Clementine Sorbet

The use of fructose (fruit sugar) instead of sucrose in this sorbet gives it an incredible tangy flavour.
I was not totally happy with the way it froze though, probably due to the high water content of the juice. More work to follow.

Ingredients for the clementine sorbet:
750 g clementine juice (about 2.5 kilos of clementines)
125 g fructose
One leaf of gelatin

Preparing the clementine sorbet:
Half the clementines and squeeze the juice out of them. Bloom the gelatin leaf in a bit of cold water.
Put the fructose and 125 g of the clementine juice (passed through a sieve) into a sauce pan. Bring to the boil until the fructose dissolves. Squeeze as much water as possible from the gelatin and add it to the sauce pan while stirring to dissolve. Take off the heat. Add the rest of the juice (passed through a sieve) to the pan.
Transfer to a jug and store in the fridge until very cold.
Pour the mixture into your ice-cream machine and churn for 20-30 minutes until frozen.

Slow Cooked Fillet Steak, Pommes Puree, Braised Shallots, Veal Jus

This was a nice dinner where I got to use a few different techniques.
I wanted to make a salad or something green to go with it but ran out of space and time.
Cooking the fillet steak at around 60 degrees C in the oven for a fairly long time (55 minutes) ensures that 95 % of the steak is medium rare (around 56 degrees C core temperature) and you also get a very uniform result throughout the steak.
It's important to use a fairly hot pan when you sear the steak before roasting them in the oven since this step have to happen very quickly so you don't overcook the steak.
The sauce is quite simple, just sauteing some mirepoix and then reducing veal stock. It has a fantastic umami flavor that really complements the beef.

This recipe serves two persons.

Ingredients for the steak:
2 fillet steaks, 175 gram each.
Groundnut oil (or other neutral oil with high smoking point)
Salt
Pepper

Preparing the steak:
Bring the steak out of the fridge at least one hour before cooking to ensure that the steaks come up to room temperature. Cooking the steaks from cold will lower the temperature of the pan.
Turn on the oven to 60 degrees C, preferably use an oven thermometer to monitor the temperature.
Heat a frying pan on high heat.
Oil, then salt and pepper the steaks on all sides.
Have a small oven tray ready for the steaks.
When the frying pan is very hot, sear the steaks one by one on all sides. It's easiest to hold the steaks with a tonge when doing this step. This step should take maximum 30 seconds per steak. Once seared all over put steaks on oven tray.
Transfer to middle of the oven and roast for 55 minutes. Half way through the cooking time flip the steaks over.
Once removed from the oven let the steaks rest on a rack for a few minutes.


Ingredients for the braised shallots:
6 shallots, peeled with root area left intact
500 ml chicken stock
1 sprigs of thyme
2 garlic cloves, peeled
25 g butter
Rapeseed oil
Salt
Pepper

Preparing the braised shallots:
Saute the shallots in a bit of oil until golden brown all around. Add the butter, thyme and garlic and cook for another two minutes.
Add the chicken stock, cover and let simmer gently for about 25 minutes or until the shallots are very soft and tender.
Check for seasoning.


Ingredients for the pommes puree:
500 g Ratte potatoes (or Charlottes), scrubbed but not cleaned.
125 g unsalted butter, chilled
125 ml whole milk
Salt
White pepper

Preparing the pommes puree:
Cover the potatoes with 1 liter of cold water and 0.5 tablespoon of course salt. Bring to the boil and once it reached the boiling point lower the temperature to a simmer and cover with a lid.
Boil the potatoes for 25 minutes. Drain and peel.
Put the potatoes (while still warm) through a potato ricer or a mouli fitted with the finest disk into a clean saucepan.
Put the mashed potatoes over a medium heat and stir vigorously with a spatula for 5 minutes to dry out the flesh a bit.
Meanwhile rinse a small saucepan with water, pour it out (do not wipe dry) then add the milk. Warm the milk until boiling point and then take it off the heat.
Lower heat for the potato pan to low. Add the butter bit by bit while stirring with spatula, keep adding until it's all incorporated and the puree is homogenous.The potato and butter might separate a bit at this stage but keep stirring and it will come together.
Add the milk in a thin stream while stirring briskly. When all the milk is incorporated you should have a silky smooth puree. If you want it even smoother you can pass it through a fine sieve.
Check for seasoning.


Ingredients for the veal jus:
1 carrot, diced
1 leek (white part only), diced
0.5 medium onion, diced
1 sprig of thyme
Rapeseed oil
Red wine (Cab Sauv, Merlot, Shiraz or something similar)
300 ml veal stock
Salt
Pepper

Preparing the veal jus:
Heat a saute pan (preferably the same one you cooked the steaks in) to medium high heat. Add a splash of oil and then saute the carrot, leeks and onions until golden brown, add the sprig of thyme. Deglaze with a generous splash of red wine. Boil until red wine is evaporated.
Add the veal stock and let this simmer for a few minutes. When the sauce had a bit of body, pass through a sieve into a small sauce pan. Reduce further until you achieve a semi-sticky consistency.

Fig and Hazelnut Sourdough Bread

Risotto ai Funghi di Bosco

This is a great risotto, especially if you love mushrooms.

This makes enough for at least 4 persons.

Ingredients for the mushroom risotto:
1.5 litres chicken (or vegetable) stock
140 g unsalted butter
4 shallots, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
200 g chestnut mushrooms, chopped
25 g dried porcini mushrooms
25 g dried galetti mushrooms (optional)
1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tbsp fresh marjoram, chopped
150 ml dry white wine or vermouth
500 g Carnaroli risotto rice
75 g freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Salt
Pepper

Preparing the mushroom risotto:
Put the stock in a saucepan and heat to a gentle simmer. Put the dried mushrooms in a bowl and poor over enough hot water to cover. Let stand for 20-30 minutes and then sieve the mushrooms over another bowl. Keep the soaking liquor. Rinse the soaked mushrooms under cold water then chop them roughly.
Melt 100 g of the butter in a large, heavy saucepan and then add the shallots and garlic. Cook gently for about 10 minutes until soft, golden but not browned. Stir in the mushrooms and herbs then cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes to heat through. Salt and pepper.
Pour in the wine and boil hard until it has reduced and almost disappeared. This will remove the taste of raw alcohol. Add about 100 ml of the mushroom soaking liquor and boil a bit longer until this has reduced.
Stir in the rice and fry with the onion and mushrooms until dry and slightly opaque.

Begin adding the stock, one ladle at a time, stirring until each ladle has been absorbed by the rice. Continue until the rice is tender and creamy but still with some bite. This takes about 20 minutes.

Add the rest of the mushroom soaking liquor to a small saucepan and put on high heat to reduce.

Taste and season the risotto well with salt and pepper.
Stir in the parmesan and the remaining butter (cubed into small cubes). Cover the saucepan and let rest for a couple of minutes.

Serve the risotto in warmed bowls. Spoon a bit of the reduced mushroom liquor on top to give extra mushroom flavor. Drizzle a bit of extra virgin olive oil and finally shave some Parmesan on top and finish with a few turns of the black pepper mill.

Barbequed Chicken with Chili-Aioli

I woke today to a pleasant surprise - Delivery of my very own barbeque!
Barbequeing brings back fond memories of my childhood in Sweden where everyone barbeques as soon as the sun manage to stay up for more than a few hours. We did a lot of barbequeing in my family, at one point I think we had something like three DYI barbeques built with bricks scattered around the garden.

This is the first thing I cooked on the Weber. Gutsy flavours for sure but that's what you want sometimes.

I pared it with quite a heady Marsanne which worked quite well. Could also go with a medium bodied red wine.

This makes enough for about 3-4 persons.

Ingredients for the barbequed chicken:
700 g chicken breast fillets

2 garlic cloves
1 lime
Half a red chili
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp smoked paprika powder
A few dashes of Tamari soy sauce
Salt (Smoked Sea Salt if you have it)
Pepper

Preparing the barbequed chicken:
Start by preparing the marinade. Press the garlic cloves and the lime into a bowl. De-seed and finely chop the chili. Mix in the chili and the rest of the ingredients.

Cut the chicken fillets into 2 cm big cubes. Put them into the marinade, mix around to make them all coated by marinade. Put some cling film on top of the bowl and marinade in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours, preferably more. Take it out about once per hour and mix it around a bit if you can be bothered.

Take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before you want to start cooking it.
Put on skewers and barbeque for about 6-10 minutes. Turning the skewers halfway through.


Ingredients for the potatoes:
750 g Jersey Royal potatoes
A few sprigs of thyme
2 cloves of garlic
5 black peppercorns
Salt

Preparing the potatoes:
Put a pot of water on to a rolling bowl. Add about a small handful of sea salt to it. You want the water to be quite salty, a bit like sea water. Leave the skin on the garlic but crush them a bit with a chef knife. Add the garlic to the pot with the thyme and peppercorns.
Add the potatoes and let them boil for 15 minutes.
Drain and let cool.
When you are ready to barbeque put the potatoes on and turn them regularly. They will be ready in about 6-10 minutes.


Ingredients for the chili-aioli:
2 egg yolks (if you live in the UK I recommend Burford Brown Clarence Court eggs), at room temperature
2 garlic cloves
1 - 2 limes
250 ml groundnut oil (or any other neutral oil), at room temperature
0.25 tsp red chili paste
Salt (Smoked Sea Salt if you have it)
Pepper
A bit of cayenne pepper

Preparing the chili-aioli:
Press the garlic and one of the limes into a glass bowl. Add salt and pepper, egg yolks and chili paste. Whisk together with a balloon whisk.
Slowly add the oil first to ensure that the emulsion is forming, whisking constantly. Whisk until all the oil has been incorporated.
Check for seasoning and some cayenne pepper if it's not hot enough. Add more salt, pepper, lime juice if needed.

The Stone

Let the baking begin!

Chocolate Ice-Cream with Raspberries

Chocolate ice cream is always great and if you make it with a good chocolate it will be fantastic.
As a Swedish TV-chef says: "Ingredients, ingredients, ingredients".
I couldn't agree more. :-)
I used Valrhona Guanaja 70 % chocolate that you can buy in 200 g bars for cooking with. The chocolate taste fantastic and melts beautifully into the Creme Anglaise, creating a silky smooth ice cream without any graininess.
I recently started using Clarence Court Burford Brown eggs. They are fantastic eggs with a deep yellow orange yolk.

This makes enough for about 2-3 persons.

Ingredients for the chocolate ice cream:
100 g chocolate (50 - 70 %), finely chopped
70 g caster sugar
3 medium egg yolks
150 ml double cream
150 ml whole milk

Preparing the chocolate ice cream:
Bring the cream, milk and 46 g of the sugar slowly to the boil in preferably a non stick pot while stirring occasionally. At the same time, whisk together the egg yolks and 24 g of the sugar in a glass bowl until it reaches light ribbon consistency.
Temper the yolk mixture by slowly poring over the warm milk mixture while whisking vigorously, when the first bit of milk is incorporated you can poor a bit quicker. A bit like making a mayonnaise.
You have to go slow at the beginning so that you don't scramble the eggs.
When all the milk is incorporated poor the mixture back into the pot and heat gently over a low to medium heat while stirring with a wooden or silicone spatula. A bit like making a risotto.
When the custard thickens a bit draw a line with your finger through the custard on the spatula. If your finger leaves a line without the custard flowing back together it's finished. Take it off the heat and stir in the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is melted.
Set a glass or metal bowl into your sink or a bigger bowl and fill the sink with cold water and a few ice cubes. Poor the chocolate custard into the small bowl through a fine meshed sieve or chinois.
Stir occasionally until the custard is cooled down.
Freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.


Ingredients for the raspberries:
300 g raspberries
25 g caster sugar
1 lemon

Preparing the raspberries:
Put the raspberries in a bowl and poor sugar and lemon juice over them. With a light hand, toss together the raspberries with the sugar and lemon juice.
Leave to macerate for 30 minutes in room temperature. This will boost the flavor of the raspberries.