Naked Chef

Recipes from The Naked Chef
Fresh Tomato and Sweet Chilli Pepper Soup with Smashed Basil and Olive Oil

I like this soup hot, but it can be served cold in summer. It looks nice, and the flavors work well together but still remain individual in taste. It goes well with a toasted sandwich of mozzarella, or some other creamy cheese, for lunch.

Serves 6

15 ripe plum tomatoes
3 medium red bell peppers
approximately 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh seeded red chilli
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, or to taste
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 good handfuls of fresh basil leaves

Score the tops of the tomatoes, blanch in boiling water for about 20 seconds, or until you can remove the skins and seed. Grill the peppers whole (to achieve a really sweet pepper taste they should be grilled until black), rest in a covered bowl, then peel and finely chop them.

Put the chopped peppers in a warmed, thick-bottomed pan with 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and the chopped red chilli. Add a pinch of salt and cook slowly for about 5 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes. Then add the roughly chopped tomatoes and cook for about 10 minutes with another pinch of salt and the red wine vinegar so that they sort of melt and infuse themselves together. Add the stock and simmer for 15 minutes. Season to taste.

In a mortar and pestle (or a food processor) smash the basil to a pulp with a pinch of salt. Stir the remaining olive oil and a drop more red wine vinegar. Drizzle the mixture generously over your soup.

Pappardelle with Mixed Wild Mushrooms

These days there seems to be more and more of a choice of wild mushrooms in the supermarkets. They are not always stored and displayed as I think they should be -- I don't like sweaty mushrooms in plastic containers -- but I'm sure things will get better. Even as a chef I am surprised to see chanterelles and black trumpets popping up throughout the year as well as the more predictable cremini, shiitake, morel, button and oyster mushrooms -- there is a lot of choice. If you're a vegetarian, mushrooms can be a very interesting, fulfilling, gutsy, even meaty part of your diet.

Serves 4

9-11 oz mushrooms (I would probably buy around 14 oz of mushrooms, as you have to trim a bit off)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1-2 small dried red chillies, pounded or very finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 lb pappardelle
A small handful of grated Parmesan cheese
1 handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
2 oz unsalted butter

Brush off any dirt from the mushrooms with a pastry brush or a dish towel. Slice the mushrooms thinly, but tear girolles, chanterelles, and blewits in half. Put the olive oil in a very hot frying pan and add the mushrooms. Let them fry fast, tossing once or twice, then add the garlic and chilli with a pinch of salt (it is very important to season mushrooms lightly, as a little really brings out the flavor). Continue to fry fast for 4-5 minutes, tossing regularly. Then turn the heat off and squeeze in the lemon juice. Toss and season to taste.

Meanwhile cook the pasta in boiling salted water until al dente. Add to the mushrooms, with the Parmesan, parsley and butter. Toss gently, coating the pasta with the mushrooms and their flavor. Serve, scraping out all of the last bits of mushroom from the pan, and sprinkle with a little extra parsley and Parmesan.

Pot-roasted Guinea Fowl with Sage, Celery, and Blood Orange

This is a gorgeous recipe. The guinea fowl is cooked slowly in a pot, so it combines braising and roasting. The richness of the butter, used to baste the birds, with sage and garlic, works superbly with the guinea fowl. The fresh and fragrant flavors of the orange, thyme, and celery, used to stuff the guinea fowl, steam in the cavity, infusing their flavor into the breast meat. The stuffing is also great as a chunky and tasty addition to your gravy (see below).

Serves 4-6

Two 2-2 1/2 lb guinea fowl
8 blood oranges
1 whole stalk of celery
1 small handful of fresh thyme
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, whole and unpeeled
6 tablespoons butter
10 sage leaves
1 1/2 cups fruity dry white wine

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Remove any excess fat from the cavity of each guinea fowl. Wash thoroughly inside and out and pat dry with paper towels. Rub the cavity with a little salt. Cut off the two ends of the oranges, stand them on end and carefully slice off the skin (once you have removed one piece of skin you can see where the flesh meets the skin). Slice the oranges into five or six rounds each. Remove the tougher outside ribs of the celery until you reach the white, dense bulb and slice across thinly. Put in a bowl, mix in the thyme and a small pinch of salt and pepper, then stuff the cavity of each guinea fowl with this filling. Pull the skin at the front of each guinea fowl's cavity forward, to cover the filling, and tightly tie/truss up.

Heat a thick-bottomed pan and add the olive oil and the guinea fowl, the skin of which had been rubbed in sea salt and pepper. Cook until lightly golden on all sides, then add the garlic, butter and sage and cook for 3-4 minutes until golden brown. Add the wine at intervals, enough to keep the pan slightly moist at all times. Place in the oven for 45 minutes, checking every 10-15 minutes and just topping up the wine as necessary. The guinea fowl will be roasted and partially steamed.

When cooked, carefully remove from the oven and place upside down on a dish, allowing all the juices and moisture to relax back into the breast meat for at least 5 minutes. While your meat is resting, make the gravy.

Gravy

Remove all the fat from the roasting pan and place the pan on a gentle heat. In the bottom of the pan will be your cooked, soft, sweet, whole garlic cloves and some gorgeous sticky stuff -- when this gets hot, scoop out the stuffing from the guinea fowl cavity and add to the pan with about 2/3 cup of wine. As the wine boils and steams, scrape all the goodness with a spoon from the bottom of the pan into the liquor. When it has all dissolved, leave to simmer gently. Squash the cooked garlic out of the skins with a spoon (discard the skins); this will also thicken the gravy slightly, as well as give it flavor. Pour any of the juices that have drained out of the rested birds into the pan with the gravy, simmer and season to taste. Serve the guinea fowl with roast potatoes and any simply cooked green vegetable -- spinach, kale, bok choy or broccoli.

Recipes from The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver. Copyright © 2000 by Optomen Television and Jamie Oliver.