Simple Beginnings: Beading. Aiden Byrne

4

      75 ml white wine vinegar

      10 white peppercorns

      100 ml white wine

      3 large sprigs of thyme

      6 bay leaves

      1 onion, roughly chopped

      4 garlic cloves, sliced

      1 kg fresh cockles, rinsed in cold water for 2–3 hours to remove any sand

      150 g potato, peeled and finely sliced

      pinch saffron strands

      2 egg yolks

      200 ml vegetable oil, plus extra for frying

      juice of 1 lemon

      30 medium-sized nasturtium leaves

      24 multicoloured nasturtium flowers

      75 g ready-made tempura batter mix (available from Asian food stores)

      4 small red mullet fillets, scaled and pin-boned

      olive oil, for tossing

      1 large banana shallot, sliced into rings

      2 teaspoons superfine capers

      salt and pepper

      MAKE THE PICKLING liquor. Put the white wine vinegar and white peppercorns in a saucepan with half the white wine, half the thyme sprigs and half the bay leaves in a saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes. Leave to cool and season with a little salt.

      MIX THE ONION with the remaining wine, thyme and bay leaves and half the garlic. Heat your largest casserole-style pan for 5–6 minutes and add the drained cockles and the onion and wine mixture. Cover and cook for 3–4 minutes.

      POUR THE COCKLES onto a tray and allow them to cool slightly (reserving the cooking liquor). Pick the cockles out of their shell and put them straight into the pickling liquor. Leave them in the liquor for as long as possible, up to 24 hours.

      MAKE THE SAFFRON cream. Strain the liquid in which cockles were cooked through muslin or a very fine sieve place into a saucepan with the remaining garlic and the sliced potato and the saffron. Cook until the liquid is almost gone. While it still warm add the egg yolks and, using a whisk attachment on a hand blender gradually add the oil, as if you were making mayonnaise. Season with salt and lemon juice and set aside.

      MAKE UP THE BATTER according to the directions on the packet. Coat a quarter of the nasturtium flowers, leaves and cockles in the batter and fry in hot oil until crisp. Season with salt and lemon juice as soon as they come out of the fryer.

      SEASON THE FISH fillets and cook in a nonstick frying pan, skin side down, for about 1½ minutes until the skin is crisp. Turn the fish over and cook for a further 30 seconds. Season with lemon juice and cut each fillet into 3 pieces.

      TO SERVE, put some saffron cream on each plate. Toss the remaining cockles in a little olive oil and scatter them over each plate. Add the deep-fried cockles, flowers and leaves, and then sprinkle over the remaining leaves and flowers. Add the capers and shallot rings and finally scatter over the fish fillets.

      The trick with this recipe is to make the watercress stay as green as possible. Watercress is at its best in the summer months, and the English season runs from March to September. Like rocket, goats’ cheese and sun-dried tomatoes, watercress has suffered lately from having become rather trendy, but I still think it’s one of the most satisfying and vibrant leaves there is.

      Watercress Soup with Poached Cod and Hen’s Egg

      SERVES 4

      1 litre whole milk

      1 garlic clove, halved

      4 large sprigs of thyme

      1 kg cod fillet

      75 ml fish stock (see page 200)

      100 ml double cream

      2 kg watercress

      1 large potato, peeled and finely sliced

      1 large onion, peeled and finely sliced

      25 g butter

      1.5 litres boiling vegetable stock (see page 198)

      4 large organic hens’ eggs

      75 ml white wine vinegar

      2 tablespoons chopped chives

      salt

      cracked pepper

      BEFORE YOU START have a large bowl of iced water ready with another large bowl (preferably stainless steel) sitting on top of it so that you can chill the sieved soup immediately and keep its freshness and colour. Fill your deepest saucepan with water and bring to a high boil.

      HEAT THE MILK with the garlic and thyme sprigs, remove from the heat and leave to infuse. Meanwhile, season the cod with salt and cracked pepper. After 15 minutes return the milk to the heat, put the cod in the milk and allow it to cook slowly for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave the cod until the milk cools. Remove the fish from the milk and flake it onto a plate. Set aside.

      PUT THE FISH stock in a saucepan and heat to reduce by half. Add half the double cream, reduce the liquid again by half and keep warm.

      PICK THE LEAVES from the watercress stalks. Sweat the onion and potato together in the butter in a covered, heavy-bottomed pan, making sure that they do not colour. If the potato sticks add a little vegetable stock and remove the stuck potato with a wooden spoon. Cook until the potato is soft. Add two-thirds of the watercress leaves and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the hot vegetable stock and return to the boil. Add the rest of the cream and reboil. Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend in batches until smooth. Add the remaining watercress as you blend; this will give a fresher soup, in both flavour and colour. Pass the soup through your finest sieve into the bowl set on iced water then immediately transfer to the refrigerator.

      CRACK THE EGGS into four separate cups and turn down the boiling water to a low simmer. Add the vinegar and drop the eggs in one by one. (I don’t whisk the water, because if you have enough water the eggs should form teardrop shapes on their own.) Cook the eggs for 1½ minutes and plunge them into iced water to stop cooking.

      TO SERVE, gently reheat the soup. Reheat the cod flakes in the fish cream and add the chopped chives. Reheat the poached egg in hot water. Put the soup in four bowls, spoon in the creamed cod and top with a poached egg.

      This is a perfect vegetarian starter that would also serve two as a light lunch. It’s quite a substantial dish and has a very strong flavour.

      Tomato Confit and Braised Lettuce Tart with Braised Lettuce and Courgette Purée

      SERVES 4

      1 carrot

      1 shallot

      1 garlic clove

      4 sprigs of thyme

      4 baby gem lettuces, cut in to quarters lengthways

      300 ml vegetable stock (see page 198)

      1 packet ready-made puff pastry

      2 quantities tomato confit (see page 210)

      10 large torn basil leaves

      1 kg courgettes

      10 g butter