Gordon's Christmas Recipes

Here are a couple of Christmas recipes from Gordon, which will whet your appetite.

Scallops with sweetcorn purée and quail's eggs

This is a simple starter that can be assembled relatively quickly.

Serves 6:

For the scallops:

9 large scallops, shelled and cleaned
sea salt and black pepper
4 tbs olive oil
18 quails' eggs
For the sweetcorn purée:
25g butter
150g frozen sweetcorn
1 tsp caster sugar
50ml chicken stock
50 ml double cream

For the truffle cream sauce:

50ml double cream
100ml mayonnaise
1 tsp truffle-infused oil
pinch of very finely chopped truffle shavings

To serve:

1 black truffle (optional)
lightly dressed salad of mixed leaves (frisée, oak leaf, chervil, etc)
olive oil, to drizzle

First make the sweetcorn purée. Melt the butter in a medium pan and add the sweetcorn and sugar. Stir over a high heat for 1-2 minutes, then add the stock and cream. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes or until the sweetcorn is soft. Transfer the mixture to a food processor and blend for 1-2 minutes until smooth. Push the purée through a fine sieve and discard the pulp. Return the purée to the pan and season with salt and pepper to taste. The sweetcorn purée should be the consistency of thick cream; if it is too thick, add a dash of hot water. Reheat just before serving.

For the truffle cream sauce, stir together all the ingredients and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cut half of the truffle for serving, if using, into wafer-thin slices and set aside with the sauce.

Cut each scallop horizontally into two discs and season with salt and pepper. Heat a large heavy-based frying pan until very hot, then add half the olive oil. Lay the scallop discs in the pan and cook for 1-1½ minutes on each side; they should feel slightly springy when pressed. Lift them out onto a warm plate and set aside.

Now cook the quails' eggs in two batches. Heat most of the remaining oil in the pan. Carefully crack the quails' eggs open with the tip of a knife and drop them into the hot pan. Fry for 1-1½ minutes until the whites are opaque and firm but the yolks are still quite runny. Remove to a warm plate. Add a little more oil to the pan before you fry the second batch. If you like, use a small pastry cutter to stamp out the fried eggs and neaten the edges.

To serve, arrange three scallop discs on each warm serving plate and top with a wafer-thin slice of truffle and a quail's egg. Drop little spoonfuls of warm sweetcorn purée between the scallops. Place a neat handful of mixed salad in the middle, then drizzle over the truffle cream sauce and a little olive oil. Finely grate the remaining black truffle if using and scatter over. Serve at once.

Roasted fillet of beef with a truffle and root vegetable infusion

I use beef from Northumberland for this dish. The time-consuming elements are the braised shin and beef consommé, but you can make these a day ahead. In the restaurant, we prepare the infusion in a glass teapot with an infuser and pour it over the beef as we serve it.

Serves 4-6 as a main course

For the braised shin of beef:

650g boned shin of beef, in one piece

3 tbsp olive oil

sea salt and black pepper

1 large carrot, peeled and chopped

1 large onion, peeled and chopped

2 celery stalks, trimmed and chopped

2 bay leaves, few thyme sprigs

500ml red wine

For the veal stock (about 1.5l)

1.5kg veal bones

100ml olive oil

1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped

2 large carrots, peeled and chopped

1 celery stalk, trimmed and chopped

4-5 garlic cloves, unpeeled

1 tbs tomato purée

175ml Madeira

175ml ruby port

100g chestnut mushrooms, cleaned

bouquet garni

sea salt and black pepper

To clarify the stock:

200g beef trimmings, chopped

1 thyme sprig, leaves only

4 egg whites

½ tsp black peppercorns

For the truffle and root vegetable infusion:

2 pea pods, finely sliced

2 asparagus tips, finely sliced lengthways

2 baby morels, sliced

2 radishes, finely sliced

2 baby carrots, peeled and finely sliced

small bouquet garni (thyme sprig, rosemary sprig, bay leaf)

a few truffle slices, or 1 tsp truffle trimmings

For the beef fillet:

500g fillet of beef, trimmed

2 tbsp olive oil

For the vegetable garnish:

½ kohlrabi, peeled and diced

100g baby carrots, scrubbed and cut into 5mm rounds

50g peas

50g baby morels, cleaned and trimmed

handful of cooked orrechiette (or other pasta shapes), optional

½ head of Savoy cabbage, shredded and wilted

To make the stock, preheat the oven to 220°C/gas 7. Put the veal bones in a roasting pan, drizzle over half the olive oil and roast for 1/1½ hrs, turning occasionally,, until brown. Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil in a large in a large stockpot and fry the chopped vegetables and garlic over a high heat until lightly coloured. Stir in the purée and fry for another two minutes. Deglaze the pan with the Madeira and port and boil vigorously until reduced to a syrupy consistency. Drain the roasted bones of excess oil and add to stockpot. Pour in enough water to cover, about 5 litres, and bring to the boil. Skim off the scum on the surface, then reduce to a simmer and add the mushrooms and bouquet garni. Simmer gently for about 6 hours, skimming every once in a while, until the stock is clear. Leave the stock to settle and cool a little, then strain through a muslin-lined colander set over a large bowl. Use 1.5 litres, reserve the rest.

For the braised shin of beef, heat half the olive oil in a large heavy-based pan or casserole. Season the beef and fry for 2 minutes on each side until evenly browned. Remove to a plate. Add the rest of the oil to the pan, then the vegetables and herbs. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 4-6 minutes until the vegetables are soft. Deglaze the pan with the wine and boil until reduced by half. Pour in the stock and return the beef to the pan. Top up with a little water as necessary to cover the shin. Bring to a simmer, then turn the heat right down. Cover with a piece of wet greaseproof paper and cook very gently for 2-3 hours until the beef is very tender. Leave to cool in the braising stock.

Take out the beef and set aside. Strain the braising stock through a fine chinois into a clean wide pan, pressing down on the vegetables in the chinois with the back of a ladle to extract as much juice as possible. Place over a medium heat and boil the stock until reduced to about 1 litre. Leave to cool.

Finely shred the beef and place in a bowl. Add enough of the stock to moisten the meat and season generously to taste. While still warm, divide into 100g portions and place each one in a small resealable plastic bag. Press each bag on the work surface to flatten and use a rolling pin to even out the thickness of the beef throughout. Chill overnight, until the beef and gelatinous stock has set into a thin rectangular disc.

Next clarify the stock. Put the beef trimmings, herbs, egg whites and peppercorns into a food processor and blitz for a minute, then tip into the pan containing the cooled beef stock. Slowly bring the stock to the boil, whisking continuously with a balloon whisk. The egg white mix will form a frothy crust on the surface of the liquid. Line a colander with a piece of wet muslin and set it over a large bowl. Ladle the stock through, letting it drip through slowly. It should now be clear; if it is not, repeat the clarification process once more using more egg whites. Set aside until ready to serve.

For the vegetable garnish, blanch the kohlrabi, carrots and peas in boiling salted water for 2-3 minutes until just tender. Drain and refresh under cold running water, then set aside.

Before serving, remove the beef shin from the fridge and bring to room temperature.

To cook the beef fillet, preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6. Heat the olive oil in an ovenproof pan until hot. Season the beef fillet with salt and pepper and sear, turning, until browned all over. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook for another 4-6 minutes until the meat feels slightly springy when pressed.

Meanwhile, for the infusion, bring the beef consommé to the boil in a pan. Take off the heat and add the sliced vegetables, bouquet garni and truffle. Cover and leave to infuse for a few minutes, then strain. Reheat if necessary.

When the beef fillet is cooked, remove and rest in a warm place for a few minutes. Blanch the kohlrabi, carrots and peas, and pasta if using, in boiling water for 1-2 minutes to reheat.

To serve, put a neat pile of hot cabbage in the centre of each warm plate, using a square metal cutter to create a neat presentation if you like, then remove the cutter. Unwrap the beef shin and lay on the cabbage. Pour over a little of the consommé to soften the beef and warm it. Thinly slice the beef fillet and place on top of the shin. Arrange the blanched vegetables, and pasta if using, around the plates. Pour over the remaining beef consommé as you serve.