EXHIBITIONS AND BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING

The boys at the 10 cases are very generously letting me put up a few paintings next Monday (6th Feb).

It'll be a casual affair so please pop your head in, buy a glass of their very good wine and take a glance at some of my scribbles downstairs.

All work will be for sale - it'll be a silent auction, so if you like a particular painting, put your name, number and price in the box and the highest bidder will have something to put on their wall.

Hope you can make it.

Meanwhile, here's my recipe for Bread and Butter Pudding. Two puds in a month, I know, but you can't cut out everything in January.

BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING

Serves a greedy 4

1 loaf sliced brioche, with approx. 12 slices

150g butter

100g sultanas

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

200ml whole milk

150ml double cream

50g caster sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

dash of golden rum (optional)

extra sugar for sprinkling on top

Set the oven to 180 degrees C.

Lightly grease up a deep dish, large enough to tower the brioche slices. Butter the bread on both sides and lay, side by side, in the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with sultanas. Repeat this until you reach the top of the dish.

In a large measuring jug, whisk the eggs and egg yolks. Mix in the milk and cream. Then add the sugar, spices and rum, if using. When mixed through, gently pour over the bread.

Set the dish aside for at least 45 minutes so that the bread soaks up the cream mix. Sprinkle with any remaining raisins and sugar. Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes until the top bread layer is golden and crisp.

Best served with a wobble and a generous drizzle of single cream. Pretty good cold too.

PEAR AND GINGER MUFFINS

I like to call these ragamuffins: mini mountains of sponge, scantily constructed with the remnants of near-empty packets (well - I used the last of the butter which just happened to weigh a perfect 50g), rough on the outside but wonderfully soft and moist in the centre.

They are muffins in a ra - ga - mekin.

PEAR AND GINGER RAGAMUFFINS

serves 2

2 halves of tinned pear, sliced

1 ball stem ginger, thinly sliced

2 tsp dark brown sugar/molasses

50g butter

50g golden caster sugar

1 medium egg

50g self-raising flour

1 tbsp ground ginger

1 tbsp icing sugar

2 tbsps pear juice from tin

2 tbsps juice from stem ginger jar

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Butter two standard-sized ramekins and lay the sliced pear and stem ginger in the bottoms of each. Sprinkle over the dark brown sugar.

Beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Add the egg and stir through - the mixture will look scarily wet so don't freak. Sift in the flour with the ginger and fold.

Divide the batter between each ramekin and place in the oven for 20 minutes. By this time they should be risen and golden.

Leave the muffins to cool slightly whilst you make the drizzle: simply dissolve the icing sugar, stirring it into the pear and ginger juices.

With a skewer, poke about 8 holes into each muffin. Pour over the sweet, syrupy juices and serve with the last spoonful from the yoghurt

There you have it, you ragamuffins, you.

CRAB OMELETTE

The truth is, I've always been terrible at omelettes. Scrambled before they have a chance to set and flipped onto the plate into a sloppy mound, rather than elegantly slipped from the pan in a perfect fold. I don't admit my failure much.

A good omelette, or so I learnt last night, takes a little patience and a bit of skill, good eggs and a non-stick pan. A silicon spatula works a dream to loosen the edges. It turns out they are pretty simple to do. Who knew?

This recipe makes a non-omeletteer seem pro. All it takes is a few scrumptious ingredients, a whisk, a confident smile, and you've got yourself a gourmet supper in seconds.

CRAB OMELETTE


SERVES 1

drop olive oil/ small knob butter
3 eggs
salt and pepper
tbsp chives, finely chopped
tbsp dill, finely chopped
tbsp brown crab meat
2 tbsps white crab meat

Whisk the eggs, seasoning, herbs and brown crab meat in a small bowl.

Then melt a small amount of butter or wipe a little olive oil around a large, flat, non-stick pan. Place over a medium-hot heat.

When the pan is hot, pour in the egg mixture and swill around the pan. Using the spatula, quickly scramble the eggs, so that the cooked egg comes to the top. Swill again so you have a large, even, circle shape, filling the gaps in the pan with the uncooked egg. Loosen the edges of the omelette with the spatula. Scatter the crab along the vertical diameter and, when the egg is almost cooked and the underside is browning, start to roll the omelette from right to left.

Slip onto a warm plate and scatter with any remaining herbs. Serve with a fresh green salad.

This is suitable for those crazy fools on the Dukan diet - just use very little oil to wipe the pan and don't have the salad.

TURKEY PIE

For when we run out of ideas but are still staring at the meat...

TURKEY, HAM AND LEEK PIE
for Boxing Day

ingredients

serves 2-3

25g butter (extra for greasing)
1 large leek, finely sliced into rounds
1 medium sized carrot, roughly chopped
glug white wine
150ml fresh stock (turkey, ham or chicken)
50ml single cream
1tbsp wholegrain mustard
1tbsp Dijon mustard
100g leftover turkey, shredded
100g leftover ham, shredded
small bunch tarragon, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
flour
100g block puff pastry, rolled thin and cut to fit the oven dish
1tbsp milk to brush pastry

Preheat the oven to 200C/ 400F.

Butter a medium-sized oven dish.

Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the leeks. Fry until soft and add the carrot. Now add the white wine and stock and turn up the heat so the alcohol in the wine burns off. Stir in the cream and the mustards. Allow to simmer for approx. 10 minutes until the liquid has reduced by 1/2.

Now add the shredded meats and warm through for a minute or two. Add the tarragon and season with salt and pepper. Be wary that the stock and meat will add their own saltiness. Pour the pie filling into the dish.

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to about 3mm thick. Cut a little larger than the top of the oven dish and lightly place it on top of the filling. Lightly and evenly brush the pastry with milk and place in the oven to bake for 20 minutes. The pastry should be golden brown and puffy when you take it out.

Serve with blanched and buttered spring greens or leftover sprouts.

Boxing Day done.

ENOKI MUSHROOM, JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE AND SHALLOT TART

There is very little I don't like about food. I eat most of it, grotty or not. But one thing that gets me goat is colourlessness; food which arrives monochrome on the plate. All that comes to cloud the mind is, well, beiiiige, and apart from last season's trench coat, it's not a colour which really lights me up.

Think of the joy when purple beetroot is layered with sweet potato in a gratin - it perks up the chicken rather a lot, don't you think? A bowl of porridge is just gruel to the beholder unless drizzled with a berry compote or a raisin or two. Brie is brie, but not with a dollop of quince jelly. I'm not saying chuck any old rainbow together - if the flavours work, it can make for instant brightness. Call it fussy...

So after all that, I seem to have called the kettle black with a recipe entirely made from beige. And even when - for my aesthetic OCD - I spooned a bit of red tomato jam next to it, I really wish I hadn't.

This is what I like to call the 'winter light box'. (Beige) Enoki mushrooms, (beige) jerusalem artichokes, (beige) fried shallots and(beige) puff pastry. There is no colour. But I love it.

TART OF THE MOST BEAUTIFULLY BEIGE THINGS



serves 2

ingredients

3 large new season jerusalem artichokes, finely sliced
1tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 sprigs thyme (plus more for last min seasoning)
salt and pepper (plus more for last min seasoning)
small block puff pastry
small knob salted butter
6 shallots, finely sliced
small bunch of enoki mushrooms (beautiful specimens)

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Scatter the artichoke slices in a roasting tin and drizzle with the olive oil, the garlic, thyme and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes until the artichoke is soft and browning. When cooked, keep the oven on.

In a small saucepan, over a medium heat, melt the butter and add the shallots. Fry until soft and almost melting. Do not colour.

Scatter flour onto a surface and a rolling pin. Roll out the pastry to 3mm thick, in the shape of a rectangle. Score the pastry, an inch from the edge, so that you have an inner rectangle shape. Shift the pastry onto a lightly floured baking tray.

Layer the inner rectangle with the buttery shallots, the jerusalem artichokes and top with the enoki mushrooms. Season with salt and a final sprinkling of thyme. Place in the oven for approx. 10 minutes, or until the edges of the pastry are puffed and golden.

Serve with its very beige self.

HOT AND SOUR NOODLE BROTH

For cold nights, tired heads, lazy bones and loved ones.

HOT AND SOUR NOODLE BROTH

with

SEARED SALMON and GREENS

serves 4

ingredients

2 tbsps sesame oil

4 small salmon fillets, skinned

generous pinch salt

4 handfuls flat rice noodles (roughly 75g each)

1 ltr chicken stock

3 tbsps fish sauce

3 tbsps light soy sauce

1 tbsp mirin rice wine

(keep bottles of sauce on standby just in case)

juice 1 lime

1 small red hot chilli, deseeded

thumb-size knob ginger, thinly sliced into batons

6 spring onions, sliced diagonally (extra for garnish optional)

small bunch sprouting broccoli, trimmed of leaves

large bunch pak choi, spinach or other greens

touch olive oil to fry salmon

bunch coriander, stalks finely chopped, leaves left for garnish (optional)

In a bowl, coat the salmon fillets with sesame oil and a sprinkling of salt. Leave to sit for 20 minutes.

Rest the noodles in a bowl of boiling water and leave to soften for 30 minutes or as the packet suggests.

Heat the chicken stock in a large saucepan and bring up to a light simmer. Add the fish sauce, soy sauce, mirin and lime juice and stir. Taste the broth, adding, if needed, more of each sauce. Fish for depth, soy for salt, mirin for sweetness and lime to cut through.

Add the chilli and ginger and simmer for a few minutes. Now add the greens - the onions, broccoli, pak choi and coriander stalks - and cook gently until the broccoli is just tender.

Meanwhile, heat a little olive oil in a frying pan and, when the oil starts to smoke slightly, add the salmon. Sear the salmon for 30 seconds on each side. Slice. The salmon should still be pink in the middle but warm.

Divide the noodles into deep bowls and ladle the soup over, dishing up equal portions of greens and chilli. Top with the seared salmon.

Garnish with the coriander leaves and the additional spring onion. For an extra bite beside the soup, or to start, serve with Bill's Thai fishcakes and sweet cucumber pickle.

RABBIT WITH POLENTA

I wanted to use hare; the chocolaty, rich hare ragu with papparadelle I'd eaten at Polpetto earlier this month was so good it slotted in right at the top of my Must Replicate list. This one was smooth, thick, and got the saliva hopping and jumping on the taste buds. Not one hair, bone or tooth in sight. Got to have it again...

Not that simple. As it turns out you have to be quite an efficient little bunny to get your hands on a hare, or indeed its meat. 'A few days to get it in' said the butcher. And the next, and the next.

Waiting a few days wasn't too much of a problem - 3 days would allow me to come up with the perfect recipe - but I had to feed people that night. If the result were anything like Polpetto's I'd want to share it with friends and a good deep, musty red wine. 3 days later it'd be just me and a lot of meat to freeze.

The butchers did, however, have wild rabbit - not as juicy or rich but a good enough compromise to play with. This recipe is not really a ragu - that'll have to wait for the hare - but it's great recipe for converting rabbit haters (or are they lovers?).

It's wild rabbit for a start - not a domestic pet pinched from some old lady's garden - and it's mixed with enough spice and wine to convince friends to replicate it.

Until they get back home to darling Fluffy.

RABBIT WITH PARMESAN POLENTA
ingredients

serves 4-6

6 streaks pancetta, chopped

1/2 white onion, finely chopped

3 small carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

2 rabbits/ approx. 600g meat, boned and roughly chopped

1 1/2 glasses red wine

small bunch thyme

200ml chicken stock

200g tinned plum tomatoes

2 portobello mushrooms, sliced

1tsp medlar or redcurrant jelly

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 hot red chilli, finely chopped

1 bay leaf

generous pinch salt

1 litre water

200g instant polenta

100g Parmesan, grated

bunch flat leaf parsley to serve, chopped (optional)

Fry the pancetta in a little olive oil until crisp. Add the onion and soften. Then add the carrots. Fry for another minute or so.

Now add the rabbit and fry on a medium heat until browned on the edges. (If you are cooking with more, you may want to do this in batches)

Turn up the heat and pour in the red wine. Bring to the boil, and reduce the liquid until the alcohol has burnt off. Add the stock, tomatoes, mushrooms, jelly, spices and herbs and allow to simmer for 1 1/2 - 2 hours.

Test for seasoning and keep warm while you make the polenta.

Bring the litre of water to the boil. When bubbling, pour in the polenta and immediately stir with a whisk. When it begins to thicken add a touch of salt and all of the Parmesan. Serve when thick and creamy, top with a spoonful of the rabbit and a garnish of parsley.