Hugh's magic number (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Hugh's magic number

7:00am Saturday 22nd September 2012 in Lifestyle

With new cookbook, Hugh's Three Good Things On A Plate, fresh on the shelves, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall reveals why, when it comes to cooking, three really is the magic number.

By Diana Pilkington

Three may be a crowd on the dancefloor, but in the culinary world of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall it's the perfect marriage.

In what will be music to the ears of many a time-pressured cook, the TV chef has come to the realisation that some of the best dishes centre around just three main ingredients.

"There are many obvious classics, like ham, egg and chips, or rhubarb, crumble and custard," he says. "But I wanted to look at it as a way of unlocking people's creativity and demystifying the alchemy of creative cooking."

In his latest cookbook and accompanying TV series, Hugh's Three Good Things, he presents a whole host of inviting dishes, from salads to mains to puds, each neatly named after the trio of key components.

He also encourages people to play around with classic combinations. He suggests serving bacon, lettuce and tomato not in a sandwich, for example, but on a plate after frying them all in a pan.

Naturally, you can't sling any three things together and expect them to work. But he reckons the best combinations can be deconstructed into three distinct adjectives, such as sweet, crunchy and peppery.

"I think one of the dishes that sparked the thought for me was what has become a bit of a River Cottage classic - scallops with broad beans and chorizo. You've got the bittersweet broad beans, the salty spice of the chorizo and the succulent sweetness and fleshiness of the scallop. It epitomises the philosophy."

Anyone hoping to manage with a sparse store cupboard, however, may be disappointed to find extra ingredients in many of the recipes.

But Fearnley-Whittingstall insists they all stick to the magic formula.

"Of course I'm not trying to create a crazy world in the kitchen where you're not allowed to use salt and pepper or a dressing on a salad is somehow de trop," he says.

"All those things were there, and where good seasoning or a trickle of this or a dash of that improves the dish, of course it's in the recipe. Nevertheless they all hang together because of the three main ingredients and the complementary textures and flavours created by those ingredients."

Of course, Fearnley-Whittingstall is chiefly known for his back-to-basics approach to cooking and, in recent years, for his campaigning.

His Fish Fight project, which aimed to change EU laws surrounding the discarding of dead fish into the North Sea, has already attracted more than 800,000 supporters and has seen the EU commit to phasing in a ban on discards from 2014.

But the chef says there's more to be done, and new TV series of Fish Fight in the New Year will take up the issue once more.

"It's exceeded my expectations so far but it's not a done deal. We've got this on the agenda in Europe. We've got the fisheries ministers talking about the discards, it's in the campaign arena, and we've got lots of supporters getting noisy about it when we need them to, but there's still a bit of a way to go.

"But the response has been incredible and very heartening. We love our Fish Fight supporters and they should take enormous credit for the progress made."

Here is a trio of recipes from Fearnley-Whittingstall's latest book for you to try at home (and there's no fish this time)...

Chicken, plums, soy

(Serves 4)

8 bone-in, skin-on, free-range chicken thighs (or 1 small free-range chicken, jointed into 8 pieces)

1 tbsp sunflower oil

1-4 red, mild-to-medium hot, fleshy chillies, to taste (optional)

4 garlic cloves, sliced

A thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and coarsely grated or thinly sliced (optional)

8 plums, halved and stoned

3 tbsp soy sauce

A small bunch of coriander, leaves only, chopped (optional)

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Put the chicken thighs in a roasting tray, trickle with the oil and season well with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes, turning once or twice.

Meanwhile, halve and deseed the chillies, if using, then cut each into 1cm strips. After its 30 minutes, take the chicken out of the oven and add the sliced chillies, garlic and ginger, if using, to the roasting tray. Turn the chicken again to make sure the aromatics are evenly distributed around and under the pieces. Roast for a further 10 minutes.

Tuck the plum halves around the chicken pieces and trickle over the soy. If there doesn't seem to be much liquid in the tray, add a few tablespoons of water. Return to the oven for 10-15 minutes until the plums are soft and yielding their juices.

Baste the chicken and plums with the pan juices, then leave to rest in a warm place for 10 minutes. Finish with a scattering of chopped coriander, if you like. Serve with noodles or plain rice.

Top tip: For a store cupboard version of this dish, you could use prunes or dried apricots (ideally the plump, ready-to eat ones) instead of fresh plums.

Red lentils, onion, bacon

(Serves 4)

1tbsp rapeseed, sunflower or olive oil

4 rashers of smoked bacon, chopped

1 onion, chopped

200g split red lentils, well rinsed

1 bay leaf and/or a sprig of thyme (optional)

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the bacon and fry for a few minutes so the fat starts to run. Add the onion and sweat gently over a low heat, stirring from time to time, for a good 10 minutes until soft and silky.

Stir in the lentils, then add about 800ml water. Add the bay and/or thyme if you have them. Bring to a simmer and cook, stirring from time to time, for about 15 minutes or until the lentils are completely soft and breaking down.

Remove the bay and/or thyme if used. Blitz the soup in a blender or with a handheld stick blender until smooth, adding just enough extra water to get a thick soup consistency. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed, then serve.

Top tip: A few more snippets of bacon, fried until crisp, make a lovely sprinkle, as do some simple fried bread croutons.

Carrots, almonds, cumin

(Serves 6)

500g small, finger-sized carrots, scrubbed and tops trimmed

100g blanched whole almonds

1 tbsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the carrots.

Boil for 5-8 minutes until tender, then drain and leave to cool just a little.

Meanwhile, heat a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the almonds and toast, tossing frequently, until they are golden with a few little brown patches. Transfer to a plate to cool. Put the cumin seeds in the same pan and toast for a few minutes until fragrant. Add to the almonds. Using a pestle and mortar, bash the almonds and cumin very lightly to break up the nuts a little.

Put the warm carrots into a large bowl. Add the almonds and cumin, extra virgin olive oil and some salt and pepper. Toss well, then transfer to a serving dish or individual plates.

Top tip: Let the salad cool to room temperature, then add some orange segments and a squeeze of orange juice.

 

:: Hugh's Three Good Things by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is published by Bloomsbury, priced £25. Available now