In recent years, we have looked to the Mediterranean for culinary inspiration, enthused by the fact that not only is the best Mediterranean cooking very healthy, it is also very light.
This is what we have tried to achieve with these Mediterranean dishes, which offer a radical alternative to the traditional Christmas meal - something considerably lighter. The centrepiece becomes a simple roasted leg of lamb with tapenade, and the technique for roasting in this fashion is something every cook should have in their repertoire. The technique for making a light fish soup to begin the meal is also invaluable.
Grilled vegetables are one of those simple things which Italian cooks do so well, and they offer a radically different accompaniment. Lamb, olives and garlic are one of the great trinities of Mediterranean tastes and, with our own magnificent lamb, the Provencal idea of stuffing a boned leg with tapenade works perfectly. The garlic is here put to work with the potatoes, while simple biscotti - almond biscuits - offer something wildly different to the traditional pudding, and dunking them into a good glass of Vin Santo is a delirious end to the dinner. These ideas may be alternative, but the pleasure they offer is just as timeless as our own venerated Christmas dinner. What is also important is the fact that this meal is endlessly adaptable: you could serve it for a buffet-party any time during the holiday season, it could be a dinner party menu for a gathering, or you can take different elements of it and use them here and there with your festive cooking.
Mediterranean Fish Soup
THE principle of this delicious soup is that the fish flesh disintegrates into the liquid, flavouring and thickening it, and the flesh is then discarded. Happily, it is very easy to make. This is a true blast of sunshine flavour at Christmas.
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 very large Spanish onion, sliced
1 leek, sliced
1 tin tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
1 bunch of fennel leaves or a small bulb of Florence fennel, sliced
Zest (peel) of half an orange
About 3lb mixed fish. Base your mix on fish from the cod family (cod, pollock, haddock etc), and do throw in the fish heads, bones, and fins. Then ask your fishmonger for carcasses of sole, or hake or whatever to make up the mix.
Gruyere cheese
Garlic mayonnaise or rouille
Stew the leek and onion in the olive oil until translucent. Add the tomatoes and the whole garlic cloves. Then season with the bay leaf, the fennel, the orange zest, and some salt. Simmer for about 15 minutes, until the whole mass has come together into a stew-like consistency. Chop up the fish roughly and add to the pot. Turn up the heat and then completely cover the fish with boiling water.
Crush the fish down with a wooden spoon to extract as much flavour as possible. Turn the heat down and simmer for 30 minutes.
Sieve the fish through a fine sieve - the best is a drum sieve - pressing down with a pestle to extract as much as you possibly can from the mixture, being careful not to push through any bones. You should be left with a delicious, orange-coloured broth. Season. Garnish each bowl of soup with some grated Gruyere cheese and with a spoonful of garlic mayonnaise or a rouille (good commercial bottles of both are available from delis).
Roast Lamb stuffed with Tapenade
YOU will need the assistance of your butcher to get this dish perfect, as it involves taking the thigh (pelvic) bone from the leg of lamb (the upper bone) but leaving the shank bone (the lower bone) in place. This leaves you with a pouch which you rub with tapenade, and then sew up, using a blanket stitch, to encase the tapenade. The leg is then simply roasted.
Your butcher should cut the inside of the leg from the hip joint to the knee joint, and remove the thigh bone, taking care not to make any further cuts in the flesh. This will then be easy to sew up. If he is a thoroughly obliging butcher, and you are as lousy as stitching as I am, then he may even sew it for you if you bring in your tapenade. Preheat the oven to 450F. Open out the leg of lamb and spread the inside surface with a decent paste of tapenade, then stitch the leg securely back into its original shape using a blanket stitch. Good quality tapenades (tapenade is a pate of black olives) are widely available in shops and supermarkets, and pay the most you can afford.
Rub the leg all over with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and place on a large roasting tray. Cook for 10 minutes at the high heat, then reduce the temperature to 350F for the next 20 minutes, then cook for a further 30 minutes at 275F. The lamb should be cooked to pinky perfection in about an hour.
Then, remove the lamb to a warm plate and keep it in a warmed place, or put it back in the turned-off oven, on the plate, with the door slightly ajar. It needs to rest for at least 20 minutes before you carve it, which will also provide you with super cooking juices to pour over the joint after you have carved it.
Before carving, remove the string, then slice. Arrange the slices on a platter, pour the juices over, and serve.
Marinated Grilled Vegetables
The smart tip here for grilling vegetables comes from the American writer Nancy Harmon Jenkins, who recommends soaking aubergine in a brine, rather than the classic salting, a technique which produces a crisp exterior and a creamy interior. The vegetables can be made a day or more ahead, but they should be brought to room temperature before being served.
I like to make the marinade in a mortar and pestle, pounding the garlic, adding the salted anchovies (preferable to anchovy fillets, if you can get them) and pounding into a paste, then working in the vinegar and thyme, then the olive oil to taste. The result should be tart and yet smooth, the perfect accent for the vegetables. The beauty of this is that it can be made well in advance - in fact, the longer the vegetables marinate in the garlic-and-anchovy dressing, the better. You can serve the vegetables as a first course, or the flavours make a perfect accompaniment for the lamb.
2 aubergines, preferably the plumshaped Italian ones (about 1lb)
Salt
2 red bell peppers
2 yellow bell peppers
3 long, slender courgettes (about 11/2
pounds)
Olive oil for brushing The marinade:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red or white wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves, chopped
2 oil-packed anchovy fillets, minced (or salt to taste)
1 tablespoon minced fresh mint, thyme or oregano
Cut the aubergine into lengthwise slices about 1/2-inch thick. Place in a bowl and cover with water, measuring the amount used. Add 1/4 cup of salt for every two quarts. Set a plate in the bowl with a weight on top (a can of tomatoes is ideal) to hold the slices underwater and leave them to soak for one to two hours.
Meanwhile, rinse the peppers and cut them in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and white membrane. Cut the courgettes on the diagonal into slices about 1/2inch thick.
When you're ready to cook, preheat the grill or barbecue grill. Remove the aubergine slices from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. Brush the aubergine and courgette slices lightly with olive oil, using a pastry brush, and grill them on each side for 10 minutes on a barbecue grill, perhaps up to 18 minutes under an overhead grill. When the slices are toasted dark brown on both sides, remove from the grill and arrange on a deep platter.
Place the pepper halves skin-side-up under the grill (skin-sidedown if you are using a barbecue grill). Cook until the peppers are slightly blackened and the skin is starting to lift off and blister, about five to eight minutes. (Peppers need not be cooked on both sides). Add to the platter.
Mix the marinade ingredients together and pour the marinade over the vegetables. Cover with aluminium foil and set aside at room temperature to marinate for several hours or overnight. Serve at room temperature. (Makes eight servings as a first course.)
Garlic Roast Potatoes
Everyone has their own method of making roast potatoes: to roast them with garlic, lay them in a single layer so they roast evenly, and leave the garlic cloves unpeeled so the garlic bakes in its skin to a creamy mush, which should be lathered onto the potato.
2-3lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into equal sizes
8 large garlic cloves, unpeeled 3 fresh rosemary sprigs
1 small, hot, dried red chili, crumbled
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Olive oil
2 tablespoons minced flat-leaf parsley
Preheat the oven to 400F. In a bowl, toss the potatoes with the garlic, rosemary, chilli pepper, salt and pepper, and olive oil. Spread the potatoes about an inch or more thick in a small roasting pan or a gratin dish - thick enough so that you can't see the bottom of the pan. Roast, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, for about 35-40 minutes or until they are golden brown. Remove, sprinkle with more salt and pepper and the parsley, and serve.
Biscotti di Prato
PRATO is just north-west of Florence and is famous for these crunchy biscuits.
Biscotti means "twice cooked" and the biscuits are traditionally served for dipping in Vin Santo, the sweet dessert wine of this region. They are also good when dipped into a cup of strong coffee.
120g (4oz) whole almonds
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g (9oz) sifted, unbleached white flour
225g (8oz) sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Pinch of salt
Pre-heat the oven to 350 F/180 C/gas 4.
Spread the almonds out on a baking tray in a single layer and bake them for 10 minutes. Allow to cool while you prepare the biscotti dough.
Combine the eggs with the vanilla in the bowl of your electric mixer. Mix on the lowest speed. Add 225g (8oz) of the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
When the dough forms a ball on the beaters, add the almonds, and continue beating until they are distributed throughout the batter. The batter will be quite sticky. (A hand mixer is probably not strong enough to handle this dough. You can mix the dough by hand.)
Scrape the batter out of the bowl on to a heavily floured work-surface. Using a pastry scraper or rubber spatula, divide the dough into two equal pieces. Flour your hands and roll each piece of dough into the flour to coat it completely.
Form each piece into a log approximately 25cm (10 inches) long. Place the logs on individual baking trays lined with cooking parchment or aluminium foil. They will spread. Brush off any excess flour. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until golden brown. Remove the pan from the oven and transfer the logs to a cutting board.
Using a large chef's knife, slice the logs crosswise on the diagonal into pieces 1.25 cm (1/2 inch) thick. Place them back on to the baking tray with about 2.5 cm (1 inch) between the pieces, the first and last pieces cut side down. Lower the heat to 325F/160C/gas 3, and bake for 15 minutes longer. Cool on racks. These will keep, frozen, for several months. (Makes about two dozen.)