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Making sandwiches with cold beef seems dull when you could brush a piece of bread on both sides with olive oil, then toast it in a pan, turning once. Meanwhile, make a sauce for 2 people by mixing together 2 teaspoons of mustard (English, French, whichever is your favourite), 1 tablespoon of grated horseradish or a teaspoon of ‘Gentleman’s Relish’, a chopped shallot, about 3 tablespoons of double cream or crème frâiche, ½ teaspoon of cider vinegar and some salt. Place a slice of cold roast beef rolled up with 1 tablespoon of the sauce on the crisp bread, and throw over some chopped herbs or cress – or other salad leaves.
Beef with Pumpkin Seeds and Carrot
I have become as fond of green pumpkin seeds as pine nuts, and have a weakness for the sweet sourness of grated carrot, mixed with lemon and oil, then seasoned with salt. For 2 people, put 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and toast 2 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds in it until they are tinged with gold. The oil will turn a beautiful green. Grate 2 carrots, dress them with about 3 tablespoons of olive oil and the juice of ½ lemon, then add a pinch of salt. Stir well. Divide between 2 dishes. Place slices of beef on top, then spoon over the seeds, with their lovely oil. Black pepper is essential.
Minced cold meat
Sauce for Pasta
Mince the cold beef using an old-fashioned mincer (available in hardware shops) or chop it into small pieces. For 4 people, fry approximately 450g/1lb mince with 1 finely chopped onion, 2 chopped garlic cloves and 2 chopped chicken livers. Add 2 pinches of dried thyme, a wineglass of white wine and a tin of tomatoes and cover with beef stock. Simmer for about 1 hour, then taste and add salt. Serve with spaghetti, noodles or penne – and have a bowl of grated Parmesan cheese ready.
Braised Beef and Fungi
Make as for the sauce above, but omit the chicken livers and tomatoes, adding a handful of dried porcini that have been steeped in a mug of boiling-hot water until soft (add the soaking water, too). Simmer for an hour and serve with rice, or the cooked barley, or the farro. Use fresh mushrooms instead of dried, if you wish, and add a mugful of stock.
Beef Stock
To make beef stock, put the bones left over from a roast into a deep saucepan with a carrot, an onion, a celery stick and a bay leaf. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Simmer for about \Vi hours. Skim off surplus fat. Don’t be put off by the time this takes; once everything is in the pan and simmering, the stock makes itself and you have a bountiful supply to use in other recipes. I like to call stock a half-made meal.
Dripping
Once the beef has been roasted, pour off the dripping (fat) through a sieve into a little bowl and store in the fridge. Use it to fry or roast potatoes. Spread the jelly that sets underneath the fat on to hot toast and throw over some sprouting seeds – broccoli seeds are perfect for this. You can buy them from Goodness Direct (www.goodnessdirect.co.uk; tel: 0871 871 6611).
Blackcurrants
Blackcurrant Tarts
Venison Marinated in Blackcurrants
Redcurrant Cake
I went on a radio programme once to discuss ‘blackcurrants as a superfood’ with a representative of the Blackcurrant Foundation. Asked by Jenni Murray, of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, where the fruit originated, the expert said France. Well, it seemed rather rude to embarrass this blackcurrant expert in front of millions of people so I buttoned my lip. But it is not true. Blackcurrants, like white and redcurrants, are very northern-and originally grew wild all over Europe and Northern Asia, including Nordic countries. They love our climate, and grow well in Scotland. It is nice, for once, to look at a fruit and not think of it as better grown in France or Italy, like peaches, apricots and grapes. Blackcurrants are high in vitamin C, and the subject of many glowing tabloid health claims, since they have a high level of antioxidants (nutrients that help protect against cancer). The only problem with these claims is that currants of all colours usually taste even nicer with rather a lot of refined white sugar, which negates the goodness somewhat. But as a treat, puddings made with blackcurrants are among my favourites: their midnight inkiness, the rich and delicate flavour of the juice, the heaven that is blackcurrant jam, and the way you can use the leaves to add more blackcurrant flavour. And don’t forget white and red currants – the latter make an extraordinary cake.
Buying blackcurrants
I see a lot of blackcurrants during the season, in vegetable markets and farm shops, and they are an excellent buy at pick-your-own farms. Double check the label – it is better, and always cheaper, to buy British.
Blackcurrant Tarts
Sweet, intensely flavoured little tarts. Serve them warm after baking and spoon some vanilla ice cream on top. Alternatively, if the season for blackcurrants lingers on into that for cobnuts, try them with Cobnut Ice. If you don’t feel like making pastry, a West Country producer will come to your rescue. Dorset Pastry is made with proper butter and all natural ingredients. Its sweet shortcrust pastry is impressive – available from Waitrose, or contact Dorset Pastry for other stockists: www.dorsetpastry.com; tel: 01305 854860.
Makes 24
For the jam:
1kg/2¼lb blackcurrants, plus 6 blackcurrant leaves
1kg/2¼lb granulated sugar
For the sweet pastry:
55g/2oz icing sugar
250g/9oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
a pinch of salt
125g/4½oz softened unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing
1 large egg yolk
1-1½ tablespoons double cream
Make the jam the day before. Pull the blackcurrants off the stalk using a fork, then put them in a ceramic or stainless steel bowl. Cover with the sugar, give them a stir and leave for an hour or so to soften. Then put them in a pan, bring to the boil slowly and boil for 15 minutes. You don’t need to boil it to a traditional jam setting point – sloppy jam is much better. Leave it to cool and set overnight.
To make the tarts, you will need 2 bun trays, greased lightly with butter (if you don’t have any bun trays, it is possible to make one large tart in a 20cm/8 inch tart tin). For the pastry, put the icing sugar, flour and salt into a food processor and whiz for a few seconds. Add the butter and egg yolk, plus enough double cream to form a paste when the mixture is whizzed briefly. Do not overwork it. Remove from the food processor, place on a well-floured board and lightly work into a ball. Wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for about 1 hour.
Roll out the pastry on a well-floured surface, dusting the rolling pin frequently with flour, until it is about 3mm/⅛ inch thick. Work lightly and quickly – this is a rich pastry that can become greasy and difficult to handle. Using a glass or a pastry cutter that is about 2cm/3/4 inch wider than the circumference of the bun moulds, cut out 24 circles of pastry. Press them into the bun trays, then refrigerate for about half an hour, until cold and solid.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6. Remove the pastry cases from the fridge and fill each one three-quarters full with jam. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the pastry is crisp. Remove them from the oven, leave for a minute or two, then lift the tarts out on to a cooling rack. Serve warm.
Venison Marinated in Blackcurrants
There is something very right about eating deer accompanied by berries. Deer can be a pest, roaming the countryside on an endless raid. They nibble the young shoots of brambles, preventing them cropping, and given half a chance will do the same with cultivated fruit in gardens. There is only one way to combat deer break-ins, and that is to feast on the intruders themselves. Revenge is a dish served hot.
Serves 4–6
1.25kg/2¾lb well-hung venison saddle, boned and rolled
450g/1lb fresh blackcurrants
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
85g/3oz butter, at room temperature
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the vegetables:
55g/2oz butter
2 shallots, finely chopped
200g/7oz pot barley
450g/1lb curly kale, shredded into fine strips
Put the venison in a ceramic dish and cover with the blackcurrants. Leave to marinate in the fridge for several hours, turning occasionally.
Preheat the oven to 240°C/475°F/Gas Mark 9. Lift the venison out of the marinade and put it in a roasting tin. Season with black pepper, place in the oven and roast for about 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 175°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and roast for another 20 minutes. Test with a skewer (see the roast beef) or a meat thermometer. Rare venison should give a reading of about 50°C/125°F in the centre. Leave the meat to rest for 20 minutes, covered with foil in a warm place.
While the venison is roasting, prepare the vegetables: melt half the butter in a pan, add the shallots and cook until soft. Add the barley, stir-fry for a minute or two, then cover with water. Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes. Add the kale and cook for another 10 minutes, until both barley and kale are tender. Beat in the remaining butter and season with salt and pepper. To make the sauce, put the oil in a pan, add the garlic and onion and cook gently until tender. Add the blackcurrants from the marinade and cook until they are soft. Beat in the butter and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Have ready some warm plates before you carve the venison, as it cools very quickly. Serve a few slices to each person, with a little sauce and the barley and kale beside.
Redcurrant Cake
Due to their extraordinarily high nutrient content, more blackcurrants are grown in Britain than their relatives, red or white currants. Both have a more subtle, elegant flavour – especially redcurrants, which are delicious used in fools, ice cream and also in this pudding, which I like to call a biscuit that becomes a cake after it has sat for a while. It is quite easy to make, needing patience more than anything, but the end result will look like the work of a master pâtissier. Eat it with clotted cream or thin, creamy vanilla custard.
Serves 8
225g/8oz softened unsalted butter
70g/2½oz light brown muscovado sugar
175g/6oz ground almonds
225g/8oz superfine plain flour or Italian ‘00’ flour, plus extra for dusting
a few drops of vanilla extract, or the seeds scraped out from ‘A vanilla pod
approximately 450g/1lb redcurrants, pulled off the stalks with a fork (you can use previously frozen fruit)
caster sugar
Cream the butter and sugar in a mixer or using an electric beater until light and fluffy. Fold in the ground almonds, followed by the flour and vanilla, and mix to form a dough. Wrap the dough in a plastic bag and put in the fridge to rest for about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 2. Divide the dough into quarters. Roll out each on a piece of baking parchment dusted with a small scattering of flour. Use a 23cm/9 inch plate as a template and cut around it, discarding the pastry trimmings to leave a neat round. Transfer each sheet of pastry to a baking sheet and bake for 12–15 minutes, until golden. The colour of the biscuit is important; it should be reasonably ‘high baked’ – so a good golden colour without being burnt. Leave to cool on the baking sheets.
To build the cake, transfer the least perfect biscuit round to a flat plate. Scatter a third of the redcurrants over the whole surface in an even layer. Sprinkle just a little caster sugar over them before lowering the second biscuit on top. Repeat with the remaining layers, using all the redcurrants so the top of the cake is biscuit, not fruit. It really does not matter if layer 1, 2 or 3 breaks (the biscuit is necessarily fragile) but try to keep number 4 intact for looks purposes.
Leave the cake to sit for at least 2 hours – the juice from the redcurrants will seep into the biscuit and the whole thing should amalgamate nicely into a crumbly cake you can cut (using a very sharp knife) into slices and serve with cream or custard.
BROCCOLI
Purple Sprouting Broccoli with Little Brown Lentils
Creamed Broccoli Soup
Romanesco Salad
I could write poetry to welcome purple sprouting broccoli, when the fresh new season’s spears hit the shops. It is just at that moment when potatoes are getting big and carrots enormous; the frosts are killing the softer vegetables and no other way can be found to eat squash. I have written before how purple sprouting, at its best, jostles for position with asparagus as a favourite seasonal pleasure – it wins because it is cheaper.
Buying broccoli
Farmers’ markets are the best source of the freshest broccoli, both purple sprouting and the boring kind. Supermarkets sell plenty, but the delay as the broccoli travels from farm to depot for cleaning, trimming and packing is reflected in its slight toughness and reduced sweetness. To find a farmers’ market near you, look at your local council website or for a London farmers’ market, see www.lfm.org.uk.
Purple Sprouting Broccoli with Little Brown Lentils
When you want vegetables to sit patiently and ready on the table while you get on with other things, this is the way to do it. When I made this originally, I liked it a lot, but when I ate the leftovers as I did the washing up I liked it ten times more – so make in advance and leave it. Do not refrigerate; if it is served chilled, the flavour is lost. For a warm dish, reheat any leftovers the next day, when the broccoli will darken and the whole thing amalgamate. Eat with red chilli and lumps of fresh acidic cheese.
Choose broccoli that feels tender right down to the tip of the stem and whose flowers are still closed. The leaves should not be enormous, but young enough for the flower heads to be visible.
Serves 4
200g/7oz small brown lentils
2 garlic cloves, peeled and pressed with the flat side of a knife to crack them a little
2 wineglasses of red wine
water or chicken stock
2 sprigs of thyme
450g/1lb purple sprouting broccoli
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Put the lentils in a pan with the garlic and wine, then cover with enough water or stock to come about 1—2cm/½—¾ inch above the pulses. Add the thyme, bring to the boil and simmer for about 25–35 minutes. Test – the lentils should be soft in the centre but the skins should not be falling off.
Strip any big tough leaves from the broccoli, and peel away any tough skin on the stalk using a potato peeler. Bring 4cm/1½ inches of salted water to the boil in a large pan and add the broccoli. Cook until just tender, then lift out with a slotted spoon and leave to drain on a dry cloth.
Put the broccoli in a bowl. Stir the oil and vinegar into the lentils, then season with salt and black pepper if necessary. Tip this mixture over the broccoli and leave the whole dish to perform its alchemy.
Creamed Broccoli Soup
When very lightly cooked until it is just tender and still grass green, then blitzed with stock and finished with a lemon-scented cream, broccoli soup is a heavenly way to eat what can be a tedious vegetable. The key to giving this soup a light, fresh spring vegetable flavour is in timing the cooking perfectly, and gentle reheating.
Serves 4–6
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 white onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, sliced
1 litre/1¾ pints chicken or vegetable stock
2-3 whole broccoli heads, weighing approximately 700g/1lb 9oz, separated into spears
4 tablespoons double cream
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
To serve:
4-6 tablespoons double cream withgrated zest of ½ lemon or Greek-style yoghurt
Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the onion and garlic and cook over a medium heat for a few minutes, until soft and translucent but not browned. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Simmer for a minute, then add the broccoli. Simmer until the stalks are just tender when pierced with a knife – they should still have some ‘bite’. Remove from the heat immediately and transfer to a bowl so the soup cools a little faster. Liquidise the soup with the cream until smooth. Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary.
To serve, mix the cream with the lemon zest. Just before you eat, reheat the soup gently, then serve straight away with a spoonful of the lemon cream, or yoghurt, in every bowl.
Romanesco Salad
I sometimes see this pointy, pale-green vegetable in local greengrocer’s shops and farmers’ markets. Although it is a relative of the cauliflower, it is known as Romanesco broccoli, and has a delicate flavour somewhere between cauliflower and broccoli. It is delicious served raw, for dipping into sauces, and when cooked it needs very little treatment at all except a drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice and parings of a hard cow’s or ewe’s milk cheese. Cut into quarters, then steam it for about 8 minutes. Test the stalk with the point of a knife – you do not want it too soft or the flower head will turn to mush. Much better that there is a firm stalk. Slice into big chunks, then serve in bowls with the oil, lemon, salt and cheese.
BUCKWHEAT
Kasha Salad
Buckwheat Pancakes
Herrings in Buckwheat Groats
My first encounter with buckwheat came in the form of a plate of blini, the Russian pancakes eaten with caviar or smoked fish. My step-grandfather was a Russian émigré, who adored them but liked them thick and heavy. My mother then found an authentic recipe in the Time-Life Russian cookbook – it was a revelation. Light, airy yeast pancakes with a taste of wholesome grain. Spoonfuls of melted butter, smoked fish and dollops of soured cream went on top; this was richness and earthiness combined. So you see, I am a fan of this brown flour with its dark flecks, but then recently I found kasha, the whole grains of buckwheat. They are shaped like a spearhead and are pale green. They need a short boil, then a wash to remove the starch. Added to salads or eaten hot with a dressing of oil, butter and fresh dill, they are exciting and totally different.
Buckwheat is not a wheat at all, but the grains from a flowering plant dating back thousands of years. It can, though, be used to make bread (with other flours) and noodles, notably soba noodles.
Buying buckwheat
Wholefood stores usually stock buckwheat flour, and often the groats as well. Organic buckwheat is available from Infinity Foods of Brighton. For stockists, contact them on www.infinityfoods.co.uk; tel: 01273 424060.
Kasha Salad
Kasha is whole buckwheat grains, sometimes sold as buckwheat groats. It has a green tinge and a fresh vegetable flavour, and cooks conveniently in a very short time. This simple salad has a gentle, grassy flavour. It is lovely with cold chicken, smoked fish or soft-boiled peeled eggs (bring eggs and cold water to the boil and cook for 4 minutes, cool in cold water, then peel)
Serves 4
2 garlic cloves, peeled
a pinch of dried thyme
200g/7oz buckwheat groats
1 ripe avocado
juice of 1 lemon
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
a small bunch of dill, roughly chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Put the garlic cloves, thyme and buckwheat in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, turn down to a simmer and cook for about 15–20 minutes, until the buckwheat is tender but not a mush. Drain and rinse quickly in cold water to remove any foamy starch. Leave to drain for a few minutes; it should not be wet.
Peel, stone and dice the avocado. Put it in a salad bowl and dress with the lemon juice, then add the olive oil, buckwheat, dill and seasoning and toss quickly. Do not make this salad too far in advance or the avocado will discolour.
Buckwheat Pancakes
These are my English blini, adapted from the Russian recipe of my childhood made in an English kitchen. Earthy but light, thanks to the use of both whipped egg whites and yeast, they should be drizzled with melted butter and eaten with smoked fish (see the Cured Mackerel), chopped dill and soured cream. Freshly ground black pepper is a must. They could also be eaten with Bacon and Apples or perhaps a little thin slice of dry-cured beef, in which case serve with chopped spring onions and a little melted butter.
Serves 4–6
125g/4½oz brown buckwheat flour
250g/9oz fine white flour (if you want gluten-free pancakes, you could use rice flour)
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
30g/1oz fresh yeast
1 teaspoon caster sugar
450ml/¾ pint lukewarm milk
3 eggs, separated
2½ tablespoons soured cream
2½ tablespoons melted butter, plus extra for brushing
To serve:
smoked fish of any sort
fried mushrooms
chopped dill
300ml/½ pint soured cream
175g/6oz butter, melted
Put the flours in a bowl with the salt and leave in a warm place. Mix the yeast with the sugar until it breaks down to a paste, then add the milk. Leave for about half an hour, until the yeast is activated and a foam forms on the top. Make a well in the centre of the flours and pour in the yeast mixture, beating as you go. When you have a smooth batter, leave the mixture to rise for about 1½ hours, covered with a tea towel, until doubled in size.
Beat in the egg yolks and fold in the soured cream and melted butter. Leave in a warm place for 20 minutes. Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks, then very carefully fold them into the bubbly pancake mixture. You do not want to break down the bubbles made by the yeast.
Heat a flat griddle or pancake pan and brush with a little melted butter; it should be hot but not smoking. Drop a tablespoonful of the mixture on to the pan and cook until bubbles rise to the surface and pop. Flip the pancake over and cook until puffed. Do not allow the pancake to burn – keep the heat steady. You should be able to cook 3 pancakes at a time in an average-sized pan. Keep the pancakes warm in a bowl lined with a tea towel, or eat them as you go, with any of the accompaniments listed above, finishing with chopped dill, a dollop of soured cream and a little melted butter drizzled on top.
Herrings in Buckwheat Groats
Herring fillets rolled in eggs and buckwheat, then shallow-fried and eaten with a good, piquant sauce. It is essential to buy very fresh herring. Herring roes are also good prepared like this.
