Omelette baguette (bánh mì trứng ốp lết)

One of the cuisines I've always wanted to get to grips with is Vietnamese, not least because we don't have a good Vietnamese restaurant nearby so I welcomed Uyen Luu's beautifully illustrated My Vietnamese Kitchen with open arms.

This is one of the simpler recipes, a version of the popular Bánh mi that would make a fantastic breakfast or brunch dish this weekend.

Uyen writes: Bánh mi is a Vietnamese baguette originally inspired by the French and now a staple in Vietnamese cuisine. As with most Vietnamese food the lightness of the ingredients you fill it with is vital - no-one relishes being weighed down. The dough in the centre of the baguette is removed so that you bite straight through the lovely crisp crust to the filling within.

For an extra dimension, drop the sliced chillies into a bowl of good soy sauce and bruise them with the back of a spoon - this releases the chillies' flavour and heat. Drizzle over the baguette.

Omelette baguette - bánh mì trứng ốp lết

Pickle

2 carrots, shredded

1⁄2 daikon (mooli), shredded

5 tablespoons cider vinegar

5 tablespoons sugar

Omelette

2 eggs, beaten

2 spring onions, thinly sliced

1⁄2 teaspoon sugar

a pinch of salt

a pinch of black pepper

1 teaspoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon cooking oil

2 Asian shallots, finely chopped

To fill

2 Vietnamese baguettes or freshly baked, small French baguettes

butter

coriander

Bird’s Eye chillies, thinly sliced (deseeded for less heat)

Serves 2

Pickle

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Drain and wring with your hands.

Omelette

Beat the eggs in a bowl with the spring onions, sugar, salt and pepper, and soy sauce. Heat the oil in a frying pan and briefly fry the shallots. Pour the egg mixture into the pan over the shallots and spread evenly. Cook for a couple of minutes until the underside looks golden brown (lift up one edge and check). Flip the omelette over and cook for a couple of minutes until brown. Remove from the heat and cut into strips.

To fill

Slit the baguette lengthways and pull out the soft doughy inside (which can be used for breadcrumbs). Spread with butter and insert the omelette strips, pickle, coriander and chillies.

What to drink:

I asked Uyen what she would drink and she said 'a nice green tea', oolong tea or lemonade. If you were serving it later in the day you could go for a light beer or a glass of crisp Austrian grüner veltliner.

From My Vietnamese Kitchen by Uyen Luu, photography © Claire Winfield, published by Ryland Peters & Small at £16.99. To read about Uyen's supper club and classes visit her website www.leluu.com

Gennaro Contaldo's porchetta

If you're looking for new ideas for a Sunday roast try TV chef Gennaro Contaldo's fantastic porchetta (stuffed rolled pork belly) from his lovely book Gennaro: Let's Cook Italian which is all about the dishes he makes at home for his family and friends.

Gennaro says "Porchetta to me means a party and I make it during special occasions, when I know hordes of people will drop by. It feeds lots, can be eaten cold and can be stored in the fridge for up to a week. Traditionally in Italy, porchetta is a whole piglet filled with lots of fresh herbs and slow-roasted either in a wood oven or even outdoors on a spit. It is made at home, as well as sold ready-made as a takeaway. Since whole piglets are not that easily obtainable, I use pork belly and the result is similar."

Serves 10–12

5kg/11lb pork belly (ask your butcher to remove the ribs and trim the excess fat)

25g/1oz coarse sea salt

freshly ground coarse black pepper

small green leaves from a large handful
of fresh thyme

leaves from a large handful of fresh rosemary, roughly chopped

a large handful of fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped

1 tbsp fennel seeds (if you are lucky enough to find wild fennel use it)

8 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

small carrots, cut into chunks

6 tbsp runny honey

Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas 7. Lay the pork belly flat, skin side down. Sprinkle with half the salt and lots of black pepper, rubbing it well into the meat with your fingers. Leave to rest for 10 minutes so that the seasoning settles well into the meat. Sprinkle the herbs, fennel seeds and garlic evenly all over.

You will need 10 pieces of string, each about 30cm/12 inches long. Carefully roll the meat up widthways and tie it very tightly with string in the middle of the joint. Then tie at either end about 1cm/1/2 inch from the edge and keep tying along the joint until you have used up all the string. The filling should be well wrapped – if any escapes from the sides, push it in. Using your hands, massage 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil over the joint, then rub in the remaining salt and some more black pepper.

Grease a large roasting pan with the remaining olive oil and place the pork in it. Roast for 10 minutes, then turn it over. After 15 minutes, reduce the oven temperature to 150°C/300°F/gas mark 2 and cover the pork with foil (if you like the crackling to be very crispy, don’t bother with the foil, but remember the porchetta needs to be thinly sliced and crispy crackling will make that difficult). Roast for 3 hours.

If cooking the potatoes and carrots, add them to the roasting dish for the final 11/2 hours of cooking.

Remove the joint from the oven and coat with the honey, drizzling some of the juices from the roasting tin over it too. Insert a fork at either side of the joint and lift onto a wooden board. Leave to rest for 5 minutes, then slice and serve hot or cold.

Recipe from Gennaro: Let’s Cook Italian, published by Pavilion. Recipe photography by David Loftus.

Wine pairing: I personally would fancy a crisp dry Italian white wine like a Vermentino with this but think most people would prefer a red. Chianto Classico would be a good match or try a simple supple Italian red like a Rosso di Montalcino.

Wilhelm Coetzee's Butterflied Leg of Lamb

I first met winemaker Wilhelm Coetzee back in 2006 when he was working for Flagstone. He's now working at Durbanville Hills and this is his favourite 'braii' recipe.

"In South Africa a lot of our lamb meat comes from the "Karoo" (an arid but beautiful part of our country and a place where the farmers are very passionate about their meat). The shrubs that these lamb feed on (free range) is very herbaceous and spicy, so when you buy the meat it's already tender with a natural herby/spicy character. For the recipe you need a small leg of lamb (1.3kg), deboned and butterflied.

The marinade:
500ml Bulgarian yogurt
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 tbsp of grounded coriander seeds
1 tsp of grounded cumin
1 small onion finely chopped

Mix all the ingredients together, keep half of it aside (store in a airtight vessel) to serve with the barbequed lamb, cover the lamb with the rest, put in a plastic bag remove the air and leave in the fridge for two days.

Before you barbeque, remove the lamb from the bag and wipe off excess marinade with paper towel.

Basting sauce for the barbeque:
250g good quality unsalted butter
100ml Verjuice
1 clove garlic finely chopped

Put the ingredients in a saucepan and melt the butter over a low heat.

Barbeque over medium hot coals but not too close to the heat. Turn after 10 minutes, baste, and season well with Maldon salt and black pepper. After another 10 minutes turn again and do the same as above. Now you can start turning every 5 minutes, basting after every turn. Take the lamb off the coals when medium done (about 50 minutes) and let it rest for 10 minutes. Slice thinly and serve with the marinade that was kept aside. (What I also like to serve with the meat is a fresh coriander pesto made with salted pistachio nuts instead of pine nuts).

With the leg of lamb I like to serve oven roasted vegetables. I prefer to use red and yellow veggies like:
Red and yellow peppers
Red onion
Nice sweet tomatoes
Butternut squash
Carrots

Just drizzle with olive oil, season and pop into the oven at 200 degrees C until they're tender (about 40-45 minutes)

To complete the color scheme do a salad of green baby leaves and parmesan shavings, squeeze some fresh lemon over and drizzle with olive oil.

To all this you add good friends and wine and have a feast!

Wine to serve with this:
Originally Wilhelm suggested the Flagstone Dragon Tree 2004 (a blend of Cabernet, Pinotage, Shiraz and Merlot) as the ideal match but since he moved to Durbanville Hills he's loyally suggesting the Durbanville Hills Bastion 2011, a smooth, minty Cabernet Shiraz blend (not currently available in the UK so far as I can make out but any similar Cape blend or Cabernet blend would do)

Image © sumos - Fotolia.com

Spiced Venison with Wild Mushroom and Truffle Sauce

An elegant main course recipe* from one of my favourite food writers Sue Lawrence's A Cook’s Tour of Scotland that would be a great option for a haggis-free Burns' Night supper.

Sue writes: "This is a really tasty dish that can be prepared in advance – apart from the actual cooking of the meat. The weight of fillet from red deer can vary from around 250 – 400g/9 – 14 oz, but if you use a roe fillet, it will weigh only about 100g / 3 1/2 oz and so you must reduce the cooking time drastically (and use a fillet per person) Whichever type of venison you use, remember always to undercook and allow to rest for a perfect even pinkness and tender meat. Serve with pappardelle or soft polenta."

serves 3-4

1 level tbsp whole black peppercorns
1 level tbsp whole juniper berries
1 whole venison fillet , trimmed (about 350g / 12 oz)
2 tbsp olive oil
Truffle oil
Seasalt and freshly ground black pepper
For the sauce
40g / 1 1/2 oz dried porcini ( ceps), rinsed
200 ml / 7 fl oz/ 1/3 pint dry white wine
40g / 1 1/2 oz butter
2 shallots or half a small onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
200g / 7 oz fresh mushrooms, wiped and chopped
1 tbsp plain flour
150 ml / 5 fl oz/ 1/4 pint double cream

Toast the peppercorns and juniper in a dry frying pan over a high heat for about 3 minutes, shaking often, until a strong spicy smell emerges. Tip into an electric grinder - or use a mortar and pestle —and grind until coarsely ground. Brush the venison with 1 tbsp oil then press in the spices. Leave on a plate somewhere cool for a couple of hours.

To make the sauce, soak the dried mushrooms in the wine for at least 20 minutes then strain, reserving the wine. Heat the butter in a pan and gently fry the shallots/onion and garlic for 2 – 3 minutes then add the mushrooms (soaked and fresh) and stir. Cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes or until tender.

Increase the heat and sprinkle over the flour, . Cook for 1 minute, stirring, then add the reserved wine and the cream, stirring constantly. Bring to the boil then simmer, uncovered, for 5 – 10 minutes until slightly thickened. Season to taste and set aside.

To cook the meat, heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan (preferably one that can go into the oven) and, once hot, add the venison and brown all over : this takes 4 – 5 minutes. Season with sea salt as you brown it. Then transfer the pan to a preheated oven ( 220°C/425°F/Gas7) and cook for about 7-8 minutes. Remove the meat and place on a warm plate. Cover with foil and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Carve the rested meat and serve with some of the sauce and a few shakes of truffle oil on top

What to drink:
This is a dish that is hugely wine friendly so you could drink almost any medium bodied red you enjoy. My own choice would be a Western Australia Cabernet-Merlot (Cullen’s or Cape Mentelle) or a Pinot Noir

* Note this picture is not exactly that of Sue Lawrence's recipe but similar to it. Photo © Marina Grau - Fotolia.com