Scallop and bacon salad

Transcription

1 Scallop and bacon salad Ingredients 12 scallops in the shell 5tbsp olive oil Salt and freshly grounded pepper 6 rashers smoked back bacon 6 spring onions, chopped 1 tbsp grain mustard 2 tbsp white wine finger 2 tbsp groundnut oil 1 tbsp each of chopped fresh parsley, chives and chervil To serve Mixed salad leaves (more or less, depending on whether for a starter or main course) 1. Trim the scallops, using the white muscle meat only for this dish. 2. Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a solid flat bottomed frying pan and sear the scallops until golden brown, a minute or two only. Turn over to sear, season and then take out and keep warm. 3. Meanwhile, trim the bacon and cut into thin strips. Sauté and colour these in the frying pan that the scallops were cooked in. Add the chopped spring onion and sauté until coloured and then put both bacon and onion into a large bowl. 4. Mix the mustard and vinegar well in a bowl or jar, then add the remaining olive oil, the groundnut oil, herbs and some seasoning. Take some of the dressing and toss with the salad leaves then lay these in the middle of four plates 5. Add the remaining dressing to the bacon and onion. Balance the three scallops per person on each mound of salad leaves and then spoon the bacon, onion and dressing over and around.

2 Rhubarb ketchup (makes about 300ml 500g forced rhubarb, washed well and cut in to 2cm chunks 50ml cold water 90g caster sugar 1 large pinch salt 125ml red wine vinegar 1 tbsp arrowroot 4 tbsp cold water Place the rhubarb and water in a stainless steel pan and cook over a gentle heat until you have a thick stew (about 10 mins). Liquidize and pass through a fine sieve. Add the caster sugar, salt and vinegar to the rhubarb and bring the boil. Cook down gently until the sauce is thick, similar to double cream, which will take about minutes. Pour the ketchup into a sterilized jar or Kilner jar. Seal securely and place the jar in to a saucepan with a tea towel or cloth in the base to keep the glass off the bottom of the pan. Pour in enough warm water so that the jar is just covered. Pop a thermometer in the pan and heat the water in the pan to 90 c (I use a sugar thermometer for this) then turn down the heat and leave for exactly 20 mins, making sure the temperature stays the same. This will sterilize the ketchup. Carefully remove the hot jar from the water and place on a wooden board or tea towel as sometimes the jar will crack if placed on metal/cold surface. Cool and then leave to mature for at least a month (up to 3 months) somewhere cool and dark. Once opened eat within a week. TOAD - IN- THE- HOLE Serves 4 Ingredients: 2 tbsp olive oil 8 good quality pork sausages 150g plain flour ½ tsp fine sea salt 2 large eggs 150ml milk

3 Onion gravy: 20g butter 2 red onions, peeled and finely sliced Sea salt and black pepper 1 ½ tbsp plain flour 300ml chicken stock 1tsp English mustard 2 tbsp redcurrant jam To taste few sashes of Worcestershire sauce 1. Preheat the oven to 200 /Gas 6. Spoon the olive oil into a 1.5 litre baking dish and tilt the dish to oil the base evenly. Add the sausages and toss well to coat. Bake in the hot oven for 10 minutes. 2. Meanwhile to make the batter, put the flour, salt, eggs and milk into a blender or food processor. Blend for a couple of minutes until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides after a minute, to loosen any clumps of flour. 3. Take the sausages out of the oven and pour the batter all around them. Return to the oven and bake for another 30 minutes until the batter has risen dramatically and is golden brown. 4. Meanwhile, make the onion gravy. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the onions with some seasoning. Sweat over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, for about 8-10 minutes until they are soft and translucent. Add the flour and stir for another couple minutes. Gradually stir in the stock and bring to a simmer. Add the mustard, redcurrant jam and Worcestershire sauce to taste. Simmer until the gravy has thickened to a light coating consistency taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. 5. When ready, remove the road-in-the-hole from the oven and let stand for a few minutes before serving, with the onion gravy. Treacle tart Some cooks and restaurants get awfully fancy with treacle tarts pecan nuts in it, pointless pastry lattice on top. All you need is fresh breadcrumbs made from slightly stale bread, more golden syrup than you thought possible and a generous squeeze of lemon juice, a tang of acidity from the lemon provides the perfect counterbalance to all this sweetness.

4 It is wonderful served warm with clotted cream but for those with a very sweet tooth custard sauce has got to be the ultimate sleeping partner. Serves 6 Ingredients 200g plain flour A pinch of salt 50g cold butter, cut into pieces 50g lard, cut into pieces 2-3 tbsp cold water 175g white breadcrumbs 7-8 tbsp golden syrup Juice of zest and ½ a lemon 1. Preheat the oven to 200 C/400 F/Gas Stand the tin of golden syrup in a pan of boiling water (this just makes it easier to pour). 3. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl with the salt. Add the butter and lard and quickly rub it into the flour until the mixture resembles heavy breadcrumbs. Add the water, a little at a time and use a knife to stir it up into a clump. Knead it a couple of times, pat into a ball, cover and set aside for 30 minutes.

5 4. Flour a work surface and roll the pastry until you can cut a circle to fit a non-stick 23cm tart tin with a removable base. Wrap the dough around the rolling pin and loosely drape it over the tin, lifting the edge of the dough with one hand and pressing it into the base and up the side of the dish with the other hand, this prevents shrinkage. Trim off the excess dough and use scraps to plug any tears or cracks. Loosely cover with a large sheet of foil and fill with pastry beans or rice. Cook in the middle of the oven for 10 minutes. Remove the foil, lower the oven temperature to 180 C/350 F/Gas 4. Return the tart to a lower shelf and cook for a further 5 minutes. 5. Tip the breadcrumbs into the hot tart case they should come almost to the edge of the pastry and spoon over the golden syrup, working from the outside in. allow the syrup to sink down and saturate the bread you don t want any pools of syrup remaining but, equally, you don t want blonde patches and then squeeze over the zest and lemon juice. Cook in the middle of the oven for minutes until the filling has set and turned a light toffee colour. Allow the tart to cool for 5 minutes, then run a knife between the pastry and tart tin. Stand the tart on a tin to remove the collar, slide the tart on to a plate and serve.