It’s a hard life. It’s Monday morning, I’ve got a week off, I’m on my third cup of tea, the Test Match Special is on the ‘puter & I’m tucking into the leftovers of yesterday’s Thai seafood salad. T’is a very versatile dish, Thai (insert protein) salad. Once the basic noodle & dressing bit is sorted you can chuck a whole variety of veggies, meats and/or fishy things into/onto it. Some recipes for this call for a staggering amount of raw onion which is a shame really coz the dish is all about balance, each mouthful ought to offer something different depending on which morsels sneak into your gob with the noodles.
Basic Thai Glass Noodle Salad
100g glass noodles (serves 2)
Juice of 3 limes
Good glugg of fish sauce
Pinch of sugar
A couple of red bird’s eye chillies finely chopped
A cucumber cut into small inch long sticks
1 small red onion or a couple of shallots sliced into semi rings
A handful of coriander leaves
The noodles are soaked in hot water for 3 or so minutes. As soon as they’re al bundy you bung them in cold water then drain. Then you mix the lime juice, fish sauce, sugar & chillies, tasting to make sure the balance is right. Chuck everything together & now you’re ready to add your whatnots of choice……
A Choice Of Whatnots
Seafood – we had mussels, prawns & squid yesterday. I steamed the mussels, removing them as soon as they opened. We had a kilo which was rather a lot so I saved the biggest 20 for a Spanishy tapas thing (see below). The juice was then strained & added to a pint of so of water, some tamarind paste, sliced ginger & a few whole cloves of garlic. The squid & prawns were “barely” cooked in this broth, which can be used for making soup with. The garlic was added to the salad.
Cow – marinate a nice, lean steak in olive oil, black pepper & garlic. Flash fry it on all sides, leave it to rest then slice it thinly. We like our meat still mooing in the middle, it should at most be rare.
Duck's Breast – Done like the cow but should be pink not rare
Tuna – Rub olive oil into a nice, thick tuna steak. Season then flash fry it on all sides. As soon as the last bit of “flipping” has taken place pour a good slurp each of soy sauce & balsamic vinegar into the pan. It’s all-action stuff as the liquid will spit & splatter. Turn the tuna over in it before removing. Now reduce to a thick syrup which you then spooned over the fish. You can roll it in toasted sesame seeds if you want. When cool it’s sliced. Like the steak it should be raw in the middle. It’s also very impressive visually.
Minced Pork – Fry the pork “hard” to evaporate any liquid it might contain. Add minced garlic, shrimp paste, pepper, fish sauce & a pinch of sugar.
Veggies – Carrot cut into sticks, mange tout, asparagus, baby sweet corn, spring onions, bean sprouts, even halved cherry tomatoes. They’re not very “Thai” but their acidity suits the dish well.
Topping – A handful of dried shrimps get a good pestling in a mortar then fried, adding chopped ginger, shallot & garlic. When they’re all nice & crispy they’re sprinkled atop the salad. The garlic & ginger, especially, are rather essential to the dish imo. Make sure the garlic doesn’t burn.
Finally a little fresh mint can be added along with the coriander leaves for a slightly Vietnamesey twist.
You might need to tweak the dish with some more lime juice and/or fish sauce before serving.
Garlic Mussels
Terribly simple yet totally moreish. A couple of cloves of minced garlic are mixed with olive oil, pepper & finely chopped parsley. Place the barely steamed mussels (left in one of their valves) on a baking tray adding a spoonful of garlic goo to each. A sprinkling of fine bread crumbs can be added too for a toasty effect. Grill for a minute or so and serve with crusty bread.
Monday 27 August 2007
Thursday 23 August 2007
Bangers & Cash
I think sausage making rocks. Homemade sausages are generally eons better than anything you can buy. Basically because you can guarantee the quality and quantity of the meat going into them. Years back I knew a butcher who worked in a supermarket and she told me the story of how a nice piece of pork would be removed from the display fridge once it had reached its sell-by date, get sliced into chops & returned with a new date. This would repeat itself, the meat becoming cubes, then mince, then "homemade" sausage all with an extended shop-lifespan. By the time the sausage was sold or binned the original meat had been in the supermarket so long it probably had tenancy rights. This is the reason I never buy mince from a supermarket with a proper butcher's department. Or from a small butcher's for that matter unless I have reason to believe they're not up to tricks. But where was I? Ah yes, sausage making. With my old tiny manual meat grinder, bought from a second-hand shop for a pound, it’s a tad tricky making bangers as you need one hand to push the meat down the funnel, one hand to wind the handle and one hand to gently caress the sausages as they roll off the nozzle. As one does. Which leaves you decidedly short of hands, and unable to drink beer. So a year or so ago I invested in a Kenwood sausage making machine thingy but decided not to use it until the kitchen was finished, the plan being to produce lovely, home-made bangers as one of my first projects once the “playground” was completed. So I felt a bit of, no, a right royal twat when I unpacked it last month only to find it was but an attachment for a proper big mother-copulating food processor which would set me back £3-400 should I want one. Which I didn’t. So I bought a cheapo electric meat grinder instead.
Next up I needed sausage skins, which I’ve been successful in procuring from butcher’s in the past. As we’ve moved house since my last sausage adventure I paid our local purveyor of carcass a visit. “No probs” he said, “how much do you need?” I thought 5 to 10 meters would suffice to which he informed me it would cost about £2 a meter. Shocked I asked him if that included the stuff you put inside the sausages to which he replied something about them being expensive things requiring much work in preparing them etc, etc ie complete and utter bollocks, like he did all that himself. My guess is he didn’t want to sell them to me. The cock.
Acting on information given to me by my godfather Ray I then went shopping on the intaweb, www.sausagemaking.org to be precise. And brill fab, they not only had pigs intestines( sorry “casings”) but cows’ ones for salamis, sheep’s for chipolatas, collagen for veggies (they’d have to avoid the inside bit tho’) as well as curing powders and other “kit”. So I ordered a bundle and was as pleased as a nun in a cucumber patch up until I had to put in my address. Free postage & packaging in the UK, within the EU add £20! To make things even more confusing if I’d lived in what’s called The Rest Of The World it would have been free too. Now, I’d only ordered about 20 quids worth of stuff so I thought “logger that” and bugged off.
To the rescue came Mrs B who, through dubiousish means, has acquired an access card for the big cash & carry in the middle of Copenhagen. They don’t sell to private peoples y’know. Anyway, it’s like an Aladdin’s cave, especially in the meat and fish departments. I knew they had sausage skins but last time I looked you had to buy a few miles worth at a time but behold & lo if they didn’t have them in dainty little tubs of a mere 5 meters. And at pound a tub all I can say to my local butcher-cum-knobhead is “you can go and fork offal”.
So, armed to the teats with sausage making gadgetry and more intestines than you can stake a shit at, I set about fulfilling my sausage destiny. Or something like that. Here are the two best banger recipes I’ve come up with so far….
Classic Sage’n’Onion Pork Sausages
You really can’t beat the combination of pork, onion & sage when making bangers. I use very little bread & it can be totally omitted if y’like ya sausages really dense. It’s important to let the sausages rest for at least 12 hours before cooking to let the flavours party a bit. I actually think they benefit from being frozen for a while.
500 g minced pork (8-10% fat is a good amount)
2 biggish onions
2 cloves of garlic
2 slices of whitish bread blitzed into fine crumbs
A big handful of fresh sage leaves finely chopped (dried ain’t half as good)
A pinch or two of mace
A little olive oil or a modest knob of butter
Lots of crushed black pepper
Salt
About 2 meters of pig’s intestines or the equivalent collagen ones
Ok, if you’re using salted swine bowels they have to be soaked in fresh warm water for a while so start by doing that. The onions & garlic need to finely chopped then softened in the oil/butter. This is very important, raw onions will ruin yer bangers. Then simply mix everything together in a mixing bowl. Very well. To check the seasoning fry a small ball of your creation in the used frying pan (this is my first how-to-be-economical-with-the-washing-up tip). I like my sausages nice and peppery so I tend to bung in loads. Now to the kitchen erotica bit. Take the casings and thread them onto your sausage-making-funnel thingy. Then, leaving a couple of inches dangling, start feeding the meat mix into your machine. As it starts filling ease off the skin from the nozzle forming the sausage as you go. By pulling it off quickly you get a thinner sausage. Likewise, if you hold back your sausage will get fatter. I must have made a good fifty meters of sausages so far & I still can’t do this without giggling. Jesus, I'm smirking just writing it. When done the sausages are twisted into the required lengths.
When it comes to cooking your bangers remember they don’t need pricking. This will only succeed in letting the lovely pork juices run out. Because your nice, homemade beasts don’t contain excess water they won’t explode and any expanding they need doing takes place out the ends anyway. I usually brown them in a little oil then chuck them in the oven for half an hour at 200 degrees Celsius.
Thai Pork & Prawn Sausages
Where as the previous recipe was simple and classic this one is deffo more of a mad-experiment-that-went-right sort of thing. We’ve had these both fried/baked as well as steamed and I have to say the steamed ones won by a whisker. When you cut into them the prawns look like large lumps of fat which I find amusing. But then I’m easily amused.
500g minced pork
5-10 black tiger prawns shelled & chopped into smallish pieces
1 large onion chopped finely & softened
4 cloves of garlic chopped
1½ inch cube of ginger ditto ditto
2 stalks of lemon grass bashed & chopped
5 or so kaffir lime leaves de-stalked & chopped
A handful of dried Thai shrimps pounded in a mortar (with a pestle) and fried with the onions
½ teaspoon of fish paste (mixed with a bit of warm water to thin it down)
2-4 small chilies chopped finely
A big handful of chopped fresh coriander
½ teaspoon of ground dried coriander seeds
2 spring onions chopped
Fish sauce (instead of salt)
Ground white pepper
Ok, mix well together, test for seasoning (if it gets too fishy before it’s salty enough then use salt) and make as before. A teaspoon or two of red curry paste can be used too for a different effect. These are delicious with a sweet chili sauce. Happy Banging...
Next up I needed sausage skins, which I’ve been successful in procuring from butcher’s in the past. As we’ve moved house since my last sausage adventure I paid our local purveyor of carcass a visit. “No probs” he said, “how much do you need?” I thought 5 to 10 meters would suffice to which he informed me it would cost about £2 a meter. Shocked I asked him if that included the stuff you put inside the sausages to which he replied something about them being expensive things requiring much work in preparing them etc, etc ie complete and utter bollocks, like he did all that himself. My guess is he didn’t want to sell them to me. The cock.
Acting on information given to me by my godfather Ray I then went shopping on the intaweb, www.sausagemaking.org to be precise. And brill fab, they not only had pigs intestines( sorry “casings”) but cows’ ones for salamis, sheep’s for chipolatas, collagen for veggies (they’d have to avoid the inside bit tho’) as well as curing powders and other “kit”. So I ordered a bundle and was as pleased as a nun in a cucumber patch up until I had to put in my address. Free postage & packaging in the UK, within the EU add £20! To make things even more confusing if I’d lived in what’s called The Rest Of The World it would have been free too. Now, I’d only ordered about 20 quids worth of stuff so I thought “logger that” and bugged off.
To the rescue came Mrs B who, through dubiousish means, has acquired an access card for the big cash & carry in the middle of Copenhagen. They don’t sell to private peoples y’know. Anyway, it’s like an Aladdin’s cave, especially in the meat and fish departments. I knew they had sausage skins but last time I looked you had to buy a few miles worth at a time but behold & lo if they didn’t have them in dainty little tubs of a mere 5 meters. And at pound a tub all I can say to my local butcher-cum-knobhead is “you can go and fork offal”.
So, armed to the teats with sausage making gadgetry and more intestines than you can stake a shit at, I set about fulfilling my sausage destiny. Or something like that. Here are the two best banger recipes I’ve come up with so far….
Classic Sage’n’Onion Pork Sausages
You really can’t beat the combination of pork, onion & sage when making bangers. I use very little bread & it can be totally omitted if y’like ya sausages really dense. It’s important to let the sausages rest for at least 12 hours before cooking to let the flavours party a bit. I actually think they benefit from being frozen for a while.
500 g minced pork (8-10% fat is a good amount)
2 biggish onions
2 cloves of garlic
2 slices of whitish bread blitzed into fine crumbs
A big handful of fresh sage leaves finely chopped (dried ain’t half as good)
A pinch or two of mace
A little olive oil or a modest knob of butter
Lots of crushed black pepper
Salt
About 2 meters of pig’s intestines or the equivalent collagen ones
Ok, if you’re using salted swine bowels they have to be soaked in fresh warm water for a while so start by doing that. The onions & garlic need to finely chopped then softened in the oil/butter. This is very important, raw onions will ruin yer bangers. Then simply mix everything together in a mixing bowl. Very well. To check the seasoning fry a small ball of your creation in the used frying pan (this is my first how-to-be-economical-with-the-washing-up tip). I like my sausages nice and peppery so I tend to bung in loads. Now to the kitchen erotica bit. Take the casings and thread them onto your sausage-making-funnel thingy. Then, leaving a couple of inches dangling, start feeding the meat mix into your machine. As it starts filling ease off the skin from the nozzle forming the sausage as you go. By pulling it off quickly you get a thinner sausage. Likewise, if you hold back your sausage will get fatter. I must have made a good fifty meters of sausages so far & I still can’t do this without giggling. Jesus, I'm smirking just writing it. When done the sausages are twisted into the required lengths.
When it comes to cooking your bangers remember they don’t need pricking. This will only succeed in letting the lovely pork juices run out. Because your nice, homemade beasts don’t contain excess water they won’t explode and any expanding they need doing takes place out the ends anyway. I usually brown them in a little oil then chuck them in the oven for half an hour at 200 degrees Celsius.
Thai Pork & Prawn Sausages
Where as the previous recipe was simple and classic this one is deffo more of a mad-experiment-that-went-right sort of thing. We’ve had these both fried/baked as well as steamed and I have to say the steamed ones won by a whisker. When you cut into them the prawns look like large lumps of fat which I find amusing. But then I’m easily amused.
500g minced pork
5-10 black tiger prawns shelled & chopped into smallish pieces
1 large onion chopped finely & softened
4 cloves of garlic chopped
1½ inch cube of ginger ditto ditto
2 stalks of lemon grass bashed & chopped
5 or so kaffir lime leaves de-stalked & chopped
A handful of dried Thai shrimps pounded in a mortar (with a pestle) and fried with the onions
½ teaspoon of fish paste (mixed with a bit of warm water to thin it down)
2-4 small chilies chopped finely
A big handful of chopped fresh coriander
½ teaspoon of ground dried coriander seeds
2 spring onions chopped
Fish sauce (instead of salt)
Ground white pepper
Ok, mix well together, test for seasoning (if it gets too fishy before it’s salty enough then use salt) and make as before. A teaspoon or two of red curry paste can be used too for a different effect. These are delicious with a sweet chili sauce. Happy Banging...
Monday 9 July 2007
Shrimp'n'save
Last year a fish van came round our neighbourhood and they had proper fresh raw prawns, caught off the western coast of Denmark. They were amazing & we bought a few kilos. Every time the fish van’s been back we’ve wanted to buy more but they haven’t had them. This is a cause of great grief to me. I wish I could buy raw, frozen North Sea or Greenland prawns in fishmongers or supermarkets. But I can’t. Boiled-&-frozen-at-sea shelled & unshelled prawns are all I can get. Up until the arrival of frozen, raw black tiger prawns from the Far East a simple dish of prawns in garlic butter meant using the pre-boiled things. Even in restaurants. Straight from the freezer they’d bung them in the pan. Yuk. You don’t buy pre-boiled eggs & then re-boil them, do you? I like my seafood pretty under cooked so, until they design a machine that can reverse the cooking process, I’m stuck with the pollution causing, anti-biotic riddled black tigers. We can get fresh raw fjord shrimps in season but, whilst totally delish, are so tiny they can’t be used for much else than nibbles. After reading about it somewhere I collected a few dozen wood lice today. After giving them a quick rinse I poured boiling salted water over them. The theory is that they taste like shrimps seeing as they are not unrelated to them. Yes, they did taste shrimpish. No, they did not taste very nice. And anyway, it took me half an hour to collect no more than could be fitted into a teabag so feeding the masses is deffo out of the question. The following recipes are Mrs B's & my favourite prawn dishes….
Prawns in Garlic ButterOil
People tend to overcook their prawns. So I concocted this dish which keeps them really moist & juicy whilst not compromising on the garlic flavour. It’s dead simple and can be prepped early which is dead handy if you’re doing it for a bash. By using a combination of olive oil & garlic you get a nicer sauce. If only butter is used it tends to get too rich.
Raw black tiger prawns (with or without their heads)
Butter
Garlic
Un-waxed lemons
Parsley
Olive oil
Chilli (optional)
Crushed black pepper
In a frying pan soften the sliced garlic slowly in olive oil over a low heat. Use plenty of oil and lots & lots of garlic. You’re looking to infuse the oil so, as it softens, mash it up a bit. Dump in the black pepper and, after a while, the parsley (and the chilli if wanted). Now, whilst this warms away place your thawed & patted dry prawns in an oven dish. I use something that’s a medium sized flowerpot in shape (minus the holes in the bottom, ha ha). Bung in your garlic goo and mix well together. You really want to coat every critter with the stuff. Then cover with thinnish slices of lemon. The lemon is your lid which keeps in the juices. Put a few handsome sized knobs of butter on top of the lemon slices and your ready to chuck it in the oven (or put it in the fridge where it will marinate nicely for a few hours). Bake it for anything between 20 to 45 minutes depending on the amount of prawns and size of pot, at 180 degrees celcius. I like to take them out after 10-15 mins, remove the lemon, stir around the prawns so the inner ones take a turn on the outside, back on with the lemon slices and into the oven again. They’re done when they’re pink. Serve with crusty bread. The juices are sublime, the prawns should be soft and succulent, more like lobster than frying-pan garlic prawns.
Sack O’ Porn Prawns
This is a dish Mrs B & I had at the wonderfully named Thai restaurant Porn Sak. I guess we’ve eaten there at least half a dozen times and each time the dish had developed into something more and more bland (to pamper to delicate local palates, so the waiter said) so this is a tribute to the original hardcore experience.
Black Tiger Prawns (headless)
Limes
Bird’s-eye chillies
Fish Sauce
Sugar
Squeeze a couple of limes. Mix the juice with half a teaspoon of sugar, a few gluggs of fish sauce and some chopped chillies. Let this infuse in the fridge for an hour or so. Then peel the prawns (saving the skins for the next recipe if you’re game) then slice in two lengthways. Remove the black intestine thread-like thing and lay the prawns stripy side up on a serving dish. Just before serving pour over the lime mix. You can garnish with small wedges of lime and some fresh coriander if you’re feeling artistic. The wonderful thing about this dish is how the texture of the prawns changes throughout the meal. At the start they’ll be predictably raw and sweet then later on they’ll “cook” in the acidic lime juice becoming firmer & whiter. It’s the sort of dish you have with other dishes. It also goes well with sushi.
Crispy Prawn Shells
I take great pleasure in using as much of a beast as poss so this is one of my babies. It relies on the prawn shells not being too thick, the steroid taking, fast grown black tiger shells are perfect. Lobster shells less so.
Prawn shells
Olive Oil
Sea Salt
The prawn shells are simply fried in olive oil until they are nice and golden. As the moisture in them is cooked off they’ll fry quieter. The secret is getting them crisp but not burnt. Drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with sea salt. You can also add dried chilli and/or fried minced garlic. Perfect with beer, wine, g&t's, bloody mary's.....
Prawns in Garlic ButterOil
People tend to overcook their prawns. So I concocted this dish which keeps them really moist & juicy whilst not compromising on the garlic flavour. It’s dead simple and can be prepped early which is dead handy if you’re doing it for a bash. By using a combination of olive oil & garlic you get a nicer sauce. If only butter is used it tends to get too rich.
Raw black tiger prawns (with or without their heads)
Butter
Garlic
Un-waxed lemons
Parsley
Olive oil
Chilli (optional)
Crushed black pepper
In a frying pan soften the sliced garlic slowly in olive oil over a low heat. Use plenty of oil and lots & lots of garlic. You’re looking to infuse the oil so, as it softens, mash it up a bit. Dump in the black pepper and, after a while, the parsley (and the chilli if wanted). Now, whilst this warms away place your thawed & patted dry prawns in an oven dish. I use something that’s a medium sized flowerpot in shape (minus the holes in the bottom, ha ha). Bung in your garlic goo and mix well together. You really want to coat every critter with the stuff. Then cover with thinnish slices of lemon. The lemon is your lid which keeps in the juices. Put a few handsome sized knobs of butter on top of the lemon slices and your ready to chuck it in the oven (or put it in the fridge where it will marinate nicely for a few hours). Bake it for anything between 20 to 45 minutes depending on the amount of prawns and size of pot, at 180 degrees celcius. I like to take them out after 10-15 mins, remove the lemon, stir around the prawns so the inner ones take a turn on the outside, back on with the lemon slices and into the oven again. They’re done when they’re pink. Serve with crusty bread. The juices are sublime, the prawns should be soft and succulent, more like lobster than frying-pan garlic prawns.
Sack O’ Porn Prawns
This is a dish Mrs B & I had at the wonderfully named Thai restaurant Porn Sak. I guess we’ve eaten there at least half a dozen times and each time the dish had developed into something more and more bland (to pamper to delicate local palates, so the waiter said) so this is a tribute to the original hardcore experience.
Black Tiger Prawns (headless)
Limes
Bird’s-eye chillies
Fish Sauce
Sugar
Squeeze a couple of limes. Mix the juice with half a teaspoon of sugar, a few gluggs of fish sauce and some chopped chillies. Let this infuse in the fridge for an hour or so. Then peel the prawns (saving the skins for the next recipe if you’re game) then slice in two lengthways. Remove the black intestine thread-like thing and lay the prawns stripy side up on a serving dish. Just before serving pour over the lime mix. You can garnish with small wedges of lime and some fresh coriander if you’re feeling artistic. The wonderful thing about this dish is how the texture of the prawns changes throughout the meal. At the start they’ll be predictably raw and sweet then later on they’ll “cook” in the acidic lime juice becoming firmer & whiter. It’s the sort of dish you have with other dishes. It also goes well with sushi.
Crispy Prawn Shells
I take great pleasure in using as much of a beast as poss so this is one of my babies. It relies on the prawn shells not being too thick, the steroid taking, fast grown black tiger shells are perfect. Lobster shells less so.
Prawn shells
Olive Oil
Sea Salt
The prawn shells are simply fried in olive oil until they are nice and golden. As the moisture in them is cooked off they’ll fry quieter. The secret is getting them crisp but not burnt. Drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with sea salt. You can also add dried chilli and/or fried minced garlic. Perfect with beer, wine, g&t's, bloody mary's.....
Saturday 30 June 2007
Seconds up - round 2.....
I tend not to be very impressed with my own food when I sit down to eat it immediately after preparing it. I think it’s due to all the smells and tasting during cooking, I simply feel full up. This was very apparent the other day when I made two separate dishes which I really didn’t think much of but today, served cold for lunch, they were really tasty. But I suppose if you make food and subsequently don’t eat it you’re not gonna get too fat. If you don't drink lots of beer. Like me....
Here are the dishes;
Mushroom Lasagna
Made this using an alternative, Jammy O’ Liver “inspired,” cheats béchamel sauce which Mrs B liked but I found a tad watery. It was a 500ml tub of crème fraiche mixed with a couple of fistfuls of grated cheddar & parmesan. The trouble was it kinda split and, despite Mrs B kindly saying she liked the “clean consistency” I felt it lacked the creaminess a real béchamel gives. It might work with other ingredients tho’, something less likely to release so much water like meat or tampons. The mushrooms were amazing tho’.
500g normal white mushrooms
250g abnormal mushrooms (something with taste & a bit of bite like chantarelles)
garlic
dried chilli
fresh thyme
loads of freshly grated parmesan and cheddar
milk, four, butter & nutmeg to make the béchamel
lasagna
truffle oil
Right, clean all the mushrooms using kitchen paper. I always try not to use water as they’ll absorb it making frying nigh on imposs. Roughly chop all the white mushrooms and fry them in batches in olive oil until some of them take on colour. You don’t want them too done but the pan has to be fecking hot so as to evaporate as much liquid as poss. As each batch is done bung them in a blender with 2-4-6-8 cloves of garlic and a couple of dried chillis. Let this cool down a bit whilst you fry the posh mushrooms. When these are done put them to one side. Meanwhile blitz the white mushrooms which will not be white anymore – they’ll look like something the dog threw up. Season with the fresh thyme, salt and pepper.
Now for the béchamel. In a non-stick saucepan melt a big knob of butter and bung in a couple of tablespoons of plain flour. Stir it around for a bit. It’ll form into a paste after which you keep stirring to “cook the flourness out of the flour”. This takes a minute or so, you don’t want it to colour, then you pour in half a liter or so of milk. For gawd’s sake keep stirring as you bring it up to a simmer or else it will burn and there ain’t much fouler than the taste/smell of burnt milk. When the sauce has thickened grate in some nutmeg, season and chuck in a handful of grated cheddar. Remove from the heat.
I used a bread tin for this as it’s a good size. Firstly you put in a layer of the mushroom goo followed by a layer of the posh mushrooms, then some béchamel, then a layer of lasagna. Repeat. Finish off with whatever goo and/or mushrooms are left, a layer of béchamel and the grated parmesan. If there isn’t enough béchamel then it’s back to the cooker… Bake at 200 degrees celcius for 20-30 minutes, remove when golden brown, texture like sun and druzzle with triffle oil.
Chicken Stuffed Aubergines
Got this idea from Mike Robinson on Heaven’s Kitchen Cookbook. He did it as a vegetarian dish stuffed only with cheese, pine nuts and breadcrumbs. I can’t remember what he topped it with. What did you do Mr Robinson? Cheese was in the draw, but I don't know. I was going to make it with guinea pig after I saw a food programme on Ecuadorian gastronomy but they’re dead expensive down our local pet shop so I opted for chicken instead.
2 aubergines washed, top’n’tailed & sliced lengthways into ½ cm thick slices
olive oil
500g chicken breasts chopped into sugar cubed sized pieces
handful of freshly made bread crumbs
100g pine nuts, gently roasted in a frying pan
chopped garlic
2 good handfuls of baby spinach or rocket, washed’n’dried
A few fresh sage leaves
2 equally good handfuls of grated cheese of your preferred creed.
Some tomatoes – sliced
More cheese (goats might be good)
Brush the aubergines on each side with olive oil and grill or fry until golden (both sides of course). Remove, brush again with oil (important as it keeps ‘em supple) and set aside. In a bowl luzz in yer chicken, bread crumbs, cheese, pine nuts, garlic and greenery and mix together. Season well. Then you take a slice of aubergine into which you place a blob of meat mix. Roll the aubergine around it so it looks like a bad kebab and place it, seam side down, in a lightly greased baking dish. Repeat with the rest. Cover with tomatoes and cheese and bake at 200 celcius for about half an hour or until the chicken is cooked through. You’re likely to have some aubergine slices left over. I bung them in the oven with the main stuff, removing them after 10-15 mins. Then I chop ‘em up into pulp, mix with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and bingo, an aubergine dip.
The Kitchen Project
For those in the know we at Chez B have been busy toiling away on our new kitchen. We are now one shelf and 6 1/2 meters of oak beading away from completion. Our two week project has taken over half a year which isn't bad by my standards. As soon as I aquire the necessary skills I'll take some pics of it for uploading. But the coolest thing about it is the amount of work space we now have. Acres of it. And, apart from the joining of two pieces of oak work top and some electrics, I've built the whole lot myself which makes me rather chuffed. Viva Ikea! And Mrs B keeps buying me beer so she must be proud of me too.....
Here are the dishes;
Mushroom Lasagna
Made this using an alternative, Jammy O’ Liver “inspired,” cheats béchamel sauce which Mrs B liked but I found a tad watery. It was a 500ml tub of crème fraiche mixed with a couple of fistfuls of grated cheddar & parmesan. The trouble was it kinda split and, despite Mrs B kindly saying she liked the “clean consistency” I felt it lacked the creaminess a real béchamel gives. It might work with other ingredients tho’, something less likely to release so much water like meat or tampons. The mushrooms were amazing tho’.
500g normal white mushrooms
250g abnormal mushrooms (something with taste & a bit of bite like chantarelles)
garlic
dried chilli
fresh thyme
loads of freshly grated parmesan and cheddar
milk, four, butter & nutmeg to make the béchamel
lasagna
truffle oil
Right, clean all the mushrooms using kitchen paper. I always try not to use water as they’ll absorb it making frying nigh on imposs. Roughly chop all the white mushrooms and fry them in batches in olive oil until some of them take on colour. You don’t want them too done but the pan has to be fecking hot so as to evaporate as much liquid as poss. As each batch is done bung them in a blender with 2-4-6-8 cloves of garlic and a couple of dried chillis. Let this cool down a bit whilst you fry the posh mushrooms. When these are done put them to one side. Meanwhile blitz the white mushrooms which will not be white anymore – they’ll look like something the dog threw up. Season with the fresh thyme, salt and pepper.
Now for the béchamel. In a non-stick saucepan melt a big knob of butter and bung in a couple of tablespoons of plain flour. Stir it around for a bit. It’ll form into a paste after which you keep stirring to “cook the flourness out of the flour”. This takes a minute or so, you don’t want it to colour, then you pour in half a liter or so of milk. For gawd’s sake keep stirring as you bring it up to a simmer or else it will burn and there ain’t much fouler than the taste/smell of burnt milk. When the sauce has thickened grate in some nutmeg, season and chuck in a handful of grated cheddar. Remove from the heat.
I used a bread tin for this as it’s a good size. Firstly you put in a layer of the mushroom goo followed by a layer of the posh mushrooms, then some béchamel, then a layer of lasagna. Repeat. Finish off with whatever goo and/or mushrooms are left, a layer of béchamel and the grated parmesan. If there isn’t enough béchamel then it’s back to the cooker… Bake at 200 degrees celcius for 20-30 minutes, remove when golden brown, texture like sun and druzzle with triffle oil.
Chicken Stuffed Aubergines
Got this idea from Mike Robinson on Heaven’s Kitchen Cookbook. He did it as a vegetarian dish stuffed only with cheese, pine nuts and breadcrumbs. I can’t remember what he topped it with. What did you do Mr Robinson? Cheese was in the draw, but I don't know. I was going to make it with guinea pig after I saw a food programme on Ecuadorian gastronomy but they’re dead expensive down our local pet shop so I opted for chicken instead.
2 aubergines washed, top’n’tailed & sliced lengthways into ½ cm thick slices
olive oil
500g chicken breasts chopped into sugar cubed sized pieces
handful of freshly made bread crumbs
100g pine nuts, gently roasted in a frying pan
chopped garlic
2 good handfuls of baby spinach or rocket, washed’n’dried
A few fresh sage leaves
2 equally good handfuls of grated cheese of your preferred creed.
Some tomatoes – sliced
More cheese (goats might be good)
Brush the aubergines on each side with olive oil and grill or fry until golden (both sides of course). Remove, brush again with oil (important as it keeps ‘em supple) and set aside. In a bowl luzz in yer chicken, bread crumbs, cheese, pine nuts, garlic and greenery and mix together. Season well. Then you take a slice of aubergine into which you place a blob of meat mix. Roll the aubergine around it so it looks like a bad kebab and place it, seam side down, in a lightly greased baking dish. Repeat with the rest. Cover with tomatoes and cheese and bake at 200 celcius for about half an hour or until the chicken is cooked through. You’re likely to have some aubergine slices left over. I bung them in the oven with the main stuff, removing them after 10-15 mins. Then I chop ‘em up into pulp, mix with garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and bingo, an aubergine dip.
The Kitchen Project
For those in the know we at Chez B have been busy toiling away on our new kitchen. We are now one shelf and 6 1/2 meters of oak beading away from completion. Our two week project has taken over half a year which isn't bad by my standards. As soon as I aquire the necessary skills I'll take some pics of it for uploading. But the coolest thing about it is the amount of work space we now have. Acres of it. And, apart from the joining of two pieces of oak work top and some electrics, I've built the whole lot myself which makes me rather chuffed. Viva Ikea! And Mrs B keeps buying me beer so she must be proud of me too.....
Monday 4 June 2007
And On The Thirst Day...
.... He created Beer. And hallaluja for that.
Erm, before I start I'd like to say "sorry". Right, that was that and now for the run down. This is my blog and it isn't about me. Hopefully. It's about the nosh Mrs B and myself eat to keep ourselves alive. It's about the thoughts I have on food and the making of. It's the cataloguing of recipes I've basically pilfered from books, food programmes and dining-out experiences and then beaten up abit so even their mothers can't recognize them. Well they would but it sounded tough. Coz food is like the blues, baby. It's a linear progression from eating dirt. It's like when Mrs B isn't satisfied with eating plain old Marmite on toast. No, she has to take it one step further and put sliced cucumber on it. I will cite original recipes and/or sources of inspiration wherever and whenever I can remember where the feck I got them. And now I shall start with a chicken.....
Bought a nice fresh cluck-cluck the other day and this is what became of her. In an ideal world, of course, it would have been an organic chicken but it isn't and it wasn't. It wasn't one of those obese nine week old (or is it six) chicks which are more full of fat than your average McSlurry Whooper burger (thanks to Full On Food for that one ;-) tho but I honestly can't vouch for how happy she was when she was electrically stunned, hung by her neck in a conveyor belt then dragged throat first across a razorblade before getting plucked and drawn. That was a little insight into the types of field trips we used to get taken on back at Battle Road Incomprehensive School. But this chicken was made fine use of. Firstly she went into the stock pot. Then, after half an hour of simmering away she was carefully (coz she woz hot) taken up and her luvverly breasts filleted off. Back into the pot she then titless went to be boiled away for an hour or two. Voila, gorgeous chicken stock. Up with the carcass again which was put aside to cool then plucked of all its meat. The stock was strained then reduced by half. And these are the meals we got from this one chicken (plus a load of other ingredients);
Tom Yum Soup
Chicken Terrine
Chicken Salad
Pea & Mushroom Risotto
and these are the first recipes from the Bluebottle Feastery. Take a deep breath now, Mr B...
Stock
not gonna set the world alight with a recipe for stock, I know. But homemade stock is the difference between a decent dish and an outstanding dish. Here in Denmark you can only buy bog standard cubes or concentrates and they're all crap. Salty and crap. In some thai shops you can get shiitake mushroom cubes (knorr) which are ok. But still crap. So I make my own and freeze it. Mrs B made stock from a roasted turkey which was superb in a risotto. It's a case of waste-not want-not so all bones and off-cuts can be used. So, if anybody lops of a limb in a freak chainsaw accident the address is Fortgaard Allé......
You'll need:
Carcass or bones - from chickens to wombles, you name it I'll boil it
Veg - carrots, leeks, celery, onions, garlic, mushrooms, anything but things related to cabbages
Herbs - bayleaves, parsley, thyme, sage are goodies
Peppercorns and salt
Amounts are not vital although if too many carrots are used they tend to dominate. Chuck everything into a BIG saucepan, cover with Evian Water, ok plain cold water, bring to the boil and leave on a rolling simmer for a couple of hours. Fish stocks take a shorter amount of time as they can otherwise go bitter. Don't over salt as this will kill the stock if it is reduced. Skim the surface of impurities now and again. After two or so hours drain through a sieve (or a piece of the Turin Shroud if you're Gary Rhodes). If left in the fridge over night you'll find all the fat will have solidified on the surface which makes removing it a doddle. I know alot of pros clarify their stocks using veg and stuff but I've never been arsed. What more is there to say about stocks? Lots actually but it all can be looked up other places. The long & the short of it is it's dead easy, it makes ya kitchen smell great, tastes wonderful and it utilizes as much of a piece of deceased animal as possible. Not using all the beast is like having 24 hours with Kira Knightly and only getting her to do the hoovering. Sort of..
Tom Yum Soup
you need a lightish chicken stock for this, ie easy on the herbs and carrots.
Into your simmering stock bung in some sliced ginger, a couple of stalks of lemon grass, the roots & stems from a few sprigs of fresh coriander (if poss, otherwise don't) & a few kafir lime leaves. After 10 or 20 mins remove. Then any of the following can be added, thai auborgines (or cubes of courgette which are a good alternative), button mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, more lime leaves, chopped birdseye chillis, well anything you fancy really. Then a few black tiger prawns or small cubes of chicken breast which poach for minute or two. Take the pot off the heat, squeeze in some lime juice, add fish sauce, a pinch of sugar just to balance it up and serve just before lugging in a small handful of coriander leaves. Bingo
note - Coriander. Sod that light green forced potted stuff they sell in supermarkets. It's tasteless. If you can't get the washed roots'n'all dark leaved bags of it then don't bother.
Chicken Terrine
Erm, before I start I'd like to say "sorry". Right, that was that and now for the run down. This is my blog and it isn't about me. Hopefully. It's about the nosh Mrs B and myself eat to keep ourselves alive. It's about the thoughts I have on food and the making of. It's the cataloguing of recipes I've basically pilfered from books, food programmes and dining-out experiences and then beaten up abit so even their mothers can't recognize them. Well they would but it sounded tough. Coz food is like the blues, baby. It's a linear progression from eating dirt. It's like when Mrs B isn't satisfied with eating plain old Marmite on toast. No, she has to take it one step further and put sliced cucumber on it. I will cite original recipes and/or sources of inspiration wherever and whenever I can remember where the feck I got them. And now I shall start with a chicken.....
Bought a nice fresh cluck-cluck the other day and this is what became of her. In an ideal world, of course, it would have been an organic chicken but it isn't and it wasn't. It wasn't one of those obese nine week old (or is it six) chicks which are more full of fat than your average McSlurry Whooper burger (thanks to Full On Food for that one ;-) tho but I honestly can't vouch for how happy she was when she was electrically stunned, hung by her neck in a conveyor belt then dragged throat first across a razorblade before getting plucked and drawn. That was a little insight into the types of field trips we used to get taken on back at Battle Road Incomprehensive School. But this chicken was made fine use of. Firstly she went into the stock pot. Then, after half an hour of simmering away she was carefully (coz she woz hot) taken up and her luvverly breasts filleted off. Back into the pot she then titless went to be boiled away for an hour or two. Voila, gorgeous chicken stock. Up with the carcass again which was put aside to cool then plucked of all its meat. The stock was strained then reduced by half. And these are the meals we got from this one chicken (plus a load of other ingredients);
Tom Yum Soup
Chicken Terrine
Chicken Salad
Pea & Mushroom Risotto
and these are the first recipes from the Bluebottle Feastery. Take a deep breath now, Mr B...
Stock
not gonna set the world alight with a recipe for stock, I know. But homemade stock is the difference between a decent dish and an outstanding dish. Here in Denmark you can only buy bog standard cubes or concentrates and they're all crap. Salty and crap. In some thai shops you can get shiitake mushroom cubes (knorr) which are ok. But still crap. So I make my own and freeze it. Mrs B made stock from a roasted turkey which was superb in a risotto. It's a case of waste-not want-not so all bones and off-cuts can be used. So, if anybody lops of a limb in a freak chainsaw accident the address is Fortgaard Allé......
You'll need:
Carcass or bones - from chickens to wombles, you name it I'll boil it
Veg - carrots, leeks, celery, onions, garlic, mushrooms, anything but things related to cabbages
Herbs - bayleaves, parsley, thyme, sage are goodies
Peppercorns and salt
Amounts are not vital although if too many carrots are used they tend to dominate. Chuck everything into a BIG saucepan, cover with Evian Water, ok plain cold water, bring to the boil and leave on a rolling simmer for a couple of hours. Fish stocks take a shorter amount of time as they can otherwise go bitter. Don't over salt as this will kill the stock if it is reduced. Skim the surface of impurities now and again. After two or so hours drain through a sieve (or a piece of the Turin Shroud if you're Gary Rhodes). If left in the fridge over night you'll find all the fat will have solidified on the surface which makes removing it a doddle. I know alot of pros clarify their stocks using veg and stuff but I've never been arsed. What more is there to say about stocks? Lots actually but it all can be looked up other places. The long & the short of it is it's dead easy, it makes ya kitchen smell great, tastes wonderful and it utilizes as much of a piece of deceased animal as possible. Not using all the beast is like having 24 hours with Kira Knightly and only getting her to do the hoovering. Sort of..
Tom Yum Soup
you need a lightish chicken stock for this, ie easy on the herbs and carrots.
Into your simmering stock bung in some sliced ginger, a couple of stalks of lemon grass, the roots & stems from a few sprigs of fresh coriander (if poss, otherwise don't) & a few kafir lime leaves. After 10 or 20 mins remove. Then any of the following can be added, thai auborgines (or cubes of courgette which are a good alternative), button mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, more lime leaves, chopped birdseye chillis, well anything you fancy really. Then a few black tiger prawns or small cubes of chicken breast which poach for minute or two. Take the pot off the heat, squeeze in some lime juice, add fish sauce, a pinch of sugar just to balance it up and serve just before lugging in a small handful of coriander leaves. Bingo
note - Coriander. Sod that light green forced potted stuff they sell in supermarkets. It's tasteless. If you can't get the washed roots'n'all dark leaved bags of it then don't bother.
Chicken Terrine
I love making terrines. There's something about them that brings out the potterer in me. Made my first one after seeing Huge Firmly-Witheringsmall do one on his River Cottage programmes. I've dropped using bacon to line the tin with as I think it overpowers everything much in the same way it does on those beef tornados things we can buy in supermarkets over here. And omitting the bacon is also dead healthy, so to speak, aswell as making the lovely jelly less cloyey.
Forcemeat:
500g lean minced pork (or chicken or turkey)
1 onion finely chopped & softened in olive oil
Chopped garlic (I always use loads)
couple of handfuls of fresh bread crumbs
a table spoon of fresh sage leaves, chopped
1 egg
1 good glugg each of red wine & brandy. & the same again for the forcemeat....
salt & pepper (and chilli powder if y'like)
Mix together in a bowl & preferably let stand in the fridge for a while to let all the flavours get to know each other. To make the terrine (sans bacon) lightly oil a bread tin then cover the bottom with a layer of forcemeat. Then put in your cooked meat, I used the meat I plucked from the stock chicken but anything can be used, another layer of forcemeat, more chicken then a last layer of f-m, you get the sodding picture. Cover the tin with foil, place in a deep baking tray, fill with hot water half way up the bread tin then cook in the over at 200c for an hour or so. It's ready when you pierce it with a knife or skewer which you then burn your lips with. When done it has to be pressed. I use an identical bread tin with a brick in it. All hi-tec but if you can't afford a brick steal one. Once cool the terrine should be refrigerated overnight. Mmmm. Have plans of doing a snail and truffle terrine soon. Will have to have a think about the herbs for that one too. That's the great thing about them, the forcemeat's like your pizza base and it's up to you to dream up a topping. Or filling. WhatEver.....
Chicken Salad
actually we had salads two days running. The first was with the chicken breasts I'd taken off the berrrd and the second accompanied slices of the terrine. So, one at a time....
Got some luvverly romaine salad leaves, rocket (from the garden), good toms, cucumber & a thinly sliced spring onion. Sliced up cold chicken breasts and slices of good chorizo. Nicoise olives. Made a very Dijon mustardy garlic mayonaise by dolloping in 2 big tablespoons of mustard into a bowl with an egg yolk, a splash of white wine vinegar, salt, pepper, a crushed clove of garlic & a pinch of cayenne. Whisked steadily whilst adding 3 parts rapeseed oil to 1 part olive. I didn't make it too thick coz it had to drizzle nicely. I arranged it on the plates rather than in a salad bowl for the wow effect. It really did look grand. And the flavours were amazing.
Day two and the green ingredients were the same minus the spring onion. Because we didn't have one. This time I took a tin of snails, drained them then marinated them in crushed garlic and olive oil, season with s&p. I then fried some "lardons" of bacon, letting them drain on a piece of kitchen paper whilst I warmed through the snails. Then they were all arranged willy-nillyly ontop of the green stuffs and finished off with a few potatoe peelings of parmesan. The dressing for this salad was a bog standard herb vinaigrette ie red wine vineagar, olive oil, garlic, 1/2 a teaspoon of mustard, salt, pepper & some finely chopped marjoram from the garden.
note - Snails. Just love 'em. Apparently you can eat any snail you find in your garden/wardrobe but for some reason you can't eat slugs. A couple of years back I collected a few dozen large escargot snails whilst out fishing (as one does). Brought them home then fed them on lettuce leaves for a few days to clean them out. Like a health farm for invertibrates it was. I'd given a few of them names and, in a moment of madness, gave one of them the name of my mother-in-law. Honest, m'lud it was without malice. Sorry Gwen. One day they had a break-out. Mrs B discovered them slithering around the spare bedroom. We put out a general alarm, sent in the dobermen and rounded the blighters up. They were then duly dumped into boiling water for their efforts.
Pea & Mushroom Risotto
making risotto is therapy. There's something so focused about it. First you get everything prepped, not just the food but also enough to drink and the right music on the hifi, then, as you get started, you're on. No going back. No interuptions. Total concentration. It's as close as I'm ever gonna get to being graceful. I've lifted my basic risotto recipe from the late, great Jamie Oliver. He's not dead? Nevermind.
Arborio rice (or one of the other types) 500g will do for 4-6 people
1 onion
5-10 cloves of garlic
1 stick of celery
a litre or so of stock (if it isn't enough you just add boiling water at the end)
a glass or three of white wine or n'Oily Prat/vermouth
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
frozen peas - a cup or two
loads of mushrooms - any variety
dried chilis
olive oil
knob of butter
parmesan
Ok, to prep; heat up the stock. It has to be on hot when you add it to the rice. Chop up the onion, garlic & celery relatively finely. Clean the mushrooms, preferably without using water as they'll absorb it. Chop up as y'like. Fry them off in a bit of oil, towards the end add a bit of the garlic and a crushed dried chili or two. Now the fun begins. Fry the onions in a good slug of olive oil until the go translucent then add the celery and the garlic. I like the onions just to catch a little as this gives a slight sweetness to the dish. I discovered this by mistake, by the way, when I didn't prep properly & had to go off to find a new cd. Came back and the onion had "browned".
Then chuck in the rice. Get it all nice and covered in the oil & stuff. When the edges of the rice go slightly glassy it's time to whack in the booze. Don't be shy on the wine or vermouth. It really gives and amazing depth to the dish and if you keep your head over the pan you'll get all the fumes aswell. As the liquid is absorbed into the rice you start ladling in the stock, one spoonful at a time, stirring continuously to make sure every rice grain gets a even cooking experience. As the mixture thickens up give it a ladleful more. Mr Oliver recommends salting a little every time you add stock which makes sense. A lot of the recipe books I've read say a risotto is ready when the rice is still slightly chalky. I've tried to eat chalk and it wasn't an illuminating experience. So my risotti are probably a tad over done but it stops Mrs B complaining. Anyway from the first ladle of stock til the rice is cooked takes about 30-40 minutes. The rule of thumb heatwise is if the pan is too cool the rice will go stodgey and if you cook it too hard the rice won't be properly done. When you think it's perfect chuck in the peas, mushrooms and thyme to heat through. Season. Then stir in your knob of butter and finish with a good handful of parmesan. Or pecorino or whatever. Finito.
I had an idea whilst making this last risotto. The plan is to make a Japanese style risotto using dashi broth as stock (dashi being a bonito and seaweed soup) and saki instead of wine. Somehow I have to incorporate the taste of the sushi vineagar aswell. When the "lisotto" is cooked I'm thinking along the lines of serving it with sushimi, marinated shiitake or straw mushrooms, homemade pickled ginger (gari) & other veggies. Not in it but on top. We'll see.
Right, this is the end of my first posting. Time for dinner.
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