Braised lettuce, co*ckles and bacon
We tend to think of lettuce as salad, but it can be even better when cooked. Sweet and fragile braised baby gem lettuce works well with co*ckles and bacon, and new season olive oil brings these contrasting elements together.
MAKES 4 SMALL BOWLS
co*ckles (or clams) 400g
baby gem lettuce heads 4
onion 1
spring onions 1 bunch
vegetable stock 1 litre
butter 2 tbsp
bacon lardons 100g
extra virgin olive oil to finish
Prepare the co*ckles first. Fill the sink with cold water and lower the co*ckles in. Discard any that are open. Rub them in the cold water with your hands to loosen all the grit, drain through a colander and let the water out of the sink. Repeat a couple more times to make sure all the grit has been washed away. If you're not going to use the co*ckles immediately, keep them in 1cm of cold water in a bowl covered with a damp cloth in the fridge.
Cut the baby gems in half and remove the central core. Keeping the leaves still attached, rinse the lettuce halves in cold water. Grate the onion. Chop the spring onions to the thickness of a £1 coin.
Pour the vegetable stock into a pan and, as it heats, add the butter, onion and spring onions. Bring the stock to the boil and simmer for a couple of minutes to infuse the onion flavour. Add the lettuce halves and cover with a circle of greaseproof paper topped with a heatproof plate, so that they stay submerged in the stock. Cook for 3-4 minutes so that they are soft but not sludgy, then remove from the heat.
While the lettuce is cooking, place a large pan (one with a lid) over a low heat, and once it's hot, add the lardons, cooking them relatively slowly so that they go crispy but don't burn. After 5-8 minutes the lardons will start to crisp up. Add a ladle of your lettuce stock to the co*ckles and stir through. Turn up the heat, place the lid on the pan and let the co*ckles steam for 2 minutes, then give the pan a shake. The co*ckles will begin to pop open if they haven't already. Cook for a further couple of minutes then discard any unopened ones. Gently fold the lettuce pieces through the co*ckles and taste the broth before seasoning as it can be salty.
Ladle some stock and lettuce into each bowl, topple on a couple of spoonfuls of the co*ckles and lardons, and trickle over the olive oil. Best eaten immediately, with bread to mop up the juices.
Drowned tomatoes
As suggested, these tomatoes are swimming, or even drowned, in olive oil, which accentuates their sweetness and depth. You can use any variety of tomato to make this recipe, from golden cherry to sweet baby plum, but I find that heritage work particularly well.
SERVES 4-6
mixed heritage tomatoes 550g
garlic cloves 4
thyme 1 bunch
bay leaves 2 or 3
sugar 1 tsp
salt a pinch
extra virgin olive oil about 250ml
Preheat the oven to 190C/gas mark 5.
Run the tomatoes under cold water and pick out any stalks. Place the garlic cloves in warm water for a couple of minutes – this helps to loosen the skin. Pop them out of their skins.
Slice the tomatoes in half and gently lodge them cut-side down in a pan or casserole dish that can go in the oven. Thinly slice the garlic and scatter it over the tomatoes. Drop over the thyme and bay leaves, and sprinkle with the sugar and salt. Pour over the olive oil until the tomatoes are sitting in about half a centimetre of it.
Bake for about 45 minutes until the tomatoes are soft, a little wrinkly and blistered and have absorbed most of the olive oil.
These will keep for a few days in a jar or airtight container stored in a cool place or, if cooled first and kept under a layer of olive oil, up to a week in the fridge.
Chickpea, Swiss chard and soft-poached egg
This is wholesome eating at its best. I find it hard to resist piercing the flaxen yolk over the plump pulses. Think of chard as two different vegetables as the stalks need a little more help than the leaves; cooking the stalks with the chickpeas softens their toughness.
MAKES 6 SMALL PLATES
dried chickpeas 300g
onions 3
extra virgin olive oil
dried chilli 1 tsp
coriander seeds 2 tsp
salt
celery 2 sticks
carrot 1
garlic cloves 3
Swiss chard 1 bunch
bay leaf 1
white wine 175ml
plum tomatoes 1 x 400g tin
malt vinegar a splash
medium eggs 6 at room temperature
black pepper to taste
Put the chickpeas in a large bowl, cover with cold water and soak overnight.
When you are ready to cook, drain and rinse the chickpeas under cold running water. Place them in a pan and add water until it covers them by about 2.5cm. Peel and halve one onion and add it to the pan with a little olive oil, the chilli and the coriander seeds.
Bring the chickpeas to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer until tender, checking after 30 minutes. Once the chickpeas are cooked, remove from the heat, drain them (reserving the cooking liquor) and season to taste.
Meanwhile peel, halve and dice the remaining two onions. Put the onions in a heavy-bottomed pan with a glug of olive oil and a good pinch of salt, cover with the lid and cook slowly over a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
While the onions are cooking, peel, halve and dice the celery and carrot. Submerge the garlic cloves in warm water and leave for a few minutes – this will help the skin to pop off easily. Then cross-chop or use a pestle and mortar to mash the garlic with a good pinch of salt until it becomes paste-like.
Rinse the chard stalks under cold running water and trim the ragged ends. Using a small knife, remove the stalks from the leaves following their natural shape. Roughly chop the stalks into thin strips.
After the onions have been cooking for 10 minutes and are soft and tender, stir through the celery, carrot, garlic and chard stalks and add the bay leaf. Stir through and combine and cook for a further 15 minutes.
Pour over the wine and leave to reduce by half over a medium heat. Add the tomatoes and 300ml of the chickpea cooking liquor followed by the drained chickpeas. Give the mixture a good stir through and simmer for about 20 minutes until almost all the juices have been absorbed into the chickpeas. Season well while still warm, then fold through the chard leaves and cover with a pan lid to help them wilt into the mixture.
Place a pan of water with a splash of malt vinegar in it over a medium heat and bring to a simmer. Crack one of the eggs into a cup. Swirl the water around in a circular motion and once the water settles slightly and there is a tornado effect in the centre, lower the cup into the middle of the swirl so that it almost touches the water and tip the egg out in a quick fluid motion. Lightly poach for 3 minutes or until the white is just set. Remove the egg with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen roll before placing on a plate. Repeat the poaching process with the remaining eggs. If you're confident, poach two at a time.
Ladle the chickpeas into bowls. Place a poached egg on top of each serving of chickpeas and finish with a little extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt and some black pepper.
Eggy bread and cherries
The word "unctuous" springs to mind when I think of eggy bread. I also get very nostalgic as I started eating savoury eggy bread for breakfast as a child. But why not make this as a dessert or brunch? The French may have invented it but the Americans have a much more flexible approach to eggy bread. They eat it with everything from bacon and sausages to syrup and fruit – equally enjoyable whichever way it comes.
MAKES 4 SMALL PLATES
cherries, perfectly ripe 500g
apple juice 100ml
runny honey 2 tsp
medium eggs 4
milk 2 tbsp
slightly stale bread 4 thick slices
butter 1 tbsp
icing sugar to dust
Rinse the cherries under cold water and remove any stalks. Using a cherry pipper or a small paring knife, remove the stones and halve the cherries.
Plonk the halved cherries in a wide pan and pour over the apple juice. Trickle over the runny honey. Cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes until the cherries start to soften, burst and collapse a little into the syrupy purple sauce.
While the cherries are cooking, beat the eggs together with the milk in a shallow bowl large enough to lay the bread flat in.
Squish the bread slices into the egg mixture, turning to coat both sides. Leave them in the mixture for at least 10 minutes, turning them a couple of times, until almost all the liquid has been soaked up.
Once the cherries are cooked, remove them from the heat and set aside while you fry the eggy bread.
Heat the butter in a heavy-bottomed frying pan over a medium to high heat. Once the butter foams and bubbles, add the soggy bread to the pan so that the slices fit in comfortably without overlapping, frying them in batches if they won't all fit at once.
Pour any excess egg mixture over the bread in the pan while it is cooking. Turn the slices after 2 minutes, once they are golden and crisp underneath. Cook the other side for a further 2 minutes.
Eat immediately with the cooked cherries spooned over and a dusting of icing sugar.
Burrata, pickled beetroot and rhubarb
Mozzarella can be tasteless and rubbery, and not even buffalo mozzarella compares to burrata, which is softer, moister and creamier and so can carry big flavours like pickles. Always serve burrata at room temperature. It is best to buy large ones to split so you have more of the creamy centre, which is the best bit. Burrata is an exquisite ingredient to work with and I never take it off the menu; it pairs well with pink stripey Chioggia beetroot and celeriac in the winter to broad beans and peas in the summer and even rhubarb and beetroot in the autumn. I simply love it.
MAKES 8 SMALL PLATES
For the pickled beetroot and rhubarb
Chioggia or ordinary beetroot 1 large
champagne rhubarb 2 sticks
white wine vinegar 300ml
water 125ml
caster sugar 100g, plus 50g
clove 1
bay leaf 1
burrata 2 x 250g
fruity extra virgin olive oil
Peel the beetroot bulb, slice the whole beetroot very thinly with a mandolin and set aside in a bowl. Trim the rhubarb, discarding the white leafy top and dry end, and cut into 5cm sticks. Place the sticks in a separate container.
Put the vinegar, water, 100g of the sugar, clove and bay leaf into a small pan over a low heat and stir to help dissolve the sugar. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove half of the liquor and cool it in a separate container. If you pour the liquor over the beetroot when it's hot, the coloured ring of the Chioggia leaches into the white flesh so you lose the stripey effect.
Now add the extra 50g of sugar to the remaining half of the liquor and simmer again until it has dissolved. Bring to the boil then pour it over the rhubarb sticks. Cover tightly with foil or clingfilm and set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes to an hour until the sticks are tender but not falling apart.
Once the other half of the liquor has lowered to room temperature, pour it over the beetroot and leave for 20-30 minutes. Tear each burrata into quarters and divide between the plates, making sure everyone gets an even amount of gooey centre. Spoon over the rhubarb and beetroot with a little of the pink pickling liquor and a dribble of olive oil.
Salt beef with braised leeks in mustard
Salting is a lengthy process (allow three days' brining before you can cook the beef) but an easy one. You don't hear enough about grey salt. It hasn't been through any bleaching processes, is a reasonable price and has a wonderful flavour. Salt beef demands mustard, but rather than just a dollop on the side of your plate, it works beautifully braised into the leeks to embolden the sauce.
MAKES 6-8 LARGE PLATES
beef brisket 2kg
To brine the beef
soft light brown sugar 180g
grey salt (available online, or use Maldon or Cornish sea salt) 250g
black peppercorns 6
juniper berries 2
garlic cloves 3
bay leaves 4
water 2 litres
To cook the beef
onion 1
large carrot 1
celery 2 sticks
leek 1
bay leaves 2
For the leeks
leeks 10
Dijon mustard 1 tbsp
wholegrain mustard 2 tbsp
chicken stock 480ml
butter 50g
bay leaves 2
double cream 150ml
Put all the ingredients for the brine in a large saucepan over a low heat, stirring every so often to help the sugar and salt to dissolve. Gradually bring to the boil and let it bubble away for 5 minutes, then take the pan off the heat and leave the mixture to cool completely.
Sterilise a deep tray or bucket made of a non-reactive material (not aluminium or copper) by scrubbing it with baking soda and then rinsing with boiling water.
Trim excess fat off the brisket. Pierce the meat all over with the tip of a knife and place in the tray or bucket. Cover the meat with the cold brine, making sure it's submerged, weighing it down with a heavy plate if necessary. Cover the container and squeeze it into the fridge or leave in a cold room for 3 days.
Pull the meat out of the brine and rinse under cold running water. Place the brisket in a large pan and cover with cold water. Peel and halve the onion and roughly chop the carrot, celery and leek. Place them in the pan with the bay leaves.
Bring the water to a gentle simmer and bubble away slowly uncovered for 2-3 hours, until the meat flakes into large chunks. Once the beef has been simmering for about 1½ hours, wash and trim the leeks. Cut them into 5cm-wide hoops and sit them upright tightly packed in a shallow casserole pot.
Mix the mustards and stock and pour over the leeks. Dollop over the butter, add the bay leaves and season. Place the pan on a medium heat, bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 minutes to reduce the liquid by two-thirds.
Preheat the oven to 190C/gas mark 5.
Lower the heat under the leeks to a gentle simmer (so the cream won't split when added), then pour over the cream. Place the leeks in the oven and bake for 25 minutes. Spoon the leeks and sauce over thick slices of salt beef.
Pear and chocolate upside-down cake
"Upside-down" cake because it's cooked upside-down. The moment of truth comes when the cake is flipped to reveal the succulent fanned pear wedges underneath. Chocolate and pears go so well together that I'm surprised they aren't combined more often – they come together beautifully in this cake. Try to use the best quality chocolate you can find and under-ripe British pears. This is one of those rare occasions in cooking when a ripe fruit will not do. The Poire William adds a naughty alcoholic kick.
SERVES 8
under-ripe pears 5
dark chocolate 180g
butter 250g
eggs 6
sugar 175g
ground almonds 100g
Poire William liqueur 2 tbsp
You will also need
a 23cm round deep cake tin
Preheat the oven to 170C/gas mark 5 and grease and line a 23cm round deep cake tin.
Peel, core and cut the pears into eighths. Arrange them core-side down in a fanned circle at the bottom of the tin.
Put a pan on the heat with a little water in it and set a heatproof bowl over it. Break up the chocolate and melt together with the butter in the bowl. While they're melting, beat the eggs and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Stir in the melted chocolate, then carefully fold in the ground almonds.
Tip the batter into the tin and bake for 45-50 minutes. Use a skewer to test the centre to check that it is baked through. As soon as it comes out of the oven, pour the Poire William liqueur all over the top and leave to cool in the tin.
© Florence Knight 2013. Photographs © Jason Lowe. From One: A Cook and Her Cupboard by Florence Knight, to be published by Saltyard Books at £26 on 4 July 2013. To order a copy for £20 with free UK p&p, click here
