Thai curry with roasted duck, baby aubergines and bamboo shoots

Good old leftovers

As anyone who has read this blog previously will know, I try and make food go as far as possible and really make the most of leftovers. I hate wasting food, and there is nothing worse than letting good quality, expensive ingredients go off in the bottom of the fridge. To avoid this, I try and shop every day for exactly what I need that evening, and also having handy recipes that can make the most of anything that I have going spare. I think that the word leftover doesn’t help things either, making ingredients sound unappealing and past their best when they often aren’t.

Curries are a really great way of making leftovers into meals of their own. This meal came about because I bought a whole duck for a confit leg dish, and had the breasts left over. Duck breasts are very expensive in their own right, so there was no way that I was going to leave these to waste, and I really wanted to make something nice. I already had a lot of the dry ingredients required for this recipe in my cupboards, so it really wasn’t much effort to put together quickly. Although this recipe uses baby aubergines, french beans and bamboo shoots, you can easily swap these for what you’ve got lying around. 

I love Thailand and Thai cooking. But I find it so difficult to replicate the amazing dishes that you eat when there on holiday. It is only recently and after many attempts that I have finally managed to come up with something anywhere near that quality. Many of the european recipes for Thai curries lack the real intense flavour combinations - the right amount of sweetness, saltiness, spiciness and creaminess. I think that the main problem is sourcing the ingredients; things like galangal, thai basil and fresh lime leaves are still quite tricky to get hold of. The dried alternatives really aren’t suitable substitutes, and don’t have anywhere near the flavour. Luckily there are a couple of good greengrocers near me in Stoke Newington that occasionally have galangal and lime leaves, and you can now buy Thai basil in Waitrose. Try as much as possible to source these tricky ingredients as they make all the difference to the finished dish. 

Don’t be afraid of the chillies too! You can counter this heat with the coconut milk later.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the paste (makes enough for two batches):

1/2 a large shallot

4 lemongrass stalks, tough outer leaves discarded

1 lime, juice only

2 large pieces of galangal 

10 fresh lime leaves

10-12 bird eye chillis, seeds left in

Small handful fresh coriander root (save the leaves to finish)

5 garlic cloves

2 cardamom pods

1 tbsp coriander seeds, finely crushed

1 tbsp shrimp paste

50ml olive oil

Salt and pepper

For the curry:

2 duck breasts

Large handful french beans, trimmed and halved

6 baby aubergines, quartered at the last minute

225g bamboo shoots

1/2 a large shallot

250ml coconut cream

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp light brown sugar

400ml coconut milk

6 fresh lime leaves, stalk removed and quartered

large handful Thai basil leaves

To finish:

Sprinkle of Thai basil leaves and coriander leaves

1 red chilli, finely sliced

To serve:

1 cup of rice, cooked as instructed on the packet

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC and take the duck breasts out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. Put a baking tray lined with baking paper in the oven.

First make the paste by putting all of the paste ingredients into a food processor and blitz everything together until they form a smooth paste. You want it to be as fine as possible so keep scraping the sides of the bowl to make sure everything gets chopped. You only need half of the paste for this recipe, the other half will keep in the fridge for a week or so. Set aside to infuse together while you prepare the other ingredients. 

Now cook the duck. Using kitchen roll, dry the skin of the duck and season each side. Put the breasts skin side down on a cold, non stick frying pan and bring it up to a medium-high heat, keeping the skin side down at all times. Fry the duck for 4-5 minutes or until the skin is crispy and a lovely golden brown colour. As soon as the skin is cooked, turn the duck over and seal the flesh side quickly before placing them on the heated oven tray skin side down. Roast the duck for 5-6 minutes before removing and putting aside to rest for about ten minutes. Once rested, slice thinly - it should still be pink and succulent.

Start cooking the rice as instructed on the packet. Once cooked, keep covered and warm while you cook the curry.

Heat a large frying pan or skillet onto a medium heat. Add the coconut cream and bring to the boil.  Spoon in the curry paste mixture, fish sauce and sugar and bring back to a simmer for a couple of minutes before adding the aubergine, shallots, bamboo shoots, beans, lime leaves and most of the coconut milk. Bring back to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Taste the sauce and add more coconut milk or paste to get the heat/creaminess right to your taste. After 5 minutes, add the roasted duck slices and cook for another 2 minutes to heat through. To finish, sprinkle in the Thai basil leaves, stir together and turn the heat off. 

To serve, ladle a good mixture of curry and sauce into each bowl and top with sprinkled Thai basil leaves, coriander and sliced red chilli. 

Pappardelle with broad beans, peas and prosciutto

Often when I finish work in the week, all I want to do is get home, eat something quickly and put my feet up. I also cook for my girlfriend Katie a lot, and I know that the last thing that she needs is to wait around for hours while I cook something up. This recipe is perfect for such occasions, it’s quick to make, seasonal, relatively cheap and involves a lot of ingredients that I have sitting in my fridge or cupboard. It also involves pasta, something that I could eat every day of the week and never tire of. Although you can use shop bought pasta, I really think that making fresh pasta is a joy. It adds the the theatrics of cooking, tastes amazing and you can make it in big batches and dry it out so it’s available quickly. 

As well as pasta, this recipe also used another ingredient that I have a slightly unhealthy liking for - peas. I’ve always loved peas, and even when growing up would often have a large bowl to accompany my meals. I then went to university and got mocked for this constantly! I always have a bag of peas in the freezer, and this year I have been growing them on my balcony. I had high hopes for these fresh peas but encountered a few problems - a) I keep on eating the damn things when out on the balcony, and b) the yield from three plants really isn’t that much. So I often revert to using the good old frozen peas, which work absolutely fine with most things. Peas and ham/bacon are a classic combination and give this dish a lovely salty and sweet taste. 

Serves 2 

Ingredients:

For the pasta:

300g ‘00’ flour

3 eggs

Salt

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

To add to it:

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 red chilli, finely chopped

4 slices prosciutto, cut into small pieces

2 anchovy fillets, roughly torn

1 large handful broad beans, podded and shelled

1 large handful peas

1 glass dry white wine

A few sprigs fresh oregano and parsley, roughly chopped

1 lemon, juice

1 large pinch of finely grated pecorino

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

First make your pasta. Put the flour, eggs, a good pinch of salt and olive oil in a food processor, and blitz until the mix looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Tip everything out onto a floured surface and knead together until the dough has an elastic texture but is not sticky. Knead in a little flour if necessary. Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for half an hour to rest.

After half an hour, remove the pasta dough from the fridge. Using your pasta machine, roll the dough through each setting until it’s nice and thin, finishing on the setting before the thinnest - you want it to be thicker than ravioli. If you don’t have a pasta machine - you can use a rolling pin but it needs to be really thin. You will now be left with a sheet of pasta, cut this into a couple of pieces with each piece the length of how long you want the pasta. Fix the papparedelle cutter to the machine and put each piece through. Sprinkle a little flour over the freshly cut pasta and twirl into little nests. These can now be left to dry out if needed. 

To make the finished dish, fill a large saucepan with water, add lots of salt and bring to the boil. Also put a little olive oil into a large frying pan and turn onto a medium heat.

When the frying pan has heated up add the shallot, garlic and chilli, and fry for a minute or two until they start to soften. Now add the proscuitto and anchovies, stirring well so the anchovies start to dissolve into the other ingredients. After another couple of minutes turn the heat up a little and add the dry white wine and bring to the boil. Once the wine has bubbled away for a minute and reduced a little, adjust the heat back to medium and add the peas and broad beans. Cook for a couple of minutes, until the beans and peas are nearly cooked. 

At the same time as the beans and peas go into the pan, add the pasta to the boiling water and cook for 1-2 minutes, or until al dente. Note that if the pasta has been allowed to dry out this could take a couple of minutes longer. 

When the pasta is cooked, drain well and add to the frying pan, with a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, the pecorino, oregano, parsley, lemon juice and seasoning. Stir everything together so that the pasta and beans are combined and cook together for 1 minute. 

Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary, then everything is ready to plate up. Serve with a large glass of crisp white wine.

Roasted rib of beef with crispy roast potatoes

As you will know from reading previous posts on this blog, I really think that Sunday roasts are great. There’s nothing better than having a nice relaxing Sunday with my family, culminating with everyone sitting around the table and piling their plates high with all of the various elements. When preparing everything, each member is normally given a job to do, so someone will be peeling the veg, dad is in charge of the meat and mum will be making a lovely crumble for afterwards. Doing it this way makes the whole process much simpler and it’s really sociable, everyone has a bit of a natter and catches up. 

The only problem about the roast dinners that my family make is that they’re so hard to replicate when it’s just for Katie and I. For one, the workload goes way up, and so the whole process is more intensive, but also, it’s much more stressful trying to juggle everything around in a tiny kitchen with a small oven! 

We also really enjoy skipping this whole process and going out the to pub for a roast dinner instead. It’s always nice to go out and be cooked for, as it is to sit in a bustling pub with a pint. But more often than not, we find that roast dinners cooked in pubs are far inferior to those cooked at home. Perhaps it’s the nostalgic value of sitting around with the family, but it’s also difficult to mass produce roast dinners whilst still making everything amazing. It’s not just about the meat, but the veg (especially the potatoes) need a lot of thought as well. And there certainly needs to be enough gravy... We will keep searching! I keep on hearing that the roast dinner at Hawksmoor is incredible, so that’s definitely on my to try list.

Recently Katie and I got back from our holidays on a Sunday evening and really fancied a big roast dinner, but had to miss out because it was so late. As we both had the next day off before returning to work, our answer to this terrible problem was to have a Monday roast. So it was off to the butchers to get a nice piece of meat and this is what we made. 

When buying beef for a roast there are a number of different cuts to choose from. Cooking big joints of beef at home is not something I do very often, and it is always a massive treat, so when I do I try and get as good quality as I can. For rare meat, a piece of rib is amazing, tender and flavoursome. It is expensive but worth it. Another option is to slow cook. For this I like to use a nice piece of brisket, cooked gently for as long as I can. The meat will just fall apart when it’s on the plate. In this case, there was a lovely rib joint available so I snapped it up. The joint I bought was 1.3kg, which was perfect for just the two of us as we had loads of leftovers, but buy as big as you can as it will roast much better.

This recipe shows how to cook the beef and potatoes, to be serves with side vegetables of your choice. If you are lucky enough to have a double oven then you can cook the potatoes at the same time as the beef, which will save lots of time!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the beef:

1 x 1.3kg rib joint of beef, preferably on the bone

6 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole

2 carrots, halved lengthways

2 sticks celery, left whole

2 x onions, cut into quarters

a few sprigs of thyme

salt and pepper

For the potatoes:

8 - 12 large maris piper potatoes

6 cloves garlic, left whole

4 large shallots, paper peeled, trimmed but left whole

a few sprigs of thyme and rosemary

3-4 large tbsp of duck fat, or olive oil for vegetarians. 

salt and pepper

For the gravy:

1 large glass red wine

1 litre good quality beef stock

salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 220ºC.

While the oven is heating up, peel the potatoes, cut them in half and place in a large saucepan of cold water. You want to leave them fairly large as you always loose a bit when you fluff them up later. Put aside. 

Get a medium sized roasting tin that you will use to roast the beef, and line with all of the vegetables that are listed under the beef. You want it to form one even layer in the bottom. Coat with a little olive oil and salt and pepper.

When the oven is hot, season the meat well and rub it all over with olive oil. Place on top of the vegetable trivet and put into the oven. To roast the meat you will need to weigh it and calculate the timings, there are loads of different methods around but I use the following:

For the first 20 minutes: 220ºC

Then turn the oven down to 170ºC and cook for 30 minutes per 1kg of meat for rare. 

So for a 1.3kg piece of meat I put it in for 55-60 minutes. Take it out slightly earlier for rarer meat.

While the meat is roasting, change the water that the potatoes were sitting in, add lots of salt and bring to the boil. Simmer gently until the potatoes are almost falling apart, then carefully drain. Using a sieve, shake the potatoes to fluff up the outside - this will turn amazingly crisp when roasted. Cover and pop aside until the meat comes out. 

When the meat is cooked, place the meat on a plate and cover with tin foil. Allow to rest while you cook the potatoes, it will still keep warm. Do not discard the vegetables that were underneath these will be used to make the gravy later on. 

Turn the oven down the 200ºC and put a large roasting tray into the oven with the duck fat for a couple of minutes. When the fat has heated up, put the tray on the hobs and turn to a high heat. Carefully tip in the boiled potatoes, along with the shallots, garlic cloves and herbs. Turn everything in the hot fat and make sure it gets coated, before putting the tray in the oven for 45 minutes - 1 hour, turning every 15 minutes. 

When the potatoes are cooking, make the gravy. Heat the beef stock up in a saucepan, and put the oven tray that held the beef on the hob and heat to a medium - high heat. Using a spoon, scrape the bottom and sides of the tray and mash up the vegetables, and when the tray is hot, add the wine. Let it reduce by half, keeping stirring and scraping. Add the beef stock and again bring to the boil and reduce until the sauce is dark and slightly thicker. Season the gravy, strain into a jug and keep warm until everything is ready.

When the potatoes are crisp on the outside and nice and golden take them out of the oven. Carefully remove the tough outer skin from the shallots. Try and time this to fit in with all of your additional side dishes. When everything is cooked, unwrap the beef and cut into thin slices. Serve with horseradish sauce and a nice glass of red wine. 

And if you have any leftovers, apart from making mega sandwiches, you can use them to great effect in the next recipe.

Spicy beef noodle soup

Over the last few years I have really got into making soup, and I often eat it 2-3 times a week for dinner. They’re just so easy to make, can taste great and use up all the leftovers in the fridge. They also keep well, and when having a busy week at work it is lovely to think that dinner just needs heating up when I get home. 

This soup is a great base for using up any meat, particularly chicken and beef, but it will also work well with shellfish. You can also tailor it to your own tastes, adding a bit of sugar, more chilli, lime etc. If you are making a larger batch to last a couple of days, reserve some of the vegetables to add when reheating as you only need to cook these at the last minute. 

Serves 6 very well

Ingredients:

For the paste:

1 large shallot

2 red chillies

150g ginger, peeled

5 cloves garlic

5 sticks lemongrass, outer leaves discarded

roots from a large bunch of coriander, washed, leaves kept for finishing the soup

1 lime, juice

salt and pepper

olive oil

For the soup:

3 litres chicken stock

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce

2 pak choi, peeled

100g mange tout

200g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

2 shallots, sliced

2 bunches spring onions, sliced into large strips

Meat of your choice, leftover beef, boned and sliced chicken thighs, prawns etc

Noodles to serve 6

To finish:

1 large bunch coriander, torn roughly

1 red chilli, sliced thinly

2 limes

2 or 3 spring onions, sliced thinly

To start, heat the stock up in a large saucepan until boiling then keep warm until needed.

To make the paste, put all ingredients except the oil into a food processor and blitz until fine. Add the olive oil until the mixture forms a thick paste. 

In a separate large saucepan, heat a little olive oil and cook the sliced shallots on a medium heat for a couple of minutes until softened. Add the paste and continue to heat for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. 

Add the chicken stock, fish sauce and soy sauce to the paste and mix everything together. Bring the soup back to a simmer for about 20 minutes, while you prepare the rest of your ingredients. If using raw chicken thighs, you can add them at this point to cook through. 

Heat up a saucepan of salty water and cook the noodles as directed on the packet.

While the noodles are cooking, add the mushrooms, mange tout, spring onions and cooked meat if using. You just need to heat these through and don’t want to overcook the vegetables. Squeeze over the juice of one lime, taste and season the soup if necessary. 

To finish, add the noodles to the bottom of each bowl and top with a few ladles of soup. Sprinkle over the torn coriander leaves, sliced chilli and sliced spring onions, and squeeze over the remaining lime and you’re ready to serve.

Meals for a rainy day

Back to the comfort food...

Well that was a long summer! This rain really is terrible, and has completely scuppered any plans that I had for nice outdoor evening suppers - I’m still yet to have a barbecue this year! So it’s back to nice hearty food that is perfect to come home to after trudging around in the rain. 

In this blog I’ve included a recipes for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea (or even dessert).   All are quick and simple to prepare, but incredibly satisfying.

Breakfast of champions: Pan-fried mackerel with scrambled eggs on toast 

Sod a full english breakfast, this is what you want on a nice sunday morning with a cup of tea and the papers. It’s traditional to have smoked salmon or kippers for breakfast, but the fresh mackerel keeps the flavours of the dish delicate and balances really well with the creaminess of the eggs. 

Mackerel is a fantastic fish, and one that you will find me using a lot on this blog. It is criminally overlooked in home cooking, with the reputation of being too strongly flavoured and bony. But give me one any day - mackerel is easy to cook and prepare, and a good start if learning how to fillet fish. They are also really cheap and can be bought anywhere, although I hear that their popularity in restaurants is pushing the prices up. I really hope that this isn’t true! For this dish, you can buy mackerel already filleted so that they will only need pin-boning before cooking.

Everyone has their own way of making scrambled eggs, but for me, heating slowly with a dollop of cream and butter until just cooked and oozing over the toast is best. 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

4 mackerel fillets, skin on and pin-boned

1 lemon - juice

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 knob of butter

Salt and pepper

Parsley to finish

For the scrambled eggs:

6 medium eggs

3 tbsp double cream

Salt and pepper

1 large knob of butter

To finish:

2 large, thick slices of sourdough bread

In a large mixing bowl or jug, crack the eggs and add the double cream and some salt and pepper (you can add more later). Whisk well to combine.

Remove the mackerel fillets from the fridge and dry with kitchen roll, season both sides well.

Heat a medium saucepan on a low heat and add the knob of butter. When melted add the eggs, and keep stirring all the time as they start to thicken up. When the mixture has started to thicken and is about half done, remove the saucepan from the heat and place a non-stick frying pan with the vegetable oil on a medium heat. Keep stirring the eggs, they will still be cooking even off the heat. 

When the frying pan has heated up, add the mackerel fillets skin side down, holding them down for a few seconds at first, and fry for 3 minutes before turning. Cook for another 2 minutes before turning the heat off and adding the butter and lemon juice which will sizzle away and gently finish the cooking of the fish in the residual heat. 

When you turn the fish over, put the saucepan with the eggs back on the heat and finish off - it should still be quite runny and just cooked. Check the seasoning and add more if necessary. At the point of turning the fish also get the sourdough bread toasting. 

To serve, butter the toast and spoon over a good dollop of the scrambled eggs. Top with mackerel fillets, some parsley and some more cracked black pepper. Eat while still hot. 

Lunch time: pea, mint and ham soup

This soup is a classic, and perfect for gloomy rainy days. They can be bought in tubs ready made from any supermarket, but as usual a homemade version is far superior. Most simple soups are often overcomplicated with unnecessary ingredients, this version of the soup is so simple and quick to prepare and all of the main ingredients shine through - you can taste the sweet peas, the salty ham and the zing of mint. I like the soup to remain quite chunky in texture, so I crush about a quarter of the peas instead of blending the whole mixture, but this is optional.

Once cooked, this soup stands well and the flavour of the ham develops the longer it is left. This makes it great for leftovers, although try not to re-heat it too much as the colour will fade and it won’t taste so fresh.

This recipe uses ready sliced ham as it is easiest to purchase, but for amazing results use freshly roasted ham in roughly shredded chunks.

Serves 4 for lunch or 2 for a hearty dinner

Ingredients:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 litre good quality chicken stock

1kg frozen peas

1 large bunch mint, leaves picked 

8 slices of good quality ham, roughly torn

1 lemon - juice

salt and pepper

To serve:

Extra virgin olive oil

Crusty break or toast with loads of butter. 

Heat up a large a saucepan with the vegetable oil and slowly cook the chopped shallot and garlic until tender. 

Meanwhile heat the stock up in a separate saucepan until boiling. 

When the garlic and shallots are cooked, add the peas and cover with the hot stock. Bring to the boil and simmer until the peas are cooked. 

Using a slotted spoon or sieve, put 3/4 of the peas into a food processor with the mint and blend until smooth, then pour back into the saucepan with the rest of the soup and mix well. Add the chunks of ham and season, and heat the soup back up until just before boiling. 

Just before serving, add the lemon juice and have one final taste and adjust the seasoning. Spoon into bowls and drizzle a little of the extra virgin olive oil over the top. Serve with the crusty bread on the side. 

Afternoon tea: bakewell tart

Another classic and another simple thing to make, but something that if made carefully is really amazing. The soft almondy filling with sweet jam and crisp pastry work so well together, and is really lovely as an afternoon snack with a cup of tea.

Getting the pastry just right is the key with this. You want it to be short, thin and crisp; if mixed too much and rolled too thickly it will be doughy and undercooked, whilst if rolled too thinly you risk it cracking. Experience is the way to get this right really, and every cook I know has had a nightmare with pastry at some point. As with all baking and pastry, following recipes exactly and cooking with care and patience will produce a better result. With the techniques used, it is also a great stepping stone to making other desserts - good pastry and frangipane filling recipes can be used in many different ways. I have even seen it used to top mince pies with good effect! 

This is my take on the bakewell, traditional recipes won’t have the polenta but I think this gives the frangipane a great texture.

This recipe makes a large tart, but if kept covered it keeps really well and stays moist for 4-5 days.

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

For the sweet shortcrust pastry:

125g salted butter

100g icing sugar

255g plain flour

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp milk

Pinch of salt

For the frangipane:

275g ground almonds

75g uncooked polenta (quick cook variety)

300g salted butter

300g caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

1 tsp almond extract

3/4 jar raspberry jam, preferably home made

good handful of sliced almonds, lightly toasted

To serve:

Double cream

Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC (fan oven)

In a food processor, cream together the butter, salt and icing sugar until light in colour and very soft and fluffy. Add the egg yolks, milk and flour and pulse until the mixture starts to look like coarse breadcrumbs. Tip the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface and carefully pat together until just combined. Wrap the ball of dough in clingfilm and put in the fridge to rest for an hour.

In the meantime, grease and line a 28cm flan tin with greaseproof paper, and cut a second  28cm disc of greaseproof paper that you will use to cover the pastry later. 

When the dough has rested, take it out of the fridge and using a sharp knife, cut it into thin slices. Line the base and sides of the tin with these slices and push together with your fingers until the pastry is all joined up and the tin is completely lined. Using a fork, prick the  pastry on the base of the tart all over, this will stop it rising unevenly. Cover the base of the pastry with the spare disc of greaseproof paper and spread baking beans evenly over the top, and put the pastry into the oven for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes, take the pastry out of the oven and carefully remove the baking beans and greaseproof from the top, and put the uncovered pastry back in the oven for another 5 minutes or until the base is a light golden colour. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Turn the oven down slightly to 160ºC.

While the pastry base is cooling, make the frangipane filling. Put the ground almonds and polenta in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the butter and sugar until creamed together. Add this, along with the beaten eggs and almond extract to the almonds and polenta and fold until smooth. 

When the pastry shell has cooled down, spoon an even layer of the raspberry jam over the base, then fill to the top with the frangipane mixture. Sprinkle over the toasted sliced almonds and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, there should still be a little bit of wobble in the middle. 

Allow to cool slightly before serving with a good dollop of whipped double cream and a cup of tea.

Crab supper!

Crab is such an overlooked ingredient. For something so widely available, sustainable and delicious, I definitely don’t eat it enough. They can be pretty cheap too, and if bought near to where they were caught can sometimes just cost a couple of pounds each. Even in London they are pretty reasonable, and a good fishmongers will be able to get live crabs if you order them. Although they are often compared to lobsters, the taste and texture is so different - much more flakey and delicate - but just as good. 

Crab comes available in many different forms. You can buy whole cooked crabs, or ready dressed crabmeat from most fishmongers or large supermarkets, but buying them live and cooking at home is definitely the way that I would recommend eating them. In my mind, the perfect way to eat crab is very simply - a warm, freshly cooked crab with lemony mayonnaise, thick slices of crusty bread and a simple watercress salad. You can use crab in many other (and more complicated) ways, but eaten like this emphasises the wonderful sweet flavoured meat. 

However, buying and preparing a live crab is not for the squeamish, and involves killing it yourself. Performing this task always feels a bit strange and weird, but has to be done in order to kill them humanely. I personally don’t have a problem with this as all meat and fish that we eat starts off as a living thing, but if this isn’t for you, then buy a ready-cooked crab. Shelling and picking all of the meat from the crabs can be a slow and laborious task, but once you have done it a couple of times it becomes quicker and easier. 

This recipe shows you how to cook and prepare the crab, and serve with a homemade mayonnaise, but once you know the basics you can use the finished crab meat in loads of other dishes.

Serves 2 as a decent lunch or light supper, with leftover crab meat if you get larger crabs. 

Ingredients:

2 live crabs, about 1kg each

For the lemon mayonnnaise:

1 egg yolk

200ml vegetable oil

1tbsp white wine vinegar

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

1 small clove garlic, very finely chopped

1 lemon - juice

Salt and pepper

For the watercress salad:

2 large handfuls watercress, washed

1 lemon - juice

3/4tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

To serve:

Fresh crusty bread, thickly sliced

Salty butter

Wedges of lemon

Put the crabs in a tray and place in the freezer for about half an hour - this will put them into a deep sleep.

Heat up a saucepan large enough to easily hold both crabs with very salty water until it comes to a rolling boil.

When the water is boiling, take the crabs out of the freezer and kill them quickly. To do this,  flip the crab onto it’s back and drive a sharp metal skewer through the small hole underneath the tail flap towards the roof of the shell, moving the skewer around a couple of centimeters. Once this is done, turn the crab back over and push the skewer deep through the mouth. The crab will die instantly, and this is widely viewed as the most humane way to kill them. Once this has been done, plunge the crabs into the boiling water and cook for 15 minutes, adding a couple of minutes if the crabs are bigger. Remove and allow to cool on a plate.

While the crabs are cooking and cooling, make the mayonnaise. Put the egg yolk, garlic and seasoning in a bowl and whisk until the mixture thickens. Add the white wine vinegar and dijon mustard and whisk well again. Using a measuring jug, very, very slowly pour the vegetable oil into the mixture, whisking all of the time until all of the oil has been emulsified. Once all of the oil has been added, taste and add the lemon juice and adjust with salt, pepper and white wine vinegar. Cover and put aside.

To make the dressing for the watercress, put the lemon juice and the olive oil in a bowl and mix together. Add salt and pepper to taste and put aside. Only mix with the watercress at the last minute before serving.

Once the crabs have cooled down a little you can pick out the meat. Pull the legs and claws off of the main body, and with the crab upside down and facing away, push the central part up and away from the main body. Remove the the grey gills - the dead mans fingers, the small yellow stomach sac and the membranes inside the shell. Scrape the rest of the brown crab meat from the inside of the shell and place in one bowl. You can now wash and clean the main shell if you want to use it (in a very 1980s fashion) later for presentation. 

Now you can pick the meat out of the main body. Using a heavy knife, cut it into two pieces, and using a metal skewer pick out all of the white crab meat from all the little gaps. Be persistent! Place the white crab meat in a separate bowl.

Crack the claws and legs and pick out the meat from there - there is loads stored in here - and add to the white meat. Try not to mash the meat up too much, it’s nice to have a mixture of textures. Pick through the meat carefully and pick out any shell that might have got in. Season with a little salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.

To serve, warm the bread through in the oven or toaster, dress the salad and serve on a board with piles of the crab meat and the mayonnaise. 

Keep any leftovers - they are great tossed through some linguine with garlic, chilli, parsley and lemon.