The Darina Allen Column

This month Darina introduces Felicity Cloake’s unusual book, The A-Z of Eating

A for almond, B for blue cheese, C for caramel, D for dumplings, E for eggs, F for fat and so on. The chapters of Felicity Cloake’s book, The A-Z of Eating are all themed around Felicity’s favourite ingredients.

A pretty novel approach at a time when it’s difficult to come up with something new and catchy but Felicity is definitely one to watch. She writes for the Daily Mail, the New Statesman and the Guardian, was named Food Journalist of the Year. She also carried off the New Media of the Year Award in 2011.

Each chapter opens with a fascinating introduction to the ingredient, blending history, food sciences, sharp insights and top tips. She assumes a certain basic knowledge. This book won’t teach you how to fry an egg or make hollandaise. “It’s for those brave souls who feel they have a fairly firm grasp on the basics, those who know it’s easier to make tomato sauce than to go out and buy a jar, for whom fish holds no fear and baking birthday cakes is a cause for celebration, not panic – in other words, people who can already cook”.

She encourages us to slip out of our well-worn culinary grooves and to cook beyond the most obvious possibilities for some of our favourite ingredients. Apart from recipes to impress there are lots of tempting ideas to try for utterly delicious midweek suppers.

Felicity also urges us cooks to make our lives easier by stocking our kitchens with a few bits of natty kitchen equipment. Measuring spoons, cheap, last for ever and essential for accurate baking. She’s right, ordinary kitchen spoons vary widely in size. A stick blender, less of an investment than a stand mixer and super useful for everything from homemade mayonnaise to soups, sauces, smoothies, whipping cream.

A cooking thermometer, Felicity poses the question – why faff about trying to guess the temperature of oil or caramel or whether your Sunday roast is rosy pink or well done in the centre. Digital varieties with a probe on a lead are most practical.

I still like to teach people how to judge without any props but these inexpensive thermometers are brilliantly handy and eliminate the guesswork. An oven thermometer is another must have, few ovens are the same temperature from top to bottom and cooks very often blame themselves for inconsistent results. This little gadget will take away the guilt and empower you to get the serviceman around.

Finally a decent food processor, they don’t come cheap but I certainly bless the person who invented this robust time saving gadget on a daily basis. If you don’t yet have a food processor put it on your wish list, let it be known among family and friends. Few bits of kitchen can transform your enjoyment of cooking like a food processor; laboursome tasks are literally done in seconds rather than minutes or even hours.

Here are a few of the recipes that caught my eye in the A-Z of Eating by Felicity Cloake published by Penguin Random House. The stunning photography is by accclaimed photographer Helen Cathcart now based in London but originally from Co Fermanagh.

Under Z for zest, I found peach and mozzarella salad with lemon zest and basil. Under U for umami, another little gem, courgette fritters. T is for toast, lots of ideas here for our favourite comfort food, I choose salmon and coriander tartare and in the year that’s in it Tricolour jellies, a delicious green, white and gold jelly made with basil, mozzarella and tomatoes and finally, under I for ices, an easy-peasy banana and peanut butter ice. There’s tons more but I’m sure these ideas will whet your appetite.

Felicity Cloake’s Salmon and Coriander Tartare with Avocado and Wasabi Cream on Toasted Rye

Serves 2

1 ripe Haas avocado
2 teaspoons wasabi paste
Juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon soy sauce (preferably Japanese)
1 salmon fillet
A small bunch of coriander, chopped
A handful of pea shoots
1 tablespoon pumpkin seeds
A dash of pumpkin seed, extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil
2 slices of dark rye bread

Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone, and then scoop out the flesh into a small bowl. Add half the wasabi along with the lime juice and soy sauce. Whiz until smooth (or mash as best you can, if you don’t have a stick blender), then taste and season. I like to add the rest of the wasabi, but you may not.

Skin the salmon if necessary, and then cut into small dice. Put into a small bowl with the coriander, season well, and toss together with the pea shoots, pumpkin seeds and a dash of oil.
Toast the bread until crisp, then spread with the avocado and top with the salmon and pea shoots. Eat immediately.

Felicity Cloake’s Courgette Fritters with Bagna Cauda Hollandaise

Serves 4 with extra sauce

450 g courgettes
2 spring onions
50 g plain flour
50 g dried breadcrumbs, preferably panko
1 teaspoon chilli flakes
A whole nutmeg, to grate
1 egg
Small bunch of parsley, finely chopped
Oil, to fry

For the Sauce

3 fat garlic cloves
10 anchovies, rinsed if packed in salt
100 ml olive oil
3 egg yolks
150 g cold butter, cubed

Coarsely grate the courgettes into a colander in the sink. Salt lightly, toss and leave to weep while you make the sauce.

Roughly chop the garlic and anchovies and mash together into a smooth paste. Heat a splash of oil in a small frying pan over a lowish heat and gently fry the mixture until the garlic just smells cooked. Scoop out of the hot pan so it doesn’t continue cooking.

Heat the olive oil to warm. (I put the jug into a saucepan of hot water) and boil a small kettle of water. Put the egg yolks into a pan with 1 tablespoon of cold water and the butter and set over a low heat. Stir continually until the butter has melted and emulsified into a smooth, thickish sauce, then gradually but vigorously whisk in the warm olive oil.

Turn up the heat slightly and whisk until thickened. If it threatens to separate, whisk in a little of the boiling water from the kettle, which should bring it back tougher. Once thickened, stir in the anchovy and garlic and set aside somewhere warm while you make the fritters, whisking it occasionally (I sit the pan in the larger pan of warm water previously occupied by the jug of oil).

Squeeze the courgettes well. Finely slice the spring onions, and then put in to a large bowl with the courgettes, flour, breadcrumbs, chilli flakes and a pinch of nutmeg. Briefly beat the egg and mix in along with the parsley.

Heat enough oil in a frying pan over a medium high heat to shallow fry – if you only grease the pan, your fritters will be soggy. Once the pan is hot enough that a courgette strand sizzles as it hits the oil, add the mixture in spoonfuls, flattening out as you do so, and fry in batches until golden brown on both sides. Drain on kitchen paper, then serve with the sauce.

Felicity Cloake’s Peach and Mozzarella Salad with Crispy Lemon Zest and Basil

Serves 2

1 large unwaxed lemon
6 tablespoons olive oil
2-3 fairly ripe peaches or nectarines
1 ball of buffalo mozzarella
4 sprigs of basil

Peel the zest from the lemon in strips, keeping them as thin as possible to avoid the bitter white pith. Scrape any pith off the peel with a sharp knife, then cut the strips into long thin lengths. Put a plate lined with kitchen paper by the hob.

Heat the oil in a small frying pan and when hot fry the zest for about 30 seconds, until just beginning to crisp and colour. Use a slotted spoon to scoop on the paper to drain, and allow the oil in the pan to cool.

Juice the lemon and whisk the cooled oil into 2 tablespoons of the juice. Season to taste.

Slice the peaches and divide between two small plates in a circle. Sprinkle with a little dressing, then tear the mozzarella over the top. Spoon over a little more dressing, season and sprinkle with the lemon zest strips and torn basil leaves to serve.

Felicity Cloake’s Tricolore Jellies

Makes 6

Familiar flavours – the tang of tomato, the creaminess of mozzarella the sweet pepperiness of basil – cast in a new and unexpected form: miniature jellies. These can be made a couple of days in advance which is always handy – and though it looks like you’ve gone to great effort, the work involved is minimal and basic.

For the tomato jelly

600 g ripe tomatoes, halved or quartered
1 small garlic clove, crushed
100 ml tomato juice
¼ teaspoon sugar
2½ gelatine leaves
Neutral oil, to grease

For the Mozzarella panna cotta

1 burrata (you won’t need all of it)
100 ml whole milk
1 gelatine leaf

For the basil jelly

1 lemon
40 g fresh basil leaves, plus a few extra
1½ gelatine leaves

For the tomato jelly, whizz up the tomatoes and garlic with the juice, the sugar and a pinch of salt and pepper in a food processor until coarsely chopped. Line a sieve with muslin or a clean tea towel, set it over a large bowl and pour in the tomatoes, then gather up the sides of the material over the tomatoes and secure the top of the bundle with an elastic band. Suspend this above the bowl and leave to drain for at least 3 hours, squeezing the bag occasionally to help it along.

Once you’ve drained off most of the tomato liquid (you should have about 300 ml – if it’s significantly less, top up with tomato juice; if more, make the excess into a Bloody Mary shot), soak the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water until soft and crunchable. Meanwhile, bring the juice to a simmer in a small pan. Squeeze out the gelatine and stir into the warm juice until dissolved.

Grease six small dariole moulds, or small glass dishes if you don’t’ want to turn them out, and divide the tomato mixture between them. Chill until set.

When the tomato jelly is beginning to set, measure out 75 g of the burrata, making sure you get a good lot of the cream inside. Finely chop the solid skin. Put into a small pan with the milk and a generous pinch of salt and heat gently, stirring once warm to encourage the cheese to melt. Meanwhile, soak the gelatine in cold water until soft. Once the dairy mixture is smoothish, squeeze out the gelatine and stir into the milk, then allow to cool to warm room temperature, stirring occasionally. Pour over the back of a spoon on top of the set tomato jelly (to stop them merging) and refrigerate.

For the basil jelly, bring a small pan of salted water to the boil and prepare a large bowl of iced water with the juice of the lemon squeeze into it. Blanch the basil for 15 seconds, then scoop out into the iced water. Reserve 180 ml of the blanching water, and allow it to cool slightly. Meanwhile, soak the gelatine as before. Stir it into the warm blanching water and allow to cool, stirring occasionally, then drain and roughly chop or coarsely puree the basil and stir it inot the gelatine mixture with a pinch of salt. Pour on top of the panna cotta and refrigerate until set. 

Turn out onto plates if you’re feeling brave, or serve in the dishes, with a basil leaf on top, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and some toasted ciabatta.

Felicity Cloake’s Simple Banana and Peanut Butter Ice

This is so unbelievably creamy that you won’t miss the dairy one bit – the peanut butter is optional and be left out or substituted with honey, chocolate spread or chips, nuts, spice, maple syrup….ideal for children and best eaten as soon as it’s made rather than frozen. The bananas must be really ripe or they won’t be sweet enough

Serves 2-4
(2 greedily, 4 more moderately)

4 very ripe bananas
2 teaspoons peanut butter
Handful of salted roasted peanuts, to top (optional)

Peel the bananas, chop into even slices and freeze for at least 3 hours.

Put into a food processor and whiz until smooth and creamy (you’ll probably need to keep sticking a spatula in to stop it clumping into large frozen balls, but it will happen, I promise).

Add the peanut butter, or any other flavourings, and a pinch of salt and whiz to incorporate. Serve with a few roughly chopped peanuts scattered over the top, or indeed a generous drizzle of chocolate sauce.
 

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 '30 Years at Ballymaloe' - Bord Gáis Avonmore Cookbook of the Year 2013

Good Food Ireland Cookery School of the Year 2012/2013

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Once again, the Ballymaloe Cookery School in East Cork has a great programme of cookery courses for all interests and abilities running throughout 2016. Ranging from a relaxing visit to sit in on an afternoon cookery demonstration to a week long ‘Intensive Introductory Course’.

Sitting in the middle of a 100 acre organic farm the Ballymaloe Cookery School provides its students not only with a life skill learnt under the expert tutelage of their very capable teachers but also a place to relax and unwind from the stresses and strains of normal everyday life. The cottage accommodation available onsite for residential courses consists of a collection of delightful converted outbuildings which have been transformed over the years by the Allens, and other accommodation is available locally for the short courses.

www.cookingisfun.ie