Inexpensive ingredients and pared-back recipes full of flavour from DOMINI KEMP.
IF YOU’RE A SAVVY SHOPPER, you’re known in trade circles as “promiscuous” – nothing to do with anything racy, but rather a term used to describe people who no longer take a “one-stop” approach to supermarket shopping. In other words, you shop around, you saucy devil.
Apparently, in this age of foodie frugality, we are quite prepared to go to several different stores to seek out exactly what we want and at a fair price. According to some of the UK multiples, consumers are finally starting to shy away from ready-meals and instead purchase raw ingredients to make their own meals at a much better price. Another anomaly is that people still want to enjoy luxury items, so olives, balsamic vinegar and Champagne sales are up considerably, but people are dining out a lot less, a fact most restaurateurs would admit to. Most chefs would be delighted to see consumers start cooking again, which is why cookbooks with a less-is-more approach to long lists of ingredients (such as the Australian bestseller 4 Ingredients) are doing so well.
With this in mind, here are two dishes that can be taken to the office for lunch or served up as a starter for a posh dinner party. Both are luxurious, in a cheap and cheerful kind of way, and both come from one of my most treasured cookbooks, Simon Hopkinson’s Week In Week Out. I make no bones about the fact that plenty of the recipes that appear in this column are completely and utterly plagiarised, but full credit is given regarding provenance, wherever appropriate.
Some recipes work out better than others, but I love to take a recipe, tear it apart, hopefully make it simpler and tastier, and eliminate anything that isn’t utterly critical. The main aim is to get you to cook rather than stare at a long list of ingredients and say, “nah, I think I’ll order a take-away instead.”
When I went to pick up the ham hocks for this recipe, the butcher told me he didn’t bother to keep them in stock as he couldn’t give them away. As a result, we got them for €1 each. But, like plenty of cheap cuts, trends catch on and the price will go up, so grab them while you can.
Ham hock and green lentil salad
Serves two as a big dinner, four as a starter
1 ham hock
1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
2 sticks celery, roughly chopped
1 onion, peeled, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
a few sprigs of tarragon
1 glass white wine
2 tsp English mustard
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp caster sugar
150ml olive oil
2 tbsp tarragon vinegar
a few sprigs of tarragon, chopped
salt and pepper
100g green lentils
3 spring onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1 bunch of parsley, chopped
200g lettuce, mache, or mixed leaves
Put the ham hock in a big saucepan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Drain, and add the carrot, celery, onion, bay leaves, tarragon and wine to the pan. Place the ham hock on top, cover with fresh water, bring up to the boil and simmer, with a lid on, for at least two hours. Leave to cool down in the liquid.
To make the dressing, mix the mustards and sugar together, then slowly whisk in the olive oil so it makes a mayonnaise-type thickness. Add the vinegar and chopped tarragon and season well. Set aside.
Rinse the lentils under cold water and put in a saucepan with a few ladles of the ham-hock liquid, enough to cover the lentils. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until tender.
While the lentils are cooking, remove the ham hock from any remaining cooking liquid, remove the fat and discard. You can do this by tugging away at the skin and fat and trimming with a knife. Tear the shards of meat off and set aside.
Strain the lentils and mix with the spring onions and garlic while warm. Add the parsley and a few spoonfuls of the dressing. Add the ham hock and more dressing, pile up with some lettuce and serve.
Potato and Jerusalem artichoke soup
This is very rich, so it will serve four to six people. We used oyster mushrooms, but use whatever you like. Porcini would be fabulous, but portobellos will do. If you have truffle oil, add a few drops at the end.
5 large potatoes, peeled and chopped
500g Jerusalem artichokes, peeled
3 cloves garlic, peeled
60g butter
salt and pepper
200g mushrooms
250ml cream
250ml milk
chopped parsley and Parmesan to garnish
Put the spuds, artichokes and garlic in a large saucepan and fill with cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer until the spuds are practically disintegrating. Drain and put back in the saucepan with half the butter. Add the cream and milk and gently heat up. Blitz this in a blender. Put back in the saucepan and heat until just simmering. Season well and either serve now or cool down fully and reheat before serving.
If it’s too thick, add more milk or cream, but make sure you season again. Fry the mushrooms on a high heat in the remaining 30g of butter, season well and serve the soup with mushrooms on top, with parsley, Parmesan and some drops of good olive or truffle oil. dkemp@irishtimes.com