A slightly special blog this one – grubblog is one year old today, kicked off originally my lasagne alla cacciatore. I’ve compiled 154 posts so far, waffling about recipes, food, equipment and restaurants. Thanks to everyone who stops by, I really appreciate all your comments. Unusually for any given post, this was prepared by Mrs. RoastPotato – and jolly nice it was too.
Regular visitors to this blog may remember the turkey chilli burgers, my perfect burger, or the best burgers in the world from Le Parker Meridien. But, faced with yet another burger I can’t resist a go. Shock horror – another recipe from Jamie’s America. Away from my usual ideas about burger recipes (that they should be as simple as possible), this has quite a few things going on. There’s beef mince of course, mixed with red onions, beaten egg, parmesan and curiously cream crackers blitzed to a powder. What happened was as the meat caramelized, the cracker crumb toasted and gave a nutty finish to the burger. A surprising addition and very tasty.
Another great idea was a spicy mayo, somewhat like a certain special sauce: mayo, ketchup, paprika and lemon juice. Savoury and sweet, and a perfect accompaniment to juicy, meaty burgers.
Just last week I bought a slow cooker – my first. They’ve been out of fashion for quite a while now, I can remember a brown ceramic pot bubbling away on my nan’s counter, issuing clouds of savoury broth. Not sure I ever ate anything cooked in it though… I saw one in Tesco for £12 and impulse bought. But then… what to do with it? Luckily this month’s delicious magazine have a feature on that very subject, so they will be coming up shortly. But I was surprised by the lack of dedicated slow cooker recipes on the net. Many talk about slow cooking as a principle, but few about actually using a slow cooker. Being a cheap-ass implement it didn’t come with any cooking tips at all, so it’s invention all the way!
Thanks to the excellent Essex Food Fair at the weekend, a beautiful piece of brisket came my way. I chatted to lovely young gent who was passionate about his cattle, and how they only ate food grown on the farm. I tasted a little piece of silverside he’d roasted, and I commented how I’d got a tasty bit of fat on mine that was all creamy and peppery. We instantly shared a grin about being “those people that love fat on meat” I pointed out his brisket. After that, I was sold.
I ended up throwing very basic things into the pot – it was my first slow cook after all – and I was very pleased with the results. It was tender and “strandy”, with a sweet and luscious liquor that made an excellent gravy. Served alongside roast potatoes (made with yesterday’s leftover confit fat!) and steamed cauliflower, it was a real rib-sticker.
Braised beef brisket:
800g brisket
2 onions, sliced
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 pint beef stock
Glass of red wine
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon butter
Drizzle a little olive oil into a hot pan and sear the brisket on all sides.
Put the beef, onions, garlic, bay, thyme, stock and wine in the slow cooker. Top up with boiling water if necessary to bring the liquids up to 2/3 up the joint.
Leave to slow cook for 7 hours. When a fork can slide easily into the middle, it’s ready.
Remove the beef to one side to rest while you make the gravy.
The liquid will still be quite runny so it requires thickening. I used a beurre manié by mixing the flour and butter together and whisking into the winey stock.
Hack off big chunks of beef and drizzle over your gravy.
Pork belly is one of my absolute favourite meaty things. That crisp skin, tender meat and fleshy feel combined with it’s happy ability to take on bold flavours makes it an all-round winner.I saw some at the fabulous Essex Food Fair in Braintree I attended so snapped it up immediately – even going so far as to get the butcher to dig through his box of goodies to find some lovely belly strips for me. The pigs are reared in Battlesbridge, quite close to where I live so there’s that wonderful satisfaction that comes from using local produce and supporting local businesses.
I’ve cooked belly pork many times, but with a piece of pork with such provenance and the luxury of time I wanted to do more than just roast it. Some research online led me to believe that confit was the way to go. So I submerged it in fat, left it to bubble away for three hours and then gave it a further half hour in the pan dry, and the results are tender and juicy. I served it with simple carrots and an apple and onion velouté, which I lifted wholesale from Gordon Ramsay here. It’s a nice alternative to apple sauce, at once highly acidic yet rich to give a piquant edge to the glorious pork fat.
Pork belly confit:
3 pork belly strips
6 juniper berries
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon sea salt
250ml sunflower oil (use whatever fat is on hand; goose fat or lard would be excellent)
2 teaspoons rosemary leaves
Pre-heat the oven to 150C. Warm the oil in a pan.
Pound the juniper, coriander, oregano and salt together in a mortar and pestle. Rub this mix into the pork bellies on all sides.
Place the meat into a shallow baking tray and pour over the hot oil. Sprinkle the rosemary over the top.
Cover the tray with foil and put into the oven for three hours. No basting, no peeking!
Take the tray out of the oven and leave to rest for ten minutes. Put the oven up to 200C.
Remove the pork from the fat and put onto a clean baking tray. You will thank yourself later if this is non-stick.
After a further 30 mins remove from the oven. Allow to rest for five minutes before serving.
Tip: reserve the oil from the pork and store in the fridge for another time. My fat is going towards – what else – roast potatoes!
I’ve recently found a pocket of Essex-based foodies into which I have aggressively thrust myself, and being a persistent little oik has paid dividends. The wonderful EssexGourmet (@essexgourmet on Twitter) tweeted on Thursday that there was a food fair happening on Saturday in Braintree. After a moment’s thought LittleSpud and I decided to take a trip out into the heart of green Essex. And what a wonderful afternoon it was!
Situated in the Cressing Temple site, you couldn’t ask for a more picturesque and homely setting for a local event. There were plenty of stalls with a wide variety of craft and produce available. There were characterful jams and chutneys sold in attractive jute bags; pies of all distinction; cheeses of all provenance; meat and fish alive alive-o. The highlights for me were thankfully quite numerous. First to catch my eye was the hog-in-a-roll; the whole pig barbecued in the background while a genial chap shovels shredded pork into a floury bun and slides a wedge of stuffing in the side. Really meaty and the chew of crackling really makes a joyful crisp in the mouth. I also grinned at the scallops cooked to order with a pile of homemade pesto on the side. The smell was utterly intoxicating. Another fine memory was seeing a flourishing and nourishing Indian snack stall; after passing through rows of bangers and pies this feels incongruous, but how many of us don’t now consider Indian cuisine very much part of our own? Sharing a spicy samosa, my son and I certainly weren’t fussed about any feelings of whether it fitted or not.
I also sampled some turkey sausages which were absolutely out of this world, unfortunately I was very nearly broke by this point to investigate further! I was also happy to see a game stall; only that morning I’d seen a pigeon recipe and was tickled by the sight of pigeon burgers. I splurged on some venison steaks, a treat for some helpful in-laws. I am also a complete sucker for a gorgeous cupcake, moist of crumb and swirly of gritty buttercream. See this glorious example picture, which I had to sit down to savour.
My only slight criticisms were being a lack of a real direction so it was easy to miss some stands; also that there was not enough room to move around the main barn. Also quite puzzling was a distinct lack of beef – I found one beef farmer who was very knowledgeable and sold good stock, but his selection was small. Where are all the bovinophiles?
All quibbles aside, I will definitely be back next year – I will look for it in the calendar. It’s so nice to rub shoulders with the people who rear the produce, and hand-make everything. You can feel – and taste – the love.
