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

  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.

--> For some time now, chefs have been portrayed as artists, and I must admit that it’s a title that doesn’t quite fit as far as I’m concerned. Sure enough, to present your food or paint a picture on a plate, an artistic streak helps, but it won’t make you a better cook or turn you into a culinary genius. With a large amount of common sense and a little understanding of kitchen science, you’re more likely to succeed. Chefs that have the ability to be totally unique and original, whilst maintaining some kind of understanding with flavours and textures, might attain cult status and something close to true artistry, but they never forget taste. Taste has nothing to do with art and everything to do with science. CHOCOLATE, BASIL, MANGO & POLLEN What Einstein Told His Cook Two of my favourite books are both about the science of food. I’ll never read them from cover-to-cover, but they are a great treasure trove of information on the history and science be...

--> Pork on the wild side This week saw the hardest part of my first stab of pig keeping when it came time to take them to the slaughterhouse.   I certainly found it difficult but I was comforted to know that they had lived well, eaten liked kings and hopefully, are going to have an unbelievably great flavour! I also helped some friends with their traditional Spanish “Matanzas”. It isn’t recommended for the squeamish but takes place in a festive atmosphere, with everyone joining in to help and nothing goes to waste as just about every part of the animal is put to good use in the making of sausage-like "Embutidos" (charcuterie). Among these are Chorizo, Salchichon, Morcilla, Butifarra, Sobrasada and

I couldn’t imagine my kitchens without lemons; there is no other ingredient that can transform a dish in a single squeeze. PRESERVED LEMONS Although available all year round, Spanish lemons taste best when left to ripen on the tree and the months of January and February are the perfect time to enjoy their fabulous aroma.

--> With the coming of winter, I think it’s a good excuse to try out some amazing dishes that have become gastronomic legends. Esteemed, time-honoured recipes that have stood the test time and that are still as relevant today as they ever were. Classic Chocolate Marquise from Misa Braseria Dishes like Tournados Rossini, coq au vin, Cassoulet, French onion soup or the celebrated Soupe aux truffes Élysée V.G.E. This renowned Black Truffle Soup was invented in 1975 when Paul Bocuse sought to create the perfect dish to serve to the then French President, Valery Giscard d’Estaing at the Élysée Palace on the occasion of Chef Bocuse receiving the Legion of Honor.

I love the smell of the kitchen at Christmas and New Year. Heavy with the scent of cloves, cinnamon, ginger, sweet wine, golden syrup, orange peel and chocolate. Its so good it should be bottled and sold. For me, the Christmas & New Year celebrations are the perfect time to prepare a few simple classics like chocolate truffles, biscotti and brandy snaps. I know brandy snaps can be a little fiddly, but once you have mastered the basics, they are really very easy to make. Just remember that once out of the oven the Brandy snap wafer is far too soft and delicate to curl, it needs to be left for about two to three minutes to start to firm up and become flexible. However, as the Brandy Snap wafer further cools it becomes hard and brittle, and within the next four to five minutes they become too brittle to curl, and they will break if you try. So there is only a small window of opportunity to curl them successfully. If they harden up, just pop them back the oven for a few mome...

--> Boring and bland? I don’t think so! Cucumbers are one of those special foods that have more uses than just culinary. A quick search turns up really useful things like firming up cellulite on skin, soothing dry, tired eyes, relieving sunburn and curing a hangover. I’m not sure if any of that is really true but what I do know for sure that in the kitchen, the wonderful crunchy texture and the refreshing cleanness of cucumber is a joy to work with, especially in summer as it is about 20% naturally cooler than other vegetables. At their best, cucumbers have a bright, melony taste (cucumbers and melons are cousins) that is somewhere between fruity and vegetal, and they combine so well with an endless array of other ingredients from avocados, watermelon, tomatoes, melon and strawberries. Try simply slicing them

--> Pepper is a condiment that has been salt's partner on Western tables for hundreds of years. It adds a flavour of its own to dishes, as well as enhancing the taste of other ingredients. The use of peppercorns is so common these days; it’s hard to believe it was once so valuable that it was used as currency. Sailors on the first ships to carry them were required to have their pockets sewn closed to prevent them from squirreling away any of the precious cargo. We may well take it for granted today, but the vast majority of savoury dishes include peppercorns in some form and they are ranked as the third most added ingredient to recipes, with water and salt leading the race.

Certain ingredients are so under-estimated that we seen to forget just how good they are when perfectly fresh and cooked with a little care and attention. This week I wandered around the fish market and noticed that little by little, as we move into the high season, fresh fish prices are starting to escalate. It’s getting harder and harder to find a bargain, but there are a few exceptions that are big on flavour and come with a small price tag. One such ingredient is Mackerel. I know they sometimes get a bit of bad press, but for me they are always a real treat. Mackerel is a firmed fleshed, oily fish, very flavoursome and moist with a tender flesh. It has a distinctive silver-blue skin with dark bands and a

Summer is the season when nature finally displays all its richness with a full array of colours & ripeness. The shyness of spring has turned into an overwhelming choice and abundance of fruit and sun-drenched vegetables bursting with flavours and vivid colours. The fresh fruit on the market stalls looked really awesome this week and the selection was truly inspiring.   With luscious strawberries, stunning looking cherries, thirst quenching melons, the season’s first figs, apricots, plums, peaches and succulent nectarines all jostling for position as the stars of the show… Sweeter than it’s first cousin, the peach, and darker fleshed; nectarines are a sweet, juicy treat that is virtually fat free and a good