Gizzi Erskine's Hep C Supper Club Recipes

Spice blend mix

1 tablespoon coriander seed
1 tablespoon fennel seed
3 small dried chillies
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns

Toast all ingredients in a hot frying pan until they begin to lightly smoke, remove from the heat immediately and leave to cool for a few minutes.

Place the whole spices in a spice grinder, coffee grinder or pestle and mortar and blend until you have a fine powder.

Spiced Pea Fritters with Green Sauce

The second we had confirmed the event I sought the help of Lee Behan the creator of the supper club phenomenon Friday Food club. This is his recipe and it’s a showstopper.

Serves 6

Preparation time 10 minutes - Cooking time 15 minutes

500g frozen peas, blanched and refreshed
1 Small Onion, finely chopped
1 Inch Square Piece of Fresh Ginger, grated
1 Small Red Chili, deseeded and finely chopped
1 tablespoon of spice blend mix
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
½ teaspoons lemon zest
6 tablespoons gram (chickpea) flour
light rapeseed Oil for Deep Frying
Salt & Black Pepper
150g pea shoots dressed with olive oil and lemon to garnish

For the green sauce

300ml Greek Yoghurt
a bunch Fresh Coriander
a bunch Fresh Mint, leaves picked
1 Green Chili, finely chopped
1 teaspoon raw sugar

To make the green sauce place all the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until you have a smooth green sauce. Remove, cover with cling film and place in the fridge until ready to serve

For the pea fritters, place a tablespoon of the rapeseed oil in frying pan and add the onion, ginger, red chili, the spice blend mix, garlic and a twist of salt & black pepper, fry until soft.

Once cooked mix with the peas and spiced onion together then give a few turns in food processor. You want the pea’s to break down but not so that it’s a smooth paste (a few whole peas floating in the mixture is fine). Season to taste.

Remove the pea mix to a bowl and add the gram flour and mix until combined. Quenelle 18 small fritters. Place these in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes

Heat the Rapeseed oil to 190C ready for deep-frying. Cook 6 fritters at a time and they take no longer than 2.5 minutes per batch. Once deep brown in color, remove the pea fritters from the frying oil and drain on kitchen paper and continue with the rest of the fritters

To serve place 2 tablespoons of the green sauce on a plate, add 3 pea fritters and top with dressed pea shoots

Tomato consommé with tomato petals and ratatouille

Serves 8 - Takes 4 hours

3kg of mixed plum and cherry tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
16 leaves basil
2 teaspoons Maldon salt
1 teaspoon raw sugar

For the ratatouille

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large aubergine, finely chopped
1 green courgettte, finely chopped
1 yellow courgette/summer squash, finely chopped
1 peeled, seeded and finely copped vine ripened tomato
6 tomatoes, peeled and seeded and sliced into 10-12 petals
Basil cress and really good olive oil to serve

Put the tomatoes, garlic and herbs in a liquidiser, and blend to a chunky purée. Pour into a muslin-lined sieve set over a large bowl. Leave in the fridge for 3-4 hours to slowly drip through the muslin and chill.

Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the aubergine for 1-2 minutes and then finish the rest of the vegetables for 2-3 minutes until just cooked through, but not caramelized. Add the tomatoes and cook for another minute until he tomatoes start to break down. Season.

Place 3 tomato petals in a soup bowl and scatter over some of the ratatouille. Ladle in the tomato consommé, drizzle with olive oil and top with basil cress.

Yuzu and truffle beetroot, Goats curd and watercress salad

Yuzu is a Japanese fruit somewhere between grapefruit, tangerine and lemon. You can buy it bottled from Japanese supermarkets and it makes the most refreshing change from classic citrus, but if you can’t find it swap it for any of its citrus counterparts. The truffle, miso and yuzu dressing is mind blowing and indulgent, I know but for such special guests we wanted to go to town. If you cant afford fresh truffles, just use white truffle oil.

Serves 8 - Preparation time 20 minutes - Cooking time 2 hours

6 medium beetroots
½ teaspoon salt
a lug of olive oil
400g Goats curd
150g watercress

1 small truffle, if you can afford it (white is best, but whatever is in season, we used summer truffles)

for the dressing

1 teaspoon white miso
1 tablespoon yuzu juice
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon truffle oil

Heat the oven to 200C. Rub the beets in the oil and salt and then wrap in foil. Bake for 2 hours. Remove from the oven, they should be firm but cooked through. Leave to cool and then peel the skins off gently.

To make the dressing whisk together all the ingredients and leave to macerate for the 2 hours it takes the beetroots to cook.

Lay the beetroots between 8 plates. Quenelle or blob on 50g of Goats curd onto the plates. Dress the watercress leaves with a third of the dressing and drizzle the rest between the plates. Top with the watercress and serve immediately.

Bombay Potato Scotch egg, with curried carrot and cauliflower puree and curry oil

Just when you think a Scotch egg couldn’t get better it does and this one is vegetarian! The spiced potato encases the soft-boiled egg, all bound together in crispy crumb. So good as it is but the two purees and curry oil make a right swanky meal of it. I always boil up an extra egg incase of peeling disasters, but if your using good fresh eggs, this shouldn’t be a problem.

Serves 8 - Preparation time 15 minutes - Cooking time 45 minutes

5 organic eggs, Cotswold legbar and bur ford browns are what Id use
50g butter
1-tablespoon rapeseed oil
3 shallots, finely chopped
3-4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3-4cm root ginger, peeled and grated
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of spice mix
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1kg Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1cm cubes
Juice and zest 1 lemon
A small bunch coriander
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
100g flour
2 organic eggs, whisked
150g soft white breadcrumbs
enough oil for deepfrying

Coriander cress, crispy fried curry leaves and curry oil to serve

For the cauliflower puree

½ head cauliflower, cut into florets
1 large onion, cut into eighths
400ml milk
200ml double cream
1 tablespoon spice mix
½ teaspoon turmeric

for the carrot puree

6 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 dried birds eye chillies
4cm piece fresh ginger, sliced
1 x 400g tin coconut milk
2 tablespoons of cider vinegar
1 vanilla pod split

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Pop the eggs in and boil for 6 minutes. Strain and leave to cool for 10 minutes in iced water. Peel the eggs when cool.

Heat the butter and rapeseed oil in a large heavy bottomed pan. Add the shallots, garlic, ginger and chilli and gently cook for 3-4 minutes until softened. Add in the spices and cook them out for 1 minute. Add in the potatoes and continue to cook on a lowish heat with the pan covered with a lid, giving the occasional stir for 20-25 minutes or until the potatoes are cooked through and the outsides have broken up and gone mushy. Essentially you are looking for a chunky mash. Make sure you really scrape the bottom of the pan to avoid sticking too. Season with the lemon, fresh coriander, salt and pepper and leave to cool.

Shape the cooled potato mixture carefully around the eggs; you want it to be about 1cm thick. Coat the potato-covered eggs first in flour, then egg and then breadcrumbs. Heat the oil 190C for deep-frying. Carefully place the scotch eggs into the deep fat fryer and cook for 2-3 minutes or until golden. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper

To make the cauliflower puree, put the florets and onion in a pan and cover with the milk and cream. Poach gently for about 15 minutes or until softened but not saturated. Drain but reserve the cooking liquor. In a frying pan heat the oil and fry the spices for 1 minute. Place the drained cauliflower, onions, spices and 3 tablespoons of cooking liquor into a blender and blitz for 1 minute until smooth.

To make the carrot puree add all ingredients into a large pan and add water to so the carrots are immersed in the coconut milk & water mix Bring to the boil and simmer until tender. Remove from the heat and remove the ginger then blitz in a food processor for 1 minutes until you have a smooth puree.

To serve, put a spoon full of each puree onto each plate, half the scotch eggs and place half on each plate, drizzle with curry oil and scatter with crispy curry leaves and coriander cress.