Tasty recipes from James Martin's new cookbook

Tart brioche with raspberries and matcha almond frangipane

Matcha is a Japanese green tea which has become more widely available over recent years. It is fantastic for pâtisserie and chocolate recipes.

Serves 6

1 egg
100ml (3½fl oz) full-fat milk
250g (9oz) T45 flour (French white flour, available online, try shipton-mill.com, or use best-quality strong bread flour, from supermarkets)
25g (1oz) caster sugar
5g (1/8oz) salt
25g (1oz) yeast
25g (1oz) butter, plus extra for greasing
150g (5½oz) raspberries
Icing sugar, sifted, for dusting

For the matcha almond frangipane

50g (1¾oz) butter, softened
50g (1¾oz) caster sugar
1 egg
15g (½oz) plain flour, sifted
10g (¼oz) matcha green tea powder, plus extra for dusting
50g (1¾oz) ground almonds

To serve

Clotted cream

Grease and line the base of a 25cm wide and 4.5cm deep tart tin with greaseproof paper.

Put the egg and milk into the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment, and whisk. Mix in the flour, sugar, salt and yeast, and then add the butter when the dough starts to come together. Knead until it reaches an elastic consistency. To test, take a piece of the dough and stretch it to form a thin film in the middle without breaking. Hold this up to the light: if you can see the light through the dough, it is ready.

Cover with a clean tea towel and rest at room temperature for 1 hour. Then roll it into a ball, wrap it in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for at least 3 hours, or overnight.

To make the matcha almond frangipane, mix together the butter and sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix until fully incorporated. Add the flour, matcha powder and ground almonds.

Place the dough into the tin, pressing lightly up the sides to make a crater for the almond paste. Spread the paste evenly in the centre of the dough and press in half of the raspberries. Leave to prove somewhere warm for about 2 hours, or until the dough has doubled in size. Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4.

Bake the tart for 35-40 minutes, until golden. Transfer to a wire rack, still in the tin, to cool to room temperature. Top with the remaining raspberries, dust with sifted icing sugar and extra matcha tea powder and serve with clotted cream.

Roast crab with lime and chilli butter

This can be served on warm toast or just melted in a dish, which brings out the flavours of the kaffir lime leaves.

Serves 2

100g (3½oz) butter, softened
Zest and juice of 2 limes
2 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
1 stick of lemongrass, finely chopped
4 spring onions, sliced
2tbsp fresh chopped coriander, plus extra to serve
1 red chilli, finely diced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
300g (10½oz) white crab meat
Toasted sourdough, to serve

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas 6. Beat the butter, lime zest and juice, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, spring onions, coriander and chilli. Season with salt and pepper.

Spoon the crab meat into 2 ovenproof dishes and top with the butter mixture. Place on a tray and roast for 10 minutes, or until hot and bubbling. Sprinkle with the extra coriander and serve straight away, with some toasted sourdough.

Shortbread with strawberries and cream

There are few ingredients in this recipe; it relies on good-quality butter, flour and sugar. If your mixture is a little bit too dry then add a little cold water, but not too much – you’re not making pastry!

Makes 20

250g (9oz) cold butter, cubed
110g (4oz) caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
360g (12½oz) chilled plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1tbsp water

To serve

Fresh strawberries and clotted cream

Preheat the oven to 170°C/fan 150°C/gas 3. In a large bowl, mix the butter, sugar and flour, rubbing them together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir through the tablespoon of water to bring together into a dough.

On a lightly floured surface, roughly roll out the dough and press into a 20cm x 15cm baking tin. Sprinkle with caster sugar, prick with a fork and chill it in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, then leave to cool in the tin on a wire rack. Cut into 20 rectangles and serve with strawberries and cream.

Pan-seared halloumi-style cheese with chilli jam & buttered croutons

This dish is really popular in my restaurant at Chewton Glen; we use Briddlesford halloumi-style cheese from the Isle of Wight with a simple chilli jam, which are both delicious with the Italian chicory, radicchio.

Serves 4

180g (6oz) Briddlesford halloumi-style cheese (or any halloumi cheese), sliced
1 head of radicchio (or endive), leaves separated
1 bunch of watercress
French vinaigrette

For the chilli jam

2 red onions
2 red peppers
2 red chillies
5 garlic cloves
250g (9oz) tinned plum tomatoes
150g (5½oz) soft brown sugar
125ml (4fl oz) red wine vinegar
1 lemongrass stick, husk discarded and finely diced

For the braised Roscoff onions

2 Roscoff onions (sweet pink onions) or Spanish white onions (or other sweet white onions, from larger supermarkets), unpeeled
A sprig of thyme
500ml (18fl oz) water
1tsp salt
50g (1¾oz) butter

To serve

15g (½oz) nigella seeds
100g (3½oz) sourdough croutons, fried in 75g (2¾oz) butter

Start by making the chilli jam. Blend all the jam ingredients to a fine pulp. Add to a pan and cook over a low heat for 20 minutes until the mixture has thickened and is like compote in texture. Cool and set aside.

For the braised onions, simmer the onions with the thyme, water and salt for 40 minutes until cooked. Let them cool in their liquor, slice in half and remove the skins. Return to the pan along with the butter and fry over a high heat for 5-8 minutes to caramelise the onions. Pan-fry the cheese for 1-2 minutes on each side until golden. Dress the salad leaves with the vinaigrette.

To serve, spread some chilli jam generously on each plate and top with the dressed leaves, cheese and caramelised onions. Sprinkle with nigella seeds and croutons.

Chocolate hazelnut cake

Don’t put this cake in the fridge, as that would set the buttercream too much and make the cake go hard.

Serves 8

For the cake

200g (7oz) butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
200g (7oz) caster sugar
4 eggs
150g (5½oz) self-raising flour
50g (1¾oz) cocoa powder

For the icing

300g (10½oz) dark chocolate, melted
100g (3½oz) icing sugar
200g (7oz) butter, softened
75ml (2½fl oz) double cream

To decorate

50g (1¾oz) toasted hazelnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan 160°C/gas 4. Grease a 20cm round cake tin and line it with greaseproof paper.

Beat the butter and sugar together until white and fluffy, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Fold the flour and cocoa powder in, then spoon the mixture into the tin. Bake for 35-40 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once cool, carefully use a knife to cut the cake in half horizontally.

For the icing, whisk the melted chocolate and icing sugar together. Once cool, whisk the mixture into the butter, for 8-10 minutes. Pour in the cream and mix until fully combined.

Spread a thick layer of icing onto one cake and sandwich the other cake on top. Spread the remaining icing all over the rest of the cake and sprinkle with the hazelnuts to decorate.

Dover sole meunière with watercress

The butter here needs to be nut brown – not burnt – and that requires an element of timing and practice to get it just right. But when you do, coupled with one of the nicest-flavoured fish, this is one of the best dishes out there.

Serves 2

2tbsp plain flour
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1 Dover sole, skinned
3tbsp olive oil
200g (7oz) butter
Juice of 1 lemon
1 small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

To serve

1 small bunch of watercress

Season the flour with salt and pepper and coat the fish, dusting off any excess flour. Place a large non-stick pan over a medium heat, add the oil and cook the fish for 3-4 minutes on each side, until golden. Pop onto a warm plate.

In the same pan, cook the butter until nut brown. Strain through a muslin cloth into a bowl and add the lemon juice and parsley. Spoon over the fish and serve with the watercress.

Roast avocado and chicken with ’nduja butter

I am fortunate to have amazing chefs visit the house, one of whom is Francesco Mazzei, who originally comes from Calabria, the home of ’nduja. He introduced me to this amazing, soft pork sausage, which is not only great on pizza and with pasta but also delicious on roast avocado. An interesting way to eat avocado, I know, but roasting adds flavour and softens them up.

Serves 6

3 avocados, halved and stoned
6 baby aubergines
2 red onions, cut into sixths
600g (1lb 5oz) chicken fillets

For the ’nduja butter

2 bulbs of garlic
Olive oil, for roasting
200g (7oz) butter, softened
100g (3½oz) ’nduja (from supermarkets)
Zest and juice of 1 lemon

To serve

A small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped
A small bunch of mint, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/gas 6. Place the garlic bulbs for the ’nduja butter in a foil parcel, drizzle with some olive oil and roast for 30 minutes.

Pop the avocado halves, aubergines, red onions and chicken onto a large roasting tray, mixing them around. Squeeze the roast garlic cloves into a food processor, add the butter, ’nduja, lemon zest and juice and blitz together. Dot the flavoured butter all over the chicken and vegetables and roast for 20-25 minutes until charred. Spoon onto a platter, sprinkle with the herbs and serve.

Barnsley lamb chops with peppercorn & goat’s cheese butter

Whipping really soft goat’s cheese with goat’s butter gives an interesting flavour and combined with a grilled Barnsley lamb chop it takes the taste to amazing. You can use standard lamb chops or leg-of-lamb steaks for this recipe – either way make sure you cook the lamb until the fat becomes crisp.

Serves 2

2 x 200g (7oz) Barnsley lamb chops
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1tbsp olive oil

For the goat’s cheese butter

100g (3½oz) goat’s butter, softened
75g (2¾oz) soft goat’s cheese
½tsp freshly ground black pepper
15g (½oz) green peppercorns
A sprig of rosemary, chopped

Season the lamb chops with salt and pepper. Heat a large non-stick frying pan until hot, drizzle in the oil and cook the chops for 2-3 minutes until deeply coloured, flip over and continue to cook for a further 2-3 minutes.

Beat together the goat’s butter and cheese with the ground black pepper until smooth. Mix through the green peppercorns and rosemary. Dot the goat’s cheese butter over the top of the lamb and serve.

Extracted from Butter: Comforting, Delicious, Versatile – Over 130 Recipes Celebrating Butter by James Martin, published by Quadrille on Thursday at £22. © James Martin 2021.

To order a copy for £19.80 (offer valid to 24/10/21; UK P&P free on orders over £20), visit mailshop.co.uk/books or call 020 3308 9193.

Photography: John Carey

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Tasty recipes from James Martin’s new cookbook