Tag Archives: cream

Vegetables and Salads

Papas Chorreadas

  • 6 medium potatoes, boiled and peeled
  • 2 T oil
  • 1 T flour
  • 2 tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 onion, sliced
  • 2 sprigs fresh cilantro, chopped
  • 3/4 cup grated fresh manchego or mozzarella cheese
  • 1/2 cup milk plus 1 tbsp cream

Cut potatoes into large cubes. Saute onions in a little oil till soft and add tomatoes. Melt fat and add flour and a bit of salt. Add tomatoes, onion and cilantro. Cook 3 mins. Add milk and cook until thick. Add grated cheese and cream and stir until melted. Pour over the potatoes and combine gently.

Soups and Stews

Fish Soup

7 April, 2010

FOR ERIC CANTONA

Time: Don’t hurry. Don’t rush to heat ingredients quickly. This soup welcomes the concept of gentle simmering.

JayFishSoupEquipment:  A tureen. Not a big saucepan. A tureen. Capiche? Plus a good frying pan. And gas. Gas electric if possible.

Accompany with: Crusty heated rustic bread for dipping and mopping up. Not not garlic bread – this will overpower the soup’s flavours.

Serve with: A cold crisp white or at a push a rose; not beer but cider or perry. Alternatively elderflower or light compresses but not fruit juice.

INSTRUCTIONS

Any fool can make soup. The most important thing with this soup is to get the atmosphere right. This is not a quick and simple soup. This is a rich and sincere soup that needs  contemplation and consideration. It can’t take more than 90 minutes to make, eat some  and clear up.

Right : first take 4-6 large potatoes and cut them into half inch cubes and put to one side. Now cut up four white onions into small pieces and fry until soft – butter is best for this – and put to one side.

Next fry half a pound of good quality fatty lardons until crisp – if you can’t get hold of these just use a good quality rindless bacon cut up small. Once the lardons are cooked add the onions and stir for a minute. Put to one side where your potatoes also wait.

Make up 2-3 pints of fish stock : you can do this for real but most of our lives are too short and so fish stock cubes will do just fine. Don’t fuss about exactly how much you need – make enough to have plenty – you can always throw it away if you have too much stock – it costs almost nothing and this is cooking not chemistry anyway.

Put a couple of pints of your stock into the tureen. Add the potatoes and bring to the boil and simmer until the potatoes are soft. Add the bacon and onions and simmer until all is well.

Next add a pound of smoked haddock or similar smoked fish – doesn’t really matter what kind but the smoked nature adds depth to the flavour; at the same time add an equivalent amount of any white fish you like or can get hold of – cod is my choice. The white and smoked fish need only to be roughly cubed into bit-sized pieces.

Keep the pot simmering until the fish is cooked – soft but not flaking. Add fish stock as necessary to keep it a soup not a stew and season now with salt and pepper to taste. Finally add large peeled fresh prawns and fresh scallops. They’ll only need a very few minutes in the mixture to cook – don’t overcook or they’ll go like leather.

Now the only vaguely tricky bit – add half to a pint of fresh cream as your taste dictates but keep the heat low and do not boil or do any more than simmer at a very low level or you’ll curdle the shit out of it. Once you have stirred and balanced it all out, add some paprika to taste and stir in.

Keep warm – do not let it cool before serving – and add fresh chopped parsley as a garnish if you’ve got guests you want to impress. Eat with big spoons in big bowls with hot bread.

 

Jay Green used to make this fish soup a lot between 1993 and 2004 when he lived in West London. He first made it in at 81 The Grove, Ealing and then afterwards refined it at 7 Sutton Court, Chiswick. The seafood was sourced locally at fishmongers on Turnham Green Road and the lardons at an Italian deli on the Chiswick High Road. He used to make it for eating while crucial football games were being televised that involved Manchester United. This is why the soup is dedicated to Eric Cantona.

 

Desserts and Sweets

Dobosh Torte

Our Hungarian relatives made this dessert for me on my twelfth birthday, and I will never forget the layers upon layers of cake interspersed with the creamy chocolate filling.

  • 7 or 8 eggs, separated
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp. vanilla

Cream egg yolks with sugar until fluffy. Add flour gradually with the vanilla. Fold in stiffly beaten whites. Grease a cookie sheet and lines with greased wax paper. Pour dough on sheet and bake about 15 to 20 minutes at 350ºF. When done, turn out onto a towel sprinkled with sugar. Peel paper from the cake. Let cool, then cut into four equal oblong slices, then again to make 8 layers.

For Filling:

  • 1 stick butter
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1 pkg. chocolate bits, melted
  • 1 whole egg
  • Vanilla
  • Whipping cream

Cream sugar and butter until smooth. Add chocolate, egg and a few drops of vanilla. While beating, add the whipping cream slowly until the mixture is the right consistency for filling and spreading.

Spread thinly between the layers and on the outside of the torte.

Beverages

John Juan

A John Juan is a takeoff on a White Russian, made with rum instead of vodka.

  • 1-1/2 oz  white rum
  • 1 oz Kahlua or other coffee liqueur
  • cream or milk

Pour rum and Kahlua into a tall, ice-filled glass. Fill to top with cream or milk.

Or place ice and ingredients in a cocktail shaker and give it only a quick shake or two before pouring it, ice and all, into a tall glass. This will foam up the milk somewhat.

 

Here are a couple of variations that will make this dessert-like drink even more decadent:

Variation No. 1: Replace the Kahlua with 1/2 oz chocolate liqueur and 1/2 oz white Creme de Menthe

Variation No. 2: Simply add a splash of Rumpleminz (peppermint schnapps)