Keep it Simple: Fresh Look at Classic Cooking

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Prepare the broccoli: first put a large pan of lightly salted water on to heat - you need very little salt in the cooking water, as the florets retain salt and intensify the seasoning. I once had a review that said everything was lovely except the broccoli, which tasted as if it had been cooked in sea water. Point taken] Split the broccoli into florets and cut out the woody stems and discard. You can find caterpillar infestation, so watch out. Wash and leave to soak in a bowl of cold water. This will freshen the vegetable.

Preparation: Make the compote the day before: use a potato peeler to scrape off the zest from the lemon.Stand the bowl in the Swiss-roll pan and put the plate or round board on top. Weight this down with about 1.8kg/4lb of cans and chill in the fridge for 24 hours, removing from time to time and pouring over any remaining fruit syrup. The bread should be amalgamated with the fruit. Simply printing recipes different in tone to those that had characterised food for a generation however would not, in all likelihood, have garnered Alastair Little the critical acclaim that he received though. This book is self-consciously polemical. Beginning by telling you what you should have in a kitchen (an unusual move for a chef not known from TV appearances) he preaches simplicity and seasonality in cooking. It is these points that people most probably mean when referring to the book's influence. The last of them was developed to a greater degree by another Glenfiddich Award winner: the thoroughly British The River Cottage Year. Preparation: Prepare the vegetables, keeping each vegetable separate: only peel the onion and garlic, but top and tail the aubergines and courgettes. Destalk and deseed the peppers. Scald the tomatoes in a bowl of boiling water for 60 seconds, then refresh, peel and deseed. Cut all the vegetables into bite-sized chunks. (If using baby courgettes, leave them whole.)

At this point shout triumphantly as the caramel-glossed Tarte Tatin smiles at you in rustic perfection or, as may well be the case, burst into tears as overcooked apples cling tenaciously to the toffee in the pan and you contemplate an unattractive mess. many people the word zabaglione conjures up images of the kind of trattoria where the host greets you with overpowering bonhomie. You sit at 'your' table (inevitably 'the best in the house', just next to the kitchen service doors) and grimly contemplate the cold antipasto - with its obligatory leaden aubergine - with growing foreboding. Forget all that. Here the zabaglione is cooked into a tart of apple and prunes held in a sweet crisp crust. I got the recipe from Rowley Leigh. He, in turn, had it from Yves Thuries, the French patissier. Cooking: Scatter the garlic in the prepared gratin dish. Then arrange the drained potatoes on top, cut sides upwards. Pour over the olive oil and dot with the butter. Season with salt and pepper.

Frequently Asked Questions About Alastair Little Keep It Simple

Fusion food does make its mark in this book but it would be unfair to characterise the whole work as that; some dishes may be fusion inspired but others owe clear allegiance to a particular national culinary tradition. The vast array of those national culinary traditions does point in the same direction though: British, Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Morrocan flavours are all here in this publication. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Peel and core the apples, turning them in the lemon juice in a bowl to prevent discolouration. Cut them in half, squaring off the ends. Drain the prunes and apricots and discard the tea, and add them to the pears. Replace the lid and allow to cool completely before refrigerating overnight. The compote is now ready to serve. I prefer to leave the spices in, but if you do so, warn your guests that they are there for decorative effect. Not everybody likes to crunch on a peppercorn while eating pudding.

Cooking: Over a medium heat, saute the apples in a heavy pan with the butter and sugar, tossing to coat and cooking until just tender (which will take between 10 and 15 minutes). They should be golden brown. Preparation: Well ahead, make (or buy) some good-quality vanilla ice-cream. Melt the honey in a bowl set over boiling water until liquid. Pour all but a couple of tablespoons of the honey into the ice-cream mixture and churn in the ice-cream maker or sorbetiere until frozen. Add the prunes and apricots to the tea and put over a very low heat for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave the fruit to plump up. To make the zabaglione: in a large bowl, beat the eggs with the sugar until the mixture is stiff. Then, continuing to beat, pour in the hot melted butter in a thin stream, followed by the vanilla essence and Calvados. Remove the mixer bowl and, with the spatula, stir gently, starting from the centre at the bottom and working outwards and upwards while rotating the bowl one quarter-turn. Repeat 3 more times (which means the bowl will have been turned full circle). This is called 'folding' and is the best way of ensuring all the elements are thoroughly mixed without losing lightness by being heavy-handed.Now the moment of truth: cover the top of the pan with your serving plate. Holding the pan by the handle (wearing an oven glove because it will still be hot), invert so that the pastry base is now against the surface of the plate, with the rim outside the circumference of the pan. Sit the plate on the table, rap the bottom of the pan smartly with a suitable implement and lift away from the tart. The addition of several unpeeled garlic cloves to the roasting juices gives a subtle depth to the flavour. These cloves are delicious: sweet and nutty without being overpowering. I serve these seasonal fruits poached in a spicy red wine syrup with a slice of Sauternes and Olive Oil Cake to give a textured contrast. Make this compote at least a day ahead of serving; it will keep for a week or more in the fridge.