The ultimate rice pudding

The Ultimate Rice Pudding

Ingredients:

100g of short grain rice

75g of castor sugar

600ml of double cream

600ml of full fat milk

30g of unsalted butter

2 tea spoons of ground nutmeg

The cooking;

Cut a knob of butter and liberally grease a deep oven proof dish. Add the rice, the cream and the milk. Cut your butter into cubes and dot across the surface of the milk. Give all the content of the dish a good stir with a wooden spoon, to mix thoroughly. Finally, sprinkle on the nutmeg and put the pudding into an oven pre-heated to 150 degrees for 2 1/2 hours.

That's it. Honestly. If you want to add some currents and dried berries, or some grated lemon rind, go ahead. At least then you will feel like you've done a bit of work. But there really is no need. When rice pudding tastes this good for this little effort, it makes you wonder why anybody would go to the trouble of opening a tin.

Mushroom and Panceta Risotto

Mushroom and Panceta Risotto

This is a bombastically flavoured dish. Staple Italian peasant food. Wonderful.

Ingredients:

20g of porcine mushrooms (soaked and chopped)

A handful of cubed panceta

A handful of finely chopped parsley

A large glass of crisp, white wine (Pinot Grigio is perfect)

3 finely chopped shallots

2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped

100g of chestnut mushrooms roughly chopped into chunks

130g arborio rice

1 1/2 pints of vegetable or chicken stock

A handful of small garden peas

A table spoon of tomato puree

2 tea spoons of mascarpone

Olive oil

Parmesan to sprinkle

The Cooking:

If your porcine mushrooms are dried (as they usually are in this country), start by soaking them in  a bowl and setting to one side. Get started on the risotto by adding 2 tea spoons of olive oil to a pot and browning your chopped shallots and garlic over a gentle heat. Then add your mushrooms and fry for 3 or 4 minutes until the pot is fairly dry. Now add your rice, drizzle with olive oil and stir it in. Keep stirring until most of the oil has been absorbed, then add your white wine, turn up the heat and reduce down until again, pretty much all the moisture has been absorbed. Now start to add your stock about a ladle full at a time. Every time you add some stock, stir it in thoroughly and keep stirring until the moisture is nearly all absorbed. Repeat this process until your rice is full and fluffy in consistency (approximately 20 minutes). If you run out of stock, just add boiled water from the kettle.

Add the tomato puree and stir in thoroughly for a minute or two. Then add your chopped porcine mushrooms, your peas, the pancetta cubes and your mascarpone and season generously with salt and plenty of ground pepper. Stir until well combined.

Serve up with freshly chopped parsley and a sprinkle of Parmesan. Eat with the rest of the Pinot Grigio.

Cottage Pie

Cottage Pie

Fantastic, traditional winter warmer. Filling, wholesome and delicious.

Ingredients:

500g lean steak mince

5 decent sized potatoes

Handful of Thyme sprigs

Bay leaf

1 large carrot halved length ways and finely chopped

1 large onion finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, crushed and finely chopped

4 tablespoons full of tomato puree

a handful of garden peas

2 tablespoons of creme fraiche

Tablespoon of butter

25 mls of milk

1 pint of rich beef stock (twice the strength of what you would normally use in a gravy).

25g of grated cheddar cheese

The Cooking:

In a deep pan, brown your mince and pour off any surplus liquid. Put to one side. Then in clean oil (only a couple of tea spoons full) start to fry your carrot, onion, garlic and peas. Once golden in colour, add the browned mince back to the pan along with the thyme and bay leaf. Season generously with salt and crushed black pepper, the tomato puree, give it all a good stir, then pour in your stock,  cover and simmer on a medium to low heat for about an hour to an hour and a half (if you have the time). Stir occasionally. If it starts to dry out, add some water.

To make the mash to cover your pie, peel your potatoes and slice into chunks, then put in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil and cook for approximately 20 minutes. Prod with a fork to make sure they are cooked and soft. Then drain off the water, mash to a pulp, add your butter and cream and stir in, with a fork. Then gradually pour in your milk, whisking as you go, until you have a smooth puree. You need it to be quite stiff and malleable like a meringue rather than runny as you don't want it sinking into or worse still, merging with the filling. If you are concerned its  a bit "loose" then thicken it with a some grated cheese and a tea spoon or two of plain flour, on a high heat.

Transfer your pie filling into a heatproof dish. As you do so, pick out the bay leaf and the thyme sprigs. Top it with the mashed potato and spread all over it so it covers the whole surface. Finally, sprinkle with grated cheddar and pop it under a hot grill until the surface is browned and crispy.

Serve with green veg and preferably a pint of a full flavoured nutty ale like an IPA or Hobgoblin.

Beef Brisket With Garlic and Herb Gravy

Beef Brisket With Rich Garlic and Herb Gravy

Regular visitors to this blog will know that I am a big fan of "peasant food". That often means using the cheaper cuts of meat and slow roasting it for superb flavours. This is one of the best.

Ingredients:

1kg Beef Brisket, Tied and Rolled

Handful of Thyme

3 Garlic Cloves Finely Chopped

1 Sweet White Onion finely chopped

100ml Red Wine

1 Pint of Rich, Beef Stock

22g Unsalted Butter cut into thin slices

2 Table Spoons of Corn Flour

The Cooking:

Rinse your brisket under a tap and lay in the centre of your roasting tin, Season with freshly ground salt and black pepper, sprinkle with the chopped garlic and your sprigs of thyme and dot with the slices of butter. Cover tightly with foil to make as air tight a parcel as possible, and place into an oven, pre-heated to 150 degrees C. Roast for 5 hours, basting it in its own juices every 45 minutes to an hour.

For the final 45 minutes of roasting, turn the oven up to 200 degrees C. First, remove half the fat and juices from the roasting tin to roast your potatoes and parsnips in. Add your chopped onion and glass of red wine to the meat and remaining juices. Give it a stir and place back in the hot oven.

Take the meat out to rest for 20 minutes while you make possibly the nicest gravy you will ever encounter.

Strain the juices from the roasting tin, leaving behind all the bits the meat has been roasted in. Stir in 2 table spoons of corn flour over a gentle heat to make a roux. Then little by little add your pint of stock and whisk until it is all blended and has formed a smooth sauce. Keep it simmering until it virtually turns black. 

Really simple, beautifully tender and it tastes gorgeous!

Roast Shoulder of Lamb with Boulanger Potatoes

Roast Shoulder of Lamb with Boulanger Potatoes

This one is off the scale when it comes to simplicity and deliciousness. Hold out to the end of the recipe to find out why they are called "Boulanger Potatoes".

Ingredients:

1.6 kilo shoulder of Welsh Lamb (on the bone)

Handful of Thyme, strip off the leaves, chop finely

5 sprigs of rosemary, chop finely

4 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped finely

500g of small new potatoes, skin on, quartered

Hand full of black, pitted olives

Extra virgin olive oil

1 heaped table spoon of cornflour

1 pint of strong lamb or beef stock

Cooking time: Minimum of 4 hours (best if left to cook all day) 

Serves: 6

The Cooking:

Wash your shoulder of lamb and score the fat in long, straight lines. Sprinkle, liberally with olive oil and rub it into the meat, all over. Sprinkle with the thyme, 4 out of your 5 sprigs of rosemary and garlic and season with coarse ground salt and black pepper. Cover with foil (creating as air tight a seal as possible) then put into an over, preheated to 130 degrees for a minimum of 4 hours (more if you can afford the time). Make sure you check on it every 30 minutes or so, and baste it in its own juices so it does not dry out. You want the edges to get a bit crusty though. That is one of this dishes best features.

40 minutes before you are due to serve up, par-boil your quartered new potatoes in boiling water for 10 minutes. Take your lamb out of the oven. Transfer it into a new roasting tin. Pour a table spoon of juices from the old tin over the lamb. Take another 2 table spoons of juices out of the old roasting tin, and set aside in a jug to make the gravy, and then take your par-boiled potatoes, drain them, and put them into the remaining juices and fat in the old roasting tin, with the black olives. Sprinkle with the last sprig of rosemary, finely chopped. Place both roasting tins (the one containing the lamb and the one containing potatoes and olives) uncovered, back into your oven. Turn the heat up to 210 degrees.

After 15 minutes, take out the lamb and put it to rest on your chopping board. Give the potatoes in their roasting tin a good stir so they cook evenly on both sides and don't stick. Leave them to bake for a further 15 minutes.

To make your gravy, pour your slightly cooled juices and fat that you have set aside in a jug into a saucepan and add a heaped table spoon of cornflour. Stir together with a wooden spoon over a gentle heat to create a roux (a paste). Stir for about 3 minutes, until it is both smooth and starting to darken in colour, Then little by little, start to add your stock. Replace your wooden spoon with a whisk. Stir continuously. Keep going until you have added the whole pint, then turn the heat up high, still stirring, until the gravy starts to thicken and bubble. Reduce the heat right down to minimum and let it simmer until you are ready to serve. Stir occasionally to stop a skin forming on the top.

The lamb won't need carving, you will be able to pull the meat away from the bone with a fork. Serve up with your boulanger potatoes and gravy. Best accompanied with baby carrots and petite pois peas. Gorgeous!!

And now the history lesson; why "boulanger potatoes"? At a time in France when domestic ovens were not common place, the only way you could roast meat or vegetables, was to take the food down to the local baker who would have the only oven in the village. So if you sent your potatoes down in a baking tin, covered in fat to be roasted, they became know as boulanger potatoes, as boulanger is french for baker. Feel free to bore the pants off your dinner guests with this bit of trivia every time you make them. I know I will. Cheers!

Steak Bearnaise

Fillet steak with a Bearnaise sauce

This is such a luxurious, indulgent dish. Like all the recipes in this blog; sensational results from embarrassingly little effort. And all the emphasis is on flavour not poncy presentation.This dish was always a favourite of my father's. He used to be a roofer. So Dad, if you're up there.... (I love that Stuart Francis joke).

Ingredients

4 matured, pedigree herd fillet steaks (better still get your butcher to give you a whole fillet and you cut your own steaks to the thickness you want. I love them about 1 1/2 inches thick)

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoons of double cream

1/4 teaspoon of salt

A pinch of cayenne pepper

1 table spoon of white wine vinegar

150g softened butter cut up into tiny cubes

1 teaspoon of chopped fresh tarragon leaves

1/4 teaspoon of finely chopped parsley

1/4 teaspoon of finely chopped chives

The cooking

Start by making a bain marie; find a heat proof bowl that is wide enough to sit on top of a saucepan of water, and deep enough so that when it is there, the base is just below the surface of the water. Keep the bowl cool and clear of the saucepan when you start your sauce, and heat the water in the saucepan so it is gently bubbling. In the cold bowl, mix your egg yolks, cream, salt, cayenne pepper and vinegar and whisk together so all the ingredients are mixed together. Then, place the bowl onto your saucepan of bubbling water and continue to whisk until it starts to thicken. Then, cube by cube, add your butter and continue to whisk as each cube melts. Continue this process until all the butter has been melted and blended and your sauce has become fairly thick. Add you tarragon, parsley and chives and stir in. Turn the heat off under your saucepan and leave your sauce in the bain marie to rest.

Now fry or grill your steak. Turn the heat up as high as it will go. While you are waiting for the pan or the grill to heat up, pour a dribble of vegetable oil onto your hands and massage it into both sides of all your steaks. Then season with a pinch of salt and plenty of freshly ground black or green pepper. Wait until the heat in your pan or your grill is absolutely searing before starting to cook your steaks. Then cook for 1 1/2 minutes on each sides for the perfect, pink in the middle rare steak.If you are frying, prod them occasionally to stop them from sticking. Alternatively, if you wish to ruin them, 2 minutes each side for medium steaks or up to 3 minutes on each side if you want it well done and shite.

Serve with sweet veg such as baby carrots or mange tout peas and crispy, sauteed potatoes or chips.Or if you are feeling really luxuriant, gratin dauphinois.

The Silverstone Midnight Burger

The Silverstone Midnight Burger

Here is a must for any BBQ. The story of it's inception gives away how simple it is to prepare and it tastes fantastic. My son and I went to Silverstone for the weekend to watch rich people drive cars really fast, round and round in circles (I can highly recommend it). One evening, it occurred to us round about the time that decent people were going to bed that we had not eaten since lunch time and we were hungry. So this is what I rustled up in the pitch black of night for us to snack on (admittedly; somewhat worse for wear!). If you make one of these in the day light, and you see the size of it, you will realise what a handicap eating it in the dark is. It is a pretty cumbersome thing, especially if you cannot see where it starts and finishes. But very gratifying!

Ingredients:

2 decent 1/4 pound steak mince burgers (from your butcher not a supermarket)

4 rashers of thick cut, smoked, back bacon (also from your butcher)

2 squared slices of Emmental cheese (the pre-sliced stuff is perfect)

2 slices of iceberg lettuce

2 thick slices of a beef tomato

2 sesame seeded bread rolls (halved) or 4 thick slices of a soft, rustic style bread (eg bloomer)

Preparation:

Get your barbecue lit and up to temperature and past the point where it is still flaming, and instead your embers are just glowing red (usually takes around 45 minutes). Pop your 2 burgers down and cook for around 13 minutes (or until cooked through), turning over every 2-3 minutes or so, to make sure they are not burning or sticking. For the last 8 minutes, place your bacon rashers beside them, also turning every 2 minutes. Make sure the edges are nice and crispy before concluding they are ready. Finally for the last 2 minutes, toast your bread rolls, flat side down, on the  barbecue and lay a slice of cheese on top of each of your burgers so it starts to melt over the top.

When the time is up, put the whole lot together; lay your 2 bottom halves of each bread roll on a plate or flat, clean surface. Add your lettuce slice as a base to each one, add your cheese smothered burgers as the next layer, then a bacon rasher on each, then your tomato slice, then your personal choice of relish (ketchup, tomato relish, corn relish, mayo or a combination of some or all - its up to you) then crown with the other halves of your bread rolls and serve up. You may want to slice in half with a knife if this meant to be finger food, so your dinners can actually get a mouth around it.

Serve with a nice fresh salad!