I've been doing both for 30 years.
To cook well, it helps if you love and value food as
that is where it all starts.
My approach to cooking is simple and not new.
Use the best ingredients you can, get organised and follow the recipe.
That way you'll be sure to get wonderful results.
Moroccan hirrira soup sounds very exotic but in fact
it's made with easily available ingredients.
Lamb, chickpeas, lentils, tomatoes, onions, ginger, turmeric, coriander.
In Morocco the soup is traditionally served to break the fast during the
holy month of Ramadan and it can honestly be described as a meal in a bowl.
But it's also surprisingly light and can be served in smaller portions
as a starter, which is what I'm doing today.
There are thousands of different recipes with each household adding its own unique twist.
This is my version and I really love it.
I've got everything measured out in front of me.
I've got my chickpeas. I like to use dried chickpeas.
I soak them overnight in cold water and they swell up to double,
sometimes treble in size.
Then you discard that water.
You could use tinned chickpeas here as well which are already cooked
but I prefer to start with the dried ones.
Lentils and lamb, onions and spices.
Pretty much everything goes into the saucepan at the same time.
The chickpeas going in first.
Then the lentils. I'm using puy lentils which come from a place called Pui in France.
These are speckled lentils. You could use green lentils.
You could probably use orange lentils but I like the colour
and the flavour of these. They go in.
Next is my lamb.
I've got a little dice of shoulder of lamb.
It could be leg for that matter.
I've diced it up nice and small like that and
removed all of the fat.
Just very simple and straight forward.
Then the onions.
Fairly finely diced onions.
This is all going to cook very slowly at a very gentle simmer.
The idea is we have a lovely mish-mash, a tangle of all
sorts of different ingredients at the end.
I've got beautiful saffron coloured turmeric which brings its own
slightly smoky flavour.
I've got some ground cinnamon, some ground ginger for a bit of piquancy.
Then we have true saffron here.
Saffron is grown all over the world but a lot of saffron and
very good saffron is produced in Morocco.
Finally paprika with its slightly mysterious flavour.
The whole lot blend together add for a lovely combination.
The spices are in. An essential pinch of salt and pepper.
Then the liquid in this soup is water.
I once made this using chicken stock thinking it'd be much more interesting,
more flavoursome but I didn't find there was any improvement.
I prefer it when it's made with water.
When you've put the water in it looks like this watery broth
with various random bits and pieces in it but don't worry.
When it starts to cook it all starts to look really lovely.
All we do now is put the heat under that.
Meanwhile I can be cooking the rice.
I've got some long grain basmati. Absolutely lovely.
I'm just going to cook it in simmering water.
I'm going to pop that in.
Give the rice a gentle stir to loosen the grains from one another.
I'm going to cook the rice until it's just al dente.
I'm happy that the rice is cooked. Grains looking lovely and tender.
I want to strain that straight away. It's very important not to overcook it.
Also, it's important that I remember to save a little of the cooking water.
That's what we're going to use for the tomatoes.
Pop that in there.
We're going to save that rice for later on.
This goes into the soup towards the end of cooking.
If you put the rice in now, it would end up being very overcooked.
Take a little of the rice cooking water.
It seems strange but this is the way it's done.
That helps to add a litte bit of liquid for the gentle cooking and
the gentle heating of the diced peeled tomato.
A pinch of sugar and salt.
A pinch of sugar just to lift the flavour of the tomatoes.
Just warm those up gently.
I don't want to reduce those to a pulp so it's nice if
they hold the shape that I've cut them in after I peeled and deseeded them.
The soup has come to a simmer and suddenly the room is full
of the smell and the aromas of North Africa.
What I want to do is just skim off a little of the froth on
the top of the soup.
If you dont want to do it you don't have to but
it makes the finished soup slightly more refined in appearance.
We have most of the work done here now because this is
just going to simmer away until the chickpeas are tender,
the lamb is tender and the lentils are tender.
I think that's pretty good.
You're not going to get every last little bit of froth off.
That's not the end of the world at all.
Now my tomatoes I'm going to turn off now.
They've just been simmering away for a couple of minutes.
I've just been warming them slightly really to bring
out the flavour and to tenderise them ever so slightly.
I can turn the heat off under those and leave those sitting.
Now a little bit of butter going in at this stage.
We put half the butter in now.
That brings a lovely enrichment.
The rest of the butter goes in with the rice and the tomatoes later on.
The hirrira's been simmering away nice and gently.
Let's have a look and see how it's doing.
It's looking terrific at this stage.
The saffron has stained the colour of the lamb and chickpeas.
Gives that lovely gentle hue which is really nice.
To finish just put in the rest of my ingredients.
The tomatoes that we cooked in a little rice water.
They go in.
The refreshing parsley and coriander.
Then the cooked rice. Pop that in.
Then a nice gentle stir.
You can see now the way suddenly it's been transformed
into what almost looks like a stew really.
Ready to serve.
All those fantastic things in the bowl.
I sometimes serve a wedge of lemon with this as they would do
in Morocco and North Africa, particularly when the weather
is really warm and it has a really refreshing effect.
I think it's fair to say there's definitely eating and drinking in this soup.
This is something I really, really love.
A simple piece of fish beautifully cooked, is one of my favourite things.
There are so many ways to cook fish, each one adding to the
versatility of an ingredient which as a nation, we eat far too little of.
Other nations appreciate perhaps what we don't.
Our cool, unpolluted waters which deliver an abundance of
utterly delicious food, including the less than glamorous haddock.
Haddock is wonderful and tastes far better than more fashionable sounding
species which are sometimes farmed, frozen and shipped here from far away.
When you marry the haddock with assertive accompaniments like
I'm going to do today, cook it really quickly in a hot oven,
you have a spectacular dish.
There are lots of things which are wonderful to add to mash potato.
Obvious things like scallions or leeks.
What may seem a bit unusual is what I'm going to use today, courgette.
I'm going to prepare it with some garlic, chilli and ground fennel seeds.
This is a lovely Southern Italian combination of flavours.
The herb of choice is marjoram.
This is a herb that's perfectly suited to go with the three of these.
So I can prepare my courgette.
Slice a little off the bottom and the top.
Because this is a big courgette, I'm going to cut it in half
lengthways and lengthways again.
I'm going to take some of the excess seed out of the middle.
That's just quite watery.
Those seeds really just break down into a watery liquid.
I like to cut them fairly finely for this recipe.
Get your pan nice and hot and add a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
That's my olive oil.
I want to make sure the olive oil is hot enough before I put my seasonings in.
My thinly sliced garlic which is very thinly sliced.
I'm just going to drop in one little bit.
I want to hear it sizzling.
You can see it sizzling so I know that I can add in the rest of the garlic.
Straight away, a pinch of chilli.
And my fennel seeds.
There are certain combinations of flavour when you introduce them
to heat on a frying pan, that have the most incredible aroma.
This is one of them.
I don't want to over-toast anything.
Just get a little bit of colour on the garic.
Straight away add in your courgettes.
You need to be ready to go with this.
Apart from what I'm doing today, adding them to the potatoes to
make a fantastic mash potato, courgettes cooked in this way
to serve as a vegetable are absolutely fantastic.
Turn those around.
Very importantly, a pinch of salt.
A twist of pepper.
Keep turning them like that.
I want these to cook until they get a little bit of colour.
Then I'm going to turn off the heat and unusually,
I'm going to put a lid on the pan.
I want them to get a bit of colour but I also want them to soften slightly.
Let's not forget to put in our chopped marjoram.
I'm putting some of the marjoram in there with the courgettes.
The rest will go in when I'm adding them to the mash potatoes later.
That's perfect.
Turn the heat off under those. Again, put a lid on.
They'll stay nice and warm while I'm preparing my potatoes.
I've got some potatoes which have been boiled in their skins.
Boiling them in their skins helps to keep in the flavour.
It is crucial that the potatoes are peeled immediately after they've been cooked.
Once peeled, I pass them through my vegetable ricer
to ensure there are no lumps in the mash.
This recipe requires hot stock so get some on to boil.
The potatoes are ready and it's really important I get my courgettes
and my boiling stock in straight away while the courgettes are still hot.
Also while the stock is boiling.
Pour over the hot stock.
And our remaining chopped marjoram.
Mix everything together and it should be nice and soft.
This is perfect like that.
I'm going to use my wooden spoon to get right down to the bottom.
That consistency is absolutely perfect.
Dropping consistency.
Transfer into a serving dish.
Garnish with some marjoram and finish it off with a drizzle
of extra virgin olive oil.
Coming up after the break, I'm going to cook the haddock,
prepare a piquant roast pepper and olive salsa and tackle this
rather strange yet splendid looking vegetable. Romanesco.
If you've still got room after all of that,
I'll be serving a rich chocolate and prune pudding for dessert.
I'm going to prepare my fish and my salsa and green vegetable.
For the little salsa, I'm doing a roast pepper and olive salsa.
I've chopped my olives.
Before you chop your olives, remove the stones.
I prefer to buy olives with the stones in because they are more flavoursome that way.
The simplest way to remove the stone from an olive
is to just press it like that and then the stone just pops out easily.
It's absolutely as simple as pie.
Then just go over them like that and give them a chop.
That's the olives.
I've also got a little crushed garlic.
Crushed to a paste so it's going to disappear into this salsa.
The other thing I need is some roast pepper.
I have my roasted and peeled peppers.
I'm just going to cut them into little strips like this.
Then I'm going to cut them into nice fine dice.
Mix everything together.
The diced pepper, the chopped olive.
This is quite strongly flavoured but really delicious.
The crushed garlic.
A little sprinkle of salt and a twist of pepper.
A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
A few drops of balsamic vinegar. Don't overdo it.
I just want to lift it with the vinegar.
Literally a few little drops.
The herb I'm going to use is basil.
I don't want to chop it too finely because I want to come across
a nice hit of basil every now and then.
You could say that's coarsely chopped.
Mix it all together, making sure to break up the garlic
so nobody comes across the garlic in one piece.
That would be a terrible shock and it certainly would not taste nice.
Absolutely fantastic.
Lovely.
Now my fish. I've got some beautiful fresh haddock
which has been filleted and I'm going to cook it on some
parchment paper so it will slide off the paper really easily.
A little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
Put on less than you think you need.
Use a little brush.
A pinch of salt and some pepper.
Lovely.
Straight into a good hot oven. Nearly the hottest oven you have.
We want the heat here to be fierce.
Then it will go through the thinnish fillet of fish
and cook it nice and quickly.
It couldn't be easier. It's a beautiful way to cook fish.
Romanesco is an extraordinary looking vegetable.
It's a member of the cauliflower family and it's prepared and
cooked in exactly the same way as the conventional cauliflower.
Start by cutting off the outside leaves but don't discard them.
These will be cooked.
Cut off the tough stalk.
Then cut a cone-shaped piece out of the base of the vegetable.
Break up the remaining romanesco into smaller pieces.
Chop the leaves nice and finely and place them into your saucepan
of boiling salted water.
Add in the remaining vegetable on top of the leaves.
Bring the water back to the boil and cook for 5 or 6 minutes
or until just tender.
Let's have a little look at our fish to see how it's doing.
Oh yeah.
You can see how hot the oven is.
My tray did a little jump and a buckle there.
I'm pretty much sure this is cooked.
How do we know it's cooked?
Just go into the thickest part of the fish.
You can see it no longer looks translucent.
It just looks absolutely deliciously juicy.
Serve the fish as soon as it comes out of the oven.
The romanesco cooked al dente, adds great flavour but also visual interest.
I always think it looks like something that comes out of the sea
so our fish should feel right at home.
Finally, our roast pepper and olive salsa adds a sophisticated
flourish to an otherwise simple dish.
Suddenly with the red pepper and the olive and the bright green,
it's all looking a little bit Christmassy.
But I'd be happy to eat this at any time of the year.
I love puddings that can be made in advance and served either
warm or at room temperature.
The other dishes in today's suggested menu, the Moroccan soup
and the roast haddock, have been light so we can
afford to have something rich and still achieve a lovely balanced meal.
The chocolate, prune and armagnac pudding is certainly rich
and scrumptuous and the combination of ingredients a classic one,
but it absolutely has timeless appeal.
The chocolate and butter for my pudding is just melting nicely.
I'm going to take it off the heat for a moment and you get a
beautiful shiny, glossy sauce.
Leave that there just for a moment.
I can either cook it as one large pudding like that or
I can cook it all in little individual puddings which can
be served from the mould or these could be teacups.
Or I can turn them out if you want to make a lovely individual special presentation.
With the individual ones, I've just brushed them lightly with a little butter
so the pudding will turn out nice and easily.
To be sure to be sure, I've put in a little disk of parchment paper.
So there should be no difficulty turning these out later on.
That's perfect.
Meanwhile over here I've got my prunes.
I've soaked these overnight in armagnac or you could use cognac.
With my prunes, I like to tear them into slightly smaller pieces.
Prunes are one of those things that you either love them or loathe them.
There's usually not too many people who sit mid-ground on the prune thing.
Place a handful of prunes in the individual servings and
then scatter the rest over the bottom of the larger tray.
Separate your eggs.
The good thing about this recipe is that we get to use both parts of the egg.
Add a generous pinch of creamof tartare to the egg whites
and whisk vigorously until stiff peaks have formed.
Beautiful.
My chocolate should be ready to go.
Just give it a little stir like that and the chocolate should be
completely mixed through with the butter. That's perfect.
I can quite simply start to add in my other ingredients one after the other.
My slightly warm water, my sugar,
the vanilla extract. The pure stuff.
Give those a whisk.
That's looking lovely. Add the egg yolks.
The egg yolks are going to enrich and when you add them
in you'll see them starting to thicken up the mixture.
It becomes a thicker chocolate sauce and also gets shinier
as the richness of the eggs gets mixed through.
Sift in your flour.
Fold it into the mixture carefully and thoroughly.
This binds everything together.
Then our final addition to lighten, our egg whites.
I've added in a quarter of the egg whites.
That softens up the mixture before I add the remaining three-quarters.
It's preparing the chocolate for the greater volume of egg white.
Add the rest of your egg whites and gently fold them through,
turning the bowl as you go.
Keep folding until all of the egg white has been incorporated
and you have a silky smooth chocolate mixture.
Spoon the mixture into your serving dishes, being careful not to overfill
as the egg in the mixture will cause it to expand.
That's now ready to go into my preheated oven.
I have my water. I brought my kettle up to the boil.
I'm going to fill the water to halfway up along our containers.
That protects the containers from the direct heat of the oven.
Start off cooking them for 10 minutes, then we'll turn down
the temperature and cook them for the rest of the time.
The pudding has been resting for about 10 minutes.
I like to serve it warm but not red hot from the oven.
I find the flavour of the chocolate is better that way.
Just pop it out like that.
Don't forget about the little disc of parchment paper.
It needs the little dusting of icing sugar just before you're going to serve it.
Then you serve your cream and chocolate sauce seperately.
If you're doing individual ones, you can do the whole thing on the plate.
Some chocolate sauce.
Lovely. Finally what really is the perfect accompaniment here,
a little dollop of softly whipped cream.
So ice cold cream, chocolate prune-filled pudding with
a little hit of armagnac, mahogany coloured chocolate sauce.
Chocolate heaven.
: Tracey Carr, RTE 2015.