by Jamie Oliver
Remove the squash from the oven and lay the pancetta over it. Mix the squash seeds, chestnuts and sage leaves with a little oil, salt and pepper. Sprinkle over the squash and pancetta and place back in the oven for about 5 to 10 minutes, or until the pancetta is crisp.
Once the squash has cooled down a little, shake off the pancetta and chestnuts and finely chop the squash — it will be quite mushy but that’s fine. I go for half of it fine and half chunky. Add this to the risotto at the end of Stage 3. Carry on as normal through the recipe, season to taste and serve with the pancetta, chestnuts, sage leaves and squash seeds sprinkled over the top. Lovely served with a dollop of mascarpone on the side.
Try this: Place a grater and a block of Parmesan cheese in the middle of the table so that everyone can help themselves.
yellow bean, vodka & smoked haddock risotto
The thing about risottos is that you can never have enough combos, and just when you think you’ve done them all you come up with a new one that hits the spot. The use of vodka instead of wine leaves you with a fragrant freshness, which marries fantastically well with the smoky flakes of haddock and the al dente crunch of fine yellow beans. As there is fish in this risotto you don’t want to include any Parmesan, so bear this in mind. If you’re a risotto fan you’ve got to give this a try.
SERVES 6
1 × risotto recipe (see page 118), minus the Parmesan
4 shots of vodka, instead of the wine (see page 118, stage 3)
700g smoked haddock, undyed
550ml milk
2 fresh bay leaves
250g fine yellow French beans, trimmed and finely sliced
1 handful of pale yellow celery leaves, from the heart
Start the basic risotto, adding the vodka at Stage 2 instead of the wine. Lightly poach the haddock in the milk and stock from the basic recipe with the bay leaves, covered with a lid. Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat. At Stage 3 of the risotto recipe, I like to add the poaching liquor to the rice and then I carry on as normal through the recipe. At the end of Stage 3 flake in the smoked haddock, add the beans and carry on as normal through the recipe. Serve sprinkled with the celery leaves, adding a dash of vodka and a squeeze of lemon juice to lift the flavours, if you like. Lovely.
STEAMING
Steaming’s a cracker — it’s great at transmitting subtle flavour even though it’s through the slightly indirect method of hot steam. This can be done at varying pressures — for example, the Japanese will steam slowly in a bamboo basket, and my nan has a pressure cooker that heats, cooks and nukes anything at a very high temperature. This basically means that cooking times can be reduced by up to half while keeping the food juicy and succulent.
COOKING IN THE BAG
This method was first recognized in France — known as cooking en papillote, or in greaseproof paper. Even though this still works well, these days tin foil is much easier to use, more pliable and definitely a better conductor of heat. This is a fantastic way to cook, because you get a variation of cooking methods happening inside the bag, from boiling to steaming to even a bit of baking, and most importantly you don’t make any mess because you chuck the bag away when you’ve finished.
STEAMING & COOKING IN THE BAGPLEASE SELECT A RECIPE
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STEAMING & COOKING IN THE BAG
steamed sea bass & green beans with a white wine, vanilla, cream & garlic sauce
steamed scallops with spiced carrots, crumbled crispy black pudding & coriander
chinese chicken parcels
steamed prawn wontons with red chilli & spring onion
chinese-style steamed pork buns
haddock baked in the bag with mussels, saffron, white wine & butter
steamed squid
CHOPPING & SLICING
steamed aubergine
skate baked in the bag with artichokes, purple potatoes, capers & crème fraîche
steamed sea bass & green beans with a white wine, vanilla, cream & garlic sauce
Steaming is a great way to appreciate how delicate fish can be. You can try this recipe with all sorts of white fish, but for me sea bass is a bit more of an event and really gets me going. I suppose the real twist here is using the vanilla as a savoury flavouring, though in the history of cooking it’s not a new thing. It’s a very simple dish to make, and it sounds, looks and tastes like you’ve been grafting all afternoon.
SERVES 4
2 vanilla pods, halved, seeds scraped out (see page 304)
1 lemon
olive oil
4 × 225g sea bass fillets, skin on, scaled, pin-boned, scored
1 clove of garlic, peeled
4 handfuls of fine green beans, trimmed
1 wineglass of white wine
150ml double cream
1 handful of pale yellow celery leaves, from the heart (or use chervil)
Put half the vanilla seeds into a bowl, finely grate in the lemon zest and drizzle in 2 tablespoons of oil. Mix well and rub this marinade over the sea bass fillets and into the score marks. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil, then add the clove of garlic and allow to boil for 3 minutes. Lay the fish fillets next to each other in a colander, bamboo steamer or normal steamer and throw the green beans into the water. Place the steamer on top, making sure the fish is not in direct contact with the water — it just wants to get the steam — and cover. When the water comes back to the boil, both the fish and the beans will need 4 to 5 minutes to cook. If the fish fillets are thick they may need a bit longer, so put them on a bit before the beans.
While everything’s cooking, put a separate pan on a high heat, pour in the wine and add the rest of the vanilla seeds and the vanilla pods. Boil until the liquid has reduced by half, then add the cream. Remove the garlic from the beans, mash it up and stir it into the creamy sauce. Carry on reducing the sauce until it coats the back of a spoon nicely. Season well to taste with sea salt and black pepper, then serve the fish and beans with the sauce, removing the vanilla pods. Sprinkle with the celery leaves.
Try this: If you remove the vanilla pods and whiz up the sauce in a blender, you get a thick cappuccino effect to the sauce which visually and texturally is quite nice.
Or this: Sometimes I make this more substantial by scrubbing some new potatoes, boiling them in the steaming water until tender, then carrying on with the recipe as above, using the same water for the beans.
steamed scallops with spiced carrots, crumbled crispy black pudding & coriander
You may think this sounds like an odd combination of flavours, but we put a similar dish on the menu at Monte’s and it was great. I wanted to steam some scallops as they were so big and sweet. My mate Ben had just come back from Morocco and he suggested these spicy carrots. We were both trying to think of something to pull the dish together — something that would give it a bit of texture and make it nice and moreish — and we came up with black pudding. If you can’t get hold of good scallops, you can do exactly the same with medallions of monkfish.
SERVES 4
1 whole nutmeg, for grating
½ a stick of cinnamon
1—2 dried red chillies, crumbled
½ teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
olive oil
1.2kg carrots, peeled and roughly sliced into small batons (see page 266)
1 pinch of sugar
2 wineglasses of quality chicken stock
200g quality black pudding
12—16 large scallops, trimmed
1 orange
1 bunch of fresh chives, basil or coriander, roughly chopped
½ a lemon
extra virgin olive oil
Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas 7. Finely grate half the nutmeg into a casserole pan, add the rest of the spices and gently fry with the garlic in 6 tablespoons of olive oil for 30 seconds, then add the carrots. Stir well, add a pinch of sea sa
lt and sugar, then the stock (or use water). Put a lid on, bring to the boil and simmer for 40 minutes, or until the carrots are tender (don’t let the pan boil dry).
Meanwhile, split the black pudding lengthways and tear it open — this will help it really crisp up as it cooks. After the carrots have been cooking for 20 minutes, put the black pudding in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until crispy. Put 2.5cm of water into a pan, then, using a colander, bamboo steamer or normal steamer, place over the heat and get it to a slow steam.
Score the scallops on one side in criss-cross fashion, season with a little salt and black pepper and grate over the orange zest. Steam for about 5 to 6 minutes, depending on the size of the scallops. You don’t want to overcook them or they’ll go rubbery.
Remove the cinnamon, then divide the carrots between plates, place the scallops on top and crumble over a little black pudding. Scatter over the chives (or use basil or coriander). Make a dressing with the orange and lemon juice and the same amount of extra virgin olive oil. Drizzle this over and serve straight away.
chinese chicken parcels
When Jools was pregnant this was one of her favourite things to eat, along with bananas dipped in Marmite!
SERVES 4
1 Savoy or Chinese cabbage
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
5cm piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 bunch of spring onions, roughly chopped
1 bunch of fresh coriander
1—2 fresh red chillies
1 tablespoon fish sauce
4 chicken thighs, skin off, bone out, roughly chopped
1 handful of water chestnuts
2 limes
sesame oil
olive oil
sweet chilli jam, to serve
Remove and discard the core and tatty outer leaves from the cabbage, then undo the remaining cabbage leaves and place them in a pan of boiling salted water for 2 minutes to soften. Cool them in a bowl of cold water, drain and put to one side.
In a food processor, whiz the garlic, ginger, spring onions, coriander, chilli and fish sauce with a good pinch of sea salt. Add the chicken and water chestnuts, finely grate in the lime zest and squeeze in the juice. Pour in 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and pulse until fine.
Place 1 heaped tablespoonful of the flavoured mince on one end of each cabbage leaf. Fold it up and tuck in the sides, then roll up. Rub a bamboo steamer, colander or normal steamer with a little olive oil and put in the cabbage parcels — they may try to unfold themselves, but once you start putting them next to each other they will hold in place. When they’re all in, sit the steamer over a pan of boiling water, making sure the water doesn’t touch the parcels. Put a lid on top and steam for 6 minutes, or until cooked through. If you’re worried about the cooking time, take one of the parcels out and cut it in half to make sure that the heat has penetrated and that they’re fully cooked.
When they’re done, I like to serve them in the bamboo steamer. I move a couple of the parcels out of the way and put in a dish of sweet chilli jam, jelly or sauce. The parcels are also good dipped in soy sauce and sprinkled with the sesame seeds.
‘most cities have a chinatown, so get down there’
steamed prawn wontons with red chilli & spring onion
These are very simple and tasty little darlings to make. They’re really open to variation using different herbs and flavourings. You might find them a little fiddly to make, but once you get the hang of it nothing will stop you!
SERVES 4
(MAKES 16 WONTONS)
2cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
½ a bunch of fresh coriander
2 fresh red chillies, deseeded
5 spring onions
300g large raw tiger prawns, peeled
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons low-salt soy sauce
1 packet of wonton wrappers
Roughly chop the ginger, garlic, coriander, chillies and spring onions, then place in a food processor with the prawns. Pulse until fairly fine, then add 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and the soy sauce. Pulse again, then tip into a mixing bowl and season with sea salt and black pepper.
Lay the wonton wrappers out on a clean dry surface and put 1 teaspoon of filling in the middle of each. Brush the exposed wonton pastry with a little water and bring the edges up over the filling, squeezing them at the top so they stick together and encase the filling completely. The truth is, there are lots of different ways to shape the parcels — as long as the filling is completely sealed inside you can make any shape you fancy, so get creative.
Put the wontons into a bamboo steamer, colander or normal steamer in one layer and steam gently over a pan of boiling water for 7 minutes, or until the prawn filling is just cooked (open one up to check if you want to). These are lovely served with little bowls of soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce and sesame oil for dipping.
chinese-style steamed pork buns
I love these steamed buns. Try getting some lime leaves to steam them on — you can usually buy them fresh or frozen from good supermarkets and Asian stores.
MAKES 8 BUNS
FILLING
olive oil
2 × 200g pork chops, bone out
1 tablespoon Chinese five-spice
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
2.5cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
2 dried red chillies, crumbled
1 wineglass of fresh orange juice
6 tablespoons hoisin sauce
sesame oil
1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce
optional: 1 handful of fresh lime leaves
BUNS
1 × 7g sachet of dried yeast
250g plain flour
100g cornflour
50g unsalted butter
low-salt soy sauce, to serve
sweet chilli sauce, to serve
Heat a large frying pan with a splash of olive oil. Season the chops with sea salt, black pepper and the five-spice and fry on both sides until golden and cooked through. Add the garlic, ginger and chillies and continue to fry for 1 minute. Pour in the orange juice, reduce by half, then tip the contents of the pan into a bowl and leave to cool.
Empty the yeast into a second bowl and add 100ml of tepid water. In another bowl, sieve the flours and add 1 teaspoon of salt, then rub in the butter. When the yeast has bubbled up, pour in another 100ml of water, then gradually add to the flour and butter, mixing to form a soft dough. Cover and leave to prove in a warm place, until it has doubled in size. Break it into pieces about the size of a walnut and shape into little round balls.
Put one of the chops into a food processor, together with all the juice remaining in the bowl, and pulse until fine. Cut up the other chop coarsely by hand to give you good texture, and add all the pork back to the bowl with the hoisin, 1 tablespoon of sesame oil and the chilli sauce. Mix well to evenly distribute the flavour.
What I like to do for extra fragrance is line the bottom of a bamboo steamer, colander or normal steamer with lime leaves. Take one of the dough balls and flatten it out on the palm of your hand until it measures 6cm in diameter. Press it down in the middle so it’s slightly cup-shaped, and put a teaspoon of the pork mix in the middle. Gently wrap the sides of the dough up around the filling, pinch and seal it up, and place sealed side down on the lime leaves in the steamer. Repeat with the other dough balls. Leave a gap of about 2cm between each bun to give them room to puff up (steam them in 2 or 3 layers, or in batches, depending on your steamer). Allow the buns to sit and prove for 5 minutes before you steam them. Put the lid on and steam over a pan of boiling water for 10 minutes, or until the buns are cooked and the filling is hot (open one up to check). Serve with little bowls of soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce to dip the buns in.
haddock baked in the bag with mussels, saffron, white wine & butter
This is a great way to bake haddock or any white fish — cod, hake, even monkfish. Get your fishmo
nger to cut you a nice fillet. This method doesn’t make the skin go crispy, but it’s still good to cook it with the skin on as it flavours and protects the fish as it cooks. There’s no real spice that can give such flavour, colour and fragrance to a dish as quickly as saffron. It’s an amazing ingredient — not cheap, but a little goes a long way. The mussels work well cooked like this, but make sure that you debeard them before you cook them.
SERVES 4
2 wineglasses of white wine, preferably Chardonnay
1 large pinch of saffron
½ a bunch of fresh parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped
4 × 225g haddock fillets, skin on, scaled, pin-boned
100g unsalted butter
2 large handfuls of mussels, scrubbed, debearded
1 bunch of spring onions, finely sliced
Preheat the oven and a roasting tray to full whack (240°C/475°F/gas 9). First you need to make 4 tin foil or greaseproof paper bags. Do this by taking 4 × A5-sized pieces of foil or greaseproof, fold each in half, then fold up the 2 ends tightly, giving you an ‘envelope’.