COVER NOT FINAL
C O O K I N G , E AT I N G A N D T H E M E A N I N G O F H O S P I TA L I T Y 6 C O O K ’S N OT E S 8
Summer 1 6 –7 7
Autumn 78 –1 3 9
Sunday Lunch 1 4 0 –1 7 3
Winter 1 74 –2 3 3
Spring 234–289
EXTRA GOOD THINGS 290 USEFUL RESOURCES 300 SUPPLIERS AND FURTHER READING 301 SALAD INDEX 302 SAU C E S I N D E X 30 4 RECIPE AND INGREDIENTS INDEX 306 AC K N OW L E D G E M E N TS 31 6 A B O U T T H E AU T H O R 31 8
Summer
S ummer
Summer’s harvest VEGAN
Roasted beetroots with pistachio butter, crispy garlic and mint (homage to my mum and dad) Violet aubergine caponata and baked butter beans with cashew fonduta Cherry pie with frozen oat cream
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Summer is my favourite time to eat vegan food. Resplendence abounds. As far as possible, I like to use seasonal produce grown in the UK, and our summer harvest is beautiful and increasingly diverse. We’re also lucky to sit next to Europe, with access to some of the best fruit and veg in the world. Tomatoes, peaches, aubergines and peppers, full and weighty from the sun’s power, are summertime heroes – standalone stalwarts of all cooking, vegan or otherwise. Excuse the romanticism, but honestly summer is just the best time for vegetable cookery. Hot weather also legitimizes eating things at room temperature, or even cold, which ordinarily you might heat up. This vegan menu works well at any temperature, making it light work for a dinner party.
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Shopping list
Prep list
FRESH PRODUCE
Cook beetroots – up to 3 days ahead. Once peeled, cut and dressed, store in the fridge.
600g beetroot 4 garlic cloves 1 bunch of mint 1kg Sicilian violet aubergines, or any other variety Half head of celery 2 red onions 500g good little tomatoes 2 bunches of basil 1 bunch of parsley Zest and juice of 3 lemons 1 red chilli 800g cherries
Pistachio butter – up to 5 days ahead. Store in the fridge. Crispy garlic – best made on the day, but can be fried up to 1 day ahead if kept in an airtight container at room temperature. If it’s humid, it’s best to fry it just before serving or the moisture in the air will cause it to soften. Pick mint leaves – on the day of serving. Store covered with damp kitchen paper in the fridge.
DRY GOODS
Extra virgin olive oil Neutral oil 200ml red wine vinegar 100g caster sugar 200g pistachios, shelled 2 tsp caraway seeds 50g raisins 50g capers 100g pine nuts 1 x 500g jar of good-quality butter beans 200g raw unsalted cashews 60g cornflour 120g demerara sugar 60g ground almonds 150ml maple syrup Salt and pepper
Caponata – this will sit nicely for 1 day in the fridge if you want to make it ahead of time, and is perhaps even better for it. Butter beans – up to 1 day ahead. Store in the fridge. Cashew fonduta – up to 1 day ahead. Store in the fridge. Pick basil leaves – on the day of serving. Store covered with damp kitchen paper in the fridge.
VEGAN BITS
Cherry pie – up to 1 day ahead. Store at room temperature wrapped in cling film or in a cake tin to keep the pastry crisp. It will eat better once the filling has set, so it’s not a bad idea to make it in advance.
4 tbsp nutritional yeast 2 rolls of vegan shortcrust pastry Vegan butter 250ml whippable oat cream
Frozen oat cream – needs to be made 1 day ahead to allow enough time for freezing. Take it out of the freezer a little while before serving to soften.
BAKED GOODS
Bread (optional) BOOZE
50ml brandy
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S ummer
Roasted beetroots with pistachio butter, crispy garlic and mint (homage to my mum and dad) I used to make this dish at the pub every summer using the beetroots my dad grew on his allotment. I’m not one for signature dishes, but this recipe is certainly something I’m proud of. It’s also quite delicious. When I started making it, I didn’t think about it being a homage to my parents, but looking back, their influence is undeniable. My mum is Ashkenazi Jewish, and my dad grew the beetroots, so to me this dish is them. The addition of toasted caraway seeds brings a flavour of the northern European Ashkenazi Jewish food palette to the much more Sephardic flavours of the pistachio butter. Alongside the beetroots, I see it as a fusion of the two geographical and culinary divisions of Judaism.
to slide the skin off easily just by pushing it – if not, the beets aren’t cooked enough, which is fine, because guess what? You can put them back in the oven! Put the peeled beetroots back into the cooking liquid as you peel them, then cut into wedges or bitesize pieces any shape you care for. A mixture of different shapes means lots of angles for sauce retention. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Strain the cooking liquid through a sieve and then taste it. Depending on how intensely flavourful it is, you can use some, or all of it, to dress the beetroots. Ultimately we want a nice balance of fat, salt, sweet and acid, all of which can be adjusted at this point through the addition of more oil, salt, sugar or vinegar, respectively. Once dressed, the beets can be placed in a container with a lid and kept in the fridge for up to 2 days ahead of your dinner party, easing the workload across the menu. When you come to serve the beets, just make sure they’ve had some time to come up to room temperature – they will be more flavourful for it.
For the beetroots 600g beetroot (a mixture of varieties would be nice, my favourite are the long sausageshaped beets) 100ml extra virgin olive oil 100ml red wine vinegar 200ml water 50g caster sugar Salt and pepper
For the pistachio butter 200g pistachios, shelled (if you can get the peeled ones, even better) 2 tsp caraway seeds 100ml neutral oil
Preheat your oven to 180°C fan/200°C/400°F/gas mark 6. Remove any leaves from the beetroots, saving them for use as a chard/spinach alternative. Put the whole beetroots into a roasting tin and dress them with the olive oil and vinegar before seasoning liberally. Add the water to the tray and cover with a sheet of greaseproof paper before covering with foil. Bake the beets for around 2 hours, or until completely tender to a knife or skewer. When you’re happy with the beets, remove from the oven, take off the foil and paper, and allow them to cool until you can just touch them. The best way to remove the skin is with your hands when they are still warm, but if you don’t want purple hands for the foreseeable, I’d recommend putting some rubber gloves on. You should be able
Preheat your oven to 160°C fan/180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Put the pistachios on a baking tray and dress them lightly with a little of the neutral oil. Season with salt and roast in the oven until lightly coloured and the pungency of the aroma is heightened. This will take 15–20 minutes, depending on your oven. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. In a dry frying pan, toast of the caraway seeds, moving them around the pan continuously for a minute or so to allow the oils to come to the fore. Grind the seeds in a spice grinder, if you have one, or use a pestle and mortar.
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21
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Roasted peaches with almond salted caramel sauce and Jersey cream For the almond salted caramel sauce
I realised what a peach could be during the first summer at The Camberwell Arms. I ordered peaches from Sicily, so large and aromatic that the smell would reach the kitchen before the delivery was wheeled in. Good fruit is best eaten as it is, perhaps with a little cheese, so it might feel counterintuitive to cook it, but the occasional roasting of peaches is not to be sniffed at. Jersey cream is available in some supermarkets, but Neal’s Yard Dairy in London sells the best I’ve come across – a cream so thick and glossy it’s somewhere between clotted and double. A special thing indeed.
50g flaked almonds 100g caster sugar 50g salted butter, cold and cubed 100ml double cream Preheat your oven to 160°C fan/180°C/350°F/gas mark 4. Toast the almonds on a baking tray in the oven until they turn a light golden brown, then allow to cool while you make the caramel. Heat the sugar in a dry pan over a medium heat until it starts to caramelize – you are looking for a deep golden brown so that some of the sweetness of the sugar is tempered by a little bitterness. When you’re happy with the colour, whisk in the butter. Add the cream and continue to whisk over a medium heat until the sauce comes together. The caramel will likely seize and harden into a chunk to begin with, but as you continue to heat and whisk it, it will transform into a glossy, lustrous, slightly salty caramel sauce. Stir in the almonds and allow to cool. This sauce will keep for several days in the fridge.
For the peaches 1 peach per person, the best peaches you can find, ideally giant yellow ones from Sicily or the South of France 80g dark brown sugar 60g butter 50ml rum Preheat your oven to 180°C fan/200°C/400°F/gas mark 6 and line a roasting in with baking paper. You can also use a pizza oven for this recipe. Cut the peaches in half and remove the stones. Sprinkle the sugar over each half and put a knob of butter in the wells created by removing the stones. Dress with a generous splash of rum and bake until just softened and starting to colour, around 15–20 minutes. Allow to cool completely. The peaches can be cooked and cooled a day or so before serving if you so wish, simply transfer to a container with a lid and refrigerate, making sure that all of the cooking juices comes with them – they’re kind of the best bit.
To finish Jersey cream – lashings there of If you’re planning to serve the peaches warm, preheat your oven to 160°Cfan/180°C/350°F/ gas mark 4 and bake them for 10 minutes or so. Otherwise just leave them at room temperature to take the edge off the fridge cold. Heat your caramel sauce until it starts to soften – it doesn’t need to be super hot, just warm enough to loosen it. Plate the peaches with plenty of cream and some of their cooking juices, before spooning over plenty of caramel sauce. I think a glass of vin santo or even a cheeky little amaretto would be a treat with this dessert, followed by a nice big nap.
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Born and bred Londoner Michael Davies started work as a chef more than 15 years ago, abandoning a degree in Biology at Manchester University to follow his passion for food. He learnt on the job and worked at the award-winning London gastropubs The Anchor and Hope and The Canton Arms before launching cult-status rooftop bar Frank’s Café in Peckham in 2008. Since then he has opened the kitchens at The Camberwell Arms and pizzeria Mike’s Peckham.
Effortless menus for feeding friends and family. The only cookbook you’ll ever need for eating well and entertaining. Written for enthusiastic home cooks who love to host but find the reality of it a challenge, Michael Davies has turned his decades of experience running fast-paced kitchens into advice for planning, shopping and timing the perfect feast. With this book absolutely anyone can replicate these menus with ease. You’ll enjoy cooking and your guests will leave wowed and well-fed. Starting in summer and taking you through a year of cooking, every chapter includes four fool-proof menus each with a vegan, vegetarian, fish and meat centrepiece to offer variety and flexibility when catering for a crowd. You will make memories to last a lifetime over 130 seasonal recipes. Including violet aubergine caponata; roast pumpkin, harissa chickpeas and kohlrabi slaw; ’nduja squid with parsley salad, Cooking For People is a feast for the eyes and the soul that will help take the stress out of cooking and allow you to enjoy every moment of hosting at home.
18th July 2024 Hardback | 9780008603793 | UK £30 eBook | 9780008604165
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