Grow more, cook more, eat less meat: Simon Rogan's recipe for life

Simon Rogan's damson chocolate fondant

WHEN you first approach Simon Rogan, he doesn't seem especially friendly. He's a very busy man - part chef, part farmer, running multiple restaurants, gunning for more Michelin stars, setting up new establishments and barely home to chill and hang out with his family.

But the second you get him in a kitchen, his whole demeanour changes. He's instantly more at ease; chattier, jokier, and eager to get stuck in.

When we meet at Roganic - his latest venture, which turned from a pop-up back in 2011 to a permanent restaurant that opened in January - he's about to launch his very first cookbook.

It's surprising he's never created a cookbook before. At the age of 50, with two Michelin stars for his best-restaurant-list-topping L'Enclume in the Lake District's Cartmel, you'd think he'd have a couple under his belt already. "I was never really that bothered," he says with a shrug, turning some charred spring onions on the hot plate as he talks.

Rogan is a grafter. And his passion for food - and farming - shines through with every word he utters. He's looking good, slightly trimmer than normal, which is down to him having a bit of a veganism stint. "It doesn't really work, because of the tasting, but when I'm on my own I try to eat really healthily. There's a busy six months coming and I need to lose a bit of weight and keep fit. And I have loads of vegetables that need eating," he says.

Essentially it's "head down" until October, while he focuses on consistency at all of the restaurants (he has four in total), in the hope of a smattering of those all-important Michelin stars this autumn.

"I'm working all the time at the moment," he admits. "We've got ambitions on a third star at L'Enclume. I've made a lot of sacrifices since 2011 by doing other things elsewhere. I've had distractions. So this year, I thought we'd go for it. You've just got to do the best you can and be consistent. All the restaurants should be in the running this year, Rogan & Co, Roganic, but at least I've tried. It's the last thing I want to achieve."

So why has it taken him until now to bring out a book, and what does he hope to achieve with it?

"I'd like to encourage more people to cook and grow their own veg," states the chef. "I'd like to see more people eating less meat, so there are less cattle feeding on the wheat that could feed the starving. There's so much overproduction of beef to feed the world and our fast-food habits. That's why I have stints of eating no meat whatsoever. I'm not a vegetarian, I enjoy meat, but I don't gorge on it like I used to. And I definitely feel better for it."

He believes everyone will be expecting the coffee table L'Enclume tomb - which he will bring out another time - but this is a simplified version, using ingredients and combinations he's known for but in a way that's achievable for a home cook.

Its main aim is to inspire us to grow more, cook at home, and take time over our food. So much of it can be raw or pickled. But if we all make a little start, we're helping the planet and our pockets all at the same time.

Rogan: The Cookbook by Simon Rogan (HarperCollins, £30)

Baked Tunworth

(Serves four to six as a starter)

250g Tunworth cheese in a box

A few sprigs of thyme

Hot crusty bread or toasted bread crisps, to serve

For the Fig and Apple Chutney

5 juniper berries

1tsp coriander seeds

2 cloves

2 cinnamon sticks

2 star anise

400ml cider vinegar

200g Bramley apples, peeled and grated

300g demerara sugar

130g white onions, finely diced

100ml fresh apple juice (shop-bought is fine)

130g dried figs, roughly diced

60g golden raisins

1tsp salt

20ml Calvados

1kg Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and diced

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas Mark 6. Meanwhile, to make the chutney, put the juniper, coriander, cloves, cinnamon and star anise in a piece of muslin and tie it with string to form a bag.

2. Put the bag in a large, heavy-based saucepan with all the remaining ingredients, except the Calvados and diced apple. Slowly reduce over a low heat until you have a thick, jam-like consistency, stirring regularly so it doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan.

3. Add the Calvados and reduce for one to two minutes to the same jam-like consistency.

4. Add the diced apple and cook gently for five to six minutes, until the apple is tender but still holds its shape and you have a thick chutney consistency. Remove from the heat, cool at room temperature, then transfer to a container and chill in the fridge.

5. Make a few slits in the top of the whole cheese and poke the thyme sprigs into the slits. Put the Tunworth cheese, in its open box (the top of the box removed), in the oven and bake for 20 minutes until soft and gooey. Remove from the oven and serve immediately in the box, with the chutney and hot crusty bread or bread crisps.

Chocolate fondant

(Serves six)

For the damson filling

300g damsons

2tbsp (heaped) caster sugar

For the chocolate fondant:

250g unsalted butter, plus extra softened

Butter for greasing

3tbsp cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting

250g dark chocolate (60% cocoa solids), broken into pieces

5 eggs, plus 5 egg yolks

125g caster sugar

100g plain flour

1. Brush six pudding moulds evenly with softened butter. Place on a baking tray and chill the moulds for 10 minutes in the fridge, until the butter has set. Once set, brush them again with softened butter and dust the insides with the cocoa powder, tapping out any excess powder that hasn't stuck. Chill the moulds again until required.

2. To make the damson filling, put the damsons and 100ml water in a medium, heavy-based saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the fruit for 10-12 minutes. Strain the cooked damsons through a fine sieve into a clean, heavy-based saucepan, pushing as much of the pulp as you can through the sieve, using the back of a spoon or ladle. Discard the damson stones. Add the sugar to the damson juice and cook over a low to medium heat for 15-20 minutes until the mixture has the consistency of jam. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Divide the damson mixture between six holes in a 20ml ice-cube tray and transfer to the freezer until hard.

3. While the damson filling is freezing, melt the butter and chocolate together in a heatproof bowl, set over a pan of simmering water (make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water), stirring regularly. While the chocolate is melting, whisk the whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar in a stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment on high speed until pale, light, fluffy and quadrupled in size. Transfer

the mixture to a bowl and gently fold the melted butter and chocolate mixture through the eggs. Once fully incorporated, sift in the flour and fold through again.

4. Put the fondant mixture in the fridge for 10 minutes and preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas Mark 4.

5. Keeping the moulds on the tray, pour 50-60g of the chilled fondant mixture into the bottom of each chilled mould, gently add one frozen damson cube and cover each cube with 50-60g of fondant mixture. Bake the fondants for 12-13 minutes, then remove from the oven and allow to sit in the mould for two minutes, before turning out on to plates. Serve immediately, dusting with cocoa powder.