Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Broccoli, Peas, Broad Beans, Samphire, Radish, Sorrel, Hazelnut

May 14, 2012 by stefano

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a more technically demanding recipe, mainly because most of the new things I’ve been trying haven’t produced good enough results and weren’t worth writing about. I’ve been experimenting a lot with modernist techniques like reverse spherification and it’s just taken me a while to become somewhat comfortable using them.

Reverse spherification relies on the liquid you are trying to encapsulate being high in calcium and this makes it perfect for dairy products: I wanted to keep the dish nice and fresh so I decided to use a thick yoghurt I loosened to sauce consistency with buttermilk that I then combined with a big bunch of zingy sorrel (an idea I borrowed from these two Ottolenghi recipes). You get a lovely effect of the sauce oozing out all over the plate when your knife or fork bursts the spheres.

There’s a bit of a knack to getting properly formed spheres: if the liquid is too runny it makes things a lot harder and sometimes the sphere doesn’t get fully submerged in the alginate bath so you have to try to press it down whilst trying not to burst it. I found a good video on Ferran Adria’s site that shows the process from beginning to end although it is made to look easier than it actually is!

The next interesting technique involves using tapioca maltodextrin to turn hazelnut oil into a powder, when you then eat the powder it reacts in your mouth and instantly turns back into a liquid. Thankfully, given how hideously expensive hazelnut oil is, a little goes a long way with this stuff and I actually had lots leftover: I vacuum packed the remainder and stuck it in the freezer as apparently it will absorb atmospheric water if left out in the air.

Another strange ingredient you may not recognise is Ultrasperse 3, again a starch derived from tapioca but which acts as a thickener; it’s similar to cornflour but it can be added directly to your sauce without clumping and it doesn’t need heating to be activated. I used it to add more body to my watercress puree as it was a bit thin after I strained it through a fine sieve.

I bought everything I needed from an American website called Modernist Pantry because, strangely, the shipping from the US was cheaper than the popular Cream Supplies site in the UK. They also allow you to buy small 50g amounts which is handy for something like of sodium alginate as it doesn’t last indefinitely like most modernist ingredients.

The rest of the dish is very conventional with just a classic pea puree and the green vegetables cooked quickly in boiling salted water. I was originally thinking of using asparagus but decided to go for the more robust purple sprouting broccoli as there are a lot of big flavours on the plate that might drown out something more delicate.

And now that I mention components that didn’t make it into the final recipe, the pea puree was originally meant to be made from Alexanders but the only ones I could find (growing down by the Grand Canal near my house) were so woody I couldn’t even puree them in my Thermomix. I also intended on garnishing with some edible flowers and lovage but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to get any. I guess there’s always next time…

Broccoli, Peas, Broad Beans, Samphire, Radish, Sorrel, Hazelnut

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
For the sorrel yoghurt spheres
2.5g sodium alginate
500g distilled water
100g Greek style yogurt
50g buttermilk
60g sorrel
2.5g sugar
Salt

For the pea puree
150g petit pois
100g milk
25g butter
2g sugar
Salt

For the watercress sauce
100g chicken stock
100g watercress
50g butter
2g Ultrasperse 3
Lemon juice
Salt

For the hazelnut powder
40g hazelnut oil
20g tapioca maltodextrin

For the vegetables
125g purple sprouting broccoli
25g broad beans, podded
20g samphire
1 radish, sliced very thinly

Method:

  1. For the yoghurt spheres, place the sodium alginate and water in a blender and blend at the highest speed for 2 minutes.
  2. Pour into a small bowl and leave in the fridge overnight for all the air bubbles to dissipate.
  3. Place the yoghurt, buttermilk and sorrel in a blender and blend until very smooth.
  4. Add the sugar to take the edge off the sourness.
  5. Season to taste.
  6. Using a hemispherical measuring tablespoon, gradually submerge a scoop of the sauce into the alginate bath, flick contents of the spoon into the bath just before the spoon becomes fully immersed.
  7. Leave to sit for thirty seconds and then using a slotted spoon remove the sphere and place in a bowl of water.
  8. Repeat three more times and reserve the spheres in the fridge.
  9. For the pea puree, heat the milk in a small pot over a medium heat.
  10. Add the peas and sugar and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
  11. Transfer to a blender and blend until smooth.
  12. Stir in the butter and adjust the seasoning if required. Reserve.
  13. For the watercress sauce, melt half the butter and gently sauté the watercress in it for 2-3 minutes.
  14. Transfer to a blender with the chicken stock and blend until smooth.
  15. Pass through a sieve into a pan over a low heat incorporate the rest of the butter.
  16. Whisk in the Ultrasperse 3 and reserve the sauce.
  17. For the hazelnut powder, add the oil and tapioca maltodextrin to a food processor and process until a fine powder forms. Reserve (this will absorb moisture from the air if prepared too early in advance).
  18. For the vegetables, fill a bowl with water and ice cubes.
  19. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and cook the broccoli for 1-2 minutes, until tender.
  20. Place in the ice bath.
  21. In the same pot, add the broad beans and cook for 2-3 minutes.
  22. Place in the ice bath and when cool, peel off the tough skin.
  23. In a separate pot, bring some unsalted water to the boil.
  24. Add the samphire and cook for around 30 seconds.
  25. Place in the ice bath.
  26. When ready to plate, reheat the vegetables in a frying pan with a splash of water.
  27. To plate, dot the plate with some of the pea puree; scatter over the radishes, samphire and broad beans; place two yoghurt spheres to the right hand side of the plate; place the broccoli to the left hand side; place two mounds of the hazelnut powder behind the spheres and broccoli; drizzle some of the watercress sauce around the edges; garnish with some lovage and edible flowers if available.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments »

Orecchiette With Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Asparagus And Broad Beans

May 9, 2012 by stefano

This began life as a Nigel Slater linguine and basil recipe from his excellent Kitchen Diaries cookbook to which I added some purple sprouting broccoli I had lying around in the fridge. The broccoli didn’t quite work with a long ribbon like pasta though so I decided to merge the dish with one I’ve posted before that uses orecchiette.

The following weekend I was in the Food Co-op and saw a very rare sight: Irish asparagus from Penny and Udo Langhe’s Ballyroan farm. This stuff flies out and is normally all gone by eleven o’clock but luckily I managed to get the last bunch; there were also some lovely broad beans (from Spain unfortunately) I thought would work well too.

The thing I like about this is that it’s sort of a crossover dish with the last of the spring’s purple sprouting broccoli being mixed with the first showings of the summer vegetables. I cook them all separately until al dente and then boil the pasta in the cooking water to try and save as much flavour as possible before everything is then tossed together with plenty of olive oil and cheese. I would normally use pecorino here but as I had none at the time I substituted parmesan and it was still lovely.

Orecchiette With Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Asparagus & Broad Beans

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
5 large spears asparagus
75g broad beans, shelled weight
Olive oil
150g purple sprouting broccoli
250g orecchiette
1 red chilli, sliced into rounds
2 anchovies
1 large clove garlic, minced
1 lemon, zest of
15g basil, finely shopped
Salt
Pepper
25g Parmigiano-Reggiano or pecorino

Method:

  1. Bring a pot of heavily salted water to the boil salted water to the boil.
  2. Cook the asparagus for 1-2 minutes until tender.
  3. Remove from the pot, slice into a few pieces and place in a bowl of ice water.
  4. Add the broad beans, and cook for 2-3 minutes.
  5. Again, remove from the pot and place in a bowl of ice water.
  6. Peal the tough outer skin from the beans as they are cooling in the water.
  7. Add the orecchiette to the pot of boiling water.
  8. Meanwhile, place a wide pan over a medium heat and add some olive oil.
  9. Sautee the broccoli in the oil for 3-4 minutes until just tender.
  10. Remove the broccoli and reserve.
  11. Lower the heat and add the garlic, chilli and anchovies.
  12. Gently fry until the anchovies have dissolved.
  13. Add the lemon zest and basil and then stir in the vegetables to heat them through.
  14. Adjust the seasoning if required (remember the pasta will be salty).
  15. Drain the pasta and add to the frying pan and mix everything together thoroughly with some more olive oil.
  16. Divide between two plates and squeeze over some lemon juice from the zested lemon.
  17. Top with the cheese and serve.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud

April 30, 2012 by stefano

We’ve eaten in lots of Dublin’s best restaurants but one place we hadn’t been to was Patrick Guilbaud’s on Merrion Street. The main reason for me was the price of the tasting menu, which is more expensive than the one we had at Gordon Ramsay’s Royal Hospital a few years back. When a menu costs more than that of a three Michelin star restaurant in one of the most expensive cities in the world I can’t really justify the expense.

Thankfully, there is also a lunch offering of two courses for €38 and three for €50 so we decided to avail as it seemed much more reasonable. We arrived slightly early and while waiting in the lounge for our table to be set we ordered two aperitifs: a glass of Veuve Clicquot (€19.00) for me and a raspberry champagne cocktail (€22.00) for Pauline which was beautiful.

We were presented with menus so we could order before being seated and I have to say I was very tempted by the á la carte (three courses for €105): there were some fantastic dishes that sounded very interesting – foie gras with smoked almond and almond milk and crab with pineapple, pickled ginger and wasabi, in particular. In the end I decided to stick with the lunch menu but only after a lot of agonising.

We were brought to our table and a few minutes later we were served our amuse bouche, a foie gras parfait of wonderful consistency but far too much salt. The bread selection was very good, with some lovely mini baguettes and a fabulous fennel and tomato roll.

To begin, Pauline ordered the paella risotto and it was probably the stand out dish of the afternoon: a luscious mix of saffron, butter and spring vegetables such as peas and broad beans. I had the foie gras and black pudding salad which consisted of a small piece of liver, a big square of pudding and a tiny fried quails egg with a small garnish of parsley. All the ingredients were good but in essence it was just a posh fry up.

As my main course, I chose the pork belly and carrot puree: the meat had a wonderful confit like texture and was coated on top with an aniseed sauce;  it would have been nice to have some on the plate too as it had a lovely flavour. Our other dish was breast of Magret duck that came with more spring vegetables; it was a nice dish but not exactly inspiring.

For dessert, I went for the orange cheesecake and although it looked quite unassuming it was a wonderfully refined preparation of a classic recipe with subtle orange notes permeating the cream cheese. Unfortunately, Pauline’s rhubarb and white chocolate whose presentation, in contrast to my choice, was very eye-catching  didn’t have the flavour to match.

In choosing our wines we let the sommelier match them to each of our courses and he made some excellent pairings. Rather than recommend a sweet wine with my foie gras, he suggested the Henschke Riesling from Eden Valley (€13.00) which was sublime; the Rosine Ogier Viognier (€17.00) to accompany the risotto was even better with an intriguingly floral nose more reminiscent of a gewürztraminer. We then moved onto red with a Crozes Hermitage Chassis (€15.00), quite full bodied given what we were eating but it still worked really well with both dishes. We also had the same dessert wine as each other, this time recommended by the junior sommelier, the Muscat Bernardins (€14.00); again it was top quality and its restrained sweetness gave a lightness that suited our puddings perfectly.

Service was as attentive as you would expect at this level although it occasionally bordered on the fussy as is always the risk with places like this. Naturally the cooking is of a very high standard but I can’t help but feel that the kitchen is holding back with the lunch menu and I regret not going á la carte now. I think it’s disappointing because I have had better food in Thorntons and L’Ecrivain for less money and having eaten at both sittings in those restaurants there doesn’t seem to be as big a gulf between lunch and dinner as I imagine there is here. The bill, including tip, was €259.00.

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

Nettle And Wild Garlic Quiche

April 24, 2012 by stefano

There’s a lot of mystery surrounding pastry and as someone who’s never been much of a baker I have admit I find the topic a bit intimidating. A big problem for me has been consistency: while the basic ratio for shortcrust pastry is a 2:1 mix of flour to fat I always found myself having to add more liquid than the recipe I was using specified. I also found that I’d have to knead the dough for longer to make it come together which only encourages excessive gluten formation: the main thing you want to avoid.

However, an excellent post on Serious Eats I found recently has helped me produce the best pastry I’ve managed to date. It’s a fantastic a fantastic piece of food writing, the sort I really love where a bit of scientific rigour can show how formerly unquestioned assumptions about cooking can often be quite wrong and how small, but informed, alterations to a common process can result in a superior product.

The most counterintuitive part of the recipe is the first stage where you over-process half the flour and all the fat to make a paste that conventional baking says cannot produce a good pastry. By adding the rest of the flour to this paste you can closely control the amount of liquid required to bring the dough together. If you want to know why, you’ll have to read the article because it deserves to be read in its entirety; either way, eliminating this guesswork is a major step to gaining more consistent outcomes.

The other unusual element here is the use of half water and half vodka, as the alcohol does not promote the formation of gluten and makes for a more flaky crust. And there’s no need to worry about any harsh residual taste because the vodka evaporates during the blind baking stage due to its low boiling point.

For the filling I dug out my trusty copy of Harold McGee’s On Food And Cooking and found some good tips such as ensuring that any vegetable ingredients being added to a custard should be precooked: this lowers the chances of leaking juices causing curdling or uneven setting. You can also reduce the amount of egg required by replacing milk with double cream as it contains less water to dilute the egg proteins.

The ratio given by McGee for a quiche filling firm enough to cut is uncharacteristically imprecise by calling for two eggs per 250ml of liquid without mentioning the size of the eggs or referencing whether that liquid is milk or cream. I then found another recipe which gave a 2:1 ratio of dairy to eggs so I just decided to weigh two yolks and one white on my scales and add twice the amount of double cream. The reason for the extra yolk is it gives a creamier custard.

Finally, if you have meat thermometer it makes determining when the filling has set far easier: once the centre hits 75°C take it out of the oven and allow to cool a bit. Again, eliminating guesswork will nearly always produce a more consistent result.

The uncooked quiche

Nettle & Wild Garlic Quiche

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
For the pastry
100g white flour
2.5g salt
30g butter
30g lard
20g water
20g vodka

For the filling
15g butter
50g nettles (leaves only)
25g wild garlic
Grated nutmeg, pinch of
1 egg whites
2 egg yolks
Double cream (double the weight of the egg liquid)
Salt
Pepper

Method:

  1. For the pastry, add half the flour and the salt to a food processor and pulse a few times to mix.
  2. Add the butter and lard to the bowl and pulse as many times as necessary until no dry flour is left. The amount of pulses will depend on the power of the processor but the end product should look very clumpy and not sand-like.
  3. Redistribute the dough around the processor blades and sprinkle over the rest of the flour.
  4. Pulse again a few times to incorporate the flour.
  5. Tip the contents of the processor into a large bowl.
  6. Sprinkle the water and vodka over the dough and using a spatula press the dough into a ball.
  7. Flatten the ball into a disc shape and wrap in Clingfilm.
  8. Leave to rest in the fridge for a few hours or even overnight.
  9. Lightly flour the work surface and rolling pin and roll out the pastry to 1cm thickness.
  10. Line the inside of a 20cm quiche tin with the pastry, flute the edges and put back into the fridge to rest for around half an hour.
  11. For the filling, over a medium heat melt the butter until starts foaming.
  12. Add the nettles, garlic and nutmeg and sauté until wilted.
  13. Remove from the leaves from the pan and roughly chop.
  14. In a bowl, whisk the eggs and cream together with a pinch of salt and pepper.
  15. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
  16. Take the quiche tin out of the fridge and prick the base a few times using a fork.
  17. Line with baking parchment and add some baking beans to the tin (with more pressing against the side than in the middle).
  18. Bake for around 15-20 minutes until the sides have crisped up.
  19. Remove the beans and bake for another 5 minutes until light golden.
  20. Take the pastry out of the oven and lower the heat 130°C.
  21. Scatter the chopped leaves evenly around the base of the quiche.
  22. Pour the egg mixture into the quiche base and place in the oven.
  23. Bake for around 10-15 minutes or until the custard is 75°C when measured in the centre.
  24. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.
  25. Cut in half and serve with some dressed watercress.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

Rabbit Ragu, Polenta, Orange Gremolata

April 17, 2012 by stefano

A while back I was reading a great post on Gunter Nation which included a recipe for a slow cooked rabbit ragu with Bill particularly recommending serving it alongside polenta. This suggestion gave me the perfect excuse to attempt an outrageous recipe from the Balthazar cookbook that friends brought me back from a trip to New York.

In short, their version of polenta is ludicrously decadent: it involves simmering the cornmeal in copious amounts of milk and cream and then finishing with a triumvirate of mascarpone, butter and parmesan so there can be no accusations of blandness. You then chill the mixture in the fridge, cut into slices and sauté before serving; I really recommend cooling those slices overnight because it’s hard to get a good crust if they’re not firm enough.

I’ve adapted the ragu recipe for my pressure cooker and also lightened the sauce somewhat by reducing the amount of tomatoes as without this the richness of the polenta might make the whole thing too overpowering. To further lighten the dish I borrowed a trick from a meal I had in San Lorenzo’s and finished the rabbit with an orange gremolata.

Be careful with this stuff though, add a small sprinkling when serving and allow people to top up at the table if they want because it has a very assertive flavour. Also, if some of the pith from the orange has managed to sneak its way into the bowl there may be an unpleasant bitterness when used in larger amounts.

Rabbit & Polenta

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
For the Balthazar polenta
133ml chicken stock
133ml single cream
133ml milk
120g quick cook polenta
40g butter
80g mascarpone
75g parmesan, grated
Salt
Pepper
Grape seed oil

For the ragu
15g lard
1 rabbit, front and hind legs only
2 cloves garlic, minced
75g carrot, minced
75g celery, minced
15g tomato paste
100ml white wine
250ml rabbit stock
1 bay leaf

For the orange gremolata
½ clove garlic, minced
15g parsley, finely chopped
15g orange rind

Method:

  1. Pour the milk, cream and chicken stock into a pot and bring to a simmer over a medium heat.
  2. Pour in the polenta into the pot and stir regularly for 5-8 minutes until the polenta has thickened.
  3. Stir in the butter, mascarpone and parmesan until incorporated. The consistency of the polenta should be slightly sloppy, add more milk if required.
  4. Season to taste.
  5. Line a bread tin with parchment paper and spoon the polenta into it.
  6. Place in the fridge for a few hours but preferably overnight.
  7. For the ragu, place a frying pan over a high heat and melt the lard in it.
  8. Season the rabbit pieces and fry them in the pan for a few minutes on either side to brown.
  9. When browned, remove from the pan and place in a pressure cooker.
  10. Lower the heat in the pan and add the garlic, carrot and celery and sauté for around 5 minutes.
  11. Raise the heat and add the tomato paste and fry for 2-3 minutes until it turns a brick red colour.
  12. Deglaze with the wine and boil off some of the alcohol (around 5 minutes).
  13. Add the contents of the pan along with the rabbit stock and bay leaf to the pressure cooker.
  14. Bring the pressure cooker up to full pressure and cook for 30 minutes (depending on the age of the rabbit you may need to up this to 45 minutes).
  15. When done, leave to depressurize naturally.
  16. For the orange gremolata, mix the three ingredients together in a small bowl and reserve.
  17. To finish, remove the polenta from the fridge and take out of the bread tin and cut it into even slices.
  18. Strip the meat from the rabbit bones and mix the meat back into the sauce.
  19. Heat a non-stick pan over a high heat and when very hot pour in some grape seed oil and fry the polenta on each side until browned.
  20. Place a few slices of the polenta on two plates and spoon over the ragu.
  21. Sprinkle a very small amount of the gremolata over both dishes and serve.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , | 7 Comments »

Nettle Soup

April 12, 2012 by stefano

As you may have noticed it’s nettle season at the moment but this time, unlike last year, I lazily bought mine in the Temple Bar Farmers Market instead of foraging them myself. Although there are lots of similar recipes around for this soup I thought I’d post my one because rather than the usual thickening agent of potatoes I decided to use a more old fashioned method instead: bread.

There’s a long history of this practice originally going back to Mediterranean peasant food but also even the grand classical cuisine of Escoffier. He said it gives ‘an incomparably smooth texture’ and it most definitely imparts a lovely silkiness which is very important here as I find soups with a sole base of leafy vegetables can be somewhat gritty (a powerful blender is a must too, I used a Thermomix).

As you can imagine, this dish is very filling not only because of the bread but also the cream and butter: for me, these are essential because the soup is just a bit too austere without them. I also like the contrast of using big rich ingredients with a humble weed like the nettle.

Nettle Soup

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
30g butter
75g onions, finely chopped
500ml veal stock
100g nettles, roughly chopped
Nutmeg, pinch
2.5g Salt
2.5g Pepper
3 slices white bread (crusts removed), roughly chopped
75ml double cream

Method:

  1. Melt half the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat.
  2. When foaming add the onions and sauté for around 10 minutes until translucent.
  3. Pour in the veal stock and bring to the boil.
  4. Add the nettles, salt, pepper and nutmeg and then reduce to a simmer for five minutes.
  5. Add two slices of the bread and simmer for another five minutes.
  6. Transfer the soup to a blender and blend to a very fine puree (if the soup is not thick enough gradually add the rest of the bread until it is).
  7. Stir in the cream and the rest of the butter.
  8. Season to taste and divide between two bowls before serving.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

Sichuan House

March 30, 2012 by stefano

I’ve become very fond of Sichuan food of late and have been on the lookout for more restaurants that cook this cuisine and I figured the natural place to find them would be either Parnell Street or Capel Street. After a quick Google search, one of the results was the Sichuan House which had got favourable comments on Yelp and although I’m normally wary of those sort of sites, especially when the review count is quite low (eight in this case), I decided to take the chance.

As mentioned, Pauline is studying so for this meal it was just me and my baby son who spent his time sitting quietly (for the most part!) in his buggy. We arrived at around three o’clock and the restaurant was very quiet with only two other diners; this was good because I could choose the most unobtrusive table to sit at as I’m sure there’s nothing more annoying for waiters than being constantly in danger of tripping over someone’s pram.

The menu is extensive with the opening page dedicated to dishes that had no English translations accompanying them as well as several pages detailing various options for the famed Sichuan hot pot. I already knew what I wanted (down to the Chinese characters which I’d saved on my phone) and after a little searching, due to the somewhat idiosyncratic menu layout, I found what I was looking for.

To start, I thought I was ordering the fried eggplant with spicy sweet galue sauce which is more commonly, and misleadingly, translated as fish-fragrant aubergine (鱼香茄子); it was only afterwards I realised I’d actually chosen the item above it on the menu: fried eggplant with pork (烧茄子). I had been wondering why the spicing was completely different to how I expected but because it tasted so nice it didn’t really register.

It’s also a bit of a misnomer to say I began my meal with this course since it actually came out after my mains, this was not really an error on the staffs’ part because I unknowingly had ordered two main courses (how were they supposed to know the one I wanted first). My second or first dish for those keeping count was the poached sliced beef in hot chilli oil (水煮牛肉) which I had also eaten in China Sichuan in Sandyford. The portion size for this was ludicrous, a huge bowl full to the brim with meat and then some. As promised, there was plenty of chilli but unfortunately not enough Sichuan pepper meaning the great numbing effect you get on your tongue – for me, my favourite part Sichuan cooking – was a bit muted. It’s a minor quibble though and I ate the whole lot as it was still very good.

However, because of the generosity of the portioning I struggled to finish the fried aubergines but thankfully the waitress came to my rescue and offered to put it in a container for me to bring home; it would have been a terrible shame for those leftovers to have been thrown out and it also meant Pauline didn’t miss out completely and got to taste some.

I was so full dessert was out of the question and although I didn’t order any drinks I did see a small section for wine and beers on the menu (including the intriguingly titled ‘homemade alcohol’). Service was friendly even if a few language problems meant there were a couple of mixups but it really wasn’t a problem and we were still looked after well. The bill, not including tip, was €17.60.

Posted in Reviews | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

Butter Roasted Root Vegetable Curry

March 20, 2012 by stefano

March can be a pretty dreary time of year, all the good things about spring and early summer like asparagus, board beans and jersey royals aren’t in season yet and purple sprouting broccoli aside there’s not much variety until at least the middle of April. So what happens is you find yourself falling back yet again on the staples that have got you through winter like carrots, parsnips, turnips and pumpkins.

This recipe is a great way of jazzing up these root vegetables (any combination will do) which after several months of great service can start to feel pretty boring. I can’t take credit it for it though as it’s my wife Pauline’s dish and the reason she’s not writing this post is because she’s too busy studying for her exams; I got her to write out the steps and ingredients in a spare moment a while back because I think this is a fabulous curry well worth sharing.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
2 carrots, largely diced
2 parsnips, largely diced
1 small pumpkin, largely diced
30g butter
Ground turmeric, pinch
Ground nutmeg, pinch
Ground cinnamon, pinch
2.5g ground cloves
2.5g tsp chilli flakes
20g ground cumin
5ml Worcestershire sauce
Tabasco sauce, a few drops
10ml fish sauce
2 cloves garlic, grated
Fresh ginger, 2.5cm piece grated
150g spinach
700ml passata
400ml coconut milk

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 180C.
  2. Place the root vegetables into a tray and season with salt and pepper.
  3. Shave 15g of the butter over the vegetables.
  4. Place in oven and leave for 15 minutes, then take out and shake to ensure no part dries out.
  5. Continue in roasting in oven, shaking occasionally until vegetables start to soften. You still want them to keep their shape, but have a nice roasted appearance.
  6. While the vegetables are cooking, melt the butter in pot over a medium heat.
  7. Put all the dried spices, garlic and ginger into the pot with and fry gently for a minute or too until fragrant.
  8. Add the passata and the coconut milk and stir well.
  9. Bring to the boil and reduce heat to a simmer.
  10. Add the Worcestershire, fish and Tabasco sauce.
  11. Cook the sauce on a low heat for about 30 minutes.
  12. Stir in the root vegetables and spinach and cook until the spinach has wilted.
  13. Taste and adjust seasoning if required.
  14. Divide between four plates and serve with basmati rice.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

Butter Bean, Morcilla and Chorizo Stew

March 13, 2012 by stefano

This meal was borne of a larder full of dried ingredients that are always handy to have on standby for when you haven’t had a chance to do the week’s shopping. The reason there’s such a Spanish feel to the recipe is because I used the last of some chorizo and morcilla a friend of mine brought us back from his holidays there last year. You can’t tell from the picture but on the front of the packet it says ‘fabada‘ which is a Asturian bean stew: it wasn’t much of a stretch to improvise a recipe knowing this.

Preparado Fabado

As you can see, they come in a vacuum pack and they’d been sitting in my fridge for months so I figured if ever there was a time to finally open them this was it. I decided to use the last of some butter beans I had because you can cook them using a pressure cooker in less than fifteen minutes without pre-soaking; as well, it’s a short enough time to ensure that the sausages, which help flavour the beans, don’t overcook.

You may also notice a strange ingredient I’ve mentioned before called the ñora pepper but if you don’t have any it’s fine to just add some more sweet pimenton. I get them from a great little site called The Spicery who have very reasonable delivery rates to Ireland and an excellent selection of dried spices. I let the peppers rehydrate in the sauce and then scraped off the flesh although this was a little bit messy: I might soak them in some warm water beforehand next time. Either way, remove the skin as it’s quite tough and unpleasant to eat.

Butter Bean, Morcilla & Chorizo Stew

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
15g lard
2 slices smoked bacon, diced
50g celery, grated
2 cloves garlic, grated
75ml red vermouth
400g tinned tomatoes
2 dried ñora peppers, deseeded
5g smoked pimenton
2.5g hot pimenton
2.5g sweet pimenton
Salt
Pepper
150g dried butter beans
2 small cooking chorizos
2 small morcilla sausages
1 small piece of pancetta, whole
2.5ml sherry vinegar
2 big slices of crusty white bread

Method:

  1. Melt the lard in a pan over a medium heat.
  2. Sauté the diced bacon until it colours slightly (around 3-5 minutes)
  3. Add the celery and garlic and fry for 2-3 minutes.
  4. Pour in the vermouth and boil off the alcohol.
  5. Add the tomatoes and break them up in the pan with your cooking spoon.
  6. Add the nora peppers, smoked pimenton and hot pimento to the pan and leave to reduce (around 25 minutes).
  7. Meanwhile, put the butter beans, chorizo, morcilla and pancetta in a pressure cooker and cover with water.
  8. Add 10g of salt per litre of water and then bring the cooker up to full pressure.
  9. Cook for 13 minutes and then allow to depressurize naturally.
  10. Strain the beans and reserve the sausages (the pancetta can be reused in another recipe).
  11. When the tomato sauce has thickened, remove the ñora pepper and scrape the flesh from its skin and put back in the pan (discard the skin).
  12. Take off the heat, season to taste and stir in the sherry vinegar.
  13. Mix the butter beans into the sauce and stir thoroughly.
  14. Toast the two slices of bread and drizzle with some olive oil.
  15. Place a slice of toast in each plate and spoon over the beans and place the sausages on top.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments »

Pasta E Fagioli…In A Pressure Cooker

March 6, 2012 by stefano

There are probably hundreds versions of this recipe online and I normally wouldn’t post something you can readily find elsewhere but there are a couple of things different about my version. The most obvious one is that I use a pressure cooker but it’s not for convenience, it’s because it allows me to cook the beans in less stock and then use the resulting beany broth as a base for the rest of the dish. If you cooked the beans conventionally you’d have to use at least twice as much liquid and you’d end up throwing half of it out as the soup would be too thin otherwise.

This liquid is crucial to the success of the recipe because the second major difference is I don’t use any tomatoes; for me, I think they can obscure the flavour of the beans but you need a very flavourful beef broth or else the results can be quite bland. Also, tomatoes are quite a recent addition as many northern Italian provinces only started using them not even 150 years ago.

Unfortunately, this means a stock made from just bones, which is all I normally have in the freezer, is not enough so what I do is simmer some browned mince in it for an hour to up the flavour. Although, if this isn’t possible I’ll relent and add some tomato concentrate whilst I’m sweating off the vegetables. Another nontraditional addition that can work very well is using smoked bacon instead of pancetta (proper pancetta is not smoked); in fact, if I’m totally honest I think it makes for a better soup.

Pasta e fagioli

Serves: 2

Ingredients:
150g dried cannellini beans
500ml very flavourful beef broth
15g lard
75g diced pancetta
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
75g carrots
75g celery
1 bay leaf
1 parmesan rind
100g ditalini pasta
Salt
Pepper
20g grated parmesan
Olive oil

Method:

  1. Soak the beans in 1l of water with 10g of salt overnight.
  2. Drain the beans and place in a pressure cooker with the stock (add some water if you think it necessary).
  3. Bring up the pressure cooker up to full pressure and cook for 8 minutes.
  4. Allow the cooker to return to normal pressure naturally.
  5. Strain the beans and reserve the cooking water.
  6. Melt the lard in a pot and then add the pancetta.
  7. Fry until golden brown and then remove a few pieces to sprinkle over the soup at the end.
  8. Add the carrots, celery and garlic to the pot and fry for around 5 minutes being careful not to colour them.
  9. Add the bean water, bay leaf, parmesan rind and half the beans to the pot and simmer for 20 minutes.
  10. In a separate pan, cook the pasta in boiling, heavily salted water until al dente.
  11. Remove the bay leaves and parmesan rind from the soup pot and blend the contents until completely smooth.
  12. Drain the pasta and add, along with the other half of the beans, to the blended soup.
  13. If the liquid is too thick, dilute with some more stock or water.
  14. Check the seasoning and adjust if necessary.
  15. Divide between two bowls and sprinkle over the reserved pancetta and parmesan.
  16. Finish with a few swirls of olive oil and serve.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

Older Posts »