Comfort Recipe: Smokey Linguini - Vegetarian (works w/ Spaghetti, why not add Chorizo!)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

When I’m feeling like something that’s going to satisfy me, and not be a giant pain in the arse to make this really hits the spot!!

It does have one shortcut which is the garlic and onion reduction, I usually make a batch and store it in the fridge in an old mayo jar - one of the big ones!! Then I don’t have to chop onions or garlic or mess about at all!! Recipe for the garlic onion reduction is here (it’s basically lob ingredients into a pot and reduce it for a couple of hours).

This one’s just as simple!!

ingredients (serves 2-4)

for the linguini

200g linguini 

1 tsp salt

1.5L water

for the smokey flavour

2 tbsp garlic onion reduction (recipe)

1 tsp smoked paprika

10g picked thyme (optional but really nice)

slug of olive oil

for the garnish

chives or spring onions (chopped)

apparatus / equipment

colander

boiling pot

method

for the linguini

Bring 1.5L water to the boil (use kettle for high speed results!) 

Add the water to a boiling pot with the salt, dissolve the salt and add the pasta.

Cook for ~9-11mins depending how you like it. (9min al dente - 11min sooooft)

Then strain it, keeping the water to add a little to the sauce.

smokey flavour

First make sure you get hold of some decent smoked paprika: I use La Chinata - it has a great smokey flavour much better than most of the generic ‘smoked’ paprika you get in a lot of places. (you can get it at the supermarket too!!)

OK that said, dust a healthy tsp of smoked paprika over a medium hot dry frying pan. As soon as it starts to change colour and start giving off a smokey aroma (which will be 5-10seconds) add 2 tbsp of garlic reduction, a slug of olive oil and the thyme and mix well! Add the pasta and a 1/2 ladle of pasta water and toss the pasta with a couple of wooden forks. 

to serve

Serve on hot plates dusting with chives or spring onion.

thinking ahead

Now the pasta purists out there would probably have me shot, but this is just as good the next day and microwaves pretty well so it’s great to load up a takeaway box and have it for lunch the next day!

variations

Make it meaty!! Dice 100g chorizo and cook until browned on the outside, add the picked thyme, cook for 2 more minutes then put aside. Use the same pan for more flavour and add the paprika etc and follow recipe above, adding the cooked chorizo just before the pasta!Makes for a nice meaty variant!! 

Recipe - Classic: Steak / Beef and Onion Pie (or Oxtail & Prune Pie w/ Red Cabbage)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab




OK I'm going to have a rant for a moment. Something I've often been presented with when ordering a pie is some kind of china bowl or ramekin with a bit of pastry almost hovering on top, as if they had been combined by accident, having nothing to do with each other. It's as if a bowl of stew was being stalked by a bit of pastry that always wanted to be a pie but somehow never made the grade. As far as I'm concerned, if it doesn't have a pastry bottom it isn't a pie! (Ahem . . . . . with the small exception of my Christmas left over turkey pie!! That doesn't count - it's Christmas and it's left overs!!)

Anyway rant over . . . . .  and thoughts turn to PIE! Can't beat a good pie! Even better if it's got a bottom!! Not a soggy bottom, mind you, we can't be doing with that!!

 







ingredients (makes 2 pies)
for the oxtail & prune pureé filling
2.5kg oxtail
750g (10) med onions (peeled & cut into 6ths)
100ml extra virgin olive oil
20g thyme (bouquet garni)
8 cloves garlic (cut into 1/4s lengthways)
750ml red wine
20 prunes (pitted)
3L chicken stock
plain flour for dusting
cinnamon powder

for the pie case
2x 375g puff pastry (want to make your own? here's how)
1 egg (beaten)
splash milk

for the red cabbage & beetroot
600g red cabbage (sliced)
2 beetroots (peeled, then 1 cm cubes)
300ml water
600ml tawny port
50g salted butter (small cubes)

special equipment
rubber gloves for beetroot
stick blender
2x 23cm loose bottomed tin (circular)
 

oxtail & prune pureé filling
Trim all the excess fat off the larger pieces of oxtail.
Season and coat the oxtail in flour and fry off in a pan until golden brown, then add to the boiling pot.
Oxtail usually comes held together with a piece of butcher's string.
You can use this to make a bouquet garni with the thyme: take the thyme, fold it in half, tie it with the string and add it to the pot.Add the onions, prunes, red wine, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and pour in enough chicken stock to cover the meat by 1cm.
Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer, leaving the lid off.
Top up with chicken stock occasionally to keep the water level above the meat.

The oxtail should be ready after about 2.5 hours. When it is, remove it with a slotted spoon into a tray and pick the meat off the bone, it should fall away with very little effort.

Remove the bouquet garni and dispose of it. Pass the stock through a sieve and return it to the pot, reduce until it is a thick sauce.
Once reduced, return the contents of the sieve and the picked oxtail to the sauce. Mix it together. That's the pie filling ready.


pie casing
Rub the pie tin with a little oil or butter so the pastry doesn't stick to it.
Line the tin with pastry - this is the base - then using a brush, paint the pastry with beaten egg. This water proofs your base so when you fill it you don't end up with a soggy bottom - no body want a soggy bottom! Now you could cover the pastry with oven proof paper and fill it with dry beans and blind bake it. or you can, as you can see from the pics, chuck it directly into the oven and bake it as is. 200C for 15mins. 15 minutes is enough to seal the pastry with egg and almost completely cook it.

assembly
Once the base is out of the oven, fill it with the (hot) spectacularly tasty filling. Add a splash of milk to the beaten egg and whisk it in, then brush around the edges of the pastry - so the top sticks to it. Place the pastry top on and trim it with a pair of scissors.
Throw it back into the oven 200C for 20mins.

red cabbage & beetroot in port reduction
Add the cabbage and the water to a pot with a lid and bring to the boil.
After 3 mins add the beetroot cubes and replace the lid.

After 2 mins more remove the lid and allow the liquid to evaporate until there is almost none left.
In a separate small pot (without a lid) bring the port to the boil and reduce by 3/4 to 150ml.
 



what could go wrong? (TIPS)
My reduction burnt! TIP: Watch anything you are reducing like a hawk. To begin with, it will seem like it will never reduce, but the more it reduces the faster it goes, and it will evaporate completely and burn if you don't keep an eye on it in the final stages!

I burnt my kitchen down! TIP: When reducing alcoholic liquids, be careful. Always keep the lid at hand so that if they catch fire, you can simply put the lid on to put it out. (or let it burn off carefully!)


to serve
Turn out the pie! Easy way to do this is to put the loose bottomed tin onto a tuna tin (better be line caught and not blue fin tuna!) and gently push down the rim of the tin revealing the fabulous pie . . . chef bursts into song with pride, and does a quick victory dance!! Cut up and serve immediately with some cabbage and beetroot!



thinking ahead
You can make the cabbage in the afternoon, and reheat it in minutes when you need it.

Recipe - Classic: Brussels Paté (Liver Paté)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Over the years I've learnt a lot by simply watching others (chefs or not) experiment or create something they've done a million times! This one I picked up from my mum. I remember thinking, when I found out how this is made, "Is that it? Wow how simple! Wow I didn't realise how much butter is in that!!" But it couldn't be simpler. 

Brussels paté is made from pork liver often with brandy, in this recipe I use chicken liver, some madeira and butter. Truly delicious!!

ingredients (make 800g-1kg)
for the paté
450g      chicken liver
200ml  madeira
750g butter (clarified)
10g  thyme leaves (bruised)
olive oil for frying

for the garnish
small branch of thyme

apparatus / equipment
food processor

paté
Put butter on to clarify, include the thyme leaves: Cut the butter into chunks and melt in a pan with the thyme. As soon as it bubbles turn off the heat and leave for 20-30 mins so the flavour of the thyme infuses into the butter. Use salted butter as then no further seasoning is required.

Cook the liver on a gentle heat. The aim is to cook the liver evenly throughout, no crispy outer surface. This will give an even texture once it's blended - no tough bits, no pink bits!! (mit cuit - just cooked)

Put the cooked liver into a food processor.
If the butter has set warm it a little until it's liquid, skim off any scum from the surface and remove, any thyme twigs. Pour 2/3 of the clarified butter (the fat floating on top) into the food processor leaving the white liquid at the bottom in the pan.
Run the motor until you have a smooth paste. That's the paté made!! : )

Pour it into ramekins and make the surface flat. Seal the paté with the remaining clarified butter, by pouring a thin layer over the top of the paté, and leave it to set. Consume at will!!

thinking ahead
This will keep in the fridge for a week if it's sealed. For months in the freezer.

to serve
Bust out some French stick, (toasting optional) some cornichons (little green pickled cucumbers), mayo, tomatoes, a little cucumber. Give everyone a glass of madeira and let them help themselves. Really nice home made paté for about 20mins, if that, of actual effort!

variations
This recipe is a great base to create all sorts of variations. For example: Adding parsley, and caramelised onion at the blending stage and then mixing it with (cooked) chicken thighs or mushrooms - fabulous, and makes a great starter.

Recipe: Oxtail & Sweet Potato Mash w/ Red Cabbage & Beetroot in a Port Reduction

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Oxtail w/ Bread and Butter Crisps, Sweet Potato Mash & Port Jus

When the weather is starting to get cold as well as raining all the time, it's nice to have something warming to feed you guests. Using a few ingredients that are in season, this recipe gives you a dinner packed with flavour! Oxtail is one of those inexpensive cuts that a lot people don't register at all in the supermarket - probably because it's already cut up into segments and tied into a sort of circular arrangement that doesn't look much like a tail! But, when slowly cooked for about two and half hours, it becomes sticky and soft and falls off the bone - it's simply gorgeous! And, if you don't fancy sweet potato mash, this will go equally well with roast potatoes!
If you've never tried oxtail then give this a go . . .  see variations for super quick version.

Can't beat a glass of wine whilst making Sunday Lunch - best way to relax ever . .  humming away in the kitchen to the radio! Aaaaah


ingredients (serves 4-6)
for the oxtail & prune purée
2.5kg oxtail
750g (10) med onions (peeled & cut into 6ths)
100ml extra virgin olive oil
20g thyme (bouquet garni)
8 cloves garlic (cut into 1/4's lengthways)
750ml red wine
75g ~20 prunes (stoned)
3L chicken stock
plain flour for dusting
cinnamon powder
10 dates (stoned and chopped)

for the mushrooms
280g mixed mushrooms (shitake, shimeji, enoki, oyster, for example)
40g butter

for the sweet potato mash

Browning before braising (Maillard reaction)

1kg sweet potatoes (peeled and diced)
300ml double cream (reduced by half)
50g butter (cut into 1cm cubes)
1 limes (juiced)
1L chicken stock (enough to cover the potatoes by 1cm)

for the red cabbage & beetroot
600g red cabbage (sliced)
2 beetroots (peeled, then 1 cm cubes)
300ml water
600ml tawny port
50g salted butter (small cubes)

for the bread and butter crisps
a bit of old French stick (cut into 2mm slices)
butter (melted)

for the garnish

5g chives (finely chopped)
baby chard leaves

special equipment
rubber gloves for beetroot
stick blender
brush

oxtail & prune purée
Trim all the excess fat off the larger pieces of oxtail.
Season and coat the oxtail in flour and fry off in a pan until golden brown, then add to the boiling pot.
Oxtail usually comes held together with a piece of butcher's string.
You can use this to make a bouquet garni with the thyme: take the thyme, fold it in half, tie it with the string and add it to the pot.

Bouquet garni made with string from oxtail!!

Add the onions, prunes, red wine, garlic, extra virgin olive oil and pour in enough chicken stock to cover the meat by 1cm.




Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer, leaving the lid off.
Top up with chicken stock occasionally to keep the water level above the meat.

After 90mins remove the prunes with a slotted spoon and 2/3 of the onions. Place them along with the dates in a small pot, add a pinch of cinnamon and blend with a stick blender until smooth. Keep on a low heat, allow to thicken to a purée.

The oxtail should be ready after about 2.5 hours. When it is, remove it with a slotted spoon into a tray and keep warm.
Pass the stock through a sieve and return it to the pot, reduce until it is a thick sauce.

mushrooms
Melt the butter and sauté the mixed mushrooms together until golden brown. Season with a touch of salt.

mash
Boil the sweet potatoes until they are fully cooked but not falling apart. They're done when the tip of a knife enters with little resistance.
Drain them in a colander. (Reserve the liquid for the base of a soup) Let the potatoes cool a little. While they do, prepare the cream:

Add the cream to the pot and bring to the boil; lower the heat a little and continue to boil until the cream has reduced by half. As soon as it has, add the butter.
Once the butter has melted, add the potatoes and the lime juice over the top.
Season and mash the potatoes until smooth. Set aside until required.

Removing the alcohol.

red cabbage & beetroot in port reduction
Add the cabbage and the water to a pot with a lid and bring to the boil.
After 3 mins add the beetroot cubes and replace the lid.
After 2 mins more remove the lid and allow the liquid to evaporate until there is almost none left.
In a separate small pot (without a lid) bring the port to the boil and reduce by 3/4 to 150ml. 

Cabbage braise & cover in a reduced port jus!!

 















I find easiest way to know how reduced it with scales, then oncereduced to a third by viscosity with a spoon. (don't be a dumb ass and use plastic scales - use metal heatproof ones) >>>

Bread Crisps or Bread Tuiles - whatever you want to call them they're tastey!

bread and butter crisps
Take some old French stick cut into thin (2mm) slices and brush with melted butter. Bake in the oven at 180C for 4-8min, the time will depend on whether your oven is fan assisted or not. Remove when golden and crisp.


what could go wrong? (TIPS)
My reduction burnt! TIP: Watch anything you are reducing like a hawk: to begin with, it will seem like it will never reduce, but the more it reduces, the faster it goes, and it will evaporate completely and burn if you don't keep an eye on it in the final stages!

I burnt my kitchen down! TIP: When reducing alcoholic liquids, be careful. Always keep the lid at hand so that if they catch fire, you can simply put the lid on to put it out. (or let it burn off carefully!) DO NOT blow on it to try and put it out, you will engulf your head in flames! Use a lid to extinguish the flame: Bring the lid in horizontally from the side and cover the pot.

My mash is watery : ( TIP: Don't over cook your spuds / sweet potatoes - if they start to fall apart they are no use for mash. Make sure they are properly drained, leaving them until no more steam is coming off them.

My mash has come out like glue! TIP: Never use a stick blender or food processor to make mash since it creates a starchy gloop, resembling wall paper paste!! Use a masher or a potato ricer.


to serve
Add the butter to the hot port reduction, mix in and pour this into the cabbage and beetroot, reserving a little to dress the plate.
Plate the oxtails and cabbage in layers and pipe (or spoon) on the mash, surround with mushrooms and onions.
Season the mash with a little black pepper and garnish with a bread and butter crisp.
Add a little of the prune puree, pour the sticky oxtail sauce over the oxtail and dress the surrounds with the remainder of the port.
Serve immediately.

variations
For a low hassle, great comfort food winter dinner: Don't remove anything from the oxtail except the bouquet garni, dish up the oxtail with the onion and prune sauce, serve with the cabbage and roast potatoes! Result: A no-nonsense great tasting dinner!

Pick the meat and use it and the sauce to make: Prune and Oxtail Pie

Oxtail is also a great component for a Pho Soup

Alternative presentaion - Choux buns are filled with sweet potato mash - Surprise!!

The finished product! Honestly! Oxtail, roasties and peas is much easier but it was fun to make!

 
thinking ahead
The mash can be made in the morning and stored in the fridge in a plastic container so it can be microwaved just before serving! The oxtail, cabbage and the port reduction can be left in the pot and reheated. Add the butter to the port sauce last minute so it doesn't split. and the bread crisps will happily last a day in an airtight container!! So it's basically an assembly job for dinner!! Shall we go for a couple of pints and have it when we get back!!! ; )

Experiment - Recipe: Beef Shortribs w/ Cinnamon and Orange (& beef dripping)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab
 
I often see recipes that look or sound so enticing, with ingredients that I kinda sit there and go . . .  yeah, right, so I'll be trying that out some time soon . . . . NOT! So when I do come across things that I've been meaning to get around to experimenting with, I'll more often buy them than not! What is life for if not for experimenting!!


A quick look around the ol' interweb thingy, scan through a few of me cookbooks and it's clear - unsurprisingly - that a slooow braise is in order. . .

ingredients (serves 2-4)
for the short ribs  - G2 / 150C / 4hrs
short rib cut (one piece cut into 4 ribs, coated in EVO and salt)
3 onions (cut into sixths)
2 peppers (coarse chop)
1 stick cinnamon
1/2 bulb garlic (crushed)
10g thyme
peel of 1/2 an orange
1 large chilli (rings, seeds and all)
a good slug of EVO

for the dripping
this is a by-product of browning the ribs

for the stock
2 beef stock cubes
1L water

apparatus / equipment
coarse sieve (frying basket)
cartouche

cartouche
To make a cartouche fold a piece of baking paper into a dart. The point of the dart is the centre of the final cartouche.
Cut the other end off in an arc. The centre to the arc is the diameter of you pot!! (Make it a touch larger than the pot)
This does of course assume your pot is round.

short ribs
Coat in oil, salt and brown - fat side first to render the fat.
Once browned nicely, remove to baking tray, and pour excess fat into a second pot (dripping)
Add the onions and garlic to the fat and brown off; then add to baking tray with the rest of the ingredients.
Deglaze the pan with the stock and add to the baking tray (half way up ribs)
Cover with a cartouche - (allows moisture escape, stops skin forming, stops meat drying out)
Roast in pre-heated oven.

dripping
Let any excess fat in the secondary pan solidify, store in a container.

notes
G2 / 150C / 4hrs? Thought . . . maybe that'll turn out stringy, that was my first instinct.
Was pretty gooey and soft after 3hrs, which I think was enough, maybe try 4hrs next time!! . . . .  

 If I do it 4hrs think I'll drop the temp to 100C too!!

to serve
Plate each rib into a hot shallow bowl generously spooning over vegetables and jus!

Recipe / Leftovers: Celeriac and Potato Rösti

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Still learning from me mum! Perfect rostis!!

Cooking is a lot to do with confidence, and, usually, that comes with experience. A random accident, phone call or some sort of improvisation that takes your fancy - basically experimentation - although often a recipe wrecker can some yield a cracking result!!

But there are some recipes that no matter how many times you try them the result is still a turkey where no turkey was initially involved!! Sooner or later, crestfallen from the lack of progress, you give up on something maybe never to return to it again!! Filed as an Achilles heal : /

Röstis are that thing for me, they never come out, tried loads of recipes and they always come out like nasty, dry pancakes, boo! So you can imagine my flabergastedlyness when my mum turned out some stunners to go along with the leftover turkey pie I made over the Christmas break. 

There was turkey left over from Christmas day, and pastry from the sausage rolls, it was a no brainer, turkey pie! Angels singing in the background, hallelujah . . hallelujah, hallelujah : ) big smiles!

A quick bit of industrial espionage - in the shape of me getting me mum to show me how to make them - and here's the low down. . .

ingredients (makes 6 - 8 patties)
for the röstis
1 medium celeriac
2 medium potatoes
large pinch basil, thyme or rosemary (dried)
ground black pepper
2 tbsp plain flour (enough to bind shredded potato)

for the garnish
10 fresh basil leaves

apparatus / equipment
grater

röstis
Peel the potato and the celeriac and shred them using a food processor with a small grating disc.
Some folks squeeze the water out of the shreds using a tea towel, but it isn't necessary and the excess water helps bind the röstis together.
Put all ingredients, bar the flour, into a mixing bowl and season it.
Add half the flour and form into patties about 3/4 inch (1.8cm) thick and 2.5inches (6cm) in diameter.
If they don't hold together add a little more flour until they form the required patties.
Then shallow fry in vegetable oil on a medium heat, and I quote, "until golden brown and yummy!!"
Turn them once until they are crunchy and brown on the outside.
Serve immediately.

 

what could go wrong?
Try not to make them too "frizzy", the outer strands will burn - not a good look! - and pollute your oil.
Don't make them too flat or they will be dry, if they're around the 3/4 - 1 inch mark the centre will be soft and the outside crunchy!

to serve
Place on a platter and serve with scattered basil leaves and baby plum tomatoes for a light snack, or as a potato accompaniment to turkey pie, replacing chips or mash for example.

A little salad, turkey pie and a touch of wine! Bliss!

variations
Röstis are best made with root vegetables. If you fancy using a wetter root vegetable such as beetroot - which adds a lovely flavour to a rösti - remove as much liquid as possible and balance it with potato.

Recipe: Sausage Rolls - Christmas treat! (These rock! Mum's are much better!! But these still rock!)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

First things first! No sausage roll is ever going to beat the sausage rolls that my mum's made for time immemorial for the family at Christmas -  and sometimes on my birthday fair amount of bargaining for that to
happen though! - years of honing and perfecting!

That said you can always practise! I was clearing bit of space in the freezer and found a couple of bits of pastry too small to be useful on their own, but together . . . . it might just work! A little more hunting rewarded me with a couple of rather nice looking sausages which I put on the side immediately to defrost (whilst putting the pastry in the fridge). A quick root around the fridge found me some chives that wouldn't have lasted much longer, and a little thyme. All I needed now was an egg for shiny loveliness and I was good to go!

I made these sausage roles in about 10 minutes flat from spare parts! It's really just an assembly job!

INGREDIENTS (makes 12 mini or 4 man size)
150g flakey pastry (buy if you want, but here's how to make it!!)
2 good quality sausages
6 pieces of pepperoni
5g chives
3g soft thyme
1 egg for wash and seal

APPARATUS
rolling pin
pastry brush

METHOD (preheat oven to 220C / Gas Mark 7 / cooking time ~20m)
Beat the egg in a bowl.
Finely chop the pepperoni, chives and thyme.
Remove the casing from the sausages and add the meat to the chopped ingredients.
Mix them all together and using a little flour on the counter roll into a sausage shape about 1inch (2.5cm) in diameter.

Cut in half at it's centre  - one sausage for each piece of pastry!
Take the pastry from the fridge and roll it out into an oblong, around 9 inches (~23cm) wide, and 3mm (1/5 inch) thick. Then cut along it's length into 2 pieces.

Take one of the sausages and place it at the top of one of the lengths of pastry and roll it towards you leaving an inch wide flap, brush this with egg, and finish rolling towards you.
Cut it into 6, 4cm rolls and and brush with beaten egg. Place on a greased baking tray.  

Repeat for the second roll.
You can cut them to any size you fancy!
Pop them in the oven for 20mins or until golden brown! 

 

(I usually check them after 15 minutes)

Cracking treat for all the family!! : ) Thanks Mum!

Trials with Terrine . . .

We've been asked how the terrine was made, by a number of people, so here goes . . .

We did got a bunch of different terrine recipes, that used different meats and different cuts, varying types of onions, and bacons, and seasoning quantities, and did some double blind testing, well sort of, I wrote letters on the bottoms of the terrine clays and got Uyen to take them out of the oven so no one knew which was which until we looked at the key after tasting!

125g rind less smoked streaky bacon, (plus 70g to finish)
200g chicken livers,
500g coarsely minced shoulder of pork
1tbsp of parsley, sage, thyme chopped
2 echelon shallots finely chopped
1 garlic cloves crushed
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp port,
3 egg yolks,

This is the simplest thing to prep, put the diced pork shoulder in a blender and pulse a few times (about 6-8 sec) until coarsely minced consistency, put into a mixing bowl, finely blend the bacon (8 sec), and the same with the liver. The liver will liquefy very quickly so don't go mad! (3-4 sec)

Then mix everything together and put in baking dishes, lay streaky bacon over the top of the mix, then cover with tin foil.

Bake for 60m @ 180℃ and remove from oven.

At this point the terrines look a bit scary and not very presentable!!!!
Don't worry. The terrine will have shrunk and now be quite solid, drain off the juices and tidy up edges then put back in the oven with out foil to brown for 15m @ 240℃

If you have a fan assisted oven it'll take less time. Serve with good quality crusty bread and cornichons (gherkins), or as we did with a light and tangy dip! : )