I’ve been making Marco Pierre White recipes, again from the BBC Maestro masterclass. This time tackling his potato dauphinoise.
I’ve talked about potato dauphinoise many times on this blog – many times – so I’m always up for trying it another way, especially when it comes from as prestigious a chef as Marco.
Very simple – peel and slice potatoes, add cream, garlic, salt and pepper and nutmeg if you like, a little cheese, bake for 80 minutes.
I tried his recipe out – video below – and if I’m honest… I prefer my way of cooking it. I learned from the brilliant chef Jon Jones to simmer the potatoes in the garlicky cream first which means you can control the seasoning and drop the cooking time a little too. This way you can’t tell how it will taste until serving.
Combine the cream, salt, pepper, garlic and a few rasps of nutmeg. Dump in the potato slices.
Arrange the potato slices in a casserole dish, ladling on cream mix as you go. Finish with cheese and cover with buttered tin foil. Bake in the oven for 60 minutes, remove the foil then bake for 20 minutes more until there is no resistance when prodded with a knife.
I recently got hold of a copy of Marco Pierre White’s White Heat book from the library. It is a cookbook but really it’s a capture of a time and a place: when Marco was on top of the culinary world and the absolute hottest thing in chefs and cookery. I hadn’t read it before; I devoured it an hour and immediately ordered a copy for myself.
The photography, all black and white, is still crisp, clear and full of motion and emotion. The words from Marco are full of his cool directness. The recipes are surprisingly good; unpretentious and focused on celebrating a core ingredient. One stood out to me: Marco Pierre White’s lemon tart.
As I read it, I suddenly remember it seems familiar: there’s a very similar one in Heston at Home that I’ve made before.
It should come as no surprise there is a similarity. The backgrounds of Marco and Heston overlap. Heston’s first job at a restaurant was a week spent at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons. They struck up a friendship that stuck. While Heston ploughed his unique furrow Marco did the traditional route of moving up from kitchen to kitchen learning from Pierre Koffman, Albert and Michel Roux Sr and Raymond Blanc as mentioned. The classic French method was drummed into him, and while Heston studied at home it was the French classics he drilled. Heston even spent time at White’s Canteen to learn how to run a team of chefs before opening The Fat Duck.
Marco’s tart
I made the lemon tart immediately. It is thick and custardy, very satisfying. Though he does recommend grilling the top to brulee the sugar topping, I found it hard to protect the pastry from burning – I would cover the pastry in foil if trying again. As a recipe itself it also lacks crucial detail. We’re told to mix the filling ingredients – but until when? Just combined? Beaten smooth? And there’s no indication what size pie dish you should be using. The depth of the filling means you can’t tell when it will cook convincingly. I’m all for improvising in the kitchen – an advocate in fact – but with pastry dishes precision is everything.
Heston’s tart on the left, Marco’s on the right
I couldn’t help but compare Marco and Heston’s tarts. Heston has an unnecessarily fussy pastry recipe, but has the smart idea to part-set the custard over a bain marie before transferring to the oven. And in classic Heston style check the set temperature with a probe to get consistent results. And to avoid burning use a blowtorch to finish.
Overall I found Heston’s far more enjoyable, more what I expect of a lemon tart. The lemon had more zing, and the filling itself is unctuous and creamy.
If I was to make it again, I’d use whatever pastry recipe you are happy with, or even buy a dcent pre-made case, then go Heston’s method for the filling. It’s dead easy, just warm things in a bowl over the hob, then pour into the case. You will need a probe thermometer.
Both great recipes, but fascinating to explore what makes the differences.
Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Sieve the flour and icing sugar and rub in the butter.
Mix in the lemon zest and vanilla seeds.
Beat the eggs and add to the mix. Knead the mixture with fingers, then wrap in clingfilm and leave to rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to a size just large enough to fill the flan tin or ring to be used.
Using either a greased flan ring on a greased baking sheet, or a greased flan tin with a removable base, fold the dough into it. Gently ease the dough into the corners of the tin, ensuring a good 1cm/2in overhang. Do not cut this off.
Line the flan with greaseproof paper and fill with enough dry baking beans or lentils to ensure that the sides as well as the base are weighted. This helps give a good finished flan shape.
Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, remove the beans and greaseproof paper and trim the overhang from the flan. Return the flan to the oven for a further 10 minutes.
For the lemon filling:
Whisk the eggs with the sugar and the lemon zest.
Stir in the lemon juice and then fold in the cream. Remove any froth from the top of the mixture.
Reduce the oven temperature to 120C.
Pour the cold filling into the hot pastry (this ensures that the pastry case will be sealed and hold the filling) and bake for 30 minutes in the oven.
Pre-heat a very hot grill.
Sieve the icing sugar over the tart as soon as it comes out of the oven and then flash it briefly under the grill to caramelize the sugar.
For the first time in a very long time, Britain (and other countries for reasons I don’t want to get into in a recipe blog) have a new monarch. And as is customary, we will have a coronation ceremony in May 2023. And more importantly for most people, we get a bank holiday. A bank holiday so you can celebrate in your own way whether that’s hosting a street party, a garden BBQ, afternoon tea or throwing eggs at a rich person that you don’t like.
You know what the signature dish was for the 1953 coronation? It was called “poulet reine Elizabeth“, but everyone knows it as coronation chicken. It’s a creamy curry sauce that’s got an Indian vibe and you can either chuck it in a salad or slap it in a sandwich.
From Le Cordon Bleu cookery school
Apparently, the dish was the brainchild of food writer Constance Spry and chef Rosemary Hume from the fancy Cordon Bleu cookery school in London. They whipped it up for the queen’s coronation feast. It was inspired by a dish called jubilee chicken, which was created for George V’s silver jubilee back in 1935.
For Queen Elizabeth II’s golden jubilee in 2002, there was another jubilee chicken dish. This one was made by the chefs at Buckingham Palace and was a baked chicken cut into bits and smothered with a mix of creme fraiche, mayonnaise, lime and ginger. They served it up with pasta salad, lime slices, and flat leaf parsley, all packed up in a Waitrose plastic tub.
For King Charles’ coronation we have the coronation quiche. Perfect picnic fare, this quiche is flavoured with broad beans… and spinach?
Eh. It’s a bit dowdy, isn’t it? Doesn’t reek of celebration or festivities. Likely in the backdrop of cost-of-living crisis with rising energy bills and being squeezed, it was selected as being muted in tone to be a bit more down to earth. But I think we can do better than that, celebrating the best of British produce. While it’s nice to use broad beans it’s a bit… post-war rationing. Why not the undisputed king of British summertime, asparagus? Bang on season and something I wait for every year. And let’s add in some bacon, by the fact that everything is better with bacon. I also think we can do a little more with that pastry, so let’s amp that up. And finally let’s use some precision in the baking. None of this “20-25 minutes until golden”, let’s cook it until it’s actually perfect. With science!
Can you buy the coronation quiche?
I don’t think you can buy the coronation quiche in any shops. The only way to get the real deal is to use the official recipe, or you know, just be invited to the coronation.
A celebratory quiche suitable for any gathering or garden party. One of the best things about a quiche is it really doesn't matter when you eat it: straight from the oven hot with a salad, or the next day packed up for lunch.
Course Main Course
Cuisine British
Keyword eggs, garden party
Prep Time 30 minutesminutes
Cook Time 30 minutesminutes
Servings 6people
Ingredients
Pastry
200gplain flour
50gcold butter
25glard
25gcheddar cheese
1egg
milkmight need a splash
Filling
300mldouble cream
2medium eggssave a tablespoon of it for later
1tablespoonfresh tarragonchopped
100ggrated cheddar cheese
100gbacondiced
150gasparagus spears
Instructions
For the pastry:
I use a food processor for speed and to be honest, it's better: add the flour, butter, lard and cheese and pulse until it forms a sandy breadcrumb texture. Whizz in the egg and if needed pulse in the milk until it comes together - be sparing and stop the moment it comes together. If doing by hand, rub fats, cheese and flour together until it resembles breadcrumbs, then beat in the egg and milk as required to form a dough.
Wrap and allow to rest in the fridge while you get on with everything else.
Put a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the bacon to a dry pan and fry for 4-5 minutes. While this fries, snap off the woody end of the asparagus spears. Then finely slice the stalks but stop at the tips. Add all the asparagus pieces to the pan and continue to stir fry for another 3-5 minutes until softened. Remove to a plate to cool down.
Preheat the oven to 190°C.
Put the cheese, cream and tarragon in a jug, add salt and pepper and stir well to mix. Hold back about a tablespoon of the egg mix to one side for later.
Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out to the thickness of a British pound coin. Lay into a quiche dish (appropriately enough) or similar and prick the base all over with a fork to stifle it rising. Brush your reserved egg over the base to seal it. Pop in the oven for 20 minutes, where it should have gone a biscuity brown.
Take the pastry base out and reduce the oven temperature to 140°C.
Spread the bacon-asparagus mixture over the base, then pour over the liquid mixture. Place into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until the middle of the quiche gets to 85°C.
Video
Notes
You can stop cooking this when you're happy with how golden it is. By using a probe thermometer you can capture it when it's perfectly smooth and not scrambled-eggy.
Let’s read that title again. “Chocolate mousse peanut butter pie“. You already know if you want this recipe in your life or not.
This cake is pure indulgence and definitely one for the dessert lovers. Soft, light cream, dense chocolate mousse, crunchy peanuts, smooth peanut butter cream and a crisp Oreo base. There’s so much to enjoy!
If you’re celebrating Thanksgiving this would be a great one to serve, because what do you need after an enormous roast dinner but cake that’s about a billion calories per slice?
Don’t make the mistake I did and serve up whopping great 45° wedges, it’s far too rich and sickly! Serve a slim slice however and your guests will be cooing with delight. Make it for a special occasion and you’ll be very popular.
There’s a few stages involved and you need to put some time aside to do all the bits and pieces. Be prepared for bain maries, multiple mixing bowls and plenty of whisking so bring your whipping arm.
This recipe is based on one from an issue of the Jamie Oliver magazine.
Preheat the oven to 180C. Combine the crushed biscuits with the butter and the flour and press into the base and sides of a 20cm cake dish. Freeze for 10 minutes, and then bake in the oven for 10 minutes to crisp off. Turn the oven off and return the dish to the fridge until needed.
For the peanut butter cream, beat the peanut butter, icing sugar and butter together until smooth. Pour over the crushed biscuits and pop back in the fridge.
For the chocolate mousse, soak the gelatine in cold water while you get on with everything else. Set a bowl over a pan of simmering water and melt the chocolate. When completely melted pop the bowl to one side to cool. Get another bowl on the saucepan but this time with the egg whites and sugar. Whisk constantly until doubled in size.
Mix the egg yolks into the chocolate, and then add the gelatine. Fold in the egg whites, followed by the cream. Spread this over the peanut butter goop and again return to the fridge.
For the cream topping, whip the cream and sugar together until stiff and top the cake with it. Shave or grate the remaining chocolate over the top. You could eat it straight away but it’s best to leave it for an hour in the fridge.
