Naughty Piglets: Cuttlefish & Cockle Fideua
Get a taste of Naughty Piglets at home with an exclusive recipe from their new Chef in residence, Aaron Potter.
Have you ever been to an amazing restaurant and thought: “How on earth do they get the food to taste like this?”
Well, there’s no need to imagine anymore. Today, we are bringing you an exclusive recipe from a Michelin Star Chef!
Margaux Aubry, Co-Founder of Naughty Piglets, was our guest on the podcast this week. During the episode, she introduced the restaurant’s new Chef in residency programme. Each quarter, a new Chef will take over the kitchen and create a new menu.
Aaron Potter started his residency this week, arriving from a Michelin Star restaurant called Trinity. Margaux has kindly shared an exclusive recipe from Aaron’s new menu:
Cuttlefish & Cockle Fideua
Serves: up to 10 people
Preparation time: approximately 30 minutes (it always takes longer than you think so give yourself plenty of time to relax and actually enjoy yourself)
Cooking time: A minimum of 2.5 hours (factor in more time, the more people you cook for)
Ingredients:
1kg of cuttlefish (“Where the hell am I going to find this? Blighty isn’t exactly the Mediterranean”. Fear not! If you can’t find cuttlefish, then use squid)
2 glugs of olive oil (don’t be too precise. Flamboyance and fun are advised)
2 red onions
2 red peppers
5 cloves of garlic
1 Bouquet garni of thyme
500ml of white wine
1 tin or jar of passata
1 litre of fish or shellfish stock (recipes can be accessed via the links)
60g of fideos per person (picture below. It’s essentially pasta that looks more like vermicelli noodles. Don’t worry, we had no idea what this was until Margaux sent us the recipe)
1 blood orange
4 - 8 fresh cockles per person (if you can’t find cockles, then use clams)
0.5 lemon per person (add plenty more depending on your preferences)
Instructions:
Step 1 - Heat your oven to 150°C. You won’t need the oven for a while, but it’s annoyingly easy to forget to bring it up to temperature until the moment you need it. Get ahead of the game.
Step 2 - Dice the cuttlefish and fry it in a glug of olive oil with a large pinch of sea salt in a casserole dish until it’s lightly browned.
Step 3 - Whilst the cuttlefish is frying, prepare your vegetables. Half the onion and finely slice into half moon shapes. Dice the peppers and finely slice the garlic cloves.
Step 4 - Once the cuttlefish is lightly browned, remove it from the pan. Replace it with the onions, peppers, garlic and bouquet garni. Gently sweat the vegetables for approximately 20 minutes until soft and sweet.
Step 5 - Add the white wine to the vegetables and let is reduce by about half.
Step 6 - Add the cuttlefish back to the pan with the passata and the fish/shellfish stock. Bring it all to a simmer and then place it in the oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes with the lid on.
Step 7 - About 15 minutes before the dish is ready to come out of the oven, zest and juice the blood orange.
Step 8 - Remove the dish from the oven. Stir through the orange juice and zest. Allow it all to rest for a minimum of fifteen minutes.
Step 9 - Add the fideos to a paella pan (if you don’t have one, which accounts for all of us, then use a wide frying pan or a skillet). Add two ladles of the braised cuttlefish and a splash of water per person. Place the pan under a high heat until the liquid is absorbed and the fideua begins to go crispy around the edges.
Step 10 - As the fideua is cooking and nearing completion, prepare your cockles. Rinse them thoroughly under cold water and discard any that are cracked. Tap any that are open lightly. If they do not close, then discard them too.
Step 11 - Heat a large pan (with a lid) and add your second glug of olive oil. Place the cockles into the pan and cover with a lid. Let them steam for 3 - 5 minutes, occasionally shaking the pan whilst they cook. The cockles are ready when their shells open wide.
Step 12 - Take the fideua off the heat and arrange your cooked cockles on top. Squirt the lemon(s) over the entire dish. Place a trivet on the table. Take your pan and place it onto the trivet.
Step 13 - Bow to your dinner guests to a rapturous applause. Shout “Service Chef” in triumph! (A picture of Aaron below looking far more professional than we could ever attempt).
Next week
It’s now May and some of you will have noticed emails are starting to flood into your inbox about the Bordeaux 2023 En Primeur Campaign. Some of you might be wondering what all the fuss is regarding Bordeaux or just need a little refresher on why it is such an important wine region. If that’s you, then you are in luck!
We are releasing an episode with Corney & Barrow next week introducing Bordeaux as a wine region and the basics behind buying wine En Primeur. As one of the most historic and prestigious wine merchants in the UK, nobody is better placed to provide such an introduction. Stay tuned and have a fabulous weekend.
