A Brighton Boy Blogs

It’s a while since I added any recipes here. I cook regularly, at least several times a week, but I rarely write anything down. Occasionally my sons like something I cook so much, they write it down in their recipe book. Quite often, someone else will ask for the recipe for something I’ve cooked for them, and my usual reply is “there is no recipe, I just make it up as I go along”, the truth being that there’s always a basic recipe in my head but I don’t have to commit them to the written word. Once in a blue moon though, I’ll actually write it down for them, and when I do it goes here.

One such recipe request recently was made by the lovely Jacqui. We gave her and Pete a tub of my ratatouille to save them having to cook one evening, a bit of a blessing when there’s a baby around. They both loved it, Pete remarking that “if all ratatouille tasted like that, we’d eat it every night”.

So, here’s the recipe for my ratatouille, a wonderfully tasty, fragrant and versatile French Provençal dish full of the flavours of summer. It’s especially versatile given that it’s 100% vegan, so it’ll appeal to a wide audience. I’ve seen this dish bastardised, trampled on, ruined, and generally overcomplicated by cooks and chefs of varying calibres – but it’s best done just like this, plain and simple, getting its complex flavours from lovely fresh ingredients and long cooking. There are some things so good, you really don’t have to change them.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 1.5 hours

Serves: a large family, with leftovers

Notes

Ratatouille is best cooked in an enamelled cast iron pot such as a classic Le Creuset casserole, but you can do it in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan too. I use tinned tomatoes because they’re generally superior for cooking to the tomatoes you can buy in supermarkets and shops in the UK. The aubergines (egg plant) are added last to avoid them sponging up all the oil.

Ingredients

2 x large aubergines (eggplant), cut into 1 inch chunks
3 x large onions, peeled & roughly chopped
3 x courgettes (zucchini), thickly sliced
10 x cloves garlic, lightly crushed & peeled, then roughly chopped
3 x sweet peppers (bell peppers), roughly sliced
1 x fennel bulb, sliced
3 tbsp olive oil
200g tomato purée
6 x 400g cans/packs chopped tomatoes
4 x sprigs of fresh rosemary, the leaves torn from the stalks
1 x sprig of fresh sage
4 x sprigs of fresh thyme, the leaves stripped from the stalks
a bunch of fresh basil

Salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

Fry the onion in the olive oil until softening and translucent but not coloured, adding the peppers and the woody herbs including stalks (not the basil) after a couple of minutes. Add the garlic, fennel and courgettes, and continue to fry for a few minutes. Add the aubergine last, then add a small heap of freshly ground black pepper, stir, put the lid on the pan and sweat the vegetables for a couple of minutes. Add the tomatoes and tomato purée, stir well, bring to the boil, then put the lid on and simmer gently for 1.5 hours. The vegetables should be soft and slightly falling apart, and the flavours should be well combined. Take off the heat, remove the woody herb stalks, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Add the bunch of basil leaves, then stir and replace the lid.

Serve as an accompaniment to anything… pan fried pork loin steaks, sea bass, pasta, boiled rice… or just eat it with some crusty bread. It’s even lovely served cold, and can turn cold cooked rice into a fabulous rice salad.

Tomato & marscapone sauce is one of our family favourites, as is the soft garlic cream cheese known as Boursin, so when we noticed we had a large surplus of Boursin in the fridge, the solution was obvious… let’s see if we can make a nice creamy pasta sauce out of it! So my sons and I went to work and sure enough, it worked – and we had a delicious lunch together. Here’s what we did to create this rich, creamy, flavoursome sauce…

Ingredients

3 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes

2 x 150g packs Boursin soft cheese with garlic & herbs

100g tomato purée

Herbs: marjoram, parsley, oregano, basil

1 teaspoon Marigold vegetable bouillon powder

Black pepper

Method

Bring the tomatoes and tomato purée in a saucepan, add the herbs & bring to the boil. Simmer for ten minutes and then add the Boursin, breaking it up and mixing it until it’s all melted into the mixture. Add Marigold vegetable bouillon powder and freshly ground black pepper to taste. You can serve it lumpy, or try blending it to a smooth consistency with a stick blender. This would suit pretty much any pasta shape large or small, but we had it with casarecci tricolore (a 5cm twisty strip).

Serves 5-6 main course portions.

The Recipe

This is a great, general-purpose pasta sauce. It should be rich and full-flavoured, thickened by the process of reduction and the pectin in the tomatoes rather than any added thickeners. It should not be hurried – it is best when it has taken hours of cooking. Serve by tossing freshly boiled pasta with just enough sauce to coat each piece, and a sprinkle of freshly grated parmesan.

Ingredients

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed & chopped

1 can chopped Italian plum tomatoes

1 bottle passata (sieved Italian tomatoes)

8 sun-dried tomatoes

½ bottle red wine

1 red pepper, diced

Olive oil & butter

Oregano, basil & parsley

Salt & pepper

Method

Fry the onion and garlic in olive oil and butter until soft. Add the red pepper and herbs and cook for a further few minutes. Add the the sun-dried tomatoes, chopped tomatoes and passata. Finally add the red wine and simmer until reduced to about half its volume.

Serves lots!

The Risotto

A good risotto is made with love, and takes all your attention. Don’t be tempted to rush it by adding too much liquid at a time. Add the liquid ladle by ladle, just enough to make the mixture “sloppy” again. The final consistency you’re aiming for is soft, creamy and quite wet, with the dressing of parmesan having formed a thick sauce or mantecare with the remaining stock and what little starch is released from the rice. Use only genuine risotto rice (Arborio, Carnaroli or Vialone Nano); its high protein content means it won’t turn to mush like other rices; it is cooked when al dente, that is to say still slightly firm and rubbery. For special occasions, you may like to fry some chopped fresh parsley in butter and a little olive oil for a few minutes, and pour this over the risotto together with a further sprinkling of parmesan.

Porcini mushrooms are so named because the Romans thought they tasted like pork – actually they were probably right, but more like wild pork/wild boar than today’s supermarket pork. They come dried and are very tasty. As an alternative, slice large portobello or flat mushrooms and fast-fry them, reducing the liquid until you have fairly dry, tasty slices of mushroom.

Make it vegan by leaving out the parmesan (which may be considered a crime in some circles) and using just oil instead of butter.

Ingredients

350g risotto rice (Arborio, Carnaroli or Vialone Nano)

1 cup dried ceps (porcini) mushrooms

1/3 bottle white wine

1 litre hot stock

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed/chopped

Olive oil and butter

Salt & pepper

5 tablespoons freshly grated parmesan cheese

Method

Soak the porcini in boiling water. Heat a few tablespoons full of olive oil with a large knob of butter in a large saucepan. Fry the onion & garlic for ten minutes until soft. Add the uncooked rice and stir-fry for five minutes to toast the rice, seasoning well with salt and pepper. Meanwhile, keep the stock hot and simmering in a separate pan. Add a few ladlefuls of stock to the rice and reduce the heat, stirring well. When the stock has nearly been completely absorbed, add a ladle or two more. Strain the mushrooms to remove grit & sand, and add mushrooms & soaking liquid along with the wine to the rice when it is about half-cooked, and stir well. When the wine has been absorbed, carry on adding stock ladle by ladle and stirring well. When cooked, add the parmesan and stir in well until completely melted.

Serves 4

This bread is wonderful – our friends and family seem to think so too. We discovered it in the excellent “90s Vegetarian” by Ursula Ferrigno, ISBN 1 85391 309 X published 1994 by Merehurst Ltd. Make it vegan by substituting something vegan for the butter, and omitting the egg.

The Recipe

Ursula: “I adore prunes and wish they were taken more seriously. They are an excellent source of Vitamin A with iron and fibre. The combination of prunes and chocolate is heavenly. This is a wonderful breakfast bread – it is rich, sweet, dark and delicious and doesn’t need anything else with it. Try it with half dark chocolate, half good quality white chocolate too.”

Jon: I agree with Ursula! But also try half bitter (70%) and slightly less than half milk chocolate, topped up with a Terry’s chocolate orange bar. Yum! The bread has a tendency to be heavy (though not inedible by any means!), so we’ve tried reducing the over-generous amounts of chocolate and prunes and leaving out the egg.

Ingredients

20g fresh yeast or 1 tbsp dried yeast and 1 tsp sugar

750g strong white unbleached flour or half strong white and half strong wholemeal

2 teaspoons salt

375g stoned prunes

375g plain chocolate

20g butter

1 egg

Method

1. Grease two 900g (2lb) loaf tins. Blend fresh yeast with 450ml (3/4 pint) hand-hot water (if using dried yeast, sprinkle it into the hand-hot water with the sugar and leave in a warm place until frothy).

2. Mix the flour and salt together well. Make a reservoir in the centre with a wooden spoon.

3. Gradually add about 3/4 of the yeast liquid to the flour and mix together well. (I find that different flours absorb different amounts of liquid, so I never add all the liquid at once). The dough should be firm and leave the sides of the bowl clean. If it looks dry, add some of the remaining yeast liquid.

4. Now lightly flour the work surface and turn the dough out. Knead well for 10 minutes – you should end up with a smooth, elastic dough.

5. Return your dough to a clean bowl, cover with a clean tea-towel and leave to rise somewhere warm and free from draughts for 1 hour, until doubled in size. Meanwhile, chop the prunes, chocolate butter. Beat the egg.

6. Turn the dough back onto a lightly floured work surface and knead again to knock out the air bubbles. It will return to its original size. Add the prunes, chocolate, butter and beaten egg and knead well for 10 minutes. You may need to add a little extra flour if the mixture is tacky.

7. Divide and put dough in the prepared tins. Allow to rise for 10 minutes.

8. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220C (425F or gas mark 7). Bake the loaves for 35 minutes. The bread will be ready when, if turned out of the tin and tapped on the base, it sounds hollow.

9. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Serve warm – the chocolate should be melted and the prunes juicy.

Makes 2 x 2lb (900g) loaves which disappear spontaneously!

The Recipe

This is a recipe I came up with when I was stuck for something to serve with a main meal. The rich flavours of the dish may pleasantly surprise you because of its simplicity. Our first-born son loved this liquidised as baby food, missing out the salt.

Ingredients

3 large leeks

1 can chopped tomatoes

50g pine kernels

2 tbsps Olive oil

2 tsps Sesame oil

Salt & pepper

Method

Prepare the leeks by slitting them down their length and washing them carefully, and then cut them into 2cm pieces. Heat the oils together in a deep frying pan or skillet and add the pine kernels. Fry over a medium heat until the kernels are golden brown, and immediately remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon and place them to one side. Make sure they don’t burn.

Reheat the oil, and add the leeks. Fry over a high heat for a few minutes or until they start to brown in places. Then add the tomatoes. Bring back to the boil, then add the pine kernels. Season to taste. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Serves 4, with a main meal.

This Italian-style casserole makes good use of Florence fennel, one of the most under-rated and under-used vegetables. It looks like a cross between celery and onion, and tastes of aniseed when raw. When cooked, it takes on a flavour all its own.

The Recipe

Aubergines tend to absorb a lot of oil, so make sure you add them slightly after the majority of the other ingredients, otherwise there’ll be no oil left to fry everything else.

Ingredients

2 fennel bulbs, quartered

2 aubergines, cubed

4 celery sticks, sliced

7 shallots or 1 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, sliced

1 tbsp chives, chopped

1 tbsp basil, chopped

1 tbsp oregano, chopped

1 bottle passata

1 can chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp parsley, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp olive paste

1 stock cube

Black pepper, freshly ground

100g parmesan reggiano, grated

6 sun-dried tomatoes

Method

Fry the shallots/onion, garlic, fennel, celery, aubergines, chives, basil, parsley, olive paste black pepper and sun-dried tomatoes in the olive oil. Add the other ingredients and fry rapidly until well-reduced. Place in covered, oven-proof dish and cover with parmesan cheese. Bake in the middle of the oven at gas mark 4 until the cheese is golden brown.

Serves 2-4.

Garbanzos, or chickpeas, are commonly used in many Mediterranean countries to make hearty and filling casseroles. This one is something I dreamt up when my wife had soaked & cooked chickpeas for houmous but we were missing some of the ingredients.

Ingredients

3 onions, roughly chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 yellow pepper, chopped

3 large tomatoes, chopped

2 tablespoons Tomato puree

1 large glass medium white wine

4 teaspoons hot smoked paprika

Salt & pepper

Method

Place the ingredients into a casserole, combine well, cover and place in the middle of a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for one hour (although it may well improve with even more cooking if you can be patient – try 2 or 3 hours).  Serve with some freshly cut crusty bread in thick, generous slices.

Serves 2-4.

The Standard British Bolognese Sauce is a travesty, a mere shadow of the original, exquisitely rich, almost solid sauce. So here’s my version of the classic Ragu. Oh, and anyone who thinks this word is even slightly trademarkable, get lost back to your silly marketing land where you can hijack words for your own purposes, where everything comes from a jar and nothing’s worth eating.

Like most things in life, all good things come to those who wait. If you think it’s finished before it really is, and serve it before it’s ready, you’ll ruin the treat.

The Ragu relies on that most Italian of holy trinities, the sofrito - finely chopped/grated onion, carrot and celery, fried and sweated until all of their flavour is extracted & concentrated into the oil. Please don’t think you can miss it out and expect the same result.

You could probably substitute Quorn mince for the beef, and vegetable stock for beef stock, if you want to make a vegetarian version of this sauce.

Ingredients

750g lean minced beef

1 bottle of good red wine

4 large 400g cans chopped Italian tomatoes

1 tube tomato puree

5 celery sticks, finely chopped

3 large carrots, grated

2 large onions, finely diced

5 cloves garlic, chopped

4 tablespoons olive oil

2 beef stock cubes

black pepper

Method

Select a large heavy bottomed skillet or saucepan. Brown the mince by frying in 1 tablespoon of oil with a heavy seasoning of black pepper, then set meat aside. Fry the onion, garlic, celery & carrot in 3 tablespoons of oil, stirring frequently – this is the sofrito. The vegetables should not colour, but will gradually become translucent and indistinguishable. When you have a reduced vegetable mush, add the meat back and combine. Add the tomatoes, continuing to stir the mixture and bring it back to the boil. Add the wine and beef stock cubes, and return to the boil, stirring frequently. Add the tube of tomato puree, combine, and boil the sauce until virtually all the liquid has evaporated, stirring frequently to avoid the solids sinking to the bottom and scorching. You really are aiming for an almost dry sauce where most of the liquid is an orangey red oil which coats the pasta and carries much of the flavour.

Serve with a good quality spaghetti cooked al dente and lightly oiled with a peppery extra virgin olive oil, and a generous measure of freshly grated Parmiggiano Reggiano (the finest Parmesan cheese). Avoid wearing white, or tuck an oversized napkin into your shirt. Buon appetito!

One of the classic sauces, Bechamel is useful for a wide range of dishes. Try using it as a pasta sauce, or with eggs, fish or fowl.

The Recipe

You can make this into a classic cheese sauce merely by stirring the cheese of your choice into it until it is all melted. As a white sauce, try it as part of a  Lasagne.

Ingredients

50g butter

2 heaped tbsp plain white flour

3/4 pint milk

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Salt

Black pepper, freshly ground

1 tsp grated nutmeg

Dash of white wine

Method

Melt the butter in a non-stick saucepan (it helps a lot).

Add the flour, and stir vigorously over a medium heat until well combined. You should now have a ball of dough – this is a rue. Now add a third of the milk, and stir continuously; at first, the rue will just float around in the milk, but as the milk heats it will combine with the rue until the whole mixture thickens and goes smooth. Eventually, it will once again form a lump of dough.

Now add the second third of the milk, and repeat the previous stage. Finally, add the rest of the milk and once again stir until smooth. You should now have a smooth, creamy sauce. Add the rest of the ingredients, and season with salt and pepper to taste.