First autumn Sunday lunch of the season

We’ve been to Borough Market today (along with a flying visit to Tate Modern and tea at Laura’s followed by a trip to the top of St Paul’s – legs still aching) on the look out for scrumptious things for lunch with Alice and Rebecca tomorrow. Stillfield Farm had a chunky joint of rare breed pork and on our way out I spotted that Turnips had quinces. I’ve just spotted this Sophie Grigson recipe on the BBC good food site and it looks perfect. We brought some apples back from Sussex so I think a slightly quincy apple crumble might be good for pudding. I’ve also got a bag of slightly aging greengages left from last weekend so I think we might have to eat another greengage and almond tart tonight, sigh…Diets are only for week days.

Leek and tarragon tart

This is a muckabout of a couple of Tamasin Day Lewis’s lovely tart recipes, plus a bit of tinkering about. It’s good warm or cold, but not absolutely boiling hot.

Pastry made with 60g plain white flour, 60g rolled oats, 60g unsalted butter, a pinch of salt and 2 tablespoons of water (usual method – blast flour, oats, salt and diced cold butter in blender until like damp sand, then drizzle over the iced water and whizz again until it starts to come together. Put in the fridge for 30 mins – not longer as this pastry is a bit crumbly and rather a pain to work with).
5 big leeks (about 1.3kg), green and tough outer leaves and ends removed and sliced
90g unsalted butter
3 egg yolks
150ml double cream
small handful of chopped tarragon leaves
Salt, black pepper, nutmeg

Roll out the pastry into a 22cm/9inch shallow tart tin and put this back into the fridge. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/150 fan.
Sweat the leeks in the butter until they’re soft. Stir in the tarragon leaves. Let this mixture cool.
Whisk the cream and the egg yolks and season with salt, pepper and a small grating of nutmeg. Pour this into the cooled leeks and give it a good stir. Spread this mixture over the pastry case. Bake in the oven for 35-40 mins.

Koulibiac / coulibiac / koubiliac / coubiliac

I find it very strange that there seem to be four different ways to spell this fish pie. The c/k muddle I can understand, but the b and l rearranging seems very peculiar. Hey ho. This is great for feeding about 8. The first time I made it, the girls scoffed it, but the second time were more suspicious. There’s a bit of faffing, but it’s incredibly easy and looks good at the end. We had it on Boxing Day with a lot of green salad, a couple of sorts of slaw and a few boiled potatoes. I did two puds – some poached plums as I thought everyone must surely be stuffed to the gills by this point, and a Nigella Bakewell Tart. No one ate the plums! They were good for breakfast over the next few days though.

The recipe is a Sophie Grigson / Sarah Raven combo.

500-700g puff pastry (you’ll use about 500g, but have to buy it usually in 350g blocks unhelpfully. You can use extra bits for silly patterns – I couldn’t help myself on Boxing Day and covered it with stars – one day I’ll resist the urge to uber-bling Christmas)
1 egg beaten
30g butter, melted

Filling:
700g salmon
200g smoked haddock or cod
60g basmati rice
1 large onion, chopped
200g(ish) mushrooms – I used mixed dried porcini and button mushrooms – what I had
1/4 teaspoons turmeric
2 tablespoons each chopped parsley and dill
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped

Cook the fish – poach it or cook the salmon in a foil parcel with a few slices of lemon. When it’s just cooked, let it cool, then flake it.

Soak the dried mushrooms if you’re using them.

Cook the rice with the turmeric until just al dente then drain it well.

Cook the onion in the butter, then add the mushrooms and porcini and cook until all the water thrown out by the mushrooms has evaporated.

Mix the flaked salmon, onion/mushrooms, rice, herbs and hard-boiled eggs and season well.

Put a piece of baking paper onto a baking sheet. 2 options for building the thing, depending on whether you have one big block of pastry or 2 smaller ones:

1) 2 blocks: With one half of the pastry, roll out a rectangle about 35 x 25cm ish (but basically slightly smaller than the baking sheet). Gently with a knife, mark a border (ie don’t cut it, just give yourself a template for the filling, or if you want, ignore this bit entirely) about an inch and a half in from the edge all the way round, then pile in the filling on this inner rectangle. Pat in the filling to form a fat sausage. Pile it quite high and make it evenish. Roll out the second piece to the sameish size, though it will need to be wider to cover the sausage. Paint the border with egg wash, then place the top piece onto the bottom piece, pressing the edges down gently with the tines of a fork.

Option 2) 1 block – this is a bit tidier, but I can only find the posh pastry that comes in the right size v occasionally in Waitrose. Here, roll out one big rectangle, c35×45cm. Pile up the filling down the centre of the pastry again, patting it in the form a sausage. Lift the sides of the pastry up around it, brush the eggs with the beaten egg and press them together to join. Seal the ends too, using beaten egg and folding the joints towards the long central seam. Gentrly roll it over, so the joins are tucked away underneath.

Either way, make a few slashes in the top so the steam can escape. You can decorate it (if you’re a bit kitsch like me) with bits of pastry – criss-crosses, leaves, etc. Rest it for at least half an hour (but I “rested” it for 48 hours between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day and it was fine), brush the top with beaten egg, then bake in a pre-heated oven at 200/gas 6/fan 180 for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Just before serving, pour melted butter through the slits in the top.

If you want this to be extra delicious, it’s wonderful served with Hollandaise sauce. Serve it hot or cold.

Chicken with cider and tarragon

We had this last Friday night and it worked – I think because the chicken is part poached, part roasted.

1 chicken (happy natch)
3 smallish onions
2 cloves garlic
bunch of tarragon
2 bay leaves
Sprig of lemon thyme
1 lemon (or it might have been two, can’t remember)
Can of cider (think it was strongbow but again can’t remember – really ought to type this up immediately after the event)
Chunk of butter
Double cream
More tarragon

Preheat the oven to 180ish.

Put the chicken in an ovenproof large pan or casserole. Bruise the tarragon stalks (but gently, not aggressively – eek, sound like I’m getting dangerously into domestic violence territory) and stuff them inside the chicken along with the lemon thyme, bay and the lemon chopped into two but not squeezed at this stage. Chop the onions into quarters or eighths depending on their size. Chop the garlic into very small pieces. Plonk these around the chicken. Rub butter into the chicken skin, especially over the breast. Pour over about half of the can of cider. Put it in the oven. You’re going to cook it for whatever the appropriate roasting time for the weight of bird is. After about a third of the cooking time, baste the bird and give the onions a good stir. You might need to add some more cider. Do the same after about two thirds of the time. When the chicken is done (check juices clear etc), take the pan out of the oven and put the bird onto a carving plate and cover it with foil to keep warm. Add any remaining cider, squeeze the lemon halves from inside the bird into the oniony sauce and remove any thyme sprigs or bay leaves that have escaped. Put the pan on the hob and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and add a tablespoon or two of double cream and more freshly chopped tarragon.

I served this with some new potatoes tossed in a bit of lemon juice and curly parsley. I have a vague feeling there may have been a green vegetable but neither Edward nor I can remember for sure. Pudding was apple, blackberry and elderberry crumble with yellow cream, yum yum.

x

Jamie Oliver’s tomato base sauce

3tbsp olive oil
3 small onions, peeled and chopped
2 red peppers, chopped
3 courgettes, grated
3 carrots, grated
1 butternut squash, peeled and grated
1 large pinch dried oregano
2 bay leaves
6 x 400g tins plum tomatoes

Makes approximately three litres. Heat enough oil to cover the bottom of a large saucepan and fry onion, pepper, courgette, carrot and butternut squash for 5-10 minutes. Add oregano, bay leaves and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer for around 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, before blitzing until smooth in the blender.

Fish stew

Serves 6
1kg mixed fish fillets (e.g. hoki, swordfish, cod, snapper, orange roughy)
Pinch saffron
1 red onion. chopped
2 celery sticks, thinly sliced or a red pepper
4tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves
1tbsp coriander seeds
1tsp cumin seeds (or 0.5tsp ground)
2 bay leaves
1 fresh thyme sprig
2 tins chopped tomatoes
2 heaped tbsp tomato or sun-dried tomato purée
1 glass red wine
300ml fish stock or water
1-2 tbsp sugar
salt and pepper

Season fish and set aside. Infuse saffron with tbsp hot water in a small bowl. Fry onion and celery in olive oil. When almost done, add garlic, cumin, coriander, bay and thyme. Cook for two minutes. Add tomatoes and tomato purée and lemon zest. Boil for 10 minutes until thick. Add wine. Cook for minute or so, then add stock or water. Season. Simmer for five minutes. If it tastes sharp, add sugar to soften. Simmer for another five to 10 minutes. Add fish and saffron, stir, then simmer gently for five minutes.

Nut loaf

Pre-heat oven to 190°C.

Nut loaf ingredients

1oz butter
4oz mushrooms
1 peeled finely chopped onion
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
0.25 pt water
1 rounded tsp marmite
1tbsp wholemeal flour
1tsp mixed herbs
3oz ground cashewnuts
3oz ground almonds
6oz breadcrumbs
salt and pepper
2 small eggs
1lb loaf tin, lined with greaseproof paper and foil

Melt butter, fry onions and mushrooms until tender. Add tomatoes and cooked until they pulp. Add water to veg with marmite. Simmer for two minutes. Sprinkle flour. Mix crumbs and nuts and herbs. Add everything together. Add eggs, mix again and season. Put into tin, level off and press down well and cover with foil. Cook until risen at 190°C for 35-40 minutes.

Mushroom sauce
0.5oz margarine
Tbsp oil
Small onion
6oz mushroom finely chopped
Garlic
0.66tbsp sherry
1oz flour
0.75 pt stock
1tbsp soy sauce
salt and pepper

Fry onion, garlic and mushroom. Add sherry and cook. Sprinkle flour. Add stock and return to boil. Add soy sauce. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Add marjoram

Pesto Trapanese

6 garlic cloves
1tsp salt
Small bunch basil
100g ground almonds
50g roughly chopped almonds (for texture)
4 ripe tomatoes, skinned and chopped
125ml olive oil
Pepper

Whiz it all up in a food processor, pour onto hot pasta, serve. Delicious and quick. Amazingly garlicky

Spiced slow cooked lamb shanks

For 4. Heat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 5
4 lamb shanks (season with salt and pepper)
1tsp coriander seeds
1 small dried red chilli
1tbsp fresh rosemary
1tsp dried marjoram/oregano
1tbsp flour
1tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 large carrot, quartered and finely sliced
2 medium onions, finely chopped
6 sticks celery, quartered and finely chopped
2tbsp balsamic vinegar
170ml/6fl oz dry white wine
6 anchovy fillets
2×400g tins plum tomatoes
1 handful fresh basil or marjoram or parsley, chopped

1 Crush coriander seeds and chilli and mix with chopped rosemary and dried marjoram

2 Roll lamb in spice mixture, pressing in well. Dust lamb with flour

3 Heat oil in heavy oven proof pan and brown meat, then remove
4 Add garlic, carrot, celery, onions and pinch salt, and sweat until soft

5 Add balsamic vinegar and reduce to syrup

6 Add wine and simmer for two minutes
7 Add anchovies and tinned tomatoes, keep whole. Shake pan and add lamb
8 Bring to boil, put on a lid or foil seal and simmer in oven at 180°C/350°F/Gas 5 for 1.5 hours. Remove lid. Cook for further 0.5 hour.
9 Skim off any fat. Check seasoning. Stir in herbs. Serve

Goes well with mash, esp if part parsnip mash, and touch of parmasan.
Or couscous

Spanish Lentils with Chorizo and chick peas

250g dried Pardina lentils
1 litre chicken or veg stock
1 tin of chick peas
6 shallots sliced
1 red pepper, cut into chunks
2 garlic cloves sliced
3/4 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp chilli
3/4 tsp ground cumin
olive oil
sea salt and black pepper
15 slices of chorizo
handful of fresh coriander, chopped
handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, chopped

Bring stock to the boil and add the Pardina lentils and simmer for c.20 minutes.

Fry the shallots, red pepper, garlic, paprika, chilli and cumin in a little olive oil until nicely brown.

Drain the lentils, add a splash of olive oil and the drained, rinsed chick peas, return to the heat and warm through, stirring continuously so they don’t stick.

 Carefully mix everything together, check the seasoning and serve – NB it’s also really delicious cold the next day for lunch.