Roast Squab Pigeons with Spinach, Olive and Lemon Sauce

There are moments when I experience severe technical difficulties. Some times they occur in the kitchen (overcooked meat, burnt vegetables etc). But other times (like now) the problem seems to be mainly in my brain. And to make matters worse, I am the one to blame. I do not need to explain the universal law (or effects) of excessive partying, so for the next few weeks of this festive season, do not expect much from me in terms of eloquence. I mean, the food will still be good- when I finally stumble into the kitchen…

Ingredients per person

1 squab pigeon, spatchcocked (keep the heads and backbones for stock)
1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tsp of brandy
A generous pinch of ground cardamom
Fresh black pepper
Sea salt

Method

Combine the oil, garlic, brandy, cardamom and seasonings.
Pour the marinade over the pigeons and massage into the skin.
Cover, refrigerate and marinade for at least 24 hours
Bring back to room temperature, before roasting.
Preheat the oven to 230c. Roast the birds skin side up for 8 minutes. Turn them over and roast for another 8 minutes. They are perfect when cooked to the medium stage.
Cover the birds and allow to rest, for 10 minutes.
Serve each bird on individual plates, drizzled over with any juices from the roasting dish.

Spinach, Green olive and Lemon Sauce

Ingredients

70g baby spinach leaves
10 large green olives, pitted and very finely chopped
1 garlic clove, very finely chopped
1 tsp finely chopped lemon zest
1 tsp finely chopped rosemary
Juice from half a lemon, or to taste
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Fresh black pepper

Wilt the spinach leaves in a saucepan. Add a few drops of water to prevent scorching.
Drain the spinach over a sieve until the liquid has drained away and the spinach is cool. Finely chop the spinach by hand.
Mix in a bowl with the olives, garlic, lemon zest, rosemary, salt and pepper.
Add enough olive oil to create a fluid consistency. Allow to sit at this stage, until ready to serve.
At the last moment, stir in the lemon juice to taste and check for salt and pepper.
Serve immediately with the roast pigeons. This will make enough sauce for 4 pigeons

Crumbed Veal with Asiago Cheese

Most Australian cafes and pubs serve a dish known as Chicken Parmagiana. Do not ask me what this has got to do with Parma. It is an imposter! I have never read of it in any of my books of Parma food and I suspect this dish is a bastardization of something vaguely Italian. It is usually a huge crumbed and fried chicken breast, topped with an over reduced tomato sauce, a slice of processed ham and a mound of plastic cheese. It usually comes with fried chips. The whole experience reminds me of a bad pizza and is too vulgar for my tastes..
I do not claim my version to be authentic, but when it is made with quality ingredients it is definitely a tasty and worthy dish.
Chicken has temporarily been banned from my household, so I am using milk fed veal in its place (far superior substitute).

Ingredients per person
1 thin veal steak
1 anchovy fillet, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Fresh parsley, rosemary and sage, all finely chopped.
Sea salt
Fresh black pepper
1 egg, beaten (free range)
Dried breadcrumbs (the Japanese make fabulous dried breadcrumbs)
Peanut oil, for deep frying
A knob of butter
1-2 Tbsp of homemade tomato sauce
Slices of Asiago cheese

Method.
Check that your steak is of an even thickness. If not, give it a light bashing with the rolling pin (I love a bit of discipline in the kitchen).
Combine the egg with the anchovy, garlic herbs and seasoning,
Add the veal steak to the egg mixture, cover and refrigerate for a few hours.
Remove the steaks from the eggy marinade and allow the excess to drip away.
Dip the steak into the breadcrumbs. Coat well, pressing the crumbs into the meat. Place in the fridge, covered until you are ready to fry.
Preheat your grill to hot.
Heat enough peanut oil in a pan so you can deep fry your steak (or steaks if making more than one). When hot, add the butter and fry the crumbed steak until golden.
Immediately drain on some paper, for a minute.
Top with a spoonful or two of tomato sauce and slices of asiago cheese.
Place under the hot grill, until the cheese is just melted and oozing.
Serve immediately. It is perfect with a simple dish of very fine asparagus spears and rainbow chard stalks tossed with a white truffle oil vinaigrette.

Whitebait & Flowers

I have gone on a deep frying mission during this week of Hannukah. And, can you believe, I have actually lost weight! I can offer no scientific explanation for this and I am going to just enjoy this fried food feast while it lasts!
I think the best oil for deep-frying is peanut oil, but I sometimes use dripping as well. Dripping will smoke much easier than peanut oil, so make sure you have your exhaust fan on, or else you are going to smoke the whole house out.
Always heat your chosen fat over a medium heat (rather than a high heat). A medium heat will ensure it heats more evenly and will prevent “cool spots” in the fat. Once the oil is hot then you can turn up the heat to high and fry away. Have everything ready to go. Fried food is meant to be eaten immediately. So make sure everything is organized: hot fat; whatever ingredient you are frying; batter if using; tongs and draining paper; lemon wedges; salt etc. And of course, eager mouths to feed!

A Feast of Deep Fried Whitebait and Zucchini Flowers.

Ingredients
Zucchihi flowers, as many as you can afford (they are pricey)
Sea salt
500g whitebait (tiny, baby fish)
1 egg (free range of course)
1 tbsp of cornflour
1 tbsp of flour
Fresh sage leaves
Lemon wedges, to serve
Plenty of peanut oil for deep frying

Method
Heat the peanut oil in a wide pan, as described above.
In the meantime, place the whitebait in a large bowl.
Add the egg and combine well with your hands.
Sift in the cornflour and combine well again.
Sift in the flour and mix again. The egg and two flours will combine to form a light batter, which should sufficiently coat the fish.
When the oil is hot, turn up the heat slightly. You want the oil to be very, very hot. Ideally everything will cook in seconds.

I would start with the zucchini flowers. Fry them until crisp and golden, drain on absorbent paper, sprinkle with salt and offer them to hungry mouths.
Next fry the little fish. They will be in small clumps, because of the batter.
Cook the fish in batches, until all are done and crisp. Drain on paper.
Finally fry a handful of sage leaves until crispy and scatter all over the golden fish
Serve with lemon wedges and lots of cold beer. 500g whitebait should be enough for 4 people.

Happy Hanukkah

A burst of Holiday wishes to you.

Some readers may have noticed a slight Jewish influence in some of my recipes. It is because i'm studying the philosophy of Kabbalah.

I will be having a few days off & then will be back with more recipes & interesting food.

Blessings and Light to you all.

Creme Patissiere and Dark Chocolate Fritters

Lamb Sausages and Caramelised Onion with Mustard Fruits

My butcher sells sausages of exceptional quality. I am seduced by his heavenly products. Every time I pass by his shop window I cannot resist purchasing the fine charcuterie. Yesterday was no exception..
The sausages I bought contained minced lamb, spices and rosemary He uses no binders or extenders and stuffs them in real intestines
I pan fried them and served them with caramelized onion, streaky bacon and cumin spiced mashed potato.
Mostarda di Cremona (a mixture of fruits preserved in a mustard syrup) was the perfect condiment for this meal.

Ingredients
1 onion, sliced into 1cm rounds
2 rashers of streaky bacon, sliced
15g lard
1 10cm stick of rosemary
1 pinch sugar
1 –2 tsp sherry vinegar
500g lamb sausages
100ml dry sherry
Sea salt
Fresh black pepper.
Plenty of freshly chopped parsley

Method
To cook the onions, put the lard into a wide pan.
When it is melted, add the onion, bacon, rosemary branch and sugar.
Cook very gently for about 30 minutes. Give it a stir every now and then, until the onions caramelize.
Discard the rosemary branch.
Add the sherry vinegar and then remove the onions to a plate and reserve.
Add the sausages to the same pan and brown them on all sides. There should be enough fat to do so. If not, just add a little more lard.
Throw in the sherry, cover the pan and gently braise your sausages for 20 minutes or until tender.
Add the reserved caramelized onions and season.

Sprinkle over with the parsley and serve with mash and mustard fruits. Serves 2.

Risotto nazi

I have written about risotto in the past, so I am taking the opportunity now to be a little more precise with instructions on how to produce a superb quality dish.
I truly believe that risotto is one of the true gifts of Italy, and it needs be made with love and the best ingredients. It appalls me that people use left overs to make a risotto, like it is some sort of culinary dustbin. It also disturbs me when I see a risotto on a café menu containing more ingredients than an antipasto platter!
The thing to remember is that risotto is a rice dish and so it must contain more rice than any other ingredient. After rice it should contain one or two ingredients that compliment each other, plus parmesan (not for fish though) and whatever herbs you choose. Butter is essential and risotto without butter does not qualify, in my books, as risotto.
Never use stock from cubes or those revolting stock cartons you can get from the supermarkets. These synthetic liquids contain soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and caramel. Why are these ingredients in a stock? True stock also jellies on standing and these synthetic science experiments remain fluid, which suggests that they contain no animal proteins at all. Although I do use them at other times, they have no place in a good risotto. Make your own stock. It is not hard to simmer meat, bone, onion, carrot & celery. The result is worth the effort.
And finally the best rice to use is carnaroli or vialone nano. Arborio provides a mediocre risotto, but is acceptable during desperate times.

Clam, Caramelised onion and Pea Risotto

Ingredients
Fish stock
200g fresh clams
1 tbsp of vegetable oil
1 large brown onion, sliced not too thinly
200g vialone nano
50ml white wine
100g peas
50g cultured butter
Se salt
Fresh black pepper
Plenty of fresh chopped parsley

Method

Bring a small saucepan of stock to the simmer. Add the clams and cook until they have opened. Remove immediately to a plate. Keep the stock hot.

There are three stages to producing a risotto:

Stage 1 - La Tostatura
In a wide pan, heat the oil and add the onion. Cook this gently for about 30 minutes to caramelize it. Remove it to a plate. (Usually the onion is chopped fine, cooked to transparency and left in the pan to cook with the rice, but I wanted to use caramelized onion as a main ingredient for this particular risotto).
Add the rice and toss it about in the remaining fat for about 3 minutes. You will notice the rice will become opaque.

Stage 2 - La Brasatura
Adjust the heat to medium. Add the wine. It will evaporate almost immediately.
Now begin to add the stock, one ladle at a time. Give it a stir so everything is cooking evenly. Once the stock has absorbed, continue to add more, one ladle at a time. With each addition of stock, give it a stir. It is a myth that you need to stir continuously the entire time. Stirring continuously will only result in a gluggy mess, not a fine risotto. When the rice is plump, creamy and al dente it is ready. Add the clams, onion, and peas and an extra ladle of stock for good measure

Stage 3 - La Mantecatura
Remove the pot from the heat and add the butter, parsley and seasoning. Here is where you would add parmesan (if making a meat or vegetable risotto).
The final result will be fluid and shimmering, creamy and voluptuous. Serve immediately and under any circumstance do not reheat. This is risotto not fried rice!
Serves 2, with a salad and good bread.

Beetroot and Duck Soup

I based this recipe around the famous Russian soup, Borshch. A few months back, I had the idea of combining duck and beetroot for a soup, but I never got around to making it. I made this yesterday because this time of year is appropriate for festve food like this, and if I lived in the northern hemisphere, I probably would serve this for my Christmas Eve entree.
Even though the beetroot is only one ingredient of many, it certainly takes over (and beetroot juicer stains everything). The colour may seem garish and over the top but the flavour is superb!



Ingredients
2 duck marylands
15g butter
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large red onion, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1 celery heart (the inner tender stalks and leaves from a bunch), chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 tsp of ground cumin
1 tsp mustard powder
1 granny smith apple, peeled and grated
1 large beetroot, peeled and grated
1 large potato, peeled and cut into 1-2cm dice
Stock to cover
2 tbsp of cider vinegar
Sea salt
Fresh black pepper
Fresh chive
Fresh dill
Horseradish
Crème Fraiche

Method
In a soup pot, heat the oil and butter.
Add the duck pieces and brown over a gentle heat, about 5 minutes each side. Remove to a plate.
Saute the onion, carrot, celery, garlic and ginger for about 15 minutes, using the fats that are left in the pan.
Add the mustard and cumin and cook for 1 minute more.
Add the apple, beetroot and potato and give everything a good mix.
Cover with stock. Return the duck pieces to the pot and add the vinegar.
Simmer for 1.5 hours or until the duck is tender.
Remove the duck to a pate and allow to cool a little.
At this stage you can puree a small amount of the soup, to give it body.
When the duck is cool enough to handle, shred the meat. Discard the skin and bones.
Add the meat back to the soup and season with salt and pepper. Add more vinegar if you think it needs it.
Simmer gently for another 15 minutes.
Add chopped chives at the end.
Serve in soup bowls, sprinkled over with finely chopped dill and a dollop of crème fraiche mixed with horseradish to taste.
Accompany with rye bread and rocket leaves dressed with a mustard vinaigrette. Makes 4 hearty serves.