Spicy lentil soup with cumin and tomato

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Serves

N/A

Ingredients

  • 1 small knob of butter
  • 2 Tbls extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 large or 2 small onions finely chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic sliced
  • 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 300 g red lentils
  • 1 litre vegetable or chicken stock
  • 1 tin chopped tomato’s
  • Salt and freshly grilled
  • Fresh coriander
  • 250 ml natural yoghurt

Method

Place a medium pan over a medium heat. Add the butter and the oil to the pan; throw in the onions, garlic, coriander and cumin. Fry gently without colouring for 5 mins.

Add the stock and lentils and cover with a lid, bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for 10 minutes then add the tomatoes, cook for a further 15 minutes or until the lentils are tender.

Puree the soup with a stick blender or in a jug blender.

Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.

Roughly chop the coriander, and stir it through the yoghurt.

]Ladle the soup into warmed bowls. Finish the soup by spooning over the coriander yoghurt, followed by drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of ground toasted cumin.

Warm Salad of roast squash and pan fried mushrooms

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Serves

Four people

Ingredients

  • 1 medium squash
  • 12 sage leaves
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • Olive oil
  • 50 g butter
  • 250g of fresh ceps or other boletus
  • Small bunch of wild rocket washed
  • 200g soft blue cheese such as Roquefort or Saint Agure
  • French dressing to serve

Method

Peel a large squash, such as Butternut or Crown Prince. Cut into 1 inch chunks, and place in a roasting tin along with the bruised sage leaves, the garlic, peeled and thickly sliced, 150ml of olive oil and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper.

Roast the squash in a pre-heated oven, set at 200 degrees, for 45 mins or until soft and coloured round the edges. Add 1 Tbls of olive oil along with the butter to a frying pan set over a medium heat, throw in the mushrooms that have been trimmed and cleaned and sliced, season them lightly with salt and pepper, fry for 4-5 mins or until cooked through. In a large mixing bowl combine the cooked squash, mushrooms, rocket and cheese. Lightly dress with the vinaigrette. Toss this all together and divide between the plates.

Wild Garlic Soup with Chorizo and Bread

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I’m finding wild garlic is around earlier with each coming year. We had some on the menu at River cottage in January. This wonderful plant, also known as ‘Ramsons’ can be found in the dappled shade of established woodlands, in damp meadows, along stream banks and in shady hedges. When its young it’s sweet and its emerald green leaves are unmistakable.

Wild garlic gives this soup great flavour and if you can get the tiny little bulbs at the base of the plant then so much the better.

Serves

4 – 6 people

Ingredients

  • A little olive oil
  • 1 large or 2 smaller onions finely sliced
  • 4 or 5 wild garlic bulbs, cleaned, trimmed and sliced
  • 200g chorizo sausage sliced into rounds
  • 1 litre of good light chicken stock
  • A handful of freshly picked wild garlic leaves shredded
  • A handful of young kale leaves shredded
  • 4 – 6 slices of 2-3 day old sourdough or similar
  • Flat leaf parsley chopped
  • Salt and pepper

Method

Warm a heavy based saucepan on the hot plate; fry the sliced chorizo with a little olive oil. After 2 or 3 minutes add the sliced onion and sliced wild garlic bulbs (if you have them) and season with salt and pepper. Continue to fry off without colouring for a further 7- 8 mins or until soft.

Add the chicken stock and bring to the boil.

Simmer gently for 15 – 20 minutes, mean while toast the pieces of sour dough on each side. This can be done directly on the Esse hot plate.

At this point you can add the garlic leaves and kale to the simmering pan. Cook for 5 minutes. Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning.

To serve, place a piece of toasted sourdough in a large soup bowl and ladle over the hot soup. Finish with a trickle of good olive oil and some chopped flat leaf parsley.

Gratin of purple sprouting broccoli with garlic, chilli, anchovies and cream

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This is a fantastically warming way to cook purple sprouting broccoli and delicious either on its own as a starter, or with roast lamb or mutton.

Serves

Four people

Ingredients

  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 2 dried chillies
  • Olive oil
  • 6- anchovy fillets
  • White wine or marsala
  • 400ml double cream
  • 500g purple sprouting broccoli
  • 100g grated parmesan

Method

Peel and thinly slice the garlic. De-seed and chop the chillies. Set a medium-sized, heavy-based pan over a medium heat and heat a good slosh of olive oil.

Throw in the garlic, chilli and anchovies. Fry until the garlic takes on a golden tinge around its edges.

Add a splash of white wine or marsala, boil for a few seconds and then add the double cream. Bring to a simmer and turn the heat down. Cook until the sauce is reduced by a third.

Blanch the purple sprouting broccoli in boiling water for a minute.

Drain and allow to steam dry. Lay the broccoli in an ovenproof dish, pour over the cream sauce and scatter with grated parmesan. Bake at 190°C/Gas Mark 5 for 10-12 minutes until golden and bubbling.

Try the same recipe with curly kale in the winter months.

Herb-roast chicken

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Serve with a green salad to mop up all the herby, buttery juices.

Serves

Four to Five people

Ingredients

  • 1 plump organic roasting chicken, weighing around 2kg
  • 50g soft butter
  • a couple of generous handfuls of fresh herbs, such as parsley, chives and marjoram, roughly chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 1/2 glass of white wine
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Heat your Esse up to the middle part of (Very Hot)

Remove the bird from the fridge at least an hour before cooking it, ideally two or three. Take off any string trussing from the chicken, place the bird in a roasting tin and spread out its legs from the body. Enlarge the opening of the cavity with your fingers, so hot air can circulate inside the bird.

Put the butter in a bowl, throw in the herbs and the garlic and season well with salt and pepper. Mix together with your fingers, then smear all over the chicken, outside and in.
Place in the centre of the hot oven and leave for 15 minutes (phase 1).

Then baste the chicken, remove the bird from the top oven and pour the wine into the tin (not over the bird) and roast the bird for another 35–50 minutes in the bottom oven.(phase 2), depending on its size. (A good test for doneness is to pierce that part of the bird where the thigh joins the breast; the juices released should run clear). Rest the bird on top of the ESSE with the plate tops closed. I find this the perfect spot to rest all roasted meats.

For a bigger bird, at the longer end of the cooking time, you may wish to protect the bird’s skin with buttered foil for, say, the first 20-30 minutes of phase 2.

Carve the bird in the tin, as untidily as you please, letting the slices fall into the buttery juices, then take the whole thing to the table so people can help themselves.

Home-made bacon

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Delicious crispy bacon

Serves

N/A

Ingredients

  • 1 whole pork belly, bone in, divided into 3 pieces
  • 1kg salt
  • 1kg demerara sugar
  • Malt vinegar
  • Optional flavourings
  • A few bay leaves, finely chopped
  • About 20 juniper berries, lightly crushed
  • 25g freshly ground black pepper

Method

In a clean, non-metallic container, thoroughly mix the salt and sugar and any of the flavouring ingredients you want to use (none are essential). Put a thin layer of this cure in the base of a clean box or tray, big enough to hold the belly. Add the first piece of belly, skin side down, and lightly rub another handful of cure into it. Put the next belly on top, rub it with cure, then repeat with the final piece.

Leave the box, covered, in a cool place safe from flies. Keep the leftover cure mix in an airtight container. After 24 hours you’ll see that the meat has leached salty liquid into the container. Remove the bellies, pour off this liquid, and rub the bellies lightly again with fresh cure mix. Re-stack the bellies, preferably moving the one from the bottom to the top. Repeat daily. Your bacon will be ready after just 4 days, though if you cure it for longer (up to 2 weeks) it will keep for longer.

Wash all the cure from the bellies under a cold running tap then clean their surfaces with a cloth soaked in malt vinegar and pat them dry. Hang the bellies in a well-ventilated, cool, dry place to dry for 7-10 days and they are then ready to use.

You can keep the bacon hanging in a cool place, or store it in the fridge for around a month. Take slices as you need them, removing the bones as you come to them.

Cook the bacon in a pan set over the hot plate of the ESSE, or in the top oven with the dial reading the lower side of ‘very hot’ until just starting to crisp.

Pizza with roast beetroot, kale, anchovies, and thyme

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I cook all my pizzas on the floor of my ESSE’s hot oven. You get that great crisp crust that is so typical of good stone baked pizza. The key is to get the oven really, really hot.

I rate beetroot. Its fantastic colour and taste make it one of our most unique root vegetables. It has a rich, earthy depth of flavour and is silky smooth to eat.

Boiling beetroot is good, but I think roasting it is better. You can roast them skin on, this keeps in all the flavour. Garlic, thyme and olive oil are a must. This combination works well as a warm salad with some boiled eggs or sirloin steak but also makes a fitting winter pizza topping.

Serves

Six People

Ingredients

  • Makes six small pizzas, at least
  • For the dough:
  • 250g strong white bread flour
  • 250g plain flour
  • 5g powdered dried yeast
  • 10g salt
  • 350ml warm water
  • About a tablespoon of olive oil
  • A handful of coarse flour (rye, semolina or polenta) for dusting
  • The topping ingredients are listed in the method

Method

Make the dough:

To knead by hand, mix the flour, yeast, salt and water in a bowl to form a sticky dough. Add the oil, mix it in, then turn the dough out onto a clean work surface. Knead until smooth and silky.

To use a food mixer, add the flour, yeast, salt and water to the mixer, fitted with the dough hook, and mix on low speed. Add the oil, then leave to knead for about ten minutes, until smooth and silky.

Shape into a round, then leave to rise in a clean bowl, covered with a plastic bag, until doubled in size.

For the topping:

Wash and de-stalk a good bunch of young kale. Chop it roughly. Throw it into a pan set over a high heat with a few slugs of olive oil, 2 peeled, sliced garlic cloves and 2 dried chilli’s de-seeded and chopped.

Sweat the kale down; keep it moving around the pan, the kale has to be well wilted and all the water to have evaporated. Season the kale with salt and pepper and set aside.

Take 5 or 6 smallish beetroot and give them a really good scrub under a tap. Throw into a roasting tin with a few tablespoons of olive oil, 3 or 4 smashed garlic cloves and a generous scattering of thyme and rosemary leaves.

Season well with salt and pepper, then roast in a hot oven for 30 – 40 minutes until soft and crispy round the edges.

Divide the dough into 6 balls. Roll out each on a well floured work surface as thin as is practical 2- 3 mm max.

Scatter the roast beetroot over your pizza base, tear over some decent mozzarella and 6 or so anchovy fillets. Tear the wilted chard over the pizza. Season with salt, pepper, a glug of olive oil and a few more thyme leaves.

Lastly spoon over any roasting juices left over from cooking beetroot. I use a large base form a tart tin as a peel for putting my pizzas in the oven. You really have to make sure that your peel and your surface is well floured. Semolina or polenta flour is great for this as it is courser Lift the pizza up with your dusted peel.

Carefully slide each pizza onto the floor of your very hot oven (up to max). It’s best to do 1 at a time. It wont take long to cook – 3- 4 mins and there done.

Scallops with Jerusalem artichokes and pancetta

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Enjoy the best of British food with ESSE range recipes with the help of River Cottage head chef, Gill Meller.

Here, Gill Meller takes us through a step-by-step demonstration recipe, cooking scallops with jerusalem artichokes cooked using the ESSE flued Gas range cooker with Plus 2 companion.

ESSE slow roasted shoulder of Lamb

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Enjoy the best of British food with ESSE range recipes with the help of River Cottage head chef, Gill Meller.

Here, Gill Meller takes us through a step-by-step demonstration recipe, cooking slow roasted shoulder of lamb, cooked on an ESSE Range cooker.

Gill Meller cooks Winter Soup on an ESSE

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Enjoy the best of British food with ESSE range recipes with the help of River Cottage head chef, Gill Meller.

Here, Gill Meller takes us through a step-by-step demonstration recipe, cooking his favourite Winter Soup with beans and winter veg – cooked on an ESSE flued Gas range.

Braised flat mushrooms with soft polenta & dressed shredded greens

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Mouthwatering vegetarian recipe for your ESSE Range Cooker from Tim Maddams
February representative demonstrations prepared by Tim Maddams of Green Sauce

Ingredients

  • 6 large flat mushrooms
  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1/2 pint dark beer
  • Guiness etc
  • Fresh thyme
  • A small pinch of caraway seeds
  • Salt and pepper

In a casserole dish that is stove top safe, begin by frying the sliced onions in plenty of olive oil. Add shopped thyme, garlic then the mushrooms, a few at a time. Once everything is ticking over add the caraway and then the beer, season well and bring to the simmer and then transfer to your low oven or cook at ESSE dial guide COOL to MODERATE (150) for at least an hour.

Diced pancetta can be added if meat as required, this should go in at the start with the onions, around 100g.

For the polenta:

  • 1lt milk
  • 1 clove garlic
  • Chopped fresh rosemary – 1 teaspoon
  • A pinch of chilli flakes
  • Salt to taste
  • 200g quick cook polenta
  • 100g extra mature organic cheddar – or Lancashire!

Warm the milk with everything except the cheese and the polenta until its just simmering, add the polenta and stir, it will cook in around 10 minutes and have the consistency of a very thick porridge. Season well, adding more milk if needed, then grate the cheese and add half of that to the polenta.

For the greens

  • A few stems of cavolo nero, kale or a bit of good old savoy cabbage
  • Olive oil
  • Fresh lemon
  • Salt, pepper and English mustard.

Wash the greens well and de stem if they have tough stems. Chop finely and dress in a little olive oil, mustard and lemon juice, season with a little salt.
Plate the dishes up, starting with the polenta, then the mushrooms and a little cheese, finish by sprinkling with dressed greens.

Spicy mushroom wrap with garlic yoghurt & cumin

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Mouthwatering vegetarian recipe for your ESSE Range Cooker from Tim Maddams

ESSE February representative demonstrations prepared by Tim Maddams of Green Sauce

Ingredients

  • 4 large flat mushrooms
  • 1/4 onion, a little chilli
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
  • Cumin seeds and caraway seeds
  • 1 dessert spoon smoked paprika
  • 1 small pot of natural yoghurt
  • A few salad leaves
  • A sprig of fresh coriander

For the tortillas

  • 300g of white spelt flour
  • A splash of water (around 150 ml)
  • Teaspoon of veg oil
  • Teaspoon of veg oil
  • Good pinch of salt

Work into a soft but pliable dough, rest.
Roll out thinly and cook briefly in a hot frying pan with no oil until puffed up and lightly coloured.

For the mushrooms

Toast the spices and lightly crush, cut the mushrooms into slices, slice the onion, chop the garlic and chilli.

Sauté the onion and mushrooms in a hot frying pan with the spices, and a little oil, chilli and sauté for another minute or two.

Finely grate the garlic and add it to the yoghurt to serve with the wraps.

Serve with the tortillas and lashings of natural yoghurt, sprinkle with plenty of fresh coriander and make sure you have some nice winter leaves to hand.

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