The Devil in the Kitchen (35 page)

3. Using a small sharp knife, slice a petal from each side of each olive. You should end up with 24 small ovals. Cut each anchovy into quarters on a slant.

TO SERVE:

Place the fish on warmed plates. Spread the tomato dressing lengthwise down the center of each fish, following the spine from head to tail. Top the dressing with a crisscross of anchovy pieces, again working from head to tail. Put a petal of black olive into the center of each crisscross. The garnish should resemble a lattice. Drizzle about a tablespoon of olive oil on the plate, down each side of the fish, and top with a very light squeeze of lemon.

BRAISED PIG’S TROTTERS PIERRE KOFFMANN

Makes 6 servings

The veal stock:
6 pounds veal knuckle bones
½ cup olive oil 1 onion, roughly chopped
3 carrots, roughly chopped
3 celery sticks, roughly chopped
½ bulb of garlic
4 tablespoons of tomato purée
1 pound button mushrooms
½ bottle of Madeira
10 quarts of hot water
A sprig of thyme
1 bay leaf

The trotters:
6 pigs’ trotters (from the back legs only, as they are bigger) Olive oil
2 carrots, peeled and cubed
1 celery stick, cubed
1 onion, cubed
½ cup dry white wine
3 cups veal stock
A sprig of thyme
½ bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground white pepper

The chicken mousse:
½ pound skinless, boneless chicken breast, sinews removed
A pinch of ground mace
1 tablespoon chopped tarragon
1 egg
2 tablespoons salt
1 cup heavy cream

The filling:
1½ ounces dried morels
1½ pounds veal sweetbreads
½ onion, diced
Chicken mousse

The sauce:
2 chicken legs
Sweetbread trimmings, reserved from the filling
3½ ounces mushrooms, sliced
3½ ounces shallots, chopped
½ bulb of garlic, sliced across to halve each clove

A sprig of thyme
½ bay leaf
1½ tablespoons sherry vinegar
1½ tablespoons cognac
1¾ cups Madeira
2½ cups veal stock
1 cup chicken stock
4 dried morels
Lemon juice
A few drops of heavy cream
72 fresh wild mushrooms
2 tablespoons of butter

TIP:
You need to start cooking this at least a day in advance, to have enough time to soak your trotters adequately. I would suggest making the various stocks and sauces well ahead.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS:

Basic mashed potato (recipe follows)
Roast button onions (recipe follows)

TO PREPARE THE VEAL STOCK:

1. In a large Dutch oven, cook the veal knuckle bones in 4 tablespoons of olive oil until golden brown, stirring and turning occasionally.

2. Simultaneously, in a separate pan, cook the onion, carrots, celery and garlic in 2 tablespoons of oil until soft, but not brown.

3. Add the tomato purée to the vegetables and stir in, then allow it all to cook gently and color lightly. Be very careful not to burn the ingredients.

4. In another pan, cook the button mushrooms in the remaining oil, then deglaze with the Madeira. Boil to reduce down to almost nothing. Add the syrupy mushrooms to the rest of the vegetables.

5. When the veal bones are golden brown, place them in a large stock pot and cover with the hot water. Add the vegetables and herbs and bring to a boil. Skim, reduce heat, and allow to simmer for 8–12 hours, topping up with water as required to keep the bones covered.

6. Pass the stock through a fine sieve into another pan (preferably tall) and boil to reduce by half. Cool, then store. This can be kept in the fridge for up to a week or frozen for 3 months.

TO PREPARE THE TROTTERS:

1. Soak the trotters in cold water for 24 hours, then drain and pat dry. Singe off any remaining hairs, particularly between the toes. Scrape off the singed stubble and any stray hairs with a sharp knife.

2. Slit the underside of each trotter lengthwise, starting at the ankle end. Cut the main tendon and then start to work off the skin by cutting around it with a sharp knife close to the bone. Remember that the skin is essentially going to form a sausage skin, so be careful not to tear it. Pull the skin down and cut through the knuckle joint at the first set of toes. Continue to pull the skin off to the last toe joint. Snap and twist off the bones and discard them.

3. Preheat the oven to 425°F.

4. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a heavy casserole dish and fry the carrots, celery and onion over moderate heat for about 2 minutes. Add the trotters, skin-side-down, and the wine and boil until the wine is reduced by about half.

5. Add the veal stock, thyme and bay leaf. Bring back to a boil, then cover and place in the oven to cook for about 3 hours. During that time, shake the casserole from time to time to keep the trotters from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Remove the trotters from the cooking liquid and let cool. They should be a wonderful oak-brown color.

TO PREPARE THE CHICKEN MOUSSE:

1. Roughly chop the chicken breast. In a blender, process the chicken with the mace and tarragon for 1 minute or until smooth. Add the egg and salt and process the mixture for another minute. Chill the mixture for 10–15 minutes (this will prevent it from separating later).

2. Add the cream, and then force the mixture through a sieve to make it a velvety texture. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Store the mousse wrapped in plastic film in the fridge until needed.

TO PREPARE THE FILLING:

1. Soak the morels in cold water for 10 minutes; drain and rinse. Repeat this process once more.

2. Remove the sinew and membranes from the sweetbreads (save the trimmings for the sauce). Cut the sweetbreads into cubes and fry these in a little very hot olive oil in a large frying pan until they are golden brown with a crunchy texture.

3. Add the soaked morels and the onion and cook for 1 minute only (this mixture is to be cooked again once it is used to stuff the trotters). Season with salt and white pepper. Drain the mixture thoroughly in a colander and let cool.

4. When the mixture is cool, stir in just enough chicken mousse to bind the ingredients together. Taste and adjust the seasoning again, if necessary.

TO PREPARE THE SAUCE:

1. Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and fry the chicken legs and sweetbread trimmings until they are golden brown but not cooked all the way through.

2. Add the mushrooms, shallots, garlic, thyme and bay leaves and stir well. Deglaze the pan with the sherry vinegar, allowing it to bubble to get rid of the acidity. Deglaze in the same way with the cognac. Add the Madeira and reduce until it looks caramelized. Pour in the veal stock and the chicken stock and add enough water, about ½ cup, to cover the chicken legs and vegetables. Drop in the dried morels and simmer for 20 minutes.

3. Strain the sauce, then pass through a fine sieve or muslin cloth several times, saving the morels for a garnish for the mashed potatoes if you wish. Just before serving, reduce the sieved sauce just a little to give a coating consistency, like a thin cream. Add the butter, a few drops of lemon juice, 1–2 drops of cream and freshly ground pepper. Taste the sauce, while adding these final ingredients, and adjust the seasoning to suit you.

TO FINISH THE TROTTERS:

1. Cut out 6 large squares of kitchen foil big enough to wrap and seal a stuffed trotter. Butter one side of each square of foil, and then place a trotter on it, skin side down. Pick out the little pieces of fat on the inside of the skin.

2. Divide the filling equally among the trotters. There should be enough filling to give the trotters enough bulk to retain their original shape. Roll the foil tightly around each trotter, making a sausage shape, and twist the ends to seal them securely. Put the parcels in the fridge to set for about 15 minutes.

3. Poach the trotters in a large pan of boiling water for about 12 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the garnish. Cook the wild mushrooms in half of the butter in a large frying pan over high heat until they produce liquid. Drain the mushrooms in a sieve then cook again for 1–2 minutes in the remaining butter. Keep warm.

TO SERVE:

Remove the trotters from the poaching water, unwrap them and carefully place one, intact-skin-up, on each warmed plate. If using the roast button onions, arrange them on each plate in lines above and below the trotter. Scatter the wild mushrooms over the trotters. Place a pool of mashed potatoes, about the same width and length as the trotter, alongside it at the top of the plate and dot it with sliced morels left over from the sauce. Coat the trotters with the sauce and spoon more sauce onto the plate.

BASIC MASHED POTATOES

Makes 4–6 servings

2 pounds Desirée potatoes
½ tablespoon salt
7 ounces unsalted butter
6 tablespoons heavy cream

TO PREPARE:

1. Peel the potatoes and cut into one-inch cubes.

2. Put 1 quart of water in a pan, add the potatoes and salt and bring to a boil. Poach the potatoes for 4–5 minutes. Drain well and pat dry with kitchen paper.

3. Purée the potatoes in a food processor, then add the butter and cream. Serve hot.

ROAST BUTTON ONIONS

Makes 8 servings

48 button onions
7 tablespoons butter
Salt and freshly ground pepper

TO PREPARE:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.

2. Top and tail the onions. Blanch in boiling salted water for 3 minutes. Drain the onions and then cool them in a cold-water bath. Pop the onions out of their skins.

3. Melt the butter in a small, heavy-bottomed, flameproof pan over moderate heat and add the onions and seasoning. Sauté for 3 minutes. Cover with buttered paper, roast in the oven for 5 minutes until the onions are caramelized. Serve hot.

HARVEYS LEMON TART

The pastry:
18 ounces plain flour
6 ounces confectioner’s sugar
9 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature
Grated zest of one lemon
1 vanilla pod, split open
1½ eggs, beaten

The lemon filling:
9 eggs
14 ounces superfine sugar
Grated zest of 2 lemons
Juice of 5 lemons
1 cup heavy cream

The decoration:
2½ ounces confectioner’s sugar
Sprigs of mint

TO PREPARE THE PASTRY:

1. Sift the flour and confectioner’s sugar onto a work surface and work in the butter. Make a well in the center and add the lemon zest and seeds scraped from the vanilla pod. Add the eggs. Knead the mixture with your fingers, working as quickly as you can, until everything is combined to form a smooth dough. Wrap in plastic film and set in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

3. Grease a flan tin with a removable base that is 8 inches in diameter and ½ inches deep. Roll out the pastry on a lightly-floured surface to form a disc large enough to line the tin and to allow an overhang of not less than ½ inch. Lay the pastry gently into the tin.

4. Line the pastry shell with greaseproof paper and fill with enough dry beans or lentils to ensure the sides as well as the bottom are weighted. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the beans and greaseproof paper and trim off the overhanging pastry, then return the shell to the oven to bake for a further 10 minutes.

TO PREPARE THE LEMON FILLING:

Whisk the eggs, superfine sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in the lemon juice, and then add the cream. Continue to whisk until all of the ingredients are thoroughly combined. Skim any froth from the top.

TO ASSEMBLE THE TART:

1. Reduce the oven temperature to 250°F. Pour the cold filling into the hot pastry shell (this will ensure that the shell is sealed). Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool and set for about an hour.

2. When ready to serve, preheat the broiler to very hot. Sift the confectioner’s sugar over the top of the tart and place in the broiler to caramelize the sugar to a light golden brown. Alternatively, you can just sprinkle the tart with confectioner’s sugar without caramelizing it. Cut the tart into slices and decorate each slice with a sprig of mint.

TIP:
The secret of a really good lemon tart is that the filling should be firm and clear and the pastry light and crisp. It should never be cut immediately after it is cooked as it needs time to cool and set for at least an hour or the filling will be too runny.

PEAR TART TATIN

The puff pastry:
1 pound bread flour
1 tablespoon salt
1 pound unsalted butter, softened slightly
¾ cup water
2 teaspoons of white wine vinegar

The tart:
3½ ounces unsalted butter
3 ounces superfine sugar
A pinch of ground cinnamon
2 pears, peeled, cored and halved
1 cinnamon stick
3½ ounces puff pastry

TO PREPARE THE PUFF PASTRY:

1. Sift the flour onto a work surface. Make a well in the middle and add the salt, 2 ounces of butter, the water and the vinegar. Mix and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Mold the dough into a ball and lightly slice a cross across the top with a knife. Cover the dough with a cloth and let it rest in a cool place for about an hour.

2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a sheet of about 8 inches, rolling the corners a little more thinly than the center.

3. Place the remaining butter in a block in the center of the dough. Bring up the four corners of the pastry over the butter to make an envelope.

4. Roll this out into a rectangle of about 10 inches by 6 inches. Fold in three and turn by 90 degrees. This constitutes a “turn.”

5. With a rolling pin at right angles to the folds, roll out the dough again into a rectangle of the same size as before. Fold in three as before and, again, turn the pastry by 90 degrees (in the same direction as the previous turn). Two turns have now been completed. Cover the dough and let it rest in the fridge for an hour.

6. Repeat the procedure to complete two more turns, and then set the dough in the fridge for another hour.

7. Make two more turns. A total of six turns have now been completed. Let the dough rest for another hour in the fridge, after which time it is ready for use. The dough will keep in the fridge for 1–2 days, and it also freezes well.

TO PREPARE THE TART: