https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/monkfish-with-brassica-tartare • Posted by Orion Books
SERVES 4 As a young chef, I would often think that the more ridiculously labour-intensive I made a dish, the better it would be. Of course, this is nonsense and made life very difficult. It certainly takes a confident chef not to overcomplicate recipes and now I feel a lot more comfortable knowing when to stop. A few years ago, I used to do a fish dish with ‘onion sauce’. The sauce would take three days to make: 25 kilos of white onions were cooked incredibly slowly to create a small, sweet ball of caramelised onions. In the meantime, two meat stocks were made and then reduced over the sticky onions. A bottle of Madeira and some more burnt onions were added and by the end of the third day a wonderful sweet, velvety sauce would be complete. It was delicious but for me and the sauce chef Nick it took over our lives. The sauce was not just hard work but an obsession, so much so that when we sat down for a beer at the end of the day our colleagues would complain how badly we smelt of onions! A couple of years later I thought I had seen the back of it, but Nick’s onion obsession had not ceased and he refined the onion sauce, making the process much simpler and the sauce much lighter.
SERVES 4 As a young chef, I would often think that the more ridiculously labour-intensive I made a dish, the better it would be. Of course, this is nonsense and made life very difficult. It certainly takes a confident chef not to overcomplicate recipes and now I feel a lot more comfortable knowing when to stop. A few years ago, I used to do a fish dish with ‘onion sauce’. The sauce would take three days to make: 25 kilos of white onions were cooked incredibly slowly to create a small, sweet ball of caramelised onions. In the meantime, two meat stocks were made and then reduced over the sticky onions. A bottle of Madeira and some more burnt onions were added and by the end of the third day a wonderful sweet, velvety sauce would be complete. It was delicious but for me and the sauce chef Nick it took over our lives. The sauce was not just hard work but an obsession, so much so that when we sat down for a beer at the end of the day our colleagues would complain how badly we smelt of onions! A couple of years later I thought I had seen the back of it, but Nick’s onion obsession had not ceased and he refined the onion sauce, making the process much simpler and the sauce much lighter.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas mark 6. Lightly oil the chicken wings and space out in a roasting tin. Roast for about 15 minutes. Turn the wings over in their fat and roast for another 15 minutes at 180°C/350°F/ Gas mark 4, and finally for 15 minutes at 170°C/325°F/ Gas mark 3 after turning them over again. They should be very brown and sticky. Pour the fat out of the tin and discard, but deglaze the caramelised goodness with a little water and reserve.
Meanwhile, place the halved onion in a lightly oiled heavy-based ovenproof frying pan, with a similar pan placed on top, acting as a weight. Sizzle over a high heat for a good couple of minutes then transfer the onion (still sandwiched between the pans) to share the 200°C/180°C oven with the wings for 15–20 minutes. The onion should be soft all the way through and blackened on the cut side.
Combine the wings, deglazed juices and blackened onion in a stockpot with enough cold water to cover everything by a good inch and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook for about 3 hours, skimming off any scum as it rises to the surface. Strain the stock through a fine sieve and then a muslin cloth. It should make around 1.5 litres.
While the stock is cooking, heat a little oil in another large pan and add the sliced onions and salt to taste. Cook them over a high heat for a minute or so, before turning the heat right down and letting them completely wilt and soften. Increase the heat a little and allow them to caramelise and stick to the pan, scraping and stirring each time just before they actually burn. The mixture will eventually be a very deep brown colour, and extremely sweet and sticky.