Roasted garlic and rosemary pomme purée 

For those of you who love mashed potatoes, pomme purée is like their clever French cousin. They’re creamy, smooth, flavourful and much like the French, contain a surprising amount of butter. In this recipe, I’ve added roasted garlic for a warming sweetness, and rosemary for a little bit more flavour.

You need

• 1kg starchy potatoes
• 200g whole butter
• Plenty of salt to taste
• Milk or cream as needed.
• Roasted garlic
• 2 sprigs of rosemary

Method

Preheat an oven to 200°C. Scrub but don’t peel the potatoes and place onto a lined baking tray. Remove the rosemary from its stem and chop finely. Bake for one hour or until they are completely cooked through. You can check this by piercing them with a fork or knife. When the fork pierces the flesh of the potato with no resistance, then they’re cooked.

Cut the potatoes in half through the centre and, using a tea towel to protect your hands from the heat, scoop out the flesh from the potato skins. Save the skins for a snack or crispy garnish. Pass the potato flesh through a sieve using a rubber spatula or a pastry card. Add the passed potato into a pot. Season liberally with salt.Add one head of roasted garlic to the potatoes and fold in with a wooden spoon or spatula along with a few cubes of butter at a time.

Add the chopped rosemary along with freshly ground black pepper to taste and fold in with a spatula until evenly distributed. Work in roughly two tablespoons of butter at a time until they melt into the potatoes and the mixture is smooth before adding more butter. Continue adding until you’ve reached your desired consistency and taste. If the potato mixture cools down too much and the butter isn’t melting fast enough, apply gentle heat to the bottom of the pot.

Gently heat 100ml or so of cream or milk. Fold the cream into the potato mixture a little bit at a time and adjust with more salt. Serve immediately.

If serving later on that day, wrap the surface of the potatoes with cling film to prevent them from drying out. Bring the potato mixture back together by adding a splash more warm cream or milk and stirring until smooth over medium heat.

To serve the next day, place the potatoes into a fridge suitable container and press plenty of cling film over the surface of the potato to prevent dried out crustiness. Rewarm with some warm milk or cream when ready to serve. Add more rosemary, salt and pepper as needed. Optionally garnish with freshly picked herbs and crispy potato skins

Braised cabbage and kale with crispy guanciale

You need

• 1kg cabbage
• 1 bunch or 24 leaves of Tuscan kale
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 tablespoons of roasted garlic
• 250g guanciale
• Apple cider vinegar
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• 250ml vegetable stock or water

Method

Cut the cabbage into quarters through the core. Remove the core on each quarter by slicing just above it. Take the cored cabbage and cut into thin strips.

Remove the leaves from the stems of the Tuscan kale by pinching around the stems and pulling the leaves off. Discard the stems and chop the leaves into 1cm strips.

Peel the garlic and cut into thin slices. Remove the skin (if any) from the guanciale and cut into ½ cm slices. Cut the slices again into small batons.

Place the guanciale into a medium sized pot and cook over medium low heat until the fat has rendered out and the guanciale begins to fry. Once the guanciale is nicely coloured, remove half of the batons with a spoon and reserve, leaving behind all of the fat they were cooking in.

Add the garlic to the pot and cook for two to three minutes or until fragrant.

Add the cabbage and kale to the pot. Stir to coat with the fat and increase the heat to medium. Season with a light pinch of salt and several grinds of black pepper.

Cook the cabbage and kale for four to five minutes while stirring occasionally before adding 250ml of vegetable stock or water and placing a lid on the pot. Cook for 15 minutes. Then lift the lid and continue cooking until most of the liquid has dissolved.

Season to taste with a teaspoon of Dijon or wholegrain mustard and a light splash of apple cider vinegar. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed. Serve topped with the reserved crispy guanciale.

Simple roast chicken and garlic gravy

Roast chicken is one of my favourite meals. Everything about it takes me back to my childhood. From the way the whole house smells, to the leftover sandwiches, and the culinary experience that is dunking plenty of bread into the cooking juices, it’s one of those immediately comforting dishes which I love. 

You need

For the roast chicken

• 1 whole chicken
• 1 onion1 lemon
• 7-8 sprigs of thyme
• Salt to taste
• Chicken fat, olive oil or butter as needed

For the gravy

• 200ml chicken stock
• 30g flour
• 1 head roasted garlic

Method

Pat the chicken down with paper towels to dry out the skin and cavity and place on a tray lined with a wire rack on the bottom section of your fridge. Allow to chill overnight.

When ready to cook, preheat the oven to 220°C and bring your chicken out of the fridge to temper. I like to bend the wing tips underneath the carcass so that they don’t burn. When the oven is hot enough, season the chicken liberally. Cut an onion into quarters through the core and place a bundle of thyme in the cross section for the onion. Plug the cavity with half a lemon. Rub your hands with chicken fat, butter or olive oil and give the skin a light coating.

Place the chicken onto an oven safe pan or dish and place into the centre of the oven. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the thickest part of the legs registers at 70°C with a thermometer. Alternatively if you don’t have an instant read thermometer, slice into the leg and if the juices run clear, you’re good to go.

Allow to rest for 20 minutes while getting the rest of your meal together. Don’t worry about the chicken cooling down, it will actually continue cooking gently while retaining a hot interior for quite some time.

Remove the onion, thyme and lemon from the inside of the cavity. Set them aside. Carefully lift the chicken using a pair of tongs and allow the juices inside the cavity to pour into the roasting dish or pan.

Remove most of the fat from the top of the roasting juices by either pouring into a measuring cylinder and pouring off the excess or using a gravy separator. Add 200ml of chicken stock to the roasting dish or pan and scrape off any bits from the bottom.

In a separate pot, add two tablespoons of chicken fat and two tablespoons of flour and cook over medium heat while stirring for two to three minutes to create a roux. This will thicken our gravy. Add the chicken stock and deglaze fond from the roasting dish and pour it into the pot. Add the lemon, onion and thyme along with two tablespoons roasted garlic. Continue to add chicken stock until you reach a nice consistency. Cook for 10 minutes over medium low heat and pass through a strainer to remove any solids. Pulse with an immersion blender for a smoother consistency.

Place the chicken on your chopping board and slice by running a sharp knife through the middle of the breasts, along the keel bone. Follow the cartilage and gently push and slice to remove the breasts. Reserve on a tray or plate. Push down slightly on the legs to separate them from the carcass. Run a knife in between the thigh and the body to remove the legs. Carefully cut around the joint attaching the leg to the body. Cut in between the bone of the drumstick and the thigh to separate the two and reserve on a tray or plate. Cut off the wings from in between the joining connecting it to the body and reserve.

Break the carcass down into smaller pieces and reserve for stock. Wipe your board and bring the breasts back. Slice them into nice slices. Present all parts of the bird onto a warm plate or serving dish with a side of gravy. To portion the chicken Place the chicken on your chopping board and slice by running a sharp knife through the middle of the breasts, along the keel bone. Follow the cartilage and gently push and slice to remove the breasts. Reserve on a tray or plate.

How to make a proper hot chocolate 

Like most kids, I grew up with a great love of hot chocolate. The majority of these drinks I enjoyed were put together using a convenient chocolate powder and some hot milk or water. Good – but not good enough. Read on for the real deal. 

You need

• 250ml cream
• 250ml milk
• 300g dark chocolate, chopped
• 5g vanilla essence
• 45g icing sugar
• Tiny pinch of salt
• 50ml spiced rum (optional)

Method

Add the milk and cream to a saucepan. Bring up to the boil while keeping an eye on your pot. Milk and cream love to boil over and make a mess of your stove. If you want to infuse any flavour in here like a stick of cinnamon or a few sprigs of mint, add them to the cream and milk combination as you bring them up to a boil. Turn off the heat and let the mixture sit for 15-30 minutes and strain off your herbs, spices, citrus peel, etc. through a sieve. Bring the cream and milk mixture back onto the heat and quickly bring up to a simmer.

Add the icing sugar and the vanilla essence, continue to heat until the sugar is dissolved. Turn off the heat and add all of your chopped chocolate. Allow it to sit for five minutes without heating it up.

Whisk to combine until the mixture is smooth, evenly brown and creamy. Continue mixing until there are no remaining lumps in the chocolate. Adjust the consistency with milk or alcohol if you prefer a thinner chocolate drink. Serve immediately and top with lightly whipped cream and a grating of dark chocolate.

Time to cook

They say too many cooks spoil the broth. But not in this case. Chef Stephen La Rosa and Times of Malta have put on their apron for a series of cooking videos that are generous on tips, tricks and above all, taste. Watch the videos on timesofmalta.com. And for those who are still hungry, visit stephenlarosa.co.