Nourished

Recipe

Chickpea

Moroccan chickpea soup…

a754f-p3020113My favourite Saturday lunch, always made by Hubby, is this incredibly simple but very aromatic soup. The lemon zest clears your jaded palate and sets you up for the weekend…

As chickpeas are an excellent source of fibre and protein, it’s the perfect dish for vegetarians and vegans, without compromising at all on flavour.

This particular recipe comes from the Good Food magazine, but there are a number of variations out there…

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion , chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
600ml hot vegetable stock
400g can chopped plum tomatoes with garlic
400g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
100g frozen broad beans
zest and juice ½ lemon
large handful coriander or parsley and flatbread, to serve

Method

  • Heat the oil in a large saucepan, then fry the onion and celery gently for 10 mins until softened, stirring frequently. Tip in the cumin and fry for another min.
  • Turn up the heat, then add the stock, tomatoes and chickpeas, plus a good grind of black pepper. Simmer for 8 mins. Throw in broad beans and lemon juice, cook for a further 2 mins. Season to taste, then top with a sprinkling of lemon zest and chopped herbs. Serve with flatbread.

 

Recipe

Sea trout, with Thai scented stew…

There are so many bugs flying around at the moment, that all I seem to be cooking are stir fries and curries – it’s the desperate desire to get garlic, lemon grass and ginger into my family. All four have particular qualities for those suffering at this time of the year – the ginger relieve congestion, lemongrass helps with sore throats, chilli contains capsaicin, and is high in vitamin C, and the garlic has antibacterial properties…

Another week, and this time Hubby has somehow managed to perforate one ear drum, and has a double-heorrage in the other – he hasn’t managed to hear clearly for nearly a week – so time to reach for the aromatics again.

As well as those medicinal herbs and spices, I’m including some gorgeous sea-trout (for protein and omega-3), sweet potato and butternut squash (contains beta-carotene, good for immunity), and a coconut-milk liquor (coconut milk contains magnesium, which is good for relaxing muscles and nerve endings, hopefully calming the raging tinnitus).

The resulting dish is not ragingly spicy, but full of aromatic flavour.

Ingredients
1 inch of ginger, grated
3 fat cloves of garlic, finely diced
2 shallots (or onion) finely diced
2 red chillies, finely sliced
2 sticks of lemon grass (I bash mine to release the flavour, them remove before serving)
500ml fish stock
200g (approx) butternut squash, peeled and cubed
200g (approx) sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1 bulb of fennel, finely sliced
400ml coconut milk
Splash of fish sauce (nam pla)
Juice of two limes
4 kaffir lime leaves
1 large fish steak per person
Coriander, to serve

Method:

  • Gently fry the ginger, garlic and shallots until softened, but not coloured
  • Add the chilli, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce, vegetables, stock, and coconut milk
  • Bring the ‘soup’ to the boil then pop into a warm oven to reduce.  I can’t be more specific than that, though I would have thought around 170ºC would do it, for around an hour (as I was in London, I was cooking in the AGA, in which case it was in the second oven for an hour)
  • When the liquid has reduced and thickened to a stew-like consistency, pop the fish steaks, skin side up, onto the stew, and allow to heat through for barely 6-10 minutes until just cooked.  
  • Serve the fish on top of the stew, spooning a little on top of the fish.  Scatter the coriander, and a give it a good squeeze of lime juice.

Blood Oranges

Drop scones with blood-orange compote, and scented crème fraîche…

Now that spring is finally around the corner, it’s time to abandon our winter warmers for breakfast, and start awakening our tastebuds.  Citrus fruits are always a delight first thing in the morning, and have the effect of stimulating our palate and our metabolism.  I’m not suggesting you suffer though – this breakfast combination makes a very luxurious treat…  I made it last week for the 11yo during half term, and as today is her 12th birthday, I made it for everyone…

Blood-Orange Compote, and scented Crème Fraîche


Ingredients:
4 blood oranges
20g caster sugar
100g creme fraiche
1/2 vanilla pod
Method:
  • Put the crème fraîche into a small serving bowl, and zest at least two of the blood oranges into it, to taste – you’re looking for a zingy, tart contrast to the sweet compote.  You may want to sweeten it to taste with icing sugar – it will be very tart…  Alternatively, you could a teaspoon or so of vanilla extract, to round out the flavour
  • Peel and segment the oranges – make sure you do this over a bowl to capture all of the juices
  • Warm the orange segments and their juice in a pan over a low heat
  • Cut open the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds – add them to the pot with the sugar
  • Remove from the heat and allow the ingredients to infuse together while you make the drop scones – if possible leave it somewhere which will retain the heat in the pan (like warming drawer, or warming plate on an Aga)

Drop Scones

Ingredients:

2 eggs, lightly beaten
100ml milk
25g caster sugar

25g butter, melted
125g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

Sunflower oil or butter, for greasing

Method:
  • Whisk the eggs, butter, and around 90ml of the milk, until thoroughly combined
  • Put the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder into a bowl, an pour in the wet ingredients, gradually incorporating the dry ingredients.  Keep whisking until you achieve a smooth, but thick dropping-consistency batter.  If the batter is too thick, incorporate a little more milk, until the correct consistency is achieved.  
  • Heat a flat griddle pan, and drop the batter in blobs from a spoon.  The mixture will spread out a little, so leave enough space between the scones.
  • When the top surface of the drop scone begins to dry a little, and little bubbles begin to form and burst, flip the pancake over, and cook for a further thirty seconds.
Serve the pancakes with the compote, and Crème fraîche on the side.  Delicious. The acidity in the blood-oranges will keep your taste-buds zinging for hours.

Recipe

Prawn, Pumpkin and Peanut Curry

Pumpkin and Prawn CurryI came across Pure Package in one of the red-tops – the company delivers pre-packaged food on a daily basis for those with specific dietary goals (whether it be weight loss, athletes in training, models etc).  I wasn’t particularly interested in the service itself (I enjoy cooking far too much for that), but I was definitely interested in the nutritional aspect.  Browsing through their website, I came across the following recipe from their cookbook, which instantly appealed.  I love anything which uses squash, and as I had everything in my pantry (for once), there seemed no time like the present!

Ingredients:
1/2 small pumpkin – peeled, deseeded and cut into bite-size pieces
320g broccoli, cut into small florets
1 tablespoon groundnut oil
1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
2 teaspoons Thai green curry paste
160g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
600ml coconut milk
juice of 2 limes
2 tablespoons tamari soy sauce
250g sugar snap peas
2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander

Method:

  • Tip the pumpkin into a non-stick roasting tray and roast in the oven for 15–20 minutes or until soft. Remove from the oven and set aside.
  • Blanch the broccoli in boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain and set aside.
  • Meanwhile, heat the groundnut oil in a wok or large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 2 minutes until soft but not coloured. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for a further 1 minute.
  • Add the curry paste and stir in the mushrooms, coating them in the paste. Stir in the peanut butter, coconut milk, lime juice and tamari and cook for 2 minutes.
  • Add the blanched broccoli, sugar snap peas and roasted pumpkin to the curry and simmer for 5–8 minutes. Check the seasoning and add more lime juice or tamari if needed.
  • Add the coriander to the curry and stir through just before you are about to serve.
Notes:
  • The sauce was actually pretty rich, much richer than I anticipated.  As a result I had to add another lime before serving…  I’ll reduce the initial quantity of peanut butter in future (you can always add some in as you go along)
  • I added a few prawns to my curry, not for any nutritional reason, but because the 11yo likes them!

 

Pumpkin and Peanut Curry

There are more recipes in the Pure Package Cookbook >

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