Gordon ramsay fast food pdf

These cuts are never as flavoursome and can be very tough. They are better suited to slower pot-roasting, with a bit of liquid in the pan to keep them moist. Meat needs to breathe, so remove any plastic wrapping straight away. This is particularly important with vacuum-packed cuts, which will otherwise marinate in their own blood and take on a nasty metallic taste.

Always defrost meat slowly, ideally in the fridge or at room temperature. Never defrost raw meat in the microwave or all the juices will seep out and the meat will toughen. The method described below will produce six joints of dark brown meat wings, thighs and drumsticks and two beautiful plump breasts.

Open up the chicken legs and pierce the skin where the thigh joins the body. Holding the bird steady, pull the leg out and down until the thighbone pops out of its socket. Cut through the skin and sinew with a sharp knife until you can pull the thigh and drumstick off in one piece.

Turn the bird around and repeat with the other side. The thigh is great for roasting or barbecuing, but the drumstick is the most difficult part to cook evenly. A trick is to slice through to the bone about halfway down the drumstick, where the meat gives way to skin and sinew.

Scrape away the tendons until you expose a length of bare bone. Keep the knuckle for making stock. Pull out the wings and feel with your thumb for where the bone joins the body.

Slice through and take off the wing. You can also slice off the wing tips for stock if you like. Place the chicken on a board with its neck end towards you. When you reach the wishbone, pull the knife out slightly, tilt it slightly upwards and, using your other hand to guide the blade, push it through the wishbone. You should now be able to work the breast free of the breastbones.

Keep the carcass for making stock. Using your knife to loosen the meat from the bones, pull the chicken flesh away, as though ripping open a shirt, to expose its ribcage. Repeat on the other side. Now continue to work around the ribcage, releasing the wing bones as you do so, until you have released the breastbone from the breast.

Cut the two tendons at either end of the ribcage and you should now be able to remove the carcass, leaving a single piece of meat, all of uniform thickness. As a rule, the leaner and more delicate the cut of meat, the quicker you want to cook it, or else it will toughen up and dry out. Fattier cuts need slower cooking so that the fat can melt into the meat and imbue it with flavour.

This is what will give your finished dish that lovely, Marmitey richness and is essential for everything from a pork loin to a sirloin steak or a lamb casserole.

If doing the latter, the key thing is to get your pan good and hot so that it drives off the moisture in the meat instantly and starts browning it. If the pan is not hot enough, the meat will start to boil in its juices and then it will never brown. Put in a swirl of oil — groundnut, rapeseed or light olive oil are all good, but not butter as that will burn unless the meat is very thin and will cook in seconds — and once it is almost smoking, add the meat. It should sizzle as soon as it hits the pan.

Also, avoid the temptation to fiddle with it. People often feel they are being better cooks if they are constantly prodding or stirring but sometimes you need the confidence to leave things alone. Bring your steak to room temperature 20 minutes before cooking; otherwise, the outside will be cooked before the middle has had a chance to warm through. Meat at room temperature will also absorb the seasoning better. Pour some groundnut or other neutral-flavoured oil into the pan.

Rapeseed is also good as it has a high burning point, which means you can get more colour on to the steak. Wait until the oil is almost smoking, then lay in the steak, with the fat to the back of the pan.

Finally, use your tongs to hold the steak up and cook the fat. The best way to tell if a steak is cooked is by feel. A rare steak will have the same texture as the fleshy base of your thumb when the hand is open. It will feel slightly firmer and is equivalent to a medium steak. If you move your thumb over to touch your little finger, the fleshy base feels very firm and is equivalent to well done. Now leave the steak to rest in a warm place for up to 5 minutes.

This will allow the muscle fibres to relax and redistribute the moisture throughout the meat. First prepare the peppers. Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan, then add the onion and peppers. Add the vinegar and let it bubble for a minute or two until it has reduced and the peppers are soft.

Turn down the heat, add the tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and cook for a further 2—3 minutes. Stir in the shredded basil and continue to cook for 30 seconds, then turn off the heat. Wipe the pan clean, ready to cook the pork. This will stop the meat from curling up during cooking and will make it cook more evenly. Season the chops really well on both sides, pushing the seasoning into the meat.

Add the chops, garlic and thyme and fry for 2—3 minutes until coloured. Turn and fry for a further 2—3 minutes on the other side, pushing the thyme under the chops and breaking up the garlic a little. Towards the end of cooking time, add 3 knobs of butter and baste the chops with it as they are cooking, to speed up the cooking process and keep the chops moist. Push the fatty edge of the chops towards the back of the pan to help render the fat. Transfer the chops to a plate, and rest for 5—10 minutes, spooning over the basting butter now and again.

Serve the chops on top of the peppers with the resting juices and a little juice from the peppers. Now slice down from the top, almost like peeling an orange, working your way around the pepper, to leave a tree of seeds.

Now place the pepper slices down on the worktop, and holding them down with your three middle fingers, cut them into slices. This dish shows just how good it can be, cooked in a wonderfully sticky marinade.

Shaoxing is a Chinese rice wine. Serve with rice or noodles. Cut each chicken thigh into three pieces, then mix together all the marinade ingredients with 2 tablespoons of water. Use to coat the chicken. Season and mix well, then leave to marinate for up to 2 hours. Heat a heavy-based frying pan or a wok over a high heat, add a little oil and fry the garlic, ginger and chilli for 3 minutes until tender and aromatic. Add the Sichuan peppercorns and orange zest and stir over the heat for 30 seconds.

Add the chicken and the marinade. Sprinkle in the sugar and stir well. Cover the pan and cook the chicken over a medium heat for 20—25 minutes until coloured on all sides and the marinade has reduced to a sticky sauce. To serve, add the spring onions and a drizzle each of soy sauce and sesame oil. Baby new potatoes and chopped greens would make ideal accompaniments. Score the skin of the duck breasts in a crisscross pattern, then rub with salt and pepper.

Place them skin side down in a dry hob- proof roasting tray and cook over a very low heat to render most of the fat. This may take 10—15 minutes. Meanwhile, make the sauce. Place the red wine in a pan with the garlic and thyme and boil for 7—8 minutes until reduced by half. Pour in the stock and reduce again by half. Stir the blackcurrant jam into the sauce and add a few knobs of butter to give it a shine. Taste and adjust the seasoning, then strain through a fine sieve and discard the solids.

Turn up the heat under the duck breasts and fry for about 5 minutes until the skin is crisp. Place the tray in the hot oven for 8—10 minutes until the duck is slightly springy when pressed. Rest the duck breasts on a warm plate for 5 minutes, then cut into slices on the diagonal. Place on warmed serving plates. Spoon over the blackcurrant sauce and serve. Duck breast, however, should be added to a cold pan and slowly brought up to temperature. This is because the breast skin is very fatty and needs time for the fat to run out into the pan, or render.

If you added the breast to a hot pan, it would seal the fat in. Trust me. First make the barbecue sauce. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and garlic with some seasoning and the sugar, and fry for 5 minutes until softened. Add the paprika and stir to combine. Cook for 10—15 minutes until the onion is caramelising, then add the vinegar and let it cook out for a couple of minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

While the barbecue sauce is reducing, start preparing the burger mince. Fry the bacon in an oiled pan for about 5 minutes until almost cooked through. Add the shallot and continue to cook for 5 minutes until the shallot is tender and the bacon crisp.

Sprinkle in the smoked paprika and mix well. Season the minced pork and mix well with the cooked shallots and bacon. Shape into balls the size of golf balls and flatten into patties. Heat a large, heavy-based frying pan with a little oil. Season the patties and cook them for 1—2 minutes on each side, basting with the juices until cooked through and coloured. Turn off the heat and leave them to rest in the pan. Top each patty with a slice of cheese, allowing it to melt slightly.

Assemble your sliders in mini buns, layered with the barbecue sauce, lettuce and slices of tomato. Any remaining barbecue sauce will keep in the fridge very well. It will slice very easily and the sweetness of the chestnuts is set off with a simple parsley vinaigrette. First prepare the stuffing. Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat and add a glug of oil. Add the celery, then stir in the pine nuts and chestnuts, taste and season well. Add the cooked rice and parsley, stir again, then taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

Place the deboned chicken skin side down on a work surface. Season inside. Place the stuffing in the centre of the chicken and fold the sides around it. Tie the chicken at regular intervals with string, then turn the parcel over so that the breast faces upwards. Drizzle olive oil over the outside of the chicken and season with salt and pepper. Remove and rest for 15 minutes before serving. Meanwhile, make the parsley dressing. Finely chop the parsley and garlic. Mix with the mustard and vinegar, then add the olive oil bit by bit, whisking continuously to thicken.

Serve the stuffed chicken in slices with the dressing spooned on top. You take a rare beef fillet, add home-made relish and mustard mayonnaise, and sandwich it between two pieces of toasted ciabatta. Heat a large ovenproof frying pan until hot and add a glug of oil. Grind a generous amount of salt and pepper onto a board and roll the fillet in the seasoning.

Fry over a high heat for 1—2 minutes on each side until gently coloured all over, including the ends. Add a couple of knobs of butter, spooning it over the steak to baste. Place the beef in the preheated oven and roast for 15—17 minutes until rare or medium rare. It should feel springy when pressed. Remove from the oven, cover loosely with foil and leave to rest for 15 minutes, basting now and again with the juices from the pan.

Meanwhile, make the relish. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, add the onion and chillies and fry over a medium heat for about 5 minutes until softened. Stir in the tomatoes, then season and cook for 6—8 minutes until the tomatoes are beginning to collapse. Add the vinegar and stew down over a medium heat for about 6 minutes until reduced to a rough relish consistency.

Remove from the heat, stir in the basil and season well. Tip into a serving bowl and set aside. Season, then spoon into a serving bowl and set aside. To make the toast, heat a griddle pan until smoking hot. Drizzle the sliced ciabatta with the olive oil, season and then griddle for 1—2 minutes until golden on both sides.

Repeat until all the bread is toasted and then place on a serving platter. Lay the joint, skin side down, on a chopping board and cut three-quarters of the way into the flesh lengthways from top to bottom.

Open the meat out to form a long rectangle and season with salt and pepper. Scatter the leaves from 1 sage sprig on top, and roll the meat up to enclose the stuffing. Tie at 3cm intervals along the length of the meat with string.

Place the thyme and remaining sage in a hob-proof roasting tray with the garlic. Lay the pork on top, skin side up. Drizzle with olive oil and season generously with salt and pepper. Remove the pork from the tin and set aside on a serving dish to rest. Put the roasting tray on the hob.

Pour in the sherry and bring to the boil, scraping up any bits stuck in the bottom of the tray. Lower the heat, squash the garlic and remove the herbs.

Add any resting juices from the meat. Heat a large saucepan over a medium heat and add a little oil. Fry the fennel sausages for 3—4 minutes until coloured on all sides. Remove and set aside. Add the chorizo pieces, cut side down, and fry for 2—3 minutes until they start to release their coloured oil and begin to crisp up. Turn over and colour on the other side for a minute or two. Remove and set aside with the sausages. Add the garlic, celery and carrots to the pan and stir for 2 minutes until the garlic is tender.

Stir in the lentils, then return the sausages and chorizo to the pan with the bay leaf and thyme springs. Stir well. Add ml of the stock, then taste and season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer gently for 25—30 minutes until the sausages are cooked through, the lentils tender and the stock well flavoured. Discard the bay leaf and thyme sprigs and serve the bollito misto in shallow bowls, garnished with the chopped parsley.

Try to stuff the breasts a day ahead as it helps to tenderise the meat even more. Serve with mashed potatoes and buttered kale. Open out the lamb breasts and place them on a chopping board.

Season each one on both sides with salt and pepper. Scatter the oregano, chilli flakes and three- quarters of the lemon zest evenly over the fleshy side of the meat. Arrange the anchovies equally over each breast. Starting at the smaller end of the meat, roll each breast into a tight sausage shape and tie at intervals with string.

Remove the lamb and set aside, then add the onion and garlic to the pan. Cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes until soft and coloured. Add the pinches of chilli flakes and oregano, the remaining lemon zest, then the capers and olives.

Add the wine to deglaze the pan, scraping up any bits from the bottom. Boil for 5 minutes, then add the tomatoes and gently bring back to the boil. Baste and turn the meat often.

Remove the meat from the oven and let it rest for a couple of minutes before slicing thickly. Skim any excess fat from the pan, then spoon the sauce over the lamb. I would never use them to finish a dish, but they can work well in a slow braise, where they will naturally rehydrate and flavour the meat.

Never use as much as you would fresh, though, as the flavour can be very concentrated. Here it is coloured in a pan and then braised in chicken stock, butter and Marsala.

Heat a heavy-based pan over a medium heat and add a little oil. Season the chicken on both sides, and place it, skin side down, in the hot pan. Add the chicory, cut side down, 2 thyme sprigs and the garlic and cook for 3—4 minutes until the chicken skin is dark golden. Turn the chicken and chicory over. Cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, occasionally spooning over the sauce, until the chicken is just cooked through. Serve the chicken and chicory topped with spoonfuls of sauce and garnished with the remaining thyme sprigs.

Season the brisket all over with salt and pepper. Heat a large flameproof casserole dish or high- sided roasting tray on the hob. Turn the heat down to medium, add the carrot, celery, garlic and spices and stir them through the oil at the bottom of the pan. Pour in enough water to almost cover the brisket. Bring to the boil, then cover tightly. Transfer the dish to the preheated oven and leave to cook for 3—4 hours, turning the meat halfway through, until it is really tender.

Meanwhile, make the salad. Boil the new potatoes in salted water for about 15 minutes until tender and cooked through.

Blanch the cauliflower and green beans by dropping them into boiling salted water for 2 minutes until their rawness has been removed but they are still crunchy. Refresh immediately in cold water. To make the dressing, stir the mustard powder into the wholegrain mustard, making sure there are no lumps. Add the honey and vinegar, mix well, then slowly pour in the oil, stirring as you do so to thicken.

Dress the salad and season with salt and pepper to taste. Slice the rested brisket and serve with the salad. In the restaurant we remove the legs and wings, and poach the crown in flavoured stock before quickly roasting it at a high temperature. Season the guinea fowl with salt and pepper, cover the breast with the bacon and place in a roasting tray. Melt the butter in a cast-iron frying pan and carefully lay the apple slices in the butter.

They need to be kept in a single layer, so cook in batches if necessary. Brush the breast of the bird with the remaining melted butter and season again. Pour over half the cream, then place in the preheated oven and cook for 20 minutes. Remove the bacon and set aside. Remove the guinea fowl from the oven and transfer to a warm plate with the bacon. Add the brandy and the remaining cream to the tray and bring to the boil. Pour the sauce over the guinea fowl and serve immediately, with the reserved bacon on the side.

Once I started cooking professionally, though, I slowly came to see how exciting they could be, how they could take dishes in a totally new direction. I remember visiting a market in Cochin and seeing all the ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom and saffron piled up and knowing I had to learn the art of spicing. If you learn to use spices confidently they can add a new dimension to your cooking. The trick is to find the balance of flavours that really suit you.

They help to meld all the other flavours and make them stronger for it, and provide the backbone on which the other ingredients will rest. By seasoning confidently, and early on in the cooking process, you lock in the flavours and allow them to permeate the whole dish. People are sometimes shocked at how much seasoning professional chefs use. When we say a pinch, we sometimes mean a handful. SALT I never have refined table salt in my house, not even for salting vegetable water.

I always use sea salt — fleur de sel from Brittany out of preference, but Maldon salt from Essex is very good too. I find the minerals in it give it a more complex flavour, and again you need less of it. It should be a similar ratio for boiling vegetables. PEPPER All pepper is not the same either, although the three types — black, green and white — all come from the same bush.

Black peppercorns are fully mature and have the strongest flavour. Green peppercorns are immature berries that are either dried or brined. They are milder and much used in Asian cooking. They tend to have a more nose-prickling quality but lack the brute strength of black ones. They are generally used for aesthetic purposes — in a white sauce, for example, where you might not want to have black specks.

It has a mild lemony flavour and causes a slight tingling around the mouth when you eat it. So the first rule is not to buy in bulk.

Only purchase what you think you will need within the next six months or so. Keep them in an airtight container, away from direct sunlight and heat a tin is better than a jar for this reason. Listed opposite are the basic spices I keep to hand. You can either add the pod whole, or crush it to extract the seeds, which can then be ground if you like. Cayenne pepper is specifically from the cayenne chilli. CLOVES These dried flower buds, with their medicinal flavour, are essential in dishes as diverse as bread sauce, roast gammon, apple crumble and mulled wine.

Go easy with them, as they can easily overpower. Great with cumin in home-made burgers or poaching liquor for fish. A little goes a long way. An essential part of home-made ras el hanout, a Moroccan spice mix also containing cinnamon, cloves, coriander and cumin. But ground ginger is also useful, particularly in baking. Their natural fieriness is tempered when they are roasted and they become nuttier in flavour.

Essential in Indian cooking. Nutmeg is essential in a traditional white sauce or rice pudding. It can be sweet or hot, smoked or unsmoked, and is a characteristic feature of Spanish and Hungarian cooking. It lends itself to everything from lamb casserole to tarte tatin. Place them in a dry pan over a medium heat and shake the pan until the spices give off a warm, nutty aroma — about a minute.

Alternatively, if the recipe calls for leaving the spices whole, you can fry them gently in oil. Be careful, though, as spices can quickly burn, so you need to keep stirring them.

Add more oil or a little water if they start to catch. Nowadays most supermarkets stock a choice of varieties and there are lots of chilli farms that will do mail order. Which chillies you use in your cooking depends on how spicy you like your food. The heat comes from an alkaloid called capsaicin and is measured in units known as Scovilles.

Sold dried, or in a sweet adobo sauce, it adds a rich spiciness to braised meats and sauces. If you want to reduce the heat of a chilli, remove the seeds before cooking as these are the fieriest part.

To do this, hold the chilli between the palms of your hands and rub them together backwards and forwards. Now cut the top off and shake the chilli to release all the seeds. To chop chillies finely, see here. Every household would have its own favourite blend of spices, with subtle distinctions. Below is my version of a spicy Madras mix, which takes a simple sweetcorn soup into another league.

First make the curry paste. Grind in a mortar to a fine powder, then add the garlic and grind to form a smooth paste. Add the chilli powder, turmeric, ginger and salt and mix well. Loosen by adding a little oil. To make the soup, heat a large oiled saucepan over a medium heat. Sweat the onion for 5 minutes until soft but not coloured. Add the curry paste and cook with the onion for about 2 minutes until aromatic. Add the potato and stir around in the curry paste.

Lower the heat and simmer gently for about 7 minutes until the potato is soft and cooked through. Heat through, then remove from the heat and blend with a stick blender until the chunks of potatoes have been fully blitzed and the soup is smooth. Add the remaining tinned sweetcorn and its liquid. Heat, taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary. I know some people might baulk at so much spice for breakfast but they are strangely addictive.

Remove from the heat. Sift in the flour, season and make a well in the middle, then break in the egg and add half of the milk. Whisk the flour into the egg slowly until well incorporated, then gradually add the remaining milk. Continue whisking until the mixture is smooth and has the consistency of double cream. Whisk in 1 teaspoon of oil, then taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Leave the batter to rest for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, make the spiced potato filling. Heat a little oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat, add the mustard seeds and cook for 1—2 minutes until the seeds begin to pop. Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes until soft and golden brown. Stir in the turmeric and cooked potatoes and season, adding a dash of olive oil if necessary to aid frying.

Leave to one side while you cook the pancakes. Heat a large, wide frying pan, then add a little oil. If the batter has thickened too much, add a tablespoon or two of milk. Pour in a ladleful of batter and tilt the pan to spread the batter out. Cook for a minute on one side until golden and crisp, then flip the pancake and continue to cook for a further minute until cooked through. Mix the yoghurt and coriander together and season to taste.

To serve, place a large spoonful of the potato filling in the middle of each pancake, adding a dollop of the yoghurt if you like, then roll up into a sausage shape. Heat a large, heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat. Add a little oil and gently cook the cobs in the pan for about 5 minutes until coloured and lightly charred all over. Add 3—4 tablespoons of water to the pan and continue to cook over a medium heat for about 8 minutes until the liquid has evaporated and the corn is cooked through turn down the heat if it starts to colour too much.

Once the corn is cooked, remove and cover with knobs of the chipotle butter, allowing it to melt over the corn. Sprinkle over the cheese and serve with wedges of lime. First make the spice blend. Break the cinnamon stick into pieces.

Place in a dry pan with the cloves and seeds, and toast over a medium heat for about 1 minute until aromatic and the seeds are popping shake the spices in the pan as you heat them to prevent them from burning. Once toasted, remove from the heat, and add the paprika.

Place in a spice grinder, blender or mortar and grind until the mixture is a powder — sift it if necessary. Make the houmous. In a large bowl mix the cubed squash, garlic cloves and ginger with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of the spice mix. Season with salt and pepper and scatter in a single layer in a roasting tray. Once the squash is soft, add the contents of the tray to a blender, discarding the garlic skins.

Add the tahini, chickpeas and a squeeze of lemon juice along with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Blend until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary — you might need some extra lemon juice.

Transfer the houmous to a bowl and sprinkle with a little of the spice mix. If you prefer not to fry the noodles, you can simply rehydrate them according to the packet instructions.

Heat a saucepan over a medium heat and add a little oil. Fry the onion for 3—4 minutes until soft, then add the garlic, chilli and ginger and fry for a further 2 minutes until the garlic is soft. Stir in the lemongrass and lime leaf. Sprinkle in the spices, being careful not to burn them, and immediately add the stock and coconut cream. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer gently for 10—15 minutes until the sauce is slightly thickened, aromatic and flavourful.

Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary, adding more fish sauce if needed. As soon as they puff out, turn them over with kitchen tongs, and cook on the other side for 1 minute. Do not allow them to colour at all. Remove, drain on kitchen paper and repeat with the remaining batches of noodles. Place the noodle nests in 2 wide serving bowls.

Remove the lemongrass and lime leaves from the sauce, then spoon it around the noodles. Serve garnished with coriander leaves and chilli. Season the steaks generously on both sides, pushing the seasoning into the meat. Add a dash of oil to a hot pan and fry the steaks over a high heat on either side for 2—3 minutes medium rare. Hold the fat side of the steaks against the pan to render the fat.

When cooked to your liking, remove the steaks from the heat and leave to rest, pouring any cooking juices on top. To make the dressing, put the garlic and chilli in a mortar with a pinch of salt and grind to a paste. Add the sugar, fish sauce and lime juice and stir with a spoon. Taste, add a little more lime juice if needed, and set aside.

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