Nights Out at Home

In his 25 years as a revered restaurant critic – and even after his most brutal takedowns – Jay Rayner says he never feels guilty.

“I don’t, because I don’t do it lightly, and I don’t think you should ever do it lightly, you should pick your targets very carefully,” says the 57-year-old Observer newspaper critic.

“I live by a single rule: punch up, not down. There’s no point in kicking 10 tonnes of crap out of a small, family-run restaurant that’s failing – they’re going to fail all by themselves.

His latest offering, Nights Out At Home, brings together the food that Rayner has created at home, each inspired by specific dishes he’s tucked into in top restaurants, as well as a few high-street favourites. You’ll find a version of McDonald’s deep-fried apple pie, Nando’s peri peri chicken livers and the “cultural treasure”, a Greggs’ steak bake.

He doesn’t think all critics have to cook but, “I do think you need an appetite. One of the reasons I’ve been able to do this job for 25 years is because – the polite word is a highly developed appetite – or just pure greed. I like my dinner, and it follows from that, eventually you will start cooking.

Ultimate cheese toastie

Ingredients

160g Raclette cheese (substitute with Emmental, Appenzeller, Fontina or Gruyère)

80g Montgomery Cheddar (it does not have to be Montgomery, unless you are keen to match the Wigmore kitchen product for product; use

any strong mature Cheddar)

80g Ogleshield cheese (substitute with Taleggio or Fontina)

20g finely chopped red onion

30g finely chopped cornichon

Dijon mustard

4 slices of sourdough bread

Salted butter (the Wigmore uses clarified butter, but I rather like the caramelisation you get from the dairy solids; you could always use vegetable oil)

Method

1. Grate the cheese, and mix thoroughly in a bowl with the finely chopped red onion and cornichon.

2. Spread a thin layer of Dijon mustard on one internal side of each sandwich.

3. Layer generously with the grated cheese mix, and press down with the second slice of bread. Hilariously, I now appear to be explaining how to use two pieces of bread to make a sandwich..

4. Heat a non-stick or, better still, a well-seasoned cast iron frying pan over a medium heat and add a good knob of the butter. As it melts swirl it around to cover the base of the frying pan. Add the first sandwich and cook over a medium heat for about 4 minutes.

5. Press it down forcefully into the butter with a spatula every now and then. (The Wigmore uses a sandwich press.)

6. After 4 minutes, carefully turn it over on to the other side. The cheese will have started to melt, bonding it all together. Add another knob of butter, and lift the toastie it has now become so you can swirl the newly molten butter in underneath. Cook for another 4 minutes, again pressing it down occasionally.

7. Put on a plate or board and leave to cool for a couple of minutes, as you start to cook the second. At the Wigmore they cut it into 4cm wide slices, which does make it easier to eat.

Crispy duck salad

Ingredients

(Serves 4 as a starter)

2 confit duck legs

4tbsp hoi sin sauce

For the salad:

1tbsp sesame seeds

100g watercress or rocket, stalks trimmed (you can also add fresh coriander if you fancy)

6 large radishes, sliced

4 spring onions, trimmed and sliced into batons

For the salad dressing:

2tbsp olive oil

1½tbsp sherry vinegar (white wine vinegar is a good alternative)

1tsp sesame oil

Sea salt

Method

1. Gently toast the sesame seeds in a dry cast iron frying pan, over a medium heat. Keep watch. They burn easily. When most of them are lightly golden brown, remove to a bowl, add a pinch of table salt, and set aside. Wipe down the pan to remove any stray sesame seeds that are hanging about. They don’t taste at all nice when burnt.

2. Separate out the duck legs and place them skin side down in the frying pan over the lowest heat. Do not add any oil. They’ll produce more than enough fat of their own. Turn every 5 minutes or so, as they start to colour.

3. After about 10 or 15 minutes, take the pan off the heat. Using a fork and a sharp knife you should be able to pull the meat away from the bone. Break it up into smaller pieces, with the skin down. Put back on to the heat. Use a spatula to continue breaking up the meat into smaller pieces. Attend to any pieces of skin that come away from the meat. They may look a bit fatty, but gently increase the heat and they will crisp up, though do keep an eye on it all so it doesn’t burn.

4. Once crisped, remove the leg bones and keep them as a chef ’s perk. Stand by the stove, chewing off the last bits of meat while no one else is watching. You’ve earned it. When the duck is broken up and crisped take the pan off the heat.

5. Put the ingredients for the salad dressing into the bottom of a bowl, including a good pinch of sea salt. Pile the leaves and sliced radishes on top, then toss and turn to coat in the dressing using your hands or, if you’re a little uptight, salad servers. Portion out on to four plates or flat bowls.

6. Put the hoi sin sauce in the bottom of a mixing bowl. Add the duck and mix to coat every piece completely. Top each portion of the salad with a quarter of the duck. Sprinkle on the toasted sesame seeds and decorate with the batons of spring onion.

Chicken in a mustard sauce

Ingredients

1 large onion, sliced into rings

6–8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

200g smoked bacon lardons

2tbsp olive oil

Sea salt and ground black pepper

A couple of knobs of butter

Half a dozen fat cloves of garlic (optional)

400ml chicken stock from cube

100ml double cream

Dijon mustard

Method

1. Heat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas mark 7. You’re going to roast these chicken thighs hot and fast.

2. Put the sliced onion across the bottom of an oven pan. Place the chicken thighs on top, skin side up. Chuck the lardons over and around them. Dribble on a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, season liberally with salt and pepper and add 2 good knobs of butter. Throw in the cloves of garlic. They aren’t important to the recipe. I just can’t resist the opportunity to roast garlic with chicken thighs. They go soft and mellow and squidgy and can be eaten whole.

3. Roast the chicken thighs in the oven for around 45 minutes, and certainly until the skin is crisp. Baste them every 15 minutes or so. About halfway through the cooking, give them 10 minutes skin side down so the backs also crisp up. Then turn back skin side up for another 10 minutes so the skin is really crisp.

4. While the chicken is roasting, warm a serving dish which is big enough and has high-enough sides to strain the sauce.

5. When the thighs are done, take them out of the pan, shaking off any caramelised rings of onion or lardons. Put the chicken in the serving dish to rest. It will not get cold and will benefit hugely from the 15 minutes or so rest it will take to make the sauce.

6. The pan will have lots of fabulous juices in it. Put it on a medium heat, and pour in the stock from cube, scraping up everything from the bottom of the pan. Let it bubble away and reduce a little for 5 minutes.

7. Pour in the double cream and whisk to incorporate into the stock. Let it simmer and thicken further (but don’t let it boil).

8. Whisk in a good tablespoon of Dijon mustard. Taste. (Always taste.) If you think it can take more, add a teaspoon at a time. Dijon mustard is a very good emulsifier and it will bring the whole thing together.

9. Once it has thickened enough to lightly coat the back of a wooden spoon, pour everything in the tray over the chicken thighs.

10. Serve with rice, or crusty bread and a sharp green salad. Pretend you’re a rustic French farmer.

Nights Out At Home by Jay Rayner is published in hardback by Penguin