Category: vegetable recipes

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cabbage carrots turkey

KellyBronze turkey rolls with winter slaw

I’ve been so, so lucky with this silly little blog. I’ve met all of my food heroes and worked with fantastic people, and eaten some great stuff.

Actually. Not all of that is true. I’ve not met all of my food heroes.

Despite sharing a county with him, despite cooking food similar to his, despite going for job interviews at his office, despite writing about him dozens of times, despite eating at his restaurants… I’ve never managed to meet Jamie Oliver.

Until now.

I had an invite to Jamie Oliver’s new(ish) headquarters, with no promise of him appearing, for a talk and demo of KellyBronze turkeys. Paul Kelly of KellyBronze was to host, and I have met him a couple of times – he’s a wonderful, fun guy: definitely knows his poultry, definitely loves what he does. Jamie or not I was sure for an entertaining evening.

As I arrived I started chatting to some of the people there, and I was chuffed to meet someone I’ve been following online for years: Elizabeth from Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary. By chance we were next to each other and started talking and it’s so lovely to finally meet her. (Click the link to read her version of the evening!)

And sure enough, Jamie appeared to say hello. He gave a quick intro on why he loves KellyBronze turkeys so much, then Paul Kelly took to the stage to wax lyrical on the history of the turkey and how his family has made it their duty to bring excellent turkeys back to tables across the country. In the early 80s the Kelly family brought together superior breeds to make the KellyBronze which is bred for longer, allowing it to reach maturity. A period of hanging after slaughter also breaks the collagen down and makes for a tastier bird.

.He then talked through a turkey that he’d cooked earlier. Despite being 6kg it took 1hr 55m to cook completely. By having a more mature turkey it has a store of fat under the skin that conducts heat through the carcass more rapidly. For the cooking itself, he advises cooking breast-side down at first. No stuffing, as it impairs the speed of cooking. After an hour flip the bird the right way up and continue until done, testing using a meat thermometer. And while resting meat is absolutely crucial, don’t cover with foil as you will continue to cook the turkey.

Paul then demonstrated his world-record setting carving skills, removing the legs, removing each breast then slicing to make perfect portions of meat. We then enjoyed the carved meat in a bun with a helping of slaw, which I’ve recreated here.

After eating, Jamie was chatting off to one side with Dhruv Baker. If I didn’t go and say hi to Jamie now, I’d be really disappointed that I’d missed the opportunity. So I took the chance to shake his hand and say how much he’d inspired me over the years. He was super down-to-earth, and happy to have a chat.

It’s just meeting a person – but it was really meaningful to me. So much of what I’ve done has fed from Jamie’s enthusiasm and ideas.

I’ve ordered my turkey this year from KellyBronze – there’s still time for you to order yours!

I’ve used a cooked turkey breast here, you could use leftovers on Boxing Day!

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KellyBronze turkey rolls with winter slaw

Servings 4 people
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 1 turkey breast cooked
  • 4 brioche rolls or similar
  • 2 carrots
  • 1/2 red onion
  • 1 beetroot
  • 250 ml yoghurt
  • 1 lemon
  • extra virgin olive oil
  • Dijon mustard
  • green leaves such as spinach, lamb's lettuce

Instructions

  • Peel and finely slice the onion. Peel and grate the carrots. Grate the beetroot. Mix together the yoghurt with a few dashes of olive oil and add the juice of the lemon with a big pinch of salt. Mix the dressing thoroughly and season to taste. Combine with the veg.
  • Put the buns on to toast lightly. Slice the turkey. Spread the buns with mustard, then pile up the buns with turkey, green leaves and slaw.
Categories
asparagus beetroot carrots cucumber

crunchy summer salad

Sainsbury’s are wanting to inspire the nation to be more creative with their vegetables after seeing a massive upturn in sales of vegetables with Avocado (147%), asparagus spears (118%), broccoli (40%), courgettes (30%) and bunched beetroot (25%) leading the way. I do love a salad, but it’s a bit easy just to get a plastic bag of leaves, slice a tomato and say we’re done. There’s so much more that can go in a salad though!

Inspired by their “vegetable butcher” Amber Locke I felt like giving it a go too. I am a recent convert to spiralizing veg and have been going all out to make curly-wurly courgettes. I’ve been trying out the Savisto tabletop model and Lakeland hand-held models lately – look for more detailed reviews in a future post. If you don’t have a spiralizer, just slice the ingredients finely on the cutter side of a box grater or mandoline.

Combined with lightly pickled cucumber to make the base of a dressing and freshly grilled asparagus this salad celebrates plenty of vegetables and would be a vibrant accompaniment to a barbecue.

Sainsbury’s contributed to the ingredients for this recipe.

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crunchy summer salad

Course Side Dish
Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Servings 4 people
Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

For the pickle:

  • 20 ml white wine vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried dill

The veg:

  • 2 beetroots
  • 2 carrots
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • 1 romaine lettuce
  • 1 raddichio
  • 1 tablespoon mixed seeds

Instructions

  • Mix the pickle ingredients together. Slice the cucumber lengthways and use a teaspoon to scoop out the seeds. Chop diagonally and leave in the marinade while you get everything else ready.
  • Grill or barbecue the asparagus for ten minutes, or until wrinkled and blackened.
  • Lay the asparagus on a serving plate. Spiralize or slice the beetroot and carrot and lay on top. Remove the cucumber from the marinade (reserving the liquid) and add this. Shred the lettuces and top the salad. Scatter mixed seeds over the top.
  • Whisk a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil into the pickle mix, and drizzle over the salad.
Categories
bacon broccoli cheese food gnocchi

gnocchi cheese bake with broccoli

Sometimes you get in from work, it’s just late, it’s dark, it’s raining. The urge to pick up the phone (or app, these days) and order some food in. But you know there’s just enough stuff in the cupboards that can be coerced into something that doesn’t scream leftovers. And that’s where this gnocchi cheese bake was born.

It has a macaroni cheese at it’s heart but with pillowy gnocchi instead for a toothy bite. The broccoli is there to assuage a little guilt and have something green poking out of it, though the irony taste does help damp down the richness.

The sauce is also a lightning-fast one, made with Greek yoghurt instead of a traditional roux. It’s not quite the same but it’s a helluva lot faster. Pure comfort food.

I’m entering this into Speedy Suppers hosted by Maison Cupcake and Feeding Boys; the theme this month is cheese so what could be more apt?

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gnocchi cheese bake with broccoli

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • Gnocchi
  • 200 g frozen broccoli
  • 1 slice bread
  • 3 rashers smoked streaky bacon diced (optional)

For the cheese sauce:

  • 2 tablespoons cornflour level
  • 1 500 g Greek-style yoghurt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 50 g fresh parmesan grated
  • 50 g cheddar grated

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 200C.
  • Put a large pan of water on to boil. Put the gnocchi and broccoli in the water until al dente and drain.
  • While the gnoc 'n' broc cooks, measure the cornflour into a bowl. Blend in a little yoghurt, stir in the eggs and whisk until smooth. Mix in the remaining yoghurt, cheeses and the mustard.
  • Get an oven-safe dish over a low heat. If you're using the bacon, fry it quickly until crispy. Whizz up half the bacon and bread in a food processor and keep to one side for a moment.
  • Add the gnocchi, broccoli and the other half of the bacon to the cheese sauce, adding a little milk if required to let it down. Top with the bacony breadcrumbs and bake for 20 mins, or until puffy and golden.

Need more cheesy dinners? Try the Jackie Kashian creamy penne. Or Heston’s macaroni cheese!

Categories
asparagus beef food garlic rice steak

teriyaki ribeye steak with garlic fried rice

I’ve been a mild Japanophile since I was a teenager. The best games of the time came from Japan; you had to import them at extortionate prices. As such we pored over every detail and absorbed a lot of Japanese along the way. I took a Japanese module at university to bolster this further, reading James Clavell’s Asian Saga along the way. I’ve always dreamed of going to Japan some day.

It’s against this backdrop I gleefully accepted an invitation to Matsuri St James in the heart of London’s Mayfair. Established in 1993 as a joint venture between the Kikkoman soy sauce manufacturer and a Japanese rail company, Matsuri was among the first restaurant in the country offering tableside teppan-yaki, food freshly cooked on a hotplate.

With a glut of other food writers we were treated to an excellent four course meal. We sampled sushi first, as the sushi chef prepared identical nigiri at astonishing speed. He told me the first month of his training was entirely spent measuring out 15g portions of rice repeatedly, so he is now blindingly accurate. The sushi itself was just as you expect, subtle, refined and clean-tasting.   This was followed by crisp and light Tempura vegetables, with an umami-rich dipping sauce flavoured with daikon.

And then the teppan-yaki mains. And what mains they were. The ginger-scented black cod was delicate in texture but dynamite in flavour, packing an awful lot into the innocent looking portion. If you go, make sure you try this one.

An enormous steak arrived next, angry dark meat picked out by creamy yellow fat. After searing on one side the chef flipped it and CAKED it in sea salt. After a few minutes more he scraped the salt off having done it’s job, and sliced the now rare-cooked meat and served it immediately. This is where teppan-yaki works; if you’d simply been served some slices of meat you would’ve missed the spectacle of an enormous hunk of beef being served. The steak itself was excellent, served with a garlic fried rice.

The meal finished with a bafflingly underthought ice cream, crepes and pineapple, flambéed for no other reason than to make people go “ooooh” when the Grand Marnier flames licked the ceiling.

The meal was sensational. Really good ingredients treated with respect. I’d love to return but the pricing is so far out of my bracket a visit would have to be very special indeed.

As a tribute, I cooked a Japanese meal for some friends. We started with sushi…

Followed by tempura veg…

But the recipe I really wanted to share with you is my interpretation of the steak ‘n’ rice dish. A humble piece of ribeye steak (my favourite cut) cooked sous-vide (not essential but the way I like it; if you don’t have one of these contraptions you can cook your steak the way you prefer) in Kikkoman’s teriyaki sauce and egg fried rice cooked with plenty of garlic and vegetables. It’s not quite the same as a visit to Matsuri St James… but it’s a darn fine dinner.

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teriyaki ribeye steak with garlic fried rice

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

  • 250 g ribeye steak
  • 100 ml Kikkoman's teriyaki sauce
  • 4 cloves garlic crushed
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 onion diced
  • 1 bundle asparagus sliced
  • 2 carrots peeled and diced
  • 1 mugful cooked rice cooled
  • 2 eggs beaten
  • Sea salt

Instructions

  • Sous-vide the steak with 70ml teriyaki sauce at 60C for 1 hour. Put aside until ready to cook.
  • Get a wok and a frying pan over a very high heat. Put a splash of oil in the wok and add the garlic and sugar. After just a few seconds add the onion, carrot and asparagus and stir fry for 3 - 4 minutes until starting to go tender. Add the rice and continue to stir fry until warmed through.
  • In the other frying pan sear the steak for 60 seconds on each side, adding half the remaining teriyaki sauce to the pan at the end to glaze. Remove to a board then slice into thick fingers.
  • Add the egg and last of the teriyaki to the rice and stir for another 60 seconds. Spoon into bowls and serve with the steak slices on top. Sprinkle a little sea salt on the exposed flesh of the beef.
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