Sauce #51 | Real Talk

Recipes for grilled dover sole with wild garlic and anchovy beurre blanc, a leek and chickpea gratin, and a kimchi béchamel

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Righto. It was, as it happened, a Clock Barn Friday at the weekend. There was a fish soup with an unintentionally camouflaged rouille which I gussied up with smoked oysters and harissa. I am in full ostrich mode as far as smoked oysters go, suspecting as I do that they’re probably on some sustainability watch list. As things-in-tins go, they’re right up there. You’ll find them in any large supermarket somewhere in the vicinity of the anchovies. John West makes them. John West is not a B Corp, last time I checked. His smoked oysters are a joy, though - on buttered toast with a dab of Tabasco and a squeeze of lemon; blitzed and folded through béarnaise; in a tart; or puréed and folded through aioli. Just real good kit.

Leeks vinaigrette were a surprise hit. I trimmed and washed some leeks from the garden - one per person was about enough amidst all the other courses, though you could be a little more generous. They went in a baking dish with lots of thyme, a little white wine, a Jamie Oliver-esque amount of olive oil and plenty of salt. I covered them with baking parchment and baked at 150C for about an hour and a half. They were finished with eggs mimosa, a grain mustard vinaigrette and a little avruga caviar. Fancy. The leeks that were left formed the basis of the below gratin.

It was in many ways the most French menu I’ve produced - the leeks, the fish soup, a lemon tart, and as is often the way, some gougères with drinks. So there was added jeopardy when my friend Tobie and his wife Valérie showed up. Valérie is Burgundian and has strong feelings about gougères. Tobie is a civil servant and has strong feelings about everything. Both of them strongly believe (perhaps correctly so) that gougères ought not to be stuffed. I had stuffed them with a cheddar and kimchi béchamel. Nervous moments to be sure but they were eaten with enthusiasm and reviewed with both thumbs up. I’ve posted a gougères recipe already, but the béchamel recipe is below.

A lesser-spotted friend came for dinner on Saturday night and we pushed the boat out with a dover sole, which I cooked in the time-honoured fashion as espoused by one Richard Stein, via 10 Cases founders and RS acolytes Ian and Will. It’s simple and almost idiot proof and almost doesn’t require a recipe. It was sauced fulsomely with a wild garlic and anchovy beurre blanc which I recommend with your lamb this Easter.

And then yesterday was of course Mothering Sunday. Breakfast in bed and all that jazz. I’m not sure what Rosie got up to.

Dad barbecued a roe deer haunch at lunch and I got in amongst the supper club leftovers, making a leek and chickpea gratin, the recipe for which follows. We played the first game of Kubb of the year and I banged on about how I was convinced it was going to be a glorious summer on account of never before having had hay fever in March.