Mary Berry’s Crusted Haddock Peperonata dinner party menu

The Very Best Mushroom Soup

“Mushroom soup is a classic, but there are very few very tasty ones with intense flavour – serve with warm crusty bread. If you prefer you can omit the cream, but it adds to the luxury of the soup.

“If you have a small processor you’ll find it easier to strain off the mushroom and onion into a sieve and just process the vegetables adding a little of the liquid rather than lots of batches.”

Ingredients
(Serves 6)
50g (1½oz) butter
2 large Spanish onion, finely chopped
2 large clove garlic, crushed
550g (llb 4oz) cup mushrooms, finely sliced
3 rounded tablespoons flour
75ml (1/8 pint) white wine
1.8 litres (3 pints) good chicken stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons double cream
Chopped parsley

Method
Melt the butter in a deep saucepan; add onion and fry on boiling plate for a few minutes, without colouring. Add the garlic and mushrooms and continue to fry, stirring all the time for a further 2-3 minutes. 

In a bowl, blend the flour with the wine and add the stock. Remove the pan from the heat, stir, slowly add the wine and stock, stirring until well blended and smooth. Bring to the boil for couple of minutes till thickened. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Cover and transfer to the simmering oven for about 20 minutes until the onion is tender. Allow it to cool slightly (until safe enough to handle). Transfer to a food processor, blend for few minutes until smoothish (the soup will not be completely smooth, it will still have the texture from the mushrooms). Check the seasoning and stir in double cream if liked.

Garnish with chopped parsley, serve very hot.

To prepare ahead
Before adding cream or parsley allow the soup to cool, transfer to a container, keep in fridge for up to three days or in the freezer for up to a month. To serve bring to boil, add cream and parsley.

Crusted Haddock Peperonata

This is the perfect recipe to prepare ahead as it’s all cooked in one dish and popped in the oven. Peperonata is an Italian mixture of red peppers, tomatoes, onions and garlic cooked in olive oil. For this recipe I’ve added fennel too. It’s usually served hot with fish or meats or cold as an antipasto.

Ingredients
(Serves 6)
6 x 150g (5oz) fresh haddock fillets, skinned
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 dessertspoons tartare sauce from a jar
About 50g (2oz) coarse breadcrumbs (leftover ciabatta bread makes good breadcrumbs)
A little paprika pepper
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

For the Peperonata base 
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 very large onion, roughly chopped
2 Romano red peppers, halved lengthways and thickly sliced
1 large fennel bulb, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 x 200g can chopped tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon caster sugar
2 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/Fan 180ºC/Gas 6.

Method
For the peperonata base, heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan. Add the onion and fry on the boiling plate for a few minutes. Add the peppers, fennel, garlic and tomatoes to the onion, stir well and bring to the boil. Season with salt, pepper and sugar, and fry to drive off any water for about 10 minutes, stirring, until the onions and fennel start to soften. Stir in the capers and spoon on to a shallow, fairly flat, ovenproof dish.

Season the fish on both sides and arrange on top of the vegetables. Spread about 1 dessertspoon of tartare sauce on each fillet, and sprinkle with the coarse breadcrumbs seasoned with salt, pepper and paprika.

Slide an ovenproof dish on to the grid shelf on the floor of the roasting oven for about 20 minutes until the fish is just cooked

Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve.

Preparing ahead
Once prepared, the dish can be kept in the fridge for up to 12 hours, and then cooked for a little longer than given in the recipe.

Apple and Almond Tart

This tart looks wonderful when it’s cooked as the pastry cover moulds itself to the shape of the apples. If you use an ovenproof china flan dish rather than a tin the tart will take longer to cook

Ingredients
(Serves 8)
For the pastry
275g (10oz) plain flour
150g (5oz) icing sugar
150g (5oz) Butter, cubed
1 egg

For the filling
175g (6oz) marzipan, coarsely grated
900g (2lb) dessert apples, peeled, core removed and sliced into 6-8 wedges

You’ll need a 25cm (10) fluted loose bottom flan tin.

Method
Measure the flour, icing sugar and butter into a processor. Process until it resembles a crumble. Add the egg and process until the mixture holds together. Gather together on a floured work surface. Wrap in clingfilm and leave in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

Take off a little less than half the chilled pastry for the top and return it to the fridge. Roll out the rest of the pastry to make a circle large enough to line the flan tin. The pastry is a bit on the soft side but patches up easily. Spread the grated marzipan over the base of the flan then arrange the apple wedges on top of the marzipan. Roll out any trimming with the remaining pastry for the lid. Damp the edge of the rim of the pastry in the flan tin. Lift the pastry over the top of the fruit and press the two layers of pastry together, patching the edges if necessary. Stand it on a metal baking sheet.

Bake on the floor of the roasting oven with the cold plain shelf on the second set of runners for about 20 minutes. Watch carefully as the edges will brown first. If the edges are getting too dark cover the sides with a circle of foil.

Sieve some icing sugar over before serving. Serve with cream or crème fraiche.