Category: tomato

Categories
marmite mustard paprika pork tomato

barbecue ribs

barbecue ribs

“How to cook perfect barbecue ribs” proclaimed the headline. It would be rude not to give them a try. I knew I had most of the stuff lurking around the office, so after buying some ribs and some sandwich bags from the local supermarket I could marinade everything at lunchtime. By the time I’d got home it had plenty of time to impart flavour.

3 hours of roasting and barbecuing later, I had a pile of ribs to enjoy. What a crushing disappointment. For something labelled “perfect barbecue ribs” there was almost no BBQ flavour at all. Mildly sweet, but all the umami had gone. I note that as per Felicity Cloake’s “perfect” series she runs the gamut of celeb and other chefs to hone in on perfection. She tried Jamie Oliver’s recipe from Jamie’s America, but not the one which to my mind is superior – the one from Jamie At Home. I cooked a whole chicken with it last year, and it’s great. That’s your perfect BBQ rib sauce right there.

Barbecue ribs (serves 4):

2 racks of pork ribs

1 tablespoon Marmite

1 tablespoon English mustard

1½ teaspoon smoked paprika

2 tablespoons tomato ketchup

2½ tablespoons dark muscovado sugar

  1. Mix together the marinade ingredients and rub half all over the ribs. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
  2. Preheat the oven to 150°C. Pop the ribs in a baking tray and cover with foil. Cook for 2½ hours and baste from time to time.
  3. After 2 hours oven cooking light the barbecue. Once the coals have turned ashen grey, transfer the ribs to the BBQ and cook for around 15 minutes, basting as you go. Make sure they catch a little and go all crispy and gnarly. Eat with baby wipes.
Categories
carrots lamb mint mustard potatoes tomato

spring lamb, vegetable platter, mint sauce and chianti gravy

 

 

I thought I’d tried all the Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals that I wanted to, until the photo-ninja Nga commented about the spring lamb recipe… I couldn’t believe I’d missed it! So I tore off to try it.

It’s a relatively simple recipe, with seared & roasted lamb, and a big bowl of pots ‘n’ veg boiled up. But it’s a great way to multi-task without actually too much effort, and the result is dis-proportionately good. If you’re at all skittish about whether you can manage the 30 minute thing or not, give this one a whirl as it’s not too busy (I should point out that Jamie did a fondue in with his full recipe but that was simply microwaved chocolate and chopped fruit). Well worth a go.

Jamie recommends rack of lamb and neck fillet here. I find rack of lamb really hard to find now, hardly anyone stocks it and it’s very expensive when you do. Lamb chops aren’t as fancy but very tasty. A rack of lamb is a cut of meat from the rib section of a lamb. It is made up of a row of bones with meat on the top and sides. The rack of lamb is a popular choice for roasting and grilling but can be pricey.

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Spring lamb, vegetable platter, mint sauce and chianti gravy

A refreshing yet wholesome dinner.
Course Main Course
Cuisine British
Keyword quick
Servings 4
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

For the lamb:

  • 4 lamb chops
  • 3 sprigs rosemary
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • White wine vinegar
  • 300 g cherry tomatoes on the vine

For the gravy:

  • 4 rashers smoked bacon
  • 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
  • 1 tablespoon flour
  • ½ glass red wine

For the veg:

  • 400 g baby new potatoes
  • 4 carrots
  • Stalks from a bunch of mint
  • 1 chicken stock cube
  • 300 g fine beans
  • ½ Savoy cabbage

For the mint sauce:

  • ½ a lemon
  • Leaves from a bunch of mint
  • 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon caster sugar

Instructions

  • Get the oven on 220C, a frying pan and saucepan over high heats and get that kettle a-boilin'.
  • Add some olive oil to the pan. Season the lamb all over and pop it in.
  • Wash the potatoes, chop the carrots into nice chunks and add to the saucepan. Cover with boiling water and toss in the mint stalks and stock cube.
  • Turn the lamb well and make sure it's browned all over. While it's finishing bash the garlic and rosemary together in a mortar and pestle. Season, add the mustard and spread the lot over the  lamb. Transfer the lamb to a roasting dish with the tomatoes and slam in the oven for 9-14 minutes until done to your liking (for me, internal temp of 55°C before resting). Keep the frying pan on the heat and add the bacon, chopped.
  • Re-using the mortar from before, add the mint leaves with vinegar, sugar, pinch of salt and a splash of water from the veg pot. Mix it together for the mint sauce.
  • Add the red wine to the frying pan to deglaze the pan, scraping around. Add the flour and rosemary to the gravy pan, and stir for a minute to coat everything in flour. Add a few ladles of cooking water. Cut the Savoy into thin wedges and add to the boiling pot with the beans.
  • The lamb should be done about now, so get it out of the oven to rest for a minute while you sort out the veg. Once the beans are tender, drain the lot and return to the pot. Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil, some salt and pepper and the juice from the lemon. Toss well and serve. Cut the lamb into chops, check the gravy for seasoning and get stuck in!

Notes

The lamb can be any cut of lamb you like that fries quick, or would work pretty well with beef steaks - though the mint sauce wouldn't work for me then. It's your dinner though!
Categories
coriander cumin garlic red onion tomato

red onion & tomato salsa

Mrs. Roast Potato was upset – I’d forgotten to go to the shops for her favourite Old El Paso salsa on chicken taco night. So it’s time to rummage the cupboards and come up with a decent enough substitute.

And it came out nice. Fresh-tasting, fruity and spicy, the way tomato salsa should be. The red onion was really harsh at first but after letting it sit for an hour it had mellowed to a really nice spiky flavour. Another ingredient that really made it was Tiptree tomato ketchup, not as sweet as the omnipresent Heinz but richer and fruitier, closer to tomato puree. It gives lovely rich depth to the salsa, and does a lot of the leg work.

Goes great with a taco, and I’ve enough left for a rump steak and salad tomorrow.

Red onion & tomato salsa  (makes about a pint):

1 red onion, quartered

1 clove garlic, peeled

Small bunch of coriander, leaves and stalks

3 bog-standard but ripe tomatoes

¼ teaspoon chilli powder

Sprinkle of Maldon salt

Big splash of red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons Tiptree tomato ketchup

  1. Whack everything in a food processor in the order above. Add a splash of water to loosen it and check for seasoning. You can eat it straight away but if you have time leave it to sit for a couple of hours the flavours develop further.
Categories
bacon beans paprika pasta tomato turkey

turkey & bean pasta

I’m a get-your-shopping-delivered kind-of-guy. In a family where both parents work someone carrying the shopping to your door just makes sense. It has it blips, when some things aren’t available, or maybe you can’t quite figure out what 350g of leeks look like so you over-order on purpose, but generally speaking there’s palpable relief when you shut the door on full cupboards without having left the house.

At the moment Sainsbury’s are running a “5 meals for £20” in a planner format. No ready meals, all recipe-led stuff. Naturally it’s not incredible gourmet food but homely, economic grub. I’ve been trying them out this week including turkey & bean pasta.

I substituted the chilli for paprika just for the hell of it. This should be as plain as you like but against expectation it’s jolly filling and jolly tasty. I froze some for another day, and will be looking forward to it.

Turkey and bean pasta (serves 4):

200g bacon lardons

500g turkey thigh mince

1 tin red kidney beans, drained

4 carrots, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon tomato puree

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 cloves garlic

300ml vegetable stock

1 tin tomatoes

350g pasta (e.g. fusilli)

  1. Get a frying pan on a high heat and add a splash of olive oil. Add the bacon and fry for a minute or two, until the bacon is coloured all over.
  2. Add the turkey and carrots and continue to stir fry for a couple more minutes until the turkey is browned. Add the puree, paprika and cumin and continue to fry for another minute, mixing well.
  3. Add the garlic, stock and tinned tomatoes. When it comes to the boil reduce to a simmer for ten minutes.
  4. Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the pack instructions. When it’s done take a splash of the pasta water into the turkey stew then toss together with the drained pasta. Serve with garlic bread.
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