Roasted Radishes with Bagna Cauda Sauce & Potato, Gorgonzola and Sage Bread with Asian Steamed Clear Bass & Ginger ice cream

Reading the New York Times the other week, I was mesmerised by a piece about roasting radishes with a bagna cauda sauce. When roasted, it seems, radishes become very similar to turnips, which would be altogether dull, but paired with a bagna cauda sauce - a garlic, anchovy and cream dip from Piedmont in Italy - it becomes positively gorgeous.

On Saturday night we were joined for dinner by lovely friends. The novelist Eileen Goudge and her husband, Entertainment Reporter Sandy Kenyon (if you've ridden in the back of a New York cab, you'll know, in a New York minute, who he is...), and photographer Sandi Haber Fifield with her architect husband, John.

I decided to roast the radishes - perfect for this time of year, together with fennel. I made a potato, Gorgonzola and sage bread, combining a couple of recipes to come up with a loaf that was pretty damn good, and served it with extra sauce for dipping.

Afterwards we had Asian steamed bass, which is the EASIEST and MOST delicious sweet and sour fish you will ever have in your life. You steam bass, sprinkle it with salt and sugar, pile it up with julienned ginger and scallions, then pour sizzling oil and soy sauce over the top. And that's it.

Eileen, as well as being a wonderful novelist, is a master baker, which was intimidating to say the least. I let her cook a sumptuous rasberry and mascarpone pie, and made ginger ice-cream to have on the side.

Let's just say this. I fell off the wagon with a big bump that night. Too much food, too much wine, and too much deliciousness all in one place - a perfect evening with food you have to try... (serves around 6, with leftovers).

Roasted Radishes with Bagna Cauda Sauce

Remove leaves and tails of radishes, wash and toss in olive oil and kosher salt. Slice top and bottom of fennel off, then cut into slices, and toss with olive oil and salt. Spread on roasting tin, and roast on 425 for 1 hour.

Thoroughly peel a large head of garlic (with 10-12 cloves) and cook with enough milk to cover all the cloves for 20 to 30 minutes. Add a tablespoon of heavy cream or butter. Rinse five salty anchovy fillets and add them to the mix, cooking them slowly for 4-5 minutes. Stir the mixture gently, add a ½ cup of olive oil to the mix to make the sauce more liquid. Puree with a blender until smooth, making sure it's still warm, then drizzle over radishes and serve.

Potato, Gorgonzola and Sage Bread.

I love baking bread. When I lived on Middleduck Farm in the country, I became Mrs Walton, making jam and baking bread every day. There is nothing like the smell of fresh-baked bread, and somehow living in the middle of nowhere on a very old farm with leaky roofs, I felt it would have been, well, bad form really, not to have baked bread.

But, unlike serious bread bakers, I still have no idea how it works. I know about making a starter, and letting it prove (rise) before punching it down, etc etc, but I don't really understand it. I do quite like experimenting with bread - adding caramelised onions, honey, maple syrup, nuts - and am perfectly happy to chuck it out when it doesn't work.

I had tried to make this bread before, but the recipe didn't have yeast in it. Unsurprisingly, the bread was flat and heavy. Bread with potato tends to be stickier anyway, and so this time I added 2 teaspoons of dried yeast, fermented in 1/4 cup warm water for 20 minutes until bubbly and yeasty-smelling. I know, I know, I didn't know what yeasty-smelling meant either, but once you smell it, you won't forget it. It's sour and...well...yeasty.

With the addition of the yeast, the bread came out perfectly. Even better toasted, I should imagine, with dollops of leftover bagna cauda on top... (I will not be finding out as I am now firmly back on the wagon, and bread is not invited on with me until extra poundage after that dinner has gone).

1 1/3 cups mashed potatoes, either warm or cold.
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons rapid-rise yeast
1 tablespoon Greek yoghurt
1 1/3 cups warm water
1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
Handful of finely chopped fresh sage.

First get the starter going. Mix the yeast with 1/4 cup of warm water, and set aside for 15 minutes until it starts to bubble and rise. Mix potatoes with 4 cups of flour, salt and yeast mixture in a Cuisinart bowl. Add yoghurt, then water, slowly. Using the dough hook, give it around ten minutes. It will be very sticky, so turn it onto a well-floured surface, and knead by hand, adding at least 1/2 cup of flour, until it is soft and elastic - around five to ten minutes. This is my favorite bit, when I do truly feel like I am living on Walton mountain.

When done, turn out into a well-oiled bowl (just coat with olive oil), cover with a damp dishcloth and put in a cold place overnight, or a warm place for an hour or two.

When the dough is doubled in size, heat the oven to 425, punch the dough down, add the gorgonzola and sage, and fold the dough over. Knead for a couple of minutes until cheese and herbs are evenly spread, then form into a round loaf. Set bread on a baking sheet, loosely covered with a damp dishcloth (keep the cloth damp or the dough will stick to it). After about half an hour the dough will be doubled in size.

Put the bread in the oven for 20 minutes, then turn temperature down to 375, and cook for another ten minutes, or until it's cooked through. You can tell it's cooked by knocking on the loaf's underside - when it's cooked, it sounds hollow.

Asian Steamed Clear Bass

I really don't even need to give you the recipe given that I explained it before, and that really is all there is to it, and once you make it, you will realise that you can change the proportions to taste...

Ingredients

2 lb. sea bass (preferably one fish if you can get it)
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar
1 inch fresh ginger root, peeled and julienned into very thin slices
8 scallionsspring onions, finely julienned in 2" lengths, green and white parts separated
6 tablespoons groundnut or corn oil
4 tablespoons soy sauce

Method

Rinse the fish and pat dry. Make 2–3 diagonal slashes on both sides of the fish.

Steam in a fish poacher or steamer over a high heat for about 8 minutes, or until the fish is cooked and flakes easily.

Remove the cover, turn the heat off, and Carefully place the fish on a serving platter and sprinkle with the salt and sugar.

Spread the ginger over the fish, then the green part of the scallionsspring onions, followed by the white part.

Heat the oil in a small pan over a high heat until smoking. Pour it little by little over the scallionsspring onions and ginger, which will sizzle and cook as the oil hits them.

Finish by drizzling soy sauce over the entire fish, serve with fragrant white rice.

Ginger ice cream

I went to my favorite new restaurant on Friday night - The Basso Cafe in Norwalk - and there had the most gorgeous ginger gelato. I was still obsessing on Saturday, and remembered that a hundred years ago, for my first wedding, I received an ice-cream maker. Given that I have no recollection of ever having used it, I was amazed that the ice-cream maker survived the journey from London to Westport, and then through five moves. But there it was! Forlorn in the cupboard!

I read a few ginger ice-cream recipes, and used them as the base, adding vanilla essence and candied ginger.

Ingredients:
3 cups heavy cream (this is not for the faint-hearted, although you could do 2 cups cream, 2 cups milk)
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup grated fresh ginger
pinch salt
teaspoon good vanilla essence
8 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup candied ginger, chopped into fine pieces.

Method:

In a heavy pan combine the cream, milk, grated ginger, salt, and vanilla over a medium heat, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale and frothy (at least five minutes). Ladle 1/2 cup of the hot cream mix into the eggs, and whisk to combine. Stir the egg mixture into the hot cream on the stove, and cook over a low heat, stirring constantly to make a custard. After about 3 to 5 minutes it should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Strain cream into a large bowl through a fine mesh sieve, pressing the pulp down to get as much liquid out as possible. Cover tightly and refrigerate for at least three hours, and preferably overnight.

Pour custard into the bowl of the ice-cream maker, and turn on, according to manufacturer's instructions.

Enjoy!