Category: rosemary

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food garlic mustard rosemary steak

barbecued steak with mustard, garlic and rosemary

barbecued sirloin steak

Every so often the carnivore rises in me, and nothing but a juicy steak will do. I was also dying to BBQ it. Usually I don’t like adorning my steak with anything except salt and pepper, but casting the net out to Twitter Foodurchin alerted me to this tasty little marinade by Valentine Warner. I tweaked it to my own store cupboard, but by golly it was tasty. Rich and dark, loaded with savoury flavours. A must for this Summer’s BBQ repertoire.

Barbecued steak with mustard, garlic and rosemary:

1 head of garlic, finely chopped

A few sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon soy sauce

Rind and juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar

2 sirloin steaks

  1. Coat the bottom of a medium hot pan with olive oil, and fry the garlic and rosemary together. Stir frequently to ensure the garlic doesn’t burn.
  2. Add the soy, mustard, lemon and vinegar to the pan and allow the mixture to bubble away for about five minutes. Turn the marinade out and allow to cool.
  3. Cover the steaks with the marinade and leave for a couple of hours, turning a couple of times.
  4. Get a BBQ red-hot, and cook the steaks on one side untouched for 4 minutes.
  5. Turn the steaks over, baste with marinade and cook until done to your liking. Allow to rest for a couple of minutes and serve with a tomato and onion salad and new potatoes.
Categories
food mushroom polenta rosemary thyme

mushroom and herb polenta

My poor snap is a billion times worse than the one in Ottolenghi’s new book, Plenty. I didn’t trust my polenta to keep still on a wooden board though. This is mighty good, powerful in flavour and the mushrooms give it a real meaty presence. The original calls for a whole bunch o’ mixed mushrooms, but to save foraging and potential fungal-induced death I used good old chestnut mushrooms supplemented with a jar of Sacla antipasto mushrooms. This takes a lot of graft out of it (not that it was difficult in the first place) however the pickled flavours can unbalance the seasoning, so taste well. Otherwise feel free to use any mushrooms you can find for an interesting mouthful.

Adapted from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi

Mushroom and herb polenta (serves 2):

500ml vegetable stock

80g polenta

2 tablespoons rosemary, chopped

2 tablespoons thyme, chopped

50g butter, melted

50g parmesan, grated

200g chestnut mushrooms

200g jar antipasto mushrooms

1 clove garlic, grated

1 tablespoon truffle oil

100g comté, grated

  1. Get some oil heated in a pan and begin frying the chestnut mushrooms. Don’t move them too much, let them colour. Let them cook down for about ten minutes, until they have some give when prodded.
  2. Get the grill on hot while you make the polenta. Bring the stock to the boil and whisk in the polenta in a steady stream. Keep whisking until the polenta starts to come away from the edge of the pan. If you’re using old-school polenta this will take a ruddy lifetime. Use the quick-cook stuff and it will take about 3 minutes.
  3. Take the polenta off the heat and beat in the parmesan, butter and half the herbs. Spread into a baking dish into an even layer and pop under the grill for a minute. Let’s return to the mushrooms.
  4. Add the garlic, fry for a minute and then add the remaining herbs and mushrooms. Give it a good stir to warm everything through and taste for seasoning. Add the truffle oil. Get the polenta out, pour the mushrooms on top and grate a thin layer of comté over. Return to the grill and cook for another minute or two until the cheese bubbles.
Categories
bread food rosemary

barbecue bread

After watching a fascinating article on Rick Stein’s Far East Odyssey, I grew into the idea of cooking bread on a grill. Not something I’d done from dough – I’d grilled existing bread but not taken it straight from the proving on to the fire. What the hell.

Went with a pretty basic bread recipe – might as well start simply – and allowed a hefty double-proving. Then whacked blobs of it on to a mega-hot barbecue until darkened on both sides. After turning once I used a rosemary sprig to douse them with olive oil. The results were puffy and interesting, not doughy at all considering a total of about 4 mins cooking time. My only complaint was that I was after something a bit more flatbready. Next time before second proving I would roll flat and pitta-esque to achieve that Turkish-style puffy bread.

Barbecued bread:

400g strong white bread flour

1 packet dry yeast

Pinch salt

Pinch sugar

300ml warm water

  1. Mix the dry ingredients together and add water until a sticky dough is formed.
  2. Continue to work the dough, kneading and stretching for about 10 minutes.
  3. Leave in a bowl drizzled with vegetable oil covered with a damp tea towel for about an hour.
  4. Punch the dough back down and allow to prove again for another half-hour or so.
  5. Preheat a barbecue as hot as it will go.
  6. Tear off pieces of dough and place on a flat grill.
  7. Turn when it has darkened on one side. Use a sprig of rosemary to baste the cooked side with olive oil.
  8. When done on the other side, devour like an animal.
Categories
food garlic lamb lemon prosciutto rosemary

italian roast lamb

I was really in the mood for artichokes alla romana again, and had the thought of lamb but more so. Even though it’s mid-Summer, I was craving some roast lamb. So to go with the artichokes I put an Italian spin on the meat. I whizzed up rosemary, garlic, lemon zest and prosciutto with some oil and then smeared all over my pierced joint. A while in the oven and a pungent, flavourful piece of meat was enjoyed. Iwas very pleased with the cut too – I planned a leg but my butcher only had absolute whoppers. What he did have though was a boned & rolled shoulder, which although I didn’t expect both speeded up the cooking time and gave me a nice crevice into which to cram the tasty stuffing.

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Italian roast lamb

A fragrant and tasty roast lamb dish.

Ingredients

  • Leg or shoulder of lamb
  • 3 slices of prosciutto or Parma ham
  • Leaves of 2 rosemary stalks
  • Zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 fat garlic cloves

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 230C.
  • Whizz the prosciutto, lemon, garlic and lemon zest in a processor. Add olive oil to slacken to a mushy paste.
  • Pack the stuffing / baste around the meat, poking into any nooks or crannies. Stab the meat with a knife if necessary.
  • Put the meat in the oven and turn down to 170C.
  • Cook until done to your likeness - 1hr 30mins for this one.
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