Series One Recipes - Episode Two
Oysters Mornay by Lorenzo Dearie
Ingredients
- Oysters (I can't possibly imagine how many you want to eat and I surely don't have to point out they should be fresh)
- Oyster shells (I thought Lorenzo could have quit the shells and just made the dish IN the little partitioned silver dish)
- 1 bunch Spinach (wilted in a hot pan and seasoned)
- Mornay sauce (recipe below)
- Seasoning.
Method
Mornay sauce
- 40g butter (Lorenzo used unsalted)
- 2 Tbl flour
- 300ml hot milk
- Salt, pepper
- Touch of Dijon mustard.
- 120g cheese, grated. (Lorenzo used a 'local mature cheddar')
- 1 egg yolk.
Make white sauce
Cook flour in butter without any browning.
Add hot milk a bit at a time, beating out to a smooth
consistency.
Take off the heat.
Add the cheese, mustard and egg yolk and combine
Season.
Assembly and Service
Put oysters on bed of spinach, spoon over mornay and
grill briefly, until the mornay bubbles and the oysters have just
warmed. You could make this in a big wide dish, with the spinach on
top of little triangular quarters of well toasted bread, with the
oysters on top and so forth. I'd sprinkle a tiny bit of paprika on
to and have some lemon on hand.
Richard's Smoked Ling Appetizer
I made these in some big scallop shells with the potato
boarder.
I'm very lucky to have those shells. I've never seen them
about.
Do it in little flat dishes, or a big wide dish.
I'd also suggest you look at this recipe as just a nice smoked fish
baked in white sauce, and that you can use the instant mash piping
in lots of other fun ways.
A favourite of mine is to pipe a border of instant mashed potato
onto a stainless platter and bake the platter until the potatoes
are golden brown, then arrange a mixed grill in the middle of the
platter! Use the recipe on the instant mashed potato packet, but
increase the butter by half again, use cream for milk, add an egg
yolk and season slightly more heavily.
Got that!?!
For the fish...
Ingredients
- 350g cold smoked ling. (Any other cold smoked fish of your liking will suit, I'm a ling nut. If you have hot smoked fish, make the béchamel and crumble the fish in, un-re-cooked)
- 3 cups milk
- 1/4 cup white wine.
- 4 Tbl flour
- 3 Tbl butter
- Salt, pepper. (I like white pepper for this, I'm old fashioned that way)
Simmer the ling in the milk until cooked
Meanwhile lightly (and I mean very lightly) brown the flour in the
butter.
Add the milk you poached the fish in and beat until smooth
Add the white wine and season.
When all is cool to touch, crumble the fish into the white
sauce.
Bake in scallop shells with potato border
Schnitzel at Anne's and Richard's
Firstly, it's just fine to buy the already crumbed stuff. But
take a look at the colour of those crumbs! Those are the crumbs you
want to eat if you want to glow in the dark!
But if you are crumbing them...
Ingredients
- Schnitzel. You know how much you want to eat, and I don't. But assuming you have 6 bits, nice big bits, not huge, just nice.
For the crumb
- 8 slices fresh white bread
- 1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs
- 2 cloves garlic
- A little chopped fresh thyme and rosemary.
- Put these in the food processor and chop until all is a fine crumb.
Method
Then to crumb the schnitzel, cut the edges of the schnitzel as
Anne recommends, then dredge the schnitzel in seasoned flour, then
in egg wash (3 eggs beaten with 1.2 cup of water, seasoned with
salt, pepper and one tsp mustard powder) then in crumbs, taking
care to cover well!
It really is best if you can put them aside for several hours in
the fridge with bits of wax paper between them, but most often I
forget to do it in advance, or am just too damn greedy to wait.
Cook the schnitzels in hot oil until the crumb is crisp and
golden.
Drain on paper towels and serve with the sauce below.
Richard's Schnitzel sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 onion
- 6 mushroom
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 packet stock (300ml)
- Oil
- 1 Tbl flour
- Brandy
- Seasoning.
Method
Chop finely together the onion, mushroom and garlic.
You can do this, as I often do, in the food processor, but take
great care not to make a paste!
Fry the onion, mushroom, garlic in 2 Tbl oil until gently
browned
Add the flour and lightly brown.
Add the stock and the brandy.
Simmer until you have the desired thickness and check seasoning
then!
The packet stock is pretty damn salty!!
Serve sauce with schnitzel!
Potatoes in Sandwichmaker
Ingredients
- Cold, boiled potatoes
- Salt
- Garlic butter.
Put potatoes into hot sandwichmaker and crush.
After 5 or 6 mins cooking open and add a generous lump of garlic
butter, close again and cook until unbearably crisp, golden and
just too damn delicious for words!
Keep warm in oven.
Season with salt just before serving.
Note: the longer you can cook them the better. They'll be pretty
boring if you can't bring yourself to wait for them to brown
well!
Crepes
Ingredients
Crepes
- I suggest we all use Julia Child's recipe.
- 2/3 cup milk
- 2/3 cup water
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup flour
- pinch salt
- 2 Tbl melted butter (or oil)
Method
Mix together and make crepes.
Use the above for savoury crepes, but for these and other sweet
add 2 Tbl sugar.
Note: because eggs are different sizes, you may need to loosen the
batter with a little more milk or water (if the eggs are small) of
tighten it (less likely) if the eggs are particularly huge.
Bronwyn's Crepe Cake
Ingredients
- Apple mixture
- 8 or 9, granny smith apples, chopped up really fine
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup caster sugar
- About 4 tsp unsalted butter
- Zest of a lemon and its juice
- 300ml whipped cream
- Brandy
- Zest of two oranges
- 1 cup lightly toasted walnuts, chopped
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Method
Melt the butter and sugar together and cook until it starts to
caramelise
add the apples, the zest of lemon and lemon juice.
Here I quote Bronwyn
"stir it all through, put it into the pot, stir it up and
caramelize. Reduce it and let it boil down so it's nice and thick
and yummy. We will add to that some brandy cream, which is just
well thick, well beaten cream with several tsp of good brandy in
it. Then for the layering we will use cinnamon and orange zest and
the ultimate layer will be chopped toasted walnuts (fresh walnuts),
and then there's a little bit of extra brandy for flaming it at the
end"
By this I think she means...
Cook the apples with the butter sugar lemon juice and zest until
thick.
Let cool.
Combine with 1/4 cup of brandy cream ( the rest is to serve
with it)
Layer the crepes (aim to get 15 crepes in the stack so it's not
much filling) with chopped walnuts, orange zest and apple mixture,
with the tiniest sprinkling of cinnamon. (I'd add it to the apples,
just as I was starting to assemble)
Cook in a 170 oven for 35 min.
Tip burning brandy over cake at the table and serve with brandy
cream.
PLEASE TAKE EXTREME CARE OF BURNING ALCOHOL! IT IS A SIGNIFICANT
HAZARD!
Blanched almonds ground up in the food processor works well in the
place of really fresh walnuts. Tired, store bought walnuts can be
bitter!
My Crepe Suzette
1 crepe recipe.
- Juice of four oranges and one lemon
- 60g Butter
- 1/2 cup sugar (if you like sweet desserts add another quarter cup, I like things on the 'not so sugary' side!)
- Brandy.
In a pan melt the butter and sugar together and cook until
lightly caramelised.
Add the orange and lemon juice. (The sugar will bind when you add
the cold juice, but it will dissolve as the juice heats)
Boil hard for two minutes then remove from heat. Add 3 tbl
brandy.
Fold crepes into quarters (dip in the orange sauce or not as time
permits).
Arrange crepes in a wide ovenproof pan.
Tip over sauce.
Set aside until 20 mins before serving pud, at which time
you&..
Put into a preheated 180 oven for about 15 min max.
Serving
Heat 4 tbl Brandy in a small pan,
Tip over crepes, straight from the oven.
Rush to the table.
Set on the table.
Set brandy on fire. (Please re-read the instructions about burning
brandy above)
Eat.
With whipped cream, or not, or icecream, or whatever takes your
fancy.
I like them best unadorned.
