Print this articleRyan's Recipe Blog Store - Kitchen bits and pieces
I have just set up an Amazon store to go with my recipe blog, I will be adding more of my favourite products as I get time, so please have a look!
I have just set up an Amazon store to go with my recipe blog, I will be adding more of my favourite products as I get time, so please have a look!
Yes, another recipe using the famous Magimix 4200. My previous blender was not powerful or sharp enough to chop meat, so I was pleased to read in the instruction manual that this one is. What better way to test it out than making beef burgers. I am always a bit unsure of exactly what minced meat is really made from, and I assume it is not the best quality meat and all the left over bits. Now I can make minced beef right in front of my eyes.
Take some beef, roughly cut into chunks, an onion, a few chillies, and some garlic.
Place the big blade in the bowl of the food processor.
Chuck in the meat and other ingredients. Grind in some salt and pepper. You can add other ingredients - herbs, spices, tomato, peppers - or whatever you fancy.
Pulse the food processor a few times, until you reach the desired consistency.
Now shape into burgers, using your hands. Cook in the normal way. I find you don't need to use egg to hold the meat together, and I don't like to use bread crumbs in the burgers either.
So, another thing the Magimix can do - mince beef to make burgers, quickly and easily.
Take some beef, roughly cut into chunks, an onion, a few chillies, and some garlic.
Place the big blade in the bowl of the food processor.
Chuck in the meat and other ingredients. Grind in some salt and pepper. You can add other ingredients - herbs, spices, tomato, peppers - or whatever you fancy.
Pulse the food processor a few times, until you reach the desired consistency.
Now shape into burgers, using your hands. Cook in the normal way. I find you don't need to use egg to hold the meat together, and I don't like to use bread crumbs in the burgers either.So, another thing the Magimix can do - mince beef to make burgers, quickly and easily.
I mentioned earlier about how great my Magimix 4200 is and what I have been making with it. Well, here are some of the things you can do.
Fix in the slicing/grating blade - one way up for slicing, the other for grating - simple! There are two of these blades, a thick one and a thin one. Then just feed in whatever you want processed.
And here we have a carrot and a pepper, grated and sliced respectively in under 30 seconds each. I liked the way that the slices are nice and uniform, but that may be my OCD coming into play.
I probably do have new food processor syndrome still. Even though it is very quick to do the processing, I think unless you are making a LOT - like for a big family meal or something like that, then the time taken to wash up the bowl and the blade afterwards kind of wipes out any time saving on the preparation.
Later, I did some sliced potatoes for pommes boulangere, and it was here that I found the Magimix 4200 to be pretty useful. I was able to slice the potatoes really thinly, and evenly all the way to the end. I seem to have forgotten to take any pictures of that though.
Fix in the slicing/grating blade - one way up for slicing, the other for grating - simple! There are two of these blades, a thick one and a thin one. Then just feed in whatever you want processed.
And here we have a carrot and a pepper, grated and sliced respectively in under 30 seconds each. I liked the way that the slices are nice and uniform, but that may be my OCD coming into play.
I probably do have new food processor syndrome still. Even though it is very quick to do the processing, I think unless you are making a LOT - like for a big family meal or something like that, then the time taken to wash up the bowl and the blade afterwards kind of wipes out any time saving on the preparation.
Later, I did some sliced potatoes for pommes boulangere, and it was here that I found the Magimix 4200 to be pretty useful. I was able to slice the potatoes really thinly, and evenly all the way to the end. I seem to have forgotten to take any pictures of that though.
I am really pleased about my rediscovery of liver and onions! We used to have this as children and hated it, something about the texture of liver. But I had calves liver recently in a French restaurant and loved it, so when I saw these lambs livers at 69p in Tesco I just had to buy them. I was checking out the reduced-to-clear bargains but in fact its only 89p a packet normally so a really cheap meat.
Its really quick to cook, and the trick is not to over cook livers - that is when the texture goes all tough and dry. I sliced them quite thinly, floured them, then quickly browned each side in a hot pan. Next, out with the livers and in with some sliced onions, fried them on a high heat until starting to brown, then back in with the livers, some gravy (I used instant), and a splash of white wine. The whole lot was then left to simmer for about 10 minutes, meanwhile I cooked some new potatoes and peas to go on the side. All done in under half an hour and on the table! The result was quite tender, and not too dry.
Even better, liver is good for you too - it is packed with lots of iron, fairly low in fat, and lots of protein too.
I have been suffering from "new food processor syndrome" of late. What is that? Well, it is a propensity to process everything whether it need it or not. I mean, how often do you need to grate a carrot? Well, since I bought my Magimix 4200
I have been going processing mad. I have grated carrots, thinly sliced potatoes for making pommes boulangere, juiced oranges, mixed cakes, kneaded some dough and minced some beef to make burgers.
I opted for the 4200 rather than the 4200 XL as I thought I am never likely to need an extra large feeder tube, and everything else is pretty much the same.
So it obviously works well! It looks good as well, it has those classic clean lines that one could associate with an iPod! It is the sort of thing that won't look dated in 10 years time, which is good as the motor is gauranteed for 12 years! The look of it has a practical purpose too, it is very easy to wipe off. When running, the motor is pretty quiet, and certainly quieter than my old blender I used to use before I got this.
There are tons of attachments with it -
Regular blade
Dough hook
Whisk
2 slicing/ grating blades of different thicknesses
Midi sized bowl
Mini sized bowl with mini blade
Orange juicing attachment
And a storage box to keep them all neatly in as well, which is a nice feature. It means no chance of slicing your finger off on the blade whilst rummaging in the kitchen drawer for something else.
There are some bad points about it - the handle feels a bit flimsy and I can't see it lasting the full 12 years that the motor will, and the orange jucer is a bit tricky to clean out, but all in all I am really pleased with it and I will continue to process away! At least until the novelty wears off.
As I continue with my processing adventures, I will post what I have made so you can get an idea of just how amazing it is! I will tag all the posts with Magimix 4200 so just click on the link to see all the other magimix related posts!
I have been going processing mad. I have grated carrots, thinly sliced potatoes for making pommes boulangere, juiced oranges, mixed cakes, kneaded some dough and minced some beef to make burgers.I opted for the 4200 rather than the 4200 XL as I thought I am never likely to need an extra large feeder tube, and everything else is pretty much the same.
So it obviously works well! It looks good as well, it has those classic clean lines that one could associate with an iPod! It is the sort of thing that won't look dated in 10 years time, which is good as the motor is gauranteed for 12 years! The look of it has a practical purpose too, it is very easy to wipe off. When running, the motor is pretty quiet, and certainly quieter than my old blender I used to use before I got this.
There are tons of attachments with it -
Regular blade
Dough hook
Whisk
2 slicing/ grating blades of different thicknesses
Midi sized bowl
Mini sized bowl with mini blade
Orange juicing attachment
And a storage box to keep them all neatly in as well, which is a nice feature. It means no chance of slicing your finger off on the blade whilst rummaging in the kitchen drawer for something else.
There are some bad points about it - the handle feels a bit flimsy and I can't see it lasting the full 12 years that the motor will, and the orange jucer is a bit tricky to clean out, but all in all I am really pleased with it and I will continue to process away! At least until the novelty wears off.
As I continue with my processing adventures, I will post what I have made so you can get an idea of just how amazing it is! I will tag all the posts with Magimix 4200 so just click on the link to see all the other magimix related posts!
As part of my birthday celebrations, on Sunday 22 June 2008 my girlfriend (now fiancée) and I went to Launceston Place for Sunday lunch. After we went I read this review by AA Gill at The Times, we saw some similarities to what he said but he didn't rate it as highly as us. Maybe we are not so experienced at being foodies, or maybe he went on a bad day. We thought it was pretty good. We had booked the table for 3 pm, but at 2.45 we got a call from the restaurant asking where we were. We were just outside at the time, having just arrived. Anyway, we went in and found the restaurant closed at 3 pm so expected to be rushed through the meal so they could shut up quickly. I am not sure why the booking was taken for the closing time, but in any case we didn't feel rushed at all. The service is quintessentially French, all the waiters are French and wearing black and whites. The décor is modern and fairly stylish, although quite dark. The paintings are a bit hotel style, so I would agree with Gill on that!
We got some nice bread to start with, and then a "pre-starter" which was home made crisps with a cheese dip. Posh crisps and dips, but still that was all it was - crisp and a dip.
For the starters, my lady had nettle soup, which was served at the table from a tiny copper saucepan, and poured over the bread and cheese. There were some weeds or other under the bread, but we liked it.
I had the pork rillet (yes I did eat a lot of pork this weekend) which was very nice and light, and a rather large portion too. An unusual selection of leaves and flowers were served with it, and what tasted like bits of sweet pickled onions.
As it was Sunday, we opted for the roast dinner. I had pork, below, and she had beef, next picture down. The pork came with apple sauce and crackling, very traditional, and great crackling. Just the right amount of crunch. The beef came with horseradish cream and both meals came with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and vegetables.
I found my pork to be cooked to perfection, but very salty. A little oversalted in my opinion. My measure of Yorkshire pudding quality is to compare against my girlfriends mums as hers as the best I have ever had. The Launceston Place Yorkies were about 7 out of a maximum 10, a bit too crispy but otherwise not bad.
The roast beef was absolutely gorgeous, really tender, melt in your mouth texture. Still pink in the middle, just how I like it.
Now look at these beautiful roast potatoes, golden brown on the outside, lovely and crispy, soft and fluffy on the inside. Perfection!
A nice bowl of vegetables to share...roasted parsnip and broccoli.
Now the "pre-dessert" - quite a surprise this one. Served in a silver egg cup with a silver spoon, a hollowed out egg shell, filled with cold set toffee cream custard with crunchy toffee bits and a toffee stick to dip in it, like a boiled egg with soldiers. The novelty value of this was matched by the flavour of it, really good fun to eat. I didn't order it, but I really liked it!
Now the main course of dessert - my girlfriend had rhubarb and ginger crumble with custard cream. I had a toffee ice cream sundae, I might have opted for something different if I knew I was getting the toffee cream egg, but it was still well received. The ice cream was very light but creamy at the same time. A good finish to a good meal. I don't know what you are talking about Gill!
We got some nice bread to start with, and then a "pre-starter" which was home made crisps with a cheese dip. Posh crisps and dips, but still that was all it was - crisp and a dip.
For the starters, my lady had nettle soup, which was served at the table from a tiny copper saucepan, and poured over the bread and cheese. There were some weeds or other under the bread, but we liked it.
I had the pork rillet (yes I did eat a lot of pork this weekend) which was very nice and light, and a rather large portion too. An unusual selection of leaves and flowers were served with it, and what tasted like bits of sweet pickled onions.
As it was Sunday, we opted for the roast dinner. I had pork, below, and she had beef, next picture down. The pork came with apple sauce and crackling, very traditional, and great crackling. Just the right amount of crunch. The beef came with horseradish cream and both meals came with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes and vegetables.I found my pork to be cooked to perfection, but very salty. A little oversalted in my opinion. My measure of Yorkshire pudding quality is to compare against my girlfriends mums as hers as the best I have ever had. The Launceston Place Yorkies were about 7 out of a maximum 10, a bit too crispy but otherwise not bad.
The roast beef was absolutely gorgeous, really tender, melt in your mouth texture. Still pink in the middle, just how I like it.
Now look at these beautiful roast potatoes, golden brown on the outside, lovely and crispy, soft and fluffy on the inside. Perfection!
A nice bowl of vegetables to share...roasted parsnip and broccoli.
Now the "pre-dessert" - quite a surprise this one. Served in a silver egg cup with a silver spoon, a hollowed out egg shell, filled with cold set toffee cream custard with crunchy toffee bits and a toffee stick to dip in it, like a boiled egg with soldiers. The novelty value of this was matched by the flavour of it, really good fun to eat. I didn't order it, but I really liked it!
Now the main course of dessert - my girlfriend had rhubarb and ginger crumble with custard cream. I had a toffee ice cream sundae, I might have opted for something different if I knew I was getting the toffee cream egg, but it was still well received. The ice cream was very light but creamy at the same time. A good finish to a good meal. I don't know what you are talking about Gill!
I already posted a little bit about my visit to the Taste Festival on 21 June 2008, but have finally found the time to write about what we ate whilst we were there. This blog was supposed to be a blog of my recipes, but now it seems to be turning more and more into any kind of food experience! Still, its all good and fuels my love of food. As I said earlier, the Taste Festival was a chance for chefs from all around London to showcase their food, and for foodies (like me) to taste it all. Each resturarant had three dishes on offer, and there were about 40 restaurants in total. My girlfriend and I sampled about nine different dishes in total. We could have stayed and had more, but unfortunately we ran out of time, stomach space and money.
The first thing I tried was from Trinity, in Clapham. They are AA restaurant of the year for 2007 and 2008 and you can read more about it on the website. The dish I ate was "Pigs trotters with crackling on pain poilane with sauce gribiche" and as you can see there is also some green puree which I think was pea. I had never eaten pigs trotters before, and it was delicious. The only way I can describe it is as the essence of pig concentrated. Very tasty.
The next stand we called on was Fortnum & Mason, and I am sure most people will have heard of them before. The delight you can see below is twice baked goats cheese souffle with fig and onion marmalade. This was my girlfriends choice, she is crazy about goats cheese in any shape or form, and unsurprisingly she loved this dish. I had a little nibble, and I thought the onion marmalade was top notch.
Now this is a proper posh meal, as served on the Orient Express. It was a lamb nicoise salad, a bit of a twist on the classic tuna nicoise I think. The lamb was loin of Farmer Sharps Herdwick lamb, and then served with beans, olives, sun dried tomatoes, quails eggs (just like normal hens eggs but smaller if you ask me), mint, olives, and I think the purple things are some kind of rare breed of potato. I am a big fan of lamb, it is my favourite meat ever - so juicy and flavourful.
Next stop on the foodie tour around Regents Park was the stand from Broad Stripe Butchers. The only reason we stopped there was to enter a competition for a top chef to come and cook for you and eight friends at home, but then we were given a free sample of the sausages in a cute mini hot dog bun, complete with mustard and a flag as well. A good example of a tasty sausage! Worth buying if you ever find them in a shop near you. I believe they do mail order meat as well.
Now onto the pies - this one is from Bumpkin, a sort of old fashioned traditional country style food. This pie was packed with chicken, leek and bacon in a very creamy sauce. Just the right amount of puff pastry on the top, and no pastry sides balanced it out very well.
This next dish was probably my favourite of the whole day, just because of the novelty of its presentation, and because it was so tasty and unusual. As you can see, it looks very much like a Mr Whippy ice cream cone, so much so that I was tucking into it and a girl asked me where I got it from, thinking it was ice cream. As she was a Muslim, I was a little embarassed to tell her it was roast middle pork risotto topped with creamy apple sauce and some pork crackling, from Launceston Place. It was delicious, the apple sauce, despite its appearance, was not too sweet, and went very well with the creamy risotto beneath it. The crackling was not as good as that which came with the pigs trotters, but did make the dish look like a 99 ice cream.
Also from Launceston Place, due to their "Buy One, Get One Free" offer was smoked salmon with watercress. Nothing too amazing about this one you may think, but it was smoked right in front of me before serving. The dish below came with a lid on, and just before it was served, some wood chip smoke was puffed into the tub before it was sealed again. This gave the fresh salmon a very rich smokiness, both in flavour and even more so in the aroma. The food from Launceston Place was excellent, and I spoke to the chef as we were planning on going there the following day for Sunday lunch, he said he was not working in the restaurant as he was at the festival, but his sous chef would look after us well.
Nearly at the end of the Taste journey now, we got a taste of India from Cafe Spice Namaste in the form of Xacutti de cabrito - Andrew Sharps' renaissance herdwick mutton curry made using twenty two ingredients and served with pilao rice. Apparently this is the worlds most complicated curry, as it has so many ingredients, but it did not taste complicated, all the flavours were well balanced and the mutton was incredibly tender too. I suppose you could not really pick out the individual spice flavours, but that for me was the good thing about this dish - it was such a good balance of flavours.
I had read about this last dish in the Metro paper the day before we went to the festival, so I wanted to try it. The staff of the paper had some of the chefs from the festival in their staff canteen cooking up some food for them, and this dish by Aldo Zilli sold out the quickest. It was a lobster ravioli with shellfish cream sauce. A great dish to finish the day with, and I can see why it sold out so quickly, filling, comforting, warm and tasty Italian food.
So that is all my tastes from the taste festival. You may be thinking, what about the sweet things?! Well, I am not so bothered about puddings but my lady did try some chocolate brownies and some ice cream from a couple of places, and I obviously had a little bite. But I forgot to take any pictures of it!
The first thing I tried was from Trinity, in Clapham. They are AA restaurant of the year for 2007 and 2008 and you can read more about it on the website. The dish I ate was "Pigs trotters with crackling on pain poilane with sauce gribiche" and as you can see there is also some green puree which I think was pea. I had never eaten pigs trotters before, and it was delicious. The only way I can describe it is as the essence of pig concentrated. Very tasty.
The next stand we called on was Fortnum & Mason, and I am sure most people will have heard of them before. The delight you can see below is twice baked goats cheese souffle with fig and onion marmalade. This was my girlfriends choice, she is crazy about goats cheese in any shape or form, and unsurprisingly she loved this dish. I had a little nibble, and I thought the onion marmalade was top notch.
Now this is a proper posh meal, as served on the Orient Express. It was a lamb nicoise salad, a bit of a twist on the classic tuna nicoise I think. The lamb was loin of Farmer Sharps Herdwick lamb, and then served with beans, olives, sun dried tomatoes, quails eggs (just like normal hens eggs but smaller if you ask me), mint, olives, and I think the purple things are some kind of rare breed of potato. I am a big fan of lamb, it is my favourite meat ever - so juicy and flavourful.
Next stop on the foodie tour around Regents Park was the stand from Broad Stripe Butchers. The only reason we stopped there was to enter a competition for a top chef to come and cook for you and eight friends at home, but then we were given a free sample of the sausages in a cute mini hot dog bun, complete with mustard and a flag as well. A good example of a tasty sausage! Worth buying if you ever find them in a shop near you. I believe they do mail order meat as well.
Now onto the pies - this one is from Bumpkin, a sort of old fashioned traditional country style food. This pie was packed with chicken, leek and bacon in a very creamy sauce. Just the right amount of puff pastry on the top, and no pastry sides balanced it out very well.
This next dish was probably my favourite of the whole day, just because of the novelty of its presentation, and because it was so tasty and unusual. As you can see, it looks very much like a Mr Whippy ice cream cone, so much so that I was tucking into it and a girl asked me where I got it from, thinking it was ice cream. As she was a Muslim, I was a little embarassed to tell her it was roast middle pork risotto topped with creamy apple sauce and some pork crackling, from Launceston Place. It was delicious, the apple sauce, despite its appearance, was not too sweet, and went very well with the creamy risotto beneath it. The crackling was not as good as that which came with the pigs trotters, but did make the dish look like a 99 ice cream.
Also from Launceston Place, due to their "Buy One, Get One Free" offer was smoked salmon with watercress. Nothing too amazing about this one you may think, but it was smoked right in front of me before serving. The dish below came with a lid on, and just before it was served, some wood chip smoke was puffed into the tub before it was sealed again. This gave the fresh salmon a very rich smokiness, both in flavour and even more so in the aroma. The food from Launceston Place was excellent, and I spoke to the chef as we were planning on going there the following day for Sunday lunch, he said he was not working in the restaurant as he was at the festival, but his sous chef would look after us well.
Nearly at the end of the Taste journey now, we got a taste of India from Cafe Spice Namaste in the form of Xacutti de cabrito - Andrew Sharps' renaissance herdwick mutton curry made using twenty two ingredients and served with pilao rice. Apparently this is the worlds most complicated curry, as it has so many ingredients, but it did not taste complicated, all the flavours were well balanced and the mutton was incredibly tender too. I suppose you could not really pick out the individual spice flavours, but that for me was the good thing about this dish - it was such a good balance of flavours.
I had read about this last dish in the Metro paper the day before we went to the festival, so I wanted to try it. The staff of the paper had some of the chefs from the festival in their staff canteen cooking up some food for them, and this dish by Aldo Zilli sold out the quickest. It was a lobster ravioli with shellfish cream sauce. A great dish to finish the day with, and I can see why it sold out so quickly, filling, comforting, warm and tasty Italian food.
So that is all my tastes from the taste festival. You may be thinking, what about the sweet things?! Well, I am not so bothered about puddings but my lady did try some chocolate brownies and some ice cream from a couple of places, and I obviously had a little bite. But I forgot to take any pictures of it!
I think I mentioned in an earlier post that for me, the Taste of London festival was a very pork orientated event. So, here is some more pork....
We walked past the "Simply Sausages" stand, on the sniff for free samples. There were none to be had just yet, but were told there was to be a demo of sausage making soon, and then tasters. So we hung around for a bit longer to wait to see the sausage making in action.
Simply Sausages are a premium and traditional sausage making company, made with only natural, fresh, proper ingredients - no fillers, flavourings, preservatives or any other rubbish. The company is run by a chap called Martin Heap, who as well as being the founder of the company is also Executive Chef and a self styled sausage guru. He started the company in 1981 from a London market stall at Smithfields Meat Market and it has grown from there, and the sausages are now popular in Morrissons and Waitrose. It was actually Martin who was making the sausages for us today, so we felt quite privileged! The sausages he made for us were pork, apple and acacia honey, and you can see the ingredients all laid out below.
There is pork, with just the right amount of fat and meat for a juicy sausage, apple (dried so it does not go brown), herbs, amongst the main ingredients.
The pork has now been minced to sausage meat consistency...
Mixed together with all the other ingredients (this was all done in a Blue Peter, here's one I made earlier style)...
Now here is the sausage filling machine. The filling is stuffed into the chamber here, where Martin's hand is.
Now twist the lid onto the filling machine, and he takes a sausage tube (intestine I believe) and threads it onto the machine, ready to be filled with sausage meat.
The machine that was in use at the Taste festival was foot pump operated, so he is gently pumping the machine, which forces the pork out from the nozzle, into the sausage tube, and then gently pull the tube away from the machine.
Now it is starting to look more banger like...
Now the end is knotted off.
We walked past the "Simply Sausages" stand, on the sniff for free samples. There were none to be had just yet, but were told there was to be a demo of sausage making soon, and then tasters. So we hung around for a bit longer to wait to see the sausage making in action.
Simply Sausages are a premium and traditional sausage making company, made with only natural, fresh, proper ingredients - no fillers, flavourings, preservatives or any other rubbish. The company is run by a chap called Martin Heap, who as well as being the founder of the company is also Executive Chef and a self styled sausage guru. He started the company in 1981 from a London market stall at Smithfields Meat Market and it has grown from there, and the sausages are now popular in Morrissons and Waitrose. It was actually Martin who was making the sausages for us today, so we felt quite privileged! The sausages he made for us were pork, apple and acacia honey, and you can see the ingredients all laid out below.
There is pork, with just the right amount of fat and meat for a juicy sausage, apple (dried so it does not go brown), herbs, amongst the main ingredients.
The pork has now been minced to sausage meat consistency...
Mixed together with all the other ingredients (this was all done in a Blue Peter, here's one I made earlier style)...
Now here is the sausage filling machine. The filling is stuffed into the chamber here, where Martin's hand is.
Now twist the lid onto the filling machine, and he takes a sausage tube (intestine I believe) and threads it onto the machine, ready to be filled with sausage meat.
The machine that was in use at the Taste festival was foot pump operated, so he is gently pumping the machine, which forces the pork out from the nozzle, into the sausage tube, and then gently pull the tube away from the machine.
Now it is starting to look more banger like...
Now the end is knotted off.
Now this was for me the best bit, it was very skillfuly and quickly done. The one long sausage was picked up and carefully and quickly knotted/knitted into "sixes" - that is, bunches of six sausages. Traditionally, it is 6 sausages to the pound (454 g to you youngsters) but Martin makes slightly fatter sausages, so 6 weigh a bit over 1 pound.
According to an email I receive after the event, the Simply Sausages team, sold and sampled nearly 25,000 sausages Taste of London festival over the weekend, Britain's most prestigious food event. They were inundated with sausage lovers, desperate to buy the sausages and as a result sold out every single day!
The proof of the sausage is, as they say, in the eating! And we got to try these as well. Not the actual ones prepared in the pictures, as someone was frying them in the background whilst Martin Heap did his demo. The smell of the frying was rather mouthwatering, and we were desperate for a taste.
The pork and apple sausages were delicious, and the hint of cinnamon really went well. They were nice fat sausages, and juicy too. Of course, some people are not into fruity sausages and so there are also other more meat based ones as well. The Smithfields No 1 with nutmeg might be a better one for pure meat lovers!
As part of my birthday celebrations, my girlfriend had bought me tickets to the Taste of London festival, which luckily fell on the weekend just after my birthday.
It was a really good day out, the clouds looked threatening the whole day but it stayed dry for us. We went for the Saturday afternoon session, form noon till 4 pm and there were over 8000 people there sampling food from about 40 of London's top restaurants.
We tried food from a whole host of top chefs, from restaurants like Bumpkin, Cafe Spice Namaste, Fortnum & Mason, Launceston Place (and this was a good introduction to the following day when we went there for lunch - more to come on that later), Orient Express and Trinity. I took loads of pictures, so will tell a bit more about each of the places in a later post.
Apart from the top restaurants, there were all kinds of other stalls going on, most of them offering free samples and tasters. The first thing we did when we got there though was went to a free wine tasting introduction, just a very quick 10 minute intro to tasting wine and matching the flavour of the wine with the foods. We were given a glass of red, then white, and shown how to swirl the wine around the glass, and look at the legs to see how much alcohol and sugar are in there. Then take a sniff, and try and detect the different flavours. I have been on a wine tasting course before, but I don't think my nose is yet fully attuned to it... when the somellier told us what he could smell, it clicked and I thought "O yes, I can smell that", but apart from that just general fruity smell is what I can detect. Berries, vanilla and a bit of oak in the red, citrus scents in the white. But then when the guy said there were, for example, hints of melon in there, it starts to make sense. Anyway, that was quite a good start to the day.
Amongst the other free stuff was some chocolate, a favourite of my girlfriend. It was from a chocolate company called New Tree, and it was a new one on me. They had some really unusual flavours, like the "Tranquillity" lavender chocolate. This is a flavour I would normally associate with old ladies, but it worked pretty well. Then there was apricot, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and the rather racily named "Sexy" which was made with dark chocolate and ginger.
We went on and bought a beer then, Chang, which is a Thai beer and came with complimentary Thai snacks - as you can see here, some spring rolls and fish cakes. A nice little nibble whilst walking around the show.
There were all kinds of things to look at whilst walking around, including a garden laid on by Rocket Gardens of Cornwall (my home land so I have to give them a plug). Now I will admit I found the guy running the stall, who turned out to be the owner of the company, a bit sarcastic and annoying but still he had a good concept and I recommend you check it out. Sorry, I forgot to take any pictures.
But I did get a shot of this lovely ice statue - advertising some beer or other, I forget which one now!
And another nice picture, a spit roasting pig. Pork seemed to be the order of the day for me, and I think I had about four or five different pork based dishes! I don't normally eat much meat, and even less pork, so this was a bit of a change, and quite a tasty one too.
Throughout the day there were various chef's performing in the Taste Theatre, which as you can see below is a bit like a TV cookery program but you get to be in the audience. We managed to catch Gary Rhodes, who seems to think he is very good looking I must say, and kept making bad jokes about how young and good looking he is. Anyway, he did make some quite nice recipes in half an hour - a smoked duck and orange salad, and then then a fish dish - I think it was pollock! Unfortunately no tasters with this though, I don't think he made enough for everyone.
All in all a really good day, it was a shame that it only lasted for 4 hours since we could have stayed there longer and felt somewhat rushed to go round it all. I guess though that if we had stayed much longer, we would have eaten and eaten until we could eat no more.
I still have more to post on this, including some sausage making, a bit more about all the food we tried, and some new oil which I discovered there!
It was a really good day out, the clouds looked threatening the whole day but it stayed dry for us. We went for the Saturday afternoon session, form noon till 4 pm and there were over 8000 people there sampling food from about 40 of London's top restaurants.
We tried food from a whole host of top chefs, from restaurants like Bumpkin, Cafe Spice Namaste, Fortnum & Mason, Launceston Place (and this was a good introduction to the following day when we went there for lunch - more to come on that later), Orient Express and Trinity. I took loads of pictures, so will tell a bit more about each of the places in a later post.
Apart from the top restaurants, there were all kinds of other stalls going on, most of them offering free samples and tasters. The first thing we did when we got there though was went to a free wine tasting introduction, just a very quick 10 minute intro to tasting wine and matching the flavour of the wine with the foods. We were given a glass of red, then white, and shown how to swirl the wine around the glass, and look at the legs to see how much alcohol and sugar are in there. Then take a sniff, and try and detect the different flavours. I have been on a wine tasting course before, but I don't think my nose is yet fully attuned to it... when the somellier told us what he could smell, it clicked and I thought "O yes, I can smell that", but apart from that just general fruity smell is what I can detect. Berries, vanilla and a bit of oak in the red, citrus scents in the white. But then when the guy said there were, for example, hints of melon in there, it starts to make sense. Anyway, that was quite a good start to the day.
Amongst the other free stuff was some chocolate, a favourite of my girlfriend. It was from a chocolate company called New Tree, and it was a new one on me. They had some really unusual flavours, like the "Tranquillity" lavender chocolate. This is a flavour I would normally associate with old ladies, but it worked pretty well. Then there was apricot, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and the rather racily named "Sexy" which was made with dark chocolate and ginger.
We went on and bought a beer then, Chang, which is a Thai beer and came with complimentary Thai snacks - as you can see here, some spring rolls and fish cakes. A nice little nibble whilst walking around the show.
There were all kinds of things to look at whilst walking around, including a garden laid on by Rocket Gardens of Cornwall (my home land so I have to give them a plug). Now I will admit I found the guy running the stall, who turned out to be the owner of the company, a bit sarcastic and annoying but still he had a good concept and I recommend you check it out. Sorry, I forgot to take any pictures.
But I did get a shot of this lovely ice statue - advertising some beer or other, I forget which one now!
And another nice picture, a spit roasting pig. Pork seemed to be the order of the day for me, and I think I had about four or five different pork based dishes! I don't normally eat much meat, and even less pork, so this was a bit of a change, and quite a tasty one too.
Throughout the day there were various chef's performing in the Taste Theatre, which as you can see below is a bit like a TV cookery program but you get to be in the audience. We managed to catch Gary Rhodes, who seems to think he is very good looking I must say, and kept making bad jokes about how young and good looking he is. Anyway, he did make some quite nice recipes in half an hour - a smoked duck and orange salad, and then then a fish dish - I think it was pollock! Unfortunately no tasters with this though, I don't think he made enough for everyone.
All in all a really good day, it was a shame that it only lasted for 4 hours since we could have stayed there longer and felt somewhat rushed to go round it all. I guess though that if we had stayed much longer, we would have eaten and eaten until we could eat no more.
I still have more to post on this, including some sausage making, a bit more about all the food we tried, and some new oil which I discovered there!
Last week was my birthday (19th June for anyone who wants to get me a present and card next year) and my lovely girlfriend baked me a cake. As you can see, it is quite a work of art. It was a marbled cake, made from chocolate and banana, in the picture below you can see the marbled effect. Then filled with jam, iced with lots of chocolate icing, some marshmallows, and those lovely shiny silver ball things that you can actually eat (although they are a bit tough on the teeth).
The cake was really light and tasty, and I was very lucky to have it baked for me, and have happy birthday sung as well. We just had the last slice today.
In the evening of my birthday, we went for a meal at Zizi's near by. I am in principle against chain restaurants, as it homogenises every town and there is nowadays very little variety, although I often find myself eating at them. I am not sure what sort of people want to have the same meal every place they go, but it is not me. Actually, I know my girlfriend does like it as she can get a goats cheese calzone all the time.
The food was actually quite good, traditional Italian style cooking. The service, on the other hand, was diabolical. It started off well, with about half a dozen different waiters trying to take our drinks order, and it went down hill from there. When we were actually ready to order, we could not get the attention of anyone for love nor money. We finally ordered, but then we waited ages for the starters to arrive. They were pretty good I must say, despite the wait.
Onto the mains, and this is where the real delays started. It must have taken over half an hour for them to eventually bring out the wrong meal for me, and it took some prompting from us to even get this. Never mind, we had some free drinks given to us anyway. I sent the main course back, I asked for chicken ravioli, not mushroom, so chicken is what I wanted to eat. They took my lady friends back as well, to keep warm. Lucky they did, as the promised "2 minutes" was another 30 minutes or more. Still, we got more wine in the interim, and the ravioli was pretty good when it actually arrived. And to keep us happy, we only got charged for the starters and the first drinks, so it worked out a very cheap night out.
I have no idea why the service was quite so bad, but it was terrible! It was fairly busy for a Thursday night, and there were 3 other birthday parties in, but that is no excuse!
Anyway, I am sure we will end up going back there again, as the food was tasty, but not for a while.
I am aware that this blog is not so much about recipes any more and more about food in general. In keeping with that, I have got some more foodie type posts coming up from a birthday weekend spent in London. To whet your appetite, I will be posting about the Taste Festival, sausage making, tapas, hotel breakfasts, and finally a dinner at the rather posh Kensington restaurant Launceston Place. Hopefully I will get those done this week, if I manage to find the time!
A sweet potato omelette is a nice alternative to Spanish tortilla omelette and is very easy to make.
Take one sweet potato, peel and chop up into small cubes.
Heat some oil in a large non stick frying pan, then add the sweet potato. Fry for about 5-10 minutes.
Now add in a chopped onion, clove of garlic and chilli, and fry for a further 5 minutes or so, until the potato is soft and the onions are translucent.
Beat 3 large eggs together, and now make sure the pan is very hot. Pour the eggs into the pan, then reduce the heat down very low. Why is this? To seal the eggs, you need the pan hot, but you don't want to burn the bottom of them, so reduce the heat to low to slowly cook through to the middle.
Now the egg will start to cook, gently push a spatula around the edges just to tease the egg away from the pan.
When it is fairly solid, but still a bit runny at the top, remove from the heat.
Grate some cheese on top, and season with plenty of salt and pepper. Now, finish off under a hot grill until the egg is cooked solid and the cheese is all melted and bubbling.
Serve it up straight away and enjoy!
And on the subject of sweet potato, I thought this was an interesting read...
Take one sweet potato, peel and chop up into small cubes.
Heat some oil in a large non stick frying pan, then add the sweet potato. Fry for about 5-10 minutes.
Now add in a chopped onion, clove of garlic and chilli, and fry for a further 5 minutes or so, until the potato is soft and the onions are translucent.
Beat 3 large eggs together, and now make sure the pan is very hot. Pour the eggs into the pan, then reduce the heat down very low. Why is this? To seal the eggs, you need the pan hot, but you don't want to burn the bottom of them, so reduce the heat to low to slowly cook through to the middle.
Now the egg will start to cook, gently push a spatula around the edges just to tease the egg away from the pan.
When it is fairly solid, but still a bit runny at the top, remove from the heat.
Grate some cheese on top, and season with plenty of salt and pepper. Now, finish off under a hot grill until the egg is cooked solid and the cheese is all melted and bubbling.
Serve it up straight away and enjoy!
And on the subject of sweet potato, I thought this was an interesting read...
"Six cows killed by sweet potato poisoning"
Just make sure you store sweet potatoes, like all potatoes, in the dark to stop them producing these toxins.
I went onto Blogger today, with the intention of writing a post, and saw a link to Picassa - where all my blogger photos are now displayed in one album. I thought it was quite cool, so here is the link to my recipe photos.
I saw a post on herbs at the Leftover Queens blog recently, and thought I had better do something with all the herbs I have growing in my garden! Its nice and sunny outside again, and this salad is very refreshing on a summers day. Perfect for cool salad dinners or something like that.
Pick a nice sprig of mint from the garden.
Blanch some peas - picked from the garden is best, but frozen ones are nice too - and then immerse in cold water to cool them and stop them cooking.
Drain the peas, add a dollop of yoghurt, season with salt and pepper, and then tear up the mint leaves into it. I always try and tear herbs rather than chopping them as the flavour is better.
Mix it all together, and you are done.
Pick a nice sprig of mint from the garden.
Blanch some peas - picked from the garden is best, but frozen ones are nice too - and then immerse in cold water to cool them and stop them cooking.
Drain the peas, add a dollop of yoghurt, season with salt and pepper, and then tear up the mint leaves into it. I always try and tear herbs rather than chopping them as the flavour is better.
Mix it all together, and you are done.
The tuna sandwich is a simple, quick to make sandwich yet it remains an all time classic sandwich filling, and will, I think, always be popular.
This is my version of it! I challenge anyone else to come up with a better sandwich filling, and would love to see anyone elses take on this classic sandwich.
First off, get a can of tuna, in salted water. Drain it by squeezing out the water in the can, the place it into a bowl.
Now you are going to need all these ingredients:
Season well with salt and pepper, and a generous dollop of mayonnaise, a smaller dollop of ketchup, a few splashes of Tobasco sauce (Other chilli sauces are available), and a generous squeeze of lemon juice. Mix well.
Choose a suitable bread based product to contain your delicious tuna filling. Here I have used two floury baps, white obviously, none of this wholemeal bread nonsense goes with tuna.
Don't be stingy with the filling, get as much as you reasonably can into the sandwich or roll. There is no need for butter with tuna mayo, as the filling is juicy enough already.
Add some salad to your sandwich - I like tomato, and a bit of lettuce. Cucumber is a classic choice, or sweetcorn.
Wow, it looks good! Now eat it straight away, this doesn't work well for a pack lunch because the bread goes all soggy.
This is my version of it! I challenge anyone else to come up with a better sandwich filling, and would love to see anyone elses take on this classic sandwich.
First off, get a can of tuna, in salted water. Drain it by squeezing out the water in the can, the place it into a bowl.
Now you are going to need all these ingredients:
Season well with salt and pepper, and a generous dollop of mayonnaise, a smaller dollop of ketchup, a few splashes of Tobasco sauce (Other chilli sauces are available), and a generous squeeze of lemon juice. Mix well.
Choose a suitable bread based product to contain your delicious tuna filling. Here I have used two floury baps, white obviously, none of this wholemeal bread nonsense goes with tuna.
Don't be stingy with the filling, get as much as you reasonably can into the sandwich or roll. There is no need for butter with tuna mayo, as the filling is juicy enough already.
Add some salad to your sandwich - I like tomato, and a bit of lettuce. Cucumber is a classic choice, or sweetcorn. 
Wow, it looks good! Now eat it straight away, this doesn't work well for a pack lunch because the bread goes all soggy.
For this recipe, you are going to need a very sharp knife, so get sharpening. I use a steel like the one below. If you use one of these, then hold the blade at 45 degrees to the steel, and pull gently along from one end of the blade to the other. Do this 4 or five times each side, and that should be nice and sharp.
Why the sharp knife? Well, the butternut squash is really hard to cut otherwise. So, slice it in half, and then scoop out the seeds from the middle.
Place a nob of butter in the well left by the seeds, then roast in the oven at 200 C for around 40 minutes, or until the flesh is soft. Whilst the squash is cooking, make 200 g of fresh pasta dough as described previously. Leave it to stand in the fridge for half an hour before getting on to the rolling out stage.
Allow the squash to cool for a while, unless of course your hands are made of asbestos. Now, scoop out all the flesh into a bowl. Add a teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice, about half a tablespoon each of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and stacks of salt and pepper. Mash it all up together.
Now, roll out the pasta, either using a rolling pin (as thin as you can) or a pasta machine (go down to the second thinnest setting).
Using a scone cutter, cut out rounds of pasta. As you can see in the picture, I didn't have one of these so used a glass and cut round it with a sharp knife. You get the idea though, just get lots of round shapes out of the pasta. I think there was enough for about 30 or so with 200 g of pasta dough. Make sure you are working on a well floured surface, you don't want the pasta to stick to it.
Now put a teaspoon of the filling into each of the pasta discs. Not too much mind, as otherwise they will not fold up nicely and the filling will spill out when you cook it. Not too little either, as then they will taste boring.
Brush some milk round the edge of the disc, then fold in half. The milk is to help them stick together. Go round the edge and press with a fork to seal it. This bit is quite time consuming, so maybe get yourself a glass of wine to while away the time. Not too much wine though as you don't want to mess it up! Put the finished ravioli onto a floured plate.
Now go outside to your garden and pick yourself a bunch of fresh sage leaves. If you are not lucky enough to have fresh sage, dried will probably do. Melt a nob of butter in a pan and rip the sage leaves up into it. This is to drizzle on the pasta when it is done.
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Cook the ravioli in batches to avoid them sticking together. They will take about 5 minutes or so, although this really depends how thick the pasta is, and how much filling is inside. Taste them to check they are done, and fish them out of the water using a slotted spoon when done.
Serve on warmed plates, drizzled with the sage butter, and a bit of salad. This is enough for 4 people as a starter, or 2 as a main course.
I was very pleased with this as a first attempt for ravioli. I think they held together very well and the squash is very rich and juicy as the filling. Next step in my pasta making education is to make them a bit more attractive - work on the presentation!
Why the sharp knife? Well, the butternut squash is really hard to cut otherwise. So, slice it in half, and then scoop out the seeds from the middle.
Place a nob of butter in the well left by the seeds, then roast in the oven at 200 C for around 40 minutes, or until the flesh is soft. Whilst the squash is cooking, make 200 g of fresh pasta dough as described previously. Leave it to stand in the fridge for half an hour before getting on to the rolling out stage.
Allow the squash to cool for a while, unless of course your hands are made of asbestos. Now, scoop out all the flesh into a bowl. Add a teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice, about half a tablespoon each of olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and stacks of salt and pepper. Mash it all up together.
Now, roll out the pasta, either using a rolling pin (as thin as you can) or a pasta machine (go down to the second thinnest setting).Using a scone cutter, cut out rounds of pasta. As you can see in the picture, I didn't have one of these so used a glass and cut round it with a sharp knife. You get the idea though, just get lots of round shapes out of the pasta. I think there was enough for about 30 or so with 200 g of pasta dough. Make sure you are working on a well floured surface, you don't want the pasta to stick to it.
Now put a teaspoon of the filling into each of the pasta discs. Not too much mind, as otherwise they will not fold up nicely and the filling will spill out when you cook it. Not too little either, as then they will taste boring.
Brush some milk round the edge of the disc, then fold in half. The milk is to help them stick together. Go round the edge and press with a fork to seal it. This bit is quite time consuming, so maybe get yourself a glass of wine to while away the time. Not too much wine though as you don't want to mess it up! Put the finished ravioli onto a floured plate.
Now go outside to your garden and pick yourself a bunch of fresh sage leaves. If you are not lucky enough to have fresh sage, dried will probably do. Melt a nob of butter in a pan and rip the sage leaves up into it. This is to drizzle on the pasta when it is done.
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Cook the ravioli in batches to avoid them sticking together. They will take about 5 minutes or so, although this really depends how thick the pasta is, and how much filling is inside. Taste them to check they are done, and fish them out of the water using a slotted spoon when done.Serve on warmed plates, drizzled with the sage butter, and a bit of salad. This is enough for 4 people as a starter, or 2 as a main course.
I was very pleased with this as a first attempt for ravioli. I think they held together very well and the squash is very rich and juicy as the filling. Next step in my pasta making education is to make them a bit more attractive - work on the presentation!
I haven't posted on here very regularly of late, and that is because I have been down to Cornwall for a long weekend for a friends wedding. Cornwall did not used to be known as a gourmet destination, but it seems to be heading more in that direction. First there was Rick Stein converting Padstow into Padstein, not to mention all the brilliant pubs selling local fish and meat. The now ubiquitous pasty used to be a delight only found in Cornwall, but now you can't walk 5 steps in a town centre anywhere 'Up Country' without seeing one. And then along came Jamie Oliver and set up one of his Fifteen Foundation restaurants on the beach at Watergate Bay. If you haven't heard about them, have a read of the website; it is an apprenticeship where each year there are 15 under privileged pupils taken on and taught all the skills to become a chef.
Watergate Bay truly is a stunning location for a restaurant, even on a grey day as it was when we were there, the floor to ceiling sea view windows allow you to watch the waves crashing against the beach, ogle the surfers (if that is your thing), watch the kite flyers or just look at the view! Here I am just dipping a toe in the water! See the surfers in the background too.
The food is quite reasonably priced if you go for the set lunch menu. This is 3 courses for £25, an even better deal if you opt for a really expensive main course like the lamb at £18.
We managed to take some pictures of the food in the restaurant to give you a taste of what we had. I took one of the menus to remember the description, but then lost it so I cannot recreate exactly what it was all called. But as it is a Jamie Oliver place the descriptions were peppered with 'pukka' and 'funky' and other such Oliver-ism's.
To start with, I had a delicious smoked mackerel with amazing fennel and potato salad, topped with Butervilla Funky Leaves... these were the most interesting and unusual part to me! You can probably see the flowers in the pictures, and they are some really unusual leaves - I have put a link to their website so you can read about what they do at http://www.buttervilla.com/funky/. It is great that Fifteen supports local produce, although I seem to remember them getting caught out in the press a while ago for using some battery reared eggs from Tesco!
My lady friend had a bruschetta with locally produced buffalo mozzarella, (which we decided was the richest and creamiest we had ever had), with pea and green bean purée and then topped with some more of the Buttervilla Funky leaves.
The presentation was not fantastic on the starters, but both were exceptionally good so it didn't really matter!Then onto the main course, for which I had leg of lamb with mountain lentils and kale - and some herbs (I forget what now, sorry). As you can see here the lamb was cooked to perfection, and just melted in the mouth. The lentils as well were very tender and soft.
For her main course, she had orecchiette (pasta shaped like ears, thanks Wikipedia) with aubergine and tomato sauce, and ricotta. Not too much to say about that really, it was a simple dish but cooked to perfection, and in the words of my girlfriend 'Yum-a-licious!' I think that says it all!
Now onto the puddings, I went for a posh-er version of Eton Mess - it was Boddingtons strawberries, with meringues and champagne cream. Or it might have been champagne meringues and cream. Either way, it tasted delicious, and was presented in the traditional Eton Mess way! Messily! It didn't stay on my plate for long.
The other pudding we had on our table was called Amber's mum's amazing cinnamon and rhubarb pudding, served with with vanilla cream. I am not sure who Amber is, or her mum, but they certainly know their cakes! It was delicious, not to sweet, and the cinnamon goes really well with the rhubarb.
Chaat is a word used in many parts of India, Pakistan and South Asia to refer to street food snacks, the literal translation of the word is 'lick' or 'taste', I suppose because that is what you do.
This chicken chaat would usually be served in a chapati and I have had it before as a starter in Indian restaurants. Unfortunately, I have not yet been to India! It is a very quick meal to make and extremely flavourful.
Serves 4
Ingredients
This chicken chaat would usually be served in a chapati and I have had it before as a starter in Indian restaurants. Unfortunately, I have not yet been to India! It is a very quick meal to make and extremely flavourful.
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breasts - cubed
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1/2 lemon
- Fresh coriander leaves, to garnish
In a pestle and mortar, mash the garlic with the salt until it forms a smooth paste.
Heat the oil in a large, non stick frying pan. Add the garlic paste.
Stir fry for about 2 minutes, until it is lightly browned.
Add the chicken to the pan, and stir fry for about 5-6 minutes until lightly browned and just about cooked through.
Add the spices and stir well.
Stir fry for another 2 minutes.
Squeeze over the lemon juice. A tip before juicing a lemon is to roll it on the work top, gently squeezing it all the time. This will make it a lot softer and more juice seems to come out that way.
Garnish with fresh coriander leaves. Serve in a chapati or with rice and vegetables for a more complete meal.
Heat the oil in a large, non stick frying pan. Add the garlic paste.
Stir fry for about 2 minutes, until it is lightly browned.
Add the chicken to the pan, and stir fry for about 5-6 minutes until lightly browned and just about cooked through.
Add the spices and stir well.
Stir fry for another 2 minutes.
Squeeze over the lemon juice. A tip before juicing a lemon is to roll it on the work top, gently squeezing it all the time. This will make it a lot softer and more juice seems to come out that way.
Garnish with fresh coriander leaves. Serve in a chapati or with rice and vegetables for a more complete meal.
I read with interest this post from Ben at What's Cooking? and thought it sounded like a great idea. The idea I took away from this was not to make the exact same salad, but to try the mango and tuna combo he aspired towards. Of course, when I actually made this the weather was a lot warmer, and the dish was well suited to the summery conditions. I have only just got round to posting the recipe up, several weeks later - and now the traditional English summer (wet and grey) has returned!
It worked out quite well, and with the added advantage that tuna steaks were on special offer in Tesco - 10p for two which is an absolute bargain, cheaper even than tinned tuna and a lot nicer.
This was a making it up as you go along sort of a salad. I got a mango, some tomatoes , cucumber, and green beans. Chopped them all up into chunks, then grilled the tuna steaks, then flaked it up into chunks and mixed with the salad whilst still hot.
For the dressing I just made a simple vinaigrette from a tablespoon of olive oil and red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, and then mixed the whole lot together and poured over the salad.
The fruity mango worked quite well with the tuna, but I should have added in some potatoes or pasta to make it into a more filling meal.
It worked out quite well, and with the added advantage that tuna steaks were on special offer in Tesco - 10p for two which is an absolute bargain, cheaper even than tinned tuna and a lot nicer.
This was a making it up as you go along sort of a salad. I got a mango, some tomatoes , cucumber, and green beans. Chopped them all up into chunks, then grilled the tuna steaks, then flaked it up into chunks and mixed with the salad whilst still hot.
For the dressing I just made a simple vinaigrette from a tablespoon of olive oil and red wine vinegar, salt and pepper, and then mixed the whole lot together and poured over the salad.
The fruity mango worked quite well with the tuna, but I should have added in some potatoes or pasta to make it into a more filling meal.
It is now officially the start of British summer time. We have had a week of glorious, scorching sunshine, enough to make the papers write such creative headlines as "Scorcher!". But for me the real sign of the start of summer is the smell of barbecues in the air.
I think it is a uniquely British thing that once summer begins, there will be a barbecue just about every week, rain or shine. I have before been hunched under an umbrella, keeping the fire going and turning the sausages just "Because it's summer!".
Still, I love barbecues, maybe because it signifies summer time, and in England, the weather is often not good enough to definitively say it is summer. So the first weekend of sunshine where we have been at home, and we got the barbecue out and fired it up!
Here are a few pictures of some British barbecue antics:
First, here is the barbecue getting fired up - not quite hot enough yet.
Now it's looking nice and hot, so on with the spicy chicken, and wrapped up in the foil is a sweet potato. They take a while to bake on the barbecue, about 30-40 minutes depending how hot it is and how big the potato is.
The chicken cooked, and then into the oven to keep warm whilst I do the burgers:
Obviously tending the barbecue is hard work, so time for a gin and tonic with plenty of ice and lemon. Ahh.
Here, I am grilling some aubergine slices, brushed with a little olive oil and lemon.
They were made into aubergine and mozzarella sandwiches, with the cheese nicely melted in between the aubergine slices.
Ooops - well, it wouldn't be a barbecue if nothing fell into the hot coals.
And here is the results - looking a little bit blackened, but it all adds to the flavour.
Serve with plenty of salad, and some nice cold beers or white wine.
Just a little tip for cooking on the barbecue, don't have it too hot else you will burn the outside and not cook the middle of anything. It is useful to have a barbie with a movable grill shelf like mine, so that you can adjust the height depending on the heat of your coals.
To check that things are cooked, you could use a meat thermometer or just use a knife and slice into the meat, and check it is cooked all the way through.
I think it is a uniquely British thing that once summer begins, there will be a barbecue just about every week, rain or shine. I have before been hunched under an umbrella, keeping the fire going and turning the sausages just "Because it's summer!".
Still, I love barbecues, maybe because it signifies summer time, and in England, the weather is often not good enough to definitively say it is summer. So the first weekend of sunshine where we have been at home, and we got the barbecue out and fired it up!
Here are a few pictures of some British barbecue antics:
First, here is the barbecue getting fired up - not quite hot enough yet.
Now it's looking nice and hot, so on with the spicy chicken, and wrapped up in the foil is a sweet potato. They take a while to bake on the barbecue, about 30-40 minutes depending how hot it is and how big the potato is.
The chicken cooked, and then into the oven to keep warm whilst I do the burgers:
Obviously tending the barbecue is hard work, so time for a gin and tonic with plenty of ice and lemon. Ahh.
Here, I am grilling some aubergine slices, brushed with a little olive oil and lemon.
They were made into aubergine and mozzarella sandwiches, with the cheese nicely melted in between the aubergine slices.
Ooops - well, it wouldn't be a barbecue if nothing fell into the hot coals.
And here is the results - looking a little bit blackened, but it all adds to the flavour.
Serve with plenty of salad, and some nice cold beers or white wine.
Just a little tip for cooking on the barbecue, don't have it too hot else you will burn the outside and not cook the middle of anything. It is useful to have a barbie with a movable grill shelf like mine, so that you can adjust the height depending on the heat of your coals.
To check that things are cooked, you could use a meat thermometer or just use a knife and slice into the meat, and check it is cooked all the way through.
This recipe comes from my good friend R, and it is very tasty! The chicken can only really be eaten with your fingers, no knives and forks for these, just make sure you have some paper towels to hand to wipe up after, as they are very sticky and juicy! The smoked paprika is the key here, it (surprisingly enough) adds a really smokey flavour to the chicken. You can really smell this as they cook in the oven, beautiful! R recommended using a whole tube of chilli in this, but I thought that would be just a little bit too spicy for me, so I just used half a tube. Any sort of chicken pieces will be good for this recipe I think, but I used thighs and drumsticks since they were on special offer in Tesco this week (£1.50 for 6 pieces).
I think this would also work really well on a barbecue too.
If you don't have a pestle and mortar, you could probably make the paste up in a blender. And don't use a porous wooden pestle and mortar like I did, as it is a nightmare to get clean afterwards. I think the next kitchen thing I will buy will be a nice solid stone pestle and mortar - rather like this one...
Ingredients
- 6 chicken thighs/ drumsticks/ wings
- 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1/2 tsp caraway seeds
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 clove garlic
- Salt and pepper
- 1/2 tube chilli paste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 tablespoon red wine vinegar
In a pestle and mortar, grind up the seeds to a fine powder. Add the paprika and chopped garlic and grind some more.
Squeeze in about half the tube of chilli paste, and add the oil and vinegar. Grind some more to mix it all up well, and season with salt and pepper.
Toss the chicken in the paste, making sure all the pieces are well coated. Cover and leave to marinate. The longer the better really, although I only left them for half an hour as I was in a hurry. If you are organised, you could leave them to marinate over night.
Preheat the oven to 200C/ Gas Mark 6.
Place the chicken pieces in a roasting tin, and spoon any remaining paste over the top.
Cook for about 40 minutes, turning and basting a couple of times during the cooking. When done, the chicken should be golden brown and sticky.
Serve with some green salad, and some potatoes or chips.
Does anyone have any ideas what this is!? It is a meal that we had in Japan a few years ago, being prepared. It is all cooked by the chef on the hot plate in front of him, a very skilled and quick chap as he is preparing at least 10 of them in the bottom picture!
Have a guess what you think it is, I will reveal more later!
Have a guess what you think it is, I will reveal more later!
Cottage pie, not to be confused with shepherds pie (which is made with lamb - hence the shepherd) is a Great British Classic, always good as comfort food and to warm you up on a dull grey day. It is fairly simple to make, but can take a while. The trick is to get the potatoes on and boiling and then make the meaty sauce filling, so making the best use of your time.
There are many variations of this recipe, some with veg in, some just meat, some people add baked beans or tinned tomatoes. This is how I like it!
Ingredients
There are many variations of this recipe, some with veg in, some just meat, some people add baked beans or tinned tomatoes. This is how I like it!
Ingredients
- 2 onions
- 3 carrots
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 500 g minced beef
- 3 tablespoons beef gravy granules
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 200 mL water
- Salt and pepper
- 6 long runner beans, topped, tailed and sliced
- 500 g potatoes - peeled
- Butter for mashing
- Milk for mashing
- Strong cheddar cheese for grating on top
- 1 leek
First of all start by peeling the potatoes, chop them smaller if needed, and boil in salted water until cooked.
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Whilst the spuds are cooking, heat the oil in a large pan on a medium-high heat, then fry the chopped onions and garlic for 2 minutes, then add the peeled chopped carrots and fry for another 2 minutes.
Now add the minced beef, and cook until browned. Sprinkle on the gravy granules and mix around well. There will be plenty of juices from the meat to mix this in with. Add in the water and stir well. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10-15 minutes, adding the sliced beans just before turning off the heat. The sauce should look juicy yet thick, if not then reduce for a further few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, you may not need much salt if the gravy granules you used were already salted.
Preheat the oven to 200C.
Whilst the spuds are cooking, heat the oil in a large pan on a medium-high heat, then fry the chopped onions and garlic for 2 minutes, then add the peeled chopped carrots and fry for another 2 minutes.
When putting the mashed potato on top, you can either pipe it on, or spoon it on top. I usually just spoon it on with a spatula, building it up from around the edges of the dish, like below:
Now slice and chop the leeks. Place in a colander and rinse well under the tap. I find this is the easiest way to wash a leek, the alternative is to slice it lengthways half way through and then fan open the leaves and rinse under the tap, but I find it easier to clean the leek with it all sliced up first, like this:
Sprinkle the leeks on top of the pie, then season with salt and pepper on the top, and sprinkle the whole lot generously with grated cheese.
Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the leeks start to brown.
I do not normally eat mushrooms or prawns as my girlfriend hates them, she says mushrooms are slimy and prawns have a horrible texture, and I can't persuade her otherwise. As she is away tonight, I decided to cook a recipe with both of them in, and found this one for a prawn and mushroom bhuna, the blog it is taken from is an interesting collection of food recipes, and musings on the journey on the Number 79 bus the writer takes daily and such bizarre things as a video of him driving up a ramp to a car park in Slough!
Anyway, back to the food! I followed the recipe almost exactly so I won't regurgitate it here. The only changes I made were I used 4 fresh chillies, 2 cloves of garlic and a knob of fresh ginger instead of the frozen pastes. I also used fresh uncooked prawns and just let them cook a bit longer than the pre-cooked ones.
This is the result - it was very fiery as expected and worth cooking again!
This is a recipe of my own invention, and it worked out pretty well. I have had orange and beetroot in a salad before, and the addition of trout with it added a further fishy dimension.
Ingredients
- 2 trout fillets
- 500 g new potatoes1 pack fresh beetroot
- 1 orange
- 2 tomatoes
- 1/2 cucumber
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 Handful flaked almonds
- Salt and pepper
Cut the potatoes into bite size chunks and cook according to your usual method.
Whilst the potatoes are cooking chop all the beetroot, orange, tomatoes and cucumber up into bite size chunks and put in a bowl together with some salt and pepper and the olive oil and vinegar. Do not mix them together at this stage.Cook the trout under a hot grill, skin side up, for about 3 or 4 minutes, until it is just cooked.
Drain the cooked potatoes and while still hot, mix with the rest of the salad vegetables.Flake the trout over the top of the salad and then sprinkle with the ground almonds.
Serve straight away whilst the potatoes and trout are still hot.