Tag: Vegetarian

Mains, Pasta

Pasta with Stilton, jalapeño and cavolo nero

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This serves 2 hungry people.

Ingredients for Pasta with Stilton, jalapeño and cavolo nero:
225 g Stilton cheese
200 ml crème fraîche
5 garlic cloves
2 anchovy fillets
1 big teaspoon of Dijon mustard
Splash of Noilly Prat or similar vermouth
0.5 – 1 fresh jalapeño, deseeded and finely chopped
200 g Cavolo Nero
40 g butter
50 g vegetable stock
Olive oil
190 g pasta, fusilli or similar
Handful of hazelnuts, for garnish
Handful of walnuts, for garnish
Small amount flat-leaf parsley, for garnish
Small amount of chives, for garnish
Salt
Pepper

How to make Pasta with Stilton, jalapeño and cavolo nero:
Start by putting on water for the pasta.
Slice two of the garlic cloves in medium-fine slices and also slice the anchovy fillets. Heat a medium large saucier or pot on medium heat and sauté the garlic and anchovies in olive oil and half the butter, stir constantly with a spoon or fork so the anchovies break up and flavor the oil. Cut the cheese into chunks and add to the pan together with the vermouth and Dijon mustard. Stir and then cover the pan with a lid. Lower the heat to low. Let the cheese melt and stir from time to time. When the cheese is melted and smooth add the crème fraîche and the chopped jalapeño. Use at least 0.5 jalapeño and up to 1 if you like it hotter. Do not use the seeds.
Let the sauce bubble away slowly without a lid. Stir occasionally.

For the cavolo nero start with making a garlic fork to stir with, this will lightly perfume the cavolo nero with garlic. Put the remaining garlic cloves on the tins of a fork. Chop the cavolo nero roughly. Put a big sauté pan on medium to high heat and add the remaining butter and the vegetable stock. Swirl the pan to make a liaison between the butter and the stock. Add the cavolo nero and stir with the garlic fork and toss to coat with the butter mixture, season with salt. Put a lid on the pan and let the cavolo nero cook over low to medium heat. Stir with the garlic fork from time to time and try a piece to judge for doneness. I like them a little bit al dente but not too crunchy.
The cavolo nero takes maybe 5 – 10 minutes to cook.

For the nuts roast the hazelnuts first in a 180C oven until the skins are starting to blacken. Take the nuts out of the oven and put them in a clean kitchen towel, fold the towel over the nuts as to make a package and then rub the towel hard with the palm of your hand to loosen the skins. Unwrap the towel and pick out the nuts with the least skin on. Chop the nuts  coarsely and reserve until plating.
Roast the walnuts until darkish brown, chop coarsely and reserve until plating.

Salt the pasta water until it’s salty as the sea and then cook the pasta as per the instructions on the package. Drain the pasta by putting a lid on the pan slightly ajar, try to reserve a little bit of the pasta water in the pan.

Add the pasta to the cavolo nero pan and dump the sauce on top. Stir and toss to combine properly.

To plate put the pasta in a deep bowl, top with the roasted nuts, the herbs, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and some black pepper.

Stocks

Vegetable stock, en sous vide

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I’ve made vegetable stocks in many ways. The traditional way, in a pressure cooker… and finally this way – sous vide.
Cooking the stock sous vide is almost like a very gentle infusion. It makes the vegetable flavors very clean and distinct whereas vegetable stocked cooked other ways is stronger and a bit more mono flavored. It’s also quite easy and you can do other stuff while the stock is cooking sous vide for hours. Preparing the vegetables will take a while though, it takes me around 1.5 hours.

The final yield will be around 500 g stock.

Ingredients for Vegetable stock, en sous vide:
500g ice
280g onion, thinly sliced
200g carrots, thinly sliced
100g celery, thinly sliced
100 leeks (white parts only), thinly sliced
50g button mushrooms, thinly sliced
50g tomato, chopped
10g chives, sliced
10g flat-leaf parsley, chopped
1g coriander seeds
1g black peppercorns
1g thyme
0.5g fresh bay leaf
0.5g star anise, crushed

How to make Vegetable stock, en sous vide:
Preheat your water bath to 85C.
Put the ice in the sous vide bag (I use a 1 gallon/3.8 liter bag) and then the rest of the ingredients. Vacuum seal on full vacuum and then cook sous vide for 3 hours.
When done put the sous vide bag in the fridge and let infuse for 12 hours. This will let the flavors infuse more fully. Strain and pass through a SuperBag.
Portion then refrigerate or freeze for later use.

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Stocks

Mushroom stock, pressure-cooked

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This is my go-to mushroom stock. It’s made in the pressure cooker so it’s really fast. Cleaning the mushroom will take a while, maybe 30 minutes.

The final yield will be around 750 g stock.

Ingredients for Mushroom stock.
100g unsalted butter
750g button mushrooms, halved
200g Dry Madeira
8 sprigs of thyme
5g black peppercorns
1500g spring water

How to make Mushroom stock:
To clean the mushroms I put them all in the sink filled with water, then clean them one by one with papertowels, brushing off the dirt. Once cleaned place in a bowl, when the bowl is full place your hand on top and tip over to drain off any water, then place the mushrooms on a plate topped with kitchentowels to drain further. Once kinda dry, half all mushrooms with a knife.
Melt the butter in a pressure cooker over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and stir and shake the pot to coat them with the melted butter. Raise the heat to medium-high and continue to cook until the mushrooms are golden brown. The mushrooms will release loads of water but continue to cook until the water is evaporated. When evaporated the mushrooms will brown quite quickly so keep a close eye on them so they don’t go too far.
Deglaze the pan with the Madeira. Once it’s boiling set fire to the alcohol with a match or lighter while standing well back. Once the flames subside let it boil down to a thick syrup.
Add 1500g spring water, the black peppercorns and the thyme to the pressure cooker, put the lid on. Bring up to full pressure over high heat then reduce the heat to low and cook for 30 minutes.
Take the pressure cooker off the heat and allow to cool. Once the pressure dissipated remove the lid and strain the stock into a clean saucepan through a chinois. Reduce the stock by half over high heat.
This reduction is easily done by first weighing the empty saucepan, then weighing the saucepan with the sieved stock in it. Then take this total weight minus the empty saucepan weight, divide by two and add to the empty saucepan weight. This is the final weight we are aiming for when the stock is reduced by half. Keep weighing your saucepan while reducing until this weight is hit.
Pass the stock through a SuperBag or a sieve lined with two layers of wet muslin cloth. Portion then refrigerate or freeze for later use.

Mains, Soup

French onion soup

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This is an excellent soup and very easy and quick to make. Enjoy it with a dry white wine with some acidity to counter the sweet savory flavor of the onions.

4 portions

500 g onion
2 – 3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp white flour
1 liter of water
2 cubes of chicken stock
100 ml dry white wine
1 bay leaf
1 pinch of dried thyme
White pepper

White bread
Grated cheddar cheese
Some parmesan

Half the onions and then cut them into thin slices. Fry in a big pot with the butter until they are translucent and golden. Add the flour and stir.
Dissolve the stock into water and add to the pot with the herbs and spices. Boil for 15 minutes on medium heat. Add the wine and boil for another few minutes.

Cut some white bread into cubes and then fry in a little olive oil to create croutons. Let them dry in a piece of paper. You can add some herbs to the croutons if you want.

Pour up the soup into bowls, add croutons and sprinkle the grated cheese on top. Add a bit of parmesan on top of the cheddar cheese. Put the bowls (make sure that they are ovenproof!) into the oven, about 250C, for about 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and a bit brown over the top of the soup.