Simple slow baked potatoes with smoked garlic

Not quite done with the garlic fest after visiting the Garlic Farm and the Isle of Wight, I had to go and use some more of that lovely smoked garlic butter for this melt in the mouth, potato bake.

Very simple to do and very, very tasty.

250 grams of small potatoes, sliced on the round
50 grams of smoked garlic butter
50 mls of veg stock or water

Pre-heat the oven to 175c.

In a medium sized oven proof dish, spoon a layer of garlic butter on the bottom and add your first layer of sliced potato.

Dot some more garlic butter on the top of these and then repeat the layering process until all your potatoes are used up.

Add your stock or water and cover tightly with kitchen foil and place in the oven for an hour and 20 minutes.

My thanks again to the Garlic Farm in the Isle of Wight for my inspiration.

Other garlic recipes include:

Smoked garlic butter
Lamb with smoked garlic butter sauce
Garlic pork with pinto beans
Black Olive & Garlic Salsa Verde

Lamb with smoked garlic butter sauce

With the inspiration of the Garlic Farm still reverberating in the my head, this gorgeous lamb dish was an obvious use for the smoked garlic butter that I had made earlier in the afternoon.

You will need to marinate your lamb with onions, a small sour green pepper (someone has suggested that these may be a mild chilli - please see the picture and send in your suggestions), a crushed bay leaf,  a little oil and dried thyme.  Leave aside for a few hours.

Ingredients:

• 400 grams of cubed marinated lamb
• two large red peppers/paprikas chopped
• two medium white paprikas (or yellow peppers) chopped
• two large sour or two medium green peppers chopped
• 100 mls of dry sherry
• 150 mls of water
• two level tablespoons of plain flour
• 30 grams of chopped parsley
• three generous dessert spoons of smoked garlic butter

Place the chopped peppers in the bottom of a large oven proof dish and pre-heat the oven to 175c.

In a shallow pan, brown the lamb, add the smoked garlic butter and flour and the dry sherry and then bring to boil.

Add this mixture over the vegetables.  Add the parsley next as evenly as you can and then deglaze the pan with the water and then add this also.  Cover tightly with kitchen foil and bake for an hour and 40 minutes, checking just after the hour to ensure it hasn't gone dry.


At the end of cooking time, turn off the oven and leave for a further 10-15 minutes.

Other garlic dishes:

Smoked garlic butter
Simple slow baked potatoes with smoked garlic butter
Garlic pork with pinto beans
Black Olive & Garlic Salsa Verde

Smoked garlic butter

After a truly inspiring visit to the Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight this month, I couldn't wait to make this incredibly adaptable flavoured butter.  Simple to the last, it can be used in so many ways.

• Take eight large juicy cloves of smoked garlic
• 50 grams of chopped flat leaf parsley
• 25 mls of good extra virgin olive oil
• 100 grams of softened salted butter

Whizz these through in a food processor, the olive oil gives the butter a fluid consistency and, when refridgerated and then brought back up to "soften consistency, allows the mixture to be re-emulsified to its creamy texture much more easily.

If you don't have a food processor, crushing the garlic and chopping the parsley finely is just as good, you need a good strong blending arm instead.

My thanks to the Garlic Farm for such a lovely morning.

Baked Mediterranean Asparagus with Parmesan

This is a great "reserve" dish.  Equally good as a starter for a dinner party or, as I normally serve it, a supper dish over fresh tagliatelle.

The fresh favours in this dish really do lift you up after a long day.  Great for that feel good factor on a rainy day!

For two people:

Use a portion of my black olive salsa verde or the more classic green variety, either is a great base for this dish.

• Twelve to sixteen asparagus spears, trimmed and blanched briefly
• Two large ripe tomatoes, thinly sliced across the lateral
• A couple of tablespoons of freshly grated parmesan or your favourite hard cheese of choice

On a lined shallow baking tray, spread half your black olive or classic salsa verde and then place your spears on top, adding remaining amount on top.

Place in the top third of a medium to hot oven (190-200c) for 10-12 minutes.

On your serving plates, if using these as a starter, arrange tomato slices.  Add half the hot asparagus on top with a generous sprinkling of cheese.

If serving with tagliatelle, chop the tomatoes roughly and add to the drained pasta so that it is warmed through just before putting on the plate. Lay the asparagus on the top of the pasta, adding the cheese to taste.

This is also extremely good on some toasted rye bread.

Preserving Summer - Passata

Passata, a word that, for me at least, evokes the feeling and smells of a preserved Summer.

A classic Passata, I'm told, includes tomatoes, onion, a little garlic and basil.  Other suggestions leaving out garlic and basil to keep it "plain".  Other additions to mix include red peppers, celery, oregano or bay (instead of the basil).  I have also made it in smaller batches, with chilli, additional garlic and dill.  But label your jars or freezer boxes accurately!

The Passata that I make, is more inclined towards the former classic rather than the paired down version and I do tend to add a little more onion than is, I gather, the norm.  For each five measures of tomatoes and I use one measure of onion.  I also use celery as I think it complements the basil very well.

Another difference is that I tend to freeze mine rather than bottle it.  But the method of actually making it remains the same.

For about two and half litres of Passata the following quantities should be sufficient, but if you like to make your Passata slightly thicker, obviously the remaining quantity will be less than this.

• 5 Kg of ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 Kg of onions, roughly chopped
• 100 grams of celery
• 5 good sized cloves of garlic, chopped
• 60 grams of basil
• 25 mls of good olive oil

In a deep pan, a preserving pan is ideal, add the onions and oil over a gentle heat.  You are aiming to release the onion's own juices without them evaporating.  As the onions start to soften, add the chopped garlic and continue to cook gently, being careful not to burn the mixture.

Add the tomatoes and mix thoroughly and allow to warm through, add a little water if your tomatoes are not quite the end of season - so this assists in their pulping down.  Once warmed through, you can turn up the heat to moderate and allow tomatoes to come to a gentle simmer.  Keep watching though, if the heat is too high it will catch.  If this starts to happen, take the pan off the heat immediately, add half a cup of cold water, mix thoroughly and return to the heat, but on a lower setting.

Keep simmering until the mixture is reduced by a quarter and a third and then add your basil.  Keep on a low simmer until the basil has completely softened (stalks and all) and then take off the heat and cover and leave to cool.

After about 30 minutes, and using either a sieve or a mouli work the mixture to a thin paste.  Using a mouli is very quick, but a sieve will need a little more patience.  At this point you will have an idea as to whether you want to reheat and reduce further, or to leave as is.  This is also the point where you taste the Passata for seasoning. 

Seasonings:

• Black Pepper
• Salt
• Cayenne Pepper
• Chilli
• Paprika

Using these seasonings for your Passata is completely up to you.  I prefer not to add any of the above with only one exception, Paprika, and this is only if I make a very thick Passata and intend to use it more as tomato concentrate, rather than a Passata. 

Once you have your initial puree, simply pour back into a clean pan and add your seasoning(s) and heat again to either reduce the liquid further or to bring up to a sufficient temperature to bottle up (in sterile jars/bottles in a similar way to jam making).

Personally, for this amount I normally add one full teaspoon of sweet paprika and I reduce the sieved amount by a further quarter or so, just enough so I have enough Passata to fill two 1 litre jars or (when cooled) four 500 ml freezer boxes.  Any surplus, I use on the day for pasta.

Garlic Pork with Pinto beans

This is my first late Summer, early Autumn, dish and one that has a number of really good attributes. 

 

The favours in this dish hit you on so many levels.  Try for the large chops or thick steaks for this dish as the portions really do work out wonderfully for four people.   No additional vegetables are needed as a main course and, as this is relatively low maintenance recipe, this is not only great for a supper dish after work (as you can cook it the previous day and then re-heat) but also a great reserve for dinner parties as, unerringly, this is quite a light dish so can be twined with starters, a fish course and a dessert if you feel so inclined.

As you can see from the photographs, I've used Fragata olives and capers for this dish.  As the cooking time is quite long, the waxy quality of black olives helps them hold their shape even when sliced.  The capers are a great way to cut through the earthy favours of the beans and these particular ones were large and juicy!  Always a good thing.

The garlic I've used this time around is elephant garlic and the cloves are huge!  Brilliant in this dish, if you can get a hold of them, as they have milder, almost sweeter flavour, so I've used two.

I've also used what I've knicknamed sour peppers (which are pictured separately), please let me know if you have the proper name for them.  Helpfully, they are described as "Eastern" peppers in my local market.  As my descriptive knickname suggests, they taste sour, rather than bitter and with their seeds they are actually a little spicy.

The reason I've added the Tarragon in two batches during the initial cooking of the vegetables is that it seems to give a deeper flavour.  The addition of sherry or vermouth to the stock just prior to putting this in the oven is optional, but this also enhances the tarragon and is well worth it.

• 1 Kg of Pork, ideally four large chops or thick cut steaks on the bone
• 700 grams of cooked Pinto Beans
• Six plump garlic cloves, halved and sliced thinly
• One medium onion, chopped roughly
• Two medium red paprika, chopped roughly
• One medium white paprika, chopped roughly
• Two medium "sour" peppers, chopped roughly
• 50 grams of black olives, sliced
• Three good teaspoons of capers
• 15 grams of tarragon, roughly chopped
• 500 mls of veg/chicken stock
• 50 mils of dry sherry (or vermouth)
• 25 mls of extra virgin olive oil

In a deep oven/hob dish (at least five litre capacity), warm the oil through on a medium to high heat.  Brown the pork on each side.  You will need to do this in two batches.  Put aside.

Turn down the heat at notch or two and add the chopped vegetables, and only adding half the tarragon  Cook until softened and then stir in the capers and olives and remaining tarragon and stir thoroughly.  Then add the cooked beans and again, stir thoroughly, ensuring the mixture is warmed through completely. 

Then, take two thirds of mixture out of the dish and place the two of the chops/steaks on a base of the mixture, adding a further third of the mixture on top and then adding the final two chops/steaks on top these.  Using the remaining bean mixture to finish off the layers.

Take the stock and sherry (or vermouth) and pour gently into the dish.  Depending upon the dish itself, you may need to add a further 100 ml of water just to bring the levels up to just above the top layer of pork.

Cover the dish and place in a medium to hot oven at 180c for an hour and 30 minutes.

Again, many thanks to Fragata for the above ingredients, please see go and visit them at http://www.facebook.com/FragataUK/ or fragata.co.uk

Late Summer Lentils with liver / or toasted Halloumi

Puy lentils, one carb that can be cooked simply and still instills extravagance to me - or possibly this may be the romantic in me that associates these little green jewels with the South of France.

One of my tastiest suppers which takes a few nods from difference recipes over the past number of years (I won't admit how many) and which, is simply great at this time of year with the end of season celery and fennel.

 

The lentils:

• 150 grams of puy lentils
• 200 grams of roughly chopped fennel and celery (in equal proportions), include the tops of the celery if available, also roughly chopped
• One medium onion, roughly chopped
• Two large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 20 grams of finely chopped parsley
• 1 teaspoon of dried thyme
• Water/vegetable stock to cover
• 25 grams of butter
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil

Heat the butter and oil in a shallow pan and add the vegetables and herbs and cook slowly until softened. 

Add the lentils and mix together with the vegetables until each jewel is glistening with the juices in the pan.  Turn the heat up and add your liquid, enough to cover the mixture to about a half to three quarters of a cm above the surface.  Bring to just below the oil and then simmer slowly until cooked.  Add more liquid if you feel the need.

Accompaniments:

Liver can strike most people with dread, but whether using chicken liver or, at this time of year, rabbit liver may be on offer from some artisan butchers, this is really good partnership with this dish.  Prepare your liver, clean and sliced, not too thinly, and fry in butter until brown on the outside and still pink, inside, but solid not raw.  At the end of the cooking add a little cider vinegar and let it evaporate in the heat of dish. 

Serve on top of the lentils with perhaps some chopped parsley or finely chopped tops of celery.

Alternatively, this goes very well with toasted Halloumi which is then mixed into the lentil mixture immediately before serving.  Or, for just an extra ten minutes, try slicing Brie or Camembert over the lentils in a shallow ovenproof dish and bake in a moderate oven until the cheese melts through and is just turning brown.

Black Olive & Garlic salsa verde

This incredibly simple and flavoursome salsa verde is one of those things you make once and then keep on making because, not only does it give you that "ahhh" feeling, especially when mixed with any cooked long pasta, the number of smiles you get when people are eating it, seems to be reward itself.

Guiltily its a no cook stir in sauce that would put most manufacturer's out of business, if only people would invest a little time chopping up the ingredients.

What's really good is that whoever you make it for, or for whatever meal of the day you eat it, it always amazes me that something so simple can be so enjoyable to eat.

For 500 grams of cooked pasta, the following quantities should be ample:

• 150 grams of black pitted olives (sliced thinly on the round)
• 3 large fat juicy cloves of garlic, crushed and finally chopped
• 30 mls of good extra virgin oil (the sharp pepper kind that has a slight natural heat to it)
• 20-30 grams of fresh parsley, finely chopped
• a half teaspoon of sea salt, finely ground
• 3 heaped teaspoons of caper berries (optional) and chopped finely

The ingredients get placed in a medium sized bowl, stirred thoroughly and then left in the fridge for a minimum of three hours.  The longer you leave this mixture of marinate, the better it is.

The olives will loose some of their waxiness, the garlic will take on an underlying sweetness which you don't expect and and parsley will offset some of the bitterness of the oil, leaving just the pepper tones to mix well with the capers (if you are using these).

The idea is to just mix this incredible sauce through hot freshly cooked pasta, whether for lunch or as an accompaniment to grilled fish for dinner.  A great supper for one as a topping on toasted soda bread or to use as a stuffing (with breadcrumbs or rice) for peppers or tomatoes.

Coq au Vin

"Chicken never tasted so good"

Marie, was always talking about her mother's chicken casseroles and, way, way back in 1992, I decided to cook chicken for her, my way.

Whenever I had cooked for her before, she had always been there by my side, glass of wine in hand, telling me how her mother did this or that (as you can guess, Marie had never, and would never cook).  So, this time I decided I would cook without the commentary and invited her around for dinner.

"Shall I come by a little earlier?" her normal question chimed, and this time, I said no, I had a number of things to do beforehand. She admitted later she had been a little miffed but arrived with her normal gusto and once we had exchanged our normal chatter and had sat down to eat, the above quote was uttered at the end of the meal. 

I couldn't help myself of course, "even better than your mother's?"

Marie had laughed out loud and had nodded enthusiastically.

Coq au Vin, whoever is telling you the recipe has a few common features.  Chicken and wine (obviously), mushrooms and bacon.  Once these four ingredients have been agreed upon the rest, parsley, thyme, onions and garlic, celery and capers, are added in various ways, at various stages and or left out entirely.

The recipe I have followed for the past twenty-five years, is pretty fluid, and is cooked over two periods of time, as I like to pre-cook the dish the previous day, and then reheat the next, it makes for a very relaxed dinner party if all you are doing for your main course is re-heating and thickening sauces.

Ingredients & quantities

I've based the quantities below on accompanying about two and a half kilos of chicken.  In pieces and on the bone. 

• two and a half kilos of chicken portions
• 200 grams of smoked bacon (some recipes denote unsmoked, but a larger quantity - 300 grams for this quantity of chicken)
• 500 grams of small to medium sized mushrooms; small ones left whole, medium ones halved or quartered and divided into two batches
• a bottle of good red wine (750 ml) and 250 mls of either vegetable or chicken stock
• three plump garlic cloves crushed
• one large onion and two large sticks of celery (ideally with their tops), roughly chopped (many recipes call for whole small onions to be included and celery is another option that is only in some recipes)
• two teaspoons of capers (again optional)
• olive oil and unsalted butter and a heaped table spoon of plain flour
• Herbs:  parsley, thyme and bay leaves are the herbs of choice in this dish - the quantities really being up to the cooks own preferences.  I use more parsley than many and have used 50 grams of chopped fresh parsley, two teaspoons of dried thyme and use five bay leaves for this quantity of meat.

Method

Fry your chicken until brown in half oil/butter.  For this quantity of chicken, you will need to do this batches.  Use an oven dish that will allow the chicken to more or less be on one level and in which, initially at least, will be able to sit in wine and stock mixture easily.

Lay chicken out as you cook it in the dish.  Once this is done, pre-heat the oven to 190c.

In the same frying pan that you have browned the chicken and using the same oil, turn down the heat slightly and add the onions, celery (and the chopped tops) and garlic, until these have softened.  Then add the parsley and thyme to the mix.

Meanwhile, place the bay leaves evenly through the oven dish along with half the mushrooms and pour/spread the herb mix on top of this.

Use a jug to pour the wine and stock mixture over the casserole and then cover with foil and place in the oven for an hour.  At which point you add the capers, turn the chicken, uncover and cook for a further 20 minutes.

Turn off the oven and allow to cool, then recover and leave in the oven until the following day.

Reheating and thickening.

About an hour and twenty minutes before you are going to serve the dish, take out chicken from the oven dish and pour the juices into a deep pan.    Pre-heat the oven to 190c.

Melt some butter and add a heaped tablespoon of plain flour and combine thoroughly.

Reduce the liquid by half on the stove and then whisk in the butter and flour until this starts to thicken. 

Add the remaining mushrooms to the chicken which you have returned to the baking tray and then pour over the thickened sauce, reserving a third for later.

Place in the oven for approximate twenty minutes, turning the chicken a final time before returning it to the oven and pouring remainder of the sauce.

Serve with your favourite potatoes or roasted vegetables.

Kitchen Diary: Hedgerow tea

Old recipes are sometimes filled with information that you have to decipher.

One of the older notes I have is a recipe for wartime "tea" or, more accurately, a way of making existing tea go further.  It's referred to as "hedgerow tea plants and equivalents" which roughly translated - after a little research - meant dock leaves and nettles.

Some parts of the country still used beech leaves as a tea (during the first and second world wars), although due to its relatively high tannin content wasn't too good for the tummy apparently.  Same for the roasted nuts of the same tree - as an alternative to coffee, and everyone (well almost) knows about chicory, still available as Camp coffee and still drank on cold winter nights in hot milk (sorry, is that just me then?) …

Anyway, if you ever fancy trying nettle tea, take a "leaf" from of our Moroccan friends and use similar quantities as with mint tea (for a relatively small pot, one teaspoon of green tea to a handful of fresh leaves).  That way the taste won't be too much of a shock to the system.  Add sugar to taste.  With nettle and dock tea, a very small amount of milk is added.  Alternatively, if you don't like the bitterness of green tea, use your regular brand of black tea, although you may want to watch how strong the tea actually becomes, otherwise you may not taste the difference at all.

Most culinary herbs make good raw (or unblended teas) but beware that some, and this includes sage, must not be taken by pregnant women.

Probably two of my favourite herbs to steep into a tea, is mixing mint and camomile (equal quantities) for an upset stomach, or even just to relax.  Somehow comforting after a stressful day.

Tomato and goat's cheese soup

Summer has never tasted so good.

Bourne of a need to use a great many tomatoes and to create a full flavour Sunday supper, this is such a great way of using up those Summer tomatoes.  This is rich soup, full of flavour and so good as a supper time dish.

• Take 500 grams of tomatoes, roughly chopped
• One small courgette, roughly chopped
• One large onion, roughly chopped
• 150 grams of red peppers or fresh paprika
• 50 grams of sun dried tomatoes
• 30 grams of basil leaves
• One litre of Summer Vegetable stock or water
• 100 grams of soft goat's cheese
• 10 mls of good olive oil

In a large deep sided pan over a moderate heat, add the olive oil, onions and red peppers.  Stir occasionally until the vegetable start to soften.  Then add the tomatoes (both fresh and sun dried) and courgette.  Warm through before adding the stock or water and bring to a low simmer.   Then add the basil leaves and continue to simmer for a further 10 minutes or so.  Turn off the heat and cover for 20 minutes.

To finish off the soup, blend until smooth and then turn the heat back on to medium.  As the soup begins to warm through once more, whisk in the soft cheese.

This quantity should be enough for a good supper for four people with crusty bread. 

The picture shows a grilled slice of Parma ham although some halloumi or a round of grilled hard goat's cheese is also a fantastic addition.

Financiers

Here's a great Spanish twist on a French favourite which is always popular.

Financiers are small ingot shaped petite fours which traditionally were made in the Paris finance district.  Usually sweet, the modern day ones can be savoury and in this case, I am making three Mediterranean savouries.

All three are Spanish inspired and two I will be using Fragata garlic stuffed olives and also their Pimiento Piquillo.  The third filling, I will be using sun blushed tomatoes, and all ingredients are chopped into much smaller pieces (although not finely) as the Financiers are quite small.

As you can see from the picture above, each batch has a convenient 15 portions and as 45 little savoury gems are a good number for guests that are to arrive in just under three hours, I need to get on.

A word of warning, you will need two or three bowls for this recipe as it's pretty heavy on washing up.  A further three small mixing bowls for this particular recipe as we are going to split the basic recipe for their separate flavourings.

The basic recipe for this amount:

125 grams of butter
100 grams of ground almonds
50 grams of plain flour
one teaspoon of baking powder
3 large eggs (or 4 medium) which have been separated
1/2 teaspoon of salt (if required)

The filling should be no more than 150 grams for the above quantities of mixture.  In this particular case I am obviously using a 50 grams of each of olives, pimiento and tomatoes.

The butter is usually melted in a pan until it starts to turn a deeper colour.  Other recipes I have seen cream the butter with a small addition of olive oil.  Either is okay, the latter more appropriate for savoury ingots.

Whilst you are melting the butter, switch the oven on to 190c.  Once the butter is melted, take it off the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, beat the egg yolk and then add, slowly, the melted butter and whisk until the consistency of a light mayonnaise. 

Sift your dry ingredients together (you can use just ground almonds, although you may need an extra egg white) and then add, again slowly, to the egg mixture.  The mixture will get to the point where you think it will be too thick.  Persevere as the butter really does have the capacity to help combine this.  However, you are have problems a small dash of tepid water relaxes the mixture.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and then add half of this to the mixture.  Use a metal spoon to combine this.

Now split the mixture into three and add the first "filling", combine and fold in a third of the remaining egg whites.  Repeat the process for the other two batches.

Now, with a teaspoon, fill your mould.  Each batch should fill the 15 ingot mould perfectly.

Place in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes or until just turning brown on top.  Allow to cool for five minutes (they do cool off very quickly) and then get the mould ready for your next batch. Placing the baked ingots on kitchen paper.

From beginning to end the for 45 little explosion of flavour, I've got the timing down to about an hour and a half.  Of which an hour of this is cooking and cooling time, as I only have one mould.

Thank you to Fragata for the above ingredients, please see go and visit them at http://www.facebook.com/FragataUK/ or fragata.co.uk