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White fish recipe of Buckingham’s restaurant Derby
Sometimes simple cooking methods are best. When you want to cook a fillet of fish to perfection, keeping its delicate flavour intact, then poaching is the answer. This method uses a combination of fish stock and white wine to enhance the fish and has a very quick cooking time, ideal for a weekday evening meal when you are pushed for time. You can eat the fish plain with salad or steamed vegetables and a slice of lemon for a healthy and low-calorie meal or dress it up with one of the sauces suggested below to add interest and complexity to the finished dish and make it fit for a dinner party.
Amount
8 PortionsIngredients
8 x 140g / 5oz Fillets of White Fish – Sole, Plaice, Turbot, Halibut
145ml / ¼ pt Fish Stock
14g / ½ oz Finely Chopped Shallot
145 ml / ¼ pt White wine
Butter
SeasoningMethod
Preheat the oven to 150C.
Butter a white ovenproof dish well. Add a seasoning of salt and pepper and then sprinkle the chopped shallots evenly over the base of the dish.
Place the fish fillets on top of the shallots in a single layer.
Pour over the white wine and fish stock.
Cover the dish with cling film and cook in the microwave for twenty seconds.
Remove the cling film from the dish and then place it in the oven at 150c for six minutes.To Serve
Remove the fish from cooking essence and pat each fillet dry on kitchen paper . Serve on plate with an appropriate sauce, such as the Star Anis sauce. the Chablis and Shallots Butter sauce, or the Piquant sauce recipes also published on this blog.Points to Watch
Allow the fish to stand in a warm place after cooking for a few minutes while you make the sauce. This will relax the fish.
Make sure the seasoning is put into the dish before the fish. If you season the white fish on top this will give you unattractive black spots of pepper.
Use the cooking essence to flavour the sauce.
View Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016. -
Choux Pastry recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant Derby
A beautiful batch of profiteroles, éclairs or cream puffs will easily impress your guests into thinking you are a master chef, but they are actually quite easy to make. The important thing is to learn how to get the choux pastry just right. After that you can choose what shape to pipe them into and then fill the pastries with a variety of flavoured creams and top with chocolate sauce. You can also use the same choux pastry to make savoury treats, such as cheese and chive fritters. Here is the recipe for the basic choux pastry, enough to make a generous batch of profiteroles or éclairs.
Amount
1.2 kg / 2 ½ lb MixIngredients
255g / 9oz Plain Flour
200g / 7oz Butter
430 ml / ¾ pt Water
7 Eggs
¼ teaspoon SaltMethod
Combine the water, butter and salt in a saucepan over a medium heat. Stirring constantly bring it to the boil. Remove from the heat when it reaches boiling point. Stir in the flour. Return the pan to the heat and stir constantly until the dough forms a thick paste and begins to leave the sides of the pan as you stir.
Remove from the heat and let it stand for 5 minutes to cool.
Put the mixture into a stand mixer. Beat in the eggs one at a time. The dough needs to be thick enough to pipe, so go cautiously with the last egg and leave some of it out if the right consistency has been reached.
When ready to bake, pipe the pastry into the desired shape and bake in a preheated oven at 200C for about 10 minutes until well risen. Reduce the heat to 175C and continue baking until the pastry is cooked through and completely firm, about another 20 minutes.To Serve
When the cooked pastries are completely cool, pipe full of whatever filling you wish. Dip into melted chocolate sauce.
You can also use the basic choux pastry for this cheese and chive fritter recipe.Points to Watch
Make sure you allow the batter to cool before adding the eggs or the pastry won’t puff up.
Don’t add eggs all in one go, you may not need all of them if the batter gets too runny.View Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Cheese and Chive Fritter recipe by Buckinghams’s restaurant Derby
Once you have mastered making choux pastry, you can use part of the quantity from the recipe for these delicious cheese and chive fritters. Ideal for an appetizer, snack or as part of a starter, they are very light and tasty. Use a full-flavoured mature cheddar for the best results, but you can also experiment with using other cheeses if you like.
Amount
8 PortionsIngredients
225g / 8 oz Choux Pastry
110g / 4oz Cheddar Cheese
27g / 1 oz Chives, chopped fine
Homemade Pickle
Sweet and Sour SaladMethod
Grate the cheese finely and chop the chives quite finely too. Once you have made the choux pastry, mix together the choux pastry, cheese and chives.
Form the mixture into quenelles, using two dessert spoons, if you don’t have a special quenelle spoon, and then place them onto greaseproof paper until ready to fry.
Deep fry the quenelles in small batches for 2 ½ minutes.To Serve
Serve at once, while piping hot.
Serve with a sweet and sour salad and home-made pickle.View Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Vegetable Pearls recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant Derby
When you are creating an elegant meal and want to plate it up beautifully, these vegetable pearls can be a great addition to your repertoire. A variety of colours and flavours of vegetable are presented in uniform balls that can be arranged around your meat to make an impressive main course presentation. It takes a little time to master the technique of scooping the vegetables into balls with a parisienne scoop or melon baller but the effect is well worth it for the wow factor.
Amount
8 PortionsIngredients
1 Swede
1 Carrot
1 Courgette
1 Potato
1 Parsnip
1 Artichoke
Seasoning
Butter
Method
These are tiny balls cut with a parisienne scoop (melon baller). You can find them in many sizes from 1 1/4 inch (33mm) to 3/8th of an inch (9.5mm). The smaller ones are most effective when placed around the dish, but the bigger ones take less time to prepare.
Select any root vegetables but look for excellent quality and a variety of colours.
Peel the vegetables and then with a rocking motion from side to side make little vegetable balls with the parisienne scoop.
Allow two ounces of vegetable pearls per person.
In boiling salted water cook the vegetables until tender. Be careful not to over cook the courgettes. Mix the vegetable pearls together, season with salt and pepper and toss gently with melted butter.To Serve
Gently reheat in butter and cascade around meat or fishPoints to Watch
Wash well to remove any tiny piece of vegetable
Keep the colour
Do not over cookView Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Guide to Modern British Cuisine
After the dire era of war-time food rationing it took a while for the British to overcome their reputation for food and regain pride in their traditional gastronomic roots. Elizabeth David was the forerunner of a new interest in good food, but she mostly looked to the country cooking of Europe for her inspiration. The Sixties and Seventies were marked by an interest in the cuisines of other countries, ethnic eateries and bistros abounded. The Eighties heralded an era of nouvelle cuisine, again looking to France for guidance. There were already chefs starting to explore the traditional British food at that time, but the hearty dishes of old England didn’t sit well with the finicky presentation of nouvelle cuisine. When people tired at last of miniscule mouthfuls of artfully presented food, modern British cuisine finally began to establish itself as a force in the restaurant scene.
Modern British cuisine is not so much a revival of old dishes, but a re-interpretation, often with an element of fusion, taking the best of traditional stews, roasts, pies and puddings and re-inventing them. Succulent lamb shanks, juicy beef roasts, savoury pies celebrate the hearty dishes of yesteryear, but bring them into the new millennium with an imaginative twist. A new spice or herb, an imaginative accompaniment, unusual vegetables, all bring new interest to dishes that had been ruined for many of us by the old institution of school dinners. Steak and kidney pie, bubble and squeak, Lancashire hotpot, steamed puddings and their ilk have been rescued from the dreary catering trays of school kitchens and given new life with skilful cooking and interpretation.
The strength of British cuisine has always been in its fine ingredients: excellent beef and lamb, wonderful pork sausages and pies and a good variety of fish from the seas surrounding the island. The organic food movement and a return to slow food with its emphasis on humanely reared, quality meat, also went hand in hand with the success of modern British cuisine. The simple unfussy cooking of many dishes requires that the ingredients be as fresh and tasty as they can be. There are few sauces to disguise indifferent meat and a more informed public knows that locally sourced, organically produced food tastes better. Most restaurants that produce modern British cuisine will pride themselves on sourcing ingredients locally and cooking seasonally.
The label modern British doesn’t appeal to all chefs some of whom feel it restricts them, when all they want to do is use the best of all ingredients and take inspiration from other cuisines, whenever it feels right. When you get down to it though, modern British, really just means an emphasis on good, locally sourced ingredients, making use of regional specialities and using traditional British dishes as a starting point for a new gastronomic adventure. It means that we can finally take pride in our gastronomic heritage once more.
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Fish and Chips – A British Institution
Fish and chips have been the great British takeaway since the 1860s. Even though they now have competition from Indian curries, Chinese chop sueys and Italian pizzas, fish and chips are still as popular as ever, despite the rising price of fish, as catches decline, which makes them no longer the cheapest fast food on offer.
The first fried fish shops opened in the early 1850s, serving fried cod and flat fish accompanied by a slice of bread or a baked potato. By the 1860s they had adopted the French method of frying chipped potatoes, and fish and chips really took off as a cheap complete meal for working families in the big cities. Rail transport meant that saltwater fish could easily be transported to the inland cities and new trawl fishing methods made fish cheaper than it had ever been previously.
Fish and chips were one of the few foods not to be rationed during World War 2. It was considered a matter of morale for them to be readily available and also to keep the fisherman employed, even though prices did rise in acknowledgment of the dangers the fisherman faced from U-boats.
Traditionally fish and chips were sprinkled with salt and vinegar before being wrapped in newspaper for insulation. They could then be hurried home to be eaten still hot from plates with knife and fork, or eaten straight from the wrappings, burning fingers and mouths on chips hot from the fryer. Cheap fish and chip eat-in restaurants opened towards the end on the 19th century, where restaurant dining became available to working class families for the first time. Fish and chips, bread and butter and tea were served for ninepence with waitress service, tablecloths and flowers on the table.
Today fish and chips are still big business in the food industry, although concerns about over-fishing of cod stocks and climate change are causing some people to question the future of fish and chips as the British favourite. Responsible fish and chip shops now look to source their fish from well managed, sustainable fishing areas in Scotland, Norway and Iceland. A wider range of fish is now available that ever before with plaice, pollack, halibut, salmon, coley, skate and hake as well as the traditional cod and haddock on the menu.
Once looked down upon by upmarket restaurants as poor man’s food, fish and chips can now be found on menus in the top restaurants, as the leaning towards British traditional food has influenced trends in cuisine. Beer battered fish served with chunky chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce are now considered just as much a delicacy as a duck confit, or roast venison.
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British Cuisine – The Sunday Roast
There are few meals as quintessentially British as the Sunday Roast. Even if you don’t bother with other British classics like steak and kidney pie, or Cornish pasties there is hardly anyone (except vegetarians of course) who doesn’t enjoy some variation of the good old Sunday lunch. It could be roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, or roast lamb with mint sauce, roast chicken with stuffing or roast pork with crackling and apple sauce, but whichever meat you choose there should be some wonderful crisp roast potatoes to eat with the gravy or pan juices.
The British tradition of roast meats goes back a long way. A French visitor to England in the 18th century marvelled at the flavour and succulence of the roast beef he tasted there. He put it down to the excellent pastures and the skill of the cooks, though added rather snidely that it wasn’t surprising that they excelled at roasts as they hardly ever ate anything else!
Very few families had their own ovens until the mid nineteenth century, and bread dough used to be carried to the village or town bakery to be baked. Meat could also be roasted there for a small fee and families would often cook their one joint of the week at the bakery on a Sunday, making the leftovers last through the week and adding the last of the bone and scraps to their soups. This is probably where the tradition began of eating a roast on Sunday.
Mastering the cooking of a Sunday roast at home takes time and experience. There are so many elements all with their own different timings. The potatoes must be cooked in a hot oven to be crisp and crunchy, and not be kept waiting lest they go soggy; the meat needs to be cooked and then given 20 minutes or so to rest before carving. Vegetables need to be steamed at the last minute so that they don’t go limp and dull. The gravy also has to be made at the last minute, once the meat is cooked, using the meat juices with the fat poured off. It’s not surprising that many people choose to go out to a pub or restaurant for their Sunday roast.
There is hardly a pub that serves food that won’t serve a roast on a Sunday, and most British restaurants will offer a special Sunday menu featuring a roast. But just as there is an art to cooking a roast at home, there are several obstacles to a successful roast when catering en masse – roast potatoes don’t like to be kept hanging around, and very often you’ll find either leathery or soft and oily offerings that give the roast potato a bad name. The meat must be of good quality to remain tender and succulent during roasting and in the case of beef and lamb should not be overdone.
If you are fortunate to find a good restaurant or pub that serves a wonderful Sunday roast then treasure it. If not, keep looking because they are out there – it is just that they tend to be a best kept secret as their regulars don’t want to risk the stampede when everyone else finds out about it!
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Afternoon Tea – A British Institution
When we’re thinking of British cuisine, it is usually the restaurant scene that springs to mind but there is one element of quintessentially British eating that has its own separate category. Afternoon tea with its image of delicate sandwiches, light as air sponges and the clinking of delicate bone china in elegant salons seems to belong to a vanished era, a time where people had the time and leisure to socialize elegantly in the afternoons. Few of us have afternoon tea any more except as a special occasion or an indulgence on the weekends, but it remains one of those British traditions that are part of our heritage.
Afternoon tea was an invention of the leisured classes at the height of the British Empire. It filled a social role, breaking up the long afternoon hours before the late dinner hour favoured by the fashionable and providing an opportunity for women to socialize in their homes.
Nowadays afternoon tea still has a place in smart hotels, where foreigners and locals alike might go to enjoy this nostalgic tradition, but with more and more people working full-time, few have the leisure to bake the wide variety of cakes, scones and biscuits needed to put on an elegant afternoon tea at home.
However if you want an enjoyable way of entertaining visitors at home on a weekend without cooking a formal dinner, an afternoon tea could be the answer. Tea at a smart hotel will usually present tiered stands with a variety of savoury sandwiches or scones, followed by another stand with several different cakes and pastries. At home though you can simplify things and serve whatever you like:
In winter starting off with toasted crumpets or muffins spread with melting butter is always a hit, as are hot cross buns at Easter. In summer thinly sliced cucumber or egg and cress sandwiches, cut into triangles and crusts removed, are traditional, or else a plate of small scones with butter (or clotted cream) and jam. After that a freshly baked cake makes the perfect centerpiece: a rich fruit cake, a light Victoria sponge, or perhaps a luscious chocolate cake with icing. Then all you need is a plate of assorted biscuits, perhaps shortbread or chocolate biscuits. Ideally the tea itself should be made with loose leaves (either China or Indian tea according to your preference) in a teapot, but the tea bag has almost taken over from loose leaf tea and even in smart hotels you’ll find tea-bags used.
If putting on your own afternoon tea at home seems too much of a challenge then why not discover a great café or hotel that serves elegant teas and make it an occasional weekend indulgence.
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A Short History of British Cuisine
Until recently British cuisine was in the doldrums, the poor relation of Europe, disdained for its lack of flavour, soggy vegetables and watery meat. The last thirty years have seen British cuisine fight back and re-establish itself proudly among the cosmopolitan collection of cuisines that we can now savour in the restaurants of the British Isles.
So where did British cuisine go wrong? Britain has always been a rich and fertile land, supporting diverse agriculture even before the Roman invasion. Cattle, sheep and pigs were supplemented by a wide variety of game. Many of the basic vegetables and herbs that we know today were introduced to Britain by the ancient Romans: onions, celery, rosemary, marjoram, parsnips, turnips and peas all came to us after 43AD and the carrot only arrived on our shores in the 15th century. Early cooking techniques included stewing with herbs, which has persevered as the principle cooking method of ordinary people to this century, or roasting meat over a fire for more celebratory occasions.
Grains were our staple starch until comparatively recently. Wheat and oats were grown from 1000-500BC and rye introduced by the Romans. Rough breads would have accompanied most meals. The potato which became the favoured British staple only arrived on our shores from the New World in 1586 and was treated with great suspicion for a while, considered difficult to digest and poisonous when undercooked.
As a sea-faring nation, Britain traded in spices from afar which were expensive and sought after. The tables of the rich in the Middle Ages through to the Renaissance were graced with elaborate dishes spiced with saffron, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and pepper.
It was only with the influence of the Puritans that plain food served as simply as possible became the sign of a virtuous British household and spices faded from the staple dishes of the middle classes, holding a place only at the tables of the Royal court and nobles.
With the growth of trade and the spread of British rule in India, spices once more began to be used at home with curries first being recorded in 1773.
Coffee and chocolate became expensive but fashionable drinks in the 1650s with coffee houses springing up in London, the haunts of wealthy men of fashion.
British food was known for its emphasis on good quality meat, especially beef .The taste for it served plain without too many fancy sauces persisted through recent centuries, despite the fashion for French cooks in the 18th and 19th centuries, who would create more elaborate dishes and sauces for the top echelons of society. Vegetables always took second place for those who could afford to eat meat every day. They were the poor man’s food, only seasonal delicacies such as asparagus and artichokes being worthy of a mention at a rich man’s table.
The decline of British cuisine came with the two World Wars in the last century. Food rationing and the loss of servants meant that many middle class women were struggling with learning to cook for their families at a time when there were very few ingredients available. Meat was severely rationed, as were butter, cheese and eggs, sugar, jam and canned fruit. Even bread and potatoes began being rationed after the war ended, when Britain was struggling to re-establish the economy. Watery soups with little meat, bulked out with vegetables became the norm. Overcooked cabbage and potatoes brought little relief to this dismal diet.
Food rationing endured into the Fifties, but by the end of the decade European travel, and cookery writers like Elizabeth David, brought a new interest in cooking and European food to the British palate. It took a while for this influence to penetrate throughout Britain but gradually Modern British cuisine grew up, taking inspiration from Europe but basing itself on the best of British ingredients and restoring Britain’s reputation for good food.
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Spinach and Apple stuffing recipe
This baked stuffing is a delicious accompaniment to any roast poultry, bringing succulent fruit and savoury onion together in a combination that recalls the dishes of Elizabethan England. This stuffing would make an excellent addition to the traditional Christmas dinner, adding variety while staying true to the age-old flavours of winter festivities.
Amount
8 PortionsIngredients
110g / 4 oz Apples (sliced neatly)
110g / 4 oz Onion (sliced neatly)
110g / 4 oz Spinach
55g / 2 oz Sultanas
55g / 2 oz Croutons (cut neatly)
55g / 2 oz Butter
55g / 2 oz / 4 tablespoons Olive Oil
Fresh Sage (finely chopped)
SeasoningMethod
Fry the bread croutons in the olive oil until crisp. Drain them on kitchen paper.
In a large frying pan, fry apples, onion, sage, spinach and sultanas together in a little more olive oil until softened, but without letting them colour.
Toss and mix well.
Add the fried croutons to the mix and season with care.
Put the mixture into a baking tray or dish and bake in the oven for five to eight minutes at 200C/400F.To Serve
Serve with turkey, duck or guinea fowl.Point to Watch
The stuffing must be freshly prepared so that it doesn’t go soggy.
Season with care. -
Thai Restaurant Flavours
If you’ve enjoyed a wonderful meal out at a good Thai restaurant, you may be wondering how to reproduce some of the dishes you’ve tasted at home. Thai cuisine is quite simple to prepare, without too many complicated cooking techniques, but you do have to have the right ingredients to make it taste authentic at home. You also have to learn the balance of flavours, sweet, sour, salt and spicy, but that will come with experience, the more you taste good Thai cooking.
Thai cuisine emphasizes good fresh ingredients and uses fresh herbs and spices rather than dried ones. To cook Thai cuisine at home, these are some of the essential basic ingredients you’ll need; obviously the fresh herbs and spices should be bought fresh on the day you will use them for the best possible flavour:
Fish sauce or nam pla is an essential ingredient in many Thai dishes. It provides the salty seasoning to counterbalance the sweet element of coconut milk and sweet herbs. Made of small salt-fermented fish, it should be clear and brownish in colour and provides minerals and vitamins as well as protein.
Thai chilli peppers are used in so many dishes and sauces that Thai cuisine would be unrecognizable without them. Used to give heat to curry paste, in soups and dipping sauces, there are hot varieties and milder ones but no meal is complete without some form of chilli.
Kaffir lime leaves add aromatic fragrance and astringency to soups and curries giving a clean citrus flavour.
Lemongrass is a key ingredient in much Thai cooking. Its woody stem adds a lemony flavour and more fragrance to curry pastes and other dishes.
Garlic is used to start off most Thai dishes providing a stabilizing base note to the aromatic herbs.
Galanga is the Thai version of ginger, slightly milder than the common ginger we use. It has medicinal qualities to aid digestion and adds a light acidic note to the Thai spice combinations.
Fresh coriander is used both in its leaf and root form. The leaf is frequently used as a garnish and the root to give a deeper note to the cooking of a dish.
Coconut milk is used in savoury dishes and desserts, whenever a creamy rich element is needed. It replaces the dairy ingredients that predominate in European cuisine, but which are rarely used at all in Thai cuisine. Coconut milk is made by grating the meat of a ripe coconut and mixing it with water then squeezing out the juice, but can be bought in a can for easy cooking.
Jasmine or fragrant rice is indigenous to Thailand and is used to accompany every main meal as the main starch as breads are rarely used.
Before you start cooking, refresh your taste memories by visiting a good Thai restaurant, so that you can remember the correct balance of flavours and produce your own authentic version at home.
Have you been to Thai Dusit in Derby?
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Thai Snacks and Street Food
Visiting Bangkok, you’ll be overwhelmed by the number of food carts on the streets and the aromas of cooking wherever you go. Thais love food, enjoying regular snacks and eating street food often. You’ll find a huge assortment of foods available to eat as you go even in small provincial towns, where street vendors often assemble in car parks or squares at dusk to transform them in to bustling food markets.
Some of the wares offered as street food are full meals, usually one-dish meals to satisfy workers and travelers who can’t cook at home: curries served over rice, noodle dishes stir fried with egg and vegetables. Noodle dishes such as Pad Thai and Rad Naa are popular street foods, and often you’ll find a street vendor selling just one signature dish, with a queue of eager customers who know them well, from years of eating that same dish. You’ll find a charcoal grill set up at a night market, grilling skewers of satay to be served with a peanut sauce. Or a vendor who just cooks the most delectable fried rice.
Other street vendors will specialize in snacks that are labour intensive and harder to prepare at home: savoury and sweet snacks to tempt people as they visit the markets before going home to prepare their meal. Portable deep fried snacks that are easy to eat with your fingers such as spring rolls, thai fish cakes, Toong Tong pastries filled with minced chicken and prawn, are all delicious morsels that if you’re lucky you can also find served as appetizers in Thai restaurants here in Britain.
Crispy golden crepes, coconut pancakes, sweet sticky rice with jackfruit or mango, Thai street food offers a host of sweet treats as well as savoury ones. Leaf wrapped parcels of sweet meats are on offer among the scents and aromas of all sorts of street cooking.
If you want to taste many of these treats you’ll have to travel to Thailand yourself with an adventurous spirit, prepared to plunge in to taste your way around this wonderful cuisine. But even if you are stuck at home you can get some idea of the vibrant tastes and flavours of Thai street food at your local Thai restaurant. Sample the appetizer menu in search of different textures, herbs and spices, order a main meal comprised of several different dishes to share with friends and you’ll get an idea of the richness and variety of Thai food, where lots of small mouthfuls of different flavours are preferred to the monotony of a large plate of just one dish.
Have you visited Thai Sabai in Melton before?
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Chosing a Meal at a Thai Restaurant
Thai cuisine is full of fresh and vibrant flavours offering a wonderful meal that is healthy and light, but satisfying to the palate, and made for sociable dining out. There are two styles of eating a main meal in Thailand. You can order a single dish meal for a quick lunch or supper: something like a rice or noodle based dish with meat and vegetables all thrown in; or you can linger over a communal evening meal, where you order a selection of dishes, which are shared between you all and chosen to provide a balance of flavours and textures.
In British Thai restaurants soups are usually served as a starter, to fit in with Western eating habits, but in Thailand a soup is just one of a selection of dishes that you will order as part of your main meal. In a typical Thai meal, a clear broth soup, Gang Jeude, or a spicy one with coconut milk, Gang Ped, may be served alongside a steamed dish, a stir fried dish, a spicy curry and a grilled meat with a variety of sauces for dipping; each person will have their own serving of rice and will help themselves from the various communal dishes a little at a time.
The number of dishes ordered depends on the number of people eating; as a general rule two people would order three dishes to go with their rice, four people order five dishes and so on, so the greater number of people dining the larger the selection of different dishes.
Most Thai restaurants in Britain offer a variety of set menus, with dishes chosen to balance each other, so that you can experience a traditional Thai meal without too much trouble deciding on how to combine different dishes. Not all dishes in Thai cuisine are spicy; a Thai meal is usually chosen so that a spicy dish is balanced by a more subtle bland one, a fried dish by a steamed one and can often include a salad dressed with a salty spicy dressing of chilies, herbs and fish sauce instead of a spicy curry. Plain grilled meats are served with spicy or sweet chili dipping sauces.
Many meals in Thailand will finish off with some of the wonderful fresh fruit available there; mangos, papaya, melon, grapes, jackfruit and so on, but there are also a variety of desserts based on coconut milk and rice, sweet syrups and egg custards. The rambutan, a tropical fruit related to the lychee, preserved in syrup is a popular dessert.
Most of all a Thai meal should be a wonderful series of tastes, different dishes offering your palate plenty of variety, so that you feel replete and satisfied but not weighed down by your meal.
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Thai Cuisine Guide
A flavourful, aromatic and healthy cuisine, Thai food has become popular all over the western world as we have embraced its fresh herbs and spices wholeheartedly. Fresh coriander, leaf and root, galangal, lemongrass, lime leaves and basil along with a variety of chillis, flavour a cornucopia of fresh ingredients cooked simply with great attention paid to the balance of flavours in each dish.
The simple Thai cuisine of the a thousand years ago, which relied on grilling meats over fires, boiling stews and rice in simple clay vessels or putting together salads of fresh, raw ingredients, has been influenced over the centuries by many other cultures and traditions bringing more complexity and new ingredients to make the Thai cuisine we know today.
The Chinese introduced the wok which made stir frying possible and also the use of noodles. Western traders with their use of dairy products in their cooking, started the idea of using coconut milk in curries. It was even the Portuguese traders who introduced the chilli to Thailand from South America, without which modern Thai cuisine would be unrecognizable.
Harmony and balance are the guiding principles of Thai cuisine. A meal should consist of a variety of dishes, some spicy, others less so, with cooling condiments and various textures so that the palate is stimulated but not overwhelmed. The fresh nature of Thai herbs and spices means that, while a curry may be hot, the burn only lasts briefly, unlike the hot dry spices of Indian cuisine. Spicy should be balanced with subtle, sweet with sour. The principle salty seasoning is nam pla, Thai fish sauce, added to most dishes to provide the salty counterbalance, with lime juice to add the sour note.
Far more than in Western cooking, Thai cooking is done by taste rather than measurements. The intensity of a fresh herb or spice can vary, so the right balance of flavours is learned by taste and experience: sour, sweet, salt, and creamy with the heat of spice on top of that have to be balanced by feel to get the flavour just right. If you want to learn to cook Thai food yourself, the best introduction is to sample dishes cooked by expert Thai chefs in your local restaurant, so that you get an idea of the flavour combinations you should be aiming towards.
Thai food is prepared in bite sized portions and in earlier times people would have eaten with their fingers, but nowadays a spoon and fork is laid at the table, the fork used to push the food onto the spoon. No knife is needed at the table as meat is already cut into small pieces. Chopsticks may be used to eat Chinese style noodle dishes.
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view Thai restaurants in Nottingham, Thai restaurants in Derby or Thai restaurants in Leicester
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Roast Pepper and Onion Mashed Potato recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant Derby
Roast Pepper and Onion Mashed Potato recipe by Nick Buckingham
A rich and savoury take on mashed potatoes, this version provides a hearty accompaniment to a meat dish with an extra touch of sophistication. The added flavours of roasted pepper and onion bring complexity to this favourite potato comfort food and the cream makes it rich, smooth and velvety. It can be prepared earlier in the day and reheated on the stove if required.
Amount
8 PortionsIngredients
1 kg / 2lb Potatoes
110g / 4oz Butter
55g / 2 oz / 4 tablespoons Fresh Cream
110g / 4 oz Sweet Red Pepper (cut into thin slices)
110g / 4 oz Onions (cut into thin slices)
SeasoningMethod
Peel the potatoes and cut into large pieces. Put the potatoes in to a pan of cold salted water and bring to the boil. Simmer for twenty minutes until just tender.
Drain well allowing the steam to rise off and then hand mash until smooth, before adding any liquid or butter.
Pan fry the thinly sliced onions and red pepper in the butter until soft. Add to the potato with all the butter and liquid from the pan and beat in with the cream.
Season with care
Reheat when required in pan on stovePoints to Watch
Make sure the consistency is correct. It should be soft and fluffy, but not gluey.
Always mash the potatoes while they are still hot.
Do not add the butter or cream until the potatoes are fully mashed.View Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Venison recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant Derby
Venison recipe by Nick Buckingham
Venison is a rich and well flavoured meat, and also happens to be a great low fat option for the gourmet who is trying to eat healthily. Loin of venison is naturally quite tender so doesn’t need marinating. Cook the meat very simply as in the recipe below, with just a little flavour from herbs or lavender flowers. Then serve it combined with the complex flavours of this ragout of wild mushrooms.Amount
8 PortionsIngredients
1.5-2kg / 3-4 lb Piece of Loin of venison (completely denuded of all bone, fat, skin and sinew)
1 tsp Lavender Flowers
Seasoning
55g / 2 oz Garlic ButterMethod
Pan fry the venison to your liking in the garlic butter
Dust the meat with the lavender flowers and then roast in the oven for twenty minutes.
Season with care and keep warm until ready to serve.To Serve
Slice the venison allowing three pieces per person. Arrange them on the plate with ragout of wild mushrooms to accompany.Point to Watch
Venison can get tough if overcooked or reheated.View Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Traditional Roast Duck recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant Derby
Traditional Roast Duck recipe by Nick Buckingham
Roast duck is looked upon as a gourmet dish, but there is nothing complicated about cooking it. If you can get hold of some good Gressingham duck you have the makings of an impressive dinner party main course for very little effort. The succulent rich meat bastes itself, so all it needs is a few herbs and a little seasoning. Served with a port and redcurrant sauce and perhaps the spinach and apple stuffing on the side it makes a wonderful winter meal.
Amount
8 PortionsIngredients
4 Whole Gressingham Duck
Fresh Thyme
SeasoningMethod
Remove all the pin quills and trim the excess fat from the duck.
Trust the duck with string to preserve its shape.
Rub a little seasoning and thyme all over the duck and roast in the oven for two hours at 180C / 375F in a large roasting tray until the skin is crispy and most of the fat has melted away.
Allow the duck to cool for 15 minutes, then split it in half down the breast and remove the bones apart from wing and leg bone.
Place on a clean tray, season and place in oven to keep warm until serving.To Serve
Serve with this Port and Redcurrant SaucePoints to Watch
Do not overcook the duckView Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Salmon Teriyaki recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant Derby
Salmon Teriyaki recipe by Nick Buckingham
An extremely simple supper or elegant main course for a dinner party, teriyaki salmon has plenty of flavour but is really easy to prepare and is very healthy too. Make sure that you buy good quality salmon and take care not to overcook it and you can’t go wrong. For extra flavour the salmon can be served with this piquant sauce.
Amount
8 PortionsIngredients
8 x 110g / 4 oz Salmon Fillets (skinned and boned)
55g / 2 oz / 4 tablespoons Soy Sauce
27g / 1 oz Sugar
Small amount of Japanese Green Horseradish or English Mustard
13g / ½ oz / 1 tablespoon Rice VinegarMethod
Mix together all the ingredients to make a marinade. Marinate the salmon in the mixture for at least an hour to allow the flavours to penetrate. Turn the salmon in the marinade at least once during the time.
Roast the marinated salmon fillets on a tray in a hot oven for six minutes.To Serve
Serve on a leaf salad with this piquant sauce.Points to Watch
Do not over cook the salmon.View Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Red Onion Marmalade recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant Derby
Red Onion Marmalade recipe by Nick Buckingham
A mellow red onion marmalade makes a wonderful relish to accompany all sorts of dishes from cold meats, pates and cheese to grilled meats and steaks. Plus it adds zest and flavour to many vegetarian dishes. The marmalade keeps well if bottled in sterilised jars and refrigerated, so you can make a bigger batch and store it until needed.
Amount
1 PintIngredients
4 Red Onions
½ pt Water
¼ pt Red Wine
110g / 4 oz Sugar
Method
Slice the red onions very thinly. Cover with the water and red wine and bring to boiling point. Simmer together until the onions are really soft.
Add the sugar and stir in until it dissolves.
Bring the pan back to the boil and cook at a simmer until the mixture becomes a thin marmalade and no longer looks liquid. Stir regularly once the mixture is reducing, so that the onions don’t stick and burn.To Serve
Serve in small bowls for people to help themselves or else put a dollop of the marmalade on top of a steak or burger or crostini.Points to Watch
Ensure the onions are really soft before adding the sugar.View Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Ragout of Wild Mushroom recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant
Ragout of Wild Mushroom recipe by Nick Buckingham
A rich autumn dish, redolent of woods and fields, wild mushroom ragout is a real gourmet pleasure when you can get hold of really good wild mushrooms. It is a fine accompaniment to venison and other game dishes and will add interest to otherwise plain grilled meat and chicken. The wild mushroom varieties listed below are ideal, but otherwise use whatever combination of good, well-flavoured edible mushrooms you can find.
Amount
8 PortionsIngredients
55g / 2 oz Trumpet De mort (wild black mushroom)
55g /2 oz Mouseron Mushrooms (wild fairy ring mushrooms)
55g /2 oz Pierre d Mouton (sheep foot mushroom)
110g / 4 oz / ½ cup Venison Stock
55g /2 oz Butter
55g /2 oz Shallots
55g /2 oz Cream
Chopped Chives
SeasoningMethod
Pick over all the mushrooms, getting rid of any grit and cleaning them well. Drain any excess water from washing the mushrooms buy letting them dry on a kitchen towel before using.
In a pan with a lid melt the butter and soften the shallots. Add the wild mushrooms whole if small or cut in halves or chunks if larger.
Gently fry the mushrooms until starting to soften.
Add the stock and cream. Season with care and then bring to simmering point.
Gently cook until tender. Check the seasoning and add chives before serving.To Serve
Serve with VenisonPoints to Watch
The creamy sauce should not be too runny.View Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Port and Redcurrant sauce recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant Derby
Port and Redcurrant sauce recipe by Nick Buckingham
This is a classic thin sauce to accompany any duck dish, the citrus notes and fruit of the jelly complementing the rich meat of duck, while the port adds a gloriously mellow flavour. This sauce would also go well with venison and other game. It’s so full of flavour that you need a fruity, full bodied wine to drink with any dish that you serve this sauce with, otherwise the sauce can overwhelm the wine completely.
Amount
8 PortionsIngredients
110g / 4 oz Red Currant Jelly
110g /4 oz / ½ cup Port
26g / 1 oz Finely Chopped Shallots
1 lemon (juiced and zested and fine julienne)
2 oranges (juiced and zested and fine julienne)
2 pts Duck Stock
SeasoningMethod
Bring the duck stock to the boil and reduce it by half its volume. Add the red currant jelly and port and stir well. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer together in the sauce for approx five minutes until tender.
Season with careTo Serve
Serve with any duck course, in particular this Roast Duck RecipePoints to Watch
This is not a thick sauceView Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Piquant Sauce recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant Derby
Piquant Sauce recipe by Nick Buckingham
When you want a piquant, slightly spicy sauce to go with fish or chicken, this is the one to choose. Chinese five spice gives a fragrant aroma and just enough heat to make the sauce interesting. Vinegar provides the sour note and the vegetables a savoury base for all the complex flavours to mingle.
Amount
1 PintIngredients
165g / 6 oz Sugar
½ pt Vinegar
110g / 4 oz Red Pepper
110g / 4 oz Onion
110g / 4 oz Celery
110g / 4 oz Tomato
Five Spice
Fresh Thyme
SeasoningMethod
Chop the onion, celery and red pepper quite finely. Peel the tomatoes and dice them. In a heavy based pan, cook up all the ingredients and simmer together until the vegetables are soft and tender.
Add a little water to the sauce if it seems too thick.
Pass through a thermomix to make a smooth sauce, or else process through a food processor or food mill.
Strain through a sieve to make sure the sauce is completely smooth.To serve
Serve with any Fish or this Teriyaki salmon recipe.View Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Spanish Desserts Guide
Spain has a rich feast of sweet things in her culinary tradition, so that anyone with a sweet tooth will be in their element exploring the Spanish pastelerias or pastry shops. The Moorish occupation of Spain brought with it the almond tree and also sugar cane and citrus fruit and that influence has contributed hugely to the desserts today, many of which are based on almond pastries and sweet creams. The sweet spices brought over from the Middle East also play a vital role in flavouring pastries and desserts: cinnamon, anis, nutmeg and cloves can all be found adding a special twist to a variety of tarts and biscuits.
When you visit Spain at Christmas there are loads of special biscuits and sweets to sample – the polvorones are rich crumbly almond biscuits that melt in your mouth; mantecados are light crumble cakes with a delicate aniseed flavour There is also the sweet Turron, almond nougat made with honey as a traditional Christmas treat.
Desserts that you will find in Spanish restaurants in Britain use the same traditional ingredients to create an authentic Spanish flavour. Tarts made with sweet almond pastry are very popular, often filled with fruit and topped with a crumble topping.
Dairy based deserts served with a caramel sauce or fresh fruit are an authentic Spanish pairing. Crema Catalana is the Spanish version of crème brulee, with a vanilla infused custard topped by caramelized sugar. Then there is a Spanish flan, which is a set custard that is usually served with caramel sauce but can also be flavoured with orange or strawberries for a delicious dessert.
Churros are long ridged dough fritters, a bit like our doughnuts, popular as a late night snack or even for breakfast in Spain and are served with hot chocolate and topped with sprinkled sugar or honey. They are often sold by street vendors at festivals and cooked in cafes for breakfast, as the Spanish often enjoy a sweet snack at breakfast or mid-morning.
Lemon and orange sorbets make an ideal light ending to a meal, when you don’t feel like a rich dessert and are a popular and refreshing summer end to a meal in Spain.
Besides the ever present almonds there are a variety of desserts that use hazelnuts and walnuts in tarts and custards or combined with chocolate for a richer indulgence. But equally authentic is to finish a meal with some of the summer fruits that proliferate in Spain, either simply eating a ripe peach or apricot or cooking peaches, pears or even figs in wine for a more festive dessert.
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What to Drink with Your Tapas
When you’re heading out for a sociable evening of tapas at your local Spanish restaurant, you’re spoilt for choice when it comes to deciding what to drink. Spain has a fine selection of wines both red and white, is the home of delectable dry, medium and sweet sherries and also boasts the original Sangria as its favourite summer aperitif.
Sangria has been a popular party drink for years but as a result has got a bad name as a sort of non-descript fruit and wine punch made with the cheapest of wine. But made properly as it is in Spain outside the tourist areas, in homes and at local fiestas, with a good young, unoaked red wine, plenty of fresh summer fruit, a dash of brandy and some freshly squeezed orange and lemon juice, then chilled overnight, Sangria is a wonderfully refreshing and festive drink that goes well with tapas on warm summer nights and when you’re in the mood to celebrate. It should be served with plenty of ice and some of the wine soaked fruit.
Tapas goes really well with the quintessential Spanish aperitif, a sherry from Andalusia. Forget about the image of old aunts sipping a glass of sickly Bristol cream sherry before dinner, sherry or jerez (pronounced hereth) as it is called in Spain is an authentic and delicious choice to accompany tapas as an aperitif or to drink throughout a meal. A good Manzanilla sherry is pale, dry and crisp with a delicate flavour and should be served chilled. Or you could go for the nutty aroma of Amontillado, still dry with plenty of flavour. A more fragrant, heavier dry to medium sherry is the oloroso with its darker colour.
You could start your tapas with one of these dry sherries and then move on to a glass of a sweeter sherry, such as the Pedro Ximenez or Moscatel with dessert if you want to enjoy a whole meal of sherry tastings. Remember though that sherry, being a fortified wine, has a higher alcohol content than wine, ranging from 15% for the lightest to 22%, so if you are drinking it throughout the evening you’ll need plenty of water to go with it.
Spain has a fine selection of red and white wines to choose from and they all go well with tapas. After all tapas originated as a series of snacks to accompany a glass of wine before dinner. Rioja is perhaps the best known Spanish red wine, with full flavour aged in oak and Ribera del Duero is another quality red. Fine white wines from Rueda and both red and white wines from Penedes are also well recognized internationally. Cava is a fine traditional sparkling wine and there are a whole range of modern Spanish wines now being developed with different grape varieties.
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Spanish Tapas Guide
Spain’s tradition of tapas has captured the imaginations of people all over the world, so much so that Spanish restaurants in Britain often focus almost exclusively on tapas with just a few main dishes thrown in for good measure. It’s true that what started in Spain as small snacks and appetizers to while away a sociable evening between work and the traditional late dinner hour of 11, have become a small microcosm of Spanish cuisine, allowing people to have tasters of several different dishes and create a whole meal from them.
Tapas started out quite simply as perhaps a slice of ham or a handful of olives to eat with a glass of wine. The name tapas means cover, and popular history says that they evolved from the tradition of covering a glass of wine given to travelers outside an inn with a slice of bread or ham to keep the flies out. Another story has it that Castile’s King Alfonso X made it a law that taverns must serve food with wine to avoid drunkenness. What is also true is that the Moorish occupation of Spain brought many Middle Eastern culinary traditions with it, among them the use of mezze as appetizers.
A selection of tapas in a village bar in Spain can be quite simple, with just a few small bowls of olives, cheese and slices of ham or sausage, but in bigger cities such as Seville and Madrid, specialist tapas bars will serve a whole range of cooked dishes as well. You can sample the whole range of Spanish gastronomy, from the fine hams and sausage products to seafood, dishes of squid, prawns and clams. In the big cities you can bar hop, having a drink and plate of tapas in several different bars and sampling their various tapas specialities before eventually settling down to your evening meal at a restaurant.
This versatile way of eating has translated well to the British restaurant scene, where you can make up a whole meal of varied tapas dishes or choose one or two as a starter before choosing a main dish, perhaps of paella. Tapas suit themselves to long drawn out sociable evenings, where you select a few dishes and then order more as your appetite dictates, but they also work well when you are looking for a light evening meal with plenty of different flavours. Put together a selection that includes some bread and olives, ham and a few cooked dishes such as calamari or meatballs and a vegetable dish like patatas bravas. You will end up with a lightning gastronomical tour of the flavours of Spain, enjoyed in a relaxed and convivial atmosphere that is the secret ingredient of Spanish dining.
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Panna Cotta recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant Derby
Panna Cotta recipe by Nick Buckingham
This creamy Italian dessert makes a fine end to a meal, set in moulds and plated surrounded by a profusion of summer berries or any other ripe fruit. Delicately infused with vanilla and orange zest, the texture is smooth and just set; perfect for when you want a satisfying yet subtle dessert.
Amount
8 PortionsIngredients
1 Vanilla Pod (split and scraped)
1 pt Cream
4 Soup Spoons Rum
8 Soup Spoons Orange Juice and Zest
55g / 2 oz Sugar
4 Leaves of Gelatine Soaked and Squeezed OutMethod
In a heavy based pan, bring the cream, vanilla, rum, orange juice and zest to boiling point, then remove from the heat and infuse over night if possible. If you are making on the day a minimum of one hour to infuse is a must.
After infusion, bring the cream to the boil again slowly with the sugar, so it has time to dissolve. Add the gelatine and stir in well. Strain the mixture through a sieve, pushing as much through as possible so that the vanilla seeds are included.
Cool the mixture over ice, stirring until setting point is achieved. The idea is for the vanilla seeds to be set throughout the mix, rather than just at the bottom of the mould.
Place the mixture in stainless steel moulds and chill until needed.To Serve
Dip the moulds in hot water to release the panna cotta. Serve with fruit.Points to Watch
Do not add any more gelatine. The beauty of this dish is in the soft creamy texture.View Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Mustard Seed Vinaigrette recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant
Mustard Seed Vinaigrette recipe by Nick Buckingham
If you want to bring a new depth of flavour to a salad and turn green leaves into a rich sensation of flavour then this dressing is the one to go for. Using an orange mustard relish and orange vinegar it has a slightly sweet depth complemented by the walnut oil which will work well both with side salads and main dish salads. You’ll find orange vinegar available at good delis and online gourmet stores.Amount
8 PortionsIngredients
55g / 2 oz Orange Mustard Relish
55g / 2 oz / 4 tablespoons approx Orange Vinegar
160g / 6 oz / 10 tablespoons approx Walnut Oil
Salt and pepper
Chopped ChivesMethod
Combine Mustard, vinegar, oil and mix together well
Then add chives and seasonTo Serve
Spoon round dishPoints to Watch
Balance of flavourView Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Mocha Sauce recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant derby
Mocha Sauce recipe by Nick Buckingham
Thick and delicious this mocha sauce has a number of uses, so even this generous amount won’t last long in the fridge. Pour it over ice cream, use as a filling for a sponge cake or a topping for a dessert, and even stir a spoonful into a cup of coffee, to give it a wonderful mocha richness. Of course the success of the sauce depends on the ingredients; use good dark chocolate and a rich strong coffee for best results.Amount
1 PintIngredients
1 pt Coffee (fresh strong ground)
160g / 6 oz Chocolate
Method
Make the coffee in a cafetiere. Pour the hot coffee over the chocolate, broken into rough pieces and whisk until smooth. Allow to cool.
Store in fridge until needed.To Serve
This is a very thick sauce and has many uses - a spoon full in coffee make a mocha coffee, it can be used as a spread or a topping.Points to Watch
Make sure that all the coffee grounds are strained outView Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Spanish Paella
Paella is probably one of the best known Spanish dishes outside Spain and one that you will find in a hundred variations when you visit the country. Basically a rice dish cooked with various meats, seafood and vegetables together in a huge paella pan it has a long history behind it, beginning with the Moorish occupation of Spain.
While the Romans brought irrigation to the Eastern coast of Spain it was the Moors who introduced rice and made it one of the staple crops of the Valencia region. Rice dishes with spices and fish were prepared as part of religious feast days. The name paella comes from the pan that the dish is cooked in, a large shallow frying pan. Paella continued to be a dish cooked for celebrations, rather than an everyday dish. Very often it was cooked in the open air over a fire, on the beach or in the orchards and it came to be traditional for men to be the ones who cooked the paella, much like our barbecues today. Everyone would sit around in a circle and eat directly from the pan, each marking out a pie wedge section for themselves.
Valencia is the original home of paella and many will argue still produces the best paellas today, even though most regions of Spain will have their own version. A genuine Valencian paella will include meat, green vegetables and snails, as well as beans. An authentic mixed paella can include many combinations of seafood and meat, though most often will combine chicken and seafood such as prawns, clams and fish. Tomato, olive oil, paprika and saffron are the other traditional ingredients. The other main variety of paella current today is the seafood paella, with mussels, lobster, shrimp and cuttlefish.
The cooking of Valencian paella differs from the Italian risotto method, in that the meats and vegetables are first sauted, spices added and then the broth poured over and simmered before the rice is added. Other paellas add the rice before the broth, but the main difference from risotto is that the rice is not stirred constantly, but left to simmer with all the ingredients until it is cooked and has absorbed the broth. The crust that a paella develops on the bottom of the pan over an open fire is considered a delicacy and the aroma of toasted rice essential to the flavour.
A paella should rest for five minutes and then be served immediately, so the dish should be prepared freshly to order, which is why it is usually cooked for a minimum of two people and often for a whole group. Expect it to take at least thirty minutes to be cooked for you in a restaurant and much longer if you are cooking it alfresco with a group of friends from scratch and making a whole occasion of it.
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Maxine Potatoes recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant Derby
Maxine Potatoes recipe by Nick Buckingham
Beautiful golden discs of overlapping potato slices look elegant and intricate but are actually quite simple to make. You just need a number of individual oven-proof plates to prepare the potato sunflowers on. After that you can prepare them up until the steaming step and then just bake them in the oven immediately prior to serving, so that they are golden and sizzling. Do these potatoes to serve with any plain grilled meat to add interest to the plate and drizzle with a delicate sauce like this Madeira sauce to add extra flavourAmount
8 PortionsIngredients
12 Large Potatoes
2 oz Butter
SeasoningMethod
Peel the potatoes and cut them into even cylinder shapes (5cm / 2 inch in diameter)
Slice the potatoes thinly on a mandolin. Butter one 10cm / four inch round oven proof dish per person. Place one potato circle in the centre and start from the outside completing a full circle around the dish overlapping the potato by ½ cm / ¼ inch (looks like a sunflower).
Steam the dishes for four minutes in a steamer or cover with cling film in and cook in a microwave for one minute.
Bake in a hot oven for fifteen minutes until golden brown. Serve immediately.To Serve
Loosen from edge of dish with large vegetable slice and place on the centre of the plate. This potato goes well with any grilled meat.Points to Watch
Drain excess water from the dish before placing it in the oven
Season with care
Keep round shapeView Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
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Guide to Spanish Cuisine
Spanish cuisine, as we sample it in restaurants in Britain, brings together a wide variety of dishes from the various regions of Spain. Over the centuries Spanish cuisine has stayed close to the land, integrating influences from each culture that has come into contact with it, featuring the freshest of local and seasonal vegetables, with seafood on the coast and pork, lamb and game in the inland regions.
The Roman Empire left its mark with the garlic and olive oil that features throughout Spain, as the preferred staple flavouring of many dishes. Even in those times, Spain was famed for its fine hams and pork products which were exported to Rome along with huge quantities of the olive oil that Spain produced.
The Moorish occupation of Spain from 711 -1492AD left its greatest mark on the cuisine of the southern regions of Spain where the influence was felt the longest. Here almonds and citrus fruits were introduced, with huge groves established, as well as sugar cane and spices like cinnamon, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, sesame and aniseed. The sweet nougats and confectionery of Southern Spain all evolved from this period of history. It was also at this time that rice was introduced to the flat tidal area of Valencia, giving rise to the famed Spanish dish of paella with its hints of saffron from the same Arabic influence.
With the discovery of the New World and Spain being at the forefront of exploration, new foods such as potatoes, tomatoes and peppers were brought back to Spain and wholeheartedly embraced into the cooking traditions of most regions. So a simple bowl of gazpacho soup with its fresh tomato and red pepper, flavoured by garlic and olive oil, really spans many centuries of history and half the world to satisfy our taste-buds.
The renowned Spanish tradition of tapas, snacks and appetizers before a meal, also arrived in Spain from the Middle East with the Moorish occupation. The Spanish sociable character, enjoying long lunches and evenings spent talking with friends over drinks and tapas, before a late meal at 11pm, has meant that tapas have evolved from simple snacks of cheese and olives to a whole range of cooked dishes that can be put together to make up a whole meal if you prefer.
However Spanish cuisine also has a fine tradition of hearty main dishes that are often overlooked in Britain: rich lamb and bean stews, chicken and prawn dishes, fried seafood, sausage casseroles and vegetable stews. To explore the huge variety of regional cuisine you really need to travel to Spain yourself, but you can get a taster of the flavours of Spain from the varied tapas menus of some of our Spanish restaurants at home before you go.
view Spanish restaurants in Nottingham, Spanish restaurants in Derby or Spanish restaurants in Leicester.
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Availability at Weekends and Key Times during December – Nottingham
In an effort to make finding those last minute tables a little bit easier, we have created this blog based on the availability of restaurants in Nottingham as of 12/12/09. We shall try to keep this as up-to-date as possible over the coming days…
Availability on the 18th, 19th, Christmas day & Boxing day (subject to change):
108 Grill (British/city centre, Nottingham):
18th (evening) – 7pm or 9pm small groups
call 01159 940 516
1877 (European/city centre, Nottingham):
12th (evening) – limited
call 01159 940 920
Amarone (Italian/city centre, Nottingham):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – 6pm or 9pm+
call 01159 940 813
Archies restaurant (British/Sandiacre, Nottingham):
18th (lunch) – table for 10
18th (evening) – limited
19th (evening) – two tables of 2 at 9pm
call 01159 940 745Belle and Jerome (Beeston, Nottinghamshire):
18th (lunch) – seating for up to 10 people
18th (evening) – yes
19th (evening) – 10-12 seats available
call 01159 940 779Bianco (Italian/ Carlton,Nottingham):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – yes
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – yes
call 01159 994 0863
Bluu British/city centre, Nottingham):
Fully Booked 18th/19th
call 01159 940 653Bombay Bridgford (West Bridgford,Nottingham):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – yes
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – yes
call 01159 994 0985Chops City Steakhouse (Surf and Turf/ City Centre, Nottingham):
19th (lunch) – limited
19th (evening) – limited
call 01159 994 0935Chutney (Indian/ City Centre, Nottingham):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – yes
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – yes
call 01159 994 0883City Spice (Indian/ City Centre, Nottingham):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – yes
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – yes
call 01159 994 0831Dakota Grill (Steak and British/ Sherwood, Nottinghamshire)
18th (lunch) – under 10 seats left
18th (evening) – yes – early only
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – under 10 seats left
call 01623 220 945Fat Cat (British/city centre, Nottingham):
Fully booked throughout
call 01159 940 920Fire and Ice (Anglo/Italian/ West, Nottingham)
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – yes
19th (lunch) – yes
call 01159 940 895Harts (British/ City Centre, Nottingham):
18th (lunch) – 15 seats left in main restaurant
18th (evening) – 10 seats left at 9:30pm-10pm
19th (lunch) – private dining only
19th (evening) – 20 at 9.30pm
Christmas Day – Private dining only
Boxing Day – 4 seats left
call 01159 940 938Home (British/ Arnold, Nottinghamshire):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – 6.30pm only
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – yes – 6pm-7.30pm only
call 01159 940 814
Iberico World Tapas (Spanish and World Tapas/ City Centre, Nottingham):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – early times and 9.30pm only
01159 940 933La Tasca Nottingham (Spanish Tapas/ City Centre, Nottingham):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – after 9pm
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – yes
call 01159 940 968Latino (Italian/ Beeston, Nottinghamshire):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – yes
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – yes
call 01159 994 0812Le Mistral Nottingham (French/ City Centre, Nottingham):
19th (lunch) – limited
19th (evening) – limited
call 01159 994 0867Loch Fyne (Italian/ Beeston, Nottinghamshire):
18th (lunch) – limited
18th (evening) – limited
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – yes
call 01159 994 0567
MemSaab (Indian/ City Centre, Nottingham):
18th (evening) – yes
19th (evening) – yes
call 01159 994 0728
Merchants (British/ City Centre, Nottingham):
18th (evening) – yes
19th (evening) – limited
New Years Eve – limited
call 01159 994 0873Mogal-E-Azam (Indian/ City Centre, Nottingham):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – yes
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – yes
call 01159 994 0628
New Delhi (Indian/ Arnold, Nottinghamshire):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – yes
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – yes
call 01159 994 0815Pappas (Greek/ West Bridgford, Nottingham):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – only 10 seats left
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – only 10 seats left
call 01159 994 0906Pretty Orchid (Thai/ City Centre, Nottingham):
18th (evening) – yes
19th (evening) – 7pm only with table required back by 9pm
call 01159 994 0912The Sanctuary (European/ NG12, Nottinghamshire):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – 9pm onwards only
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – limited
call 01159 994 0147Shaws (British/Seafood and Tapas/ City Centre, Nottingham):
18th (evening) – 20 seats left
19th (lunch) – yes
call 01159 994 0916
Strada (Italian/city centre, Nottingham):
18th (evening) – Up to 6’s
19th (evening) – Tables of 2’s and 4
call 01159 940 926Tamatanga (Indian/ City Centre, Nottingham):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – yes
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – yes
call 01159 994 0174
The Living Room (British/ City Centre, Nottingham):
18th (lunch) – yes – 1pm onwards only
18th (evening) – yes – 6pm and after 9pm only
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – yes – 9.30pm onwards only
call 01159 994 0978The Lord Nelson (British/ Burton Joyce, Nottinghamshire):
18th (lunch) – limited
18th (evening) – yes – 6pm and after 9.30pm only
19th (evening) – yes – 6pm and after 9.30pm only
call 01159 994 0120The Verve Grill (British/West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire):
17th – fully booked
18th (lunch) – fully booked
18th (evening) – fully booked
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – fully booked
XMas (evening) – yes
NYE – Gourmet nightThe Wollaton (British/Wollaton, Nottinghamshire):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – yes
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – yes, 7pm particularly
call 01159 994 0036The Verve Grill (British/Chilwell, Nottinghamshire):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – yes for set menuVienna (British/Chilwell, Nottinghamshire):
Fully booked 12th/18th/19th
Woodborough Hall (British/ Woodborough, Nottinghamshire):
18th (lunch) – yes
18th (evening) – yes
call 01159 994 0976
Yamas (Greek Tapas/City Centre, Nottingham):
18th (lunch) – yes
19th (lunch) – yes
19th (evening) – only 10 seats left
call 01159 994 0199
If you are still stuck for ideas – just give us a call on 01159 506 804 or email bookings@godine.co.uk and we will help as much as we can.Happy Christmas!
The Go dine team
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Madeira Sauce recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant Derby
Madeira Sauce recipe by Nick Buckingham
This is an elegant and delicately flavoured sauce that goes well with all meats, from beef to chicken and pork. It is excellent for adding interest to plain grilled meats without overwhelming them. It is quick and simple to make and relies on the flavour of a good Madeira wine for its success.
Amount
1 PintIngredients
1 pt Clear Stock
55g / 2 oz Minced Onion
Sprig of Thyme
Seasoning
Butter
MadeiraMethod
Bring the stock to the boil with the onion and thyme and cook at a steady simmer. Reduce the stock by half.
Season and strain the stock back into the pan. Reheat the reduced stock and add Madeira to taste. Finish with butter, when ready to serve, by stirring a generous knob of butter in off the heat to give a shiny glaze to the sauce.To Serve
Pour over and around the meat and serve immediately.Points to Watch
The sauce should be bright and shiny
Watch out for the delicate flavourView Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
read more of Nick Buckingham’s incredible recipes
This is an elegant and delicately flavoured sauce that goes well with all meats, from beef to chicken and pork. It is excellent for adding interest to plain grilled meats without overwhelming them. It is quick and simple to make and relies on the flavour of a good Madeira wine for its success.Amount
1 PintIngredients
1 pt Clear Stock
55g / 2 oz Minced Onion
Sprig of Thyme
Seasoning
Butter
MadeiraMethod
Bring the stock to the boil with the onion and thyme and cook at a steady simmer. Reduce the stock by half.
Season and strain the stock back into the pan. Reheat the reduced stock and add Madeira to taste. Finish with butter, when ready to serve, by stirring a generous knob of butter in off the heat to give a shiny glaze to the sauce.To Serve
Pour over and around the meat and serve immediately.Points to Watch
The sauce should be bright and shiny
Watch out for the delicate flavour -
Langoustine Sauce recipe by Buckingham’s restaurant Derby
Langoustine Sauce recipe by Nick Buckingham
A wonderful, well-flavoured, rich and creamy sauce to serve with baked fish or any other seafood dish. This recipe makes a large quantity of sauce, so you may want to halve or even quarter the quantities if you are just cooking for a few people. The sauce can be prepared earlier in the day and refrigerated, then re-heated and finished at the last moment when you are ready to serve.
Amount
2 PintsIngredients
1.3kg / 3 lb Langoustine Shells
220g / 8oz Peeled Vegetables – Onions, Leeks, Carrots, Celery (cut into dice)
6 pts Fish Stock
27g / 1oz Garlic Butter
27g / 1oz Flour
Fresh Dill and Dill Seeds
Seasoning
Brandy
¼ pt Tomato Passata
1 pt Cream
ButterMethod
Fry the Langoustine shells, vegetables, dill and dill seed in the garlic butter until golden brown.
Add a dash of brandy.
Add the flour and cook out, stirring for a minute or two. Then pour in the stock and add the tomato passata. Work the sauce stirring until smooth.
Bring the sauce to the boil and reduce the liquid by half. Add the cream and cook at a steady simmer for 10 minutes.
Allow to stand.
Season with care. Strain through a chinois or fine mesh sieve and allow to cool.To Serve
Reboil to serve, add a knob of butter to finish.
Check for flavour and seasonPoints to Watch
Make sure the flavour is good and strong.
If sauce has separated, liquidise to bring back to smooth texture before reheating and adding the final knob of butter.View Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.
