Green Tea Purée

Green Pea Purée is basically mushy peas with pretensions but one of those dishes that are extremely simple yet versatile. I do manage to introduce some complexity but not all that much.

INGREDIENTS

o 500 grams fresh shelled or frozen peas, thawed and drained;

o 3 leeks roughly chopped (white and light green parts only);

o 2 roughly sliced shallots;

o 2 chopped garlic cloves;

o 3 tablespoons fresh tarragon (or herb of your choice);

o Olive oil and/or butter;

o 250 ml good quality vegetable broth;

o 250 greek style yogurt;

o Salt & reshly ground pepper to taste;

Heat the olive oil in a cast iron pan and sweat the leeks, shallots and garlic until transparent. Add most of the herbs, salt and pepper and cook another 30 seconds or so.

Add the peas and stock and bring to boil let simmer until the liquid has reduced by about a third. Take the peas off the heat and let cool until lukewarm, purée in a blender. Add remaining herbs.

Just before serving reheat the purée and add about half the yogurt. Taste the purée and add more yogurt until you have achieved the desired thickness. You could use crème frais instead of the yogurt and butter instead of the olive oil but I find the at you get very little additional taste for the extra calories.

Fettuccine with mushrooms emulsified butter & lemon sauce

Ingredients

1. 150 grams of fettuccine
2. 50 grams shiitake thinly sliced
3. 50 grams field mushrooms thinly sliced
4. 50 grams ( or any other type of mushroom you happen to have including dried mushrooms in which case keep some of the liquid from reconstituting the dried mushrooms and add a little to the pasta sauce)
5. 100g unsalted butter
6. 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
7. 2 tbsp of roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
8. 2 tbsp of thyme
9. 1 tiny pinch of dried chilli
10. half a lemon

In half of the butter cook all the mushrooms and garlic until ready or about 10 minutes. When two minutes remain the parsley, thyme, chilli, the juice of the lemon, some of the dried mushroom liquid and the rest of the butter. Whisk the butter into the sauce so that it emulsifies, season with salt and pepper.

As you where cooking the mushrooms you should have been cooking the pasta in salted boiling water. Take the pasta out of the water and dry it when it is still quite firm then toss it in the mushroom sauce. Some parmesan on top and serve.

My Perfect Mashed Potato

Making mash begins with selecting the right potatoes, boiling them correctly, mashing and then adding a source of fat and liquid. Everything else is flavoring.

The potato should be as starchy as possible and in the UK that usually means King Edward potatoes. Sometimes you can get Yukon gold and Russets but I don’t think they are grown in the UK. Second choices are Maris Piper and a potato called Desiree that I almost never see in the shops. According to the British Potato Council the King Edward is a 6 on a 10 scale in starchiness and the other two are a five. Presumably, 10 is pure starch and not quite achievable. Your baking potato would be about a 3 on the same scale according to the potato experts at the council.

I steam the potatoes as that yields tender and dry potatoes which extremely important. If too much of the starchy boiling water comes along with the potatoes the mash becomes too liquid and the glue like quality that mash sometimes has can also be caused for by the water. If you boil the potatoes in salty water start with hot water and after the potatoes are done but them back into the pot over low heat to dry off. Whichever method you use the most important point is to cook the potatoes to a point where they are tender but not falling apart. Never undercook the potatoes as they will become gummy when you mash them.

Ideally you should mash the potatoes immediately after cooking them as they are more want to go lumpy if you allow them to go cold. I prefer my mash quite rustic and grainy rather than the very smooth mash one usually gets in restaurants. This does not imply my mash is not smooth as I often push it through a sieve to get a finer texture. I however, never use a mixer or a blender for mashing although that is very much an accepted professional method. I always use the kind of specialised whisk that kitchen stores sell and quite possibly call a potato masher. The important tip about using the masher is to only use an up and down motion. If you make a circular motion you will pull out/extend the potato and get the glue like quality I mentioned above.

The next step is to add the fat, i.e. oil, milk cream and/or butter. All typical classical recipes call for milk or cream and butter I however have always preferred olive oil to milk or cream. Using cream make the mash fluffy and mousseline, which works in conjunction with some food such as pork neck and lobster. Milk will make for a less creamy but still rich, if less so, mash that is good with most food (certainly poultry and fish) but in my humble opinion not tasty enough to cope with a steak or game. That being said even when I use mostly olive oil I do add a little bit of milk.

The quantity to use varies a bit according to what the ultimate use of the mash will be and also how starchy the potatoes are which can vary depending on the time of year. Storage also matters as if the storage temperature is too hot sugar will convert to starch. You consequently need to heat more milk or oil than you expect to need and add it as needed. I use a rule of thump that you need 25% of the volume of the potato as milk/oil and about 100 grams butter per kilo of potato.

Whatever the source of the fat it has to be hot before use so scald the milk, and heat the butter and oil until warm but not boiling. You can add the butter at anytime so I tend to heat it with the oil. Make sure the potatoes are smooth before adding any liquid as you will not be able to get the lumps out afterwards.

You can season the mash at any time although I tend not to leave it too late as once you have mashed the potatoes you do not want to be turning them over to get the seasoning in. Nutmeg is a classic addition to mash and supposedly it removes the taste of storage that potatoes can have at the end of winter. I’m not a fan. Salt and white pepper are a must – always white pepper as black looks odd and is too strong. To this you can add almost anything. Truffles, boiled vegetables, mustard etc it all depends on what you will be eating with the mash.

Keep in mind that if you leave mash to sit the starch will cause it to become blander. So if you are not using the mash immediately make it tastier than you want it to be when served.