Gordon Ramsay's Secrets

You might expect recipes from Gordon Ramsay to be incredibly complicated but continuing on the theme, that his adoring public want recipes that they can cook at home, he has once again pulled the rabbit out of the hat. This book exceeds all expectations: it is pure excellence, not that we would expect anything less from Gordon Ramsay. He has managed so successfully to transcribe restaurant food to cooking food in the home that by reading this book, you can push your cooking onto another level.

Of course there are some fiddly recipes, which if you have the time are worth the effort but it is the useful asides and chef's tips that will make all the difference. Having said that, there are lots of recipes that work incredibly well and it goes without saying, that to achieve outstanding results, you must use the best ingredients your money can buy.

Breast of guinea fowl with pomegranate dressing would make a festive dish, with its glorious colour. Pink grapefruit, the juice from orange and cranberries and some chopped walnuts pull the whole dish together. This works particularly well with pheasants too, just using the breasts. Follow Gordon's advice, when spooning out the pomegranate seeds, make sure that you remove all the yellow membrane as it is very sour.

Gordon Ramsay suggests serving cooked Little Gem lettuces as a vegetable and in his recipe for Fondue of Little Gem lettuce, he recommends that you fry the lettuce halves in olive oil until lightly caramelised before adding butter, chicken stock and thyme. Allow them to bubble away for about eight minutes when the stock will have become syrupy. This is an ideal accompaniment to fish and poultry.

You can see that this pudding, Passion fruit and orange tart, has a future where it will soon take the place of tarte au citron in supermarkets. The chocolate lined pastry case is filled with a mixture of passion fruit juice, oranges, eggs and cream. It is a dreamy concoction and again its flavours work well at Christmas time.

Now for some really useful chef's tips and asides, our top five that we have already put into practice.

Puff pastry discs cooked between two lined heavy baking sheets stops the pastry from rising but makes it melt in the mouth. Cook for about twelve minutes, remove the top sheet and lightly brown in the oven for a further three minutes. We ask, does this work with shop bought pastry? The jury is out on that one but we will get back to you.

Cooking fish with caramelised lemon slices gives a more intense flavour. Fry some thick slices in olive oil until they begin to brown.

Curry salt is useful for sprinkling on vegetables or shellfish. Mix one teaspoon of medium curry powder to every 2 teaspoons of fine sea salt. Mix up a batch and keep in a jar.

Cooking beetroot in skin on a bed of sea salt in foil parcel draws out the moisture. When it is cooked, just peel away the skins and you are left with sweet juicy beetroot.

If you want to recreate some restaurant ambience at home, vanilla fans will do the trick. If you have some discarded vanilla pods, having removed the seeds, don't throw them away. Keep one end of the pod intact and then split each pod lengthways as many times as you can. Put the pods on a lined baking sheet spreading the fans out. Cover with parchment and then place another baking sheet on top. Bake at 180°C, GM 4 for 20 - 25 minutes until the kitchen is filled with the smell of vanilla and it is worth it just for that. The resulting crisped fans can be used for decorating ice creams and puddings.

This just gives you a glimpse of what you can expect from Gordon Ramsay's Secrets. Of course, there are brilliant photographs by Georgia Glynn Smith and portraits of Gordon at the beginning of every chapter. Combine this with easy to follow recipes, success can only ensue.

Publication details:
224pp. Photography by Georgia Glynn Smith. £25
Published by Quadrille
ISBN 1844000370
2003

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