Monthly Archives: August 2010

pickled cabbage

Posted by Gary in cabbage, coriander, fennel

pickled cabbage, kebab-shop style

A guilty pleasure of mine is a kebab from a kebab shop. I don’t even get drunk to have them. Part of the fun is reeling off the list of accompaniments you want with yours. One of my favourites is the pickled cabbage. As such, I’ve perfected my own kebab shop-style pickled cabbage.

Pickled cabbage:

¼ white cabbage, finely shredded

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

4 tablespoons white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons white vinegar

White pepper

Sea salt

  1. Combine all the ingredients and toss well. Pick up the cabbage and let it drop back into the bowl through your fingers to mix. Add a really large pinch of salt at this stage, and you’ll adjust it later.
  2. Leave for two hours or more, tossing every half hour. When it’s tenderised to where you like it (about two hours for me), check for seasoning. Use salt, pepper, more white wine vinegar and a maybe a pinch of sugar to get the flavour balance of salty and sharp. If it’s gone too far you can always rescue it by rinsing under cold water.

thai chicken curry with kung po rice

Posted by Gary in chicken, coconut, courgettes, peppers, rice

thai chicken curry with kung po rice

Having both rice and curry paste in the cupboard to use up, I played with the idea of Thai green curry to create a lifting and tasty midweek meal. Using some Tilda Kung Po stir fry rice and other bits and bobs lying around, I lucked on to something pretty nice.

Thai chicken curry with Kung Po rice:

2 chicken legs

Dark soy sauce

1 courgette, sliced

1 red pepper, sliced

1 packet Kung Po stir fry rice

For the sauce:

1 teaspoon Thai green paste

1 can coconut milk

500ml chicken stock

Fish sauce to taste

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
  2. Shake some soy sauce over the chicken legs and rub all over. Pop in the oven for 40 mins until crisp and cooked through. Shred the meat off the bone with two forks.
  3. Put the paste in a pan and sizzle for a minute, then add the remaining sauce ingredients and simmer to reduce.
  4. In a separate pan fry the courgette and pepper in a little oil until tender, then add the chicken meat. Add the rice and cook for a further minute. Combine with the sauce and serve.

smoked cheddar and ham risotto

Posted by Gary in cheese, ham, rice

smoked cheddar and smoked ham risotto

I’ve just got back from a trip to Suffolk. I managed to sample some great food in the area; the Queen’s Head in Woodbridge, the Old Mill House in Saxtead Green, and I fell in love with the mini Brighton-esque seaside town of Aldeburgh. A particular highlight was Lawson’s Delicatessen, a gorgeous shop stacked with olives, coffee ground to order, home-made pies and cakes, olive oil literally on tap, more cheeses than I can name and more besides. Brilliant, especially when caped off with local-caught cod and chips on the seafront.

emmett's of peasenhall, montgomery's smoked cheddarThe in-laws had advised me of a cracking deli, Emmett’s of Peasenhall. It’s been featured in Rick Stein’s Food Heroes, Delia Smith goes gaga over it, and it’s been around for 190 years. It’s a beautiful shop, bowling you over straight away with a tasting table where you can sample some of their bestsellers. Then you can peruse their pickled veg, the usual suspects of olives, chillis and artichokes. Then on to the confectioneries, where you can browse the chocolate-covered ginger, huge shards of chocolate studded with hazelnuts and many more.

Then there’s the glory: the cold meats counter. They smoke and cure their own meats onsite and take an awful lot of pride in their work. Something I went back for a couple of times was their Suffolk Black ham, all treacley and rich with a powerful cure flavour. Absolutely divine and worth a detour for. To take home with me I grabbed a couple of things: smoked Montgomery cheddar and ham offcuts. Contrary to the picture you get a great chunk of leftover bacon for just £1. So good.

I could just snack on both of these, but I wanted to do something that would celebrate both of these princely ingredients. So I settled on risotto, and boy did it do them justice: a smoky and rich risotto, packing a punch every mouthful. Great stuff.

If you ever find yourself passing through this area, pop in. You’ll be at least £50 worse off but you’ll take home a clutch of great stuff for the larder.

Smoked cheddar and bacon risotto:

200g smoked bacon lardons

1 onion, diced

200ml white wine

1 sprig of rosemary

4 handfuls of arborio risotto rice

500ml vegetable stock

50g smoked Montgomery cheddar, grated

½ teaspoon sesame oil

  1. Get the stock on to boil in a small pan. Fry the bacon in a little oil until coloured on all sides. Remove to one side for later.
  2. In the same pan as the bacon add the onion and fry over a gentle heat with the rosemary until the onion has softened.
  3. Add the rice and turn the heat right up. Keep tossing the rice around to get a lovely toasted edge to it. After a minute, add the wine and bubble away until the liquid has disappeared.
  4. Turn the heat down to medium and add a ladleful of stock. Push the rice around until the liquid is absorbed. Keeping adding a ladleful of stock at a time, allowing it to reduce until the rice has a lovely al dente texture. Discard the rosemary.
  5. Add the bacon back to the pan and stir the cheese through. Check for seasoning – probably won’t need any! – and serve with a swirl of sesame oil (not too much), grating a little extra cheese over.

seriously good pasta bake

Posted by Gary in balsamic vinegar, basil, chorizo, courgettes, pasta, tomato and tagged with

seriously good cherry tomato and balsamic vinegar pasta bake

If you’re a regular reader of this blog you might notice I do a lot of things “from scratch” (I really hate that phrase, like a badge of snobbish one-upmanship), because I enjoy it and I like knowing what goes into my dinner. In my time of course I’ve used pasta sauces and the like, and they range from OK to pretty good to truly vomit-inducing (usually ones that involve mascarpone).

seriously good pasta sauceI wouldn’t usually blog about such a jar but I happened to use a Seriously Good pasta sauce. These are Gordon Ramsay-devised with a 10p donation to Comic Relief for each jar sold. And no, Gordon doesn’t get a penny. There’s a bunch of flavours, and the one I used happened to be cherry tomato & balsamic. Peering over the ingredients list on the label is very surprising: you can pronounce everything. And I can buy all of them in any supermarket. That’s very reassuring.

I chucked it in a pasta bake with some chorizo and courgette, and it was lovely. Well worth a try – certainly if you find it on promotion, as it was in my local Sainsbury’s. At least bask in the glow of making a small donation to a good cause :-)

Seriously good pasta bake (serves 4):

400g fusilli

100g chorizo, roughly diced

2 large courgettes

1 jar Seriously Good cherry tomato and balsamic sauce

Cheddar cheese

Some basil leaves, shredded

Splash of balsamic vinegar

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
  2. Get a pan of salted water on to boil and cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Get on with the rest of the recipe and when ready, drain until needed.
  3. In a large oven-proof pan, heat a little oil and add the chorizo. Cook briefly until it starts to colour on all sides, then add the courgette.
  4. Continue to fry for 3-4 minutes, tossing frequently so the courgette gets coated in the rich chorizo juices and is starting to turn tender.
  5. Add the sauce, then refill the jar half-full with water. Sloosh it around to gather up the dregs of the sauce and pour into the pan. Bring up to the boil and then add the drained pasta. Make sure everything is well-mixed and pop into an oven for ten minutes, or until the tops of the pasta sticking out are starting to turn dark-brown.
  6. Scatter the basil over the top, grate some cheddar over and sprinkle with balsamic. Grind a little black pepper on top and a swirl of your best extra virgin olive oil, then return to the oven for a further minute or two, until the cheese has melted. Serve piping hot.

heston blumenthal’s perfect treacle tart revisited

Posted by Gary in cream, egg, golden syrup, lemon, pastry and tagged with

heston blumenthal's perfect treacle tart

“Haven’t I read this before?” Why, yes you have. But for one thing, the picture is beyond ghastly. Secondly I followed even more of the rules than before. And finally I previously linked to The Times, and can’t stand the idea of the recipe disappearing behind the Murdoch paywall.

So how was it this time? I made the pastry myself. It was alright. I am no pastry ninja, possessing of skillet-like furnaces for hands that sees any dough crumble to bits in my grasp. I need a walk-in fridge to help with this. I’d be happy enough with shop-bought pastry for this. And I aged the treacle by baking it in a low oven for 24 hours. I’d like to think it made a difference, but the flavour maturation is subtle but interesting. Worth it if you have the time, don’t weep if you don’t.

If you haven’t tried this yet, really, really do. If you think Heston Blumenthal recipes are too complicated, they’re really, really not. It’s a stunner, and will make you incredibly popular if you take it round someone’s house for tea. Do it.

Heston Blumenthal’s perfect treacle tart (an easy 10 slices):

For the vanilla salt:

Seeds from 2 plump vanilla pods

50g sea salt

  1. Work the seeds into the salt with your fingers and leave to infuse until you’re ready to serve.

For the pastry:

400g plain flour

1 heaped teaspoon table salt

400g unsalted butter, chilled and diced

100g icing sugar

Zest of 1 lemon, finely grated

Seeds from 1 vanilla pod

2 large egg yolks (about 40g)

2 large eggs (about 120g)

  1. Tip the flour and salt into a large bowl. Using your fingertips, rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Given the amount of butter, you may need to add and rub it in in batches.
  2. Quickly stir in the icing sugar, lemon zest and vanilla seeds. Add the egg yolks and the whole eggs, and mix until combined. Tip onto a sheet of clingfilm, wrap it up and leave to rest in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
  3. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 150°C.
  4. Dust a piece of greaseproof paper with flour. Take the pastry out of the fridge and remove the clingfilm. Place the pastry on the greaseproof paper. Cut off about one third of the dough and reserve in case it is needed to patch holes in the pastry base. (If unused, it can be frozen or baked as biscuits.) Shake over more flour, then top with a second piece of greaseproof paper. Begin to roll the pastry flat, moving the pin from the centre outwards. Turn the pastry 90 degrees every few rolls. Aim for a thickness of 3mm–5mm, and a diameter of 45cm–50cm. Once the pastry is rolled out to the correct thickness, peel off the top layer of greaseproof paper, trim off any excess, then wind the pastry onto the rolling pin, removing the other layer of paper as you go. Unwind the pastry over the flan tin and gently push it into the base and sides. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
  5. Once the pastry has firmed up, remove it from the fridge. Prick the base with a fork to stop it puffing up. Take a fresh piece of greaseproof paper, scrunch it up and smooth it out several times (this makes it easier to put in position), then place it over the pastry base. Put baking beans or, even better, coins on top. Return the lined pastry case to the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
  6. Remove the case from the fridge and put it in the oven to bake for 25–30 minutes, until the pastry is a light, golden brown. If, after removing the beans or coins, the base is slightly tacky, return the case to the oven for 10–15 minutes.

For the filling:

400g loaf of brown bread, whizzed to crumbs

200g unsalted butter

3 large eggs

75ml double cream

2 teaspoons table salt

900g tin of golden syrup (age this by placing in the lowest your oven will go for at least 24 hours)

Zest of 3 lemons

Juice of 2 lemons

  1. Preheat the oven to 150°C.
  2. Make a beurre noisette by putting the butter in a pan over a medium heat. When the butter stops sizzling (a sign that the water has all evaporated, after which it will soon burn) and develops a nutty aroma, remove it from the heat. Strain it into a jug and leave to cool. Discard the blackened solids left in the sieve.
  3. Put the eggs, cream and salt in a bowl and whisk until combined. Set aside.
  4. Pour the golden syrup into a pan and heat gently until liquid. Pour the beurre noisette into the warmed syrup, and stir. (Try to avoid tipping in any sediment that may have collected at the bottom of the jug.)
  5. Pour the buttery syrup into the egg and cream mixture. Stir in the breadcrumbs and the lemon zest and juice.
  6. Transfer the mixture to a large jug. Pour two-thirds of it into the pastry case. Slide the tart into the oven and pour in the remainder of the filling. Bake for 50–60 minutes, or until the tart is a deep brown colour. Remove from the oven and leave to cool before taking out of the tin.
  7. Serve the treacle tart with a few grains of vanilla salt sprinkled on top, and with a good dollop of clotted cream.

24 hour roasted beef

Posted by Gary in beef, cider and tagged with

24 hour roasted beef

(Let me get this out of the way: the title is a slight lie. But with good reason – read on).

The slow-roast of a chicken as nabbed from Heston Blumenthal is a winner. No question. So why has it taken me this long to transport this idea to beef?

I was finally spurred on to try it by two things. Some dear friends bought me Heston’s Family Food for a belated birthday present. It’s leagues away from his Total Perfection series, a more everyday approach to food. It’s quite touching how he talks about how you can explore food with your family, encouraging them to try different things.

The second thing was being sent a Heston Blumenthal meat thermometer. I was so overjoyed at getting hold of one of these I had to cook something that demanded a thermometer immediately. This seemed perfect.

Heston’s recipe for slow-cooked beef favours the wing rib; a little pricey for me. I settled on that old favourite, brisket. But would the same principles apply to a different cut? Broadly I was confident, but I had to be sure. Some searching later I found a series of blog posts from Cuisiniers Kitchen investigating slow cooking brisket.

(You can read all three parts of the ‘slow cooked brisket’ series here, here and here. It’s a lot of words but fascinating stuff.)

In summary, the preferred method was to brine, marinate then cook for less than 24 hours. Past a certain point the collagen ruptures and develops a tougher texture. So I went for a cidery brine for 12 hours, followed by a 12 hour roast at 70°C. Finally a quick frying in a hot pan to give lovely browned

beef at 70 degreesI chucked it in at 7am and took it out at 7pm. A quick prod in a couple of places showed that it was 70°C throughout so perfectly cooked. The thermometer did the job, sturdy enough to stay upright and a very easy to read screen. The temperature also came quickly, something I have a gripe with my current thermometer. As I expected there was little colouring from this roasting and a little puddle of blacky-brown liquid in the pan, which of course I had to try. It was pure Marmite, heavenly umami. There were also an odd rubbery sheet of stuff from one side, which I suspect was congealing blood ‘n’ stuff (why do we only use pig’s blood for black pudding?).

After some reasting and frying, it was absolutely delicious. Crisp, wobbly fat and full-flavoured soft meat that tore apart into lovely flakes. The cider was a surprising touch: when I carved into the meat an appley perfume came off it; in the mouth a pleasing sweetness. If you’re wondering about the lack of seasoning, the brining takes care of that. But the beef flavour was the king. Completely brilliant.

(PS I’ll be exclusively giving away some Heston Blumenthal kitchen equipment to you lovely lot in the very near future, so keep reading!)

24 hour roast beef brisket:

700g brisket

500ml cider

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon black peppercorns

1 star anise

50g butter

  1. Prepare a brine with 8% salt and add the sugar. Stir well to mix, add the cider, pepper and star anise and submerge the beef. Cover with cling film and brine for 12 hours in the fridge.
  2. Preheat the oven to 70°C. Pop the beef in a baking tray and leave for 12 hours, or until the beef is 70°C throughout (this should be medium rare to medium). Leave to rest, covered in a clean teatowel for an hour.
  3. Put a pan on the hob with a very high heat and add the butter. When it starts to foam, add the beef and sear on all sides until it develops a brown crust all over. Carve as thin as you can and serve.

thai green curry

Posted by Gary in chicken, courgettes, curry, food, mushroom, nam pla

thai green chicken curry

There are times when only the fire, sweetness and creamy sour hit of a Thai curry will do. I’d not cooked one before so I chickened out slightly and bought a ready-made paste. It was very tasty but a leeetle on the spicy side – I’ll use a bit less next time.

I agree that chestnut mushrooms and courgettes are inauthentic but the earthiness and body they offer really match up.

Thai green curry:

2 chicken breasts, diced

1 courgette, sliced

250g chestnut mushrooms, sliced

2 teaspoons Thai green curry paste (I used Barts)

Half a teaspoon green peppercorns

400ml coconut milk

200ml chicken stock

4 kaffir lime leaves, shredded

Few splashes of nam pla

Bunch of coriander

  1. Fry the chicken in a little oil until coloured all over and remove to one side. Fry the courgette and mushroom in the same pan until they start to turn tender. Again, put to one side.
  2. Fry the paste for a minute to release the oils, then add the pepper corns. Add the milk and stock and bring to a boil. Pop the chicken and veg back in the pan and continue to simmer for about ten minutes, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced to a creamy consistency.
  3. Add the lime leaves and nam pla to taste, and serve with inauthentic but really tasty basmati rice. Garnish with torn coriander.

roast balsamic potatoes and onions

Posted by Gary in balsamic vinegar, food, onion, potatoes and tagged with

roast balsamic potatoes and onions

Another roast potato recipe for the repertoire. These are from Jamie at Home. But these are very different, perfect for a barbecue and a lovely, smoky, intoxicating flavour. You need to use a great big whack of balsamic and it’s going to get cooked the hell out of it, so use the cheapest you can. Watch out when you open the oven early on, the acrid whiff of boiling vinegar can really catch in the back of the throat. It’s a dead good recipe though, and a pleasant change from normal potatoes.

Roast balsamic potatoes and onions (serves 8):

1.5kg new potatoes, chopped into chunks

3 red onions, peeled and quartered

4 cloves of garlic, bashed

2 sprigs of thyme

150ml balsamic vinegar

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Bring some potatoes to the boil and simmer for 8 minutes.
  2. While the potatoes drain leave a little oil in a baking tray with the thyme and garlic in the oven to get warm. When your potatoes have drained add them to the baking tray with the onions. Drown in balsamic.
  3. Roast for about 45 minutes, tossing every so often to coat all well. Season before serving.

whole barbecue chicken

Posted by Gary in chicken, cumin, fennel, food, tomato and tagged with

whole barbecue chicken

I love being invited to barbecues, especially for the social aspect. But I do experience a twinge of disappointment when it’s just sausages and burgers from Iceland on offer. All food does taste better outside it’s true, but it’s nice to have something a bit different. How about a whole lamb? How about a whole chicken?

I’ve used Jamie Oliver’s recipe for barbecue sauce from Jamie at Home here, and it’s an absolute cracker. The kicker is the orange juice, it really makes it. Do give it a whirl, it’s amazing. I decided to brine the chicken as I’m bit obssessed with it lately, but you can skip this if you want. You get the tenderest meat from it though.

Whole barbecued chicken (serves 8):

2kg chicken, the best you can afford

1 heaped tablespoon cumin seeds

1 heaped tablespoon fennel seeds

5 cloves

A bunch of thyme, leaves picked

A bunch of rosemary, leaves picked (keep a sprig back for later)

Zest and juice of 1 orange

1 bulb of garlic, broken into cloves and peeled

4 heaped teaspoons paprika

6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

150ml tomato ketchup

8 tablespoons olive oil

10 bay leaves

  • Prepare an 8% brine solution. Dunk the chicken in it and soak for at least 6 hours.
  • After this time, remove the chicken from the water and spatchcock it. To do this, cut down the backbone with kitchen scissors and wipe the innards down. Place it right way up and apply a little pressure to the breast, cracking it slightly. It should open like a book. Spear it in place with two skewers crossing over. The spatchcocking will cook it quicker and the skewers keep its shape while it cooks. If you have time dry the chicken out uncovered in the fridge overnight.
  • Preheat the oven to 180°C. To make the marinade grind together all the spices with some salt and pepper. Chop the herbs and orange finely and mix that in. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly. Smother the chicken all over with the marinade and bung on a baking tray in the oven. After it’s been in the oven for 30 minutes, light the barbecue.
  • Cook the chicken for an hour or until the internal temperature reaches 74°C. (For best results, use a meat thermometer).
  • Transfer the whole chicken to the barbecue and sear it well one side. As it cooks use a rosemary sprig to baste it with leftover sauce from your tray. Flip it over and when done, leave to rest on a plate. While it rests, pop the baking tray on the barbecue and let the heat sizzle the leftover marinade and get stickier. Pour this into a jug and serve with the chicken. I recommend plonking on the table and letting everyone have at it like vultures!