Stuffed roasted tomatoes with goat’s cheese and Mozzarella

September 27, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Italian Gino D’Acampo is one of the most charismatic and respected chefs in Britain today. Passionate and enthusiastic, he is hugely popular and loves nothing more than bringing his love of Italian food to life. Working together with Italian cheese brand Galbani, Gino has created a selection of great Italian dishes to make at home.

Stuffed roasted tomatoes with goat’scheese and Galbani Mini Mozzarella
Serves 6

Ingredients
6 beef tomatoes
2 tablespoons of crushed walnuts
180g goat’s cheese, without the rind and crumbled
150g Galbani Mini Mozzarella
6 thick slices of white bread
2 tablespoons freshly copped basil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

With the help of a sharp knife cut a thin slice from the bottom of each tomato and discard.

Cut the top of each tomato and reserve, then using a teaspoon, carefully scoop out the seeds and most of the pulp and discard keeping the tomato shells whole.

In a bowl, mix together the Mozzarella, walnuts, goat’s cheese and basil. Season with salt and pepper and spoon into the tomato shells. (3 Mini Mozzarellas per tomato).

With the help of an 8cm round pastry cutter, stamp out 6 rounds from the bread slices and toast on both sides.

Once ready, place the bread in a single layer in a lightly oiled ovenproof dish.

Place the tomatoes on top of each toasted piece of bread and cook in the middle of a preheated oven at 190º/375F/gas mark 5 for approx 15-20 minutes until the cheese mixture looks melted and golden. (Make sure that the tomatoes are not too soft).

Serve immediately with a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil on top.

StuffedTomatoes

To see Gino’s video on how to cook Calzone al Dolcelatte click here.

Filed Under: Recipes

Calzone al Dolcelatte

September 26, 2008 By Leave a Comment

In this first video Gino shows you how to cook ‘Calzone al Dolcelatte’ a fresh Italian summer dish.

Calzone al Dolcelatte®
Makes 6 Calzone

Ingredients

For the Dough
2 pinches of salt
2 teaspoons dried yeast
Approx 280ml warm water
360g strong plain flour, plus extra for dusting
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing

Dolcelatte Filling
450g Galbani Dolcelatte®, cold and cut into cubes
75g freshly grated Pecorino cheese
80g rocket leaves (chopped)
75g crushed pistachio nuts
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

To prepare the dough, mix the salt and yeast together in a jug with the water. Place the flour into a large bowl, make a well in the centre and add the water mixture along with the olive oil. Use a wooden spoon to mix everything together to create a wet dough.

Turn out the dough onto a clean, well-floured surface and work it with your hands for about 5 minutes or until smooth and elastic.  Shape into 6 balls, place on a tray and cover with a tea-towel. Leave in a warm place to rise for at least 30 minutes until the dough has nearly doubled in size.

Meanwhile preheat the oven to 200ºC/400°F/gas mark 6.

Calzone Once rested turn the balls out onto a floured surface.  Use your hands (or a rolling pin) to push out from the centre, creating six round discs, about 18cm in diameter.  Place the pizza bases on two oiled baking trays.

To prepare the Dolcelatte® filling, mix all the ingredients in a large bowl and divide equally between the six pizza bases.  (Make sure that you place the filling on only one half of the disc).

Gently fold one side of the pizza disc on top of the other creating a half moon shape. Brush the edges with cold water and pinch the damp edges together ensuring you seal the half moon shaped Calzone properly.

Cook in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Once ready rest them on a rack for approximately 1 minute and enjoy with a cold beer.

For a quicker option, you can use a packet of pizza base mix to make the dough.

Filed Under: Recipes

Lamb Hot Pot

September 25, 2008 By Leave a Comment

LambHotPot_03Autumn lamb, in my opinion, tastes much better than Spring lamb. It has a stronger flavour because the lambs have had longer to graze and grow, and you can be far bolder with the flavours you add to it, than you could with the more delicate Spring lamb.

Sadly lamb is not cheap whether Spring or Autumn, so it helps to accompany it with other less expensive ingredients. With food prices reflecting the credit crunch and the potato season in full swing its never been a better time to make the most of the humble potato. Incredibly nutritious and filling, potatoes have a wide range of uses and are packed full of goodness. They are an excellent source of low fat energy for your brain and body. They also provide a valuable amount of several important nutrients: Folic Acid, Vitamin C, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B6, and iron – packing far more nutrition than either rice or pasta.

I know there are different varieties of potatoes best suited to different treatments, e.g. King Edwards make great roasties, while Charlottes are supreme in salads but I tend to buy all-rounders, it makes life a lot simpler. I’ve recently been trying out Rooster potatoes and they’re pretty good, we’ve had them mashed and roasted, with no complaints so far. I used them in this recipe too and they held their shape to my surprise. I thought they might fall apart but instead the tops were crunchily browned while the underneath soaked up the cooking juices and became lovely and soft.

Lamb Hot Pot
Serves 4

DicedVegIngredients
2 finely diced carrots
2 finely diced celery sticks
2 finely diced onions
1 crushed garlic clove
2 sprigs of rosemary
75g butter
4 large chump chops
150ml white wine
650ml good lamb or beef stock
8 thinly sliced Rooster potatoes
salt & pepper

Method

  1. Pre-heat oven to 180ºC / Gas Mark 4
  2. Lightly cook the vegetables, garlic and rosemary in 50g of butter. Then remove from the pan and keep to one side.
  3. Melt the remaining butter in the pan and brown the chops on each side. Then remove from the pan.
  4. Add the wine. Boil and reduce until almost dry.
  5. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Place the chops into a shallow braising dish and cover with the vegetables. Season with salt & pepper.
  6. Lay the sliced overlapping potatoes onto the chops, pour over the hot stock, and place into oven for 1 hour. Be sure to baste the potatoes every 15 minutes.

LambHotPot_01 LambHotPot_02 LambHotPot_04

Oh, I could eat it all over again! Such a simple dish with fantastic British ingredients, so flavourful and so satisfying, it was the perfect meal for a chilly evening.

This recipe is one of Andrew Fairlie’s from the Albert Bartlett website.

Filed Under: Featured, Meat, Recipes

Welsh Pork Belly and Black Pudding with Apple & Mustard Sauce

September 23, 2008 By Leave a Comment

4538_WelshFood (2) In this short step-by-step demonstration Stephen will show you just how easy it is to create a beautiful and delicious dish using only the very best Welsh produce.

The pork is from N S James and seasoned with Anglesey Sea Salt from Halen Môn, both True Taste award winning producers.

Now in its seventh year, the True Taste awards scheme is managed by The Welsh Assembly Government and recognises quality, innovation and excellence in the Welsh food and drink industry with more than 900 products and services judged each year.

Stephen Terry is chef-proprietor of True Taste of Wales award winning pub-restaurant The Hardwick, in Abergavenny.

Welsh Pork Belly and Black Pudding with Apple & Mustard Sauce and Watercress Salad with Olive Oil

Ingredients for approx eight people

1 x small belly of pork
400g of thinly sliced (3-4mm) black pudding
100ml extra virgin olive oil for dressing
100ml rape seed oil for pan frying bread crumbed belly portions
20g Flour, 2 x beaten eggs and breadcrumbs for coating the belly pork portions
1 x jar of premium apple sauce
1 x tablespoon of strong English mustard
Halen Môn Anglesey Sea Salt and pepper for seasoning

Method

The first thing to do is cook the pork belly. Place the belly in a roasting tray and half cover with water. Place a sheet of grease proof paper directly onto the top of the belly and then place tin foil over the top of the roasting tray and fold down the edges to seal the pork in. Now repeat this so there are two sheets of tin foil over the belly.

Place the belly in an oven at 120 degrees centigrade and cook for 8 hours.

Carefully remove the belly from the cooking liquid and allow to cool slightly on a tray, fat side up. When the belly is cool enough to handle the fun starts!

Essentially you need to deconstruct the belly and reconstruct it without all the bone, fat, skin, sinew etc. What you need to remember when you are rebuilding the belly is that it needs to be half the size of the original otherwise the finished product will be too thin. When you first remove the skin from the belly, reserve the soft underbelly fat that you should use to interlayer between each layer of pork belly meat. This will help to keep the belly moist inside when you reheat it to serve.

Every completed layer of pork should by followed by a layer of sliced black pudding. There should be approximately three layers of each at the end.
When you have finished layering the pork together it needs to be wrapped tightly in cling film and allowed to set in a fridge. Allow a minimum of six hours for this.

When set, remove from the cling film and cut into equal portions. Pass each portion through flour, egg and breadcrumbs and shallow fry in rape seed oil.

Then colour each of the four sides of each portion of belly over a medium flame until golden brown (alternatively you could colour the belly pork portions in a deep fat fryer, if available, set at 180°C). Now place on a tray and put into a medium heat oven to warm completely through. This should take about 5mins.

When hot, cut each belly portion in half lengthways and place on a serving plate. Season with Halen Môn Anglesey Sea Salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Stir the tablespoon of mustard into the apple sauce and garnish the plate with a spoonful of the sauce and watercress leaves and olive oil.

Filed Under: Meat, Recipes

Celeriac Soup

September 23, 2008 By Leave a Comment

Celeriac Celeriac is also known as ‘celery root,’ ‘turnip-rooted celery’ or ‘knob celery’. It’s a kind of celery, grown as a root vegetable for its large and well-developed taproot rather than for its stem and leaves. The taproot is typically used when it is about 10–12 cm in diameter; about the size of a large potato. Unlike other root vegetables, which store a large amount of starch, celery root is only about 5-6% starch by weight.

You can eat it raw or cooked. It has a tough, furrowed, outer surface which is usually sliced off before use because it is too rough to peel. Celeriac has a celery flavour, and is often used as a flavouring in soups and stews; it can also be used on its own, usually mashed, or used in casseroles, gratins and baked dishes.

The hollow stalk of the upper plant is sometimes cut into drinking straw lengths, rinsed, and used in the serving of tomato-based drinks such as the Bloody Mary cocktail. The tomato juice is lightly flavoured with celery as it passes through the stalk.

Celeriac is not as widely used as some other root vegetables, perhaps because it is harder to prepare and clean, but it is high in vitamin C, calcium and potassium and is definitely worth a little effort.

The following recipe was originally from Gold Top Milk but I’ve made a couple of modifications to suit my diet and it turned out really well. I used an extremely fresh celeriac from our farmers’ market and the smell took over the whole kitchen before I’d even sliced it open.

Celeriac Soup

Serves 6

CeleriacChopped 25g (1oz) butter
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 potato, peeled and cubed (about 200g/7oz)
1 celeriac (about 750g/ 1 1/2lb) peeled and cubed – I used the stalk and leaves too.
600ml (1 pint) hot good chicken or vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
600ml (1 pint) Gold Top milk
300g (10oz) Spanish Chorizo sausage, skin peeled off – I love chorizo but it doesn’t love me or my tummy, so I missed it out.
Flat leaved parsley, whole leaves or roughly chopped

Put the butter and onion in a large pan and cook over a medium heat, covered, for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until softened but not browned.

Add the cubes of potato and celeriac, stir well and cook, covered over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

CeleriacSoup_01 Pour in the stock, half cover and cook for 30-35 minutes or until the vegetables are tender enough to mash.

Puree the mixture in a food processor until smooth. Pour it back into the pan, add the Gold Top milk, season well and warm through. Add more milk or stock to get the soup the consistency you like.

Slice the chorizo and put into a frying pan over a medium heat for a few minutes, turning the slices over until just browned on both sides and the flavoured oil is released.

Spoon the soup into bowls. Place chorizo slices on top and drizzle the oil over. Add parsley leaves and sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper.

CeleriacSoup_02

Creamy and warming, this soup could even convert celery-haters!

For lots more recipe ideas check out www.gold-top.co.uk

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celeriac

Filed Under: Featured, Recipes, Vegetables
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