Winter warmers

Former US president Teddy Roosevelt may not have had food in mind when he remarked of the art of diplomacy, "Speak softly, but carry a big stick", but his principle still applies in the kitchen. Horseradish, ginger, chilli, the three "big sticks" of the kitchen, are often used to transform the everyday into the unexpected.

Eileen Brunnarius, chef-proprietor of Pheasants, Ross-on-Wye, Hereford & Worcester, has found an alternative to the traditional roast beef and horseradish combination. Instead she serves poached leg of lamb with cabbage in a horseradish cream sauce.

The lamb is poached for just half an hour in lamb stock with cabbage balls and root vegetables, before the poaching stock is reduced with cream and horseradish. Horseradish also gives extra bite to her devilled mushrooms, which are filled with a mixture of mustard, Worcestershire sauce, tomato purée and a dash of cream.

Christopher Oakes, chef-proprietor of Oakes, in Stroud, Gloucestershire, finds horseradish most suited to fish - an unusual combination which really works. He serves toasted brioche spread with horseradish butter as a base for soft herring roes sautéd in olive oil and butter, with a generous sprinkling of black pepper and a drop of white wine and cream sauce on the plate.

Another of Oakes's creations is pan-fried pike in hot olive oil and butter, served with cucumber spaghetti which has been blanched for 10 seconds, fine juliennes of ginger on top and spooned with a sauce halfway between a beurre blanc and a cream sauce.

Gavin Stephenson, executive sous chef at the Regent Hotel, London, also recommends the fish/horseradish combination with his dish of horseradish-crusted turbot orhalibut. The fish is dusted with a mixture of flour and dried morel flour and then rolled in fine juliennes of horseradish before being pan-fried. It is served with a red wine risotto.

Stephenson also has a recipe for hot (but not overpowering) swordfish marinated for a few days in onion, garlic, chillies and olive oil. A sauce of shellfish salsa, tomatoes, corinader and fish stock is "pumped up" with seafood, such as oysters, cockles, mussels and lobster knuckles.

The grilled swordfish is served on top of snow potatoes - steamed, sieved new potatoes - dressed with a slice of black pepper and chilli butter.

For a warming ginger dish, Stephenson suggests a dessert plate of ginger ice-cream with clotted cream, served with a pickled ginger flan flavoured with lime, under a ginger-infused sugar cage. The whole thing is accompanied by a sweet herb-infused crème anglaise made with mint, a little basil and lemon balm.

Maddalena Bonino, chef at Bertorelli's, London, is the first to admit that these three ingredients are far from common in Italy. However, she has a special affinity with ginger which she tasted for the first time in a scallop dish in Venice.

She serves a roast duck breast with aubergines roasted with cumin, and white cannellini beans puréed with ginger and a little parsley. The rich, sharp flavours act as foils for each other.

When it comes to chillies she is equally inventive. With strips of deep-fried squid, rolled in breadcrumbs and sesame seeds, she serves a sweet chilli sauce using katjap manis (an Indonesian soy sauce), lemon, balsamic vinegar and chilli.

She also cooks a pasta dish with a sauce of mascarpone and dolcelatte, mange-tout and cream. Before adding the other ingredients to the cooked pasta, she tosses it with a few sliced Scotch bonnets, which leave a warm, spicy trail behind, but are removed before serving.

Bonino has also managed to combine two winter warmers in one dish. Smoked halibut is served with cooked beetroot in a ginger and horseradish dressing. The success of the dish hinges on using balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil to bring together the tastes of the smoky fish and the sweet beetroot.

Aaron Patterson, chef at Hambleton Hall, Hambleton, Leicestershire, has discovered the joys of beetroot and horseradish, using it to flavour a borsch made with duck stock. It is served with a sesame-coated, deep-fried ravioli filled with beetroot, horseradish and duck confit.

As wild horseradish grows nearby, Patterson makes use of it in a horseradish crust for a fillet of beef served with pan-fried foie gras on a cassis, onion and grated potato galette with a red wine sauce.

He combines ginger and chillies in a dish of bresaola. Here the red wine is brought to the boil with carrots, herbs, onions, juniper berries, a cinnamon stick, thyme and plenty of chilli. Once cool, a topside of beef is "brined" for six days, and hung for a week until it is firm and cured. It is sliced thinly and served with a ginger vinaigrette.

Frances Atkins, chef-proprietor of recently opened Shaws restaurant, London, uses chillies in a basil olive oil to accompany calves' liver. It adds a warmth to the dish without killing the basil taste. A horseradish mousse, made with a chicken base, is often served hot as a side dish.

She also uses horseradish in lentils with cream as a base for roasting salmon.

Clive Roberts is chef-proprietor of the Old Forge in Storrington, West Sussex. He does a fillet of beef with a ginger and Madeira sauce. As these don't usually work well, he uses half root and half crystallised stem ginger. A red onion marmalade is served alongside. Horseradish appears with smoked pork loin in a sauce made with an oaky Chardonnay.

Terence Laybourne, chef-proprietor of 21 Queen Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, uses ginger with a risotto of shellfish and also in a pheasant parfait for which he makes a variation of Cumberland sauce with quince, white port and fresh ginger and ginger juice. The juice, he says, gives quite a lift.

Jonathan Holmes, chef at Bridge End, Hayfield, Derbyshire, uses ginger for a mousse made from chicken leg meat which is used to stuff chicken breasts that are steamed and served with soy sauce. Crystallised ginger gets used a lot in a nougatine parfait with cherries, paw paw, pears, white chocolate and a passion fruit sorbet. He also does roast figs with crystallised ginger served hot with port and fromage frais.

Stephen Yare, chef at Underscar Manor in Applethwaite, Cumbria, cooks brill with ginger and coconut. The fish is poached with a brunoise of carrots, celeriac, shallot and blanched ginger in the Thai fish stock, nam pla and coconut milk. It is finished with lime leaves and dried shrimp, and pickled ginger is served as a garnish.