kitchen72

Another homage at home. This time a straight up adaptation of the Daniel Humm roast chicken at NoMad. Loved this. The original recipe calls for the chicken to be stuffed under the skin with foie gras, truffles and brioche. Roasted at a super high temperature, the chicken skin crisps golden brown. The fat from the foie gras melts, helping to render the skin from the inside. Presented to the table with a bouquet of greens, carved, then each breast is served with a fricassee of dark meat from the legs.

Not having won the lottery, my fridge lacked the foie gras, brioche and truffle. So the challenge was on to make something that could match the rich, decadent stuffing of the NoMad recipe. Fortunately I had some truffle butter, french baguette, and dried porcini mushrooms….

To make the stuffing: Seep a handful of dried mushrooms in a cup of boiling water for 20 minutes.  Take four handfuls of torn french bread and add to a blender. Throw in the softened mushrooms (no mushroom water) along with two tablespoons of truffle butter, and a further two tablespoons of salted butter (if you have no truffle butter – add some truffle oil to four tablespoons of butter). A handful of fresh parsley, a sprinkle of back pepper and then blitz. If too dry add some of the reserved mushroom water.

Stuff the chicken: Cut out the wishbone by scraping away the meat and pulling away the bone. Gently use your finger to separate the skin from the breast and the legs (I just did the breast in the photos). Fill a piping bag and use it to pipe the stuffing over the legs and breast. Use your fingers to massage the skin to spread the stuffing evenly.

Pop a lemon, thyme and rosemary into the cavity. Truss your chicken (tie up the legs) and leave in the fridge for an hour (to dry out the skin and firm up the stuffing). Pre-heat your oven to 250C.

Take the chicken out of the fridge. Melt 1/2 a cup of butter and gently brush the chicken skin with the melted butter and roast at 250C for thirty minutes. Baste the chicken with more melted butter and turn down the heat to 200C  until continue to roast done (about 35-45 minutes).

Let the chicken rest and bring to the table with a bouquet of green leaves (I used sorrel, baby purple & black kale leaves, and wild rocket). Carve the breasts and serve.

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My favourite way to cook salmon is a Michel Bras technique. It is so easy and perfectly cooks the fish to wobbly medium rare consistency. The salmon is so light and moist, it collapses on the fork. Simple and beautiful, this whole recipe takes no more than 15 minutes from start to finish.

Pre-heat your oven to a very low setting (120C). Fill up your kettle and turn on to boil. Take out 2 roasting dishes. Lightly butter one. Place the salmon fillets skin side down in the buttered dish. Put the salmon on the top shelf of the oven and the empty roasting dish on the bottom shelf. Fill the empty dish with boiling water. Leave for 10-14 minutes (depending on thickness of the fillets). That’s it. The salmon will be done when it starts to flake apart a little. Simple. The salmon will bleed little dots of white stuff (albumen), which will brush off easily with a pastry brush.

While the salmon is steam/baking – boil some halved new potatoes (10-15mins). Drain. Season with salt, parsley and olive oil.

For the fennel puree I cheated a little and caramelised a finely chopped bub of fennel in a pressure cooker with 3 tablespoons of butter and half a glass of water for 10 mins. Blitz in a blender with a few more tablepoons of butter until smooth.

Serve.

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I cook for taste, eat to suit myself, and if I’m not in the mood to cook – I’ll eat junk food. This recipe has all the trappings of a healthy dish – but ignore all the detoxifying claims of beetroot juice – this is all about flavour.

Roast, at a very high heat, whole unpeeled baby carrots, with their green tops and wispy roots intact.  After about 30-45mins (depending on how high you crank up your oven) this gives you sweet carrot flesh, with a chewy skin and crispy tops and roots. Remove from the oven and let cool, so the skin separates a little from the flesh. Warm up a frying pan and sear some finely chopped spring onions. Add the cooled baby carrots to the pan, some finely chopped lettuce leaves (choose a soft green leaf if possible), and cover with a lid. Take off the heat to let the carrots warm up, and the leaves to wilt down.

For the beetroot juice – I am lucky to have the use of one of these types of juicers at home, but they are not essential.  You can finely grate a whole beetroot, wrap the shredded pulp in a dishcloth and torque it tightly to squeeze out all the juice.

In a pan, reduce the juice by half to thicken, season it with a fruit vinegar and salt to taste (I used a fig balsamic that i bought in Aldi).

Make sure to roast lots of little carrots to drag through the sauce.

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Quick Saturday lunch. Smooth, creamy cauliflower puree with lightly cooked shavings of cauliflower covered with ashes of roasted blackened leeks.

The taste of the leeks on their  own is strong, a salty balance with a sweet and bitter acidity. Though when mushed into and pulled through the puree, the leek shards crumble, seasoning the puree.

To make the leek ash. Cut the leeks lengthwise in half, trim off the dark green ends and separate the sheets. Lay out in roasting dish and lightly coat with olive oil and some salt. Roast for 20 minutes in the oven on a high heat (250C) until dehydrated and black.

Make the cauliflower puree by shaving thin sheets from the cauliflower with a mandoline. Take half the shavings and crumbled florets and simmer in a saucepan with a cup of milk and tablespoon of butter for 10 minutes until softened. Puree in a blender and season to taste.

Take the remaining shavings of the cauliflower and warm through in milk with a squeeze of lemon (don’t overheat or else it will curdle). You want the the 2nd batch of shavings to retain a little firmness and bite – so take off the heat after about 5 minutes. Drain the shavings and squeeze over a little bit of lemon.

Adapted from a recipe by Ola Rudin and Sebastian Persson from Saltimporten Canteen, Malmo (Bon Appetit Feb’13 issue)

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I’ve never cooked celeriac in its skin before. Knobbly and tough, covered in warts with rooty tentacles, it holds onto dirt and looks unpalatable.

A while back I stumbled across a Rene Redzepi recipe from Noma for pot roasted celeriac. Unfortunately it called for young celeriac roots, smaller than a fist, which you never see on the supermarket shelves. As usual though, the local  Food Co-op came to the rescue last month as I saw a box of mini-celeriacs for sale. So naturally I pounced and had to try the recipe out…

The method is simple. Clean the celeriac. I used a chopstick to gouge out all the muck from the root base and a scouring pad to brush off any remaining dirt. Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the cleaned celeriac and seal, like a joint of meat, turning every few minutes until golden. Add some butter, a cup of water and cover with a lid. Turn the heat down and cook gently for an hour. Turn the celeriac and baste occasionally, adding more water if the pot dries out.

While the celeriac is roasting – make the buttermilk sauce.

Slowly warm 200ml of milk in a saucepan and add the juice from half a lemon. Be careful not to overheat of else it will curdle. Whisk in two tablespoons of olive oil and season with salt.

Take out the celeriac and cut them in half. Spoon out the warm buttermilk sauce, and scatter over more olive oil and a squeeze more of lemon juice. Serve.

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