RECIPE: Atlantic crossing

10:55am Tuesday 27th September 2005

Chef Peter Vaughan, owner of The Healthy Life in Devizes, teams up with an American chef to create two new dishes.

Last month I had a visit from Oriana, a Californian chef and a graduate from Leith's School of Food and Wine in Kensington.

We exchanged ideas on food, nutrition and ingredients both in California and here in Wiltshire. Here are a couple of the recipes that we devised. They are designed to be easy to make and suitable for all levels of culinary skills. Spinach is obviously very popular in the States, as it's the home of Popeye. Cooking it without water really brings out the wonderful flavour and colour. The spinach retains more of its vitamin C when you cook it our way.

Mushrooms marry well with white wine, and this is one of the culinary classics that Oriana learned while training as a professional chef at Leith's cookery school.

Peter Vaughan is the owner and chef of The Healthy Life in The Little Brittox, Devizes (01380) 725558.

Sauté of mushrooms and tomatoes with white wine

(serves 2)

INGREDIENTS:

400g of button mushrooms (cut into halves)

25g of salted butter

4 medium shallots or 1 large onion peeled

1 tsp of Dijon mustard

100ml of white wine

2 cloves of garlic peeled and crushed

1 tablespoon of freshly chopped tarragon or parsley

2 tsp of cranberry jelly (reserve a teaspoon for garnish)

2 tablespoons of crème fraiche or sour cream (reserve a little for garnish)

1 tsp of cornflour ­ mixed with a little vegetable stock to dilute

METHOD:

Heat up a large frying or sauté pan and add the butter.

Once the butter has melted add the chopped shallots/onions, garlic and sauté for one minute.

Now add the mushrooms and sausages and continue to sauté for a couple of minutes.

Once the mushrooms have been thoroughly coated in the butter, add the white wine, crème fraiche, Dijon mustard, cornflower and leave for a couple of minutes to reduce slightly.

Finally add the fresh herbs, a little cranberry jelly and stir. Leave a little creme fraiche for garnish.

Serve the fricassee with a little crème fraiche, cranberry jelly and a few chopped herbs as garnish.

SPINACH WITH GARLIC AND LEMON

(two portions as a garnish)

INGREDIENTS:

225g of spinach leaves (slice if large)

25g of salted butter

Juice of a lemon

2 cloves of garlic crushed

A pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD:

Place a large sauté or frying pan on a high heat and add the grated nutmeg and butter and wait until it melts and turns to a nutbrown colour before adding the crushed garlic and then the spinach leaves.

Stir until all the leaves are coated in the nutty smelling butter and then add the lemon juice and a pinch of salt and pepper. Remove from the heat.

Tilt the pan to release any excess juice. Serve the spinach sauté with the mushrooms.