Italian Sourdough Bread and Cabbage Soup with Sage Butter

If you’ve been baking to your heart’s content through all the lockdowns, and are now wondering what to do with your leftover sourdough - I have a good suggestion for you – make it into this scrumptious Italian soup. This is a recipe adapted from the fab cookbook ‘Jamie at Home’ by Jamie Oliver. I have been making this soup since 2007 when I bought his book, but I have had to adapt it over the years, and I share my findings with you here.

This Italian soup is layered like a lasagne, with grilled slices of sourdough bread rubbed in raw garlic, cabbage and chicken stock. As it cooks, the bread plumps up just like a savoury Bread & Butter Pudding!

For me, the combination of 3 important ingredients with super high concentration of umami (glutamates) is what makes this soup so utterly special – anchovy, bacon and cheese (Cheddar/Parmesan).

Even the humble cabbage, you may be surprised to know, is a vegetable with good umami content (50mg/100g glutamates) adding its own flavour and richness to the dish. Cabbage is one of the most popular vegetables in Japanese cooking and at our home. I love it simply blackened under a very hot grill and then doused in Gomadare (a wonderfully creamy Japanese sesame dressing). Heavenly.

This is my adapted version of Jamie’s recipe:

Italian Bread and Cabbage Soup with Sage Butter

Ingredients:

• 3 litres of chicken or vegetable stock (Note A)
• 2 Savoy cabbages, outer/harder stalks removed, washed and roughly cut (Note B)
• 16-24 slices of stale sourdough bread (Note C)
• 4-6 garlic cloves, unpeeled (Note D)
• 90ml (6 tbsp) extra virgin olive oil + more for assembling the dish
• 14 slices of pancetta or good quality smoked streaky bacon, sliced
• 2x 50g tin of anchovy fillets in oil (100g in total)
• 5 fresh rosemary sprigs, leaves picked out and very finely chopped (Note E)
• 200g mature cheddar cheese, grated (Note F)
• 150g Parmesan cheese + a little more for serving, grated
• 150g unsalted butter
• 16-24 fresh sage leaves

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C. In a large pan, bring the stock to a boil, add the cabbage and cook for a few minutes until just softened. Remove the cabbage to a large bowl leaving the stock in the pan.

2. Toast all but 5-6 slices of sourdough breads on a hot griddle pan or in a toaster then rub them on one side with the garlic cloves and put aside. The untoasted slices will go on the top of the dish, so choose the best-looking ones and make sure they will cover the entire surface of your pan.

3. Next, heat a large 12cm deep oven proof casserole pan (I use a 26cm x 12cm cast iron pan) on a medium heat with the EVOO, add the pancetta or bacon and the anchovies, mix well. When the pancetta is golden brown and sizzling, add the rosemary and cooked cabbage and toss to coat the greens in all these wonderful flavours. Turn off the heat and transfer the mixture and all its juices into a large bowl.

4. You will need to have all the above ingredients grated, chopped or prepped and in separate bowls before assembling the dish. To assemble, we will do this as we would a lasagne. Cover the bottom of the pan with enough slices of toasted sourdough bread in one full layer. 

5. Spread over 1/3 of the cabbage leaf mixture, sprinkle over 1/4 of the grated cheddar and parmesan cheeses, and add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Repeat this twice. Pour in all the juices remaining in the bowl and end with a layer of un-toasted bread on top, push down on the layers with your hands.

6. Pour the stock gently over the top until it just comes up to the top layer. Push down again and sprinkle over the remaining grated cheddar and parmesan cheeses. Add a good pinch of freshly ground black pepper and a final drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Bake in the preheated oven, uncovered, for around 30 minutes or until crispy and golden on top.

7. A couple of minutes before the soup comes out of the oven melt the butter in a small frying pan and quickly fry the sage leaves until they are just crisp and the butter is lightly golden, keep warm.

8. When the soup is ready divide it among the number of bowls needed. For presentation, I like topping each bowl of soup with a small piece of the toasted cheesy bread from the top layer, so apportion it wisely. Spoon a bit of the flavoured butter and sage leaves over the that and add another grating of parmesan. Enjoy!

Notes:

A. Fresh, good quality stock is always the best option, but I have used Knorr cubes on numerous occasions for this recipe with similarly good results.

B. Jamies uses a mixute of 2/3 Savoy and 1/3 Cavolo Nero, I do too at times but if I only have Savoy in my fridge that is what I use. Cavolo Nero is harder than Savoy cabbage so soften them separately as they will cook at different speed. As for the roughly chopping, you want pieces of cabbages as opposed to chopping it to smidgens.

C. The number of slices will depend on the size of your bread and pan – I use a cast iron pan that is 26cm in diameter and 12cm in depth which takes about 20 slices and all other ingredients perfectly. You will want a good-looking pan to serve the soup at the table to your guests, the soup looks gorgeous straight out of the oven so choose an equally lovely pan.

D. Jamie calls for 1 garlic clove in his recipe which is far from being enough, I need about 5 at least, but in the unlikely event that you have any cloves leftover, just pop them in a bag and use them later for something else.

E. To avoid having hardy leaves of rosemary in your mouth when eating, do chop them finely. You will get more flavour out of them with none of the discomfort.

F. Jamie calls for Fontina cheese, though I was only able to find it a couple of times from specialist shops in the UK. Perhaps I haven’t been looking hard enough, but I find that cheddar is a great substitute here.

Slow-Braised Pork Belly in Honey Mead, Soy, Juniper Berries & Liquorice - My Recipe in Collaboration with Bombay Sapphire Gin

Gin is one of my very favourite tipples, so I was thrilled to be asked to take part in Bombay Sapphire’s The Grand Journey, taking place between 17 and 23 July 2017 at London’s Banking Hall. But best of all, I got to experiment with some of Bombay Sapphire's botanicals and create a new recipe which I am sharing with you below, but more on that later.

The Grand Journey will be an immersive drinking and dining experience which explores the ten botanicals from around the world used in Bombay Sapphire gin. Ten dishes have been newly created by Michelin-starred chef Tom Sellers of Story Restaurant especially for this event - each will feature one of these botanicals: juniper berries, citrus, angelica, orris root, coriander, liquorice, cassia bark, almonds, cubeb berries and West African grains of paradise.

I recently got to visit Story Restaurant to find out more, and to cook one of these dishes with Chef Tom Sellers. His scallop two ways uses Spanish lemons (one of the gin botanicals), and this is what we made together.

It was a delightful dish of raw and pan-fried scallops – Tom mixed diced raw scallops and apple with lemon, crème fraiche and fine slices of radish. The pan-fried scallop was served with a super-light and zingy lemon foam, a very sophisticated hollandaise-style creation brimming with flavour, zinginess and intense citrus flavours.

Bombay Sapphire brand ambassador Sean Ware was also at Story Restaurant to prepare some fabulous cocktails, some of which will be available at The Grand Journey. I was interested to hear that for Sean, the measurements for a perfect G&T are 100ml tonic to 50ml gin, with loads of ice.

But beyond that, one of Sean’s gin cocktails that really impressed me was the Maghreb Hi-Ball. Made from 1 part each of Bombay Sapphire gin, water, and Moroccan liqueur (a heady concoction of vodka, dried mint leaves, coriander seeds and saffron) to 2 parts of honey mead, garnished with fresh mint leaf, this was as exotic and spicy as it was refreshing.

This was also the first time I got to try mead, an ancient drink thought to be the oldest of all alcoholic beverages preceding even wine, made from fermented honey. Unsurprisingly, it has a pronounced taste of honey and a rich, luscious sweetness. With an alcohol content as high as 14.5%, it resembles a fortified wine.  

Inspired by this experience, I went back to my own kitchen and decided to play around with some of the botanicals in Bombay Sapphire gin, as well as honey mead. One ingredient I thought was crying out to be combined with these – PORK BELLY!

In this recipe, I use one of my favourite cuts of meat, which is a great accompaniment to the sweet flavours of the honey mead, the savouriness of dark Japanese soy sauce, and the botanicals licorice root and juniper berries. 

This is an easy dish to prepare, and one I hope you will try out at home – it will taste even better the next day. All you need is a bowl of white rice and a refreshing Bombay Sapphire gin and tonic to go with it.

Slow-Braised Pork Belly
in Honey Mead, Soy, Juniper Berries & Liquorice
With Tatsoi-Sesame Greens

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1kg g boneless pork belly, in one piece
• 200g raw brown rice

• 500ml chicken stock (or water)
• 240ml Honey Mead liqueur
• 120ml soy sauce
• 30g soft dark brown sugar
• 2 garlic cloves, lightly bruised with the back of a knife
• 8 dried juniper berries, lightly bruised with the back of a knife
• 5cm liquorice root (can substitute with 1 star anise, whole)

• 1 tbsp English mustard
• 1-2 tsp cornflour, dissolved into two tbsp water (optional)
• Baking paper, cut in a circle to the size of the casserole lid and with a centre vent/hole

For garnish:

• 200g Tatsoi greens (or Bok Choy), roughly chopped
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp toasted white sesame seeds (optional)
• Maldon sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper 

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy casserole over medium-high heat. Add the pork belly, skin side down, and sear until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Turn over and brown on the other side, about 5 minutes longer. Transfer the browned pork to a colander and run under hot water to remove excess oil. Pour off the fat from the casserole and wipe it clean.

2. Return the pork belly to the casserole. Sprinkle the raw brown rice over the meat. Pour in enough cold water to cover by an inch and bring to a simmer over high heat. Cover with the cut out circle of baking paper with a centre vent. Braise gently until the pork is tender when pierced with a knife, about 2 hours (and up to 6 hours). Add water to the pot if necessary, as the meat should be kept covered in liquid throughout this process. 

3. Carefully remove the pork, keeping it in one piece. Discard the rice and the cooking liquid and wash off any residue off the pork under running water. Dry the pork belly with kitchen paper or a clean tea towel, and let it cool down to room temperature. If not cooking right away, tightly wrap the pork in cling film and refrigerate it for up to 2 days.

4. Cut the pork crosswise into 4 to 8 square pieces of roughly equal size. In a heavy casserole, add the chicken stock, honey mead, brown sugar, garlic cloves, soy sauce, liquorice root or star anise and crushed juniper berries, stirring over high heat until all the ingredients are mixed completely. Add the pork into the pan and return to the boil. Then reduce to a simmer and cook, turning occasionally for 1-2 hours or until the pork is very tender.

5. Gently strain the cooking liquid into a clean pan, reduce over a high heat until lightly syrupy and concentrated for about 5 minutes. Do be careful not to over-reduce the sauce as it will become too salty; if you need some thickening help, dissolve the cornflour in a little cold water and whisk in, little by little, until the sauce thickens to a coating consistency. Check for seasoning and adjust.

6. To prepare your garnish, blanch the leaves and stalks of the tatsoi greens in plenty of boiling, salted water for 15 seconds, drain, squeezing as much water as possible with a clean tea towel. Transfer the greens to a bowl, season with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and a tsp each of toasted sesame oil and seeds, mix well. 

7. To serve, top each piece of pork with about 2 tablespoons of the reduced sauce, a dollop of English mustard and the tatsoi-sesame greens on the side.

For more information on Bombay Sapphire gins, cocktails and The Grand Journey, visit their website at http://www.bombaysapphire.com.

Nikkei Beef Picanha with Yuzu, Soy and Chilli Dressing - A Recipe & Competition for Your Chance to Win a Weber BBQ in Collaboration with Irish Beef

Nikkei cooking is a style of Japanese cuisine created by Japanese migrants in different places around the world with significant diasporas – South America is one of these regions, especially in Brazil and Peru.

When my Japanese family migrated to Brazil with millions of others, they yearned to eat the food they were accustomed to, but they lacked familiar ingredients in their new adopted home – so Nikkei cuisine was born, out of necessity, with Japanese inspired dishes being created at home, using the local ingredients they could find at the time.

One of these ingredients was beef picanha - but what exactly is it? 

The picanha beef cut comes from the cap lying above the top sirloin and rump areas; it is a triangular cut and just like the British rump, it has a beautiful layer of fat. It is not a muscle that moves much during the animal’s life, and so it remains tender. The picanha’s thick blanket of fat lends the meat flavour and succulence while protecting it from human error that may occur during grilling.  And because it is little known in Europe, picanha is still relatively cheap.

Picanha symbolizes the authentic Brazilian churrasco where it is grilled encased in a thick layer of rock salt and nothing else. Growing up in my Nikkei home in São Paulo, we tended to use rather less rock salt, but basted the meat in a mixture of soy sauce, lime, garlic and olive oil during grilling.

I am thrilled to discover excellent quality Irish picanha available in the UK, and share this Nikkei Beef Picanha recipe with you so you will not need to travel far to taste picanha. This is a favourite recipe of mine and one I serve often for friends and at my own #NikkkeiSupperClub. As well as being super easy to prepare, it is perfect for the Summer months and once you have tried picanha, I think you will be hooked!

This recipe was created in collaboration with Irish Beef. To learn more about Irish Beef and discover a number of mouth-watering recipes using Irish beef, visit their website here.

For a chance to win a Weber Barbecue and try this recipe out in your own garden, please enter the 'Summer Beef Encounters' competition in collaboration with Irish Beef by clicking here and vote for my Nikkei Beef Picanha recipe, please! Good luck!


Nikkei Beef Picanha 
with Yuzu, Soy and Chilli Dressing

Ingredients (serves 8):

• 1.3kg Irish beef picanha, whole piece
• 50g rock sea salt (do not use table or cooking salt or flakes)
• 120ml soy sauce
• 60ml extra-virgin olive oil
• 60ml yuzu juice (substitute with lime or lemon)
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 long red chilli, de-seeded and finely diced (keep ½ for decoration)

• Edible flowers like wild garlic, to decorate
• Micro coriander, to decorate
• ½ long red chilli, de-seeded and finely diced, to decorate (see above)

Method:

1. Score the fatty blanket on the picanha by making criss-cross cuts into the thick layer of fat covering one side. Cut the piece of picanha into 4 to 5 thick pieces of about 250g to 300g each about 5cm thick, keeping the fat covering the upper surface of each steak. 

2. Place the steaks on a tray and cover them thoroughly in the rock sea salt, this will help to seal in the juices of the meat. Table or cooking salt is too fine and more of it will be needed to do the same job resulting in a very salty barbecued picanha, so do stick to rock salt for this recipe. In addition, rock salt does not penetrate nearly as much as finer salts, giving a delicious and lightly salty crust to the meat. If your salt tolerance is low, you may prefer not to salt the beef and only use the dressing to season it as it is served.

3. Now make the soy & yuzu or lime dressing by mixing together the soy sauce, olive oil, yuzu or lime juice, crushed garlic cloves and ½ of diced red chilli - ½ of this dressing will be used for basting the meat while on the grill and the other ½ will be used as a dipping sauce to serve with the slices of beef.

4. BBQ Method - Get your barbecue hot and ready for the picanha, and generously brush the grill plates with oil. Grill the picanha pieces fat-side up for a few minutes until a little juice leaks out of the steaks. Turn the steaks onto their sides to grill for a few minutes more on each side.  Using a brush, baste the meat with the reserved ½ of soy and yuzu lime dressing every time your turn the steaks. Finally grill fat-side down, moving the steaks away from the hottest part of the fire to avoid over-cooking and to reduce the chance of the fire flaring up from the dripping fat. Grill to your desired doneness, it should take anything from 15 to 25 minutes depending on the thickness of the steaks and how fierce the fire in your barbecue is.  I use the ‘finger poke method’ to know when the meat is done - I like my picanha rather pink, so the meat should feel bouncy but firm cooked for about 15 to 20 minutes in total. Alternatively, you can take one steak out of the grill and cut a small piece of it from its thickest part to check for doneness.

5. Kitchen Grill Method - If you don’t have a barbecue you can still cook the picanha under a hot grill in your kitchen. Place the steaks over a rack within a roasting tin, this is important as the picanha’s fat will drip into it and not in your oven. Grill the steaks for 7 minutes flesh side up, then turn them over and grill fat side up, preferably on a lower rack or at the bottom of the oven, for another 8 to 12 minutes, basting the beef with the reserved ½ of soy and yuzu lime dressing for 2 minutes before the end of cooking time. If using the kitchen grill, a meat thermometer read is more accurate than on the barbecue – the internal temperature of the meat should be 60°C for rare, 63°C for medium rare, 71°C for medium and 77°C for well-done. If you don’t have a meat thermometer, use the finger poke method described above.

6. Let the picanha rest for 5 minutes before serving. Brush off the excess salt. The meat should be sliced thinly and served with the reserved soy and yuzu/lime dressing. In this way, guests can choose the slices they want, some will prefer more rare, others more well-done so everyone is happy!

A Recipe for the Best Burnt Cauliflower You Will Ever Taste!

Israeli food is fresh, gutsy and vibrant and having spent a couple of weeks eating my way around this wonderful country as part of Vibe Israel Food Tour of 2016, I soon became fascinated (if slightly obsessed) by it. As a chef, food & travel writer, I can honestly say that Israel has been one of the most inspiring culinary destinations I have visited in recent years. 

Israelis place great importance on good quality vegetables and how these are prepared; vegetables play a major role in any Israeli meal from breakfast to lunch and dinner. I was intrigued by some of their cooking techniques (they make extensive use of char-grilling), and also by their clever use of Middle Eastern spices, salted cheeses and yoghurts, lemony dressings and nutty tahini, elevating some of the simplest ingredients to completely new levels. I can say that this trip made me look at vegetables in a totally different light.

Take for example Eyal Shani’s burnt cauliflower – who would have thought you needed a recipe to burn cauliflower? Well apparently you do! One of the restaurants we got to visit in Tel Aviv during our trip was North Abraxas owned by celebrity chef Eyal Shani (reviewed here). Here we tried his signature burnt cauliflower, whose recipe he was kind enough to share with me.

I have tried this at home in London on a number of occasions, and it still impresses me every time. I love how such an inexpensive and ordinary vegetable can be transformed into something so utterly delicious.

We have all tried to be clever about cauliflower – we have added bacon, or baked it with tons of cheese or smothered it with curry sauce, but this recipe is all about the humble veg and it alone, with nothing else added but olive oil and salt. It is a winner of a recipe, dead easy to prepare and super quick too. I hope you will give it a try!

Burnt Cauliflower

Ingredients:

• 1 medium-sized cauliflower (about 600g)
• 3-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Malden sea salt flakes
• Freshly ground black pepper

For the tahini dressing (optional)

• 100g good quality tahini
• Juice of ½ lemon, to taste
• 1 small garlic clove, crushed
• Pinch of salt, to taste
• 100-200ml water, to taste

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to its highest setting (300°C or higher if possible). If your oven temperature does not go this high, you will need to use the grill at the end of the cooking process.

2. Fill a pan (large enough to take the entire cauliflower) with salted water (10g salt/litre water). Bring it to boil, then add the whole cauliflower to the pan and simmer for 8-10 minutes until softened.

3. Carefully remove the cauliflower from the pan and drain it over a colander for 10 minutes.

4. Using your hands, gently baste the entire cauliflower head with the extra virgin olive oil, season with the Malden sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.

5. Place the cauliflower (head side up) on a baking tin lined with greaseproof paper. Cook it in the pre-heated oven for 20-30 minutes or until blackened. If the cauliflower is not thoroughly blackened (because your oven is not hot enough), you may use the grill – place the cauliflower under the grill and let it burn for 3-5 minutes, carefully rotating it so that the entire upper part of the cauliflower is caramelized.

6. While the cauliflower is in the oven, prepare the tahini dressing – in a bowl add the tahini, salt, crushed garlic and lemon juice, then start adding the water little by little mixing vigorously as you do to incorporate it into the mix. The mix will initially curdle but do not worry, continue adding more water and mixing all the time, it will bind again. Add enough water until it has the consistency of double cream, check for seasoning and adjust if necessary. 

7. Serve the burnt cauliflower whilst hot with the lemony tahini dressing.

Your Favourite #IrishGrassFedBeef Dish Revealed! (In Collaboration with Grasstronomy/Irish Beef)

The good people at Grasstronomy (Irish Beef) got in touch asking me to put together The London Foodie readers’ favourite beef dishes, the ones you love cooking at home. I love a good steak, but it was the words “Irish Grass Fed Beef” that really caught my imagination. So how could I resist?

It was tough choosing a favourite among the mouth-watering replies from Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (thank you folks for participating!), but in the end I chose an irresistible Ox Cheek Mac n' Cheese! This heart warming and luxurious version features slow-braised Irish ox cheeks cooked in red wine and spices, topped with macaroni cheese flavoured with mature Parmesan and fresh black truffles. Perfect for the colder months, this is comfort food at its best!

So why all the fuss about Irish grass fed beef? Ireland is blessed among other things with rain, all year round, and this makes for terrific pasture and a rich soil. Grass fed cattle are also thought to be leaner as they work for their food. And it’s reputedly this sweet grass of Ireland that makes some of the most luscious, tender beef in the world – tried and tested, right in my kitchen.

If you would like to learn more about Irish grass fed beef, visit the their website here or on Facebook here. Better still, why don’t you try Irish grass fed beef for yourself? Next time you visit your supermarket or local butcher, look out for Irish beef and try out the recipe below, I look forward to hearing what you think!

Slow-Braised Ox Cheeks in Red Wine & Spices, 

Macaroni Cheese with Mature Parmesan 
and Black Truffles

(Recipe by Luiz Hara)

Ingredients (for 4 people):

For the Ox Cheeks:

• 1kg ox cheeks
• 1 celery stick, diced into 1cm cubes
• 1 onion, diced into 1cm cubes
• 1 carrot, diced into 1cm cubes
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 litre full bodied red wine
• Mixed spices - 1 stick cinnamon, 1 star anise. 1-2 cloves and 10 black peppercorns
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Pinch of Malden salt
• Freshly ground pepper
• 25g unsalted butter

For the Macaroni Cheese:

• 175g mature cheddar
• 50g Gruyere
• 50g mature Parmesan
• 50g white bread, crusts cut off
• 300g good-quality macaroni
• 350ml single cream
• 350ml full fat milk
• 50g unsalted butter
• 50g plain flour
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 small fresh black truffle, thinly sliced (optional)
• 2 tbsp good quality truffle oil 

Method:

For the Ox Cheeks:

Remove any gristle or nerves from the ox cheeks, cut them up into 5cm pieces, season with salt and pepper, and keep aside until needed.

Peel and wash the carrot, onion and celery and dice them into 1cm cubes. Finely chop 2 garlic cloves.

Pour the red wine into a saucepan, bring to the boil to burn off the alcohol, add the mixed spices - 1 small stick cinnamon, 1 star anise. 1-2 cloves and 10 black peppercorns and reduce by 1/3.

Heat a casserole with the olive oil on a high heat, brown the ox cheeks on all sides, remove the pieces from the casserole when done.

Lower the heat, add 25g butter into the casserole, let it foam (but not burn), then add the diced vegetables and garlic. Sweat the vegetables until lightly coloured for about 3-5 minutes.

Turn up the heat, add a few tablespoons of the spiced red wine and deglaze the pan by scraping the juices from the bottom of the casserole with a spatula.

Return the browned ox cheeks back into the casserole and cover with the remaining spiced wine so that the meat is covered. Bring gently to the boil, cover and place it in a fan-heated oven for 6 hours at 180°C, turning the meat occasionally during cooking. Alternatively, use a pressure cooker at high pressure for 2 hours.

Once cooked and very tender, remove the beef with a slotted spoon and place it on a deep tray (if using a pressure cooker, ensure to release all pressure before attempting to open the pressure cooker). Shred the beef. Pass the jus through a fine strainer into a clean pan, and reduce it slowly until a thick and smooth sauce is achieved. Add the sauce to the shredded ox cheeks, mix well and check for seasoning. Set aside until needed.

For the Macaroni Cheese:

Finely grate all cheeses, keeping them separate. Tear the bread into pieces and whizz in a food processor to coarse crumbs. Mix 25g cheddar and 25g Parmesan into the breadcrumbs.  
Toss the rest of the cheese together in a bowl and set aside. Pre-heat the oven to 190°C.

In a large pan of salted boiling water, add the macaroni cheese and cook al dente according to package instructions (roughly about 8 minutes), stir occasionally to avoid them sticking together. While this is cooking, start the sauce.

Warm the milk and single cream in a small pan.

In a separate pan (big enough to take the macaroni as well), melt the butter in a pan, then stir in the flour. Cook for 1 minute, stirring, then take off the heat. Pour in 1/3 of the warmed milk and cream mixture and beat well with a wooden spoon until smooth – it will be quite thick at this stage. Add another 1/3 – it may go a bit lumpy, but keep beating well and it will go smooth again. Pour in the final 1/3 and keep beating until smooth, a balloon whisk can also help you with this step.

When the macaroni is done, tip it into a colander and drain.

Put the pan with the roux mixture (butter, flour, milk and single cream) back on the heat and cook, stirring, until thickened and smooth. Lower the heat and simmer for about 4 minutes until glossy, stirring every now and then. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese and mustard, mix well. The consistency of the sauce should be rather thick. Check for seasoning and adjust if required.

Gently stir the macaroni into the sauce and stir to coat completely. There should be enough sauce to coat the macaroni thickly and liberally.

Assembling the Final Dish:

Lightly reheat the shredded ox cheeks and cooking juices and place them in a casserole (large enough to take in the macaroni cheese, and one in which the final dish will be presented at the table).

Gently top with macaroni cheese mixture, scatter over the cheesy crumbs over the top and heat through in the oven for about 12 minutes or until beginning to bubble around the edges. Grill for 3-5 minutes to brown the crumbs to a light golden colour.

Remove from the oven, drizzle 2 tbsp of good quality truffle oil, let it rest for 2 minutes, then scatter the fine slices of fresh truffle over the dish and serve immediately.