Over the next three columns, I shall offer a good handful of recipes, which, when collected, can be put together in infinite permutations for menus.
Three-course meals are but one way of combining the recipes, whether in informal suppers or for more formal occasions. On the other hand, you might use all of the first-course recipes for a soup and salad buffet, or just a couple of them for a simple supper or luncheon.
One or two of the main dishes in my next column, on November 17, you will probably agree, will make very good brunch dishes. The pudding recipes, on December 1, will cover the range, from simple sorbets and cookies, to quickly assembled dishes, to more complex combinations of ingredients.
None of the recipes are difficult or time-consuming to cook, but I would not dream of defining how much time they will make you spend in your kitchen.
Some people are more speedy or efficient cooks than others, working without interruption. Some allow themselves to be distracted or interrupted, pausing to read the paper or make a phone call, to scrutinise the recipe on the back of the packet of lentils, or to feed the cat.
If you feel the need to be in and out of the kitchen in no time at all, there are plenty of books to guide you, starting with Edouard de Pomiane’s La cuisine en dix minutes (Cooking in 10 minutes); he was several decades ahead of today’s chefs, who would have you in and out of the kitchen in less time than it takes to grill a bacon butty. And on reflection, I think Monsieur de Pomiane has much to answer for.
This recipe collection will not be difficult to shop for nor will it keep you kitchen-bound. The recipes are seasonal, but you will readily see ways of adapting them, as different fruit, vegetables and fish become available. And some of the ingredients you may already have in your cupboards.
Fish and shellfish are the greatest boon to the busy cook for they positively demand a short cooking time. I have used these in several of today’s recipes for a first course.
I have prepared some with raw fish, and at this time of year, what better fish to use than lampuki, especially since this season is so much more prolific than the last two, with a consequent drop in price.
And my best recent discovery has been Peter Bugeja opening a retail outlet in Għajnsielem at the heliport roundabout. The shop is open all day from Monday to Saturday, and even on Sunday morning until lunchtime.
For several days, I have been making makku fritters, and have prepared lampuki in a number of different ways. Regular readers will know that I like to cure fish in the style of gravad lax (raw, spiced salmon); this time I used, as well as the usual Gozo salt, ground black pepper and a sprinkling of sugar, a generous helping of large Ceylon tea (the unbrewed dry leaves) and a couple of measures of Mirto di Sardegna, a myrtle liqueur.
All this sandwiched between two fillets of lampuki, pressed down and left for 48 hours, produced an excellent result. I serve it thinly sliced with a few rocket leaves or cucumber salad.
If you were to add more ingredients to today’s mussel soup, say clams, prawns, baby squid, a few chunks of lampuki, you could make it into a main course.
Serve plenty of bread, a salad beforehand, and cheese and fruit afterwards, and you have a feast.
A young Sauvignon Blanc or an Italian Pecorino would accompany the soup, and indeed, all of today’s recipes.
Mussel, bean and celery soup
Serves 6
3 celery stalks, trimmed and diced
750ml light chicken or fish stock
1 can cannellini or haricot beans
1kg mussels
3 tbsp finely chopped parsley
Freshly ground pepper
Cook the celery until soft in the stock, and meanwhile prepare the mussels by scrubbing, cleaning, rinsing and steaming until they open. Strain the juices into the stock, and when cooked enough to handle, remove the mussels from the shells. Sieve some of the beans to a purée and thus thicken the soup. Add the rest of the beans and the parsley. Bring to the boil, season with pepper and drop in the mussels. Allow them to heat through and serve the soup. The addition of herbs, such as savoury or basil, will nicely complement the flavour of the mussels.
Cook’s note: For variations, dice some smoked bacon and fry the celery and some chopped onion with it, and then add a couple of peeled, diced potatoes with the stock. You’ll have a thick, warming chowder, substantial enough for a main course.
Scallop and pancetta skewers
Serves 6
12 or 18 scallops, cleaned and trimmed
12 cap mushrooms, blanched
12 slices of pancetta
½ tsp each freshly ground black pepper, ground cumin and coriander
Season the scallops and mushrooms with the spice mixture before wrapping them in the pancetta and threading on to six soaked, wooden skewers. Put under a hot grill and cook for four to five minutes, less if you like your scallops translucent, rather than opaque.
This is very good served with a relish made by squeezing all the water out of some grated cucumber, and mixing with a little chopped green chilli, plenty of fresh coriander, some lime juice and unrefined sugar and a ripe, diced avocado.
Rabbit livers with pine nuts, spinach and rocket
Serves 6
50g pine nuts
300g rabbit livers
Extra virgin olive oil
150g young spinach and rocket
2 tbsp fruit vinegar or blackcurrant jelly, and dash of lemon juice
Gozo salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Lightly toast the pine nuts in a dry frying pan and put to one side. Trim the rabbit livers and discard any threads and bile-stained parts. Fry the livers in olive oil and remove from the frying pan.
Arrange the salad leaves on a plate, put the rabbit livers on top, and scatter on the pine nuts. Put a couple of tablespoons of water in the frying pan and deglaze it. Add the fruit vinegar or jelly and bring to the boil. Season lightly and pour over the salad.
Cook’s note: Using similar ingredients, you can readily make a main course; fried rabbit or chicken livers and pine nuts in a sweet-sour sauce on a bed of cooked rice and accompanied by some spinach and watercress is very good.
Rabbit or chicken livers, cooked as above, are also delicious stirred into a bowl of freshly cooked penne, rigatoni or pappardelle.
Golden lentil soup
Serves 6
2 medium onions, peeled and diced
Extra virgin olive oil
750ml chicken, ham or vegetable stock
200g orange lentils
Gozo salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Mace or nutmeg
I love pulses at this time of year and not all of them need soaking. Lentils of all varieties cook relatively quickly, and canned beans and chickpeas are very good for last-minute additions to soups or for creamy, savoury purées, such as hummus.
Fry the onion until golden brown in the olive oil, then add stock and lentils and a touch of seasoning. Cook until the lentils are soft and then sieve or liquidise and add more seasoning to taste as you reheat the soup before serving.
To add some crunch to the soup, scatter on some croutons, crisp bacon bits, or duck skin, as you like.