Red Pepper and Aubergine Fritatta

Our friend and wonderful cook Nancy Carten from Calgary in Canada introduced us to this recipe when she came to stay with us for the first time in 2005. A firm favourite, we still call it Nancy’s Frittata. It makes a good lunch or supper dish, especially if you include spaghetti and is delicious cold for a picnic; succulent and savoury. It also looks colourful, with the smoky brown aubergine, red pepper and red tinged onions.

Serves 8-10 as a starter or 6 as a lunch or supper dish

Ingredients:

1 large red onion
1 red pepper
1 small aubergine
6 large eggs
2 tbsp grated parmesan cheese
2 tbsp water
1 bunch basil leaves or 2 tsp dried marjoram
1 portion left over cooked spaghetti (exact amount according to personal preference, about 60 g when dried or so)
Salt and pepper
4 -6 tbsp olive oil

Method:

Prepare the vegetables. Peel the onion and cut it and the red pepper length wise into eighths. With a sharp knife, cut 8 strips off the aubergine about the same size as the red pepper pieces. Leave only about 1 cm of aubergine flesh behind the peel.
Take a 25cm non-stick frying pan with lid. Add the olive oil and arrange the red pepper and aubergines skin side down in the pan, alternating with the red onion pieces to form an attractive pattern when the cooked frittata is turned out upside down. Scatter the vegetables with the basil leaves or the dried marjoram. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Put the lid on and using a heat proof mat on a low heat for 30 minutes, until the vegetables are very soft and slightly brown on the underside. Lift them up with a palette knife to check on progress and regulate heat and cooking time accordingly.

Beat the eggs lightly with plenty of salt and pepper and the water, add 2 tbsp parmesan cheese. I taste a finger dipped in the egg mixture to check on seasoning
Turn up the heat under the frying pan for a minute so that the eggs coagulate on contact with the hot pan rather than stick to it. Arrange the spaghetti in a layer over the vegetables.

Pour the eggs over the mixture, turn down the heat to the lowest possible and cook using the heat diffusing mat for 20 minutes with the lid on. The frittata should be puffed slightly and should be cooked through right to the centre. If not cook it a little longer.

Take the lid off and allow the frittata to cool for 10 minutes for it to firm up before handling it. After a few gentle shakes side to side the frittata should start to move around (if not it has probably stuck a little to the pan). Place a large chopping board or serving dish over the top of the pan and turn the whole thing over. It should look wonderful and brown. If it has stuck or turned too dark, turn it the other way up and serve it like that; no-one will be any the wiser.

I usually serve this with a rocket and tomato salad, served either alongside or separately

Swordfish with Green Salsa

As with tuna, swordfish works well with a flavoursome accompaniment and this green salsa provides just that. It is quite punchy and lively; any leftovers make a great base for sandwiches with cooked ham or soft cheese, a filling for baked potatoes with cream cheese or a topping for pasta.

Tips for Success

Don't over cook the swordfish as this will make it dry and tough. A light marinade in this recipe lends it moistness and it is pan fried, depending on its thickness about 45 seconds on either side will be enough to cook it through. Grilling tends to dry it out too much.
Get the frying pan nice and hot before adding 2 tbsp olive oil to it, the olive oil should smoke immediately.
Cook the fish in 2 batches, keeping the first steaks warm on a warm plate in a warm oven (turned-off of course)
If you are adept with a good sharp cook's knife, chop all the salsa ingredients finely by hand (until the ingredients are reduced to the size of coarse sand grains) before adding the oil and vinegar. Do this each ingredient at a time as they each have a different texture and it is hard to chop them mixed up. The resulting salsa will have a better consistency and a brighter flavour than the blender made version (which is still excellent). I love this chopping by hand as it lets you get to know all the ingredients.

Serve with boiled or crushed potatoes; see my post for everyday potatoes. Chichoumeille makes a nice accompaniment.

Ingredients:

6 sword fish steaks

Marinade:

Juice of ½ lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper, ½ tsp whole coriander seeds, ½ tsp dried thyme

Salsa:

1 cup continental parsley leaves
2 tbsp basil or mint leaves
1 medium gherkin pickled in brine
¼ cup pitted green olives
2 cloves garlic
1 small red onion
1 tbsp capers
10 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 anchovy fillets
Pepper

Potatoes

6-12 waxy potatoes or 18 new potatoes, 50 g butter, salt and pepper

Method:

Prepare the salsa and marinate the swordfish up to 24 hours advance.

Rinse the capers and olives under a running tap. Chop the onions, gherkin and garlic coarsely and add to the blender goblet along with the parsley, basil or mint, capers, anchovies and wine vinegar. Process until the contents are chopped roughly, stopping the blades and scraping down the contents with a spatula and then run in enough olive oil with motor still on until the mixture is oily but still holds its shape in a spoon. Add pepper to taste and add a little extra vinegar and salt if necessary. Reserve the salsa in the fridge.

Put the swordfish steaks in a flat dish, mix the marinade ingredients together and spoon them over the swordfish. Place in the fridge until ready to continue cooking

Peel the potatoes, cut them in half (or quarters if large) and cook them in boiling salted water until quite soft (about 25 minutes). Pierce them to make sure they are completely cooked. Drain and keep them warm.

Heat a frying pan or griddle on a high heat and add 1 tbsp olive oil, drop the swordfish steaks in straight from their marinating and pan fry them for 1-2 minutes each side. Check to see if they are done by cutting into them; leave them slightly underdone as they will continue cooking off the heat. Keep them warm.

Crush the potatoes; place them in a flat dish while still hot and squash them with a potato masher until they are crushed but not forced through the masher. Dot them with butter and season them well with extra salt and pepper. Keep them warm.

Serve the swordfish with the crushed potatoes, spooning a little of the salsa over each steak.

(Variation; this recipe also works very well with skate wings. Make a simple court bouillon by simmering 1 l water, 2tsp salt, 6 peppercorns, 1 tsp dried thyme, juice of ½ a lemon and 2 bay leaves for 5 minutes. Slip in the skate wings into a wide pan, you should be able to do three or at a time. The wings should be covered by the poaching liquid. Bring the liquid to the barest trembling simmer and adjust heat so that they poach like that for 15 minutes with the lid on. When done the flesh will flake from the bones. they will be juicey and tender. Drain and keep warm while you poach the rest of the wings.)

Tips for Making French Salads

French salads are streets ahead of any others in Western cooking; most other nationalities seem unable to get the right balance of flavours, dressings are too heavy and sickly or are too vinegary and oily and the lettuce tasteless. (OK, I do accept that that a well made Caesar salad can be very nice). A well made salad is meant to be fresh and light, almost a sort of plate cleanser, that is not to say that it cannot be made larger and served as a lunch dish or first course. Even so, it needs to start with these 'fresh and light principles'. In this colourful spring salad pictured above, I have combined crisp apple, Belgian endive with a little mint, striking blue borage and yellow calendula flowers.

The first step is to make the right dressing, which is a vinaigrette. Pre-made dressings are invariably absolutely horrid, whatever it says on the label or whichever celebrity is promoting the product; throw them in the bin. Thousand island, green goddess, blue cheese, sour cream and all manner of similar variations are just way over the top too. Like much in life, keeping it simple is the answer.

Vinaigrette:

1 part wine vinegar to 3-5 parts oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper

I use extra virgin olive oil, don't use sunflower or other kinds of tasteless refined oil, they just make the dressing greasy and tasteless. If you find that extra virgin olive oil is too strong, then use a partially purified olive oil. I use a blend of 1 part nut oil (walnut or hazelnut) with 1 part sunflower for a salad that contains nuts and goats cheese.

You may use red or white wine vinegar or cider vinegar for a different flavour. Avoid the temptation to use balsamic vinegar too much; it is easily rather over-played and if you like this taste I think it works better to add a little aged balsamic vinegar to the vinaigrette to provide a subtle accent; this is very nice with ripe summer tomatoes and fresh basil

I once read a quote that good vinaigrette requires a madman with the pepper and a miser with the salt. How true!

Simply shake the above up in jar in whatever amount you feel appropriate to make at one time. Taste for seasoning by dipping a salad leaf in. Adjust the acidity level by changing the amount of vinegar or oil, rather than adding sugar.

Despite what I often read, this basic vinaigrette will keep perfectly in the fridge for 2 weeks or so, simply give it a good shake to re-emulsify before using.

Optional ingredients:

Dijon mustard
Aged balsamic vinegar
Garlic, herbs

If you are going to add garlic or herbs do so at the time of using the dressing, not before. They will make the dressing go off if stored. I'd never use garlic in a salade verte, too powerful.

I would not add more mustard than 1 tsp or so for a mix of 1tbsp vinegar and 5 tbsp olive oil; 1 tsp of aged balsamic vinegar should also be sufficient; these can be added when making the basic mix.

Choosing Lettuce and Other Leaves

In French cooking there are 2 types of salad, a salade verte (green salad – served as a simple separate course after the main course) and a salade composée (salad arranged on a plate, a starter or a light lunch dish. The base of this is a plain green salad, with other ingredients arranged over it. This could be as simple as a 'mixed' salad, but this would never be served after the main course in a formal meal as it is too heavy).

The choice of leaves does not have to be a complex masterpiece, it could even be one type of lettuce, but it does make a difference to have several types of leaves to get a balance of textures, colours and flavours. Bags of salad leaves do have their place but the contents are rather flavourless; if you have the time and inclination you will get a much better result if you select your own leaves. Needless to say, leaves need to be fresh and crisp.

In my kitchen there are several types of salad leaf that are banned; iceberg lettuce (totally tasteless), Spanish lettuce hearts (bitter), romaine (cos) lettuce (tends to be bitter and tough, rather than crisp and sweet which is what it should be like), frisée, Batavia and escarole (the last three in any quantity, although a little is ok – too much is bitter and scratchy in the throat on swallowing).

Good choices include: oak leaf lettuce, red oak leaf lettuce, red and green round lettuce, most sorts of baby leaves such as Mizuna, baby chard or beetroot leaves, corn salad, rocket, watercress (remove all tough stalks), spinach, Belgian endive. When available I like to balance these with a little sorrel or Oxalis leaves, purslane, aptenia and wild rocket to deepen the flavour. A little fresh mint, chervil or coriander can give a nice touch, but keep it very light and also, for a fanciful touch, orange calendula and blue borage flowers look beautiful.

Preparing a Salade Verte

1. Always wash the leaves in plenty of cold water; gritty leaves like spinach or corn salad need to be washed twice. Nothing is more off-putting than crunching on grit.
   
2. Spin the leaves in a salad spinner until they are dry. This will allow the dressing to cling to the leaves and flavour them, rather than it being washed off with a lot of water. Leaves can be stored for 24 hours in a closed bag in the fridge
   
3. Just before serving, tear the leaves into bite-ish sized pieces using your hands, don't cut them, it won't look right.
   
4. Never serve a salad un-dressed (this is akin to serving raw vegetables with a main course), or with little jugs of oil and vinegar so that people can drizzle oil and vinegar on; this latter never gives a good result. Dress the leaves with the vinaigrette, not a flood, just enough to coat them lightly. You can do this in a nice bowl at the table with a pair of salad servers, or you can toss the salad in the kitchen with your very clean hands (which is much better in fact)
   
5. Eat within 10 minutes or the leaves will go limp
   

Preparing a Salade Composée

1. In this type of salad leaves are arranged attractively on a plate or platter; all the rules above apply.
   
2. According to the recipe other ingredients are arranged over the top of the leaves
   
3. Vinaigrette is drizzled over the leaves and other ingredients – the easiest approach is to use a plastic bottle with a nozzle to get a small amount everywhere
   
4. Garnish such as herbs can be placed on top.
   
5. Examples of this type of salad include Hot Goats’ Cheese Salad with Honey and Walnuts.
   

Rosemary Crème Brûlée

I have yet to meet anyone who does not love this dessert; rosemary works wonderfully here, having none of the bitterness it can have when roasted or pan fried (as the essential oils are rather volatile they are driven off by the high heat of these processes, leaving a burnt taste). If you prefer, use 1 split vanilla pod to infuse the cream and scrape the tiny black seeds into the custard – serve some perfect ripe red raspberries alongside for the most divine desert. Note the creamy but set texture in the picture above; the result of cooking slowly in a fairly cool oven. A grainy texture indicates overcooked creams.

(By the way it is also possible to make lavender crème brûlée but it is a little too perfumed and sickly for my taste).

Tips for Success

Use single cream, not double which is too rich or crème fraîche which is too sour.
Bring the cream to a simmer and then add the rosemary leaves, turn off the heat and let them infuse for 10-15 minutes; strain the infused cream through a sieve. Don't let the cream boil or you will get a skin that will spoil the texture of the finished creams.
Beat the egg yolks and sugar with a balloon whisk in a bowl, add the infused cream gradually, whisk well or use a hand held blender. I do not find it necessary to pass this mixture through another sieve as is often recommended (to catch unmixed egg threads I assume), nor is it necessary to cook the egg mixture in a pan before baking it in the oven.
Remove all the foam from the top of the egg mixture with a spoon and discard it. Otherwise the foam will cause bubbles to form on the top of the custard and the tops of these will poke through the sugar layers and burn when you caramelise it.
I like to use a wide flat dish (crème catalane dish) to make the creams so that you get a good surface area for the caramel top, but this only works if you have a blow torch.
Bake the creams in a roasting tin of hot water on a low oven heat; this will set the creams without causing a skin or any puffing-up, which otherwise will burn later. Cooking time will depend largely on how warm the custard mixture is when you started the baking.
Remove the creams immediately from the bain marie to prevent overcooking using a fish slice and cool them, refrigerate until cold.
Caramelising: a much better result will be obtained using a blow torch (I buy mine from a DIY shop) than under the grill – you'll get a lovely thin crackle layer rather than a toffee like layer with the grill method. If using a blow torch, sprinkle the top of 1-2 tsp caster sugar and keep the flame above the creams so that the sugar melts and caramelises but does not burn. Serve immediately or the caramel will melt (again if you are very fussy, you can quick chill them in the freezer for 5-10 minutes). If using the grill, I would advise you to make the creams in a deeper ramekin and use a thicker layer of sugar, about 3 tsp per ramekin. This will give a thicker crunchier top. Pre-heat the grill to its maximum temperature. If you try for a thin cream using a crème catalane dish under the grill, it will just boil up and curdle. These grill-made creams can be refrigerated for 2-3 hours without any problem.

Ingredients (Serves 6):

6 egg yolks
650 ml single cream
4 tbsp sugar
6-8 sprigs rosemary about 15 cm long (don't try this with dried rosemary, it has lost too much of its volatile oils)
3-6 tbsp sugar for caramelising the tops
6 crème catalane dishes (about 12 cm in diameter) or 6 150 ml ramekins

Method:

Simmer the cream in saucepan, add all the torn off rosemary leaves, stir once and leave to infuse for 10-15 minutes. Strain through a sieve.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in bowl, add the warm cream gradually. Remove and discard the foam on the top of the mixture.

Pour the mixture into the moulds in a baking tin, pouring boiling water 1/2 way up the sides. Bake at 160 degrees until the custards wobble in a jelly like way in the middle (about 15 minutes, but time will vary according to thickness and starting temperature of the egg mixture). If you poke the custards in the middle with a sharp knife it will come out clean.

Remove the creams and refrigerate for at least 12 hours (can be made up to 48 hours in advance up to this point; keep chilled.)

Sprinkle with sugar and caramelise (see tips for success, above).

Fruit Coulis

These fresh fruit sauces all freeze perfectly and take only minutes to make. I usually make more than I need at one time and then freeze it in 2-3 batches. Due to their high sugar content they will keep in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Raspberry and strawberry both have a wonderful flavour and colour; mango and passion fruit utterly delicious. A little goes a long way; these amounts serve 20 or more. You can rely on them to give a chic glamour to a desert and I also use them where in British cooking you might use jam, for example raspberry coulis in a trifle.

Ingredients:

1 cup of cut up hulled strawberries, fresh or defrosted frozen raspberries or mango.
(For passion fruit coulis use 1 cup of fresh skinned peaches or the same of tinned plus the seeds and pulp of 4 -8 passion fruit)
1 1/2 cup sugar
Lemon juice to taste
2-3 tbsp kirsch - raspberry and strawberry only

Method:

Place all the ingredients into a blender and process on top speed, leaving the motor running for 1 minute. This will give the sauce a nice coating thickness. Adjust the alcoholic component, if using and add enough lemon juice to balance the sweetness.

Push the raspberry coulis through a sieve to remove the seeds.

(Note: it is possible to use other fruits as a base for a sauce, such as peaches, apricots, melon but they don't have enough flavour and although they look pretty are rather insipid)

No Crack Roulade

I love this recipe; it does what it says on the tin. It absolutely does not crack when you roll it up, due to the milk and eggs – although of course you can make it if you handle it very roughly. It is an American recipe, which I have adapted slightly to reduce sugar levels (American cake recipes are often very sweet for European tastes.

It makes a really good desert; if you are experienced at cake making then you will be able to think of many different fillings. I give below 2 fruit variations that I like very much and I serve these with a fruit coulis alongside.

Ingredients:

60 g flour
1 tsp baking powder (1/2 tsp of French baking powder as it is stronger, being cut with less starch)
3 tbsp milk
25 g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
100g sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 Swiss roll tin, approx 40 cm by 25 cm (some times I use an oven tray lined with foil, in which case I scale the recipe up to 3 eggs and 3 egg yolks, this will serve 12 or so for desert)

Tips for Success:

While I would not say that this is a beginner’s recipe, the addition of the milk and the baking powder makes it reasonably forgiving to make. Nevertheless don’t over fold the mixture or it will lose its lightness.
The eggs and sugar must be extremely well beaten; the easiest approach is to use a powerful mixer on a stand such as a Kenwood chef. The eggs need to be tripled in volume, pale in colour and a ribbon of the mixture from the beaters should hold for at least 2-3 seconds. You may also use a hand held beater (or should you be very keen on building the muscles in your arm a balloon whisk – seriously this will be very hard work); in which case you must beat the eggs over a large pan of simmering water (a Pyrex bowl is fine, although it is much quicker with a copper one, but who uses those anymore?). Whisk the eggs constantly; they will become warm to the touch (slightly above blood heat) and very thick. When they have reached this temperature remove the bowl from the pan and continue to whisk until the eggs return to room temperature. The whole process will take 10-15 minutes. Do not hurry the cooling part of the whisking; if you try to fold in the flour if the eggs are warm then they are likely to collapse.
Don’t let anything interrupt you during the folding in. Everything else will have to wait.
The layer will cook in 10 minutes; it will be biscuit brown and ‘cooked’ to the touch. Immediately remove it from the oven and cover it with a clean tea towel; this will keep it moist and flexible. When the tin is cool enough to handle, invert it and peel of the paper from the back of the roulade. Cover with a second tea towel; leave to cool.
Trim off the edges of the roulade before rolling, spread any cream onto the roulade before any fruit and don’t put filling within 2 cm of the edge or it will be squeezed out.
Roll the roulade slowly, from the longer side. When it is rolled up either slide it into a serving platter or onto a large piece of aluminium foil. Transfer to the fridge and chill for at least 2 hours before cutting. Dust with icing sugar if you like before serving.
Cut each slice with a very sharp knife dipped in hot water if you wish to make the neatest slices.

Method:

Preheat oven to 210 degrees.

Line the Swiss roll tin with a piece of silicone paper, butter and flour it. Sift the flour and baking powder together.
Warm the milk and butter until butter melts – I use the microwave or you can use a small pan. Keep the mixture warm.
Add the eggs, egg yolks and sugar to large bowl. Beat until the mixture is thickened and tripled in volume (see above)
Sift the flour over the eggs in thirds, folding gently but not completely after each addition
Add the warm milk mixture and fold gently. Pour into the tin, spreading evenly and lightly.
Bake for 10 minutes, until it springs to the touch. (Can be made up to 12 hours in advance and filled later; see above).

Strawberry Grand Marnier Roulade

Strawberries have a great affinity with Grand Marnier (in France you can buy a strawberry variety called Garriguette – these are absolutely delicious, tasting like strawberries used to taste, and I always use these).

Filling:

300 ml double cream (see note below if in France)
4 tbsp Grand Marnier
4 tbsp strawberry coulis
½ cup chopped strawberries
Strawberry coulis to serve

Paint the Grand Marnier over the roulade with a pastry brush, and then paint over the strawberry coulis (this will give a nice red layer when sliced.)
Whip the cream, you may sweeten it 2 tbsp icing sugar if this is to your taste; I do. (If using French cream, buy crème entiere which is UHT cream - make sure it is ice cold, having been in the fridge for at least 24 hours and whisk with an electric beater on a stand. Many French recipes advise beating cream over ice cubes to make a Crème Chantilly – on a very hot day I also do this. Flavour with 1 tsp vanilla and 2 tbsp sugar. French cream will not whip if it is at room temperature and it needs a little help with flavour, hence the vanilla.)

Fill with the cream and fruit.

Another excellent variation is made by replacing the strawberries with whole fresh raspberries and mixing 150 ml lemon curd with 150 ml whipped cream for the filling.

Mango, Lime and Mascarpone Roulade

If you can find nicely flavoured ripe mangoes you can't go wrong with this flavour combination.

Ingredients:

400g Mascarpone
Grated rind and juice of 3 limes
4 tbsp light rum or Malibu liqueur or seeds and pulp of 4 passion fruits
1 mango, cut into small chunks
3 tbsp icing sugar
Mango coulis to serve

Method:

Beat the lime juice, rind and icing sugar into the Mascarpone, add a little more sugar or lime if you prefer. Paint the chosen liqueur or passion fruit pulp over the roulade with a pastry brush. Spread over the Mascarpone mixture and scatter over the mango.

Quick Lemon Curd

This quintessentially British ingredient is so lovely when homemade (and so terrible when bought, don't even think about it). I love it as a filling for meringues, sponges or roulades, with a little whipped cream and some raspberries or black berries.

Traditional recipes use a double boiler or bain marie and it takes about 20-30 minutes to get a good cooked thickness to the lemon curd. As those of you who are familiar with these pages will know, I am not a fan of the 'quick' for its own sake; it usually seems to involve an ingredient substitution with something vile from a packet. Here the microwave cuts the cooking time down to 3-4 minutes.

This makes quite a lemony curd, just how it should be

Ingredients:

Grated rind and juice of 3 lemons
150 g sugar
125 g unsalted butter
3 egg yolks

Method:

Mix the lemon rind and juice, sugar and egg yolks in a large bowl with a balloon whisk until nicely combined – just a few turns will do. Add the butter in cubes.

Place the whole thing in a microwave on high for 3 minutes. After 2 minutes remove and beat with the balloon whisk for 3-4 turns, return and repeat after the next minute. Cooking time thereafter will depend on the energy output of your microwave; it takes another 30 seconds in mine on medium. Watch it carefully, it should get hot and steamy and thicken but not boil, whisk every 30 seconds or so. If it does happen to boil, just take it out and give it a jolly good whisk and it will be fine – it is quite a forgiving mixture due to the high fat content.

Taste, adding a little more sugar if you prefer it sweeter. Pour hot into an old jam jar and screw on the lid. Keeps for up to 2 weeks in the fridge.

Ratatouille

Chichoumeille is the Languedoc name for the Provencal ratatouille. It is, when good, a truly delicious dish - sun ripened vegetables cooked with olive oil, onion and garlic and seasoned carefully. However like many such classics it has become very bastardised, a stew of chopped aubergines in a nameless herby tomatoey juice is often grandified as a ratatouille. Tinned ratatouille heaven forbid! As in all good cooking, proper execution is essential; it is not the recipe as such it is how you bring the ingredients together that makes all the difference.

The British are not good with aubergines in any event, certainly they are not native to cooler climates and there is certain mythology around their cooking which has lead to difficulties. Here is how to make the real thing:

Tips for Success

This is so much a dish of summer, when vegetables taste at their best, so make it then and try to buy the vegetables in a continental store rather than tasteless ones from a supermarket. Pick small aubergines and courgettes as they are younger than their older brothers and sisters and have a better flavour. Mine are grown in the village and taste amazing.
Don't stint on the olive oil; it is not meant to be greasy dish but there needs to be enough to cook the vegetables nicely without burning them.
Above all, ratatouille is not a stew, the vegetables need to be cooked in a frying pan in separate batches until tinged with brown and soft and then combined with tomatoes to bake in a flat dish. During baking the juices will evaporate and be reabsorbed into the vegetables; there should only be 2-3 tbsp of juices at the end.
Aubergines: many recipes state that aubergines must be salted and then wrung out to remove their 'bitter juices'. If there were ever any bitter juices in aubergines they were bred out of them centuries ago. However the real purpose of this step is to close up the holes in the blotting paper like flesh of the aubergine, so that when they are fried in oil they do not absorb it. If find it much easier to blanch the aubergine slices in boiling water, which has the same effect.
Some recipes contain red or green peppers, others do not. I prefer it without so rarely use them and I certainly would never use green peppers as they have an unpleasant taste when cooked.
The real thing contains just a little thyme to set off the sweetness of the tender and slowly cooked vegetables.

Ingredients:

500 g aubergines
500 g courgettes
500 g tomatoes
2 medium onions
2 cloves garlic
8-10 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp thyme
Salt and pepper

1 baking dish about 25 cm by 20 cm

Method:

Prepare all the vegetables; slice the onion and garlic thinly and set them sweating in 2-3 tbsp olive oil until nice and golden. (I often do this in the microwave so that I can watch the other vegetables cooking without worrying that the onions will catch).

Slice the courgettes and aubergines into rings about 1 cm thick. Cut the aubergine slices into ½ moons if they are large. Bring a sauce pan of salted water to the boil, drop in the aubergine slices, simmer for 1 minute, drain them through a colander and run cold water over them until cold. If they are very wet, dry them on paper towels.

Heat 3 tbsp oil in large frying pan, add a single layer of courgettes slices and cook on a medium heat until the slices are tinged with brown, turning them over to brown the other side. They will take about 15 minutes to cook. Remove them with a slotted spoon and then repeat the process with the aubergine slices. Remove them from the pan when cooked and reserve.

Cut the tomatoes in half and, with your finger, flick out the seeds and jelly like pulp (these will just make the dish watery and will need to be evaporated, increasing cooking time). Slice the tomatoes thinly.

Scatter the golden softened onions and garlic over the base of the baking dish.

Arrange a layer of aubergines along the edge of the dish, followed by a layer of tomatoes, partly overlapping them, then a layer of courgettes, followed by tomatoes. Repeat with more aubergines and carry on until the bottom of the dish is covered. You can pack a lot more vegetables into a dish this size but it will take a lot longer to cook off the juices, so try to keep the layer not too thick.

Scatter with the thyme, salt and pepper. Pour over any cooking juices from the vegetables.

Cover with foil and bake in an oven at 190 for 30 minutes, turning down the heat to 170 after the first 30 minutes. Keep an eye on the dish and remove the foil if it is juicy, but don't let the juices burn – 2-3 tbsp of juices only.

Serve hot, warm or cool. (Can be made up to 48 hours in advance and reheated in an oven at 160 for 25 minutes) Leftovers are nice with salads, sprinkle with chopped herbs

 

 

 

 

Daube of Beef

This is an excellent winter dish, the Southern equivalent of Burgundy's bœuf bourguignonne. This is a traditional recipe that dates back centuries; it is a hearty rustic recipe that tastes of the wines and the herbs and spices of the region. Southern influences show up strongly in the flavourings; garlic, juniper, cloves, thyme, bay and orange peel. The flavours develop during marinating the beef and the long slow cooking. It is not a sophisticated haute cuisine creation, but every bit as good for not being so.

Tips for Success

Choose a decent full bodied red, something you would be happy to drink; the flavours of the wine will come through to the final dish. (There is no stock in this dish).
Brown the meat carefully on all sides in the hot oil and preferably choose shin of beef. This is a very well exercised and flavoursome cut that has a lot of connective tissue which will, when cooked, give the meat a delicious tender moistness (some braising cuts can be slightly dry when cooked).
Prepare the dish the day before (or up to 72 hours ahead) if you can; not only will flavours improve but you can make sure that the beef is cooked perfectly and the sauce nicely reduced and degreased.
For ease of cooking I would recommend using a pressure cooking; it will reduce the cooking time from around 6 to around 2 hours.
Sweat the vegetables nice and slowly in the oil to bring out their sweetness, this will balance the acidity of the wine in the sauce.
In the traditional recipe strips of pork skin are added to give the sauce to give it body and thicken it. This is not very attractive to modern tastes and I prefer to thicken the sauce with potato flour.
Many recipes contain tomato, mushrooms, olives or other such embellishments; these are all fine in moderation but it is not traditional to add them.

Serves 8

2kg shin of beef (jaret) cut into nice chunky pieces.

Marinade

4 sliced onions, 4 carrots and 2 sticks celery, chopped.  Add 1 litre red wine, 3 tbsp red wine vinegar, 4 cloves, 6 juniper berries,  1/2 tsp black pepper corns, a good grating of nutmeg, 2 bay leaves, 2 tsp dried thyme, 6 parsley stalks, a big strip of orange peel (no white pith), 2 tsp salt  and 6 garlic cloves (chopped) .

Mix the marinade ingredients together and add the beef chunks. Leave to marinate in the fridge or a cool place overnight.

 Cooking

Lift out the chunks of meat, which will now be coloured a deep purple from the wine, scrape all the bits of vegetable and spices etc. off the meat and reserve the marinade and bits. 

Dry the beef on paper towels.  Heat a large cocotte (large enough to take the beef comfortably) and add 3 tbsp olive oil.  Brown the meat in smallish batches on all sides. 

When the meat is browned, add extra olive oil to the pan and cook the vegetables and spices etc. slowly in the pan until they are soft and well cooked, tinged with brown – about 15 minutes.

Pour in the reserved marinade and add the meat.  If necessary add enough water so that the liquid comes up half way up the sides of the meat.  Bring to the boil on top of the stove and transfer to an oven at 160 degrees for 1/2 an hour and then after that regulate the heat then so that the liquid simmers gently around the meat.

Depending on the age of the animal, the meat it will take up to 6 hours to cook (I find French beef takes much longer to cook than British).  It is done when a sharp knife easily pierces it but before it is falling apart. 

Leave the beef in the pot to cool, fish out all the extraneous bits and discard (spices and herbs) strain off the liquid, reserving it, and transfer the meat and vegetables to the fridge.  Reduce the liquid down to about half.  (The dish can be frozen at this point with the reduced liquid added back to the beef and vegetables).

Transfer the reduced cooking juices to the fridge after cooling them and leave overnight. The following day, scrape off all the fat.

The following, bring the sauce to the boil, add the meat and vegetables and simmer for 15 minutes on the top of the stove, until everything is nice and hot. (The dish can wait in a turned off oven for 1 -2 hours before serving). Don't stir it or it will break up, just shake the pan from side to side gently. Adjust seasoning and thicken the sauce with a little potato flour slaked in water, dribble this in here and there and shake the pan gently while it simmers.

Serve with buttered pasta, macaroni or penne, sprinkled with parsley, butter and a little chopped garlic (persillade) and some glazed carrots.

Balsamic Reduction

This is one of those 'cheffy' things that works well at home – it's fairly easy to make, even though the kitchen will stink of vinegar - or you can even buy it pre-made in big supermarkets. Not only does it taste good but it looks good too. Home made will definitely taste a lot better as the commercial preparation is really a sugar syrup of the vinegar, yours will be a concentrate.

Don't hurry the final simmering of the reduction; the point is to evaporate off most of the acetic acid in the vinegar and to reduce down the natural sugars in the vinegar to form a plate/food coating consistency at room temperature. The boiling point of acetic acid is 118 degrees centigrade, so it will evaporate best when the balsamic sugar syrup has reached a good sugar density (as then the temperature will rise above that of boiling water).
It's best to stay in the kitchen during the whole reduction process of about 45 minutes to avoid burning the reduction, or worse it catching fire!
Many chefs add a lot of sugar to the vinegar to increase the yield; don't it will just taste much less good.

Ingredients (Yields 100-150ml)

1 l balsamic vinegar (normal quality, nothing aged or fancy)
1 wide, heavy bottomed pan (even a frying pan, I use an old non stick wok)

Method

Boil the vinegar in the pan over a high heat until ½ of it has been evaporated.

Turn down the heat to medium and boil a further ½ away.

Turn down the heat to low and let it simmer away. After a bit, it will start to get very vinegary at this stage, an indication that bit is not far from being done. It is not possible to give precise timings as it all depends on how much grape must (i.e. sugar) has been added to the vinegar when it was made.

It is ready when it looks syrupy. Lift a little onto a plate that you have kept in the freezer and if it goes thick and syrupy and stays in a trail it is done. In order to see a picture of what the reduction should look like, click on this link: feta, watermelon, basil and mint salad

Cool until tepid and then pour into a squeezy bottle (plastic bottle with a small nozzle), or failing that a ketchup bottle with a nozzle. Keep at room temperatures; keeps indefinitely.

(Note: if when tepid it turns out to be too liquid, then continue cooking, if too solid then add a little water. The bottle and its contents can be warmed briefly in the microwave if the reduction is slightly too stiff).