by Jamie Oliver
deep-fried oysters with fried rocket & tomato dressing
I first put these oysters on the menu at Monte’s — they were served with a tomato dressing. One day we tempuraed them to serve as canapés and they went down so well I thought I’d give you the recipe. When picking the kids for Fifteen restaurant I served these to them as a bit of a taste test and asked for their reaction. They’re such an experience to eat as they’re crunchy, soft, sour, sweet and salty. You can serve these as a starter, or as canapés.
SERVES 4
24 native oysters
100g plain flour
1 large egg white, whisked
olive oil
1 litre vegetable oil, for frying
2 bags of rocket
DRESSING
12 ripe plum tomatoes
2 tablespoons of horseradish, freshly grated or creamed
¼ of a clove of garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Tabasco sauce
Open the oysters and clean the shells or ask your fishmonger to do this for you. To make the batter, whisk the flour with 170ml of cold water and fold in the stiff whisked egg white and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. To make the dressing, whiz the tomatoes in a blender with the horseradish, garlic and vinegar. Add a couple of shakes of Tabasco and season with sea salt and black pepper. Tweak the amounts of Tabasco and vinegar, to taste — you want it to be hot and tangy. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve to remove any chunky bits — this will give you a nice smooth dressing. Check the seasoning.
Heat the oil in a sturdy pan or deep-fat fryer to 180°C and fry the rocket in small batches for about 25 seconds, or until nice and crisp. Remove to kitchen paper to drain. Drop each oyster into the batter, then remove with a spoon and fry for around 2 minutes, or until crisp and golden. Serve each oyster in its shell on a little fried rocket, drizzled with the tangy tomato dressing.
Try this: Place the shells on some cracked ice or a bed of coarse sea salt, as I have done in the picture.
‘the trick to wok-frying is to preheat the wok so that it’s really hot – and before you start cooking get everything ready to go’
FILLETING A ROUND FISH
You can ask your fishmonger to do this for you, but if you want to have a go yourself, this is how it’s done. These basic steps show how to prep all round fish, like bass, trout, haddock or red mullet. It might be an idea to ask your fishmonger to scale and gut the fish for you first, as this can be quite a messy job.
1. Score towards the head at the end of the fillet.
2. Do this on both sides of the fish and then cut through to detach the head.
3. Using a sturdy knife, slice down the length of the fish close to the spine bone.
4. Once you’ve cut through you can remove the fillet.
5. Skim off the rib bones.
6. Remove the pin-bones with some fish tweezers.
7. Place the fillets skin side up then divide them into fillet portions (sometimes called supremes or steaks).
8. Score through the skin about 1cm deep — you can season or push herbs into the score marks.
9. Cut the portions at an angle to give you escalopes.
10. You can leave the skin on the fish when you cook it and simply remove it before eating, if you prefer.
crispy salmon with spring vegetable broth
There’s nothing like a piece of perfectly cooked salmon with a crispy skin, complemented by a spring veg broth. In the markets and supermarkets these days you can get some fantastic spring vegetables: baby carrots, baby fennel with herby tops, baby turnips, peas and broad beans, fine green and yellow beans, all really colourful and easy to cook with. Here’s a nice little combination — it’s all cooked in the same pan and gives you a lovely broth. The only thing you have to do is control the cooking times by adding the veg that need longer in the pot first.
SERVES 4
1 × aïoli recipe (see page 203)
850ml quality chicken or vegetable stock
8 baby bulbs of fennel, stalks removed, herby tops reserved
4 × 150g salmon fillets, skin on, scaled, pin-boned, scored (see page 199)
½ a bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked and torn
½ a bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked
olive oil
100g green beans, trimmed
100g podded broad beans
100g podded peas
First, make the aïoli. When you’ve done that, bring the stock to the boil in a large pan, then add the fennel and allow to boil for 4 minutes while you heat up a non-stick frying pan. Take the salmon fillets and, if you fancy it, you could finely slice a little of the mint and basil and push it into the score marks. Pat the salmon with a little oil, season with sea salt and black pepper and place skin side down in the frying pan. Leave for 2 minutes to get really crispy, then check how they’re doing — they’ll want around 4 minutes on the skin side and 1 minute on the other. You’ll get an idea of how they’re cooking as you’ll see the salmon change colour.
When the fennel has had 4 minutes, add the green beans and the broad beans. Give them a further 2 minutes. By this time you will want to turn the salmon over for their last minute. Add the peas to the other veg and cook for a final 2 minutes. Don’t be tempted to overcook the salmon — remove it from the heat. Divide the vegetables between bowls, rip over the mint and basil, ladle over some of the hot cooking stock and place the salmon on top. Serve each portion with a dollop of aïoli (save the rest for another day). Fantastic!
‘after I’d talked them through it, my guys made aïoli with no problems at all’
aïoli
Aïoli is a lovely fragrant and pungent type of mayonnaise — and the great thing is that you can take the flavour in any direction — try adding some pounded or chopped basil, herby fennel tops, dill or roasted nuts. Also great flavoured with lemon zest and juice. It’s normally seasoned well and is used to enhance things like fish stew in order to give them a real kick. You might wonder why I suggest using two types of olive oil to make this. By blending a strong peppery one with a mellower one you achieve a lovely rounded flavour.
SERVES 12
½ a small clove of garlic, peeled
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
300ml extra virgin olive oil
300ml olive oil
1 lemon
Smash up the garlic with 1 teaspoon of sea salt in a pestle and mortar (or use the end of a rolling pin and a metal bowl). Place the egg yolk and mustard in a bowl and whisk together, then start to add the olive oils bit by bit. Once you’ve blended in a quarter of the oil you can start to add the rest in larger amounts. When the mixture thickens, squeeze in the lemon juice to taste. Once all the oil has gone in, add the garlic and any extra flavours (see intro). To finish, season to taste with salt, black pepper and a bit more lemon juice, if needed.
Try this: Lemon- or basil-flavoured aïoli are good with salads, all types of fish, and in seafood soups. Also great with roasted fish, chicken or pork, and classic with salmon.
chicken liver parfait
This is quite an old-school dish, but it’s so quick, cheap and simple to do. Have a go at making it and you'll never look back.
SERVES 10
350g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
olive oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
450g chicken livers, trimmed
½ a bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked and chopped
1 large wineglass of brandy
2 sprigs of fresh sage, leaves picked
First put 150g of butter in a bowl and melt slowly in the oven at 110°C/225°F/gas ¼ until separated. Strain off the yellow clarified butter into another bowl and set aside, and throw away the milky liquid.
Drizzle a little oil into a frying pan and place on a medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and slowly fry for 5 minutes, or until soft, then remove to
a plate. Wipe the pan clean, then turn up the heat, add a splash of oil and throw in the livers and thyme. Cook in one layer until lightly coloured but still a little pink in the middle — if you overcook them they will become grainy in texture rather than smooth. Pour in the brandy — if you’re using a gas hob you can flame it until the alcohol cooks off, but watch your hair! Simmer for 1 minute, then take the livers off the heat and tip into a food processor with the cooked onion and garlic. Blitz until smooth. Add the rest of the butter and continue to blitz, then season well with sea salt and black pepper. I like to push it through a sieve twice before decanting into a serving bowl.
Fry the sage leaves in a little hot oil until crisp, drain on kitchen paper, then sprinkle over the parfait. Spoon the clarified butter over the sage leaves, then leave the parfaits to set in the fridge for 1 hour. They will taste beautiful straight away but even better if the flavours are left to develop for a couple of days — they never tend to last that long in my house though! They will keep for longer if the butter seal is not disturbed and so is kept airtight until you’re ready to tuck in.
Try this: You can make this parfait using duck or rabbit livers, and try flavouring it with different herbs or a different kind of booze.
polenta-coated fried chicken with sweetcorn mash, fried bananas & green tomato relish
I was thinking about green tomatoes, corn and yams the other day and was inspired to come up with this cracking little dinner — a sort of cross between the food from New Orleans and the West Indies.
SERVES 4
4 chicken breasts, skin off
150g plain flour
1 tablespoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon chilli powder
2 large eggs
150g polenta
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 ripe bananas
MASH
4 corn on the cob
800g potatoes
250ml milk
1 bunch of spring onions, finely sliced
RELISH
100ml red or white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
2 shallots, peeled and sliced
400g green or red tomatoes, chopped
extra virgin olive oil
1 bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked and chopped
1 bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked and chopped
To make the mash, cut each fresh corn cob in half and strip the kernels off by slicing down the sides. Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until tender. Drain and return to the pan with the milk, corn kernels and some sea salt and black pepper. Bring back to the boil, turn off the heat and throw in the spring onions. Mash and keep warm.
To make the relish, put the vinegar, sugar and sliced shallots in a pan. Bring to the boil and cook until reduced by half. Add the chopped tomatoes and warm through. Remove from the heat, season with salt and pepper, and add 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
Slice into each chicken breast twice lengthways to make each breast fan out into 3 ‘prongs’. Mix the flour with the spices and a pinch of salt and pepper, then spread out on a plate. Beat the eggs in a bowl, and pour the polenta on to another plate. Line up the plates and bowl, and dip the chicken breasts in the flour first, shaking off any excess, then in the egg, and finally in the polenta. This will give you a lovely polenta coating.
Gently fry the chicken in a large frying pan with the butter for 5 minutes on each side, or until golden and cooked through, then remove from the pan and keep warm. Peel the bananas, cut them in half lengthways, then fry until golden.
To serve, spoon a mound of mash on to each plate and top with a piece of banana and crispy chicken. Stir the parsley and mint into the relish and put a big dollop on top of the chicken.
chips
I’m putting chips in the book because if they’re cooked properly they’re one of the tastiest things in the world. That crunch and fluffy softness inside is absolutely irresistible — especially if they’re someone else’s!
A good chip requires control and vigilance when cooking. Get yourself a nice spud — Maris Piper, Desirée and King Edward are all good. You can peel them or leave the skin on — either way, slice them up 1cm thick and then 1cm across into chips. I remember when I was seven years old and my first job in the kitchen after being promoted from cleaning the bins, washing up and cleaning the vegetables was chipping. I used to have to stand on a pale ale beer crate so that I was high enough to chip. After three sacks of potatoes you get quite fast at chipping! But from a safety point of view, it’s important that you get yourself a nice flat edge on your potato before starting to slice fast. So, first of all, cut a 1cm slice off the potato, then roll it on to that flat edge so it doesn’t wobble about and continue to slice up all your spuds. Wash them in water, so they don’t stick to each other, and dry them well on some kitchen paper.
Half-fill a fryer or chip pan with clean sunflower oil. Heat it to 150°C — if you haven’t got a thermometer, test the oil by putting one chip into the basket. It’s hot enough when it sizzles at a moderate speed. Make sure that the chips are nice and dry, then put them into the basket in small batches and gently lower into the oil. Be aware of whether the temperature is too hot or too cold. Continue to cook the chips without letting them colour until they feel softened when you poke them. Drain well, and if you’re eating them later, scatter them on to greaseproof paper, then put them to one side on a tray until you are ready to fry them again before eating.
If you’re eating them straight away, turn the heat up to 180°C (or when a chip fries fast). Carefully place the basket back in the oil and cook until the chips are crisp and golden. Drain well and season with sea salt. Even better is to use one of the flavoured salts on page 244. This will make them absolutely fantastic. It’s really only worth cooking chips for a small number of people, otherwise you may as well go down the chippie, but the best ones can be made at home.
Try this: Parsnips, sweet potatoes and butternut squash can all be deep-fried as chips. They won’t be quite as crisp as potato chips, but they will be damn fine.
ROASTING
I think roasting is my favourite way of cooking. It uses dry oven heat, radiated from above and below, sometimes with a convection fan. Using different oils and flavourings rubbed over food before cooking, roasting gives meat, fish and vegetables a beautiful, succulent flavour. It’s convenient, because you can cook a single pork chop, a whole loin of pork for a big family or do a whole chicken or a rack of lamb. You might even want to try roasting a whole suckling pig (see page 236).
Roasting doesn’t have to use expensive cuts of meat like fillets and loins — you can very successfully roast shoulders and bellies of pork and lamb, which usually get stewed or made into sausages and mince. With longer cooking and slightly less heat these can be just as good as more expensive cuts.
POT-ROASTING
Pot-roasting is a cross between roasting and braising. You can pot-roast anything you like but traditionally it was used for cooking tougher cuts of meat for a long time. However, any cut of meat or fish can be pot-roasted for a shorter length of time, with great results. Stick to quite large cuts — enough to feed about 8 people. The idea is that you get a snug-fitting, high-sided pan or roasting tray, cover the bottom with a mixture of roughly chopped vegetables, put your browned meat on top, seasoned in any way you like, add a little stock or booze and then cover it with a lid and roast it, basting the meat a couple of times during cooking. This maximizes the flavour of everything in the pan, resulting in tasty succulent meat and the potential for a fantastic sauce.
PAN-ROASTING
With pan-roasting you start things off in a hot pan on the hob — game birds and whole fish are both good cooked like this. Once the meat is lightly coloured it goes into the oven to finish off for the rest of the cooking time.
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ASTING, POT-ROASTING & PAN-ROASTING
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TYING UP A BIRD
pot-roasted guinea fowl with fennel, potatoes & blood orange
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pot-roasted shoulder of lamb with roasted butternut squash & sweet red onions
pork loin with a great herby stuffing
CO2
italian-style confit of duck
This is a great way to cook as the meat becomes so juicy and sticky, and the skin becomes dead crispy. Confit of duck is traditionally duck legs which have been preserved after simmering in their own fat. It can be stored for 3 or 4 months in the larder or fridge. It’s best kept in a sterilized jar, but to be honest I’ve used plastic containers quite successfully and kept them in the fridge for a couple of months. Duck or goose fat is available from supermarkets or good butchers.