Rachel Khoo - Entertaining Food & Drink

There's nothing I care more about

than what, how and why we eat and drink.

We're constantly being bombarded by trends

that influence the way we shop and cook today.

One of the biggest emerging trends is that we're choosing to eat in

over eating out, so we're spending our money

on a little bit of luxury to cook at home.

Truffles are an extravagance, but they are absolutely to die for.

Cook and food writer Rachel Khoo joins me

for a bit of stay-at-home luxury, as we take on a beef Wellington.

I'm going to be using the pan to make my sauce.

No washing up, then!

Anything to avoid washing up with me!

Blogger and entrepreneur Kerstin Rodgers

shares her top tips on how to host the perfect dinner party.

What to ask your guests to bring? Anything!

-CORK POPS

-Ooh!

Booze, candles, dessert perhaps?

Award-winning drinks expert Kate Goodman

kick-starts our luxurious feast with a great drink.

It refreshes the palate, and that's what you want an aperitif to do -

you want it to tantalise your taste buds.

But for those of us still opting to eat out,

restaurateur Oliver Peyton discovers it's not what it used to be.

What's wrong with a normal restaurant?

I still love normal restaurants.

This is a reaction to normal restaurants, I think.

Welcome to Food And Drink.

When times are tough, we all like a treat to look forward to,

and creating a feast at home with a few luxury ingredients

is a sure-fire way to put a smile on your face.

Rachel, now, you would know a thing or two about cooking at home.

I do indeed. Last year I opened my home

and made it into a two-person restaurant.

You don't need a big kitchen or a grand dining room to entertain.

It can be quite small and humble and it's, it's absolutely fine,

it's how you take care of your guests and what you cook for your guests.

I think that's right.

For me, it doesn't get much better than beef Wellington.

This is the perfect luxurious dish for entertaining at home

using fillet of beef wrapped in puff pastry

served with a gratin Dauphinois flavoured with garlic.

So where did you learn to cook?

I studied patisserie at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.

I'm new to cooking.

I used to work in fashion, so I feel I need to learn a lot.

I do travel a lot to find inspiration, to learn new things.

I worked for two weeks in a restaurant in Sweden

and I was in my chef whites, scrubbing the floor for two weeks

and I've never worked in a kitchen where they would clean so much.

It was impressive.

Well, you've not come to work for me.

Oh, OK, all right!

A great beef Wellington starts with a great Duxelles.

Melt 25 grams of butter, a tablespoon of vegetable oil,

add two chopped shallots and eight chestnut mushrooms.

Right, let's have the mushrooms there, Rachel.

They don't have to be super fine, cos you want texture

and texture is very important.

You don't want it too wet, because that will make the puff pastry soggy.

It will, and that's the secret. You don't want a soggy puff pastry.

And you can see the steam is coming out,

that's all the excess moisture,

and I'm going to replace that excess moisture with a tiny drop of cream,

just to make it even more luxurious.

So the mushrooms are drying off and cooking

and what we need to do is get our fillet of beef.

There's only two fillets per animal and they're quite small,

and that's why it's so expensive.

Now, this one's slightly thin at this end

so if somebody asks for medium

or you've got someone in the family who likes well done,

-you give them that bit, but I would have this bit.

-Yeah.

-You like rare?

-Yes, I do.

MEAT SIZZLES

So I sear the beef on all sides

but it takes no more than three or four minutes,

but it's so important to get that wonderful colour

and that colour is actually taste.

And, of course, I'm going to be using the pan to make my sauce

because in the bottom of the pan

are all the natural sugars, the roasting sugars.

No washing up, then?

MICHEL LAUGHS

Anything to avoid washing up with me!

One pan wonders!

'Once the meat is browned all over, leave it to rest.'

Now, for me, the secret of beef Wellington,

to make it that little bit special, is pancakes.

'The pancakes are the perfect way to stop the meat juices

'leaking into the pastry and making it soggy.'

-Ahh!

-Now you can make your own pancakes

or you can buy really nice pancakes now.

So I'm spreading out the Duxelles of mushrooms

and it's important to get it all over,

and it all has to be cold because we're working with pastry.

You don't want to melt the pastry.

'Carefully roll the pancakes around the beef

'before wrapping it in cling film.'

So we wrap it up nice and tight, so that it gives it a beautiful,

round cylinder shape, and that's going to go into the fridge

so as it really is nice and cold for about half an hour or so.

'While the meat's chilling, it's time to make some gratin Dauphinois.

'My recipe is really simple and is made from a few great ingredients.'

-There are...

-Many ways of making a gratin Dauphinois.

You can get in a fight with French people over a gratin Dauphinois.

Oh, yes. Cheese, no cheese, garlic, no garlic.

-So how do you do yours?

-Exactly!

RACHEL LAUGHS

-Garlic, potato, double cream.

-Yeah.

Salt and pepper, that is it.

'My secret is to rub the gratin dish with a garlic clove

which ensures you get just a hint of garlic,

then slice the potatoes with a mandolin, if you have one,

but a good, sharp knife will do, if not.

The great thing about using a mandolin is, you get,

the slices are all the same.

-I like mine to be about 2mm, about 2mm, yeah.

-Yeah.

That's it, and another tip of course when you're doing

anything like a gratin or a pommes boulangere with potato,

you don't wash them.

-No, cos you want the starch to thicken the sauce.

-Exactly.

'Place the sliced potatoes in a bowl,

'drench with 500ml of double cream and season.'

'Evenly arrange the potatoes in the dish.'

OK.

So the gratin Dauphinois goes into the oven at about 150C,

first half hour with the foil on,

and then you take the foil off so as you then get a lovely colour

-and those lovely, golden, crispy bits on the edge.

-Perfect.

Now, I want you to chop a shallot for me, please,

cos I need to get the sauce on.

'Meanwhile roll out a block of puff pastry to a 3mm thickness.'

So a bit of egg-wash on the puff pastry,

it's there just to make everything stick together.

'Carefully wrap the pastry around the beef.'

Just stretch it a tiny bit.

Now, what I want is just the tiniest little seal underneath, right?

If it's too much, then you're going to have a really thick pastry

and that's not good.

'A great way to ensure the pastry is nice and thin

'is to use a rolling pin when sealing the ends.'

'Then, egg-wash all over before putting in the fridge to chill.'

-For how long?

-About 5-10 minutes, no more than that,

and whilst that's happening we need to get the sauce on.

I've chopped some shallots.

Chopped shallots, into our roasting pan

which has got all the lovely flavours of the beef.

The shallots are going to give a lovely sweetness to the sauce.

That's not all that's going in the sauce.

What's going in the sauce?

-Madeira and port.

-Port.

It's smelling absolutely fantastic.

It looks like quite a luxurious sauce

but you don't have to spend a fortune on the drink.

You can get relatively accessible port and Madeira,

you can keep it so you can use it again.

-That's luxury in the sauce.

-Exactly.

And this is veal stock, it could be beef stock or chicken stock

but I find veal stock the best because it is the most neutral

and therefore we're going to get the maximum flavour from the port,

Madeira and the roasting juices.

'Finally, I'm adding the ultimate in food luxury.'

This is probably the most economical way to buy your truffles.

These are peelings, so they're the peelings of the truffles

and they're cooked in a little bit of water and salt.

Oh, yes! It's quite a big flavour, isn't it?

Would you match the drink with the strongest flavour

or with the lightest flavour in the dish?

This dish is a great example of what to think about

when you're matching food and drink.

Michel is using port in the sauce for the beef Wellington.

It's usually thought of as an after-dinner drink,

but for this dish, I've gone for white port as an aperitif.

It's made with white grapes and is nice and dry.

My second drink is an Australian Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend.

It's smooth, voluptuous and elegant.

Finally, I've gone for an unusual soft drink option,

a grape juice made from Merlot grapes.

And it's a refreshing alternative if you're not drinking.

Whilst the sauce is reducing, I need to finish off the beef Wellington.

There we go.

Rachel?

-In the oven.

-Thank you.

And then take the foil off the gratin now

so that it can get a lovely golden colour,

and we've whacked the oven up to 180 for about 25 minutes.

Right, now the sauce has reduced down to a lovely syrup.

Now you need to pass that through a fine sieve, that's...

Oh.

And now, a good tablespoonful of truffle

and truffles are an extravagance but they are absolutely to die for.

A little bit of luxury.

And this dish has so much of it.

Perfectly cooked beef Wellington and gratin Dauphinois

that will really impress your guests.

But before we tuck into this feast,

Kate's got a great drink to prepare our palates.

Oh, that's interesting.

Yeah, it's not as sweet as I thought it would be.

It's a dry port, so here, if you notice, once you've swallowed it,

it refreshes the palate and that's what you want an aperitif to do,

you want it to tantalise your taste buds, ready for the meal to come.

-Well, I am tantalised enough! Can we tuck in?

-Mm!

No, that's really nice, Kate, I like that.

It's good, isn't it? It's a nice change, I think, as an aperitif.

Something a little bit different.

Now that's lovely, the beef is lovely and moist, and medium rare,

the pastry is nice and, and crunchy and crispy.

The pancake has done its job there, obviously. It's soaked up all that excess liquid.

And your gratin is like, you know how you rubbed it in and there's just

that hint of a little bit of garlic but nothing too powerful, and I think that's just right.

There's lovely red fruit flavours as well, from the port

that you put into the sauce, gives it a nice little tanginess.

So what have you got to go with this then, Kate?

Well, I've got something quite interesting,

that's quite new on the market, that I haven't seen a great deal of.

This is a Merlot grape juice, so it's not alcoholic,

it's a soft option, not a wine that's had alcohol taken out of it,

but rather a grape juice from the Merlot grape,

crushed and blended to produce a lovely, refreshing, tangy drink.

-It's got the same colour as Merlot.

-I know.

-It could be served in a wine glass.

-I agree.

If you're at a dinner party

and you don't want to look like the odd one out,

-I mean a glass of this, everybody would think you're knocking it back!

-Yeah!

A nice substitute.

And, Rachel, you've got, also, there's a Merlot in there,

but just for a little bit of a change, I thought I'd pick something

from the New World and the New World are actually doing lots of Bordeaux blends,

so in Bordeaux you have a number of different grapes

and two of the dominant grapes, the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot,

so it's a Bordeaux blend, so you've got a lovely, well-structured,

not too much tannin, lots of fruit, it's not overwhelming,

it's just got that lovely finesse that I want to match that dish.

It's very smooth and I think that goes very well with the food.

I like the juice because it's not too sweet.

It's actually quite refreshing.

I'd quite happily drink that, but not with my lovely beef Wellington!

THEY LAUGH

'I've always believed that the perfect dining experience

'is made up of three key elements.'

'The company, the food and the drink.'

These days when we go out to eat we want more than good food,

we want a food experience.

Restaurateur Oliver Peyton knows first-hand

how difficult this can be to deliver.

You know, everyone thinks they know how to run a restaurant,

but I've been doing this for 30 years and it's very, very hard work.

I'm also a bit of a traditionalist.

I quite like linen napkins, silver cutlery,

but now, out there in this crowded market, there's a bunch

of young Turks, intent on throwing on its head every traditional idea

of what a restaurant is, even the linen napkins.

For this new breed of culinary innovators,

tradition is history.

For them, it's no longer good enough to simply serve up great food.

The experience of dining out is just as important.

OK, so, put in your earplugs.

Um, yeah. It's almost deafening isn't it, with earplugs in?

-That's amazing.

-Yeah.

OK, it's blindfold time.

In this fast moving landscape, social media is the key to success.

OK, I'm ready.

'With some restaurants only popping up for a short time,

'they depend on bloggers like Niamh Shields

'to spread the word instantly.'

Before, it would have been, how would you tell somebody,

"Come to my restaurant, be blindfolded,

"have cheese and smell peppers"?

Everyone would have gone, "No, that sounds crazy."

But, using Twitter, you can find all these likeminded individuals

who are like, "I've been waiting for this!"

The fact that a restaurant like this invites people in

on a monthly basis, it kind of hibernates this kind of culture.

Is it about just being different?

You have to have an individual appeal

if you're going to be successful.

I don't think that necessarily means that you have to be doing something like this.

I think it means that you have to be very good at what you're doing, whatever that is.

The fashion right now in London,

as people are discovering all the time, is for glammed-up dirty food.

And if American diner fayre teamed with grunge and graffiti floats your boat, you won't go hungry.

This place in London only sells burgers,

but it's always packed.

To a man of a certain vintage, it's a challenging concept.

Oh, there's definitely something wrong with me.

It's lunchtime, there's a queue round the block,

there's hundreds of people waiting to be seated,

this is what you get as a napkin, I'm having a chilli dog,

I can't hear myself think, I think I'm doing something wrong.

I'm going to have to retire. That's what I think.

Right now in London, this is THE way to eat out.

Sandia Chang is the brainchild behind this single-item restaurant, featuring a surprise combination.

So why champagne and hot dogs?

Every time I went to vineyards in France,

tasting champagne and wine with them,

they would always bring out charcuterie, you know, salamis,

hams, nobody brought out caviar on a platter for you.

I'm trying to make a point that

there is things outside of the norm, outside of the box,

that goes well together, and nothing needs to be so serious.

Food is about fun.

Hot dogs and champagne has to be the ultimate gourmet junk food.

It's not a combination that I've ever thought of

but, to be honest, I'd drink champagne with absolutely anything!

Next, I find myself injecting booze into my salmon.

How are we going to eat it?

I think with our fingers.

What, weren't you always told not to use your fingers? Oh, mm!

Oh, yeah, that's really good.

But what's wrong with a normal restaurant?

Absolutely nothing, there's nothing, I still love normal restaurants,

this is a reaction to normal restaurants, I think.

This is like theatre.

'Blindfolds, handcuffs, syringes, seem to be de rigueur

'if you want to fit in to the restaurant scene these days.'

Whoa!

'I'm going to have to become a blog-tastic, scientific member

'of the Twitterati to stay in business!'

I think restaurants are changing,

the way we eat out in restaurants is changing,

the way we hear about restaurants is changing.

And you know what? I still like a real napkin.

I mean, that is bonkers, that is mad.

How you can, you know, eat or drink out of a Petri dish, I do not know.

I mean, I'm a traditionalist.

And restaurants have to be food-led.

I'm all for hot dog and champagne, great.

But I think there's a limit. We've got to draw the line somewhere.

Yeah, but I think there's room for everyone, no?

The performance, interaction, a bit crazy, wacky.

Yeah, and it's creative, it's an experience.

And eating should be an experience, and you should push boundaries

and I get quite excited by it.

I'm all for pushing boundaries and you know, great, but...

Does it really enhance the food?

Well, I don't think it's about enhancing the food, is it?

It's about the whole experience,

it's bigger than just putting food in your mouth.

I think that's the point, isn't it?

It's, it, you can't put it in the same category.

I think, by putting it in the same category, there's no chance.

But it has to be a pleasurable experience!

Yes, it could be pleasurable on a different level. It could...

It will be pleasurable for some people!

-But people enjoy like pushing themselves in different ways.

-Ohh!

It's about social, interactive...

-Call me old-fashioned...

-A little bit!

-..but I like my food on a plate!

But, look, we all eat out, I mean, we eat out regularly.

What is the one thing that really gets on your goat?

Just one?! Can I not list, like, a long list?

-For me, it has to be bad service.

-Mm.

I cannot stand, you know, you're eating your food

you're with a group of people

and then they start clearing plates while you're still eating

and that's like... INTAKE OF BREATH

Probably because they need the table back.

-But still!

-You're not eating quick enough(!)

You just don't feel welcome, do you?

-It's my fault now?! Basically, it's my fault!

-Eat too slow!

-Oh, dearie me.

Have you had bad service, Kate?

Oh, yeah. There's a few things I really dislike

but firstly is when people come over to me and I've got my mouth full

and they say, "How's your meal?"

"I've got my mouth full, I can't tell you!"

But the other thing, on the drinks front, is being served,

often in restaurants they have these lovely wine racks,

-and they're all under really heavy spotlights.

-Oh!

Then they take the wine, so I've ordered red wine

and they've taken it out of the rack under these spotlights

and served it me! And it's, like, stewed wine!

Yeah, that's happened to me twice, this year, actually, in London.

When it comes to food and drink it's really hard to please everyone.

While cooking at home is on the up,

the formal dinner party is on the decline,

but supper club entrepreneur Kerstin Rodgers is convinced she knows

how we can all have an unforgettable dining experience at home.

MUSIC: JAUNTY RUMBA BEAT

We live in interesting times.

More and more of us like to cook at home.

That's a good thing, isn't it?

And yet more of us live alone, with nobody to cook for.

I live on my own and I love to cook.

So, six years ago, I set up a supper club

and regularly invite people round to eat my food for a small fee.

I've made new friends and shared my passion for good food.

I've learnt a lot about how to host a dinner party

and I'm going to give you the low-down.

Easy-peasy, no stress, not too much expense, how to do it.

So, what to cook?

'Keep it simple so you can enjoy your dinner party,

'and don't end up getting trapped in the kitchen.'

Cook what you can afford and cook what you feel like cooking.

Make it hearty and homely and tasty.

No mean portions, either!

You don't have to impress them, you just need to feed them.

They'll be happy!

'I'm into maximalism, so I always make sure there's plenty of food.

'Communal dinners are a good thing.

'New research tells us that the key to happiness

'is to have a wide circle of friends,

'which proves that bringing people together over food is good for you.

'The next question, who to invite?'

Mix it up. Don't just invite your best mates.

Invite a few randoms.

Your aunty, the baker, your landlord, someone you fancy!

The evening will be memorable, if nothing else.

'I practise what I preach.

'I haven't met half these people before

'and they're all new to each other.

'By the end of this dinner party

'they'll all have made at least one new friend.'

Would you like some little nibbles, just to kind of fill a corner?

When people arrive,

don't let them stand around for too long with nothing to eat.

Empty stomachs and alcohol are not a great combination.

'I've invited some Russian musicians, who I only met last week,

a couple of my neighbours and someone I'd only ever talked to on the phone.

It adds an air of mystery to the evening.

'When it comes to dishing up, keep the casual theme going.

'Don't do squiggles or plate graffiti or towers.

'And once everyone's started eating,

'just kick off a good general topic of conversation.'

How do you all feel about dinner parties?

When I was growing up, you didn't go to a restaurant,

you had people round to your house for dinner.

Dinner parties was always a very middle class thing to do.

I never make dinner parties, unfortunately, cos I can't cook.

Because it's done in Russia, every party is dinner party.

What to ask your guests to bring?

CORK POPS

Anything! Oop!

Booze, candles, dessert perhaps, cutlery,

chairs, if you haven't got enough.

Remember when everybody first learnt how to do Spaghetti Bolognese and trifle?

Vodka, vodka, vodka.

You cannot drink vodka without food, otherwise you will just die.

I get really nervous about it not working out.

They're pleased just to be invited.

-But we never had dinner parties when I grew up, so...

-Oh, didn't you?

So I didn't feel like, it's in my blood.

Remember, there are dinner party givers and dinner party takers,

so don't be offended if you don't get invited back.

Maybe they just haven't got the hospitality gene.

Toast? Sounds like a toast!

-To Georgia.

-To Georgia.

-To Georgia. Definitely.

So, let's give dinner parties.

You make new friends

and research shows that, if you cook at home, you live longer.

So go for it, what's not to like?

Cheers!

Kerstin certainly knows how to keep her guests happy, but...

My tip for entertaining at home is to develop a signature dish,

perfect it and cook it with confidence.

This is a Roux family favourite and it never fails to impress -

the souffle Suissesse.

This cheese souffle is rich,

it's indulgent, yet light, because it is egg white after all.

To start this recipe, we need to make a roux

so I'm going to use 45 grams of butter, 45 grams of flour.

And that gets mixed in, and this is going to become a bechamel,

which is a white sauce, and this will be the base of our souffle.

So the roux is bubbling away

and I'm going to pour in 500ml of cold milk.

The secret to a really smooth white sauce

is to have a hot roux and a cold milk,

and, that way, you're sure not to get any lumps.

You pour it in slowly and whisk away,

and once it's come together you can pour all of it in.

So you have to whisk this continuously until it boils.

Right, just coming up to the boil now and it is lovely and silky smooth.

'To enrich the bechamel add five egg yolks and whisk in quickly.

'Bring it back up to the boil.'

Now, we just leave this on the side

to cool down a little bit, and to stop it from forming a crust,

you can put a little bit of greased paper over the top

and that will stop a skin forming.

'Next, whisk up five egg whites.'

Now, a really useful tip when it comes to egg whites,

if you're making a meringue or a souffle,

is to freeze the egg whites and then take them out.

They defrost, and they become much looser

and that means you can get more air into them

and they will stay up, they're much stiffer.

WHISK WHIRRS

'Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks.'

Beautiful, stiff, wonderful egg whites.

So now we've got our warm bechamel and egg whites.

Now I take a generous amount

and furiously beat it into this bechamel

to get it nice and smooth.

'Put them into heavily buttered moulds and into the oven.'

At...

200 degrees C for about six minutes.

It's a really hot oven and that's going to give the souffles a lift

and a nice golden crust which is going to hold it all together.

'Heat 600ml of double cream in a pan

'and season with salt and white pepper.

'Add 100 grams each

'of good-quality grated Gruyere and mature cheddar cheese.'

So the souffles have risen and they've got a little crust to them.

Now I need to plate them up.

We need a deep bowl for this

because we need a swimming pool of double cream.

Pour the cream in and then we tip our egg white souffle out.

Onto the plate.

And then smoother it with grated cheese.

And finally, under the grill.

And that should take no more than two or three minutes.

'My sumptuous creamy souffle can be eaten as a starter

or you could make a large one to share as a main course.

'It's crying out for a glass of wine.'

It's quite an indulgent dish, isn't it? With the cheese, the cream,

so I want a wine with good acidity,

it will cut through the richness

and cleanse your palate, ready for the next mouthful.

So I've gone for an Austrian Gruner Veltliner.

And if you like things like unoaked Chablis or Sauvignon Blanc

this is a really nice alternative, something a little different.

That's actually remarkably dry.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Well, my souffle's looking good.

-Look at this. My word! Hah!

-Ooh!

Wow!

-Dive in, girls.

-All right.

-Go for it.

-Ah, my word.

-Cheesy heaven?

Oh! Nothing beats melted cheese, and it's so light!

Try the wine and see how it works against the...

It's perfect.

It's like you were saying, that sharpness.

Exactly what you need with a rich dish.

I think it does need it, doesn't it?

Because if you had anything heavier, with low acidity,

it would just almost be too much.

-It cuts through the cream beautifully.

-Yeah.

Cheese and wine, what more do you need?

RACHEL LAUGHS

Food is a source of so much pleasure.

Whether it's for a personal treat or you're entertaining friends,

Cooking with confidence is the key to success in the kitchen.

-Yeah, let's have some more.

-Yeah.

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