Author: Robert Beerworth

I love cooking, wine, travel, my three boys, and two girls, Avalon and my beautiful wife and best friend and cook, Nat...

Basic Hollandaise Sauce

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4 – 6

I believe that Hollandaise Sauce is one of those staples that Gordon Ramsay demands you cook for him in Kitchen Nightmares (which of course you can’t) before he rubbishes your grubby restaurant and then rebuilds it by simplifying your menu, throwing out all your furniture and putting a sign out front.

So best you know this simple and classic version then, kindly supplied (though not cooked) by my father.

My mother bemoans that she fast-tracks this sauce by using a food processor though I don’t know what she is talking about. I doubt Gordon would either and not before he threw a chair at you.

Get the water-bath going and do it right.

(And have an ice-cube ready if the sauce splits; just whisk it in a voila!)

Ingredients

4 large egg yolks
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp Dijon mustard
170gm (12 tbsp) unsalted butter, melted
Pinch of cayenne
Sea salt

Method

  1. Position a large heatproof bowl over a pot of barely simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water.
  2. In the bowl, whisk the yolks, lemon juice, and mustard until well combined.
  3. Gradually whisk in the butter in a thin stream and keep whisking until the sauce is thick enough for the whisk to leave tracks that hold for a couple of seconds, 1 to 2 minutes.
  4. Whisk in the cayenne and season to taste with salt.
  5. Keep the sauce warm in its bowl set over the simmering water, whisking occasionally, until ready to use.

Crudo of Kingfish with Campari dressing

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4 – 6

This is a really elegant dish. Light, subtle and incredibly presentable.

Nat and I prepared this a few weeks ago with some sashimi-grade kingfish from the markets and as a starter as part of a larger meal, it is a great way to kick-off.

Ingredients

1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced (beards reserved for decoration)
3 baby beetroot, thinly sliced
½ c white wine vinegar
¼ c sugar
2 oranges
1/3 c Campari
¼ c extra virgin olive oil
1 x 250gm sashimi grade kingfish fillet

Method

  1. To pickle the fennel and beetroot, place vinegar and sugar in a saucepan of a medium heat. Simmer for 1-2 minutes until the sugar has dissolved. Divide the liquid into two bowls and add the fennel to one bowl and the beetroot to the other. Allow to pickle for at least 20 minutes and up to a day.
  2. Peel 1 of the oranges and segment the flesh. Cut 2-3 segments into very small pieces. Juice the remaining orange.
  3. Mix the Campari, olive oil and 2 or 3 tbps orange juice in a bowl. Season and set aside.
  4. Slice the fish into 4mm slices. Arrange on a large platter and pour over the Campari dressing. Top with picked fennel and beetroot, the orange segments and the fennel beards.

KFC Slaw

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

Serves: 6 – 8 as a side

No need to say much else except that this is pretty close to that horribly good coleslaw you get at KFC.

Thank me later.

Ingredients

8 c finely sliced or diced white and red cabbage
½ c grated carrot
4 tbsp minced onion
1 tsp sugar
Salt and pepper
¼ c milk
¼ c buttermilk
½ c mayonnaise
1 ½ tbsp white vinegar
2 ½ tbsp lemon juice

Method

  1. Process all the ingredients (except the vegetables), pour over the vegetables, mix thoroughly and chill for several hours or overnight.

Swiss Cheese Fondue

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

Say what you will, though nobody doesn’t like fondue.

And as a child of the 80s – growing up with parents that played squash and friends that had Rubik’s cubes – there was still plenty of a fondue hangover in my family from the 60s and 70s for me to have had my fair share.

And fair share I did.

Whilst the meat and chocolate varieties were pretty good, it was the cheese fondue my parents would prepare that my brothers and I would most look forward to; sitting around the fondue set, threading bread onto our fondue forks, covering them in the melted cheese mixture and repeating and repeating until it was all gone.

This is my mother’s recipe and I can attest to it being amazing.

I know its daggy and who knows when you can find a fondue set these days, though our parent’s generation was not entirely a culinary desert and the fondue is proof of that.

Ingredients

500gm Swish cheese, grated
1 tbsp flour
1 c dry white wine
1 clove garlic, halved
Salt and pepper to taste
6 tbsp Kirsch
Cubed French bread

Method

  1. Dredge the cheese thoroughly with the flour.
  2. Rub a fondue pot with the garlic, and bring the wine almost to a boil.
  3. Add the cheese slowly, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon (in one direction only), until the cheese is melted. Season with salt and pepper.
  4. When the fondue starts to boil, add Kirsch. Serve at once with the cubed bread.

Spaghetti Carbonara

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

Almost everyone claims to have an amazing pasta recipe in their repertoire.

Often, this is a Carbonara.

For me, Carbonara is the king of pastas, be it spaghetti, fettucine or farfalle. Indeed, it is very rare for me to go past a Carbonara in an Italian restaurant, especially when I know it will be one of those terrible though amazing cream-based numbers with enough calories to whack an elephant.

This recipe – originally from my mother – is one I have been cooking since I was a teenager. In fact, for as long as I can remember cooking, I have been doing this number.

It is perfect after a long day at the beach or shopping. Bottle of wine, something on TV and you will be in absolute heaven.

Ingredients

9 slices bacon, trimmed and julienned
6 tablespoons olive oil
5 tablespoons butter
½ c julienned ham or prosciutto
12 tbsp grated parmesan + extra to sprinkle
6 eggs, beaten
Salt and pepper
Spaghetti or other pasta

Method

  1. Cook the pasta.
  2. Brown the bacon and pour off any fat. Add the olive oil, butter and ham and sauté for 5 minutes without browning.
  3. Remove from the heat and stir in the parmesan and beaten eggs. Place over heat only sufficiently to firm up the sauce.
  4. Season with salt and pepper and pour over spaghetti.
  5. No regrets.

Nat’s (holiday) Espresso Martini

.Reading time 2 minutes.

 

IMG_7047
Eat your hearts out: this is not stock photography!
IMG_7043
The magic resting on ice in a mineral water bottle. Not sure where the mineral water went though not nonplussed.

Serves: 2

First off the bat, Nat wants me to remind anyone reading this recipe that she worked in a bar for five years. So that she can make a mean cocktail, refill a cigarette machine or call last drinks should surprise nobody.

So here we are in gorgeous Koh Samui, me just waking from an afternoon nap, when Nat appears with a coffee martini.

And what a coffee martini!

Literally, the best I have ever had. Not too sweet, not too bitter, just perfect.

I knew this was coming after we got some Kaluah after lunch, though the completeness and presentation was what made the whole thing so extraordinary. With an empty mineral water bottle, the Nespresso machine in our room and a bunch of Macgyver tricks, Nat delivered as good as any bar or club could.

Even better were the glasses she found under our television. I would have been happy drinking it from out of a shoe, though the glass was a real added bonus!

Enjoy! And thank you Nat. What a treat!

Ingredients

2 shots (50ml) vodka
1 shot (25ml)  Kaluah (basically 2 parts vodka to 1 part coffee liqueur)
1 shot espresso
Ice

Method

  1. Pour the vodka, coffee liqueur and espresso into a cocktail shaker.  Fill the martini glass with ice to chill and then fill the cocktail shaker (or mineral water bottle or shoe) with ice as well. Shake the shaker and shake it crazy.
  2. Empty most of the contents into the glasses and then strain the rest to get a rich froth.
  3. Garnish with three coffee beans.

Nigella’s Pea Risotto

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

How can you not love Nigella?

She is everything in food we want but dare not eat: butter, lard, bread, chocolate and cream.

Which is probably why it has been years since I last cooked this particular recipe, though memorable enough that it beat hundreds of recipes in the backlog to make it online.

The pea puree component is on another planet and you will be strong not to eat it in isolation.

Also, adding the oil to the butter apparently stops the butter from melting though in this buttery, cheesey, gooey mess of goodness, you’re not seriously going to pull back from a drop of oil?

Open a beer, cook this and stay warm one winter’s weekend lunch.

It is worth every calorie.

60gm butter
150gm frozen peas
1l chicken stock
Grated nutmeg
2 tbsp grated Parmesan
1 small onion, finely chopped
Drop of oil
200g arborio rice
80ml white wine or vermouth

Method

  1. Melt 1/3 of the butter and add the frozen peas. Cook for 2 minutes until defrosted then remove 1/2 the peas and add a ladle of stock to the remaining peas. Pop on the lid and boil for 5 minutes until soft. Puree this with 1 tbsp parmesan, 1 tbsp butter and a pinch of pepper and nutmeg. Check the seasoning and dial up the nutmeg if you so desire.
  2. Turn the heat down and melt the remaining butter and the drop of oil. Add your onion and cook for 1 minute. Don’t let it brown. Add the rice and stir to coat, turn the heat down and add a ladle of stock, cooking down until absorbed. Repeat for 10 minutes, adding a splash of wine or water if and as need be.
  3. Add the reserved peas and continue to cook for another 5 – 10 minutes, continuing to add the stock and reducing slowly.
  4. When the risotto is cooked, beat in the pea puree and the extra tbsp. of parmesan and serve.

Jamie Oliver’s Bombay chicken with cauliflower, rice and spinach

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 2

You have to give it to Jamie.

Everything he has done to advance food and healthy eating, at all levels, is just awesome. It is reflected in the fun and creativity of his recipes and as much as I love to point out that no 30-minute meal of his can be done in 30 minutes, who care when you’re eating this well.

This particular dish is super healthy, super tasty and a lot of fun to prep up if you work as a team with a glass of vino each. Nice spice, beautiful, creamy texture.

And it cooks in one dish.

As is consistently true with Jamie, so, so good.

Ingredients

100g brown rice
½ a small cauliflower
½ a bunch of fresh mint
6 tbsp natural yogurt
1 lemon
1 heaped tsp each of ground turmeric, medium curry powder
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
3cm piece of ginger, grated
2 chicken breasts
1 level tsp each of cumin seeds, black mustard seeds
60g baby spinach
1 fresh red chilli
4 poppadoms

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 220c. Cook the rice in a pan of boiling salted water according to the packet instructions.
  2. Chop the cauliflower into thin wedges and steam or microwave until cooked. Pick the mint leaves into a blender (reserving a few baby leaves). Add 3 tablespoons of yogurt, half the lemon juice and a splash of water to the blender, then blitz for 1 minute until super-smooth and green. Transfer to a bowl and then the fridge.
  3. Without washing the blender, add the remaining yogurt and lemon juice, the turmeric, curry powder balsamic, garlic and ginger. Blend until super-smooth to make a marinade, then pour into a large baking tray.
  4. Lightly score the chicken breasts to increase the surface area and toss in the marinade. Add the cooked cauliflower, tossing together with the chicken; sprinkle over the cumin and black mustard seeds, then place in the oven for 15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. meanwhile, cook the rice.
  5. Slice and divide up the chicken, with the cauliflower, rice, spinach and poppadoms. Drizzle with the dressing, then finely slice and scatter over the chilli. Finish with mint leaves.

Rockpool’s Peas with slow-cooked egg

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 6 – 8

Nat and I served this as a side to Rick Stein’s wonderful Escalopes of Salmon with a Champagne and Chive sauce; we also served Rockpool’s twice cooked, thick, hand cut chips.

Rather than use tinned peas, we used frozen peas which would have reduced the intensity of the pea taste; next time, I’ll make the effort and use tinned peas. Also, rather than do the egg in a sous vide, we poached it for a few minutes.

(I’ve typed up the recipe this way, though by all means, if you have 2 hours, place your egg in the sous vide at 60c and gloat.)

This is a really effective side with no end to variations; lardons of jamon, stewed tomatoes, pecorino cheese shaved on top, mascarpone, whatever.

Better still, this dish shows you give a damn about serving dinner, complete right to the edges and sides.

Serve with steak, a braise or fish and show your guests that tinned peas didn’t in fact die in the Great War!

300g tinned green peas, drained, liquid reserved
1 egg
¼ c extra virgin olive oild (plus extra for drizzling)
1 French shallot (eschalot)
2 anchovy fillets
1 garlic clove
½ dry long red chilli
180ml white chicken stock
lemon juice to taste
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp chiffonade flat leaf parsley, plus extra to serve

Method

  1. Poach your egg so the yolk will run.
  2. Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium-low heat. Add the shallot, anchovy, garlic and chilli and sauté until soft and sweet. Add the peas, 2 ½ tbsp. of reserved pea liquid and the chicken stock.
  3. Flatten the peas with the back of a spoon and cook until they are soft, the liquid has reduced and the mixture has thickened. Season to taste with the lemon juice and salt and pepper. Stir through the parsley and spoon onto a serving plate.
  4. Very carefully crack the egg on top. Season to taste, drizzle with some olive oil and sprinkle with the extra parsley.

Rick Stein’s Escalopes of Salmon with a Champagne and Chive sauce

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4

Got you at Champagne right?

Classic Rick Stein at his best, Nat and I served this at a lunch with our parents and it was a homerun; ditto the meeting of parents.

Apart from the delicacy and taste of this recipe, best is that you can make most of the sauce in advance, giving plenty of opportunity to fend off the continual barrage of humiliating stories being gleefully shot across your bows by parents:

“I remember when Robert wrote off a car…”

“Ha, that’s nothing, I remember when Natalie wrote of a yacht…”

“Tiny compared to when Robert…”

Die.

750gm salmon fillet
2 tbsp sunflower oil
Salt

Champagne and chive sauce

30g unsalted butter
1 French shallot, finely chopped
100ml champagne + 1tbsp
600ml fish stock
½ tsp caster sugar
50ml double cream
2 tsp chopped chives

Method

  1. Cut the salmon fillet into 12 escalopes; slices length ways, around half a centimeter thick. Brush each one with oil, season with a little salt and lay on a slightly oiled tray.
  2. Melt 10gm of the butter in a medium-sized saucepan. Add 1 finely chopped shallot and cook gently without colouring, until soft. Add 100ml of champagne and boil for 2 minutes. Add the fish stock and the sugar and boil rapidly until reduced by three-quarters. Add the double cream, bring back to the boil and then simmer until it has reached a good sauce consistency.
  3. Keep warm (whilst defending your reputation).
  4. Whisk together another 50ml double cream with 1 tbsp champagne and the chives until it forms soft peaks.
  5. When you are ready to serve, pre-heat the grill to high and bring the sauce back to the boil, whisk in 20gm butter, then the whipped cream mixture.
  6. Grill (or pan fry) the salmon for 30 seconds per side until just firm.
  7. Overlap the escalopes in a center of each warmed plate and pour the sauce around. Sprinkle with a few chopped chives and serve immediately while the sauce is still foaming.