Alex's Tips - New ideas
Our cook Alex is here to answer any questions you may have, to ask your question click here.
"I’m looking to do something different with my salads – any suggestions?" Ben from London
Hi Ben,
Beluga or Puy lentils make a delicious and filling salad, to which you can add anything from roasted peppers to grilled chicken to tinned tuna. Camargue Red Rice is also a lively little beauty to treat the same way. In both cases, the key is to dress them while they are still hot, this way they’ll soak up the dressing and seasonings. For an original replacement for croutons, slice and grill cooked chestnuts then toss them through green salads.
Warm regards,
Alex
Q: I have some tins of unsweetened chestnut puree, but I want to use them in recipes that need sweetened chestnut puree. How much sugar do I need to add, and will the end result be the same?
Add 75g icing sugar per tin for a reasonably sweet mix, add a little less, then taste and then add more if you want it sweeter. But to be able to tell you if the end result would be the same it would be helpful to know what you are going to use it for. For example, if it is a frozen dessert, I would say add 25g more as well as 2-3tbs booze. The sweetened chestnut puree that I have used has been slightly softer in texture than ours. But not by much, you should be fine.
I would suggest whizzing the puree together with the sugar in your food processor. Let it go around for a couple of minutes to lighten the puree. This will make it easier to mix with the cream or meringue that I assume you are going to add.
It is lovely with rum or brandy added, vanilla as well. You can also add grated orange or clementine zest. A couple of days ago I made my cheats chestnut mouse where I whip together equal quantities of chestnut puree and mascarpone and then I stir in icing sugar to taste. I serve this with vanilla ice cream and if I’ve got some in the freezer I sprinkle bits of broken meringue over the top.
Q. Could you please give me a recipe idea for a christmas canape which would feature salmon mousse as the main ingredient.
A. Try putting little spoonfuls of the salmon mousse onto warm blinis then putting halved soft boiled quails eggs on top. Wrap spoonfuls of the salmon mousse in slices of smoked salmon and tie them with blanched chives for a little parcel. On a slightly simpler note,try little spoonfuls on top of cucumber or granny smith apple slices.Garnish with dried cranberry, orange zest and chervil or parsley for a Christmas look.
Q. What vegetarian child-friendly recipes can I make with orzo?
A. The taste, size and texture of Orzo is great for kids, mine are 4 and 2 and we eat it regularly. There are two recipes on our website that you can adapt to orzo – both are vegetarian and great for kids.
Roast Chestnut and Butternut Squash Pasta with SunBlush® Tomatoes - Just replace the macaroni with Orzo and adjust the cooking time. Cut the chestnuts into tiny pieces for smaller kids.
Red and White Quinoa with Basil and Spring Vegetables - Add cooked orzo in place of the quinoa.
As well as these I have done a type of risotto using porcini mushrooms and their juice with orzo. There is the fresh mushroom risotto on the back of the pack, just leave out the wine for the kids. Try also using tomato juice to cook the orzo with, then stir in some cheese and peas to finish. I find orzo an excellent way to introduce vegetables, make sure there is something they know already mixed in and then try adding other vegetables they don’t know so well, cut into small pieces. Now, just in case you haven’t tried it, all of these recipes can be made using giant couscous, or even better the wholewheat giant couscous. I made a dish with the wholewheat version mixed with pesto at my Cookery Workshop with Delia Smith last week and all of the audience who tasted it said it was so delicious, they couldn’t believe it was wholewheat. It also cooks in under 10 minutes!! Both my kids love this as well, except that I’m having a little problem getting my 2 year old to eat anything green except for peas at the moment. I hope your kids enjoy it all.
Q. I'm having a party of 7 friends round to my home to celebrate my 50th birthday in May. Could you advise me on the kind of food I should serve? They're coming at 1.30pm, I'm serving champange on arrival but I'm at a loss of what kind of food to make because of the time. I would love something special but not too difficult and not too time consuming.
A. It sounds to me like a Mediterranean buffet might be the best idea for you. Exactly the sort of thing I’d do. A plate with a selection of Parma Ham, Chorizo and perhaps a few other cured meats; a plate of smoked salmon with cream cheese and lemon on the side, a salad of roasted peppers with a roquito pepper and basil dressing, a mozzarella, sunblush tomato and cherry tomato salad, a mixed leaf salad then a Puy lentil, bacon, parsley and ricotta salad. Most of these ingredients are ready to use so this is as simple as special gets. If you like seafood you could add some cooked king prawns with mayonnaise.
For your birthday cake, depending on when in May your birthday is, you might have the first of the English strawberries, so you could make or buy a large meringue or small individual ones, fill them with whipped cream and ice cream and dulce de leche then top with strawberries and strawberry puree.
Q. I have 2 tins of chestnut puree, could you please suggest some recipes?
A. If it’s something sweet you fancy we have half a dozen desserts here. A lovely, quick dessert can be made by mixing the puree with some cream, sugar, vanilla and/or rum or brandy to serve with ice cream.
If you fancy a little soup, you can make lovely creamy soup without any cream by using parsnip, butternut squash, pumpkin, potato or parsnip - add chestnut puree near the end once the vegetables are completely soft, then liquidise and season. As well as tasting lovely, the puree adds a lovely texture. If you wanted to make large quantities, the soup will freeze very well.
For a rich stuffing for chicken, mix chestnut puree with caramelised onions and garlic, herb of your choice, a few breadcrumbs and some parmesan cheese. You could also try one with apples and cinnamon for something a bit different, or pears and nutmeg.
Q. How can I eat Puy lentils - any recipe ideas for using Puy, both the tinned and dried variety?
A. Please find below ideas that would suit all of our lentils, dried, tinned and in also the wonderful cooked lentils in pouches. At the moment, I’m making a lot of Winter salads with lentils, just warm them through and dress while hot with oil and balsamic vinegar or lemon juice and season to taste. Use this as a base for grilled vegetables, fish, meat chicken or Halloumi. Here are a few more ideas.
- Smoked Mackerel or Salmon and Lentil Fishcakes (use the lentils where normally you’d have mash)
- Hot Lentil and Bacon Salad
- Beluga Lentil, Cheese and Pepper Tortilla Bake with Spicy Lentil and Avocado Salsa
- Pan Fried Pork Chops with a Moroccan Type Lentil Salsa, mixed with SunBlush Tomatoes, Almonds, olive oil and lime
- Stir Fried Soy, Honey and Ginger Chicken with Lentils, Carrots and Mange Tout (sort of like a chow mien but with lentils instead of noodles)
- A lentil Mezze, Lentil Greek salad, Lentil Hummus and Lentil, Feta and Piquillo Pepper Pita
- Lentil and Red Onion Cheesy Lasagna Bake
- Sausages with Lentil and Rosemary Mash, Porcini and Red Wine Gravy
Please also have a look at our online recipes and as luck would have it, we will have a video recipe up on the site shortly for ‘Puy Lentils with Sausages and Crisp Cheese Topping’ which is the most moreish of winter dishes.
Q. Are there any other recipes that use Celery other than in a salad?
A. I prefer celery hot to cold. You can cook the thicker stalks, they are best peeled first to make them less stringy, but the best part is the heart. I like to cut this in half and then poach it in vegetable or chicken stock with a clove of garlic, and a sprig of thyme. It is best cooked until completely tender in the stock. You can then eat the celery it as is (the stock makes a soothing and refreshing broth too) or...
- Bake it in a cheese sauce like cauliflower or macaroni cheese
- Dress it with a Provencal mixture of olive oil, lemon, chopped SunBlush tomatoes, olives and basil (this is good warm or at room temperature)
- Wrap it in ham, sprinkle it with cheese, breadcrumbs, garlic, chopped roquito peppers and rosemary, drizzle with olive oil and grill lightly
You can then vary these dressings/toppings according to your taste. They key is to first make sure the celery is peeled and then cooked all of the way through.
Q. I'm looking for a recipe for frozen, cooked lobster. I've never tried lobster and would love to have it over Christmas, any suggestions Alex?
A. As you’ve never tried lobster, I’ll suggest the two simplest ways for the time being, both to eat it quite naturally, then if you decide you like it, get back in touch for a few more ideas. In both cases, de-frost the lobster overnight in the fridge; if you try to defrost it in a hurry, you’ll only succeed in making it tough.
I am assuming your lobster has been cut in half through the tail. First of all, crack the claws while the lobster is cold, use the back of a big knife or a light tap with a hammer. This will make it easier to remove the flesh and there is a lot of flesh to be had in the claws.
The first way is to remove all of the flesh from the tail and claws, slice it, and serve room temperature rather than really cold with homemade mayonnaise and a crisp lettuce salad.
The second is to heat the lobster through. Because it is already cooked, the best way to do this is to put it into a really hot steamer for 1 minute, then turn the heat off and leave to sit for 5 minutes with the lid still on; this allows the heat to get through the lobster without overcooking the flesh. Then simply serve with hot melted butter. If you have some of the creamy coral inside the top half of the shell, mix this with the butter.
Lastly, you can make the lobster last longer by making a stock from all of the shells. Fry the shells for 1 minute in a touch of vegetable oil in a medium saucepan then add a heaped tablespoon of tomato puree and cover with water to just above the level of the shells. Bring to the boil then simmer for 20 minutes then strain.
I use this stock to make risotto, or even better, try making an 8 minute risotto with some of our Orzo, it’s a new discovery for me and I rarely use rice anymore, it’ll soak up the lobster stock a treat!
Q. New way please of cooking stuffed Marrow. We like flavours and different seasonings.
A. I hope you are well, great timing as I've been in the same marrow filled boat. Here are a couple of my favourites.
Moroccan Lentil - I make a mixture with cooked lentils (I like the Pardina for this) lots of onions, garlic and ginger, then I season with salt, cumin, turmeric and paprika. Put some of the lentils in the bottom of a deep oven proof dish with either chicken stock or tomato juice to serve as both sauce and accompaniment. I then crush/mash the remainder slightly and use this mashed lentil to stuff the marrow. I then trickle olive oil over the top and braise in the oven at a low temperature until it becomes soft and delicious. Top up the liquid if it becomes dry around the outside. For a very different and delicious seasoning for the lentils, try ras-el-hanout, which I also often use in this recipe.
Sausage, Fennel and Roquito - Buy some sausage meat and mix with with fennel seeds and chopped roquito peppers (I use these instead of fresh chilli in pretty much all my recipes now). Grate in the zest of 1 orange. Next, make a tomato sauce (see the gnocchi video recipe for a good one) but, when you are sweating the onions and garlic for the sauce, add a fennel bulb, chopped into little chunks and add the juice of 2 oranges to the sauce. Fill the marrow with the sausage meat then pour the tomato sauce over the top and braise.
For any recipes with marrow, I have always found that long, slow cooking is key, to get as much liquid as possible out of it and concentrate the flavour.
Q. I'm intending on cooking the large couscous for guests at my daughters christening. What are your favourite items to add into this?
A. Hi, I hope you are well, I am assuming you’ll be serving the large couscous as a big salad so I’ll give you a couple of suggestions for that. If this is not the case please let me know. I like to make a sort of Moroccan salad, with olive oil, lemon, chopped dried apricots, raisins, SunBlush tomatoes and mint. you can most of these goodies in and then sprinkle the rest over the top for an extremely pretty finish, if you fancy, add a few pistachios to add to the “jewelled look; this is a good one for kids, mine always love the mixture of couscous and dried fruit.
Another very special beauty is to dress it with pesto and then scatter small pieces of Parma Ham, shavings of parmesan cheese and SunBlush tomatoes over the top.
For something entirely different, try a walnut or hazelnut dressing, then grill or some sliced cooked chestnuts and bacon chunks to scatter over the top; sliced beans or mange tout make a nice addition to this.
Alternatively if you’re serving something with gravy, just stir a good knob of butter, some Parmesan or cheddar cheese and a grind of black pepper into the giant couscous and you are away.
I hope this helps, please feel free to get in touch again if you need anything else.
Q. I have some ready-made polenta but am unsure what to do with it. Plus its a massive pack and I don't want to eat it all at once - how can I keep it fresh?
A. I have often cooked our polenta in advance to have some handy for my kids and also for a side dish and everyday snacks. I take it your polenta will be in a block? If so, you can slice and grill it, then top it with cheese like cheese on toast, you can pan fry the slices until crisp and top them with creamy mushrooms. If you fancy a salad, you can cut the polenta into cubes, fry them and toss them through the salad like croutons. I also like long thin slices spread with pesto or tapenade, or ricotta and sunblush tomatoes. Basically anything you can think of that you would use toast, for, try it with grilled or fried polenta. I also cut it into chunky chips as a fun side dish, sometimes slices to sauté with onions like Lyonnaise potatoes. Any that remains, cut it into slices or cubes and then freeze it. That way you only need take out as much as you require each time.
Q. Hi Alex, We are holding a barbecue for about 50 people on bank holiday weekend. We are having a hog roast and wondered if you could recommend some interesting salads to complement?
A. I’ll offer you three to start you off, importantly salads that can sit for a while and can be prepared at least partially in advance.
Roast beetroot, SunBlush tomato and mozzarella is a beauty. Just buy pre-cooked beetroot, cut them into wedges and roast with oil and a dash of balsamic vinegar. The SunBlush tomatoes are done for you and the mozzarella just needs to be chopped. Make a dressing with the sunblush oil and vinegar, toss the SunBlush and beetroot the day before if you like, then scatter the mozzarella over the top just before serving so it doesn’t get too stained by the beetroot.
Especially with pork, I like to do a lentil salad, simmer Puy lentils until just soft, then drain and toss while hot (so they really soak it up) with vinegar and oil then mix with a chopped and roasted peppers, you can do your own or try our piquillos peppers. Stir through some basil or even better, basil pesto just before serving.
Lastly, a Roquito pepper and potato salad, cook new potatoes then toss them with extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper while they are still hot (vital). Stir in some finely chopped Roquito peppers, see my note on the site for details of differing heat. Then just before serving, stir in some snipped chives which you can snip in advance. This is a delicious and pretty potato salad, also good for a hog roast because it is not swimming in mayo or sour cream. Get all the prep done the day before then you’ve a couple of minutes of final touches as you lay the salads out. Remember, none of these like to be served too cold. Have a wonderful hog roast.
Q. We are speciality coffee roasters and are looking for a great recipes that could use our coffees - do you have any that you could share with us?
A. Three outstanding coffee recipes that come to mind are Delia Smith’s coffee and walnut cake, the pastry chef at Norwich City Football club made me one for my mother in law’s birthday last week, and two from Le Manoir, “Le Café Crème” a chocolate cup filled with espresso parfait topped with a kirsch sabayon and their white chocolate tiramisu mousse, glorious.
Q. Do you have a favourite coffee ice cream recipe?
A. The best coffee ice cream I have tasted recently is from Ronaldos of Norfolk. I think they use the traditional method.
Q. Also, do you have a particular coffee concentrate that you use, or will cooled coffee do the trick?
A. It entirely depends on the recipe, in most cases you want to add lots of flavour and very little liquid so a concentrate is a good idea, but in concentrate it is difficult to capture the freshly brewed taste so in some cases, such as custards, it is best to use broken but not crushed beans.
Q. Hi Alex I seem to have a glut of runner beans from my garden at the moment any ideas for somthing a bit different to do with them?
A. I am in the same boat, we made a bean den, sort of like a tepee, for my 3 year old with 16 plants and we have tons. To start with, pick the beans quite small so that they are tender and string less, then you will have less quantity but better eating quality. In terms of uses, runner beans are lovely in all sorts of salads, slice them lengthways for a little variety, sort of like bean spaghetti, then toss with crisp fried bacon and chestnuts, parsley, a touch of vinegar and oil. Or mix with lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil, basil, then top with ricotta and SunBlush or mi-cuit tomatoes. Try a spiced up mixture with chopped Roquito pepper, honey, soy and ginger, great with grilled mackerel, salmon, chicken or pork. Boil and then toss them through the gnocchi dish from my video recipe.
When adding any acid, vinegar or lemon do so right at the last minute or the beans go brown.
They also freeze well, but you must cook them first. Boil in plenty of salted water then once they are cooked to the point that you like them, transfer to very cold or iced water. Once they are cold, drain very well on absorbent paper and then freeze them in the portion size that you are most likely to use. Then they can just be heated up in the microwave and used for one of the dishes above.
Q. I have a 7.5 month old baby. Do you have any nice recipes?
A. I’ve got a 1 year old and a 3 year old, I’ve just had a chat with my wife about it as 7 months seems so long ago!! We always try and tried to give the kids the same food that we eat. But, at 7 months our boys ate at different times from us so we would keep some of the previous meal, which we would puree, and most of the time we would add something to make the flavour gentler. I.e. say we ate roast chicken, we would put some to one side before seasoning for us, often enough for 2 baby meals. Then we would whiz up the chicken with the vegetables and add a little quinoa, mashed potato or mashed sweet potato. We found the quinoa great to start getting ours used to a bit of texture. Our pre-cooked lentils, wholesome grains and quinoa are helpful for times when you need something quickly, just open a pack, use what you need then freeze the rest in ice cube trays. Finger food is also good, but don’t try raw things yet as it is too much work for them, a few things that worked for us were boiled green beans, baby corn and carrot sticks, they like picking them up.
Whatever you do, try not to get in the habit of cooking separate meals, kids will eat what you eat as long as you get them into the habit of doing so, and the stage you are at is the stage to begin. It’s hard work sometimes but the rewards are great, our kids love eating the same food we do so meal times are a real joy. I have more suggestions in the kids corner section of my recipes.
Q. What is a quick and easy dish with Puy Lentils?
A. A quick and easy dish that is fresh, tasty and perfect for summer is Puy Lentils with a warm tomato dressing. 1 large ripe tomato per person, remove the core at the top, roughly chop and then warm through for 1 minute with olive oil, a couple of spoonfuls of tomato or orange juice, a touch of grated lemon or orange zest, season to taste then finish with sliced basil. Spoon this over the top of warm, drained Puy lentils, either those you have cooked yourself, or one of our ready cooked pouches. The warm lentils suck up the fragrant dressing and are delicious on their own, or can be served with grilled or baked chicken or fish, piquillo peppers, chopped goats cheese or mozzarella.
Q. What can I do with my goose fat, as I often have lots left over after making roast potatoes?
A. You could try using ice-cube trays to freeze left-over goose fat in smaller portions. It is also lovely for frying mushrooms and eggs.
Q. I need to cook some food for a kids birthday party, any ideas that don’t include chicken nuggets and chips, but will still go down a hit with children?
A. Try these:
• Make little kebabs with grapes, cherry tomatoes, SunBlush® Tomatoes and bits of cheese
• Try hummus with vegetable sticks, my kids love peppers and carrots
• Home made crisps with beetroot and parsnips
• Home made mini pizzas with toppings the kids can put on themselves at the party
• Try introducing kids to new spices by infusing them in juice for home made ice lollies - ginger in orange, cinnamon in apple
