Archive for February, 2010

Go dine blogs now showing on Twitter

We love twitter and for all of you who use the site regularly, you can now view our latest posts. All you need to do is add us to your friend list and away you go!

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 Portions

Ingredients
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
Seasoning

Method
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.

read more of Nick Buckingham’s incredible recipes

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 Mix

Ingredients
255g / 9oz  Plain Flour
200g / 7oz Butter
430 ml / ¾ pt Water
7 Eggs
¼ teaspoon Salt

Method
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.

read more of Nick Buckingham’s incredible recipes

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 Portions

Ingredients
225g / 8 oz Choux Pastry
110g / 4oz Cheddar Cheese
27g / 1 oz Chives, chopped fine
Homemade Pickle
Sweet and Sour Salad

Method
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.

read more of Nick Buckingham’s incredible recipes

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 Portions

Ingredients
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 fish

Points to Watch
Wash well to remove any tiny piece of vegetable
Keep the colour
Do not over cook

View Nick Buckingham’s restaurant with one table, book online or call 01332 925 016.

read more of Nick Buckingham’s incredible recipes

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.