Food & Drink
Recipes from podcasters and authors Jessie and Lennie Ware, plus Rose Murray Brown on the pinot noirs of Mornington Peninsula, Australia
Life is about sharing good food and conversation, say podcasters and cookery book authors Jessie and Lennie Ware
On New Year’s Day 2016, my good friend Jamie told me to start a podcast. A podcast fanatic, he said I was the nosiest person he knew and that I always managed to extract confessions out of people without having to work for it.
I tried to think of the subjects that mattered most to me and combine them into a conversation. It took over a year to shape and start the podcast but in November 2017, my mum Lennie and I aired our first episode of Table Manners, our podcast about food, family, and – much like all good dinner parties – wherever the conversation takes us. As a chronic oversharer and self-confessed “nosy person”, it seemed natural for me to start a podcast. What set it apart was roping my mum in, who had no idea what a podcast even was, asking that she host and cook dinner for each guest.
Inspired by the raucous dinners of my Jewish upbringing, I wanted to create a cosy, intimate environment where unfiltered chat could flourish, recorded over a home-cooked meal at my own or my mum’s kitchen table. ■
Extracted from Table Manners: The Cookbook by Jessie and Lennie Ware (Ebury Press, £22) Photography by Olaosmit
Table Manners with Jessie Ware, plus her mum, Lennie, and special
guests, are at the Old Fruitmarket (Candleriggs, Glasgow) on 25 March, 7pm-10:30pm. Tickets £25.85 (including booking fee), call 0131-353 8000 or see www.glasgowconcerthall.com
Pasta with smoked salmon, vodka and caviar
A rather decadent and luxurious pasta dish that requires little effort. Rather than actual caviar, we use the lookalike black lumpfish roe you can find in most supermarkets.
Serves four
400g linguine, farfalle or penne 200g crème fraîche
200g sliced smoked salmon, cut into strips
2 tbsp vodka grated zest of 1 large lemon
2 tbsp chopped fresh dill freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp lumpfish caviar, to serve salt
1 Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and put the pasta in to cook for 10 minutes until al dente.
2 Drain the pasta and return to the pan. Add all the remaining ingredients – except the caviar – and stir well until everything is warmed through.
3 Serve in bowls, grind over some black pepper and add half a teaspoon of caviar to each bowl. Alternatively, pile it all into a large serving bowl for your guests to serve themselves, dotting the caviar over the top.
Lamb with pistachio herb crust
If serving this with tinned haricot beans, drain the beans and tip into a pan, adding a crushed garlic clove, a knob of butter, some chopped fresh parsley and half a chicken stock cube. Cook over a low heat for 20 minutes.
Serves four
2 racks of lamb, French trimmed ( fat removed and bones cleaned – ask your butcher to do this)
1 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled
150g shelled pistachios
30g fresh flat-leaf parsley, leaves only 30g fresh mint, leaves only grated zest of 1 lemon
75g crustless bread, a day or two old 2 tbsp Dijon mustard salt and pepper
1 Preheat the oven to 200C/gas Mark 6.
2 Season the lamb. Heat a heavybased frying pan over a medium-high heat, add the olive oil and brown the lamb for 2-3 minutes on all sides.
3 Whizz the garlic, pistachios, herbs, lemon zest and bread in a food processor until finely chopped. Spread a tablespoon of mustard over each rack of lamb and coat in the herb mixture, pressing gently so that it sticks.
4 Roast for 15-20 minutes: 15 minutes will be very pink. Remove from the oven and leave to stand for 10 minutes before carving and serving.
‘Triple Threat’ chocolate brownies
People have requested this recipe the most after hearing about it in the Ed Sheeran episode. A triple shot of chocolatey goodness, my doctor brother Alex says that it’s more like a ‘triple threat’ to your cholesterol levels, but don’t let that stop you from making them. Get creative! Add whatever you like to your brownie batter. Generous chunks of white, milk or dark chocolate will all work well, as will roughly brokenup Oreos or any other chocolate confectionery. I generally add three things to mine, hence the triple threat. Experiment. Ultimately, whatever you choose will be delicious. These brownies are best if slightly undercooked, so they still retain their gooeyness. What you want is a brownie that gets stuck to your teeth when eating it.
Makes nine to 18 (depending on levels of greediness)
200g unsalted butter, cubed 200g dark chocolate, chopped 275g caster sugar
90g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
3 large eggs 250-300g ingredients of your
choice to add the mix (white, dark or milk chocolate, chocolate biscuits, your favourite chocolate bar)
1 Preheat the oven to 190C/gas Mark 5. Line a 23cm square baking tin with baking parchment.
2 Put the butter and chocolate into a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and leave until they start to melt. Stir regularly, taking care not to burn the chocolate. Once completely melted, remove from the heat and leave to cool a little.
3 In a large bowl, using an electric whisk on high power, beat the eggs and sugar together until pale and almost doubled in volume. Add the cooled chocolate and butter mix and gently combine, using a figure-ofeight motion to fold the 2 mixtures into one another.
4 Sift the flour and cocoa powder together and then fold into the chocolate and egg mixture. Again, fold gently using a figure-of-eight motion until all is combined. It will appear dusty at first, but be patient and it will come together. Take care not to overdo the mixing: as soon as you cannot see any dusty flour mix, you are there.
5 Now add your extra ingredients and gently fold in, reserving a few to scatter over the top if you like. Transfer the mixture to the lined baking tin, levelling it out and pressing any reserved ingredients into the top of the mixture. Bake for around 35 minutes. The top should be just firm, but the middle should be slightly undercooked and gooey: it will continue to cook in the tin once removed from the oven. Leave the tin on a wire rack to cool before cutting into squares.