Category: salt

Categories
food potatoes salt

brined baked potato

If someone comes at me telling me they’ve found the perfect potato recipe, I am all ears. So when I read that America’s Test Kitchen have defined the perfect jacket “baked” potato I will definitely give it a try. Their solution? Well it’s a… brine solution.

I love brining meat – there is no better way to treat poultry – but on a potato? Turns out it’s not true brining but giving it a little bath in salt water.

You know how potatoes can get ‘leathery’ when you bake them too long? And the skin is really thick? Baking them in a really hot  oven prevents this ‘pellicle’ from forming underneath the peel. The salty water helps form a tasty layer and all of it makes the skin super tasty.

A pellicle is a thin, tacky layer that forms on the surface of certain foods when they are exposed to air. In the context of cooking, a pellicle is most commonly associated with smoking fish or meat, where it is desirable to develop a pellicle on the surface of the food before smoking it.

When it comes to baked potatoes, a pellicle can form on the surface of the potato skin as it bakes. This can happen when the potato is left uncovered or not wrapped tightly in foil, allowing the surface of the potato to dry out slightly and form a thin, dry layer. Some people believe that developing a pellicle on the potato skin can help make it crispier, while others prefer to keep the potato moist by wrapping it in foil or covering it with a lid while it bakes.

The formation of a pellicle is not a necessary or essential step in baking a potato. Whether or not a pellicle forms on the potato skin is largely a matter of personal preference, and there are many different ways to bake a potato to achieve different textures and flavours.

Original recipe here

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brined baked potatoes

An easy but tasty way to cook jacket potatoes.
Course Main Course
Servings 2 people

Equipment

  • probe thermometer

Ingredients

  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 standard baking potatoes about 10cm in diameter
  • 1 tablespoon melted butter

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 230°C. Dissolve 2 tablespoons salt in 100ml water in a large bowl. Toss the potatoes for about 30 seconds to coat in the brine. Put onto a rack over a baking tray lined with foil and bake in the middle of the oven. Bake until the centre of the largest potato registers 100°C. This will take 45 minutes to 1 hour.
  • Remove potatoes from oven and brush with butter. Return the potatoes to oven and continue to bake for a further 10 minutes to develop a shiny crust.
  • Remove potatoes from oven and serve immediately.
Categories
bagels beef food gherkin mustard salt sauerkraut

salt beef bagels

I’ve been enjoying Tom Kerridge’s Proper Pub Food, a series where the affable chef cooks some of his favourite dishes. It’s got some great ideas and tips, and a decent range. I don’t think anything’s going to top the brisket from the first episode, a sandwich piled high with pickles and other goodies. “You can buy salt beef, but I’ve made my own” got my attention. The Tom Kerridge salt beef was thick and flaky so I grabbed my pen, ready to receive the recipe. Unfortunately it moved on to a method for pickled veg. Now the veg is awesome I’m certain, but not the star attraction as far as I’m concerned.

I really like the recipes on the program but it does suffer from being BBC cooking-show-formatted to death. Opening scene in his restaurant? Check. Fluffy indie tune interstitials? Check. Irrelevant mixing with the riff-raff? Check. It looks like it has slipped from a late Spring TV slot too, featuring asparagus and barbecue recipes. They lose their lustre on a rainy October evening. I could stand to hear the phrases “ultimate”, “cheeky” and “amazing” a few less times too. Tom’s a big enough character to overcome this however, with great cooking tips and must-make food so I hope it gets another series.

For another view, here’s Danny from Food Urchin’s thoughts about the show.

Lacking a Tom Kerridge recipe for salt beef, I set about making my own. I’ve been a fan of brisket for years, but somehow making salt beef had never occurred to me, so I hit the books. First up a five day brining, something salty and sweet to kick it along. Then a gentle poaching to cook it through, then a final heat through to serve. It sounds like a lot of stages, but none of them are difficult and mostly leaving it to do it’s thing.

And every bit of it is worth it. I’m sorry if you came here for a recipe for Tom Kerridge salt beef, but I reckon he’d be pleased with this. Toast up some bagels, pile the condiments high and let people make their own. Everyone will love it.

Tom Kerridge’s book, Proper Pub Food, is available from Amazon.

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salt beef bagels

Course Brunch
Cuisine Jewish
Servings 8 people
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 1.5 kg beef brisket rolled and tied

For the brine:

  • 300 g salt
  • 250 g brown sugar
  • 4 leaves bay
  • 1 tablespoon fennel seeds
  • 1 tablespoon black peppercorns

For the poaching:

  • 1 carrot chopped
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 1 leek chopped
  • 4 cloves garlic bashed

For finishing:

  • 100 ml beef stock
  • Knob butter

Instructions

  • Combine the brine ingredients in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover the beef. Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring to dissolve the salt and sugar. Allow to cool completely and transfer to a clean bowl with the beef. Ensure the beef is completely submerged (I weighed mine down with a Kilner jar filled with rice). Place this in the fridge for five days.
  • When the time's up rinse the beef and place in a saucepan with the chopped veg. Cover with water, bring to the boil then gently simmer for 3 - 4 hours until you can poke a knife into the meat with no resistance.
  • You can serve the beef straight from the broth, else allow to cool. Carve thickly and reheat in a shallow frying pan with the butter and stock for a couple of minutes. Serve with a toasted bagel and your choice of mustards, sauerkraut, gherkin, mayo, cream cheese or whatever condiments do it for you.
Categories
bbq chicken cumin food oregano paprika salt sweetcorn

southeast spatchcock chook with booze-braised sweetcorn

For Mrs. Spud’s birthday and the weather hitting decent heights at last, I wanted to come up with a BBQ featuring some special treats. I thought about cooking a whole chicken and grilling some sweetcorn.

Steven Raichlen’s Barbecue Bible

Thankfully experimenting with the barbecue is really taking off in this country. We’ve always lacked the predictable weather and sustained dry spells to really explore but we’re gradually catching on. The explosion of diner-style and burger / rib joints, with even Jamie Oliver getting in on the act is further proof of the growing interest. In particular it’s worth listening to our American cousins who pretty much have nailed down this cuisine as their own. With dozens of regional variations in cut, technique, rub, baste and flavouring there’s plenty to study. If you want to know more about American BBQ I recommend checking out Steven Raichlen, and I strongly recommend his Barbecue Bible book which is packed with great inspiration. It’s from this book that my chicken recipe started to take shape.

all rubbed, ready for the fridge

I’ve had fun with dry-brining before. The meat juices are drawn out by the salt element, the flavourings dissolve in the liquid that breaks down muscle proteins and get reasorbed back into the meat. The repetition of this process leaves the meat wonderfully seasoned and keeps it juicy, so I was definitely going to use something similar here. Pulling together some of my favourite spices to combine into a rub I left the chicken overnight. In honour of my corner of the country I’ve called it Southeast style. Spatchcocked to cook reasonably quickly and evenly, and allowed to scorch on the BBQ it gave a smoky, sweet flavour with spicy depth. Really tasty. And my top tip for grilling white meat? Get one of those spray bottles from a garden centre. Fill it with apple juice, and with one squirt you can cool off flare-ups and leave behind a sweet glaze into the bargain.

I paired it with some grilled and braised sweetcorn. With undertones of Bourbon and meaty to boot, my first attempt at barbecuing corn was one I’ll be doing again.

Southeast spatchcock chook with booze-braised sweetcorn (serves 4 with plenty of leftover chicken):

1 medium chicken

For the rub:

2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon brown sugar

½ tablespoon dried oregano

½ tablespoon smoked paprika

Grated zest of ½ a lemon

For the sweetcorn gravy:

500ml chicken stock

1 tablespoon BBQ sauce

10g butter

20ml Southern Comfort

4 corn-on-the-cob

  1. Free the chicken from its packaging, remove any string and open the chicken out. Turn it over so the breast is face-down, and use a strong pair of scissors to cut down the spine. You can then turn the chicken back over the other way and press down firmly on the breastbone until you hear a sickening crunch. Use two skewers, each corner to corner to hold it open. Combine all the salt ingredients and rub all over the bird. Leave in the fridge uncovered overnight.
  2. The next day, light your barbecue and once the flames die down and the charcoal is covered with white ash place your chicken over the grill. Turn and rotate often to cook evenly. It will take between 40 – 60 minutes to cook depending on about a hundred variables. You can only be sure if it’s done with a meat thermometer reading 75°C. I recommend the Heston branded one, but any will do.
  3. While the chicken cooks make your sweetcorn gravy. Combine all the ingredients and bring to a simmer (you may find this quicker and easier to get this started on a regular hob). Dip your sweetcorn in the gravy and transfer the corn and your pan to a hot BBQ. As it starts to char and pop you’ll want to turn it, but just before you do give it a dip in your gravy and then back on the grill. Repeat until charred on all sides, then place them in your gravy pan and cover for 5 minutes to cook through. Strain off the liquor to serve on the side, carve the chicken and serve with a panzanella and potato salad.
Categories
duck food orange rosemary salt star anise

potted duck

It’s been something of a duck week. I nearly picked up two duck breasts at the weekend, but when they cost £7 and a whole duck cost £8, it seemed a false economy (as buying meat portions almost always is). So after enjoying some lovely roasted duck breasts with red wine sauce and sauté potatoes, what to do with the rest of the duck?

Heston had a bloomin’ good suggestion in Heston at Home: potted duck. Being a Heston recipe, it has quite a few stages of curing and confiting, and I got bored waiting for it so tossed aside the smoking stage at the end. I can’t say I miss it; there’s mountains of flavours rolling along in waves as you munch down through rich, soft meat.

If you have some duck legs knocking about – and let’s face it, who hasn’t… – you could do much worse than piling this into a nearby kilner jar. So here’s what I did based on Heston’s recipe, smoking stage removed and all.

Potted duck (can serve about 8, depending on how generous you are – it’s pretty rich):

9 star anise

1 cinnamon stick

5 black peppercorns

2 bay leaves

Zest of 1 orange

60g salt

2 duck legs

500g duck fat

2 sprigs of rosemary

2 cloves of garlic

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Put the star anise, cinnamon, peppercorns and bay leaves on a baking tray and roast for 5 minutes. Tip the lot into a pestle and mortar with the salt and orange and pound to dust. Rub all over the duck legs, store in a sealed container and refrigerate overnight.
  2. The next day, put your slow cooker on low. Add the duck fat, rosemary and garlic and allow to melt. Thoroughly rinse the duck legs and pat dry. Add to the slow cooker and top up with oil if required to cover the legs. Slow cook for 18 hours.
  3. Remove the duck legs from the fat and shred with two forks. Pack into a ramekin or kilner jar, and pour over a little of the cooking fat (save the rest for roast potatoes or pork belly). Refrigerate for a couple of hours then serve with your best toast, pickles and chutney (I used a fig chutney like this).
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