Umbrian Chickpea Soup: Minestra di Ceci

The traditional cuisine of Umbria is rustic and simple, making the most of very few but quality ingredients. Minestra di Ceci is typical of the 'cucina povera' style of cooking we enjoyed one lunchtime at Fontanella di Porta Sole in Perugia, where the humble chickpea is enormously popular, especially for soups. A staple in the Mediterranean basin for hundreds of years, though common throughout Italy, chickpeas are primarily grown in the south because they require high temperatures during the summer months. Once harvested, they're hung up to dry, and the seeds are then gathered and set aside.

Apart from a few readily available ingredients — a little onion, celery, garlic and carrots used to develop the flavour base — the chickpeas are the primary ingredient. Some of the ceci are puréed in the soup which creates a rich, thick and satisfying soup, with most of the whole cooked beans added back into the soup, which creates its unique texture and character. To serve this soup, all it really needs is some cracked black pepper and a drizzle of Rosemary Olive Oil and a little grated pecorino. Minestra di Ceci freezes well, and actually improves in flavour over time, for a taste of Perugia all year long.


Minestra di Ceci
Serves 6-8

2 cups dried chickpeas
2 tbsp olive oil
1 carrot, diced
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 celery stalk, diced
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and minced 4 cups beef broth
Maldon sea salt
2 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Freshly ground black pepper
Grated Pecorino cheese, optional

Rosemary oil:
7 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
3 small sprigs fresh rosemary


Soak chickpeas in cold water and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Soak overnight, then drain the next morning. Place the beans in a pot of fresh water, covered by at least 2-inches, then simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until they're tender but not mushy. Drain and let sit in a colander while you prepare the soup base.

Combine 7 tablespoons of olive oil and rosemary in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring just to a simmer to infuse the olive oil. Remove from heat, discard the rosemary and set aside.

In a large soup pot, heat the oil and then add the carrots, onion, celery and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, and cook until the vegetables are tender. Remove about 1 1/2 cups of the chickpeas and set aside until later. Return the rest of the chickpeas to the pot with the vegetables and cover with the broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and slowly simmer for another 20 to 30 minutes or so to develop and meld the flavours. Season with salt and pepper.

Purée the soup with a light touch, until you reach a desired consistency, adding additional broth as needed. Fontanella di Porta Sole didn't purée the soup at all!

Return the soup to the heat and stir in the remaining chickpeas that had been set aside earlier.

Serve the soup in warmed bowls with a drizzle of some of the remaining rosemary oil and sprinkle of parsley, black pepper and some grated pecorino if you wish.

Castelluccio Lentils with Tomatoes & Gorgonzola

Umbria's prized lentils from Castelluccio are tiny brown jewels with a delicate flavour and wonderfully tender texture. Like Puy lentils, they don’t disintegrate when cooked, which makes them ideal for salads. You can get them from Italian or gourmet markets, or as we did, brought them back from the source — Norcia in southern Umbria. This substantial dish, created by Yotam Ottolenghi, is best eaten at room temperature, and can be served on its own or with steamed seasonal greens such as broccolini or baby fennel. One of the gems of Umbrian cuisine, these lenticchie di Castellucchio have been tossed with vinegar, onion, salt, pepper, garlic and oil when they're warm, so that they soak up all of the fabulous flavours. Gorgonzola, lots of herbs and dried tomatoes are mixed in at the end. The result, a big bang of robust flavours by the one and only, Yotam Ottlenghi from his newest cookbook 'Plenty'.





Castelluccio Lentils with Tomatoes & Gorgonzola
Serves 4

Oven-dried tomatoes:
5 plum tomatoes
8 thyme sprigs
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt

Lentil Salad:
1 small red onion, very thinly sliced
1 tbsp good-quality red wine vinegar
1 tsp Maldon sea salt
1 1/3 cups Castelluccio lentils
3 tbsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
black pepper
3 tbsp chopped chervil or parsley
3 tbsp chopped chives
4 tbsp chopped dill
3 oz mild Gorgonzola, crumbled

Preheat the oven to 275°F. To make the oven-dried tomatoes, start by quartering the tomatoes vertically and place them skin-side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Arrange the thyme sprigs on top of them, then drizzle over the olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with some salt. Roast for 1 1/2 hours, or until the tomatoes are semi-dried. Discard the thyme and allow the oven-dried tomatoes to cool down slightly.

Meanwhile, place the red onion in a medium bowl, pour over the vinegar and sprinkle with the sea salt. Stir, then leave for a few minutes so the onion softens a bit.

Place the lentils in a pan of boiling water, so that it comes 1 1/4 inches above the lentils, and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, or until tender. Drain well in a sieve and, while still warm, add to the sliced onion. Also add the olive oil, garlic and some black pepper. Stir to mix and leave aside to cool down. Once cool, add the herbs and gently mix together. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

To serve, pile up the lentils on a large plate or bowl, combine the Gorgonzola and tomatoes as you build up the pile. Drizzle the tomato cooking juices on top and serve.

Easter Hot Cross Buns

Hot cross buns are a rather old English tradition dating back to the Saxons who marked buns with a cross in honor of the goddess Eostre, the goddess of light, whose day of celebration eventually became Easter. It's thought the bun represented the moon, and the cross the moon's quarters. To Christians, the cross symbolizes the crucifixion. Hot Cross Buns are typically served on Good Friday, the Friday before Easter Sunday, although many enjoy these fragrant glazed fruit buns anytime during the year. Delicious toasted with a knob of butter, these homemade Hot Cross Buns take a little bit longer to prepare than buying them for your local bakery, but they're definitely worth the effort. 

Hot Cross Buns

Makes 12 buns

For the dough:

1 3/4 cups warmed milk

1/4 cup caster sugar

4 tsp instant dried yeast

4 cups plain flour, sifted

1 tsp salt

zest of 1 orange

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

4 tbsp butter, softened

1 cup mixed dried fruit, chopped 

1/2 cups raisins or sultanas

2 eggs

For the egg wash:

1 egg, beaten with a little milk

For the crosses:

3 tbsp plain flour

1/2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp water

For the glaze:

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp boiling water

In a bowl, whisk together the sugar, milk and yeast together until the sugar has dissolved. Cover and set aside for 10 minutes or until it becomes frothy.

Mix the flour, salt, orange zest and ground spices in a large bowl. With your fingers, rub the butter into the flour until mixed and crumbly. Stir in the dried fruit, sultanas, eggs and frothy yeast mixture until combined.

On a lightly floured surface, or in a mixer with a dough hook, knead the bread dough for about 5 minutes until it's smooth and elastic. If it's too dry, add a little more warm milk or water. Keep kneading until you have silky, elastic dough, but bear in mind that the dried fruit will stop it from being exactly satiny smooth.

Lightly grease another large clean bowl with butter, place the dough in it and turn to coat the surface. Cover in clingwrap and leave in a warm, draught-free place for 45 minutes or even overnight, until the dough has doubled in size.

When ready, remove the clingwrap and use your fist to punch down the dough. Give it a quick knead until smooth and divide into 12 equal pieces.

Place the buns onto a parchment lined baking tray, cover with clingfilm and leave in warm place to rise for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Brush the buns with an egg wash, and then mix the flour, sugar and water into a smooth, thick paste. Spoon the flour mixture into a piping bag and pipe a cross on  top of each bun and bake at 400°F for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F and bake for another 15 minutes. The buns will be ready when they are pale golden-brown and sound hollow when you tap the tops.

As soon as the buns come out of the oven, mix the sugar and boiling water together for the glaze. Brush them with the hot syrup to make them sweet and shiny, then set aside to cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature with a knob of butter.

HIX Soho and Mark's Bar in London

Mark Hix launched HIX Soho to great critical acclaim in 2009 and soon after won London’s Time Out Award for Best New Restaurant in 2010. The restaurant showcases Hix’s signature daily-changing menu of seasonal British food, as well as his eclectic collection of whimsical mobiles from celebrated YBA's — Young British Artists. Downstairs is the celebrated Mark’s, with its apothecary bar and eccentric cocktail list designed by mixologist Nick Strangeway. With accolades that keep resounding through the British press, I was intrigued about the Hix phenomenon and went to investigate.

Mark Hix

Celebrated chef, restaurateur and food writer Mark Hix, is known for his original take on British gastronomy. After 17 years working in the industry, he opened his first restaurant in 2008, the distinguished Hix Oyster & Chop House in Smithfield, and has since opened a further four establishments including Hix Oyster & Fish House in Lyme Regis, Hix Soho in London and the award-winning Mark's bar, all to great critical acclaim. Hix is frequently lauded as one of London’s most eminent restaurateurs with an unrivalled knowledge of 'ingredients with provenance'. He also has a monthly column in Countrylife, Fork and Esquire Magazine, a weekly column in the British newspaper, The Independent, and is the author of a number of cookbooks on British cuisine.

Mark Hix's most recent cookbook — Mark Hix British Seasonal Food

and the newest addition to my ever-growing culinary library

We started our night downstairs at Mark's, considered to be one of London's coolest bars. Leather chesterfields, smoky mirrors, ambient lighting, a long zinc bar that runs the length of the room and one of London's most eminent cocktail lists designed by the renowned Nick Strangeway, a legend on the London and International bar scene. 

Uber-mixologist Nick Strangeway

Mark's apothecary-style cocktail bar is the place to go to enjoy a more eccentric approach to drinking, with cocktails such as Hanky Panky, made with Beefeater Gin shaken with Antica Formula and Fernet Branca finished with orange zest; The Matador, a concoction that quenched the frequenters of the Cafe Royal during the era of the coronation of King George VI; The Royal Bermuda Yacht Club made with Mount Gay Rum shaken with Falernum, fresh lime and Cointreau; or The Pegu Club, which was a favourite at the British Officers Club on the Rangoon River in Burma, made with Gin shaken with Curacao, fresh lime juice, Angostura and orange bitters. With all these choices, I went with my classic favourite, a Hendrick's Gin Martini, served with a spear of cucumber.

Mark's Bar with apothecary-style bottles and potions

The bartender at Mark's the night we were there, was a lovely fellow with a great sense of humour. He had a large cauldron of some fragrant elixer bubbling away in front of us, which looked very medieval. He said it was lemon sherbet, a sweet ingredient that's added to some of Mark's cocktails, and proceeded to pour me a small shot glass of the sweet potion to taste. It was quite thick and sweet, rather like limoncello, but more tart — it was bloody good. I asked him how it was made. He said it's about equal parts lemon juice, lemon zest and sugar which are cooked down over a low heat until the mixture reduces to the desired viscosity, and then left to cool. It was so tasty, I may even try to make it when we get home.

Mark's Bar Hendricks Martini with a slice of cucumber, with the extra little bit, on the side

Hix serves their beer in funky old English silver tankards

The glassware used at Mark's was very retro and quirky, from huge silver tankards for serving Hix's own beer brand from Dorset, to teacups mounted on Martini stems, retro champagne stems and antique martini shakers. Even going to the loo was a journey, with pieces from Hix's collection of young British artists, such as a mammoth watercolour by Harland Miller, a tongue-in-cheek take on tattered Penguin classics. 

Harland Miller - 'Hard as Fuck' made as a watercolour and pencil on paper

With dinner reservations looming, we climbed the stairs to the main dining room, HIX Soho. A cool modern space with sensible wooden tables and chairs, the room is laid back and comfortable with casual dish towel-style napkins, neon red pepper mills and signature silver salt and pepper shakers, available in their shop downstairs at £87.50 each. Nice, but not that nice.

The cool and modern interior of HIX Soho

Dish towel-style napkins adorn each place setting

Waiting for our dinner companion, we ordered a bottle of Berry Bros. & Rudd Claret and a bowl of Evesham radishes with homemade mayonnaise and celery leaf salt and Blythburgh pork crackling with Bramley apple sauce to start. Having never tried pork cracklings before, it was a bad precedent. They were vey good, but better yet, were the organic radishes. The leafy ends were so young and perfect that they disappeared along with the wee little baby radishes.

Berry Bros. & Rudd Claret 

Evesham radishes with homemade mayonnaise and celery leaf salt

Blythburgh pork crackling with Bramley apple sauce 

Still waiting, we ordered half a dozen of the Carlingford Lough Rock oysters, which were fine, but not as good as the oysters we had earlier at Elliot's in Borough Market — and half the price.

Half a dozen Carlingford Lough Rock oysters

Our french waitress, concerned that our guest still had not turned up, poured a glass of wine in his glass and said that would be our lucky charm to bring him to us. Amazingly, it worked. In walked Harry. Befuddled by last night's daylight saving time, he hadn't moved his watch forward. Pleased to have our happy group together, we enjoyed the bottle of wine and ordered dinner. Intrigued by the Aberdeenshire porterhouse steak on the menu, we ordered the large version that serves three, along with the Cauliflower Cheese and signature HIX Frites. Hix also serves a whole Roast Woolley Park Farm free-range chicken for two, which a couple at the next table ordered and looked very good. 

The Manager-Sommelier arrives with our steak and proceeds to carve

Aberdeenshire porterhouse steak for three

Cauliflower cheese

Hix bowl of frites

True to the Mark Hix's commitment to showcase a menu of seasonal British food, two traditional English puds were on the dessert menu — Steamed pudding with marmalade and creme Anglaise and a Sea buckthorn posset, a popular dessert during the middle ages.

Steamed pudding with marmalade and creme Anglaise

Sea buckthorn posset

An engaging background during our dinner was the dazzling array of mobiles positioned around the restaurant, and also downstairs at Mark's. Hix is friends with interesting and important characters, including every contemporary British artist you've ever heard of, several of whom, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, have provided Hix with art, including bespoke mobiles which hang over the noisy, cafe-style dining room designed by Martin Brudnizki.  They lend a delightful quirkiness to the space, and make eating at HIX Soho, like  sharing a meal at the Tate Modern. A unique opportunity to see a great collection of contemporary British art up close, the Sommelier escorted me around HIX, explaining each of the pieces and the artists who created them. It was very generous of him to take the time, but by then, we were the last patrons in the restaurant. Time to head home, and tomorrow we would be doing just that — flying back to Toronto after two weeks in our lovely Umbrian farmhouse in Italy, Casa del Lauro, and a sojourn in London at the beginning and end of our trip. The best of all worlds. 

Damian Hirst - 'Boullibalanced Mobile' made with fish, perspex and steel 

Miranda Donovan - 'Kitchen Wall' made with stainless steel poles, resin and foam bricks

Sarah Lucas - 'Pie Mobile' made with Fray Bentos tins, steel poles and an electrical motor

Stephen Webster - 'Jaws' made with crystals, Foam and fishing wire

Mark's Bar Lemon Sherbet


6 lemons, zest and juice

7 tbsp white sugar

Grate zest of 6 lemons and add to 7 tablespoons of castor sugar. Pound together and then add the lemon juice. Heat to dissolve the sugar and reduce as needed. Strain, store it in bottles and refrigerate until required.

www.hixsoho.co.uk

London's Borough Market & Elliot's Café

Borough Market is London's oldest and most renowned food market, a veritable gourmand's delight, boasting a mouthwatering range of fresh food stalls under its Dickensian wrought-iron roof. Known in its heyday as London's Larder, the market has been a part of London's food culture since the 13th century and has existed at its current location since 1755 — there was even a market here in Southwark at the time of the Roman conquest in the 5th century. Located on Borough High Street, just south of Southwark Cathedral, on the southern end of London Bridge, the Market draws over 70 organic farmers, artisanal producers, world-class bakers, and gourmet food importers from all over the world, in addition to local favourites Neal's Yard, Monmouth Coffee and lots of fabulous little restaurants. 

The Art Deco entrance to Borough Market from Borough High Street, built in 1932

A fashionable place to buy food, Borough Market has even found itself on British television cooking programmes — Jamie Oliver often shoots here, and it was also used in several well known movies including Bridget Jones's Diary, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban. In one of the Potter films, Harry careens through London's lamp-lit streets on a purple three-decker bus that dumps him at the Leaky Cauldron. In this film, the pub's exterior was shot on rough looking Stoney Street at the southeast edge of Borough Street Market, outside the florist Chez Michele.

Chez Michele was transformed into The Leaky Cauldron in one of the Harry Potter films

Hobbs Roast Meat

Michael and Julie Hobbs know how to get a queue started. Located just inside the main entrance to the Market, you can smell the fragrant fare of Hobbs Roast Meat before you even see it. They serve hot meat baguettes chocked full of roast loin of pork with stuffing and apple sauce, turkey breast with stuffing and cranberry sauce and salt beef with dill pickle and mustard. There was a long queue when we arrived in the morning, and an even longer one when we left after lunch. Londoners know what they like, and they love Hobbs.

The vaulted glass roof of Borough Market protect's vendors and shoppers from inclement weather

Borough Market's wholesale fruit and vegetables

Borough Market has been home to wholesale fruit and vegetable traders since long before its renaissance as an upscale retail market. These wholesalers continue to work through the night, supplying restaurants, shops and delicatessens with high quality produce, from 5am to 8am five days a week.

Meat pies from Wild Boar to Lancashire Pork

The revered Melton Mowbray pork pie, named after a town in Leicestershire, became popular among fox hunters in the area during the late nineteenth century. This quintessential English pie is made with a hand-formed crust and is baked free-standing, which gives the pie a slightly irregular shape after baking with the sides bowing out. Seeking protected geographical indication status for this world-famous pork pie, the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie Association applied for protection under the European "Protected designation of origin" laws as a result of the increasing production of Melton Mowbray-style pies by large commercial factories far from Melton Mowbray, and recipes that deviated from the original uncured pork form. Protection was granted on 4 April 2008, with the result that only pies made within a designated zone around Melton, and using the traditional recipe including uncured pork, are allowed to carry the Melton Mowbray name on their packaging. 

The revered Melton Mowbray Pie now has DOP status

Founded in Covent Garden in 1979 by Randolph Hodgson, Neal's Yard offers a stunning array of cheeses sourced from over 70 specialist cheesemakers on farms all over the UK and Ireland. Many of the cheeses are aged in Neal’s Yard Dairy’s maturing rooms under the brick railway arches of Bermondsey. A team of five takes care of the cheeses, carefully turning them and sometimes brushing or washing them until they ripen. The morning we were there, we were offered a taste of two Neal's Yard cheeses which were so ripe, runny and delicious, I was tempted to buy a whole wheel and to smuggle it home. 

The fabulous purveyor of cheese — Neal's Yard

Inside Neal's Yard with wheels of cheese stacked to the rafters

Oysters being sold al fresco — 12 oysters shucked and dressed for just £5

Merchants come from all over England and Europe to sell their produce. Delicious local fruit, fish, meat, milk, cider, beer, fruit juices and preserves take their place alongside olives, olive oil, pasta and sauces from Italy, cheese, wine and bread from France, a thousand and one wursts from Germany, oranges from Spain and Portugal and Biltong, a cured meat delicacy, from South Africa.

Biltong, a cured meat delicacy from South Africa

Lovely loaves of Pugliese and other artisanal breads

Runny, stinky and perfectly ripe French cheeses — yum!

The South Portico from the Covent Garden Floral Hall was dismantled when the Royal Opera House was reconstructed in the 1990s, and stored in Wales until it re-erected and brought back to life, when Borough Market was rejuvenated in 2004. The top floor is now occupied by Roast, serving the best British food from fresh ingredients purchased in the market. 

Borough Market Hall, the magnificent portico of the old Covent Garden Floral Hall,

which was re-erected on site in 2004

Considered to have the best coffee in London, Monmouth sells their black gold either as whole roasted beans, ground to suit your desired method of brewing or brewed on site to drink in or take away. Their wide variety of beans are sourced from single farms, estates and cooperatives from around the world, and judging by the never ending lineups, they've also got the recipe for success. 

London's most popular coffee house — Monmouth

Working closely with Borough Market traders, Elliot's sources its ingredients directly from the Market each and every day, offering a daily changing menu that reflects the range of produce available. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner Monday to Saturday, they offer unusual wines from small vineyards with a particular interest in the organic, bio-dynamic and natural approach, in addition to cider from the New Forest and beers from a range of London based small scale brewers. A tiny restaurant, we were very lucky to get the last table inside for lunch. 

Elliot's in London's Borrough Market

We started with half a dozen Rock Oysters which arrived as cold as if they'd just been plucked from the sea. Thick and juicy, they were among the best oysters I've ever had. As entrées, we ordered the Warm Smoked Salmon with buttery and creamy scrambled eggs on toast, garnished with organic baby radishes and microgreens, as well as Buttermilk Fried Chicken with Cucumber Salad and hot sauce, and a bowl of Roast Potatoes with Mayonnaise and a Radicchio, Fennel & Caper Salad with Watercress which came with each entrée. Wonderfully prepared and absolutely delicious, Eliott's was the perfect place to enjoy a relaxing lunch and glass of wine before heading off to explore further unchartered realms of Borough Market — although that could take a week or more. What a delightful notion!

Half a dozen rock oysters from Mersey

Buttermilk Fried Chicken with Cucumber Salad and hot sauce

Roast Potatoes with Mayonnaise and a Radicchio, Fennel & Caper Salad with Watercress

Warm Smoked Salmon with Creamed Scrambled Eggs on Toast, 

garnished with organic baby radishes and microgreens

The tiny casual interior of Elliot's

www.elliotscafe.com