Recipes

Ragu bolognese (aka spag bol)

thesamovar — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:56:37 +0000

Origin: Marcella Hazan

Serves 6

oil
45 butter
85g onion, chopped
3 sticks celery, chopped
4 carrots, chopped
350g minced beef
250ml full fat milk
whole nutmeg
250ml dry white wine
500g tin tomatoes

And to serve it with:

tagliatelle
parmesan

Heat oil and butter and soften the onion. Add celery and carrot and cook for 2 mins. Add the meat, some salt and pepper and cook until it has lost its raw red colour. Add the milk and simmer gently until it has bubbled away. Add 1/8 tsp nutmeg. Add the wine and simmer away until it has evaporated. Add the tomatoes and just barely simmer for at least 3 hours (Heston Blumenthal suggests 5-7 hours), stirring occasionally. You'll probably have to add water occasionally if it gets too dry. At the end, there should be no water left - no loose liquid. Serve with tagliatelle and plenty of parmesan.

Chestnut and chorizo soup

thesamovar — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:48:35 +0000

Origin: Moro cookbook

Served 4

oil
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery stick, diced
2 tomatoes
120g mild cooking chorizo cut into small cubes
2 garlic cloves thinly sliced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1.5 teaspoons finely chopped thyme
2 small dried red chillies, crushed
500g cooked peeled chestnuts
20 saffron threads infused in boiling water
1 litre water
S+P

In a large pan, heat oil. Add onion, carrot, celery, chorizo and some salt and fry for about 20 mins until everything caramelises and turns brown. Add garlic, cumin, thyme, chilli and cook for 1 min. Add tomato and after 2 mins the chestnuts. Add the saffron liquid and water and bring to boil - simmer for 10 mins. Roughly blend and season.

Pesto

thesamovar — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 01:27:33 +0100

Ingredients (for 2)

80g basil leaves, removed from the stalks and carefully washed and squeezed dry
1-3 garlic cloves, peeled
2-3 tbsp pine nuts
6 tbsp olive oil
40-80g pecorino or parmesan, or a mixture of the two (use sardo, a Sardinian ewe’s milk cheese for maximal authenticity), grated
Salt and pepper

Blend the basil, garlic, pine nuts, olive oil, salt and pepper to a rough puree. Stir in the cheese. Add a few tbsp of the boiling pasta water just before draining and mixing them together to loosen it up a bit.

Aubergine and mozarella pasta sauce

thesamovar — Wed, 16 May 2007 19:31:53 +0100

Origin: The recipe below is mine, but adapted from three recipes. One is from the recipe book of the Walnut Tree Inn, from back when it was an excellent and highly regarded Italian restaurant, another from the River Cafe cook book, and the last is from Marcella Hazan’s Classic Italian Cooking. I highly recommend all three.

Ingredients (for 2 hungry people)

250g pasta - fettucine or other flat pasta is good, wholewheat works well
1 aubergine, halved lengthwise and very thinly sliced
1 onion, finely chopped
1-2 chillis or dried chilli flakes (these work really well actually)
1 tin tomatoes, or equivalent amount of chopped fresh tomato
Parmesan
Olive oil, quite a lot
Salt, pepper
Optional: fresh basil or coriander
Optional: 1 ball of mozzarella, preferably buffalo mozzarella, torn or chopped into bite sized pieces

In a large saucepan heat the olive oil. The amount you use is at your discretion. At the very least, you need a good covering of the base of your pan, but considerably more is preferable. The reason is that later on the aubergine will soak a lot of it up. This is a good thing and a bad thing - it’s good because it’s delicious, but it’s bad because you run the risk of burning the aubergine if you’re not careful. More on that in a moment.

Soften the finely chopped onion in the oil. Now add the thinly sliced aubergine. It’s important to make these slices as thin as you can be bothered. I usually go for about pound coin thickness as a trade-off between effort and reward. At this point, you can also add the chilli or flakes. Cover this pan and cook, occasionally uncovering and stirring so it doesn’t stick and burn. You need to keep cooking until the aubergine is soft enough to eat. Taste it to check when you reach this point - it’s always important to do this at every stage of cooking anything actually.

Now add the tomatoes, turn up the heat and reduce until the sauce is thick and there is no loose liquid in the pan, but no further than this. Season to taste. Take it off the heat and add the herbs and cheeses and stir them in. Mix with the pasta and serve. You may have difficulty with the melted mozzarella going everywhere, but it’s all part of the fun.

Pheasant, chestnut and pancetta stew

thesamovar — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 21:58:49 +0000

Origin: Moro cookbook

This is how I remember a recipe I cooked from the Moro cookbook. It's roughly right, and it worked fine cooked like this.

Ingredients

For two large portions

2 pheasant pieces (chicken, guinea fowl etc. will do)
200g chestnuts (vacuum packed is fine)
100g pancetta thinly sliced (or bacon)
Small glass of white wine (vermouth works OK)
Onion, finely chopped
Carrot, finely chopped
Tin of tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 pieces cinnamon
3 cloves, ground
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 bay leaves
A small number of coriander seeds
Rice
Olive oil, salt, pepper

Heat some oil in a large pan or casserole and brown the bird pieces at a high heat. Set aside.

Fry the pancetta until it begins to crisp. Add the onion and carrot and sweat until soft. Add the garlic, cinnamon, cloves, paprika and bay leaves, stir and cook for a minute. Add the chestnuts, stir and cook for a minute. Add the wine boil it for a few minutes.

Add the tomatoes and bird pieces and simmer until they are done. About 20 mins for breasts or up to 40 mins for legs. Depending on how long you are planning to cook it you should cover the pan or not. You want the sauce to have just a tiny amount of loose liquid so that it's mostly thick but not dry. Check for seasoning.

Meanwhile, boil your rice and put the coriander seeds in with it. As you eat the rice, you will occasionally crunch on one of the seeds and get a 'flavour burst'.

Jambalaya

thesamovar — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 10:40:16 +0000

Origin: Alastair Fletcher

Alastair likes to be... efficient in his communications, so here is his jambalaya recipe in full:

Chorizo, red onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, celery, various peppers, chicken, prawns, tomatoes, smoked paprika, port. Put it in a pot and cook. Order probably doesn't matter too much!

I think I should add that you take that mixture and stir some rice into it at the end.

Ham hock soup

thesamovar — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 20:12:57 +0100

Origin: Michael Hutchinson (verbatim)

There are 4 stages to this recipe, it's a long job but only because you have to let things cook. You do not use salt as the meat is salty, see below.

Pre-boiling the hock to desalinate and clean it (chuck the H2O used here)
Cooking the hock to separate the meat from the bones, second lot of liquid.
Making a stock with the bones, fat and skin and the second lot of liquid.
Adding the meat and veggies to the part 3 stock, to make the soup

Get a fresh ham hock from the butchers, it will do 4. There is the meat and there is the gristle/fat and there is the skin, I like and eat it all, you can make your choice as it separates out during the cooking.

Give it a good wash, cover with cold water and bring to the boil for up to 10 minutes depending upon the salt content.

Ditch the water and start again, this is the second lot of liquid. However there is no need to fully cover it, this is only to save on reduction later, so you can do that or no, as you like. Simmer medium vigorous for half to an hour to the point where the meat is easily cut from the bones, the deeper stuff will probably only be lightly cooked (that's ok).

You are going to cut away the meat (a lot will just fall away) and put it on one side till stage 4 because you do not want to boil the flavour out of it.

Pull the bones apart and put them back into the water with the fat and skin and gristle. Throw in all the cut aways from the veggies, such as broccoli stalk, cabbage stalk, a carrot or two, 10 black pepper corns, 3/5 bay leaves, one large qtr'd potato, some onion, some dried or fresh herbs, in fact anything which adds to the stock. Simmer for 2 hours or so, strain and stick in the fridge, keeping the fat and gristle and skin (as is your want). It will set to a jelly with the fat on top, which you skim away. You have your stock.

This final stage is quite quick especially if you like crisp veggies. Heat up the stock and finish cooking the meat which you have cut to the size you want. This is where the purists put the gristle etc' back in too. Reduce it to the thickness you like and add anything else you like here also. Once the meat is cooked; when you can pull it into strandy chunks; we go to 4.

The cooking effect I want is to put a layer of chopped cabbage over everything, followed with a layer of chopped broccoli, which is cooked from the steam coming up through the cabbage layer, about 10 minutes depending on how vigorously you boil the stock, I like to do it gently.

Use a green cabbage such as Celtic or Savoy but nor white. When the broccoli is cooked to your liking stir it all together and chuck it out the window, Ha Ha.

All amounts subject to how much you want to eat and all ingredients subject to what you fancy. The art is to manage the salt content but that will come with practice.

Paella

thesamovar — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 20:12:37 +0100

Origin: various cookbooks

Like risotto, there are a million ways to make paella. This is just one, it's a good thing to play about with.

Ingredients

Paella rice, about the same as for a risotto, maybe 75g per person?
Onion, 1 per 3 or 4 people is probably, and one for the white fish if using
Garlic
Parsley, and optionally bay leaf and thyme (see below)
White wine
Chicken (thighs and legs are best), maybe one leg per 2 people
Mussels, as many as you want
Raw prawns with shell, as many as you want, I usually go for 3 king prawns per person
White fish fillet, very much optional
Squid, one small one per 2 people probably
Red or green pepper, 1 per 2 people
Tomatoes, 2 or 3 cherry tomatoes per person is probably enough, but more is also fine
Saffron, 6 strands per person?
Salt and pepper

Method

There are quite a few stages to this, and if you're organised you can do them overlapping one another but it can get a bit hectic.

Prawns Remove the heads and shells. Cover and boil the heads and shells for about 5 minutes or so. Strain through kitchen paper, keep this stock but throw away the heads and shells.
White fish Poach in a court bouillon (a simple one made of water with sliced onion and a bouqet garni of parsley, thyme and a bay leaf), reserve the cooking liquid and set aside the fish.
Mussels Cook these by placing them in a saucepan, putting in enough white wine to cover the bottom of the pan by a centimetre or two, tightly covering the pan and boiling for a few minutes until the shells open. Strain the wine through kitchen paper and set aside.
Squid I'm not really sure about the best way of cooking squid. I'm reliably informed it should be shallow fried very fast, or very slow cooked, to avoid it being rubbery. For this recipe, slow cooked isn't an option so frying it very fast in a little olive oil is best, maybe with some garlic and parsley.
Fish stock Combine the prawn stock, the cooking liquid of the white fish and the wine from the mussels. You could make a proper fish stock if you want, but this ad hoc one works pretty well for me.
Saffron Pour a small amount of boiling water over the saffron threads and leave for 5 to 10 minutes.
Vegetables Finely chop the onion and garlic, chop the pepper into small cubes or strips, and roughly chop the tomatoes.
Chicken Cut the meat off the bone and roughly chop. Keep the bones.
Putting it all together Soften the onion and garlic in some oil in a large pan (a paella dish if you have one). Add the chicken meat and bones, and cook for a little while. Add the tomatoes and cook for a little while, then the rice and cook, stirring to stop it from sticking, for a minute or two. Now add the fish stock and saffron to cover. Bring to the boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, until it is ready. If it gets too dry just add boiling water, if it looks like it's going to be too wet turn it up to a fast boil (but this should be avoided if possible). It should be a bit wetter than a risotto, but there shouldn't be any loose liquid at the end. 10 minutes before the end add the pepper. 5 minutes before the end add the prawns. A minute or two before the end add the mussels, fish and squid, and remove the chicken bones. Finally, throw in a good amount of chopped parsley. When it's ready, you can stick it under a hot grill, or in a preheated hot oven, for a few minutes to make the top a little bit crunchy. This seems to be traditional, but is, in my opinion, completely unnecessary.

Olga's old style baked custard

thesamovar — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 20:12:15 +0100

Origin: Olga

Beat 2 eggs. Boil 1/2 pt milk with 2 tablespoons sugar. Pour on eggs and mix. Put mixture in cooking dish - place in moderate oven for about 15 minutes.

Cuban black bean soup

thesamovar — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 20:11:54 +0100

Origin: various recipes on the internet

As I understand it, the basic recipe is:

Soften vegetables
Add chicken stock, beans (dried; soaked overnight and rinsed) and ham
Simmer for a few hours until the beans are tender
Add seasonings
Mash or blend

I fried some streaky bacon (4 rashers) in plenty of olive oil, then set this aside, added 4 onions and 3 sticks of celery chopped and softened them. I then added some chicken stock to cover (homemade, see an earlier entry on this blog, the soaked beans (500g), 150g of chopped ham, and simmered for about 2 hours. I then roasted a tablespoon of cumin seeds, pounded them in a pestle and mortar and added that, along with some salt and cayenne pepper, to the soup. Cooked for another 10 minutes. Finally, I partially pureed it using an electric hand blender. This left some whole beans as well as some roughly and finely pureed bits, a nice combination of textures.

In my opinion, it's best served with a slice of lemon in the bowl.