Simply delicious
Celebrate great ingredients by making beef carpaccio, scallops with asparagus and crème brûlée
It was either Pierre Koffman or Nico Ladenis that said, “serve good bread and all will be well”. I still think about that every day, and remember that it is usually the first mouthful of food eaten after we sit down in a restaurant.
The importance of bread cookery in a restaurant is crucial and a tricky one to master. Elizabeth David wrote the wonderful English Bread and Yeast Cookery many years ago and I still dip into it from time to time for inspiration. Recently we have seen a massive shift in the type of bread we all eat. In my youth, a sliced white loaf wrapped in plastic was the norm but we now rightly demand real bread from a hipster bakery at the end of our streets or we wouldn’t want to move there. Nowadays, people are searching out good, simple food with a wonderful story that simply tastes great. It doesn’t have to look pretty, or be a magnificent work of art, just something well bought or sourced, cooked with intelligence and served simply. This week we have some great recipes that are simple, classic and just work; dishes that I like to eat and I hope you will too.
Cafe St Honoré has now reopened, 0131-226 2211, www.cafestthonore. com
Scotch Beef carpaccio
It's a sign of the quality of the beef if you can enjoy it like this. Drizzled with a little oil and sprinkled with good salt and pepper, it makes the beef taste exceptional.
Serves four
250g piece of fillet of Scotch Beef, trimmed and silver skin removed 1 tablespoon cold-pressed rapeseed oil
1 large tablespoon Arran mustard good salt and pepper
250ml cider vinegar
250ml water
250g unrefined caster sugar 400g mixed veg for picking eg cauliflower, carrot, onion, courgette, red pepper a few aromas like star anise, cinnamon or thyme for flavouring your pickles a few salad leaves a few shards of Corra Linn or Bonnet cheese
1 Firstly bring the vinegar, water and sugar to the boil on the hob with your chosen aromas and simmer for 3 minutes, then season with salt and pepper.
2 Blanch the pickling veg in boiling, salted water for 2 minutes until just starting to soften, then refresh under cold, running water. Then place them into the hot pickle liquor. Once done these can be stored for weeks in a sterilised jar.
3 Season the beef all over with salt and pepper then get a heavy frying pan very hot and add half the rapeseed oil. Then very quickly sear the beef all over for a couple of minutes maximum. This is just to remove the raw outer layer of the beef.
4 Make a paste with the mustard and the remaining oil, then season with salt and pepper. Rub this paste all over the just-seared beef and wrap it very tightly in cling film until it resembles a sausage. Make sure it’s firmly secured and tie the ends so it won’t unravel. Then place the beef in your freezer for about an hour. You don’t want it to be frozen solid, just to be firm.
5 To serve, simply remove the beef from the cling film and slice very thinly with a very sharp knife and arrange on a plate. Season with salt and pepper, then some salad leaves and some pickled veg. Lastly, add the shards of cheese and a final seasoning.
Hand-dived scallops, British asparagus
This is a dish I'm thinking about when I speak about ingredients and simplicity.
Per person
3 hand-dived scallops, removed from shell, frill removed and cleaned, leave the orange coral on 4 to 5 spears of British asparagus, blanched for 2 minutes in boiling water
¼ lemon good salt and pepper
1 tablespoon of cold-pressed rapeseed oil a handful of watercress or salad leaves
1 Place a griddle pan on the hob on a moderate heat. Rub the spears of asparagus with a little oil then place on the griddle. Season with salt and pepper.
2 Cook for 4 to 5 minutes, turning as you go. Remove from the griddle and keep warm.
3 Rub a little oil on each scallop and place gently on the griddle. Season with salt and pepper, turn after 1 to 2 minutes and season again.
4 Place the warm asparagus onto a warm plate and add the scallops. Add some watercress or salad leaves and
trickle over a squeeze of lemon, and another pinch of salt. Perfect.
Crème brûlée
It doesn’t get much more classic than a brûlée.
Serves four
400ml double cream
1 vanilla pod, split length ways and seeds scraped
5 large egg yolks
50g unrefined caster sugar, plus extra for glazing
4 teaspoons of berries
4 brandy snap baskets or a shortbread biscuits
1 Firstly, heat the cream with the vanilla until it just boils, then leave for a few minutes to infuse on a low heat. Meanwhile, combine the sugar with the egg yolk and whisk vigorously until it’s pale and creamy.
2 Next, pour the hot cream onto the pale egg yolk mix and whisk quickly to combine, Pour this mix into a clean pan and heat, stirring all the time, until the mix reaches 86C – use a probe thermometer.
3 Then pour the mix through a fine sieve, whisking whenever you can. Divide the mix between 4 ramekins and chill for 3 to 4 hours, or overnight. 4 Once chilled, sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar onto each brûlée and glaze with a moderate blowtorch (or under the grill) until the tops are golden brown but not too dark or bitter.
5 Serve at once with berries in a brandy snap basket or with a biscuit. Use a teaspoon to crack the top like a boiled egg. Enjoy!