Work Share- 26/05/2016

Occasionally we have a dish that perfectly demonstrates our ability to switch roles in the kitchen.  This is one of them.

We’re back on “Around the World in 120 Recipes”, and we’re in the Barcelona section.  We’re making “Pea & Ham Croquetas” and we’re drinking dry cider from a box.

The first step is to make a roux using 40g of butter, 6 tbsp of plain flour and 250ml of chicken stock.

This is an El job, and whilst I’m doing this I’m also issuing commands to Dan.  He’s scurrying around making my chicken stock, grating 25g of parmesan and cubing 130g of good quality Spanish ham.  Which he’ll then pass over to me to be stirred into the roux once it’s ready.  Or at least once I deem it smooth enough.

The cheese and ham roux then gets spread on a baking tray and placed in the fridge to cool down.  This is when the transition of command starts to occur.  I issue one last request for 200g of peas to be blitzed in the food processor and Dan starts to set up his work station with frying oil beginning to heat up, breadcrumbs, whisked egg and flour.

It looks a bit like this:

Once the roux in cool, Dan stirs the peas into the mix and then starts to form the croquettes.

He uses small pieces of bread to check the oil is hot enough and, once he is satisfied, the conveyor belt can begin.

With my right hand I take a croquette and coat it in flour.

With my left hand I dip the croquette in the egg, make sure it’s thoroughly coated, and place on top of the breadcrumbs.

With his right hand Dan coats the croquette with the breadcrumbs and places it in the hot oil.

With his left hand (holding tongs of course), he checks the croquettes are golden and removes from the oil onto a paper towel.

Due to the fact Dan is the one playing with hot oil, he’s the one dictating the speed we go at.

He’s really getting rather good at this deep frying lark.

Black Garlic & Psychedelic Nut Pizza – 24/05/2016

One final Nopi for this week and it introduces the new ingredient of black garlic.  Black garlic is normal garlic that has been extensively heat treated (we’re guessing smoking comes in here somewhere).  This is actually the very first recipe in Nopi.

Because it’s Ottolenghi, he of the strong middle eastern tendency, it’s paired with slow cooked aubergines, pine nuts and yoghurt.  Oh and basil, just to lift it slightly.  We served it for lunches with pitta bread.

The black garlic goes in the dressing, along with rose harissa, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, cocoa powder, chilli flakes and olive oil.  The cocoa powder gave us pause for thought, but it worked very well.  Also we weren’t able to get rose harissa, so we used normal harissa, which is much hotter, and left out the chilli flakes.  We think we got the heat about right.

It was delicious, but it uses an awful lot of a quite expensive, difficult to source, ingredient.  Admittedly I bought the garlic on a whim in a specialist spice shop in Brighton, so it probably wasn’t the cheapest buy, but it was either that or the Irregular Choice shop across the road.

Following the very meat based recipes we’ve been eating in the last few days, we thought we should investigate some more recipes from “a modern way to eat”, so we stepped outside our comfort zone with a “seeded pistachio and squash galette”.   Even better, the picture in the book shows the brightest looking food stuff in the world.

The base is made from pistachios, sunflower seeds and chestnuts, blitzed and bound together with maple syrup and olive oil, and baked in the oven for 15 minutes.

The green bit is blended spinach, avocado and soaked cashews.  We really could have done with a riper avocado and I’m still side eyeing the hell out the reasons for soaking nuts.  Apparently it’s all to do with enzymes and germination, which would be fascinating, but I can’t find anything from a reliable source.

Blogs with “wellness” in the title do not count as reliable sources.

Finally the galette is topped with roasted squash, fried red onions and a sprinkling of chilli.  Unfortunately we were so focused of roasting the aubergines that we over cooked the squash slightly.

Also Dan foolishly cut the squash up according to the instructions (0.5cm slices) rather than the picture (rather chunkier wedges), so we ended up topping the galette with something that more resembled a thicker version of vegetable crisps rather than roasted veg.

Nailed it.

It was still very tasty, and we enjoyed the several meals it fed us for, but we’re not in any rush to do it again.  May have to wait for a passing vegan to serve it to.

Whilst all this oven wizardry was occurring, Dan sneakily made some raspberry sorbet to replace the revolting stilton ice cream.  Since it involves just sugar, water, a squeeze of lemon, and raspberries, of which we still have loads in the freezer, it was a pretty sensible choice.

 

Ottolenghi Overload – 21/05/2016

We start with a rather fabulous dish of “Roast Chicken and Three Rice Salad”.  This used the left overs of the roast chicken from the previous night…which is pretty much the reason we did it in the first place.

The three rices are basmati (well, duh), brown and wild.  Wild is technically not a rice, but I’ll let this one pass just this once, since the trio is absolutely on point.  But I’m watching you Ottolenghi.  Watching. You.

The rest of the salad consisted of spring onions, chilli, mint, coriander, rocket and onion that had been utterly fried into sweet tasty oblivion.

Then there is the dressing…oh the dressing!

The dressing uses the cooking juices from the roast chicken and it’s definitely worth sacrificing gravy for.  It also uses lemon juice, sesame oil and fish sauce and is all kinds of delicious.

For dinner we went full on Nopi with “Ham Hock with Baked Beans, Fried Egg and Sourdough”.  This is the Nopi version of a fry up and it exactly as overwrought and complicated as we could have wished.  The ham hock and butterbeans are cooked together to form a beautifully spiced mix.

Dan, of course, provided the sourdough.

The book suggested “a little decadent upgrade” of using duck eggs instead of hens.

Well it would have been rude not to.

Dessert was extraordinary.  “Strained Ricotta with Blackcurrant Compote & Rhubarb.”  A simple dessert that takes a mere three days to prepare. Somehow the ricotta took on the texture of cheesecake, sweet and dense, which was absolutely marvellous with the sharper black current compote.

Rhubarb on the other hand, was a triumph of form over flavour.  We won’t bother with it again.

 

Back to Basics – 20/05/2016

Faced with a very cooking heavy weekend we’ve gone for basics and old favourites today.

For lunch we simply reheated some runner beans in passata and served it on toast.

It’s a very quick dish that scores high on speed, allotment content and freezer content.

For dinner we had out very favourite roast chicken.  We’ve served this to loads of people; in fact it’s our default chicken.  It is particularly good for a single oven since it includes potatoes and doing proper roast potatoes with chicken runs a heavy risk of cold chicken or less than crispy roasties.

You’ll need 250g of potatoes per person you’re feeding, peeled, in 1 cm slices, and boiled for about 5 minutes – assuming they went into cold water.

These then get layered in the bottom of the roasted tin with bacon lardons/pancetta/cubed bacon.  It is possible smoked paprika and pistachios might make a suitable Halal alternative, but we’ve yet to play with that properly.  Essentially you want some flavour to go into the potatoes and a little bit of texture.

In a food processor mix one whole bulbs worth of peeled garlic cloves, the leaves off two sprigs of rosemary, zest of a lemon and ½ tsp of coarse salt.  Give it a whizz, and then add a good grind of pepper and a large knob of butter.  Whizz again.  If it looks like it’s got a bit warm, shove it in a fridge for a bit, it will make life easier.

I speak from experience; trying to push nearly melted butter under chicken skin is an utter mission.

Your size of chicken is up to you, but it will obviously effect cooking times.  We generally use a 1.5kg to serve four people, or, as we did today, serve two people with plenty left over for salads.

Take the chicken and, starting at the neck end, slide your fingers between the skin and flesh, trying not to tear it.  Smear all the butter paste between the skin and flesh on both the legs and breast, but mainly on the breast.  Wipe your fingers on the outside of the chicken and then place on top of the potatoes.

Wash your hands with lots of soap.  The butter is a bugger.

Pour 300ml of white wine over the top of the chicken and place in a 200°C (180°C fan) oven until cooked.  A 1.5kg chicken will take about 1.5 hours, but it is not a direct correlation.  Rest for 5 minutes at the end.

Drink the rest of the white wine.

We also had an utter failure of an ice cream.

Since we had so much Stilton in the freezer we thought we’d try Stilton Ice cream. Yeah…

Hot melted Stilton? Yum.

Room temperature Stilton? Tasty.

Very, very cold Stilton?  Just no.

There is a reason we bring cheese boards to room temperature and this dish capably demonstrates the folly of not doing so.

Not even with port.

Fly Burger Skills – 19/05/2016

The second time we ate the lamb with cucumber salad, Dan decided to make his own carbs and made a whole batch of fluffy white rolls.

He was pretty pleased with himself.

He also announced the first salad leaves of the year.

He was really rather smug about that too.

He then made burgers to go with the buns and lettuce and by this point the ego was at full Zapp Brannigan.  Only with delicious burgers.

These burgers were inspired by the excess of blue cheese currently in our freezer.  Mama Lowe had loads left over from a charity ploughman’s she hosted, so she kindly donated/off loaded it to us.

The burger are made by combining 400g of beef mince, 90g of porridge oats, 2 tbsp ketchup, 2 tsp Dijon mustard and a good grind of pepper in a bowl.  This then divided into 8 equal, thin patties.

We crumbled about 30g of blue cheese and sprinkled it evenly on top of four of the patties.  These were topped with the remaining patties and the edges gently sealed to enclose the cheese.

Dan swears by the American grill method of cooking burgers, which requires a frying pan with a lid.  Cooking them this way allows him to alternate between frying and steaming the burger and keeps everything nice and moist.

Other jobs for today included cooking some butterbeans in readiness for Saturday dinner and setting some ricotta on to strain to prepare for Saturdays dessert.

Yup. Nopi again.

Accidental Ottolenghi – 16/05/2016

After limping home following the insanity of Saturday (for those wondering, we did something ridiculously physical and now everything hurts), we decided to reward ourselves with warm, comforting, protein based summer food for lunch.

For that we headed to Lebanon for Bayed Bi Hamod or Lemon & Mint Eggs.  We’ve done it before and it is much lighter and fresher than the usual scrambled eggs.  It uses garlic oil for the fat rather than butter, and has lemon juice and fresh mint leaves added at the end.

We served it with rotis, which are nice cheap Indian flat breads, carefully folded on the side.

Work lunches came from “a modern way to eat” and were “Seeded Squash, Pomegranate & Za’tar Spices”.  Za’tar is a Middle Eastern spice blend of thyme, sumac and sesame seeds.

This is a proper bitter sweet dish.  The sweetness of the squash, pomegranate seeds and date based dressing contrasts amazingly with the bitterness of the chicory leaves.  Our only complaint was it was a trifle hot.  We used the last of our homemade chilli flakes and WHOOMPH!  Not one for eating at work.

We’re also buying chilli flakes next time.  More predictable that way.

Then on to dinner.

It was only after I’d planned in the “Cucumber and Poppy Seed Salad”, that I realised it was part of a 2008 advertising campaign for “Ottolenghi: The Cookbook”, and it feels slightly weird.  Coming from Nopi to this is a little odd.  The flavours are still excellent, but it almost feels like he’s let himself go…

Where is the precision? Where is the feeling of triumph as you complete the recipe?  The desire to punch the air?

Just us then?

Anyway.

The cucumber salad recommended a pairing with pan fried pork or lamb.  We went with lamb.

The salad was lovely, using chilli, poppy seeds, coriander, vinegar, oil and sugar to almost pickle the cucumber.  Lots of interesting textures and flavours.  Dan’s main complaint was the lack of carbs in this dish.

So he made popcorn.

10/05/2016

With the turn in the weather to the colder we’ve returned to a winter classic and making soups for lunch.  The classic comes from the River Cottage Veg book and is the North African Squash and Chickpea Stew.

It uses both squash and passata, so scores highly on the “things we have already” front.  Freezes well and an absolute cinch to make.  Always a pleasure, especially when the weather outside is frightful.

We also made “Restorative Coconut Broth” from “a modern way to eat”, which was really rather tasty.  Added bonus for being very simple.  Essentially we just added a load of aromatics (shallots, chillies, lemon grass, lime leaves and a touch of sugar) to some diluted coconut milk and simmered for 15 minutes.  Then we strained the coconut stock and reheated it with some greens (a partially used savoy cabbage lying about in the fridge in our case) and some good mushrooms.  Finally we added some soy sauce and lime juice and it was good to go.

We also added some uncooked soba noodles to the bottoms of Dan’s portion.  Just to give a little more energy whilst he clambers about on the military hardware.  They were fully cooked by the time he came to eat it.

Following this small Tuesday cook we won’t be cooking again until Sunday, for we are off to Mama and Papa Lowe’s to do something very, very silly with the Bratling.

Lasagne to go 08/05/2016

Sunday consisted of three lovely bits of cooking.  The first was Dan making a delicious seeded loaf for packed lunches of cheese and pickle sandwiches.

The second was a very large lasagne, mostly based on the Jamie Oliver Baked Lasagne, just bumped up a bit in decadence (a little more of everything), and the chilli removed.  I’m never quite sure what giving chilli to a breastfeeding mother will to the baby at the receiving end…or the end of the receiving baby.

This doesn’t get eaten by us, but instead gets given to H&N as a late new baby present.  And by late, we mean when they asked for it.  We’ve made a habit of swooping in and supplying food once all the real family stuff has calmed down, after all, we’re generally not actual family, and we’re not that interested in the infant yet.  Seriously, the interactive features on a baby at five weeks are pretty poor.  Anyway.  How are you?

Yes it is as massive as it looks.  We don’t give diet food (we don’t make friends with salad).

The last, final, swift bit of cooking was our dinner.  Which was “Soy and Garlic Steak with Wasabi Noodles”.

Despite how this looks those are not egg noodles, but strips of mango.  This recipe is the only time we’ll buy mango from the supermarket, rather than the fruit market.  Fruit market mango is just too ripe to turn into matchsticks, so we have to resort to the more expensive, but firmer, supermarket options.

The steak is briefly marinated in garlic, chilli and soy sauce, then fried even more briefly.  While the steak in resting, rice noodles are cooked, the marinade is reduced and a little wasabi sauce is added.  We tend to use wasabi fairly infrequently so we have a pot of wasabi powder that can be mixed into sauce much like Coleman’s Mustard Powder.

Finally, the steak is sliced and everything is mixed together with a handful of roughly chopped coriander.  The coriander does come from the market though, those bunches are huge!

Barcelona! 07/05/2016

Hooray for fabulous sunshine!  Sunshine that makes me feel like it should be July, at least.

That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.  I wouldn’t usually plan a meal like this so early in the year.

Since we’d finished the Japanese section of “Around the World etc.”, I asked Dan to pick me something European.  He went for Barcelona, possible based on the fact we went to Spain last year and ate ourselves silly.

Seriously.  Raspberry filled, glazed croissants need to be experienced to be believed.

We made “Pan con Tomate e Anchoas” which my really dodgy Spanish translates as “Bread with Tomatoes and Anchovies”.  It will not surprise you to know that it consists on bread, tomatoes, and anchovies.

Essentially you drizzle some sliced sourdough bread with olive oil and bake it in an oven for a few minutes until golden, but not desiccated.  Rub a clove of garlic on each slice, then smear a halved tomato across the bread, discarding the skin.  Give it some pepper and a bit more oil, then finish with some basil and good quality anchovies.

For a very simple recipe it is remarkably delicious.  It just feels slightly strange that we made it with shop bought bread and tomatoes.  Due to the activities of the last weekend, Maxwell, our sourdough starter, was still snoozing in the fridge when I did the planning and there wasn’t really time to wake him up.  At least the basil was fresh from the kitchen windowsill.

I foresee us serving this to a lot of summer guests, with freshly made sourdough bread, tomatoes straight from the greenhouse and a large glass of chilled wine.

Time to start keeping an emergency jar of anchovies for these occasions.

A Dab Hand and other awful puns 06/05/2016

Just a dinner update tonight – we lunched at Wagamama following Dan doing a brief All Spice impression (now he’s on a horse).

Today we cooked Dab with a lime, coconut and avocado relish.  The relish was mostly a result of a stray avocado in the fridge, which we then went all Thai on, with ginger, chilli, fish sauce, chilli, coriander and coconut.  With hindsight the coconut was misjudged. We used fresh coconut in small dice and the texture was a little off putting.

Dab is a wonderful fish.  Grilled with a little oil and it’s perfection.  Also it is extremely cheap.  Morrisons is currently charging about £3.40/kg, which is amazing.

Plus Dan will actually eat fish on the bone in this form.  Hurrah!

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