Tag: gordon ramsay

Gordon Ramsay’s Home-made Gnocchi with Peas

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4

Nat cooked this one for a simple lunch a little while back and the gnocchi is probably the best I have had.

Entirely incomparable to something you would get in a pack, dry or otherwise. We have previously used Anne Burrell’s gnocchi recipe as our go to, though the addition of ricotta here means that when pan fried, the creaminess against the golden, crunchy exterior is just melt-good mad.

The pea sauce is subtle and just a lovely pairing.

A few years ago, this is the sort of thing a hatted restaurant might put up. A real nod to simplicity.

Open a bottle of white, serve with a salad (we served it with this Gordon Ramsay salad) and you have a home lunch you’ll be grinning at.

Ingredients

2 large floury potatoes
50gm ricotta cheese
90gm plain flour
1 large egg, beaten
1 thyme sprig, leaves only
Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
Grated Parmesan cheese to serve

For the sauce

Olive oil, for frying
Freshly ground black pepper
150gm peas, podded if fresh, defrosted if frozen
Butter
1 thyme sprig, leaves only
Zest of 1 lemon

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200c. Bake the potatoes in their skins for 1 – 1 1/4 hours until tender the whole way through. Remove the flesh from the skins (while still warm) and mash until spoon – use a potato ricer if you can. Mix in the ricotta, a pinch of salt and white pepper and the flour. Make a well in the middle, add the beaten egg and begin to combine the mixture with floured hands. Work in the thyme leaves and continue until a smooth dough has formed. (Be careful not to overwork the dough or it will end up too dense and won’t expand when it goes into the water.)
  2. Cut the dough in half and shape each piece into a long cigar shape about 1.5cm thick. Using the back of a floured table knife, cut each length into 2cm pieces to make ‘pillows’ of individual gnocchi. Gently press each one in the centre using your floured finger. The dent will hold more sauce and allow the gnocchi to take on more flavour.
  3. Bring a large pan of water to the boil. Add the gnocchi, tilting the pan from side to side briefly to stop them sticking together, then simmer for 1 1/2 – 2 minutes until they start to float. Drain the gnocchi and leave them to steam-dry for 1 – 2 minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, start to make the sauce. Heat a frying over a medium-high heat and add a little olive oil. Add the gnocchi to the hot pan with a pinch of salt and black pepper and sauté for 1 – 2 minutes on each side until nicely coloured.
  5. Add the peas to the pan with a knob of butter and the thyme leaves. Toss to heat through, then add the lemon zest. Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Gordon Ramsay’s Roasted Red Onion Vinaigrette with Green Bean Salad

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 4 – 6

This Gordon Ramsay salad is as simple as it is wonderful.

It’s meaty which is at odds with all of the green leaf salads I serve up; making it almost a meal in itself.

Which made sense when paired with a wonderfully delicate gnocchi that Nat served.

The vinaigrette itself would go just wonderfully with green leaves, adding some volume and texture. And of course, the wonderful flavour of the roasted red onions.

I love finding a new vinaigrette and this is the latest. Enjoy.

Ingredients

125gm runner beans
125gm French beans
125gm sugarsnap peas
Roughly chopped mint and parsley

For the Vinaigrette

2 red onions, peeled and halved
150ml extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for roasting
2 thyme sprigs
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
50ml sherry vinegar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

  1. First make the vinaigrette. Preheat the oven to 220c. Place the onions in a roasting tray with a little olive oil, the thyme, garlic and a little salt and roast for 25 – 30 minutes until the onions are completely cooked and have a nice roasted flavour.
  2. Remove the onions from the tray and chop into a rough dice (you want the dressing to have a rustic texture). Mix the onions with the 150ml extra virgin olive oil and the sherry vinegar and season with a little salt and pepper to taste.
  3. To make the salad, blanch the beans by plunging them in boiling, salted water for 1 1/2 minutes until their rawness has been removed but they are still crunchy. Refresh immediately in cold water, then remove and out onto kitchen paper to absorb the moisture. Cut each bean into bit-sized pieces. *
  4. Put the chopped beans into a large bowl, stir in the red onion dressing and toss with the parsley and mint. Serve immediately in chilled bowls.

* Or microwave in a suitable container with a little water.

Gordon Ramsay’s Pan-fried Sea Trout, Peas & Chorizo Fricassée

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 2

This is simply a great, 1-hat bistro lunch.

Nat took a day of work – as we all really need to do during this endless Sydney lockdown – and presented this with a glass of Krinklewood Verdelho (if in the Hunter Valley, visit their vineyard: it is wonderful as are the wines) and as we sat in the sun, we agreed that it was moments like these that made the long weeks and routine bearable.

The fricassée gives the dish a rustic, moorish backbone – chorizo, potato, paprika and peas – and the warm caper dressing just finishes it.

We have never cooked a disappointing Gordon Ramsay recipe and this lunch just continued that tradition.

This dish would be perfect for any Saturday lunch though my pro tip: have it on Monday and beat the lockdown!

And vino of course!

Ingredients

2 fillets of sea/ocean trout (or use salmon)
2 tbsp butter
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon, halved

For the fricassée

100gm cured chorizo (1 small chorizo), diced
350gm waxy potatoes (we used kipflers)
Large pinch sweet smoked paprika
125ml fresh chicken stock
150gm cooked peas

For the warm caper dressing

3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp small capers, drained
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
Small bunch tarragon, chopped

Method

  1. For the dressing: Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a small saucepan. Add the capers as well as the onion and cook for 3 minutes until softened. Add red wine vinegar and cook down until evaporated. Add in the rest of the oil plus the tarragon and leave to infuse.
  2. For the fricassee: heat the oil in a saute pan, add the chorizo and fry for two minutes until crisp and the red oil has rendered out. Add the potatoes and paprika and cook for 5 minute until the chorizo is starting to get browned edges.
  3. Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil; and then simmer for 10 minutes or until the stock has evaporated and the potatoes are tender. Stir in the peas and cook for another two minutes. Set aside and keep warm.
  4. For the fish: Score the skin of the trout and season generously.
  5. Heat the butter inside a non-stick frying pan. When it begins to sizzle. cook the fish skin-side down. Gently fry for 8 minutes until the skin is crisp and golden and the fish on its way to being cooked.
  6. Turn the fish and squeeze over the juice of half a lemon, basting the fish with all the lemony pan juice for a 1 minute whilst it cooks. Set aside in the pan.
  7. To plate: Spoon a pile of the fricassee into the centre of each plate. Gentley sit the fish on-top, skin side up (if using). Spoon the caper dressing around the outside and serve.

Gordon Ramsay 1-million Subscriber Burger

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Serves: 4

It is a truism, though an average burger is just that.

A waste of the calories. A waste of the excitement.

You’re in a resort and you order a burger and fries for lunch and the beef is well done and devoid of flavour; there is no love in the bun or the accompaniments.

A wasted meal.

Actually, I take it back.

An average burger is terrible.

It defeats the purpose.

Conversely, a brilliant burger is heaven.

It is the last meal and something you describe for days.

I learnt a while back that it fundamentally comes down to the beef. The quality, the fat, when it is ground and how it is cooked.

And so if if you read no more, based on this burger I am about to go into:

50 – 70% brisket

30 – 50% chuck

100gm butter per 1kg

Grind as thick as you can – the coarsest grain – and cook as soon as you can over a super-high grill.

This is the second time I have cooked this burger by Gordon Ramsay and it is the best burger I have ever had.

Which is not to say it has to be, though his key regarding the beef combination, butter and cooked rare (of course) is central. Any burger would be genius with this alone.

The recipe was released by Gordon after he hit 1-million Instagram subscribers.

He uses smoky bacon though I crisped up streaky bacon.

Otherwise, the rest is in relatively intact though I have rewritten the method.

It kills me when I make burgers for the kids from store-bought mince.

Though no more.

I don’t cut corners on much cooking. Burger meat will be the same going forward.

This is the best burger you will ever have if you follow the steps.

(And then adapt it!)

Ingredients

1kg equal brisket and chuck
100gm frozen butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Olive oil
4 slices Swiss cheese

4 large portobello mushroom cups, step and gills removed
Garlic powder
4 large eggs
8 slices of streaky bacon, crispy and drained of fat
2 cups rocket
2 Roma tomatoes, sliced

4 brioche buns
Butter for buttering

1/2 cup egg mayonnaise
4 tbsp sriracha sauce
Pinch of sauce

Method

  1. Pre-heat your grill to medium-high.
  1. Get the bottoms of the mushrooms cooking. They will take time to soften and breakdown: at least 30 minutes. Of course, do not let them burn.
  2. Good time to start crisping up the bacon in a pan.
  1. Mince the beef with the frozen butter; otherwise, get your butcher to mince the beef and shave the frozen butter in a combine well. (The sooner to cook time this can happen, the better and if this blog has not sold you on it, supermarket mince is no substitute.)
  2. Form four equal, thick patties and refrigerate to chill. Remember they will shrink. Season well.
  3. Mix together the mayo, sriracha and salt.
  1. Butter the buns and grill them bottom side-down until they are browned.
  2. Turn up the grill, oil the beef patties and pop them on the grill.
  3. Flip the mushroom so that you can sprinkle a good pinch of garlic powder into each and then crack an egg into each.
  4. Flip the burgers after a minute or two. Cook for a minute more and then Swiss cheese on all until it melts.
  5. Take the burgers off and then the mushrooms when the eggs are done.
  6. Assemble: brioche, sriracha mayo, mushroom/egg, beef, tomato, rocket and more sriracha mayo on the top bun.
  7. Open a beer if you have not already done so by now.

Gordon Ramsay’s Lasagne al Forno

.Reading time 4 minutes.

Gordon Ramsay’s Lasagne al Forno

Serves: 4 – 6

Innovation when it comes to lasagne, spaghetti bolognese and the like, is neither wide, nor particularly wanted.

We crave these pastas because we know these pastas; and thankfully, adding a twist with the addition of milk, or anchovies or diced bacon, doesn’t really screw with the formulae or take them too far away from what we crave.

Having already typed up a lasagne – and certainly having cooked plenty of other variations in the past – I was unsure of whether I should type this one up.

Not because it isn’t amazing because it is.

Though for all the other reasons. Anchovies and bacon, cream and ricotta, a good lasagne is all you asked for and so how many nip-tuck variations do you really need?

You need to try this one.

Sure, it’s ultimately just a lasagne, though I type it up for two reasons.

Firstly – as I said – it really is very good. And secondly, to get you to cook lasagne, something we just don’t cook enough of.

Cook what the people want and they want this lasagne.

Ingredients

2 tbsp oilive oil
½ large onion, grated
1 large carrot, grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 pinches, dried oregano
500gm minced beef
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp red wine
400gm can tomatoes
50ml milk
Salt and freshly ground pepper

For the sauce

25gm butter
25gm flour
300ml milk
Pinch of ground nutmeg
60gm Cheddar cheese, grated
30gm Parmesan cheese, grated

6 sheets, lasagne sheets

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 220.
  2. Heat the oil in a large, heavy saucepan over a medium-high heat; cook the onion, carrot and garlic, adding the bay leaf, a pinch of oregano, the Worcestershire sauce and a little salt and pepper. Cook until the onion is softened.
  3. Add the mince and break up; add the tomato puree and cook, stirring, until the meat is browned.
  4. Add the wine and cook of the alcohol before adding the tomatoes. Simmer for a few minutes. Add the milk and set aside from the heat.
  5. Cheese Sauce: Melt the butter in a saucepan. Ad the flour and using a wooden spoon, stir to form a paste. Over a gentle heat, add a third of the milk, whisking to prevent any lumps forming. Add the rest of the milk slowly, whisking as you go. Season with salt and pepper and a ground of nutmeg. Allow the sauce to cook out for a minute or so and add the Cheddar cheese. Stir and remove from the heat.
  6. Spoon half the meat sauce into the bottom of the baking dish and place pasta sheets on top. Pour in half the cheese sauce and spread evenly. And then more meat and pasta sheets and cheese… you know how to layer a lasagna.
  7. Finish with grated Parmesan and sprinkle with another pinch of oregano; lightly season.
  8. In the oven, 20 – 30 minutes until golden.

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.

Gordon Ramsay’s Slow Braised Beef Cheeks (Ragu) with Pappardelle

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves 6

Credit where credit is due.

This is an amazing dish; an amazing braise. And I didn’t even cook it.

Nat did. For my 36th birthday.

A good ragu is about the length of the cooking time and this is where Nat nailed it. Six hours in, there was a ripple of fear that the beef cheeks hadn’t broken down, still solid and in one piece each; two hours later and a light tap, and they collapsed into moorish, unbelievably tender meat.

And why not keep cooking on a low heat, right up until dinner? Which is what we did. Time is your friend and beef cheeks love to sit and braise away.

During my childhood and teen years, my mother cooked Pork in Milk for my every birthday; it was my annual request and 20 or more years on, I can still taste it.

This ragu has now replaced my annual pork offering and I can’t wait to cook it – or have it cooked for me – again and again and again.

Ingredients

Olive oil, for frying
1kg of beef cheeks (in this instance, don’t substitute another cut of beef; or try lamb shanks if that is all you can get)
1 onion, peeled and roughly cut
2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly crushed
1 bay leaf (or two dried if you can’t get fresh)
400ml red wine (you can safely use a bit more here)
1x 400gm tin chopped tomatoes
500ml beef stock
500gm dried pappardelle
Handful of parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a heavy pan; season the meat and brown on all sides. Set aside.
  2. In the same pan, brown the onions, garlic and bay leaf until just softened and starting to brown a little.
  3. Return the meat to the pan and add the wine to deglaze.
  4. Allow it to reduce a little and add the stock and tomatoes; season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer and then turn the heat down.
  5. Stir occasionally for the next four hours, ensuring the meat is not drying out and adding water as need be. The meat is ready when it falls apart; keep cooking as long as you want. Time is your friend!
  6. Cook the pasta in salted water.
  7. Gently stir through the sauce with the pasta and garnish with parsley.
  8. Happy birthday.