When you carve the breasts, a fair amount of juice will run out. Catch this, and pour over the champ after plating it all up. This meal is great for real meat lovers, with wonderfully conventional tastes. I tested the recipe out on the lovely Miranda and Mr Smiley, and even converted him to the merits of fruit with meat, so was very satisfied indeed. The fruit against the tangy champ is yet another great dynamic on the plate. Serve with a little broccoli or wilted spinach leaves or green beans.
The Champ
500g King Edward potatoes, or any other British floury variety
6 spring onions
50g butter
100ml double cream
freshly ground black pepper
Maldon sea salt
Peel the potatoes and cut them into quarters. Place in a large saucepan of water and bring to the boil. Put a lid on top, and simmer on a medium heat until they slip off a sharp knife (up to half an hour). In the meantime, finely chop the spring onions, using as much of the green parts as you can. Drain the potatoes and return them to the pan. Add the butter and the cream. Mash thoroughly, until creamy and smooth, then season with pepper and salt. Champ is much more velvety than its English brother mash, so really put some elbow grease into it. You could even use a hand-held whisk. Finally, add the spring onions.
The Duck
2 duck breasts
50g butter
1 nectarine
Now for the breasts: score the skins so that you go almost as deep as the flesh. Using a griddle pan, if you have one, heat the butter on a medium to high heat so that it is near to smoking. Attentively place the duck in the pan, skin side down. This will create some serious spitting. Fry for 10 minutes, or until the skin is beginning to brown and become crispy, then turn the breasts over. Continue to cook, allowing all the fat to melt out of the bird, while finely slicing the nectarine. Once the breasts have had another 5 minutes and they are to your taste (like steak, it is up to you how rare you want them – for me, the bloodier the better), remove and let them relax on a chopping board. Add the sliced nectarine to the pan, so it cooks in the duck juices. Quickly pan-fry for a few minutes, then with a heavy fork mash it a little so that it is almost like a chutney. Carve the duck into morsels and pile the champ on to the plate, with the nectarine alongside.
A Ceviche Fish-off with Corona & Guacamole & Tomato Salsa
For 2
I’m planning a fish-off with Raf. He’s going to cook tuna marinated in grapefruit juice and soy sauce, and I’m seducing him with ceviche and Corona. Do eat it with beer, though: I’ve made the mistake of eating this with red wine, and spent a good few minutes hopping around trying to assuage the heat of the chillies.
Most famously from Peru, ceviche is seafood marinated in lime juice. You can use any white fish or shellfish: scallops, prawns, squid, sea bass, cod and so on. Partially cooked by the lime, it’s just a small step from sushi, and therefore exceedingly enticing for fish fanatics. The chilli heat is tempered by the tender fish that will melt in your sizzling mouth. The first time I made this dish, it really did blow my mind.
The flavours in the fish are fresh and zesty and chilli hot, and suit equally fresh vegetables like this salsa and guacamole. You’ll need to buy a sack of limes. You have been warned! The ceviche and salsa can be served with fried plantain, pitta, crispy tortilla chips or with the corn cakes in Dawn Chorus (on page 33). I like the pic’n’mix style – an array of little bowls to get entangled over. But of course, guacamole is one of those favourite foods that everyone loves, especially if there’s a big bowl of it in the middle of a table of waiting and drinking friends. I often make this to whet everyone’s appetite, whether having an Americas meal or not.
The Ceviche
12 tiger prawns
200g sea bass or sea bream
1 fleshy index-finger-sized chilli
2 generous handfuls of fresh coriander
6 limes
Start with the ceviche, as it needs time to marinate. You need to prepare your fish carefully, so with a very sharp knife, cut down the back of the prawns and remove the black string. Strip them of their legs and shells, carefully removing the head. Take the skin off the fish and cut into slivers about 1cm wide. Place the seafood and fish in a freezer bag. Finely chop the chilli and coriander, and add this to the bag. Squeeze in the limes and give it all a really good mix around. Tie up the bag and leave to marinate in the fridge, sitting in a bowl, for a couple of hours.
The Guacamole
2 garlic cloves
2 really ripe avocados
3 cherry tomatoes
juice of 3 limes
1 fleshy index-finger-sized chilli, with seeds
1/2 red onion
a small handful of fresh coriander
Maldon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
Now for the guacamole. If you have a hand-held blender this would come in very handy. (If not, a pestle and mortar is fine.) Peel the garlic and place in a tall-sided bowl or jug. Now stone the avocados (I do this by halving the fruit then flailing a large knife into the stone, which will twist the whole thing out – precarious but effective) and scoop the bright green flesh into the bowl. Chuck in the tomatoes, and squeeze in the lime juice. Then add the chopped chilli, peeled and diced onion and roughly chopped coriander, and give it a good pulsing with the blender. Season after tasting.
The Tomato Salsa
1/2 cucumber
4 big tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
Maldon sea salt
Lastly the salsa. Partly peel the cucumber, halve it lengthways and then deseed by incising either side of the seeds and scooping them out with a teaspoon. Deseed the tomatoes. Chop both finely into little cubes, peel and finely chop the garlic, and put everything into a bowl. Dress with the olive oil and season.
For 2
This was Doctor Helen’s idea. It’s brilliant, and perfect for sharing, cuddled up on the sofa with your sweetheart. It is exactly as it says, and so couldn’t be easier. The frozen fruits come out like little bullets of sorbet, perfect for grappling over after a good feed.
berries of your choice
Choose your berries (I would suggest green grapes and blueberries, and raspberries are great too, all in season during the summer) and rinse them under a running tap. Dry them with some kitchen towel or a clean linen drying-up cloth. Leave them in a Tupperware box for at least 2 hours in the freezer, and there waiting,