Photo: Sam A Harris
“To be a good cook, you must be a good eater,” says Ben Lippett – the chef, food writer and recipe developer whose book How I Cook: A Chef’s Guide to Really Good Home Cooking became an instant bestseller this autumn and featured on many end-of-year Christmas book lists.
He admits that “when people see the word ‘chef’ on the cover of a cookbook, it can set off alarm bells”. “It’s intimidating, I get it. The C-word either drags up images of overly shouty men throwing plates at walls or ultra-polished TV shows that deify a succession of silver-haired maestros holed up in their cathedrals of gastronomy.”
But to Ben, who has worked in restaurants around the world, “cooking like a ‘chef’ is all about confidence, and the secret to unlocking confidence is constantly asking ‘why’.
“Without a doubt, the thing I enjoyed the most about restaurants is that you cook, almost non-stop, for 15 hours a day. It’s fierce, fast, unforgiving, beautiful and a complete riot. I had a blast, but when the day to interrogate my future in restaurants arrived, I chose the door.”
Instead, he switched to writing about food. He has a successful Substack and more than 800,000 followers on his Instagram account (@dinnerbyben). “I’m now in my early 30s and, having spent most of my 20s at the stove in a professional kitchen, home cooking is one of the most significant parts of my life.”
And his advice to readers? “Be hungry. Take pleasure in tasting, exploring, messing up, trying again and – critically – asking ‘why?’ After all, you’ve got to cook and eat three times a day for the rest of your life, so you might as well be good at it.”
Words by Jane Ferguson
Udon with Ginger Prawn Bisque
A good bisque is all about drawing sweet, aromatic shellfish flavour from the shells of prawns, crab or lobster and into a thick, rich creamy soup. This isn’t a traditional bisque, but it definitely follows a handful of the same rules. Bisque is typically made with heaps of double cream and salty butter, so to keep things a little lighter, I use coconut milk, ginger and fresh herbs to make the shellfish sparkle. The herbs are absolutely essential, adding extra fragrance, anise and bite to the bowl.
Serves 4
Ingredients
20 raw shell-on prawns
4 shallots
4 garlic cloves
70g ginger
2 Thai bird’s eye chillies
3 tbsp tomato purée
800ml full-fat coconut milk
4 tbsp fish sauce, plus extra to taste
3 limes
350g dried udon or 450g fresh udon
150g mangetout or sugar snaps
25g coriander
25g Thai basil
light olive oil
fine sea salt
crispy shallots, to serve
Method
Start by peeling the prawns. Working over a bowl to catch any juice, hold on to the head and the body and twist – the head should come away easily. Drop the head into the bowl, then, using your thumb and forefinger, start to peel the shell away from the tail, dropping the shells into the bowl. Work your way down the prawn until you’ve just got the end left. I like to leave this piece on as it looks pretty, but you can whip it off if you like. Run a knife down the back of the tail and remove the intestinal tract. If you’ve not done this before, it’s the little black line that runs down the back of the tail. Set the peeled prawns aside in the fridge.
Peel and slice the shallots into thin rounds, thinly slice the garlic cloves, and peel and cut the ginger into matchsticks. Finely chop the chillies, too, removing the seeds if you want to cool things off a little.
Preheat a large saucepan over a medium-high heat and add a generous glug of olive oil. Tip in the prawn heads and shells (plus any juice from the bowl) and toast them in the hot oil for 4–5 mins, keeping the shells moving as they cook and watching them turn pink and then start to caramelise. Add the garlic, shallots and half of the ginger and chillies and cook for 4–5 mins until the veggies have taken on a little colour, then add the tomato puree and stir, coating the ingredients. Keep cooking, toasting the puree and letting it catch on the bottom of the pan a little. Now tip in 250ml of water and deglaze, scraping any caramelised sticky bits off the bottom of the pan. Tip in the coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Cook for 20–25 mins until a creamy red colour and super fragrant.
Carefully transfer the bisque and shells to a blender and pulse until smooth-ish. This will unlock all of the magical flavour held in the prawn shells. Pass the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve and back into the pan. Use the back of a spoon or ladle to really squeeze and press all the liquid out of the pulp from the blender. Add the fish sauce and the juice of 2 of the limes. Season with salt as needed. Keep warm on the hob.
Cook the udon according to the package instructions. Cut the mangetout into thin slices.
Just as the udon are about to come out of the water, drop the prawns into the warm bisque and stir them in. Place over a low heat and gently poach the prawns; they should take no more than 1-2 mins in the hot bisque.
Divide the drained udon among warm bowls and ladle over the hot prawn bisque. Top with the prawns, sliced mangetout and the remaining ginger and chillies, then tear over the coriander and Thai basil. Finish with lime wedges and crispy shallots.
How I Cook: A Chef’s Guide to Really Good Home Cooking is published by HarperCollins (£26)