Pedro Ximénez Iberico pork cheek

If you think of Pedro Ximenez as an ultra sweet sherry, yes, of course it is but you can also use it to make spectacular savoury recipes like this dish of pork cheek from Bar 44's Tapas y Copas by Owen and Tom Morgan. I'm lucky enough to have them as my local tapas bar and absolutely adore their food. Now, thanks to the book you can try it for yourself.

"One of our favourite dishes, we come back to this time and time again. It’s reminiscent of the oxtail, ox cheek and pig cheek dishes we love in Andalusia, and is like comfort in a bowl. You could use any seasonal vegetables, or even some lovely white beans. Just change the accompaniments to suit your mood and the time of year. We have also used this dish in a larger format as a sharing option for a great Sunday roast with lots of trimmings.

Pedro Ximénez Ibérico pork cheek, celeriac, rainbow chard

Serves 4–6 as a tapa

Light olive oil, for frying

6 bellota-grade Ibérico pork cheeks, trimmed (or use free-range British pork cheeks)

3 carrots, diced

2 large Spanish onions, diced

1 leek, diced

150ml red wine (a young rioja would be perfect)

200ml Pedro Ximénez sherry

2 tbsp ñora pepper paste (if unavailable, use tomato purée)

1 head of garlic, cut in half horizontally

1 bay leaf

3 sprigs of thyme

500ml good chicken stock

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the celeriac purée

1kg celeriac, peeled and diced into 2.5cm cubes

About 750ml milk

125g butter

For the rainbow chard

1 bunch of rainbow chard (8 leaves)

Extra virgin olive oil, for frying

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 160ºC/140ºC Fan/Gas mark 3.

Place a generous glug of light olive oil in a wide flameproof pan over a high heat. Season the pork cheeks well with salt and pepper, then sear in the pan until gnarly and caramelised on both sides. This will take about 10 minutes. Do not cut corners here – you will be rewarded with deeper flavour later on. Set aside on a plate.

Add the carrots, onions and leek to the oily pan and sauté over a medium heat until softened and lightly golden brown (about 10 minutes). Set the vegetables aside with the cheeks.

Return the pan to a high heat, add the red wine and sherry, and scrape up all the bits stuck to the bottom while reducing the liquid by half.

Lower the heat to medium, return the cheeks and vegetables to the pan, then add the ñora paste, garlic, bay leaf and thyme and stir well.

Pour in the chicken stock and bring to the boil, then cover the pan with baking parchment and a lid and place in the oven for 3–4 hours, until the meat is ultra-tender and you can easily push your thumb through it. Set aside to cool, then remove the pork cheeks.

Strain the cooking liquid through a fine sieve into a large saucepan and reduce to a sauce consistency. It should be deep, glossy and coat the back of a spoon. Add the cheeks and keep warm] until ready to serve.

Meanwhile, place the celeriac in a saucepan, add enough milk to cover it, then add the butter and some seasoning. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 10–15 minutes, until the celeriac is tender. Strain, reserving the cooking liquor.

Place the celeriac in a blender with half the liquor and blitz to a purée; this will take about 3 minutes. Add more liquid if it seems too thick. Season to taste and keep warm until needed.

Slice the chard stems diagonally into 3–4cm pieces, keeping the leaves whole.

Place a wok or large frying pan over a medium heat. When hot, add some extra virgin olive oil and the garlic and cook until the garlic is golden brown and has infused the oil with all its flavour. Remove the garlic with a slotted spoon and reserve.

Add the chard stems to the wok and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the chard leaves and stir-fry for another 1–2 minutes, until wilted but still retaining some natural colour and bite. Season, return the golden garlic to the pan and toss well.

Spoon some of the celeriac purée onto serving plates, top with the cheeks, then place the chard alongside.

What to drink: Even though the dish contains PX that would be too sweet for it but I'd go for a full-bodied red like a Jumilla or a garnacha.

Extracted from Bar 44 Tapas y Copas by Owen and Tom Morgan, published by Seren Books at £25. Photography © Matt Inwood.

Spicy sesame ramen salad

I love the recipes in Tim Anderson's new book Your Home Izakaya which is subtitled 'fun and simple recipes inspired by the drinking-and-dining dens of Japan' but this ramen salad really stood out for me and I can't wait to make it.

Tim writes: "The Japanese version of Sichuanese dandan noodles is tantanmen: ramen with spiced minced (ground) pork in a luxurious yet aggressive broth made from copious amounts of ground sesame and chilli oil. A variant sees these flavours translated into a massively flavourful noodle salad for all seasons, served cold but with plenty of carbs and fat to fill you up and plenty of chilli heat to keep you warm. If you have the chilli oil and sesame dressing ready to go (store-bought is fine), it’s really quick to put together, too.

SPICY SESAME RAMEN SALAD
冷やし坦々麺サラダ HIYASHI TANTANMEN SARADA

Serves 2 or up to 4 as part of a larger meal

2 tbsp chilli oil, or more, to taste
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 cm (½ in) piece of ginger root, peeled and finely chopped
150 g (5 oz) minced (ground) pork
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
100 g (3½ oz) beansprouts
2 portions ramen noodles
90–100 ml (3–3½ fl oz/scant ½–â…“ cup) sesame dressing (below)
1 cucumber, julienned
2 spring onions (scallions), very finely sliced at an angle
1 punnet salad cress
1 tbsp sesame seeds, crushed to the consistency of coarse sand
a few pinches of shichimi and sanshō (optional)
1 egg yolk

METHOD

Open a window or put your extractor fan on. Heat the chilli oil on a medium-high heat in a frying pan (skillet) and add the garlic, ginger and pork and stir-fry for about 5 minutes, breaking the pork up as you go. Add the soy sauce and mirin and continue to cook for another 5 minutes or so until the liquid has reduced completely. Set aside and leave to cool while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and blanch the beansprouts for 30–60 seconds until just cooked, then remove with a sieve or slotted spoon and run under cold water to stop the cooking. Allow the water in the pan to come back to the boil, then cook the noodles until a bit softer than al dente – they will firm up when you chill them, so they should seem a bit soft. Drain the noodles and rinse them under cold water, using your hands to toss them to make sure you remove as much residual starch as possible.

Combine half of the beansprouts with all of the noodles and toss together with half of the dressing. Transfer to a serving dish, then layer the remaining beansprouts on top of the noodles, along with the cucumber and spring onions. Drizzle over the remaining sauce and extra chilli oil, if you like, then garnish with the cress, sesame seeds and spices. Place the egg yolk in the centre and mix everything well before eating.

This would be good with edamame or a couple skewers of yakitori, recipes for which are both given in the book

Tim suggests pairing this with a a very cold beer or barley tea.

Sesame dressing

This recipe calls for Chinese or Japanese-style sesame paste which is made from toasted sesame seeds but tahini is OK too - it will provide a lighter flavour

Makes about 400ml (13 fl oz/generous 1 1/2 cups)

4 tbsp sesame seeds
180g (6 1/2 oz) sesame paste or tahini
150ml (5 fl oz/scant 2/3 cup) unsweetened soya milk
2 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp vinegar (I'm guessing rice vinegar here FB)
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dashi powder

Tip the sesame seeds into a frying pan (skillet) and set over a medium-high heat. Cook the sesame seeds stirring constantly for about 10 minutes until they are noticeably more aromatic and darker in colour. Remove from the pan and leave to cool. Coarsely grind the sesame seeds in a mortar, food processor or spice mill, then add the remaining ingredients and stir until the sugar dissolves. Keep in the fridge for up to a week.

Extracted from Your Home Izakaya by Tim Anderson, published by Hardie Grant at £25. Photography by Laura Edwards.

Red wine spaghetti with olives and anchovies

I stumbled across a recipe for cooking spaghetti in red wine when I was researching my latest book Wine lover's kitchen. It sounded so bizarre I had to give it a try and can vouch for the fact that it’s delicious! It would be a bit expensive to make for a crowd so this quantity is designed to feed 2–3. And my version is dairy-free.

500 ml/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons full-bodied fruity red wine

250g/9oz. wholewheat spaghetti

50g/2oz. can of anchovies

1–2 tbsp olive oil

3 garlic cloves, finely sliced

70g/2/3 cup pitted olives with herbs

1/2 tsp Turkish dried chilli flakes/red pepper flakes

3 tbsp passata or 1 tbsp concentrated tomato purée/paste

25g/1 cup freshly chopped flat leaf parsley

sea salt

Serves 2–3

Measure 400 ml/1 3/4 cups of the red wine into a saucepan and add 500ml/2 cups plus 2 tbsp water. Bring to the boil, add a teaspoon of salt and partially cook the spaghetti for about 7–8 minutes. Drain, reserving half a cup of the cooking liquid. Meanwhile drain the can of anchovies, reserving the oil. Add the oil from the anchovies plus enough additional olive oil to make 3 tablespoons in total, pour into a frying pan/skillet and fry the garlic slices over a very low heat.

Chop the anchovies and halve the olives. Add the chilli/red pepper flakes to the garlic, stir in the passata or tomato purée/paste and tip in the reserved pasta cooking water and the rest of the wine. Bring to the boil, add the anchovies and olives and simmer for a few minutes. Tip the partially cooked spaghetti into the sauce and leave over a low to medium heat until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add about three-quarters of the chopped parsley to the pasta and toss well. Serve in warm bowls with the remaining parsley sprinkled on top.

What to drink

The same wine you use to make the dish or a hearty Sicilian red like a Nero d’Avola.

Roast crown prince squash, ricotta and caramelised chilli sage butter

One of the most evocative cookbooks to have been published recently is Lori de Mori and Laura Jackson's Towpath, a series of recipes and reminiscences from the charmingly quirky Towpath Café. It's divided up month by month and this is in fact a September recipe but as squash is still in season and wonderful warming at this time of year it works equally well now.

Lori writes: This dish to me epitomises this time of year. The combination of the sweetness and earthiness of the squash with the crispy warmness of the sage work wonderfully as a pair. Add in a blob of rich, creamy and savoury ricotta and some caramelised sage and chilli butter and it warms the soul."

Serves 4

1 large or 2 medium crown prince squash, weighing around 2kg/41/2lb

2 tablespoons olive oil

Caramelised Sage and Chilli Butter (see below)

150g/51/2oz ricotta

salt and pepper

Notes

Any type of pumpkin or squash could be used here. You will just need a robust variety that is happy to be roasted and doesn’t have a high water content like spaghetti squash.

Preheat the oven to 210°C fan/450°F/gas mark 8.

Cut the squash into four. If you have one big squash, be very careful as the skin is super tough – I put a tea towel between my hand and the tip of the knife to prevent my hand going through the top of the blade. Remove the seeds and discard. Remove the skin. I find using a serrated knife the best option and if you get slightly further under the skin, it’s much easier to remove – you want to remove the green colour under the skin.

Cut into big wedges – I normally cut each quarter into three or four wedges lengthways.

Toss in the olive oil. Season and place on a large baking tray with the wedges standing up. Cook for about 25–35 minutes until the squash has browned and is fully cooked. This stage can be done in advance and kept in the fridge for 2–3 days and you can reheat without affecting the squash.

Make the Caramelised Sage and Chilli Butter (see below).

Plate up using one large platter or four individual plates. Place a bit of ricotta on the bottom so that it can secure the squash wedges, then layer up a few of the squash wedges and scatter some blobs of ricotta around. Layer up the rest of the squash and blob more ricotta over and around.

To finish, generously drizzle over the caramelised sage and chilli butter with lots of sage and lots of the butter. Season.

For the sage and chilli butter

bunch of sage

150g/ 5 ½ oz butter, cut into pieces

½ lemon, juiced

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ –1 teaspoon chilli flakes

salt and pepper

Pick the sage, saving the stalks for a stock. In a medium-sized frying pan, place the butter in the pan with the sage leaves. Melt over a medium-low heat. Continue cooking until the sage leaves start crisping. Turn the heat to low to prevent the butter and sage from burning. Once the leaves are crispy, turn off the heat. Add the lemon juice to prevent the sage and butter from cooking further. It will sizzle loudly! Add the garlic and chilli flakes. Stir well and season to taste. Pour into an appropriate container and leave in a warm place until needed.

What to drink: Given the spicy butter I'd go for a viognier with this but you could also drink a good Soave.

The best wines to pair with squash and pumpkin

Extracted from Towpath Recipes and Stories by Lori de Mori & Laura Jackson published by Chelsea Green at £27. Photograph © Joe Woodhouse