Recipes
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
Soup for Syria: spiced red lentil soup
I don't often post commercial recipes but this delicious soup from London restaurant Arabica Bar & Kitchen is being promoted in a very good cause.
All profits from the soup, which they're selling in their restaurant throughout January, are being donated to 'Soup for Syria', the humanitarian cookbook project fronted by food writer Barbara Abdeni Massaad. The money raised will go to the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR to help provide urgently needed food relief for Syrian refugees.
Serves 4 generously
Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
2 small onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp ras el hanout
½ tsp urfa chilli flakes
1 bay leaf
2 tsp tomato paste
200g red lentils
3 tsp pomegranate molasses
1- 1.2 litres hot water
Sea salt to taste
Black pepper
To finish
Fresh thyme leaves
Sumac
Fried onions or shallots (Available from any oriental supermarket)
Black pepper
Method
Peel and finely dice the onion.
Heat the olive oil in a medium sized saucepan, add the onions and cook on a low heat until they soften, become translucent and give off their natural sweetness.
Add the garlic, bay leaf, and ras el hanout and continue to cook on a low heat for further minute stirring continuously.
Add the tomato paste, red lentils and slowly add 1 litre of boiling water mixing as you go. Finally add the pomegranate molasses. Bring to the boil. Skim the surface if necessary. Lower the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for 30 minutes or till the lentils are fully cooked and begin to break down.
Blend the soup to a smooth consistency and season with salt to taste. If the soup is too thick add more water.
To serve ladle into deep soup bowls, drizzle with olive oil, liberally sprinkle with crispy onions, a pinch of cracked black pepper, a few fresh thyme leaves and a tiny pinch of citrusy sumac.
What to drink: I'm not sure you really need anything to drink with this apart from water - I mean it is January, right? But I wouldn't say no to a glass of Domaine des Tourelles red from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon
Simon Hopkinson's Oysters Rockefeller
I've always been intrigued by Oysters Rockefeller, described by the great Simon Hopkinson as "the best hot oyster dish I know". Here's his recipe.
"Why oysters Rockefeller is quite so good lies in the perfectly chosen ingredients which marry so well with the unique taste of an oyster" Hopkinson writes. "The transformation from the natural, raw oyster (delicious in itself, of course) to the warmed oyster (never too hot) is critical. Buttery creamed spinach, tarragon, parsley, the essential pastis (Pernod, here) and softened shallot and celery. The aniseed flavours have always been key; pastis added to creamed spinach, for instance, absolutely makes that particular dish sing out loud."
SERVES 2
12 rock oysters, shucked
FOR THE ROCKEFELLER PURÉE:
250g young spinach leaves
10g parsley leaves
100g unsalted butter, softened
1 large stick of celery, peeled and chopped
1 small shallot, chopped
20ml Pernod
the leaves from 3–4 sprigs of tarragon
several shakes of Tabasco sauce
¼ tsp salt
a handful of fresh breadcrumbs
Fill a pan with water and bring to the boil. Plunge in the spinach and parsley, bring back to the boil then drain in a colander. Immediately refresh in iced water until cold. Squeeze as dry as possible between two hands until no more liquid seeps out. Set aside.
Melt 25g of the butter in a small frying pan, gently fry the celery and shallot until softened then add the Pernod, allowing it to bubble a little. Cool briefly, then scrape into the bowl of a small food processor. Add the cooked spinach and parsley, tarragon, Tabasco, salt and the remaining 75g of butter. Purée until very smooth and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7.
Tip off any excess juice from the opened oysters and, using a small palette knife, completely cover each oyster with a generous coating of the spinach purée. Strew a baking dish (or deep metal pan) with coarse salt, to allow the oysters to sit neatly. Distribute a fine showering of breadcrumbs over the oysters and bake in the oven on the top shelf. Cook for 8–10 minutes or until the breadcrumbs have become slightly toasted. Serve without delay.
What to drink: Not the easiest dish to match with wine. I asked Simon for his view and his suggested a white Rhone ("Fonsalette would be very special, if one can afford it." My own choice, I think, would be a brut nature style of champagne - i.e. one with no or a very low dosage or a premier cru Chablis though I'm sure a Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé or other minerally style of Sauvignon Blanc would be fine."
This recipe comes from Simon Hopkinson Cooks which is published by Ebury Press at £25. Photograph © Jason Lowe.
Orange and Cointreau syllabub
Syllabub - a velvety-smooth concoction of sweet wine and cream - is one of the great English desserts, dating from the 16th century. At this time of year I like to make it with orange rather than lemon, topped with an irresistibly crunchy mixture of orange zest and sugar.
Serves 6
150ml southern French muscat or similar sweet white wine
1 tablespoon Cointreau or other orange liqueur
The finely grated rind of 2 unwaxed oranges
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 tablespoons unrefined caster sugar
400ml chilled double cream
You will also need a large bowl, chilled for 30-40 minutes in the fridge or for 15 minutes in the freezer
Pour the wine into a bowl, add the Cointreau, half the grated orange rind, the orange and lemon juice and 2 tbsp of the caster sugar. Stir, cover and refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Strain through a fine sieve. Pour the cream into a large chilled bowl and beat with an electric hand-held beater until it starts to thicken. Add the orange-flavoured wine, bit by bit, beating between each addition until the cream thickens again. (Don’t overbeat it, or it will separate. Aim for a thick pouring consistency.)
When the final addition of wine has been incorporated the mixture should hold a trail when you lift out the beaters but shouldn’t be stiff.) Ladle the mixture into individual glass dishes and chill for at least an hour before serving. In the meantime mix the remaining orange zest and sugar and leave it on a plate to crisp up. (If you want to make it further ahead put it in a sealed plastic box.) Just before serving sprinkle the orange sugar over the top of each glass.
What to drink:
Although you might think the citrus and sweet wine might pose problems the amount of cream actually makes this a very wine-friendly dessert that would match well with the same type of wine you use in the syllabub. We drank a pretty, peachy Tabali Encantado Late Harvest Muscat from Chile with it which went very well.
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How to make an eggnog
I have to admit I was never very grabbed by the idea of eggnog until I tried it out for myself and discovered just how delicious it is - like velvety, vanilla-and-rum-scented air.
It’s not as straightforward as some other cocktails admittedly but if you’re used to making meringues or mousses you’ll won’t find it daunting at all. This version is based on the one in American bartender Dale Degroff’s excellent ‘The Craft of the Cocktail’.
Serves 6-8
3 scrupulously fresh large free-range eggs
75g/3 oz caster sugar
100ml/3 1/2 fl oz bourbon
100ml /3 1/2 fl oz spiced rum
570 ml /1 pint creamy breakfast milk
275ml /1/2 pint whipping cream
A nutmeg for grating
Separate the egg yolks carefully from the whites and put them in separate large bowls.
Beat the egg yolks, gradually adding 50g/2 oz of the sugar until they turn light in colour and moussey in texture. Beat in the bourbon and spiced rum then stir in the milk and cream.
Clean and dry your whisk thoroughly then beat the egg whites until beginning to stiffen. Add the remaining sugar to the whites and whisk until they form a soft peak.
Fold the whites into the egg nog mixture and grate over a little nutmeg. Ladle out the egg nog into small glasses or cups. Have teaspoons available for those who prefer to spoon rather than sip it.
Image (not of my recipe) © Anna Puzatykh at shutterstock.com
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