Rabbit and Rosemary Ragu

 

We sanded the boom today. Not quite the whole 100 foot of it mind.  Due to the reduced crew numbers there were only three of us at it with the sandpaper, the captain down below at his desk.  It was a good day for it with a soft, steady autumn sun that encouraged the t-shirt out from under its cardy for a few hours, whistling away as we worked to a little music accompanied by the swish-swishing of sand paper on wood.

By God it was dull. Really, after a few hours of that you really do not need to do any more. I am saved from absolute insanity by my fortunate job description as chef in these circumstances and lunch must be cooked. Pity it realistically takes a mere 40 minutes to make lunch for 4 people. However it does offer enough variation to my day to keep me ploughing on through the afternoon. Swish-swishing away.

So cheering up and finding my mojo for the Rabbit part of this two-part blog, I have the recipe I promised. Will wants to cook this for his Mum and Dad so I’d best get it in.

This makes a very tasty, rich rabbit sauce to go with pasta (preferably the chestnut pasta in yesterdays blog. Though it is simple to make and full of autumnal flavours. The ingredients and method are undemanding and if you are making the pasta yourself then the easiness of the sauce frees you up to get on with that, or indeed any other lazy Sunday-type activities like lying on the sofa in front of the fire.

Rabbits can easily be bought whole in French supermarkets and I had this one in the freezer. I thought I might spare you any pictures but the thing is, this is cooking and it is healthy to know where your food is coming from. So there it is; a rabbit. As I said yesterday, they are very popular in France and should be, they taste fantastic. The reason you want a whole one is because (brace, brace) it is preferable that you make the stock with its head. Do not panic. You can use chicken stock if you must. It just won’t be the same and you’ll know you're being a sissy.

If you have any doubt that this is great recipe then take a look at the end results after I cooked this last Sunday.

Mmm, a fire, a bottle of red and a rich rabbit and rosemary sauce with chestnut pasta on a lazy Sunday night… Need I say more?

For 4 people you will need;

1 whole rabbit, jointed and head set aside for the stock

1 onion roughly chopped

6-8 cloves of garlic left whole in their skins

2 sticks of celery roughly chopped

2 tbsp of roughly chopped fresh rosemary, lightly bashed with pestle and mortar

1 tbsp dried thyme or a couple of large sprigs of fresh

2 bayleaves

Good guzzle of olive oil

1 glass of white wine (and one for you)

For the stock;

1 rabbit head

1 carrot finely chopped

1 celery stalk finely chopped

1 onion finely chopped

1 clove of garlic sliced

Sprig of rosemary

Sprig of dried thyme

1 bay leaf

6 peppercorns

For the sauce base;

2 small onions finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp fresh rosemary finely chopped

1 tbsp fresh sage finely chopped

1 tbsp fresh parsley finely chopped

Method;

• Heat the oven to 200ºc, gas mark 6. Joint the rabbit roughly into largish pieces, setting the head aside (stay with me). Sear the rabbit pieces in a hot pan in some sunflower oil and put into a good and sturdy casserole dish. Roughly chop an onion and having given the garlic cloves a small and light thwack with the back of a knife, bung those in too. Add the herbs, bay leaves and the glass of white wine. Give it all a good drizzle with some olive oil and a seasoning of salt and pepper, cover and put into the oven. Turn the heat down immediately to 140ºc, gas mark 3. Roast gently for around an hour to two. No stress here.

• When the rabbit is done use two forks to shred the meat off of the bones, it should come off with no hassle at all. Nice and easy. Squeeze the roasted garlic from the skins and set aside with the all the lovely rabbity juices in the roasting pan. You will need this for the final sauce.

•  Now, fill a largish pan with 2.5 pints, 1.5 litres of water and pop your little rabbits head in along with all the other stock ingredients. Bring to a gentle boil, turn down the heat and let it simmer very, very gently for an hour or so. When its time is up, strain all the stock through a sieve into another pan and bring to a rolling boil to reduce by half. This will take about 15-20 minutes of boiling and will smell divine. Once the stock has reduced and all those lovely flavours intensified, set aside for the grand finale.

• In a large non-stick frying pan, sauté the finely chopped onion in some sunflower oil and a tsp of sugar. Turn the heat to low and let it really soften and begin to colour, about 10-12 minutes. Add the cider vinegar, garlic and season with salt.

• Let this cook for another 5 minutes then turn up the heat and add a ladleful of the rabbit juices from the roasting pan letting it bubble and reduce to a few tbsp’s. Carry on adding ladlefuls of the roasting juices, letting it reduce a little each time. Once all the roasting juices have been used pour all the stock in and let it bubble and thicken for a few minutes.

• Turn the heat down and add the shredded rabbit and saved roasted garlic and cook gently for a few minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning as you wish. Just before it is ready to serve add the freshly chopped rosemary, sage and parsley.

• Serve with tagliatelle or papperdelle and some crunchy sweet mange tout, some worthy red wine and curl up in front of the fire like we did.

Heavenly.

The top mast is being pulled out tomorrow by a crane which will be pretty exciting and brings a small reprieve from sanding the boom. However in preparation for the next bout of sanding I will come prepared with a couple of great playlists on the old ipod. Best start that now, could take some time.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers!

Sea Shots and Spag Bol

There’s nothing quite like a really good spaghetti bolognaise on a Saturday night. My Mum used to make it for us when she and my Dad were going out for the evening. My Mum’s ‘Spag Bol’ is the best in the world and my little tummy (those were the days) would rumble in anticipation whilst it slowly simmered away in the pot, the deep aromas wafting through the house. And to top it off (after the parmesan) when my parents went out on a Saturday night, we were even allowed to eat our supper on our laps in front of the telly. My Mum’s spaghetti bolognaise on our laps in front of ‘Blind Date’ on a Saturday night was about as good as it could get.

Ah, those were the days. I’ve absolutely no idea what UK Saturday night telly is like anymore. I’d take a wild guess that good old Cilla has probably retired from match-making.

On the boat the crew tend to watch movies on lap-tops on our own bunks with ear phones plugged in if we have a Saturday night such as this; anchored off just outside Cogolin near St Tropez. It’s not quite the same and fairly anti-social but at least it prevents mindless ‘channel flicking’ and there’s no interruption from the ten o’clock news to boot.

And tonight there is a pot of bolognaise on the stove, the smell wafting through the boat. It’s not the same as my Mums but its still pretty good if I do say so myself. I’m pretty excited about it. And I’ve had plenty of time to get excited about it because it’s been sitting there behaving itself for the last two hours on the ‘Force ten’ on the smallest of simmering flames. If you have read any of my earlier blogs you’ll be very familiar with my penchant for long slow cooked Italian dishes and how I feel that their improvement from a good dish to a great dish can be the difference between an hour or 3.

And Bolognaise leads the pack. As it slowly reduces and intensifies in flavour it becomes a deep, deliciously moorish, special rich meal fit for kings. Or sailors, or for laps on a Saturday night in front of the telly but by heck you deserve the best so make your bolognaise in the afternoon and let it slowly work its magic, filling your kitchen with the best of homely smells and eat it 3 hours later when you can wait no longer. A large glass of Italian red and some very good parmesan, a little rocket salad and you’ll see what I mean.

This is the best recipe for bolognaise that I have ever tried. I’d love to hear your recipes and ideas too. I’m sure I remember once eating a rich and delicious bolognaise when I was younger that had capers in it…

For the best bolognaise for 6 you will need;

2 medium brown onions, finely chopped

4-8 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 sticks of celery, finely chopped

2 medium carrots, grated (Sometimes I use butternut squash which is a superb alternative to carrot)

2 ripe, juicy tomatoes, chopped

Mushrooms, sliced

2 pork sausages (flavoured ones are great such as herb or sundried tomato)

3 slices of unsmoked streaky bacon, finely sliced

3 slices of prosciutto or parma ham, finely sliced

800g minced beef

400ml of red wine (a good one, deep, dark and full bodied)

300ml beef stock

2 tbsp tomato puree

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2 tbsp dried oregano

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Method;

• In a good heavy non-stick pan heat some sunflower oil. Add the onions and a tbsp of sugar (more than I normally suggest here but you’ll see why later once you’ve added the red wine). Sauté gently for 5 minutes or so until they start to soften and then add the carrot, celery, tomato and garlic and continue to sauté gently for a good ten minutes or until they have softened.

• In a separate non-stick frying pan heat some sunflower oil till pretty hot and sauté the sausage meat, which you literally just squeeze out of its skin once you have sliced it lengthways down the middle with a sharp knife, breaking it up as it cooks with a wooden spatula. It is best to squeeze the sausagemeat out of the skin or you'll get stringy bits of skin in your bolognaise. Not great. Once it has cooked through add the Parma ham and bacon. Put aside once it has all cooked through and lightly browned. Then in the same pan, making sure it’s still good and hot add the minced beef. The aim here is not to stew it in its own juices but to sear it over a very high heat like you would a steak. It needs to be browned and dry and not gray and swimming in water.

Brown it, don't stew it!

• Once the meat has all been browned add this to the vegetables and mix thoroughly. Add the tomato puree and oregano and keeping the heat high get a good sizzle going. Now’s the time to pour in the red wine all in one go.  It will bubble and reduce quickly. The smell will be awesome.

• Once the red wine has reduced by about half you can add the beef stock. Bring this back to the boil and then turn the heat down to very, very low. Finally add the balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. Season with salt and lots of black pepper and prepare to wait patiently…

Thats what I mean by really small flame

• Don’t panic. To keep you occupied now is the time to brown off some mushrooms to add to the bolognaise. Again, please don’t do this half heartedly. A very hot pan is needed to sauté the mushrooms till they are well browned and have absorbed all their own juices. This is how they will obtain their real intense ‘mushroomy’ flavour that will ultimately add to the meatiness of the bolognaise.

• Now I’m sorry you really do have to be patient.

• If it is starting to look a bit dry over the next few hours feel free to add more beef stock to loosen it a bit but remember, a good bolognaise is a thick, dense and dark meat ragu.

I’m sure I don’t need to write about serving this with some good red wine, a nice salad and a handful of parmesan cheese. Do get messy and enjoy it; there’s no shame in wearing your napkin under your chin at all. Nobody likes a distraction whilst they’re enjoying their food.

On that note it could well be time to put a large pan of water on to boil for my spaghetti. My chosen movie, all ready to go, stars Will Smith. Admittedly he’s a lot more attractive then Miss Cilla Black. I guess we all move on eventually.

This could be a great Saturday night.

Thanks for reading. Happy September and change of season. I’m pretty excited myself…

Cheers!

Ketchup Confidential

When my sisters and I were a lot younger, we used to receive personalised foodstuffs in our Christmas stockings from Santa. My little sister always had a huge box of her favourite Crunchy Nut Cornflakes; until the mice under the stairs found where Santa hid all the presents. Apparently mice love Crunchy Nut Cornflakes too.

My food present in my stocking was for years, a huge bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup. (Once it was a large jar of pickled onions, all of which I ate before breakfast, washed down with some chocolate money. I wasn’t very well and Santa never did that again) But ketchup was my favourite and I will fully and openly admit, still is.

Isn’t it funny how food snobs get all sniffy about ketchup? I’ve been ‘sniffed’ at on more than one occasion by snobbish foodies as I generously pour ketchup onto dishes like cauliflower cheese, macaroni cheese or even lasagne. I will have more than a little panic if I’ve made some cheese on toast and have discovered there is nought but an airy red mist left at the bottom of a squeezy bottle. Cornish pasties are fantastic accompanied by some red sauce and there is simply no point in eating fish and chips or sausages if there is no ketchup.

It’s not just me. I know you’re out there too. And we have a ketchup history to be proud of, oh fellow ketchup lovers! There is good reason why 97% of American households have a bottle of ketchup and that ketchup sales in 1992 reached $723 million. 

In the 17^th century a sauce made with pickled fish or shell fish and spices known as koe-chiap, kechiap or ke-tsiap, probably originating in Indonesian and Asian culture, became popular with Chinese traders. British explorers took it home and by the mid 18^th century it had become a British staple.

Ketchup was then a very different substance to what we know today. It was a thin, brown sauce which probably tried to emulate the fermented fish sauces of the ke-tsiap origins; more like a Worcestershire sauce and had many and various recipes which included mushrooms and walnuts. Tomatoes weren’t added until New-Englanders in the 18^th century started to include them in recipes and it wasn’t until another century later that it was sweetened. But that is why ketchup is sometimes still called Tomato Ketchup or Tomato Sauce.

Your brief ketchup history lesson over; nutritionally ketchup contains lycopene, an antioxidant that can help fight off some cancers and organic ketchup can contain up to 3 times the amount of lycopene. Although generally ketchup’s health benefits could possibly be the tiniest, teensiest bit offset by the high sugar and salt content.

But whatever! Ketchup is great and great even to cook with. One of my favourite ever recipes involving quite a lot of ketchup is a sticky-pork-ribs recipe, fantastic for barbeques and parties. The meat practically melts in your mouth if it hasn’t already fallen off the bone and the sauce is deep and rich and smoky and very, very addictive. I used to make these ribs in a restaurant I worked in as a chef when I lived in South Africa. Needless to say, I’ve changed the recipe a bit but the basics; a bottle of oyster sauce and a bottle of ketchup still rule the roost with this one. I used this recipe for the ribs of the wild boar I butchered over the winter in our crew house. I’m not sure how easy it is for you to get hold of wild boar but if you can then I suggest you do. If not then normal pork ribs are excellent too. Obviously outdoor reared, happy, English pigs are better than anything else for flavour.

So for the best sticky pork ribs you will need;

For the ribs and stock;

2 racks of pork ribs. (feeding about 5-6 people as finger food or 4 as a main meal)

1 pint of apple juice

1 onion, roughly chopped

5-6 cloves of garlic, smashed

6-10 whole black peppercorns

1 inch knob of ginger, roughly chopped

1 stick of celery, chopped

For the sticky sauce you will need;

1 bottle of oyster sauce or 300ml

1 small bottle of ketchup or 200ml

Peel ginger with a teaspoon. Easy.

2 tbsp runny honey

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 small onion or shallot, finely chopped

1 inch knob of ginger peeled and grated

1 tsp chinese 5 spice

½ tsp cinnamon

Grinding of black pepper

Method;

• Begin by dividing the ribs into singular or double fingers with a sharp knife. Put into a very large saucepan or stock pan with all the other stock ingredients and cover with the pint of apple juice and top up with water to cover the ribs and stock ingredients well. (I didn’t have any apple juice so I cut up an apple instead and just used water which worked well)

• Bring slowly to the boil and then let simmer for up to an hour.

• Lift the ribs out of the stock using tongs and place in an oven dish. Pour the stock through a sieve into a large bowl and save a good ladleful for the sticky sauce. The rest can be frozen and saved for a soup or pork casserole.

 

• To make the sauce, sauté the shallots or onion gently with the garlic and ginger. When they have softened and started to brown add the 5 Spice and cinnamon and let the aroma start to strengthen, about 2-3 minutes. Then add the oyster sauce and the ketchup, the honey and the saved ladleful or cupful of stock. Grind in some black pepper and stir well. Let this simmer gently for 5-10 minutes.

• Heat the oven to about gas mark 4/160c. Cover the ribs generously with the sticky sauce and drizzle with a little olive oil. Place the oven dish on the middle shelf and cook for about 40 minutes to an hour, turning and basting the ribs frequently. The sauce should caramelise and reduce nicely. 

• Either serve the ribs as they are or if you are barbequing, a light grilling over some charcoal, basting with extra sauce will help to make the ribs even stickier and smokier. Or you can use a griddle pan on a high heat to finish the ribs, again basting with any extra sauce if you have it.

• Serve with many napkins and not over a white carpet. And don’t expect there to be any left-over’s.

Now that wasn’t an easy recipe to give away, or for that matter was it easy to go public with my love of ketchup. I’m not ashamed though. Food is a very personal matter, I’ve no one to impress and food snobs will probably already have pooh-poohed this blog quite some recipes back. Who needs them anyway?

We have one weekend left here in Barcelona. Then we set sail for Palma for our next classic yacht regatta. It is great here but I’m looking forward to moving on and racing our mighty Mariquita once again. We still have 5 regattas left to go; Palma, Mahon then Monaco, Cannes and St Tropez. Cool.

Thanks for reading. I hope your summer eating is full of fun and exciting seasonal grub and barbeques and parties!  And I’ll take a bet that at your barbeque a bottle of ketchup will make an appearance somewhere. I would if I were you for those folk like me who simply struggle to eat a sausage without sauce.

Cheers and see you soon!

Meaty Moussaka.

I just made chocolate pecan pie. It’s in the oven as we speak. I had some chocolate berry sauce left over from the ‘Sweet Sushi Woo’ day, and one can not waste good chocolate can one? There must be some kind of law against that. So I gently melted it and when it was cool enough, mixed in 2 tubs of mascarpone, some cream, two eggs and an extra egg yolk, a knob of butter, a tbsp of flour and poured it into a blind-baked pastry case on top of a layer of pecans. Popped the little tin of naughty-ness in the oven on low for 30 minutes and hey presto! The crew can’t quite believe they’re getting spoons twice in one week.

We’ve been at anchor now for ages. It’s Okay really, you get used to it but I am certainly looking forward to when we leave for Barcelona and have a proper berth attached to the hard stuff, the land. I’ll be able to wander off the boat willy-nilly for little food shops, or for a nice little stroll whenever I please. Ah, the little things in life.

It’s the exercise I miss the most. My waste-line is talking to me and putting a chocolate pecan pie in the oven is really not going to help things is it?

I’ll never learn when it comes to food. I’m obsessed. I really need to tell you about my moussaka too. Delia Smith’s recipe from one of her ‘How to Cook’ series was the best and easiest I have ever made. Actually, it was the first moussaka I ever made, all those years ago, learning to cook. So I must pass it onto you. It’s a real crew pleaser and is a lovely summer night supper with a lovely salad and a glass of wine. I’ve made a few little alterations of my own. I struggle to get minced lamb in France when I don’t have access to a butchers, so last week I made it with cubed leg of lamb instead and it was seriously delicious. Also Delia’s recipe says it will feed 4-6 people; she can’t have ever cooked for a bunch of sailor boys because you need to at least double her recipe to feed 6. So my recipe is bigger and made with cubed lamb instead of minced but essentially this is Delia’s and it is great. Thanks Delia.

You will need;

600-700g lamb, leg steaks or a good equivalent

2 medium onions finely chopped

1 tsp sugar

3 large aubergines

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

3 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp chopped fresh mint

1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley

½ tsp cinnamon

500 ml red wine

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 quantity béchamel sauce (see blog, ‘A Glamorous Lunch In Cannes’ for recipe)

500g pot of ricotta cheese

1 egg, beaten

Parmesan cheese

Method;

• Heat your oven to about gas mark 6. Slice the aubergines into slices a few millimetres thick. Lay them on a baking tray and brush the sides facing up with olive oil. Give them all a little sprinkling of salt and pop into the oven for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them. They can burn in seconds when you’re not looking. When they are lightly browned and just about cooked, remove them from the oven and put aside for now.

• Turn the oven down to gas mark 4.

• Cut the lamb into smallish pieces, just smaller than bite sized. Sear in a hot pan with some sunflower oil and season. Fry till the lamb is browned all over. Set aside whilst you cook the onions.

• In the same pan with all the lovely lamby juices still in it, heat some more sunflower oil. Sautee the onions with the tsp of sugar and a sprinkling of salt till they are lightly browned. Add the garlic and the chopped fresh herbs and mix. Pour in the red wine, tomato puree, balsamic vinegar and cinnamon. Tip the lamb back into the pan with the onions and red wine and simmer gently for about 20 minutes. Taste the sauce and season accordingly. It might seem quite thick but this is good.

• Add the ricotta to the béchamel sauce and take it off the heat to cool before adding the beaten egg. Season and grate in some fresh nutmeg.

• Tip the aubergine slices into the bottom of your chosen baking dish. Cover with the lamb sauce then pour on the ricotta sauce. Grate some fresh parmesan cheese over the top and bake in the oven for 40 minutes. The ricotta topping will puff up slightly and go a lovely golden colour.

There we are. It is a very good meal with a lovely salad, some crusty warmed bread and a good red wine. I have been known to put slices of par-cooked potato in this before to bulk it out for large amounts of people. And although it may seem like a lot of aubergine to slice up and cook, believe me, it’s worth it. This is one of those meals where my ‘full-up’ message stops working and I could just keep going and going.

I really should start running again. And stop making pies. Speaking of which, I’d better take it out of the oven. I’ll let the boys have it and refrain myself…  oh bother, why is it so hard!? If you could smell it too, you’d understand.

Weak in the presence of good food. Hey-ho, we’ll be racing in a few weeks in Barcelona. Did I mention how excited about that I was?

Thanks for reading, see you before we depart for pastures new and Spanish.

Cheers!

Meatballs in Sauce - Lip-smackingly good!

It’s funny how all the little grammar lessons I learnt at school have come flooding back since I have been writing this blog. Well, I say that and you may be thinking the word ‘flooding’ is a bit strong. Perhaps ‘dribbling’ would be a more accurate description? However, my red and green underlined mistakes according to Word are becoming much less frequent. I like to think that I’m making my old English teacher proud. And hopefully not too shocked or worried. I’ll crack on.

If you had to choose one meal that you had to live off for the rest of your life, what would that be? It’s a very tough and probably an odd question but I made my chosen meal the other day for the crew and had to give you the recipe for Suzy’s Spicy Meatballs. Spicy meatballs in a rich and moorish tomato sauce with black olives, served on a bed of tagliatelle, a peppery rocket salad on the side, with lots of parmesan shavings and a glass of red wine. Absolute heaven. What else is there in life? I’m trying to think…nope, that’s it.

Now the key ingredient here is cumin. Not the most Italian of spices I know but it works and I simply can not make meatballs without cumin now. Well okay I could but I do get a bit stroppy. The cumin adds a real mellow depth and added ‘meatiness’ to the meatballs. A dilemma you might come across is whether to pop one in whole or politely break it up into a tidier mouthful. Though meatballs, sauce and long pasta is never going to be a polite meal is it? Expect to get through a few napkins, don’t wear white and enjoy flinging out some of those table manners for this one. Get stuck in. (Invisible exclamation mark right there)

For 5-6 people, you will need;

For the meatballs;

2 x 500g packs of minced beef                                                                       

1 tbsp dried oregano

look at those little rascals awaiting the pan.

2 tsp fine salt

1 tsp ground cumin

4 thick slices of white bread, crumbed (blitz in a food processor)

3 tbsp milk

Black pepper

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

For the tomato sauce;

2 onions, finely chopped

You guessed it, 1 tsp sugar

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 stick of celery, finely chopped

3 small dried birds eye chilli’s or 1 fresh hot chilli (or as much or as little as you please)

1 tbsp tomato puree

2 cans of tomatoes

A good handful of black olives in brine

A bunch of fresh basil

Salt and pepper

Balsamic vinegar

Method;

• Begin my making the tomato sauce. So that whilst you’re having fun making your meatballs, the sauce can quietly bubble away getting richer, a little thicker and even more delicious.

• In a frying pan gently sauté the finely chopped onions in a little oil. Sauté for about 3 minutes before adding the sugar and then for another 5 minutes so that the onions start to colour a little. Add the celery, garlic and chilli’s, and continue to sauté gently for another 5 minutes. Be careful not to catch the garlic; it’s so bitter if it burns. Give it all a little stir as it cooks and the heat low.

• Add 2 tbsp tomato puree and stir it into the vegetables, letting it have a little sizzle. Then add the 2 cans of tomatoes. If I have any left over red wine hanging about (a rare occurrence but has been known) then this will go in too.

• Season with salt and pepper and about 3 tbsp of balsamic vinegar. At this point I will also add the brine from the olives if there is any. Bring to a gentle boil, then turn down the heat and let it sit and simmer without a lid to reduce whist you crack on with the fun part.

• In a small bowl mix the breadcrumbs with the milk and leave to soak for a bit.

• Put your minced beef into a nice big bowl. For 2 packs of minced beef I add about 2 tsp salt. Minced beef does need a good seasoning so don’t be shy with the salt or your meatballs may end up being a little disappointing. Add the cumin, oregano, Worcestershire sauce and give it good long grinding of fresh black pepper.

• Add the soaked breadcrumbs and now it’s time to get your hands in there. Don’t mess about with trying to mix it all up with a spoon, it will take forever. Get both hands in and squelch it all together through your fingers, really mixing it all up well.

• The shaping bit is fun to do with kids and great to get them involved with dinner. Take walnut sized amounts and roll into balls. They really don’t have to be perfectly shaped, rustic is good. I like to make about 4-5 per person.

• You can chill them now at this point to help ‘set’ them, but if they have been rolled well then I do normally go straight ahead and start frying them in a pan and they have never broken up on me yet.

• So with your frying pan on a fairly high heat, add some sunflower oil to the pan and then add about 5-6 of your cute little meatballs at a time to sear them. Don’t add too many or they wont brown very well. I like to move them around every minute or so until they are browned all over and then I plop them straight into the tomato sauce. Keep going until all the meatballs are browned and in sitting happily in your sauce.

• Let the meatballs sit in the simmering tomato sauce for another 20 and then stir in the black olives. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

• When you’re ready to serve with a bowl full of steaming tagliatelli or spaghetti, rip up some fresh basil leaves for garnish. 

• Have some parmesan cheese ready for grating and a bottle of red ready for pouring.

If you are thinking of making this then I’m so excited for you. Let me know how they were please. 

Mariquita is officially 100 years old on Friday! We’re so proud of her and will be throwing a small dock party to celebrate. That’s after a day sailing around in the bay of Cannes. The race training has been going well and we’re all looking forward to our first regatta in Ajaccio in Corsica, starting on the 23^rd May. Would love for you to come along and see how we do.

So many birthdays this time of year. Niki, the bosun had one yesterday. We didn’t quite manage to get her thrown into the water as is the tradition. She put up too good a fight and I had no intention of going in with her. I did make her a 3 layered cake though. One blackberry sponge, one vanilla and one raspberry, sandwiched together with white chocolate icing and covered in strawberries. It was pretty good.

I’ll see you soon, hopefully wiping tomato sauce from your face and looking forward to another recipe to try out on your loved ones. I’ll let you know how the 100th Birthday celebration goes. And hopefully without a headache. See you soon.

 P.S My lemon-thyme plant is thriving so apparently they don't get sea sick.

Butternut, sage and Pancetta Tart. It's Deep.

It’s a beautiful Sunday morning in France. And to make it even more beautiful, we have the day off to enjoy it. I love spoiling myself on a Sunday morning with a cheeky breakfast, which today was a boiled egg with 2 pieces of buttered, toasted walnut bread. And although I had no agenda in mind I found myself at the market with my trusty trolley a little while later. You really do fit in with the crowd if you have a trolley in tow so no sniggering at the back please. And boy was there a Sunday crowd.

Today I had the time to enjoy it. I didn’t need anything and so therefore I bought a few things. No pressure to buy, so pleasure-purchasing ensued. I do think you’ll agree that a bulging bag of fat, dried Cep’s, teamed with a fragrant, potted lemon-thyme plant can lead to a pleasing list of dinner ideas. I’ll leave you to ponder that one and move on to ‘Roger’s Pie’, your recipe for today.

The crew attended a ‘Team-building’ course during the week (hence my absence). It was held at our Captain’s home in the French country-side, a great relief from living in the city and an enlightening, few days.

To make things easier for me, we had simple buffet lunches of French bread, cheese and ham’s and salad. But to add a little something warm and pleasing I had made 2 tarts in advance that needed simple heating and serving. Roger’s pie in 2 forms; original and vegetarian.

Roger Smithers was my Dad’s best friend and the Smithers family and our family grew up together. Roger very sadly died at the age of 58 from Prostate cancer. We held the wake at our house and I did the catering. I had planned to cater for 100 people and thought I had it all sussed and organised. But the night before the funeral, I had a small panic attack and decided that there wasn’t nearly enough food, especially if more than a hundred people turned up. Roger was a wonderful guy; 200 hundred people turned up.

It was a case of ‘make what I can from what’s in the house’ and thus ‘Roger’s Pie’ was invented. Quiche is easy enough to make and can feed a lot of people if you make lots of them, but I had only 4 eggs. So instead I made a huge batch of thick, white sauce and added my 4 eggs to that which filled 3 large tarts. It makes for a much creamier tart, without the ‘egginess’ of a quiche and suited the ingredients of the tart very well, being I think a little bit more ‘robust’. It set perfectly well too once cooled.

The filling was my favourite combination of roast butternut, sage, onion and cubetti de pancetta. The vegetarian version replaces the pancetta with feta cheese which gives the same ‘salty’ element to combine with the sweetness of the butternut. It really is such a goody, especially when made with homemade, wholewheat, shortcrust pastry, and it freezes so well. You must make this, you’ll love it.

For Roger’s Pie, you will need;

1 quantity of homemade, wholewheat pastry. (Or bought shortcrust, you know me, I love short-cuts)

1 quantity of white sauce made with whole milk.

2-3 eggs

1 butternut squash cut into thick wedges, skin left on.

2 medium onions, finely chopped

A bunch of fresh sage, around 15-20 leaves

1 pack of Cubetti de Pancetta (Italian lardons basically or use normal UK bacon lardons if you can’t find any)

A good grating of fresh nutmeg

Method;

• Begin by rolling out the pastry and lining your chosen tart tin. With shortcrust, like most pastries, it is not necessary to grease or flour the tart tin first, so just roll it out and bung it in there. Bake blind on gas mark 5 for 15 minutes. (Cut a piece of baking paper that lines the pastry and comes out and over the top edges of the pastry in its tin. Fill with baking beans or a bag of rice as I do, which stops the pastry from rising and the sides from collapsing in. Bake like this for 15 minutes.)

• Take out of the oven to remove the baking beans and paper and put back in the oven for another 5-8 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool a little. Leave the oven on for the butternut.

• While the pastry is cooking, and your white sauce is cooling, (recipe for white sauce in blog titled, ‘A Glamorous Lunch in Cannes’) roughly chop up the butternut-squash ready for the oven. Drizzle with a little sunflower or olive oil and season with salt and pepper in a baking tray, making sure they are not too cramped together. I do it this way because it’s a lot easier to peel the cooked butternut flesh out of the skins once it has cooked. It can be a lot of hard work peeling one of those little rascals when it’s raw.

• On a fairly high heat, fry the cubetti de pancetta in a small drizzle of sunflower or olive oil till cooked and starting to brown. Set aside.

• In the same pan, gently sauté your finely chopped onions in the bacon fat. Add some salt and pepper and ½ tsp sugar. Continue sautéing until the onion has just started to colour a little. Chop half of the sage leaves up finely and add to the onions, sautéing for another 3-5 minutes. Set aside with the Pancetta.

• When the butternut has roasted and is soft and smelling divine, cool a little before using a sharp knife to peel the flesh out of the skins and chopping, roughly into small bite-sized bits.

• Start to layer up the ingredients in the pastry shell, beginning with the sautéed onions and sage. Then add the pancetta and follow with the butternut.

• Add the beaten eggs to the cooled white sauce and add a good grating of fresh nutmeg. Stir well with a wooden spoon, perhaps giving it all bit of a beating to combine.

• Pour the white sauce over the onions, sage, pancetta and butternut, filling the tart as much as possible (I sometimes give it a good jiggle to ensure the white sauce has got to the bottom) and decorate with the remaining sage leaves.

• Bake in the oven for about 45-50 minutes. Leave to cool before serving but it is best left a little warm if you can. It reheats very well too.

Wow, that was a long one. It can be made in stages so that once you’re ready to make one you have the pastry case all cooked, ready to be filled and the white sauce prepped up to a day in advance. But it truly is such great tart to make and enjoy for lunch with a salad. Obviously with the vegetarian version, replace the Pancetta with a pack of feta cheese. I go for a whole pack and break it into big crumbly pieces on top of the butternut. It is super-delicious I promise.

The vegetarian version with feta cheese

I used to make this for a great deli I worked for in the Hamble, Hampshire and apparently some guy used to come in and have it for his breakfast every morning. I’m not sure I can say it’s good with coffee but I guess he thought so. Anyway, the crew loved both versions on our team building course. Oh yeah, I promised photos of our last sailing day, so here they are. As you can see, the weather was a little boisterous but great fun.

I’ll let you know what happens with the cep’s and lemon-thyme. I’m pretty excited.

I hope plants in pots don’t get sea-sick…

 

Natty and Matt on the wet side being very brave.

Enjoying the company of 'Halloween', another beautiful Fife design.

Spooning!