Food and drink

Belly of an architect

Our final extract from minimalist architect John Pawson and chef Annie Bell's collaborative cook book, Living and Eating, dishes up all you need for a sumptuous four-course meal
  • The Observer,
Wild mushrooms in oil

Jars of things that tempt on the basis of looks are so often a disappointment - duck confit, quinces and cherries in syrup, preserved artichokes and wild mushrooms, to a name a few. Only one thing for it, and that's to buckle down to preparing your own. This salad is best displayed in a shallow white china dish, and it's good enough to sit around out of the fridge for some hours if you want to prepare it in advance. Serve it with lots of crusty bread, and some Parma ham for a treat. Serves 4.

For the broth:

12 black peppercorns
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1 shallot, peeled and finely chopped
300ml water
juice of lemon
5 tbsps extra virgin olive oil

For the mushrooms:

450g mixed wild and cultivated mushrooms, scraped, trimmed and halved or quartered, if large
sea salt
black pepper
2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsps coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley
squeeze of lemon juice
120g cherry tomatoes, sliced (optional)

To prepare the broth, tie the spices in a small square of muslin and place in a medium saucepan with all the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer over a very low heat for 10 minutes.

Add the mushrooms and bring back to the boil. Cover the pan, turn the heat down low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring once. Transfer the mushrooms to a bowl. Boil the broth to reduce to about 150ml, then season it. Discard the spices and pour the reduced liquor over the mushrooms. Leave to cool.

Once the mushrooms are cool, stir in the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and the chopped parsley. Sharpen with a squeeze of lemon juice, taste to check the seasoning and stir in the chopped cherry tomatoes, if using.

Roast lamb with flageolet bean gratin and vine tomatoes

Flageolet beans are demurely French, and most greengrocers in France sell them loose, which is a good indication that they are nice and fresh. If they prove elusive, haricot or cannellini beans can be used in lieu. Serves 6.

For the flageolet bean gratin:

225g dried flageolet beans, soaked overnight
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 shallot, peeled and sliced
2 celery sticks, trimmed and sliced
1 large carrot, trimmed, peeled and sliced
1 bay leaf
120g crème frache
sea salt, black pepper
50g breadcrumbs
4 heaped tbsps freshly grated Parmesan cheese
25g unsalted butter, melted

For the lamb and gravy:

2.2kg leg of lamb
3 garlic cloves, peeled
25g unsalted butter, softened
2 shallots, peeled and sliced
a few rosemary sprigs
75ml red wine
1 scant tsp redcurrant jelly

For the tomatoes:

400g small tomatoes on the vine
1 tbsp groundnut oil
1 scant tbsp balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 180 C/fan oven 170 C/gas 4. Place the beans in a medium flameproof casserole and add sufficient water to cover by 5cm. Bring to the boil, then drain and return the beans to the casserole. Cover with water as before, this time adding the garlic, vegetables and bay leaf. Bring to the boil, cover the casserole and cook in the oven for 50-60 minutes until the beans are tender. Drain them into a sieve discarding the bay leaf; remove some of the vegetables, too, if you like, but this isn't essential. Reserve 200ml of the cooking liquor for the gravy. Return the beans to the casserole and mix with the crème frache and plenty of seasoning. Toss the breadcrumbs and Parmesan in a bowl with the melted butter and some seasoning, and scatter over the beans. The gratin can be prepared to this point in advance; cover and chill until required.

Preheat the oven to 220 C/fan oven 200 C/ gas 7. Make incisions all over the fatty top side of the lamb, about 1cm deep. Slice the garlic, halve the slices lengthways and press into the incisions. Smear the butter over the joint and season. Lay the shallots and rosemary in the centre of a roasting tin that will hold the joint quite snugly (with the knuckle if you have it). Place the lamb on top and pour 75ml water into the tin. Roast for 17 minutes per 500g if you like medium-rare meat, or 20 minutes per 500g if you like it medium cooked. For a smaller joint of about 1.3kg, increase the time by 3 minutes per 500g. Twenty minutes before the end of the roasting time, put the gratin in the oven to cook for 30 minutes.

Transfer the lamb to a serving plate, cover with foil and leave to rest in a warm place for 20 minutes. Discard the knuckle and skim off any excess fat from the pan juices. Pour in the wine and cook on the hob until well reduced, scraping up all the sticky bits on the bottom. Add the redcurrant jelly and mash this into the juices, then pour in the reserved bean cooking liquor and simmer for several minutes. Taste for seasoning.

Ten minutes into resting the lamb, remove the gratin and cover with foil to keep warm. Turn the oven up to 250 C/fan oven 240 C/gas highest setting. Arrange the tomatoes in a roasting dish so they fit snugly in a single layer. Drizzle over the oil and balsamic vinegar, and season them. Roast for 10 minutes, by which time the tomatoes will be soft, the skins will have burst and the stalks blackened. For ease, serve them with the calyx attached, removing it as you eat.

Reheat the gravy if necessary, and strain it into a jug. Carve the lamb, tipping any juices into the gravy jug. Served on warm plates with the gratin and tomatoes, accompanied by the gravy.

Roast shallots

Roast shallots come into their own when you have run out of fresh vegetables. Like any vegetable roasted or baked in its skin, all the flavours are captured and concentrated. A little butter, salt and pepper are all that are needed to enhance them. That said, they need to be banana shallots - the tapered torpedoes - otherwise you do better with red onions. Anything too small will shrivel up in the process of roasting. Serves 4.

1.3kg banana shallots, or red onions (unpeeled)
sea salt
black pepper
50g unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 170 C/fan oven 160 C/gas 3. Place the shallots or onions in a shallow roasting tin and bake them in their skins for 1 hours.

Slice off the base of each onion and carefully squeeze the inside out from its skin. Arrange the onions in a dish, slice open and season with salt and pepper. Dot with butter and serve as this begins to melt.

Stilton and quince cheese

The russet hue of quince cheese is true to the perfumed pulp of this exquisite fruit. As sweet as jam but grainy in texture, the smallest sliver delights a morsel of Stilton, a cheese that has been described as an iron fist in a velvet glove. Stilton should be rich, creamy yellow and spreadable like butter when it is ripe, with a restrained marbling of veins displaying the colour of lichen. Stilton from the Colston Bassett Dairy is justly famous.

Vanilla ice cream

Purists don't look beyond the perfect vanilla ice, the palest ivory in colour and flecked with the black of vanilla seeds. Serves 6.

300ml full-cream milk
6 medium organic egg yolks
150g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
350ml double cream

Pour the milk into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl, then whisk in the hot milk. Return this to the pan and heat gently, stirring constantly, until you have a thin pouring custard that coats the back of the spoon, taking care not to overheat it. Pour it into a bowl. Slit the vanilla pod lengthways, cut it up and add it to the custard. Cover the surface with clingfilm (to prevent a skin forming) and leave to cool.

Liquidise and pass the custard through a sieve into a clean bowl; cover the surface with clingfilm and chill. Whip the cream, whisk it into the custard and freeze in your ice-cream maker.

Strawberry ice cream

Omit the vanilla pod. In a blender, purée the custard base with 225g strawberries and 25g caster sugar until smooth. Pass through a sieve to remove the seeds and then freeze as above.

Affogato al Caffe

A connoisseur's ice-cream float where a scoop of vanilla ice cream is attended by a shot of freshly brewed espresso coffee. It's a tale of two ingredients made to complement each other, the hot bitterness of one and the cooling sweetness of the other. The form in eating it is to first scrape off the outside where the espresso clings, and then when you are about halfway through and the ice cream has softened, work it into the coffee until you have a creamy whipped coffee ice cream. Serves 4.

4 scoops vanilla ice cream, frozen solid
4 shots of freshly brewed espresso coffee

Whereas normally you would soften an ice cream in the fridge before serving it, here it should be frozen hard. If you are using homemade ice cream, churn and freeze it overnight.

Place four scoops of ice cream in four small bowls. Trickle a shot of freshly brewed espresso over each one and serve at once.

• Living and Eating by John Pawson & Annie Bell is published by Ebury Press on 4 October.

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