Read Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course Online
Authors: Gordon Ramsay
Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course (16 page)
Olive oil, for frying
200g lean minced beef
200g minced pork
Toasted sesame oil, for frying
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
5cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1–2 red chillies, deseeded and chopped
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
Zest of 1 lime, juice of
3 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 little gem lettuces, separated into leaves, to serve
FOR THE DRESSING
1 tbsp soy sauce
Juice of ½ lime
1 tsp sesame oil
½ red chilli, thinly sliced
Small bunch of coriander leaves, chopped
1–2 tsp fish sauce, to taste
1 tsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
1
. Heat a large frying pan and add a little oil. Mix the minced beef and pork together. Season with salt and pepper and mix well to ensure the seasoning is evenly distributed. Fry the mince in the hot pan for 5–7 minutes until crisp and brown and broken down to a fine consistency. Drain the crisped mince in a sieve – this will help it stay crispy. Set aside.
2
. Wipe out the pan and add a tablespoon of toasted sesame oil. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli. Fry with a pinch of salt and the sugar for 2 minutes. Add the drained mince and stir to mix.
3
. Add the fish sauce and heat through. Stir in the lime zest and juice, then add the spring onions, stirring for 30 seconds. Turn off the heat.
4
. Mix all the dressing ingredients together and adjust to taste.
5
. To serve, spoon some of the mince mixture into the lettuce leaves, drizzle with a little dressing and serve.
PORK NECK CURRY
WITH MANGO SALSA
SERVES 4–6
This has got to be my favourite curry in the world: all those zingy Thai flavours with one of the most overlooked cuts of pork, and topped off with a really fresh, light mango salsa. Don’t be put off by the long list of ingredients: this is one of those dishes that takes a bit of setting up, but then bubbles away on its own.
Olive oil, for frying
1kg pork neck, cut into 2.5cm chunks
1 onion, peeled and finely sliced
1 × 400ml tin coconut milk
750ml chicken stock
1 tbsp palm sugar or golden caster sugar
1½ tbsp soy sauce, to taste
1½ tbsp fish sauce, to taste
Rice, to serve
FOR THE CURRY PASTE
1 lemongrass stick, bashed and finely chopped
4 kaffir lime leaves, 2 shredded
1–2 red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped, to taste
4cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and grated
3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
FOR THE MANGO SALSA
1 mango, not too ripe, peeled and finely diced
1 small red onion, peeled and finely diced
Small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped
2 tbsp chopped toasted peanuts
Juice of 1 lime
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
1
. First make the curry paste. Combine the lemongrass, shredded lime leaves, chillies, ginger, garlic, cinnamon and coriander with a good pinch of salt and a generous grinding of pepper in a small food processor. Blitz to a smooth paste, then add the oil to loosen slightly.
2
. Heat a glug of oil in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat and brown the pork neck (you may have to do this in batches, depending on the size of your pan) for about 5 minutes until coloured all over. Remove and set to one side. Add a little more oil to the pan, then add the onion and cook for 3–4 minutes until tender and beginning to colour on the edges.
3
. Add the curry paste, stirring it around until aromatic and well mixed into the onions. Return the pork to the pan, stir to coat in the curry paste, then add the coconut milk. Stir thoroughly, scraping up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.
4
. Add the chicken stock, mixing well, then stir in the sugar, whole lime leaves, soy sauce and fish sauce. Taste and adjust the flavours as necessary, adding more soy and/or fish sauce along with salt and pepper if needed. Bring to the boil then simmer gently for 1 hour, stirring occasionally until the sauce is thick and flavourful and the pork tender.
5
. Meanwhile, mix together the salsa ingredients and season to taste. Serve the curry with rice topped with the mango salsa.
CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
WITH CHILLI AND MANGO
SERVES 4
Chocolate and chilli is one of those combinations made in heaven, and the mango just takes it to another dimension. As ever, make sure you use a good-quality chocolate, and if you can get a sweet, perfumed Alphonso mango, in season from April to May, so much the better.
50g unsalted butter
2–3 mild red chillies, deseeded and chopped
150g dark chocolate (70 per cent cocoa solids)
2 large egg yolks
60g caster sugar
175ml double cream
1 small ripe mango
1
. Melt the butter in a small pan with the chopped chilli over a low heat. Leave to infuse for 30 minutes, then strain and discard the chilli.
2
. Break the chocolate into pieces in a large heatproof bowl. Add the infused butter and set the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. Heat the chocolate for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until it melts, then remove and cool to room temperature.
3
. Meanwhile, put the egg yolks, sugar and 2 tablespoons of cold water in a large bowl. Place the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. Using a hand-held electric whisk, beat the eggs and sugar for 5–10 minutes, until you are left with a pale, thick foam that holds a trail when the beaters are lifted up. Remove the bowl from the heat and set aside.
4
. Using a balloon whisk, softly whip the cream in a separate bowl. When the melted chocolate and egg yolk mixtures are at the same temperature as the whipped cream, gently fold the egg yolk mixture into the chocolate using a large metal spoon. Using a figure-of-eight motion, fold in the whipped cream quickly and gently.
5
. Divide the mixture between 4 small glasses and chill for at least 2 hours. When you are ready to serve, cut the mango either side of the stone, then peel and slice the flesh into thin wedges. Place a couple of mango slices delicately on top of each mousse and serve.
HOW TO WHIP CREAM
It is very easy to overwhip cream and cause it to go grainy if you are using an electric whisk. Whisking cream by hand is tiring but gives you more control and allows you to achieve the perfect, soft billowy texture you're looking for.
FRAGRANT SPICED
RICE PUDDING
SERVES 4–6
I really got into the fragrance of chai tea when I was in India, and transferring the same spices of cardamom, cloves, vanilla and cinnamon to rice pudding transforms it from a Plain Jane into something spectacular. Don’t wash the rice first, as you would for a savoury dish, because the starch helps the pudding.
2 cardamom pods, lightly crushed
1 vanilla pod, split open and seeds scraped out
3 cloves
½ cinnamon stick, snapped in half
1 × 400ml tin coconut milk
4 tbsp caster sugar
600ml whole milk
2 tbsp double cream
Zest of 1½ limes
225g pudding rice
2 egg yolks
2 heaped tbsp mascarpone cheese
1
. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6.
2
. Put the cardamom pods, vanilla pod and seeds in a hob-proof baking dish with the cloves and cinnamon stick. Place over a medium heat and toast for 2 minutes until aromatic.
3
. Add the coconut milk, sugar, milk and double cream and bring slowly to the boil, stirring gently as you do so. Add the zest of 1 lime, then taste, adding more if you like. Pour in the rice and mix well. Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook gently for 5 minutes, stirring continuously.
4
. Mix together the egg yolks and mascarpone and add to the rice mixture off the heat, ensuring it is well combined. Sprinkle the remaining lime zest over the top of the dish and place in the preheated oven for 15–20 minutes until golden brown on top and the rice is cooked through.
HOW TO TOAST SPICES
Toasting spices in a dry pan for even just a few seconds enhances and draws out their fragrance. Be careful not to burn them or they will turn bitter and you’ll taste it in the final dish.
WE’VE ALL SEEN HOW OUR
FOOD BILLS HAVE ROCKETED
OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS.
We’re feeling it at home and in the restaurant too, and the signs are that it’s only going to get worse. We’ve grown used to a period when the cost of food has actually been very low as a percentage of our income, so now we’re all having to readjust. That’s why it’s such a great skill in the kitchen to be able to conjure up great meals from cheap ingredients. What would a Michelin-starred chef know about economy, you might ask? Don’t we just buy the best ingredients, the most expensive cuts, and then charge our customers accordingly? Well, best ingredients, yes; but most expensive, no. Of course customers will expect a piece of turbot, scallops and saddle of lamb on the menu of a smart restaurant, but you always have to balance this out with cheaper ingredients. The secret is knowing how to make those cheaper ingredients sing.
When I opened Aubergine in the early 1990s, money was incredibly tight, so I took two approaches. The first was to make sure that absolutely nothing was wasted. Every meat carcass, every vegetable peeling, every scrap of leftover bread had to be re-used, whether for a stock or just a staff meal. I swear we had the emptiest bins in London.
Second, I used all the less fashionable, cheaper cuts of meat, the ones the other smart restaurants would turn up their noses at – things like belly of pork, oxtail and lamb shanks. I knew that through my skill as a chef, I’d be able to add value to those humble cuts, to wrestle maximum flavour out of them. Any fool (well, almost any fool) can make a meal out of fillet steak or a tranche of wild salmon – you just add heat and serve – but to produce something magical out of breast of lamb or the humble sardine is so much more rewarding. It may take a little more work, a little more imagination, but it means you can eat well for considerably less.
The first task is to identify the best-value ingredients. Your main source of protein, typically meat or fish, is normally the most expensive thing on your plate, so if you want to keep costs down, this is the place to start. You have two choices: either, as I say, to use cheaper cuts or less popular fish, or to eat less of them. When I say cheaper cuts, I don’t of course mean poorer quality. Cheap meat won’t cook as well, it won’t taste as good, and in the long run it is always a false economy. But cheaper cuts from a quality animal are another matter. It’s a shame we don’t eat as much liver or kidney as we used to, because they still represent great value and can be fried off very quickly in a pan. Otherwise, cheaper cuts tend to lend themselves to slow cooking – something I’ll cover in the next chapter, where you’ll find recipes for economical braises of all sorts of unfashionable cuts, such as lamb neck, beef short ribs or oxtail.
Similarly with fish, we tend to turn out of habit to the prime pieces – loins of cod, fillets of salmon, whole sea bass – when less fashionable and cheaper fish, such as sardines or mackerel, have a superb flavour and can be dressed up to become just as exciting. Try my Spaghetti with Chilli, Sardines and Oregano (
see here
) if you don’t believe me. Cooking with more vegetables, rice and pulses is probably the best way to save money, though. They are fantastic for bulking out a dish if you want to make your meat or fish go further – in risotto, for example, or a prawn jambalaya – but they can just as easily be the star of the show in their own right. The trick is to give them a bit of attitude, to perk them up with spices and build up layers of flavour.
Vegetables are always cheaper than meat, even more so if you shop seasonally. We talk endlessly about the provenance of food, where it is sourced, how far it’s travelled, carbon footprint this, food miles that, and the debate will rumble on for years. But the best argument for buying in season is that it’s how to get produce at its best and its cheapest. Asparagus flown in from Peru in November? No thanks. I’ll wait for the British asparagus to arrive in April, when it will be much fuller of flavour and half the price. Apples shipped in from New Zealand? Well, yes, but I won’t cook with them with such abandon as I will when the English crop is coming in and the shops and markets are full of them.
Always make the most of these seasonal gluts. Visit pick-your-own farms for gooseberries in June or blackberries in September, freezing what you don’t use immediately, and you’ll never have to reach for another over-priced punnet of summer fruits again. Thinking ahead is always essential. It’s not just about planning what you will eat in two or three days’ time (important though that is to ensure you don’t waste food) but what you might eat in the months ahead.
I’ve been inspired to cook with more vegetables and pulses from my travels around the world. To see the way the Indians can make a whole meal out of lentils, the Mexicans their black beans, and the Thais a stir-fry of rice noodles shows how much they have to teach us. Developing countries like these have had to invent healthy, nourishing and cheap meals out of necessity, and now it’s a lesson we’ll do well to learn in the West.
With all of these dishes – with cooking in general but even more so here – the key is to make your ingredients work for you. If you are using fewer ingredients, or less of them, you must get the maximum flavour out of what you do have. You need to lock every last inch of flavour into the pan. Never rush an onion, for example. Let it sweat slowly and gently in butter or oil and you will be rewarded with a sweetness you could never imagine. Crumble a sausage out of its skin and you will be harnessing far more of its flavour. You’ll be able to spread it around the pan and it will lend more of its herbs and spices to the other ingredients in there. Finally, remember what every shrewd housewife has always known: embrace your leftovers and throw nothing away. Stale bread makes a great bread and butter pudding, but also turn it into breadcrumbs so you can make the meat in a burger stretch further. Leftover mash or baked potatoes aren’t just for bubble and squeak: bound with ricotta in Home-made Gnocchi (
see here
) they make a fantastic alternative to pasta. If you can get into the habit of incorporating your leftovers into the next day’s meal, you’ll not only eat better, but you’ll save a fortune too.