Sirloin of Jonnie

There's nothing much easier, more satisfying, and a real treat all at the same time, than a steak supper.

When you've got grass fed and 28 day dry aged meat to work with it's a whole lot better. When that meat comes from a source you know, this is a no brainer. Bravo Jonnie, this is the business.

Steak Supper

Serves 2

There’s a lot to be said for a great char-grilled steak – try your hand at making this deliciously meaty steak supper.

2 x 200g beef steaks, a boneless slice from the rump or top round or the sirloin as thick as your thumb

Olive oil
for the béarnaise sauce

1 small shallot
3 tblsp white wine, or tarragon vinegar
6 whole black peppercorns
3-4 stems tarragon, and their leaves
2 egg yolks
Dijon mustard
125g butter, soft, almost melted

Rub your steak all over with olive oil, not too much; just enough to give it a good gloss, then grind a little black pepper over both sides. I put salt on later. Get the grill pan hot, then slap on the steak and press it down onto the ridges with a metal spatula. Let it cook for two full minutes. Do not move it.

Now turn it over (long metal tongs are useful here), press it down again (this is when I usually add the salt), and let it cook for a further two minutes. The best way to tell if your steak is done is to press it with your finger.

Timing is a hopelessly inaccurate measure because so much depends on how your meat has been hung and butchered. The best—by which I mean the juiciest—results will come from a steak where your finger has left a slight indentation. Until you get to know the “feel” of your steaks you may have to make a small cut into them, but you will lose juice this way. If you want a well-done steak, with no blood in it, then I can’t help you. Well, I could but I won’t.

Incidentally, I sometimes pour a little wine onto the grill pan after removing the steak and let it bubble, then pour the meagre, intensely beefy juices over my steak. Serve with fries or accompanied with béarnaise sauce.

For the sauce, peel and finely chop the shallot, and put it in a small saucepan with the vinegar, peppercorns, and the tarragon leaves and stems. Bring to a boil and watch it while it reduces to a tablespoon or so. Put the egg yolks and a little mustard into a glass bowl (not a steel one, they get too hot) and place it over a pan of very gently simmering water.

The bowl should sit snugly in the top of the pan. Whisk the reduced vinegar into the egg yolks, holding the debris back in the pan, then slowly add the butter, a soft cube at a time, whisking almost constantly until it is thick and velvety. You can turn the heat off halfway through; the sauce must not get too hot. It may need a little salt. It will keep warm, with the occasional whisk, while you pan-grill your steak and fry your frites—which, by the way, I tend to buy very thin and frozen, and cook in deep peanut oil.

top rumps

The perfect steak

 

The small matter of cooking the perfect steak

 

This is something that sits conveniently alongside being able to dig a good hole in the ground, fixing a proper martini and making a decent fire

 

We’ve kind of got 5 categories to look after here; The meat, the preparation, cooking with fire, allowing some rest time and serving it up.

 

Easier said than done, but as basics go, finding you a great bit of meat is the only way to begin this journey. Whichever cut you have a fancy for, and I’m a top rump kind of person make sure you look for a really nice marbling of fat throughout the meat.

 

The fat really is all important to enjoying a good steak. The flavour, basting and juice all comes from the fat. Something that’s ideally been hung for at least a couple of weeks is a bonus too, and if this steak thing is a once every now and again treat, then the time taken here is well worth it. Dark red meat and yellowing fat is the guide here and anything close to that will help with the end results no end.

 

I was always taught not to season too early, and more and more recently I hear of the desire to season after cooking is the way to go. I like to season it, and season it well and early. Massage your meat with good olive oil and then season with plenty of flaky salt and very coarsely ground black pepper.

 

Get a good heavy frying pan really hot and sear any fatty edge first until a bit of a crust has formed. Now that the pan is hot, but not so hot the red meat will burn rather than sear, get the steak into the hot oil and give it a good seeing to. Anything a couple of centimetres thick can be left for two to three minutes before needing a turn, and only turn at this point. Fiddling about at this stage will only drop the pan temperature and lead to excessive juices making their way out and a boiled steak which isn’t cool.

 

Another three minutes or so on the B side and good overall golden brown caramelisation and the pan work is complete.

 

The most important thing, and almost always overlooked, is the resting period. When the steak looks ready, smells ready and you think its ready; you’re almost always ten minutes ahead of yourself.

 

Leave your meat in a warm place for that nail biting 10 minute stretch and allow all that insane heat which has tightened up all the fibres in the steak settle down and relax. This time spent also allows the juices to start eeking out, the meat to continue cooking ever so gently and the evenness of cooking ripple all the way through the meat. If fancy is needed, dress it up a little. If not, the least you deserve are a few chips.

 

Top rumps

 

Serves 2

 

2 x 200g top rump steaks

Olive oil

 

for the house made mustard

Makes about 230g

 

90g mustard seeds

110g mustard powder

45ml vinegar (cider, white wine or sherry)

100ml white wine

2 tsp salt

 

Grind the whole mustard seeds for a few seconds in a spice or coffee grinder, or by hand with a mortar and pestle. You want them mostly whole because you are using mustard powder, too.

 

Pour the semi-ground seeds into a bowl and add the salt and mustard powder. If using, add one of the optional ingredients, too. Pour in the vinegar and wine, then stir well. When everything is incorporated, pour into a glass jar and store in the fridge. Wait at least 12 hours before using. Mustard made this way will last several months in the fridge.

 

Rub your steak all over with olive oil, not too much; just enough to give it a good gloss, then the salt and grind a little black pepper over both sides. Get the grill pan hot, then slap on the steak and press it down onto the ridges with a metal spatula. Let it cook for two to three full minutes. Do not move it.

 

Now turn it over (long metal tongs are useful here), press it down again, and let it cook for a further two to three minutes. The best way to tell if your steak is done is to press it with your finger.

 

Timing is a hopelessly inaccurate measure because so much depends on how your meat has been hung and butchered. The best—by which I mean the juiciest—results will come from a steak where your finger has left a slight indentation. Until you get to know the “feel” of your steaks you may have to make a small cut into them, but you will lose juice this way. If you want a well-done steak, with no blood in it, then I can’t help you. Well, I could but I won’t.

 

Incidentally, I sometimes pour a little wine onto the grill pan after removing the steak and let it bubble, then pour the meagre, intensely beefy juices over my steak. Serve with chips, creamed spinach, onion rings and the mustard

the magic of the biryani of the dubai

Honestly, we all know the biryani isn't precisely local here, but really what actually is? This is by no means an ultra traditional number and I'm not here to divide nations and have battle lines drawn up, I just kind of know what I like. I think it would be proper to have it cooked under a pastry crust, which I'm not going to, so there's my first group offended. Here is simply my take on what has long been a downtown Satwa favourite. If you can do anything which might offer some authenticity to your buryani, do marinate the meat overnight as this helps massively to tenderise it

 

A Mutton Biryani

 

Serves 4-6

 

500g mutton, diced into bite-sized pieces

15g Greek or natural yoghurt

1 tblsp freshly grated root ginger, plus a 2cm knob of fresh root ginger, peeled

1 crushed garlic clove, plus 2 cloves, peeled

1 tsp mild chilli powder

1/2 green chilli, seeded and roughly chopped

1 tsp coriander seeds

Pinch of ground turmeric

2 tblsp olive oil

1 small onion, sliced

100ml single cream

Squeeze of lemon juice

Few drops of rosewater

Handful of coriander leaves

 

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 tbsp olive oil

250g basmati rice, rinsed

2 cinnamon sticks

4 star anise

4-5 cardamom pods, lightly crushed

Peel of 1/2 orange and 1/2 lemon

600ml hot lamb or chicken stock

Knob of butter

 

Marinate the mutton in the yoghurt, grated ginger and crushed garlic for at least 2 hours or preferably overnight.

 

Place the remaining ginger, garlic, chilli powder, chilli, coriander seeds and turmeric in a food processor and whiz to a fine paste. If necessary, add a little olive oil or water to get the paste moving in the processor.

 

Heat a large heavy-bottomed pan or a cast-iron casserole with a little olive oil. Tip in the onion and cook over a medium heat for 4-5 minutes until softened. Stir in the spice paste and cook for 2-3 minutes until fragrant. Add the mutton and yoghurt to the pan and season well. Stir in the cream and cover the pan with a tight-fitting lid. Cook over a low heat for 11/2-2 hours until the mutton is tender. Stir the mixture occasionally and add a splash of water if the mixture looks too dry.

 

Now start preparing the rice: preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6. Sauté the onion in the oil in an ovenproof pan for 4-5 minutes until soft. Tip in the rice, cinnamon, star anise, cardamom and peel. Season and stir over a medium-to-high heat for 30 seconds. Add the stock, bring to the boil and cover with a tight-fitting lid. Transfer the pan to the oven for 20 minutes.

 

Remove the rice from the oven and leave to stand for 5 minutes. Mix through a knob of butter and season, fluffing the grains of rice with a fork to separate them.

 

Pile the rice on top of the mutton and sprinkle over the lemon juice and rosewater. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and return to the oven for 10-15 minutes to warm through.

 

Bring the pot to the table to serve. Stir through the coriander leaves and mix the rice and mutton together before piling on to individual plates.

four birthday cakes and great sushi in Istanbul; everything's possible

If you don't expect it, you won't be blown away buy it. If you're not going looking for it, you really can't predict how you'll react to it. Really really good ethnic foods can and do sometimes travel outside of their comfort zone, and if we then declare the food in question here is Japanese, then this makes a wee discovery like this all the more remarkable.

 

The very best sushi I've ever had was in a place called Midori at the back end of an obscure shopping mall in Shibuya, where absolutely everything eaten was total heaven. Their sea urchin I can still remember today. The massive queue for a table was testament alone, and the fact it was in a location easily forgotten meant the treck there my the masses of fans made perfect sense after only those first couple of morsels. I do get a kick out of being the only non local in places like that, and to stand out from the crowd simply because its a local sensation makes it all the better.

 

Fast forward a few years and I'm in Istanbul, a city of no limits, no fears and no decent drivers on the roads! The well worn one foot in Europe, one in Asia tag couldn't be more clear as the city is a heady mix of absolutely everything international that you could imagine. And the passion...oh boy, now there goes a city leaking the stuff all over the place. They love their families, their fanatism for their football is like few other places on earth (and that is Glasgow included) tea is drunk like it's about to be wiped from the face of the earth (the very best is likened to the colour of rabbit's blood, but that's another story), and they drive their cars like they are all in indestructable bulletproof missiles. Oh yes, and they love their food. The very social aspect of it in particular. It is all very animated, social, loud and utterly energetic.

I'm actually writing this in Bangkok on my way back to Hong Kong, but my departure meal last night before I headed to the airport was a proper full on double header of tripe. A soup which was slightly milky and loaded with strips of tripe and some other bits of indsides, albeit a bit bland until it was then loaded with a ton of minced garlic and a sharp chilli sauce clearly meant to bring tears to the eyes. Follow that up with a brilliantly unexpected  tripe sandwich. You know the ones where you're not even half way through it when you want to order another two just incase they sell out. Think strips of stomach lining rolled up into logs about the size of a good fillet of beef and spit roasted over open coals until its charred and sticky. Sliced, chopped and re-fried on a griddle with chilli, peppers, onions and loads of local herbs. Stuff all that fatty crunchy spicy wonderment into a bread roll both crispy on the outside and chewy within and we're sorted for some time to come. Unbelievably good, and I'd go back to Turkey for this alone.

 

Anyway, the Japanese food. If you ever happen to be in Istanbul and in search of really really good sushi, I'd seriously reccommend tracking down Itsumi at İşkuleleri Kule 2 Giriş Katı No:43 4.Levent. In my humble opinion, this was the best all round Japanese food that I've eaten since Tokyo.

 

With Itsumi they seem to really know what they are doing, they keep the product true and un-fussed while concentrating on ensuring true flavours, textures and temperatures are at the forefront of everything they do.

 

The Miso soup was delightful. Nothing more than was needed, although personally I like a little red miso paste and maybe a bit more tofu in mine. The Unagi and Horse Mackerel were superb, texture wise was as good as it gets, and the subtlety of seasoning very good indeed. The sauce with the Unagi was just right for me.

 

Tepmerature of all pieces on the sashimi plate were perfect. The Otoro (I think it was Otoro due to the incredible fat content and as such being served so much colder, and it was incredible) the Scallop and the Uni in particular were very good, and the temperature of their rice was perfect, seasoning very very good and the quantity of wasabi on their Nigiri was superb. The Toro alone was one of the best single things I’d eaten all week until I discovered the tripe roll!

 

The birthday cake too was absolutely perfect, and as it was one of four I was incredibly lucky to have, I could afford to be choosy... If Istanbul is a bit of a hike for something Japanese, a comfortable miso soup might still hit the spot wherever you are.

 

Miso soup for a quiet moment of reflection

 

Enough for 4

4 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons dashi granules
1/2 cup red miso paste
1 tablespoon dried seaweed (for miso soup), soaked in water
1/2 cup cubed tofu
2 tablespoons chopped green onion

 

Pour the water into a pot and bring to a boil. Add the instant dashi and whisk to dissolve. Turn the heat to medium-low and add the tofu. Drain the seaweed and add the seaweed to the pot. Simmer for 2 minutes.

 

In the meatime, Spoon the miso paste into a bowl. Ladle about 1/2 cup of the hot dashi broth into a bowl and whisk with chopsticks or a whisk to mix and melt the miso paste so that it becomes a smooth mixture.

 

Turn the heat off, add the miso paste to the pot and stir well. Top with green onions and serve immediately.

 

duck/tarragon/beetroot

The vibrant tarragon and earthy beetroot in this dish are fabulous with rich duck breast, and the colours are beautiful too. To counteract the softness, serve it with oven-warmed root vegetable crisps or fresh red chicory leaves for their bitter edginess. served on a plate is a bit 2011, but do what you need to do here.

Breast of duck with tarragon and beetroot

Serves 4

The vibrant tarragon and earthy beetroot sauces in this dish are fabulous with rich duck breast, and the colours are beautiful too. To counteract the softness, serve it with oven-warmed root vegetable crisps.

4 duck breasts 

2 small bunches fresh tarragon (about 40g)

2 tbsp butter 

2 medium shallots, finely chopped

250ml chicken stock

140ml single cream

3 large beetroot, roasted until soft, or 2 vacuum packs of ready cooked beetroot

With a sharp knife (a Stanley knife works brilliantly), score the duck skin in a criss-cross pattern. Strip the tarragon leaves from their stalks.

Melt the butter in a small pan and cook the shallots with the tarragon stalks, until the shallots are soft but not coloured. Add 5floz/140ml of the chicken stock and reduce by half. Stir in the cream, bring back to the boil and then remove from the heat. Bring a small pan of water to the boil and plunge in the tarragon leaves. After 20 seconds, drain well and transfer to a blender.

Add the cream mixture and blend until smooth, then pass through a fine sieve. Taste and season with salt and a little pepper. Peel the beetroots if necessary and chop them roughly. Whizz in a blender with the remaining chicken stock to make a smooth purée-cum-sauce. (A food processor won't get it completely smooth. If you don't have a blender or liquidiser, serve the duck with cubes of beetroot heated in a little butter.) Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/ gas mark 6.

Season the duck breasts and place them skin-side down in a medium-hot pan.

Cook until the skin starts to colour, then transfer to the oven, still on the skin side.

Roast for 5-8 minutes, depending on how well done you like it. Allow the duck to rest in a warm spot for 5-10 minutes, while you reheat the beetroot purée and tarragon sauce. Slice the duck and serve with the purée and sauce.

The Swedes and their meatballs, köttbullar to you and I

I've done meatballs in many guises before, maybe my problem has been that I've never taken them terribly serious. Here in Stockholm, as I'm sure is the case in the whole of Sweden, the issue of meatballs are taken deadly seriously. Swedish meatballs seem to be absolutely necessary for gatherings, comfort and memories. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that along with herring, it's one of the principle necessities keeping this glorious country together.


In my limited meatball career, I've never been a fan of store-bought meatballs , so I've long insisted on making my own, and actually think I made some killer black pudding balls in a tomato and apple sauce for Simon's birthday party just before flying onto Sweden. Home made has never ever been a hassle for me, and I think in the main it's because of the cooking process. No frying. At all. Oven baked. The only way to go.


Generally I don't measure my seasonings and spices, just add quite a bit of the white pepper, and just a dash of everything else. You can serve these with anything - creamed potatoes and gravy with lingonberries and pickled cucumber tend to go down a storm, but in a tomato sauce, wrapped in a pita with garlic mayonnaise, ketchup and chips. The possibilities are endless.

Perfect Swedish köttbullar, oven-baked

900g ground meat
1 yellow onion, very finely chopped
1-2 small cloves of garlic, minced
1 egg
salt
white pepper
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of ground ginger
pinch of cardamom
pinch of allspice

Mix everything to an even batter, and form small, round balls. Put in a large roasting pan, and bake for about 15 minutes or so at 175°C. Shake the pan a few times to ensure an even surface on your meatballs.


Jag är Verkligen Hungrig.

Lamb grilled with mustard and lemon

At the time of year where spring lamb is once again all the rage, you can do nothing better than take a couple of flavour agents to accompany the meat, and little else is needed. Basically a mild enough seasoning that does not overpower the flavour of the lamb is the name of the game here. Steaks cut from the leg usually come nearly 2.5cm thick - for anything thinner or thicker alter the cooking time accordingly, but really any cut here will do, I've actually used the whole loin here for this version. And a wee bit of wonderfully fresh tuna sashimi while waiting for the lamb to cook didn't do any harm either. 

Serves 2

2 plump cloves of garlic, peeled
a good pinch of sea salt
1 tblsp fresh thyme leaves or 2 tsp dried thyme
2 tblsp grain mustard
2 tblsp lemon juice
4 tblsp olive oil
4 lamb steaks, ribs or chops, weighing about 100g each

Crush the garlic with the salt in a pestle and mortar or in a small bowl with the end of the rolling pin. Add the herbs, mustard and lemon juice. Whisk in the oil with a fork, or small whisk, until the mixture has slightly thickened.

Pour one-third over the lamb, turn over the meat and anoint that side too with another third.

Heat the grill to very hot. Grill the lamb for 3-4 minutes on each side, depending on how thick the meat is.

Brush with the remaining mixture as you turn the meat. The lamb should be a little singed outside, and rare within. 

The chilli off

So, last night saw the inaugural residence chilli off, and a variety of the most weird and wonderful showed up with no two the same which was both frightening and impressive in the same mouthful. The whole chilli debate is still raging the day after, beans or no beans, chocolate, Worcestershire sauce, rosemary  and apricots all featured last night, but did they work? One of the most surprising was started barely an hour before we gathered, some went on the stove three days ago!

Here's my number, which humbly, was pretty awesome should I say so myself, the half beef classically prepared with the other half made up of the smoked pork made mine the champion, well in my house anyways! 

Serves 4-6

1 large onion or 2 banana shallots, chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Half a head of celery, finely chopped

2 chipotle chillis, deseeded or keep half with seeds if you like it spicy

2 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked and roughly chopped

Olive oil, for frying

500g good quality minced sirloin of beef

300g pork belly, barbecued/smoked and minced

1 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp dried oregano

1 beef tomato, roughly chopped

400g chopped tinned tomatoes

2 tblsp tomato puree

100-200ml chicken or beef stock

3 tblsp tomato puree

1 cinnamon stick

1 bay leaf

400g kidney beans, drained and rinsed

Salt and pepper

Handful of chives, chopped

200ml soured cream

Boiled rice, to serve

Sweat the onion, garlic, celery, chilli and thyme in 2 tablespoons oil in a large saucepan. At the same time, brown the mince in a separate pan over moderate heat in a little oil.

Add the dried spices to the onion mixture and cook until they release their aroma. Then stir in the beef and mix well. Add in the pork at this stage. Add the fresh and tinned tomatoes and leave to cook down a little for at least 30 minutes.

Pour in the chicken or beef stock and stir in tomato puree to taste. Drop the cinnamon and bay leaf in then bring to the boil and leave to simmer. Transfer this now to a slow oven, around 150c/300f, covered, for up to 2 hours, checking occasionally. Remove from the oven now that the sauce has thickened, add the kidney beans and leave to cook for another 5-10 minutes to allow the beans to soak up the flavours. Check for seasoning.

Mix the chives and soured cream together. To serve, spoon the chilli into the centre of a mound of rice, with the soured cream and chives in a separate bowl on the side. World champion material if ever I saw. This is the stuff you really want on your chilli dog...

The meatball sub

There's this magical place in Arlington called the Italian Store where you really need some great local knowledge to find this one out. It's filled with the whole range of usuals from decent oils and vinegars through a reasonably authentic but simple cheese selection to a few banks of freezers offering a range of filled pastas. you can take this or leave it, but the whole reason for this place, and where all the fuss was, is their sandwich counter. That was exactly where all the noise, people, smells and activity was and I being in particularly safe hands through the whole process needn't have worried a bit. There is however a confusing quantity of varying subs, sandwiches and pizza flying out of this section, but it's the Philadelphia style subs, I have on very good authority,  are what it's all about. The fillings are all there to be had. A great selection of terrific looking prosciutto, sopressata and salami, plenty of the expected cheese offerings, and dressings, and even a few tomatoes and peppers to cut the meat and cheese duopoly. Seeing as I've never really come across the meatballs in sauce in bread thing before at close quarters, this it had to be - the Italian style meatball sub. My photo doesn't really do it justice, but that said, this is hardly the most photogenic food group going around, suffice to say, it never really stood a chance after the first bite.

Here's a quick meatballs in sauce recipe of mine. If you would, take these, split a submarine roll in half lengthwise and scrape out enough of the centre to create a hollow. Pack the meatballs in there and wrap tightly. Chill yourself a bottle of Californian Chardonnay from Columbia Valley, take all this outside, light a candle and talk rubbish for a couple of hours. it is a dinner option, honestly, needs nothing other than that really. 

Meatballs with spiced tomato sauce

Serves 6

The meatballs and tomato sauce freeze well, so I often double up the quantities to have a meal ready on stand-by for a hungry family. You can use a variety of herbs in the mince mixture; basil, thyme or rosemary also work well. This always used to be a basic with tagliatelle till I discovered the sub...

50g fresh breadcrumbs
100ml milk
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tblsp olive oil
500g each beef and pork mince
4 tblsp freshly grated parmesan
Grated zest of 1 lemon
Handful of sage and parsley, leaves finely chopped

For the tomato sauce

2 tblsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp chilli flakes
1 tblsp tomato purée
800g chopped tomatoes
250ml dry white wine
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To make the sauce, heat the oil in a large pan and sauté the onion for about 8 minutes until soft but not coloured. Add the garlic and stir over a medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Add the cumin and chilli flakes and cook for 30 seconds more. Stir in the tomato purée, chopped tomatoes, white wine and seasoning, then bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until rich and thick.

While the sauce is simmering, prepare the meatballs. Put the breadcrumbs in a small bowl and add just enough milk to cover. Leave to soak. Meanwhile, fry the onion and garlic in one tablespoon of the oil for 5 minutes over a medium heat. Tip into a bowl and leave to cool. When cold, stir in the breadcrumbs, along with the mince, parmesan, lemon zest and herbs. Season generously, then mix well.

Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 6. Shape the mince mixture into large meatballs. Heat the remaining oil in a sauté pan and brown the meatballs on all sides for about 5 minutes. Pour the tomato sauce into a baking dish and place the meatballs on top. Cover loosely with foil and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Quick cassoulet

Serves 4

I think I've mentioned cassoulet before, if so there's an admission of a love affair I'm not shy about. This one is dead easy though, opening, a bit of frying and assembling kind of stuff. Just as long as you buy decent quality sausages you'll get a pretty good end result. At the end of the day this is peasant food, so let's not get all professional and try too hard - decent ingredients layered up with a bit of thoughtful timing and a bit of patience will pay dividends. Should you opt for the slower cooking of the last sector, run yourself a big bubble bath, pour the biggest glass of red you can, and sink into at least an hour's worth of anticipation...

4 plump spicy sausages

1 duck breast or thigh, cut into thick slices

1 tblsp olive oil

225g smoked bacon with plenty of fat, cut into large dice

1 large onion, roughly chopped

4 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced

1 tsp tomato purée

55ml red wine

400g chopped tomatoes

2 x 425g cans haricot or butter beans, drained

1 bay leaf

2 tblsp grain mustard

50g coarse breadcrumbs

In a heavy, flameproof casserole, cook the sausages and duck in the olive oil until their fat runs and the sausages and duck are golden on all sides. Scoop out the meat and set aside. Add the bacon pieces to the pan and cook in the remaining fat until golden, then add the onion and garlic.

Cook for 5 or 6 minutes until they have softened slightly then stir in the tomato purée. Cook for another minute or so then pour in the red wine.

Simmer for a minute then stir in the tomatoes, the cooked sausages and the duck. Bring to the boil, stir in the beans, bay leaf, mustard and a seasoning of salt and pepper and then cook over a medium heat at a good simmer for about 15 minutes, or pop into a medium oven for easily an hour if you have the time to kill.

Remove the pan from the heat. Scatter over the breadcrumbs and place under a hot grill, a good few inches from the heat, until golden. Serve very hot.

Roast chicken with wild garlic

Serves 4

Wild garlic, sometimes found as ramsons, is starting to show up around now. It has all the silkiness of spinach leaves and a soft scent of young garlic. The leaves appear in the wild in early spring but can increasingly be found in farmers markets too. Any garlic stall will have them for the next few weeks. I think at this early stage they can be wonderfully floral without showing too much pungency as full blown garlic often can.

A good-sized chicken for roasting (about 1.5kg)
50g butter
olive oil
1 lemon
a couple of bay leaves
a glass of white wine
A good handful of wild garlic leaves per person

Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Mash the butter with a little olive oil and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper. Massage it into the skin of the chicken. Cut the lemon in half and tuck them inside the bird with a bay leaf or two.

Roast the chicken for about an hour till the skin is golden and the juices run clear. (Pierce the chicken at its thickest point, if the juices have blood in them, continue cooking. If they run clear it is ready.)

Remove the chicken to a warm place and let it rest, covered loosely with foil. Put the roasting tin over a low gas; when the roasting juices start to bubble pour in the wine and scrape at any pan-stickings so they dissolve into the juices.

Throw in the garlic leaves, stirring into the hot juices so that they start to wilt and soften. Check the seasoning then serve the juices and softened garlic with slices of the roast chicken.