RECIPES

Experimental West Country cooks Susannah and Aaron Rickard have a way with booze –using it as a key ingredient in their food –and fortunately they have written it all down in a recipe book

When the idea of cooking with alcohol captured our imagination, we couldn’t figure out why it isn’t more popular. Alcoholic drinks are delicious, and they have been fermented or distilled primarily for flavour and enjoyment. Just think of how many spices you have in your cupboard, and all the drinks in the grocery store or along the back of a bar! Each of those ingredients can bring a lot to the table.

We’ve always been experimental cooks, and eaters. As a child, Aaron travelled to over 50 countries, and spent years living in the United States –developing a taste for wild and wonderful flavour combinations. Susannah, on the other hand, grew up with classic British and Australian home cooking, and then went to work for a spice recipe kit company (The Spicery) after university. This included a year in the recipe development kitchen, and instilled a passion for creating great food at home in an approachable way. So when we started cooking with alcohol, and realised just how intriguing and rewarding it could be, we got a bit carried away. Five years later, after countless hours creating this cookbook from our flat, our excitement about the topic has only increased.

Recipe development is tricky, but most of the recipes in Cooking with Alcohol started out as a question: how could the flavours of this particular alcohol be used in cooking? In some cases, we started by looking for matching flavour characteristics to find the best uses for an ingredient. Both chorizo and red wine can be smoky and spicy, so we paired these together in our very first recipe –chorizo in red wine and honey –where they get along beautifully.

We also considered how a dish could be adapted and improved with the addition of alcohol, using alcohol as a seasoning or garnish to add depth and complexity that might otherwise be missing from a dish, or take hours to develop with traditional cooking. A white wine might be described as zesty or buttery, and when we bring it into the kitchen, these flavours can enhance a recipe where zestiness or butteriness are desired –an example of this is our fennel and white wine tagliatelle.

As we developed recipes with these flavour pairings, we found that there’s almost always another way that the alcohol impacts the dish –the texture, caramelisation, gluten formation, acidity, or something else entirely. And in truth this was the most fascinating part of the recipe development process –discovering the science behind each dish, and figuring out how to explain it succinctly. For example, our prosecco panna cotta recipe uses slightly less gelatine than a traditional panna cotta, because prosecco itself is mildly acidic and this causes the cream to thicken and set. It was these discoveries that set us on a path to writing a book, where we could share the fascination and fun with others.

Overall, the savoury and sweet baking chapters of this book were the most challenging –baked goods need to end up solid, and alcohol is liquid! This required a huge amount of recipe testing (and recipe failures), as we figured out the delicate balance of flavour and texture. We were really thankful for long-suffering colleagues and neighbours, who ate the results of these early recipe tests! A particularly runny batch of Kahlua fudge springs to mind…

We really enjoyed writing this book, and hope it brings joy to others. After all, Cooking with Alcohol isn’t just a collection of recipes. It’s about encouraging you to think about alcohol as more than a drink, by showing how the flavours and functions can help to create some truly amazing food. We firmly believe that alcohol deserves a place in your kitchen, as well as in your glass.

Our prosecco panna cotta uses slightly less gelatine because prosecco itself is mildly acidic and this causes the cream to thicken

• Cooking With Alcohol, £25, Lendal Press; cookingwithalcohol.co.uk

It’s really fun to make a tarte tatin, and strangely satisfying – parsnips and onions are caramelised in dry cider, then puff pastry goes on top and it’s baked upside down before being turned out to reveal the beautiful design.

250ml dry apple cider 3 large parsnips (approx. 400-450g total), scrubbed and trimmed 1 tbsp olive oil 2 red onions –peeled, sliced into 6 wedges 1 clove of garlic –peeled, and crushed or finely chopped 1 tsp dried rosemary 1 large sheet of ready rolled puff pastry (approx. 320g) Plain flour for rolling Salt and freshly ground black pepper Green salad and horseradish sauce, to serve

Wide ovenproof frying pan Rolling pin

• Preheat your oven to 200ºC/gas mark 6/ 400ºF. Slice the parsnips lengthwise into 4-6 wedges, depending on their size. • Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a wide ovenproof frying pan over a medium heat. Add the parsnip wedges, and fry for 5 minutes or

until the parsnips are browning. • Add a generous splash of the cider and bring the pan to a gentle simmer then cook for a few minutes, occasionally turning each parsnip wedge. • Scatter the onion wedges, garlic and rosemary over the parsnips, along with a grinding of black pepper and ½ tsp salt. • Add another splash of the cider and cook for a further 10-15 minutes until the parsnips are just tender, adding the cider a splash at a time and allowing it to evaporate in between each addition, turning the parsnips occasionally. • Meanwhile, lay out the puff pastry on a clean floured surface and using a rolling pin, roll it to around 3mm (⅛ inch) thick.

Cut out a rough circle about 2 inches wider than the pan. • When all the cider has evaporated, turn off the heat and use tongs or a fork to arrange the parsnips into a pretty pattern in the pan. • Lay the pastry circle over the top, tucking it in at the edges. Make a small slit in the

top with a knife then place the whole pan into the oven. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the pastry is puffy and deep golden brown. • Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes, then invert the whole dish onto a large plate so that the parsnips are now on top of the pastry. • Serve slices of the tarte alongside a green salad with a dollop of horseradish sauce.

Adding port to sticky roasted plums provides complex notes of caramel, figs and spice, swirled through luscious ice cream.

100ml port 250g plums –stoned and quartered 1 tbsp butter 1 tsp mixed spice or pumpkin spice 1 litre good quality vanilla or clotted cream ice cream ½ an orange –zested (optional)

Small roasting tray Freezer-proof dish or loaf tin

• Preheat the oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3½/ 350ºF. Combine the plums, butter and mixed spice in a roasting tray. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes, stirring after 5 minutes to spread the melting butter around the plums. • After 20 minutes add the port and the

orange zest, and return the tray to the oven for a further 15 minutes until the plums are sticky and jammy. Remove the tray from the oven, give it another stir then allow to cool completely. • Once the plums have cooled, take the ice cream out of the freezer and leave it at room temperature for 10 -15 minutes or until the ice cream is soft enough to spread. • In a small freezer-proof dish, spread about one third of the ice cream in a layer. Dollop half of the plum mixture across the ice cream. Add half the remaining ice cream, and then the rest of the roasted plums, and finally top with the rest of the ice cream. • Gently swirl through the mixture once or twice with a knife to create a few ripples, then cover with cling film or a lid and freeze for at least 2 hours. • To serve, take the ice cream out of the freezer and allow to soften for a minute before scooping into bowls. n

Food photography by Aaron Rickard