Chef Jeremy Lee at his restaurant Quo Vadis. Photo: Alexander Baxter
In the world of food, Jeremy Lee, chef-proprietor of Soho’s Quo Vadis restaurant, is the very opposite of a content creator feeding their social media. As fellow food writer Tim Hayward notes in the foreword to Jeremy’s beautiful new book, Kitchening, he is “a complete original … hugely respected amongst his peers, he’s characteristically avoided becoming anything as ghastly as a ‘celebrity’”. And he adds that Lee’s writing has “the vocabulary and whip-smart humour of a Regency wit”.
Subtitled “day-to-day good food, come rain or shine”, Kitchening is divided into sections that follow the seasons (all exquisitely illustrated by John Broadley, who also draws the menus at Quo Vadis). “It is heartening to see markets, farmers’ markets, grocers and greengrocers abundant with boxes piled high with what is best that day,” Lee says. “The instilling of a sense of community is bolstered where there are markets on high streets or original buildings, be they in Bolton or abutting a train station, such as Borough Market in London.”
The recipe that Jeremy shares here is a celebration of celery, which is plentiful at this time of year but is often an unloved and overlooked ingredient. “The benighted vegetable often gets short shrift and is all too often seen just as green sticks in a plastic wrapper, most often used to stir a jug of Bloody Mary and all too often discarded.”
Words by Jane Ferguson
Jeremy’s celery and lemon risotto
Not only the celery softens in texture in risotto but the flavour too, becoming gentle and mild. A scrape of lemon zest adds a pleasing finish, along with freshly grated Parmesan. PS: any outer stems of celery may be used for infusing stock.
Feeds 6
Ingredients
1 large onion
1 clove of garlic
Heart and leaf of a head of celery (roughly 800g)
2 soupspoons olive oil
25g plus another 50g unsalted butter
1 organic lemon
350g carnaroli or arborio rice
150ml white wine
1.2 litres boiling water or chicken stock
100g freshly grated Parmesan
Method
Place a wide, heavy-bottomed pot on a gentle heat. Peel and finely chop the onion and garlic, then finely slice the celery and place in the pot with the olive oil and 25g of butter, adding a pinch of sea salt. Cover the pot with a lid, lifting from time to time to stir well as the vegetables soften, say 20 minutes. Finely pare or zest the lemon and reserve. Add the rice to the pot and stir well, as it will toast lightly and possibly stick. Up the heat slightly and on hearing the first sizzle, pour in the wine and step back as the pot restores its quiet dignity. Stir the rice well and add a ladle of water or stock. Continue stirring and when almost bubbled away, repeat, and continue thus, all the while stirring gently to ensure that the grains do not suffer any mishap. When the rice begins to take on a creamy consistency, after say 15 minutes or so, stir very gently and add only enough water to maintain a consistency that when the pan is agitated there is a faint ripple on the surface. The rice is done when the grains still maintain their form but yield fully on the tongue.
Add the remaining butter, the last of the water, the lemon zest and any final seasoning required. Add the cheese, stir and take to table. You may want to place the rest of the block of Parmesan on the table.
Kitchening by Jeremy Lee is published by Fourth Estate (RRP £30; to order at a discount go to the Nerve Bookshop)