Crème de la cream - Nick Nairn Cook School

In our final extract from his new book, Nick Nairn gives us the lowdown on puddings to die for, revealing full-fat dairy produce as the key to dessert heaven

WHEN I first started cooking, a lot of my dishes relied on the richness of dairy fats such as butter, cream and eggs. Now that I'm older and care more about health and diet, I've cut down on the amount I use. I still love butter, eggs and cream; I just don't go overboard.

MILK

There's a bit of confusion when it comes to the fat content of dairy products, particularly milk, and people are often surprised to learn there's not much difference between the varieties. Whole milk is usually around 3.5% fat, semi-skimmed 1.6% and skimmed 0.1%. Which type you keep in your fridge will be down to personal taste.

CREAM

The trend at the moment is against using cream in cooking – presumably as a result of concerns over health and the high fat content. Personally, I still like to use quite a bit, as I find it imparts a wonderful richness that nothing else can match. At around 48% fat, you'd be wise to use double cream judiciously, but let's be honest, sometimes only cream will do.

That high fat content makes double cream very stable, so it's perfect for cooking and won't split when boiled or added to acidic ingredients. Use it in desserts such as the caramel sauce overleaf, or add to savoury dishes such as sauces and soups.

Whipping cream, at around 40% fat, is less stable. With care it can still be added to hot dishes, though it's most useful for whipping.

At 18% fat, single cream isn't an option for whipping or cooking, but it's perfect for making potato dauphinoise and some desserts. I keep double cream at home and thin it with milk when I need single.

Clotted cream, at 55% fat, isn't great for cooking, but there's very little that can beat it piled thickly on a scone with butter and jam: naughty but oh so nice.

Crème fraîche, a soured cream made from double cream, can be whipped and served like ordinary cream, or used to add a luscious zing to hot sauces, soups, stews and cold desserts. When made originally in France, natural lactic acid fermentation created the distinctive acidic taste, but now a culture is added to aid the process. Half-fat crème fraîche is also available and, with care, can be used for cooking, but no-fat crème fraîche can't stand the heat, and is only suitable for cold preparations such as dips and desserts.

Sour cream is lighter and produced from single rather than double cream. It's useful for dressings and dips, but is likely to split if added to hot dishes.

BUTTER

There are loads of buttery spreads and margarines on the market, but my preference will always be for real butter. Vegetable spreads derived from blended oils are never going to have the same flavour, and although they may contain less saturated fat, they often contain trans fats from the process of hydrogenation, which increases shelf-life. Our bodies have no way of dealing with trans fats, so you should try to avoid them whenever possible. Non-hydrogenated spreads are now available, but for me, butter is still the number one choice.

Butter is produced by churning cream and removing the liquid buttermilk so that only the yellow fat remains. The French and the Danes add a culture to their cream before churning it, while in the UK we just churn the cream as it is. These two distinct styles (sometimes called lactic and sweet) taste quite different and, while I prefer the French style, what you go for will be down to personal choice.

You also have a choice between salted and unsalted, and my vote is always for unsalted. The salt was originally added as a preservative, but it's now used as a flavour enhancer and can mask the use of cheap ingredients as well as adding to your daily hidden sodium intake.

YOGHURT

At the Cook School we mainly use full-fat natural bio yoghurt. If you're planning to cook with yoghurt, stabilise it first by adding a little cornflour or arrowroot so that it doesn't split. Better still, use Greek yoghurt instead, which is more stable due to its higher fat content. Greek yoghurt is also great for dips, or add chopped fruit and honey for a fabulously simple dessert. But watch the calories.

Technique: Caramel

Making caramel is an excellent basic skill to master. The secret is not to over-stir the sugar as it melts – stir too much and clumps will form. One word of caution: please wear gloves while making caramel as sugar can give a nasty burn and is almost impossible to remove if it drips on to the skin.

1 Heat a medium (25cm) heavy-based frying pan. Sift the caster sugar into the centre to make a pyramid half the diameter of the pan. The heat will slowly start to melt the sugar.

2 The melting sugar will make the pyramid start to collapse. When this happens, give the pan a shoogle and allow the sugar to continue to melt.

3 When there is more liquid than dry sugar, use a heatproof spatula to work in the rest, breaking down any lumps. Watch out for hot spots – gently push the sugar around with the spatula to incorporate cool sugar into areas that are overheating. Do not over-stir as this can cause it to appear crystallised.

4 You are looking for a golden caramel colour (the shade of sesame oil is a good guide). Take care not to let it get too dark, as it will make the caramel taste burnt and bitter. If you do see it darkening, simply take the pan off the heat and continue to stir. When you have the right colour, dip the base of the pan in a bowl of cold water for five seconds to stop the caramel cooking any further. Many recipes, such as caramelised fruits, will require caramel that is made up to this stage.

5 To make a caramel sauce, at the start of step 4, remove from the heat and add a little cream and stir through. Be careful as a particularly hot steam will come off. Put the pan back on the heat and stir through the remaining cream until fully incorporated.

POACHED PEAR AND CREME FRAICHE MOUSSE

This dish is only as good as the pear you use. Look out for comice or conference pears that are slightly under-ripe. The pears should be poached to perfection – soft and yielding to the spoon, but still holding their shape. There's just no excuse for a rock-hard pear.

Serves six

1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out
190g crème fraîche
60g caster sugar
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
freshly squeezed juice of 1 lemon
1 1/6 gelatine leaves, soaked in cold water for ten minutes
190g double cream
tuiles, to serve (see overleaf)
For the caramel poached pears
500g granulated sugar
1 vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out
6 small comice or conference pears

Put the vanilla seeds, crème fraîche, caster sugar and lemon zest into a bowl and mix thoroughly.

Warm the lemon juice with the drained gelatine until dissolved, leave to cool slightly and stir into the crème fraîche mixture.

Whip the double cream to the soft-peak stage and fold into the crème fraîche mixture. Spoon or pour into individual moulds or a terrine, cover and chill for at least two hours.

To make the poaching syrup, put the granulated sugar in a saucepan and make caramel. When the caramel is a good colour, but not too dark, remove from the heat and quickly pour in 500ml water. It will hiss and splutter, so take care. Place over the heat again, add the vanilla seeds and stir until the caramel lumps have dissolved and the vanilla seeds are evenly distributed.

Peel the pears, leaving on the stalks. Using a melon baller, scoop out and discard the seeds and pith from the bottom of the pears. Place the pears in the boiling syrup, stalks upwards. Bring back to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for at least ten minutes (depending on their size and ripeness), then remove from the heat and allow to cool in the syrup. Do this 24 hours in advance for the best results.

The next day, lift out the pears and boil down the liquid rapidly until it forms a medium-thick syrup. Allow to cool.

To serve, remove the mousse from the tin and cut into wedges. Stand a pear upright next to each mousse and serve with a pool of syrup and a tuile biscuit (recipe overleaf).

Mise en place Make the pears a few days in advance: they benefit from more time sitting in the syrup. Make and set up the mousses and reduce the syrup and chill up to six hours in advance.

TUILE BISCUITS

Makes 8-10 biscuits/cones/cups

50g caster sugar
50g plain flour
2 egg whites
50g melted butter, plus extra for greasing

Preheat the oven to 180¡C/gas mark 4. Put the caster sugar, flour and egg whites into a bowl and beat together to a smooth paste.

Beat in the melted butter then cover and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.

To make shapes, drop about four teaspoons of the mixture, spaced well apart, on a lightly greased non-stick baking tray.

Spread the mixture very thinly into circles approximately 13cm in diameter. Bake for six to eight minutes until lightly coloured in the centre with a rich, golden edge.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few seconds. Then, working as quickly as you can, lift each one off the baking sheet with a palette knife and roll into your preferred shape. I find cones, cups and cigar shapes work well. Leave to cool and harden.

Any extra ones can be kept in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to a week or can be frozen for up to two months.

CARAMEL SAUCE

Makes about 700ml

375g caster sugar
500ml double cream

Before attempting this recipe for the first time, read through the step-by-step technique on the previous page.

Heat a heavy-based pan (about 25cm diameter) over a medium heat, allowing it to warm for three to four minutes.

Add the sugar and follow the instructions in the step-by-step guide until you have a pale caramel. When it's ready, the sugar will give off a distinctive smell of caramel.

Keep on the heat and carefully begin to stir in the cream. It's important to stir the pan as you do this to release the superheated steam, but be very careful as the pan will start to bubble and splutter the moment you add liquid. Add the cream in splashes of about 50ml. If you add too much at once, you'll get lumps of caramel. Too little and the mix may start to burn.

When ready, the sauce can be served hot or cold, but if kept warm, be careful not to let it become too thick (a little water can be added if needed), otherwise you may end up serving toffee. Or, for convenience, cool and pour into a squeezy sauce bottle, reheating if required in the microwave or in a bowl of hot water. Caramel sauce will keep for up to a week in the fridge, and can also be frozen for up to three months.

READER OFFER

Extracted from Nick Nairn Cook School (£20, Cassell Illustrated) © Nick Nairn/Octopus Publishing Group Ltd. To buy the book at the special offer price of £16 (postage and packing free), call 01903 828503 and quote ref CAM32. Offer subject to availability.

The big chill

GET into the freezer habit. Believe it or not, there are nights when even I go home and can't face cooking. That's when I rely on my freezer. To me, a freezer is like a convenience store and I keep mine well stocked with a good selection of home-made 'ready meals', such as casseroles and soups, which can be zapped in the microwave and ready to eat within minutes. These dishes are easy to prepare in bulk then freeze in individual portions, and are 100% better than their shop-bought counterparts in terms of taste and nutritional value. They don't contain unnecessary salt and sugar, and I've got full control over every ingredient.

A freezer is also indispensable if you are going to go to the effort of making your own basics, such as stocks, as it's just as easy to make big quantities instead of smaller ones, then freeze what you don't need. Next time you need a few tablespoons of your stock to enrich a sauce, you can casually open your freezer and the stock will be conveniently to hand. Get into the habit of labelling every item you freeze (in waterproof ink) with the name and date (including the year).

If you're freezing protein, such as meat or fish, the key to success is doing it quickly. Slow freezing causes large ice crystals to form in the food – these are sharp, and damage the internal structure of delicate items as they form. When you defrost something that's been frozen slowly like this, liquid leeches out from the damaged areas and the items become soggy and tasteless. Domestic freezers aren't designed to freeze things quickly; they can't get down to low enough temperatures. For this reason, I would recommend against freezing delicate produce, such as fish, at home (unless you're planning to use it in something like a pie). Scallops are the one exception here, as their low water content makes the formation of ice crystals less of an issue.

Freezing isn't complicated, but here are some simple guidelines to help you achieve the best results:

1 Ensure whatever you're freezing is cold before it goes in the freezer.

2 Individually wrap items like meat or scallops in cling film and freeze spaced out on a tray. Anything in a clump will take longer to freeze to the centre, causing more damage to the tissues.

3 Freeze liquids, such as stocks and sauces, in ice cube trays. When frozen, tip the cubes into zip-lock bags and label with indelible pen; handy portions that can be quickly zapped in the microwave and served within minutes.

4 Don't try to freeze milk, yoghurt or whole eggs, emulsions such as mayonnaise or fruits with a high water content. Separated egg whites can be frozen successfully, however, and the process actually helps to de-nature the albumen and produce better meringues.

5 Keep your freezer full, but never over-fill as it makes it inefficient.

6 You can defrost sauces, soups and casseroles quickly in the microwave. With meat etc, it's better to defrost overnight in the fridge on some kitchen towel to absorb any liquid.

7 Never re-freeze defrosted produce without cooking it thoroughly first.

Once you get into the habit, you'll find your freezer filling up quickly, but here are some basics you should consider leaving space for:

STOCKS AND SOUPS

Every time I roast a chicken, the carcass becomes the backbone of a fantastically simple stock. If you don't have time to make stock straight away, you can always keep the carcass in the freezer until you do. Soups are most useful frozen in portions for two or four, but don't add any cream or cheese before freezing.

FRUIT AND VEGETABLE PUREES

If you're weaning young children on to solids, making purées in bulk then freezing them in ice-cube trays is a fantastically simple and healthy way to introduce them to fruit and vegetables. My kids ate no jars of food at that age; we even managed to feed them home-made purées on holiday.

LENTILS

I use a lot of puy lentils in my cooking, as they're fantastic mixed through salads, stews and soups. For convenience, I cook them in batches and freeze them, taking out small quantities as required.

PASTRY

Make big batches then freeze. I keep flaky (easy puff) and shortcrust. Don't freeze filo as it goes crumbly.

RASPBERRIES

Out of season, I'd much rather have frozen Scottish rasps than fresh imports.

PINE NUTS

I've found that all nuts are best kept in the freezer, as it stops them going rancid.