LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

sit for longer than that, the herbs become muddy in flavour, as the piquant ingredients seem to ‘cook’ the charm out of the greens.

      If using salted anchovies and capers, they will need to be well rinsed under cold water to remove excess salt.

      Serve with grilled meats and fish.

      Serves 6–8 1 large handful of rocket leaves, about 100g

      1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley leaves, about 100g

      8 large sprigs of mint, leaves only

      6 large sprigs of tarragon, leaves only

      1 tablespoon capers, coarsely chopped

      2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed to a smooth paste

      6–8 anchovies, very finely chopped

      1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

      225ml extra virgin olive oil

      Zest of 1 lemon

      Maldon sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

      Chop the rocket and herbs quite finely, but not to a dust, and mix with the other ingredients. Taste and correct the seasoning, if necessary adding a few drops of lemon juice to freshen the taste. Store in a covered container in the fridge.

      Mayonnaise

      Mayonnaise is an immensely important sauce and if I had to choose a single savoury ‘Desert Island’ sauce, this would be it.

      It pairs perfectly with many different ingredients. Poached salmon or trout are sublime with it. A blob of mayonnaise on top of a halved hard-boiled egg, still a little warm from the pot, is one of my favourite foods. I love it with a simple hamburger when it melts into the beefy juices. With a slice of warm roast chicken, it makes the best sandwich. Lobster, prawns, shrimps, mussels, cockles and clams lap it up. It accepts lots of different flavours happily. Herbs such as tarragon, chives, dill, parsley, watercress and wild garlic, and stronger flavours like gherkin, anchovy, spices, chillies, garlic crushed raw or roasted, tomatoes and roast peppers all work well when stirred into it. More exotic flavours such as tamarind and quince are also good, and sometimes I add the juices from a foil-or parchment-baked fish, to thin, warm and flavour all at the same time. The roast garlic version can be thinned with a little gravy from the roasting pan of lamb, beef or chicken, to make a delicious sauce, again served warm. As you can see, it is versatile.

      Some books will terrify you with words of warning before you start making mayonnaise. Others are perhaps a little casual in their approach, but all I will say is be a bit careful, take your time, and just remember the important rules, as stated below. Once you have made it once or twice, it won’t cause you a second thought and by then you will realise that there is simply no substitute for the real thing.

      The sauce can be made by hand, in a food processor or in a food mixer. The handmade sauce will be softer, the machine-made one firmer.

      The ingredients

      Use free-range or if possible organic egg yolks for mayonnaise. The egg whites, which are not used in the making of the sauce, can be stored covered in the fridge for 2 weeks, or alternatively they freeze perfectly. Some very organised cooks like to freeze the individual egg whites in ice-cube trays. This makes life easier when using them later. Otherwise you can weigh the whites, which take about 2 hours to defrost at room temperature, allowing 25g for each white. Defrosted egg whites make perfect meringues and whip up perfectly for mousses and soufflés.

      Try to find good-quality French mustard and white wine vinegar. A lot of vinegar is poisonously sharp, and if that is the case with yours, use, as I often do, lemon juice to sharpen the sauce.

      Good-quality oil is crucial for a good mayonnaise. The combination of oils is also important. If you use all olive oil, you might find the taste too strong, so many people find that a combination of a ‘bland’ oil such as sunflower or peanut oil, mixed with a smaller proportion of the stronger-tasting olive oil, gives them a balance that they enjoy. However, mayonnaise made solely with grassy green new season’s olive oil is truly fabulous, and something I look forward to and am willing to splash out on at least once a year.

      Mayonnaise is a cold emulsion sauce. The ‘emulsion’ refers to the joining together of two liquids. The liquids in this case are egg yolk and oil. There is only a certain speed at which the emulsion can be formed, so if you add the oil too quickly to the egg yolks, the yolks cannot absorb the oil and the two liquids will separate and curdle. This is the most important thing to remember when making mayonnaise, so take your time.

      Serves 6–10 2 free-range egg yolks

      ¼ teaspoon French mustard

      1 dessertspoon white wine vinegar or lemon juice

      Pinch of fine sea salt and freshly ground black or white pepper

      250ml oil (e.g. 50ml olive oil and 200ml sunflower or peanut oil)

      Place the egg yolks, mustard, vinegar or lemon juice and a pinch of salt and pepper in a medium-sized Pyrex or glazed ceramic bowl.

      Adding the oil, in a thin, steady stream

      Place the oil in a jug. I use a Pyrex measuring jug so that I can control the flow of the oil to a slow dribble.

      Drop the oil very slowly on to the egg mix while continuously whisking. Adding the oil slowly is the key to success, and other than using good ingredients it is the only rule you need to remember. If your arm gets tired from the whisking, it is fine to stop and leave it for a minute or two before starting again.

      After about 3 minutes of whisking in the oil, the mixture will start to thicken slightly. You can start to add the oil a little bit more quickly now, but do not get carried away by your success – continue to add it quite cautiously. Keep adding the oil until it is all incorporated into the sauce, which by now will have the consistency of softly whipped cream.

      Taste and correct the seasoning, perhaps adding another drop of vinegar or lemon juice.

      Occasionally the mayonnaise may be a little too thick for your liking. This might be caused by an extra large egg yolk. If this is the case, whisk in a teaspoon or two of water to bring it to the required consistency. The small amount of water will have virtually no effect on the flavour of the sauce.

      Store the mayonnaise in a covered jar in the fridge, where it will keep happily for a week or more.

      *If the mayonnaise curdles, due to the oil being added too quickly, it will start to look grainy and when left to rest for a few minutes will become quite thin and oily on top. If this happens, it is not a disaster. Put another egg yolk into a clean bowl and slowly whisk in the curdled mayonnaise, a teaspoon at a time, until it emulsifies again. Continue and finish the sauce as above.

      Puff pastry book

      There are certain dishes and techniques that can elevate your food and cooking to a higher level. Puff pastry is one of these techniques. This light, flaky and buttery pastry, with its 729 feathery layers, is peerless and opens up a lot of different avenues that have previously been closed in the sweet or savoury kitchen. Once the technique is mastered, you will find that even though the pastry will need two hours to complete, the actual handling time is quite short. I reckon 10–15 minutes. The rest of the time the pastry sits in the fridge, chilling and relaxing between the all-important rolls and folds.

      With this pastry to hand a whole new range of dishes is possible: vol-au-vents and bouches, millefeuilles, palmiers, sacristains, tartes fines, all sorts of delights en croûte and so on.

      Puff pastry freezes really well. Get it into the freezer as soon as possible, to trap the flavour of the butter. So bite the bullet and get rolling and folding and you will be richly rewarded with a fine pastry that bears no resemblance to the commercial equivalent.

      I’ve included the recipe for savoury shortcrust pastry in the relevant chapters.

Скачать книгу