Lobster thermidor baked potatoes

Another run-out for Mark Hix's wonderfully decadent recipe for a lobster-stuffed baked potato from his book Hix on Baking. Such a great idea . . .

Mark writes: "This is a great way to stretch out a lobster and makes for a fantastic, luxurious baked potato. Extravagant you may think, but not really. The baked potato is making a bit of a comeback – I’m sure they'll soon be dished up in all the smart restaurants..."

Serves 4

4 baking potatoes

80g butter

salt and freshly ground black pepper

50ml white wine

1 large shallot, peeled and finely chopped

2 tsp English mustard

100ml fish stock (or a third of a good-quality stock cube dissolved in 100ML hot water)

300ml double cream

30g Parmesan, grated

80g mature Cheddar, grated

1 small egg yolk

1 x 500–600g cooked lobster

Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6. Wash the potatoes, transfer to the oven and bake them for about 1–1 1/2 hours, until soft. Leave them to cool a little, then cut off about a quarter of the top of each potato and scoop the flesh out into a bowl. Mash as chunky or as smooth as you wish, then mix with the butter and season to taste.

Return the potato skins to the oven for about 10 minutes to crisp up before setting aside with the flesh.

Meantime, simmer the white wine with the shallots until the liquid has almost evaporated. Add the mustard and fish stock and reduce again similarly. Add the cream, reserving a tablespoon, bring back to the boil and simmer until the sauce has reduced by half or more and is quite thick. Add the Parmesan and 60g of the grated cheddar and whisk until smooth.

Season and leave to cool. (You can add a little more mustard at this stage to taste if you want the sauce more tangy).

In a small bowl, whip the remaining tablespoon of double cream until it forms soft peaks. Fold into the cooled sauce with the egg yolk.

Turn up the oven to 230°/gas mark 8. Halve the body of the lobster lengthways and remove the meat from the shell. Cut the tail meat into four or five pieces. Crack the claws and leg joints and remove all of the meat. Remove the claws from each lobster, then crack and remove all of the meat including the smaller joints.

Mix half of the sauce with the mashed potato and spoon into the crisp potato shells, leaving about a centimetre from the top of each. Arrange the lobster on top of the potato, scatter over the remaining cheese and spoon over the rest of the sauce. Return to the oven or place under a hot grill until nicely browned. Serve with a few dressed salad leaves.

What to drink: I'd suggest a good white burgundy with this like a Meursault or a similarly rich style of chardonnay from elsewhere. Or a full-bodied champagne. You could drink an aged red Bordeaux too. An excuse to crack open a good bottle, anyway!

This recipe comes from Hix on Baking by Mark Hix, published by Quadrille Publishing RRP £20. Photography © Jason Lowe

Honey-roast chicken with roast sweet potatoes

You may recognise this shot as one of the rolling images on our home page which were taken by photographer Jason Ingram and styled by Genevieve Taylor. The dish was so delicious I had to pass on the recipe which comes from Louise Walker's Aga Roast.

You don't have to have an Aga to make it, by the way - you can cook it in a conventional oven.

Serves 6

1.75kg/4lb chicken

1 orange

1 bunch spring onions

110g/4oz honey

3 tablespoons olive oil

1⁄2 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon ground coriander

2 teaspoons cumin

Salt and pepper

1kg / 21⁄4 lbs sweet potatoes

1 tablespoon chopped coriander

Line a roasting tin with Bake-O-Glide. Put in the chicken.

Grate the rind from the orange and put in a basin. Finely chop half the bunch of spring onions. Add the honey, oil, cloves, paprika, coriander, cumin and salt and pepper. Use half the mixture to brush the chicken inside and out.

Slice the orange and chop the remaining onion. Use half to put in the chicken cavity and sprinkle the remaining onion over the chicken and the remaining orange slices on the chicken breast.

Hang the tin on the third set of runners from the top of the roasting oven and calculate the roasting time at 20 minutes per 450g/1lb plus 20 minutes. (Gen also put some foil over the bird halfway through to stop the sweet marinade over-browning.)

Meanwhile, peel and cut the sweet potatoes into chunks and toss with the remaining honey mixture. After the first 30 minutes of roasting the chicken add the potatoes round the bird. Remove the orange slices if browning too much.

Roast for the remaining time. The chicken should have a dark golden skin.

Test that the chicken is cooked and then remove the chicken to a warm plate and scatter the coriander over the sweet potatoes.

Serve the sweet potatoes with any pan juices and chunkily carved chicken.

Serve with a plain green salad to offset the sweetness of the chicken and sweet potatoes.

Conventional cooking: Roast at 190°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.

Aga Roast by Louise Walker is published by Absolute Press.

What to drink: You need something with a touch of sweetness to cope with the sweetness and spiciness of the marinade. I'd suggest a Barossa Valley or South African Shiraz or a Grenache or, if you prefer a white, a full-bodied Viognier.

100 calorie monkfish chermoula

A main course for 100 calories? Yes, that's possible in Kalpna Woolf's inspiring and original new book Spice Yourself Slim which explores how spices can enhance your diet.

Of course you'll need some veggies too but it will still work out remarkable low in calories.

Kalpna writes: I am always keen to experiment with storecupboard spices to create new and exciting flavours and bring more taste and goodness to my dishes. This marinade is probably one of the most versatile and delicious you can make. The ingredients can vary, but normally, roasted cumin and coriander seeds are mixed with saffron, ginger, garlic, paprika and fresh parsley and coriander.

Chermoula is a powerful combination of taste and spice equilibrium that originates from North Africa, and the mix definitely evokes the smells and tastes of that region and Moroccan souks and medinas. This can be made in advance and kept in the refrigerator for a few days.

Serves 4

Calories per serving: 102

Ingredients

300g/10.oz monkfish fillets, cut into thick 10–15cm/4–6in chunks

For the chermoula marinade

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp coriander seeds

½ tsp ground paprika

1 tsp chilli (red pepper) flakes or cayenne pepper (optional)

½ tsp finely chopped fresh ginger

1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped

5–6 saffron threads, soaked in 2 tbsp warm water for 3–4 minutes

juice of 1 lemon, set aside 1 tbsp for the fish

2 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp salt

a large handful of fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves, finely chopped

a small handful of fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped

Method

To make the chermoula marinade, heat a small, heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat. Add the cumin and coriander seeds and gently dry-fry for 3–4 minutes until roasted and the aroma is released (be careful that the seeds don’t burn). Allow to cool, then grind in a food processor or pestle and mortar into a powder. Place the powder and all the remaining ingredients, including the water from the saffron, in a food processor and blend into a medium-thick paste.

Place the fish on a foil-lined baking tray and spoon over the chermoula paste, spreading it over all sides of each piece of fish. Cover with foil and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for 15–20 minutes.

Preheat a grill to medium.

Remove the foil cover from the fish, place the baking tray under the grill and cook the fish for about 8 minutes. When the fish is cooked, squeeze the juice from the remaining lemon over the fish and serve.

Tips

Although this recipe is for fish, you can use this marinade for chicken and lamb dishes (if marinating meat, leave the marinade for longer and even overnight to infuse).

For a delicious vegetarian option, marinate a selection of vegetables and roast with the chermoula paste.

What to drink:
I'm assuming you're probably not drinking with this if you're trying to lose weight 😉 but a small glass of dry rosé would be a good match.

Extracted from Spice Yourself Slim by Kalpna Woolf which is published by Pavilion Books. Photography © Clare Winfield. You can find Kalpna's website on www.kalpnawoolf.com

Tom Parker-Bowles Neapolitan Ragù

If you think you have the ultimate bolognese recipe, think again. Try this fantastic version from Tom Parker-Bowles book Let's Eat Meat. I love Tom's style of writing - do read the great introduction:

"Ah, Naples. Considered by many as filthy, dirty and dangerous, a southern Italian wretch who has seen better days. But for me it’s Italy’s greatest city, endlessly invaded and occupied, but endlessly sexy, thrilling and beautiful. It’s also home to the best cooking in the country, as well as two of my favourite restaurants in the world (Da Dora for fish and DaMichele for pizza). This is still a poor area of the country, and meat doesn’t play a huge role in its traditional cookery. But this slow-cooked ragù is a masterpiece, the pride of every Sunday lunch, simmered and devoured with love and lust.

‘You must stay with it, guide it, caress it for hours,’ writes Jeanne Carola Francesconi in La Cucina Napoletana, ‘so that the aromas of its various components can be released and mingle with each other.’ This isn’t mere tomato sauce, rather Neapolitan lifeblood. I’ve adapted this recipe from Arthur Schwartz’s magnificent Naples at Table. It tastes even better after reading Naples ’44, Norman Lewis’s masterpiece on this most magical and seductive of cities."

Serves 6–8

1–2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

250g/9oz rindless pork belly, cut into large chunks

250g/9oz stewing veal

250g/9oz beef shin, cut into chunks

2 onions, finely chopped

½ bottle (37.5cl) of punchy red wine

3 x 400g/14oz cans of chopped tomatoes

big pinch of sea salt

big pinch of dried chilli flakes

handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large heavy pot over a medium–high heat and brown all the meat, in separate batches, until well browned – around 5 minutes for each batch. Start with the pork belly as it will release some fat, but add more oil if the meat starts to stick.

After removing the final batch of meat, tip the onions into the pan and cook over a low heat for about 10 minutes, until soft, stirring and scraping up the crisped bits of meat stuck on the bottom of the pan.

Return all the meat to the pan, add the wine and reduce over a high heat.

Add the tomatoes, salt and chilli and simmer very gently for 3–4 hours. Stir every 15 minutes or so, skimming off any excess fat. You may need to add a little water, 100ml/3½fl oz at a time, if the sauce begins to stick in the last couple of hours.

The Neapolitans would remove the meat and serve the sauce with pasta to start, then serve the meat separately for a next course. But I like it all together. Scatter on the parsley and serve with a pile of cooked fusilli or spaghetti.

Extracted from Let's eat Meat: Recipes For Prime Cuts, Cheap Bits And Glorious Scraps Of Meat by Tom Parker Bowles, published in hardback by Pavilion, priced £25. Photograph © Jenny Zarins.

What to drink: I think you need a hearty Italian red with this dish. A Taurasi might well be the local choice but other Aglianicos would work. You could also try a Sicilian red such as Nero d'Avola or even a Barbera even though it comes from the other end of the country. FB