A technique I’ve been using a lot these days when cooking vegetables is to fry them in a large pan on a low heat with the lid on. This simultaneously coats and caramelises the veg  in butter, and with the lid on, traps the moisture to soften and steam at the same time. Treating a whole carrot like this for an hour, overcooks it in the most marvelous way. You get a soft, slightly chewy exterior with a tender putty-like center. Cooking this way is like using a pressure cooker, nothing escapes. All the flavour condenses and seeps back into the carrot. Tasty.

Carrot cooking technique aside, this recipe is all about the gravlax.  Home cured, beetroot stained salmon. Raw salmon, salted and sugared to draw all the water out. It’s so simple to cure your own. Add some grated beetroot to the cure and it draws the colour into the flesh as it expels water. 48 hours later, its cured. Sliced thinly against the grain and you have beautiful two-toned delicate slices of fish. It has the texture and mouth-feel of a smoked salmon, but a lighter and more delicate finish.

Wheatberries are the whole unprocessed wheat kernel and when cooked are slightly chewy with a mild nutty flavour. These were tossed in a vibrant green sauce made from kale juice and miso. The savoury whack of the miso balances out the raw verdant green flavour of the raw kale juice.

Method:

Prepare the Gravlax. Take a side of salmon and remove the skin. In a bowl, mix together a cup of sugar and a cup of salt. Lay out some cling film and place the salmon onto it. Rub the salt and sugar mix into both sides of the salmon. Finely grate two beetroots over the salmon and some shredded fresh herbs. I used sprigs of fennel and fennel pollen that I had dried myself (air-dried in the kitchen). Grate over the zest of a lemon. Tightly wrap the lemon in cling film and lay the wrapped salmon in a baking dish. I weigh it down with a few tins and leave in the fridge for 48 hours. Drain the excess liquid from the dish daily and turn the fish at least once over the two day curing.

To cook the carrots – scrub them and add them unpeeled to any broad based pan with a lid. Add a tablespoon of butter and  few sprigs of fresh thyme. Cook over a low heat with the lid on. Turn every 10 minutes or so. The steam from the lid should keep the environment in the pan moist, but if it looks like drying out too much, then add a little butter. An average sized carrot will take an hour to cook via this method. Use your fingers to test the done-ness – like you would a steak – over the course of an hour you will know by touch when it is perfect.

Wheatberries are simply boiled in water – take 1 cup of wheat and boil in 4 cups of water – takes about 25 to 30 mins. Drain.

Kale juice can be made using a juicer, or via the technique used here. Heat the kale juice in a pan and start to reduce it by a third. Add a large tablespoon of white miso and stir in. This will also help to thicken the sauce. Add the cooked, drained wheatberries to sauce and coat.

Plate the wheatberries and drizzle over a good olive oil. Roll thin slices of the gravlax. Cut the carrot lengthwise. Serve.

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Another homage at home. This time a straight up adaptation of the Daniel Humm roast chicken at NoMad. Loved this. The original recipe calls for the chicken to be stuffed under the skin with foie gras, truffles and brioche. Roasted at a super high temperature, the chicken skin crisps golden brown. The fat from the foie gras melts, helping to render the skin from the inside. Presented to the table with a bouquet of greens, carved, then each breast is served with a fricassee of dark meat from the legs.

Not having won the lottery, my fridge lacked the foie gras, brioche and truffle. So the challenge was on to make something that could match the rich, decadent stuffing of the NoMad recipe. Fortunately I had some truffle butter, french baguette, and dried porcini mushrooms….

To make the stuffing: Seep a handful of dried mushrooms in a cup of boiling water for 20 minutes.  Take four handfuls of torn french bread and add to a blender. Throw in the softened mushrooms (no mushroom water) along with two tablespoons of truffle butter, and a further two tablespoons of salted butter (if you have no truffle butter – add some truffle oil to four tablespoons of butter). A handful of fresh parsley, a sprinkle of back pepper and then blitz. If too dry add some of the reserved mushroom water.

Stuff the chicken: Cut out the wishbone by scraping away the meat and pulling away the bone. Gently use your finger to separate the skin from the breast and the legs (I just did the breast in the photos). Fill a piping bag and use it to pipe the stuffing over the legs and breast. Use your fingers to massage the skin to spread the stuffing evenly.

Pop a lemon, thyme and rosemary into the cavity. Truss your chicken (tie up the legs) and leave in the fridge for an hour (to dry out the skin and firm up the stuffing). Pre-heat your oven to 250C.

Take the chicken out of the fridge. Melt 1/2 a cup of butter and gently brush the chicken skin with the melted butter and roast at 250C for thirty minutes. Baste the chicken with more melted butter and turn down the heat to 200C  until continue to roast done (about 35-45 minutes).

Let the chicken rest and bring to the table with a bouquet of green leaves (I used sorrel, baby purple & black kale leaves, and wild rocket). Carve the breasts and serve.

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My favourite way to cook salmon is a Michel Bras technique. It is so easy and perfectly cooks the fish to wobbly medium rare consistency. The salmon is so light and moist, it collapses on the fork. Simple and beautiful, this whole recipe takes no more than 15 minutes from start to finish.

Pre-heat your oven to a very low setting (120C). Fill up your kettle and turn on to boil. Take out 2 roasting dishes. Lightly butter one. Place the salmon fillets skin side down in the buttered dish. Put the salmon on the top shelf of the oven and the empty roasting dish on the bottom shelf. Fill the empty dish with boiling water. Leave for 10-14 minutes (depending on thickness of the fillets). That’s it. The salmon will be done when it starts to flake apart a little. Simple. The salmon will bleed little dots of white stuff (albumen), which will brush off easily with a pastry brush.

While the salmon is steam/baking – boil some halved new potatoes (10-15mins). Drain. Season with salt, parsley and olive oil.

For the fennel puree I cheated a little and caramelised a finely chopped bub of fennel in a pressure cooker with 3 tablespoons of butter and half a glass of water for 10 mins. Blitz in a blender with a few more tablepoons of butter until smooth.

Serve.

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I cook for taste, eat to suit myself, and if I’m not in the mood to cook – I’ll eat junk food. This recipe has all the trappings of a healthy dish – but ignore all the detoxifying claims of beetroot juice – this is all about flavour.

Roast, at a very high heat, whole unpeeled baby carrots, with their green tops and wispy roots intact.  After about 30-45mins (depending on how high you crank up your oven) this gives you sweet carrot flesh, with a chewy skin and crispy tops and roots. Remove from the oven and let cool, so the skin separates a little from the flesh. Warm up a frying pan and sear some finely chopped spring onions. Add the cooled baby carrots to the pan, some finely chopped lettuce leaves (choose a soft green leaf if possible), and cover with a lid. Take off the heat to let the carrots warm up, and the leaves to wilt down.

For the beetroot juice – I am lucky to have the use of one of these types of juicers at home, but they are not essential.  You can finely grate a whole beetroot, wrap the shredded pulp in a dishcloth and torque it tightly to squeeze out all the juice.

In a pan, reduce the juice by half to thicken, season it with a fruit vinegar and salt to taste (I used a fig balsamic that i bought in Aldi).

Make sure to roast lots of little carrots to drag through the sauce.

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Quick Saturday lunch. Smooth, creamy cauliflower puree with lightly cooked shavings of cauliflower covered with ashes of roasted blackened leeks.

The taste of the leeks on their  own is strong, a salty balance with a sweet and bitter acidity. Though when mushed into and pulled through the puree, the leek shards crumble, seasoning the puree.

To make the leek ash. Cut the leeks lengthwise in half, trim off the dark green ends and separate the sheets. Lay out in roasting dish and lightly coat with olive oil and some salt. Roast for 20 minutes in the oven on a high heat (250C) until dehydrated and black.

Make the cauliflower puree by shaving thin sheets from the cauliflower with a mandoline. Take half the shavings and crumbled florets and simmer in a saucepan with a cup of milk and tablespoon of butter for 10 minutes until softened. Puree in a blender and season to taste.

Take the remaining shavings of the cauliflower and warm through in milk with a squeeze of lemon (don’t overheat or else it will curdle). You want the the 2nd batch of shavings to retain a little firmness and bite – so take off the heat after about 5 minutes. Drain the shavings and squeeze over a little bit of lemon.

Adapted from a recipe by Ola Rudin and Sebastian Persson from Saltimporten Canteen, Malmo (Bon Appetit Feb’13 issue)

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I’ve never cooked celeriac in its skin before. Knobbly and tough, covered in warts with rooty tentacles, it holds onto dirt and looks unpalatable.

A while back I stumbled across a Rene Redzepi recipe from Noma for pot roasted celeriac. Unfortunately it called for young celeriac roots, smaller than a fist, which you never see on the supermarket shelves. As usual though, the local  Food Co-op came to the rescue last month as I saw a box of mini-celeriacs for sale. So naturally I pounced and had to try the recipe out…

The method is simple. Clean the celeriac. I used a chopstick to gouge out all the muck from the root base and a scouring pad to brush off any remaining dirt. Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the cleaned celeriac and seal, like a joint of meat, turning every few minutes until golden. Add some butter, a cup of water and cover with a lid. Turn the heat down and cook gently for an hour. Turn the celeriac and baste occasionally, adding more water if the pot dries out.

While the celeriac is roasting – make the buttermilk sauce.

Slowly warm 200ml of milk in a saucepan and add the juice from half a lemon. Be careful not to overheat of else it will curdle. Whisk in two tablespoons of olive oil and season with salt.

Take out the celeriac and cut them in half. Spoon out the warm buttermilk sauce, and scatter over more olive oil and a squeeze more of lemon juice. Serve.

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Roasted root vegetables with caramelised onions covered in a miso, balsamic glaze baked in a pan with a puff pastry lid.

Technically this is very easy to make – looks hugely impressive – but the only effort is the time it takes.

Peel and dice equal quantities of butternut squash and beetroot – about two cup fulls of each. Thinly sliced two small sweet potatoes. Cut five carrots lengthwise in half.

Put the veg in a roasting dish and coat with olive oil. Roast all the vegetables in a hot oven (200C) for 45 mins-60mins.

While the veg is roasting – caramelise some onions. Thinly slice and slowly fry in two tablespoons of butter, until soft and golden (30mins approx).

Make the glaze by creating a caramel (melt 50g of sugar in a frying pan with two tablespoons of water) then stir in three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and three tablespoons of butter. Stir in two tablespoons and white miso – and a teaspoon of chilli (if you would like a little kick amongst all the sweetness). Let cool.

Roll out 500g of shop bought puff pastry on a lightly floured surface.

Layer an oven proof frying pan. First the roasted vegetables. Then pour over the glaze. Smear on the caramelised onions. Then a layer of fresh spinach. Lift the puff pastry over the pan to completely cover and push any excess pastry down the sides of the pan.

Bake in an oven at 180C for 45 mins (or until golden – ovens vary – so keep an eye on it)…

Serve with a green salad….

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It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me personally with non-blog commitments but hopefully we can get back to normal now, starting with this little dish.

Rounds of black pudding fried until crisp on the outside. Dry roast hazelnuts in the oven until golden.  Shaved carrot ribbons quick pickled for ten minutes with a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of sugar and a tablespoon of white wine vinegar. Butternut squash peeled and boiled until soft, drained then blended with two large tablespoons of butter. Add more butter when blending to get a silky smooth puree. Take some spinach leaves, coat with some olive oil and dress with pickling liquid from the carrot. Plate.

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Hot-smoked garlic bulbs. Packed with pungent smokey flavour and partially cooked, so the natural oils sweetly caramelise. The peeled cloves are mellow enough to be eaten raw, loosing their harsh garlicky rawness to a rich nutty smoked flavour. They carry the taste of the Barbecue into the kitchen through the Winter, and this is indeed a good thing.

This soup is made special from the addition of the smoked garlic, but if you can’t source the garlic, slow roast some extra heads of garlic the next time you are roasting some meat and keep them in a sealed bag in the freezer.

Serves 4. Scale up the quantities as required

The base of this soup is caramelised onions and leeks. I used my pressure cooker technique – peeled one large head of the smoked garlic,  finely shredded 1 large onion and 1 large leek (white part only), 2 large tablespoons of butter, a little water (4 tablespoons), salt,  4 or 5 fresh thyme sprigs, pinch of white pepper and a teaspoon of baking powder (to speed-up the caramelisation). Pop on the pressure cooker lid and after 5 minutes you should have wonderfully molten, golden onions, swimming in a soupy butter sauce.

Roughly chop the head of a medium cauliflower (keeping back a small handful for the garnish) and add to the pressure cooker. Pour in enough chicken stock to almost cover the cauliflower. I used water instead of stock and threw in 2 of the Knorr Chicken Stockpots as well. Back on with the pressure cooker lid for another 20 minutes.

While the cauliflower is cooking I prepared the garnish. Dry toasted some almond flakes. Pan fried the reserved cauliflower florets in brown butter until crisped (I crumbled the cauliflower into smaller pieces before  adding to pan). Quick pickled some sultanas in a 50:50 mixture of white wine vinegar and warm water.

 Use a hand blender to blitz the cauliflower soup, adding some milk or cream to thin the soup if  it is a little too gloopy. Taste and season with salt.

Taste again and season some more.

Garnish with the crumbled almonds, brown butter cauliflower and pickled sultanas.

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I was invited recently to the launch of the new winter menu  at The Library restaurant at the Dandelion in Dublin. The menu reads well, but my piggy eye was immediately drawn to their starter of a Ham Hock & Pistachio Wellington. I love clever chefs and good food, and this was such a simple idea and well executed on the night. Punchy food packed with flavour. Soft salty shards of ham covered in a thin pastry crust with a smear of horseradish cream.  I had to try to recreate this at home.

Not having a recipe to follow I had free reign to make it up as I went along. In my head it was fairly simple. Wrap a ham hock terrine in a  pastry and bake. But I couldn’t help myself but tinker with it a little.

The terrine was simple enough. Boiled two ham hocks in a pressure cooker for 40 minutes with a glass of wine, 2  pints of water, a carrot, celery, pepper and star anise. No salt needed. Peeled and discarded the flabby skin from the hocks and shredded the tender meat that was falling from the bone. Mixed in some crushed shelled pistachios and chopped cornichons. Pack the mixture into a small tupperware box and poured in some of the cooking liquid which is packed with natural boney gelatin from the hocks. I weighed down the top of the terrine with a tin of tomatoes, wrapped the whole lot down with cling film to keep it compressed and popped in the fridge for 30 minutes or so to set.

The poured in cooking stock and compression sets the terrine. Carefully release it from the tupperware with a palette knife. If stuck float the tupperware in a bowl of boiling water to loosen the terrine. I decided to wrap the terrine in leek.  Soften cut sheets of leeks by quickly blanching  for two minutes in boiling water and plunged into cold water. Then wrap around the terrine.

Thinly roll out some defrosted shop bought puff pastry on a lightly floured surface. Cut a 1/3 of it away and use that as the base. Take the other 2/3′s and cover the terrine crimping the edges with a fork. Beat an egg and brush the pastry with  the beaten egg. Bake in the oven at 200C for 20 minutes. until the pastry is golden.

Now the idea is to let it cool and serve as a cold cut, however as always, I was a little too eager and cut it while warm from the oven. This meant that the terrine didn’t get a chance to re-set and the chunks of hock looked more shredded than set. The curse of the greedy man….  I served it simply with some roasted root vegetables and a very mustardy vinaigrette.

If you get a chance to to check out the Library at the Dandelion try the Ham Hock Wellington and let me know what you think.

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