Worth the Effort
Starter: Goats Cheese & Thyme Pannacotta – by Chef Damian McArthur, Dining Direct
Ingredients (feeds 6 people)
175ml cream
275ml milk
175ml crème fraiche
250g goat’s cheese
3 leaves gelatine
Instructions
This is a surprising and refreshing starter. You don’t really expect the savoury flavour to come from what looks, frankly, like a dessert.
Place the cream, milk, crème fraiche, roughly chopped goat’s cheese and fresh thyme in a heavy bottomed sauce pan and bring gently to a low heat, making sure it does not boil. Soften the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 minutes, then carefully squeeze out any water. Whisk the softened gelatine leaves into the cream mix and allow to cool slightly. Strain through a sieve into your panna-cotta moulds and place into the refrigerator until set.
Serve with a salad of fresh baby watercress, slivered apple and toffee walnuts. Drizzle with a white balsamic reduction (or simply some honey) and serve.
Quick and Easy
Starter: Broccoli and Fourme D’Ambert Soup – by Kath Leake, Elevation Alps
Ingredients (feeds 4 people)
½ onion finely diced
Butter
200g lardons
1 broccoli
250g strong blue cheese
1pt Chicken stock (or veg)
Salt and pepper
Crusty bread to serve
Having had a huge boozy lunch on the mountain, when you get home you just want something bland and comforting. This very easy, healthy soup is just the ticket. You can use any blue cheese and it’s easily adapted for vegetarians.
Instructions
Fry the onion and the butter until the onion is soft. Add the lardons and fry for a couple of minutes.
Cut the whole broccoli including the stalk into small chunks so they cook through quickly, and add to the pan
Add the pint of chicken stock and simmer until the broccoli is cooked through
Dice the blue cheese and stir it through then take of the heat
Whiz up with a hand blender
Add more water if it is too thick
Serve with loads of crusty bread
Worth the Effort
Main course: Slow Roast Shoulder of Lamb with Winter Vegetables – by Chef Sharif Gergis, Guerrilla Dining
Ingredients: (Feeds 4-6 people)
1 whole shoulder of lamb on the bone around 2.5 kg
1.5 kg waxy potatoes sliced around 3/4” thick
3 large onions sliced thinly
4 anchovy fillets
3 cloves of garlic peeled and crushed
Good pinch of fresh thyme roughly chopped
100 mls dark soy sauce
100 mls honey
2 table spoons smoked paprika
750 mls chicken stock (or water)
1kg of mixed winter root vegetables -Carrots, Beetroot, Squash, cut into large chunks/pieces
100g softened butter
Instructions
Toss the winter vegetables in a little olive oil and salt and place in a roasting tray. Refrigerate until required. In a small bowl, mix together the honey, soy sauce and smoked paprika. Cover with cling film and refrigerate. Toss together the potatoes, onion and thyme with a good pinch of salt and the softened butter. Place in the base of a casserole dish. Mix the anchovy and garlic with a little olive oil and salt to make a paste and spread this generously over the lamb. Pour the chicken stock over the potatoes and place the lamb on top. Wet a piece of parchment paper and cover the lamb with it tucking it in like a blanket. Cover again with a lid or baking foil and place in an oven at 130 degrees C for anywhere between 4 and 10 hours.
When ready to serve, remove the lamb from the oven, increase the temperature to 220 degrees and pop the vegetables in to roast for 30 mins. Remove the lid and the parchment paper and pour the soy sauce, honey and smoked paprika glaze over the lamb. Sprinkle with sea salt and return to the hot oven until the skin of the lamb is browned and the glaze has taken on some colour. Cover loosely with foil and leave to rest in a warm place while the vegetables finish cooking.
To serve arrange the roasted vegetables over the lamb and place the whole pot in the middle of the table for everyone to help themselves.
Quick and Easy
Starter: Baked Mont D’or Fondue with Pain Persillade – by Chef Sharif Gergis, Guerrilla Dining
Ingredients (feeds 4-6 per whole cheese)
1 whole Vacherin Mont D’or cheese in its wooden box
2 cloves of garlic crushed
Bunch of chervil roughly chopped
Bunch of flat leaf parsley roughly chopped
100ml extra virgin olive oil
50g room temperature salted butter
1 pain boule (round country style French bread loaf)
Instructions
Vacherin Mont D’or is a soft, rich, creamy cheese produced in the French and Swiss Alps. It is bound in spruce and packaged in a round wooden boxes. Here it’s served warm like a fondue as an incredibly easy to prepare starter or snack to serve with drinks.
Remove the cheese from its wooden box and carefully peel off the spruce. Place the empty wooden box on top of the bread as close to the centre as you can. Using a small knife cut a circle through the crust of the loaf using the box as a guide. Remove this section of the crust and pull out the inside of the bread in rough chunks. Reserve these along with the extra crust for dipping into the cheese later.
You will now be left with a hollowed out loaf into which the cheese will fit perfectly. Mix 3/4 of the garlic with the softened butter and spread generously over the bread and inside and out. Pop the cheese into the bread and place the whole thing in the oven at 180 degrees for 10-20 minutes until the cheese is golden and bubbly. Meanwhile mix together the remaining garlic with the chopped herbs and olive oil. Season to taste with salt.
To serve, place the fondue in the middle of the table in a heat proof dish, spoon the persillade over the cheese and encourage everyone to tear the bread apart and dip it into the cheese.
Quick and Easy
Main Course: Honey Mustard Chicken Tagliatelle – by Gemma Russell, friend of Elevation Alps
Ingredients (feeds 4 people)
300g tagliatelle
500g chicken breast
250g mushrooms
1 onion
100g green beans
1tbsp whole grain mustard
4tbsp crème fraiche
1tsp honey
Instructions
Dice onions, chop green beans in half, quarter the mushrooms.
Cube the chicken breasts.
Add some olive oil to a pan. Boil water for pasta.
Add onions to the pan of olive oil. Move around the pan for 5 minutes. Add chicken and mushroom and beans.
Add pasta to the boiling water.
In a bowl mix together the crème fraiche, honey and mustard.
After 15 minutes, the pasta should be ready, drain.
Add the chicken mix to the pasta. Stir. Add the crème fraiche sauce. Mix together well. Serve. EAT!
Dessert
Dessert: Lemon & Honey Ice Cream – by Chef Damian McArthur, Dining Direct
Ingredients (feeds 6 people)
Zest and juice of one lemon
½ cup runny honey
½ cup Lemoncello (lemon liqueur)
Egg Yolks x 6
Instructions
This is a delicious recipe for home-made ice cream. You won’t need an expensive churner for this one, as long as you have a freezer! Place the lemon juice, zest, honey and Lemoncello into a heavy based medium saucepan. Boil this down until it is reduced and becomes a thick syrup. Place 6 egg yolks into a stainless steel bowl and whisk until frothy and thick. Slowly drizzle the hot lemon and honey mixture into egg yolks while continuously whisking until cooled. Fold in 1 cup of whipped cream, then spoon into your selected containers or moulds. Freeze until set (I make these in the morning so they are ready by dinner time) Serve with fresh figs and raspberries with a drizzle of red wine syrup.
Fact Box
Elevation Alps is a self-catering chalet company based in Morzine, specialising in top end properties for guests looking for a more flexible approach to the traditional ski chalet holiday experience.
The team, including private chefs working with Elevation Alps clients and company manager, Kath Leake, have created a series of recipes that they like to cook after a day out on the slopes – chosen for their variety, they aren’t the typical Alpine dishes you might find out on the mountain at lunch time, but should inspire some ideas for anyone heading out on a self-catered ski holiday this winter.