Timed Eating

Curried cauliflower

Winter is here. All of a sudden the temperature has fallen and you want something a little hearty and warming. Cloves and nutmeg start scurrying out of the back of the pantry clamouring to be used, the smell of roasting meats and rich stews becomes all the more common. In short, delicious things start happening but most of them are pretty heavy and slightly food coma inducing. At the same time the vegetables that are in season suddenly become heartier – butternut squash starts appearing everywhere (I’ve already butternut squash risotto and butternut squash velouté so far this season). It can become quite a challenge to find dishes that at once give you that slightly rib sticking feeling of being comforted inside and out yet don’t make you feel like you both shouldn’t eat again for a week and haven’t ingested much nutritional value. As some fervent readers may attest, I only recently got converted to the humble cauliflower. I said then that I didn’t like it roasted and I can only now through myself in remonstration at the feet of the roasting gods. Roasted curried cauliflower is delicious. Curried cauliflower is delicious on it’s own, it’s delicious as a soup and it’s extra delicious with some softly cooked salmon, some herb crusted cod or some spiced butter monkfish. I’ve long known curried cauliflower went well with scallops since I had it at one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants but I’d never made it for myself. Now I’m a convert and we’ve had it for dinner several times as I fine tuned the recipe.

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Monkfish

Compound butter – it’s a ridiculously cheffy way to say something super simple. Mixing delicious ingredients into a butter makes it a flavoured butter – why we need to call it a compound butter I don’t know but that doesn’t stop it being a fantastic tool for any cook. I’ll delve into some of the science in a little bit but suffice it to say that there’s nothing quite like a compound butter for spreading rich, savoury flavour throughout a dish. Often you’ll use them to finish a risotto or maybe you’ll stir some jerk spiced butter into an apple caramel and pork sauce but compound butters also make brilliant toppings for roasted fish, in particular meaty fish like monkfish. Dense white fish, like monkfish, can stand up to hearty robust flavours like a butter enriched with umami bomb flavours like parmesan cheese and anchovies with chives adding a floral note and roasted hazelnuts for texture and oomph. Not only that, but it protects the monkfish like a little blanket stopping it from drying out in the oven. What you’re left with looks like it belongs in a fancy restaurant, but genuinely cooks in no time at all. It’s a little bit like one of my favourite fish dishes, herb crusted cod, but more luxurious and intense.

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Braised short ribs

I love Autumn. It’s something we don’t get in the same way where I grew up in Sydney. There the trees are mainly evergreens and the weather is great all year round. I mean, I’m not complaining about gorgeous sun and verdant greenery in the middle of Autumn but I love that moment in the UK when leaves start changing colour and the wind has just enough bite to make you feel cosy but not enough to make you feel cold. Autumn also brings a whole range of new ingredients that I love, wild mushrooms, perfectly ripe apples, juicy pears and encourages us to embrace the braise once again. All through the summer months the idea of a long braise in the oven is a total no-go. Houses are hot, appetites low and fresh produce is in plentiful abundance so why on Earth would you consider a long slow braise. But as the air turns cold and light thickens, the warm comforting aromas of an unctuous pot of mellow goodness gladdens my heart. People tend to overlook short ribs but they’re a brilliantly cost effective and totally delicious option. They are actually fantastic grilled like a steak but here I’ve braised them until totally tender with Middle Eastern spices, pomegranate molasses and dates for something that is possibly one of my favourite things that I’ve cooked this year.

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Mushroom farro

Mushroom farro, I’m told it’s very in vogue – who knew? I guess I think Farro should be spared the trials of fashion – it’s a so called ancient grain that’s been eaten since pharoahs were in nappies, the world was flat and you could walk from Indonesia to Australia across an ice bridge – it deserves some rest.  However, as rice is maligned and people try and recapture the healthy way of eating which led to very long lived cavemen and cavewomen the “alternative” grains have seen a faddish resurgence. Spelt (which is actually a type of farro), farro itself, quinoa and buckwheat all seem to pop up all over the internet. I must admit, therefore, that I’m a relatively late convert. Inherently sceptical of foods which insist they’re more nutritional yet somehow end up tasting less good I’d always been somewhat hesitant to try them. I’d stuck with rice or other wheat based products like couscous, even convincing G that couscous can be inherently delicious if you only follow a couple of simple tricks. Only occasionally would I venture into the brave realms of quinoa just to prove to myself that I was smugly right all along and these alternative grains were kinda rubbish. Then I had a mushroom farro “risotto” in a restaurant and two things happened. Firstly, the farro tasted amazing – nutty and complex with more bite than rice but still a pleasing creaminess. Secondly, much to my chagrin and humility I didn’t get the same tired carb spike that would normally be the price of a delicious risotto. Since then I’ve been cooking farro left, right and centre and I’ve finally hit on my ideal mushroom farro recipe after some trial and error which uses a technique for cooking mushrooms I shared a few weeks ago which really should be part of any cook’s arsenal in my opinion.

Like all my posts, there are tips and tricks for cooking this dish ahead of time at the bottom of the post. Mushroom farro is perfect for making in advance as either parts or all of it can be made up to days in advance!

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Couscous

Couscous is one of those foods that G didn’t used to like. She’s not a picky eater by any stretch of the imagination, but if there was a choice between couscous and pretty much any other filling side the couscous was being left on the bench. So that meant I didn’t really cook it much. To be frank, I could see her point – it’s so often dry and mealy with very little flavour and feels like it’s just there because someone thought their tagine needed a side dish more authentic than rice. Also, why would you go with couscous when you could eat a different more flavoursome grain like freekeh, farro, or Israeli couscous? Well, this all changed when we went to Morocco and realised we’d never had real couscous before. In Western countries we buy instant couscous and it struggles to match the heights of the slow steamed version. Although that is delicious, it’s very time consuming and non-instant couscous is actually hard to buy so I wanted to make instant work. Despite what the guy in this video might say you can make instant couscous delicious! After a few early blander versions, I’ve come up with a few rules that have transformed both G and myself into die hard couscous converts. It can be completely delicious whilst still being fast and easy, can be made in advance for a picnic, is delicious the next day, and goes with everything. It’s so good that if I came home after a few tipples and saw both leftover couscous and left over Chinese food in the fridge, the Chinese food will still be there in the morning!

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Chicken Pastilla

I love chicken and leek pie. I’ve posted chicken and leek pie recipes which avoid the starchy nature some commercial ones have. I have fond chicken and leek pie memories dating back to Mrs Patchett’s chicken and leek pies in Sydney and I obsessively order them if they’re on a menu. However, Chicken Pastilla may be my new favourite chicken pie. Well I say pie, for me a pie has to have a pastry base and lid (The English obsession with pot pies baffles me). Chicken pastilla fails this test as it is more open topped. However, despite its dubious pie credentials, it’s still delicious and has me questioning life long allegiances so I think it’s worth writing about. At its heart it’s braised chicken thighs with warming Moroccan spices and citrus notes wrapped in filo pastry tasting slightly of beurre noisette. Frankly, of course it’s delicious – I mean how could it not be.

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Pavé potatoes are something I hadn’t heard of until recently. I mean really outside of professional cooks who has heard of pavé potatoes and what even are they? Pavé is French for paving stone and in culinary terms generally refers to a slice. In this case, pavé potatoes are layered  a bit like dauphinoise or boulangère so they’ve got lots of very thin slices on top of each other cooked with a bit of butter. Served like that they’re delicious and rich but to really push them over the edge you cool them down, slice them thickly (like a pavé stone) and roast them until crisp and crunchy. At that point they’re the single most decadently delicious roast potato you’ve ever had, somehow creamy and crisp at the same time, buttery and sweet yet savoury and intense. I mean pavé potatoes, who knew and if they knew why didn’t they tell me sooner?

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