Rick Stein at Bannisters (Bannisters is a boutique hotel at Mollymook) is the first restaurant he has done outside his home base of Padstow in the UK.  We were part of a group of foodies who spent 2 days at the hotel indulging in some excellent food, a dinner with Rick and a cooking class at his nearby home.  Here is a very easy recipe he gave us, perfect for your next dinner party:

Marinated Tuna with Passionfruit, Lime & Coriander

“Chefs agree that tuna is best served rare.  Here I’ve taken the idea of a ceviche and added some Australian flavours — but don’t marinate the fish for longer than 10 minutes.”  Rick Stein

3cm thick piece of tuna loin fillet (or Atlantic Salmon)

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 passionfruit

3 tablespoons sunflower oil

1 medium/hot green chilli, seeded and finely chopped

1 teaspoon caster sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander

1/2 teaspoon salt plus ground black pepper

Slice tuna into very thin slices.  Lay slices overlapping onto plaates.  Just before serving make the dressing.  Sieve passionfruit pulp into a bowl to extract the juice and mix the rest of the ingredients. Spoon marinade over tuna for 10 minutes only and serve.

Gregor & Lewis Bespoke Travel at Noosa organised the trip, and hopefully will be able to do another … after Rick has filmed his northern Spain/Portugal TV  series. noosa@gregorlewis.com.au or phone 5447 4666.

When I first married I couldn’t cook at all but having married a Frenchman that situation had to change, and fast.  It was also the era (is it returning?) when the dinner party was was the thing to do when it came to entertaining friends.  We didn’t go out to restaurants that much in those days.  You spent a full day prior to “the big night” laboriously preparing tricky (over-worked) dishes, was most of the evening in the kitchen and then the next day cleaning up.  Nothing was spontaneous and freshly cooked – couldn’t cope with that!

But one of the things I did learn to do well was a French terrine.  There are endless varieties, they are better made ahead of time (the flavour develops) and make great left-overs.  Here is a classic recipe from Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion:

Country Terrine

250 g chicken livers

40 g butter

1 small chopped onion

1 thick slice wholemeal or sourdough bread, crusts removed

500 g minced fatty pork (shoulder, neck or belly)

250 g minced skinless poultry or rabbit

2 cloves finely chopped garlic

sprig thyme, leaves stripped from stalk

2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground all spice

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons salt

3 eggs

50 ml brandy

1 bay leaf

Preheat oven to 180C.  Cook livers quickly in half the butter until just stiffened, then remove and cut into chunks.  Add remaining butter and stew onion until soft. Process bread in a food processor to form crumbs. Mix all ingredients except bay leaf very well and pack into a 1.5 litre earthenware or cast iron terrine mould. Mound slightly and press bay leaf on top, then cover with terrine lid. Stand terrine in a baking dish and pour in water to halfway up sides of mould. Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out hot when you touch it to your bottom lip. Place a light weight on the terrine itself when it comes out of the oven and allow to cool overnight. Serve with cornichon and toast.

Lined terrines: It is traditional to line a terrine mould with either thin strips of hard back fat, caul or bacon. It makes the pressed terrine easier to cut.

Tricks:  fry a teaspoon of the raw terrine mixture to check the seasoning — remember you need more salt/flavour when food is cold.  You can layer the terrine with strips of rabbit, duck or pork.  

700gm veal shank and 800gm veal breast

200gm carrots & 100gm each of leeks, onions, celery

3 sprigs thyme, 1 bay leaf, 1/4 lemon

250ml cream, 30gm butter, 30 gm plain flour & celery salt to taste

Cut veal into chunks & cover with water in a pot with 4 pinches of salt – bring to the boil, lower heat to simmer, skim.

Add vegs cut into lg pieces and tie up herbs into a bundle with the leeks (easy to lift out). Simmer for about 1 hr or until tender.

Strain the stock and reduce by half. Melt butter and when foamy add the flour and stir for 2 minutes. Pour the stock over the butter and flour mixture, whisking continuously to avoid lumps. Add half the cream. Simmer for 15 minutes, add a squeeze of lemon. Taste for seasoning and then add remaining cream and the meat.

Serve with rice or baby vegetables. Garnish with chervil.

However here is one recipe that you wont find readily.  My husband is French Catalan and this quite distinct race of people occupies an area from Barcelona in Spain to Perpignan in the south of France.  They consider themselves distinct from either the Spanish or the French. They have their own language, customs and a very ancient culinary history — the first Catalan gastronomic manuscripts appeared in 1324, and was born out of the cooking of the Romans (who occupied the area for 700 years) and was enriched in later centuries by invading Visigoths and the Moors.

This recipe for Suquet is a personal favourite and can be reproduced very well in Australian given our superb seafood.  However, if it all seems too much trouble the Chefs at Baguette will cook it for you.

CATALAN SUQUET

Sofregit (Catalan Sauce)

2 onions, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 red capsicums, chopped

tin of chopped Italian tomatoes

salt, pepper, olive oil

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil, add capsicum, reduce temperature and slowly cook until beginning to caramelise and thicken — about 40 minutes.

Picada (Catalan ‘roux’)

2 cloves garlic, minced

30 almonds

1 slice fried bread

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 sprigs parsley, minced

olive oil

Crush or grind all ingredients except parsley and oil.  A mortar and pestle is best, or use a food processor. Add enough oil to barely cover the picada, then work it into the mixture slowly to form a thick paste.

Ingredients

4 small fillets of fresh fish

12 black mussels

250 grams calamari, sliced

8 green scallops

8 large green prawns, shell and leave on head and tail

clams or bugs

parsley and 1 clove garlic, chopped

1/3rd cup brandy

1 kilo waxy yellow potatoes like kiffler

Method

Make Sofregit and Picada — can be done the day before.

Dust fish fillets in flour, salt and pepper and saute in oil.  Sprinkle chopped parsley and garlic over fish, add brandy and ignite. Set aside.

Put Sofregit in a large paella pan and add chopped potatoes and cook for 15 minutes or until almost done. Thicken the mixture with the Picada.  Add fish fillets and green shellfish and cook for a couple of minutes — don’t over cook.  Take to the table in the paella pan.

Tip:

Spoon some mayonnaise or aioli over the fish fillets and put briefly under a griller, before serving the dish.  Serve with freshly chopped dill or chervil.

1 litre of thickened cream
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
12 egg yolks
250 gms caster sugar

 
Boil cream and vanilla.
Whisk yolks and sugar together.
Pour cream slowly over yolk mix and whisk to combine.
Strain mixture through fine strainer.
Skim the scum off the top with a spoon.
Pour into moulds.
Cook in a hot water bainmarie @ 140 degrees C for 40-50 minutes or until set.
Cool on trays and set in fridge.  Makes 6-8 brulees

To serve: sprinkle even layer of caster sugar over each pot, then caramelise using a blowtorch (now available at kitchen shops) or heat up the back of a big metal spoon and use like an old brulee iron.

Chef’s tip:  make the custard a day ahead, allowing for a bubble-free surface for even caramelisation.