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ROASTED PEANUTS WITH ROSEMARY AND GARLIC
At the Breslin, we serve snacks like scrumpets, which are breaded and deep-fried shreds of fatty lamb, and boiled peanuts fried in pork fat. But at The John Dory, I wanted the bar snacks to be a bit lighter, more appropriate as preludes to platters of oysters and bowls of razor clam ceviche. So I came up with these salty, roasty peanuts tumbled with slightly crispy rosemary and sweet, soft cloves of garlic, rustic in their papery skins. It’s a nice thing to set out at a party or to nibble on while watching a movie.
makes about 450g
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
12 skin-on garlic cloves
6 tablespoons rosemary leaves
450g salted skin-on roasted peanuts, preferably small Spanish peanuts
1 tablespoon Maldon or another flaky sea salt, or more to taste
5 or so dried pequin chillies or pinches of red pepper flakes
Heat the olive oil in a wide pan with high sides over medium-high heat until it just begins to smoke. Add the garlic cloves, adjust the heat if necessary to cook them at a steady sizzle, and cook, tipping the pan occasionally so the oil pools and almost covers the cloves, until the garlic has some golden brown spots and the skins begin to split and blister, about 5 minutes.
Push the garlic to one side of the pan, put the rosemary in the oil next to the garlic, and add the peanuts to the space remaining in the pan. Turn the heat down to medium and let the rosemary sizzle in the oil for a minute, stirring it a little, then stir it together with the peanuts and garlic. Let them all quietly and steadily sizzle together – you’re infusing the flavours of the garlic and rosemary into the peanuts, cooking the garlic more so it’ll be soft and creamy, and reinvigorating the roasted peanuts – stirring and tossing the peanuts often, so they all get to spend some time against the bottom of the pan, about 5 minutes. About a minute before that, sprinkle on the salt, crumble in the chillies, and stir well.
Take the pan off the heat and let the peanuts carry on cooking gently in the hot pan, stirring now and then, until they’ve cooled a bit. Have a taste, and stir in a little more salt or crumbled chillies if you fancy it. Serve warm or at room temperature.
TOASTS WITH RAMP BUTTER AND FRIED QUAIL’S EGGS
Ramps are lovely, slender wild leeks that grow everywhere in the US. They have a white bulb that turns to purple as it meets the stem, which then develops into a delicate green leaf. I get really excited when ramps finally arrive at the market because it means spring is coming – open your windows, clean out your cupboards! – and my winter funk is over. Early in the season, when ramps are especially sweet and tender (later on they’re bigger and starchy), I make a simple butter that combines the nutty sweetness of the bulbs and the fresh leeky taste of the tops. Each bite is a little different: in some you taste spikes of lemon; in others, sweetness; and in still others, saltiness. Ramp butter is the sort of thing that’s good on just about everything – dolloped on mashed potatoes, spread on lamb chops, or tossed with pasta. (Ramps have this ‘more-ish’ smell – that is, they smell so good you want more.) But I especially love it slathered on toasted bread and topped with a quail’s egg, a more exciting version of the boiled egg and soldiers I ate for breakfast as a kid in Birmingham. If you can’t find ramps, new season leaf garlic makes a good substitute.
makes 8
125g ramps, roots trimmed
165g unsalted butter, at room temperature
Maldon or another flaky sea salt
3 whole salt-packed anchovies, rinsed, soaked, and filleted (see Filleting Salt-Packed Anchovies, here), then finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest (from about 2 large lemons)
1½ teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, or more to taste
A few glugs of extra virgin olive oil
Dried pequin chillies or red pepper flakes
Freshly ground black pepper
Eight 1cm-thick diagonal slices from a baguette, toasted and cooled
8 quail’s eggs
Pile the ramps on your cutting board so the bulb ends line up. Start by thinly slicing the bulbs, working your way toward the green leaves. After you’ve sliced the purple stems and reached the greens, make your slices even thinner. Gather the sliced bulbs and stems into a little pile. Set the greens aside for the moment.
Put 15g of the butter in a sauté pan and set it over medium-high heat. Once it melts and froths, add the sliced ramp bulbs and stems (along with a five-fingered pinch of greens) and a sprinkle of salt. Cook, stirring often, until the ramps have a hint of brown, 2 minutes or so.
Scrape the ramps into a bowl and add the remaining 150g butter, the anchovies, lemon zest, lemon juice, a glug of olive oil, a few crumbled chillies, and, if you fancy, a few twists of black pepper. Mash, toss, and stir the mixture with a fork or wooden spoon just until everything’s nicely mixed. Give the reserved ramp greens a brief chop, then stir them in. Have a taste. You should taste the gentle onion flavour of the ramps, a good bit of umami-saltiness from the anchovies, and brightness, not tartness, from the lemon. To me, this butter tastes like spring. You might want to add another ¼ teaspoon salt or another brief squeeze of lemon. (You can refrigerate the butter for a day or two in a bowl, or roll it into a log, if you’re feeling fancy.)
Slather the toasts with the ramp butter (you’ll have extra butter; reserve it for another day).
Pour a glug or two of oil into a non-stick pan just large enough to hold the eggs comfortably (you can also fry them in 2 batches) and set it over medium-high heat. When the oil is barely smoking, crack the eggs into the pan. (It helps to insert the tip of a knife into the shell, though not so far in that you break the yolk.) You should hear spitting and sizzling when you add them. Cook them until the whites are set and golden brown at the edges but the yolks are still runny, about a minute.
Top each toast with a quail’s egg and add a little sprinkle of salt. Serve straight away.
CLEANING RAMPS
Ramps are usually a bit dirty when you buy them, so you need to wash them well – but please handle them with care. They’re special little things and delicate too. It’d be a shame to bruise them. Fill a big bowl with cold water and add the ramps. Swish them around gently and rub them carefully with your fingers to dislodge any dirt on the leaves and to remove any mushy layer on the bulbs. Change the water two or three times until you’re satisfied, then gently shake the ramps and lay them on a kitchen towel to dry.
DEVILS ON HORSEBACK
We serve these bacon-wrapped prunes
