Kitchen Press is a new, independent publisher specialising in food writing. It aims, through lovingly crafted bespoke cookbooks, to connect innovative chefs, expert food writers and independent restauranteurs with customers and others around the world who love food.
We believe that the whole experience of reading about food and cooking should be as pleasurable and inspiring as eating it, and we want to help promote the people and places doing that best.
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Burrata, Romesco, Red Chilli Recipe
From Catalogued Ideas And Random Thoughts by Stuart Ralston
Acclaimed chef Stuart Ralston is known as one of the most innovative and creative cooks working in the UK today. Catalogued Ideas and Random Thoughts – A Cookbook traces his evolution as a chef, and brings together the food that inspires him, from the finely crafted dishes that he creates in his restaurants to the food he likes to cook at home.
We are delighted to share one of his favourite recipes with you- Burrata, Romesco, Red Chilli.
Now over to Stuart!
Burrata, Romesco, Red Chilli
According to Jade Johnston, our Ops Manager and partner in everything we do, burrata is hands down the best cheese in the world. It is super versatile, great for sharing and easy to source. It’s also delicious paired with my ride-or-die sauce, romesco. We use a little gochujang chilli paste to give the romesco a slight change of direction from its native Spanish roots.
Seves 2 with plenty of sauce.
For the romesco:
75g flaked almonds, toasted
75g whole hazelnuts, toasted
250g shop-bought roasted peppers, drained and seeds removed
250g tinned tomatoes, drained overnight
30–60g gochujang chilli paste, depending on desired spiciness
45g olive oil
8 garlic cloves, finely grated
10g sherry vinegar
5g smoked paprika
8g salt
sugar to taste
To serve:
1 burrata
1 red chilli, sliced
olive oil
sea salt
black pepper
Method:
For the romesco, pulse the almonds and hazelnuts together in a food processor to form coarse crumbs, then place in a large bowl.
Blend the roasted peppers and drained tomatoes together in the food processor until incorporated but not smooth. Add to the toasted nuts.
Blend the gochujang, olive oil, garlic, sherry vinegar, smoked paprika and salt to form a paste. Add this to the nut mixture and season as necessary with more salt, sugar and vinegar.
To serve, place the burrata onto a paper towel to drain any excess liquid. Spoon plenty of romesco onto a plate and put the burrata on top. Add a couple of slices of red chilli, season with a little sea salt and cracked black pepper and then drizzle over the olive oil.
Serve with toasted focaccia.
So tasty! We hope you enjoy this recipe at home.
You can buy Stuart’s book here and discover many more of his amazing recipes.
Spinach, Turmeric and Mint Potato Salad Recipe
Taken from Cafe Cooking by Gillian Veal
As we shift into autumn, we thought it was a good time to remind you that salads are not just for summer time, and we decided to share this fabulous potato salad recipe from Gillian Veal’s recent publication Cafe Cooking.
So dig up the remaining tatties from your garden patch, or go buy some local ones and get cooking this delicious dish.
Recipe:
The east of Scotland is potato country and we grow loads of them at Cambo so we always have a potato salad on the menu. For salad you want a waxy variety of potato, not the larger floury ones a they won’t hold their shape. This is one of my favourite potato salads. When we have them in the garden, I add a few slices of radish.
Serves 4
500g baby potatoes or any waxy potato
1 tsp turmeric
2 sprigs fresh mint, leaves only, roughly chopped
150g spinach, rocket or mixed leaves, roughly chopped
3 spring onions, sliced lengthways in half, then diagonally into 2cm slices
1 tsp nigella seeds (optional)
3 heaped tbsp pickled red onion
salt and white pepper
for the dressing:
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 large garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp runny honey or maple syrup
6 tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut the potatoes in half and put them in a large pot. Fill the pot three-quarters full with water, plenty of salt and the turmeric, then bring the pot to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender. Drain them in a colander and set them aside to cool.
Put the warm potatoes in a large bowl and add the mint leaves and the spinach, rocket or mixed leaves. Add the sliced spring onions, the nigella seeds, if using, and the pickled red onions.
To make the salad dressing, put the vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, mustard and honey or maple syrup into a bowl and whisk it together. Taste and add salt and pepper as you think it needs it, then pour in the olive oil and whisk until the dressing emulsifies.
Pour the dressing over the salad and toss everything gently but firmly. Season to taste with salt and white pepper.
Voila! Thank you Gillian.
We hope you enjoy trying this delicious recipe out at home and for more why not grab a copy of Cafe Cooking by Gillian direct from us right here.
Kitchen Quiz Episode 12 – Stuart Ralston
Acclaimed chef Stuart Ralston is known as one of the most innovative, creative and hard-working cooks in the UK today. Stuart’s inspirations come from all around him, and throughout his career he has kept a notebook to jot down ideas for flavour combinations and recipes. He goes back to those ideas again and again, playing with taste and texture to create stunning and intriguing dishes.
We are so excited to publish his first cookbook Catalogued Ideas and Random Thoughts – A Cookbook. The book traces his evolution as a chef, and brings together the food that inspires him, the finely crafted dishes that he creates in his restaurants and the food he likes to cook at home.
Stuart grew up in Glenrothes in a family of chefs. From learning his trade in kitchens around Scotland, he moved to New York to work in Gordon Ramsay’s flagship 2 Michelin Star restaurant at the London Hotel.
He spent two years as the Chef de Cuisine at Sandy Lanes, Barbados cooking for the likes of Rihanna and Mark Wahlberg, before returning to Edinburgh to open several highly regarded and top quality restaurants – Aizle in 2016, followed by Noto in 2019 and most recently Tipo in 2023.
We caught up with Stuart and asked him a few questions to give us some insight into what he does and what lays behind his love of food and cooking.
Enjoy!
Was there a cookbook that really inspired you?
Many many cookbooks have given me something. The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller, my first 3 star cookbook, was life changing. A timeless book now you look back at it. It’s a book that made me daydream about what life must have been like in a 3 Michelin star environment.
I love the David Chang Momofuku book. It was a book that was just so refreshing and cool. The food was so varied that you could have his fine dining dishes like his “ KO Egg” or move onto something causal you’d find at Ssam bar like spicy rice cakes and sausage, which felt like a very New York dish similar to a gnocchi with broccoli rabe and sausage meat.
Books are also about what strikes me in the moment. Others I love in my collection are Ikoyi, Coco, the Ikarus collection, Munchies, or Christopher Kostow a new Napa Cuisine.
2. What is your favourite item in your kitchen that you simply couldn’t do without?
My Cast Iron pans, without a doubt. My pans were made by the Griswold Co in Pennsylvania in the 1850’s. They last a lifetime, and are always non stick and heavy as hell. They retain heat like no other and basically I use them every day.
3. Do you have a favourite song, type of music or podcast you like to cook to?
Sadly a lot of the time I listen to Talksport radio in the house when I’m cooking haha. But at work it’s pretty eclectic – INXS, Wu Tang Clan, Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar and podcasts like Dave Chang Show and Restless Natives are all pretty good.
4. If you could cook anywhere in the world in any location then where would you choose?
Dream location to actually cook would be somewhere in the deepest woods or mountains, something similar to Blue Hill at Stone Barns.
Or perhaps The Willows Inn on Lummi island, overlooking water somewhere, but very calm and quiet on long summer days…
5. If you had to give one single piece of advice about cooking to someone then what would that be?
Just to try and be organised, that always helps.
Massive thanks to Stuart for taking the time to share his fascinating and inspiring thoughts with us.
His absolutely stunning new cookbook is now available in all good book stores and of course direct from us right HERE.
Stuart Ralston cooks great food and now you can try his recipes at home for yourself.