Author Archives: chriswardpress

Recipe: Purée de pomme de terre – mashed potato

20 Wednesday Aug 2014

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Ingredients1 kilo floury potatoes250g-500g butter (yes, half a kilo)250ml-500ml milk (basically you want your milk and butter together to weigh half what the potatoes weigh)10g saltMethodFirst, put down that potato peeler. That’s it, put it down. On the floor. Now kick it towards me. That’s right, nice and easy now.Please. Stop peeling your potatoes. It’s no good for them and definitely no good for you. OK?Right. Next, verify that your potatoes are the same size. You need to do this so that they all cook at the same speed, OK? Titchy potatoes will be cooked before the giant ones. It sounds obvious now you read it, but it isn’t unless you know it. Also, while it’s sometimes acceptable to cut up potatoes so the bits are the same size it’s not recommended from a flavour point of view – the cut surface allows water to penetrate the potato and spoil the flavour (OK, only a bit but we’re going for the best ever mashed potato here so nuances count).Now the best kind of potato for this are Pommes Rattes. Usually you find these in fairly small sizes, about the length of your thumb, but bigger ones are best and, most importantly, peel.Yes, peel. You will, eventually, peel these potatoes but not now, calm down big boy.Put the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with water, add the salt. I’m always being asked how much salt – well, 10-12 grammes per litre of water is the official amount. A good three-fingered pinch of cooking salt – not table salt – is the generic, about-how-much quantity. Do use cooking salt, by the way, the iodine in table salt doesn’t do cooking flavours any favours. Remember, we’re talking nuances here – but three nuances make a wodge and four wodges make a heap of difference.It’s going to take about 20-25 minutes to cook the potatoes, so spend the time lightly melting the butter and warming the milk in whatever proportions you like. I go for 50/50, an assertion which is enough to start a fight in the bar of most French cookery schools. Bring up ‘bouillabaisse’ if you fancy a knife fight.When they’re cooked – test with the point of a fine-bladed knife, not the prongs of a fork – strain them and peel them. Straight away. So prepare to burn your hands – or hold them in a tea towel, your choice. You’ll find that after a little practice you can peel off just the very outer layer of the skin, the coloured part, between your thumb and a knife blade. You’ll also need to cut out any major blemishes and marks.Now instead of mashing with a potato masher, either use a moulin a legumes, a vegetable mill, or a potato ricer. The moulin looks like a conical metal bowl with a mesh base and a stirring paddle in the middle – feed veg into the top and purée comes out of the bottom. Every French house has one, knock on any door and ask to see theirs – they’ll be happy to show theirs off and explain its use in great detail. Honest.The potato ricer looks like a giant garlic press – pop a potato in the top, squish down the press bit and purée comes out of the bottom.Whichever you use, let the purée fall into a dry saucepan. When you’ve puréed all the potatoes, set it on a medium heat and stir with a wooden spoon or spatula to dry the mix as much as possible. This is one of the great secrets of great mash – dry the spuds after cooking them.When they’re dry enough (this, happily, normally coincides with the moment when you get bored and/or tired of the drying process), start adding the butter a little at a time, now beating the mix with a decent-sized baloon whisk. Heretics choose to use electric mixers at this point but they will burn in hell later for their sins.Once the butter’s all been added, start adding the milk a little at a time. Be more careful now, this is where you’re going for your chosen consistency – which should be a little runnier than you think it needs to be. Keep whisking furiously all the time, and continue to beat your mixture when all the milk’s been added, always over your medium heat. It’s this portion of the event more than anything which will give unctuosity to the final result.You also need to whisk like mad to emulsify the mixture – potatoes and this much milk and cream are not an entirely stable mix. They won’t go bang – that’ll be your stomach after eating your fourth portion – but they will start to separate eventually.This method is largely based on that of the great French chef Joel Robuchon, who made purée de pomme de terre one of his signature dishes. Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTTvZ2PW96k for all the gory details.

Recipe: Tarte au riz à la Normande

20 Wednesday Aug 2014

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Ingredients1 pastry case1 rice pudding1 Crème anglaise1 apple tartMethodAssemble in the above order, bottom to top. Eat. Burp. Lie down swearing you’ll never, ever eat so much ever again.Ha ha ha ha!OK, joke over because this pudding is No Joke. When I wrote the chapter about cooking it, I called it “Now THAT’S a pudding!” and I wasn’t joking. It is effectively an apple tart on top of a rice pudding which you’ve enriched with Crème anglaise. No chantilly cream needed for this one.OK real ingredients now1 ready-made pastry case (see recipe after Chapter 15, taste aux pommel)500 ml Crème anglaise1.2kg apples750ml milk150g pudding (round) rice25g butter150g sugar1-2 vanilla pods10g cinnamonYou need quite a deep pastry case for this recipe, say 4-5 cms deep – so use a deep dish and don’t trim the pastry as you would for an apple tart. And first, go read the Apple Tart recipe after chapter 15 – this recipe is essentially that with a rice pudding slipped inside it. Oh, you need to read the Crème anglaise recipe after chapter 14, since you’ll need that too. OK? Finished? Right.Blind bake your pastry case and make your Crème anglaise. Now boil the milk, sugar and split vanilla pod together and put the pan next to your rice pudding making saucepan. Yes, you’re going to make this on the stovetop as if you were making a savoury risotto. Except it’s a sweet one. OK? Got over that? Right.So, same procedure as for a regular risotto. Melt the butter in the saucepan, add the rice and stir until the rice looks transparent. Then add the hot milk mix a small ladleful at a time, waiting until each ladleful has been absorbed before adding the next. You’re going to be here for 15-20 minutes so by all means listen to The Archers on the radio. And a bit of Front Row too, if you like.When the rice pudding is cooked thoroughly and nice and thick, stir in the Crème anglaise – add this a ladleful or two at a time, you don’t want it to be too runny. Pour this into your pastry case and chill it, so it sets. Spread on top the apple compote as in the apple tart recipe, and finish by spreading your sliced apples on top of that – again as in the apple tart recipe after chapter 15.Finish off with the apricot jam and chill it until you’re ready to serve. Probably wisest not to serve a huge main course and perhaps you should skip the starter this time too, OK? Just saying. It is, I promise you, delicious. But filling…

Recipe: Tuiles aux amandes

20 Wednesday Aug 2014

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Ingredients200g chopped or crushed almonds200g icing sugar50g plain flour2 whole eggs2 egg whites50g butterA little vanilla essence if you likeSome butter to grease your baking trayMethodAlmond Tuiles are excellent for a couple of reasons. First, they fast really excellent. Secondly, and most importantly, they give you Top Bragging Rights. “Mmm, these are lovely” your guests will exclaim upon eating them with whatever cheap dessert you’re trying to dress up a bit. “Where did you buy them?”“The Almond Tuiles?” you’ll reply with initial capital letters. “Oh those, I made them this morning.”Do your best to keep a smug grin off your face and don’t, whatever you do, explain how simple they are to make.So, first you melt the butter and allow it to cool. While it’s chilling you mix together the almonds, sugar and flour and then the eggs (whole and whites) which you should lightly beat together with a fork first. Now add in the cooled, melted butter (although not so cooled it’s hard again. Duh) and the vanilla essence if you want it.Allow the mixture to rest for half an hour in a covered bowl, then put well-spaced spoonfuls onto a greased baking tray. I use silicone liners called Silpats in some parts of the world, marvelous things to which nothing will stick. Flatten the piles down with the back of a moistened fork, making sure they’re in nice, regular, I-can-pretend-these-are-shop-bought shapes and cook at 220C for around 5 minutes. You need to keep an eye on them because they go from ‘not ready’ to ‘call the fire brigade’ in about 8 seconds – a good excuse to clean the glass in the oven door.They also continue cooking for a short while after you take them out of the oven, so you need to take them out just before they’re done. Easy.Also, when you take them out of the oven they’re quite malleable – you can bend them over a glass or rolling pin to take on pleasing shapes. If you’re quick, you can roll them into a cone and drop them into a champagne flute to make nice cones for, say, your expensive pretend-it’s-homemade sorbets.I promise not to tell.

Recipe: Blanquette de veau à l’ancienne

20 Wednesday Aug 2014

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Ingredients

1.5 kilos collar or shoulder of veal, cut into reasonable chunks

200g each of carrots, onions, leeks

100g celery

2 cloves

1 bouquet garni (leek leaf wrapped around herb stalks and a bay leaf)

2 litres veal stock (see recipe after chapter 5)

For the velouté you need:

60g butter

60g flour (preferably cornflour)

1 litre of cooking juice

20cl cream

2 egg yolks

And for your garniture à l’ancienne:

250 white button mushrooms

40g butter

Half a lemon

250g small pearl onions

A little sugar

Salt and white pepper

Method

Old-style – à l’ancienne. This means that every single French person you will ever meet knows exactly how this should be cooked and, above all, how it should taste: Delicious! Their grandmothers and mothers made it for them when they were children and so you’d better get it right, i.e. exactly how they remember it tasting back when they were kids. So, no pressure then if you’re cooking for a French person.

If you’re cooking for anyone else, it just needs to be all white. All right?

So, trim the meat and then blanch it for five minutes in boiling water, removing scum and draining carefully. While this is simmering, cut your vegetables into large pieces – half or quarter the carrots and large onions. They’re going to be cooked for a while. Stick the cloves into a piece of onion so you can find them later on.

Put these vegetables and the meat back into the (rinsed) saucepan, cover with stock (or just water if you can’t be bothered to make any) and simmer for 45-50 minutes, until tender.

While this is cooking, make your roux – put the butter and flour into a saucepan and stir with a wooden spoon until the butter melts and mixes with the flour, allow to cook out gently for a few minutes.

Next, cook the small onions and button mushrooms in a little water and olive oil (not enough to cover them) with a disc of greaseproof paper, so they don’t colour. About five minutes should do.

When the meat’s cooked, remove the cooking juices, strain them and use to make your velouté with the roux sauce – add the juices little by little to the roux so you don’t get lumps, stirring constantly. Your stick mixer is your friend if you do get lumps. Then, mix together the egg yolks and cream and add them, off the heat, to the velouté mix, stirring all the time. Pass through a sieve and pour over the meat in your serving dish. It should all look perfectly white – no colour allowed. OK?

Recipe: Fond brun de poulet – brown chicken stock

20 Wednesday Aug 2014

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Ingredients1 or more chicken carcasses with its giblets, if you have them (keep the liver apart – that’s some good eating right there)Per chicken carcass you will need:100g carrots, roughly chopped100g onion, roughly chopped200g tomatoes OR 20g concentrated tomato pasteBouquet garni (herb stalks, bay leaf, leek leaf wrapped together)1.5 litres waterMethod‘Brown’ because you roast the carcass(es) first. If you don’t roast the carcasses it becomes white chicken stock. That simple.So, break up the carcass(es) and colour them in an oven at 180C, while preparing your GA – Garniture Aromatique. This means just chop up the vegetables, then add them for the last five minutes of your 25 minute roasting of the bones.Put the whole lot, plus the giblets, into a suitable saucepan, cover with water, bring to a boil and allow to simmer very gently for one and a half to two hours. I quite often drain off the cooking liquid after an hour and re-cover with more water, then mix together the two lots at the end and boil it to reduce by half. It seems to give a more concentrated taste than just using one lot of water.And then that’s it, you now have a couple of litres of chicken stock. Usually I freeze it in half-litre portions and put some into ice cube trays. These I later decant into plastic bags so I can just add a little stock to a soup or sauce as necessary without defrosting a whole half litre. It really does add Scrummy and Yummy to your recipes and is well worth the effort.

Recipe: Tarte aux pommes

20 Wednesday Aug 2014

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Ingredients(Pretend this is a list of the ingredients you need to make pastry) OR a packet of ready-made pastry1.2 kilos of apples1 lemon40g sugar140g Apricot jam1 beaten eggMethodOK, let’s cut to the chase. There are three main parts to making a successful French-looking apple tart; the neatly-sliced and beautifully-arranged apples; the smear of apple compote underneath the apples; and the pastry underneath that.I can’t make pastry. Well, I can but only on the understanding that it’s brick-like appearance, texture and taste will be called ‘pastry’ for the purposes of this entertainment. So, in fact, I don’t make pastry. I buy it.There, I said it. You can now buy very excellent pastry made with butter and all that other good stuff for less than a euro a go, ready rolled-out and shaped to fit into a standard tart dish. If you wish to make pastry and like doing so, you already know how to do that better than I do so I leave ‘making your own pastry’ as an exercise for the reader. OK? OK.So, apples. Peel and core them. Cut half into small chunks and stew them in a little water for 15-30 minutes, until they’re just mushy. The small amount of water you add is to stop them burning on the bottom of your saucepan – you don’t need a lot, just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Add the juice from half the lemon and the sugar.While this is cooking, blind bake the pastry in your tart case – push the pastry into the corners and side of the case, trim off the top, fill with your choice of cheap dried beans/expensive ceramic baking beads and cook for 20 minutes or so. Allow it to cool a little then brush with the beaten egg and pop it back into the hot oven for five minutes or so.While the pastry’s baking and the apples are stewing, cut the other half of the apples into 2-3 millimeter slices. Easy enough? Ha! OK, I’ve done it a LOT so I can do it in about three minutes with a gigantic chaffy-looking knife. You? Maybe not.So, get out that expensive mandoline you bought and use that to slice your apple instead. Once you’ve peeled and cored the apple, cut it in half vertically and then just slice it on the mandoline to an appropriate thickness. And then cut the slices in half vertically and put them into a bowl of water with half the lemon whose juice you’ve squeezed into the water – this will stop them going brown and ugly.So with your compote and pastry cooked and apple sliced, start the assembly. Spread the compote onto the base and then arrange the apple slices attractively on top. Start on the outside and place them in slightly overlapping, concentric circles until you get to the middle. You may have too many/too few slices – just re-arrange as necessary. You’ll also have a few small slices from the edge of your apple – use these to fill in little gaps. The goal is to make it look as regular as possible.Finally, warm the apricot jam and brush it over the top of the apple slices – this will stop them going brown and give the whole thing a nice, professional shine.And, above all, when you serve it moan about how long you spent making this bloody pastry no I don’t buy it only wimps and fools buy pastry pastry is easy you should try it. OK?

Recipe: Crème anglaise

20 Wednesday Aug 2014

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Ingredients1 litre milk8 − 10 egg yolks200-250g sugar1 (or more) vanilla pod(s)MethodThis is not, as I repeatedly tell my students now, English Cream. Or custard. Custard is something else entirely more horrible, powdery, icky and comforting.English cream simply doesn’t exist in the way they mean it, so get over that one.So, Crème anglaise is easy once, like so many things, you’ve already done it a hundred times or more. The secret – actually this can’t really be a secret any more, I’ve said it plenty of times already – is preparation. Get all your ingredients out and in place, separate your egg yolks, cut your vanilla pod in half, weigh your sugar all before you start to cook. This one depends somewhat on timing and concentration so turn off the Archers and pay attention.Put the milk and the vanilla pod (scrape the seeds into the milk – they look nice but most of the flavour actually comes from the pod itself) on to boil first. While it’s heating – keep half an eye on it – mix together the egg yolks and sugar with a whisk. The different quantities will give you a thicker (more egg yolks) and/or sweeter (more sugar) sauce. You need to whisk them until they reach the ribbon stage – that is, when you dribble the mixture from your whisk over the surface of the sauce it leaves a trace that looks a bit like a ribbon which takes a few seconds to disappear. Also, it goes whiter than at the start – this is why the French name for this state is called ‘blancher’, whiten. And whatever you do keep whisking, never leave the sugar and egg yolks alone – they’ll ‘burn’ and the sugar crystals will become insoluble as they absorb part of the egg yolk into a ‘skin’ around them.It should take a couple of minutes, and is more or less the time it takes the milk to boil. When the milk does boil, pour HALF of it onto the egg/sugar mixture all in one go, all the time whisking away like mad. If you don’t stir it’ll coddle and go lumpy, so STIR.Whisk it for a few seconds, then pour this mixture back into the milk saucepan, still stirring (always stir in the vessel into which your pouring, not the other way round).Switch to a wooden spoon and reduce the heat under the saucepan so it heats but won’t boil the mixture. You’re now looking to get to about 85C-90C – about the point where the foam which forms as soon as you mix everything together disappears. Also, when you draw a finger across the back of your wooden spoon it should leave a clear mark which the Crème anglaise doesn’t rush to re-fill. Heat it any higher – or boil it – and the proteins will coagulate, giving lumps.When you’re satisfied, turn off the heat. If you’re not serving it immediately, KEEP STIRRING until it’s cooled right down – you can put your saucepan in a sink of cold, even iced water if you like. If you just leave it then the lumps will arrive, with friends.If, because you haven’t paid attention, you do get lumpy custard just attack it with your stick blender and/or push it through a fine sieve. If you do want to keep it, put some cling film directly onto the surface to stop a skin forming. Back in the olden days we’d pour a little melted butter on the surface to do the same thing, but this is what is professionally known as ‘A right bloody faff’, so go with the cling film.And leave your vanilla pod in the Crème anglaise as long as you can, it’ll keep on improving the flavour. You can replace the vanilla with other flavorings – mint, coffee, caramel, whatever. For leaf infusions like mint or lemon verbena, put the leaves into the milk, boil it and then let them infuse for as long as you can away from the heat – an hour or two is good, overnight is excellent.Right. No excuses now – no more packet custards, OK?

Recipe: Velouté Dubarry – cauliflower soup

20 Wednesday Aug 2014

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Ingredients1kg cauliflower160g leeks (white bits only)80g flour2 litres veal stock (see chapter 5 recipe)For the finishing touch you’ll also need:200ml thick cream4 egg yolksA little flourA few cauliflower floretsMethodSo, despite what you may think a velouté, in soup terms, is – and I’m quoting from the official recipe book here – a “Particularly unctuous soup made with a base of veal velouté (white veal stock and a white roux sauce) or a Béchamel sauce in which the appropriate vegetable (cauliflower, celery, cucumber, asparagus, lettuce, etc.) has been cooked. They are finished AT THE END ONLY with cream or a mixture of cream and egg yolks.Now you know.And why DuBarry? Well, Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry, was the final ‘favourite’ of King Louis XV, who was guillotined a few years after the French revolution in 1793. It was her cook Louis Signot who created the dish and named it after her and, ever since, Dubarry means ‘with cauliflower’. That’s how it works in France – when you’re really famous they name a food after you – cf Brillat-Savarin and Peche Melba.First, prepare your vegetables: break the cauliflower down into small florets and chop up the leek finely, sweating off the latter in a little of the butter and then adding the flour when they’re transparent. This is your roux, which you cook for three to four minutes before removing it from the heat and adding, little by little, your boiling veal stock, stirring continuously. Then add the cauliflower and salt and simmer gently, covered, for 40-45 minutes.Prepare the cream and/or egg yolks by just beating them together (or just open the cream if you’re not using egg yolks – they do add to the unctuosity, though). When the cauliflower’s cooked, mix it with your €9.99 Lidl stick mixer/£199.95 KitchenAid model (this one will make your soup 20 times more unctuous because it’s 20 times more expensive), re-boil the soup (‘cause your mixer’s covered with nasty bacteria) and then, away from the heat, stir in your cream and/or egg yolks delicately, as the official recipe says.Boil again because, hey, pass through a Chinois fine sieve, pour it into your soup dish, add your reserved cauliflower florets as decoration and, if you like, some chervil and voila. The best cauliflower soup you’ve ever tasted. Guaranteed.And, obviously, you call it ‘Velouté du Barry’ to your guests and then look surprised, even mildly, smugly horrified, when they admit to not knowing it’s really cauliflower soup.

Recipe: Aumonieres Normandes and crepes

19 Tuesday Aug 2014

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Ingredients1 litre milk450g plain flour (type 45 or 55)100g sugar (optional)10g salt6 whole eggs200g butter500g apples10g cinnamonMethodDon’t say pancakes. Pancakes are what you eat with maple syrup for breakfast. These are crepes – light, lacy and French.So. Peel, core and large-dice your apples, fry them until lightly coloured in half the butter and sugar and all the cinnamon. Try not to eat too much of your apple filling, otherwise you’ll have no filling. Duh.For the crepes, there are two schools of thought on how to mix your batter; there’s the Delia way, where you make wells and diligently add eggs and then the milk little by little, always ensuring that the mixture is smooth and lump-free; or there’s the expedient method, where you put everything in the bowl and beat the hell out of it with a giraffe – a stick or hand-blender, as civilians call them. (Cooks call them giraffes in France because they have long necks).I go for the second option because no matter how carefully you do the first method, you still get lumps. So reach for the hand blender anyway. Note, the butter should be melted first before adding it to the mixture. The official recipe calls for this to be beurre noisette, hazelnut-coloured butter heated in a pan on the stove. I think this adds an unwanted, erm, nutty flavour so just melt the butter in the microwave without hazelnutting it.And then, again contrary to Delia, leave the mixture to sit for half an hour or more. This allows the grains of flour to be better absorbed and the gluten to do its thing. Really, it’s science.Now, cooking. You may come from the school whose first pancake is always stuck to the pan and thrown away. You are too impatient. Put the pan on to heat and leave it. A long time. Like, five minutes, at the correct temperature to cook your pancakes, rather than burn them. The reason your pancakes stick is because you don’t let your pan heat up enough. This is the reason many things stick in your kitchen, in fact.I brush on a little sunflower oil or butter or a mixture, using a rolled- and folded-up paper towel dipped into a small bowl of oil, wait a second, then add most of a 5cl ladle of batter, swirling it around the pan and quickly pouring off any extra if necessary. Don’t make your crepes too thick, that’s just not cool.Let it cook for a couple of minutes and then use your spatula to lift one edge to see if it’s browned nicely, then turn it over. Usually this is about a minute or two after all the batter has set. Cook it for a minute more, until the second side is browned enough, and then remove it from the heat.I run two pans at once, because I’m organised, it looks cool and it saves time. Then when I have my stack of a couple of dozen crepes I reheat them in the microwave and serve them.For today’s recipe, you should put your crepe on a plate, add a couple of spoonfuls of the apple mix and fold the edges in to make a triangle or four-cornered hat shape, then reheat and add chantilly cream.Tasty.

Recipe: Petits pois a la française

18 Monday Aug 2014

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Ingredients1kg peas100g lettuce100g spring onions200g lardons or diced baconButterSugarSaltMethodIn the same way that a l’anglaise means cooking whatever in boiling, salted water, cooking something a la française means adding bacon bits, specifically lardons.Now, French people believe, incorrectly, that lardons straight out of the packet are already cooked and that there’s no need for any further cooking. This is, of course, completely wrong. Bacon bits need to be fried off; not, it has to be said, as much as most English people think – that’d be silly and a waste of taste and flavour. But a bit at least.First, cook your peas for whatever is the recommended time on the packet in boiling, salted water (bring the water to the boil first then add the peas). Or if they’re fresh give them 12-15 minutes.While the peas are cooking in a shallow saucepan, fry off your bacon bits. At the same time cook the spring onions very lightly – about five minutes in just enough water to cover them, with a little salt and sugar.Shred the lettuce. Do this by rolling the leaves in bunches of 3 or 4 and slicing them into Swiss roll slices, only thinner. Say, half a centimeter.Time it carefully and as you strain the peas the bacon and onions will be cooked. Don’t completely strain the peas – add them and a little of their cooking water to the pan where the bacon’s cooking.Add the lettuce, onions and the butter and sugar to the pan and scrape the bottom of the pan to get all the bacon-y goodness into the mix. Shake the pan a little and simmer for a few seconds until all the cooking water has evaporated and the peas, bacon and lettuce are nicely coated with yumminess.