THE SUN-SOAKED PLATE...Mediterranean recipes for family and friends

--> Ingredients:             serves 6 1kl pumpkin, peeled & diced 1 large potato, peeled & diced 1   medium onion, peeled & diced 800ml   chicken stock 400ml   milk ½ a stick of cinnamon   juice of one lime 1tspn *ras el hanout 1tsp freshly grated ginger 1tbsp chopped coriander   Seasoning To Garnish: 3tbsp Argan Oil Coriander leaves Place the diced pumpkin, potato, ginger, onion and cinnamon in a large saucepan and cover with the chicken stock and milk. Bring to the boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the pumpkin is tender.

This week at Simply Fosh we have a really delicious, simple dish of “Llampuga” on our 3-course lunch menu. Sometimes known as dolphin fish or golden mackerel although it is probably more well known by its American (Hawaiian) name of Mahi Mahi, "Llampuga" has a slightly oily texture that I would describe somewhere as a cross between sea bass and tuna. Be careful when cooking as it tends to dry out quickly when overcooked, and it is best served a little pink in the middle. The Mallorcan name of “llampuga” comes from the verb ‘llampegar’ (to flash, as in lightning), and the fishing season for this species coincides with the appearance of a few strong storms in late summer and some amazing lightening displays. Some say that the word ‘llampuga’ comes from the Latin lampare, which means shine, referring to the shiny golden colour of the fish; actually, in Spanish the ‘llampuga’ is also sometimes known by the name of “dorado”, which means ‘golden’. The fish are captured en net...

Autumn brings with it the arrival of quince, fresh figs and pomegranates. Most people seem to ignore these fruits but for any serious cook they can be an endless source of inspiration and I always look forward to having them in season. Steeped in history and romance and almost in a class by itself, the pomegranate is a symbol of fertility in many countries and a very popular fruit all over the mediterranean to the Middle East; the "Granada", as it is known in Spain, is a round fruit with a thick, leathery red skin.

-->   Just as the cauldron of hot soups, broths & stocks provide comfort and solace on a winter’s day; chilled soups are a refreshing respite from the heat of summer. As t he great French Chef Auguste Escoffier said, “ Soup puts the heart at ease, calms down the violence of hunger, eliminates the tension of the day, and awakens and refines the appetite", while Beethoven claimed” Only the pure of heart can make good soup". But in this sweltering heat, they have to be chilled right down and served iced cold. The king of cold soups is gazpacho. In essence, they are wonderful thirst-quenching, liquid salads, made with fresh, raw vegetables and ripe tomatoes; and they are the perfect thing for long, hot summer days. Gazpacho has humble, peasant origins and was originally made by pounding bread, water and garlic in a pestle and mortar long before the arrival of the tomato and the discovery of the new world. In modern times, tomatoes, cucumbers and

--> I would be lost in my kitchen without good salt and top quality olive oil. For me, these two magic ingredients instantly lift and bring so many other flavours to life. But there is one other ingredient that I’m practically addicted to and I favour over everything else...the “Gamba de Soller”! Every time I wander around the market in Palma, I always find myself literally drooling over the stunningly fresh, locally caught red prawns from Soller. I don’t think it is possible to put anything finer in your mouth. With that intense, wild taste that just explodes when you bite into their firm flesh... I crave Majorcan prawns the way most pregnant women crave chocolate. The best way to cook them is also the easiest. You just scatter a little sea salt over a very hot, flat grill and place the whole prawns on top. Let them sit for 20 seconds or so until they start to toast, then drizzle with a little olive oil. Wait another 20 seconds and scatter them wi...

Juicy, vine-ripened tomatoes, grown in the Mediterranean sun, are the ultimate summer ingredient. Full of flavour, with a slightly aromatic scent, they are one of those magical ingredients, like high quality olive oil and lemons that make the others sing. But not all that glitters is gold and good looks are often deceptive when you are buying tomatoes. If you can, pick them up and smell them as they should have an intoxicatingly pleasant aroma. Chances are if they smell of nothing they will probably taste of nothing. The stalk leaves should be fresh and green and the fruit should be firm with a bright, unflawed skin.

At all three Fosh restaurants, we are about to change our menus for the summer season ahead. Planning a successful and manageable menu for a restaurant involves making a number of important decisions about both style & content. Personally, I have never liked long and over complicated menus and I always prefer to narrow them down to a specific type of cuisine. Too many restaurateurs try and conjure up long-winded menus in the hope that they will appeal to just about everybody. I feel that those restaurants tend to lack any real personality and customers find the menus difficult to navigate. More importantly, chefs and waiters can also find these menus difficult to work with, making them unable to memorize all the dishes you offer, their ingredients and their preparation. You may also find yourself faced with food waste from the ingredients you stock for unpopular menu items. A small, well refined menu gives customers only your best offerings, cuts

--> STRAWBERRY TIME Local Strawberries are in season right now and they are bursting with flavour. I think these succulent, fragrant berries are as beautiful as they are flavourful. When ripe, fresh strawberries contain a wonderful combination of fruity, caramel and spice flavours. When at the market, look for unblemished strawberries with bright-green hulls. Try to buy only local mallorcan strawberries where possible or buy freshly picked fruit from local farms, you'll be getting produce that's approaching the peak of ripeness in contrast to imported fruit, which is likely to have been picked early. Strawberries are the quintessential summer treat. For better flavour, let strawberries come to room temperature before eating them: if possible, put them out to warm in the sun for a couple of hours to bring out their full taste and aroma. As with any other delicate berries, wash and handle them gently and as little as possible to avoid bruising them. Al...

                  THE SWEETEST THING Before peaches, plums and berries appear in markets, apricots arrive. Ancient Romans were so impressed by this fruit’s early ripening that they took to calling it praecocium, Latin for “precocious.” Most apricots are destined to be canned or dried, and their season is short, so get the fresh ones fast.  A relative of the peach, nectarine, plum and cherry, apricots are sour-sweet in flavour with a wonderfully fragrant character and a mixture of fresh and tropical tones. They are silky smooth with a soft, velvety skin that ranges from pale yellow to deep orange. Although an apricot's colour is not always a reliable guide to flavour,

  For most people anchovies are a love or hate ingredient. I have to admit that I love them! Like salt, anchovies are a natural flavour enhancer. They're rich in a compound called inosinate which, when combined with the glutamate you get in beef or lamb, emphasises the natural meatiness of those ingredients. The very intelligent Romans knew this. Though the ancient Greeks probably invented garum, the liquor of salted anchovy (or mackerel) guts, dried in the sun, flavoured with herbs, decomposed by its own bacteria and then matured that became the chief condiment of Rome, seasoning almost every dish in the repertoire.

--> Let’s face it…who doesn’t like pancakes? They have been popular in some shape or form the world over for centuries and Archaeological evidence suggests that pancakes are probably the earliest and most widespread cereal food eaten in prehistoric societies dating back to 5th century B:C! With their beautifully freckled surface, glistening straight from the pan, pancakes are delicious eaten simply with lemon juice and sugar, but they can be filled with a variety of sweet ingredients such as maple syrup, fruit, ice cream or chocolate sauce. They make a good base for savoury fillings too, such as fried mushrooms, cheese, spinach, seafood – anything goes really. Pancakes are made from a wide variety of flours and in a range of styles in many countries.

Most of us like a glass of wine with dinner. It somehow makes a meal more civilized and enjoyable. Yet the real power of alcohol, especially for the cook, lies not in what it does at the table but what it does in the kitchen. Like Salt, alcohol has the ability to bring out the flavour in food. Whether you’re cooking with wine, beer, or liquor, the alcohol in those beverages improves flavour perception in at least two important ways: by evaporation and by molecular bonding. My favourite alcoholic beverage in the kitchen is brandy, a spirit distilled from wine that’s made from grapes.

I recently returned from a fantastic trip to India and was lucky enough to spend a few days on a spice plantation. As a chef, it was incredibly inspiring to see exactly where all the spices that we use everyday actually from and how they are produced. Cardamon Factory Spices were among the first of many foods brought back to Europe from the east by Marco polo and encouraged the early voyages of Columbus and Vasco Da Gama, who succeeded in rounding the Cape of Good Hope and crossing the Indian Ocean to calicot on the coast of India.