Action Cook Book

Action Cook Book Len Deighton 'I am going to cook you the best meal you have ever tasted in your life…' Harry Palmer to Sue Lloyd in ‘The Ipcress Files’'Len was a great cook, a smashing cook. I learned a lot about food from playing Harry Palmer' Michael CaineIf you look carefully at Harry Palmer's kitchen in the classic film ‘The Ipcress Files’ you will notice a newspaper pinned on the wall. This is one of Len Deighton's classic cookstrips, the series that ran for two years when he was the Observer food writer. Because before he became famous as the thriller writer of his generation, Len Deighton had trained as a pastry chef. He was also a brilliant graphic artist (his credits include the first ever UK cover for Kerouac's ‘On The Road’). ‘The Action Cookbook’ is the perfect mix of these two passions, created for the hero of his third passion.‘The Action Cook Book’ was once an instructional book for the bachelor male – a guide to sophisticated cooking for the would-be Harry Palmer. It now has a great following as a fabulous piece of nostalgia as well as retaining real credibility as a genuinely useful cook book.If you need to create the basic wine cellar (basic to Len Deighton – decidedly aspirational to the rest of us), or to learn how to cook full-bodied meals with a seductive touch (how could you resist brain souffl?? – ‘brains are a very good constituent for a souffle. They are delicious fried, or in any of the piquant wine sauces’), then this is the book for you. Action Cook Book Len Deighton’s Guide to Eating Table of Contents Cover Page (#ub287e4f2-ed60-51e1-9587-999f4e6f2dcc) Title Page (#u4e115a5c-8800-524e-991f-c25681f851e7) INTRODUCTION (#uc4ea74a0-45b7-5b21-9d25-726fb69af201) READ THIS FIRST (#u414fc8ab-7365-5580-9990-0aa24250ffdc) ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NUTRITION (#u95dc2b83-846a-5e04-b506-53a5946b441e) WHO NEEDS A REFRIGERATOR? (#ue3681927-9fe3-50f6-b542-905b54118e56) THE SECRET WEAPON IN THE KITCHEN: THE BLENDER (#u82d7dbed-b308-58fd-83c7-19f3903455f0) MEASURING (#u05a4b641-638f-59d7-9903-d16b38bcd274) UTENSILS (#u3d6a5a72-efbb-5e7a-83f2-699b9429f58d) THE AUTOMATIC COOKER AND THE PRESSURE COOKER (#u6f2c5134-e671-505b-a629-4b6c04d9cba6) FRUIT AND VEGETABLE NOTEBOOK (#ud05a13aa-f2a8-5812-844c-089032aa095b) BACHELOR FOODS (THE QUICK COOK) (#litres_trial_promo) FOOD IN SEASON (#litres_trial_promo) WHAT’S WHAT IN THE DELICATESSEN (#litres_trial_promo) HERBS, SPICES, SEEDS AND OTHER FLAVOURINGS (#litres_trial_promo) BASIC STORE CUPBOARD (#litres_trial_promo) BUY THESE ITEMS EACH WEEK (#litres_trial_promo) BUY AND EAT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (#litres_trial_promo) DRINKING (#litres_trial_promo) COOKING TERMS (#litres_trial_promo) ACTION COOK STRIPS (#litres_trial_promo) Meat (#litres_trial_promo) Rich Stock (#litres_trial_promo) Rice (#litres_trial_promo) Batter Mixtures (#litres_trial_promo) Noodles and Pastry (#litres_trial_promo) Danish Open Sandwiches (#litres_trial_promo) Chicken Soup (#litres_trial_promo) Borscht (#litres_trial_promo) Two French Soups (#litres_trial_promo) Minestrone (#litres_trial_promo) Boeuf Bourguignon (#litres_trial_promo) Pasta (#litres_trial_promo) P?t? Minute (#litres_trial_promo) A Terrine (#litres_trial_promo) Cassoulet (#litres_trial_promo) Chile con Carne (#litres_trial_promo) Beef Strogonoff and Sauerbraten (#litres_trial_promo) Brains in Black Butter (#litres_trial_promo) Poultry (#litres_trial_promo) Chicken Paprika (#litres_trial_promo) Chicken ? la Kiev (#litres_trial_promo) Caneton ? l’Orange (#litres_trial_promo) Persian Kebab (#litres_trial_promo) Offal (#litres_trial_promo) Cr?pinettes (#litres_trial_promo) Partridge (#litres_trial_promo) Steak and Kidney Pudding (#litres_trial_promo) Tripe and Onions (#litres_trial_promo) Boiled Leg of Mutton (#litres_trial_promo) Osso Buco (#litres_trial_promo) Sharp and Sweet Tongue (#litres_trial_promo) Gird Your Loins (#litres_trial_promo) Corned Beef (#litres_trial_promo) Pork Loaf (#litres_trial_promo) Sweetbreads (#litres_trial_promo) This Little Pig (#litres_trial_promo) Curry (#litres_trial_promo) Low-Calorie Lunch (#litres_trial_promo) Small Fry (#litres_trial_promo) Red Mullet (#litres_trial_promo) Trout (#litres_trial_promo) Sole Bercy (#litres_trial_promo) Cuttlefish in Ink (#litres_trial_promo) Eel (#litres_trial_promo) Lobster (#litres_trial_promo) Coquilles St Jacques (#litres_trial_promo) Cooking en Papillote (#litres_trial_promo) Globe Artichokes, Avocado Pear and Vinaigrette Dressing (#litres_trial_promo) Potato (#litres_trial_promo) Tomato (#litres_trial_promo) Baked Beans and Baked Potatoes (#litres_trial_promo) Onions (#litres_trial_promo) Sauce B?arnaise (#litres_trial_promo) Mayonnaise (#litres_trial_promo) Souffl? (#litres_trial_promo) Choux Pastry (#litres_trial_promo) Omelettes (#litres_trial_promo) Croissants (#litres_trial_promo) Beignets (#litres_trial_promo) Short Pastry (#litres_trial_promo) Flaky Pastry (#litres_trial_promo) Three French Tarts (#litres_trial_promo) Cr?me Caramel (#litres_trial_promo) Mousse (#litres_trial_promo) Cheesecake (#litres_trial_promo) Butterscotch Pears (#litres_trial_promo) English Trifle (#litres_trial_promo) Apple Pandowdy (#litres_trial_promo) Milk Pudding de Luxe (#litres_trial_promo) Lemon Meringue Pie (#litres_trial_promo) Baked Alaska (#litres_trial_promo) Two Simple Desserts (#litres_trial_promo) Christmas Pudding (#litres_trial_promo) Bananas (#litres_trial_promo) Bread Buttered Both Sides (#litres_trial_promo) Cheese (#litres_trial_promo) Where is the Coffee? (#litres_trial_promo) How is the Coffee? (#litres_trial_promo) Cigars (#litres_trial_promo) Cuts of Meat (#litres_trial_promo) INDEX (#litres_trial_promo) About The Author (#litres_trial_promo) Praise (#litres_trial_promo) Copyright (#litres_trial_promo) About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo) INTRODUCTION (#ulink_fccc615f-50d8-5aa4-8ac6-3c03ed7881b0) I am delighted to have Action Cook Book republished. Now I can have a fresh new copy to replace the dogeared old one that is on a shelf in our kitchen. Of all the books I have written none of them is dearer to me or more personal than this one. Although the ‘cook strips’ ran in the Observer newspaper for many years they were not created for publication; they were just my notes. I grew up with an interest in food and cooking. My mother had been a professional chef and, during my six years as a student, I had enjoyed vacation jobs in the kitchens of some top restaurants. I had acquired a small library of cookery books, including some of the classic ones, and I didn’t want to see them become stained or gravy-spattered. It was for this reason that I never took them into the kitchen. Having carefully noted the details of each recipe, I pinned these up over the stove. I was an art student and it was inevitable that the notes included little diagrams and drawings. During a dinner party, Ray Hawkey, a graphics specialist who was at the time radically changing newspaper design, came into the kitchen and spotted the fluttering collection of recipe notes. He suggested that they could be published if they were more carefully drawn and my scribbled lettering replaced by that of a lettering expert. It was Ray who added the grid and generally supervised the improvements. Through Ray I found a lettering artist who was creative and resourceful. It was not an easy task for him, and I soon found that it was best to let him do the lettering first, and then fit my drawings into the spaces. This is why some of the pots, pans and basins are of unorthodox shapes. The next hurdle was to convince the Features Editor of the Observer that he would get a reliable and continuous supply of the strips. I was not a journalist and had very little previous contact with newspaper people, who seemed to suspect that all artists were unreliable drunkards. To build up a credible supply of cook strips I retrieved old notes from where they had been stuffed behind the flour bin on the top shelf. For this reason the early recipes were mostly the ones that I liked best and had cooked regularly. And this is why Action Cook Book remains so personal. But as the first set of notes was used, I became more systematic in selecting recipes and I devoted a lot of time to testing them in my cramped kitchen. I was dismayed to find how many well-established recipes simply didn’t work. They had been copied from cookbook to cookbook by writers and journalists who were too busy to put them to the test. I turned to cooks I admired, whether they were experienced professionals or accomplished amateurs; French, German or British. I was delighted to find that almost all of them were prepared to share their skills and secrets. My mother was a superb cook but never consulted recipes nor wrote them. The steak and kidney pudding and the English trifle are samples of my mother’s recipes and they remain favourites of mine. The Christmas pudding won the BBC Cookery Club prize when a Mrs Dashfield reintroduced the old idea of using soft breadcrumbs to lighten the texture and make a pudding which even foreigners enjoy. At the time this was a radical innovation but now almost all recipes use breadcrumbs. I remember that Mrs Dashfield expressed regret that I’d put the rum butter recipe into the same cook strip as she thought it did not go with the pudding. Mrs Dashfield was a purist. Publication of the cook strips in the Observer did influence cooking, mostly by advocating better ingredients instead of the inferior wartime substitutes that were still widely used. For instance, the reputation of bread and butter pudding had sunk out of sight; it was the last resort of cost-conscious school meals and factory canteens. Tom Maschler—who later published Action Cook Book—first declined this pudding when I brought it to the table at a party. I was gratified later to watch him scraping the tin for his third helping, and hear him explain that at his school they had not included cream, eggs or real vanilla in the recipe. Cr?me caramel and many other traditional English milk puddings, restored to the glory they’d enjoyed a generation earlier, were always dinner party successes. Although my interest in food preparation has always been grounded in the discipline of French cooking, these recipes do not reflect that. These are my old favourites. A fisherman in Portugal taught me how to cook squid. In the London suburb of Hampstead I watched a Viennese grandmother produce a superb cheesecake using a recipe from her childhood. (She made a Sachertorte too but I never attempted that.) While working as a waiter in Piccadilly, I learned from a Hungarian cook that making strudel dough was not a daunting task or even a very lengthy one. It was a French publisher who introduced me to cooking fish in red wine and, although it was a well-established method, I had more correspondence about that than about anything else. Not all of my readers were appalled but many were. Ris de veau, tripe, brains, tongue and the rich fragrant stew that only oxtail produces were all dishes my mother had shown me how to cook, for during the war these were available in addition to the meat ration. I’ve always been enormously fond of eels and scallops. The huge cassoulet had been the subject of passionate disagreements between neighbours when I was in rural France. Mutton? Salt pork? The confit d’oie? Even the beans were disputed. Each one I served was substantially different. And still is. Cooking, together with all other aspects of food, has always been a very important part of my family life. When my children were of pre-school age we taught them to make a loaf of bread. This meant learning about using weights and liquid measures and about the necessary temperatures for yeast and for baking. After the loaf of bread was eaten I challenged them to do the whole process again, this time after converting to metric measures. Recently one of my sons said that of all the things they learnt when young, nothing had been more interesting or more useful than learning to cook. My entire family shares my great interest in food. I very much hope you will enjoy these dishes—cooking them, serving them and eating them—as much as I have done. Len Deighton In addition to ° F, temperatures are also listed in ‘Regulo’ (eg. ‘Regulo 3’). This is a trademark for a type of temperature control on some gas ovens. READ THIS FIRST (#ulink_ab61b267-96c8-511f-ae7f-3b1ad7518027) I have assumed little or no knowledge on the part of my reader; on the other hand I have learnt enough while doing the research for this book to claim that even the serious student of good food (only some of whom are cooks) will learn enough to justify reading it. Throughout this ACTION COOK BOOK I have given the classic recipes for the dishes without substitutes or short cuts except where I have stated otherwise. All I have cut out is the smoke-screen of mystique and witch-doctory; professional cooks have no time for that and neither, I suggest, have you. Everywhere I have suggested that the reader ask the shop to prepare food for cooking, e.g. fish, lobster, poultry, etc. This does not mean that the cook should not know how to do it; it means that watching an expert do it is the best way to learn. Things that I can’t get your local shopkeeper to show you (like making a roux) I have described. If you can find an expert at making pastry or a sauce, have them show you. If you can find an expert at all other aspects of cooking—who needs a book? ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT NUTRITION (#ulink_bc5e9cb3-d0f7-5964-9dc1-c4d5e3d3796a) With advice from Dr V. Radclyffe Nutrition is something no cook can ignore. Here the subject is reduced to a few words but only by over-simplifying. In each group which I have mentioned, I have selected only the good sources and ignored the hundreds of foods with lesser amounts of nutrients. If a food is omitted from this list it does not mean that it is not necessary to a normal diet. These are the good sources of body-building foods. Remember them, buy them and eat them. Protein. This is essential every day for the normal action of the body (movement, respiration, etc.). Animal protein is the best (beef, veal, etc.), but vegetable protein is also good in dried peas, lentils, haricot beans and nuts (especially peanuts). Fish protein is as rich as meat. Two other good sources are dried egg, dried skim milk. You could live on meat alone, but you would need 17 lb. per day. So, instead, we turn to the high-energy foods (i.e. carbohydrates and fats); but neither of these are body-building foods. Calcium. This is a builder of bones and teeth. It is vital during the first six months of life and remains important throughout life for replacement. Cheese (Cheddar-type) and whitebait (surprisingly) are the two finest sources. Next come sardines and the soft cheeses and condensed milk, with fresh milk, watercress and tinned salmon at about one-third of the value per ounce that Cheddar cheese gives. Iron. This is important for haemoglobin (the red in red blood-cells). The best way to get iron is to cook in iron cooking utensils. (#ulink_f40afab9-62bb-5392-af68-4607f317524c) Once a week you should have a portion of undercooked liver. If you don’t like it, get to like it—you need it. The sausage called ‘black pudding’ and any sort of kidney is a good source, so are cocoa and lentils. Curry powder is chock-a-block with it (21 mgs. per oz.), but an ounce of curry powder goes a long way, so it won’t give you so much per serving. Vitamins. There is no need to take vitamin pills if you are eating well, for the body adjusts its intake to the correct proportions for health. Vitamin A. Important for cell-growth, especially cells of eye, mouth and intestines. It aids the retina in vision. Best sources are undoubtedly fish-liver oils (which are sold in chemists’). Sheep and beef liver also contain Vitamin A, but only one per cent of the amount the best fish liver does (measured ounce for ounce). If your diet is Western and adequate, you are getting enough. Vitamin B. A large complex, covering many groups of chemicals. It is vital for the working of all muscles and nerves, and is needed in large quantities when convalescing from influenza, colds, pneumonia. If you eat much starch and sugar, you use Vitamin B to convert these foods into energy. Therefore, you need even more Vitamin B. Eat liver, lean meat, peas, whole-grain bread or flour, and lentils. Vitamin C. This is needed daily because it cannot be stored. It is important in forming the connective tissue between cells. Gums, joints and muscles weaken when there is a deficiency of it. The best sources in order of descending value are: blackcurrants, or blackcurrant juice, brussels sprouts, cabbage, watercress (and other green vegetables) and citrus fruits. Remember Vitamin C is washed away by water and destroyed by heat. Vitamin D. Important in the formation of bone and therefore growth. It also keeps the bone hard in normal wear and tear. We make it in our skin in sunlight (but we destroy some Vitamin B), and therefore need more Vitamin-D-rich foods in winter. They are the fish-liver oils (especially tuna and halibut), with cod-liver oil also a source. Certain whole fish are also rich sources, namely herring, sardine, pilchard and salmon. There are two other sources, but they are comparatively poor (about one-sixtieth of the poorest of the above foods); they are egg yolk, and the type of margarine that has added vitamin. Carbohydrates and Fats. The eating of these is proportionate to the sophisticated wealth (but not health) of a person. If you care enough to read this book, you are probably sophisticated and wealthy and already cutting down on these foods. Our civilization has developed a craving for starches. Starch gives a fast lift, because it is the upper intestine where the enzymes act upon starches and give a rise in blood sugar with its allaying of appetite within twenty minutes. The digestive enzymes that act upon protein do it when the middle intestine is reached, thus it is slower in allaying appetite. Salt is a mineral (NaCl) of which the sodium (Na) is the part the body needs. Sodium occurs naturally, by permeation through the land-mass, in any fish, vegetable or food that is produced within 200 miles of the sea. Therefore only people living in the centre of a huge land-mass need salt, and in these regions one finds salt-traders bringing this life-giving food. Most people in the world use salt only as a luxury. Salt is one of the most important elements in complex actions in the blood, and although it is true that if you lose sodium you lose weight, salt-restriction must not be used in slimming diets. Any chemist will sell you KCl (potassium chloride) as a salt-substitute, but this is a dangerous expedient, for the body cannot distinguish between K and Na, and will excrete Na, creating a sodium lack and a potassium build-up, which can lead to serious disorders. Use ‘salt-free salts’ only under medical supervision, if at all. Cooks preparing salt-free food should step up herb and spice content to help cloak the blandness of such a diet. If you want to lose weight. Starch foods are cheap foods. It is very expensive to eat a non-fattening diet. If you want to lose weight, remember these four points: 1Eat plenty of meat, fish and eggs, and you will find that (owing to specific dynamic action) you will be less hungry. 2When eating ask: ‘Am I hungry?’ When you are not, stop eating. 3It is hard, hard to remove fat once it has formed. On a good diet (i.e. not too quick) it is the fourth and fifth weeks which show the true loss of fat. The loss during the first two weeks is mostly fluid and is only too easily picked up again. 4Eat two good protein meals a day. Do not have tasters or snacks. Don’t cheat. Construct your diet around things you don’t like. Don’t cut out things you are very fond of and tell yourself it’s only for a few weeks—it’s far better to guide your eating habits into more sensible patterns. The things you must not eat should be left unbought, otherwise they provide a constant temptation. Lastly, remember that most of the world have a diet problem of a different sort: they are hungry. * (#ulink_5f59dd44-5aef-5060-ab19-7751ff2d0446)Strange but true. WHO NEEDS A REFRIGERATOR? (#ulink_36107ec7-4cc3-5ca1-a40a-9b8d741b2e67) Refrigeration doesn’t destroy bacteria. A small refrigerator from which cold air escapes when the door is opened subjects the contents to a fluctuating temperature—one of the quickest ways to turn food bad. Keeping the door closed, however, makes the air inside go stale. The greatest benefit a refrigerator can bestow is a supply of ice. Most refrigerators in common use provide six or eight cubes, then take three hours to make another set. In America there is an ice-making machine; until Britain discovers it, it is a good idea to order a few pounds of ice cubes from an ice company, so that guests can have more than half a cube each in their glass. Crushed ice as a bed under a large plate of oysters, or in a bucket with a couple of bottles of Chablis, will work more efficiently than an overcrowded fridge and be appetizing on the table. If buying a refrigerator for the first time, note that an absorption type uses over twice as much electricity and has a less efficient freezer than the compression type. On the other hand the former are silent, and the latter will need repairs and replacements now and again. Look at the cubic capacity (ignore the size of shelf space—it doesn’t mean a thing), and ask about ice-making capacity and speed. Your refrigerator should be in the coolest, most draughty place in the kitchen. Heat will rise from it, so don’t have it in the bottom of the larder. DEFROSTING: This is necessary when the ice on the freezing compartment is about a quarter of an inch thick—probably about once a week. 1 Remove food. 2 Disconnect supply. 3 Empty freezer of ice and frozen food. 4 Place a tray of boiling water inside refrigerator. 5 Wait. Let all ice melt, don’t prod it. 6 Wipe shelves and inside with a damp rag (with a trace of vinegar). 7 Switch on, replace food. AUTOMATIC DEFROSTING: This switches current off when a certain temperature is reached, and then switches on again. I am not convinced that this is a good way to treat food, even though it is much easier than normal defrosting as above. WHEN YOU GO AWAY: Empty, switch off, leave door open. Frozen Food. Frozen-food fanatics (I am not one) should choose their refrigerator with particular care. Frozen food in the retailer’s cabinet is kept at 0° F. If it rises even a little above this, it must be eaten within 24 hours. Few refrigerators have a compartment as cold as this, even if you turn the main control to below normal. (You shouldn’t do this as it will affect the main compartment.) Ask for a demonstration that involves a thermometer. No matter what fancy-looking doors it may have the only real combined refrigerator/deep freeze is one that has one separate unit for each compartment. Check on this before buying. If you find a refrigerator that passes the 0° F. test, you still must get the frozen food home before it begins to thaw. Wrapping it in plenty of newspaper will insulate it. Using Frozen Food. You do not have to store frozen food at 0° F. providing that it is used within a day or so. Many frozen vegetables are pre-cooked before freezing. These are best cooked by popping the whole solid block into a saucepan in which there is already a trace of boiling water. Put a well-fitting lid on, give it a few minutes over a medium flame. I have found that the directions on the frozen-food products often suggest too long a cooking time. Overcooked vegetables are awful; overcooked frozen vegetables are hell. Frozen fruit should not be thawed too early or it will lose colour very quickly. Serve fresh dessert fruits still a little icy. Poultry and fish should be gently thawed before cooking. Among the most useful frozen foods are the sea foods (scampi, shrimps and whitebait), and frozen puff pastry is very nearly as good as homemade. USING THE REFRIGERATOR Food will dry out in the refrigerator. Aluminium foil, plastic boxes or polythene bags will keep separate items more moist, but they must not be placed to block the easy flow of air or the air will go stale. Liquids should be kept covered because they evaporate and the freezing unit then frosts up more quickly. That’s why nothing hot must go in the refrigerator. One bad piece of food will contaminate all the others, and fish or other strong smells will make cream, butter, etc. taste, unless kept covered. Minced meat should be spread out, not piled up, or air particles trapped inside will go stale. Meat (cooked or raw) should have at least an hour at room temperature before use, and ideally, raw meat should not be refrigerated between purchase and cooking. Cooked food is best kept refrigerated. HANGING. Although all meat, all fish and birds undergo a similar change when ‘hung’, it is usual in Western cookery to hang only beef, game and mutton. The item should be put not in a refrigerator but in a cool draughty place where air circulates freely, while the bacteria in the flesh break it down and tenderize it, making it far more flavourful. Hang your meat before cooking it; two days will improve it enormously. Frozen chickens are frozen very soon after being killed. They should never be eaten immediately after thawing. Leave them a day or so. Hung meat often develops a faint musty smell, but this is not the smell of putrefaction, which is a stink so powerful it will force you out of the kitchen. If you are sniffing anxiously at a range of three inches, it’s good to eat—you couldn’t get that near to bad meat. Milk and cream must be kept covered. Eggs do not need refrigeration. If you do keep them in the refrigerator, give them an hour at room temperature before use. Batter mixture and any sort of uncooked pastry will be better for a couple of hours of refrigeration. Flaky or puff pastry can be put into the cold for half an hour between rollings. White and ros? wines should be cold, but not so cold as to be tasteless. Cooling in an ice bucket is better than in the refrigerator, and in any case, don’t put wine near the freezer nor store it in the refrigerator. Lager can be left in the refrigerator, so can light ale, which responds to chilling very well. If your beer pours out cloudy, however, it is too cold. Among other drinks which improve with chilling, tomato juice and fresh orange juice rank high. Avocado pears and salad vegetables can be served cold. Cucumber is better if not put into the cold. Lettuce should be torn gently apart (cutting turns it brown), the leaves washed and then dried with a cloth (moisture dilutes the dressing) before popping into the cold. Cheese is better stored in a cool place than in a refrigerator. Camembert-type cheese can be irreparably spoiled by refrigeration. Bread can be kept cold if in plenty of foil, but it’s better to use it as you buy it. Don’t refrigerate cereals, cakes, or dry foods like salt, sugar, flour or dried fruit. Ice cream bought in a shop will melt in the domestic refrigerator. Ice cream can be made in the freezer, but tiny daggers of ice will form in it unless it is stirred from time to time. THE SECRET WEAPON IN THE KITCHEN: THE BLENDER (#ulink_00c273a1-ed3f-5b2b-9ec6-d613f39f1c7f) The Blender is a set of whirling knives in a heat-proof glass goblet. It will not: beat egg white, whip cream, crush ice, grind raw meat or extract juice, and is not used for cake—or sponge-making. It will, however, grind dry ingredients to dust (if left long enough), or it will grind even more efficiently food particles that are in liquid. If this doesn’t sound very useful, let me elaborate. This wonderful machine will 1 Grind dry rice into rice flour. 2 Make sugar into powdered sugar for dusting over fruit pie. 3 Chop nuts, etc. (make your own ground almonds). 4 Grind coffee. 5 Grind cornflakes or cracker-style biscuits for base or tops for cheesecake, pies, cakes, etc. 6 Make fresh, soft breadpieces into wonderful absorbent breadcrumbs for dressings and stuffings (I know no other way to do this). 7 Mix hot drinks (sprinkle Horlicks, cocoa on to boiling milk to which sugar has been added). 8 Whisk the skin on boiled milk back into the milk. 9 Froth milk for coffee (for people who like it like that). 10 Make mayonnaise (put all ingredients except oil into goblet, switch on. Pour oil in gently, add capers etc. if you wish). 11 Make vinaigrette dressing (beware: it will emulsify if you aren’t quick). 12 Make bindings for terrines, p?t?s, hamburgers, meat loaf, etc. (put egg + piece of raw onion + garlic + salt + pepper + herbs, etc., into blender. Mix. Add to meat mixture). 13 Rescue lumpy sauces (pour hot lumpy sauce into goblet, flick switch to remove lumps. N.B. Too long will make sauce go thin. It seems to reduce thickening power of the flour). 14 Make any kind of milk shake or malted milk (fruit + ice cream + milk). 15 Make potato pancakes (pieces of raw potato + egg + seasoning + flour + enough milk to moisten. Flatten into thin pancakes. Fry golden). 16 Grate chunks of lemon or orange rind (no pith now). 17 Make fruit or vegetable pur?es for infants (save a lot of money here) or for vegetable soups. 18 Chop parsley (remove stalks first; don’t overfill goblet). 19 Make sandwich spreads (use sardines + lemon juice + butter + raw onion + parsley. Blend and spread direct on to bread. Use cream cheese + butter + mustard + onion in the same way. You’ll think of hundreds more). 20 Make sauces for ice cream. Try plenty of almonds + brown sugar + apricot brandy + a little cream. 21 Make anchovy sauce (for fish or pasta). Blend lots of olive oil + garlic + tin of anchovy fillets + parsley + stoned olives. 22 Make orange sauce for basting a duck. Blend a whole orange, skin, pips and all; but chop it before you put it in. Don’t serve this, just use it in the cooking. 23 Make Pots de Cr?me. Really sensational as a short cut. You must try this. Put a bar of plain chocolate + 2 tablespoons sugar + a splash of vanilla + an egg + pinch of salt, into blender; when it’s blended pour in 6 oz. of almost boiling milk. When it’s mixed, pour into tiny pots (demi-tasse cups) and chill for at least three hours. 24 Cream spinach with egg and cream—reheat gently. 25 Sieve flour. Did you ever wonder why recipe books tell you to sieve flour? When was the last time you found any solid particles in it? You never did. The object of sieving flour is to aerate it. A blender does this in three seconds; you need never sieve flour again. Are you convinced that this is the most useful tool in the kitchen? If not, let me tell you one last thing. After you use it, pour water in, flick the switch and the blender will clean itself. BLENDER SOUPS Vichyssoise: Fry the white parts of 3 leeks and a medium-size onion very gently in butter—they must not brown. (Pressure) cook after adding two chopped potatoes and a pint of some sort of white stock. Blend; chill; add cream just before serving. Potato Soup: As Vichyssoise, but no leek; lots of potato. Use this Vichyssoise recipe to make similar soups from: skinned tomato (or sieve after), celery, asparagus, spinach, peas, carrots or mushrooms. Or indeed from combinations of them. Potato can be used to make any of them thick (as it did the Vichyssoise) and a few larger pieces can be added as a garnish after blending. These can all be served chilled, but in this case, go easy on the butter. Yoghourt can be substituted for the cream, so can sour cream. Borscht: To one good-sized cooked beetroot, put / pint any stock (a tin of bouillon is O.K.), also 2 tablespoons sour cream, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, generous salt, a piece of lemon peel and a sprinkle of pepper (paprika is good). Blend this; you will probably have to do it in two batches. Serve it hot or iced, but either way, lash the top with sour cream. Cucumber Soup is just cucumber (cooked soft) blended with white stock (you can use clear chicken soup), sour cream and seasoning. Watercress Soup: Cook flour and butter in equal quantities for three minutes; add bouillon + watercress; blend; serve. BLENDER SAVOURIES Savoury Mousse, otherwise a marathon, is simple with a blender. The basis can be cooked ham, crab, lobster, poultry or fish (tinned if necessary). It is blended with a third of its volume of a good white sauce (made by cooking equal quantities of butter and flour together over a low flame—it must not brown—and adding stock or milk or cream). The mixture is then put into a mould and chilled. Experts argue about adding some gelatine. If you do so, dissolve it according to directions on packet, making it a little weaker than instructed, and blend into mousse mixture before chilling. Quenelles: There is one recipe where the blender really takes the stage, that is in making quenelles, which are something between a souffl? and a dumpling. Without a blender this recipe requires hours of pounding in a mortar. With a blender, merely select the flavour you want: veal, fish, chicken, game, etc., and proceed: Measure 15 oz. (by bulk, see Measuring section, page 30) of soft breadcrumbs (easy to make in a dry blender). Now put 5 oz. milk in with the breadcrumbs, let it whizz a moment, then tip it out; put it to one side. Don’t bother to clean the blender; put into it half a pound of the raw ingredients you have chosen (if it’s to be fish, use salmon, whiting, sole, pike, trout or brill—remove skin and bone, of course). Add two teaspoons of salt and a dash of pepper and nutmeg. Whizz the blender until it is all a smooth paste, then add 3 oz. of soft (not melted) butter, one whole egg and two extra yolks, and the milk-and-breadcrumb mixture. When it is all quite smooth, the quenelle mixture is made. Drop spoonfuls of it into just simmering water for ten minutes. Lift out gently. Taste the first one and adjust seasoning. Here is a simpler (and a little less authentic) Quenelles de Poisson. Use one pound of white fish fillets (that saves the boning and skinning), cut them into small pieces and put them into the blender along with a chunk of onion, a teaspoon of salt, a pinch of pepper and four eggs. Whizz the blender until all this is quite smooth, then add 4 oz. of double cream. If your blender is small, you may have to do it in two stages. Have a tin of fancy cream soup on the simmer (lobster bisque or cream of mushroom), having diluted it with milk. Drop the quenelles gently into the simmering soup. This mixture is a little sloppier than the previous one, but the quenelles get firmer as they cook. Don’t boil the soup; just keep it very hot. Sauce Normande: For a sauce to go with the quenelles, try this: it is not quite the Sauce Normande it pretends to be, but it will pass in a crowd. Make a strong white stock of a suitable kind (i.e. for fish quenelles use plenty of white fish, include the heads—see Rich Stock grid). Reduce it to / pint to make it strong. When it is ready, add this to a roux (which is equal amounts—say 1 oz.—of butter and flour cooked over a low flame without going brown for three or four minutes). When you add the fish stock a little at a time to the roux, it will thicken. Stir it and watch that it doesn’t go lumpy (if it does go lumpy you can give it a second or so in the blender, but it is much better not to have to). Let it have a quarter of an hour over a low flame; you must not go away and leave it, but you can be mixing an egg yolk into 3 oz. of cream. Add this to the sauce, stirring it well in. If it boils, it will curdle and nothing can save you. If it doesn’t curdle pour it over the quenelles and serve. If it does curdle, pour it over the quenelles and serve them by candlelight. Croquettes are distant relations of quenelles, but croquettes are made from cooked meat or fish. I will give a general style of recipe, but there are a great many variations. For the best croquettes do not use leftover fish—cook it specially in a good fish stock (just a little lemon juice, salt and pepper, and a bay leaf is better than plain water). Remove the flesh, mash carefully (avoid the bones). Blend it. Add to this a B?chamel sauce (which is a roux into which boiling milk has been poured a little at a time while it thickens to a good creamy white sauce). Make some Duchesse potato (see page 249). Mix the fish, the B?chamel and the potato together—the fish should predominate. Dip in egg (and breadcrumbs if you like). Shallow-fry. Variations on croquettes are at your discretion. Anchovy and chopped onion are good additions. Remember that white fish needs a colourful vegetable or garnish. Real Horseradish Sauce. Horseradish pieces (2 oz.) + 1 teaspoon sugar + / teaspoon salt + / teaspoon mustard + tablespoon vinegar + 3 tablespoons milk. Blend. Mix generous cream into it. Serve. To prepare Steak au Poivre for 6-8 people, blend briefly about 5 dessertspoons whole peppercorns. Press on to steaks. Fry them to your taste. Remove steaks, d?glacer pan. BLENDER SWEETS Egg Custard is especially simple with a blender. Blend sugar, hot milk, cream and eggs (at least 3 eggs per pint of milk). Bake 45 mins. in a water-jacket at Regulo 2 (325° F.). Egg custard as a sauce has the same ingredients, but is made over a low flame, stirring all the time. For further instructions, see the Cr?me Caramel pages 276-7. Various Desserts.Fruit Fool is made by putting almost any soft fruit with sugar and thick cream in the blender; chill; serve. The Fruit Fool recipe will give you ice cream if you put it in the freezing compartment. Instead of soft fruit, use chocolate or very strong coffee to make coffee or chocolate ice cream. MEASURING (#ulink_67bc83d5-65f1-55be-aa30-1f833876ce05) The greatest source of confusion in cookery measurements is the American cup. Most English measurements are in weight, but now and again we hear of the English cup. In each case ‘a cup’ is half a pint, but the English pint is 20 oz. and the American pint is 16 oz. Buy any sort of measure that is marked in ounces. A 10-oz. measure is a convenient size for the average kitchen. Once you have a measure of this sort, the American recipes are easy to understand. Here are five items showing what one English pound equals in American cups: Another baffling word in recipes is gill. In standard recipe use it means a quarter of a British pint. French recipes use litres. One litre is 1 / British pints. A demi-litre is half a litre. A deci-litre is a tenth of a litre. French recipes measure weight in grammes. 100 grammes = 3 / oz. 1 litre = 500 grammes = 1 lb. 1 / oz. 1 kilogramme = 1,000 grammes = 2 lb. 3 oz. BUYING FOOD Buying food can be confusing. Spinach, for instance, will shrink to almost nothing, while rice can be around the house for days because of miscalculation. Meat. Buy 8 oz. per head if there is bone in it, and 6 oz. per head if it is without bone. Very lean meat in a rich sauce (e.g. Beef Strogonoff) can have less. Allow 12 oz. per head of the gross weight of chicken, and 4 oz. per head for any liver dish. Fish, as an entr?e 6 oz., as a main course 8 oz. Root Vegetables like carrots and potatoes should be calculated at 6 oz. per head. Double this amount for peas, and for spinach allow 14 oz. per head. Dried Vegetables (beans, lentils, peas, rice). Allow 2 oz. per head, and the same for pasta, unless it is to be the main course, in which case double it. Soup. Allowing 8 oz. of soup per person should leave a dribble for some greedy guest to get a second helping. Dried Fruit. One pound of dried fruit is equal to four pounds of fresh. SALT Add half a teaspoon salt to half a pound of meat or to one pint of soup or sauce. For dough put half a teaspoon salt to one pound of flour. Always adjust seasoning before serving. HEAT The following figures are most important, especially to cooks using a thermostat control. Burning Temperature Keep temperature below this level when cooking in these fats. UTENSILS (#ulink_0a493dbf-4ba5-50ff-9e12-d220dd5175f3) My kitchen is full of useless junk—gadgets that looked like a good idea at the time. Here is my list of the items that I still use, in the hope that it will save your money and temper. When you decide what you need, buy the very best quality there is. Sometimes you will do best to go to the shops that sell to the catering trade, where the equipment may lack bright colours and fancy decoration but will be of better and more enduring quality. Stainless-steel knives are not much good to any cook. Buy three good-quality steel ones varying from the tiny vegetable knife to the large heavy one that has enough weight to be used as a chopper; it should curve upwards to the point, so that you roll it as you cut. Use this one for dicing onion. It will also divide a chicken into pieces. Or use the back of it to hammer at a steak or escalope. Buy at least one filleting knife which looks exactly like the others, but has a thinner and more flexible blade. Buy any sharpener you can use, and use it often. A really good bread knife is most useful. Get one with a saw edge—use it for all sorts of kitchen jobs—it slices tomatoes particularly well. You probably have a peeler. I find that stainless-steel ones are best, although difficult to get. It is extraordinary how hard the catering shops try to force inefficient stainless-steel knives on the customer, while all the other kitchen gadgets that would benefit from stainless steel are both hard to find and ridiculously expensive. For instance, a stainless-steel strainer is a great help. The conical ones are called ‘Chinois’ and give you the greatest area of strainer for size—this speeds the job. A French Moulin, which is a strainer with a turning device to force things along, is a wonderful gadget. Two less necessary gadgets are poultry shears—very powerful scissors—and a roasting thermometer which you leave in the meat so that it registers the temperature at the centre of the meat. This is a dead certain way of timing the joint. Two very large serving plates are useful. You can put all the vegetables on one plate, or surround the roast meat with the vegetables. Junk shops are full of these huge plates—buy one. Get one really good tin-opener. The sort that fix to the wall are best. Whatever sort of purist you are, you are going to open a lot of tins over the next decade. Fix another light in the kitchen—I bet it needs more light. We all know that saucepans should be thick and heavy and all that jazz, but let me suggest that you buy those with two little metal handles instead of one long burnable plastic one. These saucepans can be put in the oven, which for my money is well worth the penalty that the handles get hot. So the next thing you need is half a dozen thick oven cloths. Those like gloves are very good. You know what I think about blenders: they are wonderful—save up to buy one. Refrigerators are far less important in my opinion and by no means a necessity for the work that many kitchens do. The butcher will give you a handful of short skewers if you ask him. Use them to hold the joint together; a roasted piece of beef will taste better if you remove it from the bone only just before you cook it. Rolling it and jabbing the skewers in is easy, and you won’t have that huge piece of fat inside that the craftier butchers insert. Better still, and even easier, cook the joint still on the bone. Certain joints lend themselves to stuffing, e.g. shoulder of lamb, breast of lamb, leg of lamb or pork. In these cases secure the flap over the stuffing with the skewers. Many experts still use needle and thread, but this is tedious work. These skewers will rust. Dry them carefully after washing. Long (12-in.) skewers are great for kebab: simple, yet most impressive. The authentic ones are flat in section, most of the ones on sale in England are like a piece of wire. They will do. The kebab skewer conducts heat through the centre of the meat, etc., while the outside is being grilled. For this reason wooden skewers are no good for kebab. In the same way potatoes roasted in their jackets will cook more quickly with a couple of short skewers (or nails) run into them (remove before serving). For maximum efficiency, have two scales: one to weigh small amounts under one pound, the other one for joints of meat. You can do without the latter one if you make a note of the weight of the meat before leaving the butcher’s shop. It is important to be able to measure volume as well as weight. A simple transparent plastic measure will do as long as you remember this: An American pint is 16 oz. A British one is 20 oz. A standard cup is half a pint. Measure therefore according to the nationality of the recipe (see Measuring section). A double boiler is one of the most used kitchen items. It gives a gentle all-round heat by surrounding the cooking vessel with a jacket of hot but not boiling water. It can be simply improvised by putting a basin in a saucepan. On a larger scale a water-container into which saucepans are placed on the stove is called a bain-marie. Mostly seen in restaurants, it keeps sauces at a gentle heat without spoiling. The same principle is applied, inside the oven, for terrines and Cr?me Caramel (see page 276). In using a water-jacket prevent the base of the inner container from resting flat on the bottom of the water-container. If it does, the contact will conduct heat directly and make the water-jacket useless. A heat diffuser is another way of spreading the heat under a pan. It is very useful, for even the best-organized cooks sometimes face the problem of keeping something warm without spoiling it. If you are brave enough to put earthenware pots on the gas (manufacturers swear they will endure it), you probably already use a mat. Earthenware pots come in all shapes and sizes, both English and French. One really huge one is worth having—cassoulet for less than a dozen is not worth the bother. Make sure the lid fits well. A cast-iron casserole with a heavy lid is another useful utensil for slow cooking inside the oven, or on top. A marmite is a tall narrow pot designed to present a small surface of liquid and therefore a low rate of evaporation. This is used for long cooking of stocks. A marmite can be made of anything, but the one I like best is a stainless-steel model. Stoves have now begun to improve dramatically with the import of the transatlantic models. I particularly like the built-in oven units. They can be installed at eye-level, and the interior light and glass door become really useful. The Moffat has a built-in meat thermometer which makes meat cooking a simple and precise science, for the timer rings when the centre of the meat is done. With the built-in oven comes the table-top counter unit, a stainless-steel platform containing four cooking rings which can be gas or electric. This means you can have an electric oven with gas rings, which I personally think is the best of both worlds. A flour dredger—a thing like a huge pepper pot—makes flouring meat or fish very simple. An egg whisk is an essential thing. Have whatever kind you like best. There is a device called a Horlicks mixer (a plunger in a straight-sided glass) which beats egg whites better than anything else I know. A wire rack for cooling is useful. Have at least one terrine. It can be used for a small stew. Tins: A pie dish, flan tin, loaf tin (great for pork pies) and a cake tin. One really good ladle (stainless steel if possible). The decorated porcelain ones are fine for the table, but too fragile for the cook. A mandoline is a slicing device. Buy it if you do enough slicing, or would do enough if you had it. A big, kitchen-size pepper mill is a basic necessity. If you can afford another for the table, do so. A wire basket (panier ? salade) gets a lot of the moisture off lettuce, but the leaves should still be dabbed dry or the water will dilute the dressing. Use the basket (plastic ones are no good) to dry out celery leaves, save them to put into stew, etc. A wooden spoon doesn’t get hot, nor does it scratch the pan. Use it when making scrambled egg to prove this. The best kind have a square corner on the bowl to get into the corners. A really thick, good-quality chopping board will last for ever. Keep it wiped down and clean, and you will be able to use it for bread. Whisk it away after the main course and it reappears with cheese on. Or you can buy three. Buy a good omelette pan. Keep it clean, use it just for omelettes. It must be made from heavy-gauge metal. Warm it before use. Any really large dish or bowl will do for the salad—you don’t have to have a wooden one which is very expensive. Keep it only for salad and serve a salad as frequently as possible. I have half a dozen old china plates which, because they are old and ugly, never get smashed. I use them to serve meals that demand very hot plates. Roast meat, for instance, is more easily carved if you rest it out of the oven, but in a warm place, for 15 minutes before serving. If you do this, a really hot plate will prevent the meat from being distinctly cool by the time the poor old carver gets around to serving himself. A souffl? dish is something for which there is no substitute. Best buy one small one (say five inches across), big enough for two portions, and one really large one for entertaining. Tiny dishes for individual servings of egg dishes, etc., are rather luxurious. The bowls (with or without lids) in which items like onion soup with grilled cheese floating on it are served individually, are posh. Plenty of tinfoil (it must be used rather lavishly or not at all), for wrapping joints, poultry, etc., or making papillotes (envelopes in which to wrap fish or chops—more correctly papillotes are made from greased paper). Tinfoil can also be placed over dishes in the oven that are getting a little too much heat. Greaseproof paper should also be kept on hand. A tin for small cakes is also useful for tiny Yorkshire puddings. A large chopper—use side for tenderizing. Nowadays an electric mixer is no longer considered an extravagance. If you have one it must be kept permanently in the place where it operates, for no one ever gets machines out of cupboards and sets them up. The large Kenwood mixer will peel potatoes, grind meat, knead dough, slice paper-thin vegetables and grate cheese—mine is used every day. THE AUTOMATIC COOKER AND THE PRESSURE COOKER (#ulink_7b5493b7-f638-5e7d-9022-01fffb1c6bda) These are both luxury utensils, but they will bring not just a saving in time but a gain in precision to your cooking. These two devices, plus a gas ring, can give you an infinite variety of cookery. With them you can steam, boil, stew, poach, braise, fry, roast and even bake. In this short note I only tell you what I use them for, but you may find all sorts of additional advantages. They will be of equal use to the gas-ring gourmet and to the cook with a vast stainless-steel kitchen. The device which the Sunbeam company call their Automatic Cooker is often described as an electric frying pan. I prefer to call it a thermostat-controlled casserole. While gas rings are unbeatable for quick adjustment of heat, electric thermostats and simmerstats can be adjusted to keep the heat just right under a stew or braise. On page 32 you will see the burning points of various fats. Cooking in butter? Set the control to just below 278° without risk of disaster. Similarly use the boiling point of water to poach a fish gently so that the convection doesn’t smash it into flakes. Heat milk, but never boil it over by setting below its boiling point. Escoffier once wrote, ‘Of all the various culinary operations, braisings are the most expensive and the most difficult.’ To braise a good-quality piece of meat, set it upon a bed of lightly fried vegetables in which onion predominates. Put the lid on the cooker and set the control to a fraction above the boiling point of water, then the moisture that comes out of the meat turns to steam and leaves a glazed layer over the meat. The cook must spoon just a little moisture over the meat as often as possible (say every 15 minutes), using good stock. This will result in a real braise and is much better than swamping the meat with liquid and letting it diminish by evaporation. Many vegetables (e.g. celery, leek, turnip, etc.) are suitable for braising. Use this same basic idea but add more liquid to produce stews and casseroles that cook at exact gentle heat. The Pressure Cooker will not only cut cooking times to about one-third, but will also cook certain foods particularly well. Read your instruction book, remembering that only when you hear hissing is the food cooking. Time from that moment on. For things that spoil if overcooked, deliberately undercook, then finish them off by using the cooker as though it were an ordinary saucepan. In this way you can keep an eye on the contents towards the end of the cooking time. Don’t wander out of earshot during pressure-cooking time. If the cooker goes silent, it is either because the heat isn’t high enough or because it has burnt dry. Either way it needs attention. When cooking time is up, reduce pressure by cooling. Either put the cooker under running cold water, or stand it aside and let it cool gently. The former method is quick, but will throw the food inside about violently. Choose accordingly. Always before beginning check escape vent and washer (a dirty washer will let pressure escape). The pressure cooker is at its best when neither overcooking nor violent movement of air will affect the result, e.g. for steak pudding, tomato soup, stock, soups of all kinds, stews, removing marrow from bones, cooking salt beef (brisket needs about 25 minutes to the pound), steamed puddings (rolypoly, etc.). Other highly successful pressure-cooker uses: cooking dried fruits, steamed egg custard (cover it well). The most successful vegetables to pressure-cook are the ones that will end up mashed, e.g. potatoes, swedes, turnips. Green vegetables are so quick to cook that it is not worth pressure-cooking them. FRUIT AND VEGETABLE NOTEBOOK (#ulink_fe8efe09-e474-5127-90ad-61027b5b2d20) Here are some items from my own notebook. It is by no means complete, because no notebook of this sort ever can be. Use these observations as a basis for notes of your own. You obviously won’t buy items that are shrivelled, decaying, discoloured or limp. Most fruit and vegetables suffer severely from delay in transit; go for the freshest you can get. Lettuce, chicory and cabbage have more nutriment in the outer leaves than inside. Don’t trim too much away. Keep skins on potatoes wherever possible; mashed potatoes will be more flavourful if you cook the potatoes in their jackets, remove skins after cooking. Anyway, what’s wrong with putting the mashed potato back into the jackets again and serving it in them? Water used in the cooking process will capture much of the nutriment. Therefore, use little or no water, or use the water in soup, gravy or sauce. Vegetable water will go bad quickly; it should be used in the same meal for which the vegetable was cooked. Don’t add it to stock unless the stock is brought to the boil every day. Mashing or creaming is good for root vegetables (potatoes, turnips, swedes or carrots, etc.) and there are many ways of serving them. Butter is most usual, but try a little cream, or poach some cut-up marrow bones (ask the butcher) until the marrow inside is very soft, then scoop this out and use it on the vegetable like butter. A little pork dripping (make it by frying pieces of belly of pork) adds flavour. Mashed vegetables can look like hell. Make them more appetizing by fluffing the top and grilling it for a couple of minutes till the peaks brown (a few breadcrumbs scattered over it before grilling will help it go golden). A pinch of paprika or a spoonful of finely chopped hard-boiled egg yolk is also decorative. Many vegetables benefit from a final few minutes in a pan with a little oil or butter. Drain fat off before serving. Soup Making. Use a generous amount of the vegetable you choose—nothing can get over the lack of the basic flavour. For example, put half an onion finely chopped into a pan with some butter or oil. When the onion is golden, add two or three pounds of roughly chopped tomatoes, scattering salt, pepper, a little basil (see Herb section) and a small spoonful of sugar. Lid on—low heat, and you will find that the juice comes out of the tomatoes. When they are very soft (say half an hour), sieve. Now you can decide how much liquid to add. Use milk or stock or water. Add a knob of butter or cream. Adjust the seasoning. Serve. Not all vegetables will make their own juice like tomatoes, so most will have to be started with water, but don’t swamp your flavour with water—it tastes of nothing. Sieving helps to distribute the flavour through the liquid instead of providing a tasty mouthful of flavour, so only leave pieces in the soup if you have a generous amount of flavour already. The same basic system will give you thousands of soups. Try making soup from: cucumber, leeks, peas, white fish, asparagus, mushrooms, etc. If you have no stock, remember that you can put some item in the soup that will add flavour (e.g. a ham bone). If you want your soup a little thicker, think before adding flour or even arrowroot. Grated potato (it will need a few minutes to cook) provides a thick creamy texture, but don’t overdo it. When buying remember that those large items that win prizes in displays are no friend to the cook. Better to choose the tiny, flavourful vegetables. Those enormous carrots, parsnips and beetroots may look gorgeous, but they have hearts of wood. Only enormous field mushrooms grow more flavourful with size. Tiny peas are no relation of the large ones, and the tiny flattened pods of peas (pois mange tout) that are eaten pods and all, are perhaps the finest vegetable there is. Apples. A vast field of experiment and controversy. Learn a few types. There are apples from countries as near as France and as distant as New Zealand. They vary considerably in crispness. Three of the finest English apples (Cox’s Orange Pippin, Ellison’s Orange and Laxton’s Superb) are fine eating apples of medium-crisp texture. Beauty of Bath and Jonathans are soft eating apples. Newtowns and Granny Smiths are quite hard quality eaters. Blenheim Orange is well worth searching for, it’s a delicious English apple with a fine astringent flavour. In England cooking apples are usually mushy—Victoria, Lord Derby or Bramley’s Seedling; cooks who want apples that will retain their shapes should try using dessert apples, which are less acid, for their pies, etc., as they do in other countries. Apricots. Too often regarded as a poor man’s peach, they really have a life of their own. Available in winter from South Africa, but the Spanish ones on sale in the summer are great. Buy the biggest. Green ones will ripen in the sun. ‘Peach apricots’ from Murcia in Spain are superb dessert-quality ones. Asparagus. Tips should be close and compact, stalks large and even in size. Cut away the tough white stalks. Dip the green tips into beaten egg, then fry gently. Or, after the beaten egg, dip into soft crumbs mixed with equal quantities of grated cheese before frying; or steam it and serve with butter. Aubergines (Egg Plant or Brinjal). Look like black rubber truncheons. Go for a shiny, smooth, purple skin. Fry or bake. These are generally sliced (thick or thin), then fried gently. Another way is to scoop out the interior, chop it small and fry it gently with some chopped onion. When it is quite soft, replace in the hollow aubergine. Bake at Regulo 5 (375° F.) for 30 minutes. Avocadoes. Large, expensive, delicious cross between fruit and vegetable. Best eaten with simple vinaigrette sauce. Green ones may be a little underripe; test for softness around stalk or rely on your greengrocer. The biggest are not always the best, but those from Madeira or Israel are reliably excellent. They will ripen quickly in a warm place. Banana.See pages 298-9. Beans. This word is used to describe three different things in the kitchen. First there is the green vegetable eaten while the seeds inside are soft and only partly grown. These vary from the slim tiny ones to the gross coarse ones that are like boiled sandpaper to eat. Secondly there are the beans that are the seeds themselves. When young they are good to eat as they are, but old ones must have the outer layer of skin removed. Thirdly there are these same seeds dried to preserve them. I have listed these last beans as pulses. Beetroot. Size doesn’t matter. If you buy them ready-cooked make sure the skin is loose and flesh dark red. Cooked beetroots sometimes exude a mould; it is quite harmless—wash it off. Blackberries. Cultivated ones are less flavourful than wild ones. Large bright ones are best. Blackcurrants. Are mostly bought by the soft-drink industry, so price remains high. Large ones are easiest to trim. Be sure they are not leaking juice as it’s a sign of bad condition. Broccoli. A winter vegetable widely available frozen—try it fresh. Eat the stalks and flowers too, unless they are yellow, in which case don’t buy any. Gardeners should plant ‘Purple sprouting’. Brussels Sprouts. Buy only the small, compact ones or, if possible, the very tiny ones. Mix sour cream with finely chopped onion, warm it, pour over cooked sprouts. Gardeners should try ‘Aristocrat’. Cabbage. Heaviness is good—it shows compactness. Gardeners might like ‘Velocity’. White is the crispest. Red. Heavy, slightly tasteless—the correct thing for preparing with apple and sugar in the continental manner. Savoy. Use this for eating raw (e.g. Coleslaw). Drumhead. Good cooking cabbage. Stuffed Cabbage. Remove large outer leaves of cabbage, give them a minute in boiling water. Drain and dry. Into each leaf wrap a heap of meat mixture, make it into a little parcel, fixing it with a toothpick. Bake in the oven at Regulo 2 (325° F.) for 40 minutes, either on a greased tin or in a sauce (a tin of soup: tomato, chicken or mushroom, etc.). The meat mixture can be ground beef, lamb, veal or pork (in which case make sure it is cooked right through—I cannot tell you the exact timing as it depends on the size of the ‘parcels’). It should be well flavoured with spice, herbs, onion, salt and pepper. Carrots. None in the shops equal fresh garden ones, and the jet-spray washed ones are awful. Gardeners should plant ‘Early Nantes’. In the shops watch for the very first English ones for flavour, also the Dutch and French ones are very fine. Otherwise you can improve them by bringing out the flavour with a final saut? in butter to caramelize the sugar content. Cauliflower. Buy them with plenty of leaf protecting the white part, and they will keep several days. The white must be hard and not discoloured. Cauliflower can be mashed and creamed, or pur?ed, with beaten egg, and steamed like a custard pudding. It can be fried or poached in stock. It can be served hot with a cheese sauce or fried almonds or chopped hard egg yolk as a garnish. It can be allowed to cool, and dressed with vinaigrette or deep-fried in batter. Or use it raw in salads. Celeriac. Is a rough-looking root of a certain celery plant. Peel it, then treat the inside like a potato—cook it in salted water, drain, then roll it in butter. Celery. Go for the large size with fresh-looking greenery still attached. If you can choose, buy the soil-encrusted ones. Wash well just before using it. Braise it in the oven with a little butter (well-fitting lid on casserole). The heart can be removed and gently fried. The extreme leaves are left in a warm place to dry, then used as a flavouring for soups and stews. Add pieces of celery to a stew five minutes before serving to get a crunchy fresh taste. Dip it into fondue or any cheese sauce, or spread cream cheese into hollow side for canap?s. Corn on the Cob. Choose large plump ears with even-sized kernels. Each kernel should be very juicy inside. Corn should be stripped of its outer leaf and put into fast-boiling, unsalted water for 10-20 minutes. Serve with plenty of melted butter, and a large napkin for wiping the mouth. Cherries. Many varieties, when the season hits us. Napoleon is one fine example (piebald yellow and red), but unless you are sure of your knowledge, or your greengrocer, choose the darkest varieties for eating. Morello is a piquant cherry for cooking in pies or compotes. Chicory (French: endive). Is like a small white artillery shell. It needs no washing and can be served raw, or braised (with stock or butter), but be sure that the tips of the leaf are yellow, not green. You will note that in England endive is a curly-leaved salad vegetable, which in U.S.A. is called escarole, and in France, chicor?e. So sort that lot out. Chillies. Are tiny red or green pods. They are very, very hot. Use them to flavour vinegar by leaving a couple in the bottle, or use them with discretion in a curry recipe. Note that long cooking lessens the strength somewhat. Unused chillies can be left to dry to a crisp, then stored in a jar. Warning: don’t wipe your eyes after handling them. Clementines. Are a type of tangerine without seeds. The Italian ones are the best. They are never very cheap. Courgettes. Tiny marrows. Buy them only less than five inches long, cook gently without peeling until they are tender. Serve with butter. Courgettes with Walnuts. Fry the tiny marrows in oil for five minutes (with a little onion if you wish). Add a little wine and water and a squeeze of lemon juice. Cook for ten minutes, then add walnuts. Cranberries. In the late autumn they are widely available. Serve cooked unsweetened cranberries with game or poultry. Cucumbers. Rough-skinned outdoor ones are richer in flavour, although sometimes a little bitter. Go for long slim ones. Colour doesn’t matter except that yellowness is not good. Always cut them into chunks, and, unless you hate it, leave the skin on, for this makes them more digestible. Serve them lightly and very slowly cooked in butter, or raw; either way sour cream makes a great dressing. Custard Apples. Large green fruit with creamy flesh. Eat it as it is. It is good with sugar and cream. Endive (French: chicor?e). It has a mild bitterness. In France it is often served cooked. Neither way is it very interesting to me, but use it as a salad vegetable, or braise it in stock or butter if you want to give it a whirl. Fennel. Looks like potbellied celery, tastes like liquorice. Slice it or leave it whole, braise it or leave it raw. Figs. Fresh figs make a pleasant end to a meal. Only the soft red inside is eaten. Sometimes cream is served with them, but a good one will stand alone. Dried Figs. Ugh. French Beans. Stringless, tender and flavourful. Cook them whole with butter. Gardeners should try ‘The Prince’. Globe Artichokes. Avoid ones with any trace of purple flower. Gooseberries. Go for Sussex-grown ones. Some varieties are very sour, but are excellent for jams and jellies. Grapes. Endless varieties from countless countries. Unless you are an expert, go for the dark ones (same for cherries). Colmar is a type of grape grown in many places. The English Colmar is a superb dessert grape. Belgian and South African Colmar are almost as good. Small seedless grapes from various Mediterranean countries are a treat, unless you enjoy chewing the pips, and eating them, too, as they do in most grape-growing areas. Grapefruit. Keep well. Buy heavy ones, they will be juiciest. Green Beans. Must snap when broken and should be moist inside. Fry some chopped bacon and a diced red pepper (don’t use the seeds). When cooked, add vinegar and sugar in about equal quantities. Some cooks add mustard or pepper sauce to this recipe. When sugar has dissolved, pour this over cooked beans. Mix well. Serve. (Wax beans are the yellow ones.) Greengages. A member of the plum family. Unless you know someone who grows them you will be best advised to buy French ones. South African are quite good. Green Peppers (Capsicums, Pimentoes or Sweet Peppers). Are a large firm vegetable, sometimes red, according to how long they are left to grow. Remove all the seeds, which are very peppery; the flesh can be eaten raw. In the Middle East they favour their green peppers scorched. In England they are generally stuffed with meat and rice, and cooked in a moderate oven. A simple way, however, is to quarter them, remove seeds, brush with oil and bake for 15 minutes at Regulo 4 (350° F.). Japanese Artichokes are small twisted ones. Treat just like Jerusalem artichokes. Jerusalem Artichokes are strange relatives of the sunflower, and have a delicate earthy taste. They are tricky to peel, so go for the smoothest ones. Boil or steam them until tender (30 minutes?), then peel them, roll in butter, serve. Another popular way is to sieve the skins away from pur?e after cooking, using the pur?e for soup, or adding cream and butter before serving as a vegetable. They can be eaten raw. Kale. A rather tough cabbage-type vegetable with a taste resembling the spinach family. Gardeners should try ‘Asparagus Kale’. Leeks. Suspect any that are too carefully manicured. Small, even-sized ones are better in flavour than the very large ones. Leeks are superb braised in butter or stock. Serve them with a sauce (e.g. cheese), or make a leek-and-potato soup with a dash of cream. This latter is very good served chilled. Lemons. Bad skins do not always indicate bad fruit, but the skin is a valuable item in kitchen and bar. Lettuce. Buy fresh, sprightly ones that haven’t been standing in water to revive them. Don’t buy ones that already have the outer leaves removed, they are probably ancient. Ask for a ‘Webbs Wonder’, which is an especially crisp variety. Imported lettuces are just as good as home-grown, providing they are fresh. Gardeners might like ‘Webbs Wonder’, too. Limes. These are less common than lemons. The juice is exquisite—iced lime juice (sweetened as you want) is a drink of the gods. Loganberries are the big brothers of the raspberry. They are much more interesting for my money, especially to serve raw with cream and sugar. Nowadays you only see them in country towns. Lychees are a soft juicy fruit with a flavour of roses. Discard the parchment-like outer skin, eat the soft flesh uncooked. Mandarins. Just like tangerines. You either like them, or you don’t. (See Oranges.) Mangoes. Wildly expensive, but eaten fresh a sensation. Not to be confused with the tinned variety which is not sensational at all. Marrow. A tough, tasteless vegetable that wins prizes at garden shows. Medlars. Strange, stunted, apple-like fruit eaten when soft and seeming over-ripe. Worth trying, if only as a curiosity. Melons Cantaloupe. Go for those with thick, closely woven ‘netting’ with yellow or yellow/green between netting pattern. Tender orange inside. It should have a rich smell. Imported—expensive until summer. Don’t cut more than a few minutes before serving, even to cool. Tiger Melon. Is very similar, but with a smooth skin. A real Tiger Melon is even better than a Net Cantaloupe. Honeydew. White rind is immature, it should be cream-colour. Flesh is more like that of a watermelon and so they are cheaper than the above varieties. Go for the ones from Spain, sometimes marked ‘Elche’. On South African honeydews, ‘Geest’ is the label to search for. ‘Prince of Wales’ is another superb mark. Charentais. Sent from France, are the kings of the melon world, although some gourmets go for Afghan ones. They are almost never cheap, but they are worth paying for—highly scented, sweet and pungent. Watermelon. Very watery flesh. Beware of damaged ones as they rapidly deteriorate. Mushrooms. Sensational whatever their size, shape or colour. The very light underside shows a very young mushroom, but gigantic plate-sized mushrooms have their place in cooking too. Try them all, and keep some in a dark place in the kitchen, but never in the refrigerator—they hate cold. Cultivated mushrooms do not need peeling. Sometimes wild mushrooms appear in the shops, but the real gourmet will stalk the choicest varieties with a good textbook in one hand. Mustard and Cress is a mass of tiny green leaves on thin stalks, that looks like something out of a science-fiction film. It is really rape, and is useful for decorating hot or cold dishes, e.g. roast poultry, sliced galantine, or baked sole. Nectarines. A superb type of plum. You must try one. South African ones in winter (see Food in Season section). Onions.See pages 254-5. Oranges. There are three different types of orange. There is the China or sweet orange—that’s the ordinary orange as we know it. There is the Seville, which is a bitter orange for cooking with duck, pork, etc., and for making marmalade. Lastly, there is the mandarin, which is a small, flattened, loose-skinned type of orange that originated in China thousands of years ago. There are several varieties of mandarin—tangerine, satsuma and clementine—some of them have no pips. When buying ordinary oranges, choose the thin-skinned, smooth ones. Heaviest are best. Israel oranges are exceptionally good, particularly the real Jaffa. Outspan is a selection from the South African crop, and Navel is the choicest variety when the Spanish crop takes the stage. In January and February both Seville oranges and Aylesbury ducks are in the shops. Like all citrus fruits, oranges will give you more juice if heated before squeezing. Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию (https://www.litres.ru/len-deighton/action-cook-book/?lfrom=688855901) на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.