Tag: Claudia roden

Claudia Roden’s Provençale Daube

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 6 – 8

Red wine. Beef juices. Garlic, Orange peel. Herbs and spices. And hours of time in the oven or on the stove.

Nothing to assume this isn’t a marvellous winter lunch party dish.

Served with a Parmesan polenta, braised mushrooms and green beans, this was comfort dialed up.

We lit the fire pit, turned up the music and wow, didn’t this make for a great afternoon.

Skip breakfast and thank me later.

Ingredients

4 tbsp olive oil
1.5kg beef, cut into large pieces*
2 large onions, each cut into 6 wedges
125gm unsmoked pancetta or diced streaky bacon
5 garlic cloves, peeled
500gm carrots, cut into 1.5cm slices
1 bottle of red wine
2 bay leaves
4 – 5 thyme sprigs
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground allspice
3 – 4 cloves
2 – 3 tsp sugar
Strips of peel from 1 orange
3 – 4 tbsp cognac or grappa (optional)
Salt and black pepper

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a large heavy-based pan or casserole over medium heat, put in the meat and cook, turning the pieces to brown all over.
  2. Remove the meat to a plate and put the onions and pancetta into the pan. Sauté for about 6 minutes, stirring until the onions are lightly coloured and the pancetta releases its fat. Add the garlic for the last minute or so, then the carrots, and season.
  3. Return the meat to the pan, pour in the wine and add the herbs and spices, sugar and orange peel. Add water to cover, bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to low, cover the pan, and simmer very gently for 2 – 3 hours, keeping the meat submerged, until it is so tender, you can cut it with a spoon. Towards the end of the cooking time, remove the orange peel and if you like, add the cognac.**

* My brother-in-law Sean really dropped in a cracking rump cap a week ago. He is a master of the BBQ and we share notes, ideas and recipes. We even once had a reverse-sear vs sous vide rib eye bone in challenge (he won ever so slightly, though a win is a win). Anyway, he would never have done a rump cap in a 6 hour braise, though my reading was that it was a perfect cut and indeed… it was.

If you can get a rump cap, trim it and this will be perfect.

** I did the main cooking time in the oven at 160c. After 2 hours, I removed the lid and cooked down the liquid for another hour or two. Would do it again.

Claudia Roden’s Fresh Goats’ Cheese with Herbs and Olives

.Reading time 1 minute.

Makes: 8 – 10 toasts

Monday of a long weekend in Sydney: a Saturday and Sunday filled with chores, a concert for Nat and a birthday party for Max and his class.

So Monday is ours.

Which obviously – obviously – means a long lunch. French. Obviously.

We started with these toasts and my word, they are elegant.

The addition of the white rum is genius. The anise flavour adds such a quality.

And on a fresh, toasted baguette.

If these were trotting around a wedding as canapes, you’d know you were in for a good night.

Next dinner party, these are definitely coming out. Awesome.

Ingredients

150gm fresh goats’ cheese
1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp pastis, arak, raki or ouzo – or white rum
1 small garlic cloves, crushed
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 tbsp snipped fresh chives
5 pitted black olives, chopped, to garnish
Sliced, toasted baguettes or other toasts

Method

  1. Using a fork, mash the goats’ cheese with the oil, pastis and garlic and season with a little black pepper.
  2. Spread on toasts and garnish with a spinkling of herbs and olives.

Claudia Roden’s Sweet and Sour Minty Grilled Courgettes

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4

One of my favourite BBQ tricks is to toss sliced zucchini with oil, chilli and garlic and to grill alongside the chicken, pork, whatever.

It dials things up and shows a bit of effort.

This dish goes further and the addition of the ricotta is wonderful.

Nat absolutely loved the sweet and sour of the sauce and of course, it can all be prepared in advance.

Ingredients

3 courgettes (zucchini), cut lengthways into 1cm-thick slices
Olive or sunflower oil
100ml white wine vinegar
50gm sugar
1 tbsp dried mint
Salt and black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil, to serve

Whipped ricotta

250gm smooth ricotta
1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Grated zest of 1/2 small lemon
Salt and pepper, to taste

Method

  1. For the ricotta, whip the ricotta with the oil, lemon zest and season.
  2. Preheat a grill to high. Brush the courgettes with oil on both sides and sprinkle with salt. Grill on the BBQ or on a griddle pan for about 10 minutes until tender and lightly browned in places.
  3. Heat the vinegar and sugar with the dried mint and some pepper in a small pan over a medium heat, stirring until the sugar melts, then simmer for 2 minutes to reduce it a little. Arrange the courgette slices side by side on a serving plates pour the vinegar dressing over them and add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Serve with the whipped ricotta.

Claudia Roden’s Pan-Grilled Fish with Garlic, Vinegar and Chilli

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 2

This Spanish dish is fabulous.

Read through the ingredients and you’ll immediately get a sense of the simplicity coming.

The lightly golden garlic with sherry vinegar. A beautifully pan-fried piece of fish. And the side of the cannellini beans.

Together with this salad of roasted carrots, it is ironically yet unironically a 1-hat meal.

An absolute joy.

I doubled the recipe and so baked the fish. The sauce doubled perfectly.

Ingredients

2 hake, bream or sea bas fillets, skin on
4 tbs extra virgin olive oil
5 large garlic cloves, sliced
Good pinch of chilli pepper
2 – 3 tsp sherry vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
Salt

White Cannellini Beans

1 onion, chopped
3 tbs extra virgin olive oil
400gm tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
A few fresh thyme leaves
Salt and pepper

Method

  1. For the cannellini beans, fry the onion in 1 tbs of oil over a low heat, stirring until softened and beginning to colour. Add the cannellini beans. Season, add the thyme, add 100ml water and cook covered for 5 minutes. Set aside and serve with a drizzle of 1 – 2 tbs oil.
  2. Season the fish with salt. Heat 1 tbs of the oil in a heavy non-stick frying pan. Put the fillets in, skin-side down and press them down with a spatula to flatten them as the skin curls. Cook over a medium-heat until the skin is crisp and lightly browned. They will gradually cook through almost to the top. When ready, turn and cook the flesh side for a few seconds more.
  3. For the dressing, in a small pan, gently heat the remaining 3 tbs of oil with the garlic and chilli until the garlic is only just lightly golden and crunchy (do no let it get brown). Take off the heat and add the vinegar, to taste.
  4. Serve the fish very hot, with the dressing poured over, sprinkled with parsley.

Claudia Roden’s Spicy Roasted Carrot Salad

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 6 – 8

This Moroccan starter is particularly delicious.

I served it as a side and wow, you could do a whole lot worse.

I only did half the carrots asked for in the recipe and so of course the spicy cooking sauce was doubled. Absolutely no regrets.

Serve it with some labneh and this would literally pair with anything.

Ingredients

1kg medium carrots, peeled
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 – 3 tbs olive oil
1 tbs honey
Juice of 1/2 – 1 lemon, to taste
Chilli pepper, to taste (optional)
Salt and black pepper
2 tbs extra virgin olive oil, to serve
3 tbs roughly chopped coriander

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180c.
  2. Cut the carrots in half, then cut them in half so that you have wide sticks.* Put them in a baking dish.
  3. In a bowl, put the cumin, coriander, cinnamon, ginger, garlic, olive oil, honey, lemon juice and chilli (if using). Season, mix very well and pour over the carrots, turning with your hands until they are coated all over.
  4. Bake for about 1 hour until the carrots are tender, turning them over once. Leave to cool.
  5. Serve at room temperature with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of coriander.

* I used baby carrots and so did not cut.

Claudia Roden’s Stuffed Peppers with Breadcrumbs, Anchovies, Olives and Capers

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 6

What a simple, elegant way to kick off a meal.

A lightly stuffed Romano pepper, with a fragrant, Mediterranean stuffing of anchovies, olives, capers, parsley, breadcrumbs and olive oil.

This was the first recipe I cooked from Claudia Roden’s new book Med and I am in love. As I type, I am eight recipes in and each has been such a great, simple example of how a few ingredients and flavours can bring so much joy.

This dish could very easily be prepared in advance, mixing the breadcrumbs and parsley with the balance of the stuffing at the last minute.

Lovely.

Ingredients

3 Romano peppers, cut in half lengthways and seeded
6 anchovy fillets in oil, drained and chopped
6 good quality black olives, such as Kalamata, pitted and chopped
1 tbs tiny capers in brine, drained and squeezed
Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley leaves chopped
40gm fresh breadcrumbs
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 150c. Line a roasting tin with foil and arrange the peppers cut-side up on the foil. Roast for about 30 minutes until they are soft. Leave to cool.
  2. Mix all the remaining ingredients together to make a stuffing. When the peppers are cool enough to handle, put a little stuffing into each and serve at room temperature.