Asparagus, Parmesan Custard and Anchovy Croutons

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Asparagus Parmesan Custard Anchovy Croutons

And so once again it’s asparagus season. That’s very much a good thing as far as I’m concerned, being a Worcestershire lad. For a few fleeting months, we can get these quality shoots before we’re back to the pencil thick imports from God knows where. I try and avoid these.

They’re brilliantly adaptable, whether steamed, grilled, roasted, thinly sliced in a salad etc etc. Best of all it’s very good for you, being packed with antioxidants and vitamins B & K apparently.

*closes wikipedia*

The only downside of course, and I know I putting myself out there, but I’m one of those people with the apparent genetic predisposition to notice the, err, after-affects. I’ll say no more it’s a food blog after all ;)

Of course asparagus is classically paired with egg and/or hollandaise, and this recipe isn’t a million miles away in terms of ingredients.

The Parmesan custard, though prepared differently, is based on a starter I used to like in an Italian recipe. That was thick like crème pâtissière, but this has been prepared thinner, more like a crème anglaise. Or custard as we call it here. I finished it off with some anchovy infused croutons.

The asparagus was prepared my favourite way – chargrilled. But then I prefer most things chargrilled.

Massive umami flavours result of course and although this would make a nice lunch or starter by itself, I added some roast chicken and a little side salad to make it a bit more substantial for dinner.

Serves 2

For the asparagus

  • 8 lovely large, fresh asparagus spears!
  • 1 lug of garlic oil
  • Salt and pepper

For the parmesan custard

  • 350ml whole milk – cold or room temperature (if you have time – infused with 1 tbsp black peppers and 1 bay leaf  – cooled)
  • 4 tbsp grated Parmesan
  • 2 egg yolks (room temp)
  • Salt to taste

For the anchovy croutons

  • 1 large or 2 small slices of stale bread – cubed
  • 3-4 anchovy filets
  • 3 tbsp olive oil

You don’t have to do this , skip to the end if you prefer! Start with the milk. Heat it in a pan to a simmer with the bay leaf and peppercorns to infuse the flavour. Take off the heat, strain and leave to cool in a bowl.

For the asparagus: drizzle and roll in the garlic oil. Season well with salt and pepper.

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Get an iron griddle screaming hot and char them all over until cooked. Press them and they’ll give a little when done, but not overdone.

Remove and keep warm.

At the same time, heat the oil in a smallish pan and fry the anchovy fillet until they dissolve into the oil. Fry the bread in the delicious oil until brown and crispy. Take off the heat and keep warm

Finally, do the parmesan custard – it needs your attention so do it last. Pour the milk (infused or not) into the a cold milk pan and add the egg yolks and Parmesan. Whisk thoroughly.  On your smallest hob, heat gently stirring continuously until it’s thickened. When stirring, make sure you get into the edges of the pan or it’ll curdle the egg – I use a silicon spatular. Reduce until it becomes a nice thick sauce. Taste and season.

Serve the Parmesan custard over the asparagus with the croutons on top and with the roasted chicken/side salad if you like.

Asparagus Parmesan Custard

Pork Cheeks, Spinach and Champ

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Pork Cheek, Spinach and Champ

Helen and I have a shared calendar which appears on both our phones. It makes for amusing moments when I get an alert that I have a hair appointment on Friday evening or that I have drinks with ‘the girls’ on Wednesday night…

Even with our synchronised diaries (although I should point out it’s mostly me trying to keep up with her more sociable lifestyle) I constantly get surprised.

And so, I lovingly made this dish last week, starting the cooking the night before only for my phone calendar to remind me she was having dinner with a friend that night. Worse, the venue was the sort of place with more microwaves than hob rings. Humph.

Undeterred I made this anyway and I’m glad I did, as was Helen when she returned having only eaten half her nuked dinner ;)

Pork cheeks are another one of those slow cooked, cheap-as-chips cuts that deliver massively on flavour. I really should have learned from Conor’s advice about publicising this sort of thing for economic reasons though.

I braised the cheeks in cider and stock in a casserole pot on a low heat the previous evening and warmed them back through the day I served them. Most of the cooking liquor had concentrated up nicely and they were naturally melt-in-the-mouth tender.

Champ is an Irish recipe for mashed potato, using butter, milk and spring onions. Strangely, I’d only recently come across it and I’m glad I did. I did a little research and cobbled this together from a few sources. I hope it’s fairly authentic…

Serves 2

  • 500g pork cheeks, trimmed and sinews removed
  • 1 bottle (500ml) good dry cider
  • 250ml chicken stock
  • A medium carrot, 1 stick of celery (snap in two)  and half an onion
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • Pepper
  • A little oil
  • 4 large handfuls of spinach

For the Champ:

  • 2 large floury potatoes, peeled
  • 3 spring onions/scallions finely chopped
  • About 50ml whole milk, warmed
  • 1-2 tbsp butter
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Spring Onions

Start by frying the pork cheeks in an ovenproof pan or casserole pot until well coloured. Deglaze with a little cider and add the vegetables. Add the rest of the cider and stock and place in an oven at about 140°C/275ºF for 5 hours at least. Leave to rest overnight.

Pork Cheeks

The next day, reheat the pork cheeks on the hob. Reduce the liquor down if needed with the lid off, until the flavours concentrate – taste as you do. Strain and reserve the cooking liquid as a nice gravy and keep warm. A knob of butter stirred in at this stage is a delicious, if unhealthy addition ;)

Quarter and boil the potatoes (15min). Then, drain and mash, using a potato ricer if possible, melt in the butter and then the warmed milk, until smooth but not too ‘wet’. Finally, stir in the spring onion. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm.

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Lastly, wilt the spinach in a large shallow pan with a little boiling water for a couple of minutes. Remove and squeeze the excess water out using a sieve and the back of a large spoon (or in your hands).

Serve it all up and enjoy.

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Lamb Kebabs with Greek Style Brown Rice Salad

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Lamb kebabs and brown rice salad

Firstly, an apology! I’ve recently realised that email subscribers get a full copy of my posts as they are published. The problem is, time being tight as it often is, I usually publish first and make any corrections later so as it doesn’t go out too late at night. This means some rather ‘rushed’ copy goes out there initially. I’m not a very accurate typist, so I’ll bear this in mind in future *slaps wrist*.

So anyway – food. The sun’s out and the cover is off the barbecue. Happy days!

Instinctively then, I started thinking of Mediterranean type dishes of late and I was also inspired by a local sandwich shop/takeaway.

I pass this place most days coming back from work and stopped there the other afternoon as I was in the area. I got chatting to the owner who’s keen to make his menu as healthy as possible, being based around wholewheat wraps, brown rice and salad. It tasted good too and whilst I’m sure there are plenty of these places in the trendier parts of London, it is a bit unique round my way – I hope he does well.

And so having some minced lamb in the fridge, I made these kebabs with a brown rice Greek style salad and a quick Tzatziki.

The smell was great on the grill outside….

Makes 4 kebabs:

  • 500g minced lamb, no too lean or it’ll be dry
  • 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped, or 2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tbsp cumin powder
  • 2 tbsp chopped coriander
  • 1 tbsp chopped mint
  • 1 tbsp smoked paprika
  • 1 red chilli, finely chopped
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • 2 shallots, finely diced
  • Salt about a pinch per person (so – 4)

Just a quick tip, but I tend to mix everything, going easy on the ingredients, and fry a small bit first to taste.

For the Greek style brown rice (serves 4)

  • 200g brown rice
  • 1 small onion, thinly sliced. Red onion would have been better.
  • 1/2 a red pepper, diced
  • A handful of chopped coriander
  • 100g of goats cheese (Feta works well)
  • Juice of the other 1/2 of lemon
  • Green and/or black olives.
  • 4 good tomatoes, quartered.
  • Extra virgin olive oil

For the Tzatsiki – I used this recipe at the BBC. Nice.

Cook the brown rice first, it takes a little while longer than white rice.

Meanwhile, mix the kebab ingredients. By hand works better. Roll into sausage shapes and thread onto some wooden skewers. If using a charcoal BBQ, probably best to soak the skewers first.

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Cook until done and keep warm – they don’t take long with the lid on. 10 minutes or so.

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Finally, tip the cooked rice into a bowl and mix in all the ingredient for the salad. Serve it up with the kebabs on top, a big side of Tzatsiki and a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil. Summer on a plate!

 

 

Lemon Sole and Triple Cooked Chips

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Lemon Sole and Triple Cooked Chips

Hello.

My name is Phil and I’ve had a problem for about 8 years now (no, it’s not that).  It’s that I’m English (no, not that either) and I hate chips.

Actually… that’s not entirely true, I like chips a lot. What I mean is normally, if I’m out in a restaurant I avoid them, mainly because they’re invariably bad, but also because there’s so much more choice now out there in terms sides dishes. I feel like I’m copping-out.

Since Heston Blumenthal made his way onto our screens though, dry-icing cream, morphing meat and triple cooking his chips, I’ve noticed a bit of a renaissance. In fact ‘proper’ or ‘hand-cut’ chips are increasingly being highlighted as selling points on the typical gastro-pub menu. That’s good then I suppose but also, it isn’t, as making chips from scratch is hardly a Michelin starred pursuit in the first place. How low had we gone in culinary terms that we had to, and still do, buy them pre-made and frozen?

Of course I’m not talking about the good old British Fish ‘n’ Chip shop, keep up the good work fellas…

And so, I thought I’d give Heston’s triple cooked chips a go in pursuit of bettering my culinary knowledge. This is a shortened version as to be honest, his recipe calls for a process taking around 3 hours all in all. I don’t like chips that much….

The result was actually very good I’m pleased to say – they had a nice crunch

For this Helen managed to get hold of some freshly caught lemon sole (one of my favourites) and  I did very little to this as it doesn’t need it. To counter the oil – a nice bean salad, same as I did for the mackerel. I had a lot left….

Lemon Sole

Serves 2

  • 2 lemon sole fillets
  • flour for dusting
  • 3 or 4 Maris Piper potatoes.
  • Oil – enough for deep frying
  • Salt and Pepper
  • A side salad of your choice

Start by making the chips. Peel the potatoes and slice into 3/4 inch or 2cm square batons. Try to trim the potatoes into nice square shapes first to keep them all even sized (you can cook the off cuts – I hate waste too!) Rinse very well to remove the excess starch.

Place in a pan of cold water and bring to a boil for about 15 minutes (Heston says 20-30, but I’m not that brave). They should be soft, almost breaking, but keeping their shape.

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Drain and leave to cool completely by an open window on a plate in a single layer.

Make up the side salad and pour some flour onto a plate for dusting the fish later – season well.

Heat the oil to 130°C/270°F and add the cold chips. Fry gently for about 5-10 minutes, until just about cooked on the outside. Remove and again, leave to cool by the window, same as before.

Finally heat the oil to 180°C/360°F and finish the chips off until nice and golden.

Just as they go back in, dust the fish in seasoned flour and fry in a little oil, mostly on the skin side, until just done. Take out the pan and keep warm. Serve them all together, with a little extra salt and vinegar. Lovely.

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Smoked Mackerel and Bean Salad with Quick Hollandaise

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Smoked mackerel hollandaise salad

“You don’t win friends with salad” a wise man once said. Well, not true actually it was from an episode of The Simpsons from a frighteningly long time ago. It still gets an airing at BBQs even now.

How times change though, and now I’m actually a big fan of the salad and the endless combinations possible. I’ve droned on about drab salads in an earlier post but suffice to say, unless the ingredients are very good, I generally prefer warm versions.

This fits the bill then – warm smoked mackerel and a super quick hollandaise sauce paired with some leaves and blanched beans. I think it’s healthy, but then there is a fair bit of butter in the hollandaise of course. I think, all ingredients considered therefore, I’m eating good fats/bad fats and having my cholesterol both raised and lowered simultaneously. Confusing.

The hollandaise is a great recipe I got from the Guardian’s Felicity Coates. She does a nice column where she tries a number of different recipes to find the best take on a particular dish. I must admit this was very easy – just put the cold butter and egg yolk in a pan and turn on the heat to the lowest setting whisking thoroughly all the time. Season with salt, if needed, and lemon juice at the end once it’s thickened. Simple.

I was on my own this morning, so this serves one, but it’s easily altered to suit. There was more than enough hollandaise though, so could have possibly stretched to two people.

  • 1 smoked mackerel fillet
  • 1 handful of mixed leaves
  • 2 handfuls of mixed beans – I had peas, green beans and broad beans (fava beans)
  • 1 egg, soft boiled and halved

For the hollandaise:

  • 1 egg yolk
  • 60g/2 ounces butter – I used salted
  • Fresh lemon juice and salt to taste

Grill the mackerel, cut into bite size pieces and keep warm. Soft boil an egg, peel, halve it and arrange it on a plate with the salad and beans.

You’ll need to do this first so you can concentrate on the hollandaise as it doesn’t ‘rest’ well once made.

Take a small pan and place in the egg yolk and butter. Turn the heat onto the lowest setting and use the smallest hob you have.

Keep stirring continuously, I started with a balloon whisk but changed to a small silicon spatula to get into the edges.

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Once it starts to thicken, turn the heat up ever so slightly and keep whisking/stirring until thickened enough. Once done, I actually dipped the bottom of the pan in cold water to stop it cooking any more.

Add about a teaspoon of lemon juice, or to taste and salt if you need it.

Put the warm mackerel on a plate and spoon over the hollandaise. Good morning!

Smoked mackerel hollandaise salad

Roast Beef and Yorkshire Puddings

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Roast Beef and Yorkshire PuddingIt’s St George’s day. England’s annual day for naval gazing and chuntering on about how we should celebrate it more. Except of course, we never do because we’re English and that would never do. It’s a shame really as we’ve a lot to shout about these days.

Although I know an acquired taste, especially with our Antipodean and trans-Atlantic friends, we produce some truly excellent ales. We farm great produce and now thanks to a millennia of trade links, are welcoming of cuisines from all around Europe and the world.

Of course this is a food blog and so I’m looking at it from a very narrow angle. I felt compelled therefore to try and wave a flag in recognition and save this post until today, being a typically English dish. Maybe the typical English dish.

I’m doing nothing to dispel the French notion that we all eat Roast Beef, but it is for a very good reason! It’s delicious. To partner, the classic Yorkshire pudding, cauliflower cheese and, as I believe it’s probably a law dating back to 1738 or something*, roast potatoes.

(* That isn’t true, neither is the ‘law’ that states you can still kill Welshmen with a longbow)

The beef was actually a lovely thick piece of Sirloin, off the bone and only about a rib thick, like a thick steak. I cooked it a little differently this time as I have a fancy oven setting called Low Temperature Cooking, which surprisingly does just that (it’s a beautiful example of efficient German naming). You simply sear the edges, for flavour, and then set it away for two to three hours – kind of like a sous vide in reverse. No resting, or precise timing needed.

I prefer a couple of smaller Yorkshire puddings than the biscuit barrel sized version you often find filled in pubs – the secret, apart from the batter, is to get the oil in the baking tray smoking hot first. It won’t fail you.

Cauliflower cheese is a favourite of mine and it is quite simple yet utterly delicious. Some cabbage would have been good, but I forgot it so we only had carrot as the other veg.

I made the gravy from a roast bone stock I had in the freezer, fried onion and a good splash of red wine and thyme. A nod to our French neighbours!

1 700g/24 oz sirloin steak – serves two with left overs.

For the Yorkshire Puddings (I can’t remember the source of this, I have it written down, but it works well):

  • 250g plain flour
  • 4 free range eggs
  • 150ml whole milk mixed with 150ml water
  • Salt and pepper
  • Oil

Roast the steak medium rare, as I like it. There is no one method or technique, as it will depend on the roast you have and the type of oven you’re using!

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About an 1 hour before the meat is done, peel and par boil some Maris Piper potatoes, rough up in a colander when draining and roast in a hot, hot oven for about 45mins – 1hour. Season and turn occasionally.

For the Yorkshire puddings, mix the eggs and flours to a paste and gently pouring the milk, whisking as you do so. A food mixer makes this easy. Season with salt.

In a cake/muffin tin, add a 1-2 tsp oil and put in the oven at 220 degrees C until smoking.

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Pour in the batter and it should sizzle. Place it back in the oven for about 20 minutes or until beautifully risen and golden!

The cauliflower is simply par boiled then covered in a simple cheese sauce (made from a roux, about 400ml whole milk and 2 handfuls of grated cheddar) and roasted for about 30 minutes until coloured on top.

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The gravy is a reduction of the stock and a glass of red wine, with the thyme and seasoning added towards the end as needed.

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Pulled Beef Take 2 – The Pasta

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Pulled beef ragu

Delicious as it is, I wouldn’t normally bother you all with a beef ragu type dish. Everyone has their own version and favorite recipe anyway.

I thought I’d put this up here though as it is possibly the tastiest version I’ve made. It uses the left over pulled beef from yesterday’s post, which after being in the fridge for a day or two was even richer.

I was recently in an Italian restaurant in Newcastle that did the richest shin of beef ragu – it was deep red, almost purple from the wine and a little sweet.I was reminded of it by the pulled beef and so simply added a large glass of fruity red wine to the leftovers and let it reduce for a short while.

Slow cooked beef red wine

With a silicon spatula, it came away and held its ‘shape’. Done! Sorry about the steamy shot…

For the pasta, I used some big pennoni rigati tubes but any large, ridged pasta will do.

Yes, I know, pretty simple. Sorry. But big on flavour and totally worthy of doing.

Slow cooked beef ragu