Caper sauce for roast lamb

Mmmm, and i don't even really like capers.

- Make a bechamel sauce by melting 45g butter, adding 45g of flour, cooking for 1-2 mins, then slowly adding 400ml milk and 200ml lamb stock.
- Cook until thick, then stir in 3 tablespoons capers and 1 teaspoon vinegar from the caper bottle.
- Season and add 1 tablespoon chopped parsley.

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Bechamel Sauce

As Nigella says, the most useful of sauces and one we make all the time, probably without realising it.  I made it yesterday for instance, for the pea souffle.

- Melt 15g (1 tablespoon) butter in a pan.
- Stir in 15g (1 1/2 tablespoons) flour and cook for 2-3 mins.
- Gradually whisk in 300ml milk, off the heat - don't add the next bit of milk, until the previous bit is smoothly incorporated.
- Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.

Nigella recommends using "Dove Farm" flour, which i always buy now because its Marni's middle name!

Mayonnaise

The first recipe in the book and i've only just got round to making it. It was to accompany the prawn cakes above. It wasn't a great success - too oily and too strong a taste of olive. I should have stopped when it looked about perfect, but this being my first time making mayonnaise, i thought i'd better carry on and follow the recipe exactly. Maybe the eggs i used were too small for the amount of oil, but either way, nigella suggests far too much olive oil i think.

- Whisk 2 egg yolks, preferably from room temperature, with a pinch of salt.

- Very slowly add 225ml groundnut/sunflower oil, whisking all the time.

- Then continue with 25ml olive oil (nigella suggests 75ml), followed by the juice of 1/2 lemon, still whisking all the time.

- Season with salt and white pepper.

So not too bad a recipe, but next time i'm going to stop adding oil when it gets to the consistency i want.

Red Wine, Cumin and Onion Gravy

One of nigella's simpler recipes. It gives a lovely silky gravy and i'm not quite sure how! maybe its the caramelising of the onions or maybe the cooking in flour before adding the stock. Either way, its pretty good gravy and great with sausages and mash, even though they were vegetarian sausages courtesy of Tara.

- Cook 225g of thinly sliced onions in 30g beef dripping or oil for about 10 mins, or until soft, on a low heat.

- Add 1 teaspoon cumin and cook for a further 5 mins.

- Turn up the heat and add 1 tablespoon sugar, cooking for 3 mins to let the onions caramelise.

- Add 2 tablespoons flour and continue cooking for 2 mins.

- Add 500ml meat stock and 150 ml red wine, heat to boiling, then simmer for 20-30 mins, stirring occasionally.

I would loved to have used beef dripping and meat stock, but i can only dream of what this would have tasted like. The vegetarian version was good enough though.

Onion Sauce

This is another one of Nigella's slightly more laborious recipes, which often result in superior flavour and are worth the effort. However, i'm not sure this one is. I cooked it for a lunch at tara's parents, and it took me the same time to cook it, as it took fiona to cook the rest of the lunch and 2 puddings!

- Heat 600ml of milk in a saucepan with 2 cloves and a bay leaf, and just before it boils, remove and let steep for 20 mins.

- Quarter 6 onions, cover in a pan with cold water, bring to the boil, add salt, and simmer for 20mins until the onions are cooked and soft.

- Sieve and add 500ml of the onion water to the milk.

- Melt 90g butter on a low heat and add 90g flour, mixing for a couple of mins.

- Take off the heat and slowly add the milk/onion water and when incorporated, put back on the heat and cook for 15 mins until smooth and thick.

- Stir in the onions, 100ml of double cream, some nutmeg and season.

I wasn't allowed to add the double cream, but i reckon it's worth it - just eat less of it!

Hollandaise

Here's where things have got tricky. It took me 4 tries and a lot of eggs and butter, to get this recipe to work. Each time, the Hollandaise just split, either at the start, or when i was just getting to pour it onto the eggs florentine, it curdled before my eyes. I was left with a very sore arm at the end of all the whisking.

- Put an egg yolk in a bowl suspended over a pan of cold water.

- Heat the cold water to boiling while whisking the yolk.

- As the water boils, turn down to a simmer and start adding 60g of butter, 1 cm cube at a time.

- If the sauce starts to curdle, whisk in an ice cube to bring the temperature down.

- Once all the butter has been absorbed, add the juice of 1/2 a lemon, salt and pepper.

I have my reservations with this method. The egg seems to be too whisked and cooked by the time the water starts boiling and you start adding the butter. By the fourth attempt, i was adding the butter much earlier and whisking less at the start.

Luckily Fern came over later on, doing her brilliant Aunt role, and told me that she starts with the water boiling already. Nigella also says that a traditional hollandaise involves adding 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar and 1 tablespoon of water, which have been reduced down to 1 tablespoon. I think this might help stabilise the yolks as well. We have not seen the last of Hollandaise...