traditional - ProWare Kitchen

Paul Foster’s Carbonara

October 24, 2023 12:08 pm Comments Off

A few words from Paul…

“Carbonara is one of the dishes that epitomises Italy’s cuisine. It’s simple, beautiful, and pure, but so easy to mess up.

When I was young my understanding of a carbonara was any pasta, sliced ham, mushrooms, double cream, and cheddar cheese. It wasn’t until 2002 when I was 20 years old and picked up a copy of Heston Blumenthal’s Family Food and read his recipe. Whilst it wasn’t 100% authentic it changed the way I thought about this dish, and I wanted to find out more. I fell in love with the technique of creating the rich sauce through the egg, cheese and pasta water. There is skill and discipline in getting it just right. Too much heat and it’s scrambled egg, not enough and it’s thin and raw tasting without the gloss.

The classic recipe calls for guanciale which is a cured pig cheek bacon that has a high ratio of fat. I get mine from Salt Pig Curing who are my favourite English charcutier company. Guanciale is hard to get hold of in this country so don’t guilt yourself if you have to use pancetta just get the best you can afford, and you will still produce a lovely dish.

This dish will be quite tricky for novices, but stick at it as practice makes perfect. For professionals, you will notice a little difference in this dish. Whilst I have full respect for the original, this method is slightly tweaked to get a better sauce.

I had read into this method and was inspired by visit my visit to Lucciano Cucina in Rome. Chef Luciano Monosilio is known as the carbonara king which is a very worthy title in my opinion. He uses the same ingredients apart from switching out some of the pecorino for grana padano, I agree that this gives a better flavour balance.

The key difference is that instead of making a paste of the cheese and egg yolk he makes almost a hollandaise style sauce using the egg yolks and cheese then whisks in them and guanciale fat. It was without doubt the best carbonara I have ever eaten I was so inspired by this I have done a similar technique below. This gives a more of a custardy kind of feel to the sauce. I will never make it another way now.”

We don’t know about you, but Paul Foster’s Carbonara is now our ONLY Carbonara!

Serves: 4 (primi portion)
Medium skill

Ingredients for Paul Foster’s Carbonara

280g dried spaghetti
5 eggs
30g Pecorino Romano (to finish)
30g Grana Padano
200g Guanciale
Black pepper

Equipment

Stainless Steel Tri-Ply 24cm Frying Pan
Knife
Chopping board
Wooden spoon
Sieve
Tongs
Medium sized bowl

Cooking Method for Paul Foster’s Carbonara

Trim the dry exterior off the guanciale, cut into thick lardons around 2cm in width, and then spread them out evenly in a cool dry Stainless Steel Tri-Ply 24cm Frying Pan and heat slowly.
Colour all over and remove from the heat, strain off the fat and keep warm so it doesn’t solidify.
Cook the pasta in boiling salted water until al dente.
Whilst the pasta is cooking, put the egg yolks into a large bowl with a spoon of the pasta water. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk to a light fluffy sabayon.
Finely grate the cheese and whisk it into to the yolks.
Remove from the heat when the egg yolks are light, airy and leave a whisk trail when you lift it.
Season with a twist of black pepper and slowly whisk in the warm guanciale fat.
When the pasta is cooked, drain and add to the sauce, toss well and add the guanciale. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Twist the pasta in a ladle with large tweezers and spoon into a warm bowl.
Evenly spread out the guanciale and finish the dish with grated pecorino and a twist of black pepper.

Paul Foster’s Valencia Style Paella

October 18, 2023 9:38 am Comments Off

A few words from Paul…

“In the UK we tend to think of paella as a seafood rice dish. As tasty as that version is, the original comes from Valencia in Eastern Spain and contains chicken, rabbit, and snails but no seafood.

I like nothing more than eating a seafood paella full of fresh mussels, langoustines, prawns, and squid with a bottle of white wine by the coast, but as there are so many variations of this dish across Spain, I wanted to develop a recipe that fully respected its origins.

Eastern Spain is one of the most important rice growing regions in the country. 1200 years ago, rice was introduced to the Spanish moors and the farmers would cook rice in a pan over a wood fire to share for lunch.

For this dish its best to use the leg, shoulder and wing cuts as they don’t overcook and have a better texture. There are many stories about where the name paella is said to come from but the most likely is that it came from the name of the pan it is cooked and served in.

Once you have mastered the technique for a paella then you can experiment and adapt the ingredients. The key is the cooking of the rice… don’t be scared of keeping the heat high as that’s what builds the ‘socarrat’ which is the crust that forms on the bottom and sides of the pan, and in my opinion the best part of a good paella.”

Serves: 2
Medium skill

Ingredients for Paul Foster’s Valencia Style Paella

250g rabbit on the bone
250g chicken on the bone
50g extra virgin olive oil
1 ripe tomato
100g of runner beans cut into 2 inch pieces
100g tinned butter beans drained
250g Bomba rice
800g chicken stock
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
saffron, small pinch
Sweet smoked paprika, small pinch
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
Salt

Equipment

Stainless Steel Tri-Ply 24cm Frying Pan
Knife
Chopping board
Tongs

Cooking Method for Paul Foster’s Valencia Style Paella

Cut the rabbit and chicken into evenly sized pieces, around 60g-70g each.
In a paella pan or large frying pan, add the oil and heat on high. Next, add the meat (skin side down) and fry on high heat until golden brown.
Add the runner beans to the pan and then fry with the meat for 1 minute.
Sprinkle in the smoked paprika and stir well.
Chop the garlic finely and add to the pan, stir and cook for 2 minutes.
Grate the tomato to a pulp and then add it to the pan. Cook for 1 minute until it starts to catch lightly on the bottom of the pan.
Bring the stock to the boil and add to the pan, keeping it on a high heat, so it comes straight back to the boil. Then sprinkle in the saffron and add the butter beans.
Add the bomba rice and stir in well to ensure it is well incorporated.
Keep the rice on full heat for 10 minutes and don’t stir at all.
After 10 minutes, turn down to a low heat and cook for 5/6 minutes.
Remove from the heat, place 2 sprigs of rosemary on top, and cover with a tea towel. Leave it for 2 minutes so the rice takes on the aroma of the rosemary.
Serve immediately in the middle of the table in the cooking pan.

Traditional Scottish Cullen Skink

July 20, 2023 11:49 am Comments Off

We love this Traditional Scottish Cullen Skink recipe. One of the favourites among the ProWare staff of all our 6 nations Rugby recipes, this hearty Scottish soup will surely be enjoyed by all. This soup is very similar to an American/Canadian chowder but has a more smokier taste to it.

When making this recipe it’s best to use un-dyed fish, in fact you can also substitute any smoked fish you wish! A yellow looking dyed haddock is available at most supermarkets but the colour comes from a dye rather than the smoking process. You can find un-dyed smoked haddock at Waitrose, Ocado or a fish monger, it is kiln smoked rather than ‘liquid smoked’.

Cullen skink is very simple with only a few ingredients and as such we were very pleased with the delicious result. There isn’t even garlic in it and I love garlic! It’s definitely not lacking without it.

Our 26cm Copper Base Sauté Pan is the perfect pan for poaching the haddock in this recipe. It has a larger capacity than it’s Copper Tri-ply equivalent, glass lid so you can see exactly when it starts to boil as well as having much deeper sides therefore enabling you to poach the large portion of haddock in one go.

You also don’t need to eat a large bowl of it as it’s very filling and we like that it’s not too rich at the same time too. Enjoy!

Serves: 4-5
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

900g Smoked Haddock
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 leek, finely chopped
1L whole milk
30ml butter
500-600g potatoes (we used 3 medium sized potatoes), peeled and cubed
Salt and pepper to taste
1 bay leaf
Chopped chives
A small amount of butter/oil for frying

Equipment

Chopping board
26cm Copper Base Sauté Pan
Copper Base 24cm Stockpot or 20cm Saucepan
Wooden spoon
Slotted spoon
Ladle
Peeler
Potato Masher

Cooking Method

Lay the fish in the sauté pan and cover with milk. Add the bay leaf, cover and gently bring to the boil. Once the milk has boiled, the fish should be cooked. Remove a piece of fish to test, it should easily flake. Then remove the rest of the fish from the pan and set aside to cool.
Place the stockpot/saucepan over a low to medium heat and melt the butter. Add the onion and leek then sweat the vegetables with the lid on without browning them for about 10 minutes.
Once softened, add the potato and stir to coat with butter. Pour in 700ml of the haddock cooking liquid, 250ml of water and add the bay leaf. Bring to a simmer and cook until the potato is tender.
While the potato is cooking, flake the haddock into bite sized pieces removing any skin and bones as you go.
Once the potato is tender use your slotted spoon to remove about 1/3 of the potato and leek mixture and set to one side in a bowl.
Discard the bay leaf and mash the remaining potatoes in the pan until the soup has thickened to your liking. Now add 3/4 of the haddock to the saucepan and return the un-mashed potatoes, onions and leeks.
Give your saute pan a quick rinse out and heat some oil/butter in the bottom of the pan to a high heat and quickly fry the remaining haddock until slightly crisp on the edges.
Season the soup to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Top each bowl with the crispy haddock mixture, a sprinkling of chives and enjoy with a slice of sourdough bread.

Tag Archive: traditional