Pavlova

Pavlova, a photo by MrsNightingalesSecretSpeakeasy on Flickr.

Chewy slow baked meringue with lemon cream and roasted rhubarb

Roasted  Rhubarb and Lemon Cream Pavlova served with a Ginger Prosecco Cocktail

Firstly, roast some chopped rhubarb. Lay it on a baking tray and sprinkle with a generous amount of brown sugar. Pop into a preheated oven at 200C for 15 minutes. The rhubarb should not be overly sweet as the Pavlova and the lemon cream are sugary, and the sharpness and slightly sour quality of rhubarb is needed to cut through the sweetness.  Meringues are easy – never let anyone tell you otherwise. Personally I don’t bother with recommended tricks such as adding Cream of Tartar or white vinegar into the whipped egg white and sugar. The best tip is to ensure your whisks and bowl are totally free of grease (wash beforehand in very hot water) as any trace of fat will give you flaccid meringues. For an 8” Pavlova, you’ll need 3 egg whites and 55g of castor sugar per egg. Whisk the egg whites on slow speed for 2 minutes, then pump up the power for another minute until the mixture is light and fluffy and forming peaks. Gradually introduce the sugar, one tablespoon at a time as you continue to whisk. Place onto a baking sheet and cook at 140C for one hour. Then leave in the oven overnight (this will prevent cracking)


Next day:
Whip the cream, then add a couple of tablespoons of lemon curd and combine well. You can use the leftover yolks to make your own, but when short of time, I just use a good quality shop bought curd.  Assemble, stand back and admire, then tuck in with gusto.

Ingredients:

3 egg whites

6 oz castor sugar

2 tablespoons lemon curd

300ml whipping cream

A couple of sticks of rhubarb

Brown sugar

As a final flourish, enjoy a Ginger Prosecco cocktail with your pudding. This is a slightly sour cocktail, but a perfect partner to sweet Pavlova. Muddle some chopped ginger, approximately 1” of fresh root, a spoonful of castor sugar and the juice of one lemon (muddling is apparently Cocktail Mixology lingo; I bung it in a pestle and mortar and bash it about). Strain this into a glass and top with Prosecco, or if feeling ultra decadent, champagne. Serve with a sliver of root ginger to decorate the glass.

Ingredients:

Fresh root ginger

Sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

Prosecco

Mmmmm Chocolate Cake

Mmmmm Chocolate Cake, a photo by soul_babycakes on Flickr.

Hello Boys !


Ingredients

· 200g good quality dark chocolate , about 60% cocoa solids

· 200g butter , cut in pieces

· 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules (I like to use Percol espresso powder)

· 85g self-raising flour

· 85g plain flour

· 1⁄4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

· 150g light muscovado sugar

· 150g golden caster sugar
· 25g cocoa powder
· 3 medium eggs
· 75ml buttermilk (5 tablespoons) I have used crème fraiche as an alternative when I couldn’t get buttermilk)


For the Ganache

· 200g good-quality dark chocolate , as above

· 150ml carton double cream (pouring type)

· 2 tbsp golden caster sugar

To decorate

· grated chocolate or curls, to decorate


Method



1. Butter 2 loose bottom cake tins and line the base. Preheat the oven to fan 140C/conventional 160C/ gas 3. Break the chocolate in pieces into a medium, heavy-based pan. Tip in the butter, then mix the coffee granules into 125ml/4fl oz cold water and pour into the pan. Warm through over a low heat just until everything is melted - don't overheat. Or melt in the microwave on Medium for about 5 minutes, stirring half way through.

2. While the chocolate is melting, mix the two flours, bicarbonate of soda, sugars and cocoa in a big bowl, mixing with your hands to get rid of any lumps. Beat the eggs in a bowl and stir in the buttermilk. No need to be too lighthanded; the worst results have been when I have gently folded everything. Bung it all in and mix it up !

3. Now pour the melted chocolate mixture and the egg mixture into the flour mixture, stirring just until everything is well blended and you have a smooth, quite runny consistency. Pour this into the tins and bake for between 50 mins / 1 hour depending on the efficiency of your oven - if you push a skewer in the centre it should come out clean and the top should feel firm (don't worry if it cracks a bit). Leave to cool in the tin (don't worry if it dips slightly), then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

4. Make the ganache: chop the chocolate into small pieces and tip into a bowl. Pour the cream into a pan, add the sugar, and heat until it is about to boil. Take off the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Let it cool. If it’s too runny to be spreadable, whisk it with an electric mixer for a few minutes until it is almost like a mousse.




5. Sandwich the layers together with some of the ganache. Spread the rest over the cake and down the sides and smoothing to cover with a palette knife. Decorate with grated chocolate or a pile of chocolate curls. The cake keeps moist and gooey for 3-4 days if covered loosely with cling film.

Shooters Sandwich

SDC13223, a photo by soul_babycakes on Flickr.

Picnic Heaven

Eating alfresco is a joy, a simple pleasure that we British embrace with gusto, at any clement opportunity. A picnic in the park with a group of friends, or with the object of your affection, is often a memory in the making. Picnics remind me of past times; sports events and ‘Speech Days’, burgeoning romances and the occasional youthful tipsy excursion to Cranham Woods with a ghetto blaster, lots of beer and a few pork pies.

What is the perfect food to eat “en plein air” I asked my friends? Go to Marks & Spencer was the overwhelming response, and one that I have previously resorted to myself, but surely nothing will taste as good as the food you personally prepare.

As much as I love barbeque, the other mainstay of outdoor eating, I find it a bit tedious, unless someone else is tending the coals. The stereotype of the ‘man of the house’ hovering over the grill, wielding a pronged fork falls short of reality in my world; my husband has never shown any interest in wearing an apron and a comedy chef’s hat, more’s the pity. When it comes to BBQ season – the Nightingales eat at the invitation of others.

So for the purpose of this article I fall back on the staple of the British Picnic; the sandwich. Oh, but what a sandwich, what a truly exceptional example of the genre this is. Ladies & Gentlemen – I give you Mrs. Nightingale’s version of The Shooters’ Sandwich; with the supplement of a glorious Gloucestershire ingredient, Tewkesbury Mustard.

A sandwich is functional, portable and easy to prepare. The magic is in the ingredients contained within. This is something special - a meal in itself, satisfying beyond compare. The Shooters’ Sandwich groans with Edwardian tradition. It is customary to prepare a Shooters’ Sandwich with rare beef and a mushroom & shallot duxelle, rather like a Beef Wellington sandwich; I also like to add blue cheese to jazz it up.

Method

The first process is to make the mushroom mixture. Fry 3 shallots and a clove of garlic in a little olive oil, then add a couple of finely chopped Portobello mushrooms. Add the herbs and a splash of Masala wine if you like, season and cook for five minutes,

Next step – pan fry a couple of pre-oiled & seasoned steaks (not too thick) until they are still fairly rare. No need to rest them – we want the steaks to be juicy. Then take (or make) a round crusty loaf and lop the top off. Hollow out just enough of the bread from the centre of the loaf to make a cavity for your ingredients.

Smear the steaks with Tewkesbury mustard. Use Dijon & horseradish sauce if you can’t find our magnificent indigenous mustard, but in deference to true culinary ‘Cotswold Style’ let’s celebrate this wonderful local product.

Tuck the first steak in the hollowed bread, mustard side next to the bread, then add a little blue cheese of your choice – Stilton works well but you could use St. Agur or Dolcelatte according to preference.

Next comes a generous addition of mushroom duxelle, topped with the second steak. Pop the “lid” back on top, wrap and tie up tightly in greaseproof paper, then wrap again in foil. Weight this down (a heavy chopping board, perhaps with a couple of bricks on top) and keep cool for about 5 hours, or overnight.

Ingredients

3 x shallots
1 x clove of garlic
2 x large Portobello mushrooms
2 x rump steaks
1 x large round crusty loaf
Blue cheese
Tewkesbury mustard
Pinch of Thyme

Take the unwrapped parcel along to your picnic, and slice up into wedges to eat. This is so filling you probably won’t need much else in your picnic basket, bar a meaty red wine. Raise a glass to the King of Sandwiches !

Five Simple Favourites for Summertime

v  Spaghetti with Crab, Chilli, Coriander & Lime

v  Rare Fillet of Beef with Lemon & Mozzarella Salad

v  Broccoli, Raisin, Red Onion & Bacon Salad with Balsamic Mayo

v  Asian Slaw with Peanut Chicken

v  Lemon Cream Pavlova and Roasted Rhubarb served with a Ginger Prosecco Cocktail

At last, it’s Summertime; the season in which I have romantic notions of long, rickety garden tables laden with pot-luck dishes that friends have brought along for a spontaneous summer’s day feast. When the weather is warm I want something light, usually a simple and sensational salad, and I endeavour to make food that take literally five minutes to prepare. The hardest task you will need to perform for my suggested meals of the month is to toss a handful of ingredients into a bowl and keep an eye on the oven timer.  After all, who wants to slave over the proverbial hot stove in a heatwave ?

These delicious suggestions will not tax your cooking skills, and will hopefully give you ideas and inspiration, as many of the dishes are interchangeable. Try the broccoli salad with cold roast chicken, or use the left-over beef cut into strips in the Asian slaw. The salads stand proudly alone as light meals in their own right, and do not demand a meat accompaniment.

So put some flowers in a rustic jug & a crisp white cloth on the table in the garden, alongside a cold bottle of something sparkling, put on an Ibiza chill out CD, and indulge in some easy summer entertaining. Then get on your knees and pray it doesn’t rain!  All meals serve four healthy appetites.

 Spaghetti with Crab, Chilli, Coriander & Lime

Boil a pan of salted water and cook spaghetti (or linguine) for four people according to the instructions on the packaging. Chop a couple of large fresh red chillies and 2 cloves of garlic and gently fry in a generous splash of olive oil. Meanwhile open a couple of tubs of fresh crab. I use 1 x white, 1 x brown meat which is sufficient for four meals; add an extra 100g pot if you are crazy for crab. Finally chop a bunch of coriander.

When the pasta is cooked, drain and then add in the oily garlic & chilli, plus the juice of one lime, and season to taste. Top with the crab & coriander and another drizzle of olive oil.  And that’s all there is to it !

Ingredients:

2 or 3 100g pots of crab meat

2 cloves garlic

2 large red chillies

Small bunch of coriander

1 lime

Spaghetti or linguine for 4

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

Rare Fillet of Beef with Lemon & Mozzarella Salad

This is my dinner party signature dish, so simple but never fails to impress. I know beef fillet is a luxury item, but it is worth it. I don’t think you can beat Morrison’s meat counter for value. At just under £24 for 1 kg of fillet, this will feed 4 very generously and leave a decent sized hunk of beef for sandwiches, cold meat platters and salads the next day.

Place the beef in a plastic bag with a huge splash of olive oil and lots of sea salt & freshly ground black pepper, and massage into the fillet within the bag. Heat a griddle pan or similar, using no oil, until smoking hot. Remove meat from the bag and sear the beef on all surfaces, with a couple of cloves of garlic. This process should take 5 to 10 minutes. Remove the steak & garlic and wrap loosely in foil, securing all openings tightly. Pop into a pre heated oven on a baking tray at 220 - 200C (depending on the power of your oven) for approx 15 minutes. Remove - and this is where the magic happens – let it rest for at least 20 minutes in the foil. This will then slice into the softest, most tender rare steak imaginable. The cooking times suggested will give you rare beef, if you prefer it medium rare - another 5 minutes in the oven will do the trick.

The salad that I like to eat with this is a really effortless combination of little gem lettuce, chopped celery, radish, spring onion and ripped up chunks of buffalo mozzarella.  Lavish the salad with lemon juice & olive oil, then season. An Italian tip: My pal Nancy, who lives in Tuscany, tells me that the Italians soak their Mozzarella in warm water for 5 minutes or so before serving.

700g – 1kg of beef fillet

2 cloves of garlic

Sea Salt & Black Pepper

4 heads of Little Gem lettuce

Half a chopped celery heart

A dozen radishes

4 chopped spring onions

200g Buffalo Mozzarella

Juice of one lemon

Olive Oil

Broccoli, Raisin, Red Onion & Bacon Salad with Balsamic Mayo

I cannot stress how delicious this salad is; I almost live on it. I add some nuts (macadamia, pecan) or seeds (sunflower, pumpkin) to give another crunchy texture. Dice the red onion, cut a head of broccoli into small florets, throw in a fistful of raisins, and pieces of crisped streaky bacon. Add your nuts or seeds. Mix up a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar with a tablespoon of sugar, then mix into two tablespoons of light mayonnaise until combined. Stir this dressing into your broccoli et al, and it’s ready to eat. Heavenly, healthy, sweet and salty – good for you but tastes so naughty !.

A head of broccoli

1 red onion

A fistful of raisins

A packet of nuts or seeds

10 rashers of crisped streaky bacon

2 x tbsp of light mayonnaise

2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp of sugar

Salt & pepper

 Asian Slaw with Peanut Butter Chicken

I adapted this from a recipe on the Uma Wylde website (www.umawylde.com). Uma runs a highly acclaimed cookery school in Tetbury. She created this sharp and addictive Asian Slaw and serves it with a chicken satay, the raw chicken having been cooked in mere minutes in the bubbling sauce. However I suggest a alternative; my adaption has the sauce poured over slices of simply roasted chicken, as I like to use the remainder of the bird up over the next few days, and it also offers a chicken & slaw option to those that cannot eat nuts, or don’t like peanut butter.

First things first; roast your chicken. I would hazard a guess that you all know how to roast a chicken therefore I’ve not included the method for this. When the chicken is cooked and resting, finely slice approx 100 g or so of white cabbage, and grate 100g of carrots. Add approx 1 “ of grated fresh root ginger and a couple of crushed cloves of garlic. Combine rice vinegar and fish sauce and sugar to make the dressing and bind together with the vegetables. For the peanut sauce, heat the chillies and a couple of cloves of garlic in sesame oil for one minute on a medium heat, then add the coconut milk, 2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter and mix until smooth. Add the juice from 1 lime, 2 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp sweet chilli dipping sauce and 2 tsp ketjap manis and reduce to a low heat. Spoon the sauce over slices of chicken and serve with the slaw, which is incredibly refreshing and “zingy”.

Ingredients for the Slaw:

100g cabbage

100g carrot

15g coriander leaves

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tsp fish sauce

1 garlic clove

1 inch piece of fresh ginger

1½ tbsp caster sugar

½ lime

Ingredients for the Peanut sauce:

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 red chillies

2 cloves garlic

 1 tin of coconut milk

2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter

2 tbsp fish sauce

1 lime

2 tsp ketjap manis

1 tbsp sweet chilli dipping sauce

Roasted  Rhubarb & Lemon Cream Pavlova served with a Ginger Prosecco Cocktail

Firstly, roast some chopped rhubarb. Lay it on a baking tray and sprinkle with a generous amount of brown sugar. Pop into a preheated oven at 200C for 15 minutes. The rhubarb should not be overly sweet as the Pavlova and the lemon cream are sugary, and the sharpness and slightly sour quality of rhubarb is needed to cut through the sweetness.  Meringues are easy – never let anyone tell you otherwise. Personally I don’t bother with recommended tricks such as adding Cream of Tartar or white vinegar into the whipped egg white and sugar. The best tip is to ensure your whisks and bowl are totally free of grease (wash beforehand in very hot water) as any trace of fat will give you flaccid meringues. For an 8” Pavlova, you’ll need 3 or 4 egg whites and approx 50g of castor sugar per egg. Whisk the egg whites on slow speed for 2 minutes, then pump up the power for another minute until the mixture is light and fluffy and forming peaks. Gradually introduce the sugar, one tablespoon at a time as you continue to whisk. Then add a couple of tablespoons of lemon curd and combine well. You can use the leftover yolks to make your own, but when short of time, I just use a good quality shop bought curd.  Assemble, stand back and admire, then tuck in with gusto.

Ingredients:

3 or 4 egg whites

6 oz castor sugar

2 tablespoons lemon curd

300ml whipping cream

A couple of sticks of rhubarb

Brown sugar

As a final flourish, enjoy a Ginger Prosecco cocktail with your pudding. This is a slightly sour cocktail, but a perfect partner to sweet Pavlova. Muddle some chopped ginger, approximately 1” of fresh root, a spoonful of castor sugar and the juice of one lemon (muddling is apparently Cocktail Mixology lingo; I bung it in a pestle and mortar and bash it about). Strain this into a glass and top with Prosecco, or if feeling ultra decadent, champagne. Serve with a sliver of root ginger to decorate the glass.

Ingredients:

Fresh root ginger

Sugar

Juice of 1 lemon

Prosecco

So there you have it – a few of my favourite meals for Summer, but they all taste so wonderful I am certain that they will be added to your repertoire and eaten throughout the year.

Watercress and Goats Cheese roulade

Watercress & Goats Cheese Roulade

In response to National Vegetarian Week (23rd to 29^th May) I am celebrating seasonal vegetables in this issue of Cotswold Style.  Being one of that particular breed of carnivore that absolutely adores vegetarian food, I could quite happily eat non-meat based meals almost every day, if it were not for the men of the household.  Whenever I serve up a simple pasta dish, perhaps with mushrooms, wilted spinach and pine nuts, their little carnivorous faces crumple up, as if I were depriving them of essential nourishment and their god given right to eat delicious animals at every meal.  Yet once they taste my veggie options, all memory of flesh is quickly forgotten.  And lest we forget, vegetarian meals are usually quite cost effective; I almost cry at the cost of good meat nowadays.

 I was sorely tempted to share a curry recipe, but at the time of writing the weather has been so gloriously warm and forgiving, I am feeling the urge to eat al fresco whenever possible.  I therefore want to praise my favourite brassica; good old-fashioned Watercress.  It’s the King of Superfoods; a truly nutritious vegetable packed with vitamins A and C, magnesium, iron, calcium and folic acid.

This wonderfully refreshing recipe can be eaten as a light lunch, a dinner party starter or as picnic food:  it’s a colourful Watercress and Goats Cheese Roulade.   Deceptively simple to make,  but very impressive on the plate.  Serve with a Watercress,  or a Red Pepper sauce, alongside some buttered Jersey Royal Potatoes which are at the peak of their short season right now.  

Serves: 4

Ingredients: Roulade

100g bag of watercress

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 tablespoon crème fraîche

4 fresh medium sized eggs, separated

Ingredients: Filling

250g tub of ricotta

150g goats cheese, cubed into small pieces

2 peppers; one red, one yellow; roasted, skinned, de-seeded and chopped

1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped

Sea salt and ground black pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200C /Gas6. Line a Swiss roll tin (approx 38cm x 25cm / 15” x 10 “) with baking parchment or a silicon sheet.

To make the roulade, pop the watercress and garlic into a processor and whizz into a rough paste, then add into a mixing bowl with egg yolks and crème fraîche.  Mix all together and season. Then whisk the egg whites to soft peaks and fold gently into the watercress mix.

Spread the roulade mix evenly onto the parchment covered tin and bake for 10 minutes until golden. The texture will be similar to a light omelette or fluffy crepe.  Remove from the oven and cool.

To make the filling, mix the ricotta, goats cheese, red and yellow peppers, and chopped herbs together and season well.

When the roulade is cold, flip it over onto fresh baking parchment and peel away the old baking parchment from the roulade. If the roulade does not slip off with ease, simply slide a palate knife carefully underneath the roulade first.

Spread the cheese filling from the (short) edge facing you over the top of the roulade, leaving a small gap on the other 3 edges.  Gently roll up, then wrap in cling film to refrigerate before serving.

Voila ! A vegetarian sensation, as pretty as a picture.

From the Archives: Restaurant Review - Purnell's, Birmingham

Original article from March 2009

Having wanted to visit Purnell's for a while, we finally had the excuse. It was our wedding anniversary so what better occasion that this.
We don't have many great restaurants in our area and Purnell's is an hours drive, which limits how much we can enjoy their fine wine list.

Opting for the 7 course tasting menu (at a non credit crunch price tag of £65 a head) were were not to be disappointed. These delights included an amuse bouche of beetroot sorbet; the signature dish of poached egg yolk with haddock foam, curry oil and yep, cornflakes; pork belly paired (surprisingly well) with red mullet; a scrumptious pud of warm chocolate mousse and an iced passion fruit sorbet, and the now famous Great British Menu delight of a creme brulee (by any other name) served in eggshells.

Some of these new kitchen wunderkinds are Emperors without any clothes - but certainly not Glynn Purnell. There's a wit and whimsy to his inventive dishes that I thought I wouldn't necessarily enjoy (why does food need to be funny ?) but it's actually so unpretentious, so seemingly simple (although I am sure the methods are really complex), so tasty that I totally forgive the amusing take on breakfast during an evening out.

There's nothing high falutin' about this place; the decor is hip but not achingly trendy - it's comfortable and welcoming. The staff are all diamonds; friendly yet professional. Jean-Benoit in particular really knows his way round a wine list and persuaded me to indulge in the wine tasting menu which was full of delights and surprises and superb value for money.

Not the best meal of my life, but certainly in the top ten and I've been fortunate enough to eat in some of the best restaurants in France (nothing beats La Tupina !) and eaten crumbs off the tables of Messrs Ramsey & White and bowed at the feet of masters such as Michel & Albert Roux, Nico Ladenis, Kauffman and Mossiman.

I think Glynn Purnell is very very good, and he could become an all-time British great.

It wasn't a cheap evening, but it lived up to my expectations of being special - so all in all I think it's worth it. You don't have to spend as much - they offer a 3 course option for less than 40 quid, and they will recommend an affordable lesser known wine that will blow your mind as much as the pricier options.

Only niggle was that the service charge is built in. I really REALLY hate that.

I want to reward top notch service myself ( I had already taken £30 out of my purse as a tip before I saw that they had already included £28 service) and a fixed charge leaves a bit of a nasty taste in your mouth. I wish restaurants would understand that we will put our money where on mouth is, and don't need our arm twisted to do it.

However, that is not worth denying myself delicious food, and Purnell's aren't the only culprits to extort a tip in the guise of the bill. We will definitely visit again.

Update: we have returned twice since this review was written and have another date in the diary for my birthday - Purnell's never disappoints. And the Maitre 'D, Jean-Benoit is the most charming host ever - as yummy as the food !

Easter recipe

HALIBUT WITH LEMON & PARSLEY RISOTTO

The Easter break is looming, so what to choose to as a suitable dish ?  Eggs are so ‘every day’, and lamb is so ‘Sunday lunch’.  Not being one to deny myself anything delicious, I’m usually of the same mind as my friend Kathie, who announced that she was giving up Lent for wine; even those of us that do not observe the holy aspect of Easter enjoy the tasty treats that the occasion offers us. 

I have chosen a recipe that has a traditional Easter ingredient: Fish.  Did you know that Halibut means “Holy Flat Fish” ?  I am pairing the Halibut with a light spring risotto, simply flavoured with lemon and parsley.  Lemon is perfect with parsley and heavenly with Halibut.  An Easter appropriate delight.

Whilst the risotto is simple to prepare, it does require TLC during the cooking process.  Not a big deal; a mere 30 minutes out of your life that will be eased with a crisp glass of Chablis on the kitchen counter.  Halibut is not an inexpensive fish; I paid £8 for a decent sized Isle of Gigha fillet in Waitrose.  I also find Morrison’s fish counter to be excellent.  If you are budget conscious, perhaps use Lemon Sole instead.  However, I say hang the expense; my personal motto is “never economise on luxuries”.

This meal is a total taste bomb. From such simple ingredients you’ll be surprised by the explosion of flavours.  As a final gesture to Easter, I pop a poached golden egg yolk on top.

Ingredients

Fillet of halibut (400g is ideal for 2 people)

 200g Arborio risotto rice

1 onion

30 ml of olive oil

100ml white wine

1 pint of chicken or vegetable stock

Salt & pepper

2 unwaxed lemons

Bunch of parsley

2 eggs

Method

Finely chop an onion and sauté in the olive oil on a gentle heat until soft and translucent.  Add rice and stir well to ensure all the grains are coated. Keep on a low heat for 3 minutes but do not allow rice and onion to colour, then add the wine. Heat the stock in a separate pan, until simmering point. Add the hot stock in small amounts, allowing it to fully absorb each time. Stir regularly and season to taste about half way through. This process will take approximately 25 minutes. When the risotto is almost ‘al dente’, add the zest of two lemons, followed by the juice of one and a half of the lemons. Save the other half of lemon for the fish. The rice is cooked when the texture is still creamy, but not sticky. Remove from the heat and allow it to sit for a few minutes whilst you pan fry the Halibut. Blitz the parsley (or chop finely) and stir into the risotto just prior to serving.

I tend to pan fry fish but you could grill, or bake in foil.  A halibut fillet needs cooking for just 2 or 3 minutes on each side, in a little oil, on a medium to high heat. I also add a knob of butter and spoon over the fish. Don’t forget to season it and finish off with the lemon juice and perhaps a splash of wine.

Finally, and this takes mere seconds if you prepare a small pan with water boiled from the kettle, pop an egg yolk into the pan and cook on a medium heat for just a minute.

Serve your risotto, with the Halibut and the glorious runny egg yolk; it’s hard to say which of these is the “star of the show”.