Deep-Fried Mushrooms with Tartare Sauce
How many mushrooms you serve per person depends on how big the mushrooms are – if they are huge flat ones, which are the nicest, I allow 2-3 per person. If they are the more usual small variety, then 5-6 per person. Simply wipe each mushroom and remove the stalk – there is no need to peel them.
Serves 6-8
Mushrooms (see above)
Oil for deep-frying
Shredded lettuce, to garnish
Tartare Sauce
For the batter:
6oz/170g plain flour
3 large egg yolks, + 2 egg whites
8 fl oz/225 ml milk
2 tbsp oil (I use sunflower)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
To make the batter, whiz together in a liquidizer or food processor everything except the egg whites. A couple of hours before cooking, whisk the whites till stiff, with a large metal spoon, fold them quickly and thoroughly through the batter. Cover the bowl with clingfilm.
If you haven't got a deep fryer, heat oil (again I use sunflower) in a deep saucepan, to a depth of 3 inches/7.5 cm. Dip each mushroom in the batter, and lift it out using two forks. Cook them, no more than three or four at a time, in the hot oil, till they are golden brown and puffed up. Keep them warm, on several thicknesses of kitchen paper, in a low oven till you are ready to dish up. They keep warm quite well for about 20 minutes.
Serve on individual serving plates, accompanied by shredded lettuce if you like, with a good spoonful of Tartare Sauce at the side of the mushrooms.
Tartare Sauce
Tartare sauce is such a delicious sauce, and simple to make, and it can be made up to 2 days ahead and kept, covered, in the fridge.
Serves 6
1 large whole egg + 1 egg yolk
1 tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
Several good grindings of black pepper
1 tsp French mustard
1 garlic clove, skinned and chopped
½ pint/285 ml oil (sunflower or olive, or a mixture of both)
2-3 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tsp chopped capers
2 hardboiled eggs, chopped finely
6-8 black olives, stoned and chopped
About a 6-inch/15-cm piece cucumber, skinned, de-seeded and diced finely
Whiz the first six ingredients – the egg, egg yolk and flavourings – together, in a liquidizer or food processor. Then slowly add, drop by drop at first, then in a steady trickle, the sunflower or olive oil or mixture of both. When all is incorporated, whiz in the white wine vinegar – taste and add more if you like, but remember that the capers and black olives will add a certain amount of sharpness. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the rest of the ingredients.
Cover and keep in the fridge until required.
Frozen Honey and Whisky Creams
This is a real 'Taste of Scotland' recipe, what with the whisky and the honey. It is extremely easy and quick to make. The recipe was given to me by Margaret Clark, in Edinburgh, and the recipe was given to her with brandy as the alcohol content. Whilst browsing through one of John Tovey's books recently I came across the same recipe with the brandy, so I'm sure his was the original source of inspiration. Because of the alcohol in this recipe, the cream never freezes rock hard and so doesn't need to be removed from the deep freeze until just before it is to be served.
Serves 8
½ pint/285 ml double cream
4 tbsp whisky
3-4 tbsp thick honey
4 egg yolks (use the whites to make vanilla ice cream or meringues)
Whip the cream, gradually adding the whisky, until fairly thick. Warm the honey in a saucepan until hot and runny. Put the yolks into a bowl and, using a hand-held electric whisk, whisk them, gradually pouring on the hot honey. Whisk until the mixture is thick and pale. This mixture and the whipped cream and whisky should have about the same consistency. Fold both together, and divide between eight ramekins. Freeze, and when firm on the surface, cover each one with a piece of clingfilm.
Invergarry Crab Cakes
I generally prefer eating crab cold, but crab cakes are the exception. They are very good served with either tartare sauce, or with a homemade tomato sauce. Crab cakes freeze well, for up to 3 months. This quantity makes about 6 large cakes, or more small ones. They are very filling!
Serves 4-6
1 lb/450 g crabmeat
3 slices of brown bread, crusts removed and the bread made into crumbs
2 heaped tbsp mayonnaise
3 rounded tsp English mustard
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
4 tbsp oil + 2 oz/56 g butter for frying
For the coating:
1 egg, beaten
6 rounded tbsp brown breadcrumbs
Mix together the crabmeat, breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, mustard and Worcestershire sauce until well combined. Shape the mixture into cakes about ¾ inch/2 cm thick. This is easier to do if you dip your hands in flour. If you are going to freeze them, put them on a paper plate, wrap well and freeze them at this stage. Thaw for an hour or two before coating and frying them.
To coat, dip each crab cake in the beaten egg and then in the breadcrumbs, and leave on a tray in the fridge for 2-3 hours. Then heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan, and fry the crab cakes for 3-5 minutes on each side until golden brown. Drain on absorbent paper and serve with a green salad.
Marinated Mushrooms
It sounds rather a lot of mushrooms in this recipe, I realize, but they do go down so much as they cook. It is worthwhile cooking the mushrooms in the olive oil till they are crisp – their flavour is very much better. This is the tip passed on to me by Brigadier Ley, one of the best cooks I know, and such a source of inspiration and culinary know-how. You may need more olive oil to sauté the mushrooms than I say – this depends on your sauté pan; a non-stick pan will need less oil than a non non-stick one! This is awfully good.
Serves 6
2 lb/900 g mushrooms wiped, stalks trimmed level with the caps and the mushrooms sliced quite thickly
5-6 tbsp olive oil – don't add it to the sauté pan all at the beginning, start with 3 tbsp and add more as you need it
For the marinade:
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1-2 garlic cloves, skinned and chopped finely
½ pint/285 ml chicken (or vegetable) stock
¼ pint/140 ml dry white wine
½ tsp dried thyme or a good sprig of fresh, tiny leaves stripped from it
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tomatoes, skinned, cut in half and de-seeded, and the tomatoes finely diced
Torn up basil leaves
Cook the sliced mushrooms in relays, in a sauté pan with the olive oil. Cook them till they are almost crisp, and then remove them to a shallow, wide serving dish. As they are sautéing, make the marinade.
Into a wide shallow pan put the olive oil, chopped garlic, stock and white wine, thyme, salt and pepper. Bring to simmering point and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Take it off the heat and leave to cool completely. Then stir in the diced tomatoes and the torn-up basil. Pour this over the sautéed mushrooms and leave overnight in a cool larder or the fridge.
I like to arrange the marinated mushrooms on plates, spooned, with the marinade, over lettuce leaves. Accompany, if you like, with warm bread or with sesame toast.
Marrow Stuffed with Curried Rice and Vegetables
Marrow can be deadly – often the only thing in its favour is that it contains virtually no calories because it is composed virtually of water. But marrow can also be very good, so make the most of them while they are in season in the autumn months. I like them best stuffed because they rely on accompanying vegetables or meat for flavour. The moistness of the marrow makes for a good juicy filling and this one, with curried rice and onions, peppers, garlic and mushrooms, is delicious. Serve with an accompanying cheese or tomato sauce if you like.
Serves 6
4 tbsp oil (I use sunflower)
2 onions, skinned and chopped
1 red and 1 yellow pepper, halved, de-seeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves, skinned and chopped
1 tbsp curry powder
8 oz/225 g mushrooms, wiped and chopped
2 tsp tomato pureé
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 oz/225g cooked brown rice
1 large marrow, peeled and halved length-ways, with the seeds scooped out of each half
Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onions and peppers. Sauté for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally so that they cook evenly, then stir in the garlic and the curry powder, and cook for a further few minutes. Add the mushrooms and tomato pureé. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and cook for 2-3 minutes. Mix this together thoroughly with the cooked brown rice.
Oil a large piece of foil, and put one half of the marrow on it. Pack the stuffing into the scooped-out hollow, mounding it up to fill the hollow in the other half, which you put on top like a lid. Wrap the foil tightly around the marrow and put the foil parcel in a roasting tin. Bake in a fairly hot oven, 400°F/200°C/Gas mark 6, for 1¼-1½ hours. Pierce the marrow with a knife to see whether it is soft and cooked.
This dish keeps warm successfully for about an hour before serving. Cut the marrow into thick slices to serve, spooning the stuffing into the middle of each slice.
Pheasant Breasts with Orange and Chestnut
This is a real treat if you are eating alone. From about December onwards it is possible to buy pheasant breasts in butchers' shops and most supermarkets. They do shrink as they cook, so if they look small, buy two. This recipe combines the pheasant with the complementary flavours of orange and chestnut. To save opening a tin of whole chestnuts and freezing what you don't use, buy fresh chestnuts and boil them for 10 minutes. They should then be ready to have their skins knicked and cut off. They taste much nicer than tinned ones! Alternatively, use vacuum-packed chestnuts. Avoid dried ones like the plague: they have the taste and texture of cardboard. Serve this casserole with mashed potatoes and with freshly sliced cabbage stir-fried with grainy mustard.
1 or 2 pheasant breasts
1 tbsp flour mixed with salt and ground black pepper
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 onion, skinned and chopped
¼ pint/140 ml red wine, or stock if you prefer
About 6 chestnuts, shelled and chopped
1 orange, peel cut off with a serrated knife, and flesh chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Coat the pheasant breasts in the seasoned flour. Heat the oil in a casserole dish, and brown the pheasant breasts on each side. Remove them to a warm dish. Add the chopped onion to the casserole and cook for a few minutes, till the onion is soft. Stir in the red wine or stock, the chopped chestnuts and the chopped orange. Replace the pheasant breasts in the casserole.
Cover with a lid and bake in a moderate oven, 350°F/180°C/Gas Mark 4, for 20 minutes. Take out of the oven, season with salt and pepper, and eat as soon as you can.
Pot-Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables
This is a true winter dish, making the most of the lovely root vegetables, which are in season during the winter months. This is also one of those convenient one-pot dishes where the vegetables are cooked with the meat. All that is needed to accompany the pot roast is a dish of baked potatoes. Any vegetables left over from the pot roast can be liquidized into a delicious soup made with stock from the chicken carcass. If this is to serve six, it is really better to use two small chickens – use any leftovers for soup.
Serves 4-6
4 tbsp oil (I like to use olive or sunflower)
1 large or 2 small chickens, cleaned, wiped and with giblets removed
4 onions, skinned and thinly sliced
1 lb/450 g carrots, pealed and either sliced in rounds or cut into 2-inch/5 cm chunks and quartered
1 lb/450 g parsnips, peeled and cut to match the carrots
1 lb/450 g leeks, washed, trimmed and cut into 2-inch/5 cm lengths
8 oz/225 g turnips, peeled and cut into smallish chunks
1 lb/450 g celeriac, peeled and cut into smallish chunks
2 garlic cloves, skinned and chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Heat the oil in a large casserole, and brown the chicken all over. Remove the chicken and keep it warm in a low oven while you brown the vegetables.
First add the onions to the casserole and cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then add all the remaining vegetables – it looks a lot, but they reduce in quantity while they cook, and they do double duty in flavouring the chicken deliciously and as its accompaniment. Cook the vegetables for 10 minutes or so, stirring from time to time, then add the garlic and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Replace the chicken, making a nest for it in the vegetables. Cover the casserole first with foil and then with a tight fitting lid. Cook in a moderate oven – 350°F/180°C/Gas mark 4 – for 1½ hours. Test to see whether the chicken is cooked by piercing a thigh with a sharp knife – if the juices run clear, the chicken is cooked. Put the casserole back to cook for a bit longer if the juices are at all tinged with pink.
This dish keeps hot very satisfactorily for an hour or so. The vegetables make a surprising amount of liquid, and I like to serve baked potatoes to soak up the juices.
Roast Pheasant with Bread Sauce and Game Chips
This seems rather an obvious item to include – obvious, because to many people straight roast pheasant to be so easy. But it isn't often that you come across really good roast pheasant traditionally produced with creamy bread sauce and proper game chips. Game gravy should be thin in texture and intense in flavour – it's a matter of taste, but I generally add port to mine.
Serves 6
2 pheasants approximately 2-2½ lb/900 g-1.1 kg each
Butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Several rashers of streaky bacon (smoked if possible)
Bread sauce
Smear butter over the breasts of the pheasants, season with a little salt and freshly ground black pepper, and cover the pheasants with the streaky bacon. You can do all this in the morning so the pheasants are ready to pop in the oven before dinner that evening. Roast them in a hot oven – 400°F/200°C/Gas Mark 6 – for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350°F/180°C/Gas Mark 4 and continue to roast the birds for about an hour. Test to see whether they are cooked by piercing a leg at the point where it joins the body – if the juices run clear, and they are not tinged with pink, they are ready. I find that dropping the oven temperature prevents the pheasant flesh drying out too much. Keep the pheasant warm until you are ready to carve.
Bread Sauce
This is bread sauce as we like it – if you prefer it without the flavouring of cloves, leave them out of the recipe. As with so many things, bread sauce is very much a matter of personal taste.
Serves 6
1 pint/570 ml milk
1 medium onion, skinned
About 12 cloves
½ lb/225 g white breadcrumbs, from a day old loaf, weighed then crumbed
Salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper
2 oz/56 g butter, cut in pieces
Put the milk into a saucepan with the onions, stuck with the cloves, and warm it over a gentle heat until it forms a skin. Take the pan off the heat, and leave for a couple of hours, to infuse the milk well and truly with the onion and clove flavours. Then remove and discard the onion, stir in the breadcrumbs, salt and pepper and pieces of butter. The butter won't melt now, but don't worry, it will when the bread sauce is reheated to serve.
Butter an ovenproof dish well, and pour the bread sauce into it. Cover, label and freeze. Take the bread sauce out of the freezer the day before you want to eat it, and reheat it in its dish (all ready to serve, you see – minimum effort – that's what I like!) in a moderate oven, 350°F/180°C Gas Mark 4, for 30 minutes. Stir it with a fork once or twice during reheating, to mix through the melting bits of butter.
Game Chips
Game chips, either wafer-thin slices or matchsticks, can be made in the morning and reheated to serve with the pheasants for dinner.
To make good game chips you really need a mandoline, because you can't slice the potatoes thinly enough by hand – I know, I've tried! The slices have to be thin to stay crisp – if they are too thick, they will go flabby soon after frying. We make match-sticks here for our guests. Our mandoline has a matchstick blade, and the matchsticks don't take a minute to cook.
Serves 6
Fat for deep-frying
1½ lb/675 g potatoes, peeled and cut into matchsticks
Salt
A chip pan with a wire basket is the best utensil for cooking chips. You can use an ordinary saucepan with a metal slotted spoon for fishing out the cooked chips or matchsticks, but you have to be quick about it so as not to burn any in the saucepan.
Pour fat into the pan to a depth of about 4-inches/10 cm and heat until it sizzles when you drop a piece of potato in. Cook your chips or matchsticks, in batches if necessary, until they are golden brown. Drain them, and put them in a roasting tin lined with several thicknesses of kitchen paper to absorb excess grease. Sprinkle them with a little salt, and either leave and reheat to serve or keep warm to serve.
Smoked Haddock Croquettes
These may be made and cooked the day before if you are going to serve them cold. If to be served hot, they can be shaped and coated, ready for frying at the last minute.
Makes about 30
2 lb/900g smoked haddock fillets
1 pint/570 ml milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 oz/56 g butter
2 oz/56g plain flour
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 tbsp capers, chopped
2 tbsp mayonnaise
4 eggs, beaten
8 oz/225g fresh white breadcrumbs
Oil for deep frying
Put the haddock fillets into a large saucepan with milk and seasoning. Cover and cook gently for about 2 minutes, milk barely simmering, until the haddock flakes easily.
Strain the stock from the haddock into a measuring jug and make up to 12 fl oz/340 ml with extra milk if necessary. Remove the skin and bones from the haddock, then flake the flesh.
Melt the butter in a saucepan, and stir in the flour, then gradually stir in the fish stock. Bring to the boil stirring all the time until the sauce thickens. Reduce the heat and simmer very gently for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the flaked fish, parsley, capers and mayonnaise to the fish sauce and beat well together until smooth. Season. Spoon the smoked haddock mixture on to a plate. Allow to cool, cover with clingfilm, and then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until well chilled.
Shape the chilled haddock mixture into small balls, about 1 inch/2.5 cm in diameter, with wetted hands. Return the fish balls to the refrigerator to firm up again.
Coat the fish balls with beaten egg and breadcrumbs, then deep fry in hot oil, in batches, for 3-4 minutes, until golden brown. Drain well on absorbant paper.
Serve hot or well chilled. These chilled fish balls may be speared on to cocktail sticks, and arranged with other savouries on sticks.
All recipes from books by Claire Macdonald
available from www.claire-macdonald.com