A Funny Thing
Happened on the Way to the
Plate By Michael Glass Published Jan 2013 Copyright reserved by Author Contents
Chapter Title From To Page Page Contents 2 2 Introduction to your Author 3 3 List of Dishes by Chapter 4 5 Glossary of Terms 5 9 Weight and Volume Conversion Table 10 10 1 From Psychedelic shirt to a Black Bow tie 11 19 2 Spilling the Soup 20 27 3 Fit for the Queen 28 37 4 Eating for Eton 38 46 5 Balls, Balls or just Balls? 47 54 6 Radley – 5 years of living 55 66 7 Neighbours 67 76 8 The Dreaming Spires of Food 77 86 9 Falklands Food for Food 87 95 10 A Tunnel of Love 96 105 11 My First Taste of the Old Soviet 106 114 12 The Death of a Gall Bladder 115 125 13 Sunshine Food 126 136 14 List of Dishes by Chapter 137 139 15 List of Courses by Dish and Chapter 140 141
16 A Few Thanks 142
Important note Often there is no recipe item or instruction to add salt and pepper this is in respect of chefs who should fully understand that you should season certain things during cooking and always taste a dish and correct seasoning to taste.
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Introduction to and History of your Author
The author has travelled far and wide in his quest for I do not know what, along the road he has eaten and cooked some great and interesting dishes. Prior to his explosion from overweight he decided to share the emotions for foods he loves, when well cooked and attractively presented.
The four corners of his world included the UK as a base where he worked in only the best public schools in the country, the Falklands where an airport was built on his food, Singapore for a quick takeaway, Cyprus for sun and sand, Kazakhstan for strange parts of a horse, Siberia where love and flowers blossomed and Poland where he enjoyed an Easter breakfast with a Pope
As he says ……. You start tasting food with your eyes and stop feeling it with your heart.
Remembering all the occasions and dishes has racked his brain and stretched his memory. He asks for your forgiveness if his story is not as fully factual as you may remember but it is as he can recall. The book contains 4 sections per chapter; an anecdote of how the menu came about, the menu, some tips on the making of the menu and the recipes it needs with photographs of some of the completed dishes. Readers are asked to remember the author liked to explain he was never a chef, just a catering manager with a cooking skill picked up from working with some of the best chefs around the world. This book may give some interest to the readers by giving some insight as to where the dish was served in the preamble to the chapter, it gives the author’s tips on cooking and serving the dish before you plunge into the recipe. All the recipes have been planned for six covers and tested by the writer hence his overweight. Even the pictures are in the main taken by his own lover of food – Olga, without whom this book would never have got off the plate.
The writer gives many thanks, to his colleagues in Gardner Merchant where he worked for 26 years and paid for so much of the travel to obtain the recipes and to the family guests who have had to suffer the indigestion before the recipe was honed to perfection.
Remembering We are what we eat and if we are happy to eat it we stay happy. He was not overweight just short for his weight- he should have been 7feet 4inches tall !
Eat on and enjoy as he does ------Michael Glass
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List of Chapters and Dishes
Chapter Title Recipes 1 From Psychedelic shirt to a Black Bow tie Pate Maison Coquille St Jacques Mornay Steak Diane Mixed Green Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing Duchess Potatoes Banana Fritters in Kirsch Irish Coffee 2 Spilling the Soup Cream of Tomato Soup Grilled Dover Sole Fresh Bean Salad Lyonnaise Potatoes Orange Wheels in Cointreau 3 Fit for the Queen Melon Boats with Palma Ham Sails Entrecote of Beef Bordalaise Brussels Sprouts Baby Glazed Carrots Roast and Creamed Potatoes Coupe Jaques Demi glace 4 Eating for Eton Blini, Decked in Smoked Salmon and Sour Cream Supreme of Chicken Arch Duke Batton Courgettes Fingers of Carrots Saffron Rice Apple Tart Normand 5 Balls, Balls or just Balls? Prawn and Lemon Mousse Fillet D'Or Sautéed Peas and Bacon Potato Nests Filled with Courgette Matches Pear Belle Helene 6 Radley – 5 years of living Ox Tongue and Beetroot Salad Lobster Thermadore Braised Eastern Rice Flowers of Vegetables Orange Sorbet Veal Sweetbreads in Vol au Vents Cheese Celery and Fruit 7 Neighbours Avocado and Strawberry Salad Fillet of Sole Veronique Crown of Lamb Stuffed with Apricot, Prune and Walnuts
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Kenya Bean Bundles Cauliflower Polonaise Roast Potatoes Charlotte Rouse Coffee and an Elbow 8 The Dreaming Spires of Food Seafood Platter Braised Haunch of Venison Leek Mornay Baked Jacket Potatoes Chocolate Mort 9 Falklands Food for Food Ham and Salmon Cornettes Chicken Plaw Broccoli Cheese Spinach Pasta Chocolate Roulade 10 A Tunnel of Love Mulligatawny Soup Haggis, Neeps and Tatties Steak and Sausage Pie Peas & Carrots Boiled Potatoes Isle in the Mist Whisky Galore 11 My First Taste of the Old Soviet Real Horses Douvers Baursaks Besgberrmak (Pasta Soup Boiled Head of Lamb) Red and Green Cabbage Boiled Potatoes Blinchki Sour Blinchki Sweet 12 The Death of a Gall Bladder Borsch Herring Under a coat Palmani Steak Mayonnaise Potatoes Aubergines Poached in Cream Sauce Creamed Potatoes Bread and Butter Pudding 13 Sunny Food Village Salad Grilled Sea Bream Klefkhi Mushrooms in Cream Sauce Runner Beans Newest Potatoes Ravani Cypriot Coffee Also see the List of Dishes by Course in chapter
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Glossary of Terms
Nos Term Explanation Places Used 1 Hollandaise sauce The slowest sauce in the world, takes time to make but is worth it 2 Matre dhotel butter A butter and parsley garnish that can be chilled and sliced at time of use, for example see Dover Sole chapter 2 3 Bouquet Garni Bouquet Garni is a French term used for a bundle of herbs. It can be made from fresh or dried ingredients. For a fresh, use 3 sprigs of parsley, 1 small sprig of thyme leaves and 1 small bay leaf.
It is ok to use 1 dried bay leaf in with the remainder of fresh herbs. Tightly tie the bundle together using string or wrap securely in cheese cloth and tie. Use in soups, stews and sauces. Remove before serving.
Add to the beginning of cooking and take out before serving. If using with fish, add dill weed for added flavor. If you use cheese cloth, add one of the following: orange peel, cloves, fennel leaves, celery leaves, marjoram or peppercorns.
Also known as French Bouquet Garni. A dried bouquet garni is made from dried bay leaves, parsley, and thyme leaves. Mix together 1 tablespoon of each herb in dried form and place one or two teaspoons in a piece of cheesecloth or a metal tea ball. Then you can use in your favorite broth or soup.
4 al dente Cooked so still crisp on the teeth 5 Stripping knife Cuts a strip of skin off an orange 1/8th inch wide and thick for decoration 6 Sauters pan A flat bottomed pan with sloping sides ideal for sauce making so the flour does not stick in the corners 7 Using Vanilla To extract the flavour of vanilla it can be soaked in the cooking liquor and then removed. Alternatively the pod can be slit with a sharp knife down its length, then scrape out the seeds and add to the liquor, it will then dissolve
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8 Hand Test This is to help you tell the cooking state of a steak, The toughness of the muscle on the thumb part of your palm is the same as your steak Open your palm and press the muscle – its raw. Touch the thumb with the index finger of the same hand and the muscle goes to rare, touch the middle finger onto the thumb and it goes to medium, with the ring finger and its well done, with the little finger and its burnt.
9
Test this muscle Touch these fingers
10 Flambe Use a flambé pan with rounded, deep sides and a long handle. Choose liquors or liqueurs that are complimentary to the food being cooked, such as fruit flavoured brandies for fruits and desserts and whiskey or cognac for meats. Do not pour liquor straight from the bottle to the hot pan. The lit fumes can follow the liquor stream back to the bottle and cause an explosion. Pour the needed amount into a different container like a metal ladle, warm it, and then add. The fumes can be lit by tilting the far side of the pan (opposite the handle) toward the heat source. Be prepared for a whoosh of potentially far- reaching flames and stand back accordingly, making sure to avert your face. Once you add the liquor to the pan, do not delay lighting. You do not want the food to absorb the raw alcohol and retain a harsh flavour. Be sure to let it burn long enough or the flavour of the alcohol will overpower the food. Stir to combine flavours before serving. If the dish doesn't light, it's probably not hot enough. If you are planning the flambé as a performance for your guests, do not light the dish until it is at the table, far away from guests and any centerpieces or flammable objects.
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Do not carry a lighted dish to the table. The liquid could splash out of the pan, resulting in burn or fire hazard.
The food to be flamed must be hot. Cold foods may cool down the warm liquor to a point where it will not light. Meats will require 1 ounce of liquor or liqueur per serving. For desserts and fruits, sprinkle with granulated sugar before adding the warmed liquor and lighting. If you want the flames, but do not want the liquor in a dessert, soak sugar cubes in a flavoured extract (not imitation). Place the cubes around the perimeter of the dish and light. Perform your flambé in a darkened room for a more theatric effect, but be sure you have enough light to see what you're doing. Alcohol in a Freezer It should be remembered that to cool ‘good quality Alcohol it is best placed in the freezer in the bottle, the alternative of putting ice in the glass will just dilute the taste and the strength – and who wants that. It is best to make sure there is room for the expansion in the bottle, you will find that good quality vodka never freezes even at air temperatures of – 40 in Siberia it stays just ready to drink!! 11 Demi Glace Demi-glace is a rich brown sauce in French cuisine used by itself or as a base for other sauces. The term comes from the French word glace, which used in reference to a sauce means icing or glaze. It is traditionally made by combining equal parts of veal stock and espagnole sauce, the latter being one of the five mother sauces of classical French cuisine, and the mixture is then simmered and reduced by half. Common variants of demi- glace use a 1:1 mixture of beef or chicken stock to sauce espagnole; these are referred to as "beef demi-glace" (demi-glace au boeuf) or "chicken demi-glace" (demi-glace au poulet). 12 A Chicken supreme To remove the supreme from the body take a very sharp 5 inch boning knife and cut down the breast bone of a fresh chicken, keeping the blade close to the bones, follow the rib cage removing
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the meat all in one piece and not damaging the fillet, gently cut through the wing joint to the body and remove the whole breast, turn chicken and repeat. Remove the wing bones leaving the arm inside the breast. Carefully remove the skin from the beast and arm remove the fat and skin. 13 Demitasse Is a small cup used for coffee, normally with straight sides so is ideal for use as mould. 14 Cooking Blind No this is not when the chef has got so drunk, it is a pastry case being cooked without its filling, best achieve by using a fork to prick its base befor cooking or part fill the case with grease proof paper under uncooked rice or lentils. 15 Moulds For cold dishes, use of clear plastic round bottles are a great tool, cut into rings with small bottles for 1 portion or litre bottles for larger portions. This allows you to see the final presentation pattern as you build the dish and by use of warm hands and a slight squeezing action the mouse just falls out whole. 16 Large Sauters This is a pan over 14 inches diameter with sloping sides about 4 inches high which aids the flambé action of lighting the liquor. 17 When Flambeing Before you plan to cook infront of your guests make sure any fire alarms will not be set off especially if linked to sprinklers!! 18 Cooking rice One cup of rice with 2 cups of water, add salt, bring to boil and simmer till tender, test rice by squeezing a grain between thumb and fore finger. When cooked wash under boiling water to remove starch then drain and dry and fluff up with a fork 19 Masking sauce This is a sauce thin enough to pour but thick enough to stick to an ingredient such as meat or fish.
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Your Simple Conversion Table I am sorry for those who understand Metric, Me I am Pound and Pints man and all the recipes are in Imperial weights, hope you can convert
Decimal of a Fluid Pound Ounces Grams Ounces Litres Pints Litres
0.25 7 0.25 0.1 0.5 14 0.5 0.3 0.75 21 0.75 0.4 0.06 1 28 1 0.6 0.08 1.25 36 1.25 0.7 0.09 1.5 43 1 0.02842 1.5 0.9 0.11 1.75 50 2 0.05683 1.75 1.0 0.13 2 57 3 0.08525 2 1.1 0.14 2.25 64 4 0.11366 2.25 1.3 0.16 2.5 71 5 0.14208 2.5 1.4 0.17 2.75 78 6 0.17049 2.75 1.6 0.19 3 85 7 0.19891 3 1.7 0.25 4 114 8 0.22732 4 2.3 0.31 5 142 9 0.25574 5 2.9 0.38 6 170 10 0.28415 6 3.4 0.44 7 199 11 0.31257 7 4.0 0.50 8 227 12 0.34098 8 4.6 0.56 9 256 13 0.36940 9 5.1 0.63 10 284 14 0.39781 0.69 11 313 15 0.42623 Oven Rates 0.75 12 341 16 0.45464 Gas Temp C 0.81 13 369 17 0.48306 1 140 0.88 14 398 18 0.51147 2 150 0.94 15 426 19 0.53989 3 160/170 1 16 455 20 0.56830 4 180 18 511 5 190 22 625 6 200 25 710 7 220 28 795 8 230 29 824 9 240
2 32 909
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Chapter One From Psychedelic Shirt to a Black Bow Tie
The Newton Park Hotel
Steak Diane Coquille Saint-Jacques
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Chapter ...... One From Psychedelic shirt to a Black Bow tie Green hipster trousers, do you remember them, hanging on your hips with a big thick belt to hold them up, but they were for ever falling down if you had a belly at all. Mine were a green tweed and a bit hot for a summer’s night. The shoes were to avoid being called short arse, as I was at 5 feet 7 inches, a slight heel but not like the cowboy I was about to become. The shirt, oh what a pride and joy, my Mother had spent hours making it, the material was as bold as I could find, its background was green but the small spots were every colour of the rainbow and varied in size across the whole pattern, collar was white, a tie was never necessary as it hid the wonderful pattern. I was a barman in a discotheque in a three star hotel in the heart of the commuter belt outside Derby. At least I started as a part time barman, I had been there for few weekends and it was fun, the power had nearly gone to my head, serving all these guy's who were slowly getting drunk and leaving their girls to dance in a state of sobriety. At the end of the evenings I was often the only guy left sober to take home who ever I thought deserved me, or eventually home! Just about to put Ike and Tina Turner on the turntable and announce the record in my Emperor Rosko impersonation I was interrupted by the short, yes shorter than me, Assistant Hotel Manager, he stood there with sweat dripping off his eye brows down his neck and onto his food stained dinner jacket, he gave me the impression he was busy and had a problem. 'Can you silver serve?' Now I had a problem. What did he mean, silver serve? The only silver I had used was in my pocket, a sixpence, yes it was before decimalisation. Before I could say 'silver serve what?' I was standing in an oak panelled, candlelit, linen covered dining room, I had a black bow tie on, and a white jacket. The hipsters and psychedelic shirt were still there and I looked some what out of place. As soon as I entered the dining room I could see the Assistant Manager’s problem, 40 customers and one waiter and himself. My addition did not help much, I did not know what to do. My first night nerves soon disappeared carrying plates, cups, glasses and salvers to the kitchen and in the other direction to the one waiter and Assistant Manager to serve to the customers who must have thought the uniform was a little strange. That night was just the start, at the end of the evening the Assistant Manager pleaded with me to wear black trousers and a white shirt for the next evening, did he not like my psychedelic shirt. Within a few nights I was using a spoon and fork to serve vegetables, then main courses were attacked and I was a silver service waiter. The taste of that first night teased my taste buds, I flew away from wanting to be a pilot in the RAF to be something in Catering. I applied for a place at the local catering college and my education in the romance with food started. After a few months that one waiter and I were running the restaurant and I had even tried my hand at flambe cooking in the restaurant, in front of the customers! From that evening my love affair with food blossomed and flourished. A relationship commenced that has never lost its excitement for over 30 years and never been adulterated despite the occasional diet that temporarily made me monastic against calories.
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MENU
For ...... Customers at the Newton Park Hotel, Newton Solney
At ...... Newton Solney, nr Burton on Trent, Staffs
In ...... December 1968
Pate Maison Served with Melba Toast
~~~~~ OOO ~~~~~
Coquille Saint-Jacques
~~~~~ OOO ~~~~~
Steak Diane Mixed Green Salad Duchess Potatoes
~~~~~ OOO ~~~~~
Banana Fritters and Kirsch
~~~~~ OOO ~~~~~
Irish Coffee .
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Menu Tips
Pate Maison Served with Melba Toast
The Melba Toast should be made daily and it should always be served very dry and crisp. Best made from thick white bread toasted and cut in half, rubbed while still hot to remove bread and then the inside part finished under a grill.
Coquille Saint-Jacques
At that time 1968 the hygiene regulations allowed the use of scallop shells to be used to serve this classic dish. If you pipe Duchess Potatoes around the shell you can serve a smaller portion but it looks bigger.
Steak Diane
What a great dish to impress the young or old lady, cooked in front of you by a waiter who should be more of a entertainer/performer than a waiter.
Mixed Green Salad
Colours and the dressings are the keys to making this an accompaniment rather than a main taste. And as it is being served with a sauce covered meat the salad should be served on a side plate to keep the cream sauce away from the salad.
Duchess Potatoes
Well it is creamed potato but with a considerable presentation advantage.
Banana Fritters and Kirsch
A dish that follows Steak Diane with flare and flame, as it should be cooked in front of you. With this menu I would advise against having cream with the bananas just the Kirsch is enough to tickle the taste buds
Irish Coffee
When this is ordered in a restaurant make sure it is made in front of you so you can check, the whiskey is Irish, the sugar is brown and the cream is fresh not synthetic, then it will be a decadent end to a great evening. Enjoy...... If still sober you are used to drinking too much !!!
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Recipe Name Pate Maison
Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 lb Liver (Pigs, 1/3 Pt Milk 2 oz Butter Calves, Lamb)
5 Streaky bacon 1 Onion, peeled and 1 level Plain Flour rashers part chopped table spoon 6 oz Lean pork 1 Garlic 1 glass Sherry clove 1 Bay leaf ½ pt Double Cream 1 glass Brandy To taste Salt & freshly 1 Lime 1 jar Cranberry Sauce ground pepper 6 slices Thick white bread Method No. Task Time 1. Add onion and bay leaf to the milk in a pan, bring to boil and allow to infuse for 15 minutes 2. Trim the pork and mince with the liver, season with salt and pepper, mix in the sherry and allow to marinate 3. Melt half the butter in a saucepan, add flour and cook into a roux, slowly add the infused milk, into a béchamel 4. Melt the rest of the butter in a sauté pan and gently sauté off the minced liver and pork 5. Add the Brandy but do not flame, take off heat and combine slowly the double cream 6. Combine with béchamel and mix thoroughly 7. Line a 9*5*2” loaf tin with the streaky bacon rashers leaving the bacon hanging over the edge to line the roof 8. Pour in the pate mix and fold over the bacon 9. Cover with buttered paper and wrap tin in foil 10. Stand in a dish with 1 inch of water and place in a moderate oven for 1.5 to 2 hours 11. Remove from the heat and replace cover with fresh buttered paper and cool, refrigerate over night 12. Remove from fridge, turn out onto board and, with hot knife, slice 1 inch thick 13. Melba Toast is thick bread toasted, crusts cut off, sliced in half down the inside and then the two insides are rubbed to remove excess bread then toasted under the grill, which makes it go curly and dry Garnish Place one slice on a plate Garnish with lime wedge, pot of cranberry sauce and melba toast, and a sprig of Water Cress
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Recipe Name - Coquille Saint-Jacques Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 18 Scallops fresh and 3 Lemons ½ oz Parsley trimmed ½ btl White wine 1 lb Duchess potatoes 2 Bay Leaf 1 Brandy 3 Shallots 6 Pepper corns glass ½ pt Double cream 1pt Hollandaise sauce 1 oz Butter
Method No. Task Time 1. Wash the scallops well and ensure fresh 2. Finely chop shallots and sweat off in butter 3. cut Scallops in half horizontally 4. Take ½ button into a hot saucepan and gently seal scallops and add brandy and flame, when alcohol burnt off add 1/4pt of reduced cooking liquor, add white wine, parsley, bay leaf, pepper corns, thyme and the juice of 1 lemon 5. Bring to boil and poach for 10 minutes 6. Warm Hollandaise, never boil, thin with some of the cooking liquor and thicken with cream 7. Add Hollandaise and keep warm (not boil) 8. Using 6 very clean scallop shells pipe a thin edge of Duchess potatoes around and nearly golden under a hot grill(see 10) 9. Place scallops (6 halves per person) into shells and mask with sauce 10. Sprinkle the sauce with finely grated lemon skin and cheddar cheese and grill to brown
Garnish Place shell on small place with doily cover, garnish with ¼ wedge of lemon with one end dampened and dipped in Chopped Parsley
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Recipe Name - Steak Diane Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 * Trimmed Entrecote ½ White wine 6*1/3 Brandy 8oz Beef Steak btle gill 8 Shallots 1 pt Double Cream Salt 15 Button Mushrooms 4 oz Butter Cracked pepper 2 Garlic cloves
Method No. Task Time 1. Trim steaks and cover with cling film and lightly batter with meat hammer, Rub each steak with an open halved clove of garlic 2. Very finely chop shallots and thinly slice mushrooms 3. Heat 2 frying pans and add 2 oz butter to each before butter browns add steaks 4. Ask your guest how they like their steaks, remember the hand test in the rules section 5. Place 3 steaks in each pan and seal off on both sides 6. Add the onions ½ into each pan and sweat off 7. Add sliced mushrooms 8. Add salt and pepper to taste 9. Divide wine into 3 glasses, one for each pan and one for you, do same to brandy whilst still sober 10. Add wine and reduce 11. When steaks cooked add brandy and flambé 12. Remove from heat and add cream 13. Taste – season with salt and Cracked Pepper and serve
Garnish Don’t Garnish it’s good enough
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Recipe Name - Mixed Green Salad Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 2 Watercress ½ Cucumber 3 oz Olive oil bunches 2 Gem Lettuce 4 Scallions 1 oz Balsamic vinegar ½ bunch Parsley 2 Green Pepper Sea salt ½ bunch Chives 1 Coriander leaves Cracked pepper sprig
Method No. Task Time 1. Wash and dry off watercress, lettuce, parsley, chives and scallions 2. Shred lettuce ½ inch thick, destalk parsley, chop chives ½ inch long, cut scallions ½ long diagonally across. 3. Place all in serving bowl 4. Cut cucumber into 1 inch matchsticks, place in same bowl 5. Crack sea salt and pepper over 6. Mix oil and vinegar in small bowl 7. Just prior to service drizzle dressing over salad and toss
Garnish Sprinkle with roughly chopped Coriander leaves
Recipe Name - Duchess Potatoes Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 1/2 Potatoes To Salt 1 oz Butter lb taste 3 oz Butter To Pepper taste 3 Egg yolks To Nutmeg taste Method No. Task Time 1. Peel potatoes 2. Place in salted boiling water till cooked 3. Pass through sieve into basin 4. Add the butter season well with salt pepper and nutmeg 5. Place the mixture in a pan add the egg yolks and mix well on a low heat Until the mixture leaves the bottom of the pan clean 6. Place the mixture in a large piping bag with a star nozzle 7. Pipe onto a greased baking tray in ever decreasing sized circles creating a round pyramid about 2 inches high 8. Gently brush with butter 9. Brown carefully under a hot grill
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Recipe Name - Banana Fritters and Kirsch Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 9 Firm Banana 4oz Demerara sugar Icing Sugar 2 oz Butter 10fl Kirsch Sweet chocolate oz powder Method No. Task Time 1. Place 5 fl oz of Kirsch in the freezer for garnish 2. Prepare a shaker of icing sugar and sweet chocolate powder 3. Peel bananas and make sure they are firm 4. Cut long ways 5. Melt butter in frying pan 6. Place bananas in frying pan and heat 7. Add Demerara sugar and caramelise 8. Add Kirsch and flambé 9. Serve with a dusting of Icing sugar and sweet chocolate powder Garnish A small glass of Kirsch from the freezer
Recipe Name - Irish Coffee Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 cups Strong black coffee ½ pt Double cream 2 oz Fine sugar 12 tea Demerara sugar ½ pt Irish Whiskey 8 Green colouring spoons drops 1 White of an egg Method No. Task Time 1. Cut a small shamrock shape out of greaseproof paper 2. Mix fine white sugar and green colouring but without making it wet (dry if necessary) 3. Take 6 large heat proof glasses 4. Separate egg white from yolk, dip glass rim in egg white 5. Coat rim in fine sugar with green colouring 6. Add 2 teaspoons of Demerara sugar to each glass 7. Carefully pour in strong black coffee 8. Mix sugar till dissolved, add 2/3 gill of whiskey per glass allow to settle 9. Using a teaspoon hold it floating on the surface and slowly pour on ½ of cream
Garnish Holding the shamrock shape over the filled glass, sprinkle a little of the green sugar over the cream
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Chapter Two
Spilling the Soup Not so much a leek more a lake Cardiff
Dover Sole
Orange Wheels
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Chapter Two
Spilling the Soup
I thought I recognised the face, if it had been 4 years later I would have, by then he was the Prime Minister. Having qualified as a Hotel Manager I was in my second full time job at a 3 star hotel in Cardiff, the title was very auspicious 'Assistant Manager Liquor' in essence I was in charge of the 5 bars and cellar and covered as one of three assistant managers.
It was a busy day in the Grill Bar, a restaurant on the ground floor of the Hotel which served fish and steaks to the casual customers. I was helping out by serving a few customers who had just arrived. ‘Tomato Soup for table 5’ the Grill Chef said, I walked up to the hot plate and collected the soup bowl and walked to the lone customer. The napkin I was using was a little damp, the plate was a lot hot. But you never notice these things till the pain emanates from the fingers to the brain.
'Move your newspaper and let me serve you' I thought but he just read on. The pain got worse and the plate started to slip. At last the newspaper moved, but in the direction of the plate, the soup moved as well. Down the paper and onto the sleeve of this customers jacket. I thought he would boil. But no he did not even simmer. As he showed when he was in Government he never lost his temper.
Off came his jacket, out came my profuse apologies, and off I went to the dry cleaners around the corner.
The Dover Sole was served and I was off again to the dry cleaners to collect the jacket. You could not even see the tomato stain that had been there a few minutes before.
Saved by the good nature of a great man, and a quick dry cleaner, Jim Callaghan, went on his way to govern the country.
Life in Hotels was a test of stamina as well as skills, the skills were tested by most customers especially the well known ones like Tom Jones who parked his white Rolls Royce and yellow lines for 2 days, and Kathy Kirby who insisted on breakfast being served in bed before she was dressed! The stamina came from the early starts to serve breakfast and the late nights with the Receptionists at the nightclub across the road.
Oh what a learning curve in Hospitality of all sorts!
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MENU
For ....Jim Callaghan
At ...... The Park Hotel Cardiff
In ...... The Grill Restaurant 1971
Cream of Tomato Soup
~~~~~ OOO ~~~~~
Grilled Dover Sole
Fresh Bean Salad
Lyonnaise Potatoes
~~~~~ OOO ~~~~~
Orange Wheels in Cointreau
~~~~~ OOO ~~~~~
Chateau d'Yquem 1973
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Menu Tips
Cream of Tomato Soup Served with croutons and cream Tomato soup a classic of all classics, the cream is the key, the tomatoes should be fresh and ripe and be as smooth as the cream Dry crisp croutons top off the dish
Grilled Dover Sole A king of all fishes and the only way to cook it is under the grill with some Maitre d’hotel butter melting over the top at service
Fresh Bean Salad Green beans cooked whole and long wrapped in a thin sliver of red pepper just to add colour
Lyonnaise Potatoes Potatoes sauted with sliced onions and parsley
Orange Wheels in Cointreau A palate cleaning dessert, sharp yet sweet and smooth fit for the end of any meal
Chateau d'Yquem 1973 A rare sweet wine worth tasting every drop
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Recipe Name … Cream of Tomato Soup
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 2 oz Streaky Bacon 3 pt White stock 1 oz Sugar 2 oz Carrots 3 oz Butter Salt 1 oz Onion 3 oz Tomato puree Pepper 1 lb Tomatoes 1 Bouquet Garni ½ pt Double Cream 10 Sweet Basil 3 oz Flour 6 Thick sliced white leaf slices bread
Method No. Task Time 1. Skin the Tomatoes by cutting a small star shape at the opposite end to the stalk, dropping in boiling water (off the stove for about 30 seconds, refresh and peel 2. Cut tomatoes in ¼ and remove seeds and core, finely chop flesh (use core and seeds in a stock) 3. Cut bacon into thin strips and fry off in 1 oz of butter with diced carrot and chopped onions 4. Add the flour and cook into a blond roux, add the tomato puree and cook off 5. Gradually add the stock stirring all the time 6. Add the tomatoes, Bouquet Garni, sugar, 7. Bring to the boil and simmer for one hour 8. Remove Bouquet Garni, pass soup though a sieve or liquidize 9. Return to heat and bring to boil, simmer for 10 minutes skimming, check seasoning and consistency 10. Cut bread into ½ inch squares and fry off in butter till golden brown but watch you don’t blacken the butter 11. Roughly chop the basil leaves
Garnish Pour portion into bowls gently pour in cream in circles, sprinkle on the sweet basil and top with croutons
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Recipe Name … Grilled Dover Sole Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 Fresh Dover Sole Bunch Parsley 4 Lemons Juice of ½ a Plates big enough To Freshly cracked Lemon for the size of taste salt and pepper your fish 6 oz Unsalted butter 6 oz Butter Plastic Wrap Method No. Task Time 1. To make Maitre d’ Butter place the unsalted butter in a medium bowl and cream with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Add the chopped parsley (start with a mug of leaves and chop with scissors) and the juice of half the lemon and mix well. Place on a large sheet of plastic wrap and form into a cylinder, about 1 1/2-inches in diameter. Pushing in as you go, to form a tight log. Refrigerate or freeze until needed. 2. Wash and gut fish and trim fins, but leave the head on and make as few cuts as possible 3. Place the sole on a lightly buttered oven tray with the dark side down 4. Lightly brush with butter, grill under a hot grill without colouring 5. When light side is cooked turn, take care not to tear the skin if stuck to tray 6. Brush lightly the dark / top side with butter and grill but do not over brown the skin 7. Place in warm oven while other fish cook, make sure the first fish is undercooked to as not to become overcooked while others are grilled 8. Trim, wash and dry 6 good sprigs of parsley 9. Ensure you have plates large enough to take the fish 10. Cut the lemons in star cut by halving long ways then half again
Garnish Place fish on plate, garnish with half lemon and sprig of parsley Cut down back bone and lift ½ inch of flesh down each side slightly, just before service place a slice of Maitre d’ hotel butter on back bone to melt
Serving Suggestion Then you should bone the fish whilst in front of your guest It is a good idea to serve a half moon plate between each customer for the bones
Page 25 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Fresh Bean Salad
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 ½ French Beans Salt Olive Oil lb 1 Red Pepper Pepper Balsamic vinegar
Method No. Task Time 1. Trim both ends of the beans and cut evenly in half so as to be about 1 ½ inches long 2. Add to salted boiling water for about 15 minutes or till al dente 3. Take the pepper, cut in half and de-seed 4. Cut length ways in strips about ¼ inch wide, dip in boiling water for a few second to soften flesh then strip flesh from skin and keep skin 5. Drain off beans and refresh in cold water to cool and arrange in bunches for 6 portions 6. Around each portion tie a strip of pepper Garnish A drizzle of oil and balsamic vinegar
Recipe Name … Lyonaise Potatoes Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 5 lb Potatoes Salt 4 oz Butter 2 Large white Onion Pepper 1 oz Chives Method No. Task Time 1. Wash and peel potatoes, cut into even shaped slices about ¼ inch thick 2. Place slices into salted boiling water and half cook 3. Drain and dry 4. Put butter in hot frying pan, brown potato slices 5. Place onions in another hot frying pan till nearly cooked 6. Combine potatoes and onion in one pan 7. Finley cut washed chives 8. Mix in chives into onion and potatoes and make ready to serve before chives wilt
Garnish Non needed
Page 26 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Orange Wheels in Cointreau
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 3 Large sweet 3 oz Demerara sugar 2 oz Butter seedless oranges ¼ Quality pure 2* 2/3 Cointreau ¼ pt Whipped cream pint orange juice gill 12 Amareto finger biscuit s
Method No. Task Time 1. Using a stripping knife create 36 long thin matchsticks of orange peel, remove the pith, then 2. Cut off the skin and pith of the oranges from top to bottom 3. Turn peeled orange onto side and cut into ½ inch wheels (from the waste parts of orange squeeze and save the juice by placing your chopping board on a tray and pour off the juice into a cup) 4. Remove any pips carefully from juice and wheels 5. Melt the butter into a large sauters 6. Add the Demerara sugar and cook off till starting to caramelise 7. Add the orange juice and your saved juice and reduce but don’t overcook when caramelised place in the oranges to warm 8. Add the Cointreau and flame 9. Place at least 3 wheels on each plate cover with cooking liquor
Garnish With two amereto biscuits and a spoonful of whipped cream
Page 27 c Michael Glass
Chapter Three
Fit For a Queen Wellington College Crowthorne, and the gates less an arch
Entrecote of Beef Bordalaise
Coupe Jacques
Page 28 c Michael Glass
Chapter Three Fit For a Queen
Dressed in Morning Suit and grey ties, 15 District Managers stood in the recently painted Dining Hall of Wellington College Crowthorne, proving the adage that the Queen thinks that fresh air smells just like paint. We all stood to attention as the father figure of the district managers explained what had to be done. The best line of his instructions was the explanation of why we also had to wear the surgical gloves supplied with the fact sheet. He wanted no finger prints on the clean cutlery about to arrive. Our job was to lay the tables before the army of casual waitresses arrived. Then we were to act, appropriate for some of the team, as wine waiters. The trucks laden with food wine and silverware arrived just before the team of chefs. The College staff were virtually redundant apart from explaining where everything was and how it worked. It took hours to lay the tables, in fact it did not take hours to put the cutlery, plates and glassware there, it was lining up everything into military fashion that took the time. The tables looked great. The place was a picture, then in the loudest voice of the day "every body out" no it was no strike, the opposite in fact, it was strike avoidance. The bomb squad had arrived, and with them the sniffer dogs. Everybody left and had a break while the dogs sniffed and sniffed all the way around the dining room and kitchen; noses in ovens, paws on tables, they went everywhere, I found it difficult to relate this with the course I had been recently studying about hygiene. But then I reasoned a bug of salmonella is better than a bomb of semtex! The hall cleared; the guests started to arrive and filled the hall, the royal party of Her Majesty and Prince Philip sat on the dais with the Governors. It all went very well but was over in a trice. The clearing up started and took just as long as the setting out. The waitresses left, the chefs disappeared, the district managers evaporated and the lorries of dirty crockery, plates and glasses were loaded and we waved the teams good bye..... they came back a few minutes later. There was one statistic that had not been planned. 300 people eat a lot of food and drink a lot of wine, it had arrived on two lorries weighed down with the equipment as well. That was the problem, the lorries had left without the food or wine, they weighed less, they had grown in height and the three inch clearance under an ornate wrought iron arch at the main entrance had disappeared, and the wrought iron arch disappeared down the road with the first lorry. The function cost just went over budget.
That was when I first heard a saying that still works well today.....
If you fail to plan ...... you plan to fail.
Page 29 c Michael Glass
MENU
For ...... Her Majesty The Queen and Prince Philip At ...... Wellington College Crowthorne, Berkshire In ...... Summer 1973
Melon Boats with Palma Ham Sails
~~~~~ 000 ~~~~~
Entrecote of Beef Bordelaise
~~~~~ 000 ~~~~~
Brussels Sprouts
~~~~~ 000 ~~~~~
Baby Glazed Carrots
~~~~~ 000 ~~~~~
Roast and Creamed Potatoes
~~~~~ 000 ~~~~~
Coupe Jacques
~~~~~ 000 ~~~~~
Coffee
Page 30 c Michael Glass
MENU TIPS
Melon Boats with Palma Ham Sails A well used starter that gives the plate height by a thin slice of palma ham skewered by a stick to make the sail.
Entrecote of Beef Bordelaise A great dish to avoid the risk of ‘will a joint be cooked evenly?’, this allows you to ask the guest how they like their streak. The classic covering of a rich bordelaise sauce made the old fashioned way. Make sure you use a Bordeaux wine to give the sauce a fuller flavour.
Brussels Sprouts How mothers can ruin sprouts? Freshly trimmed and a star in the root, dropped into salted boiling water for just a few minutes until they are soft on the outside but still crisp as you chew them, sprinkled with melted butter and tossed in flaked almonds. That is a sprout not a boiled to death heap of small leaves like mini cabbage.
Baby Glazed Carrots Another vegetable that is spoiled by over cooking
Roast and Creamed Potatoes It was not until 20 years later that I saw a great and quick way of cooking roast potatoes, I have taken the liberty of including it here. Peel, eye and cut the potatoes into even sizes, then slice the potato two thirds of the way to the flat side not right the way through and in 1/4 inch slices. Cover your hands with oil and wipe it all over the potato, lay in a baking dish and salt. Cooks in about 30 minutes to a golden brown. Creamed potato, not mashed with milk, add butter, cream and an egg.
Coupe Jacques One of the Queen's favourite desserts, a bed of mixed fresh fruit salad, a ball of rich vanilla ice cream covered with a peach and raspberry sauce.
Page 31 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Melon Boats with Palma Ham Sails
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 Honeydew Melon 1 Large Oranges 6 Cocktail Sticks large 6 oz Palma Ham 6 Glace Cherries some Powdered Ginger
Method No. Task Time 1. Cut the melon length ways into 6 segments 2. Very carefully cut under the flesh and above the pith to allow the flesh to come away, but don’t remove it from the skin 3. Cut the flesh downward into six near cubes, arrange the cubes by pushing them alternatively over the edge of the skin 4. Strip the skin of the orange in 8 sections around the orange from end to end Then cut the orange into 10 thin wheels discarding the 4 end pieces leaving 6 to create sails 5. Stick the cocktail stick through the bottom and top of the orange 6. Trim a slice of Palma ham into the shape of a galleon sail ensuring you have six sails slightly bigger than the orange slices 7. Hang the Palma ham sail over the top of the orange sail and top off with a glace cherry
Garnish Put some very dry powdered ginger into a sugar shaker Sprinkle the ginger over the ends of the melon boats and serve
Page 32 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Entrecote Bordelaise
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 *6 Trimmed entrecote ½ pt Demi Glace (see 4 1 oz Butter oz steaks recipes on) 2 oz Shallots 4oz Chopped Beef Few Lemon Marrow drops ½ pt Red Wine 2oz Cooking oil 6 Slices of beef Bordeaux (if you marrow can) A few Parsley Salt and Pepper sprig s
Method No. Task Time 1. Ask your guest how they like their steaks, remember the hand test in the glossary of terms at the start of this book 2. Heat the oil in 2 sauté pans and fry the steaks 3. Remove the steaks onto a serving tray and keep hot 4. Tip away the surplus fat from one sauté pan and add the chopped shallots and brown off 5. Pour in the red wine and reduce by a third 6. Add the demi glace and reboil and strain 7. Whisk in the chopped beef marrow a little at a time and do not reboil 8. Correct the seasoning and add a few drops of lemon juice 9. Poach the slices of beef marrow in salted water 10. Coat the steaks in sauce and place a slice of marrow on each
Garnish Place a pinch of chopped parsley on each slice of marrow just before serving
Page 33 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Brussels Sprouts
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 2 lb Fresh Brussels 2 oz Flaked almonds 2 oz Butter sprouts
Method No. Task Time 1. Trim and star cut the base of each sprout 2. Just prior to service – please 3. Drop in boiling salted water 4. Cook vigorously until aldente about 10 minutes not more 5. Drain well and dry off 6. Melt the butter and heat through the almonds 7. Add sprouts to the butter and almond the sprouts and toss till all covered in butter (but do not fry of boil off) 8. Serve
Garnish None but the butter and almonds
Recipe Name … Baby Glazed Carrots Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 ¾ Small baby carrots Big Salt 2 oz Sugar lbs pinch
Method No. Task Time 1. Remove the stalks of the carrot and cut off the top 2. Scrub clean but do not peel or scrape 3. Place in a shallow pan with the butter, salt and sugar 4. Cover with water and bring to the boil 5. Cover with a lid and cook slowly 6. When nearly cooked remove the lid to allow the liquor to evaporate until only the glaze remains 7. Serve
Garnish None
Page 34 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Roast Potatoes
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 3 ½ 9 good sized Salt 6 oz Cooking Oil lb or Potatoes allowing 3 halves each Method No. Task Time 1. Peel, eye and cut the potatoes into even sizes 2. Then slice the potato two thirds of the way to the flat side - not right the way through and in 1/4 inch slices 3. Cover your hands with oil and wipe it all over the potato 4. Lay in a baking dish and salt 5. Place in the bottom shelf of a hot oven and move up to brown when nearly cooked 6. Cooks in about 30 minutes to a golden brown. Garnish None
Recipe Name … Creamed Potatoes Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 4lb Potatoes 1/3 pt Cream 1 Egg 4oz Butter Salt Cracked pepper
Method No. Task Time 1. Peel, eye and cut the potatoes into even sizes ( 1/6 ) 2. Place in pan of cold salted water and bring to boil 3. Skim and simmer for 20 minutes approximately 4. Strain and return to the pan to dry for a few moments, strain again to ensure dry 5. Mash thoroughly or pass through a sieve 6. Add half the butter and melt by mixing 7. Add cream and remove from heat 8. Add egg and beat till completely mixed 9. Taste and correct seasoning 10. Place in vegetable dish and flute with a pallet knife with high point in centre
Garnish Drizzle 2oz of melted butter down centre of flutes
Page 35 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Coupe Jacques
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 2 Fresh Peaches 1 ½ Cornish Vanilla Ice 4 oz Raspberries pt Cream 1 Fresh Pears 2 Fresh mandarin 4 oz Strawberries oranges 1 Fresh Apples ¼ pt Whipped cream 6 oz Sugar 6 Maraschino cherries
Method No. Task Time 1. Melba Sauce Place washed rasps and washed and quartered strawberries in pan with ¾ sugar, heat till sugar melts and simmer squash gently but do not pulverise fruit 2. Strain and return to heat and add the other ¼ of sugar and reheat 3. Pass though a sieve and muslin, reduce to a thick coating consistency 4. Fruit (All fruit to be cut the same size about ¼ inch dice) Peaches, skin remove stone slice and dice 5. Pears skin quarter remove stork and pips slice and dice 6. Apples skin core slice and dice 7. Cherries drain and stone 8. Mandarins peal segment trim and dice 9. 10. Place the fruit in a coupe dish, add one ball of ice cream 11. Coat with melba sauce and a rose of cream
Garnish none
Page 36 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Demi Glace (First make Brown Stock) Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 2 oz Carrots 3 oz Onions 1 smll Bouquet Garni 3 lb Beef bones 1 oz Tomato puree 6 Peppercorns 6 pts Water 2 oz Leeks 1oz Celery Method No. Task Time 1. Chop the bones into 4 inch pieces and brown well in hot oven 2. Place them in a stock pot and cover with water 3. Bring to the boil and skim 4. Cut the carrots, onions and celery into large dice and shallow dry until well browned and add to the stock 5. Chop leeks and add to stock with the remainder of the ingredients 6. Simmer for 4 hours 7. Skim and strain Then make brown sauce Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 4oz Beef bones 1½ Dripping 1 oz Onions 2 Peppercorns oz Salt if needed 2 pts Brown stock ½ oz Tomato puree 2oz Carrots 1oz Oil 1smlll Bouquet Garni 2 oz Plain flour 1 oz Streaky Bacon Method No Task Time 1. Chop up bones and brown in a hot oven 2. Make a roux with the flour and dripping, cook out, add tomato puree 3. Dice onions and carrot, Fry off in oil, then add bacon to brown well but not burning 4. Boil up stock and add some to roux slowly and mix in till all stock absorbed 5. Add browned bacon onion and carrot and bones from oven 6. Add bouquet garni and peppercorns 7. Bring to boil and simmer with out a lid for 4 hours 8. Skim, remove fat and taste to season 9. Strain through muslin and reboil for 1 hour Then make demi glace Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item ¾ pt Brown sauce ¾ pt Brown sauce Time Method No. Task Time 1. Place the stock and sauce in a pan bring to the boil and reduce by half by simmering 2. Strain through a muslin cloth 3. Taste to correct seasoning
Page 37 c Michael Glass
Chapter Four
Eating at Eton
Eton College
Supreme of Chicken Archduke
Apple Tart Normande
Page 38 c Michael Glass
Chapter Four
Eating at Eton
Eton College is a school founded in 1440 by King Henry VI, it was first built for only 80 ‘Kings Scholars’ but by 1975 the Scholars had been joined by 1500 more pupils in 26 different houses. Until the early 70’s the House Masters had actually owned the House and decided how the money was spent. Some houses were blessed with full libraries, comfortable furnishing, but a poor menu. Others were rather squalled in their furnishings and scholastic equipment but spent the school fees on a rich menu. We as Caterers had the awesome task of mixing the houses in a central feeding complex and charging the same fee to all houses. For centuries the Housemaster had decided where the money was to be spent; on food, on books, on paintings or on a new coxed eight? He had fed his pupils on steaks but had no art, or had served them sausages and had a Constable to look at in the dining room. Now he was told how much food would cost, it was not the easiest of jobs. Some pupils were happy with sausages but others expected steak more than once a week, and even offered to pay themselves! It was a severe challenge not only culinary but also politically. The pupils were a mixture of Landed Gentry to Nouveaux Riche, and now even a future King of England was a pupil. Not only English appetites needed to be satisfied, princes from Africa, Sultans from Arabia, and Dukes from defunked eastern European states crossed the door to be fed three times a day, seven days a week. Some of them were Gentlemen, sadly some were not. But it was always intelligent and cunning pranks that they played on the catering staff. An upturned glass that looked empty on a tray was found to be full of water when the dishwashing staff moved it and notes to the young staff in creamed potato were some of the less harmful pranks. One of the Gentlemen was Domonic Cadbury, at the start of every holiday he would arrive in kitchen with the biggest box of chocolates I had ever seen just for the staff to say ‘thank you’, but then when daddy owns a small chocolate factory it was the thought that counted. Eton never had a Masters Common Room, there was never a need in the 535 years of the college, but in 1975 they had one, and we had a Master who wanted to institute the time honoured tradition of Dining In Nights. What a great opportunity to test the chefs capability. We started gently but soon we had developed a cuisine of our own, researching time honoured traditions, flavouring it with the French Russian influence of the General Managers wife and even trying a few dishes from the repertoire of the Chef’s Japanese wife. Eton provided my first Russian influence included in this menu Blini. A Simple combination of an old English drop scone and some fish and cream, but what a flavour and what a start.
Page 39 c Michael Glass
Menu
For The first Common Room in 600 years
At Bekinton, Eton College, Windsor, Berkshire
In September 1975
Blini Decked in Smoked Salmon and Sour Cream
~~~000~~~
Supreme Of Chicken Arch Duke
Baked Courgettes and Carrots
Saffron Rice
~~~000~~~
Apple Tart Normande
Page 40 c Michael Glass
Menu Tips
Blini Decked in Smoked Salmon and Sour Cream Making the Blini batter a light consistency is the key, if I only knew then what I learnt from my Russian Mother-in-law now. The trick is sour milk, bi-carb and lemon juice to start it off. Then just before cooking shock it with a dash of cold water. You do not want a huge pancake, it needs to be dainty and evenly shaped so use an oiled metal (plastic melts, I tried) 3 inch scone cutter in the pan to start the shape off, and remove before cooked or it will stick on. Cutting the smoked salmon with a scone cutter helps to create the shape, sour the cream with some more lemon juice.
Supreme of Chicken Arch Duke It is so easy, I have always used this as a tester to watch how all my Head Chefs performed at new kitchens I managed, it is such a simple dish but work hard on it and it can be the difference between leather and velvet. Trimmed well, hot fat and everything ready to assemble is the key. Supremes that are left cooking for too long can be tough.
Baked Courgettes and Carrots Frying the courgettes in hot oil to brown and not to cook is the key; they cook by being left in the dish in an oven.
Saffron Rice Turkish saffron from a market in Siberia was the best I ever cooked with, just a sprig turned the 2 pints of water yellow.
Apple Tart Normande Yes, traditionally French, the key is the light sweet pastry, to get light pastry handle it as little as possible as your hand heat will melt the butter and make it hard. The orange zest helps to create a sharp sweet flavour, a splash of Cointreau lifts it to perfection.
Page 41 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Blini
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item Blini… Some Light vegetable Oil 12oz Smoked Salmon 4 oz Flour ¼ Lemon Juice 2 Lemon 1 Whole Egg and 1/8 Bi carb ¼ pt Thick Sour Cream 1 Another yolk oz ½ pt Sour Milk some Vegetable Oil to oil the 12 Parsley pan sprigs
Method No. Task Time 1. Place the sieved flour and soda in a mixing bowl, add a few drops of lemon juice ,add the egg and mix partly, 2. Slowly add the sour milk until the flour is all dissolved and the consistency is only stiff 3. Whisk in the rest of the sour milk but whisk in well 4. Add a few drops if oil and mix again then allow to stand for 20 in the fridge or shock with a few drops of cold water 5. Heat a shallow frying pan with a coating of oil 6. Pour out the oil, return to the heat, when the oil starts to smoke, add a 3 inch scone cutter (metal silly) and pour in small ladle of blini batter, remove cutter when Blini is form and will not run. 7. Cook on both sides until golden brown 8. Allow blini to cool 9. Decorate with slices of Smoked Salmon cut to the same size of the blini with that metal cutter 10. Top with sour cream, lemon wheels, and parsley sprigs
Garnish Two Blini on a cold plate, topped with several slices of smoked salmon, with a wheel of twisted lemon slice between, just before service top with a spoon of sour cream and a sprig of parsley, Or if expense is no consideration you could top each with a half teaspoon of either black or red Caviar.
Page 42 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Supreme Of Chicken Arch Duke
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 Supreme of Chicken 6* 1/3 Brandy 12 Green Asparagus ( see below) gill Spears 3 oz Shallots 1pt Double Cream 2 oz Butter 1 btl Dry White wine Salt and fresh Ground 1 fl oz Malt Vinegar white pepper 3 Small sprigs of Tarragon Method No. Task Time 1. Trim and skin the Supremes leaving the wing bone in place and taking care not to detach the fillet (see Glossary) A supreme is the single breast trimmed well and delicately 2. Use the skin and trimmings to make a little chicken stock 3. Salt and pepper both sides of supreme, place part of a sprig of tarragon between the fillet and the breast and leave to rest for 2 hours, then remove the tarragon and … 4. Heat a deep sloping sided frying pan with a little butter 5. Place the Supremes in the hot butter, presentation side down 6. Seal and turn over and seal then turn down the heat to cook without browning 7. Add the sliced shallot onions and cook to tender without colour 8. Add the dry white wine (the whole bottle less a few glasses for chef and assistant in true Floyd style) and reduce to barely cover the bottom of the pan. Add a little of the stock and reduce further. 9. In a separate frying pan place the well trimmed asparagus, cover with boiling water with salt and a little malt vinegar, and cook till tender, drain and keep warm. 10. Tilt the supreme pan, add the brandy and flame, shake the pan to stir in the flavour to the Supremes 11. Remove from the heat and wait for the pan to stop boiling 12. Just prior to service, remove the Supremes from the pan and add the cream stirring all the time to thicken evenly.
Garnish Place the hot Supremes on the serving dish and mask with the cream sauce Decorate the supreme with a cross of asparagus
Page 43 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Baked Courgettes and Carrots
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 3 fl Olive Oil 1 ½ Medium Carrots Salt oz lb 1 ½ Medium 1 oz Butter Milled pepper lb Courgettes
Method No. Task Time 1. Wash, top and tail the courgettes 2. Wash, peel and top and tail the carrots 3. Slice the carrot and courgettes into ovals by slicing diagonaly 4. Into a hot Olive Oiled frying pan add only enough carrots to cover the flat of the pan, having all the surface of the vegetable in contact with the pan gives an even brown colour 5. Colour and turn laying all flat 6. Remove onto kitchen paper to drain and repeat. Lay the carrots in an oven proof dish in a medium oven 7. Add more oil , but no more than the surface of the pan and repeat with courgettes 8. Remove onto kitchen paper to drain and repeat. 9. Arrange into an oven proof dish with carrot and courgette on alternative layers 10 Return the vegetables to a hot oven for about 5 minutes till carrots are al dente
Garnish Mill with fresh salt and pepper
Page 44 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name …Saffron Rice
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 cups Basmati Rice 1 Red Pepper ½ Onion 3 oz Vegetable Oil 1 Green Pepper 2 oz Butter 2 High quality 2 Carrot Salt thread Saffron s Milled white pepper
Method No. Task Time 1. Very finely dice the carrot, onion and peppers into separate dishes 2. One Demitasse Cup per person of boiling water into a pan add a little salt, and oil 3. Add to the water 2 threads of Saffron to colour 4. Bring to boil and add one Demitasse Cup per person of washed dried rice 5. Stir and bring back to boil 6. Cook until rice just tendering 7. Meanwhile gently sweat off in butter first carrot then onion then peppers, drain 8. Drain off excess water from rice, but not dry, add vegetable, milled pepper and salt to taste 9. Cover and allow to sweat like a risotto until the rice is squashable between the fingers and thumb 10. Butter the inside of a demitasse coffee cup, scoop a portion of rice, press down hard 11. Turn out onto eating plates or serving dish, you can’t move it after this so make up your mind where you put it
Garnish None
Page 45 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Apple Tart Normande
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item Pastry Filling Top 8 oz Flour ½ lb Cooking Apple ½ lb Red apples 2 oz Fine Castor Sugar 1 Orange for Zest ¼ jar Apricot Jam 4 oz Butter 4 oz Brown Sugar 1 Orange for peel 2 Egg yolks 2 fl oz Cointreau 2 tblsp Water ½ pt Double Cream 1 ½ oz Castor Sugar 2 drops Vanilla Extract Method Pastry No Task Time 1. Sift the flour into a bowl 2. Cut butter into small pieces allow to warm to room temperature and add to flour 3. Rub in like a crumble, add the sugar, mix and make a well in the centre 4. Add the egg yolks and water, using a fork mix into a dough 5. Place the dough on a floured surface, knead for a few moments without over working 6. Cool and cover then place in a fridge for 30 minutes 7. Roll out pastry evenly to about 1/8th inch and grease and flour an 8 inch tart tin 8. Cook off 50% blind (see glossary) 9. Allow to cool Method Filling & tart No Task Time 1. Wash, peel, and core cooking apples 2. Dice into small pieces into pan, Add one spoon of water, add brown sugar, Add 50% of grated zest of one orange 3. Slowly simmer without colour until tender, add cointreau, remove from heat and cool 4. Take cooled tart cases and half fill with cooked apples 5. Take red apples, wash, core and half and then slice thinly with red skin on. KEEPING the half apple shape together to produce even layering 6. Lay thin slices around outside overlapping each slice with skin side, working inward towards centre 7. Take fresh apple and with the peeler make apple rose for centre. 8. Glaze with heated apricot jam 9. Bake in hot oven for 15 minutes or till the apple slices just soften and start to caramelise allow to cool and portion into 6 10. Pour cream in a clean bowl, add sugar and vanilla extract, whisk till peaked and using a piping bag star it in the centre of each portion
Garnish Make very thin orange peel ribbons to decorate just prior to serving
Page 46 c Michael Glass
Chapter Five Balls, Balls or just Balls? Stowe School
Fillet d’or Prawn and Lemon Mouse
Page 47 c Michael Glass
Chapter Five
Balls, Balls or just Balls? Stowe was relatively new in the public school world, it only had a few famous ‘old boys’; Richard Branson, George Melly and David Niven to name but three. But the grounds and buildings held many a tale, with the buildings similar to Buckingham Palace but built in the green and lush fields of Buckinghamshire. The kitchens are on the ground floor with the servery and dining rooms on the first floor which led to many a hard service time. If you think that 800 portions of lunch went up with meat at 4 ounces and vegetables at 2 it could mean that with all the added luxuries a public school boy could want like bread and jam, we lifted over a tonne of food at each meal. Yes we had a lift run by electric motors, but it was 1977 and there were many a day when the motors or the electric failed and then it was a rope and a strong man or two.
My first of many experiences with balls came at Stowe. Golf Balls with Alex Hay, Water Polo Balls with Brian Brinkley and just Balls with rich, old and young men and women. Golf was a serious pass time at Stowe. With the split shift pattern and the splendid 9 hole course around the Capability Brown grounds it meant many a pleasant afternoon would result in the Catering Manager and the Head Chef being found supping tea in the office at 5 p.m. after a mean round. While summer schools were profitable, the school ran a Golf Improvement Course which brought Alex Hay from Woburn to Stowe and his help alone reduced the thickness of this caterer's slice. During these rounds came the start of creativity which has lead inevitably to this book of recipes. It was here that new dishes were formed and tested before being served to the discerning pallets of Common Rooms to come. This menu is mainly a complete invention with only the dessert an adaptation of a classic dish. With an Olympic Bronze medalist as swimming coach the fun sport was water polo, Brian was a breath of fresh air to the normally staid life of a public school, he brewed his own cider and consumed it with us on the golf course. His teaching methods were very brave, just drop the baby in the pool and it will swim, it spent 9 months doing just that in the womb, not many mothers believed him. School Balls were new to me, but what a way to spend money! Parents would pay the earth for the opportunity to dress up and allow their daughters to loose to the sons of other parents what only they could do in a deserted darkened classroom. The organisation of many a Bursar was tested to the limit. A Lieutenant Commander at Stowe allowed a non military man to arrange the entertainment for 1000 heavy payers. It was to be fireworks and Scottish Dancing to a Pipe band. When you book a military band to play at midnight why ask them to arrive at 11. You’ve guessed they arrived at 11:00am to play at 12:00 midday unlike what the civilian bursar’s assistant wanted which was dancing at midnight. Now who would guess that the Scots Guards would half support Manchester United and half support Liverpool? And how convenient that the staff bar stayed open all afternoon to allow them to watch TV and fill them with drink while their two teams competed in the hottest, hardest even sided FA cup final for many a year. The Scots Guards practice session was great to watch but once the swords were laid on the floor it was amazing how well they sobered up. We clubbed together at Christmas and bought the Bursars Assistant a 24 hour clock.
Page 48 c Michael Glass
Menu For The School Governors on Gaudy Day
At Stowe School, Buckinghamshire
On June 1977
Prawn and Lemon Mousse
~~~OO~~~
Fillet d’Or
Sautéed Peas and Bacon A la paysanne
Potato Nests Filled with Courgette Matches
~~~OO~~~
Pear Belle Helene
Page 49 c Michael Glass
Menu Tips
Prawn and Lemon Mousse A creation which with enough lemon and prawns can be light, but if it’s too saucy it can be a heavy starter. It takes a while to make and needs patience to keep setting the gelatine at all stages but it make the difference when you turn it out and it works. The great presentation aid is Sprite bottles, cut the plastic bottle to create a clear plastic ring about 2 ½ inches diameter and 2 inches high from the straight sides of the bottle which can be used again and again and the desired result is visible as you build it.
Fillet d’Or A combination of Meat and Fruit, it may sound strange but try it and see. If your kitchen is visible from the dining room or you can cook at the table it is worth removing any smoke detectors first. If you balance the orange juice with the peach juice it can be less sweet and sour and more a background flavour to the meat.
Sautéed Peas and Bacon This dish is a combination of two classic French recipes, paysanne and Bonne Femme. Cook it too early and it looks like a cross between your mother’s cabbage and mushy peas, prepare it and wait to cook it just before service. You can cook the bacon in advanced but not the peas or lettuce
Potato Nests Filled with Courgette Matches Here is one you can prepare early and leave till you are ready. The colour of yellow and green courgettes and the yellow and brown of a grilled nest compliments each other well. Think of the internal size of the nest before you cut the courgettes in order to make them fit inside and to improve display
Pear Belle Helene A dish taken from the classical and adapted to my taste of more chocolate and alcohol, make it all in advance so that the final combination will only take 5 minutes at most.
Page 50 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name …Prawn and Lemon Mousse
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 12 oz Large prawns 2 oz Butter 6 Sprigs of Parsley 8 Shell on King 2 oz Flour 6 Slices of lemon Prawns ½ pt White Wine 2oz Shallots 2 oz Mixed leaves of lettuce ½ pt Double Cream 2 The Juice of 2 fresh lemons 1oz Gelatine 6fl oz Water
Method No. Task Time 1. Wash and drain well all the prawns peel, leaving 12 prawns in shell for decoration 2. Sweat off very finely diced shallots in butter without cover 3. Make roux and add white wine to create a thick sauce 4. Mix Gelatine and chill, just before it sets place moulds on flat chilled dish and seal the outside base of the mould to the dish with small amounts of gelatine. Repeat on insides of moulds 5. Add 100ml of mixed gelatine to roux, stir and cool. Add lemon juice to roux and stir, add double cream and beat till smooth and aerated. Taste and correct salt and pepper. 6. Place three large prawns on set gelatine at base inside moulds and add a little gelatine to fix in place. Add a few more up the sides 7. Mix remaining shelled prawns into lemon, wine sauce. Slowly add the prawns and sauce to fill the mould making sure air is expelled and prawns remain visible on the sides. Leave a 1/16th inch around the top of each mould to be filled with gelatine. 8. Return to fridge to chill completely 9. Take the dish with the four moulds on and pass for 3 seconds over a gas stove, this will help to release the gelatine on the base, which is to become the top. When the mould is released put back on a new cold dish and return to fridge to stop melting, until ready to serve 10. Take mould in warm hands and press and roll to release gelatine from sides, gently apply pressure to push out of the mould. Place the Mousse on its base showing the gelatined prawns on its top, in the centre of a six-inch plate. Return to the fridge till service.
Garnish Just prior to service arrange lettuce leaves around mousse and thin slices of lemon at one side Add two shell on prawns with their heads resting on the top of the mousse
Page 51 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Fillet d’Or Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 * 6 oz Tournedos Fillet 3 oz Butter ¼ Red wine steaks bottle 6 Thick slices of 4 Fresh peaches 2 gill Cointreau bread 2 oz Fine spreadable ½ Juice of peaches 2 gill Brandy pate pint Try recipe in chapter one 2 oz Demerara Sugar Salt and pepper ½ pt Orange juice Method No Task Time 1. Wash, dry and trim steaks, Salt and Pepper them and slightly batter to half thickness and place on dish and lightly marinade in red wine, cover and fridge. 2. Lightly toast bread and cut into heart shape, big enough to take the steak, cool 3. Spread toast with pate ¼ inch thick 4. Cut peaches in half, skin and de stone. take half peach on to chopping board with hole of stone down most. Leaving the centre ½ inch uncut, cut from the centre to the side in slices ¼ in thick in the centre & ½ in thick at the outside, on completion press with a flat hand and twist slightly to create a fan effect (what’s the other peach for? Mistakes, that’s what!) 5. Take meat out of the fridge and bring it to the room temperature. Melt 2 oz butter in a deep sided frying pan. Just before butter burns quickly place the steaks in to the pan. DO NOT MOVE THEM but allow them to seal. When sealed turn them over and salt and pepper base, continue to cook until required grade. See our rules page for the finger test 6. Remove steaks from pan and keep them warm. 7. Add marinade into the frying pan, mix well to deglaze the pan and reduce. When pan nearly dry add 1oz butter and carefully add fanned half peaches. Gently cook through, add orange juice and peach syrup bring back to boil and add demerara sugar and cook till dissolved 8. The sauce should now be clear, thick and sweet. If not add more sugar and cook off, correct seasoning 9. Just prior to service lay toast and pate on plate add hot steak to top 10. Take sauce and tip pan into heat, add cointreau and brandy and flame 11. Remove peaches and add to top of steak and mask with plenty of sauce 12 Provide guests with large napkins, they are about to dribble a lot
Garnish It is garnished, leave it alone and eat it
Page 52 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name …Sautéed Peas and Bacon Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 8 oz Frozen Peas 3 oz Iceberg lettuce Salt 4 oz Unsmoked thick 2 oz Shallot Onions 1 oz Butter sliced Bacon 1 tsp Flour 3 tspn Sugar Method No Task Time 1. Cut bacon into thin strips and grill off and drain keeping bacon juices, 2. In a shallow frying pan place finely dice shallots and sweat off in bacon juice 3. Add peas and bacon to onion and half cover with water 4. Shred lettuce very thinly ¼ inch thick 5. When peas just tender and water nearly boiled off add lettuce, sugar and salt to taste (remember the bacon has salted the ingredients) 6. Sprinkle a little sieved flour over peas and mix to absorb any remaining water. 7. Do not overcook or they go like mushy peas Garnish None Needed
Recipe Name … Potato nests and Courgette Matches Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 ½ lb Old Potatoes 1 Egg yolk ¼ pt Cream Salt 3 oz Butter 10 oz Courgettes Method No Task Time 1. Wash, peel and cut potatoes into large dice 2. Boil in salted water until cooked 3. Drain well and mash 4. Mix in 2 oz butter, 1 egg yolk and cream Stir well into a soft pipable consistency 5. Onto a baking tray which has been covered in greaseproof paper 6. Using large star piping bag, create nests with a completed centre with an internal measurement of 2 inch and an external of 3 inch, allow to dry 7. Just prior to service brush nests lightly with butter and brown under hot grill 8. Top and tail courgettes, cut into 1 ½ inch lengths and then into match sticks 9. Lightly boil in salted water, don’t over cook 10. Drain well 11. Lift nests off paper and place on main course plate or salver 12. Add drained dry courgettes in a neat but haphazard way inside nests ensuring dark green skin is mainly uppermost Garnish Drizzle with melted butter
Page 53 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Pear Belle Helene
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 3 Firm, large 2 Cinnamon sticks 12 Mint leaves conference Pears ½ Bt. Red wine 8 oz Raspberries 4 fl Cream oz 3 oz Demerara sugar 4 oz White sugar 12 Amaretti biscuits 12 Soft Vanilla Ice ½ lb Quality Plain 5 fl Dark Rum scoops Cream block chocolate oz
Method No. Task Time 1. Wash, core and peel pears, cut in half length way 2. Poach the half pear in Red wine demerara sugar and cinnamon 3. While pear is still firm remove from red wine, drain and cool 4. Add raspberries and white sugar to red wine which was used to cook the pears and boil till jammed and reduced, Pass twice through very fine sieve and muslin then correct consistency to masking sauce 5. Melt chocolate in bain marie add Rum mix slowly and allow to cool a little 6. Place pears on cooling rack, dry and chill, mask with chocolate and chill to set and repeat to build up a thick layer of chocolate 7. Place a covering of Raspberry sauce on high sided plate or large coupe dish 8. Place small scoop ( to fit in core hole) of soft vanilla ice cream in centre, cover ice cream with pear half 9. And serve immediately so ice cream does not melt
Garnish A fresh leaf of mint, drops of cream in the raspberry sauce pulled into a heart shape, and 2 amaretti biscuits
Page 54 c Michael Glass
Chapter Six Radley – 5 Years of Living
Radley College
Lobster Thermidor Orange Sorbet
Page 55 c Michael Glass
Chapter Six Radley, 5 years of living.
‘So exactly how far did the ears of the future head of the Test and County Cricket Board travel on the explosion’ No it was not a question from an Irish terrorist or even a failed West Indian Bowler. Some three months earlier it had been the birthday of the Warden (headmaster) and for a surprise party a buffet had been prepared and as a centre piece the pottery master had been encouraged to carve a bust out of margarine. As the Warden passed the decorated salmon and sirloin the bust was unveiled to hoots of laughter from masters and gallons of giggles from the accompanying wives. The Warden liked it so much he asked for it to be frozen and brought out at all functions for the next three months. As it began to crack and loose its complexion the CCF RSM was encouraged to part with a detonator and a battery was connected to the shutter and flash of a camera. Tension was high till the explosion and the camera whirred to produce the evidence that the Warden's ears travelled many metres but his chin went even further! The start of my time at Radley was a minor panic. The Bursar in his own inimitable calm way explained, when I had been there for a week, that in three weeks a Ball for 600 had been ‘planned’. The word planned was a contradiction in terms for the catering side. Tickets sold, bands booked, decorations organised but food, staff, bars and crockery had not been touched. But then I realised the pupils were there as well, so first serve 700 suppers to the pupils then an hour later serve 600 with a meal worth the ticket price. Lateral thinking was required. A choice was required between food quality or trained waitresses? Food came first so waitresses were ignored and the training of eighty pupils between the ages of 13 and 15 commenced. Clear now, serve now, pile plates here, lay table like this. The Dining hall sat 300 so had to be re-laid and plate service was the order of the day. Thankfully the menu was a lot more simple than the one that follows, but by half way through I was hoarse, frustrated and seriously becoming a psychologically disturbed, patience ruled and we survived. I think if I had worn sandals and walked on water I could not have performed such a miracle in my first month of a new job.
How many loaves of bread makes 9000 rounds of sandwiches? That is not important but what is important are the ways you get rid of the crusts. The local air show wanted 9000 rounds so we ie me, my family and 20 cleaners made them overnight one Friday. My contract negotiating skills had been enhanced just prior to my acceptance and the air show had the problem of selling them and the loss they made when the weather was too hot for ice cream let alone sandwiches. Oh and the crusts, they made a lovely Bread and Butter pudding for 800 boys. Some policemen have a sense of humour. What can raise a smile more than a centre piece of a carved buffet at a Police Ball when as the Chief Inspector chooses his meat you reveal a Pigs Head in aspic with a Policeman’s hat on top. I never risked parking near a yellow line in Oxford. But fun it was.
Page 56 c Michael Glass
Menu
For The Masters Dining in Night
At The Masters Common Room, Radley College, Oxford
On 15th June 1980
Ox Tounge with Beetroot Salad Served with Horseradish Sauce
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Lobster Thermidor Braised Eastern Rice Flowers of Vegetables
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Orange Sorbet
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Veal Sweetbread Vol au Vents a la creme
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Cheese, Celery, Fruit Served with Claret
Page 57 c Michael Glass
Menu Tips Serving; hot, well presented food at Radley’s Common Room was a huge challenge. The Kitchen was across a little yard, down 6 steps, along a 100 meter tunnel and up a dumb waiter 3 floors. It taught me to trial dishes for travel stability and be prepared in advance of plating.
Ox Tongue and Beetroot Salad Served with Horseradish Sauce The combination of the fibrous meat of Tongue and the sharpness of Beetroot can be an interesting combination, with Horseradish Sauce enhances the flavour of the tongue. Creating a decorative style is a challenge. You could calve the tongue in front of the guest but this menu concentrates the effort in the main course. So slices of tongue shaped in waves with beetroot cut in matchsticks is enough. The touch of piped mayonnaise on the beetroot goes a great shade of pink Lobster Thermidor How can you serve Lobster Thermidor to 30 people at once? You borrow 7 gas lamps from the local catering colleges and practice the timing carefully so that the flaming is all at the same time. A good tip is to isolate the fire alarms before the event. Braised Eastern Rice When I started catering rice was for puddings and curry, now it is a suitable accompaniment for nearly all dishes. Using colours, spices and styles can vary the recipe so it should never be dull. Serving it out of a mould adds height to the plate. Flowers of Vegetables By the careful choice and delicate trimming florets of broccoli and cauliflower can be made into individual flower blooms. For increased effect you could even cook the florets in several small pans with a variety of food colourings. Orange Sorbet What else can an orange sorbet be served in but an orange crown cut and scooped out and frozen to keep the sorbet chilled during portioning
Veal Sweetbread Vol au Vents Sweetbreads are not always popular and an alternative dish should be held in reserve for those who object. Served in large puffy vol au vents filled with thin slices of sweetbreads and mushrooms having been poached in white wine and finished in cream should tempt the discerning and experienced palate.
Cheese, Celery, Fruit and claret Carry on with the high dairy content with a cheese board of hard, soft, smelly and ripe cheeses with crisp celery to freshen the palette. After serving a bright white wine with the lobster, try Claret with the cheese it is not just for main courses and is a fitting change to port at the end of a meal.
And Resting between courses is an essential tip, the chef may well want to get dishes onto the table but slow down, talk about the wine and the flavours, rest and absorb until you are hungry for more tantalising flavours to excite the palate
Page 58 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name …Preparation of Ox Tongue
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item One Ox tongue 1 Aromatic Bouquet 2 oz Celery large Garni 4 oz Carrots 10 Peppercorns 4 oz Onions Salt
Method No. Task Time 1. Scrub the tongue well with a stiff brush. 2. Trim the tongue or ask the butcher to do so. 3. Soak tongue in salted water for 24 hours. 4. Discard water, place tongue in clean pan covering with 7 pints of clean water, try to keep the natural shape to ease carving when cooked so try not to twist the tongue. 5. Add Bouquet Garni peppercorns and salt. 6. Bring to boil and simmer, skimming regularly. 7. Dice carrots, onion and celery. 8. In a clean pan sweat off vegetables and then add to tongue pan. 9. Bring back to boil and simmer, skimming regularly. 10. Cook for about 4 hours slowly. 11. The tongue will be ready when the skin is 'blistered' and the T- shaped bone at the root comes away easily when pulled. 12. Remove the tongue from the pan and douse it with cold water to cool, then carefully strip away all the skin. 13. Neaten the tongue by trimming away the ragged and gristly bits at the root and underneath, then curl it round to fit into the pressing tin or dish. 14. Important to keep the shape or press in a tin laying the tongue on its side 15. Refrigerate
Page 59 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name …Ox Tongue and Beetroot Salad
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 lb Thin slices of Ox ¼ pt Mayonnaise Freshly ground tongue pepper corns 1 lb Raw Beetroot 3 oz Assorted Lettuce Crushed rock salt leaves
Method No. Task Time 1. Prepare the Tongue as previous recipe 2. Boil beetroot till tender and while still warm remove skin then chill 3. Chill well to firm and then slice wafer thin down the full length of tongue from tip to throat 4. Lay two slices on a plate in the shape of a wave 5. Surround by leaves 6. Cut slices of beetroot in to matchsticks 7. Pile beetroot sticks down tongue 8. Crack pepper corns and salt liberally 9. Top beetroot with piped star of mayonnaise well in advance to allow beetroot and mayonnaise to share colour
Garnish Serve with home made horseradish sauce and buttered granary bread fingers
Home made Horseradish Warning – do not rub your eyes after grating, it will hurt as much as chillies Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 Horseradish roots ¼ pt Double Cream 1 tea Lightest coloured (8oz) spoon English Mustard
No. Task Time 1. Top and tail then wash and peel the root of fresh horseradish 2. Grate on the finest grater, H&S tip wear glasses as if it goes in your eyes it stings alot 3. Mix grated HR with Cream and mustard, refrigerate and use sparingly it’s hot. Taste as you are combining it to get the intensity your customers will want 4. Do not make too much, with cream it will go off if left too long
Page 60 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Lobster Thermidor
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 Cooked lobster 3 English Mustard Salt tspn ¾ pt White wine 3 oz Butter Cracked Pepper 2 Finely chopped 2oz Flour ½ pt Double Cream Shallots ¼ pt Brandy 1 pt Milk 2 oz Parmesan Cheese
Method No. Task Time 1. Wash and split each lobster down the backbone and remove the flesh from both the body and claws it is worth investing in a special claw fork to reach the best meat 2. Cut up the flesh coarsely and keep cool 3. Wipe the shells clean and leave for service 4. Take 2 fry pans for cooking 6 portions 5. Add ½ pt wine and finely chopped shallots and mustard, bring to boil and simmer to reduce for 5 minutes 6. In a second pan or in advance, make roux with 2oz butter, 2oz flour and add 1pt milk to make béchamel sauce 7. Take and melt 1oz of butter in each large sauters (see glossary) 8. Add the lobster flesh and heat slowly add ¼ pt white wine and reduce, increase heat add brandy and flame 9. Combine the sauce in number 6 and the lobster and heat, mix in the cream over a slow heat and correct seasoning 10. Fill each shell evenly and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and brown under grill
Garnish Wedge of lemon per person and a sprig of fresh parsley
Page 61 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Braised Eastern Rice
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item ¾ lb Basmati Rice 2oz Lemon grass 2 table Ghee (Indian spoon butter) 2 oz Shallots 2 Cloves 4 Green Cardamon seeds 2 oz Sweetcorn 4 Threads of saffron 3 Pepper corns 1pt Water
Method No. Task Time 1. Rinse the rice twice and drain 2. Heat the ghee in a saucepan, add cloves, cardamom peppercorns add finely chopped shallots and lemon grass whole, sweat off till onion tender 3. Add the rice and stir fry for one minute 4. Add the water, saffron and sweetcorn 5. Reduce the heat and cover to simmer over a low heat until the water has evaporated, stirring regularly to avoid sticking 6. Test rice to ensure it is cooked (see glossary) 7. Remove lemon grass and cloves and cardamom if you can see them 8. Serve
Serving suggestions Butter the inside of a demitasse cup, scoop a portion of rice, press down hard Turn out onto eating plates or serving dish, you can’t move it after this so make up your mind
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Recipe Name … Flowers of Vegetables
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 flrt Cauliflower 4 Thick Carrots 4 oz Butter 6 flrt Broccoli 6*3 Three sizes of 3 oz Green beans mushrooms 1 Red Pepper 6 Cocktail sticks 12 Baby courgettes 1 Green Pepper 1 oz Brown sugar
Method No. Task Time 1. Remove the seeds and white flesh from both peppers and cut into 6 pieces, flatten slightly with flesh uppermost first. Season and place on an oiled tray in oven till softened, turn skin uppermost and place in top of oven to brown skin slightly. 2. Peel and cut carrots into equal lengths of about 1 ½ inches 3. Barrel cut one end and starting in the centre cut into a flower, wash then boil in a pan of salted water till al dente drain and toss in melted butter then sprinkle with brown sugar to glaze, keep warm but don’t over cook 4. Pile the three mushroom sizes onto a cocktail stick with smallest on top, cook gently under a grill 5. Top and tail and cut green beans into even lengths and boil until tender, drain and toss in melted butter, keep warm but don’t over cook 6. Courgettes should need little preparation just trim stalk, and wash, and boil in salted water, drain and toss in melted butter, keep warm but don’t over cook 7. Cut cauliflower and broccoli into similar sized florets wash and boil till al dente in salted water drain and, keep warm but don’t over cook Yes that is either 5 pans or good cooking management 8. To assemble onto individual half moon plates 9. Place a 1/6th of red and green pepper on plate at opposite ends, place on top a floret of broccoli and cauliflower respectively 10. In the centre place a flower of carrot, courgette and mushrooms still on stick but now cover stick end with green been 11. Place green beans as stems between flowers
Garnish Drizzle with hot butter and clean off plate
Page 63 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Orange Sorbet
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 medium oranges ½ pt water ½ lb Castor Sugar 1pt Sweet white wine 2/3 Cointreau 1 Egg white gill
Method No. Task Time 1. First make the syrup by boiling the sugar and white wine and water for 5 minutes and cooling 2. Star cut the oranges, about a third top and two thirds bottom and retain the top 3. Remove the orange flesh with a spoon and retain, by working the finger around the inside you should be able to pull away the inside flesh and this white skin 4. Mash to juice the flesh of the orange and strain well in muslin 5. Add the juice of the orange to the syrup and cool, stir in the unbeaten egg white, mix well and place in a plastic container in the freezer 6. Allow to almost freeze firm and then pour into a basin and with a hand whisk beat until smooth and light in colour 7. Pour back into the container, cover with lid and return to the freezer to freeze till solid. This is your water ice. 8. Place oranges now without flesh into the freezer on a tray with the top from the same orange on it as a lid 9. Prior to the guests arrival but not weeks in advance fill the oranges with water ice using a teaspoon dipped in boiling water and when completely filled return the oranges with the correct lid to freezer 10. When ready for service take a spoonful of cointreau and pour over each water ice filled orange and replace lid and serve
Garnish A few orange leaves (if you can get them) or mint leaves
Page 64 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Veal Sweetbreads in Vol au Vents
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 ½ Veal Sweetbreads 2 oz Flour 6 * 4 Large Vol Au lb inch Vents 3 oz Shallots 1pt Milk ½ pt White Wine 1 & Butter ¼ pt Double Cream 2/3 gill Brandy 2 oz ½ pt Chicken Stock 2 oz Button Mushrooms 6 Parsley sprigs
Method No. Task Time 1. Soak the sweetbreads in cold water for several hours changing the water several times, thus soaking away the blood and keeping the sweetbreads white 2. Rinse and place in a pan with a covering of lightly salted water and bring to boil, boil for 3 minutes 3. Drain and allow to cool 4. When cool remove the fat, loose tissue and skin 5. Place trimmed sweetbreads in pan and cover with chicken stock, bring to boil and simmer for about 45 minutes, drain and press between 2 plates, leave till cold 6. Finely chop shallots and slice button mushrooms 7. Slice sweetbreads thinly into same size and shape as slices of button mushrooms 8. Cook off frozen vol au vents (few chefs can make better or more consistent, so use frozen) 9. Make thickish béchamel and keep warm 10. Melt some butter in hot pan sweat off shallots and mushroom, add white wine and reduce, add sliced sweetbreads and heat through, Add brandy and flame 11. Add some béchamel to bind remove from heat and add cream to masking sauce (see glosarry) consistency taste and check seasoning 12. Remove lid off vol au vent and place on eating plate at service time fill with hot creamy sweatbreads in sauce, replace lid and garnish
Garnish A sprig of parsley in the side of the Vol au Vent under the lid, just peaking out
Page 65 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Cheese, Celery and Claret
Ingredients Here I hesitate to dictate the quantity as this can be left on the table and nibbled with the coffee and of course it’s great to eat another day. Presentation would drive me to have a large salva with a whole baby stilton with the crusted lid removed and river of ever decreasing circles scoured out with a teaspoon and then filled with port. Anything less than a whole camembert is mean and two Boursin may be necessary. These days you can even buy miniature whole cheddar so go ahead and make a great cheese Board
Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item Stilton Dolcelatte Celery Cheddar Boursin Red and Green Apples Brie Camenbert Digestive Biscuits, Hovis is the best Jarlsberg Red Leicester Water Biscuits Butter Red and white Cream Crackers seedless grapes Two or three variety of pears
Method No. Task Time 1. Ensure all cheese is fresh but mature 2. Allow cheese to reach room temperature and breath 3. Wash and trim celery 4. Wash all fruit and dry 5. Arrange fruit in shallow basket 6. Serve cheeses on a Large salva with a clean knife for each variety 7. The Stilton should be on a separate plate with a napkin around the skin and diners should use a spoon to serve themselves 8. Ensure your guests have clean cheese plates and side knives
Garnish Served with the red wine you have had at the main course. Sometimes it is more appreciated if the cheese is served before the dessert especially if you are serving a sweet wine with the dessert.
Page 66 c Michael Glass
Chapter Seven
Royal Neighbours Cumberland Lodge
Crown of Lamb
Charlotte Russe
Page 67 c Michael Glass
Chapter Seven Neighbours
Cumberland Lodge sits in the Windsor Great Park and was, in 1985, a college used by lawyers of the middle and upper temple to study and confer in a state of relaxed countryside, but close enough to London not to expend time or money on excessive travel.
When you are next-door neighbour to the Queen Mother you expect a few well- known visitors now and again, and so they flowed. First was Princess Diana, later known as the ‘People’s Princess’, she came with her husband Prince Charles for tea with 200 members of the royal household, she ate very little, drank only tap water, she turned down the sandwich selection but liked the shape of the garnish. It was a bird made from an apple, great way to create height on a flat salver. Princess Margaret came as guest of honour for the same tea the previous year before but was a little out of sorts to be polite. She was first to the round top table and insisted on sitting with her back to the room, perhaps it was to show off the pink coat she was wearing. It was as though she had shares in the makers of Chesterfield non-tipped cigarettes and it mattered not where the ashtray was placed in front of her, her sandwich plate was always closer – class?
One function held in the Lodge was a quiet dinner for 10, the guests invited by Lord and Lady Vaizey included the Bishop of Windsor and his wife and a well- known Prime Minister and her husband. During the meal all went well, it always did we had a good chef and manager there, but it must have been a boring conversation leading up to coffee. The waitress said ‘would you like cream with your coffee sir’ no reply was forthcoming she repeated the question, then the elbow of Lady Vaizey hit Dennis in the ribs and his wife shouted out ‘P**sed again’. During coffee I was coming from the kitchen to the dining room walking on the flagstones in the corridor when I heard the patter of high heels and around the corner shot the head of state hitting me lower than waist height with a rather heavy, pointed hand bag. I wonder if that was the one sold later on ebay for thousands?
The most pleasant neighbour was our very own Queen’s Mother - she was a gem. She never borrowed a cup of sugar, as she was always sweet enough. One summer day she was guest of honour at a gathering at the Lodge and Champagne or Bucks fizz was being served. It was really hot and I was in a morning suit that warmed me like a sauna in winter. The sweat was dripping off my brow while I was carrying a tray with bottle, glasses and a jug of juice, a dear lady was sat at on a garden chair and as I went to serve her she was astounded at how I appeared, like the caring soul she was she insisted that I took a break and had a drink of squash my self. The QM always appeared to care well for the afflicted.
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Menu
For The Prime Minister The Right Honourable Mrs Margaret Thatcher
At Cumberland Lodge. Windsor
In Spring 1984
Avocado and Strawberry Salad
~~~~000~~~~
Fillet of Sole Veronique
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Roast Crown of Lamb Stuffed with Apricot, Walnut and Prune Kenya Bean Bundles Cauliflower Polonaise Roast Potatoes
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Charlotte Russe
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Coffee and an elbow
Page 69 c Michael Glass
Menu Tips
Avocado and Strawberry Salad Not too early is the key to preparation of avocado and a squeeze of lemon helps to slow the blackening process down
Fillet of Sole Veronique Under cooking sole is essential to avoid the fillets from falling apart at presentation
Roast Crown of Lamb Stuffed with Apricot, Walnut and Prune stuffing I would challenge anyone to make a crown of one loin so splash out and buy two it is worth it to improve the ring of cutlets Using spring lamb from Wales is great for tenderness and flavour, I challenge any shipper to bring lamb from New Zealand without freezing it. Make the stuffing the day before to allow the apricot and walnut flavours to mingle into the bread crumbs.
Kenya Bean Bundles Colour comparison is the key, the green al dente beans with blanched red pepper to bundle them gives a great look
Cauliflower Polonaise Getting the breadcrumbs and cheese to be crisp and yet gluey is a test of speed courage and patience
Roast Potatoes
Browned is cooked – black is buggered! If you will excuse the expression but emphasises the need to keep your eye on them during cooking. A tip I learnt later was to take medium sized potatoes and cut in half then lay flat side on board and slice from top to half way down the potato at ¼ inch intervals, this allows the heat down into the potato and ensures it is cooked.
Charlotte Russe Charlotte Russe is a dessert invented by the French chef Marie Antoine Careme (1784- 1833), who named it in honor of his Russian employer Czar Alexander (russe being the French word for "Russian"). It is a cold dessert of Bavarian Cream set in a mold lined with Sponge Fingers. Like the crown of Lamb, the main part of the dessert is protected by a wall of fingers. The key is a light and fluffy mouse, made individually is better as when served large it looks a mess when half portioned.
Coffee and an elbow Greatest tip with coffee is never to pour boiling water on the coffee or you get a burnt flavour from the beans or ground.
Page 70 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Avocado and Strawberry Salad
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 3 Ripe Avocado pear 18 Large Strawberries ¼ pint Olive Oil ½ Mayonnaise ½ Double Cream 2 Red Wine pint pint Table Vinegar spoon 1 Lemon 1 tea Whole Grain spoon Mustard
Method No. Task Time 1. Make vinegarette from combining mustard and vinegar and adding olive oil slowly by whisking fast and constantly until the mustard is held in suspension 2. Halve the avocado lengthways, de-stone and skin the fruit gently, drizzle in a little lemon juice to avoid them going black 3. Place stone space side on chopping board and slice ¼ inch thick at an angle across the avocado but keep the slices in the pear shape 4. Cut the strawberries in half and then slice like the pear ¼ inch thick 5. And arrange one ½ pear on the service plate by pressing the pear down to allow it to fan out 6. Place piece of strawberry at each side and the fat end of the slices of pear 7. With a small nozzle star, create down one side of the pear a row of mayonnaise stars 8. And with the Cream whipped, pipe a row of cream start down the other side 9. Drizzle a little vinaigrette and crack some black peppercorns down the plate and serve
Garnish You can arrange some pear leaves or strawberry leaves at the narrow end of the fruit
Page 71 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Fillet of Sole Veronique
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 * Fillets of Sole ¾ pt Fish Veloute ¼ pt White Wine 3 oz 1 oz Shallots 1 pt Fish Stock 1 Egg Yolks 3 oz Butter 1 Lemons ½ lb White Seedless Grapes Fish Stock and Veloute No. Task Time 1. Stock 2. Very finely chop 4 oz onions 3. Put in pan 1 ½ lb fish bones, onions, 6 white peppercorns, 1 ½ pt of water, a bouquet garni and the juice of ½ lemon 4. Bring to the boil, skim and simmer for 20 minutes, reduce by a third 5. Remove from heat 6. Pass through a fine muslin 7. Veloute 8. Make a white roux with 1oz butter, 1 oz flour 9. Slowly add the fish stock and stir in to roux 10. When all of 1 pt of fish stock added stir well and heat without boiling for 30 more minutes 11. Remove any fat and pass through a muslin Method No. Task Time 1. In an oven proof dish sweat off on the top of the stove the finely chopped shallots without colouring 2. Skin the fillets and role gently into a cone shape by rolling along the thinner end 3. Arrange the fillets on the shallots and season sprinkle with the juice of half a lemon 4. Add the white wine and the fish stock 5. Cover with a buttered paper and bring to the boil then place in a warm oven for 7-8 minutes 6. Remove the dish from the oven and gently remove fish onto serving dish and keep warm. Drain off the liquor and reduce it to an essence add the fish veloute and work in butter slowly and carefully, remove from the heat and add the yolks of egg cooked and beaten as per hollandaise sauce 7. Arrange the grapes halved and seeded around the fish on a serving dish, mask fish with sauce, glace under a hot grill and serve on an under dish Garnish A little finely chopped parsley and a few small basil leaves.
Page 72 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Crown of Lamb stuffed with Apricot, Walnut and Prunes
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 3 best ends of lamb 2 oz Dried Apricots 6 Fresh (or tinned if out (enough for 18 of season) apricots chops) 3 oz White 1 oz Cooking Apple 2/3 gill Brandy Breadcrumbs 1 oz Melted Butter 1 oz Dried Prunes 18 Cutlet frills 1 Lemon 1 oz Walnuts 2 glasses Red wine 3 Sprigs of Watercress to Garnish Method No. Task Time 1. Take a best end of lamb (when you order ask your butcher to chop off the spine and even up the ribs to the same length. 2. From the meat side of the best end carefully cut down the gap between the ribs to about half way then pull out the knife to cut only the meat and leave the bones joined. 3. Trim the bones of all skin and meat to about 2 inches from the top. Wrap each bone in tin foil to avoid burning. 4. Tie the best ends together with the loins on the outside, use a large pan placed inside the circle to ensure the shape is round 5. Take a circle of cardboard or thin cake stand the same size as the crown and cover in tin foil, place the crown on it to ensure the stuffing does not leak out 6. Place the dried apricots, peeled and cored cooking apple, dried and stoned prunes, and walnuts into a liquidiser and blend for a few seconds shake and push down and repeat till all well pulsed but not completely blended, you want your guests to see what is in the stuffing, Save a dessert spoon full of the fruit for 11 the jus 7. Tip into a bowl and add butter and brandy and breadcrumbs and mix in well 8. Pack the stuffing into the centre of the crown, and cover with tinfoil 9. Cook in moderate oven and roast for 1 ½ hours 10. When cooked remove gently to a serving dish remove the tinfoil and place a cutlet frill on each bone 11. Make a jus in the cooking pan, ½ water, a two glasses of red wine and a spoon of fruit saved earlier, reduce to ½ pint, strain and reduce by 1/2 12. Half and stone fresh apricots and place on top of the stuffing
Garnish Use the watercress, cut short, to garnish between plate and meat. To carve just cut down the chops and allow 3 per person
Page 73 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Kenya Bean Bundles
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 ½ Kenya green Salt 2 oz Melted buter lb Beans 1 Red Pepper Pepper Method No. Task Time 1. Trim both ends of the beans cut evenly in half so as to be about 1 ½ inches long 2. Add to salted boiling water for about 15 minutes or till aldente 3. Take the pepper cut in half and de-seed 4. Cut length ways in strips about ¼ inch wide, dip in boiling water for a few second to soften flesh then strip flesh 5. Drain off beans and arrange in bunches for 6 portions 6. Around each portion wrap a strip of pepper and tuck ends away from view Garnish Non needed
Recipe Name … Cauliflower Polonaise Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 ½ Cauliflower 2 Hard boiled Eggs 4 oz Breadcrumbs lb 4 oz butter 1 oz Chopped Parsley Method No. Task Time 1. Cut off outer leaves and trim into florets 2. Boil in well salted water 3. Arrange florets in a buttered dish into the original shape of the cauliflower 4. Sprinkle with grated yolk of the hard boiled eggs 5. In a clean pan melt 4 oz of butter 6. Pour 3 oz of the butter into a bowl, add breadcrumbs and chopped parsley and mix well 7. Pour evenly over the cauliflower 8. Grill lightly 9. Heat up remaining butter to just below clarification 10. Pour the frothing butter over the cauliflower and serve immediately
Garnish The dish is garnished with the breadcrumbs and butter
Page 74 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Roast Potatoes
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 12 Large Potatoes 3 oz lard Salt At least 1 for ladies and 1 ½ for the boys Maurice Piper are 8 Sprigs of parsley best for roasting
Method No. Task Time 1. Wash and peel, cut in half 2. Lay flat side on board and cut half way down as in ‘tips’ 3. Melt 2 oz of lard in frying pan 4. Melt 1 oz of lard into roasting tin 5. In frying pan seal and lighty brown each side of the potato 6. Arrange in roasting tin and season 7. Roast for 50 minutes in a hot oven till brown and cooked through 8. When ready and crown of lamb is about to be served arrange around the crown plate to hide the base of the bones
Garnish A sprig of parsley between every 4 potatoes
Page 75 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Charlotte Russe Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item ½ pt Raspberry Jelly 15 Sponge Fingers 5oz Caster Sugar 3 Egg whites 10 Gelatine sheets 1 pt Whipped cream 2/3 Kirsch 2 ½ oz Chopped ½ pt For garnish gill Candied Fruit 1 ½ lb Fresh Raspberries ½ lemon Method No. Task Time 1. Make ½ pint of jelly and cool to just about set 2. Trim the Sponge fingers to the height of the tin or bowl you will be using as a mould Remember it will be the inside of the mould the guests will see 3. Soak the fingers in the jelly and lay around the inside of the bowl 4. With the remaining sponge fingers make a start on the base laying in a star pattern 5. Place bowl in fridge for jelly to set Mouse - 6. Measure the advised amount of water from the gelatine packet into a bowl and dissolve the gelatine. 7. Take 1lb Raspberries and simmer in a pan on low heat with 3 oz of sugar and lemon juice 8. Pass the fruit through a sieve to pulp and strain into a large bowl add the Kirsch 9. Add the dissolved gelatine and water to the fruit and mix 10. Leave to cool until nearly set 11. Lightly whip the cream and stiffly beat the egg whites, fold both gently into 1 lb of the Raspberry and candied Fruit – leave to cool until nearly set 12. Take both bowls, one with the sponge fingers layed to the side and base and one with the nearly set fruit cream 13. Gently pour the fruit cream into the mould and leave to set 14. Take the remaining raspberries and sugar and heat in a pan until slightly soft and the juice reduced, leave to cool 15. Take a large serving dish, the cream filled mould and a larger basin with some hot water, rapidly dip the mould in the hot water to release the sponge fingers. Dry the outside of the mould, place the serving dish on the top of the mould and turn over. This move should be done quickly enough to release the Charlotte Russe but not melt it, return to fridge until service time
Garnish Take the dish from the fridge, pipe some whipped cream around the base to disguise any rough edges and around the top, then at service decorate the serving dish with boiled raspberry and juice
Page 76 c Michael Glass
Chapter Eight The Dreaming Spires Of Food Brasenose College, Oxford
Seafood Platter
Haunch of Venison
Page 77 c Michael Glass
Chapter Eight The Dreaming Spires of Food
Brasenose College sits behind the High Street of Oxford opposite the Bodlean Hall and is steeped in history. We won the contract for catering services but it took a long time and months of experience to understand the needs of the service. The student food was important – not, the Don’s food was imperative – yes. The University is divided into three groups, students – Junior Common Room, Honours students, Upper Common Room and Dons – High Table. All three eat in the same room but at different times but the menus were like chalk and cheese, well actually like mince and venison would be a better comparison. I was called to an urgent meeting with the Domestic Bursar, Dr. Gasser who was concerned about standards at the High Table. Desperate to please, I offered the planning of the menu to his Dons and what they came back with was simple - three courses. But the ingredients ate the budget for 100 students for 3 days. Dr Gasser was a collaborator in the writings of the famous. It was he who introduced me to the prose of the now infamous author, who was then was just starting off on a glowing career, ending in prison for perjury. Jeffrey Archer was a student at Brasenose and many of his storylines had connections with Oxford and college life. It is reputed that one day during improvements to the kitchen the builders created a hole in a wall which showed nothing behind it but a passageway. When they shone a torch through their small hole they could see bottle upon bottle of port. Taking one bottle to the Bursar and after opening it he stated that the wall was to be sealed up and the workman paid for their silence. The thousands of bottles would keep the college going through hard times, but to date they have never come up against those hard times.
Oxford Colleges have a tradition of balls and celebrations at the end of the summer term, it is a time of relief after the hard work of earning a degree. There would be marques in the quadrangles, champagne in baths of ice, and more ingenious games to entertain every year. It must have been around 1984 when we took part in the University College Ball, as usual there were marques, champagne, rock bands and ball gowns of every shape and size. The theme was games and fun and rather than have a sit down meal the challenge from the committee was ‘Food on the Run’. We found a product suitable called Dinkum Dog, the food was not original but the cooking method was. You stuck a hot dog roll (normally cut in half but not this time) onto a heated spike of stainless steel and while the hot dog rotated between heated rollers just like a mini mangle. The hot dog cooked and the choice of ketchup or mustard or both placed at the top of the roll the dog just slid down inside the hot hole in the roll. Phallic it was, the female undergraduates watched us all night with big smiles and ketchup on their lips.
Page 78 c Michael Glass
Menu
For The Dons of Oxford At Brasenose College Oxford
On May 1984
Seafood Platter
~~~~000~~~~
Braised Haunch of Venison Served with Oxford Sauce Leek Mornay Baked Jacket Potato
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Chocolate Mort
Page 79 c Michael Glass
Menu Tips
Seafood Platter A good individual serving dish is well worth it to allow good presentations, sauces can be made in advance but the rest is best done on the day and as fresh to service as possible. Sorry the picture is not of this exact dish but I can not afford the seafood just for a photograph!
Braised Haunch of Venison Good meat from a specialist game butcher so it’s hung and ready to eat.
Leek Mornay What can I say about leeks just ensure they are washed well
Baked Jacket Potato Washed and dry, the salt should dry the skin and a little butter rubbed on can help crisp the skin if your oven can not do it itself
Chocolate Mort Death By Chocolate – have the ambulance ready it is sweet and delicious
Page 80 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Seafood Platter For 6 guests really Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 18 Oysters 60 Fresh Mussels in shell 3 oz Butter 12 oz Smoked Salmon ½ litre White Wine 8 Lemon 4 oz Cream cheese 9 Fresh Langoustine in shell 6 Brown Bread rolls 6 oz Beluga Caviar 8 oz Mixed Crab meat 1 Parsley bunch 6 Quails eggs 6 Fresh Smoked Scottish 2 oz Sweetcorn Kippers 3 Smoked Trout 1 pt Mayonnaise 1 tea English mustard spoon 1 Chives 1 Capers 6 Large tomatoes bunch desert spoon 2 Bay leaves 3 Hard boiled eggs Method No. Task Time 1. Take your largest main course plate and arrange the following parts in a clock style 2. Hard Boil the Quales Eggs and cool, remove shell. Cut in half length ways and remove yolk(set aside for Kippers) Fill the void with a teaspoon full of Caviar, present on the large serving plate in the centre to be protected by the langoustine 3. Take the fresh mussels and wash 3 times, discard any open and broken shells, dry. Take a deep pan and spread with butter, add mussels and white wine, lid and heat. Shake pan several times to ensure all mussels are cooked. Remove from heat and allow to cool, drain off cooking liquor. Arrange open shells on plate. 4. Take the fresh Kippers and wash, remove skin (turn onto skin next to board, hold tail, make half cut with sharp flexible knife. Hold knife at 45 degrees to board and pull tail thus cutting the skin off) remove as many bones as possible. Slice kippers across fillet into ¼ inch strips. Place in bowl with sweetcorn, juice of half a lemon. Grate the quails egg yolks over the fillet strips. Mix in 1 table spoon of mayonnaise, stir without breaking up kippers. Pile up on serving plate two dessert spoons of mixture. Top with sprig of parsley 5. Cut the wafer thin slices of smoked salmon into 4 inch equilateral triangles. Mix the cream cheese and half of the finely chopped chives. Pipe the cream cheese onto the side of the triangle of smoked salmon and roll into a cone. 6. Gut the intestines the langoustine under the tail and wash thoroughly in cold running water. add langoustine to a pan of boiling water with 3 pepper corns, four used halves of lemon, 2 bay leaves, cook for 15 minutes. Carefully remove langoustine to drain and cool. Over the Arrange 3 langoustine with tails on serving plate with heads joining together as though protecting the caviar in quales egg. 7. Crown cut 6 large tomatoes and remove seeds leaving flesh. Tartar Sauce -take 3 dessert spoons of mayonnaise mix in half of the finely chopped chives, dice up capers and add in stir well and a teaspoon of English Mustard. Mix crab meat with tartar sauce. Spoon into tomato shells 8. Skin and Fillet the smoked trout and carefully remove bones well, arrange two fillets per person and drizzle lemon juice & oil 9. Take the fresh oyster and wash well, trim the bearedjust before service open shell, sniff to check freshness, squeeze lemon over and sprinkle with freshly milled pepper. 3 per person Garnish Buttered Brown bread rolls should help those who swallow a bone. Arrange plate with 4 1/8ths of lemon to squeeze at will
Page 81 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Braised Haunch of Venison
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 4 lb Haunch of Venison 4 oz Flour 1 Lemon 4 oz Streaky Bacon ½ small tea spoon 1 Orange black Pepper ½ jar Red Current Jelly 1 jar Cranberry Sauce 1 Water Cress bunch 2oz Fresh Root Ginger
Method No. Task Time 1. Take the venison joint wash and dry, rub the joint all over with a mixture of Flour and Pepper and then hang in a cool, well aired place (ie not fridge) for 3 days. 2. Clean off rubbings, cover in flour and water paste, wrap in bacon, wrap in greaseproof paper and tie securely. 3. Place in Roasting tin with a bottle of burgundy as cooking liquor. 4. Regularly baste during the cooking process Hot oven ( 500 degree) for 30 minutes then 300 degrees for remaining 15 minutes 5. Remove paper and bacon and baste return to oven for 15 minutes in a clean dish while you create the gravy 6. Take original cooking dish with cooking liquor, remove all greaseproof paper, remove bacon and cut into ¼ inch strips, trim and peel the root ginger and grate into the liquor, add 1 lemon cut in 8 and 2 oranges cut in 8. Simmer for 10 minutes and stir to clean off any caramelising on the dish. 7. Using a potato masher squash the fruit and then strain the liquor, return to heat and reduce by boiling to half volume. Stir in 4 desert spoons of red current jelly. 8. Remove venison from oven and rest for 15 minutes before service 9. Adjust or thicken gravy with roux to a thin pouring consistency, sometimes called Oxford Sauce
Garnish Serve on large dish with a bunch of water cress Serve with Cranberry Sauce
Page 82 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Leek Mornay
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 4 Good size Leeks ½ pt Milk 1 oz Flour 4 oz Cheddar cheese 2 oz Butter ½ tea spoon Mustard 2 oz Red Leicester
Method No. Task Time 1. Trim the root off the leek and the top 1 inch of the top 2. Cut from 1 inch of root end down the length of the leek and wash thoroughly, drain and dry 3. Fold leeks in half and drop into large pan of salted of water, boil for 5 minutes, drain and set aside 4. Take an oven dish, large enough to lay the leeks full length and lightly butter the sides, lay cooked leek inside 5. Melt 1 oz butter in pan, heat up milk in another pan but do not boil. Add Flour to Butter and mix well do not allow to colour but cook out flour. Add a little of milk to roux, mix in well, keep adding milk until all absorbed and no lumps exist. Add Mustard and stir in well 6. Add grated cheddar cheese to sauce and allow to melt in, pour over leeks, place dish in hot oven for 15 minutes 7. Remove dish from oven and sprinkle with grated Red Leicester cheese and brown under grill
Garnish Non needed as long as cheese is nice
Page 83 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Baked Jacket Potato
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 Large Baking potatoes 3 oz butter 6 sprigs Parsley
Method No. Task Time 1. Wash and de-eye and dry potatoes 2. Cut a star shape ¼ inch deep in the side opposite the flattest side 3. Rub salt into potato skin 4. Place potatoes on a flat tin foil covered baking tray 5. Bake in a moderate oven for 2 ½ hours 6. Test potato by pushing a cocktail stick in the top of the star until point is at centre of potato, count to 10 remove and place cocktail stick point on the back of your hand – if it hurts because it is hot the potato is cooked, if the skin is not crisp rub with a little butter and return to very hot oven. 7. Cut the star shape made earlier deeper and gently push towards centre making the star open.
Garnish Apply knob of butter to star and place sprig of parsley on top
Page 84 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Chocolate Mort
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item for Pastry 8 oz Plain chocolate 1 ½ pt Milk 1 Eggs yolk 2/3 fl Crème De Menthe 3 tea Powdered Gelatine 2 oz Butter oz spoons ¼ pt Double cream 4 oz Caster Sugar 2 desert Crème freche spoon 2/3 fl Brandy 3 Eggs ½ tea Bicarb of soda oz spoon 1 Orange 3 drops Vinegar 1 Lemon Pinch Salt 4 oz White Chocolate 1 oz Castor Sugar 1 oz Runny honey 1 oz Powdered Ginger 4 oz Flour
Method No. Task Time 1. Pastry 2. Take egg yolk and whisk, add crème freche, in a separate bowl soften butter add sugar and mix with fork to cream the butter, place Flour on board, mix in salt, make well in middle add bicarb and vinegar, add yolk, crème freche and sugared butter, gently combine and start to need. 3. When the dough pastry is fully mixed place in fridge to cool till hard, take a cheese grater and a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper, grate the pastry but do not pile up in one place. Sprinkle with runny honey and place in a medium even to cook out and dry. Remove from oven and cool. Roll with rolling pin to break up into large crumbs. 4. Take your presentation glasses and half fill with the pastry biscuit mix 5. You will need three pans and 6 bowls 6. The idea is to make 3 different shades of mouse layered in a glass to serve 7. For Milk Chocolate Section – Melt 4 oz of chocolate in the first pan with ¼pt of the milk, stirring all the time over a low heat, add another ¼ pt milk and the brandy and mix and remove from heat. Squeeze ½ orange into bowl and sprinkle ¼ oz gelatine on and allow to soak in. Separate one egg into two bowls, add 1 oz castor sugar to yolk and cream in thoroughly, gradually add the warm milk to the yolk blend well and return to the milk pan, add the soaked gelatine and stir over the heat until the gelatine has dissolved (a few moments only) draw off heat and strain into a large bowl. Set aside till cool stirring occasionally to avoid a skin. When cold and beginning to thicken, stiffly beat the egg whites and fold into the milk. Pour into the glasses to cover a third of the space, place in fridge to set.
Page 85 c Michael Glass
8. For the White chocolate Section - Melt 4 oz of white chocolate in the second pan with ¼pt of the milk, stirring all the time over a low heat, add another ¼ pt milk and the brandy and mix and remove from heat. Squeeze ½ lemon into bowl add a little sugar and sprinkle ¼ oz gelatine on and allow to soak in. Separate one egg into two bowls, add 1 oz castor sugar to yolk and cream in thoroughly, gradually add the warm milk to the yolk blend well and return to the milk pan, add the soaked gelatine and stir over the heat until the gelatine has dissolved (a few moments only) draw off heat and strain into a large bowl. Set aside till cool stirring occasionally to avoid a skin. When cold and beginning to thicken, stiffly beat the egg whites and fold into the milk. Pour into the glasses to cover a third of the space, place in fridge to set. 9. For the Dark Chocolate Section - Melt 4 oz of plain chocolate in the third pan with ¼pt of the milk, stirring all the time over a low heat, add and the crème de menthe and mix and remove from heat. Squeeze ½ orange into bowl and sprinkle ¼ oz gelatine on and allow to soak in. Separate one egg into two bowls, add 1 oz castor sugar to yolk and cream in thoroughly, gradually add the warm milk to the yolk blend well and return to the milk pan, add the soaked gelatine and stir over the heat until the gelatine has dissolved (a few moments only) draw off heat and strain into a large bowl. Set aside till cool stirring occasionally to avoid a skin. When cold and beginning to thicken, stiffly beat the egg whites and fold into the milk. Pour into the glasses to cover the last third of the space leaving ¼ inch for cream, place in fridge to set. 10. Take ¼ pt double cream whisk with castor sugar and vanilla essence till pipeable and when the top layer of chocolate is firm pipe roses on the top
Garnish A little more finely grated plain chocolate seems appropriate?
Page 86 c Michael Glass
Chapter Nine
Falklands Food for Food
Falkland Islands
Dish Dish
Page 87 c Michael Glass
Chapter Nine Falklands Food for Food Imagine writing your shopping list six weeks before you go to the shops and having no way to alter it but you have food in the cupboard and five weeks of meals to cook and six weeks of food to arrive next week and of course that means 6 weeks *7days * 3meals a day is =105 meals to serve before the food on your shopping list arrives. That was catering in the Falklands – a logistical challenge with 21 days of sea voyage through the equator and freezing South Atlantic. Once delivered the food was susceptible to heat, warm fridges and freezer breakdown. Hey it was fun. Mrs T said build an airport. Someone said ‘yes’ and off we went. 2500 men to feed, clean for, provide beer and more. New challenges were set to test us that had not even been imagined. The skills of offshore catering and desert oil refineries were not helpful on an island so deserted of food and life except sheep and wind. A complete life support service was necessary to combat the location of the camp it had to have everything from shopping to incineration of waste. We even had a dentist, a doctor and 10 police men, on site. But then there was the lighter side. Staying away from home for 5 months minimum was a little testing on us all and effected us differently. One of our crew who had perhaps been away for too long, found a child’s dog walker and used to take it for walks at night until he had the dog kidnapped and held for ransom. The kidnappers chopped of an ear to demonstrate they meant business, a ransom was clubbed together and 10 cases of beer got the dog back with his owner. He stopped walking it on his own and took it to work for safety! As we had supplies delivered every 3 weeks and we had been there for 2 years we had an advantage over the military caterers (feeding 1200+-) who were only there for one tour of 3 months and worked off strict UK dictated menus. We kept asking for what our suppliers thought was strange for construction workers like, best coffee, lobsters, tin foil and cling film. It was a ploy known as the RAZ. Visit a few kitchens for a cup of coffee, listen to the chefs moaning about what they had not got, find something you had and start bartering. A chef will swap a lot for something he has not got and has no opportunity to get. Our Chief Steward on the support ship Stena Seaspread was the best at it. He once left the boat with nothing, not even a vehicle, his first port of call was our kitchen where he borrowed a roll of tin foil; it was like rocking horse shit in the military. He visited 10 different kitchens during the day and when he brought the tin foil back he showed us his swappsies. A 3 ton truck full of bakery goods enough to feed his ship for 3 days, potatoes for 4 days, salad items (flown out by the RAF) to supplement the officers diet, and enough mince to make bolognaise sauce for 300 meals, and all for the one roll of tin foil. When our service extended to running the military laundry and dry cleaning, our influence increased dramatically. Sunday 17th January 1988 was a red letter day for me, I was crowned Open Golf Champion of the South Atlantic with a score of net 66, remember the first thing Governor Hunt had fixed after the war, it was not the airfield, the roads or the hospital, the cry went out to the bomb squad to make the golf course “playable”!!
Page 88 c Michael Glass
Menu
For The Management of the Maintenance Crew
At MTC Mount Pleasant Airport Falkland Islands
On Easter Day 1988
Ham & Smoked Salmon Cornets
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Chicken Plau Broccoli Cheese Spinach Pasta
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Chocolate Roulade
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Page 89 c Michael Glass
Menu Tips
Overall What should be remembered are the efforts needed to get the food some 8 thousand and 21 days sailing from the UK to the Falkland Islands. Storage during the journey and on the islands was never easy as everything was kept in containers, 40 foot long metal and some times not quite impervious to the elements. So bear this in mind when the cry for fresh, fresh, fresh appears in your minds.
Ham & Smoked Salmon Cornets What was available was 11lb tinned shoulder of ham, some where actually very meaty and possibly tender enough to be used as gammons, the back leg of the pig. Using our smoked salmon was very extravagant as you could get so much for it in swappsies.
Chicken Plau This is a dish cooked all over the world but this recipe and method is taken from the St Helenian’s who worked on the Falklands for a year at a time The dish is best made about 4 hours ahead to allow the ingredient to fuse and impart the great flavours, a curry by any other name. After email discussions with the Gourmet Chef on the Island of St Helena I managed to prize out of his recipe safe the local recipe and it is included as an alternative to my boring standard.
Broccoli Cheese Ensuring the cooked broccoli is dry and the sauce is sufficiently masking is important.
Spinach Pasta Yes this makes it one of the most vitamined filled menus here but remember fresh fruit was scarce and sometimes impossible, your banana was something you waited 5 months to eat and use.
Chocolate Roulade Definitely to be made a day in advance, use a large (13*9 inch shallow baking tin) leaving it overnight but covered with a damp cloth should help the moisture level and thus the rolling process. It also helps to have an assistant as you sometimes need three or four hands to do the rolling.
Page 90 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Ham and Salmon Cornets
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 18 Thin sliced Ham 10 oz Cream Cheese 1 Lemon 18 Smoked Salmon bunch Coriander ¼ pt Mayonnaise Slices 9 Large firm Cherry 1 oz Aspic jelly 5 Slices of thin Tomatoes brown bread 2 oz Butter
Method No. Task Time 1. Cut each slice of Ham into a 4 inch equilateral triangle 2. Cut the thinly sliced smoked salmon to fill a 3 inch triangle 3. Make up the aspic jelly and cool until nearly set 4. Mix the cream cheese with a the juice of half a lemon 5. Chop half the leaves of coriander and mix into the cheese with a Dessert spoon of Mayonnaise to make it pipeable 6. Pipe a line of Cream Cheese mixture down one side of the triangle 7. Roll the cheese which is on the salmon which is on the ham to create a cone shape, using aspic jelly to stick the last edge and a cocktail stick to hold till set 8. Crown cut the cherry tomatoes in half and set aside to garnish 9. Create three cones per person, butter brown bread and de crust and cut in quarters allowing three quarters per person 10. On a 7 inch plate arrange two cones in the centre with another cone on top 11. Three halves of tomato down one side and three quarters of brown bread down the other side 12. Arrange the leaves of coriander around the edge of the plate
Garnish Sprinkle the tomato with salt, balsamic vinegar and olive oil
Page 91 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Chicken Plaw ( alternative on the next page)
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 Coriander Seeds ½ a Red Onions 2 Chickens small 4 Cumin Seeds 2 oz Root Ginger 8 oz Potatoes 4 Caraway Seeds ½ Garlic 1 oz Mild Curry Powder clove 1oz Diced Red Chillies 10 fl Coconut Milk 2 oz Sunflower Oil oz ¼ oz Turmeric 2 Chopped sticks of celery 1 Cardamon Seeds 1/3 Coriander 1 Cinnamon Stick bunch 2 Cloves ½ Onions
Method No. Task Time 1. Chicken – Butcher into cookable cuts of ;winglet, wing bone, drumstick, thigh, breast on the bone but chopped into three long ways and two across 2. The rest set in a stock pot and simmer with onion skins and bayleaf and celery, then cool to pick off any meat, and save stock for sauce 3. Lay the butchered chicken on a backing tray and sprinkle with Salt Pepper and lightly with Curry Powder, leave to marinade. 4. In a mortar and pestle grind to a smooth paste the coriander, cumin, caraway, turmeric and cardamon 5. Finely dice the onions and add to the hot oil 6. Peel and finely dice the Ginger and Garlic, add this to the onions and the chillies and sweat off for a few minutes without colouring 7. Add the ground spices as well as the Cinnamon and cloves 8. Add the jointed chicken and fry off to seal and lightly colour 9. Wash and peel the potatoes and cut into 1 inch dice, add to chicken and seal 10. Add 2 pts of chicken stock and simmer for 1 hour 11. Add coconut milk, raise to boil and correct seasoning and consistency
Garnish At Service Sprinkle with roughly chopped coriander
Page 92 c Michael Glass
Alternative St Helenian Recipe … Chicken Plau
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item 2 Garlic 3 lb Fresh Chicken cloves 10 Black pepper corns 2 oz Medium curry powder 1 Large Onion 2 Chicken stock cubes 4 Fresh red and green chillies 1 Dessert spoon Worcester sauce 8 oz Gammon or Bacon 1 Dessert spoon Tomato Ketchup 1 tin Chopped plum tomatoes 1 Dessert spoon Brown Sauce 4 Large potatoes 3 oz Finely Chopped Cabbage 3 cups Long Grain Rice 4 oz Diced Pumpkin 1 sprig Coriander
Method No. Task Time 1. Fry off a teaspoon of crushed garlic in oil with a finely chopped large onion and some ground black peppercorns and a few fresh chopped chillies 2. When slightly browned add diced gammon or bacon, brown bit more 3. Add butchered chicken, cut into eight, still on the bone 4. Add chopped fresh parsley 5. As the ingredients brown add the curry powder 6. Mix in the stock cubes with water as advised, with Worcester, tomato and brown sauces, add tin of tomatoes and stir well to deglaze pan, bring to boil and simmer 7. Peel and dice potatoes, peel and slice carrots, add to pot and ensure covered or add more water 8. Stiring is essential to ensure the ingredients do not stick and burn especially with the next ingredient 9. Add the rice stir well and check water level just covers all ingredients and starts to thicken 10. As the potatoes and carrots reach Par Boiled, add the diced Pumpkin 11. Add finely chopped cabbage just as the juices thicken 12 At the point where the chicken is falling off the bone, the potatoes and carrot are cooked, the juices are thickened and the rice cooked, this dish has received the magic of the sun blessed Isle of St Helenia. It is ready to eat.
Garnish A little freshly plucked and lightly chopped coriander sprinkled on top
Page 93 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Broccoli Cheese
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 ½ Broccoli 1 oz Flour ½ tea Mustard lb spoon 4 oz Cheddar Cheese 1 oz Butter ½ pt Milk 2 oz Red Leicester Cheese
Method No. Task Time 1. Trim the Broccoli to florets 2. Drop into salted boiling water, until stork is tender 3. Drain and dry well 4. Melt 1 oz butter in pan, heat up milk in another pan but do not boil. Add Flour to Butter and mix well do not allow to colour but cook out flour. Add a little of milk to roux, mix in well, keep adding milk until all absorbed and no lumps exist. Add Mustard and stir in well 5. Add grated cheddar cheese to sauce and allow to melt in, pour over broccoli and sprinkle with grated Red Leicester cheese and brown under grill Garnish Non if you leave a little broccoli showing
Recipe Name … Spinach Pasta
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 4oz Frozen block of 1 ½ Tagliatelle 1 oz Salt spinach lb 1 oz Butter 3 oz Oil Method No. Task Time 1. Defrost spinach and cook off in butter in frying pan, drain all surplus water and chop into small pieces 2. Drop tagliatelle into salted and oiled boiling water 3. Cook until pasta can be squashed easily between thumb and finger 4. Drain well and wash by pouring boiling water over pasta in strainer 5. Put 2 oz oil into hot pan and return the drained pasta toss and mix well with spinach 6. Serve Garnish None
Page 94 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Chocolate Roulade
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 oz Plain Chocolate 6 oz Castor Sugar 3 oz Icing sugar 5 Eggs 3 table Hot water ½ pt Double Cream spoons 8 Raspberries 8 Strawberries 8 Loganberries 8 Large mint leaves
Method No. Task Time 1. Take the baking tin and brush with oil and line with a sheet of greaseproof paper 2. Break the chocolate into a small basin and place over a pan of hot but not boiling water, stir occasionally till melted 3. Separate the eggs, cracking the yolks into a large basin and whites into a smaller bowl 4. Add the sugar to the yolks and using a wooden spoon beat until pale in colour 5. When the chocolate has melted thoroughly remove it from the heat and add 3 tablespoons of hot water and stir to a smooth mixture 6. Then beat the chocolate into the egg yolk and sugar mixture 7. Take the egg whites in the separate bowl and whisk until stiff then gently fold the whites through the chocolate mixture 8. Pour into the prepared tin (greaseproof papered and trimmed to fit in the corners, then lightly oiled with a cloth) spreading the mixture into the corners evenly, place into the centre of a moderate oven and bake for 15 minutes 9. Remove from oven and cover with greaseproof paper and a damp cloth and leave overnight in a cool place 10. Lay on a clear surface a damp tea towel with a sheet of greaseproof paper that has been well dusted with icing sugar then turn out the roulade on top, and set aside. 11. Lightly whip the cream and spread evenly over the roulade 12. Using the tea towel and sugared paper to lift the roulade and possibly with a helper, roll the roulade like a Swiss roll 13. Place in a refrigerator for several hours to chill 14. Take the fresh fruit, remove stork, wash and dry, sprinkle with Icing Sugar and set aside 15. Prior to service sprinkle roulade with icing sugar and slice with a sharp hot knife, cleaning between each slice
Garnish Place a piece of each fruit alongside the slice and top with a leaf of mint
Page 95 c Michael Glass
Chapter Ten
A Tunnel of Love The Channel Tunnel Under Construction
Haggis
Steak and Sausage Pie
Page 96 c Michael Glass
Chapter Ten
A Tunnel of Love
The biggest civil engineering project in the UK a 30 mile tunnel, no in fact 3 tunnels and 9 tunnel boring machines, it was mind blowing and everything was for the first time, a really unique project. A village for the workers with a fence to keep them in, when I applied for the bar licence the magistrates were pleased to award the 9am to 00:30am opening hours to try to encourage the residents to stay inside the fence. 24 hour Catering, Reception and Recreation. Nearly 24 hour Cleaning and Laundry and definitely 27 hour Security, despite that it was only just a few miles from civilisation. Residents paid £49 a week for a room and cash for food and booze. Some things I will always remember like the call from the Scottish management team who had gone home on 21st December 1988 in the village van before we opened, only to find their way past Lockerbie blocked by the bits of Jumbo Jet bomb blasted out of the sky by Libyan terrorists. We had few memorable fights inside the fence but also a few outside, one in a bar in Dover between a resident and an ex-resident who bit the residents ear clear off, the outcome was a bleeding resident and an ear in a pint pot of ice, the ear lived for 3 months in the guys leg to keep it alive, then the Sun newspaper got involved as the guy did not go back to hospital to have the ear transplanted back where it should. Some of the best events occurred every year on 25th January being Burns Night and Scotch being a good drink. A hail to Dumfries in every speech caused the contents of the glasses to be consumed and replaced afresh, one year we had consumed ¾ of a bottle by each guest, oh the headaches were royal. With France only 1½ hours away it seemed traitorous of tunnel diggers to spend the evening on a cross channel ferry, but it was an ideal and cheap way to wile away the time. A Non Lander was only £1 to travel to France and back without getting off. Diner and duty-free drinks, buy a bottle and 200 fags at very duty-free prices was most pleasant if the sea was not too rough. Some tunnelers made a fortune by catching the Hovercraft on the hour every hour, you would be back in Dover with 1ltr of booze and 200 fags, some even risked buying more and afterwards flogging the gains in the Channel Tunnel Village. Keeping the village residents interested was always a challenge. The monthly show of; a rock group, a blue comedian and two strippers worked well, it also raised enough money to sponsor 12 Guide Dogs for the Blind. ‘Romania’, where is it’? went the cry. Days away was the response. The evil president Chowcheskou had just been removed and some western visitors had discovered the horrific plight of orphans, we decided to help. After some research, cajoling and fund raising we put a village team of 5 together, myself, the local policeman, a salesman from a magazine called Construction News, a diesel fitter and a nurse. We refitted our village Mercedes bus and a trailer as a
Page 97 c Michael Glass bed and a kitchen. We were part of 98 vehicles that left Dover one sunny Saturday on a journey that no one understood even years after it ended. Our first stop was somewhere near a place called Mastrich. Years later it was the site of a European Treaty with John Major. We thought we would be with the 9 other vehicles that were our part of the convoy. We opened the trailer and got a few gas-stove lit with bacon and sausages on the way for our team of 30. But after a few hours we had served 150 breakfasts and realised most vehicles would stay close for the smell of the bacon. We all meet up again on the Hungarian Romanian border because we all had to pass on one visa. The overnight stop in a ‘hotel’ in Cluig was a down light not a highlight, there was no lights there was a power cut and the toilets smelt like there was a water cut as well. We stayed 5 days in a locals house in the city called Bia Mara (the bath of mary) a city surrounded by gold mines, rich you would think – it was not. The school and orphanage got the best we had in work, partying and smiles. We left some memorable changes and some improvements to life and lighter. On our return journey we stopped of in Khlon the German city, remembering my THF hotel discount card we phoned ahead and booked a few rooms and soaked off the smell of a van of 10 days without a bath. It was a great memory and the camaraderie continued for years after. My 40th Birthday was spent in the channel tunnel village and at 06:30 I was awoken with full English breakfast, champagne and management team all dressed and ready to go. Outside on the playing field was a hot air balloon and up, up and away we went to Ashford. Then on a boat to Calais with a staff party to end the day. I do know what I said in the speech to the staff who received their long service awards at the party but they enjoyed it, as I remember not a lot. The closure of the village in August of 93 as the tunnel was then built it ended an era for me and Kelvin and the team who survived with me. But the site and road layout is still there, see google earth. We still keep up Christmas cards and I even ran in to some of the Team in Kazakhstan, that is worked with not actually ran over!
Page 98 c Michael Glass
Menu
For The Scottish Contingent of the Diggers of the Tunnel At Farthingloe Village Dover On 25th January 1990
Mulligatawny Soup
~~~000~~~
Haggis Neeps and Tatties
~~~000~~~
Steak and Sausage Pie Peas Carrots Boiled Tatties
~~~000~~~
Isle in the Mist
~~~000~~~
Malt Whiskey in and with every course
Page 99 c Michael Glass
Menu Tips
Mulligatawny Soup Nice easy soup to start with and it really cooks itself.
Haggis, Neeps and Tatties Unless you can buy sheep’s stomach you may as well buy the Haggis from a supermarket. In the recipe section I have attached the prayer that should be said when the haggis enters the room and is stabbed. It should make a hissing sound as the knife goes in.
Steak and Sausage Pie This can be prepared well in advance and its always good to share the whiskey – one for me and one for the pot. I doubt if you can make better puff pastry than shops so these days take it easy and buy it.
Peas & Carrots Contrast in colour and texture is what we are looking for here
Boiled Tatties It is best to be just a little undercooked than overcooked and ending up as mash. Potatoes due to their water content will continue to cook in a lidded serving dish
Isle in the Mist This dish wins with its presentation, it should look like 3 islands on a rough blue sea covered in a thin Scottish mist. Practice spinning will benefit its appearance.
Malt Whiskey in and with every course Choose your preferred Malt, they are all different, in flavour and drinkability
Page 100 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Mulligatawny soup
Ingredients Item Qty Item Qty Item Qty 2 olive oil 1 parsnip, diced 2oz basmati rice tbsp 1 large onion, finely 1 potato, diced 4oz lamb fillet, diced chopped
2 large carrots, diced 2 mild curry paste 2 pts vegetable stock tbsp 6 Hovis loaf shaped 2 oz Butter Salt and freshly rolls ground black pepper
Method No. Task Time 1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the onion. Cook for 3-4 minutes, until softened, then add the carrots, parsnip, potato, rice and lamb and cook for one minute 2. Stir in the curry paste, then add the stock and mix well. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and a small bunch chopped fresh coriander 3. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender. 4. Pulse a hand blender in the soup a couple of times to purée it slightly,
Garnish A few coriander leaves on each bowl Serve with fresh Hovis rolls and butter and Whiskey
Page 101 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Haggis, Neeps and Tatties
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 3 Macsween Haggis 2lbs Potatoes 1 lbs Turnips from Tesco’s 2oz Crème Fresh Salt & ground 1 lbs Swede white pepper 2oz Butter
Method No. Task Time 1. Follow the manufacturers instructions for the haggis, some say cook in boiling water some say bake in tin foil 2. Peel and cut potatoes and turnips and swede, cook in separate pans of salted boiling water 3. Drain potatoes and return to dry pan and mash, add salt and pepper, butter and crème fresh mix well 4. Drain swede and turnip into one dry pan and mash together, add salt and pepper, butter, mix well
Garnish Serve with the Correct toast with whiskey
Check out http://www.worldburnsclub.com/supper/burns_supper_1.htm
and the Haggis should be presented with crossed bottles of Whiskey and crossed sword with the Chef stating the ……
Address to a Haggis. Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, The groaning trencher there ye fill, His knife see rustic Labour dight, Great chieftain o the puddin'-race! Your hurdies like a distant hill, An cut you up wi ready slight, Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Your pin wad help to mend a mill Trenching your gushing entrails bright, Painch, tripe, or thairm: In time o need, Like onie ditch; Weel are ye wordy of a grace While thro your pores the dews distil And then, O what a glorious sight, As lang's my arm. Like amber bead. Warm-reekin, rich! Then, horn for horn, they stretch an Is there that owre his French ragout, Poor devil! see him owre his trash, strive: Or olio that wad staw a sow, As feckless as a wither'd rash, Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive, Or fricassee wad mak her spew His spindle shank a guid whip-lash, Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve Wi perfect sconner, His nieve a nit: Are bent like drums; Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view Thro bloody flood or field to dash, The auld Guidman, maist like to rive, On sic a dinner? O how unfit! 'Bethankit' hums. But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed, Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care, The trembling earth resounds his tread, And dish them out their bill o fare, Clap in his walie nieve a blade, Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware He'll make it whissle; That jaups in luggies: An legs an arms, an heads will sned, But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer, Like taps o thrissle. Gie her a Haggis!
Page 102 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name …Steak and Sausage Pie
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1½ Rump Steak 8 Cumberland Pork 1 Large onion lbs Sausages 2 oz Plain Flour 2 oz dripping 1 Bouquet Garni 1 btl Red wine 10 oz Puff Pastry 1 Egg 1 oz Tomato pure 1 table Lee & Perins 2 Scotch Whiskey, spoon Worcester Sauce shots or more if you share
Method No. Task Time 1. Wash and dry steak, trim and cut into 1 inch cubes, roll in seasoned flour 2. Melt dripping in frying pan, add meat and brown, then lift into a large sauce pan 3. Brown finely diced onion in remains of dripping and add to meat pan 4. Pour the red wine into the frying pan to de glaze the juices, pour into meat pan 5. Add Bouquet Garni on a string to retrieve later, add seasoning with tomato pure, Scotch and L&P sauce and water to cover the meat 6. Bring to the boil and simmer for 1 hour 7. Grill Sausages and allow to cool, cut into 6 pieces per sausage 8. Add sausages to meat pan and cook for another 15 minutes 9. Correct seasoning and consistency of sauce 10. Roll out puff pastry and cut to pie dish size, 11. Pour the meat and sauce into a pie dish, wet rim of dish and fix pastry by pressing with the prongs of a fork 12. Insert egg cup to hold pastry out of sauce and allow steam to escape 13. Egg wash the pastry and bake in a moderate over till the pastry puffs and browns (about 20 minutes)
Garnish Whiskey
Page 103 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Peas and Carrots
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 oz Frozen peas 8 oz Carrots 2 oz Butter 1 tea Granulated sugar spoon
Method No. Task Time 1. Peel and dice the carrots into ¼ cubes 2. Add to boiling salted water and boil till half cooked 3. Add peas and continue to boil till peas float and carrots tender 4. Drain and serve in a dish with the melted butter 5. Just before service toss in the butter and sprinkle with sugar
Garnish None
Recipe Name … Boiled Tatties
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1½ Marris Piper 2 oz Butter Small Parsley lbs Potatoes bunch
Method No. Task Time 1. Wash and peel the largest of potatoes to make 1 ½ lbs 2. Cut into quarters but try to make them all approximately the same size to allow for even cooking 3. Plunge into salted boiling water and boil for 14 minutes and test if cooked using a fork 4. When the fork can be pressed into the centre of a potato it is cooked and they can then be drained 5. Place into a warmed dish add the nob of butter 6. Roll around to cover all the potatoes
Garnish With a small bunch of fresh parsley
Page 104 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Isle in the Mist Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item Shortbread base Crème Patissiere 50 Strawberries 14 oz Flour 10oz Milk 2 tea spoons Drambue 1 oz Cornflour 2 Egg yolks 6 oz Icing Sugar 1oz Ground Rice 4oz Castor Sugar 1tea spoon Sunflower Oil 8 oz Butter ¾ oz Cornflour 3 drops Blue colouring 6 oz Sugar ½ oz Gelatine powder 2 Egg 1 lbs Granulated sugar Method No Task Time 1. Shortbread base 2. Mix the butter and sugar together without creaming 3. Add the egg mix, then add the flours mixed together and ground rice 4. Mix to a smooth dough and roll out cut into 24 three inch biscuits and 3800F on well oiled grease proof paper ( why 24?, one to break, one to taste, and spare) until golden brown. 5. Allow to cool each biscuit in a deep saucer to make a concave shape 6. Crème 7. In one pan -Bring 8 oz of the milk to boil 8. In another pan - Mix half the sugar with the cornflour, egg and the 4 oz milk 9. Remove milk from heat and slowly pour over the mixture while mixing well to avoid scrambling the egg 10. Return to heat and cook out till thick, mix in the remaining sugar and allow to cool without skinning 11. Assemble 12. Wash dry and destalk strawberries 13. Cut each one in half longways and lay on a plate, sprinkle with Icing sugar, choose the best 36 and set aside sprinkled with icing sugar and put the rest in a pan. 14. Add 1 oz castor sugar and boil down to a coulis, add the gelatine before it cools and mix in to dissolve 15. Take your serving plates and make some royal icing with one drop of blue spread thinly across the centre of the plate (this makes the sea and holds the biscuit on the plate) 16. When the icing is crusted stir it with a cocktail stick dipped in blue colouring to make the effect of a rough sea, leave to set 17. Pour a small amount of Crème Patissiere on each biscuit, lay three halved strawberries on centre of each of the biscuit with one half on top, pour over the coulis 18. Just prior to service, take two oiled wooden spoons held on a table by a weighted chopping board with grease proof paper covering the floor in the area with the handles sticking over the edge and three oiled forks, Take 1 lb sugar and boil till cracked at 2800F (that’s hot don’t let it hit your hands 19. Dip the prongs of the fork in the hot sugar and remove vertically. With a limp wrist gently flick over the spoon handles and you should get spun sugar which you can curl by hand to the size needed to cover the strawberry biscuits like mist
Page 105 c Michael Glass
Chapter Eleven My First Taste of the Old Soviet Tengiz Kazakhstan
Beshbermak Blinchki
Page 106 c Michael Glass
Chapter Eleven
My First Taste of the Old Soviet
The state of Kazakhstan is as hard to spell as it is to find on a map. It is East of the Caspian Sea, south of Russia and west of China, and as big as Europe and by far the richer. A Russian Village for 10,000 had been built to support the construction of a huge oil exploration and refinery site. The Tengiz oil field could produce as much oil as the whole of Kuwait, but it was poisonous and hard to transport from a country of extremes. Extremes of temperature - -550 in winter and +450 in summer, winter snow and summer sun; unfriendly environment but friendly people. We had a shorter supply route than the Falklands but just a little more complex. Truck from Aberdeen to Dover, ferry to Calais and truck via Germany, Poland, into Russia to Moscow and then south to Kazakhstan. One driver and all in 28 days round trip was the record. What a challenge, it was invention all the way. Invention of a stock control system, a billing system, counting meals, shop controls, hygiene practices, customs procedures to name a few. Having 28 days between trips sounded great, a week to recover from the 36 hours travel, a bus for 6 hours, a 4 hour flight and another 4 hour flight seems easy without the waiting times between travelling activity. Spending a week to recover and a few weeks of golf and sailing seemed fine before starting to pack. But walking up at 5am and working till 10 pm for 28 days solid took the strain and exhausted the body and mind. Food was the challenge, there were good points and many bad ones. Our Managing Director, while at a banquet of Kazakh food, asked what he was eating. After asking several times and me evading supplying the answer with him chewing away on some sliced meat for what seemed like ages I plucked up courage and told our MD that it was from a part of a horse that a mare does not have. His face was a picture and suddenly swallowing was not one of his options. Counting food was fun, weekly stocktaking of 2million$ took a day when we got it organised and the freezers were a lot warmer than the fresh air outside in winter. A Scottish Services Director insisted on having the 2 inches of oil removed from the soup we were serving the locals in October. It took just a day before he was called to the Client’s office to be educated that when you work in temperatures of –500C you need a layer of body fat to keep warm, catwalk models could not survive. Kazakhs decided to keep it. So we were building up stocks for the advised 10,000 people who should be on site the next month and then we were told of the breakdown of talks between the Client, the Kazakh government and Russia. They all wanted to share the Kazakh gold and the client and the Kazakh did not, so the Kazakhs decided to kept it underground, numbers dropped in a month to 2000 mouths. The race was on - how long would it take to eat it or how long before it would all go off? Inventions of recipes proved essential in order to use up food about to go off. One was cabbage cake, you can do it with carrots so why not cabbage, the smell was strong and so was the wind afterwards!
Page 107 c Michael Glass
Menu
For Visiting UK Directors
At The Staff Druzba Restaurant Tengiz, Near Kulasry Kazakhstan
On August 1994
Real Horses D’ Oeuvre
~~~000~~~
Beshbermak (Pasta Soup with Boiled Head of Lamb) Red And Green Cabbage Boiled Potatoes
~~~000~~~
Blinchki Sour Blinchki Sweet
~~~000~~~
Vodka with each course
Page 108 c Michael Glass
Menu Tips
Real Horses D’ Oeuvre Horse meat is the culinary name for meat cut from a horse. It is a major meat in only a few countries, notably in Central Asia, but it forms a significant part of the culinary traditions of many others, from Europe to South America to China. The top eight countries consume about 4.7 million horses a year. For the majority of mankind’s early existence wild horses were hunted as a source of protein. It is slightly sweet, tender, low in fat, and high in protein. However, because of the role horses have played as a companion and as a worker, it is a taboo food in many cultures. These historical associations, as well as ritual and religion, led to the development of the aversion to the consumption of horse meat. The horse is now given pet status by many in the western world, which further solidifies the taboo on eating its meat. This avoidance (and the loss of taste for it) is relatively modern, although it arises out of complex historical and cultural origins. In Kazakhstan horse meat is a large part of the diet, due mainly to the nomadic roots of the population Some of the dishes include sausages called kazy and shuzhuk made from the meat using the guts as the sausage skin, zhaya made from hip meat which is smoked and boiled, zhal made from neck fat which is smoked and boiled, karta made from a section of the rectum which is smoked and boiled, and sur-yet which is kept as dried meat.
Baursaks Beshbermak (Pasta Soup with Boiled Head of Lamb) These tips and anecdotes are direct from Kazakhstan, from the Director of the Staff Agency, Kuan, we worked with. The literal translation of the word “Baursak” means - “dear, close relatives”. Baursak like all the grain made products have a large selection and variety. Bursak can be made in different shapes such as diamonds, balls, squares etc. Each shape has its own meaning. For example: Ak - baursak - made from the high quality flour and served for very honoured and respected guests. Tash - baursak - made for special occasions (birthday, celebration etc.) served with honey and raisins. Ashygan - baursak - medium diamond shapes made from sour dough Zhalpak baursak - same as Ashygan - baursak but 3 - 4 cm bigger Shelpek - big flat diamond made from dough Shy- baursk - 6 -7 cm strips made from dough These should be just like Cheese Straws and are served as an accompaniment to the main course. Beshbermak To cook and serve this dish it should be a part of art. You can cook it from beef, horse-flesh or lamb. But we will pay attention to “Beshbermak” made from lamb. To show honoured guests your respect you butcher the sheep and cook it. To give the dish more taste put meat into cold water, add some vegetables and spices and raise it to boiling. Each peace of meat on the bone has a special meaning and you need to know how to serve this dish. To show your honoured guest your respect you serve him the head of the sheep. Until the honoured guest starts his meal, nobody around the table should start theirs. The honoured guest should carve the sheep’s head and serve another guests. First, he cuts one ear and gives it to the youngest person around the table (it might be a child). Then he cuts the other ear for the eldest guest, and passes the rest of the head to the toast- master who serves eyes, tongue to other guests. You can also cook this dish for the big party and serve it without ceremony. Red And Green Cabbage Boiled Potatoes Blinchki Sour - Blinchki Sweet its fun to serve both and allow guests to compare and contrast.
Vodka with each course
Page 109 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Horses D’ Oeuvre
In some western societies it is difficult to get horse meat and so an adequate substitute would be French and German as there may be some horse in it!
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 3 oz Mysliwska - Polish 3 oz Cotto Salami - 3 oz Bauerbratwurst – Italian German 3 oz Cervelat Sausage 3 Baguette 1 tea Whole Grain – French spoon Mustard 4 oz Mayonaise 10 Large Pickled Gerkins
Method No. Task Time 1. Slice the baguette very thinly and warm in an oven just prior to service 2. Take each sausage and remove the skin and slice either diagonally or across to be the same size as the baguette 3. Arrange on a service plate with a small bowl of mustarded mayonnaise and another of horseradished mayonnaise in which to dip or spread 4. Drain gerkins and cut into six long strips and place in a bowl with a little of the pickling liquor 5. Guest will be served so they themselves pick their own bread and a slice of meat and mayonnaise and pickle 5. This course can be served with welcoming drinks and prior to sitting down or a few dishes could be passed around the table if guests are to be seated
Garnish Customary parsley or coriander in a bunch
Page 110 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name …Pasta for the Baursaks
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 26 oz Plain flour 1 oz Sugar ½ oz Salt ½ oz Yeast 1 oz Margarine 1/3 pt Milk 10 fl oz Water 1 ½ Egg ¼ pt Oil
Method No. Task Time 1. Create a dough from the mixture - Leavened dough twist into rope and cut peaces 3 - 3,5 cm long. And Leave for 15 - 20 minutes. 2. Fry in the deep oil 3. Shape - misshape ball 4. Diameter - 2-2,5 cm 5. Colour - Golden, light brown 6. Consistency - Soft, with holes inside 7. Taste and smell - pleasant, sweet, typical for dough fried in deep oil.
Recipe Name …Pasta for the Beshbermak
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 26 Oz Plain strong flour, preferably from Durum wheat ½ Oz Salt 1 Oz Sugar 1 Oz Margarine 1/3 pt Milk 10 fl oz Water 1 ½ Egg ¼ pt Oil
Method No. Task Time 1 Place flour through a sieve into a large bowl 2 Rub in Margarine 3 In a separate bowl beat eggs sugar salt and oil and milk 4 Make a well in the flour add the eggs and mix 5 Add water to texture of a strong dough 6 Roll out to less than 1/8th inch thick and cut into 2 inch squares
Page 111 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Baursaks Beshbermak Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1½ lb Lamb (Shoulder - blade One sheep’s head without skin but Celery meat and bone) with all other parts 1 lb 4 oz Bones 10 oz Carrots 8 leaves Bay leaves 4 pints Water 10 oz Onion 2 sprigs Sage 4 oz Onion 6 cloves Garlic 4 good sprigs Rosemary 8 Black pepper corns
Method No Task Time 1. Ask your Butcher to trim the head and remove the brain. Wash the head well and de skin, cleaning ears, nose and neck 2. Make a stock by boiling the meat and bones in the water with some carrots, onions, celery and the bouquet garni for few hours. 3. When its ready cut the meat from bones, except the head and put it back to the stock, boil it again. 4. Make a pasta as above, but cut it in to big squares (2 inches square) and boil it in the stock till its ready. 5. Cut 4 oz onion in to rings and boil it for a little bit in the stock as well. 6. Serving on a large plate, first put pasta squares, then piece of meat and onion on top of it.Then an other layer of pasta. Crack black paper over. Cover with some stock. And float the clean, cooked head in the centre. 7. Serve stock separately in the bowl. The stock colled “Sorpa” which means stock made from meat and bones. 8. How it should look: thin squares or diamonds of boiled water paste, a thin pieces of meat and onion, boiled in the stock on top of it, added black paper. 9. Colour: Stock – clear ~~ Meat - grey ( colour of boiled meat) ~~Water paste squares - white- cream 10. Consistency: Meat – Soft ~~Water paste squares - shaped, not over cooked 11. Taste and Smell - Salted enough, smells of boiled meat.
Garnish I learned later that everything in the former Soviet was garnished with Dill,
So buy some and strip it from the storks and sprinkle it over the pasta and stock
Page 112 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name … Red and Green Cabbage
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 8 oz Red Cabbage 8 oz Dutch Green 1 oz Salt Cabbage 2 fl Malt Vinegar 8 Whole black 2 oz Granulated sugar oz pepper 2 oz Butter Method No. Task Time 1. Remove outer leaves and heart of both green and red cabbage 2. Shred both exceedingly finely 3. Place red cabbage in a pan half covering cabbage with hot water, add vinegar and half salt, cover with tight lid and boil for 5 minutes or until al dente 4. Place white cabbage in a pan half covering cabbage with hot water, add half salt, cover with tight lid and boil for 5 minutes or until al dente 5. Drain red cabbage and toss in sugar 6. Drain white cabbage and crack pepper over
Garnish Place both in separate serving dishes and add a knob of butter to each
Recipe Name … Boiled Potatoes Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1½ Marris Piper 2 oz Butter Small Parsley lbs Potatoes bunch Method No. Task Time 1. Wash and peel the largest of potatoes to make 1 ½ lbs 2. Cut into quarters but try to make them all approximately the same size to allow for even cooking 3. Plunge into salted boiling water and boil for 14 minutes and test if cooked using a fork 4. When the fork can be pressed into the centre of a potato it is cooked and they can then be drained 5. Place into a warmed dish add the nob of butter 6. Roll around to cover all the potatoes Garnish With a small bunch of fresh parsley
Page 113 c Michael Glass
Recipe Name …Blinchki Sweet and Sour
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 8oz Flour 3 Eggs 1 pt Milk 2 Salt 1 Teaspoon handle 3 oz Cooking oil pinch of Bi Carbonate of Soda Half Lemon 2 oz Granulated Sugar 3 oz Fresh Bees Honey 1 oz Icing Sugar in its comb This should make 24 pancakes 2 oz Red Caviar
Method No. Task Time 1. Sieve flour into a large bowl, add salt and mix 2. Make well in flour, add Bi-carb and squeeze onto it 5 drops of lemon juice 3. Whisk in eggs and two teaspoons of oil 4. Slowly add milk while whisking until a smooth batter, just before cooking add one tablespoon of cold tap water and give a final whisk 5. Add oil to frying pan and heat till near smoking, drain off oil and pour into pan 2 tablespoons of batter, roll pan around to spread batter all over pan base 6. Turn pancake over (toss at will!) to cook on other side 7. When cooked pile pancakes one on top of each other, the sweet ones with a sprinkle of sugar and the sour ones a squeeze of lemon 8. Just prior to service place a dessert spoon of honey on a pancake and roll 9. And alternatively place a teaspoon of Caviar on a pancake and roll 10. Place the type of pancakes on a separate plates and sprinkle the sweet ones with Icing Sugar, and the sour ones with a squeeze of lemon
Page 114 c Michael Glass
Chapter Twelve
The Death of a Gall Bladder Kemerovo Siberia Russia
Summer Winter
Shashlik
Herring under the Coat
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Chapter Twelve The Death of a Gall Bladder
The Song from Sting says “I hope the Russians Love their children” when he was contemplating the world devastation from nuclear war. They do and we really did have the wrong opinions of Russians.
So I was asked by the Managing Director do I want to spend 10 months in Singapore with 2 months off or do I want to spend 6 months in Siberia with 6 months off , the decision changed my life totally. Spending three years in Siberia was a pleasure, they really are a friendly nation. Very few of them were as worried as we were during the cold war.
Every Englishman has a picture of Salt Mines and Goulags when someone mentions Siberia so it was with some intrepidation that I got on the plane that March day in 1995. 24 hours later we arrived in the coal mining city of Kemerovo, with a 500, 000 population and not a single salt mine in view. Winter had just about ended and the snow was melting everywhere. I was part of a European Government food aid project to improve Farming, Wholesaling Retailing and Catering and the idea was to build demonstration training units and pass on the development. There were five in the consultants team, an Irishman, an Englishman, a German and a semi Russian German. What a team of individuals with differing culinary experience and likes to cater for in the Team Flat.
The Irish Team Leader was the Wholesale Specialist and was going to convert a warehouse into a Cash and Carry style market. In year two some building work was needed on the market and we recruited an Armenian Builder, we had recently been visited by a French project assessor and we also had had a recent visit from our English Equipment Installation Engineer who had brought a large stock of English Marmalade. The assessor left and passed us with flying colours so we decided to have a celebratory meal, Recently the Builder had brought us a whole sheep which I had butchered and froze apart from the legs, the Assessor had presented us with two very good tins of Pate de Foie Gras and two splendid bottles of well travelled Claret. The menu was set, Pate De Foie Gras and Melba Toast, Roast Leg of Lamb with Mint Sauce and Roasted Winter Vegetables, Bread and Butter Pudding. We invited our local interpreters and had the most wonderful of evenings…. until about six in the morning when I woke up in agony. After a day visiting surgeries where I had a Barium Meal and X-rays, Ultra Sound and an MRI scan I was in front of a liver specialist who explained that the meal I ate 24 hours previously had disturbed 2 gallstones, he could remove them or give me medication to calm them down for a month till I went home. To get that diagnosis in the UK would take three months if you were lucky. I chose the
Page 116 c Michael Glass medication and struggled on. Back in UK the gall bladder was removed by key hole surgery in a BUPA hospital.
As the project progressed we consultants were accepted into the local families and experienced the Russia the tourists do not see, real life, real hospitality and real Russian Food. Russian Mothers have become real artists in creating beautiful tasty dishes under very testing circumstances. In 1995 when I first visited Siberia most wives would spend 10 hours a week shopping, compare that to a weekly shop in Tesco. To reiterate the difficulty, I recount a situation we encountered in 1996 when we brought some Russians to the UK for a study tour, one of the trips was to a Tesco Hypermarket. We gave each delegate £5 to buy something in the store and experience the cash payment system as at that time in Siberia you still had the system where you saw how much the item cost, went to the cashier and paid then when to the department and collected what you had paid for. The delegates enjoyed the visit – we thought – till they got in the mini bus and it was silent. After 20 minutes we asked the interpreter to explain the silence and misery. She explained that they all felt very sorry for British People, we asked why and she said if those shops were in Siberia people would be being everything, but here the shelves were still full. Their conclusion – British Wives did not have the money to buy anything. The reason why it took so long to shop in Siberia was two fold, Firstly most shops were empty or only had a few products, and secondly that the alternative was to shop outside on the street from small kiosk with little hatches. Our Motto when we lived there was ‘if you see it buy it’ so many main products ran out so we would buy tomato ketchup when we saw it J7 Orange Juice was very scarce so when we saw it we bought lots.
How Fresh is Fresh? A meal on a Datcha is fresh, pull up lettuce and wash, dig up new potatoes and boil, slice a tomato just off the vine and finish the meal off with Raspberries just off the cane. Fresh baked bread and some sausage meat made a meal on the Datcha,
‘Fresh is ~~~ today in the ground today on the plate’
And after a Vodka or three light up the Banja stove so you can enjoy a sauna after a nap.
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Menu
For A Visitor to Russia who just loved eating At Various Russian Homes On
Borsch
~~~000~~~
Herring Under the Coat
~~~000~~~
Pelmeni
~~~000~~~
Shashlik
~~~000~~~
Bread and Butter Pudding An English Contribution
~~~000~~~
Just a little vodka
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Menu Tips
Borsch Best made with a fatty bony piece of beef, ask your butcher for some bones to add flavour.
Herring Under the Coat This dish is to be made the day before to ensure the flavours merge and the beetroot pink permutates into the mayonnaise An alternative way to serve this is to use the Sprite bottles as in Chapter 5 to create a single portion which when served becomes a tower of layers.
Pelmeni This is best made the day before and frozen, it is something the women like doing on their own as they exercise their jaws big time during assembly
Shashlik Difficult but not impossible to do indoors, outdoors its cooked on a barbeque where the trick is to light the coals early and cook the meat when the coals are white hot, indoors it’s a very hot griddle pan where the trick is to oil the meat and not the pan. Here we use the outdoor method and combine it with picking cooking and eating the vegetables within the hour from our Datcha Gardens.
Bread and Butter Pudding An English Contribution The art to Bread and Butter Pudding is Marmalade it makes it tangy and compliments the sweetness of the custard, make sure you wipe the dish before putting it in the oven to ensure there is no custard up the side or this will burn black and make it look very amateurish. Making Bread and Butter Pudding always reminds me of making 9000 rounds of sandwiches at Radley College and forgetting that for every 11 rounds you had 2 crusts. So what did we do with 1636 crusts – we made Bread and Butter Pudding and lots.
Just a little vodka Served from the freezer as no good vodka will actually freeze and it tastes better when really cold. In Russia around the table each person is expected to make a speech and toast the meeting, the hosts, the guest and even the Government (who in Britain would toast the Government?)
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Recipe Name … Borsch
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 ½ Shin of Beef 3 oz Prepared Dutch ¼ oz Salt lbs White Cabbage 6 oz Potatoes ½ Red Capsicum 6 Peppercorns large 4 oz Carrots 12 oz Prepared Beetroot Pinch Sugar 3 oz Tomato puree 1 Bayleaf 2 oz Butter 1 Sprig of Dill
Method No. Task Time 1. Wash and place the lumps of beef as they are, do not cut up yet, add salt and peppercorns and bay leaf bring to boil and simmer removing the scum at regular intervals, cook for two hours 2. Remove from heat for a while to cool. Drain the meat from the stew and save the clear stock. 3. Remove all meat from the bone and dice into 1 inch cubes 4. Return the beef to the stock 5. Wash and Peel potatoes and cut into large matchsticks (like McDonald chips) add to stock and return to a slow heat, without boiling 6. Wash and peel carrots, finely grate and set aside 7. Wash and peel beetroot, finely grate and set aside 8. Deseed peppers and cut into long thin stips 9. Remove outer leaves of cabbage, cut out heart stem, and very finely cut into ribbons add to stock a few minutes after adding the potatoes 10. Melt the butter in a frying pan and cook off carrots, add peppers, and beetroot until all are tender, then add pinch of sugar, add this to the stock 11. Taking a little stock in a cup dissolve the tomato puree and add to the stock 12. 20 minutes after the potatoes go into the stock they should be tender to eat. 13. Adjust seasoning to taste
Garnish Serve into a bowl and allow guests to add a dessert spoon of sour cream Some chopped dill can also be added to taste
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Recipe Name … Herring Under the Coat
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item Salted Herring 2 tbl sp Vinegar 1 med Onion 200gm Or Smoked 1 lm Lemon Juice 3 med Carrot Salmon 2 med Potatoes 2 pinch Salt 4 med Beetroot 150gm Mayonnaise 1 pinch Pepper
Method No. Task Time 1. The day before production boil potatoes and carrot in their skin in one pan and beetroot in a separate pan. Allow to cool 2. Skin and slice fish into thin strips, soak in lemon juice 3. Peel and grate the cooked potatoes carrot and beetroot into separate containers 4. Place the drained fish onto a large plate 5. Finally dice the onion 6. Build up layers of fish, onion, potato cover with a thin layer of slightly vinegared down mayonnaise 7. Add a layer of carrot, cover with a thin layer of slightly vinegared down mayonnaise 8. Add a layer of beetroot, completely cover with a thin layer of slightly vinegared down mayonnaise 9. Put in the fridge for at least 4 hours 10. The mayonnaise should go a pink colour from the beetroot
Garnish Decorate with a few beetroot roses To serve cut like a cake into wedges
See tips for an alternative serving method
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Recipe Name …Pelmeni
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item Pastry Filling 4 Egg yolks 12 oz Minced pork Good Ground black pinch Pepper 1 tea Salt 8 oz Minced Beef 1/8 pt Milk spoon 1 lb Plain flour 2 Onions Good Salt pinch ½ pint Milk
Method No. Task Time 1. Make dough with egg salt flour and milk, dry but plyable – leave to stand in fridge 2. Make filling, pass pork beef and onion through a mincer, add salt and pepper and the milk – mix so you can not see the different ingredients 3. Take a few ounces of pastry and roll into a thin sausage, ¾ inch diameter, cut vertically into ½ pieces, squash and roll into a circle about the size of an empty vodka glass (make sure you have a full one as well as this takes a while) 4. Place ½ teaspoon of filling in centre of pastry circle, fold pastry in half and pinch edge together fold over corners to join and curl edge. 5. Lay pelmeni on a floured flat tray that will fit in your freezer. 6. Put the tray in the freezer and leave to make more. You will need about 10 per person so 60 for 6 people. 7. Large pan of boiling water with salt and cook from frozen stirring the water all the time to ensure they do not stick 8. When they float they are cooked
Garnish Serve with a choice of Mustard, Horseradish, Sour Cream, Mayonnaise or Tomato Ketchup
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Recipe Name …Shashlik
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 lbs Lamb shoulder 3 Red pepper 1½ pt Strong beer 1 lbs Pork Shoulder 3 Green Pepper 3 good Salt pinches 1 lbs Beef rump 4 Courgettes 12 Black Pepper corns 1 of each Red and white 24 Mushrooms New Potatoes Onions 2 table English mustard 2 tea Paprika 6 Bay Leaves spoons spoon 2 table Mint sauce 2 table Horse Radish 24 Barbequing sticks spoons spoons 4 Sprigs of dill 8 Sprigs of mint 4 Sprigs of Parsley
Method The day before No. Task Time 1. The day before eating take the meat and cut into 1½ inch dice and leave as much fat on as possible 2. Using three containers (best square for putting in the fridge) put the meat into a container 3. For the pork marinade take some of the beer from ½ pint and mix with the mustard to dissolve add salt and pepper. Cut onion rings and cover meat add remaining beer from ½ pint, lid and refrigerate 4. For the Lamb marinade take some of the beer from ½ pint and mix with the mint sauce to dilute add salt and pepper. Cut one red pepper in rings and cover meat add remaining beer from ½ pint, lid and refrigerate 5. For Beef marinade take some of the beer from ½ pint and mix with the Horseradish to dilute add salt and pepper. Cut green pepper rings and cover meat add remaining beer from ½ pint, lid and refrigerate 6. The next day, take each meat and place on skewers allow space to let heat reach the meat between meat cubes. So on a 10 inch skewer there should be about 5 cubes of meat and 6 of vegetable pieces.This is also helped by hanging the rings of vegetables between the cubes Continued
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The day of service 7. Wash and de eye the new potatoes, plunge into boiling salted water with 3 sprigs of fresh mint boil for 15 minutes or until just tender, drain, remove mint and place in a serving dish with a knob of butter and a fresh sprig of mint at service 8. With the pork skewers just prior to cooking drizzle with oil, salt and paprika 9. With the lamb skewers just prior to cooking drizzle with oil and mint sauce 10. With the beef skewers just prior to cooking drizzle with oil and horseradish 11. Start the cooking process with the beef, then lamb then pork. And make sure the coals or the griddle is very very hot Just prior to burning the skewer turn and turn again. 12. While cooking the meat, make up skewers of alternatively 1/8 of green pepper, 1/8 red pepper, a mushroom and some onion 13. Top and tail the courgettes and slice diagonally ¾ inch thick, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with icing sugar at least 30 minutes before cooking so the sugar sweetens the courgette, skewer and leave to marinade 14. Lay these vegetable skewers over the meat while cooking so they are heated which the meat continues to cook 15. Care should be taken to crisp the fat and cook the meat next to the skewer
Garnish Lay a selection of meat skewers on the service dish, cover the pork with a few sprigs of dill, the lamb with a few sprigs of mint and the beef with a few sprigs of parsley The skewers of mushroom, peppers and onions with those courgettes should provide sufficient colour without a garnish
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Recipe Name … Bread and Butter Pudding
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Items For custard 6 Whole grain sliced 6 Thick sliced white 1 pt Milk slices brown bread slices bread 2 oz Sultanas 1 oz Butter 9 Eggs yolks 1 jar Thick cut tangy 1 Whole nutmeg ½ pt Cream orange Marmalade 3 oz Brown sugar 1 pod Vanilla 4 oz Strawberries 4 oz Castor sugar
Method No. Task Time 1. Butter and marmalade bread and cut into diagonal quarters 2. Arrange in an ovenproof dish 3. Custard, put the milk to boil with the vanilla pod, after splitting, cover and allow to steep for 10 minutes leave to cool to just warm milk 4. Whisk the eggs and sugar together and while whisking pour the hot milk over through a sieve. 5. Stir over a gentle heat until it coats the spoon, remove from heat and place over a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process 6. Pour the custard over the bread quarters, sprinkle with sultanas 7. Sprinkle over with brown sugar and freshly grated nutmeg and leave to stand for 10 minutes to allow the custard to soak into the bread 8. Place in a moderate oven for 20 minutes to set the custard and slightly brown the bread tops but do not burn 9 Garnish with Fresh Strawberry, whole with the stalks left on so you can eat by hand.
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Chapter Thirteen Sunshine Food
Paphos Market
Cyprus Sun
Kleftico
Sea Bream
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Chapter Thirteen
Sunshine Food
Where else would you want to be after 3 months in Siberia in temperatures of - 400 F but on a sunny Island surrounded by warm sea and full of fresh food. Fresh is the key, it was like going back in time and working out what season it was. None of this chemical laden, flown in plastic cherries from California, when it was the Cherry season they were on the trees then in the shops, ripe as anywhere and sweet as no where else. It was all so natural, for weeks we could not understand how Cypriot pork chops were so sweet then one day we saw a truck delivering overripe melons to a pig farm it was obvious then that the melon eating pig meat became sweet from the inside. Fruit was everywhere; on the trees, in the markets and in the shops. Fresh Fruit with a gap so short between harvest and eating that only ripened fruit was picked. Oh it makes me dribble just tying this. Sitting on a beach bed with the future wife and eating water melon and cherries where else would you spit the pips and stones but in the cleavage of the missing bikini! So looking for something to do one day we saw an advert for pick your own mushrooms in a village near by, off we trotted, eager Siberian wife to be and son from England visiting us for Christmas. We took a bus, we walked, was it near by, we even hitched a lift in a Toyota pick up which was in a worse state than Top Gear’s. We got there and knew the price of 250 gms in a supermarket so the pick your own price at that for a kilo was a bargain. 5 kilos later we thought an hour of working in a refrigerated cave in a mountain was enough. What would we do with the mushrooms, how long will they keep, the challenge was on for the most mushroom dishes on a menu. We started with mushroom soup; onion and carrot with lots of mushrooms boiled and blitzed corrected with a little roux, then a mushroom sauce, mushrooms and cream to thicken, then a savoury of large mushrooms, stalks removed and filled with finely grated cheese with garlic mixed with mayonnaise and grilled to brown the tops. The mushrooms lasted a week but it took many weeks for the appetite for mushrooms to return to any of us. With temperatures soaring to the high 300 ‘s it can be overpowering so in the summer we used to escape to the mountains. Our favourite place was Pedoulas, the village of cherries, the church of St Michael was an appropriate visit. To get there was a 40 minute drive from the sea at Limasol, past the military outpost at Trudos. A meal and a night at the Two Flowers Hotel was a great break and if the season was cherry (around Mid May) a walk along the street allowed you to pick the overhanging fruit and enjoy it for nothing, unless you took too much then you got a shout for your pleasure. The journey back could be via Nicosia and the tourist pull of restaurants and souvenirs was hard to resist, life was so hard and tiring, it was a joy - like a day visit to heaven!
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Menu
For The two love birds doing nothing but eat, sleep and be merry!
At Yeriskipou Village near Paphos, Cyprus
Early Summer 1998
Village Salad
~~~000~~~
Grilled Sea Bream
~~~000~~~
Lamb Kleftico Mushrooms in cream sauce Runner Beans Newest Potatoes
~~~000~~~
Ravani
~~~000~~~
Cypriot Coffee
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Menu Tips
Village Salad The key to village salad is fresh ingredients and make it at the last minute, the items should be rough cut and salted to bring out the natural flavours. Just before service a little olive oil and wine vinegar can be added or better still added by your guest on their own portion to their own desired amount. Served with a crisp baton of local bread to soak up the juices on the plate- who needs butter?
Grilled Sea Bream As fresh off the boat on which it was caught is best. Simply gutted and a few cuts on the skin, salted and oiled and cooked under a hot grill, served with lemon as much as you want.
Lamb Kleftico This is probable the hardest dish to replicate in the UK as what you need is a clay wood fired outdoor oven, not many in the home counties, but we do have clay oven dishes courtesy of the French. Also it would normally be half a leg of lamb whole, between two. Here is a recipe you can use to replicate the flavours by using lamb chump chops.
Mushrooms in cream sauce Keeping the mushroom in the shape of the half cut slice gives the sauce some body.
Runner Beans Picked and used within the day is best to ensure freshness. Washed, the string from either side needs to be removed and then the bean sliced in a diagonal cut.
Newest Potatoes Never peel only scrape and de eye
Ravani This is a sweet dieticians delight and a dentists dream as both get huge benefit from trade after the eaters have been abused by the sugar, best made the day before so the sugar syrup soaks into the cake.
Cypriot Coffee Strong, sweet and black
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Recipe Name … Village Salad
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item ¼ Small White 1 Cucumber 18 A variety of Greek Cabbage Olives but including black Kalamata 1 Miniature cos 1 Green Pepper Olive Oil lettuce 1 Carrot 1 Red Pepper Wine Vinegar 4 Tomato 1 Coriander leaves ¼ Onion small bunch 4 oz Feta Cheese 1 Tea Capers Sea Salt spoon A sprinkle of Freshly cracked Oregano white peppercorns
Method No. Task Time 1. Roughly but finely chop the Cabbage into a bowl and sprinkle with salt and leave fro a few minutes then squeeze to tenderise and create the juice 2. Wash and dry the lettuce leaves, tear up (do not cut as it bruises the leaf and can go black) 3. Peel and grate the carrot 4. Cut the tomatoes in half, remove the root and roughly dice 5. If the Cucumber skin is bitter, peel and cut long ways then slice 6. Deseed the peppers and remove and internal walls, then slice very thin long ways 7. Drain the olives 8. Wash and pluck the leaves from the coriander 9. Cut the feta cheese into ¼ inch cubes 10. Combine all the ingredients in to a large bowl and toss
Garnish A bowl with olive oil and wine vinegar salt and pepper with a squeeze of lime for guests to help themselves
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Recipe Name …Grilled Sea Bream
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 6 Whole small 3 Lemons 6 sprigs Parsley bream 2 oz Rock salt 3 table Olive Oil Old wood, an old spoons fisherman’s boat full of sand and an audience
Method No. Task Time 1. If you have not see it done on the beach then perhaps you should revert to a hot grill 2. Gut the fresh bream leaving the head and tail on, on both sides make 3 deep cuts diagonally across the skin about ½ way to the bone 3. Push rock salt in cuts, drizzle with the squeezed lemon and place the used lemon skins in the hole where the guts where. 4. Leave for an hour or so, sprinkle a little olive oil and heat the grill 5. Or stoke up the coals on a barbeque 5.b If you are having this on a beach, make a fire and when the coals are hot, pile the sand at the sides of the fire, take a long(twice as long as the fish), clean, flat stick and push it in the fishes mouth through to the tail end but not through the skin and place the piece of stick left at the head end into the sand so the fish is level or just above the fire 6. Cook quickly on both sides browning the skin a little but not burning and so that the fish is cooked through 7. Remove the lemon from the guts and any salt from the cuts
Garnish A sprig of parsley in the open mouth of the fish and fresh lemon wedges
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Recipe Name …Lamb Kleftiko
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 12 Shoulder of Lamb 3 Celery 6 sprigs Mint chops 6 cloves of garlic 6 Potatoes Tin Foil 3 carrots 1 Lemon 3 teas Marmite spoons 12 shallots 6 Oregano Salt and pepper pinches 3 Courgettes 3 Aubergine 6 Mushrooms
Method No. Task Time 1. Cut out 12 20 inch squares of tin foil, using two sheets per portion place in the following to make a bundle 2. 2 chops, well salted and peppered and with a little marmite spread on the bottom, with on top …… 3. A crushed clove of garlic, half a carrot roughly chopped, 2 peeled and halved shallots, half a chopped stick of celery, half a roughly chopped courgette and aubergine, a chopped mushroom, one potato washed peeled and diced ½ inch 4. Add a sprig of mint, some dried oregano and a little water and a good squeeze of lemon 5. Fold up the tin foil loosely with room for expansion but to make an air tight sealed package 6. Place in a flat baking tray and put in an oven heated to 180c or gas mark 4 for 2 hours 7. Test one portion to see if cooked and re wrap 8. Place the parcels on a serving dish and allow the guests to unpack and serve themselves
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Recipe Name … Mushrooms in Cream Sauce
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 ½ Between 1 ½ inch 1oz Flour Salt lb and 2 inch button Mushrooms ½ pt Single Cream 1oz Butter Pepper Oil ½ pt milk
Method No. Task Time 1. Wash and de-stork mushrooms 2. Cut in half and place on cut side and slice thickly 3. Allow to dry, take three mushrooms and dice very finely and set aside for garnish 4. Make roux but leave thick and cover with buttered paper 5. Heat oil and sauté off the mushrooms without colouring 6. Drain off the juices and salt and pepper 7. Heat up the sauce and add the mushrooms 8. When ready to serve, remove from heat and add the cream
Garnish Pour into vegetable dish and sprinkle with washed but raw diced mushrooms
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Recipe Name … Runner Beans
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 ¾ Runner Beans 1 oz Butter 2 cloves of Garlic lb
Method No. Task Time 1. Wash, remove string from both sides and cut diagonally into diamonds 2. Finely dice the garlic and without colouring to flavour the butter, strain off the garlic and dispose of 3. Plunge the beans Into salted and cook only till al dente 4. Drain well
Garnish Garnish will garlic flavoured butter
Recipe Name …Newest Potatoes
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 ½ New potatoes Salt 2 oz Butter lb 2 Sprigs Mint
Method No. Task Time 1. If you see the potatoes uprooted then that’s fresh 2. Wash the soil off, eye any blemishes 3. If you must scrape off some of the skin but that really is where the goodness is 4. Cut into even sizes to ensure even cooking 5. Place in a pan of cold well salted water, with one of the sprigs of mint, bring to boil and cook till tender and a fork goes through the biggest 6. Drain well and remove mint leaves 7. Put in a vegetable dish in an oven to dry for a minute or so
Garnish Cut the butter into small knobs and sprinkle over just prior to service so the guest see it melting and add a sprig of mint
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Recipe Name … Ravani
Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item ½ lb Butter 1 ½ Sugar 1 ½ tea Vanilla extract cups spoons ¼ lb Margarine 1 ½ Flour 1 Zest of lemon cups finely grated 9 Eggs 1 ½ Farina (Cream of 1 tea Baking powder cups Wheat) spoon 1 cup Roasted slivered of almonds Syrup 2 ½ Granulated sugar The juice out of the 2 cups Water cups grated lemon
Method No. Task Time 1. Beat butter and margarine with an electric mixer till pale 2. Add eggs and sugar and Beat for 4 to 5 minutes 3. Mix trough a sieve the flour and farina and then add to mixture 4. Add vanilla extract, lemon zest, and baking powder 5. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10x14 inch pan and bake for 45 minutes at 2000 F in oven or until golden brown 6. Remove ravani from oven and immediately cut it into strips of two inches in width Syrup 7. Boil sugar, water and lemon juice for 5 minutes to make the syrup 8. Pour cooled syrup all over hot ravani and sprinkle with half the slivered almonds 9. Cover ravani with greaseproof paper and a towel and let it stay overnight 10. When ready to serve, cut ravani into diamond shapes
Garnish Decorate with roasted slivered almonds. And those with a sweet tooth – some more syrup but don’t over do it!
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Recipe Name … Cypriot Coffee Per cup Ingredients Qty Item Qty Item Qty Item 1 ½ tea Coffee ground 1 tea Sugar 1 ½ Small Water spoon super finely spoon cup 2/3 rds Anglias Cypriot gill Brandy
Method No. Task Time 1. Using a Cypriot two cup coffee pan, 2. Take 1 ½ teaspoon of finely ground strong coffee per person into pan 3. Add sugar to taste about 1 teaspoon per person 4. Using the cup your going to drink it out of measure 1 ½ cups per person of hot water 5. Stir well and apply heat till coffee starts to bubble 6. Pour out into cup but try not to add the dregs
Garnish No milk required, possibly some more sugar if sweet tooth Serve with a big measure of Anglias Cypriot Brandy
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Chapter 14
List of Dishes by Chapter
Initial Course s Starter F Fish M Main V Vegetable P Potato / pasta D Desert O Odds
Ch Nos S F M V P D O Recipes 1 1 S Pate Maison 1 2 F Coquille St Jacques Mornay 1 3 M Steak Diane 1 4 V Mixed Green Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing 1 5 P Duchess Potatoes 1 6 D Banana Fritters in Kirsch 1 7 O Irish Coffee 2 8 S Cream of Tomato Soup 2 9 F Grilled Dover Sole 2 10 V Fresh Bean Salad 2 11 P Lyonnaise Potatoes 2 12 D Orange Wheels in Cointreau 3 13 S Melon Boats with Palma Ham Sails 3 14 M Entrecote of Beef Bordalaise 3 15 V Brussels Sprouts 3 16 V Baby Glazed Carrots 3 17 P Roast and Creamed Potatoe 3 18 D Coupe Jaques 3 19 O Demi glace 4 20 S Blini, Decked in Smoked Salmon and Sour Cream 4 21 M Supreme of Chicken Arch Duke 4 22 V Batton Courgettes 4 23 V Fingers of Carrots 4 24 P Saffron Rice 4 25 D Apple Tart Normand 5 26 S Prawn and Lemon Mousse 5 27 M Fillet D'Or
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5 28 V Sautéed Peas and Bacon 5 29 P Potato Nests Filled with Courgette Matches 5 30 D Pear Belle Helene 6 31 S Ox Tongue and Beetroot Salad 6 32 F Lobster Thermadore 6 33 P Braised Eastern Rice 6 34 V Flowers of Vegetables 6 35 D Orange Sorbet 6 36 O Veal Sweetbreads in Vol au Vents 6 37 O Cheese Celery and Fruit 7 38 S Avocado and Strawberry Salad 7 39 F Fillet of Sole Veronique 7 40 M Crown of Lamb Stuffed with Apricot, Prune and Walnuts 7 41 V Kenya Bean Bundles 7 42 V Cauliflower Polonaise 7 43 P Roast Potatoes 7 44 D Charlotte Rouse 7 45 O Coffee and an Elbow 8 46 S Seafood Platter 8 47 M Braised Haunch of Venison 8 48 V Leek Mornay 8 49 P Baked Jacket Potatoes 8 50 D Chocolate Mort 9 51 S Ham and Salmon Cornettes 9 52 M Chicken Plaw 9 53 V Broccoli Cheese 9 54 P Spinach Pasta 9 55 D Chocolate Roulade 10 56 S Mulligatawny Soup 10 57 M Haggis, Neeps and Tatties 10 58 M Steak and Sausage Pie 10 59 V Peas & Carrots 10 60 P Boiled Potatoes 10 61 D Isle in the Mist 10 62 O Whisky Galore 11 63 S Real Horses Douvers 11 64 O Baursaks 11 65 M Besgberrmak (Pasta Soup Boiled Head of Lamb) 11 66 V Red and Green Cabbage 11 67 P Boiled Potatoes 11 68 D Blinchki Sour 11 69 D Blinchki Sweet 12 70 S Borsch
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12 71 F Herring Under a coat 12 72 O Palmani 12 73 M Shashlick 12 74 v Fresh picked salad 12 76 D Bread and Butter Pudding 13 77 S Village Salad 13 78 F Grilled Sea Bream 13 79 M Klefkhi 13 80 V Mushrooms in Cream Sauce 13 81 V Runner Beans 13 82 P Newest Potatoes 13 83 D Ravani 13 84 O Cypriot Coffee
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Chapter 15 And Now Dishes listed by Course And Chapter Ch Nos S F M V P D O Recipes 1 1 S Pate Maison 2 8 S Cream of Tomato Soup 3 13 S Melon Boats with Palma Ham Sails 4 20 S Blini, Decked in Smoked Salmon and Sour Cream 5 26 S Prawn and Lemon Mousse 6 31 S Ox Tongue and Beetroot Salad 7 38 S Avocado and Strawberry Salad 8 46 S Seafood Platter 9 51 S Ham and Salmon Cornettes 10 56 S Mulligatawny Soup 11 63 S Real Horses Douvers 12 70 S Borsch 13 77 S Village Salad 1 2 F Coquille St Jacques Mornay 2 9 F Grilled Dover Sole 6 32 F Lobster Thermadore 7 39 F Fillet of Sole Veronique 12 71 F Herring Under a coat 13 78 F Grilled Sea Bream 1 3 M Steak Diane 3 14 M Entrecote of Beef Bordalaise 4 21 M Supreme of Chicken Arch Duke 5 27 M Fillet D'Or 7 40 M Crown of Lamb Stuffed with Apricot, Prune and Walnuts 8 47 M Braised Haunch of Venison 9 52 M Chicken Plaw 10 57 M Haggis, Neeps and Tatties 10 58 M Steak and Sausage Pie 11 65 M Besgberrmak (Pasta Soup Boiled Head of Lamb) 12 73 M Shashlick 13 79 M Klefkhi 1 4 V Mixed Green Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing 2 10 V Fresh Bean Salad 3 15 V Brussels Sprouts 3 16 V Baby Glazed Carrots 4 22 V Batton Courgettes 4 23 V Fingers of Carrots 5 28 V Sautéed Peas and Bacon
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6 34 V Flowers of Vegetables 7 41 V Kenya Bean Bundles 7 42 V Cauliflower Polonaise 8 48 V Leek Mornay 9 53 V Broccoli Cheese 10 59 V Peas & Carrots 11 66 V Red and Green Cabbage 12 74 V Fresh Picked Salad 13 80 V Mushrooms in Cream Sauce 13 81 V Runner Beans 1 5 P Duchess Potatoes 2 11 P Lyonnaise Potatoes 3 17 P Roast and Creamed Potatoe 4 24 P Saffron Rice 5 29 P Potato Nests Filled with Courgette Matches 6 33 P Braised Eastern Rice 7 43 P Roast Potatoes 8 49 P Baked Jacket Potatoes 9 54 P Spinach Pasta 10 60 P Boiled Potatoes 11 67 P Boiled Potatoes 12 75 P Creamed Potatoes 13 82 P Newest Potatoes 1 6 D Banana Fritters in Kirsch 2 12 D Orange Wheels in Cointreau 3 18 D Coupe Jaques 4 25 D Apple Tart Normand 5 30 D Pear Belle Helene 6 35 D Orange Sorbet 7 44 D Charlotte Rouse 8 50 D Chocolate Mort 9 55 D Chocolate Roulade 10 61 D Isle in the Mist 11 68 D Blinchki Sour 11 69 D Blinchki Sweet 12 76 D Bread and Butter Pudding 13 83 D Ravani 13 84 O Cypriot Coffee 1 7 O Irish Coffee 3 19 O Demi glace 6 36 O Veal Sweetbreads in Vol au Vents 6 37 O Cheese Celery and Fruit 7 45 O Coffee and an Elbow 10 62 O Whisky Galore 11 64 O Baursaks 12 72 O Palmani
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A Few Thank You’s I could take the easy way out, that there are too many to mention, but I will be brave and start the list From Name For Around 51-present Pamela Paling ne Glass Being my sister and, Proof reading most of this 73-75 Don and Nicole Who at Eton started my experience Charlsworth of being able to serve great food, sample it and not have to pay for it but get paid for serving it. 78-83 Denis Silk The Warden of Radley College who never failed to send a note of thanks to me and the staff, every morning after the night before’s feast. 78-83 Micky Jones The Bursar of Radley College where the budget extended to cope with larger and larger appetites of the Masters Common Room . 69-71 Jack Pinder A lecturer at High Peak Buxton who first woke up my love of good food. All the people I have Without customers there would really arranged food for be no point, would there?
2001-now Sister Richens and Dr Who have helped me fight my ever Wong increasing weight over the last few decades. My three best recipe For the reasons of: guides: Larousse Gastonomique The Bible The Army Manual of The Statistics Catering And The Times Cookery Book The Value for Money check 95-now Olga Glass My wife and partner since 1996 and who gave me the inspiration to write this book. 72-98 Gardner Merchant My employer for 26 years and who paid the travel costs. And thanks to you, Your author has always agreed he is no chef, he is a the reader catering manager. And as such he accepts that there may be mistakes in or skills needed to perfect the recipes to your acceptable standard. He would welcome any suggestions or corrections you feel are needed.
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