SAUCE
The fact of the matter is that you can cook any kind of red meat this way. The stewing beef need not be of any kind of quality as the fat tends to disintegrate during the cooking process, but if you are using minced beef it needs to have a low fat content since otherwise you will be skimming grease off the top forever! I have made this recipe with Wild Boar and with Venison chunks, both equally delicious.
It takes a long time to cook, but a little time to make since it more or less handles itself once it’s in the oven.
Another tip – always keep some stock at home as it adds pizzazz to everything. Cubes are OK, the Knorr jellified concentrates are great, but the best, of course, is of you have some homemade – much easier than you think to make (recipe to follow one of these days) and keep in the freezer. I keep game stock on the gogo, as well as beef and chicken stock. Fish,Lamb and Vegetable are of the jellified kind. And the great thing about making your own stock is that you can make your own consommé of it. I make a grouse consommé of old grouse that are too tough to eat, and serve it in winter at elevenses on our shoot with a dash of sherry.
I started adding the vegetables when my children decided they would no longer eat anything healthy. My motto is: If you can’t see it, it’s not there. And once I realised the flavour became richer with the vegetables in it, I never went back.
As to the herbs and spices involved, I use some for summer and others for winter. Seems to me that the winter recipe is more apt as soul food for cold nights, and the summer more fragrant. Also, the fresh herbs are harder and more expensive to find in summer, so the dried herbs/spices are cheaper and easier at that time.
Ingredients:
Olive Oil
Pancetta Cubes or bacon bits, rich in fat
Chopped garlic
Chopped Onion
Finely Chopped Carrots
Finely Chopped Celery
Optional - mushrooms - any kind, in bite sized chunks
Chunks of Stewing Beef, or Boar, or Venison, or Lean Minced Beef
Masses of red wine (this tenderises the meat and gives it oomph)
Tomato Passata or tinned chopped tomatoes
Lots of Stock
Winter spices: A few Juniper berries, 2 bay leaves, 1 or 2 cinnamon sticks (yes, cinnamon – it is delicious with red meat!)
Summer herbs: Handful of chopped Origano, Marjoram, Flat leaf Parsley, Thyme
How to:
- Heat oven to 140 Celsius
- In an over proof pot that has a loose fitting lid to go with it (you need to allow the evaporation process to reduce the sauce) – and it needs to be the biggest you have:
- Heat the olive oil and crisp up the pancetta/bacon bits. It is important that the fat on the bacon gets colour, as otherwise the fat will remain once it is finished.
- Lower the heat and sweat the garlic and onion in it until soft and see through (you must not cook garlic over too high a heat or it ill burn and not taste at all good)
- Optional: Raise the heat and add the mushrooms and let fry until the liquid has evaporated from them (otherwise they boil and there's nothing yuckier than boiled mushrooms)
- Lower the heat and add your chopped carrots and celery and sweat for a few minutes.
- Raise the heat to full and seal the meat adding little by little and stirring it around so every piece gets a chance of a bit of heat. It’s important that they not ‘boil’ in these initial stages, but rather that they fry in the pan in order to seal it.
- Once the meat is brown, add the winter/summer herbs/spices and stir around.
- Pour over the wine. I use about half a bottle for two pounds of meat.
- Let it bubble and reduce for about ten minutes before adding the passata. I use about half a litre of passata/two tins of chopped tomatoes for two pounds of meat. Stir again.
- Back to the bubbling and reducing, for about half an hour on the stove. Stir every now and then.
- Now add the stock, I use one litre for two pounds of meat, and stir.
- There's going to be a whole lot of liquid, which will evaporate when you now put it in the oven. Leave it there for about five hours, stirring every now and then and checking that the liquid has not all gone, in which case you just add more stock.
- The finished stew should just simmer in a light sauce, covering but not swamping the meat.
- If it is the winter recipe you're doing, you need to remove the cinnamon stick, the bay leaves and, more finicky, as many of the juniper berries as you can find.
- I serve with mashed potatoes, and steamed vegetables, or in the case of a bolognaise, a nice batch of spaghetti cooked al dente.
It takes a long time to cook, but a little time to make since it more or less handles itself once it’s in the oven.
Another tip – always keep some stock at home as it adds pizzazz to everything. Cubes are OK, the Knorr jellified concentrates are great, but the best, of course, is of you have some homemade – much easier than you think to make (recipe to follow one of these days) and keep in the freezer. I keep game stock on the gogo, as well as beef and chicken stock. Fish,Lamb and Vegetable are of the jellified kind. And the great thing about making your own stock is that you can make your own consommé of it. I make a grouse consommé of old grouse that are too tough to eat, and serve it in winter at elevenses on our shoot with a dash of sherry.
I started adding the vegetables when my children decided they would no longer eat anything healthy. My motto is: If you can’t see it, it’s not there. And once I realised the flavour became richer with the vegetables in it, I never went back.
As to the herbs and spices involved, I use some for summer and others for winter. Seems to me that the winter recipe is more apt as soul food for cold nights, and the summer more fragrant. Also, the fresh herbs are harder and more expensive to find in summer, so the dried herbs/spices are cheaper and easier at that time.
Ingredients:
Olive Oil
Pancetta Cubes or bacon bits, rich in fat
Chopped garlic
Chopped Onion
Finely Chopped Carrots
Finely Chopped Celery
Optional - mushrooms - any kind, in bite sized chunks
Chunks of Stewing Beef, or Boar, or Venison, or Lean Minced Beef
Masses of red wine (this tenderises the meat and gives it oomph)
Tomato Passata or tinned chopped tomatoes
Lots of Stock
Winter spices: A few Juniper berries, 2 bay leaves, 1 or 2 cinnamon sticks (yes, cinnamon – it is delicious with red meat!)
Summer herbs: Handful of chopped Origano, Marjoram, Flat leaf Parsley, Thyme
How to:
- Heat oven to 140 Celsius
- In an over proof pot that has a loose fitting lid to go with it (you need to allow the evaporation process to reduce the sauce) – and it needs to be the biggest you have:
- Heat the olive oil and crisp up the pancetta/bacon bits. It is important that the fat on the bacon gets colour, as otherwise the fat will remain once it is finished.
- Lower the heat and sweat the garlic and onion in it until soft and see through (you must not cook garlic over too high a heat or it ill burn and not taste at all good)
- Optional: Raise the heat and add the mushrooms and let fry until the liquid has evaporated from them (otherwise they boil and there's nothing yuckier than boiled mushrooms)
- Lower the heat and add your chopped carrots and celery and sweat for a few minutes.
- Raise the heat to full and seal the meat adding little by little and stirring it around so every piece gets a chance of a bit of heat. It’s important that they not ‘boil’ in these initial stages, but rather that they fry in the pan in order to seal it.
- Once the meat is brown, add the winter/summer herbs/spices and stir around.
- Pour over the wine. I use about half a bottle for two pounds of meat.
- Let it bubble and reduce for about ten minutes before adding the passata. I use about half a litre of passata/two tins of chopped tomatoes for two pounds of meat. Stir again.
- Back to the bubbling and reducing, for about half an hour on the stove. Stir every now and then.
- Now add the stock, I use one litre for two pounds of meat, and stir.
- There's going to be a whole lot of liquid, which will evaporate when you now put it in the oven. Leave it there for about five hours, stirring every now and then and checking that the liquid has not all gone, in which case you just add more stock.
- The finished stew should just simmer in a light sauce, covering but not swamping the meat.
- If it is the winter recipe you're doing, you need to remove the cinnamon stick, the bay leaves and, more finicky, as many of the juniper berries as you can find.
- I serve with mashed potatoes, and steamed vegetables, or in the case of a bolognaise, a nice batch of spaghetti cooked al dente.
SPICY CORIANDER SALAD
Here’s another one that can be made with leftovers – in this case rice. But it’s equally nice if you leave the rice out and have it as a salad with pan fried chicken breast, a steak or burgers. I sometimes have it on its own, and at other times to accompany a barbecue. The nicest thing about it is that you can use whatever vegetables you have at hand; I have listed some of my favourites with a note for those that absolutely have to be in it.
There’s a lot of chopping involved, and that leads me onto the top tip I learnt in hotelschool. Invest in good knives and keep them sharp! Many great cooks have seen their food ruined by dull knives.
Ingredients:
Rice (or not if you prefer the version without)
Red or yellow bell peppers cut into half inch chunks (I prefer not to use the green ones since they have a tendency to remind me of my meal for the rest of the day)
Red Onion – roughly chopped (a MUST)
Cucumber – rough sliced and quarter (A MUST)
Mange tout or sugar snap peas – cut in half
Cherry tomatoes – whole if tiny, halved if bigger
Carrots – I tend to julienne cut these, into French fry sized sticks
Masses of chopped coriander (CAN NOT DO WITHOUT)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil – just to coat it a bit
Lemon juice – to taste
A tad of balsamic vinegar, and I mean a tad
A tad of soy sauce – again!
Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce – as much or as little as you like depending on how hot you like it
How to:
Mix the lot in a bowl, leave in fridge for less than an hour (or the tomatoes make the rest go soft) and serve!
There’s a lot of chopping involved, and that leads me onto the top tip I learnt in hotelschool. Invest in good knives and keep them sharp! Many great cooks have seen their food ruined by dull knives.
Ingredients:
Rice (or not if you prefer the version without)
Red or yellow bell peppers cut into half inch chunks (I prefer not to use the green ones since they have a tendency to remind me of my meal for the rest of the day)
Red Onion – roughly chopped (a MUST)
Cucumber – rough sliced and quarter (A MUST)
Mange tout or sugar snap peas – cut in half
Cherry tomatoes – whole if tiny, halved if bigger
Carrots – I tend to julienne cut these, into French fry sized sticks
Masses of chopped coriander (CAN NOT DO WITHOUT)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil – just to coat it a bit
Lemon juice – to taste
A tad of balsamic vinegar, and I mean a tad
A tad of soy sauce – again!
Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce – as much or as little as you like depending on how hot you like it
How to:
Mix the lot in a bowl, leave in fridge for less than an hour (or the tomatoes make the rest go soft) and serve!
SLOPPY CHICKEN GOO
We often have leftover chicken after a Sunday roast, or indeed partridge, and this recipe came out of the boredom of always making stir fry or chicken sandwiches with the leftovers. It’s a recipe that offers alternatives depending on people’s tastes, and that can easily be developed by adding other favourite bits – and if you do, please let me know!
I eat it with a tossed green salad and a few Ryvita slices, or with some steamed warm broccoli (the mix of hot and cold is fabulous), or stuffed with a few lettuce leaves in toasted pita bread, but you could even stuff a jacket potato with it if that’s what you fancy.
And I’ll admit it now… sometimes I roast a chicken or a partridge just to be able to make this… decadence!
Ingredients:
Cold Roast Chicken or Partridge – torn in chunks.
Chopped spring onion, or for those who like more bite: thinly sliced red onions. Or both.
Dill, or Tarragon (but never both!) – have to be fresh not freeze dried
Lemon juice
Mayonnaise
Thick Greek Yoghurt
Salt and black pepper
How to:
Tear the chicken from the bones in bite sized chunks and place in a big bowl
Add the chopped spring onion/onion.
Add the herbs – I like to tear the leaves off rather than chop them – it looks nicer and tastes better.
Squeeze over lemon juice, quite a substantial amount (but you can always add later to taste)
Dollop over mayo and greek yoghurt. It’s supposed to bind the mix, not leave the chicken floating in it, so do this bit by bit. Some people may like this with mayo only, but I find that far too greasy, not to mention vein clogging and fattening, and I like the sting from the yoghurt in the mix.
Mix it up, and add salt and pepper to taste.
I like to chill it in the fridge for at least an hour before eating, to allow the lemon juice and herbs to penetrate the chicken.
Eat with gusto.
I eat it with a tossed green salad and a few Ryvita slices, or with some steamed warm broccoli (the mix of hot and cold is fabulous), or stuffed with a few lettuce leaves in toasted pita bread, but you could even stuff a jacket potato with it if that’s what you fancy.
And I’ll admit it now… sometimes I roast a chicken or a partridge just to be able to make this… decadence!
Ingredients:
Cold Roast Chicken or Partridge – torn in chunks.
Chopped spring onion, or for those who like more bite: thinly sliced red onions. Or both.
Dill, or Tarragon (but never both!) – have to be fresh not freeze dried
Lemon juice
Mayonnaise
Thick Greek Yoghurt
Salt and black pepper
How to:
Tear the chicken from the bones in bite sized chunks and place in a big bowl
Add the chopped spring onion/onion.
Add the herbs – I like to tear the leaves off rather than chop them – it looks nicer and tastes better.
Squeeze over lemon juice, quite a substantial amount (but you can always add later to taste)
Dollop over mayo and greek yoghurt. It’s supposed to bind the mix, not leave the chicken floating in it, so do this bit by bit. Some people may like this with mayo only, but I find that far too greasy, not to mention vein clogging and fattening, and I like the sting from the yoghurt in the mix.
Mix it up, and add salt and pepper to taste.
I like to chill it in the fridge for at least an hour before eating, to allow the lemon juice and herbs to penetrate the chicken.
Eat with gusto.
FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD!
About a year ago, my sister suggested I write a cook book. She knew that I was in the throws of deciding my next step since my youngest is off to Boarding school come September and I needed something else to focus on. Fuelled by a weekend of Pheasant Stroganoff, a Big Barbecue, Hearty Beef Stew, and Warm Honeyroast Ham with Parsley Sauce, she patted her embonpoint (she is normally skinny malinny) and made the suggestion.
My once-corporate head immediately realised that it was not going to fly. Only famous people get cookbooks published, and I didn’t quite realise the point of writing something that would never be in the public domain. And besides, I never measure anything, I’m a shoot-from-the-hip kind of cook, where a dollop can be as small or big as I like. Also, I tend to substitute, so it’s never quite the same every time I make something. I experiment, using ‘whatever I have at home’ instead of ‘something I forgot to buy’. I have dozens of cookbooks but use but one - the Cordon Bleu Book of Cooking Techniques - in order to look up the exact measures for a Bearnaise sauce. I tend to read them when I get them, pick up ideas, and then change whatever it is to the way I like it done.
Granted, I have experience. My mother was a dietician nutritionist who loved to cook, and although her attitude was that she would do it faster herself than to tell me what to do, I did pick things up. My first job, at the age of fourteen, was in a kitchen, and over the subsequent years I worked in kitchens in Sweden, Italy, France and Switzerland, experiences which has made me mix influences from various countries. I went to a Swiss Hotel School where ‘Cuisine’ was obligatory, and where I managed to slice off a fingernail at a moment when my attention was diverted (and yes, we did find it amongst the red peppers I was slicing). And what with marrying someone who fills the freezer to the brim with game and fish, I had to learn what to do with them. Waste not, want not.
So, one can say I have toyed with the idea. Two days ago, I watched Channel 4 for once, Jamie Oliver in Stockholm. He made a complete prat of himself whilst trying to make Swedish cardamon rolls with blueberries in a mishmash way; and having the audacity to turn a nice batch of creamed girolle mushrooms into shambles by adding onion. Why ruin the taste of freshly picked wild mushrooms that way?
And who cares if there's no publishing contract at the end of it. Good food is like good friends, a misery to live without, and if I can share the little things that my family and friends enjoy, what a great result.
Yesterday, I facebooked pictures of my friend Beth’s new herb garden and the exciting things she would be able to cook, and she asked me for my recipes. So here they are, a few at a time. No exact weights or measures, because, as I said, my cooking is not like that. Just free and easy, tossing in whatever there is, and a few tips on techniques/processes that are necessary for something to taste right. I hope you enjoy.
My once-corporate head immediately realised that it was not going to fly. Only famous people get cookbooks published, and I didn’t quite realise the point of writing something that would never be in the public domain. And besides, I never measure anything, I’m a shoot-from-the-hip kind of cook, where a dollop can be as small or big as I like. Also, I tend to substitute, so it’s never quite the same every time I make something. I experiment, using ‘whatever I have at home’ instead of ‘something I forgot to buy’. I have dozens of cookbooks but use but one - the Cordon Bleu Book of Cooking Techniques - in order to look up the exact measures for a Bearnaise sauce. I tend to read them when I get them, pick up ideas, and then change whatever it is to the way I like it done.
Granted, I have experience. My mother was a dietician nutritionist who loved to cook, and although her attitude was that she would do it faster herself than to tell me what to do, I did pick things up. My first job, at the age of fourteen, was in a kitchen, and over the subsequent years I worked in kitchens in Sweden, Italy, France and Switzerland, experiences which has made me mix influences from various countries. I went to a Swiss Hotel School where ‘Cuisine’ was obligatory, and where I managed to slice off a fingernail at a moment when my attention was diverted (and yes, we did find it amongst the red peppers I was slicing). And what with marrying someone who fills the freezer to the brim with game and fish, I had to learn what to do with them. Waste not, want not.
So, one can say I have toyed with the idea. Two days ago, I watched Channel 4 for once, Jamie Oliver in Stockholm. He made a complete prat of himself whilst trying to make Swedish cardamon rolls with blueberries in a mishmash way; and having the audacity to turn a nice batch of creamed girolle mushrooms into shambles by adding onion. Why ruin the taste of freshly picked wild mushrooms that way?
And who cares if there's no publishing contract at the end of it. Good food is like good friends, a misery to live without, and if I can share the little things that my family and friends enjoy, what a great result.
Yesterday, I facebooked pictures of my friend Beth’s new herb garden and the exciting things she would be able to cook, and she asked me for my recipes. So here they are, a few at a time. No exact weights or measures, because, as I said, my cooking is not like that. Just free and easy, tossing in whatever there is, and a few tips on techniques/processes that are necessary for something to taste right. I hope you enjoy.
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