Category: garlic

Categories
food garlic orange pate potatoes red onion tomato

so what else is new?

A round-up of little bits and pieces I’ve been mucking about with at Spud HQ.

Trying (and failing) to make Heston Blumenthal’s meat fruit

I had a lot of fun recreating this iconic recipe from Dinner by Heston. Meat fruit is a trompe l’oeil whereby a mandarin sphere encases chicken liver parfait. I made some terrible mistakes. Watch how I got on.

Kathy’s continental potatoes

Do you listen to the Off Menu Podcast? Ed Gamble and James Acaster ask guests to name their favourite starter, main dish, side, dessert and drink. It’s an excuse for some fun chat. One of their dream guests was the incredible Kathy Burke, who had a homely and delicious sounding menu. Her side dish of “Kathy’s Continental Potatoes” spoke to me for some reason so I had to make it. And whaddya know, they’re great!

Boxtails

The lovely people at Boxtails sent me some of their cocktail sachets to try. Letterbox-friendly, their boxes come in a variety of flavours. I’ve tried a bunch, to the point where I can’t remember what I’ve drunk now! Though I do recall the Bramble being tasty. Word of warning, they are pretty strong! I recommend plenty of ice. And then have another one.

Garlic and black pepper seasoning

I’m a little obsessed with this seasoning from Santa Maria lately. Readily available in supermarkets. I’ve been grinding it over roast potatoes, into meatballs, over broccoli… whatever I can get my hands on. Love it!

Gumbo Recipes

I’ve been playing around with Gumbo recipes lately. Chuck in some ingredients and you get some recipe inspo back atcha. Gumbo crawls recipe sites (including this one!) and pulls in ideas. Other sites have done this but I like the wide variety of sources it uses. Give it a try!

Floyd on France

I’ve been reminding myself what an absolute treat the show Floyd on France (iPlayer link) was. 7 episodes of self-deprecating, leisurely escapades in food and cooking. It feels like the whole thing is made up on the spot and it’s all the better for it. There’s never been another presenter like Keith Floyd. Go revisit if you’re in the UK. And if not, Floyd on Fish is easily found on YouTube.

Categories
broccoli garlic rice

adam ragusea’s broccoli in garlic sauce

This vaguely American-Chinese recipe for broccoli in garlic sauce is solely, unashamedly and wholesale lifted from Adam Ragusea. Go watch the video for it here, it’s great.

I’ve cooked it a bunch and I love the powerful, salty sauce you make. I only reproduce it in my blog because it’s easier for me to browse the ingredients here than it is to rewatch the video for the 18th time or scrubbing through the description.

Print

broccoli in garlic sauce

Course Main Course
Cuisine American, Chinese
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Servings 2 people
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 1 medium-large crown of broccoli about 350g
  • 3-4 garlic cloves
  • 1 small thumb of ginger about the same amount as the garlic
  • 1/2 a small fresh chili or throw the whole thing in
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
  • 60 ml soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoons brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons mustard
  • 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
  • 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
  • 2 tablespoons cornflour
  • pepper
  • MSG to taste
  • sesame seeds for garnish
  • 200 g white rice to serve

Instructions

  • Get the rice cooking the way you like it - this will take around 20 minutes and the rest can be made while this cooks. Fluff before serving.
  • While you're getting the rice going, peel and chop the garlic and ginger with the chilli.
  • Get a pan of water on to boil, and use it for the broccoli. This will cook for a maximum of 4 minutes so it's barely tender - it will finish cooking in the sauce.
  • Drain off some of the cooking water - maybe half - into a bowl or mug so you can use it for slackening the sauce.
  • Coat the pan with a thin film of cooking oil (NOT the sesame oil), throw in the garlic, ginger and chili, stir and fry for a couple minutes until soft. Put in a generous splash of water, soy sauce, sugar, mustard, oyster sauce, sesame oil, onion powder and a few grinds of pepper.
  • While that's simmering, dissolve the cornflour in just enough water to make a thick slurry. While one hand stirs, use the other hand to drizzle in slurry until you get a very thick consistency — you might not need all of the slurry.
  • Taste the sauce, consider adding MSG (or salt) or more of any of the other sauce ingredients it might need. Remember that the broccoli and rice are totally unseasoned, so the sauce needs to be strong enough and salty enough to flavor both itself and the broccoli and rice, i.e. too strong on its own. The texture should be very thick, because the broccoli will water it down a little. The sauce is easy to burn when it's this thick, so you might want to turn the heat down (or off).
  • Dump in the broccoli and toss it in the sauce until warm and coated. You can stir in more hot water if the sauce is too thick. Dish out the rice, serve the broccoli and extra sauce on top, optionally garnish with sesame seeds.
Categories
cumin food garlic paprika potatoes turmeric

hei hei salt GBK style on sticky wedges

Here’s a recipe for hei hei salt GBK style.

I found myself in GBK at the weekend. It was supposed to be family lunch at Las Iguanas, but a few seconds of appalling customer service had me trundle a few steps down Lakeside’s Boardwalk to the burger parlour.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed it – a tasty “Capital” cheeseburger with standard accompaniments, a choice of brioche or regular sesame seed bun and all the monkey nuts you can eat. But the shoestring fries were great, particularly when you shake over their hei hei salt. Pretty much all American diner-style eateries in the UK coat the fries in a salty concoction, and I’d been meaning to make one of my own for ages. Serving up wedges this week meant this was a great excuse.

Hei hei salt, also known as black salt, is a type of Hawaiian sea salt that is mixed with activated charcoal, giving it a distinct black color. The salt gets its name “hei hei” from the Hawaiian phrase “heihei kai,” which translates to “sea chicken” or “flying fish,” as the salt is said to resemble the color of these sea creatures.

The salt is made by mixing sea salt harvested from the pristine waters surrounding the Hawaiian islands with activated charcoal, which is derived from coconut shells. The charcoal not only gives the salt its distinctive color, but also adds a slightly smoky flavor to the salt.

Hei hei salt is used in a variety of dishes in Hawaiian cuisine, including seafood, meats, and vegetables. It is also popular as a finishing salt, sprinkled on top of dishes just before serving to add a visual and flavour contrast.

GBK’s Hei hei salt appears to be a guarded recipe but appears to be a variation of chicken salt. This is my version based on what I could taste.

If you’re looking for an interesting salty-spicy mix to dust your chips or wedges, this is a great place to start. You can then of course add or remove other spices to your taste – a curry powder or garlic powder would be nice.

There’s two levels of seasoning here; in my experience of roasting potatoes the salt flavour simply disappears (where does it go?). So the initial salt is merely grist to combine the ingredients, whilst the second salting is the true seasoning of the wedges.

Print

Hei hei wedges

Seasoned potatoes like the ones they serve at GBK.
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Hawaiian
Keyword potatoes, wedges
Servings 2
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 4 - 5 medium potatoes Maris Piper or other fluffy variety

For the marinade:

  • 2 cloves garlic
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 ham stock cube chicken would be fine
  • Large pinch salt
  • olive oil

For the seasoning:

  • ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
  • ½ teaspoon cumin
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 200°C. Slice the potatoes into wedge shapes.
  • In a pestle and mortar, combine all the marinade spices and pound withe garlic until you have an orangey-brown paste. Add oil until you have a gloopy mixture and coat the wedges liberally. Arrange cut sides down on a baking tray and roast for 40 minutes, turning every ten minutes, until crisp and cooked through.
  • Combine the seasoning ingredients and shake over the fries as you serve. You'll probably have excess seasoning for another day.

Notes

This recipe would work really well in an air fryer or actifry too.
Categories
black garlic chicken coconut curry garlic

black garlic and coconut chicken curry

Have you ever cooked with black garlic? It’s a sweeter, richer version of it’s whiter cousin. Sainsbury’s sent me some to try.

There’s no getting around it, it looks wrong. The flavour is very similar to regular garlic, but a bit like when you roast garlic cloves black garlic is a little sweeter and more intense. Wikipedia says it has balsamic vinegar-type flavours, and I can see that. The packet recommends eating it like a snack, but I’m not quite that antisocial. I did however get an idea to put it into a curry.

My black garlic and coconut curry uses leftover chicken from a roast as the main protein, but you could cook chicken separately and add to the pan, or use any leftover meat you like. It’d also be really good with some crispy tofu.

The garlic flavours are sweet and savoury at the same time, and coconut has similar properties so they’re really good together. You could use tinned coconut milk but I’m a big fan of powdered coconut milk as you can make up as much as you like, as rich as you like.

Thanks to Sainsbury’s sending some black garlic for me to try.

Print

black garlic and coconut chicken curry

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 400 g cooked chicken shredded
  • 2 tablespoons kecap manis
  • 1 inch ginger shredded
  • 3 cloves black garlic
  • 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
  • 1 onion sliced
  • 1 red pepper sliced
  • 400 ml coconut milk
  • 300 ml chicken stock
  • Handful of frozen peas

Instructions

  • In a bowl mash the black garlic with a fork and mix with the kecap manis, ginger and vinegar. Add the chicken and toss to coat thoroughly. Allow to mingle while you get on with the curry.
  • In a large frying pan heat a little oil over a high heat. Add the onions and peppers and stir fry until starting to soften. Add the chicken, coconut milk and chicken stock and bring to the boil. Add the peas and continue to cook until thickened. Adjust seasoning as required. Serve with rice and lime wedges.

Not enough curries for you?

Try Margot’s chicken korma

Or Nazima’s crab and coconut curry

Mabintu’s garlic and chickpea curry

More black garlic recipes

Michelle’s black garlic pate

Black garlic flatbreads

Black garlic and blue cheese bake

 

Exit mobile version