More Amazing Salads

I have always been looking for a good salad recipe to use up left over chicken. This Thai Chicken, Coconut and Coriander Salad with Crispy Shallots is the best one I have found yet. If you don’t have any left over chicken, poach the chicken in the dressing as in the recipe., Coconut and Coriander Salad with Crispy Shallots

Thai Chicken, Coconut and Coriander Salad
1 x 400ml can coconut milk
Fresh or frozen lime leaves
2 Thai birds eye chillis, lightly bashed
Small bunch coriander
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon palm sugar, or brown sugar
2 chicken breasts, trimmed
40g toasted coconut chips (try Ocado)
½ a cucumber
3 carrots, peeled
1 red pepper, cut into very thin rings
1 lime
3 shallots, peeled
Sunflower oil
Sea salt

Place the coconut milk, fish sauce, the stalks of the coriander (saving the leaves for the salad), the chillis, the sugar, a teaspoon of salt and the lime leaves in a saucepan. Add the chicken breast and bring to the boil. Gently simmer to poach the chicken for 12–15 minutes or until cooked through. Remove chicken from the pan and rest. Turn up the heat on coconut milk and reduce until a few tablespoons remain. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Strain and add the juice of the lime. Taste and adjust seasoning. It should be fragrant, spicy, sour and sweet.

Meanwhile, shave the cucumber and carrots, leaving just the cores, with a peeler. Put in a large bowl with the coconut chips, the red pepper and coriander leaves. When cool enough to handle, shred the chicken.

Slice the shallots as thinly as possible. You can use a mandolin or food processor. Place in a small saucepan and just cover with oil. Over a high heat, stir the shallots frequently until they are golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain well on kitchen paper. Spread out thinly and allow to cook. Lightly season with salt and fluff up so that the shallots go crispy.

Celery Salad with Dates, Almonds, and Parmesan

When you get to my age and you have been cooking as long as I have, it is really hard to find recipes that are fresh, exciting or different but this simple celery salad is really exciting. I’m not even that keen on fruit or nuts in savoury dishes but the celery, lemon and the chilli really balance out the sweetness. It made a very tasty lunch!

Celery Salad with Dates, Almonds, and Parmesan
Serves 2
½ cup/large handful raw almonds with skins8 celery stalks, thinly sliced on a diagonal, use leaves too
6 dates, pitted, coarsely chopped
Zest of one lemon plus 2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chunk of Parmesan, shaved
4 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
Very small pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Toss almonds, celery, celery leaves, lemon zest and dates in a medium bowl; season with salt and pepper. Mix the lemon juice and olive oil together well. Add a small pinch of chilli flakes and mix through the salad. Serve with shavings of parmesan.Add the chicken to the bowl with the vegetables and then dress with the dressing (you may not need all of it.) Pile onto plates and top with the crispy shallots.

Warm Salad of Avocado, Baby Spinach and Bacon, Poached Egg

Salad Tiede was all the rage about 10 years ago. Literally translated as “warm salad” it is one of those culinary terms which just sound so much more exciting in French than it does in English. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have to taste exciting. Super quick and simple it relies on really great ingredients to transform it into something really special, so use the best bacon, avocados and eggs that you can find.

Warm Salad of Avocado, Baby Spinach and Bacon, Poached Egg
Serves 2
8 rashers of smoked streaky bacon, cut into lardons
2 organic, free-range eggs
Large handful or two of baby spinach leaves
2 ripe avocadoes, cut into large chunks
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Splash white wine vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

Put a small pan of water onto boil. Fry the bacon in a little olive oil until really golden and crispy in a heavy bottomed frying pan. Remove the pan from the heat from the heat. Put the spinach leaves into a large bowl with the avocado chunks. Add the red wine vinegar to the pan with the bacon and allow to bubble away. Add a dash of white wine vinegar to the pan of boiling water, turn down the heat and carefully crack in the eggs. Poach until the whites have totally cooked but the yolks are still runny. Remove with a slotted spoon onto some kitchen paper to drain. Stir the mustard into the pan with the bacon. I should have cooled a bit by now. You want the mustard to amalgamate with the bacon fat and the vinegar, not cook. Season and pour the bacon and dressing over the spinach and avocado. Toss well and tip into bowls. Top with the eggs and a good grind of black pepper. Serve straight away.

Fondue without the Fuss

I am meant to be on a diet after the Christmas excesses but it is cold and that calls for warming, yummy food with lots of cheese and calories. What better than a traditional recipe from the Ski slopes of Savoie in the French Alps. After all, I have just been to my "Ski-fit" class at the gym, so that is practically like a days skiing (even though it was only 30 minutes and indoors) so I probably deserve some serious ski fodder. Most "mountain" recipes seem to incorporate mountain cheese. For Tartiflette the cheese is traditionally Roublechon which originates from Haute Savoie, whereas it is usually Swiss mountain cheeses such as Gruyere, Emmental and Raclette which make an appearance, namely in the famous Fondue and slightly less know "Raclette". 

Fondue made a big resurgence in the 70's when I was a child and I don't think there was a self-respecting family in Britain who could not admit to owning a Fondue set, usually hidden away on some top shelf. It was synonymous with continental sophistication but in reality was nothing more than a nasty, stale bit of bread stuck in some sickly, molten cheese, usually with too much booze in it. Raclette is a similarly disgusting - lots of equipment very little enjoyment. 

Tartiflette, on the other-hand is a thing of beauty. Like Raclette it is traditionally served with Charcuterie, gherkins and pickled silver-skin onions, but personally a plain, green salad with a mustardy vinaigrette is a much more delicious accompaniment and maybe goes a little way in excusing all those other calories.

Tartiflette
1.3kg (3lb) waxy potatoes, such as Charlotte, skins on
1 tbsp olive oil
250g (9oz) chunky bacon lardons
2 onion, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tablespoons Creme Fraiche

1 Reblochon, about 350g (12oz)
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water until just tender. Drain. When they are cool enough to handle, cut them in half lengthways. Heat oil in a sauté pan and cook the lardons over a medium heat until crispy and golden brown. Turn down the heat, add the onion and cook until soft and beginning to colour. Throw in the garlic and cook for a further couple of minutes. Add this to the potatoes and gently combine. Finally stir in the Crème Fraîche. Give one final stir and tip the whole lot into a oven-proof dish.

Slice the Reblochon and lay on top of the potato. Bake in an oven, preheated to 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5, for 15 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbling. Serve immediately.

Clever Confit

Cooking seems to be getting ever-more complicated. Nobody just puts food in the oven now a days.  It must be at the very least - brined for a week, smoked for a day, braised in the Sous-vide overnight and finished on the Josper grill. Well, maybe only if you are after a Michelin star but here is a trick which is super easy and extraordinary good. And what is more is really great for entertaining because it is cooked already and all you have to do is reheat it. 

Confit is a medieval method of preserving meat by salting it and then cooking it and conserving it, by submerging it in fat. The fat prevents any oxidisation and this method was commonly used to preserve meat before the invention of the refrigerator, especially in the South-West of France. The original word "confit" was the term used for preserving fruit in sugar, hence the French word for jam - "confiture", but now refers to mainly fatty cuts of meat such as goose, duck and pork, as traditionally it should be confited in its own fat. These tougher cuts of meat tend to be the cheapest but I have to admit, as much as I love a bargain, I am not fond of lumps of unctuous fat and I usually tend to steer clear of pork belly.  The beauty about this method of cooking though, is that practically all the fat is rendered away during the cooking process, just leaving you with succulent meat and the crispiest skin you ever ate. The most important thing however, is that you start with a nice meaty piece of free-range belly. You do not want a piece of solid fat, so choose carefully. For a more Kosher option try duck legs. They are equally delicious and equally versatile to use up in Cassolet and Garbure.

I salt and flavour the meat over-night with a dry rub. Some prefer to brine it but I don't think it is necessary. This cut of meat is also immensely popular in Asia, so when it comes to flavourings, I tend to go one of two ways - classic French incorporating Thyme, Black Peppercorns, Juniper and Fennel Seeds or Chinese style with Star Anise or five spice, ginger, Sichuan pepper and Soy. Interestingly these combination of flavours, from two such diverse countries, have much in common.  Time and time again we can see that the great recipes from across the world have evolved with so many similarities, simply because they work and stand the test of time. Indeed, both countries would agree that fatty meats such as duck or pork belly are best served with a sweet/sour accompaniment to cut the fat. In France this would traditionally be braised red cabbage; in China maybe a plum sauce. 

This method of cooking is once again tremendously fashionable and a modern twist would be to serve your pork belly with smoked eel, beetroot and horseradish or maybe with seared scallops, cauliflower puree and crisp pork popcorn but whatever you serve it with I guarantee it will be amazing.  After all it has withstood the test of time.

Duck Confit
If you are wish to preserve the duck legs then you will need to salt them for a couple of days, but if you are planning to eat them imminently then 12 hours is plenty. I always chuck a few cooked new potatoes in with the duck in the oven.  Cut them lengthways and place them cut side down in the pan. They will roast beautifully in the duck fat and are ready when they are crisp and golden brown.

4 large duck legs
30g rock salt
1 tbsp Juniper, crushed
1 tbsp black peppercorns
4 Garlic cloves, sliced
4 Sprigs thyme or rosemary
800g duck fat (in most supermarkets) melted

Scatter the salt into a flat dish. Lay the duck legs on the salt, skin side down. Distribute the crushed juniper, peppercorns, garlic and herbs evenly over. Cling film, press with a weight and marinate overnight (12 hours). 

Wash off the marinade and pat dry with kitchen cloth, place the duck legs, skin side down in a saucepan. Cover with the melted duck fat and bring the temperature to 85ºC, cook for 3 hours in a preheated oven (95- 100°). You know you have reached the temperature 85/90ºC, there is no bubble breaking the surface; the fat is kept just under simmering point. I cook mine in the slow-cooker on low for 5 hours. Alastair Little says you know when they are done as it will be "showing a lot of bone as the meat rides up like a mini-skirt on a white thigh." With a slotted spoon lift the leg out of the duck fat and reserve.

In a dry heavy based pan on medium heat, crisp and colour the duck legs on the skin side 5 – 7 minutes until golden brown. If your duck legs have been in the fridge then roast the duck legs in a hot oven, skin side down for about 15-20 mins until hot all the way through and the skin is totally golden brown and crisp. 

Chinese Style Crisp Confit Belly of Pork with Caramel Sauce
You can use any herbs or spices you like to flavour the pork belly. Just decide what you want to serve it with and use complimentary seasonings.

1 piece free-range British pork belly,pork belly (skin on) around 1.25kg in weight
2 tbsp. rock salt
1 tbsp Five Spice (Peppercorns, Star Anise  Cloves, Cinnamon, and Fennel Seeds.)
Large know of fresh ginger, pealed and sliced
Small head of Garlic, sliced through lengthways
800g duck fat (in most supermarkets) melted, or pork fat if you have it.

Rub the flesh of the pork all over with the five spice apart from the skin.  Scatter a flat dish with the salt.  Place the pork skin side down on the salt and place the garlic and ginger on the top.  Cover with cling-film and press in the fridge for 12 hours. Wash off the marinade and pat dry with kitchen cloth and place the pork, skin side down in a saucepan. Cover with the melted duck fat and bring the temperature to 85ºC, cook for 3 hours in a preheated oven (95- 100°). You know you have reached the temperature 85/90ºC, there is no bubble breaking the surface; the fat is kept just under simmering point. I cook mine in the slow-cooker on low for 5 hours. You should be able to insert and remove a skewer very easily all the way through the thickest part of the meat and skin.  Remove from the fat and press once more in the fridge to insure a flat skin surface. This helps when roasting.  When ready to use, cut into strips or cubes (it is very difficult to cut the skin neatly once cooked as it is so crisp). Place skin side down in a heavy based saucepan with a little of the fat.  Start crisping up the skin, but be careful as it can spit. Roast in a hot oven until hot all the way through and the   skin in totally crisp and brown.

Caramel Sauce:
100g palm or soft brown or demarara sugar
5tbsp dark soy sauce
1 red chillies, chopped
2cm (3/4in) piece grated ginger
1tbsp Sesame oil
Freshly squeezed Lime

Put the sugar in a pan and gradually melt until boiling. When caramelised add the soy to stop it cooking.  Be careful as it may splutter. Return to the heat and add the chilli and ginger.  Heat until all the sugar is incorporated. Add the sesame oil and lime to taste.

Staying in !

God, sometimes I miss eating out in expensive restaurants. When I was a young chef, many years ago, most of my meagre weeks wages would have gone on eating out.  It was imperative to research new restaurants, know what was happening, keep ahead of the game.  Now a days most of my weekly wage goes on Ballet lessons for my daughter or Judo lessons for my son.  Now and then we might splash out on lunch at Pizza Express.  The closest I get to a Michelin Star meal is to cook up something special myself and watch Michel Roux at the same time on Masterchef.


So a few weeks ago, I was watching Raymond Blanc's "The Very Hungry Frenchman".  I have to admit it was pretty bad.   He must have said "Oh là là" about 15 times in the first half an hour but you have got to love him and my god, some of that food looked fine.  It's the quality of the produce that is so spectacular; the cheeses, the saussison, the meat .... it is all so fantastic. The program I was watching had a Poulet de Bresse chicken with Morels and I just couldn't stop thinking about it. Even if I can't afford a Poulet de Bresse Chicken -  £40.00 a bird! I can afford a free-range corn fed chicken and I might just stretch to some dried Morels. This is a classic recipe and I love the idea of the use of sherry with the mushrooms.  It is a perfect combination.  It seems like years since I cooked any poncy French food.  Now a days I tend to try and steer clear of all that butter and cream and I don't often attempt restaurant cooking at home, even though I do sometimes miss all the technique; the reductions, the butchery, the sauces and the stocks.  So it was Mother's Day. There was no way we were going out for lunch so instead as a treat, I cooked Chicken with Morels for the family.  It took about half an hour, was super easy and was better than anything you will get in most restaurants, albeit (did you know that was one word!), maybe not one with stars. My treat was no washing-up.

Chicken with Morels and Sherry
Adapted from Raymond Blanc.   I like to serve this with mashed potato.
Serves 4
Planning ahead: the dried morels need to be soaked for at least a couple of hours. You can prepare the chicken half an hour in advance and warm it through in the morel sauce to serve.

For the chicken:
1 tbsp Unsalted butter
4 Chicken breasts, free range/organic, skin off (180g each)

1 tbsp butter
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
25g Dried morels soaked in 250ml of water for at least 2 hours
250g Button mushrooms, sliced
120ml Sherry (I used Marsala)
400ml Double cream

For the leeks:

200g Water, boiling
Large pinch of Sea salt
2 Leeks, medium size, outer leaves removed, washed and cut into 2cm pieces
1 tbsp Unsalted butter

To prepare the morels - drain the morels, reserving the soaking liquid, and squeeze to extract as much of the liquor as possible. Pass the reserved liquid through a muslin-lined sieve to remove any sand or grit and save.

To cook the chicken - season the breasts with salt and pepper. In a large frying pan, melt the butter over a medium heat until it is foaming. Now is the time to add the chicken breasts and colour lightly for 3 minutes on each side. The skin should be golden brown and crisp. Remove from the pan and reserve. In the fat remaining in the frying pan, fry the button mushrooms for five minutes, or so and then add the soaked morels. Fry for a few more minutes before adding the sherry. Boil for a few minutes and then add the reserved morel liquid and a pinch of salt. Reduce down until you have a few tablespoons of liquid.  Next add the cream and bring to the boil. Check seasoning.  Add plenty of freshly ground black pepper and more salt if necessary.  Place the chicken breasts back in the pan, skin side up, making sure the cream sauce comes up to the level of the skin. Lower the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for 8-10 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken breasts, until they are just cooked through. Do not over-cook or the chicken will be dry.

To cook the leeks - while the chicken is cooking, put the leeks into a saucepan, pour on the boiling water and add the salt and butter. Cover and cook at a full boil for 5–10 minutes until tender.

To finish the dish - Using a slotted spoon, lift out the chicken breasts and place in a warm dish; keep warm. Boil the sauce rapidly to reduce until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Place the chicken breasts back in the sauce to reheat for 2 minutes. Lift the leeks from their liquid and arrange on warmed plates. Sit the chicken breasts on top and pour the morel sauce over and around. 

Variations: Morels are quite hard to get hold of and very expensive.  You can buy them on-line or you could use dried Porcini / Ceps instead.


I entered this recipe to Spring a Leek Recipe Competition which is being hosted this month by Secret Garden Club.

When in France ....

I am sorry to say but after over 20 years of trying to convince myself otherwise, I am finally persuaded that the French just cannot cook.  Year in, year out, we sit through practically inedible meals of nasty limp salads, badly cooked steak and bought in, frozen chips.  I am not talking expensive restaurants with Michelin Stars, which I am sure are fantastic, but personally I cannot bare pretentious meals on holiday.  Instead, we hunt out gorgeous little local bistros in Medieval Villages.  Everything about them is perfect.  The ambiance, the setting, the tables under the fabulous old Plain trees in the square, the dappled sunlight, the simple tableware - everything apart from the horrible food.  I know that this is the countryside.  I know it is not Paris, Marseilles or Lyon.  But you would think that they could cook a Steak.  "Steak Frites".  It does not get more French than that.  They invented the dish, along with so many of the worlds greatest recipes. 

The waitress politely asks you "Cuisson?" Like they care.  I have tried "Saignant" (bloody) which comes either grey/brown with every trace of blood drained out of it or it is so blue that it is practically still mooing. I decided to give up on my preference of rare and switched to "a point" which I believe is meant to be the perfect medium-rare.  It wasn't.  Same thing - desecrated or raw.  I gave up altogether and decided just to stay in and cook instead. 

The produce is so fantastic, the markets bursting with the most fantastic vegetables, sausages, cheese, bread and olives.  But beware.  It is shockingly expensive.  Blink and you have parted with 50E for little more than a Sausison Sec, some Tapenade and a small piece of mountain cheese.  We decided to eat mainly vegetables and fruit.  It really wasn't hard. 

The market would dictate what we had for lunch and dinner.  Just buy what looks the most delicious.  We stuck to classic French dishes and kept things simple.  Nothing too complicated. After all, everybody knows the English can't cook.

Salad Nicoise

I have got a bit old fashioned with this dish in my old age. When I worked in restaurants, it was all "rare char-grilled Tuna" and "soft boiled eggs" but my version is very classic apart from the dressing. I know that some great chefs such as Simon Hopkinson omit the tuna all together in favour of fabulous Anchovies but I personally do not like big mouthfuls of overpowering anchovies, and I like the tuna. So I put the anchovies in the dressing, which incidentally is the same dressing that I use for Caesar Salad. This way you have a subtle anchovy flavour in every mouthful. And I like a creamy dressing which pulls the whole salad together in a most satisfying way.

75 mls extra virgin olive oil
75 mls vegetable oil
2 free-range egg yolks (preferably organic)
Juice of one Lemon
8 anchovy fillets
3 cloves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g small new potatoes
200g french beans
4 free-range eggs (preferably organic)
6 ripe tomatoes, cut into eighths
Cos or little gem lettuce
225g can MSC-certified pole or line-caught tuna in olive oil (drained)
2 tbsp baby capers
Generous handful of good stoned black olives

In a food processor whizz up the anchovies with the egg yolks and the garlic until smooth.  Gradually add the oils until amalgamated and finally add the lemon juice.  Season with salt and pepper.

Boil the potatoes until tender and drain. Unless they are really tiny, break them or cut them in half, and toss with about a tablespoon of the dressing while still warm. Set aside. Boil the beans until they are done as you like them, cool quickly (I plunge them into a bowl of cold water) and set aside. Place the eggs in a pan of boiling water. It is up to you whether they are soft (6 minutes) or hard boiled (10 minutes) or somewhere in between . When done, plunge them in cold water for a minute and peel. Toss the tomato, potato, lettuce, beans and tuna lightly in the remaining dressing and either serve in a large bowl or as individual portions. Finish the top of the salad with the quartered eggs and sprinkle with olives and capers. Add more anchovies if you like.

Hugh's Famous Tomato Salad

It is not really "famous".  We just like to call it that.  I am not sure why!  Just make sure the tomatoes are fabulous.

4 large Coeur de Boeuf or beefsteak tomatoes, thickly sliced
3 spring onions, finely sliced1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp Dijon Mustard3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Splash red wine vinegar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small handful fresh basil leaves
Handful of baby capers
Anchovy fillets cut in half lengthways.

Arrange the tomato slices in a circle on a serving platter. Scatter the spring onions over the top. Place the garlic, mustard and vinegar into a bowl and whisk well to combine. Whisk in the oil to emulsify the dressing. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Decorate with anchovies and scatter over the capers and basil leaves.