Sausage Curry (aka Sausage Casserole with Indian Spices) 10/10/14

It struck me that although we use all sorts of meat in curries, I have never had a sausage curry.  So on Friday night, after getting the family prepared for something radically different, that's what we had.

I based it on my standard recipe for curry, this time using a mixture of two Patak's curry pastes, because that's what I had in my fridge.  I never use curry sauces for curries, only curry pastes.

My curry recipe for 4 portions:
About 700g sausages (Tesco's traditional pork are very good), pricked and browned in a little oil or fat (I used duck fat becuase I had some in the fridge).

Once browned, transfer to a saucepan.

Fry a chopped onion to give a little colour.

After 4 mins or so add 1/2 a jar of Patak's curry paste (I was using up a mixture of Tikka and Korma but use whichever one you like- they are all great but are quite different- just make sure it's curry paste, definitely not curry sauce!) until you can really smell the spices (about 2 mins).

Add to the saucepan along with a can of coconut cream (higher fat content the better) and a small cauliflower in florets.

Simmer gently for 10 mins

After 10 mins add a handful or two of whole green beans (I use frozen ones) and simmer for another 10 mins until the veggies are only just cooked. 

Thicken slightly if needed (I use thickening granules sparingly but ground almonds but save on carbs and add to the flavour).

Serve with rice and the usual Indian accompaniments (eg naan brea/ chapattis and a raita).  My recipe for raita is Greek yog, chopped mint and cucumber- I add some ground cardamom to this as well.

I forgot that it will need a little thickening at the end. I use a minimal amount of thickening granules but there are lots of other ways too.

Perfect Rib of Beef, plus Beetroot and all the Trimmings 13/9/14

Saturday's meal was a lovely one rib of beef weighing 1.2kg with the bone in, to feed 6 of us.  I wanted to try this way of cooking the beef, which is unconventional but makes perfect sense and perfectd results, and makes cooking much easier even if you have to start much earlier.

So I also cooked some cocktail sausages, onion rings, beetroot and roast celeriac as well as Yorkshires to go with it.

The recipe for the beef I adapted from The Food Lab on Facebook:

1. Heat the oven to 93C
2. Season the meat generously with salt and pepper, ideally 12-24 hours before cooking.  This allows the salt to dissolve and the liquid to be reabsorbed deeper into the meat.  Better than just sprinkling it on the surface just before cooking.  Leave at room temperature for a few hours.
3. Put the meat in the oven on a rack, fat uppermost, for 3-4 hours, until it reaches 49C (med rare), 57 (med).  [I cooked it to 53C which was perfect for me but slightly too little for some of the others.  Next time I would try 57C for a perfect medium.  1.2kg took about 3 hours to go from around 21C to 53C so expect a larger joint coming form the fridge to take much longer]
4. Once up to heat, remove and tent tightly with foil.  [The temperature shouldn't carry on rising much- with my attempt it rose from 53 to 54, then dropped to 52 after an hour]. The recipe says to hold it like this for half an hour but I found an hour was fine.
5. Increase oven temp to maximum (260-288C).
6. When ready to serve, put the meat back in the oven, fat uppermost, for 6-10 mins. [I did 10 mins at 250C].  Alternatively you could brown it in a frying pan, I suppose.
7. Carve and serve immediately.

Note- the beef was only one rib so I carved it along the grain as my knife was a bit blunt (!).  A bigger piece would have made it easier to carve across the grain.
The beauty of this way of cooking is that the meat is perfectly pink to exactly how you like it done all the way from just under the browned edge through to the middle.
One comment was that it wasn't as visually appealing. Because of the pieces of fat in the meat.  With rib you can remove the larger pieces of fat on carving, if it helps.

Roast beetroot
I also roasted some beetroot as an experiment.  Washed the whole beetroot, trimmed it to 1" at the top and fairly close at the bottom.  Tossed in oil an roasted for about 30 minutes.  I found it delicious but the children weren't so keen.

Deep-fried chips, chicken wings and celeriac chips 6-7/9/14

Having bought a deep-fat fryer, I thought I had better use it.

Home fried chips:

My first experiment was deep-fried chips, which we had with steak on Saturday night (6/9/14).  Quite straightforward- I cut 850g of maris pipers (at room temperature) into medium size chips, leaving the skin on, gave them a quick rinse and dried them with a tea towel.  This was to remove any excess starch and to minimise the water going into the oil.  (Apparently soaking them for a few hours is a good thing).

The frier took about 2 litres of oil- I used rapeseed.  I cooked the chips at 160°C for about 8 minutes, took them out, increased the temperature to 190°C whilst I cooked the steak and vegetables, cooking the chips for a further 8 minutes while the steak was resting.

The chips were absolutely delicious with Halen Môn sea salt from Anglesey, and were definitely enjoyed by everyone.  The best chips I have ever done :-)

I forgot to photograph them so here's a picture from the Web.

Next time I might have a go at Heston Blumenthal's triple-cooked chips.


Sunday night I had a go at chicken wings and celeriac chips.

Chicken wings:
I needed a recipe that didn't include flour, to fit in with my low-carb diet.  So I found this one that looked good at http://pinchofyum.com/filipino-fried-chicken:

Ingredients	I used...	Method
2 lb. chicken drumsticks	1kg chicken wings, each separated into 2 and tips removed (and fed to the dog)	Place the raw chicken in a large bowl.
1-2 teaspoon minced garlic 1-2 teaspoon minced onion 1 tablespoon oyster sauce 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon seasoning mix (Magic Sarap) 1 egg 1 tablespoon cornstarch	1 tbsp minced garlic and ginger 1 tablespoon Hendersons relish 1 teaspoon black pepper 1 teaspoon Anglesey sea salt 1 tbsp Dunn's River All Purpose Seasoning 1 egg 1 tablespoon cornflour	Add the garlic, onion, oyster sauce, black pepper, salt, seasoning mix, egg, and cornstarch. Stir until the chicken is evenly coated.
1-2 cups oil for frying	c. 2 litres rapeseed oil	-Heat oil in a large pot (deep fat fryer) over medium heat (to 190°C). -When hot, drop the chicken wings, one piece at a time, in the oil. -Fry the chicken until the skin is golden brown and crispy (I cooked them for 6-7mins). -I cooked these in two batches.

These were very popular, particularly with George.  Next time I might try cooking the chicken for longer at a lower temperature, but these were lovely and moist inside, with crispy skin.

The original recipe was to shallow-fry these in 2 cups of oil for about 20 minutes.

I served these alongside a roast chicken with delicious roast spuds (maris pipers, boiled for 15 mins, tossed in goose fat and my polenta mix and roasted at 210°C for about an hour), my carrots and sweetheart cabbage:

Celeriac chips:

This was an experiment. I didn't give myself enough time to follow this recipe so had to adapt it:

Original recipe
1 large celeriac
2 garlic cloves, peeled
A few sprigs fresh thyme
A generous pinch of sea salt
500ml melted duck fat
Groundnut oil, for deep-frying

Now confit the celeriac for the chips. Cut off the top and base of the celeriac, then slice off the skin, following the curve of the root (you want to cut beneath the natural inner layer that surrounds the vegetable), and cut the flesh into 1cm-thick chips. Place the chips in a small pan and add the garlic, thyme and salt. Pour over the melted duck fat to cover and lay a crumpled piece of greaseproof paper on top. Place the pan over a low heat and simmer slowly for 12-15 minutes, until the celeriac is tender. Drain the celeriac (once cool, reserve the fat for roasting spuds or something another day), lay on a tray lined with kitchen paper and leave to cool.

When you're ready to cook, heat the groundnut oil in a deep-fat fryer or other suitable deep, heavy pan to 180C (if you don't have a thermometer, that's the temperature when a small piece of bread dropped into the hot oil will sizzle vigorously). In several batches, deep-fry the celeriac chips for a few minutes until they are evenly golden brown and crisp on the outside. Remove, drain on a tray lined with kitchen paper, sprinkle with a little salt and keep warm while you cook the fish.

My version:

Time was short so I cut the celeriac into chips and boiled them for about ten minutes until softish.

I let them dry off and deep-fried them at 190°C for about 8 minutes or so until seemingly crispy.

Mine were good but they did lose their crispness very quickly.  Next time I would cook them for longer and serve them straight away.  I would like to give the above recipe a go though.

World Cup Final- Germany v Argentina 13/7/14

So for the World Cup final I cooked Bratwurst, German Fried Potatoes and (Argentinian) Grilled Vegetables.

Bratwurst was from Tesco.  Instructions said to grill or fry but I had to cook them in the oven due to grill capacity.

Grilled Vegetables: Remarkably similar to the oven roast veggies I frequently cook.  I'm not really sure what made them Argentinian.

German-Style Fried Potatoes (from http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/German-Style-Fried-Potatoes-355207)



Ingredients (I did about half this):
4 pounds unpeeled medium-size red-skinned potatoes
4 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons malt vinegar or white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
6 tablespoons lard, rendered bacon fat, or olive oil, divided
Coarse kosher salt
6 tablespoons lager beer, divided
2 1/2 cups finely chopped red onions, divided
1/3 cup chopped fresh chives or green onions (green parts only)

Preparation:

Cook potatoes in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender when pierced with sharp knife, about 25 minutes. Drain. Refrigerate potatoes overnight.

Cut potatoes into 1/2-inch cubes (do not peel). Whisk oil, vinegar, and mustard in small bowl to blend for vinaigrette. Heat 3 tablespoons lard in each of 2 large nonstick skillets over medium-high heat. Add half of potatoes to each skillet; sprinkle with coarse salt. Sauté until potatoes begin to brown, stirring frequently, about 7 minutes. Add 3 tablespoons beer, then 1 1/4 cups red onions to potatoes in each skillet; cook until beer evaporates, stirring occasionally, about 1 minute. Reduce heat to medium and sauté until potatoes are brown around edges, about 5 minutes. Pour half of vinaigrette over potatoes in each skillet and toss to coat. Remove from heat. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Transfer all potatoes to large bowl. Sprinkle with chives.

These were quite nice but I'm not sure they were worth the effort.  Germany should have won 2-1 (Bratwurst and potatoes v grilled veggies) but 1-0 was close enough to my culinary prediction for me to be happy.

Venison steaks. Yum 11/6/14

Venison leg steaks- marinated in Olive oil, garlic, umami paste, crushed juniper berries and coriander seeds, plus ground chocolate and chilli. Steaks cooked on high for 2 mins either side, then buttered and rested for c.15 mins.  The thicker bits were nicely pink but the thinner ones less so. Delicious though, and even H asked for more.

Redcurrant sauce

Garlic mushrooms with Creme fraiche.

Buttered jerseys

Salad: iceberg, a coarsely chopped celery stalk, a coarsely-chopped orange pepper, mixed sprouting sprouts (?) and Tesco Caesar salad.

I had all but the spuds and redcurrant. Absolutely delicious!!

Cold Smoking 23/6/13

Cold Smoking

This is my new home-made cold-smoker, built 23/6/13.  

Ingredients:

Barbeque (Tesco £13)
Digital thermometer (Amazon £1.70)
Soldering iron (Amazon £4)
Total price £18.70

Also smoking chips and tin foil.

After trial and error I discovered that the best method seems to be to:
1. Soak a ramekin-full of wood chippings in water for the suggested 30 mins
2. Drain the chippings then roll in tin foil.
3. Make a few holes in the foil to let air in and the smoke out.
4. Push the soldering iron into the wood and place on the bottom rack of the smoker.

5. Put the top rack back on

6. Place the food on the rack

7. Put the lid on the smoker, using a stick to create a gap all around to prevent heat build-up.

8. Plug in the soldering iron

9. After about 10 minutes smoke will start appearing.  You could wait until this point to put the food on if you wanted.

10. The temperature should not rise about 32 degrees C (but see below).  It might be worth using a temperature with an alarm on it, or a meat probe to monitor this.  I used a cheap digital one from Amazon.

Temperature:

One site (http://www.meatsandsausages.com/meat-smoking/cold-smoking) says that the temp should remain lower and it is of the utmost importance to use dry wood as you are trying to dry out the meat.  I don't think this can be the case with cheese.

Trials 24/6/13:

I had a few trial goes at using the smoker without food.  Ambient temperature about 16 degrees:

1st batch with soaked chippings: I didn't make enough holes in the foil. Once I made holes the temperature rose to a maximum of 27.5 degrees and burnt for about an hour.  I think I left the lid loose.

2nd batch with dry chippings.  Rose to a maximum of 39.8 degrees, even with the lid raised

3rd batch with soaked chippings. It took about half an hour to get enough smoke going.  With a stick to keep the lid slightly open the temperature rose to 33.8 degrees. Slightly warm but not too bad.  I added some mild and some strong cheese, which got about 20 minutes of smoke.  Delicious!  After 30 minutes build up, this batch produced about 70 minutes of strong smoke.

Recipes to use:

Cheese- smoke for about 20 mins 

I have since read that as the purpose of smoking foods is to dry it out, soaking the wood chips in water does not help in this.  Maybe it is fine for cheese, as you don't want to dry it out, but it doesn't seem a good idea for meat.  I'll have to re-think this in light of this new information. 

Update 14/7/13- the thermometer on the smoker seems to read 4-5 degrees high. 

Sheffield Fishcakes- recipe idea

I want to make some Sheffield Fishcakes but maybe without deep frying.

Here's a recipe from the web:

Sheffield fishcake

For what we Sheffielders call a fishcake as opposed to the rissoles we have foisted on us elsewhere you require the following;

One large potato, cut into 1/4 inch slices
cod or haddock fillets around the same thickness as the potato
flour and water batter

Cut the fish to fit the potato slices and sandwich between. Holding the slices by finger and thumb dip them in the batter until fully coated and then carefully lower into hot oil. When fully cooked when they float to the surface.

Phil

I see this uses whole fish pieces, not minced.

Could I part-cook the potato first, then assemble and cook in breadcrumbs in the oven? 
Has to be served with chips and mushy peas