Journal

February 2, 2015 Journal

Eric Ripert’s Club Sandwich

I had to include this recent video on the blog – it’s the utterly divine Eric Ripert, he of le Bernardin, making the ultimate Croque Monsieur {in his case, smoked salmon, Swiss cheese and caviar… yes, caviar!!}.

It appeals to me on more than one level – yes, I’d love to eat a ton of caviar in a Croque Monsieur – who wouldn’t? But Eric also manages to teach us the right way to make a Croque Monsieur, and it’s worth including for that reason alone!

And if you should happen to find yourself with a ton of caviar one day, that you don’t fancy putting on your celebration table or NY’s Eve party like a normal person, hey, you could always just bung it in a toasted sandwich!

January 29, 2015 Journal

It’s all about the rhubarb…

It’s the end of January, and in the dark sheds of Yorkshire’s Rhubarb Triangle, there’s groaning in the gloomy dark… {And yes, I did say ‘Rhubarb Triangle’!} Forced rhubarb is a prized crop in the UK’s growing season, and actually has Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status under the European Commission’s Protected Food Name scheme. This is a serious business.

Before the rhubarb can be confined into its gloomy dark, it must first spend 2 years outside in the open, where it can absorb the sunlight and store it in its roots. After a brief exposure to frost, the rhubarb is re-planted inside the long and dark sheds to await its metamorphosis. There, in the warmth, it begins to creak into life, furtively growing upwards, putting all its energy into that tender pink stem as it tries to find the light. Indeed the harvesting process is carried out by candlelight, to ensure that no colour changes can take place. As I said, this is a serious business.

This lipstick pink vegetable {and yes, it’s a vegetable, not a fruit} is dominating my days at the moment! From rhubarb tarts to rhubarb cocktails, rhubarb creme patisserie, soufflé and ice-cream, candied rhubarb, rhubarb crumble – there will be no end until I’ve used every last stem I can find… Between it and the equally anticipated blood orange season, I shall be practically lipstick pink myself in a few weeks…

I first made this poached rhubarb for a tart, but I liked it so much, that I’ve made it several times since. It’s very versatile, you can use it in porridge, maybe with rice-pudding, over ice-cream – anything. Great to keep in the fridge for when you need a pink pick-me-up!

Ingredients:
juice of 3 to 4 blood oranges
100ml cranberry juice
seeds of 6 green cardamom pods
2 Tbsp Grand Marnier (optional)
3 stalks of rhubarb, cut into matching lengths

Method:

Chop your rhubarb into the required lengths, and if you have time, shock it in an ice bath to help retain the colour.
Combine all of the ingredients of the poaching liquor together, and bring to a boil.
Now. Having done this three times, and not being particularly attentive (!), I found that it was best if I brought the liquor to a boil and then turned it off! Put the rhubarb in, and set a timer for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes, turn the rhubarb over. It won’t be tender at this stage, unless you’re using very tiny stalks. After the second five minutes, bring the liquor back to a boil, and immediately turn it off again! Turn the stalks after a further five minutes, then squidge them, as you might do a steak. If they feel nearly there, remove them immediately – they will continue to soften. This method will at least ensure your rhubarb does not disintegrate in the pan (as my first batch did).
If they’re still terribly firm, turn them over and wait a further five minutes. When just about tender, set aside the rhubarb, and reduce the liquor down to a thick and syrupy glaze.
Keep your rhubarb in a container in the fridge, soaking in the cooking liquor.

January 28, 2015 Journal

Bocuse d’Or 2015

As I write, 24 national teams have presented their final dishes at the Bocuse d’Or, the equivalent of the chef’s Olympics, or World Championships. This biennial competition typically begins with 60 national competitions to find a champion for each competing country {though this year the US team was selected following the submission of resumés, – the winning candidates worked at The French Laundy for Thomas Keller, the President of the US team}.

Once selected, the teams enter the three continental regional competitions in Latin America, Asia-Pacific and Europe, whittling down the numbers to 22. There are two wild-cards for chefs selected by the governing body {which this year includes Grant Achatz} – this winnowing process takes 18 months.

Those awarded a place at the final have two month’s notice of the ingredient selection – and new for 2015 – on the eve of their allocated day they are notified of a mystery vegetable ingredient which has been drawn from a hat {which turned out to be fennel}. The competition runs over two days, with twelve teams competing each day, and each team has 5 hours and 35 minutes to complete their menu. Theoretically teams can prepare for the ‘mystery ingredient’speed bump by practising extensively with different vegetables beforehand, but with so many teams working right up to the last minute in their restaurants, it’s much harder to achieve than it sounds. As always, it’s a question of funding.

The US team managed to secure a very substantial budget, some say $1million +, and as a result were able to spend over six months preparing for the event, and refining their dishes. On the other hand, the UK team carried on working in their restaurant kitchens, under-funded, and relying on the goodwill of all involved. They’ve even initiated a crowdfunding page to help support their efforts.

Whilst the teams from Japan, the US, and other countries are lauded for their efforts, our team is barely known back home. In the ‘vote for your country’s poster’ competition, we were on a shocking 7 votes when I last looked – by comparison the Hungarian poster won the competition with 1,841 votes.

And when it comes to practising, the UK’s Adam Bennett completed 11 trial runs – one wonders just how many the US team completed? If I sound as though I’m being critical of Adam and the UK team, I’m very definitely not! However I’m not critical of the US team either, they played the game, their food looked stunning, and they performed on the day.

I’d just like to think that we can get behind our team, and give them all the support they need for 2017!

Check out the UK’s beautiful dishes…

The UK came in 10th place – our chaps did an outstanding job, and we need praise them for all they achieved. I missed most of the opening day but the stand-out dish of day two, for me, was the Japanese fish course. Served in a stunning net covered cloche, as though you were catching your own fish, it came with a heating element below the plate, with a verbena scented mist. It looked beautiful, and the judges certainly seemed to be tucking into it with gusto… It wasn’t a surprise then that Japan won the Fish Prize this year. Finland won the meat price, and the podium places were awarded as follows:

1st Place Norway

2nd Place USA

3rd Place Sweden

The photographs are from the Bocuse d’Or Flickr feed, and are copyrighted according
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bocusedor/

March 19, 2013 Journal

Beautiful bergamots

I’m going to shamelessly copy an article
by Sudi in the Independent, not just
because it’s an interesting piece on the
versatility of bergamot, but also because
I’m mentioned.

The original article can be found here

The fruit is the chefs’ citrus of choice this spring, says Sudi Piggott in the Independent.

We’re playing pass the “orange”, perched on stalls at the counter of James Knappett’s intimate Kitchen Table within his Bubbledogs restaurant, where he creates tasting menus in full view of his guests. Except this is not a variation on the nostalgic adolescent game of transferring oranges under the chin and it is not a conventional citrus.

Knappett likes to challenge his guests with unfamiliar ingredients and new flavours. They inhale appreciatively the heady, familiar yet elusive fragrance of the orange-shaped yellow/green skinned citrus quizzically. This is Catalan bergamot, a sour orange crossbreed, closer to a lemon, and it is better known for giving Earl Grey its distinctive taste, though stealthily it has become the citrus of choice this spring, certainly upstaging the blood orange among chefs and fanatical foodies.

Knappett adds bergamot aromatic rind and acidic (yet sweeter and more delicate and floral than lemon) juice to flavour yoghurt and mixes with charred cucumber, fresh dill and dill oil, then serves it with raw salmon topped with crispy salmon skin. Its citrus element is “softer” than lemon and it is unwaxed and untreated because the skin is so important, so the flavour is really true and clear. It is an excellent partner to fish. Well in the vanguard, Ashley Palmer-Watts‘s launch menu at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal featured bergamot – and lime-cured mackerel – and Watts is now working on a new dish highlighting bergamot as he can’t get enough of its “beguiling intensity”.

Tweeting about my discovery of the manifest charms of bergamot, I unleashed a swathe of creativity. The Renaissance Girl adds bergamot to Asian-style marinades with soy, ginger and rice wine vinegar and cautions: “It is important to get the balance right as too much can be intoxicating. I tend to use bergamot alongside other citrus to subtly up the citrus quota.” Bergamot juice can also be substituted for vinegar in vinaigrettes for a perfumed tartness.

Persian cookery writer and private chef Sabrina Ghayour explains bergamot is an essential ingredient in Persian cuisine, “as we Persians love all things sour and bitter”. She’s been experimenting with honey-soaked bergamot flesh with pork fillet or chicken, candied bergamot in exotic salads and even adding bergamot zest to madeleines. Bergamot is likely to feature in her Norooz Persian New Year dinner (celebrated on the first day of spring) on 22 March at Peyton and Byrne at The National Gallery, in both savoury guises and preserves served with petits fours.

Private chef Bruno Breillet adds bergamot zest to meringues and finds it lifts marmalade to another level (rinse the rind before use to tame its tartness). Bergamot and mint make for a refreshing sorbet at London’s hottest restaurant Dabbous, a sure sign that it is the citrus of the moment. Ollie Dabbous advises to use the zest more like a spice alongside lemon juice to subtly up the zing. Bergamot even features as one of the icing flavours on the old-fashioned doughnut menu at The Electric, says Soho House executive chef Jake Rigby-Wilson: “The bergamot’s vibrant, distinctive aroma is transforming and confounds expectations, which makes it such a pleasure to use.”

Patricia Michelson of La Fromagerie, one of the few retail stockists of bergamot, recommends making bergamot syrup to add to prosecco or sparkling water. She also makes a variation with warm spices of cinnamon, cardamom, vanilla, star anise and chilli to glaze lemon (and bergamot) polenta cake. Michelson even likes to use slices of bergamot in Earl Grey and single- estate Ceylon teas, besides infusions such as Verbena and Chamomile.

I’m intrigued to discover that, historically, Calabrians favoured bergamot as a fruit known to have a beneficial effect in promoting cardiovascular health. It has an exceptional content of citrus polyphenols, which also give the fruit its bitterness. Recent Italian medical research reaffirms that bergamot capsules of extract and pulp may be helpful in inhibiting cholesterol biosynthesis with a natural statin-like effect in reducing bad and raising good cholesterol and lowering blood sugars.

Though for a more immediate lift bergamot is, according to Nick Strangeway, consultant to Mark’s Bar, the distinctly nuanced flavour of the moment for cocktails: he recommends steeping the zest in high-proof alcohol to make bergamot bitters, infusing it in vodka or gin or simply using the juice to make a Sidecar or Julep of extraordinary intensity and claims a Martini is incomplete without a twist of bergamot. Will James Bond insist on the enigmatic bergamot in his next movie?

Bergamots are available from natoora.co.uk, wholefoods.co.uk, solstice.co.uk, lafromagerie.co.uk Other exotic citrus by special request only fromnatoora.co.uk.

Bergamot sorbet

Serves: 4-6 people

The refreshing, fragrant flavour of bergamot makes the perfect palette cleanser so try this sorbet at the end of a rich meal.

Ingredients

4 Natoora unwaxed bergamots, juiced and zested
150g caster sugar
2 egg whites
300ml water

Dissolve the sugar in the water over a low heat, before gently bringing to the boil for a couple of minutes. Remove from the heat and add the bergamot zest, cover and leave to infuse for half an hour.

Add the bergamot juice to the sugar syrup, then strain and place in a shallow container. Freeze for 2 hours until slushy.

Whisk the egg whites until fluffy and mix into the sorbet. The sorbet must be only semi-frozen to be able to do this. Freeze for at least 6 hours. Remove from the freezer 10 minutes before serving.

More exotic citrus fruits to try:

CEDRO

I’d always known cedro as etrog lemon, an essential part of Jewish Sukkot rituals, and was bemused to come across a Yiddish expression for something that has no value as being like “an etrog after Sukkot”. How very misguided. Its elongated lemon shape is awesome – sometimes as large as a melon – with a textured yellowy-green skin. Cedro has an exceptionally large ratio of soft, white, surprisingly sweet pith that can be used with the bitter-sweet, prized rind. In Sicily, where cedros are grown, it is thinly sliced and sprinkled with salt or sugar as a snack with aperitifs (or candied) or combined with fennel in a salad.

DIAMANTE CITRON

Chris Golding at Apero at The Ampersand is another chef who takes great pleasure in using ingredients that are a talking point for guests. He uses diamante citron, sweeter than a conventional lemon and similar to a cedro. He adds its juice besides lemon to cure wild sea bass served with fennel and purple potatoes.

BUDDHA’S HAND

A fragrant citron whose fruit is segmented into finger-like sections. The origin of Buddha’s hand is north-eastern India and China though it is now grown in California. It has no juice and is mainly valued for its zest. The inner white pith is not bitter so the fingers can be longitudinally sliced, peel, pith, and all, and used in salads. Not least by Michel Roux Jnr at Le Gavroche in a crab salad with spring onions, roasted hazelnut oil and spicy tomato mousse.

SHATKORA LEMON

Indian citrons identifiable by their large “wings” on the stalk attaching the leaf to the stem, they have smooth yellow rind, dry, greenish-yellow flesh and a very sour, bitter juice. At Trishna, segments of Shaktora lemon are added to give extra verve to a masala chicken curry.

LIMEQUAT

Tiny round citrus related to both kumquat and lime. Look for the more yellow-skinned limequat as its intense sourness and tartness is more mellow. Use sparingly in dressings and desserts. Sometimes seen in larger branches of Sainsbury’s.

FINGER LIME

The ultimate, decadent citrus burst, often called lime caviar as the interior pulp has a caviar-like appearance and pops and bursts on the roof of the mouth, exploding with vivid lime flavour. Wonderful as a seafood garnish and relatively less expensive than caviar though still a huge treat. Available from efoodies.co.uk

November 14, 2011 Journal

Truffles and Potatoes…

For many years I’ve read one particular Roux recipe with a combination of awe and longing*. The recipe involved carving a hollow into a potato, into which you would insert a truffle. The potato would then be put back together again to be cooked – when ready it would be sliced into 1/8 ths, a little like a boiled egg. I looked at the photo – I could smell the truffle, I knew what a fantastic combination it would make, but I certainly didn’t have a truffle big enough lying around to make this dish – I would have to dream about it for a while…

Fast forward several years and I was given a lovely little truffle as a gift. In additional to scenting some risotto rice (which is an essential part of having a truffle – that, and scenting eggs for the best scrambled eggs ever!), I looked again at the Roux recipe. I concluded it just wouldn’t work unless you were able to be incredibly generous with the truffle – it’s really something you’d need to be able to give to someone individually, or at most to share with one other person. Perhaps that’s just being greedy, but as a generous host, I just don’t feel that I could divide it up between many people :0( So. How to achieve the same results on a much more meagre quantity of truffle?

I thought in the first instance I would try it as a Pommes Anna… There are two quite closely related dishes which produce very different results. In my head Pommes Anna was the creamy gratin, in which layers of finely sliced potato are layered in a dish and covered in a creamy sauce. Of course that’s a dauphinoise gratin, from the Dauphiné region of France. Pommes Anna is simply layered potato with butter, which results in a crisp potato gratin. So, approaching the dish with the wrong process in my head, I layered fine slices of (cooked) potato a little le creuset dish with layers of black truffle and a thickened cream. The result was absolutely delicious, especially when you lift the lid and receive a waft of truffle scent – amazing…

This summer I noticed that Mister Truffle had English summer truffles on his web site, and I thought it would be fun to try them, especially as they are a little cheaper than winter truffles. I ordered a fairly large truffle, and the lovely Mr Truffle very generously sent me an enormous one. Now we were talking! I’d ordered it for a celebratory dinner I was cooking for friends and family, and I thought I would scale up the size of my gratin this time. Whilst the flavour of the creamy dish was lovely, I thought the crispy Pommes Anna would suit the nature of a truffle better, and not swamp the truffle with too many other flavours. So, armed with my huge truffle, I began layering fine layers of raw potato and truffle into a dish, dotting each layer with butter.

The final dish looked fabulous – I brushed the top of the gratin with some truffle oil, and the scent as you ate the dish was amazing. I also warmed the truffle trimmings in the butter before lining the dish, and this increased the scent-load.

I still look at the Roux recipe with longing, but I’m not sure in this economic climate that one could really use truffles in this way. With winter Alba truffles running at £2,900 odd per kilo – truffles remain a rare extravagance. Indeed, at a recent dinner in Ducasse they were charging £36 per plate for tiny quantities of Alba truffles. However if you want to try small quantities of truffle, Mister Truffle will sell you from as little as 1g. If you buy an white truffle though – absolutely don’t cook it like this – it should be finely shaved over a dish at the last possible moment.

* Recipe is from: