Acquacotta

The first time I made this soup was about 6 or 7 years ago. I followed the recipe to the letter from one of the River Café cookbooks. Nowadays when I prepare this dish I don’t refer to the book. In fact it has transformed over the years from their original formula (a bit like me).
The beauty of this soup is in the simplicity and that it doesn’t require stock, like most other soups do. Traditionally you use plain water instead. That’s why it is called “Acquacotta”. It literally means “cooked water” in Italian.
Mike and I adore this soup. It really is a feast. The poached egg makes it complete. It is also a fabulous hang over cure. When I was a single guy, I remember coming home after a night out on the prowl, desperate, dateless and very drunk. This soup tasted heavenly at 6am in the morning. Of course I didn’t make it from scratch at the crack of dawn (and in such a state of inebriation). I had the soup in the fridge, ready to go. All that was needed was to heat the soup, toast the bread and poach the egg. Even when I am blind drunk I can put together a good dish! Of course it tastes just as good without the hangover.

This is how I prepare my Acquacotta (enough for 4-6 serves):
Soak about 50g of dried porcini in boiling water.
In the meantime chop into 1cm cubes- 1 large red onion, 2 medium peeled carrots, 4 celery stalks and 200g swiss brown mushrooms.
Strain the porcini through a tissue lined sieve and reserve the liquid. Rinse the porcini pieces under a tap of running water and ensure all the grit is removed.
Place all your chopped veggies and a few spoonfuls of olive oil into a soup pot. Cover the pot and sweat the veggies for 30 minutes. Add a couple of fresh bay leaves and some chopped fresh rosemary and parsley too.
Open a tin of Italian tomatoes (400g) and crush them to a rough puree. Add the tomatoes with their juice and porcini liquid to the softened vegetables, and enough water to make a soupy consistency. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Simmer for 30- 60 minutes, the longer the better. Adjust the seasoning and correct the consistency by adding more water if it needs it. Not too thick, not too thin. Somewhere in between is right. Just like Goldilocks liked it…
Toast slices of dense crusty bread. I like to use my char grill, but a regular grill will suffice. Whilst the bread is toasting, poach one egg per serve (free range or organic please). Have ready a peppery and intensely flavoured green olive oil to drizzle.
For the final construction, watch my visual demonstration.



Until next time…

Roast Snapper with Duxelles and Potato

The inspiration for this dish came from The River Café in London. I have also seen Jamie Oliver do a similar dish, which is not surprising, as he worked at The River Café at some point during his illustrious career. However this recipe truly is my own version. I don’t copy the work of other chefs and I would not dream of reprinting recipes which have already been published elsewhere. I just don’t see ay merit in doing so.
This particular dish I am fond of because it goes straight from the oven to the table. I don’t think it requires anything else to go with it apart from bread, wine and a dinning partner of course!
Duxelles is chefs jargon for onion and mushrooms sautéed in butter, used to flavour dishes. I have used imported porcini mushrooms because Australia does not have native mushrooms that are of outstanding taste. I know porcini are an extravagant ingredient. If your budget doesn’t allow for such an indulgence, substitute with slices of fresh fennel instead.
If you are fussy about fish like I am, choose a whole fish at your fishmonger. Then have them fillet the fish for you. You are then certain of two equal sized fillets, of the freshest choice fish, along with the bonus of the bones and head for making stock.

Ingredients
500g waxy potato, unpeeled and thinly sliced
A ladle fish stock, or water
30g dried porcini, soaked, drained and rinsed of all grit
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped, plus extra
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (peppery), plus extra
100ml white wine
30g cultured butter
2 snapper fillets, about 400g
Sea salt
Fresh black pepper

Method
Preheat the oven to 200c.
Oil a baking pan. The size of the dish is important. It should be able to accommodate the potato slices along the base in one layer. Mine is 30cm by 35cm.
Layout the potato then drizzle some more oil over the potato slices and season with salt and pepper. Ladle in some fish stock-just enough to moisten the base of the pan.
Bake the potatoes for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.
Turn up the oven to 230c.
Prepare the duxelles- in a wide pan and over a low heat, sauté the porcini, onion, garlic, thyme and parsley with the butter and olive oil for 20 minutes.
When the mixture is quite dry add the white wine and allow to reduce for 2 minutes or so. Season with salt and pepper.
Spoon the duxelles over the potato slices.
Place the snapper fillets on top of the potato slices and duxelles. Drizzle over with more extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
Roast for about 15 minutes or until the fish is just cooked.
Sprinkle over parsley and serve straight from the baking dish. Serves 2.

Speedy Ragu

My favorite dish to cook and eat is Ragu alla Bolognese. I adore this rich meat sauce but there are times when I simply don’t have the time to make it. So, rather than deny myself the ultimate comfort meal, I have devised a shortcut recipe, which delivers all of the flavors that one expects from a classic ragu.
In this version, the sauce will be ready in 40 minutes rather than two hours. The secret is to use dried porcini mushrooms. This magic ingredient provides a savory depth of flavor, which mimics that of a long and slow stew. The mushrooms are chopped finely, so as the creamy sauce simmers away, they melt, imparting a deep earthy fragrance.
Porcini are notorious for harboring dirt. It is of great importance to inspect and rinse each piece of mushroom separately under a running tap. I once ordered “tagliatelle con porcini” in a restaurant, and much to my disappointment I was presented with a plate of dirty pasta. Literally! There is also the chance of finding insect larvae. I have encountered these vile tiny pests only once, and unfortunately the only solution here is to discard them
Porcini range in price, per kilo, from around AU$170 for trimmings, to AU$500 for meaty slices. For this recipe the cheaper trimmings are fine.

Ingredients
30g dried porcini
500ml stock (fake is fine)
15g butter
1-2 tbsp olive oil
100g pancetta, finely chopped
20g red onion, finely chopped
20g carrot, finely chopped
20g celery, finely chopped
200g minced veal
200g minced pork
5 chicken livers, cleaned and finely chopped
125ml white wine
Freshly grated nutmeg
Sea salt
Fresh black pepper
125ml tomato passata
125 ml cream (35% milk fat)
1 fresh bay leaf
5ml balsamic vinegar
Freshly grated parmagiano or grana

Method
Soak the porcini with enough boiling water to just cover. Allow the mushroom slices to soften for about 15 minutes and then drain. Strain the soaking liquid through a layer of paper napkin. Reserve the strained liquid. Inspect the mushroom pieces for insect infestation and rinse each piece thoroughly under a running tap to remove dirt. Chop the porcini finely.
Over a low heat, sauté the pancetta, onion, carrot and celery for 10 minutes, or until golden brown. Turn up the heat and add the veal, pork and livers. Cook the meat for a few minutes, until it loses the raw pink color. Do not brown.
Add the wine, nutmeg, tomato, cream, bay leaf and porcini liquid. Simmer for 30 minutes..
Turn of the heat and add salt, pepper and the balsamic vinegar. Finish with a sprinkling of cheese, melting it into the sauce.
Toss with tagliatelle or a short pasta such as orrechiette. Makes enough for about 400g of pasta asciutta.