Everything bagels

A soft, chewy bagel stuffed with cream cheese, smoked salmon, dill and lemon has got to be up there as one of my favourite things to have for lunch. In London I am spoilt for choice with the amount of bakeries making them just a stones throw from my flat, often open around the clock for when that bagel craving comes a knocking. After a couple of drinks, a salt beef bagel from Brick Lane beats any kebab hands down!

As I have written on this blog before, I’m still a bit of a novice when it comes to bread making. I can bake a simple white loaf, but am yet to experiment with more advanced things like sourdoughs or ryes. I thought that bagels would be really difficult to make at home, but after a couple of attempts they are a doddle. Bread has a reputation for taking ages, but in reality most of this time is just waiting for the dough to prove. If you’re at home anyway it isn’t much extra effort, and so worth it when that glorious baking smell fills the flat.

I started making bagels using Dan Lepard’s recipe from his excellent book Short and Sweet. I cannot think of a more ironic title for this huge book, containing over 500 pages of fantastic breads, cakes and pastries. I have adapted this recipe by adding the roasted onions and garlic, reducing the yeast and water and by changing the baking methods slightly to create a bagel that is perfect for me. I have also doubled his quantities to make larger bagels. The best thing about this recipe (and most other bread recipes) is that it can be tailored to exactly how you want it. They would also be delicious with lots of dill, sun-dried tomatoes or even a hard cheese running through them. 

As for bagel fillings, the choice is yours. Aside from the smoked salmon or salt beef bagels that I love, they are also great with a soft cheese such as Tunworth or just simply toasted with loads of salty butter. If you go for the smoked salmon, it’s well worth searching out produce from Hansen and Lyndersen’s amazing North London smokery.

Makes 14

Ingredients:

1kg strong white bread flour

3 large onions, cut into large wedges

2 tbsp brown sugar

12 cloves garlic, left whole and unpeeled

12 sprigs of thyme

4 tbsp sesame seeds, plus more for sprinkling over the top

4 tbsp poppy seeds, plus more for sprinkling over the top 

1 1/2 tsp dried yeast

2 tbsp caster sugar

2 large pinches salt

500ml warm water

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

Olive oil

For the poaching:

50g brown sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC.

Put the onions, garlic and thyme into a large oven tray and toss in a little olive oil and seasoning. Roast in the hot oven for 20 minutes before removing the softened garlic and scattering the 2 tbsp brown sugar over the remaining onions. Put the onions back in the oven for another 10-20 minutes until soft and golden. Peel the skins from the garlic cloves and chop finely with the cooked onions. Allow to cool. 

Mix the flour, yeast, salt, caster sugar, seeds and cooled roasted onions and garlic in a large mixing bowl. Add the water and vinegar and combine until the mixture forms a firm dough, before covering the bowl with a cloth and leaving for 10 minutes. Once rested, knead the dough for 10 seconds on an oiled surface and then return again to the bowl. At this point the dough will still be quite sticky, but it will firm up by the end. Repeat the kneading and resting process twice more before allowing the dough to rest in the bowl for 1 1/2 hours. 

Using your hands, portion the dough out to the size that you want each bagel to be. This recipe makes around 14 large bagels. Shape each piece into a ball by rolling it on the work surface with one hand, cover loosely with cling film and allow to prove again for 20 minutes. 

Heat up a large saucepan of water, adding the brown sugar when it reaches a rolling boil. Put the oven on to 200ºC. Line a couple of baking trays with greaseproof paper and scatter over some seeds.

Once the dough balls have proved for the final time you can make them into bagel shapes. With lightly oiled hands, poke your fingers through the middle and ease the dough outwards. 

Carefully drop the bagels in small batches into the boiling water for a minute before turning and allowing the same on the other side. Remove and place on the lined and seeded baking trays. Sprinkle more seeds and salt over the tops and they are ready to bake. 

Place the baking trays on the top shelves of the pre-heated oven, and tip a small glass of tap water into the bottom of the oven before closing the door. The water will steam up and keep the outsides of the bagels nice and soft. Remove from the oven after 20 minutes and allow to cool slightly on a rack if you can resist for long enough!

Courgette flowers stuffed with goat’s cheese, oregano and lemon with a tomato and sombrasada dipping sauce

I first tried courgette flowers a few years ago, randomly enough from a food stall at a Cornish music festival, and have always wanted to have a crack at cooking them myself. They are one of the only things that manage to turn what is basically deep fried cheese into something delicate and beautiful. They also have the wow factor, but despite looking complicated, with a little care they are really easy to make. 

The only difficult thing about courgette flowers can be getting hold of them. Only very good greengrocers and food markets will stock them, and when you do find them they can be quite expensive. The most satisfying and cheapest way would be to grow them yourself. I had high hopes of doing that this year, but my plans were scuppered by hungry slugs with educated palates. So with my tail firmly between my legs I found myself walking to Borough Market, knowing if anywhere would have them it would be there. 

There are some really fantastic food markets and local suppliers in London and around the country, and they often have a much wider range of great quality produce than you would find at the supermarket. My trip to Borough didn’t disappoint: it really is a mecca of food produce that cannot fail to inspire. I had to control myself and remain disciplined to the recipe in hand, and I emerged with a bag of ingredients that had me excited to get home and start cooking. 

As well as the courgette flowers, I also needed to find ingredients for the stuffing and the dipping sauce. The cheesemonger recommended that I used a soft goat’s cheese from Poitou Charentes, which has a sweet and mild taste to complement the courgette. With that bought, all I had to find was something to flavour the dipping sauce. Originally when planning this recipe, I wanted to get hold of some ‘nduja sausage, which is a spicy spreadable salami from Calabria. On this occasion I couldn’t find any, but upon stopping at a Spanish delicatessen I saw some sombrasada, which looked like it would fit the bill perfectly. This is a soft chorizo that has similar qualities to ‘nduja, and I knew that it would melt through my sauce giving it a strong, hot flavour. 

Courgette flowers are seasonal, and you can only really source them in the summer. With this in mind I urge you to make the most of them over the next month or so!

Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the courgette flowers:

4 courgette flowers

200g soft goat’s cheese, I used a Poitou-Chareutes

1 lemon, zest and juice of half

5 sprigs fresh oregano, leaves picked and finely chopped

20g parmesan, finely grated

Salt and pepper

1.5 litres vegetable oil  for deep frying

For the dipping sauce:

120g sombrasada, skin removed and roughly chopped

2 shallots, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 small red chilli, finely chopped

2 anchovy filllets, finely chopped

2 handfuls good quality cherry tomatoes, quartered

Salt and pepper

2 tbsp olive oil

For the light batter:

100g plain flour

200ml sparkling water

salt and pepper

First get the dipping sauce on. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan (one with a lid) to a medium heat, and when hot add the shallots, garlic and chilli. When they soften, add the sombrasada and anchovies and cook for another couple of minutes. Finally add the cherry tomatoes and season well, mix everything together and put the lid on the pan. After 15 minutes, the tomatoes will be dissolving and the mixture will be looking like more of a sauce. After another 5 minutes transfer the contents into a food processor and blitz until smooth, adding a little water if if needs thinning down. Season and adjust if needed, before  pouring the mixture into a saucepan to be heated up later. 

While the sauce is cooking make the batter. Sieve the flour into a mixing bowl, mix with a good amount of seasoning before slowly whisking in the sparkling water. Once the batter is thoroughly mixed and the thickness of double cream cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes. 

To make the filling for the courgette flowers, mash the goat’s cheese, lemon juice and zest together with a fork to loosen slightly.  Mix in the oregano, parmesan and seasoning before tasting and setting aside. 

Pour the frying oil into a large, heavy saucepan and heat up to 170ºC.

To prepare the courgette flowers, carefully part the petals until you can just squeeze your fingers through to remove the stamen. Spoon your filling mixture into a piping bag, and once any air pockets have been removed, carefully squeeze in the filling. You want enough filling in each flower to create a nice full pocket, but not too much that you can’t fully seal with the petals. Repeat until all flowers have been filled, trimming the ends of the courgettes if necessary at the same time. 

Put the saucepan containing the dipping sauce onto a low-medium heat and gently warm up.

When the oil is hot, very carefully dip the courgette flowers into the batter mixture, making sure they are completely covered. Allow any excess to drip off before lowering into the hot oil. Quickly repeat with another. I usually do this in batches of 2 flowers to stop them sticking together. Cook for a few minutes, or until the batter turns a light golden colour before removing from the oil and draining on kitchen paper. 

When all of the courgette flowers are cooked, arrange 2 on each plate, adding a small bowl of the dipping sauce and a few fresh oregano leaves. 

Any leftover dipping sauce can be used as a fantastic base for a pasta sauce or soup, and goes particularly well with butternut squash.

Restaurant review: Homa, Stoke Newington

Church Street in Stoke Newington is home to every kind of food you could want to eat; whether you want a greasy spoon or a Mexican where the cocktails have you numb before the starters even arrive. In the year that I have lived here I have enjoyed many breakfasts, lunches and dinners along this road, but in reality I have barely scratched the surface. Homa resides in a striking, grand building half way along, sitting back from the pavement and the daily buggy rally that takes place. While the rest of the street has a mostly humble, family-run appearance, Homa has a polished, architecturally designed front, which initially I took for arrogance over quality, and avoided paying a visit. It was only last sunday that I finally got round to walking up the steps and through the door. 

The architects did a grand job; the inside is airy and light from large windows and beautiful hanging lights. Tables were spaced fairly to give a sense of privacy, but also gave the place a real bustle when filled. We were quickly allocated a place to sit and felt welcomed, and in my case, surprised that my initial assumptions might well have been wrong. 

The menu was both unique and enticing, and immediately noticeable was the promise of good food, and the price that would create a massive disappointment if it failed to live up. Booze with breakfast seemed apt for the setting, so we both opted for champagne with our juice and flat white, with Katie going for the muffins and eggs royale whilst I opted for the bacon and poached eggs with pea and mint cake. 

Once we ordered the drinks arrived quickly, and we enjoyed the ambience of sitting in a lovely space with the sun shining through the window, and the eager expectation of what was to come. The champagne was good, as was the coffee, but both were well exhausted and there was still no sign of the food. We couldn’t quite work it out, it wasn’t full and there were seemingly plenty of staff around, none of whom came to explain a delay. This wait proved to be the only slight downside of the morning, but having worked in these kinds of environments, I fully understand that these things happen. And like I said, it was a lovely place to sit, and so a ten or so extra minutes didn’t cause an upset.

Then the food arrived and everything was forgotten. I’m a huge fan of an over the top breakfast, one that sprawls onto two or even three plates and leaves you groaning. If it includes chips all the better. But this was a totally different class of breakfast; clean, elegant and dainty, leaving us simultaneously ‘wow’ing. The taste matched; my strong cured bacon balanced with the mellow, herby croquette and the rich, runny yolk. Despite mine being lovely, I also had food envy of Katie’s choice. A forked stack of her royale was a joy, perfectly brought together by a smooth and zingy hollandaise. 

We scraped every last bit off our plates, and had a touch of disappointment that it was over. But a stacked pile would have been out of place, and they have it bang on. The bustle had thinned by the time we finished, and with this the service was a breeze. I left eating my words, and wishing that I hadn’t left it this long before giving it a try. I will still crave a full english, but for a special occasion I will be straight back. I will also be back for dinner, which offers a casual pizza oven or more refined selection. Judging by breakfast, I’m sure it’ll be incredible.  

Mackerel stuffed with salsa verde served with pea puree, samphire, clams and chargrilled cucumber

This was one of the first proper things that I ever learned to cook, and the first time that I really appreciated how nice mackerel is. It is based on an old Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall recipe that appeared in the Guardian Weekend supplement for mackerel stuffed with salsa verde, but over the years I have tweaked the ingredients and turned it into a complete plate of food. Once practiced it is really easy to cook, and is great if cooking for a large amount of people as the main elements can be prepared well in advance.

Salsa verde is such a great accompaniment to so many things. It’s a sharp, strong sauce that is amazing with steak, lamb, fish (particularly oily fish), or with potatoes or steamed greens. I personally could just eat it out of the bowl with a spoon! You can tailor it to just how you like it by changing the herbs around, adding more lemons or mustard etc. until it’s just right. With this dish it balances so well with the oily mackerel and the sweetness of the pea puree. 

Everyone that I’ve told about the grilled cucumber looks at me with a confused and bizarre expression, and until a few weeks ago I would have agreed. I used to only use cucumbers cold as a salad item or in a tzatziki, but I recently watched Ashley Palmer-Watts on the TV grilling a cucumber and I was intrigued. In this recipe, the chargrilled cucumber adds a refreshing touch to all of the other strong flavours, and helps balance everything out. I will definitely be trying it out with other recipes in the future.

As with all dishes involving fish, try and search out a local fishmonger that will provide you with really fresh fish. They will normally be cheaper and have a far wider selection than the supermarkets, and their survival keeps high streets looking independent and unique. 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 mackerel, filleted and pin boned

For the salsa verde:

1 large handful of parsley

3 sprigs basil leaves

3 sprigs mint

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 tbsp capers, rinsed

1 pickled gherkin

2 anchovy fillets

1 tsp english mustard

1 lemon, juice only

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

Extra virgin olive oil,

Salt and pepper

For the pea puree:

300g frozen petit pois

1/2 bunch of mint leaves

1 lemon, juice only

1 knob butter

Salt and pepper

For the rest of the dish:

1/2 cucumber, skin cut off to create 2 3” rectangles

200g samphire, rinsed under cold water

1 lemon

1 knob of butter

Olive oil

15-20 clams

Small glass of white wine

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC and put a saucepan of salted water on to boil.

First make the salsa verde. Finely chop the herbs together, then add the anchovy, chopped garlic, capers and gherkin and chop everything again, mixing it all together with the knife. When everything is finely chopped and combined, transfer to a bowl and add the mustard, white wine vinegar, lemon juice and seasoning and mix. Finally add enough extra virgin olive oil to create a loose paste. Taste and adjust the vinegar, seasoning and lemon and set aside. 

When the water has boiled add the peas and cook for a couple of minutes until just tender. Be careful not to overcook and lose the colour and flavour! Once cooked, transfer to a food processor with the mint, butter, lemon juice and seasoning. Blend to a smooth puree before tasting and setting aside somewhere warm. You could pass it through a sieve to make it extra fine if you like. 

Lay out the pin-boned mackerel fillets on a chopping board skin-side down, and smear a good amount of the salsa verde down one of the two fillets of each fish. Lay the other fillet on top of the stuffed fillet and tie together with a couple of pieces of butchers twine. Put the mackerel packages aside until ready to cook. 

When you are ready to go, heat up a heavy griddle pan on a medium-high heat, a small saucepan on a medium-high heat and a frying pan on a medium heat. 

Season the mackerel and place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, drizzle with a little olive oil and put in the oven for 8 minutes. 

While the fish is cooking, cook the samphire, the clams and the cucumber at the same time:

Add the butter to the frying pan and saute the samphire for a couple of minutes before adding the lemon juice and seasoning. Keep warm until the fish is ready.

When the saucepan is hot, add the white wine. When it starts to boil add the clams and put the top on the pan, shaking everything a couple of times. After a few minutes check the clams - they should be opening up. If not, replace lid and allow another minute or two. Once cooked take off the heat and keep warm. 

Rub the cucumber rectangles with seasoning and olive oil and place on the hot griddle, turning every minute or so once nicely charred on each side.

To plate up, spoon a good dollop of pea puree on each plate and place the cucumber on top. Position the cooked fish on the cucumber and spoon a bit more salsa verde on top. Surround the fish with the samphire and the clams and serve with a glass of white wine.

Slow-cooked beef shin cannelloni with girolles, anchovies and broad beans

For the love of slow cooking!

I don’t often get long periods of time to cook big meals, but when I do I really enjoy it. I’m all for quick and easy meals - they form a large part of what I eat - but there’s something great about spending the whole day or afternoon cooking something really special. This time consuming style of cooking will sound really mad to some people, but I love it when you are cooked for by someone else and they go to town on it. With this style of cooking you can achieve things that you could never do in a short space of time - cooking things for 5 or even 10 hours can have the most incredible results that are definitely worth the wait. On the plus side, most of these processes are fairly low maintenance, and once on can be left alone for a long time.

This style of cooking also lends itself to cheap, alternative cuts of meat. In this case I have used beef shin, which is unbelievably underused. As in most cases, the cheaper cuts of meat hold way more flavour than the more expensive ones, all they need is to be cooked with a little care and time until mouthwateringly tender. The shin that I bought for this recipe cost me five pounds for a kilo - that’s less than one fillet steak would be! Slow cooking meat like shown in this recipe is also a method that is excellent for loads of different things - stews, ragu sauces, ravioli fillings etc. You can even make amazing chilli or shepherds pie using flaked slow cooked meat. When cooking meat in this way, I often make more than I need and have a lovely intense stew for dinner the next night.

The cannelloni in this recipe is not typical to how it is usually made, with a creamy cheese sauce and baked in the oven. Making it this way makes it much lighter and more of a summer dish, and the combination of the beef with the mushrooms, anchovies and beans really works. 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the slow cooked beef:

500g beef shin, cut into a few large pieces

1 litre good beef or veal stock

3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 bay leaf

2 rosemary sprigs, leaves picked and finely chopped

Small handful of thyme sprigs

3 carrots, peeled and cut into small cubes

1 large parsnip, peeled and cut into small cubes

2 onions, finely chopped

Large glass red wine

2 anchovy fillets

For the fresh pasta:

200g Italian 00 flour

2 medium eggs

Salt

For the cannelloni filling:

10g dried girolle mushrooms

2 tbsp parley leaves, finely chopped

2 tbsp pecorino cheese

For the sauce:

10g dried girolle mushrooms

300g broad beans, podded and shelled

2 anchovy fillets, very finely chopped

2 knobs of butter

To finish:

Grated pecorino 

Baby rocket

First of all get the beef going. Put the stock in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil. Heat up a little olive oil in a separate large saucepan on a medium to high heat. Season the meat well and brown well on all sides until well coloured, before removing and setting aside. Turn down the heat a little and add a little more olive oil if needed before adding the onion, garlic, thyme and rosemary. Cook until softened before adding the carrots, parsnips, anchovies and bay leaf. After a couple more minutes, turn the heat up slightly and add the wine, letting it bubble and reduce slightly. Now add the meat back to the saucepan and cover with the hot stock. Season well and bring to a simmer before turn right down and cooking with the lid on for about 5 hours, or until the meat falls to pieces. 

Meanwhile make the pasta. Put the flour, eggs and a good pinch of salt 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 until it goes through the thinnest setting. Cut the thin sheet of pasta into 4 inch pieces (allowing 2 per person), flour each side well and put in the fridge until needed later. Spare dough can be saved for another occasion.

Now prepare the rest of the filling for the cannelloni. Put the dried mushrooms (for the sauce and filling) in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Soak for half an hour before removing the mushrooms from the water, and finely chopping the half being used for the filling. Leave the other half whole and set aside for the sauce. Keep the soaking liquid to use in risottos, soups etc. Combine the chopped mushrooms with the grated pecorino and chopped parsley in a medium bowl and put aside. 

Use any more time while to meat is cooking to prepare the other ingredients for the sauce.

When the meat is really tender, gently remove it from the broth and shred finely. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then add to the bowl of other filling ingredients. Combine well, adding a couple of tablespoons of the broth liquid and seasoning to taste. 

Fill a medium saucepan with salted water and bring to the boil. When the water is bubbling, add the pasta sheets and cook for 1 minute. Once cooked, remove the pasta and lay each piece on an individual piece of greaseproof paper that is a little bit bigger than the pasta. Carefully add a line of the cannelloni filling to one end of the pasta, leaving a lip of about 2cm. Using the greaseproof paper, ease the pasta around the filling to create a filled tube. Try and get it so that the seal is on the bottom of each tube. Gently move all of the tubes onto one piece of greaseproof paper (small enough to sit in a steamer) and set aside until ready to cook. 

For the sauce, strain 4-5 ladles of the broth liquid into a small saucepan and heat on a medium heat until boiling. Add the anchovies and mix well, then reduce the liquid by half until the flavours have intensified. 

Meanwhile, pour a little water into a medium saucepan and bring to the boil. When the water is boiling, put the rolled cannelloni into a steamer and place on top of the boiling water for 2 minutes. At the same time, add the broad beans, girolles and butter to the saucepan with the sauce in it before mixing well, tasting and seasoning. 

When the cannelloni has cooked, arrange two on each plate and carefully spoon some of the finished sauce around them. Finish by scattering some baby rocket and a pinch of pecorino on top. A very time consuming process, but well worth the wait!

Lemon Meringue Pie!

Retro Desserts

I grew up eating desserts like apple crumble, lemon meringue pie or occasionally a vienetta from the shop. Now that’s a blast from the past!. My mum is the apple crumble queen, and I always look forward to going home and tucking into a big bowl. These kind of puddings have almost disappeared recently (perhaps rightly so for the vienetta!), and especially on restaurant menus have been substituted for more technical and ‘pretty’ alternatives. Now I love these refined desserts and the scientific techniques that create them, but I also think that there’s room for the hearty classics. 

A well made lemon meringue pie with a crispy coated soft meringue, tangy filling and thin, short pastry is a beautiful thing. It can also be the real centerpiece of a table, looking magnificent with tall rippling peaks... Do you get the impression that I really like them yet!?

This recipe will make one whole pie in a flan dish (one with a flip out bottom is very helpful), or as I have done here, will make a number of individual pies using a muffin tray. When making these and testing the recipe at home, I had one real problem. I only greased each hole in the muffin tray with butter before putting the pastry in, and once they were filled and had set, I struggled to get them out. I ended up popping them into the freezer before very gently easing them out with two knives, but to get around this I would recommend lining each hole with greaseproof paper that comes 1cm over the lip. Then all you have to do is carefully pull on the greaseproof paper to ease out the pies. It will save a lot of stressful moments trust me! 

As with the above, this recipe often calls for a lot of care to be taken; making sure the pastry is nice and thin, that the filling doesn’t curdle, the sugar is the right temperature etc. but it is well worth the effort. Once practiced a bit it’s as easy as making anything. As with most things, once you have got your head around the basics, you can change the filling from lemon to blueberry, raspberry or anything else that takes your fancy.  

Makes 9 individual pies in a muffin tray

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 lemon filling:

3 tbsp cornflour

150g caster sugar

3 lemons zest

220ml fresh lemon juice

1 orange - juice only, mixed with water to make 200ml

130g butter, cut into 1cm pieces

4 egg yolks and 2 whole eggs 

For the Italian meringue:

(If making one large pie, double the ingredients for the meringue topping)

200g caster sugar

4 egg whites

Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC (fan oven)

First make the pastry:

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 9 holes in a muffin tray, making sure that the greaseproof paper comes at least a centimeter over the top. You will need this to help ease the delicate pastry out 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 muffin holes with these slices and push together with your fingers until the pastry is all joined up and completely lined. Prick the bases of each pie with a small fork. Cover the base and sides of each pie with a disc of greaseproof paper and spread baking beans evenly over the top, then put the tray into the oven for 4-5 minutes. When the time is up, 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 couple of minutes or until the base is a light golden colour. Remove from the oven and put aside to cool completely. Note: If your pastry has cracked or has any small holes, you can patch these up carefully with some leftover pastry before returning to the oven for another couple of minutes.

My pastry cases - remember to line with greaseproof unlike shown here!

While the cases are cooling down, make the lemon filling. In a bowl, mix the cornflour, sugar and lemon zest before slowly adding the orange/water mix and lemon juice. Tip the mixture into a saucepan and cook on a medium heat until it is brought to the boil, in which time it should have thickened a little. As soon as it is at boiling point, remove from the heat and whisk in the butter, then the eggs. Once incorporated, return to the heat and stir constantly until the mixture has thickened. Be careful not to take it too far as you will scramble the eggs. Pour the mixture into a jug, then fill up each cool pastry case to a millimeter or two under the lip, then put in the fridge for 4 hours to cool and set. 

Once the lemon filling has set, take the tray out of the fridge for five minutes before very carefully easing each tart out of the holes. Return the loose tarts to the fridge while you make the Italian meringue topping.

To make the Italian meringue, put the sugar in a small saucepan and just cover with cold water. Add a cooking thermometer and put on a medium heat. While the sugar is heating up, using an electric whisk on a slow speed, beat the egg whites in a large bowl until light and frothy. When the sugar reaches 115ºC, take it off the heat and, whilst beating on a high speed, slowly pour it into the egg whites. Beat for around 5 minutes, or until the eggs are thick and glossy. 

Take the filled pastry shells out of the fridge and spoon on the meringue, creating swirls and peaks if you wish. To finish, very carefully brown the edges of the meringue with a blowtorch. Alternatively, put the pies into a preheated oven at 140ºC until golden on the outside. 

Serve whilst warm for best results, although the pies will keep in the fridge overnight.

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.