The First-time Cook
Sophie Grigson

Dedication

For Florrie and Sid, who may find this book useful one day.

Table of Contents

Cover Page

Title Page

Dedication

Why Cook?

Techniques and General Tips

Chapter one Soups, Starters and Eggs

Chapter two Pasta, Pizza and Rice

Chapter three Meat and Poultry

Chapter four Stir-frying

Chapter five Fish

Chapter six Vegetables and Salads

Chapter seven Puddings, Cakes and Biscuits

Index

Acknowledgements

Copyright

About the Publisher

Why Cook?

Good question. Why should you learn to cook at all? You’ll get by just fine on takeaways, ready-meals, sandwiches, crisps and chocolate. Nobody needs to cook at all these days, as long as they own a microwave, a kettle and a toaster.

This is potentially a good thing, and certainly hugely liberating. Before you throw the book down in disgust, let me explain. Cooking should be and can be a thoroughly enjoyable life-enhancing task. There is such pleasure to be had from working with beautiful, fresh, natural produce, from combining ingredients to expose their finest, most enticing flavours, a kind of magic that is there to be discovered by every person who walks into a kitchen with appetite and hunger. All this before you even get to the climax of the whole endeavour – the eating itself.

How miserable then, when cooking becomes a tyranny, which it can when there is a day-in-day-out obligation to put a proper cooked meal on the table. So to me, the ideal is a balanced compromise between real cooking as often as possible, and convenience food as back-up for those days when work or play has sapped your energy. There’s nothing wrong with beans on toast every now and then.

There are considerable health benefits to be had from cooking your own food, too. This is not a book about nutrition, but the fundamental principles of healthy eating are straightforward: variety, moderation, loads of veg and fruit. With you as head honcho in the kitchen, you can make yours a healthy, delicious way of eating that allows for occasional indulgences without guilt.

To do that though, you will have to know how to cook. It’s really not at all difficult. It just takes a bit of practice and it will stand you in good stead for the rest of your life. Encapsulated in the recipes in this book are most of the basic techniques you will need to cook a myriad of dishes. It is not a ‘complete’ or ‘comprehensive’ course – that would be quite impossible. I’ve skipped over certain skills you can manage without for the time-being (e.g. making pastry). I have included a wide range of recipes covering both familiar foods and some that may be new to you, to get your culinary imagination in full working order.

And finally, a kitchen motto that has worked well for me, ever since the day when I moved into my first bedsit, and began the task of learning to cook for real: don’t panic. If the worst does come to the worst (we all have off days) and you bodge it up completely, bin it, and send out for a pizza!

Techniques and General Tips
How to Read a Recipe

Skip this if you want to; I know it sounds superfluous. Any fool can read a recipe, but do they know how to interpret what they read? Mostly it is common sense, just a list of instructions that you should follow in the right order to end up with something enjoyable to eat. It is, however, worth noting that these instructions are nothing more than guidelines, not hard and fast rules inscribed in granite.

For instance, I cannot tell you exactly how long to cook a sauce or a gratin; your pans and dishes are unlikely to be exactly the same size or style as mine; your stove will not be the same as mine; and your idea of a medium heat will not be identical to mine. But, assuming that you and I concur roughly on these three parameters, my suggested cooking times will be roughly right. So, treat them as estimates. Use your own senses to judge when dishes are perfectly cooked – check the look, the smell (a waft of burning cheese is a dead giveaway that you’ve massacred your cheese on toast), the taste, the feel (with cakes this is essential), and even the sound – sizzling is the best indicator of the heat of fat, for instance. The more you cook, the easier this all becomes.

When you decide to cook a particular recipe, read it through carefully before you even write your shopping list. Do you have all the right equipment (no good tackling a gratin if you don’t have a suitable shallow ovenproof dish)? If not, it may be worth adding what you lack to your list.

Do you understand the various cooking terms? If not, look them up in this book, or another reference book, or phone somebody who might be able to explain them to you. Don’t give up instantly if you are not quite clear – often something makes much more sense as you are preparing or cooking real ingredients, and it’s only by practising that you will become proficient. How long does it take to cook? Can you prepare some of it in advance?

It is worth noting that in a well-written recipe, the ingredients are usually listed in the order they are used. This can be useful when you are cooking. As a novice cook, it makes sense to measure and prepare all ingredients as described in the ingredients list before you actually start on the cooking proper. The exception to this is when one part of the recipe needs to be made in advance (you might need to marinate something for several hours before cooking and making the sauce), but if you’ve read your recipe carefully you’ll already be aware of this. As you gain experience and confidence you will know what has to be chopped or sliced initially, and what else can be done while the first batch of ingredients is sizzling away in the pan.

Weights and Measures

Recipes, as I’ve already said, are merely a set of guidelines and recommendations. This is as true of the ingredients list as of the method. As a beginner it is advisable to stick to the given quantities and suggested ingredients – as you become more familiar with a particular recipe, you can start to play around to a certain extent. In some instances it is fine to deviate slightly from given amounts where common sense dictates. Suppose, for instance, that a potato salad calls for 450g (1 lb) potatoes – there is no need to cut off a third of one new potato to get exactly the right amount; a tiny bit more or less will make little difference.

The standard advice is to stick with either metric or imperial measurements and not to mix the two. This is probably what you will do anyway, but in truth it won’t make much difference in most recipes if you do mix them up. And always taste as you cook; adjust seasonings and balance of flavours to suit your taste and your ingredients. The one area demanding strict accuracy is baking. Surprisingly small differences in the ratios of flour, fat, sugar, eggs and so on affect the way the cake turns out. So, no guess work, or slapdash weighing out here.

Spoon measurements Spoon measurements in this book are all rounded, unless otherwise indicated. I use a 5ml teaspoon, a 10ml dessertspoon and a 15ml tablespoon.

A sprig, a stem, a bunch or a handful? At first these terms will seem infuriatingly vague, but try to view them as opportunities to exploit your own personal tastes. If you really love the aroma of a certain herb, then make your sprig or handful big and generous. If it is new to you, you may prefer to err on the side of caution at first – reduce that sprig to a couple of inches, grab a petite handful. Soon the deliberate vagueness will become endearingly familiar.

Preparing Common Vegetables and Other Ingredients
Chopping Onions

The most important advice here is to make sure you have a sharp knife before you begin (see knives and knife sharpeners below). Chopping an onion is easy when the blade glides smoothly through the layers, a right pain when you have to push hard and saw your way through. As so many savoury recipes begin with chopping an onion, it will improve your kitchen life considerably if this basic operation is painless and swift.

1 First cut the onion in half, slicing from stalk to root (photo 1). Place one half flat on the chopping board and cut off the upper stalk end (photo 2). Now pick up the onion and peel the brown skins back towards the root, without ripping them right off – it isn’t disastrous if they do come right away, but left attached to the onion root, they act as a handle to grip hold of when chopping. So bend the skins back, away from the onion (photo 3).

2 Place your left hand (or right if you are left-handed) flat on top of the onion to hold it still, then slice it horizontally, stem end towards the root, but stopping just short of the root, so that the pieces stay together (photo 4).

3 Now, keeping the onion flat on the work surface, grasp the skin handle holding the onion steady, and make parallel vertical cuts, from root end towards the stalk end (photo 5).

4 Finally, make parallel cuts at right angles to the previous set of cuts, working your way from stem end back to the root.

And there you have it: a mound of perfectly chopped onion (photo 6).

Slicing Onions

Easy. Peel the onion completely, and trim ends. For rings, turn the onion on its side and slice downwards, thinly or thickly as you wish. Leave whole or separate into rings. For halfmoons, halve the peeled onion through its equator. Set cut-side down, and slice.

Peeling Garlic

Remove outer layers of papery skin from the head of garlic, then ease out as many cloves as you need for your recipe (photo 1). Store the rest of the head in a cool, dry place, but not in the fridge, where it may taint milk and eggs and other foods.

Slice off the base and the tip of the clove (photo 2). If you are going to chop or crush the garlic, the easiest way to get the skin off is to place the clove flat on the chopping board, then press the bowl of a wooden spoon down on it firmly, crushing it gently (photo 3). Now the skin will almost fall off.

If, on the other hand, you intend to slice the clove, or keep it whole, pull the skin away bit by bit with your fingers. Any skin that sticks can be loosened by running the blade of the knife, held at an angle to the clove, firmly down the skin.

Chopping Garlic

Garlic is chopped in much the same way as onion, but scaled down appropriately. If you’ve crushed it virtually flat when removing the skin, then you obviously won’t be able to slice it horizontally.

Crushing Garlic

A garlic crusher is quick but wasteful. A lot of good garlic gets left behind or stuck in the holes. A knife does the job more efficiently, though it takes a little practice.

Peel the garlic and chop it very roughly into three or four pieces. Sprinkle with a good pinch of salt (this diminishes slippage). Press the flat of the blade of the knife down on the pieces, crushing them, then drag the sharp end of the blade, at an angle to the board, over the smashed pieces. Push them all back together, and repeat the dragging and crushing until you have a smooth paste. The dismaying thing is how little you end up with, but don’t fear – the impact of the smoothly crushed garlic will be epic.

Chopping Herbs

Pile the leaves up together on the chopping board. Grab the biggest knife you own (but not a serrated knife). Hold the handle with your right hand, and the tip with your left (reverse this if you are left-handed). Hold the knife over the herbs, the tip in contact with the board close to one side of the heap. Now hold the tip steady on the board, and bring the knife firmly and quickly down on the herbs, again and again, swinging it backwards and forwards. Push the herbs back together in a pile, and repeat the whole operation. Keep doing this until the herbs are chopped as you want them. With practice this becomes an easy, quick and rhythmic operation.

This is also the method to use for fine chopping garlic or onion, once they have been roughly chopped in the usual way.

Skinning Tomatoes

Cut a small cross in each tomato, opposite the stalk end (photo 1). Place in a bowl and cover with boiling water (photo 2). Leave for a minute, then pick the tomatoes out of the water. The skin will now pull away from the tomato with ease (photo 3). If it doesn’t, repeat the process – the tomatoes must have been under-ripe.

Deseeding Tomatoes

Method 1 For tomatoes that are to be cooked in a sauce or stew or soup. Halve the tomatoes through the equator, i.e. cutting halfway between stalk end and base (photo 1). Squeeze each half over a bowl or bin, just as if you were squeezing out lemon juice (photo 2). The seeds will ooze out.

Method 2 For when you want perfect looking pieces of tomato. Halve the tomatoes as for method 1, then scoop out the seeds with a teaspoon (photo 3).

Deseeding Peppers

Begin by slicing off the stem end as if it were a lid. Turn the pepper upside down and tap the base firmly several times to loosen the seeds. Shake them out, and scrape out any malingerers with a knife. When you want to keep the pepper whole, perhaps for stuffing, or cut it into rings, you should also scrape out the white ribs (not 100% necessary, but it does improve the flavour a mite). For quartered peppers or long strips, cut the cup into four from one corner to the other, to give flattish pieces. This makes them easier to cut into strips, or grill. Remove the odd seed and cut away the white ribs if you haven’t already. Now cut into strips if required.

Handling Chillies

It is the capsaicin in chillies that makes them hot. When you handle chillies, capsaicin transfers itself to your fingers, so you need to be extremely careful that you don’t rub your eyes, or worse still, especially for men, go to the loo, before cleaning your hands thoroughly. The results can be painful. Capsaicin is not water-soluble, so you need to use a good deal of soap, or some alcohol-based cleanser to get rid of it all. Either that or wear rubber gloves when working with chillies, not a bad idea if you have sensitive skin. The plus side of this is that you absolutely need to drink some kind of alcohol with a hot curry, if you want to soothe your mouth and throat. Water just won’t do.

Deseeding Chillies

Halve the chillies lengthways and scrape out the seeds and cores with a knife. These are the hottest parts, although the flesh too is hot (as described above).

Chillies vary in heat, and there seems to be a correlation between size and heat – often the smallest chillies are the hottest!

Topping and Tailing Beans

Most fresh green beans need to be topped and tailed. This means cutting off the tips on both ends. I like to do them individually, as long as there is something interesting to listen to on the radio. When I have a huge pile to work through, I’m inclined to become more wasteful – taking a bunch of beans at a time, lining up the ends and then just slicing them all off in one fell swoop.

Grating Lemons

The zest of all citrus fruit contains aromatic oil, and this adds wonderful flavour to many dishes, along with the juice. Rub the surface of the (washed) fruit to and fro on the fine grid of a flat grater several times to remove the zest without any of the bitter white pith. Move around the fruit, covering different areas, until it is denuded. Only then squeeze the juice!

Recommended Kitchen Utensils

It is impossible to make one definitive list of the essential cooking implements and utensils you will need. Absolute basics are fairly obvious – with nothing but one sharp knife and a frying pan or saucepan, you could turn out a fair number of severely streamlined meals. After that, the list is dictated as much by what you like to cook as anything else.

View your ‘batterie de cuisine’ (cooking equipment) as a long-term collection that you will build up over the years. Sadly, the general rule is that the more you spend, the better the quality, and better quality often makes for easier, more enjoyable cooking. So, no long list but instead a few notes and recommendations on useful kitchen kit, and recommended buys.

Casserole Every home should have one (unless, of course, you loathe stews of any sort). Best bet is a flame- and heatproof casserole that can go both on the hob and in the oven. It should also look good enough to go straight from the oven to the table. It is better to buy a larger casserole dish than a smaller one, allowing plenty of room. After all, most stews improve in flavour if kept for a day or two in the fridge, or can be frozen if necessary, so making a big potful is a pretty sensible thing to do, even if you are just cooking for one or two.

Chopping Boards Hard to do without, so again, buy the best and biggest you can afford. It is far more useful to have one really big wooden chopping board, than several small book-sized ones. Chopping boards should be made of wood (which scientists now consider perfectly hygienic as long as you wash them after use) or plastic.

Food Processor You can manage very well without one, but your kitchen life will become a good deal easier with. Here, as so often, you should probably head for the best you can afford. Choose one with a relatively large capacity, and several different speed settings. Several models have small inner bowls that can be fitted to process small amounts – very useful for making curry pastes and spice rubs, amongst other things.

Frying Pan, Non-stick Another investment item. A really tip-top heavy-based non-stick frying pan does not come cheap, but is worth every penny. Choose one that is fairly large with high sides so that as well as frying, you can also cook a chicken stew and the like in it. Incidentally, modern non-stick surfaces are very tough, so it is usually all right to use metal implements in them.

Graters Don’t get too fancy. An old-fashioned box grater does the job very nicely. I like the modern Microplane graters, too, especially for orange and lemon zest, or Parmesan, or nutmeg.

Kitchen Tongs These do make turning practically anything in a frying pan or under the grill ten times easier and quicker.

Knives Buy the best you can afford (or ask some nice relative with more money than you to make a gift of them). A good knife will last you a lifetime. They’re not cheap, but since you will be using them constantly, knives should be seen as a major investment. You will need, at the very least, one fairly big chef’s knife (around 17.5–20cm/7–8in), one smaller 15cm (6in) knife and a bread knife. A smaller serrated knife (around 10cm/4in) is great for cutting tomatoes.

Knife Sharpener As essential as the knives. A small hand-held knife sharpener is easier.

Liquidiser If I had to choose, I’d say that a liquidiser is more essential than a processor and a darn sight cheaper, too. Liquidisers are important for making soup and smoothies amongst other things. For more on liquidisers, turn to page 17.

Pestle and Mortar Two most important characteristics: firstly, that the mortar needs to be heavy, so that it doesn’t slip and slide around on the table. Secondly, the interior must feel rough. If it is smooth it will make grinding and pounding hard work. Best pestles are rough at the wider end, rather than smooth.

Saucepans You’ll need one small one, one medium-sized one and one large. And no doubt you will add more over the years. When choosing your saucepans, look for solid, heavy bases that will conduct heat evenly.

Sieve I prefer metal, but modern nylon sieves are fine. More important than the material is the mesh size. This should be fairly large. If the mesh is too fine, then it can makes things like sieving a soup a complete nightmare. Never buy a sieve which doesn’t have one or two hooks on the rim opposite the handle, so that you can sit the sieve securely over a bowl or saucepan.

Weighing Scales Digital scales are far more accurate than most dial scales. Buy scales with a flat top, so that you can use any bowl or pan on them, resetting the display to zero before weighing out ingredients.

Cooking Terms

Baking and Roasting both refer to cooking in the oven, and the differences between them are not always clear. Generally, however, roasting is done at a high temperature without covering the food, so that it browns, while baking is undertaken at a slightly lower temperature and the food may sometimes be covered or not.

Frying means to cook something in hot fat, either in a shallow frying pan (sometimes also called pan-frying), or in a deep pan, half filled with oil, which is known as deep-frying.

Grilling means to cook food under a hot grill.

Sautéing is a form of frying. Unlike ordinary frying, which is verging on sedate, sautéing is an energetic business. The word ‘sauter’ is literally the French for ‘to jump’ and that describes the method well. When sautéing the idea is to keep all the pieces of food moving more or less constantly, so that they brown and cook evenly on all sides, and never have a chance to stick on the base of the pan.

Searing and Griddling Searing means cooking food with the minimal amount of fat, on a searingly hot flat surface – probably a heavy-based frying pan. Griddling is similar, but a ridged, heavy griddle pan is used instead.

Simmering means cooking something in simmering water, in other words water that is so hot that a few small bubbles are lazily making their way up to the surface, but not much more than that. The surface of the water will move and tremble gently. In most instances water is first brought up to the boil (i.e. when crowds of bubbles rise ebulliently to the surface), the item that is to be cooked is tipped in, which reduces the temperature of the water below simmering point, and then the whole lot is warmed up again until the water is simmering.

Sweating means cooking over a low heat, with a small amount of fat, the lid clamped on tightly.

Chapter one Soups, Starters and Eggs
Soups

I’m a great believer in soup. Here is a dish that fulfils a multitude of functions, the prime amongst them being that it satisfies the soul. Oh – and the stomach. A big steaming bowlful of soup can really hit the spot. It makes a good first course and it makes the heart of a handsome lunch or supper, eked out with loads of soft-centred, crisp-crusted bread, a big hunk of cheese, and healthy fruit or something more indulgent to follow. Make one big batch and it will feed a crowd, or just feed you on your own quickly and easily over several days.

Types of Soup

Soups divide, fundamentally, into three categories. The first is the puréed soup, with vegetables aplenty boiled up together, then liquidised to silky smoothness (or if you prefer, rustic chunkiness). The second is the bits and bobs, meal-in-a-bowl soup, where a pleasing medley of this and that is simmered in broth, which may or may not be thickened. The third is the incredibly elegant upmarket consommé – a beautiful limpid concoction, intensely flavoured, served in suitably small quantity with maybe a single oyster or whatever floating in its centre. This is restaurant soup, not impossible to make at home by any means, but a good deal of work. If you want a recipe for this type of soup, look elsewhere.

Tips and Techniques

Making soup is all about extracting the maximum flavour from a set of ingredients. Certain techniques, like sweating vegetables and thickening or thinning the soup, are essential to a good result, while others, like stock-making, can be circumnavigated but are worth learning because they have the potential to turn a pedestrian but acceptable soup into a first-rate one. If you want to get the best soup on to your table, read these tips and techniques before you get out the saucepan.

First, a word about the basic structure of a soup. Most soups start off with a group of base ingredients (e.g. onion, garlic, butter or olive oil) that give the soup a background flavour. The main ingredients are what give the soup its predominant flavour – carrots, perhaps, or parsnips, or a medley of vegetables and beans.

Aromatics are the complementary ingredients that scent or spice the soup – usually herbs and spices. The commonest of these is a ‘bouquet garni’ which is a bundle of different herbs, tied together with string so that it can be easily removed before liquidising or serving the soup (see page 20).

All soups need some sort of liquid otherwise they wouldn’t be soups at all! And then last, but not at all least, they need to be seasoned with salt and pepper, or maybe cayenne pepper for a dash of colour and heat combined.

Sweating without Perspiration

Most puréed soups and many meal-in-a-bowl soups start off with a spot of sweating. Not the sort that requires a cold shower, but sweating of the culinary sort. Foodie sweating means cooking vegetables and often herbs with a little fat, over a very low heat, with the lid clamped firmly on the saucepan. Once they are on the stove-top, you barely need to bother with them for a good 10–15 minutes, apart from giving them a quick stir once or twice, but no more. This process develops the full depth of flavour of the vegetables so don’t try to rush it. As long as the heat is low, they’ll produce enough liquid to prevent them sticking or burning.

Thick, Thicker, Thickest

Somewhere among the ingredients will usually be one that serves primarily as a thickener, to give body to the soup. Potatoes are the commonest, but rice, beans or lentils play a similar role. A few more starchy vegetables, e.g. parsnips, need no thickener, as they are quite capable of doing the job themselves.

Liquid Essentials

Obviously soups need some type of liquid to dilute the main ingredients. In certain cases, where there is already a considerable depth of flavour present, water may be quite adequate. Milk can sometimes be used too. The rest of the time you really need a decent stock. This is the backbone of the soup. You can’t taste it specifically, but it is what all the other ingredients rely on for support. An insipid or tasteless stock will produce an indifferent soup. An absolutely tip-top home-made stock will transform the soup into something outstanding.

Stock-cubes and powdered ‘bouillon’ are tolerable stand-bys though not half as good as the real McCoy. Make them up slightly weaker than suggested on the packet so that the factory-brewed overtones are not so evident. You can buy real liquid stocks in supermarkets (sold in small tubs, often stacked alongside the chilled meat) and they come in second best.

By far and away the best option, however, is to make stock yourself. Whenever you have had a roast chicken, say, or find a selection of odds and ends of vegetables hanging around in your veg drawer, knock some stock up, and then freeze it for another day.

Microwave Chicken Stock

This is the ideal list of ingredients, but as long as you have the chicken carcass (most butchers will sell off raw ones cheap, and they do the best job), the onion, the carrot and one or two of the herbs, you can turn out a fine stock. Remember not to add salt to a stock. Why? Just in case you want to boil it down to concentrate the flavour, or add it to other ingredients that are already salty.

1 chicken carcass, raw or cooked

1 onion, peeled and quartered

1 carrot, peeled and quartered

1 leek, quartered

1 celery stalk, quartered

1 bay leaf

2 parsley stalks

1 thyme sprig

8 black peppercorns

1 Break the chicken carcass up roughly. Put all the ingredients into the largest microwaveable bowl you own. Pour over enough boiling water to cover everything.

2 Cover with a tight layer of clingfilm, and then microwave on full power for 25 minutes. Let the whole lot stand for a further 25 minutes, then strain.

Classic Chicken Stock

1 Use the same ingredients on page 15.

2 Pile them into a roomy saucepan, and add enough water to cover generously. Bring up to the boil, then turn the heat down low and simmer very gently – the water should just tremble – for 3 hours, adding more hot water every now and then as the liquid level falls.

3 Once cooked, strain.

Vegetable Stock

The greater the variety of vegetables you add, the better balanced the taste. Avoid potatoes (which make the stock cloudy) and globe artichokes (which make the stock bitter). The sulphurous scent of over-cooked brassicas, such as cabbage, broccoli or Brussels sprouts, is not too pleasant either, so leave them out. This is a good way of using up fresh vegetable trimmings and parings, as long as the vegetables were washed.

1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped

1 leek, roughly chopped

2 celery stalks, sliced

2 bay leaves

1 large thyme sprig

3 parsley sprigs

8 black peppercorns

whatever other vegetables you have to hand (e.g. green beans, runner beans, courgettes)

1 Put all the ingredients into a saucepan and cover with water. Bring up to the boil, and simmer very gently for 30 minutes.

2 Strain and chill or freeze.

need to know

STORING STOCK Stock will keep for two days in the fridge. If you want to keep it for longer than that, pour it into a wide, deep frying pan and boil down until reduced in volume by about two-thirds. Cool, and then pour carefully into ice-cube trays. Freeze, and then store your own home-made frozen stock cubes in an airtight container in the freezer. When you come to use them, melt and dilute with water to taste, to restore your stock to its original state.

Machinery

If you like smooth soups, then you will need to invest in some type of liquidiser. Jug liquidisers are surprisingly cheap and make a far smoother soup than a processor, which is far more expensive anyway. Hand-held wand liquidisers are also a bargain. Although it takes longer to liquidise a saucepanful of soup, you have a greater degree of control, so that if you wish you can vary the texture from rough and chunky to silky smooth.

Before liquidising, let the soup cool a little, so that odd splashes won’t burn you. With a jug liquidiser, always make sure that the lid is firmly clamped on. Don’t over-fill – it is better to liquidise the soup in three or four batches, than to risk it squirting out all over the kitchen.

Even the toughest liquidiser can’t reduce absolutely everything to a smooth cream, so every now and then you will come across a soup that also needs sieving (such as the roast tomato and onion soup on page 24). The trick here is to make sure that you have a sieve with a comparatively loose mesh, i.e. with big enough holes to make sieving bearable. A sieve with a very tight mesh is fine for, say, sifting flour, but a nightmare when it comes to soups and sauces, as you have to work really, really hard for relatively small returns. So, go check your sieves and if necessary invest in a new, wide-meshed one as soon as possible. With that in hand, sieving a soup should be an easy enough matter. Use the largest wooden spoon you own to push the solids through the mesh of the sieve, scraping the puréed matter that clings to the underside off into the rest of the soup fairly frequently.

Alternatively, you could buy a mouli-légumes, or a food mill, which will do a similar job with efficiency.

Thinning Down

Once your soup is liquidised, you can assess the consistency properly. You may like it just as it is, but if you want to thin it down to a lighter consistency, stir in a little water if it needs only minor adjustment, or more stock, or perhaps some milk, if appropriate. Add a little at a time, stir in and then taste. Be careful not to overdo the extra liquid, or you will end up with a soup that tastes of precious little at all.

Dressing Up

An unadorned naked bowl of soup is a fine thing in itself, but there are times when all of us, soup included, benefit from a spot of dressing up. Some garnishes go particularly well with specific soups, whilst others are universally a good thing. Here is a list of some of the best, to be used on their own or in tandem with others

Fresh herbs Shredded basil leaves on any tomato-based soup; coriander leaves on soups with a hint of spice; chopped parsley or chives will give a lift to most soups; tarragon leaves bring a hint of aniseed – use your imagination.

Cream A drizzle or swirl of cream looks classy and enriches soup. It doesn’t matter a great deal whether it is single, whipping or double cream. Lightly whipped cream, seasoned with lime juice or herbs, floats on top of the soup, melting gently in the heat. Soured cream, crème fraîche and yoghurt (especially Greek-style yoghurt) need to be dolloped on gently. Yoghurt has a tendency to sink.

Croûtons The traditional croûton is a small, crisp golden cube of fried bread which adds a welcome contrast in texture to most soups. I find it easier to bake croûtons in the oven: toss cubed bread (crusts removed) with a little oil, turning well, then spread out on a baking sheet and bake at 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5, turning occasionally until golden brown, about 5–10 minutes. Although any decent loaf of bread will do, you can make extra-fancy croûtons with, say, olive bread or sun-dried tomato bread.

Croûtes Croûtes are larger versions of croûtons. Small slices of bread (either quarter large pieces, or use slices of a baguette) can either be toasted, or brushed with olive oil and baked in the oven until crisp (the best method, I think, see the croûtons section above). You could top each one with a smear of pesto (bought or home-made, see page 71), or tapenade (an olive and caper purée that can be bought in small jars from the deli). Or try a small swirl of crème fraîche, or you could pile some grated Gruyère cheese on top. Whatever you do, the idea is then to float it in the soup as it is served.

Cheese Grated or very finely diced cheese is a good garnish for chunky soups, such as the Italian vegetable and bean soup on page 26. Parmesan is wonderfully piquant, but grated mature Cheddar brings oodles of flavour, too. The sweetish, nutty taste of Gruyère is another winner.

Olive oil A drizzle of a really fruity extra virgin olive oil works well in many more Mediterranean soups, bringing a fresh, light richness that invigorates all the other flavours in the soup. For a powerful injection of energy, fry 1 or 2 chopped garlic cloves and a deseeded chopped red chilli in olive oil until the garlic is golden, then spoon over the surface of the soup, still hot and sizzling, just before serving.

Bacon Choose good-quality dry-cured streaky bacon (it crisps up better than back bacon), and cook in rashers until brown and crisp (see page 21).

Diced tomato, cucumber or pepper These add an appealing freshness to a soup, as well as a splash of colour. Deseed tomatoes and peppers, but don’t skin them, before dicing small. I really can’t see the point in deseeding cucumbers, but if you really want to, that’s fine. Diced celery can also work well, but a fair number of people aren’t so keen on it.

Good Vegetable Soup

This is a basic primer recipe for puréed vegetable soup. It’s ideal for using up the odds and ends of vegetables that gather in the bottom of the fridge or in the vegetable rack (as long as they are not too old and mouldering), but you can also use it to make a purer mono-veg soup, such as the curried parsnip soup below.

Serves 4–6

BASE INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons olive or sunflower oil, or 30g (1oz) butter

1 onion, peeled and chopped

1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped

AROMATICS

1 bouquet garni (the classic one below)

and/or 1–2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and chopped

or 1 teaspoon or more curry paste or curry powder or spices, e.g. cumin, fennel seeds, cinnamon, etc.

MAIN INGREDIENTS

1 potato, or other thickener if needed, peeled and cut into chunks

500g (18oz) vegetables, prepared as appropriate (see page 27) and roughly chopped

LIQUID

1–1.5 litres (13/4– 23/4 pints) Vegetable or Chicken Stock (see pages 15–17), or vegetable cooking water, or a mixture of water and milk

SEASONINGS

salt and pepper

1 Heat the oil or butter gently in a large saucepan, then add the base ingredients, the aromatics and the main ingredients. Stir around to coat everything in the fat, then sweat very gently for 10–15 minutes.

2 Add the smaller amount of stock or other liquid, saving the rest for thinning down (if necessary), and season with salt and pepper. Bring up to the boil, then simmer gently for about 20 minutes until all the vegetables are tender.

3 Liquidise in several batches, and return to the pan. Thin down with the reserved stock, water or milk as required, and check the seasoning.

4 Reheat when needed, and eat.

need to know

BOUQUET GARNI This is a bundle of herbs, that gives flavour to stocks, soups and stews. Classically it is a bay leaf, a sprig of parsley and a sprig of thyme tied together with string. Other flavours can be added – leek leaves, alternative herbs or lemon zest.

Potato, Parsley and Garlic Soup

This yummy, comforting soup can be served as a first course, or in larger quantities whenever you are need of a bit of inner warmth. I love it with a touch of cheese and some crisp, salty bacon bits stirred in, but neither is utterly essential. You might just want to scatter over a few chopped chives instead, or spoon on some nuggets of golden-fried chopped garlic and chilli with a drizzle of olive oil.

Serves 4–6

BASE INGREDIENTS

1 onion, peeled and chopped

30g (1oz) butter

AROMATICS

1 bouquet garni (2 strips lemon zest, 1 bay leaf, 1 sprig thyme)

MAIN INGREDIENTS

leaves of 1 bunch parsley, roughly chopped

1kg (21/4lb) potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced

1 whole garlic bulb, separated into cloves, peeled

LIQUID

1.2 litres (2 pints) Vegetable or Chicken Stock (see pages 15–17)

300ml (10fl oz) milk

SEASONINGS

salt and pepper

freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 lemon

DRESSING UP (OPTIONAL)

a handful of grated Gruyère cheese

4–6 rashers streaky bacon, cooked until crisp (see right), and crumbled

1 Follow the basic method opposite, adding the stock only, plus salt, pepper and nutmeg at stage 2. When liquidised, stir in the milk, and add a squeeze or two of lemon juice (this highlights flavours, but shouldn’t be so much that the soup tastes lemony).

2 Reheat, and serve with the cheese and bacon if you wish.

need to know

CRISPY BACON To get bacon appetisingly crisp you will need to start off with a pack of streaky bacon. The higher fat content is what makes it go so irresistibly crunchy and golden. A dry-cure bacon is a better option than cheaper bacon which will probably have been pumped up with water and other additives. The best cooking method, I find, is to lay the bacon on a rack over a roasting tin and cook it in a hot oven, around 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6, for about 20 minutes until it is golden brown. Grilling is the second best option and not so dissimilar – keep the bacon about 10cm (4in) away from the grill and move it around the grill rack every few minutes so that it grills evenly. Either way, let it cool a little before attempting to crumble it.

need to know

HOW BIG IS A BUNCH? ‘A bunch of parsley’ is, I admit, infuriatingly vague. Actually, it’s deliberately vague, and I hope you will consider it empowering in a very small, kitcheny sort of a way. It’s a permission-giver of a term. So, if you quite fancy the idea of loads of parsley giving the soup a definite green tint, then you use a big bunch. For an altogether tamer affair, take it down to posy-ish size. The point, really, is that the exact size is not critical to the success of the soup; it just changes the taste a little…or a lot. Hey – you’re the cook here. It’s up to you how the food turns out. Embrace the responsibility!

Curried Parsnip Soup

When my Mum, the food writer Jane Grigson, came up with this wonderful soup way back in the 1970s, it seemed quite radical. Now, almost everyone has caught up with it, and variations on the theme abound. The original combination of humble parsnips and curry remains one of the best.

Follow the Good Vegetable Soup recipe on page 20, using a ¹/₂ tablespoon curry paste (or a little more if you like things extra spicy) as the aromatic element, and replacing potato and vegetables with 500g (18oz) parsnips, which are starchy enough to thicken the soup without aid. Smaller parsnips should be peeled, then sliced, discarding the top. After peeling, larger parsnips will need to be cut into chunks, then quartered lengthways to reveal the tougher inner core. Cut this bit out and chuck it in the bin. Use what is left for the soup.

This is a soup that takes particularly well to being finished with a little cream swirled into each bowl and a scattering of croûtons.

Carrot and Coriander Soup

This is another modern classic, but one that is often misinterpreted. It is coriander seed that works so magically with carrots, rather than coriander leaf (although this is welcome as a finishing touch).

Follow the recipe for Good Vegetable Soup on page 20, using a tablespoon of whole coriander seeds as the aromatic element, replacing the potato with 1 tablespoon of rice (any white rice: long-grain, pudding or risotto), and using carrots alone, with no other vegetables. Serve the soup with a scattering of fresh coriander leaves on top.

Roast Tomato and Onion Soup

Roasting the vegetables for a soup gives a great depth of flavour, and a hint of something darker and treaclier distilled from the heat-charred edges. It also happens to be a particularly simple way of setting about soup-making. Everything bar the stock is piled into a roasting tin and slid into the oven. You go away for 45 minutes or so, and then all you need do is liquidise the whole lot. And sieve it. Finito.

Serves 4–6

BASE AND MAIN INGREDIENTS

1.5kg (3lb 5oz) reddest tomatoes you can find, cut in half

1kg (21/4 lb) onions, peeled and cut into eighths

6 garlic cloves, unpeeled

3 big thyme sprigs

4 tablespoons olive oil

SEASONINGS

2 teaspoons caster sugar

salt and pepper

LIQUID

900ml (11/2 pints) Vegetable or Chicken Stock (see pages 15–17)

DRESSING UP (optional, but really good)

50ml (2fl oz) whipping cream

a small handful of basil leaves, chopped

1 Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7.

2 Put all the base and main ingredients and the seasonings into a large roasting tin. Use your hands to turn the vegetables so that they all get coated in oil and evenly seasoned. Roast uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring once, until patched with brown and phenomenally soft and tender. If the onions still appear a little firm, give the whole lot another stir and return to the oven for a further 15 minutes. Remove the thyme stalks.

3 Liquidise in batches with big slurps of stock to keep the whole lot moving (in a processor, or with a hand-held wand liquidiser). Sieve the resulting soup back into the pan, with any remaining stock. Stir well, then taste and adjust seasoning.

4 Reheat when needed, or serve chilled on a hot day.

5 The dressing-up basil cream is easy. Put the cream and most of the basil, together with a couple of pinches of salt, in a bowl and whisk together until the cream just holds its shape. Don’t over-do it or you will end up with butter. Not at all the idea. Drop a spoonful of the basil cream into the centre of each bowl of soup and top with a little of the remaining basil before passing around.

Italian Bean and Vegetable Soup

This is a brilliant, filling chunky soup just like the ones mama makes all over Italy.

Serves 6–8

BASE INGREDIENTS

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, peeled and chopped

3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

2 carrots, peeled and diced

AROMATICS

2 sprigs each of thyme and rosemary

4 tablespoons chopped parsley

MAIN INGREDIENTS

200g (7oz) dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight, or 1 x 400g can cooked cannellini beans

450g (1lb) potatoes, peeled and cut into 2 cm (3/4in) cubes

about 300g (10oz) prepared weight of at least 2 of the following: courgettes, winter squash such as butternut, turnips, fennel, celery, leeks (see opposite)

1 x 400g can chopped tomatoes

110g (4oz) peas, fresh or frozen and thawed

LIQUIDS

1.2 litres (2 pints) water

SEASONINGS

salt and pepper

DRESSING UP

freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or Cheddar or Gruyère)

the very best extra virgin olive oil

1 If cooking the beans yourself, drain after soaking. Cover with 1.8 litres (3 pints) fresh water, add half the aromatics, and bring to the boil. Boil hard for 5 minutes, and then simmer until the beans are just cooked and tender, around 40 minutes.

2 Drain the cooked or canned beans. If you have cooked them yourself, save the cooking water.

3 Sauté the base ingredients in a good large, heavy-based pan until soft and lightly browned. Don’t rush this. Allow a good 10–15 minutes and keep on stirring, so that the full sweet, caramelised flavour has time to develop.

4 Add the remaining aromatics and all the remaining main ingredients except for the beans, peas, courgettes or leeks (or whichever vegetables you are using). Pour in the liquid (use the bean cooking water if you have it). Season with salt and pepper and bring up to the boil.

5 Simmer gently until the potatoes are almost cooked (around 15 minutes), then stir in the peas and courgettes and leeks if using, along with the beans. Simmer for a further 4–5 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

6 Serve in big bowls, passing the cheese and olive oil around the table so that everyone can add just the amount they like to their soup.

Italian Vegetable Soup with Pasta

Follow the recipe for Italian Bean and Vegetable Soup opposite, replacing some, all or none of the beans (depending on how much carbohydrate you crave), with a handful or two of small macaroni, or other small pasta shapes. Throw the pasta into the soup when it has been boiling for about 10 minutes, and check that it is cooked al dente (see page 65) before taking the pan off the heat. You may need to add a little extra water (say around 100–150ml/4–5fl oz) to the pan, as the pasta will absorb some of the liquid.

need to know

PREPARING VEGETABLES

COURGETTES: slice thickly and quarter each slice.

WINTER SQUASH (any from pumpkin to butternut squash, to onion squash and so on): cut away the hard rind and scrape out the seeds. Cut the flesh into 2cm (3/4in) cubes.

TURNIPS: if they are young and small there is no need to peel. Older chunkier turnips have older thicker skin, so it’s best to remove it. Cut what remains into 2cm (3/4in) cubes.

FENNEL: trim off the stumps of the stalks, which tend to be stringy. Cut a thin slice from the base, and if the outer layer is damaged and browned, discard that too. Quarter from base to stalk end, then slice each quarter.

CELERY: wash and slice, removing as many strings as possible.

LEEKS: slice off the tougher dark green leaves, and trim off the roots. Make a cut through the centre of the leek, from the leaf end, down its length for around 7.5cm (3in), and then make a second cut, the same length, at right angles to it. Fan this end of the leek out under running water to clean out any trapped particles of earth. Shake off excess water. Now slice the leek into rings about 5mm (1/4in) thick.

Smoked Haddock and Shrimp Chowder

Chowders are big, hearty soups, quick to make and a delight to eat. Essential items are potatoes, carrots, celery, bacon and milk, and from then on you can extemporise. Fish of some sort is usual in a chowder – it was, after all, originally a fisherman’s on-board meal – but not absolutely critical (see below). Smoked haddock gives a particularly fine flavour (buy the undyed, pale honey-tan fish, not the garish yellow), while a handful of shrimps or prawns lifts it above the ordinary.

Serves 4 as a main course, 6 as a starter

BASE INGREDIENTS

1 onion, chopped

30g (1oz) butter

4 rashers back bacon, cut into small strips

AROMATICS

1 bay leaf

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

MAIN INGREDIENTS

2 large carrots, peeled and thickly sliced

2 celery stalks, thickly sliced

1 green pepper, deseeded and cut into postage-stamp squares

2 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut into 1cm (1/2in) cubes

30g (1oz) plain flour

250g (9oz) skinned smoked haddock fillet

110g (4oz) peeled, cooked shrimps or prawns

LIQUIDS

600ml (1 pint) milk

150ml (5fl oz) water

SEASONINGS

salt and pepper

DRESSING UP

a handful of freshly grated Cheddar cheese

1 Fry the onion and bacon gently in the butter in a large saucepan until the onion is translucent and soft.

2 Now add the aromatics, using only half the parsley, and all the vegetable main ingredients. Stir around, then sprinkle over the flour, a little salt (not too much as both the bacon and the haddock may be salty) and plenty of pepper. Stir again for some 30 seconds or so to make sure the flour is more or less evenly distributed.

3 Now add a third of the milk and stir well, before adding the remaining milk, the water, and some more salt and pepper if needed.

4 Bring up to the boil, stirring frequently to prevent catching (i.e. burning) on the base. Turn the heat down low and simmer very gently for around 15–20 minutes until the vegetables are all tender. Stir frequently to prevent catching. If the mixture seems too thick, add a little more milk or water.

5 While the soup simmers, cut the smoked haddock fillet into chunks about 2.5cm (1in) square, discarding any bones you may come across. Stir the haddock and the shrimps or prawns into the chowder and simmer for a further 3–4 minutes until the haddock is just cooked through.

6 Sprinkle with the remaining parsley and plenty of cheese. Make a meal of this one, serving it in deep generous bowlfuls with warm bread.

Starters

This time, you’ve decided, you’re going for the full works. Entertaining proper, with starter, main course and pudding. Any time-challenged cook (and that’s most of us these days) needs a bevy of almost effortless starters up their sleeves for occasions like these. Starters that will look good, taste fabulous, and take the edge off hunger during the wait for the main course. This is where the deli counter, be it at the supermarket or a proper delicatessen shop, comes into its own, able to provide the makings of a superb first course that demands little more effort on your part than a spot of arranging on pretty plates.

It’s worth pointing out, too, that any of these ideas below would also make a nifty light lunch. All you need do to flesh them out is add a couple of salads: maybe a green salad or a tomato salad, and a potato salad (see pages 188–89 and 191).

The one important thing to remember with these simple starters is that they all need to be served at room temperature (except for the grilled goat’s cheese, which obviously needs to be served hot), not straight from the fridge, as cold kills the taste of so many foods. So, lay them out at least half an hour before eating and cover with clingfilm until your guests congregate near the table.

Four Mediterranean Medleys

All around the Mediterranean, people love to start a meal with a selection of little dishes to get the gastric juices flowing. One up from a picnic, this mini-feast can consist of no more than two or three items, or stretch to a sea of bits and bobs to nibble on. The point is that they should all have lively, vivid flavours, so a selection will usually include cured meat or fish, cheese, and pickles of one sort or another. Now that our supermarkets stock so many Mediterranean ingredients, it is incredibly easy to put together the same sort of starter here, and the brilliant thing is that it requires next-to-no effort on the part of the provider.

How Much?

It’s almost impossible to be precise about quantities here, as so much depends on the rest of the meal, the appetites of your guests, and how many different bits and bobs you put on the table. As a rough guide, make sure that there is enough of each item for everyone to get a decent taste. The more different items you have, the less you need of each one. Provide plenty of bread as well, and don’t worry.

Presentation

You have two options here. Option A is to make up individual platefuls of hams and cheeses and whatever for each of your guests. That way no-one is going to squabble over the last slice of Parma ham. And if you are worried that quantities may be a little skimpy, you can pad each plateful out with a small handful of rocket or watercress or other salad leaf, or even just an artful sprig or two of fresh parsley, basil or other herb if you happen to have some to hand.

Option B, which happens to be the one that I prefer, is to lay your collection of delicacies out on serving plates or platters and arrange them in the centre of the table so that everyone can help themselves. This way everyone can take what they like and ignore what they don’t without feeling embarrassed. And it’s wonderful how a bit of passing this or that around can get the conversation flowing, and invoke a cheery atmosphere.

Provençal Hors d’Oeuvre

In the south of France, they do the pick’n’mix starter with much grace. A classic hors d’oeuvre selection may include pâtés and cured hams, or delicious pungent dips and spreads.

Tapenade Buy a jar of this blend of olives, capers and anchovies. Pile it into a pretty little bowl, and finish with a sprig of parsley.

Fromage frais aux fines herbes As a complete contrast, make up your own bowl of creamy pale cheese flecked with green herbs. Buy a pot or two of creamy young goat’s cheese (chèvre frais) and beat in either a little crushed garlic or finely chopped shallot, lots of chopped fresh herbs (parsley, mint, tarragon, chives or whatever you have to hand) and a few spoonfuls of cream or milk if the mixture is still too thick to work as a dip. Then scrape into a bowl and place on the table.

Crudités Serve these with the two dips – in other words, carrot sticks, strips of pepper, celery sticks, pink and white radishes and so on.

French bread The ready-to-bake half baguettes are usually better than the ubiquitous French stick.

French olives These are easy to find. Amongst the best are small, dark, wrinkled Niçoise olives and green picholine olives.

Silvery marinated anchovies Although these may actually have come from Italy or elsewhere, they fit nicely into this southern French ensemble.

Italian Antipasti

For a really special occasion, track down your nearest Italian deli for a classy selection of imports, but the rest of the time, scour the shelves of your local supermarket for some of the following:

Parma ham or San Daniele ham The most famous of Italy’s many cured raw hams (prosciutto crudo), sliced paper thin.

Bresaola Cured beef, thinly sliced and dressed with a squeeze of lemon juice and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Italian salami.

Pecorino A sheep’s milk cheese, which may be either hard or soft.

Provolone A softer cow’s milk cheese which may be young and mild (dolce) or more mature and punchy (piccante).

Buffalo mozzarella Mozzarella di bufala is the real thing, softer and milkier than cow’s milk mozzarella. It comes in packets in its own brine. Serve it drained, torn into pieces and dressed with lemon or balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper and a little chopped parsley, mint, or even fresh tarragon. You could also add some sliced halved cherry tomatoes for contrast, or ‘bocconcini di mozzarella’, walnut-sized mini-mozzarellas, served whole and dressed as above.

Olives Choose whichever type you like best as long as they are not those ghastly stoned black olives that taste of soap.

Sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil.

Canned marinated grilled peppers.

Marinated baby artichokes These come in glass jars. Serve them sliced in halves or quarters.

Ciabatta bread Many supermarkets now sell ‘ready-to-bake ciabatta’ which comes out of the oven crisp and golden outside, soft and slightly chewy inside, with the most tantalising smell. Warm ciabatta always seems to disappear with remarkable speed, so buy a loaf or two more than you think you will need.

Spanish Chaciñas Plate

Over recent years we have been introduced to more and more of the excellent cured pork products and cheeses of Spain, via a handful of delicatessens and now the supermarkets. These are usually referred to as ‘chaciñas’, which translates more or less as ‘cold cuts’, but taste a good deal more exciting than that sounds. To make up a Spanish chaciñas plate, take your pick from:

Jamón serrano The Spanish equivalent to Parma ham, cured high in the hills.

Chorizo A spicy salami, with a reddish hue from generous seasoning of paprika. It can either be ‘dulce’ or mild, or ‘piccante’ or chilli-hot.

Manchego cheese Spain’s most renowned cheese with a gorgeous flavour, which can either be mild or mature and is often served with ‘marmelada’ or quince paste.

Caper berries The fruit of the caper plant that grows wild around the rocky shores of the Mediterranean. Capers are the buds, but the berries or seed-pods are like tiny maracas that have been pickled in vinegar – delicious.

Olives Spain specialises in huge ‘gordo’ green olives which are sometimes sold here, but any juicy, plump-looking olive, black or green, will look good on the plate.

Canned ‘pequillo’ peppers Something of a speciality in Spain, you can sometimes find them on supermarket shelves here. Look out too for the small green padron peppers which are just beginning to hit the shops in this country.

Bread Spanish bread hasn’t made much of a mark here, so choose any handsome-looking loaf of bread to accompany your chaciñas. A sourdough pain de campagne or sturdy rye bread, warmed through in the oven, would be a good choice.

Greek/Middle Eastern Mezze

From Greece and the Middle East come some of the best ready-made starters and snacks – from hummus and taramasalata to pitta bread and now the floppier, larger Arab bread. Put them all together and you can create a magnificent ‘mezze’, a pick’n’mix of a first course.

Hummus This is the obvious starting place for any Greek-inspired ‘mezze’ and a pot of two of bought hummus can easily be dolled up to look glamorous. First of all, add a little crushed garlic if you wish to liven up the flavour, then scrape it into a small bowl, and dust the top lightly with paprika or cayenne pepper, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. A small sprig of parsley in the centre adds a final splash of colour. If you have the time, you could also sprinkle over or stir into the hummus a handful of pine nuts, that have been dry-fried until golden brown for a sophisticated finish.

Taramasalata This has to be next on the list, but try to find some that has not been dyed a virulent bright pink. Natural taramasalata is a softer, honeyed colour. Again, scrape into a bowl and sprinkle over a little cayenne pepper and some chopped parsley.

Crudités Provide a selection of raw vegetables to dip into the hummus and taramasalata – carrot sticks, strips of pepper, celery sticks and so on, as well as plenty of warm pitta bread.

Gigantes beans in tomato sauce If you haven’t tasted these before, this is the moment to try them out. Usually sold in glass jars, they are similar to butter beans, bathed in a well-flavoured tomato, dill and olive oil sauce.

Canned dolmades Little parcels of flavoured rice wrapped in vine leaves, these are surprisingly good and just need to be transferred to a plate.

Purple black Kalamata olives are fat and juicy with taut skins and tip-tilted pointy ends.

Pickled green chillies These are a hot favourite in Greece, in both senses of the word – find them in jars, somewhere near the olives.

Some Classic Quick Starters

Here is a handful of quick and easy starters that never fail to please. Original? Well, maybe not, but the reason they’ve been enjoyed for so many decades is that they work so well, and cause so little angst to the cook!

Tuna and Bean Salad

This is a great (mainly) storecupboard stand-by that I often serve as a first course, or as part of a salad-based meal. It takes 10 minutes max to put together, and needs no more than some great, chunky bread as an accompaniment.

For four people you will need 1 x 400g can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed, and a 198g can of tuna (the stuff in oil tastes nicer, but is higher in calories), drained and flaked. Mix them together with 1 small garlic clove, crushed, 1 shallot that has been finely chopped (or you could use ¹/₂ small red onion), and about ¹/₂ tablespoon chopped fresh marjoram or 1 level teaspoon dried oregano. Whisk together 1¹/₂ tablespoons lemon juice, 3–4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, and stir into the tuna mixture. Make a bed of rocket on a serving plate, and pile the tuna and bean salad on to it. Serve at room temperature.

Bruschetta

At its most elemental, bruschetta (pronounced ‘broos-ket-ah’) is no more than a slice of griddled or char-grilled bread, rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil. This most straightforward form of bruschetta is an ideal accompaniment to antipasti (see above). For a stand-alone bruschetta that is interesting enough to make a first course in its own right, the basic bruschetta is surmounted with any one of hundreds of toppings. A serving of three pieces of bruschetta, each with its own individual character, makes a substantial starter, although you should remember when planning the meal that the bruschette (that’s the proper Italian plural) will need to be made no earlier than half an hour before guests arrive. Even better, they should be griddled and made up at the very last minute so that the bread is still warm, but that may prove just too tricky in terms of timing.

The key to success with bruschette is to source good-quality sturdy bread; if in doubt buy a loaf of pain de campagne or a sourdough loaf. Slice thickly and cut huge slices in half, or even into thirds. Then toast under the grill, or better still griddle to achieve the all-important slightly smoky flavour with a hint of charring (but no more than a hint, please!). It could also be done on the barbecue, but it seems a little excessive to get it going just for a few slices of bread! The toaster is completely out of bounds.

To griddle the bread, you will need to have a ridged griddle pan. Place over a high heat and leave to get really, really hot – allow some 5 minutes for this. Cram as many slices of bread on to it as possible, and turn once the underneath is striped with dark brown. Griddle the other side in the same way.

While the bread is toasting cut a couple of cloves of garlic in half. Rub the garlic lightly over one side of each piece of grilled bread, then drizzle a scant ¹/₂ teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil over each piece.

With the toppings, you can really let your imagination go, but to kick-start you, here are three straightforward ideas.

1 Halve several well-flavoured tomatoes (you can use cherry tomatoes if necessary), and rub them over the bread, pressing down firmly so that the juices and some of the flesh are smeared over the surface. Top with slices of jamón serrano, or Parma or San Daniele ham.

2 Instead of drizzling with olive oil, spread each slice with pesto, then top with sliced buffalo mozzarella, a piece of sun-dried tomato and a sprig of basil.

3 Top with rocket, drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar, and finish with shavings of Parmesan. To shave Parmesan, take a vegetable peeler and pull it across the surface of the block of Parmesan to create thin shavings of cheese (see left).

Melon or Figs with Parma Ham

This is one of summer and autumn’s most perfect combinations. The key is learning to choose ripe fragrant fruit. In midsummer it is the melon you should go for, whilst in the autumn the fig reigns supreme. Although you may occasionally find a magnificent melon in midwinter, it is rare, so ignore temptation in the colder months.

For this you are looking for an orange-fleshed melon, in other words a cantaloupe or charentais melon. The paler, white/green-fleshed varieties have a duller taste – not to be sneezed at, but less of a success with salty Parma ham. Use your nose. A ripe melon will smell fragrant and sweet. Press the stalk end gently: if it gives slightly then you are probably on to a winner, but double-check that there are no soft squidgy patches indicating over-ripeness or a mouldy taint. One large melon will be enough for four people.

Ripe figs are tender and fairly soft. Pick them out carefully, avoiding any that are showing patches of brown. Handle them reverently, and place them side by side in a paper bag, settling the bag on top of the rest of your purchases as ripe figs are easily squashed. One or two figs per person is fine.

To serve the melon, cut into eight wedges. Scrape out the seeds and discard. Arrange the slices on individual plates and drape two or three thin slices of Parma ham (or jamón serrano) over each serving.

With the figs, nip the hard stalk tip off each one, then quarter, cutting down towards the base, but stopping just short of it, so that the quarters stay together. Splay them out slightly like the petals of a flower. Place on individual plates, and arrange two or three thin slices of Parma ham (or jamón serrano) alongside them on each plate.

Grilled Goat’s Cheese Salad

Now something of a bistro classic, this is still a great way to start a meal, but does require a brief spell of last-minute work in the kitchen. Keep this to a minimum by preparing everything in advance, so that it’s all ready to go. Choose small drum-shaped goat’s cheeses for this – the sort with a soft, white rind.

For each person you will need a handful of mixed salad leaves (I favour a mix of rocket and spinach, but the choice is entirely yours), about ¹/₂ tablespoon of a good vinaigrette (see page 189), a ¹/₂ goat’s cheese, a small sprig of rosemary or parsley, a trace of oil (olive or sunflower) and some good (walnut) bread.

Preheat the grill thoroughly and line the grill rack with foil. Arrange the ¹/₂ cheese cut-side up on the foil. Brush the cut side with a little oil, then slide under the grill until browned. Meanwhile, toss the salad with the vinaigrette and divide between plates. Top each salad with a sizzling, browned ¹/₂ goat’s cheese and finish with a sprig of herb. Serve immediately with toast.

Guacamole

Quick and easy to prepare, guacamole makes a brilliant starter served with warmed pitta bread or tortilla crisps. Alternatively, use it as a sort of relish to serve with grilled fish or meat, or roll up with chicken and peppers in a ‘fajita’ (see page 108).

If you use the smaller Hass avocados you will need three, but with larger avocados two will suffice. The avocados must be ripe and buttery for guacamole.

Serves 4 as a starter

2 tomatoes

1–2 fresh red chillies

a handful of coriander leaves

2–3 ripe avocados

1/2 red onion, peeled and finely diced

juice of 1 lime

salt and pepper

1 Deseed and finely dice the tomatoes. Deseed (depending on strength) and finely chop the chillies. Chop the coriander. Skin the avocados, and remove the stones.

2 Working quickly, roughly mash the avocado flesh with a fork in a bowl, then mix in all the remaining ingredients. Taste and adjust flavouring, adding more lime if needed. Cover the surface with clingfilm to exclude as much air as possible, thus diminishing the inevitable browning of the avocado. Chill.

3 Bring back to room temperature before serving, then stir and scoop into a clean serving bowl.

Eggs

A decent meal is never far away if you have a stash of eggs in your kitchen. And if you think egg dishes are boring, you’d better revise your thinking right now. An omelette, for example, is an extraordinary vehicle for any number of other ingredients from the minimalism of a grating of Cheddar to the Mediterranean delights of a frittata. The humble fried egg is given a new lease of life with a spot of chilli and garlic, while scrambled eggs take to the fresh zing of citrus juice with consummate ease. One of the best of all egg and cheese combinations, needing just a little butter and flour for substance, is the wicked French gougère, a gorgeously indulgent, gooey cheese pastry that I often knock up for supper or a light lunch. The great thing about all of these simple dishes is that you can tailor them to your own requirements – once you get the basic principles sorted, the imagination can take over (even if it is only to the extent of using up the odds and ends left in the back of the fridge).

Buying Eggs

Eggs are no longer just mere eggs. Oh no. Nowadays there is a bewildering series of choices to be made when buying eggs: four-grain, barn-fresh, perchery, free-range, organic, Colombian this, and something else that. In fact, buying eggs is not half as confusing as it may first seem when you are facing the high-stacked egg shelves. Ultimately there are really only three critical choices to make: size, the well-being of the laying birds, and freshness.

Size

Eggs are sorted into size bands according to weight: extra large (more than 73g), large (63–73g), medium (53–63g) and small (less than 53g). All the eggs used in testing recipes for this book were large, so if you want to be sure of getting a good result with my recipes, these are the ones to go for. When you are using other cookbooks, particularly if you are baking cakes, it is worth checking the beginning of the book, where there should be a short section telling you what size eggs are to be used, as well as other useful basic cook’s information.

Happy Chooks

By the year 2012, the very worst space-depriving cages for egg-laying chickens will have been banned in the EU. About time too, for they are grim and deeply objectionable. Hard to believe that a nation of so-called ‘animal-lovers’ could have let them exist for so long. Meanwhile, unless you really don’t care one iota about animal welfare, pay the few extra pence to buy free-range eggs. The law guarantees that the chickens that lay these eggs at least have continuous daytime access to outdoor runs. In other words, they can peck around and stretch their wings, even if they don’t live in quite the idyllic circumstances one might imagine. Organic eggs are by definition free-range.

Freshness

Crack open a perfectly fresh egg on to a saucer and the yolk stands proud above the white, which clings thickly around it. In an older egg the yolk is flatter and flabbier, while the white is more liquid and spreads in a dilute fashion around the saucer. Luckily you don’t have to crack open each egg to ascertain its age. Look on the box instead, where you will find a ‘best before date’. The eggs were laid 21 days, in other words three weeks, before this date.

For some cooking methods (poaching in particular) ultra-freshness is critical, whilst for others (e.g. boiling) a small scrap of maturity is a positive boon.

Salmonella

The doom-laden spirit of salmonella contamination still lingers on in many people’s minds. The truth is that these days the chances of developing salmonella poisoning from semi-cooked or raw eggs is verging on negligible. That time-honoured hazard of falling under a bus is far, far more likely to happen to you than a spot of salmonella sickness.

All eggs that are stamped with the ‘lion’ symbol (which represents the Lion Quality Mark) come from flocks of chickens that have been vaccinated against salmonella, and are regularly checked to make doubly sure they are clean. If you are buying wonderful extra-free-range eggs from a local farmer, then the likelihood is that his or her flock has also been vaccinated, but if in any doubt, just ask.

Salmonella bacteria are killed by high temperatures, so eggs that are hard-boiled or cooked thoroughly in, say, a cake batter cannot possibly cause any harm. Many of the most delicious ways of cooking eggs, however, demand that they are semi-cooked, with the yolk still runny and this is where, in the very, very unlikely event that they are infected, the problem lies. For most healthy people, the worst that could happen is a nasty bout of stomach upset and diarrhoea, but it is not worth risking even this extraordinarily unlikely event with anyone susceptible to illness. In other words, the elderly, invalids, pregnant women and very young children should all steer clear of semi-cooked or raw eggs. End of scare stories.

The Importance of Colour

None. The colour of the eggshell is totally irrelevant and tells you nothing about the inside or the way it was produced. Even more surprisingly, the colour of the yolk isn’t much to go on, either. A deep, rich, almost orange hue might suggest a grain-rich diet for its mother hen, but it may just as well indicate the inclusion of dyestuffs in the feed. Appearances can be deceptive.

Storage

In an ideal world, you would keep your eggs in a cool larder, temperature around 15°C or less. Oh? You don’t have a cool larder where you live? How very awkward of you! You’ll just have to keep your eggs where most people store them: in the fridge. It’s the second best option and it’s done me fine for the past twenty something years, so I don’t think there’s any need for concern. Try to remember to get them out of the cold and into the warmth of the kitchen 15 minutes or so before cooking, particularly if you are boiling or poaching them – again, counsel of perfection, but easier to achieve than the cool larder.

Separating Eggs

Separating the yolk and white of an egg is essentially an easy process, but it may nonetheless take two or three attempts to get it right. So make sure that you have a couple of eggs in reserve, just in case. Fresher eggs (up to a week old) are easier to separate than older ones.

Before you start, gather together a large bowl to hold the whites (assuming you intend to whisk them after separating), and two smaller bowls. The first of the smaller bowls is for the yolks. The second is for the white of the egg that you are in the midst of separating, before you tip it into the larger bowl. Why do you need this extra bowl? Insurance. Just one small drop of fat in amongst the whites will be enough to prevent them whisking up properly. Yolks are very fatty. There is nothing more dismaying than successfully separating four eggs, and then breaking the yolk of the fifth so that it contaminates the whole lot. An infuriating waste of eggs and time. For the same reason, you should always make sure that both of the bowls for the whites are scrupulously clean before you begin, with no trace of grease.

1 Hold the egg comfortably in your hand, pointed end towards your thumb, rounded end towards your little finger (or vice versa), fingers wrapped around.

2 Tap the exposed side firmly against the edge of a bowl, cracking the shell. The skill here is to use enough force to crack the shell without actually smashing the whole egg. A bowl with a narrow edge is better than one with a thick rim.

3 Turn the egg cracked side upwards and ease the tips of both thumbs into the crack, pulling the two halves of the shell apart, over the bowl, so that the yolk settles neatly into one side, while some of the white falls out of the other into the bowl.

4 Gently tip the yolk from one half of the shell into the other, allowing the white to dribble out into the bowl. Two or three goes at this should be quite enough. Slide the yolk into a small bowl.

Whisking Egg Whites

Whisked egg whites are used to lighten cakes, mousses, soufflé omelettes and other dishes. The whisking process traps small bubbles of air within the egg whites to make a foam. The more you whisk, the thicker and firmer the foam. For cooking you need to whisk egg whites either to soft peak or firm peak stage (see overleaf). But it is possible to go too far. Over-whisked eggs turn lumpy and it is impossible to incorporate them evenly into a batter. Nor will they give nearly so much lift.

When properly whisked whites are cooked, the air bubbles expand in the heat, lifting the mixture, at the same time as the egg white sets to hold the bubbles in place. Uncooked whisked egg whites are distinctly unstable, so must be used as soon as they have been whisked. If left standing around, they will collapse and liquefy and cannot be re-whisked successfully.

It is possible to whisk egg whites with a fork if all else fails, but it is extremely hard work. A balloon whisk is more efficient, but still tiring on the arms. An electric hand-held whisk is a brilliant luxury that makes quick work of whisking egg whites to the lightest foam.

Make absolutely sure that both bowls and whisk (or fork!) are completely grease-free before you separate eggs and start whisking the whites. It takes no more than a smear of grease to prevent egg whites whisking successfully.

How to whisk egg whites with a balloon whisk or a fork

1 Hold the bowl containing the egg whites firmly with one hand, tilting it slightly towards the other hand.

2 Move the whisk in a continuous circular movement, using your wrist rather than the whole arm, taking the whisk down through the whites then up and around and back down into them again.

3 Keep going and have faith. Eventually (assuming they haven’t been contaminated with fatty yolk or grease), the whites will bulk up in volume, transformed into a fluffy cloud of whiteness.

4 For the vast majority of recipes, you will need to whisk the whites either to ‘soft peak’ or ‘firm peak’ stage. To test, pull the whisk slowly out of the whites. If the whites just slump back down into the bowl, you’ve not reached either stage yet. If they form a peak, the tip of which flops over as the whisk is withdrawn, then they have reached soft peak stage. If the tip of the peak remains pointing straight up at the ceiling, they have reached ‘firm peak’. Whisk no more!

Folding in

When it comes to blending whisked egg whites (or whipped cream) into another mixture, you must do your very best to keep as much air as possible trapped in the whites, whilst at the same time mixing evenly. You wouldn’t want to waste all that effort, now would you? This demands a special technique, called folding in.

First of all, search out a large metal spoon. Wooden spoons have thick edges, which break lots of bubbles releasing more air, whereas the thin edge of a metal spoon keeps damage to a minimum. Take a spoonful of the whites and just stir them straight into the other mixture (which should, incidentally, be no more than lukewarm). This loosens it up a little, making it easier to fold in the remaining whites. Now tip the rest of the whites on top. Slide the spoon, edge first, down into the whites and underlying mixture, right to the bottom, then curl it back up in one continuous movement, scooping up some of the contents of the bowl. As the spoon emerges tip what it brings up with it back over into the bowl. Keep going, turning the bowl every now and then, until the whites are evenly mixed in, with no lingering traces of white. Work swiftly and with confidence.

Primary Cooking Methods
Boiling

First of all, get your eggs out of the fridge at least 15 minutes before cooking if at all possible. This reduces the likelihood of shell-cracking in the heat of the saucepan. Pour enough water to submerge the eggs, into a pan that is just large enough to hold the eggs in a single layer (an over-large pan encourages the eggs to ricochet off the sides and each other, which is another reason they may crack). Bring the water up to the boil, then lower the eggs on a spoon into the water, one by one. Reduce the heat so that the water is simmering rather than bubbling violently. Set your timer to 5 minutes for soft-boiled eggs with a runny yolk and just set white, or 8 minutes for just hard-boiled eggs (firm white, creamy set yolk), 10 minutes for fully hard-boiled eggs.

Presumably you will be eating your soft-boiled egg while still hot from the water, so dish up immediately. If a hard-boiled egg is for a salad, or other cold dish, plunge it straight into cold water as soon as it is cooked, to prevent the formation of a discoloured green-black ring around the yolk. Not an attractive sight.

To shell a hard-boiled egg, tap the egg against the work surface, turning to break the shell all over. Pull off the shell, along with the thin membrane that lies underneath (easier to do with fresher eggs).

Frying

There are many ways to fry an egg, but I shall attempt to keep things simple by offering just two of them: firstly the more traditional method, using butter; secondly a more vigorous method, using oil. If you have an excellent non-stick frying pan, you can also cook your eggs with virtually no fat at all (use the first method without the butter), though whether this technically counts as frying is debatable. Fresh eggs (up to a week) produce neater fried eggs than older ones.

Smooth and buttery method Melt a good knob of butter in your frying pan over a moderate heat. When it is foaming, swiftly break your egg(s) into the pan – the older they are the more room you will have to allow for spreading whites. Spoon some of the hot butter over the whites of the egg. Turn the heat down a little and then cover the pan with a lid or a large plate. Cook for about 2 minutes. Lift the lid and inspect the whites of the eggs. If they are still translucent and runny around the yolk, spoon over more hot butter, then replace the lid and leave for another 1–2 minutes by which time they should be done. Once the white has set to a glassy white opacity right up to the edge of the yolk, they are ready. Lift out of the pan with a fish slice and eat right away.

Crisp and bubbly method I love fried eggs with a crisp browned edge to contrast with the smoothness of the rest of the whites, and the richness of a runny yolk, and to achieve this you need heat. Butter burns too quickly, so oil is the preferred frying medium. Spoon 1–2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, or sunflower or vegetable oil into your frying pan, and heat over a fairly high heat. Break the egg(s) carefully into the oil, which should be hot enough to sizzle and spit a little. Spoon the oil over the whites to help them set. Once the eggs have browned a little at the edges, reduce the heat to moderate and continue cooking until the whites are cooked through to the yolk, occasionally spooning the fat over the whites. Lift out of the pan with a fish slice and tuck in.

Scrambling

The very best, creamiest scrambled eggs are those cooked slowly and lovingly in a bowl set over a pan of simmering hot water – try it one day when you have plenty of time (it can take 20 minutes or more of fairly constant attention). Meanwhile, stick with this quicker, not-quite-so-ideal method, which is better suited to the normal pace of life. Remember that scrambled eggs should never, ever be cooked in advance and kept warm. That way you end up with ghastly over-cooked, rubbery, institutionalised scrambled eggs instead of the luxuriously creamy, tender confection that properly scrambled eggs should be.

Break two eggs per person (or three if ravenous) into a bowl and whisk together. Season well with salt and pepper but do not add milk or water. Place a small saucepan or frying pan over a low heat and add a good knob of butter. Let it melt, then pour in the egg. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon or spatula, scraping the base and sides of the pan as the egg sets on them. Keep going until the saucepan contains a creamy, thick primrose-yellow scramble of eggs. Whip off the heat swiftly, scrape the scrambled egg straight on to plates or toast and dish up.

Smart scrambled eggs Sunday brunch or breakfast with someone special is the time to dress up your scrambled eggs in full finery. Something as simple as stirring chopped fresh herbs into them as soon as they are cooked brings a touch of glamour – try chopped chives, tarragon or coriander. More fancy is the addition of strips of smoked salmon and some chopped chives, or sautéed sliced mushrooms, cooked alongside in a frying pan. I also love diced deseeded tomato or sun-blush tomato and roughly torn-up basil, again stirred in just as the scrambled egg reaches the perfect creamy consistency.

Poaching

Beautifully poached eggs are things of great purity. Some people love them on toast for breakfast, though I happen to prefer them at lunch or supper perched on top of a nice piece of grilled smoked haddock with a mound of spinach, or on pasta tossed with (ready-made) red pesto and rocket leaves, or on a warm spinach and bacon salad. There is something so very inviting about their wibbly-wobbly exterior, just begging to be breached, allowing the yolk to flow out in a flood of molten gold.

As I have discovered the hard way, over a number of years, it is only worth trying to poach eggs that are extremely fresh – up to four days, or at a pinch a week. In this state the thick white clings closely to the yolk, swaddling it in a protective layer. This is exactly what you want when poaching an egg. After a week or so, the white thins and no longer holds fast to the yolk. Result – when slid into hot water, the white floats off in disintegrating ribbons and your poached egg is a barely salvageable disaster. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

How to poach an egg

1 Take a non-stick, high-sided frying pan, or a wide shallow saucepan. Fill it to a depth of at least 2.5cm (1in) with cold water and season with salt. Bring up to a boil, then reduce the heat so that the surface of the water trembles provocatively, with only the occasional burp of a bubble.

2 Break the first egg gently into a teacup or small ramekin or glass. Swirl a small whisk round and round in the trembling hot water to form a vortex. Remove the spoon and swiftly tip the egg into the centre of the vortex. As the water settles back down, use the bowl of a spoon to nudge any straying white back on to the yolk. Cook for approximately 3 minutes.

3 Cook no more than two or three eggs in the pan at any one time. Once the white has set, lift the poached egg out carefully, with a draining spoon if you have one (allowing water to drain back into the pan). Set it down on a plate lined with a double layer of kitchen towel to mop up dampness, then serve.

Fried Eggs with Coriander, Cumin and Balsamic Vinegar

These are fried eggs with attitude – jumping and sizzling with flavour. The recipe is based on the brilliant breakfast I tasted down at the wholesale vegetable market in Bogota in Colombia, many years ago. There’s something about chilli and garlic and runny egg yolk first thing in the morning that is decadent and exotic and kicking. A great way to start the day.

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