Serves 4.
a large chicken, or 8 or 10 pieces of thigh and leg FREE RANGE OR ORGANIC
150g pancetta or unsmoked bacon chopped
A large knob of butter - 30-50g
2 medium onions (preferably red)
a largish carrot (whole)
2 ribs of celery (sliced longways twice and then chopped small)
3 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
2 tbsps flour
2 tbsps cognac, or brandy to those of you who aren't sure what cognac is
a bottle of red wine (ballsy eg Rioja, Cab Sauv, Merlot, Shiraz, Grenache, etc)
4 or 5 small sprigs of thyme
some bay leaves
more butter - yes more
12 small onions, peeled (if this is too much of a faff, use 4 medium red ones instead of the 2 above and cut them into 1/8ths
200g small button mushrooms (fresh, not tinned)
Possibly 1/2 litre of chicken stock (at least Knorr)
Mashed potatoes to serve.
Put the chopped pancetta/bacon, in with the butter, into a thick-bottomed casserole - one of enameled cast iron would be perfect like a LE CREUSET (for the 4th or 5th time on this blog) - and cook over a medium heat. Stir the pancetta from time to time - it mustn't burn - then, when it is golden, lift it out into a bowl, leaving behind the fat in the pan. (This bit quoted from Nigel)
Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and place them in the hot fat in the pan. They should fit nicely but with a little space between them. It is the pan + bacon fat + chicken skin that will give the winning flavour.
While the chicken is colouring in the pan, peel and cut the onions into 8 pieces. Also wash the carrot and wash/chop the celery. With the chicken out, add the onions and whole carrot to the pan and cook slowly, stir a bit, until the onion is translucent and deglazed the pan. Add the garlic. Return the chicken and bacon/pancetta to the pot, stir in the flour and let it all get friendly for a minute or two, then pour in the cognac, wine and jam in the herbs. If you are lacking liquid to cover the chicken, use the stock now. Achieve a boil, then quickly turn the heat down so that the sauce slowly putters. Put a lid on but leave a gap so the liquid can reduce and intensify.
Chuck some of the butter in a small pan, add the mushrooms. Cook until golden, then add them to the chicken with a good smattering of salt and pepper. This is another robust meal that can take quite a kicking of salt and pepper. Go for it.
Check the chicken after 1 hour to see how tender it is. Not falling apart but also soft is good. It will probably take about an hour and a half I reckon. I disagree with the chefs who say do it for less time. They feel the chicken will dry out, I feel that chicken on the bone cannot be risked for under-cooking and I'd rather be safe than sorry. Especially if my sister attempts this. If the chicken pieces are big, they will need longer, smaller pieces shorter. Simple enough.
You should have your potatoes peeled, chopped and on the boil NOW. Smaller cubes need 15-20 mins. You want to over cook them.
Now you can do the final bit in two ways. Whack up the heat and bubble it all down with all ingredients still in the pan. This will reduce and thicken and even become more glossy. Add some butter to the sauce to thicken and achieve even glossier status. Either way when done, remove the carrot and thyme if you can find it. Bay leaves too.
The other way is to turn off the heat, and ladle 8 spoonfuls into a small pan and reduce this down. This can thicken much quicker and the butter will melt nicer into it. However, it is more washing up, but who cares really. It is unlikely you will do the washing up if it is a success.
Mash the potatoes with butter, small amount milk or cream, a dollop of mustard and lots of salt and pepper. You want them stodgy as the juice from the chicken will thin them out. So to stop soupy stuff, keep them thick. Harder to mash but worth the trouble.
Eat and be very, very happy. It tastes champion. Word is born.
Monday 31 January 2011
Friday 28 January 2011
Something for the kids - Fried chicken. Escalopes the nice way
This is something that I have worked on so many times and the basic recipe is the best. So I will tell you how to do it and then you decide what are your favourite accompaniments.
Firstly, the method for this requires chicken breasts, (hence escalopes). Secondly they should have no skin on. Thirdly, some chefs/cooks/piss artists will tell you to lay clingfilm all over the place and beat the crap out of the breast with a rolling pin. This is fine if you can handle the hassle, mess and prep. If you want to learn some good knife skills, then take the breasts and slice them in half with a sharp horizontal blade working its way through the breast. This can go wrong and if you make them too thin at one point, don't worry. All is not lost. All you need to do is get pieces that are relatively similar in width. It is good practice and you will feel proud of yourself.
Can I just add here that really sharp knives are the most important thing in the kitchen. Better than a good oven, great ingredients and so on. Without the sharp knives, cooking is prone to mistakes at the beginning, cuts or worse and a deflated sense of self confidence which is not your fault. So one can avoid all of this by investing in some sharp knives and a sharpener. Again, by doing this, your confidence and desire to cook will be big.
Back to the chicken.
Firstly, if you making this for 4, use 6 breasts because people will always want seconds.
SERVES 4
6 free range or organic chicken breasts - Why? Because they taste better than the super fat, battery farmed nonse. Believe me.
2 eggs, cracked and beaten in a bowl.
2 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed and added to the egg mix.
2 teaspoons of mixed herbs.
Lots of ground pepper
2 teaspoons of sea salt ground into the mix.
1 1/2 packets of natural breadcrumbs. Not that golden shite. It is shite.
(Optional to pack it out more, 1 plate of plain flour to dip into).
Now this requires more of everything than you would normally do. I have tried as I've said, so many ways to get this right and I have made mistakes so you don't have to.
Firstly, add everything except the chicken, flour and breadcrumbs to the beaten egg and beat it up. Plate the breadcrumbs, spread evenly for dipping the breasts in.
Next, take your thinnish chicken halves and dip them both sides into the flour. If you bypass the flour, then go straight to dipping them in the eggs and then the breadcrumbs. Cover both sides liberally, (keep topping up the breadcrumbs if you feel that you haven't quite got a coating), place on another plate.
Take a large frying pan and add 4 tablespoons of olive oil, vegetable oil or sunflower oil. This will look like a lot but you need it.
Whack the heat on high and heat the oil. Then place the first 4 breasts in the pan and turn heat down to medium/high. Fry for 2-3 minutes and keep checking for the deepish golden colour. Turn over and do the other side. 2-3 mins on each side will be plenty to cook them through and leave no pink. Remove from the pan and do next batch. There will be residual breadcrumbs in the pan which will start to burn. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon into kitchen roll and discard. All of this will take 10-12 mins to fry up 3 batches. You can then leave them on a plate in the oven set at 100C. Sorted.
You can cut the chicken pieces up smaller and make nuggets which kids love. You can also add more salt (which I do). These taste great with mustard, mayo and ketchup. I have cockney friends who have to put vinegar on anything fried, so here's another thing for your list.
Now what to have them with.
Chips are great. If you're making ones at home, don't bother. Buy some McCain Home Fry Oven Chip thingies and cook them as they tell you and add 3-5 more mins on. They are excellent.
Mash potato is wonderful and easy. Peel them and boil them before you put your first batch on and then you won't have the chicken too long in the oven before serving.
A sandwich. Niiiiice.
Anyway, you can add shavings of parmesan into the breadcrumbs for a twist which is nice. But I prefer it simple.
Also, a salad. My most favourite is the Israeli/Arabic salad of diced vine tomatoes, cucumber and red onion, with chopped coriander, lashings of extra virgin olive oil and salt to taste. This is heaven for me, especially in the summer when the veg are in season. The sweet juices and added salt from this salad mix so well with the mash and also the mustard from the chicken. Then you have the crunchy coated chicken, the comforting warmth of the mash and the crunchy loveliness of the salad.
A word about this salad. I had an ex girlfriend who was very English and didn't like my 'wet' salads. She, like a rabbit and children, preferred leaves as a salad. If this is your bag, then don't try it as the liquid from the tomatoes dominate and the olive oil and coriander make the flavours deeper than a crunchy leaf salad. But then, she became a nutritionist and would probably enjoy the merits of such a combo now. Plus the flavours and texture are great and she can fuck off.
Sorry. That is not normal for a cookbook. But we should be able to tell people to fuck off if they don't like what is good. Fuck opinion too! This is about fact.
I'm digging a hole here. Try to enjoy it and forget about me.
Firstly, the method for this requires chicken breasts, (hence escalopes). Secondly they should have no skin on. Thirdly, some chefs/cooks/piss artists will tell you to lay clingfilm all over the place and beat the crap out of the breast with a rolling pin. This is fine if you can handle the hassle, mess and prep. If you want to learn some good knife skills, then take the breasts and slice them in half with a sharp horizontal blade working its way through the breast. This can go wrong and if you make them too thin at one point, don't worry. All is not lost. All you need to do is get pieces that are relatively similar in width. It is good practice and you will feel proud of yourself.
Can I just add here that really sharp knives are the most important thing in the kitchen. Better than a good oven, great ingredients and so on. Without the sharp knives, cooking is prone to mistakes at the beginning, cuts or worse and a deflated sense of self confidence which is not your fault. So one can avoid all of this by investing in some sharp knives and a sharpener. Again, by doing this, your confidence and desire to cook will be big.
Back to the chicken.
Firstly, if you making this for 4, use 6 breasts because people will always want seconds.
SERVES 4
6 free range or organic chicken breasts - Why? Because they taste better than the super fat, battery farmed nonse. Believe me.
2 eggs, cracked and beaten in a bowl.
2 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed and added to the egg mix.
2 teaspoons of mixed herbs.
Lots of ground pepper
2 teaspoons of sea salt ground into the mix.
1 1/2 packets of natural breadcrumbs. Not that golden shite. It is shite.
(Optional to pack it out more, 1 plate of plain flour to dip into).
Now this requires more of everything than you would normally do. I have tried as I've said, so many ways to get this right and I have made mistakes so you don't have to.
Firstly, add everything except the chicken, flour and breadcrumbs to the beaten egg and beat it up. Plate the breadcrumbs, spread evenly for dipping the breasts in.
Next, take your thinnish chicken halves and dip them both sides into the flour. If you bypass the flour, then go straight to dipping them in the eggs and then the breadcrumbs. Cover both sides liberally, (keep topping up the breadcrumbs if you feel that you haven't quite got a coating), place on another plate.
Take a large frying pan and add 4 tablespoons of olive oil, vegetable oil or sunflower oil. This will look like a lot but you need it.
Whack the heat on high and heat the oil. Then place the first 4 breasts in the pan and turn heat down to medium/high. Fry for 2-3 minutes and keep checking for the deepish golden colour. Turn over and do the other side. 2-3 mins on each side will be plenty to cook them through and leave no pink. Remove from the pan and do next batch. There will be residual breadcrumbs in the pan which will start to burn. Scoop them out with a slotted spoon into kitchen roll and discard. All of this will take 10-12 mins to fry up 3 batches. You can then leave them on a plate in the oven set at 100C. Sorted.
You can cut the chicken pieces up smaller and make nuggets which kids love. You can also add more salt (which I do). These taste great with mustard, mayo and ketchup. I have cockney friends who have to put vinegar on anything fried, so here's another thing for your list.
Now what to have them with.
Chips are great. If you're making ones at home, don't bother. Buy some McCain Home Fry Oven Chip thingies and cook them as they tell you and add 3-5 more mins on. They are excellent.
Mash potato is wonderful and easy. Peel them and boil them before you put your first batch on and then you won't have the chicken too long in the oven before serving.
A sandwich. Niiiiice.
Anyway, you can add shavings of parmesan into the breadcrumbs for a twist which is nice. But I prefer it simple.
Also, a salad. My most favourite is the Israeli/Arabic salad of diced vine tomatoes, cucumber and red onion, with chopped coriander, lashings of extra virgin olive oil and salt to taste. This is heaven for me, especially in the summer when the veg are in season. The sweet juices and added salt from this salad mix so well with the mash and also the mustard from the chicken. Then you have the crunchy coated chicken, the comforting warmth of the mash and the crunchy loveliness of the salad.
A word about this salad. I had an ex girlfriend who was very English and didn't like my 'wet' salads. She, like a rabbit and children, preferred leaves as a salad. If this is your bag, then don't try it as the liquid from the tomatoes dominate and the olive oil and coriander make the flavours deeper than a crunchy leaf salad. But then, she became a nutritionist and would probably enjoy the merits of such a combo now. Plus the flavours and texture are great and she can fuck off.
Sorry. That is not normal for a cookbook. But we should be able to tell people to fuck off if they don't like what is good. Fuck opinion too! This is about fact.
I'm digging a hole here. Try to enjoy it and forget about me.
Monday 24 January 2011
And now for something completely different...
Risotto with Prawns, Vine Tomatoes and Peas.
Serves 2 (but double the quantities for 4)
Roughly 0.6 litres/1 and a bit pints stock (chicken or fish)
1 knob of butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 sticks of celery, halved and finely chopped
250g risotto rice
1 wineglass of dry white wine
3 vine tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
75g frozen peas
220g peeled prawns
A bit more butter
This takes about 35 mins to cook in total. Give yourself 45.
First slice, chop and dice everything that needs it. Have them ready in front of you.
Next, heat some oil and butter in a deep large frying pan or a saucepan. Chuck in the onions and celery and sweat with a pinch of salt for 5-7 mins on a simmer. Then add the chopped tomatoes and garlic and continue to simmer for 2 more mins.
Turn up the heat and then add the rice and make sure it is all coated with the oils and juices. It will start getting stickyish in the pan soon and harder to push about. This is the time to add the wine. Take a big whiff when it goes in and sizzles. This arrangement of scents is magnificent. Seriously. The alcohol cooks off very quickly and the wine will reduce and soak into the rice super fast. So havce your first ladle of stock ready. I tend to keep the stock hot so not to reduce the temperature of the risotto as I cook it.
Each time you add stock, you must continue to stir and stir slowly and gently. With each ladle, add a pinch of salt and twist of pepper. You will be looking to stir each ladle for about 3-4 mins and it will take about 25 minutes to use up all the stock to a point where the rice is perfect. It will have a little bite to it. You don't want rice pudding and you definitely don't want cement.
Put the kettle on and have the peas ready. Just as you are about to turn the heat off, drop the prawns into the risotto and let them heat through. Cook the peas in boiling water for 3-4 mins and then drain and add to the risotto. Turn the heat off instantly, add a good knob of butter. Gently stir the peas and prawns into the mixture and leave for another 3-4 mins on the stove.
Then serve. This should be glistening, creamy, silky, full of body, subtle colour and the flavours will be intense and deep. This is super tasty and there are sooooooo many alternatives following the same process. Some examples:
Substitute the white wine for red.
Instead of prawns add roast chicken, chopped chorizo, flaked haddock (but use fish stock), crispy bacon, mushrooms, asparagus, roasted pepper, etc etc etc. But balance the flavours. Parmesan should always be used if you are not having fish. This adds a lovely extra body to it.
It is a very versatile dish. Rich and filling and always lovely for seconds.
Believe Dat!
Serves 2 (but double the quantities for 4)
Roughly 0.6 litres/1 and a bit pints stock (chicken or fish)
1 knob of butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 sticks of celery, halved and finely chopped
250g risotto rice
1 wineglass of dry white wine
3 vine tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
75g frozen peas
220g peeled prawns
A bit more butter
This takes about 35 mins to cook in total. Give yourself 45.
First slice, chop and dice everything that needs it. Have them ready in front of you.
Next, heat some oil and butter in a deep large frying pan or a saucepan. Chuck in the onions and celery and sweat with a pinch of salt for 5-7 mins on a simmer. Then add the chopped tomatoes and garlic and continue to simmer for 2 more mins.
Turn up the heat and then add the rice and make sure it is all coated with the oils and juices. It will start getting stickyish in the pan soon and harder to push about. This is the time to add the wine. Take a big whiff when it goes in and sizzles. This arrangement of scents is magnificent. Seriously. The alcohol cooks off very quickly and the wine will reduce and soak into the rice super fast. So havce your first ladle of stock ready. I tend to keep the stock hot so not to reduce the temperature of the risotto as I cook it.
Each time you add stock, you must continue to stir and stir slowly and gently. With each ladle, add a pinch of salt and twist of pepper. You will be looking to stir each ladle for about 3-4 mins and it will take about 25 minutes to use up all the stock to a point where the rice is perfect. It will have a little bite to it. You don't want rice pudding and you definitely don't want cement.
Put the kettle on and have the peas ready. Just as you are about to turn the heat off, drop the prawns into the risotto and let them heat through. Cook the peas in boiling water for 3-4 mins and then drain and add to the risotto. Turn the heat off instantly, add a good knob of butter. Gently stir the peas and prawns into the mixture and leave for another 3-4 mins on the stove.
Then serve. This should be glistening, creamy, silky, full of body, subtle colour and the flavours will be intense and deep. This is super tasty and there are sooooooo many alternatives following the same process. Some examples:
Substitute the white wine for red.
Instead of prawns add roast chicken, chopped chorizo, flaked haddock (but use fish stock), crispy bacon, mushrooms, asparagus, roasted pepper, etc etc etc. But balance the flavours. Parmesan should always be used if you are not having fish. This adds a lovely extra body to it.
It is a very versatile dish. Rich and filling and always lovely for seconds.
Believe Dat!
What to eat with steak 2
The next one is so dead easy it is just silly.
Pack of new potatoes
Fresh Rosemary (1 good sprig)
1 whole bulb of garlic.
Olive Oil
Sea Salt and Black Pepper
Turn the oven on to 190C. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 15 minutes. Drain and leave to dry uncovered for a few mins. While the potatoes drain, add olive oil, broken bulb of garlic and rosemary to a roasting pan and sling in the oven.
After 3 mins, add the potatoes to the roasting pan, toss in the oil with sea salt and pepper too. When nicely coated, roast for 45 mins.
This is silk and with a steak and red wine and mustard sauce.
Nice.
Pack of new potatoes
Fresh Rosemary (1 good sprig)
1 whole bulb of garlic.
Olive Oil
Sea Salt and Black Pepper
Turn the oven on to 190C. Boil the potatoes in salted water for 15 minutes. Drain and leave to dry uncovered for a few mins. While the potatoes drain, add olive oil, broken bulb of garlic and rosemary to a roasting pan and sling in the oven.
After 3 mins, add the potatoes to the roasting pan, toss in the oil with sea salt and pepper too. When nicely coated, roast for 45 mins.
This is silk and with a steak and red wine and mustard sauce.
Nice.
Potatoes in cream a la Nigel
This is a lovely recipe and goes perfectly with steak.
I thank Nigel Slater for this and it is dead easy. I am quoting it verbatim as I have never played with this. It is perfect the way it is. The only tip I can suggest is for some depth and colour is a sprinkling or parmesan over the top before going in the oven.
"(Appetite, by Nigel Slater)
potatoes — waxy-fleshed if possible, about 2 pounds
garlic — 2 large, juicy cloves
butter — just enough to butter the baking dish thickly
heavy cream — enough to cover the potatoes (about 2 1/2 cups)
You will need a moderate to low oven, so set the heat at 180C or 325F. Peel the potatoes and slice them thinly. This, by the way, is one of those dishes where you really must peel: strings of brown, “healthy” skin are totally at odds with the gratin’s hedonistic overtones. The slices should be no thicker than 1/8 inch. If the garlic is really juicy, cut the cloves in half and rub them around an earthenware or enameled cast-iron dish, pressing down hard to release the juices. Otherwise it might be better to slice it thinly and tuck the slices between the potatoes.
Smear the dish generously with butter. Please don’t be stingy — you are only cheating yourself. Lay the potato slices in the dish, orderly or positively hugger-mugger, it matters not, seasoning with salt and black pepper as you go along. Pour the cream over the potatoes — it should just come to the top of the slices. Bake for an hour to an hour and a half, until the potatoes are virtually melting into the
cream."
Have this with some rocket salad to mop up the lemony, bloody, or mustard/red wine juices and cream. Knock your socks off.
I thank Nigel Slater for this and it is dead easy. I am quoting it verbatim as I have never played with this. It is perfect the way it is. The only tip I can suggest is for some depth and colour is a sprinkling or parmesan over the top before going in the oven.
"(Appetite, by Nigel Slater)
potatoes — waxy-fleshed if possible, about 2 pounds
garlic — 2 large, juicy cloves
butter — just enough to butter the baking dish thickly
heavy cream — enough to cover the potatoes (about 2 1/2 cups)
You will need a moderate to low oven, so set the heat at 180C or 325F. Peel the potatoes and slice them thinly. This, by the way, is one of those dishes where you really must peel: strings of brown, “healthy” skin are totally at odds with the gratin’s hedonistic overtones. The slices should be no thicker than 1/8 inch. If the garlic is really juicy, cut the cloves in half and rub them around an earthenware or enameled cast-iron dish, pressing down hard to release the juices. Otherwise it might be better to slice it thinly and tuck the slices between the potatoes.
Smear the dish generously with butter. Please don’t be stingy — you are only cheating yourself. Lay the potato slices in the dish, orderly or positively hugger-mugger, it matters not, seasoning with salt and black pepper as you go along. Pour the cream over the potatoes — it should just come to the top of the slices. Bake for an hour to an hour and a half, until the potatoes are virtually melting into the
cream."
Have this with some rocket salad to mop up the lemony, bloody, or mustard/red wine juices and cream. Knock your socks off.
Sunday 23 January 2011
Beef - the way "don't" makes the kid in you want to lick your fingers and put them in the socket.
I have a lot of red meat in my colon. What I mean by that is when mad cow disease struck in 1994, my best friend and I took a cab to Sainsbury's in Norwich and bought as much half price or less beef as we could. We came to the inspired decision that it tasted good, we liked it more than anything else and if it were going to kill us - well we were students at Art College, which could only mean three things.
1. We were poor.
2. We were poor and stupid.
3. We were poor, stupid and around a lot of drink and drugs.
Like a cow was going to kill us. As if.
So we began to eat red meat as if it grew on trees. In fact we were probably stupid enough to believe it did come from a tree or bush. It was a great time to be eating red meat. France had banned it, the government had heavily subsidized the UK farmer in order to keep them afloat. Supermarkets couldn't shift the stuff well and had specials on it every day. Before the days of understanding the effects on the ecology, grain consumption and general methane issues, red meat was to me a material to experiment with like paint.
So I ate a lot.
Anyway, now I have it down to once a week, (maybe twice) and I have fined tuned a few different approaches and recipes to share. But before I do, I have to tip my hat to all the chefs who have really bored the country with the importance of knowing your meat and what it should look like. Supermarket beef is just not as good as a good butcher, farmer's market or the like. No way. You might be able to pick up something ok or even good, but never excellent. Not in my extensive travails. Why not?
Mainly the supermarkets pander to our pockets rather than our palates. It makes sense as we consume salt and artificial flavourings to guide us to comfort and familiarity. Texture and looks tend to deceive and the average punter wants to buy red coloured red meat.
If you are buying mince, fair enough, but for a steak, a roasting joint, even a stew, you want something on the odd side of brown. I have seen roasting joints sit out the back of a butcher with a little mold on it and that shit is the BEST. Scratch the mold off, but you want the dark, rich, old, well hung meat. The maturing is not related to the level of conversation you can have with your cow, nor how it is going to treat you if you sleep with it. It determines the flavour. The more mature the beef, the better the flavour. End of.
On that note, here's some recipes and tips.
First, steak:
If you want flavour, size and lower cost, buy a rump steak. It has the deepest taste and texture, the most melting chews per bite and a good cut will have little or no chewiness, toughness or anything else. It will be tender as anything if cooked right, and the juices that flow from it when cooked right, will make the most fabulous sauces. From that, the order in price is then Rib Eye, Sirloin and then Fillet. All are lovely in their own way, but fillet, though the most tender, has the least flavour. It is the most special looking steak but actually, the hardest to do well because of the shape. I will come back to this.
How to cook a steak depends on the thickness and prep. Check out the difficulty in the preparation. 1. Take it out of the fridge. 2. Pat it down with paper towel. 3 drizzle a little olive oil, black pepper and sea salt over it. Leave for 30 minutes covered on the table, side, wherever. That is it. Not hard but this will make 30% of the difference.
30% of the difference will come from how hot the pan is and how much attention you pay to it. I have read Anthony Bourdain about the pains of managing the grill station of the restaurant and I can only imagine, knowing how many times I have burnt myself trying different approaches. This one works.
Heat the pan up hot and try and have a pan that reflects the size and amount of steak you are doing. EG 2 steaks should almost fill the pan you use but with a bit of air in between them. Don't pour oil in the pan, it is already on the steak. Add a little butter to the pan and instantly drain the oil from the steak plate and meat on to the rapidly sizzling butter. It stops it burning - but the butter will burn if you don't do this within 5 seconds of adding it to the pan. That is all the time you have.
Then when nicely melted, add the steaks and have your silly little iPhone on timer, or sensibly use a clock or proper timer and set to 1 minute. If your rump, rib eye or sirloin is around a centimeter in thickness, this will cook super fast to medium rare - I mean a minute each side!. If they are an inch, they will take a little more.
So as a rule (for steaks over 1cm and around or less than 1"), I would do 2 mins for rare (a minute on each side), 3-4 mins for medium rare (a minute on each side and then 30 seconds on each side), for well done, 6-8 minutes but you will fuck it up and it will be tough and pointless. I lack sympathy for those who like it well done because no cook really knows what a well done steak should taste or feel like. It has lost all of its properties by then and is really quite odd - like a beef toffee waffle.
The turning every minute is fail safe. It will stop burning while cooking on a pretty high heat, it will regulate equal cooking intensity through the dense structure of the meat, and it is a good way of knowing where you stand without having to touch it in the pan to check it is ok. I would advise to have a metal spoon at hand to scoop and pour the oil/butter over the exposed side while the pan side is cooking. It is nice and promotes equality of skin tone.
40% of the difference will be your ability to understand that you have to leave it to stand on a warm plate. Your steak will continue to (kind of) cook for another half minute just on the plate because it is hot. So you don't need well done. Also this is the tenderising stage. By doing nothing and leaving it for 3-5 minutes, you are literally making it good. Literally.
Most people would be eating it now but no! Leave it. Instead, turn the heat off as soon as the steaks are out and chuck half a glass of nice red wine in your pan to a mad sizzle and spit. A little salt and pepper and a half teaspoon of Dijon mustard and turn heat back on high-ish. Whisk or stir with something whisk like to break up the mustard and simmer over a medium to low heat. The alcohol will cook out of the wine in the rest time leaving the deep sweet marrying of the wine and beef flavours. Every minute, add the juices that are flowing from your steaks into the warm plate. This adds so much depth to the sauce that you couldn't buy. (BTW if you leave your gas on when adding the wine, there is fair chance of a big flambe, which in most domestic kitchens will burn your eyebrows, set off your smoke alarm and make you scream).
After a few minutes of saucing, it is time to eat a delicious, tender and flavoursome steak with red wine sauce.
Also, you don't have to do the sauce. Italians squeeze a lemon over the steak and it is ridiculously good with the steak juices. No lemon and just mustard is also great. But that rest time is critical and if you don't do it, you will never know real quality.
So buy the finest, taste the difference and generally the best steak you can. Or go to a better place than a supermarket and splash out. God it's good.
Returning to fillet steak, it is much thicker and much harder to manage the times. I would just say for something that is 1.5" thick to 2", 5-6 mins is rare (1 minute each side turned 6 times. 8 minutes is medium (same thing applies), more is well done. But you will have to turn it on all sides and you won't trust your timings. Doing this well requires practise and also a feel for it. Come back to this once you've tried the others a few times.
If like me, you love steak, then print this out and put it on your fridge or washing machine with a magnet. Get it stained up and battered. Smudge the lettering and brown it with so many sauces that you could actually start sucking it after a year or two, while you wait for the steak to rest. Seriously, get it right and you have it RIGHT.
Moo.
1. We were poor.
2. We were poor and stupid.
3. We were poor, stupid and around a lot of drink and drugs.
Like a cow was going to kill us. As if.
So we began to eat red meat as if it grew on trees. In fact we were probably stupid enough to believe it did come from a tree or bush. It was a great time to be eating red meat. France had banned it, the government had heavily subsidized the UK farmer in order to keep them afloat. Supermarkets couldn't shift the stuff well and had specials on it every day. Before the days of understanding the effects on the ecology, grain consumption and general methane issues, red meat was to me a material to experiment with like paint.
So I ate a lot.
Anyway, now I have it down to once a week, (maybe twice) and I have fined tuned a few different approaches and recipes to share. But before I do, I have to tip my hat to all the chefs who have really bored the country with the importance of knowing your meat and what it should look like. Supermarket beef is just not as good as a good butcher, farmer's market or the like. No way. You might be able to pick up something ok or even good, but never excellent. Not in my extensive travails. Why not?
Mainly the supermarkets pander to our pockets rather than our palates. It makes sense as we consume salt and artificial flavourings to guide us to comfort and familiarity. Texture and looks tend to deceive and the average punter wants to buy red coloured red meat.
If you are buying mince, fair enough, but for a steak, a roasting joint, even a stew, you want something on the odd side of brown. I have seen roasting joints sit out the back of a butcher with a little mold on it and that shit is the BEST. Scratch the mold off, but you want the dark, rich, old, well hung meat. The maturing is not related to the level of conversation you can have with your cow, nor how it is going to treat you if you sleep with it. It determines the flavour. The more mature the beef, the better the flavour. End of.
On that note, here's some recipes and tips.
First, steak:
If you want flavour, size and lower cost, buy a rump steak. It has the deepest taste and texture, the most melting chews per bite and a good cut will have little or no chewiness, toughness or anything else. It will be tender as anything if cooked right, and the juices that flow from it when cooked right, will make the most fabulous sauces. From that, the order in price is then Rib Eye, Sirloin and then Fillet. All are lovely in their own way, but fillet, though the most tender, has the least flavour. It is the most special looking steak but actually, the hardest to do well because of the shape. I will come back to this.
How to cook a steak depends on the thickness and prep. Check out the difficulty in the preparation. 1. Take it out of the fridge. 2. Pat it down with paper towel. 3 drizzle a little olive oil, black pepper and sea salt over it. Leave for 30 minutes covered on the table, side, wherever. That is it. Not hard but this will make 30% of the difference.
30% of the difference will come from how hot the pan is and how much attention you pay to it. I have read Anthony Bourdain about the pains of managing the grill station of the restaurant and I can only imagine, knowing how many times I have burnt myself trying different approaches. This one works.
Heat the pan up hot and try and have a pan that reflects the size and amount of steak you are doing. EG 2 steaks should almost fill the pan you use but with a bit of air in between them. Don't pour oil in the pan, it is already on the steak. Add a little butter to the pan and instantly drain the oil from the steak plate and meat on to the rapidly sizzling butter. It stops it burning - but the butter will burn if you don't do this within 5 seconds of adding it to the pan. That is all the time you have.
Then when nicely melted, add the steaks and have your silly little iPhone on timer, or sensibly use a clock or proper timer and set to 1 minute. If your rump, rib eye or sirloin is around a centimeter in thickness, this will cook super fast to medium rare - I mean a minute each side!. If they are an inch, they will take a little more.
So as a rule (for steaks over 1cm and around or less than 1"), I would do 2 mins for rare (a minute on each side), 3-4 mins for medium rare (a minute on each side and then 30 seconds on each side), for well done, 6-8 minutes but you will fuck it up and it will be tough and pointless. I lack sympathy for those who like it well done because no cook really knows what a well done steak should taste or feel like. It has lost all of its properties by then and is really quite odd - like a beef toffee waffle.
The turning every minute is fail safe. It will stop burning while cooking on a pretty high heat, it will regulate equal cooking intensity through the dense structure of the meat, and it is a good way of knowing where you stand without having to touch it in the pan to check it is ok. I would advise to have a metal spoon at hand to scoop and pour the oil/butter over the exposed side while the pan side is cooking. It is nice and promotes equality of skin tone.
40% of the difference will be your ability to understand that you have to leave it to stand on a warm plate. Your steak will continue to (kind of) cook for another half minute just on the plate because it is hot. So you don't need well done. Also this is the tenderising stage. By doing nothing and leaving it for 3-5 minutes, you are literally making it good. Literally.
Most people would be eating it now but no! Leave it. Instead, turn the heat off as soon as the steaks are out and chuck half a glass of nice red wine in your pan to a mad sizzle and spit. A little salt and pepper and a half teaspoon of Dijon mustard and turn heat back on high-ish. Whisk or stir with something whisk like to break up the mustard and simmer over a medium to low heat. The alcohol will cook out of the wine in the rest time leaving the deep sweet marrying of the wine and beef flavours. Every minute, add the juices that are flowing from your steaks into the warm plate. This adds so much depth to the sauce that you couldn't buy. (BTW if you leave your gas on when adding the wine, there is fair chance of a big flambe, which in most domestic kitchens will burn your eyebrows, set off your smoke alarm and make you scream).
After a few minutes of saucing, it is time to eat a delicious, tender and flavoursome steak with red wine sauce.
Also, you don't have to do the sauce. Italians squeeze a lemon over the steak and it is ridiculously good with the steak juices. No lemon and just mustard is also great. But that rest time is critical and if you don't do it, you will never know real quality.
So buy the finest, taste the difference and generally the best steak you can. Or go to a better place than a supermarket and splash out. God it's good.
Returning to fillet steak, it is much thicker and much harder to manage the times. I would just say for something that is 1.5" thick to 2", 5-6 mins is rare (1 minute each side turned 6 times. 8 minutes is medium (same thing applies), more is well done. But you will have to turn it on all sides and you won't trust your timings. Doing this well requires practise and also a feel for it. Come back to this once you've tried the others a few times.
If like me, you love steak, then print this out and put it on your fridge or washing machine with a magnet. Get it stained up and battered. Smudge the lettering and brown it with so many sauces that you could actually start sucking it after a year or two, while you wait for the steak to rest. Seriously, get it right and you have it RIGHT.
Moo.
Thursday 20 January 2011
I have noticed...
The similarity in many of my meals and a repeat of ingredients. This is predictable if you are me, but if you aren't then you might not like the recipes.
In which case I apologise and will be changing it up a lot in due course.
But I implore you to try to mess about with my recipes too. They aren't stuck in stone you know.
In which case I apologise and will be changing it up a lot in due course.
But I implore you to try to mess about with my recipes too. They aren't stuck in stone you know.
I was going to make...
This is the easiest dish on earth but I realised I forgot a couple of key ingredients in my shop yesterday.
BTW Sainsburys was doing a deal of 2 very nice bottles of Primitivo red wine at 8.99 each or 2 for 8 quid???! I took two.
This is a pasta dish that asks for nothing and returns everything. This is the most simple dinner ever and just perfect. For 2 you need:
Spaghetti - however much you like to eat
Cherry tomatoes 200g or more, washed and halved
Cubed pancetta 100g
Large bunch basil
Parmesan (lots grated)
Extra virgin olive oil.
2 cloves finely sliced garlic
That is it. It is traditional, boring and supreme. Unbelievably supreme.
Heat the water in a large pan and throw in spag when boiling. When pasta is in, heat a frying pan and in a little olive oil, fry the pancetta until golden and crispy on outside. When crispy and not too dark, throw in tomatoes and garlic and stir once. Then turn down heat and cook for the remaining 3-4 mins til pasta is ready.
Drain the pasta, chuck back in pan, add contents of frying pan with sea salt, ground pepper and basil and stir/toss well. Drizzle a fair bit of extra virgin over the top, serve in plates and then pile on the parmesan.
A meal in 11 minutes and totally wonderful flavours. Sweet, savoury, moreish and sexy.
BTW Sainsburys was doing a deal of 2 very nice bottles of Primitivo red wine at 8.99 each or 2 for 8 quid???! I took two.
This is a pasta dish that asks for nothing and returns everything. This is the most simple dinner ever and just perfect. For 2 you need:
Spaghetti - however much you like to eat
Cherry tomatoes 200g or more, washed and halved
Cubed pancetta 100g
Large bunch basil
Parmesan (lots grated)
Extra virgin olive oil.
2 cloves finely sliced garlic
That is it. It is traditional, boring and supreme. Unbelievably supreme.
Heat the water in a large pan and throw in spag when boiling. When pasta is in, heat a frying pan and in a little olive oil, fry the pancetta until golden and crispy on outside. When crispy and not too dark, throw in tomatoes and garlic and stir once. Then turn down heat and cook for the remaining 3-4 mins til pasta is ready.
Drain the pasta, chuck back in pan, add contents of frying pan with sea salt, ground pepper and basil and stir/toss well. Drizzle a fair bit of extra virgin over the top, serve in plates and then pile on the parmesan.
A meal in 11 minutes and totally wonderful flavours. Sweet, savoury, moreish and sexy.
Tuesday 18 January 2011
While I have the bug - A soup
This is another one where stuff left in the fridge happened to be a goldmine
This is truly a filling soup and will be an awesome lunch or midweek dinner with crusty bread.
Leek, Onion, Pancetta, Potato and Roquefort Soup
Serves 4
2 leeks (outer layers discarded, sliced sideways and sliced finely, then washed thoroughly)
1 medium onion peeled and chopped fine
75g chopped pancetta
2 large potatoes peeled and chopped small
50g roquefort cheese broken up into pieces
100ml milk
2 pints chicken stock
50g unsalted butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Big soup pan, sweat the onions and leeks in the butter for 15 mins, add the potatoes and sweat for another 5. Fry the pancetta in a small frying pan and add to the veg. Chuck in the stock and salt and pepper and simmer for 20 mins.
Remove from heat and add the milk and blue cheese (no live heat stops the dairy splitting). Stir for 5 mins and return to the heat for 1-2 mins if it seems like it might be cooling. In a blender or with a hand blender take the soup to the cleaners, leaving a thick and tiny lumped soup with such intense and lively flavours.
It really works and is proper rich so will go a long way. That is my word.
This is truly a filling soup and will be an awesome lunch or midweek dinner with crusty bread.
Leek, Onion, Pancetta, Potato and Roquefort Soup
Serves 4
2 leeks (outer layers discarded, sliced sideways and sliced finely, then washed thoroughly)
1 medium onion peeled and chopped fine
75g chopped pancetta
2 large potatoes peeled and chopped small
50g roquefort cheese broken up into pieces
100ml milk
2 pints chicken stock
50g unsalted butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Big soup pan, sweat the onions and leeks in the butter for 15 mins, add the potatoes and sweat for another 5. Fry the pancetta in a small frying pan and add to the veg. Chuck in the stock and salt and pepper and simmer for 20 mins.
Remove from heat and add the milk and blue cheese (no live heat stops the dairy splitting). Stir for 5 mins and return to the heat for 1-2 mins if it seems like it might be cooling. In a blender or with a hand blender take the soup to the cleaners, leaving a thick and tiny lumped soup with such intense and lively flavours.
It really works and is proper rich so will go a long way. That is my word.
All that is in the fridge
Tonight I cooked what we had left. It was flipping decent.
Decent enough to put on here anyway (whatever that suggests!)
We had half a roast chicken left over from yesterday. It is nice to do the roast on Monday when you feel the drag of the week upon you. It kicks you into Tuesday which is nearly Friday innit?
We had 1 orange and 1 yellow pepper, 1 onion (we had more but that is all that is needed), 3 cloves of garlic, 2 courgettes, some pancetta, tin of tomatoes, 1 pint of chicken stock or gravy, 2 sticks celery, new potatoes, sea salt, pepper, sugar, dijon mustard, mixed herbs. I am pretty sure a glass of red or white wine would be delicious in this but I drank it all.
I chopped all the veg small and stripped the chicken from the bones. Wash the potatoes and then boil for 20-25 mins. Drain and leave to stand.
In a big Le Creuset (yeah yeah I know), fry up the onion, celery, garlic and courgettes in some butter and olive oil (oil stops the butter burning). Add some salt to stop the onions burning in the oil. (I dunno why she swallowed a horse, she'll die of course. Sorry). In a separate small frying pan, fry the pancetta up and when golden and nice, chuck in with the sweating veg and stir. Add the chopped peppers to the mix and sweat/fry off.
In the frying pan while it is hot, chuck in the stripped roast chicken and heat through, crisp up, brown off for 4-5 mins. Chuck it in with the veg. Add to the big pan the tinned tomatoes, herbs, a spoon of sugar, tsp of dijon, stock and stir through.
Get it bubbling and meanwhile halve the new potatoes you boiled. When you have the bubbling stew, add the potatoes in and stir round.
Simmer for 15 mins and eat.
It was decent and properly what was left over. I am chuffed as it really made sense and the flavours, textures, consistency and body all we great. Very tasty indeed.
Decent enough to put on here anyway (whatever that suggests!)
We had half a roast chicken left over from yesterday. It is nice to do the roast on Monday when you feel the drag of the week upon you. It kicks you into Tuesday which is nearly Friday innit?
We had 1 orange and 1 yellow pepper, 1 onion (we had more but that is all that is needed), 3 cloves of garlic, 2 courgettes, some pancetta, tin of tomatoes, 1 pint of chicken stock or gravy, 2 sticks celery, new potatoes, sea salt, pepper, sugar, dijon mustard, mixed herbs. I am pretty sure a glass of red or white wine would be delicious in this but I drank it all.
I chopped all the veg small and stripped the chicken from the bones. Wash the potatoes and then boil for 20-25 mins. Drain and leave to stand.
In a big Le Creuset (yeah yeah I know), fry up the onion, celery, garlic and courgettes in some butter and olive oil (oil stops the butter burning). Add some salt to stop the onions burning in the oil. (I dunno why she swallowed a horse, she'll die of course. Sorry). In a separate small frying pan, fry the pancetta up and when golden and nice, chuck in with the sweating veg and stir. Add the chopped peppers to the mix and sweat/fry off.
In the frying pan while it is hot, chuck in the stripped roast chicken and heat through, crisp up, brown off for 4-5 mins. Chuck it in with the veg. Add to the big pan the tinned tomatoes, herbs, a spoon of sugar, tsp of dijon, stock and stir through.
Get it bubbling and meanwhile halve the new potatoes you boiled. When you have the bubbling stew, add the potatoes in and stir round.
Simmer for 15 mins and eat.
It was decent and properly what was left over. I am chuffed as it really made sense and the flavours, textures, consistency and body all we great. Very tasty indeed.
Vegetarian attempts. I'll give it a go.
If I had told myself 10 years ago that I'd be writing a food blog, I would have told me to firstly piss off, and secondly ask what a blog is. If I had then suggested that I might include some vegetarian dishes, that would have been the icing on my meat cake.
But here we are, here you go and wallop! It actually tastes great. I can't believe it.
If you are Vegan btw, well sorry but I just can't. Thank you Nigel Slater and Delia for some of these techniques.
Baked Onions in Double Cream and Parmesan (Nigel's)
Black Olive, Spinach and Dijon mash (mine)
You need a lot of butter for this dish and a safe heart!
Serves 4
Mash
1KG Maris Piper potatoes
50g unsalted butter
100g black olives
2 big spoonfuls of Maille Dijon mustard
Young spinach (biggest bag you can find)
Salt and pepper
Ground nutmeg optional
Onions
1 large onion per person
50g Unsalted butter
500ml Double cream
Shitloads of freshly grated parmesan.
To garnish, a picture of The McCartneys.
Peel the potatoes and chop them quite small. They boil quicker and mash easier. When you boil these, cook them until they are done and then add another 3 minutes. If you want them creamy and light, no point in under doing them and if you're worried about losing the nutritional value, since when did potatoes have any? Chips, crisps, waffles, do me a favour.
Peel the outer layer of the onions and place them in a pan of boiling water so they are covered. Simmer for 20 mins. This is really important as it kills the rawness of the onion and induces the natural sweetness that we are looking for. Turn the oven on to 180c.
After 20 mins, take the onions out with a metal spoon to hurt yourself, a spatula if you're an idiot, or a slotted spoon if you come to this party prepared for fun. Top and tail the onions and if you have tongs, or a thick clean kitchen towel, hold the onions and slice in half.
In a smallish earthenware dish (or something bulky in weight), butter the bottom and lay the onions, flat side down in it. They should be bunched with few gaps and your aim is to pretty much cover the halves with the cream. Pour over the double cream. Salt, pepper and then batter them with parmesan.
Cook in over for 40-45 mins until golden, bubbly and looking irresistible. In the meantime...
In a blender or with a sharp knife and patience, pip the olives if they haven't been already, (isn't that a pip? ;) and create a finely chopped mush. Boil the potatoes to smitherines. When you are about to add on my advised extra 3 mins, chuck in the spinach and wilt the leaves. Drain quickly and return to the pan with the butter, salt, pepper and the mustard. Now you might need a little of the double cream used for the onions in the mash, or a little milk, or even water at a push just to mash it down. You want it creamy, silky, but not slimy and watery. Mash it up and keep tasting. Add more salt and mustard for a kick and bite.
When all done, (and serve this away from the table as it splashes and hurts), a coupla spoons of nicely stacked, green, white and black mash, topped with the golden colours of parmesan, lashings of double cream and sweet baked onions will bring it home.
An optional salad of leaves, squeezed lemon and fresh shaved parmesan will bulk this out and add flavour, colour and feed those vegetarians closer to the point of satisfaction which they will always strive for and never quite reach.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
But here we are, here you go and wallop! It actually tastes great. I can't believe it.
If you are Vegan btw, well sorry but I just can't. Thank you Nigel Slater and Delia for some of these techniques.
Baked Onions in Double Cream and Parmesan (Nigel's)
Black Olive, Spinach and Dijon mash (mine)
You need a lot of butter for this dish and a safe heart!
Serves 4
Mash
1KG Maris Piper potatoes
50g unsalted butter
100g black olives
2 big spoonfuls of Maille Dijon mustard
Young spinach (biggest bag you can find)
Salt and pepper
Ground nutmeg optional
Onions
1 large onion per person
50g Unsalted butter
500ml Double cream
Shitloads of freshly grated parmesan.
To garnish, a picture of The McCartneys.
Peel the potatoes and chop them quite small. They boil quicker and mash easier. When you boil these, cook them until they are done and then add another 3 minutes. If you want them creamy and light, no point in under doing them and if you're worried about losing the nutritional value, since when did potatoes have any? Chips, crisps, waffles, do me a favour.
Peel the outer layer of the onions and place them in a pan of boiling water so they are covered. Simmer for 20 mins. This is really important as it kills the rawness of the onion and induces the natural sweetness that we are looking for. Turn the oven on to 180c.
After 20 mins, take the onions out with a metal spoon to hurt yourself, a spatula if you're an idiot, or a slotted spoon if you come to this party prepared for fun. Top and tail the onions and if you have tongs, or a thick clean kitchen towel, hold the onions and slice in half.
In a smallish earthenware dish (or something bulky in weight), butter the bottom and lay the onions, flat side down in it. They should be bunched with few gaps and your aim is to pretty much cover the halves with the cream. Pour over the double cream. Salt, pepper and then batter them with parmesan.
Cook in over for 40-45 mins until golden, bubbly and looking irresistible. In the meantime...
In a blender or with a sharp knife and patience, pip the olives if they haven't been already, (isn't that a pip? ;) and create a finely chopped mush. Boil the potatoes to smitherines. When you are about to add on my advised extra 3 mins, chuck in the spinach and wilt the leaves. Drain quickly and return to the pan with the butter, salt, pepper and the mustard. Now you might need a little of the double cream used for the onions in the mash, or a little milk, or even water at a push just to mash it down. You want it creamy, silky, but not slimy and watery. Mash it up and keep tasting. Add more salt and mustard for a kick and bite.
When all done, (and serve this away from the table as it splashes and hurts), a coupla spoons of nicely stacked, green, white and black mash, topped with the golden colours of parmesan, lashings of double cream and sweet baked onions will bring it home.
An optional salad of leaves, squeezed lemon and fresh shaved parmesan will bulk this out and add flavour, colour and feed those vegetarians closer to the point of satisfaction which they will always strive for and never quite reach.
Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Here is the fish dish - almost! ;)
Sorry I haven't written for ages. I kind of forgot I was doing this. But some more sumptuous recipes on the way. These tip their hat at some Jamie Oliver and Nigel Slater ideas which I took their encouragement to bend and change along the way. (BTW you can do this with Coley and other meaty white fishies that are more sustainable too)
Cod Fillet With Chorizo and The Goodest Flavours
Serves 4
4 Cod Fillets skinned and boned. (if you get skins left on the cook skin side down but it will make the dish look proper ugly)
Chorizo sausage chopped or sliced into pound coins(but you can sub this for anchovies for a full fish version, or handful of capers for a proper salty kick, or both)
Punnet of good cherry tomatoes
Basil (lots)
Parmesan cheese grated, couple of handfuls
2 balls of Buffalo Mozzarella
Salt, pepper and olive oil
To serve with:
Cannellini or Haricot Beans 2 tins
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup of chicken or fish stock
1/2 glass white wine
fresh thyme
salt, pepper
What to do:
First, turn the over on to 220/450 (hot yeah!)
Now in a roasting dish, drizzle a little olive oil and lay the fish down. Then on top a little more oil and scatter the halved tomatoes, ripped basil, sliced mozzarella, chopped chorizo (or anchovies/capers), parmesan and salt/pepper all over in a kind of nice, neat arrangement.
Now cook it for 15-20 mins until you can't take the smell any more and have to eat. THAT IS IT!!! How easy is that????
While this is cooking, chop the onion small and the garlic and fry them in a smallish but deep pan in a little oil. Add a little salt to stop them burning but colour a little. After 3-4 mins, add the 2 tins of washed, drained beans and the wine, stock thyme (chopped if you can be bothered but definitely off the stalks), and salt and pepper. Simmer and stir for 10 mins and it is done!!! How easy was that too???
Now take your potato masher and mash up the beans into the juices and onions etc. You want to get a cloying but moist mash of stuff that looks a bit like a cloud that has just walked out of McDonald's.
Serve two largish spoons of the beans on each plate, lay the cod carefully on top so it doesn't break and arrange the tomatoes, chorizo, cheeses, basil and juices of the fish dish around and over.
In the words of Gordon Ramsey and the old man in the Boatman in Bermondsey watching Millwall score, "Fucking tasty!!"
Cod Fillet With Chorizo and The Goodest Flavours
Serves 4
4 Cod Fillets skinned and boned. (if you get skins left on the cook skin side down but it will make the dish look proper ugly)
Chorizo sausage chopped or sliced into pound coins(but you can sub this for anchovies for a full fish version, or handful of capers for a proper salty kick, or both)
Punnet of good cherry tomatoes
Basil (lots)
Parmesan cheese grated, couple of handfuls
2 balls of Buffalo Mozzarella
Salt, pepper and olive oil
To serve with:
Cannellini or Haricot Beans 2 tins
1 medium onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup of chicken or fish stock
1/2 glass white wine
fresh thyme
salt, pepper
What to do:
First, turn the over on to 220/450 (hot yeah!)
Now in a roasting dish, drizzle a little olive oil and lay the fish down. Then on top a little more oil and scatter the halved tomatoes, ripped basil, sliced mozzarella, chopped chorizo (or anchovies/capers), parmesan and salt/pepper all over in a kind of nice, neat arrangement.
Now cook it for 15-20 mins until you can't take the smell any more and have to eat. THAT IS IT!!! How easy is that????
While this is cooking, chop the onion small and the garlic and fry them in a smallish but deep pan in a little oil. Add a little salt to stop them burning but colour a little. After 3-4 mins, add the 2 tins of washed, drained beans and the wine, stock thyme (chopped if you can be bothered but definitely off the stalks), and salt and pepper. Simmer and stir for 10 mins and it is done!!! How easy was that too???
Now take your potato masher and mash up the beans into the juices and onions etc. You want to get a cloying but moist mash of stuff that looks a bit like a cloud that has just walked out of McDonald's.
Serve two largish spoons of the beans on each plate, lay the cod carefully on top so it doesn't break and arrange the tomatoes, chorizo, cheeses, basil and juices of the fish dish around and over.
In the words of Gordon Ramsey and the old man in the Boatman in Bermondsey watching Millwall score, "Fucking tasty!!"
Wednesday 12 January 2011
A fish dish
I have been asked by a colleague for a fish dish. I have one to type up next.
It will be reet tasty.
It will be reet tasty.
Now I have a few staple recipes out of the way...
I can get on with being more creative and particular.
Also, I think it is important to highlight that I am going to ramble a little about food, shopping and supermarkets in general at times. I do not have an agenda or anything, more like a series of observations that make the experience of cooking more anodyne by ignoring the shit.
In fact, cooking should be a relaxing pleasure of momentum and experience. And don't expect to just be good at it. You get good by forming your own tastes and palate.
It will come.
Also, I think it is important to highlight that I am going to ramble a little about food, shopping and supermarkets in general at times. I do not have an agenda or anything, more like a series of observations that make the experience of cooking more anodyne by ignoring the shit.
In fact, cooking should be a relaxing pleasure of momentum and experience. And don't expect to just be good at it. You get good by forming your own tastes and palate.
It will come.
Tuesday 11 January 2011
Chilli con Carne. Let's get it done with.
Chilli the right way.
2 largish red onions - chopped medium to small
1 red pepper, 1 orange or yellow pepper sliced
2 garlic cloves , peeled and crushed or sliced.
1 level tsp hot chilli powder. If you only have mild, put it in the bin and go buy some hot chilli. It is called chilli.
1 fresh red chilli chopped fine with seeds left in. (Yeah let's make this hot)
1 1/2 tsp La Chinata smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin - you shirk this and you is a fool.
750g lean minced beef
1 beef stock cube
2 x 400g can premium chopped tomatoes
1 tsp dried marjoram or mixed herbs at a push
2 bay leaves
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp tomato purée
2 x 410g can red kidney beans
Optional: a stick of cinnamon.
Water to top up in case it dries.
Large dollops of Greek yoghurt and plain boiled basmati rice
Now look, this is all about the process. Also try to understand that you should not cook this when you are hungry as it will be twice as good the next day. It cooks in about an hour/hour and a half and will also keep for days. So do it on a Sunday night and enjoy it on Monday and Tuesday, or freeze it.
This is similar to bolognese at the outset. Prep your veg and get everything lined up in front of you.
Sweat the onions down first in olive oil for 5 mins and then whack the heat up and brown the mince. Break up all lumps and makes sure it is even in size and colour. Get a sizzle going. Some people will put in peppers here. I don't as I like to wait til the last 10 mins in order to have a slight crunch. Otherwise they just become mush. Add the garlic, tomatoes, herbs, spices and stock. Stir and see how much liquid you have after 5 mins of simmering and top up if needed. Also add salt and pepper. This is a robust meal and can take a pounding when it comes to salt and pepper. The chilli soaks a lot of it up and you do need that flavour to compliment the heat. If you want to add the cinnamon stick, do it now but if you add ground cinnamon, you are bonkers. Not a good idea. It is the smoked paprika that brings flavour to the heat rather than just heat.
Cover and simmer for 20-25 mins but stir occasionally, (this can burn and though the burn can add a smokey flavour, it looks nasty). Then add the rinsed beans and peppers and simmer for another 10-15 mins.
Now turn it off and leave for at least 6 hours, preferably 12 or even 24. Try it when it is done as the first will never be as good as the tenth one. Then try it the next day and discover the difference in the melding of flavours overnight. It is a dramatic change in depth.
The consistency you want is neither runny nor stodgy. You want it to hold its shape as you pile it on to rice, but to mix with the rice to bring moisture. This is where the Greek yoghurt is so good. But melted cheese and baked potatoes are a lovely combo too. The rice method is in the Thai Curry recipe but take out the ginger peeling.
Lastly, the chilli kick and yoghurt work amazingly together. You might not like spice heat, or you might not like natural yoghurt, but a spoonful of those two together is as moreish and satisfying as a spoon of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes with ice cold milk, ice cream and hot apple pie, warm chocolate cake and cream, a fork of egg, bacon, sausage and beans, or even a roast potato, chicken, gravy combo. It is sumptuous and ballsy.
But let the fecking thing stand. For many hours. Let it be. Plan ahead. Seriously.
2 largish red onions - chopped medium to small
1 red pepper, 1 orange or yellow pepper sliced
2 garlic cloves , peeled and crushed or sliced.
1 level tsp hot chilli powder. If you only have mild, put it in the bin and go buy some hot chilli. It is called chilli.
1 fresh red chilli chopped fine with seeds left in. (Yeah let's make this hot)
1 1/2 tsp La Chinata smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin - you shirk this and you is a fool.
750g lean minced beef
1 beef stock cube
2 x 400g can premium chopped tomatoes
1 tsp dried marjoram or mixed herbs at a push
2 bay leaves
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp tomato purée
2 x 410g can red kidney beans
Optional: a stick of cinnamon.
Water to top up in case it dries.
Large dollops of Greek yoghurt and plain boiled basmati rice
Now look, this is all about the process. Also try to understand that you should not cook this when you are hungry as it will be twice as good the next day. It cooks in about an hour/hour and a half and will also keep for days. So do it on a Sunday night and enjoy it on Monday and Tuesday, or freeze it.
This is similar to bolognese at the outset. Prep your veg and get everything lined up in front of you.
Sweat the onions down first in olive oil for 5 mins and then whack the heat up and brown the mince. Break up all lumps and makes sure it is even in size and colour. Get a sizzle going. Some people will put in peppers here. I don't as I like to wait til the last 10 mins in order to have a slight crunch. Otherwise they just become mush. Add the garlic, tomatoes, herbs, spices and stock. Stir and see how much liquid you have after 5 mins of simmering and top up if needed. Also add salt and pepper. This is a robust meal and can take a pounding when it comes to salt and pepper. The chilli soaks a lot of it up and you do need that flavour to compliment the heat. If you want to add the cinnamon stick, do it now but if you add ground cinnamon, you are bonkers. Not a good idea. It is the smoked paprika that brings flavour to the heat rather than just heat.
Cover and simmer for 20-25 mins but stir occasionally, (this can burn and though the burn can add a smokey flavour, it looks nasty). Then add the rinsed beans and peppers and simmer for another 10-15 mins.
Now turn it off and leave for at least 6 hours, preferably 12 or even 24. Try it when it is done as the first will never be as good as the tenth one. Then try it the next day and discover the difference in the melding of flavours overnight. It is a dramatic change in depth.
The consistency you want is neither runny nor stodgy. You want it to hold its shape as you pile it on to rice, but to mix with the rice to bring moisture. This is where the Greek yoghurt is so good. But melted cheese and baked potatoes are a lovely combo too. The rice method is in the Thai Curry recipe but take out the ginger peeling.
Lastly, the chilli kick and yoghurt work amazingly together. You might not like spice heat, or you might not like natural yoghurt, but a spoonful of those two together is as moreish and satisfying as a spoon of Crunchy Nut Cornflakes with ice cold milk, ice cream and hot apple pie, warm chocolate cake and cream, a fork of egg, bacon, sausage and beans, or even a roast potato, chicken, gravy combo. It is sumptuous and ballsy.
But let the fecking thing stand. For many hours. Let it be. Plan ahead. Seriously.
Chorizo and new potato stew
I made this up, well I say I made this up, but actually I ate a few meals that had a combination of some of these flavours and thought, "there are some things I can do with this".
Firstly, good chorizo is really important. If you buy it from the local Greek, Polish, Turkish, Indian, Pakistani shop on the corner or main street, it is not chorizo. I don't care what it says on the label. Kind of like when all the middle class Brits refer to soda bread on TV and my Irish wife gets on her very high horse and screams down from the clouds "that is WHEATEN BREAD!!!"
So this chorizo from the local shops is a super fatty, over salted, heavily dyed and chemically rich sausage. It lacks in proper paprika, let alone the smoked stuff and tastes like a sausage pumped full of chorizo crisp flavouring. Capiche? Don't touch it.
I found that Tesco's finest is the nicest I have seen on the mass market. Sainsburys do a passable own brand for half the price of Tesco, but it is also half the flavour (with more salt). In a recent study it said that all processed meat will kill you, so I suggest you cook this meal infrequently. I say that because when you do cook it and see how easy it is, yet how tasty it is, you will want it often. Go easy.
What is so nice about it? Well, firstly the paprika in the sausage and the tomato marry perfectly. (Buy a tin of La Chinata Smoked Paprika. They all sell it in their posh food or World Food sections and this stuff is the shizzit. Seriously, it rocks and needs to be owned. A 70g tin is like under two quid).
The background flavour of the garlic, onions, celery (yeah that again - if you don't like it you know what to do), and the wine is divine. Seriously. Then the additional flavour of the stock, sugar and herbs adds a body that is strong yet offset by the texture of the creamy new potatoes. Brappp!
Serves 6
2 x Tesco’s finest chorizo sausages chopped into disks about 3mm thick
2 packs new potatoes
2 large red onions diced or two bunches of sliced spring onions
3 cloves garlic chopped
3 sticks celery chopped fine
1/3 bottle of dry white wine
2 tins premium chopped tomatoes (basic ones can be used if you must)
3 bay leaves
2 tsp of smoked paprika
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 tsp sugar
300 ml chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
Optional: either sliced greens, curly Kale, or mature spinach.
Cannelini beans instead of potatoes.
King prawns. Seriously, this works and the combo between the chorizo and prawns is stunning.
So how to cook it without buggering it up.
1. Boil the potatoes for 20 mins in salted water. Drain and leave to stand. (If they are large new potatoes, cut in half when they have cooled enough to be handled). While these are cooking, follow below.
2. Take a bigger pan like a Le Creuset or a large deep frying pan. Throw in a small amount of olive oil and fry off the sliced chorizo until it stars colouring the oil. Then throw in your onions and celery and sweat for 8 mins. Add a pinch of salt into the onions to stop them burning.
3. Chuck in white wine and cook off alcohol for at least 5 mins at medium heat. Then add in bay leaves, mixed herbs and smoked paprika. Stir for a minute and then add the tinned tomatoes. Sprinkle in the sugar and stir. Then add the potatoes to pan and top up with chicken stock.
Cook for 20-30 mins on a low bubble. Serve in bowls and mash new potatoes into juices. Some crusty bread is fabulous with this.
ALTERNATIVES
I have to add, that you can substitute the potatoes for a 3 tins of cannelini beans and it is healthier and still sumptuous. Also you can add in some washed kale or greens, prawns and beans in the last 5 mins, pack down and heat through. The leaves will need extra salt with them as they soak up some of the flavour and juices.
This is some lovely and quite quick family food that will warm the cockles and is genuinely equally nice with good red or white wine. I cannot decide. Enjoy and let me know if you do it.
Firstly, good chorizo is really important. If you buy it from the local Greek, Polish, Turkish, Indian, Pakistani shop on the corner or main street, it is not chorizo. I don't care what it says on the label. Kind of like when all the middle class Brits refer to soda bread on TV and my Irish wife gets on her very high horse and screams down from the clouds "that is WHEATEN BREAD!!!"
So this chorizo from the local shops is a super fatty, over salted, heavily dyed and chemically rich sausage. It lacks in proper paprika, let alone the smoked stuff and tastes like a sausage pumped full of chorizo crisp flavouring. Capiche? Don't touch it.
I found that Tesco's finest is the nicest I have seen on the mass market. Sainsburys do a passable own brand for half the price of Tesco, but it is also half the flavour (with more salt). In a recent study it said that all processed meat will kill you, so I suggest you cook this meal infrequently. I say that because when you do cook it and see how easy it is, yet how tasty it is, you will want it often. Go easy.
What is so nice about it? Well, firstly the paprika in the sausage and the tomato marry perfectly. (Buy a tin of La Chinata Smoked Paprika. They all sell it in their posh food or World Food sections and this stuff is the shizzit. Seriously, it rocks and needs to be owned. A 70g tin is like under two quid).
The background flavour of the garlic, onions, celery (yeah that again - if you don't like it you know what to do), and the wine is divine. Seriously. Then the additional flavour of the stock, sugar and herbs adds a body that is strong yet offset by the texture of the creamy new potatoes. Brappp!
Serves 6
2 x Tesco’s finest chorizo sausages chopped into disks about 3mm thick
2 packs new potatoes
2 large red onions diced or two bunches of sliced spring onions
3 cloves garlic chopped
3 sticks celery chopped fine
1/3 bottle of dry white wine
2 tins premium chopped tomatoes (basic ones can be used if you must)
3 bay leaves
2 tsp of smoked paprika
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 tsp sugar
300 ml chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
Optional: either sliced greens, curly Kale, or mature spinach.
Cannelini beans instead of potatoes.
King prawns. Seriously, this works and the combo between the chorizo and prawns is stunning.
So how to cook it without buggering it up.
1. Boil the potatoes for 20 mins in salted water. Drain and leave to stand. (If they are large new potatoes, cut in half when they have cooled enough to be handled). While these are cooking, follow below.
2. Take a bigger pan like a Le Creuset or a large deep frying pan. Throw in a small amount of olive oil and fry off the sliced chorizo until it stars colouring the oil. Then throw in your onions and celery and sweat for 8 mins. Add a pinch of salt into the onions to stop them burning.
3. Chuck in white wine and cook off alcohol for at least 5 mins at medium heat. Then add in bay leaves, mixed herbs and smoked paprika. Stir for a minute and then add the tinned tomatoes. Sprinkle in the sugar and stir. Then add the potatoes to pan and top up with chicken stock.
Cook for 20-30 mins on a low bubble. Serve in bowls and mash new potatoes into juices. Some crusty bread is fabulous with this.
ALTERNATIVES
I have to add, that you can substitute the potatoes for a 3 tins of cannelini beans and it is healthier and still sumptuous. Also you can add in some washed kale or greens, prawns and beans in the last 5 mins, pack down and heat through. The leaves will need extra salt with them as they soak up some of the flavour and juices.
This is some lovely and quite quick family food that will warm the cockles and is genuinely equally nice with good red or white wine. I cannot decide. Enjoy and let me know if you do it.
Monday 10 January 2011
Chilli coming soon - then all change.
The reason I am doing these now is to get them out of the way. They are the 'bread and butter' of comfort food. Roasts and stuff to come too.
Then I will putting up my own creations and observations. This will be where things are a little more experimental but still make aesthetic and culinary sense.
I promise.
Then I will putting up my own creations and observations. This will be where things are a little more experimental but still make aesthetic and culinary sense.
I promise.
Sunday 9 January 2011
Bolognese - a decent one
So we all know that like Balti and Santa this doesn't really exist. So what, it tastes great. The problem is that people too often jazz it up with veg and forget that veg is 90%+ made of water. So then you add salt to compensate and try to drain it etc. Another problem is not enough liquid because you don't like it runny. Both these things are a drag and require some attention but are not a major issue. The problem is, everyone thinks they can cook a spag-bol and they turn up some flavorless shit. Why? Lack of caring, time, thought, prep, eyesight, smell, taste. Just care for it because even though it is a cliched dish, like Joan Armatrading it needs love and attention.
Now this meat sauce I normally do in a pressure cooker because I like to (and it takes 20 minutes!). But you can do it in a heavy duty casserole pan, a Le Creuset pot, or even just a pan pan (but it might burn and be ugly as sin by the end). Don't use a pan, pan. Get the most thick bottomed, heavy duty one you have.
This serves 4. Let's discuss the ingredients.
750g Minced beef (though some use lamb - why??). I use the extra lean because if I wanted it to be totally dominated by beef flavour, I'd probably use leftovers of roast beef. Now there's an idea! Actually I have done this kind of as some Italian restaurants use the stringy shin of beef and it is seriously good. I once used diced roast beef that I browned off and it was superfine!!!
Mince comes in various cuts. Shit, pretty shit, not so shit, lean and extra lean. Then you have steak mince. If you want some nice food without a cloying fat that will hang behind your tongue for 3 days, use extra lean steak mince. If you get basic mince, when you come to brown it off, you will notice it swimming in a pool of liquid. It is pure fat and not that good stuff.
2 sticks Celery. If you don't like celery piss off. I don't care. For those people who do (and those who don't), it adds a natural saltiness to the sauce that salt doesn't have. It is like salt with body. Wash and finely slice.
75-100g Bacon or pancetta. Diced small and fried with all the fat.
Tomatoes. 2 tins of chopped. If you want a smoother sauce use a large jar of passata.
Red wine. 1 large glass. Stuff you would drink not chuck around.
2 medium or 1 large red onion. Diced small.
2 large cloves of garlic sliced or crushed. If you don't like garlic go to KFC.
A carrot. Finely diced.
If you want to add mushrooms, peppers and anything else, remember that they will bulk it but seriously water it down. If you are making it a day in advance, and it does taste twice as good on the second day, then this is fine. If you are eating it same day, stay away from extra veg.
Sprig of fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
Sea salt and black pepper
1/2 cup good beef stock, or if you are a veggie, a teaspoon of Marmite.
25g unsalted butter.
What to do:
First put a teaspoon of olive oil in your heavy pan. Then fry the bacon/pancetta over a medium/high heat. Keep stirring as you want all the fat to cook out and bubble in the pan. (I hate it too when uncooked bacon fat turns up in a pasta sauce). When everything is deep red (meat) or deep gold (fat), chuck in the butter and melt quickly, then add all the onions and carrot.
Sweat the onions/carrot down for 3-4 minutes. If the onions start to look like they might burn, add a pinch of salt to stop them burning then add the garlic and meat. Brown the meat off and break it all up. It will go greyish brown and become quite small and fine in the pan. When this is done, add the wine, salt, pepper, herbs and bay. Pour in the stock and cook down for 5 more mins. Then add the tomatoes or passata and stir properly.
Cover and simmer for an hour. During the hour, see how much liquid is in the pan. If you need more, top up with beef stock or hot water. If you need less, remove lid and turn up the heat for 10 minutes. If you could cook this at lunchtime and leave it til dinner, it would be at least 30% better. It needs to sit and just be for a while. This is what makes it so good, so comforting, so homely. It is what makes you think "yes I can cook!". Also, it is a good reason to drink 3/4 of a good bottle of red wine.
Optional.
A lot of people like parmesan cheese with it. I do too but I prefer an extra mature cheddar grated over the top. The salt and crumbly texture of the cheese softens but adds body to the sauce that you didn't think you could find.
Some people like to add 25ml of double cream when it is finished cooking. It is interesting and truly rich but I don't really enjoy it that much.
Have it with pasta, baked potato, or even on toast and it is great. Really great.
Now this meat sauce I normally do in a pressure cooker because I like to (and it takes 20 minutes!). But you can do it in a heavy duty casserole pan, a Le Creuset pot, or even just a pan pan (but it might burn and be ugly as sin by the end). Don't use a pan, pan. Get the most thick bottomed, heavy duty one you have.
This serves 4. Let's discuss the ingredients.
750g Minced beef (though some use lamb - why??). I use the extra lean because if I wanted it to be totally dominated by beef flavour, I'd probably use leftovers of roast beef. Now there's an idea! Actually I have done this kind of as some Italian restaurants use the stringy shin of beef and it is seriously good. I once used diced roast beef that I browned off and it was superfine!!!
Mince comes in various cuts. Shit, pretty shit, not so shit, lean and extra lean. Then you have steak mince. If you want some nice food without a cloying fat that will hang behind your tongue for 3 days, use extra lean steak mince. If you get basic mince, when you come to brown it off, you will notice it swimming in a pool of liquid. It is pure fat and not that good stuff.
2 sticks Celery. If you don't like celery piss off. I don't care. For those people who do (and those who don't), it adds a natural saltiness to the sauce that salt doesn't have. It is like salt with body. Wash and finely slice.
75-100g Bacon or pancetta. Diced small and fried with all the fat.
Tomatoes. 2 tins of chopped. If you want a smoother sauce use a large jar of passata.
Red wine. 1 large glass. Stuff you would drink not chuck around.
2 medium or 1 large red onion. Diced small.
2 large cloves of garlic sliced or crushed. If you don't like garlic go to KFC.
A carrot. Finely diced.
If you want to add mushrooms, peppers and anything else, remember that they will bulk it but seriously water it down. If you are making it a day in advance, and it does taste twice as good on the second day, then this is fine. If you are eating it same day, stay away from extra veg.
Sprig of fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
Sea salt and black pepper
1/2 cup good beef stock, or if you are a veggie, a teaspoon of Marmite.
25g unsalted butter.
What to do:
First put a teaspoon of olive oil in your heavy pan. Then fry the bacon/pancetta over a medium/high heat. Keep stirring as you want all the fat to cook out and bubble in the pan. (I hate it too when uncooked bacon fat turns up in a pasta sauce). When everything is deep red (meat) or deep gold (fat), chuck in the butter and melt quickly, then add all the onions and carrot.
Sweat the onions/carrot down for 3-4 minutes. If the onions start to look like they might burn, add a pinch of salt to stop them burning then add the garlic and meat. Brown the meat off and break it all up. It will go greyish brown and become quite small and fine in the pan. When this is done, add the wine, salt, pepper, herbs and bay. Pour in the stock and cook down for 5 more mins. Then add the tomatoes or passata and stir properly.
Cover and simmer for an hour. During the hour, see how much liquid is in the pan. If you need more, top up with beef stock or hot water. If you need less, remove lid and turn up the heat for 10 minutes. If you could cook this at lunchtime and leave it til dinner, it would be at least 30% better. It needs to sit and just be for a while. This is what makes it so good, so comforting, so homely. It is what makes you think "yes I can cook!". Also, it is a good reason to drink 3/4 of a good bottle of red wine.
Optional.
A lot of people like parmesan cheese with it. I do too but I prefer an extra mature cheddar grated over the top. The salt and crumbly texture of the cheese softens but adds body to the sauce that you didn't think you could find.
Some people like to add 25ml of double cream when it is finished cooking. It is interesting and truly rich but I don't really enjoy it that much.
Have it with pasta, baked potato, or even on toast and it is great. Really great.
Thai Green Curry, Bolognese and Chilli con Carne
Many meals have become cliched and dismissed as nothing more than good practice. Recently, The Guardian ran a few articles on how to make the 'best...' including Bolognese and Thai Green Curry. These were kind of interesting as so much depended on the conditions of cooking, the utensils and obviously the ingredients. The balance and timing of such things were also crucial and having done these so many times, I can tell you that a lot of it is bollocks.
I am pretty confident that with a couple of key pans, knives and hours, you can purchase, prepare and cook food that will taste great on day 1, better on day 2 and freeze really well for another day if you want.
So then what am I making this evening? Well we decided this morning on TGC as we haven't had it in months and I was going to Sainsbury's. Now a little point here - don't shop when you are hungry and don't ignore your shopping list thinking you know what's on it. I am a fool and had to go out again this afternoon. They don't put these kinds of screw ups in cook books because recipes are all about trust. Therefore I am already chancing losing it before I even write - but I am making the mistakes we all make.
What did I forget? Fresh ginger, lime leaves, chicken (yes I know - but at least I remembered while I was there and managed to traipse all the way from one end to the other to collect some of it). The problem was, I then forgot other stuff but so be it. I was hungry and pissed off.
So now I am going to cook a classic, standard fare but pretty tasty meal. A couple of things will make mine different to all other recipes - I am quite confident of this. But you don't need to copy me to get a good result as I only do some things my way because they have worked for me. Try your own thing out and also cooking instructions on the shop packaging tend to be pretty reliable, funnily enough. Nevertheless, I will also add that if I could afford to shop in markets etc, I damn well would. Although that food doesn't keep very long.
So what to use for THAI GREEN CURRY
Firstly get a wok and a food processor - if you don't, you will have a nightmare with this and don't even bother as by the end you will hate cooking.
This will serve 2. If you want more, add more. ;)
Ingredients:
2-3 chicken breasts diced. Try to buy free range at least because that will make a difference.
2 limes - first zest 1 with a grater and then juice 1 and a half - keep a squeezed half
Medium bunch coriander
Handful of basil
Olive oil 2 good glugs
Chicken stock (use Knorr at a push but not supermarket's own brand)
Bunch of spring onions sliced (top and tail any manky bits and separate the green bits from the white).
Garlic 2 cloves peeled and sliced
Lemon grass - 2 stalks (outer layer removed and top and tail and then bash and slice fine)
Ginger 1 thumb size peeled - but keep some peelings.
Chilli - 2 green medium size hot chillies de-seeded unless you fancy yourself tough guy.
Salt (buy Maldon flakes in a box - they are less 'salty' than table salt and haven't been processed) and pepper
1 tin coconut milk
Something green and vegetable-like. I am using 1 courgette and 1 green pepper as well, both sliced.
Basmati rice - 1 cup between two people
I wish my daughter wasn't crying so much while I was trying to make this. Recently, she won't settle to sleep without someone stroking her back. So we are trying to ween her off this habit and it sounds like someone has bottled the world's collective reaction to 'Beaches' and is pouring it out fast all over her bedroom.
Anyway, chuck all the coriander, basil, lemon grass, chopped garlic, chopped ginger, green ends of spring onions, lime juice and zest, olive oil, chillies into the food processor and pulse the hell out of it. You now have a green curry paste. Sorted. It will have little small pieces of stuff in it as it will not be a smooth paste. That would take too long and be a waste of time.
Add the paste to a bowl with the diced chicken in. Add pinch of salt and pepper, stir it and let it sit for 15 mins. In the meantime you can slice your peppers and courgette.
Heat the wok (which heats very fast and DO NOT pour oil directly into the wok. This will cause a small fire, smoke, burns and so on). Instead, there is oil already in the paste and that will do what you need doing. Cook.
First do the rice. This is the different part as I was taught this by my dad and have never seen it elsewhere. Probably because I haven't looked. Pour a glug of olive oil in a smallish non stick pan and heat up on a medium to high heat. Then add the cup of basmati rice and 2-3 (cleaned) peelings of ginger. Stir. Stirring every 10 seconds or so, eventually (2 mins or so) you will smell a slightly nutty, gingerish frying smell. Then add 1 and a 1/2 cups of cold water and watch it jump all over the place for 2 seconds. Then a pinch of salt and the half of already squeezed lime COVER WITH A LID AND DON'T REMOVE. Bring to boiling point (1 min) and then turn down to simmer for 12 mins. Put it on a timer and all the water cooks into the rice. THERE IS NO DRAINING TO BE DONE!!!! When it is ready, turn off heat and leave until chicken is ready.
Pour in chicken and stir a lot. The sauce will catch on the wok and start to brown. Keep stirring and chipping away for about 3 mins. Then add in the tin of coconut milk and stir well and turn the heat down to a simmer. Also add half a cup of chicken stock and stir. Simmer for 10 mins and add the sliced peppers and courgette (or whatever green thing you choose here). Simmer for another 10 mins and stir every minute to stop the coconut milk bubbling or separating. Just before the end, add the white bits of spring onion and stir in - leave some to chuck on top when served.
Once ready, remove the lime and ginger peelings from your rice, spoon some into a bowl (as a plate will pour the liquids into your lap) and then some chicken. If you have any uncooked left over coriander and basil, these looks nice on top and add to the lovely fresh taste.
This is now ready to eat and very tasty indeed. All in all this should take 10 mins prep, 20 mins cooking, 10 mins fuck up time just in case you get some stages wrong. It is a versatile meal and if you forget to do something, chuck it in because it will work.
Enjoy and let me know how it went. Bolognese and Chilli will come another time.
Cheers
I am pretty confident that with a couple of key pans, knives and hours, you can purchase, prepare and cook food that will taste great on day 1, better on day 2 and freeze really well for another day if you want.
So then what am I making this evening? Well we decided this morning on TGC as we haven't had it in months and I was going to Sainsbury's. Now a little point here - don't shop when you are hungry and don't ignore your shopping list thinking you know what's on it. I am a fool and had to go out again this afternoon. They don't put these kinds of screw ups in cook books because recipes are all about trust. Therefore I am already chancing losing it before I even write - but I am making the mistakes we all make.
What did I forget? Fresh ginger, lime leaves, chicken (yes I know - but at least I remembered while I was there and managed to traipse all the way from one end to the other to collect some of it). The problem was, I then forgot other stuff but so be it. I was hungry and pissed off.
So now I am going to cook a classic, standard fare but pretty tasty meal. A couple of things will make mine different to all other recipes - I am quite confident of this. But you don't need to copy me to get a good result as I only do some things my way because they have worked for me. Try your own thing out and also cooking instructions on the shop packaging tend to be pretty reliable, funnily enough. Nevertheless, I will also add that if I could afford to shop in markets etc, I damn well would. Although that food doesn't keep very long.
So what to use for THAI GREEN CURRY
Firstly get a wok and a food processor - if you don't, you will have a nightmare with this and don't even bother as by the end you will hate cooking.
This will serve 2. If you want more, add more. ;)
Ingredients:
2-3 chicken breasts diced. Try to buy free range at least because that will make a difference.
2 limes - first zest 1 with a grater and then juice 1 and a half - keep a squeezed half
Medium bunch coriander
Handful of basil
Olive oil 2 good glugs
Chicken stock (use Knorr at a push but not supermarket's own brand)
Bunch of spring onions sliced (top and tail any manky bits and separate the green bits from the white).
Garlic 2 cloves peeled and sliced
Lemon grass - 2 stalks (outer layer removed and top and tail and then bash and slice fine)
Ginger 1 thumb size peeled - but keep some peelings.
Chilli - 2 green medium size hot chillies de-seeded unless you fancy yourself tough guy.
Salt (buy Maldon flakes in a box - they are less 'salty' than table salt and haven't been processed) and pepper
1 tin coconut milk
Something green and vegetable-like. I am using 1 courgette and 1 green pepper as well, both sliced.
Basmati rice - 1 cup between two people
I wish my daughter wasn't crying so much while I was trying to make this. Recently, she won't settle to sleep without someone stroking her back. So we are trying to ween her off this habit and it sounds like someone has bottled the world's collective reaction to 'Beaches' and is pouring it out fast all over her bedroom.
Anyway, chuck all the coriander, basil, lemon grass, chopped garlic, chopped ginger, green ends of spring onions, lime juice and zest, olive oil, chillies into the food processor and pulse the hell out of it. You now have a green curry paste. Sorted. It will have little small pieces of stuff in it as it will not be a smooth paste. That would take too long and be a waste of time.
Add the paste to a bowl with the diced chicken in. Add pinch of salt and pepper, stir it and let it sit for 15 mins. In the meantime you can slice your peppers and courgette.
Heat the wok (which heats very fast and DO NOT pour oil directly into the wok. This will cause a small fire, smoke, burns and so on). Instead, there is oil already in the paste and that will do what you need doing. Cook.
First do the rice. This is the different part as I was taught this by my dad and have never seen it elsewhere. Probably because I haven't looked. Pour a glug of olive oil in a smallish non stick pan and heat up on a medium to high heat. Then add the cup of basmati rice and 2-3 (cleaned) peelings of ginger. Stir. Stirring every 10 seconds or so, eventually (2 mins or so) you will smell a slightly nutty, gingerish frying smell. Then add 1 and a 1/2 cups of cold water and watch it jump all over the place for 2 seconds. Then a pinch of salt and the half of already squeezed lime COVER WITH A LID AND DON'T REMOVE. Bring to boiling point (1 min) and then turn down to simmer for 12 mins. Put it on a timer and all the water cooks into the rice. THERE IS NO DRAINING TO BE DONE!!!! When it is ready, turn off heat and leave until chicken is ready.
Pour in chicken and stir a lot. The sauce will catch on the wok and start to brown. Keep stirring and chipping away for about 3 mins. Then add in the tin of coconut milk and stir well and turn the heat down to a simmer. Also add half a cup of chicken stock and stir. Simmer for 10 mins and add the sliced peppers and courgette (or whatever green thing you choose here). Simmer for another 10 mins and stir every minute to stop the coconut milk bubbling or separating. Just before the end, add the white bits of spring onion and stir in - leave some to chuck on top when served.
Once ready, remove the lime and ginger peelings from your rice, spoon some into a bowl (as a plate will pour the liquids into your lap) and then some chicken. If you have any uncooked left over coriander and basil, these looks nice on top and add to the lovely fresh taste.
This is now ready to eat and very tasty indeed. All in all this should take 10 mins prep, 20 mins cooking, 10 mins fuck up time just in case you get some stages wrong. It is a versatile meal and if you forget to do something, chuck it in because it will work.
Enjoy and let me know how it went. Bolognese and Chilli will come another time.
Cheers
Welcome and why bother?
Hello
I am writing this because friends and family have encouraged me to. Also, I figure that good food is not always about the wonderful 'deeper pocket' range of 'delectables' one can only get from a farmer's market, Borough Market, or the countryside.
Saying that, I have to underline that I am not always going to be using the best ingredients because, well the supermarkets just don't really sell them. I admit that better ingredients make nicer meals. But at the same time, cooking can be very successful without the best stuff. Also, I don't want to 'hate' on the supermarkets as they generally can be pretty decent (from my experience in North London).
However, it is worth noting that a Sainsbury's in North London stocks pretty different stuff to Derby or Belfast and as with anything, they cater for their customers' palates. This is the biggest pain in the arse I will come up against. Though I live in London and benefit from the multicultural offerings, I have spent a fair bit of time shopping and cooking in other areas and it can suck. The only way to change this is to ask for certain ingredients and hope the management of these shops listen.
Anyway, you get the gist of it. I will start posting as often as possible and happily will receive comments and feedback if you can be bothered. I may also paraphrase various cook's ideas and tips and will hopefully always name check them as I cannot claim that wisdom to be mine. That would make me a liar and a wally.
Let's get on with it.
I am writing this because friends and family have encouraged me to. Also, I figure that good food is not always about the wonderful 'deeper pocket' range of 'delectables' one can only get from a farmer's market, Borough Market, or the countryside.
Saying that, I have to underline that I am not always going to be using the best ingredients because, well the supermarkets just don't really sell them. I admit that better ingredients make nicer meals. But at the same time, cooking can be very successful without the best stuff. Also, I don't want to 'hate' on the supermarkets as they generally can be pretty decent (from my experience in North London).
However, it is worth noting that a Sainsbury's in North London stocks pretty different stuff to Derby or Belfast and as with anything, they cater for their customers' palates. This is the biggest pain in the arse I will come up against. Though I live in London and benefit from the multicultural offerings, I have spent a fair bit of time shopping and cooking in other areas and it can suck. The only way to change this is to ask for certain ingredients and hope the management of these shops listen.
Anyway, you get the gist of it. I will start posting as often as possible and happily will receive comments and feedback if you can be bothered. I may also paraphrase various cook's ideas and tips and will hopefully always name check them as I cannot claim that wisdom to be mine. That would make me a liar and a wally.
Let's get on with it.
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