Seafood Paella

To me, there is nothing more luxurious than seafood - even better is a dish that uses a selection of it. I first had seafood paella at a seaside restaurant called La Bahia in the Costa Blanca. I wasn’t big into fish at the time and probably wouldn’t have ordered it had I not been bolstered on by the jug of sangria I’d had as an apéritif. As it happened, I fell in love with the dish and have returned to La Bahia again and again, unashamedly ordering the same thing each time. The only negative thing to come of it is that it has ruined me for life when it comes to paella. Any other place I’ve had it has never come close to creating anything as perfect as they consistently do. Of course, those other places didn't have glorious sea views, a climate that doesn’t require wearing a jacket in the evening or even a lovely little man playing a keyboard and singing Elvis songs on a loop. However, it wasn’t until I attempted to make the dish myself that I realised their secret ingredient - restraint. Paella needs to be very delicate and it takes nerve to know when to stop with your seasoning. It would be much simpler to do what I did on my first attempt and be overly generous with the paprika. Yes, the resulting dish will be tasty but it will lack the subtlety that makes a paella truly delicious and worth coming back to time and time again. 

Stock is the heart of the paella and it’s worth making it from scratch because it doesn’t take an awful lot of work. It’s better to use white fish bones for your stock as the results will be clearer than that of oily fish. It also means you won't have to skim off any fat from the liquid when it cools. My fishmonger (Steve Hatt on Essex Road) gave me a huge halibut carcass and the bones of a couple of sea bass. There was a nice amount of fish on the bones which makes all the difference to the flavour of the stock.

It’s just a matter of bunging the bones into a large pot with some vegetables. Onion and carrot are essential to the flavour of any broth but to make it more fish specific, add a chopped fennel bulb and a handful of parsley. Normally I would add a few peppercorns but I left them out for this as I wanted the flavour to be as subtle as possible.

Pepper is not the only seasoning absent in this dish, it also happens to have no added salt. This was a worry for me as I’m a huge lover of salt - I would much rather stick my finger in the salt pig than the sugar bowl. It really is unnecessary here though. The dish has a delicate flavour, but a complex one. When using saffron (a herb more expensive than gold) it would be a shame to mask the flavour of it.

The rice is the star of the paella. Even though it plays host to a variety of wonderful seafood, it is the carrier of all the flavours in the dish. With this in mind it is worth sourcing the best rice possible. This wasn’t actually as difficult as I thought it was going to be - I was third time lucky finding paella rice in M&S, a place i only go to out of sheer desperation. It was also the ultimate paella rice I came across - Calasparra - which I wasn’t even expecting to find. Try to use this if you can, but the “Spanish Bomba” rice more widely available is also perfectly acceptable. Whilst on the subject of “authentic” ingredients, the Spanish La Chinata smoked paprika powder is a great addition to a paella as it doesn’t have the bitterness often found in certain paprikas.

Choosing the fish for the paella is the fun bit. On a shallow note, shellfish looks really impressive. For this reason, I leave the prawns in their shells. As long as there is a finger bowl in close proximity I can’t really see the issue. I know some people can be funny about seeing the eyes of their food staring at them but they should probably eat something else - shelling the prawns at the table is part of the joy. I prefer mussels to clams in this dish. Not only are they significantly cheaper, they have more presence than their tiny cousins. Squid is a must and then you can have whatever white fish you fancy. I used monkfish which tastes great and as it has a meaty texture, and retains its shape during cooking.

I like to preface my paella with a simple salad of iceberg lettuce, sliced white onion, yellow pepper and black olives. Not only because the main is almost devoid of vegetables but because it’s what I have at La Bahia. One last note - garden peas have no place in a paella. A liberal scattering of parsley lifts the colour of the dish without resorting to Jamie Oliver-esque methods….

Recipe (Serves 2, generously)

For the stock

Around 1 kg of fish carcass, preferably from white fish

1 onion, roughly chopped

1 carrot, roughly chopped

1 fennel bulb, roughly sliced

A handful of parsley, torn

For the paella

1 onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves

300g Calasparra rice

200g chopped tomatoes

1 level tsp smoked paprika

Generous pinch of saffron, soaked in a teaspoon of water

100ml olive oil

200g mussels, de-bearded and cleaned

6 large king prawns

150g squid, cut into rings

200g monkfish, cut into chunks around 1cm

To serve

Handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

1 lemon, quartered

First, make the stock. Place the fish bones along with the prepared vegetables into a large pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil and skim off the white foam that surfaces at the top. Lower the temperature and simmer gently with the lid on for a couple of hours. After straining you want to be left with around 500ml of stock.

In a 26cm paella dish, or saucepan, heat the oil gently and add the monkfish sealing on all sides. Set aside. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened before stirring in the paprika. Add the saffron along with the soaking water, the chopped tomatoes and the rice and stir until well combined. With the back of a wooden spoon, press down the rice mixture so that it is evenly distributed along the dish and pour over the stock. Bring the temperature up so it simmers vigorously. After 5 minutes place the squid on top, being carful not to disturb the rice.

This is stage that requires some nerve - it can be tempting to add more liquid when the rice looks like it's drying out but the rice is supposed to be fairly dry in texture and shouldn’t have the consistency of a risotto. Five minutes after adding the squid, place the rest of the seafood on top of the rice, again making an effort not to move it around too much. Let it simmer for a further 10 minutes, gently turning the prawns halfway through cooking. 

Cover the paella with foil and allow to rest for around 10 minutes. This is a dish that benefits from being eaten warm as opposed to piping hot. Garnish with the chopped parsley and lemon wedge and serve immediately.

Shrove Tuesday: Crispy Chinese Duck with Hoisin Sauce and Pancakes

In an increasingly secular society, Shrove Tuesday manages to retain popularity. Although it is doubtful that a religious celebration revolving around pancakes could ever fall out of favour. Even Lent, the practice of fasting to commemorate Jesus’ suffering in the desert has been appropriated by the detox brigade. It is redemption - a second chance at failed New Year’s Resolutions and the rebirth of the opportunity to give up coffee, chocolate or whatever vice you may have. 

Shrove Tuesday was originally a way of using pancakes as a carrier for eggs, sugar and whatever rich foods you had lurking in the cupboard that you wanted rid of before Lent. Personally, if I attempted to rid my cupboards of rich foods it would likely take me longer than forty days so I tend not to approach it this way but rather as an excuse to eat pancakes for dinner on a school night. 

I’m a fan of having two courses of pancakes (three would just be gluttony) so I have the traditional crêpes with lashings of sugar and lemon as a dessert and crispy duck with hoisin sauce as the savoury course. Chinese New Year begins the day before Shrove Tuesday, so this is a nice way of celebrating both occasions (if you don't mind double cultural appropriation!).

Crispy shredded duck pancakes (Serves 2 and assumes a crêpe dessert afterwards)

For the duck

1 duck crown

3 tbsp chinese five spice (shop-bought or 1 tbsp fennel seeds, 1 tbsp szechuan pepper, 2 star anise, 1 tsp cloves and 1 tsp ground cinnamon)

4 tbsp honey

For the hoisin sauce

5 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp smooth peanut butter

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp sesame seed oil

1 tbsp Gochujang (or any hot sauce)

1 tsp dark muscovado sugar

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

For the pancakes

225g plain flour

175ml boiling water

To serve

3 spring onions, shredded
Half a cucumber, center removed and julienned


If possible, try and marinate the duck the day before in order to let the flavours fully develop. Score the skin of the duck and buff away as much moisture as you can with kitchen paper. 
If making the five spice from scratch, simply combine the spices in a food processor or hand blender and blitz until most of it is powder.

Cover the skin of the crown with the honey and then massage in the the five spice powder, ensuring the duck is evenly covered. 

Place in a pre-heated oven at 180 degrees and cook until the juices of the duck run clear and the skin is crisp. This should take 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on the size of your crown. Crispier skin can be achieved by placed the duck under a hot grill for a few minutes. Cover the crown with foil and allow to rest for at least fifteen minutes.

To make the pancakes, place the flour in a large bowl and add the boiling water. Mix with a wooden spoon to combine the mixture and then bring in together with your hands, kneading until smooth.

Divide the dough into balls weighing around 25g (you should get around 18 and you don't have to use them all). Roll the balls out on a floured surface to around the depth of a 5p coin.

Sprinkle some flour onto a frying pan and heat gently. Place the pancakes into the pan and allow to cook until golden spots appear. Set aside.

To make the hoisin sauce simply combine the all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Add more hot sauce to taste if you fancy it. 

Begin shredding the duck with two forks, it should come away from the carcass easily. Don't discard the skin- it's arguably the best bit. To heat the pancakes, place in a steamer for a few minutes until warmed through. I use a vegetable steamer, but if you have a proper Chinese one it would obviously be ideal.

Place everything on the table (not forgetting the spring onions and cucumber) and assemble your pancakes as you see fit. Enjoy!

Elizabeth David's Pot Roast Chicken with Olive Stuffing

I have only recently discovered the delights of Elizabeth David's recipe books, in particular French Provincial Cooking. This book has been in my possession for a few years, and whilst I’m very fond of dipping in and out of it, I was slightly daunted by the sparse cooking instructions and lack of photographs and put it to the back of my mind (and my book shelf). 

As my confidence has grown in the kitchen, I’ve found myself being drawn back to it. After reading David’s An Omelette and a Glass of Wine, a collection of the essays she wrote for publications such as The Spectator and Vogue, I was inspired to her cooking philosophy. She places emphasis on simple but brilliant food, and allowing the natural flavours of the ingredients to shine through. Make no mistake - these are not fifteen minute meals. Love and time are required for these recipes to work. Writing to an audience who were still hungover from war time rationing, the ingredients she demanded were luxurious and not available just anywhere. Indeed, when I set out on sourcing various things to make some of the meals, I had to be organised. Tesco Express, with all it’s convenience would be unable to satiate Ms David’s culinary needs.

This first recipe is a nice first foray into Elizabeth's work. The sophisticated olive stuffing makes the humble chicken truly tasty, and it is one of her simpler recipes - perfect for weekend experimentation. 

Pot Roast Chicken with Black Olive Stuffing

David describes the olive stuffing stuffing as “so good [but] definitely rather odd”. Obviously olives are commonplace in Britain now so even those with “conventional tastes” should enjoy it.

I’d never thought of pot-roasting a chicken before trying out this recipe, but now I prefer it to the oven roasting method. As long as you have the right dish it is a very simple method. The pot needs to be thick and heavy so that the skin doesn’t stick to the bottom and to ensure that an even temperature is maintained throughout. I use my trusty Le Creuset cast iron casserole dish which naturally, is what David recommends for this dish from French Provincial Cooking.

The chicken only needs to be turned a couple of times whilst it is cooking, so this is a low maintenance dish that allows you to get on with urgent weekend activities (for me, this usually consists of deriding Tim Dowling’s column in the Saturday Guardian). One thing to be careful of is damaging the skin of the chicken when turning it - the first time I made this dish I managed to render the chicken almost naked. It was still very tasty, but after being more diligent on the next go I was rewarded with a gorgeously golden-skinned bird which was far superior to the previous one. 

Ingredients 

1 medium chicken, 1- 1.5kg

4 tablespoons cooking oil

For the stuffing

20 black olives, stopped and chopped

60g fresh white breadcrumbs

1/4 onion, copped

1 garlic clove, chopped 

A few parsley sprigs, chopped 

Black pepper

Nutmeg

To make the stuffing combine the breadcrumbs and the chopped ingredients and bind with the beaten egg. Season with a few grinds of black pepper and a few grates of nutmeg. Don’t add any salt. Stuff the cavity of the bird and set aside.

Heat the oil in the pot over a gentle temperature. Place the chicken on its side and leave for 5 minutes and then do the same with the other side. Place the lid on the chicken and leave to cook over the gentle heat for around 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until the juices run clear. The chicken will need to be turned other a further two times whilst cooking.

When cooked, remove the chicken from the pot, being extra careful not to damage the skin. Transfer to a carving board and cover with tin foil, leaving the bird to rest for at least 15 minutes.  

I like to serve my chicken with some shallow fried aubergines and courgettes,as they complement the olive stuffing. Roast potatoes are as always, a welcome addition to any roast. The leftover over juices in the cooking pot make a wonderful gravy.

Hoxton Fruit and Veg Review

Hoxton Fruit and Veg is my local greengrocers and where I buy most of my fresh produce during the week. Many of the restaurants in the local area use the shop and as a result, the choice of products is great. The herb section is wonderful, with huge bunches of coriander and parsley for around 50p - a welcome change from the few miserly sprigs that supermarkets charge a premium for.

There are also great bulk bargains to be had, my personal favourite being a 5kg sack of onions for under £1.50 which lasts me around a month. The fact you can also pick up 10 apples or oranges for £1 is a great incentive to make the most out of your juicer. 

They also stock every pulse and grain you could ever need as well as a wide variety of dried herbs and spices. They have also recently added barrels of fresh olives to the shop, as well as a selection of dried fruits. The Turkish bread is particularly good and a steal at 50p for a huge loaf. When I want to create the Mangal experience at home it’s my must have! 

Seasonal produce is readily available here and it is often the first place to cater certain things. It was the only place I could source damsons at the beginning of autumn. Although they were ruinously expensive (around £4 more per kilo than Chapel Market at Angel) it enabled me to get my Damson Gin in production in time for Christmas. 

In the summer the shop front is packed full of gorgeous watermelons the size of boulders. It is depressing when these start to dwindle, marking the end of summer, but one is consoled by the delivery of pumpkins which arrives soon after. 

Some of the fruit on sale is so exotic that I had never heard of them before, let alone seen them available to buy. Fortunately they supply little fact sheets telling of the country of origin and how to prepare and eat them. Thanks to this I’ve discovered tamarillos, rambutan and the joys of fresh turmeric. If you’re looking to pimp up your fruit bowl this is definitely the place to do it. 

Behind the till there is every colour imaginable of ‘Just For Men’ hair dye - I have yet to witness anyone actually buy it but if you’re into that sort of thing, you’ll be spoilt for choice. 

My one gripe is the potatoes. I find them quite pricey, especially when they never seem to be at their best. As I can get them cheaper and better elsewhere I tend to avoid them unless I have a potato shortage (being Irish this happens more than it should). Hoxton Fruit and Veg is such a treasure trove of a shop that I forgive them for this and will continue being a happy shopper there for as long as I’m resident in Hoxton. 

I received no payment for this review. Hoxton Fruit and Veg DID supply me with endless cardboard boxes for house moving in the summer, but this does not count as bribery. Thought I’d put that out there. 

Burns Night Recipes: Cranachan

Burns Night is perfectly placed to perk up what can be a dull month. It is a night for rich food, great poetry and best of all, a nice wee dram of whiskey. For dessert it is hard to beat Cranachan, Scotland’s answer to Eton Mess and the perfect dish to round off the night. The ingredients showcase the very best of Scottish produce and the quick assembly time is a godsend, particularly when Burns Night falls on a Monday this year. Virtually any fruit can be used for the compote, but as rhubarb is in season in January, I prefer to use this as the base. 

Oats, a staple of the Scottish diet are an important component  in this dessert. Pinhead oats are best to use here as their coarse texture gives the dish more bite. Gently toasting the oats until they are golden in colour greatly improves their flavour and adds a nutty note. 

To be truly traditional, you’ll want to use heather honey. It is a widely available product, but if you don’t have it to hand, any honey will make a fine substitute. The whisky should of course be Scotch, and if you have bought a bottle for the evening it is not too much of a hardship to devote of couple of drams to the dessert. 

Ingredients - Serves 4

300 ml Double Cream

2 medium rhubarb sticks

100g strawberries

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp heather honey

2/3 tbsp whisky, preferably Scotch

50g pinhead oats

First, make the compote by chopping the rhubarb into inch sized chunks and the strawberries in half. Place these in a saucepan with the tablespoon of sugar and a scant amount of water. Simmer until the fruit has softened completely. Allow to cool, then refrigerate until assembling the dessert.

Place the oats on a baking tray and place into a medium oven for a few minutes until golden. Keep a close eye on the oats, as they can go from attractively golden to burnt in a matter of seconds. Allow to cool completely.

Just before serving whisk the double cream into stiff peaks with an electric hand mixer. Add the whisky and honey and combine the mixture with a spatula. Stir through the compote and three quarters of the toasted oats. Divide the cream into four dessert dishes and sprinkle the remaining oats on top. Serve immediately.

Is Cranachan a superior dish to Eton Mess? What is your favourite dessert to have on Burns Night? What will you be using to stave off the whisky hangover the next day? 

January

January is often referred to as the most depressing month of the year. It’s not hard to see why. Christmas creeps up on us earlier each year, with shops determined to fill us up on mince pies and Baileys before the Guy Fawkes’ fireworks have fallen from the skies. After months of build up, culminating in a hedonistic couple of weeks of seasonal celebrations, going cold turkey (groan) in January can be a shock to the system. 

Whilst our bodies are recovering from the influx of rich foods, our wallets also need a rest from the pounding (Groan Part II) they took paying out for endless gifts. Having a restful month means that more time can be spent in the kitchen elevating simple ingredients to something special. Warm salads are my top January pick. It’s a way of satisfying oneself with warming food without resorting to stodge.

Warm salads are a saviour in a cold, austere month. Roasting vegetables like cauliflower and broccoli brings out their sweetness and nuttiness, providing an excellent base for a tasty meal. Add some pulses such as chickpeas or fava beans as an alternative to meat. 

Warm Tuna Niçoise Salad

"Veganuary" is the latest New Year's food fad but I would never advise going completely meat-free for a whole month. The onus is on cuts of meat that a relatively cheap to buy and that benefit from long, slow cooking. The butcher’s counter at Waitrose is great for this. They stock a selection of “forgotten cuts” that include things like oxtail, lamb breast, pigs cheek and beef skin.  There is no better way to work up an appetite than the aroma of a delicious dinner wafting through the house for hours on end.

Pork Shoulder Goulash

                                                                 

Dry January is also sensible. It saves money but also gives the liver some respite, having been over-worked with bucks fizz and mulled wine. I find abstaining from alcohol an absolute bore and the mere thought of a ‘dry’ weekend an awful one, so the quest is to find a non-alcoholic drink that doesn't feel like a deprivation. Orange blossom can elevate a lime cordial to something classy and moreish. Pubs - take note: exciting, virgin drinks are more in demand than ever before but orange juice and coke don’t cut it anymore. 

There are also plenty of ingredients lurking in one’s cupboard that can be used for some restorative beauty sessions. When chucked into a hot bath, an old stocking filled with oats will soften and brighten skin that has been treated harshly by the cold winter weather. Any cooking oil mixed with salt and a few drops of lemon juice will slough away dead skin cells and improve circulation. Epsom salts (or Magnesium Sulfate) are my favourite bath time treat. I buy 25kg sacks off Amazon and add two large mugfuls to my bath once a week. It is the easiest way to get more magnesium into our diet, because it is absorbed throw the skin. Toxins are also removed during reverse osmosis and the goodness of the salts are drawn in. 

Burns’ Night is surely a highlight of January. My Burns’ Night menu hasn't changed in the few years I’ve been doing it and true to form my starter and dessert will be the same as usual. A cullen skink made from arbroath smokies and a cranachan, Scotland’s (superior) answer to the Eton Mess.The one change this year is that I’ll be attempting to make my own Haggis. Give your butcher plenty of notice to ensure that you have all the components to make the haggis because a sheep's stomach is a difficult item to procure, even in Waitrose. 

So it's not all doom and gloom! There's plenty of opportunity to make your January as delicious as your Christmas, albeit in slightly different ways.

Happy New Year!

October

October kicks off with World Vegetarian Day which is held on the first of the month - a perfect excuse to get stuck into the squash that is in abundance this season. Carving pumpkins is a fun Halloween tradition but remember that the innards are a tasty treat. My favourite way to use them is roasted and puréed for a ravioli filling and when rubbed with garlic oil and roasted, pumpkin is a delicious addition to a Sunday roast. 

Of course, prolonged vegetarianism would be foolish seeing as October is when game starts trickling into shops. This year I got my hands on a glut of damsons and have made a jar of sauce that complements the meat beautifully. Loath as I am to utter the dreaded C word prematurely, it really is necessary to think ahead if you want to make your Christmas as tasty as possible. Damson sauce is a great alternative to cranberry sauce, if you fancy a more original addition to your seasonal table.

This month is also the height of the British apple season. It's almost a shame to cook them as they are delicious au natural but a bit of pastry never does any harm so I'm using this month to perfect my Tarte Tatin making skills. Waitrose stock "Weather blemished" apples which are great value, prevent food waste and give our orchard farmers a helping hand when the weather works against them. They are perfectly imperfect and I love them so much that I seek them out over their more aesthetically pleasing counterparts. It's the shopping equivalent of welcoming an abandoned kitten into your home, albeit less messy and a lot tastier.