Peach, watercress and redcurrant salad
This is a gloriously colourful salad with a host of peppery, sweet, sour and nutty flavours. Serve it as a starter – or add some bread and a hunk of crumbly white cheese, such as Lancashire, and it becomes a lovely light meal in its own right. Put the almonds in a dry frying pan over a medium heat and toast them lightly, tossing them often to prevent burning, until patched with golden brown. Tip on to a plate to cool. If your peaches are spot-on ripe, just halve, stone and cut each half into 5 or 6 slices. If, however, they are not perfectly ripe, it’s a good idea to cook them gently first. Heat a trickle of sunflower oil and a little nut of butter in a frying pan over a low to medium heat. Add the peach wedges and cook lightly (gently bubbling in the butter, but barely sizzling) for just a minute or two on each side until tender. Remove from the pan and leave to cool until warm or at room temperature.
Serves 4 75g whole, blanched almonds 2 ripe peaches (or nectarines) A trickle of sunflower oil (optional) A nut of butter (optional) 4 good handfuls of watercress 50g redcurrants, or blueberries Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the dressing, put the ingredients into a small jar with some salt and pepper, put the lid on and shake to combine, or whisk together in a jug to emulsify.
For the dressing
Spread the watercress out on a large serving platter. Arrange the peach slices, cooked or raw, on the leaves. Scatter over the toasted almonds and then the redcurrants.
1 tablespoon lemon juice
If you’ve fried the peaches, pour a little of the dressing into the pan to deglaze it, using a spatula to scrape up any little bits of caramelised peach from the bottom, then trickle over the salad. Trickle the dressing over the salad, stopping when you feel it has enough (you might not need every drop). Give the salad an extra grinding of pepper and serve.
2 stone Fruit
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
A scrap of honey (about ¼ teaspoon)
Pear, spinach and blue cheese pizza
A leafy salad with ripe pear and crumbled blue cheese is a timeless classic. This pizza uses the same combination to delicious effect. To make the dough, put the two flours in a large bowl with the salt and yeast and mix well. Add the oil and 325ml warm water and mix to a rough dough. Flour your hands a little. Tip out the dough on to a work surface and knead for 5–10 minutes until smooth. This is quite a loose and sticky dough – as it should be – so try not to add too much flour if you can help it. It will become less sticky as you knead. Trickle a little oil into a clean bowl, add the dough and turn to coat in a light film of oil. Cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place to rise until doubled in size – at least an hour, probably closer to two. Preheat the oven to 250°C/Gas 9 if it goes that high, or at least 220°C/ Gas 7 and put a baking sheet in to heat up. For the topping, cook the spinach in a pan with just the water clinging after washing for minute or two until wilted; drain. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a frying pan, add the onion and cook gently for 10 minutes or until soft. Squeeze the spinach to remove any water, chop it roughly and mix with the warm onion. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside. Peel, quarter and core the pears, then cut each quarter across into two pieces. Cut the lower, larger pieces into four and the smaller pieces in two. Put them all in a bowl with 1 tablespoon olive oil, the nutmeg, chilli flakes, if using, and some salt and pepper. Toss well to coat. Tip the dough on to a lightly floured surface, deflate with your fingers and leave to rest for a few minutes. Cut into 3 or 4 equal portions. Roll out one piece as thinly as you can. Take the hot baking sheet from the oven, scatter over a little flour, and place the dough base on it. Spread one-third (or a quarter) of the spinach and onions on the pizza base, top with the same proportion of the pear pieces and crumble over the cheese. Trickle with a little more oil and grind on some pepper. Bake for 10–12 minutes until blistered, bubbling and browned at the edges. Repeat with the remaining dough and topping. Serve at once. 14
Makes 3–4 pizzas For the pizza dough 250g plain white flour 250g strong white flour 1½ level teaspoon fine sea salt 1 teaspoon easy-blend (instant) yeast 1 tablespoon rapeseed or olive oil, plus a little extra For the topping About 500g spinach, any tough stalks removed 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra to trickle 2 onions, quartered and finely sliced 2 slightly under-ripe pears A grating of fresh nutmeg A pinch of chilli flakes (optional) 250g blue cheese Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Blackberry and apple clafoutis
3 medium eating apples (about 350g in total)
Clafoutis is a traditional French batter pudding, classically made with cherries (see variation), but ripe for adaptation with other fruits. This is a favourite variation of mine.
25g butter
Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas 5.
Serves 6
50g caster sugar Finely grated zest of 1 smallish lemon 50g plain flour A pinch of salt 2 medium free-range eggs 200ml whole milk 100g blackberries A little icing sugar, to finish Double cream, to serve
Peel, quarter and core the apples, then cut each quarter in half. Melt the butter and pour it into a 25cm diameter ceramic oven dish. Add the apples, 25g of the sugar and the lemon zest and toss together in the dish. Use a pastry brush to brush the buttery mixture all over the inside of the dish, right up to the rim. Roast the apples in the oven for about 15 minutes until tender and bubbling. Meanwhile, sift the flour and salt into a bowl and stir in the remaining 25g sugar. Beat the eggs in another bowl, then pour into the centre of the flour and whisk in, gradually incorporating the flour from the sides. Gradually whisk in the milk to make a smooth batter. Take the apples out of the oven and scatter the blackberries evenly over them, then pour over the batter. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the clafoutis is puffed up and golden brown. Leave to cool until warm, or completely. The batter will collapse back down as it cools, and the correct finished texture is tender, but fairly solid – not airy. Clafoutis is best eaten warm or at room temperature, rather than piping hot, and it looks lovely dusted with a little icing sugar. Serve with a jug of cold double cream. Variations  For a cherry clafoutis, make the batter, using all the 50g sugar. Heat the dish in the oven for 5 minutes, add the butter and put it back in the oven until melted and bubbling, then brush it all over the inside of the dish. Add 500g whole cherries (leave the stones in), pour over the batter and bake as above. You can also make clafoutis with chunks of lightly cooked, drained rhubarb, or raw blueberries.
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For Chloe Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is a writer, broadcaster and campaigner. His series for Channel Four have earned him a huge popular following, while his River Cottage books have collected multiple awards including the Glenfiddich Trophy (twice), the André Simon Food Book of the Year (three times), the Michael Smith Award (twice) and, in the US, the James Beard Cookbook of the Year. In 2012, River Cottage Veg Every Day! was voted the Best Cookbook in the Observer Food Monthly Awards. Hugh lives in Devon with his family. First published in Great Britain 2013 Text copyright © 2013 by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Photography © 2013 by Simon Wheeler Photographs on pages 6, 81, 145, 164, 321, 343, 347 and 386–7 © 2013 by Marie DerÔme Illustrations © 2013 by Andy Smith The moral right of the author has been asserted. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the Publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square London WC1B 3DP Bloomsbury Publishing, London, New Delhi, New York and Sydney A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4088 2859 5 Project editor: Janet Illsley Designer: Lawrence Morton Photographer and stylist: Simon Wheeler (www.simonwheeler.eu) Illustrator: Andy Smith (www.asmithillustration.com) Indexer: Hilary Bird 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed and bound in Italy by Graphicom
www.bloomsbury.com www.rivercottage.net
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