Nourished

Recent Vegetarian Recipes

Get your bake on…

Where to Eat…

A Few Thermomix Recipes

2 Michelin Stars

le Champignon Sauvage

We visited Cheltenham during a blizzard in January, and though our shooting ended up being cancelled, we were very happy to have the opportunity to visit le Champignon Sauvage.

David and Helen Everitt-Matthias first opened lCS in 1987, and have held two Michelin stars for thirteen years.  David has also won the National Chef of the Year competition, and has three excellent cookbooks to his name, all of which I adore, and which I dragged along to be signed by David.

The room has just undergone refurbishment and gone are the heavy blue tones.  In their place are warm wooden panels, shades of sand and taupe, and a wide range of artwork.  Service is professional and prompt, but I suspect real warmth is saved for regulars.  An elderly couple celebrating their wedding anniversary recalled with fondness the opening of the restaurant, and it’s clear that it has a very loyal clientele.

The food was very precise, and we enjoyed some unusual combinations of flavours.  Elements could be tasted individually, but also combined to make a delicious whole, and this is one of the few restaurants we’ve been to that had a clear sense of menu development.

When I brought my books along, Helen very kindly let me look at the unpublished third book, and frankly that could have been my afternoon had the Hubby not prised it from my mitts.  lCS is definitely on our return list as soon as the season kicks off…

Goats cheese cookie, with parmesan and poppy seeds, 
together with a malted biscuit, with pickled pear, spring onion 
Brioche – outstanding – onion and bacon
Dexter beef tartar, corned beef, wasabi and shimeji mushrooms
Saute of langoustines, roasted heritage carrots, carrot puree, and buttermilk
Lamb with sweetbreads, and cockles
Roasted partridge, ceps and cep purée, chicory, braised walnuts, garlic buds (!), and spring onion
Bergamot parfait, orange jelly, liquorice cream, liquorice tuilles
Petit Fours (part one)
Petit Fours (part two)

le Champignon Sauvage
24-26 Suffolk Road,
Cheltenham,
Gloucestershire GL50 2AQ

Le Champignon Sauvage on Urbanspoon

Restaurant

The Jetty, Christchurch

It may be a grey, wintry day, but there is nothing to cheer the soul like a sea view, with scudding clouds, and wading birds floating above a reflective sea…  Even better then, if you can take-in that view from within a warm, bright and glass wrapped haven.

The Jetty appears to float above Christchurch Harbour – all weathered wood, sparkling glass and steel – it’s perched like a launching boat, next to the grey waters.   It is run by by Alex Aitken, who has cooked in the New Forest for over twenty-five years.  At le Poussin he held a Michelin star, and he moved to The Jetty in 2010.

There were five of us for lunch and we’d all been meaning to try it for some time.  We were impressed by the breadth and scope of the menu – there are rarely menus where I really feel torn between dishes – but there is plenty to tempt here.  The following will give you a good idea of their style and talents.  A word of caution, book early in the summer months, because I guarantee everyone else will!

Amuse: cauliflower veloute 
Seared foie gras on toast with citrus sauce and crispy bacon
Soft boiled egg wrapped in saltcod brandade, 
deep fried with summer vegetable salad
Pigeon breast, with puy lenttils
Warm salad of pigeon breast and mango
Paella
Pheasant, with mashed potato, lardons, greens, and baby onions
Fillet of cod, topped with Mudeford crab and herb crust, with mashed potatoes and peas
Dorset whole lemon sole served with greens and Bearnaise…
(normally buerre blanc)
Green salad
Hot passion fruit soufflé with hot passion fruit sauce
(with the additional lift from the sauce)
Hot passion fruit soufflé, with hot passion fruit sauce
The Jetty

The Jetty
Christchurch Harbour Hotel
95 Mudeford
Christchurch
Dorset BH23 3NT

The Jetty on Urbanspoon

Baking

Chorizo and Fennel Seed Sausage Rolls

You may have realised, by now, that I’m catching up on all the recipes I intended to cook in December! A combination of gas leaks, children’s flu etc, has somewhat disrupted my schedule.  One thing I really wanted to cook for my annual quiz night were Andy Bates’ chorizo and fennel seed sausage rolls…

Andy is an amazing advocate of street food, and travels the world exploring the tastiest. Whilst he is an extremely competent chef, often it’s just about great flavour combinations that are accessible to the home cook.  I came across this recipe on one of the Food Networks Christmas roundups. They struck me as ideal party food, and much nicer than the usual sausage rolls.  The chorizo mini-sausages have been sitting in my fridge for a few weeks now, so it seemed like an appropriate time to get on with them.  Frankly they couldn’t be simpler, but this isn’t about complicated food, but simple, quick, scrumminess!

Ingredients:
200g mini cooking Chorizo
1 sheet pre-rolled puff pastry, cut in half lengthways
Egg yolk
1 tbsp fennel seeds (I used caraway)

 

Method:

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C. Peel the mini chorizos and roll them in your hands to make a sausage shape.
  • Lay the mini chorizo lengthways along each piece of pastry. Roll and fold the pastry over the chorizo brushing the inside with egg yolk to help seal.
  • Using a fork seal the edges and trim any excess pastry, Cut the sausage rolls into individual rolls and place on a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper. At this point you can transfer to a freezer-safe container, lined with greaseproof paper to cook from frozen later. Please note, cooking times will increase when cooking from frozen and you may need to lower your oven temperature slightly.
  • Brush with egg yolk and sprinkle with fennel seeds.
  • Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden brown.

 

Notes:

  • I really would chop your chorizo before you shape it.  Firstly this will give you a better and more even sausage shape.  Chopping the meat finely would also allow you to get a cleaner cut – I had to saw mine a little…
  • And this is one of those pastry recipes where it is important to cut the pastry cleanly, as this gives you more rise and layers in your pastry.  But don’t swamp the pastry in egg wash, as this will inhibit those layers, so stay away from the edges, and cut cleanly.
  • If you’re looking at this, I’d highly recommend you check out the pic of Paul Ainsworth’s black pudding variant, which we had at his dinner with Alyn Williams.  I think it looks ridiculously good, though by the time I got to it, I’d given up meat… Hubby said it was amazing though!

 

Andy Bates Chorizo Sausage Rolls

Make sure you seal the sides of the pastry well

Andy Bates Chorizo Sausage Rolls

Now don’t you want one of these with a glass of something?

Paul Ainsworth Black Pudding

This is Paul’s black pudding pastry – apparently divine!

 

You can find more of Andy’s recipes in his new book >

Angela Hartnett

Fettuccini with lardons and chestnuts…

I came across this great little recipe by Angela Hartnett, in the Guardian…  Angela comes form an Italian family, and often talks about the dishes she learnt at her Nonna’s side…  As well as running Murano’s, she is working with Luke Holder, Head Chef at Limewood Hotel on a new venture showcasing New Forest produce.

I particuarly liked the sound of the chestnuts in this, and it seemed a good way to use up any you might have lurking after Christmas…  This makes a fantastic lunch dish.

Ingredients:
375g dried fettuccine
50ml olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
6 rashers of back bacon, roughly chopped (I used pancetta, sliced into lardons)
1 small leek, washed and finely sliced
100g ricotta
1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
6 cooked chestnuts, sliced

Season a pan of water and bring it to the boil. Add the pasta and cook as instructed on the packet – usually for about seven minutes – until it is al dente.

Add the oil, garlic and bacon to another large pan and saute for a couple of minutes. Add the sliced leek and cook for about five minutes, until soft.

When the pasta is ready, drain well and toss it in with the leek and bacon. Add the ricotta and flat-leaf parsley and mix through. Check the seasoning to taste and finish with the sliced chestnuts.

Serve immediately.

Notes:
Do make sure you use dried pasta – the surface texture is much rougher than fresh egg pasta, and the sauce clings to it much better.
Look at your ricotta before you use it – like a dolt I didn’t mix mine until smooth with a little of the starchy pasta water, which would have made the sauce more unctuous.  Nor did I spoon it into little mouthfuls within the pasta… Instead, I stirred it in, straight from the fridge.  Don’t do that – though it doesn’t alter the flavour, it does make the sauce very slightly grainy… But hey – now I’ve warned you…
If you want to pimp your pasta (for dinner perhaps), you could also sauté a chicken breast to serve on top… Yes, I had too!  Hubby had been in the gym and was suspiciously eyeing the low meat quotient.  I think there’s more than enough flavour from the pancetta though to forgo it, and we could all do with eating less meat….

The ‘pimped’ fettuccini, with sautéd chicken breast
Fettuccini, with lardons and chestnuts
Do use dry fettuccini, you can see the rougher surface of the dried variety

You can find more delicious recipes by Angela in her books >

 

Blood Oranges

Blood Orange and Fennel Salad

After the best part of a year waiting for their return, blood oranges are finally back in season.  I’ve made them into sorbet in the past, but sometimes when something is this seasonal it’s nice to enjoy them in a very simple recipe.  So – this one is not really a hardship – no waiting for dough to prove – no hanging around! 


Simply peel your blood oranges and cut into fine slices. Try to capture as much of the juice as you can… Dress with a little olive oil, salt and pepper and leave the flavours to mingle.  In the meantime, finely slice some fennel on a mandolin, and when ready layer over the blood oranges…  Dress the fennel in a little olive oil… 

Finely slice the blood oranges and dress them in oil, salt and pepper
Blood orange salad, with fennel and red vein sorrel

101 Cookbooks

Oven-Baked Doughnuts and Knot Rolls

Amongst other things, one of my very dear friends gave me a doughnut pan for my birthday (because that’s what dear friends do, when you’re an obsessive baker)! The books have been read, the pictures poured over, but the unused pan has remained in my kitchen drawer – silent – mysterious – resolute.  “Try me”, it cries, when I open the drawer, “let’s make doughnuts”…
This week its silent entreaties have worked their magic on my 7 year old, who is rapidly turning into a useful little baker.  Yesterday we made cup-cakes to her ratios (fantastic), and today she really wanted to make doughnuts.  Needless to say I couldn’t find the recipes lovingly documented by Kristen, for I fear they have been snaffled into the jaws of the Trolley-of-Doom (aka my ‘books to be shelved’ trolley).  The Wilton recipe supplied with the pan seemed somewhat unappealing (though I have listed it below) – I wanted plump, yeasty golden things, puffed with air, and smelling sensational… 
I hunted for more traditional doughnut recipes, finally stumbling across this yeasted recipe from @101Cookbooks, though not intended for the tin.  I have to say, I was most impressed – whilst tray doughnuts don’t have the pillowiness of traditional doughnuts, they do taste amazing.  I only made one tray, and used the rest of the dough to make knot rolls – you can see from the photo how much they puffed up in the oven.
Ingredients:

79ml hand hot milk
7g of instant yeast

225ml of warm milk
2 Tbsp butter
158g sugar
2 eggs
1125g plain flour (I used pasta flour, as it has a lower protein content)
A pinch or two of nutmeg, freshly grated
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

Method:

  • Place the first quantity of warm milk in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the yeast and set aside for five minutes or so. Be sure your milk isn’t too hot or it will kill the yeast. Stir the butter and sugar into the remaining warm milk and add it to the yeast mixture. With a fork, stir in the eggs, flour, nutmeg, and salt – just until the flour is incorporated. With the dough hook attachment of your mixer beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed. This is where you are going to need to make adjustments – if your dough is overly sticky, add flour a few tablespoons at a time. Too dry? Add more milk a bit at a time. You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl and eventually become supple and smooth. Turn it out onto a floured counter-top, knead a few times (the dough should be barely sticky), and shape into a ball.
  • Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover, put in a warm place.  Let it rise for an hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.
  • The original instructions were for cut doughnuts: Punch down the dough and roll it out 1/2-inch thick on your floured countertop. Most people (like myself) don’t have a doughnut cutter, instead I use a 2-3 inch cookie cutter to stamp out circles. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet and stamp out the smaller inner circles using a smaller cutter. If you cut the inner holes out any earlier, they become distorted when you attempt to move them. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes.
  • As I was shaping them for the pan, I rolled them into balls and then punctured the centre… Swizzle the doughnut around on your finger to increase the size of the hole.  Do not make them too big as they will increase dramatically in size on the second prove – as above, cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes.  Now.  I glazed mine with beaten egg – but I hadn’t thought it through – egg may give you a golden colour, but it also creates a crust.  I think you’d be better off glazing with milk, which will give you a softer crust
  • Bake at 190° C until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes – start checking around 8. 
  • Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for just a minute or two. 
A cross-section of the dough after the first prove 
I had no idea on sizing as this was the first time, so I did a variety to see – the little one’s in the bottom right hand corner came out best – the larger one on the bottom row rose so high it lost its hole!  Don’t worry about how “scraggy” they look, the second prove takes care of that…

I glazed the doughnut with beaten egg, I’d glaze it with milk next time
I dipped mine in cream cheese icing, and then sprinkles.
You can dip them in melted chocolate, or melted butter and cinnamon icing

This is the same dough, left to prove as a knot roll
Ingredients:
2 cups cake flour, sifted
¾ cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
¾ cup buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp. butter, melted

Method:

  • Preheat oven to 425*F. Spray doughnut pan with nonstick cooking spray. 
  • In a large mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Add buttermilk, eggs and butter. Beat until just combined. Fill each doughnut cup approx. 2/3 full. 
  • Bake 7-9 minutes or until the top of the doughnuts spring back when touched. 
  • Let cool in pan for 4-5 minutes before removing. Finish doughnut with chocolate glaze, cinnamon sugar or confectioners’ sugar. Doughnuts are best served fresh. 
  • Makes 12 doughnuts 

Variations:

Cinnamon Sugar 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon
2 tbsp. butter, melted

In small bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon together and dip the baked doughnut in melted butter. Roll in cinnamon sugar mixture to coat.

Chocolate Glaze
¼ cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. corn syrup
1 tsp. hot water

Microwave chips, butter and corn syrup on 50% power for 1 minute, stirring frequently until completely melted. Stir in hot water until the glaze is thick smooth. Add more water, a tsp. at a time to thin if glaze is too thick. Immediately glaze doughnuts.

Confectioners Sugar Doughnuts Place 2/3 cup confectioners sugar in plastic bag. Add a doughnut, seal the bag and shake to coat. Repeat with remaining doughnuts.

Baking

Pecan and Salted Caramel Brownies

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Just lately I’ve been craving Gower Cottage’s chocolate brownies, but my secret stash in the freezer was sorely depleted over Christmas!  However serendipity has struck again, as I spotted Ed Kimber‘s brownie recipe in my in-box this morning.  There’s definitely something about salted caramel… It’s my favourite filling in Laduree Macaron’s, my favourite combination in chocolate bars, there’s something about the salty sweetness that becomes utterly addictive!

It was a given then that I’d have to try these, but I thought I’d adapt the brownie recipe for the Thermomix, to see how they’d turn out.  You can find the original recipe on Ed’s site.

Salted Caramel Filling
175g caster sugar
150ml double cream
10g unsalted butter
large pinch of flaked sea salt OR
1/2 jar of Bonne Maman Confiture de Caramel

Fudge Brownies
180g plain flour
3 tbsp cocoa powder (preferably Green and Blacks, which uses the ‘Dutch’ process)
1/4 tsp salt
300g dark chocolate, around 65-75% cocoa solids
150g unsalted butter
220g light brown sugar
150g caster sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
100g pecans, chopped (optional extra, half inside the brownie, half on top)

Method

  • I’m not going to make caramel today, and instead I’m using the jar – okay, stop shouting at me – I’m baking with the 4 year old and I don’t like making caramel when he’s climbing up the counters!  If you want more information on the cooking temperatures for caramel, please have a look at my fudge post…
  • For the brownies preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan. Grease a 9×9 inch pan and line with a strip of parchment.  Leave a ‘handle’ over the pan’s edge to ease removal. [The Lakeland foiled parchment is perfect for this!]
  • Pulse the butter and chocolate in the Thermomix bowl for 5 seconds / Speed 5, and scrape down the bowl.
  • Melt the butter and chocolate together for 4 mins / Speed 1 / 70° C
  • Add the eggs, vanilla, salt and sugar and mix for 10 seconds / Speed 3
  • Add the flour and cocoa powder and mix for 10 seconds / Speed 4.  Scrape down the bowl (inevitably some of the flour will have been thrown up), and repeat for a further 10 seconds.
  • Pour half of the mixture into your prepared tin, and then pour the caramel over the batter, leaving a 1 1/2 cm border.  Scatter the chopped pecans over the caramel if using… [I like the combination of pecans and salted chocolate, and I wanted some additional texture in the brownie.]  Pour the remaining batter over the caramel mixture to cover it.  Ed does this by piping it over, otherwise when you spread the second layer of batter you inevitably push the caramel out to the edge, where it can boil over the batter.  Until I’ve perfected a cheats way, I suggest you pipe too…
  • Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, until a cake tester or skewer (just) comes out cleanly (you don’t want them overdone).  Don’t forget, the caramel will be scalding hot, so allow the brownies to cool fully before cutting into squares.
Alternatives:
  • Scatter chocolate chips in on top of the caramel, and again over the surface before baking
  • If like me you have thousands of blood oranges in your kitchen – don’t waste the skin and oils – zest the oranges into the batter before using them.
  • You can use chopped salted Brindisa’s salted almonds – quite a grownup taste, but absolutely amazing.  Pulse them for the briefest of moments in the thermo and set aside, before melting the chocolate and butter
  • If you’re a complete salt addict, you can use salted butter, but in that case, please remember to take the salt out of the other ingredients.
A couple of little brownie tips:
  • If you’ve managed not to scoff the lot straight away, you can revive your brownies for around 20 seconds in the microwave; and
  • A great little tip I spotted on the lovely Azelia’s blog, if you have any type of cake which hasn’t quite cooked through, you can finish them off for a few seconds in the microwave… As Azelia points out in her recent doughnut post, the microwave cooks from the inside out… Clever eh?
Now fend off your children and friends with a rolling pin…
Melting the chocolate and butter together
This is the batter once mixing is completed – it’s quite a thick batter
Spoon the caramel over the batter, and scatter with pecans
Cover with the remaining batter and bake
Yummy! And I like the pecans in it!

Eggs

Eggs Benedict and Heston Blumenthal’s Perfectly Poached Eggs

Hubby is mildy addicted to eggs Benedict – he frequently orders it for working breakfasts, and you can see from some of his comments that he has many, many criteria he applies to the dish.  Consequently I’m often reluctant to cook it at home – but hey, it’s Christmas – the man deserves his favourite breakfast at Christmas surely?!

I’ve been working on Thermomix versions of Bearnaise and Hollandaise, made with home-made tarragon vinegar, and a reduction base for both sauces…

I’ve also been obsessing about Heston Blumenthal’s How to Cook Like Heston, and was watching his episode on eggs again.  It seemed like the perfect excuse to combine techniques…

There are many variations on eggs Benedict – instead of the ham you can use blanched spinach for eggs Florentine, Eggs Mornay uses a Mornay cheese sauce instead of Hollandaise – you can play around with your favourite combination.  Here I’m using Pata Negra, that perfect ham from Spain – made from the blackfooted pig who’s been fed a diet of acorns – amazing stuff!

The freshest possible eggs make the best poached eggs – the white is firmer, less watery, and holds together better in the pan.  I had originally preferred Marcus Wareing’s method of poaching eggs, but having tried Heston’s, I think it just has the edge.  In his method you drain off the watery bit of the white, before poaching at 80oC for four minutes.  Reaching exactly 80oC on an induction hob was perhaps the most challenging aspect of the task – everything else worked exactly as he said…

Ingredients: 
2 tsp salt
large eggs, as many as you require
Salt and black pepper

Method:

  • Fill a saucepan with approximately 15-20cm of water then add the salt. Place a plate upside down in the bottom of the pan then place the pan over a medium heat and bring the water up to 80ºC.
  • One at a time, crack each egg into a ramekin dish and pour it into a slotted spoon with small holes. Allow to drain any residual white for approximately 1–2 minutes.
  • Lower the slotted spoon into the warm water and slide the spoon out. Allow to poach for 4 minutes.
  • Remove with the slotted spoon and place on kitchen paper to drain the excess water. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

    •  

    It’s important to toast your muffins to some semblance of brown – you need them to form a crisp and tasty base for your eggs, not a soggy waterlogged layer

    Jamon Ibérico di Bellotta, or Pata Negra – no matter what you want to call it, the ham of the Spanish Black-Footed pig, fed on acorns, is silky, pack full of flavour and melt-in-the-mouth texture
    Mid-way through assembly – you can see I have less white than normal – this is because my eggs were a few days old… However the yolks are perfect.
    I’m not massively keen on eggs Benedict, but I’m not going to miss the opportunity to put some of that Bellotta ham under my poached eggs 

    Eggs Benedict, with Hollandaise sauce

    Baking

    Thermomix Sauces: Béarnaise

    There are conventionally five mother sauces, of which hollandaise is the probably the richest, with it’s combination of egg yolks and melted butter.  I’m not always massively fond of hollandaise, as it often lacks flavour beyond the butter.  However I absolutely adore a number of variations, especially blood orange hollandaise (Maltaise sauce), beurre blanc, and most particularly béarnaise sauce, with its fragrant addition of tarragon.

    Béarnaise is generally made by reducing down a number of key ingredients common to Hollandaise (shallots, white wine vinegar, and tarragon stalks).  However most restaurants make much better Béarnaise than we can at home, because they have the time to increase the intensity over a longer period of time.  Where we’re reducing down those three key ingredients, most chefs I know actually use their own reduction which is made in batches in advance, and it often includes their own home-made tarragon vinegar – this really ups the flavour of the reduction.

    With that in mind, I made some tarragon vinegar a couple of weeks ago, simply by heating some white wine vinegar and storing in a dark place with several sprigs of tarragon in the jar.  After a couple of weeks, strain the liquid, and insert some nice new sprigs of tarragon.

    A second consideration for me in developing this recipe is that I’m determined to make it in my Thermomix, as this is precisely what it’s so good at making!

    One of my favourite chefs gave me his reduction recipe for beurre blanc, and this forms the basis of my Bearnaise recipe.

    Reduction for Buerre Blanc, Béarnaise and Hollandaise
    1 bottle of decent white wine (750ml)
    500ml tarragon vinegar
    1 bunches of tarragon stalks
    1/2 bay leaf
    Sprig of thyme
    Peppercorns
    7 sliced shallots

    When you’re ready to make the relevant sauce, use approximately 200g of the reduction for six servings.

    Thermomix Béarnaise Sauce
    200g of the reduction
    pinch salt
    pinch black pepper
    400 g butter
    5 egg yolks

    Preparation

    • Put the shallot reduction into the Thermo and pulse for a few seconds
    • Insert the butterfly and add remaining ingredients.
    • Process at 80C, speed 3 for 6 minutes.
    • Press through a fine sieve and serve.
    You can keep the sauce at 60oC for over an hour on speed 2/3.

    I prefer my Béarnaise a little acidic – if you prefer a more buttery version, just keep adding butter until you reach a suitable flavour – and don’t forget to season the sauce!

    Heston Blumenthal

    Heston Blumenthal’s Macaroni Cheese

    Whenever I get a little bored, or I’m sitting in the bath, I delve into my i-pad espisodes of How to Cook Like Heston…  I like the combination of science, technique and, ultimately, gastronomy – it always has my food brain working overtime… After a particularly late night hosting our annual Christmas quiz, I delved into the episodes again, and looking at my groaning cheese boards (yes, plural), thought I’d better get stuck into some of his cheese recipes.

    Feeling slightly jaded, it was definitely the macaroni cheese which caught my attention… Not normally something I’d crave, but the thought of fat-laden carbs was definitely appealing to some bit of me!  Mmmm…. Macaroni cheese – definitely comfort food! [There’s a bit more about the science of cheese melting at the bottom]

    Ingredients
    200g macaroni
    ½ tsp salt
    15ml truffle oil
    300ml dry white wine
    300ml brown chicken stock, infused for 20 minutes with Berkswell cheese rind, keep warm
    80g Spenwood cheese, finely grated [okay, I’m using Parmesan, a similar style]
    10g cornflour [coating the cheese in cornflour prevents clumping together]
    80g soft cream cheese
    Black pepper
    15g goat’s cheese, diced (I’m using the fabulous Fresco Angelico from Brockhall Farm!!)
    Berkswell cheese, for gratinating (and this will be my Keene’s cheddar in this instance)

    Method

    • Preheat the grill. Place 400ml of water, the pasta and the salt in a pan over medium-high heat. Cook until the pasta is done and all of the water has disappeared. Toss the pasta with the truffle oil. [This releases the starch into the pan, rather than rinsing it away in any drained water]
    • In a small saucepan, reduce the white wine over a high heat to 30ml. Add the warm chicken stock to the reduced wine. Mix the grated cheese with the cornflour and add to the pan. Stir until the cheese has been incorporated into the sauce, then add the pasta.
    • Cook over a medium heat until the pasta is warmed through, then stir in the cream cheese. Season with freshly ground black pepper.
    • Half fill an ovenproof baking dish with the pasta, sprinkle with diced goat’s cheese and add the remaining macaroni on top. [Heston bakes his inside a hollowed cheddar wheel]
    • Sprinkle some more cheese on top and place under the grill to melt and gratinate the cheese. Serve immediately.
    What can I tell you? Feeling jaded? Reach for this ultra-rich, flavoured-packed, mac and cheese! It was everything I wanted it to be!

    [Make sure you use the right macaroni – I happened to have small gluten-free macaroni made with maize and rise flour, which I’d bought in for my gluten-intolerant niece.  It would have worked much better with a durum wheat, larger style macaroni.]

    Coating the hard cheese in cornflour prevents it clumping together

    You can see the starch released around the sides of the pan

    Adding cream cheese increases the creaminess of the sauce

    You can clearly see the unmelted goat’s cheese cubes in the gratinated mac

    This dish is very rich, you wouldn’t want a huge helping!!
    Lot of cheese to use up!

    Part of the point of the show was to discuss the properties of different kinds of cheese, and their suitability for different dishes.  Heston, Otto and Jockey each ironed a different type of cheese (yes, ironed), to test their melting points.  The medium cheese melted on the lowest setting of the iron, but the fresh, soft goats cheese wouldn’t melt at all – the water merely evaporated and left a layer of cheese behind.  The hard cheese did melt, but only after Heston moved the temperature up significantly.

    The goal in most of his cheese recipes is to either release the fat and protein, or to impair that release.  In this dish Heston coats the hard cheese in cornflour to restrict the release of the protein and fat – resulting in a much smoother sauce with no clumping.  The sauce shouldn’t be boiled, as that would begin to release the fat and protein again, resulting in a less silky sauce.

    The goat’s cheese was added in cubes to the dish precisely because it didn’t melt like the others – and the resulting pockets of spiky goats cheese enhance the overall cheesiness of the dish.

    If you’re reading this outside of the United Kingdom, I think you can watch the relevant section on You Tube – but the copyright is protected inside the United Kingdom, sorry!  You can find more of the recipes from the series here >