Heston Blumenthal at Home

Until now, home cooking has remained stubbornly out of touch with technological development but Heston Blumenthal, champion of the scientific kitchen, is set to change all that with his radical new book. With meticulous precision, he explains what the most effective techniques are and why they work.
 Heston's instructions are precise and easy to follow, with lots of helpful tips, and each chapter is introduced with an explanation of Heston's approach to 1) Stocks 2) Soups 3) Starters 4) Salads 5) Meat 6) Fish 7) Sous-vide 8) Pasta and grains 9) Cheese 10) Sides and condiments 11) Ices 12) Desserts and sweets 13) Biscuits, snacks and drinks. 

Here is the first part of Heston's introduction:

Welcome to a strand of my cooking that you may not be familiar with. I’m probably best known for the dishes I serve at the Fat Duck, like hot and iced tea, nitro-poached vodka and lime sour, and jelly of quail with crayfish cream, all of which are extremely labour-intensive. I love the technical challenge of such dishes and the thrill of taking an idea and turning it into something that is wonderful to eat, but I’m not into complexity for its own sake. I’m a self-taught chef, and I know just how frustrating and perplexing cooking can be. So I’ve always been keen to demystify the process. For some time I’ve wanted to write a book that has both exciting recipes and all the background information that explains how they actually work. A book that makes people feel really at home in the kitchen.

This is that book. There are plenty of classics like onion soup, roast chicken, prawn cocktail, Scotch eggs, pork scratching, shepherd’s pie, lemon tart and, of course, my triple-cooked chips. There are simplified versions of Fat Duck dishes like red cabbage gazpacho, scallop tartare with white chocolate, and bacon and egg ice-cream. And there are dishes that will, I hope, surprise and delight, like a salad that looks like a garden, complete with vegetables growing in edible soil, and a cinnamon and vanilla ice-cream that can switch from one flavor to the other. Most of the recipes are no longer than a page, and most of them require no complex technology. (Though I couldn’t resist slipping in some stuff for the cook who wants to push the boat out, like whisky ice-cream made with dry ice, and a chapter on the sous-vide method of cooking, which I’m convinced is the way we’ll all be cooking in the near future – you heard it here first.)

Here are two recipes that the publishers have allowed me to post for you:

Scotch eggs

It’s said that the department store Fortnum & Mason invented the ‘Scottish Egg’ in the mid-nineteenth century as a ready-to-eat luxury food. While most modern mass-produced versions are dense and stodgy, the Scotch egg can be a wonderfully refined food with lots of textural contrasts – a crunchy fried-breadcrumb exterior giving way to juicy meat and that final surprise of the egg with its still-running centre.

Scotch eggs are great picnic food, but to ensure runny yolks you can’t really make them much in advance. To be at their best, they should be served as soon as possible after leaving the oven. You can use any sausage meat here, but for me what works best is the kind used in a banger – something that has a bit of filler, which gives a smooth texture, rather than pure meat, which gives a coarser, drier texture. It’s a good idea to keep the sausage meat very cold, as it will be easier to wrap around the eggs.

Makes 8

10           Medium eggs

450g      Sausage meat

1 tsp      Chopped thyme leaves

45g        French’s mustard

½ tsp      Cayenne pepper

2 tbsp    Chopped chives

               Salt and black pepper

               Plain flour

50g        Whole milk

125g      Panko or coarse breadcrumbs, blitzed to a powder

               Groundnut oil, for deep-frying

Place 8 of the eggs in a large pan with enough water to cover the eggs by 2cm. Place the pan over a high heat. Bring the water to the boil; as soon as it starts to simmer, allow the eggs to cook for 2 minutes exactly.

Remove the eggs to a bowl and place under cold running water for 2 minutes. Let them cool for 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the sausage meat in a food processor with 2 tablespoons of cold tap water and pulse six times.

Turn into a bowl. Add the thyme, mustard, cayenne pepper, chopped chives and season with a little salt and freshly group pepper. With clean hands, mix the spices into the meat and then divide into eight balls, approximately 55g per portion.

Once the eggs are cool enough to handle, carefully peel off the shells (see tip, below). Flatten each portion of sausage meat between two sheets of clingfilm into a circle, then remove the clingfilm. Place an egg in the centre of each sausage-meat circle. Wrap the sausage meat around the egg, pressing the edges in order to seal it but being careful not to press too hard. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 190⁰C.

In the meantime, put enough flour to coat the eggs into a bowl and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Beat the remaining eggs in a second bowl and stir in the milk. Put the Panko into a third bowl. Roll each egg in the flour, gently tapping off any excess, then dip it in the beaten egg. Finally, roll it in the breadcrumbs, making sure that all sides are coated.

Heat a deep fat fryer to 190⁰C or place a deep saucepan no more than half filled with oil over a medium-high heat until it reaches this temperature.

Fry the Scotch eggs two at a time for 2 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and place on a drying rack over a baking tray. When all the eggs have been fried, place the tray in the oven for an additional 10 minutes. Serve immediately while the yolks are still runny.

How to peel a soft-boiled egg

Tap the top of the egg (the less pointy, more round end) carefully on the side of the sink to crack the shell. Hold the egg under a cold tap that is running very gently. Allow the water to get between the egg white and the shell and peel away the shell with your fingers. Taking care not to pierce the albumen and break the egg.

Braised chicken with sherry and cream

Normally white wine would be used in a cream sauce for chicken, but here I have used sherry. It adds deep aromatic notes to what is basically a very simple dish. If you have time, you could brine the chicken thighs in an 8 per cent brine (80g salt per 1kg water) for 4-6 hours first – this will make the texture and flavour even better.

Serves 6

For the chicken

6             Chicken thighs, skin on

               Salt and black pepper

               Plain flour

150g      Unsalted butter

2             Onions, peeled and sliced

1             Leek, white part only, cleaned and sliced

3             Cloves of garlic, peeled and bashed with the flat part of a knife or by hand

300g      Palo Cortado or Amontillado sherry

500g      White chicken stock

250g      Double cream

10           Baby onions, peeled (see tip, below) and halved

               Pinch of sugar

8             Sprigs of thyme, leaves picked

150g      Button mushrooms, quartered

To finish and serve

100g      Pancetta lardons

10g        Parmesan cheese, finely grated

10g        Gruyère cheese, finely grated

5g           Dijon mustard

1 tsp      White truffle oil

               Chives, tarragon and parsley

Season the chicken thighs with salt and freshly ground pepper, and dust with a little flour. Melt 30g of the butter in a casserole dish and sear the chicken until golden brown. Remove the chicken from the pan and set aside.

Add the onions, leek and garlic to the pan, and cook until translucent (approximately 15 minutes).

Pre-heat the oven to 100⁰C.

Pour the sherry into the onion pan and bring up to the boil. Set alight (see tip, below). When the flames have died away, reduce the heat, add the chicken stock and cream, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Return the chicken to the pan and bring to a simmer. Cover the casserole dish and place in the pre-heated oven for 45 minutes or until the chicken is completely cooked. Allow the chicken to cool in the liquid.

Once cool, remove the chicken from the pan. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve and discard the vegetables. Place the sauce back in the casserole over a high heat and boil to reduce by half, skimming off any impurities that rise to the surface.

In the meantime, in a frying pan, melt half of the remaining butter until foaming. Sprinkle the baby onions with salt, freshly group pepper, a pinch of sugar and the thyme leaves, and brown on the flat side, then remove.

Add the remaining butter to the pan and caramelize the mushrooms to a golden colour, seasoning during the process (approximately 15-20 minutes).

Add the onions and the mushrooms to the casserole with the reduced sauce, and simmer for 2 minutes.

Wipe the frying pan and, over a medium-high heat, render the fat out of the lardons until they are soft (approximately 10 minutes). Remove the lardons and drain on kitchen paper.

To serve, add the Parmesan, Gruyère, mustard and truffle oil to the casserole. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Add the chicken thighs, stir, and place over a medium heat for 10 minutes to warm them through.

Garnish with the lardons and freshly chopped herbs.

How to peel small onions and shallots

Small onions and shallots are fiddly to peel, but you can make it easier by blanching them in boiling water first. Bring a pan of water to the boil, add the whole onions and blanch them for 1-2 minutes, covered with a lid. Remove with a slotted spoon and cool immediately in iced water. When cool, they should easily come out of their skins.

How to flame off alcohol

This technique, to drive off some of the alcohol content, is straightforward so long as you proceed with the caution appropriate for a process involving naked flames. Make sure there are no flammable items nearby. If you have an overhead extraction unit, turn it off before you start, or the flames will be sucked into the hood and could set it on fire. Put the alcohol in a pan, bring it to the boil, then light the vapour using a long match. Let the alcohol boil until the flames have died down naturally.