Sunday 30 January 2011

Jettisoning January

Since my last blog I have moved a step closer to making a living from my love of food and my pen wielding attempts.  The boy found an exciting prospect for me in the local paper, an advertisement seeking budding restaurant critics.  I called the number and was asked to send a sample review which I did last weekend (we ate at the Gourmet Burger Kitchen in Nottingham last Friday.)  They liked my review and have accepted me as a writer.  On Tuesday me and the boy are going to review an establishment in Holbrook, we get free dinner in exchange for my 210 words.  Nice work!  I may also be reviewing a gastro pub in Belper on Friday.  I'd better not tell you the name of the publication or the places I'm reviewing yet, once the publication has been published I will.  Exciting times.
Anyway, back to the good stuff, what have I been eating in the last week?
As mentioned we ate at GBK last Friday, which didn't disappoint.  Its a chain but the standard of food was good.  The burgers are mahussif!  The selection of toppings and sides was really mind boggling.  We had homemade onion rings as a starter, washed down with a nice cold Budvar.  The rings were huge, and really crispy, tasty and just the right kind of greasy, how an onion ring should be.  I went for a classic cheese burger and the boy opted for a hot and spicy habanero burger.  The burgers didn't come with fries which I initially found disappointing.  We ordered a side of fries and when the burgers came we realised why they came solo...I only managed about 3 fries in the end.  Great burgers, made with good quality beef and cooked to your liking, which in our case was medium rare.  All the right extras; big gherkins, salad etc.  Cute little tomato shaped ketchup dispensers on the table.  A good budget option if you're sick of Nando's.
We stayed over in Nottingham, as a kind Facebook friend who is a mover and shaker in London's art world, donated her hotel room to us when she couldn't make it up for the opening of the new exhibition at the Contemporary.  The hotel was the city centre Ibis.  It was great to be so central.  After GBK we tried to see Black Swan but both city centre movie houses were sold out.  This forced us to hit Brass Monkeys for cocktails; one of the best cocktail bars in the UK, in my humble opinion.
http://www.brassmonkeybar.co.uk/
I giggled inwardly whilst supping a "Lil Ginger Bitch".  Yum.
Saturday we paid a visit to Murat, the Turkish supermarket, and actually purchased a tub of "Cemen" dip.  It is kind of like a Turkish harissa, but contains lamb stock so is not vegetarian.  (I'll state the obvious, shall I?!) We used it as a marinade for vegetable kebabs, served with their delightful, baked on the premises Turkish flatbread.
We visited the Contemporary before heading home and really liked Jack Goldstein and Anne Collier's work, particularly Jack Goldstein's records.  Check it out.  The bar is good too.
This weekend has been  a gourmet extravaganza to see out miserable January.  The entire Burns clan descended upon us for the weekend.  Friday I cooked a vat of Thai Mussaman curry, chicken to ring the changes.  It was beautiful, I used on the bone chicken pieces and cooked it for a couple of hours until the meat was falling off the bones.
Saturday I grabbed a sandwich for lunch, but this was not just any old sandwich.  It was a sandwich from Jack Rabbits:
http://www.jackrabbitskitchen.co.uk/about-jack-rabbits/
Jack Rabbits is located on Queen Street, opposite the Dolphin pub and Red Zebra wine bar.  They cook up lots of gourmet food and sell it to individuals to re-heat at home in a gourmet, TV dinner stylee.  2009's disastrous cottaging expedition was fuelled by vats of Jack Rabbits Mongolian curry.  As well as "Home cooked meals to take away" they do cobs.  They will only do one kind of cob each day, based on whatever meat they have roasted.  Saturday it was roast pork, served in a bakery fresh ciabatta roll, with rocket, tomato and wholegrain mustard.  Wrapped in greaseproof paper and tied with a ribbon no less.  The freshest, tastiest, most attractive cob for miles around.
Saturday night we made a traditional Burns night supper, complete with haggis, neeps and tatties.  The haggis was from award winning Scottish butcher Simon Howie.
http://www.simonhowiebutchers.co.uk/
It was the best haggis I've eaten and I've had haggis for Burns night the last 3 years in a row, it is becoming a new and welcome family tradition.  We avoided whiskey this year but made up for it with vats of wine, and a pub quiz marathon, good times. 
Today we drove out to Osmaston to have lunch in a country pub.  The village is picturesque, lots of the buildings are thatched.  We went to the Shoulder of Mutton pub, next to the tiny little village shop and post office.  There appeared to be some kind of Landrover convention going on.  The pub was busy and they don't take bookings but we managed to secure a table straight away.  The wait for food was quite long but there are signs up warning of this, everything is cooked fresh from scratch so during busy periods it can take a while.  We enjoyed anticipating our food and had a couple of shandies and a good bit of banter.  Funnily enough all the ladies had scampi & chips and all the boys had roast beef.  I hoovered mine up, I'd better get those running shoes on tomorrow, porky gourmet is not a good look.
During our post prandial stroll we found a big tree to climb with a swing and everything, and I spotted snowdrops coming through, a heart warming promise of spring.  Bye bye January.

Thursday 20 January 2011

Fennelicious Fish.

The boy came home with a fennel bulb a few days ago, something I have never knowingly cooked or eaten before, so I was intrigued.  Apparently this vaguely celery like, aniseedy vegetable goes wonderfully well with fish, so I did a little research and came up with a recipe that sounded promising.  I forget where I got this recipe now, it wasn't from a well known chef but something someone had posted in cyberspace, which just appealed to me.  So I shall "retweet" it for your viewing pleasure.
(I hate all those Twitter terms, don't you?  I am on Twitter but update it about once a year, which kind of defeats the object....I'm just not interested enough in the witterings and twitterings of the likes of Jonathan Ross).
This recipe didn't even have a title so I shall call it Baked Fish with Fennel.
(Quantities for 4)
250ml olive oil
500g fennel bulb, finely chopped
700g leeks finely chopped
1 bunch of spring onions finely chopped
500g tomatoes skinned and finely chopped
salt and pepper
4 fish fillets. 
Any firm, white fish will be good for this.  Given the topicality of sustainable fishing (Jamie's Fish Supper, Hugh's Fish Fight, Gordon and his sharks)  I decided to give the poor Cod a wide berth, (I do anyway, we always have Haddock from the chippy) and chose Coley instead.  I've made fish curries with Coley before but this recipe is more delicate, something where the flavour of the fish is really on show.  I found it completely delicious and can't understand why Coley has such a bad (catfood) rep.  It is totally undeserved.  The fillets I bought from my friendly, Derby fishman were large and firm and cost me less than a quid each.  Can't be bad.

Preheat your oven to gas mark 6 (200C / 400F)

There is quite a bit of chopping to do to start off with, but the boy pitched in so it didn't take us long. 
  1. Chop all your veg and skin the tomatoes (plunge into boiling water for a minute or two before doing so, much easier).
  2. Heat 100ml olive oil in a deep frying pan, then add the fennel, leeks and spring onion and saute.  After a few minutes add the tomatoes and simmer until the mixture thickens.
  3. Spread the mixture evenly in a roasting tin or dish.  Place the fish fillets on top and drizzle with more olive oil.  Bake for 15 minutes, until fish is cooked through.
  4. Remove from the oven and let the fish cool down for a few minutes.  Dress with the remaining olive oil.

Cest ca!  So easy.  We had ours with diced, roast potatoes, but this would go with  other things I think, brown rice if you are trying to be virtuous?  I was worried the flavour might be too aniseedy, but the cooking and the sweetness of the leeks, olive oil and tomatoes turns it into something mellower altogether.  The fish was delicious, beautifully firm, thick white fillets, which held their shape and flaked to perfection.  Jamie is right; Coley is the new Cod.  Try it.  Fennel and fish is a winner.

Saturday 8 January 2011

Happy New Year, Duck!

I don't know why, but the numerous disappointing and unmemorable (or unremembered due to copious amounts of champagne) New Year's Evenings I've had have not totally banished the sparkle and excitement for me. I still feel like its an occasion and enjoy being full of anticipation for the year ahead. 2010 was a fairly hideous year, all things considered, so I was extra glad to see the back of it, and looking forward to feeling (for a week or so at least) wiped clean and full of promise. A special night called for a special dinner (and a good stomach liner) and I went for the aforementioned Yotam Ottolenghi duck recipe. I have posted the whole recipe below, aren't I good?

If you can't get blood oranges (and I couldn't) normal oranges are fine, I used these and a carton of freshly squeezed blood orange juice rather than squeezing my own oranges. I got my duck from the poultry man in the Guildhall Market, it was French Barbary duck, apparently Gressingham duck is the best choice but I have never cooked duck before so wasn't too bothered about the finer points of duck type. The breasts were very large (hyuk) and good value I thought. I halved the quantities as I only cooked for myself and the boy.

Seared duck breasts with blood orange and star anise:
4 duck breasts (180 - 200g each)
2 tbsp fennel seeds
a pinch of dried chili flakes
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 tsp coarse sea salt
240ml blood orange juice (from about 4 oranges)
plus 4 whole blood oranges
180ml red wine
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
16 star anise
6 dried chilies

1.Score the skin of the duck breasts in a diamond shape.
2.Mix the fennel, chili flakes, cumin, salt and pepper and massage into the duck with your hands. Leave to marinate, preferably overnight.
3.Trim the top and bottom off each orange, stand them up and peel with a knife, following the curve of the orange, to remove all peel and pith. Slice each one horizontally into 6 slices and set aside.
4.To sear the duck, heat a large, heavy frying pan (one for which you have a lid). Place the duck breasts in it, skin side down and cook for 3 minutes until the skin is golden and crisp. Turn and cook for 3 minutes on the other side, then set aside somewhere warm.
5.Discard most of the fat from the pan and add the wine, vinegar, orange juice and star anise. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5-6 minutes, until reduced by about half. Taste and add salt and pepper if necessary. Return the duck breasts to the pan and stir to coat them in the sauce. Cover with a lid and simmer for 7 minutes.
6.Add the dried chilies and orange slices to the pan, cover again and simmer for another 3 minutes.
7.By this time the duck should be medium-rare. Remove the duck breasts from the sauce, place on a cutting board and leave to rest for a few minutes. Check and adjust the sauce.
8.Slice the duck breasts at an angle, and serve with the orange slices and the sauce drizzled on top.



We had this with sweet potato mash and savoy cabbage. The sauce is absolutely gorgeous, complex, rich, sweet, spicy and sour; so many levels of flavour. The duck was delicious and felt quite decadent and different. The recipe might seem like a bit of a ball-ache to do, but it is really simple if you follow Yotam's steps and well worth the effort; cheers duck.