Author Archives: John Pope

Slow roasted citrusy spicy lamb

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Lamb is a tricky bugger, cooking it to please everyone is virtually impossible. It should really be cooked only until it remains slightly pink in the middle, but then you get the squeamish people who won’t eat it because “ugh, it’s raw”. Grrrr.

The problem is that when you overcook lamb, what you end up with is grey, dry and tasteless.

In my opinion the best answer is to cook it slowly for a long period of time, and you end up with something that is neither pink or dry, but tastes blissful, falls apart when your fork touches it and melts when you put it in your mouth.

The first time I made this particular dish was for a leaving dinner party for my friend Thea, who was about to hop away to the other side of the world. A quick survey of favourite things had revealed that lamb must be on the menu, and to be honest that worried me slightly.

I really don’t cook lamb very often, being more of a pork man myself, so some research and experimentation was needed before settling on this fantastic recipe. I don’t even remember where the original recipe came from anymore, but wherever it was, I have left it virtually unchanged, just upped the amount of citrus slightly and adjusted the cooking time and temperature.

Let us roast… tomorrow

Ok, this is not a quick recipe, you are going to start tonight and finish mid-afternoon tomorrow, but it really is worth all of that waiting.

Ingredients

  • Leg of lamb1
  • Large lemon1
  • Large orange2
  • Olive oil4tbsp
  • Honey2tbsp
  • Garlic cloves3
  • Ground cinnamon1tbsp
  • Ground cumin1tbsp
  • Fennel seeds1tbsp

  1. Juice and zest the citrus fruits, keep the zest in a small airtight bag as you will need it later.

  2. Put the juice together with the lamb in a large bag, seal it and leave overnight in the fridge to marinate.

    3. The next day

  3. Take the marinating lamb out of the fridge and leave on the counter for about an hour to warm up to room temperature, meanwhile put the oven on to heat up to 200°C (400°F).

  4. Remove the lamb from the marinade (Do not throw the liquid away!), and pat it dry with some paper towel. Rub the lamb all over with about half of the olive oil and roast it for about 15-20 minutes until the meat has started to brown.

    Take the lamb out and turn the oven down to 160°C (310°F).

  5. In a small bowl, mix together the second half of the oil, grated citrus zest, honey, spices and garlic, and season with a decent amount of salt and pepper.

  6. Take a large sheet of foil, and an equally large sheet of baking paper, and lay them out on your kitchen surface – the foil shiny side down and then the paper on top of it. Put the lamb in the middle of the paper, and rub it all over with the spicy citrusy paste you just made. Pull up all of the sides of the foil around the lamb, taking care that they don’t touch it if possible. Pour the reserved marinade into the bottom of the package, and scrunch up the top of the foil parcel to seal it (a bit like a cornish pasty).

  7. Roast for about 4-4½ hours (depends if it was a big or small leg – use your judgement), and then remove from the oven and leave it to rest, still all wrapped up, for 30 minutes.

That’s it, you now have a piece of meat that looks, smells and tastes amazing, and which will amaze the less culinarily inclined of your guests. You can either put it on a serving plate in the kitchen and then present it neatly, or go for the steamy drama of unwrapping it in the middle of the table. Personally I’ll go for the steamy drama every time.

Postre del Músico

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When something has a moniker as romantic as Postre del Músico – Musician’s dessert, it doesn’t really matter what is in it, it can survive on the name itself.

In this case the dish is pretty palatable as well as the name, and dating from medieval times, both have survived well, and changed very little.

Origins

It’s hard to say exactly why this is called Musician’s dessert. I’ve heard of a few different possible reasons.

Most probably it alludes to the musicians of the cobal, the wind band that played at the banquets of the medieval era. Els musics were commonly served with a bowl of fruit and nuts and a flagon of wine to keep up their strength.

Sadly there are less travelling musicians plying their trade in taverns and at banquets and fiestas than there were back in the day, but the dish lives on. These days it is generally eaten as a snack in the afternoon or early evening, shared between friends over a bottle of wine and a chat, or served as desert at the end of a meal.

Postre del Músico should always be accompanied by a glass or two of sweet wine, both to satisfy tradition, and to bring out the taste properly.

In the most traditional form this is super simple, with just handfuls of dried fruits and nuts arranged on a plate.

My version is just slightly more complex because it involves blanching and peeling some of the nuts. The dried fruits listed are just examples, and you can swap them out for others if you prefer.

Postre del Músico

Ingredients

Take a handful each of:

  • Hazelnuts
  • Almonds
  • Walnuts
  • Pine nuts
  • Dried apricots
  • Dried figs
  • Raisins
  • Dates

  1. Throw the hazelnuts into a small dry frying pan over a medium-high heat, and toast them for about 3 minutes until the skins begin to darken and go a bit wrinkly. Remove them from the heat and run off the skins with a clean, dry kitchen towel. Set them aside to cool.

  2. Blanch the almonds, and then in the same pan you used for the hazelnuts, toast them for about a minute, until they are golden brown. Pour them onto a plate and leave them to cool down.

  3. Toast the walnuts for about a minute until they are lightly coloured, and pour them onto yet another plate to cool.

  4. Toast the pine nuts in the same way, being careful not to burn them because they catch easily

  5. Arrange the cooled nuts and the dried fruits in individual piles on the serving dish, or individual plates, and serve with moscatel, malvasia, or other desert wine.

Choosing hard cheeses

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Everyone knows about Parmigiano Reggiano (Parmesan). It’s hard, it’s dry, strong, smelly, slightly nutty and hits your tongue with a bit of a zappy twang.

Some people (like me) will just sit and happily munch our way through a block of it, but it is generally used grated or shaved in or over other dishes.

Although Parmigiano is the most well known aged hard cheese out there, it is far from the only one. There are a huge range of other fantastic cheeses that are perfect to use wherever you might normally use Parmigiano Reggiano.

What makes a good hard cheese

Pretty much any cheese that is aged long enough becomes firm. During the aging process, the moisture in the cheese evaporates and the salt in the cheese crystallizes, this is what gives Parmesan and other aged cheeses their distinct crunchiness under the teeth.

You can’t just buy a chunk of cheese, throw it on the shelf and hope for the best. Like wine, cheese needs to be aged under careful conditions, the temperature and humidity level should be kept as constant as possible, and the cheese needs to be rotated regularly. Most hard cheese are aged from anywhere between six months to seven years, but under the right conditions it is possible to age cheese for much longer.

Apart from the techniques involved in making it, and the way in which it is aged, the quality of the milk and other ingredients that go into the cheese have a big impact on the way that it tastes. A lot of the difference in the taste of cheese from different places comes from the air and the grass in that region, you can taste the difference in the milk.

How to store it

If you are lucky enough to have a wine cellar, or any kind of cellar really, then it is the ideal place to store your cheese. Cellars (generally) experience less changes of temperature and humidity than the rest of your house, and cheese likes this. It also likes to be in the dark.

Wrap the cheese in waxed paper, and if you are planning on keeping it for a reasonable length of time, then change the wrapping regularly (weekly is probably enough). If you find that mould is growing on the cheese, then just scrape the mould off, and change the wrapping.

and so, some suggestions for your delectation…

Parmigiano Reggiano

Parmigiano Reggiano is a cheese made from uncooked cow’s milk, and manufactured in a small region of northern Italy.

When the cheese reaches 12 months old, each one is inspected by a master grader. If the cheese passes the inspection then it is heat branded with the logo of the Consorzio Parmigiano Reggiano. This is your sign that you are getting the best quality cheese.

Although the cheese is ready to eat after 12 months, it is normally aged for longer. 18-24 months is typical, but it can be for much longer. The longer the cheese is aged, the more intense the flavour and aroma becomes, and the drier and more crystalline in texture.

What’s in a name?

Parmigiano Reggiano is often called Parmesan in English, but depending on where in the world you are, you may or may not be getting the real thing. In Europe the name Parmesan is protected by law, and only Parmigiano made in the correct region can carry the name. In other parts of the world, the term Parmesan is often applied to other chesses made in the same style.

Grana Padano

Probably the second most famous hard cheese in the world, and really very similar to its cousin Parmigiano Reggiano.

First created by Cistercian monks in the 12th century as a way to preserve excess milk, today Grana Padano is a legally protected cheese made in a specified region of Italy.

Although it is made in a similar way, using uncooked cows milk, Grana Padano is slightly milder and not as tangy as Parmigiano, and it is also a bit less crumbly in texture.

Piave

Piave comes from the Piave river valley in northern Italy. It is made from pasteurised cows milk that is partially skimmed.

What sets Piave apart from the other Italian cheeses on this list is the fact that it can be eaten either young or aged. When it is young it has quite a sweet taste, some of this sweetness is retained as the cheese ages but it also develops a slight nuttiness.

Outside of Italy, it is easier to find Piave as either vecchio or stravecchio, meaning old or extra old. Once it reaches this stage it is similar in taste to a young parmigiano, but slightly sweeter.

Aged Cheddar

So, just in case anyone starts to think that Italians have the monopoly on great hard cheeses, up pops the international crowd, starting off with one from England.

Quite possibly my favourite bit of cheese that I’ve ever stuck in my mouth was a piece of 5 year old cheddar at a farmers market in the south of England. It shares the texture characteristics of Parmigiano, and can be even more crystally, but it tastes, well… cheddary.

Cheddar ages very well. I’ve seen it on sale up to 12 years old, I’ve heard of it for sale up to 30 years old. One of the more unusual things about aged cheddar is that not only does it grate and shave very well, but it also retains the ability to melt nicely, which most harder cheeses don’t have.

Aged Gouda

As the British do with cheddar, so the Dutch do with gouda.

Now, I have to admit that I am not a fan of either gouda or edam normally, I find them both boring and bland and I don’t like the odd rubbery texture.

Aged gouda on the other hand is a completely different thing. It actually develops a strength of flavour that makes me think of is as a real cheese, something that bites you back a little bit while you are eating it. The texture also changes from that rubberiness into the classic hard cheese texture, firm and crumbly and a pleasure to bite into.

Gouda ages really nicely, and it’s not too difficult to find one that is 5 or 7 years old, at this point they really have nothing in common with a young gouda in terms of taste at all.

Even if you didn’t think that you liked gouda, then give the aged version a try, it might just change your mind.

Mahon seco

Mahon is one of the most popular Spanish cheeses, and ‘sec’ simply means dry in Spanish.

When mahon it is young it is mild and creamy, but after it has been aged for up to a year the flavour transforms completely. The cheese becomes intense, salty, and a bit nutty, and it develops a fantastic piquant edge.

Manchego seco

Another Spanish delight that ages beautifully, manchego is made from sheeps milk, and has a beautifully well rounded flavour.

Eat it with just about anything, but especially try it together with membrillo (quince paste) and maybe some pa amb tomàquet.

Sbrinz

Sbrinz is a Swiss cheese, again made from cows milk. It is very much like Parmigiano, but tastes just a little more cultured or refined. Sbrinz lovers (or Swiss patriots) would tell you that this is because of the clean mountain air, and great pastures that the local cows get to graze on – they might just be right.

A cheese has to be aged for a minimum of 16 months before it can legally be sold as Sprinz. As with other aged cheeses, it is normally kept for longer than this to allow the flavour to develop, and is normally sold after 24-30 months.

Sbrinz might be a bit trickier to track down that some of the others on the list, but if you can find it then it is well worth trying out.

Catalunyam

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catalunyam

This is a first, we don’t normally cover fashion or clothing issues at P&G.

What we have here though is not your average bit of clothing, it’s one of the coolest range of foodie t-shirts on the planet.

The ‘Instruccions’ range of t-shirts from Catalunyam gives you instruccions (or instructions) on how to make some classic Catalan dishes, and I want all of them!

Each shirt features a cartoon strip style illustration of how to prepare the simple but fantastic dishes.

Pa amb what?

There are currently three designs in the range. Pa amb tomàquet (bread with tomato), Allioli (garlic mayonnaise), and Calçotada (spring onion party).

The following descriptions are lifted straight from Catalunyam themselves:

Pa amb tomàquet

pamamb-small1The Catalan national dish. Very easy to prepare: you spread ripe tomato on the slice of bread – it’s better if toasted – and you add a little bit of salt (if you wish) and olive oil. You usually eat with different kinds of cheese and “embotits” (processed cold meat).

Allioli (Garlic mayonnaise)

allioli-small1Traditional Catalan sauce, perfect to accompany grilled meat. To make it, you need to beat peeled garlic in the mortar while adding oil.

(John’s note: It’s not the same as French aioli, but it is very similar.)

Calçotada

calcotada1A sort of gastronomical party that involves a group of people meeting up to eat grilled calçots (spring onions) with Romesco sauce (made of ground almonds, hazelnuts, tomato, garlic, parsley, olive oil and vinegar). It is recommended to wear a bib to avoid getting romesco stains on your shirt.

I want one!

Sadly, that might prove a bit tricky.

At the moment you can buy them in about 40 shops, but they are all in Catalalonia. You can also order them online, but the entire website is also in Catalan, so unless you speak it, or you feel comfortable ordering something and paying for it in a language that you don’t fully understand, you might have a bit of a problem.

I think they are fantastic, and we would like to sell them online through this website. Watch this space, it might happen soon.

Mughlai Chicken

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So, there is plenty of history here, a Muslim empire descended directly from Ghengis Khan who ruled a massive swathe of the Indian subcontinent for a couple of hundred years.

Like any other, the Mughal empire brought it’s own culture and customs, some spectacular architecture, and a unique cuisine. The empire is long gone, but luckily for the world plenty of the architecture and food have stuck around. Both draw their influences as much from Persia and the Middle East as they do from India, and both are fantastic.

It’s always dangerous to generalise too much, but it is fair to say that in general Mughlai dishes are milder than much of Indian cuisine, and heavily fragrant with spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. They are often thick with cream and there is a prodigious usage of almonds and other nuts.

This may not be the most authentic recipe that you will find for Mughlai chicken, but it’s not tooooooo far off either.

The thighs have it

The recipe specifies chicken thighs, and there is a reason for that. You could use breast meat if you have some kind of major aversion to the darker stuff, but it has a tendency to dry out, while the thigh meat stays moister during cooking.

Eat it with

Traditionally, dishes like this would be presented not alone, but as part of a buffet of stunning dishes, accompanied by an array of wonderful chutneys and side dishes. The modern reality is that you aren’t going to do all of that on a regular basis, but some lime pickle and mango chutney are surely not too much trouble.

You could serve it with rice and I won’t think any the less of you if you decide to do so, but for me (and authenticity) it should really be served with some fantastic Indian breads: paratha, roti or naan.

The recipe

The ingredients list is pretty long, but don’t be intimidated by it, a lot of them are just spices, and the recipe is actually really quite simple.

Ingredients

  • 2½cm Fresh ginger
  • 4 cloves Garlic
  • 2tsp Ground cumin
  • 1tsp Ground coriander
  • ½tsp Dried chilli
  • 4tbsp Ground almonds
  • 5 Cardamon pods
  • 1 Cinnamon stick
  • 2 Bay leaves
  • 4 Cloves
  • 4tbsp Vegetable oil
  • 1.5kg boned skinless chicken thighs
  • 2 Onions
  • 250ml Greek yoghurt
  • 250ml Chicken stock
  • 125ml Double cream
  • 100g Sultanas
  • 1tsp Garam masala
  • 1tbsp Caster sugar
  • 1tsp Salt
  • 75g Flaked almonds
  • Bunch fresh coriander

  1. Peel and roughly chop the ginger and garlic. In a food processor or pestle and mortar, combine them with the coriander and chilli and blend into a paste. Add the ground almonds and 125ml of water and blend again until you have a smooth paste.

  2. Chop each chicken thigh into two pieces, and fry them in the vegetable oil in deep pan. You want them to fry rather than stew, so you might find it better to do this in small batches. You should cook them until they are just golden and sealed on both sides, and then remove them from the pan and set aside for a few minutes.

  3. Peel and finely chop the onions, bruise the cardamon pods and snap the cinnamon stick in half, and add them to the hot oil together with the bay leaves and cloves. Be careful not to use too high a heat, otherwise the onions will burn and everything will become bitter. You need to cook them until the onions are light brown and softened.

  4. Pour in the paste you blended earlier, and cook for a minute or two until the whole thing starts to colour.

  5. Add the yoghurt a little at a time, stirring it in to create a sauce, and then add the stock, cream and sultanas.

  6. Add the browned chicken pieces back into the pan together with the juices that have leaked out of them while they sat, and pour over the garam masala, salt and sugar. Cover and cook on a gentle heat for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through, but not dry.

    7. Like a lot of Indian dishes, this tastes even better cooked the day before eating and then reheated, so that the spices have time to mix and permeate everything. If you are eating it tomorrow then take it off the heat and leave it now, before reheating on the hob when you want it.

  7. Pour everything into a warmed serving dish, quickly toast the flaked almonds, roughly chop the fresh coriander, and scatter both liberally over the top.

Why does my pavlova go so wrong?

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Q. My sister in Australia sent me a recipe for pavlova, but whenever I try to make it everything goes horribly wrong. Any idea what the problem might be?

A. Hmm, “Goes horribly wrong” is a bit vague.

Assuming that you are somewhere that isn’t Australia, it could just be that you are doing everything upside down.

More likely though is that your eggs are the wrong size, Australian egg sizes are quite a bit smaller than those in Europe or the US – see here: Egg Sizes.

Wine with coffee

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Q. What sort of wine should I serve with coffee. I can find wine pairing notes for just about anything else, but I can’t find out what to give people to drink with coffee.

A. I don’t know about anyone else, but personally I don’t sip one drink and then put it down and have a sip from a different cup or glass. It would seem a bit odd, so I don’t think you need to worry about this too much.

If you must find a pairing though, then you should bear in mind that coffee is naturally bitter, so a wine with a bit of sweetness would probably be the best option, try a desert wine like a Sauterne.

Another option would be to skip the wine completely, and just stick some alcohol into the coffee itself, like an Irish Coffee or a Carahijo.

My standard answer to any wine questions, would be to quote Coco Chanel and her assertion that champagne goes with everything. As the grand lady stated “I drink champagne on two occasions
- when I’m in love, and when I’m not”.
Some people might disagree, but it sounds pretty right to me.

Can I eat dog food?

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Q. I really don’t feel like going shopping, and we haven’t got anything much at home. Can I eat dog food, after all he seems to like it?

A. You can, and it is not going to kill you, even if it doesn’t overly excite your taste buds. It’s a pretty lazy way out of your current predicament though – also ever heard of ‘ordering in’?

There are standards applied to pet food, especially if it is labelled as ‘complete and balanced’, but they are not as rigorous as those that apply to production of food for humans. All pet food sold in the EU must meet the standards of the ‘Feeding Stuffs Act’, and in the US the FDA imposes standards as well as separate ones at state level.

The sad fact is that most of it probably doesn’t taste too good, but then I guess it depends how hungry you are and how much you really don’t want to go shopping.

The dry stuff is… well, dry, and there really isn’t much you can do with it. The wet stuff on the other hand can easily be disguised as a stew, just heat it up with a splash of red wine and stick some parsley on top.

Also worth noting is that whilst it might not be the best culinary option, in a corporate sense dogfooding is generally a pretty good idea.

Pot roast chicken (Gastropub style)

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There is something massively satisfying about one pot cooking. The lack of washing up and cleaning is part of it maybe, but there is something more than that, something intangible, it somehow feels homely and reassuring and right. One pot wonders are generally dishes to warm the cockles of your heart – to think of coq au vin, or oxtail soup, is to think of heartiness and warmth.

Why have I called this ‘Gastropub style’?
I don’t know really, it just seems like something you’d find on the menu in an English pub that has decided to shy away from the frozen lasagne and scampi that are, sadly, standard fare in many such places, and has a cook who is actually willing and able to chop a few ingredients and combine some flavours.

When I think of this dish, I invariably imagine eating it on a tattered sofa, in front of a roaring fire, and a decent pint of ale on hand to wash it down with. Of course, it would taste just as good anywhere else, especially on a cold rainy February day when the thought of going outside is simply abhorrent

Without further ado then…

Take one big pot…

Ingredients

  • 1 Chicken
  • A bunch of young carrots
  • 10 New potatoes
  • 4 Onions
  • 2 Bay leaves
  • Bunch fresh rosemary
  • 1 Lemon
  • Olive oil
  • 300g Pancetta (or bacon) lardons
  • ½ bottle Decent white wine
  • ½tbsp Dijon mustard
  • Bunch fresh coriander

  1. Preheat the oven to 170°C

  2. In a heavy casserole pot, heat a little olive oil and gently cook the lardons until they are lightly brown.

  3. Wash the carrots and potatoes and add to the pot, giving it a good stir to make sure that everything is coated in the oil.

  4. Add the wine and bay leaves, and bring to the boil.

  5. Meanwhile wash the chicken, cut a few deep slices in the lemon and stuff it together with the rosemary into the chicken. Then rub the chicken all over with olive oil and season with a little salt and black pepper.

  6. Once the wine is boiling, turn the heat off and sit the chicken on top of the vegetables. Put the lid on and pop it into the oven for 1 hour.

  7. After an hour take the lid off of the pot and put it back into the oven for another 30 minutes to allow the skin of the chicken to go brown and crispy.

  8. Remove the chicken and vegetables, arrange the veg on a serving plate, put the chicken on the top and keep warm.

  9. Put the pan with the cooking liquid back on the hob over a moderate heat and reduce until it is quite thick. Stir in the mustard and roughly chopped coriander, and season to taste.

  10. Carve the chicken at the table, pour over the thickened sauce, and eat it while it’s hot!

Tomato Jam

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My house is awash with bits of paper with recipes, and notes on recipes, scrawled across them. Some of them live in folders, but the majority have managed to escape, and migrate freely around the house, popping up from time to time when they feel that they need to be cooked or annotated.

This recipe for tomato jam is one such paper that meandered too close to human grasp. I don’t know where it came from, the writing is mine, although the recipe almost certainly wasn’t originally. I do remember that I have made it several times and it has been reliably and unfailingly fantastic.

Tomato jam

Why wouldn’t you be making jam from tomatoes, although we eat them mostly in savoury dishes the humble tomato, when good and ripe, is a wonderfully sweet thing. The recipe also contains a decent amount of onions, which again are sweeter than you might think, when cooked in the right way.

What you will end up with from this recipe is a jam that is mellow and unpretentious, but still bursting with flavour. Personally I wouldn’t be spreading it on my toast in the morning, but it really is wonderful served up with crackers and a decent cheese, or added to a ham sandwich.

If you are already aware of the joys of tomato jam then this is a simple recipe for a yummy version, and if you aren’t, well then you really should allow us to convert you.

The recipe

Ingredients

  • 1tbsp Olive oil
  • 300g Sliced onion
  • ½tbsp Garlic – crushed & chopped
  • 1½tsp Sea salt
  • 1½tsp Black pepper
  • 2tbsp Balsamic vinegar
  • 2tbsp Lemon juice
  • 75g Brown sugar
  • 7 Large ripe tomatoes

  1. Heat the oil in a heavy based pan and gently cook the onions over a low heat for about 10 minutes, until softened.

  2. Add the garlic and cook for another 5 minutes.

  3. Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the tomatoes, and let it cook for another 5 minutes until the sugar has dissolved completely and everything is a bit bubbly and volcanic looking.

  4. Add the tomatoes together with a cup of water, lower the heat, and simmer covered for about half an hour.

  5. Take off the lid, turn up the heat and jammify, stirring regularly. This should take about 15 minutes, but you will be able to see when you have the consistency of jam that like.