Saturday, 28 November 2015

Vegetarian Recipe: Vegetable Soup w/ Haggis & Poached Egg topped w/ Black Sesame and Sesame Oil


We’ve had a few requests for vegetarian banquets recently so there’s been some extra veggie menu development going on. 


Result? I’ve been getting into me veggie food! Anyhoo my house mate made a very nice vegetable soup which I rather fancied including in my lunch!! 

Luckily me house mate was only too happy to tell me how she made said vegetable soup so I made a note of it. 

The nice thing is that all the components can be frozen so it’s easy to make a batch and bust ‘em out for lunch or tea when ever you fancy!

ingredients (serves 1 for quick light bite)
for the vegetable soup (makes 2.5L)
1.5L chicken stock (or veg stock)
1tsp curry powder
‘herbs de provence’ (dried herbs)
good glug worcester sauce (to taste)
2 onions (diced)
4 bacon (fried & chopped - optional bacon crumbles for veggies)
1 celery (diced)
150g dry lentil 
1 red pepper (diced)
1 kabocha squash (peeled)

for the lunch!
250ml home made vegetable soup (above)
125g veggie haggis (cooked)
5g coriander sauce
5g mayo
1 poached egg

for the garnish
1 spring onion (sliced into rings)
black sesame seeds
ponzu 
sesame oil

method
poached egg
Does any one know why you’re supposed to put vinegar in the water? Err . . . well, it helps the protein coagulate.
Vinegar is optional! It’s much more important to have a really fresh egg since it will hold together better in the water.
Add some salt and vinegar and get the water boiling then turn the heat to minimum to minimise bubbling. Stir with a spoon to create a whirlpool and add the egg to the centre. Let the egg keep spinning, leave it for 4 minutes. Then take it out and put on some kitchen towel to remove the excess water. 

vegetable soup (what bacon? I didn’t see any bacon!)
And I quote “Fry off the spices, onions and bacon first, than add the rest. Then add the stock and bring to the boil. Simmer until it . . . ” there was a pause for thought. I think the gauge how to judge readiness, possibly determined by the right smell wafting from the kitchen? All very vague!!  (Simmer 30 minutes to an hour)
“Then you whiz it” The resulting soup is rather nice!

haggis 
As I said I’ve been experimenting with vegetarian food so - bizarrely - I happen to have some haggis! Vegetarian haggis!
It’s really rather nice, nuts, beans, oats, I added a little spiciness in with a little chilli and coriander sauce. (Ahem and a touch of mayo)

to serve
Heat the haggis and soup, pop the poached egg on top and garnish with spring onions, black sesame seeds, and a touch of sesame oil season with a touch of ponzu or light soy sauce. Serve immediately.

Friday, 20 November 2015

Recipe: Ham Quiche for whole family (15mins to make)


Quick note: please excuse the photography on this post, I was just making notes really, but the recipe is so good and so simple I had to share it! 

On that note . . .

I’ve never really liked quiche, I think the reason is that I’ve only ever had rubbish quiche. I think that’s a fair bet, cold quiche always reminds me of crap buffets, you know, all cold and tasteless, rubbery egg, sad pastry, a suicidal looking pie basically! Yeah that’s my experience of quiche . . .

Well not so long ago I popped into a coffee shop in White Chapel (I always go in if I’m in the area and I have a minute. The coffee is genuinely good.) I hadn’t had anything to eat yet and it was already 2pm so I thought I’d take 5 minutes and refuel, and for who knows what insane reason I picked their quiche to try.

The thing is, all of the food there looks spectacularly well turned out, (as do the staff, always so pleased to see you! That in itself perks up your day as much as the coffee!) so it was very difficult to choose. I guess on some level I thought, well if they can get a quiche to taste good . . . and it looked kinda nice.

When it came, accompanied by a smile, I gave it a once over and tucked in. Big chunks of juicy ham, in no way over cooked egg, nice pastry, not undercooked. It put me in such  good mood for the rest of the day.  Anyway if your in the area Aldgate East / White Chapel check out Exmouth Coffee Company (83 White Chapel High St)

The quiche I had that day was in the back of my mind when I was making this: it delivers on flavour but it’s no where near as pretty. Nowhere near. But every bit as juicy, tasty & comforting!!




























Here goes . . .

ingredients (serves 4)
for the quiche
350g flakey pastry (or short pastry if you prefer)
2 tbsp garlic onion reduction (recipe here / or caramelised onion)
1 yellow pepper (pips, removed, coarse dice)
1 large onion (coarse dice)
100g soft cheese
4 eggs (beaten)
200-300g good quality ham
200g mature cheddar (grated)

apparatus / equipment
16x22cm pie tin / pyrex dish

method
Pre-heat your oven.
Dust the pie dish with flour, then line it with pastry, cover that with baking paper and line that with ceramics or coins.
Blind bake for 15mins @ 200C


While it’s baking sweat off the yellow pepper and onion. 
Add a little garlic at this point if you’re not using the garlic onion reduction.

The veg should finish soft but not coloured - no tough bits!
When the pastry comes out, remove the paper and ceramics and return to the over of another 5 mins to dry out the bottom a little more.
On it’s second return from the oven brush the bottom with garlic onion reduction.
Mix the pepper, onion and soft cheese and pour them into the pie case.


Next add the chucks of ham and pour in the beaten egg leaving at least half a cm to the top of the pastry.


The egg mix will rise a little during cooking so it needs a little space!


Top with cheddar cheese and grated black pepper and return it to the oven at 180C for 20min or until golden brown.
Take it out and let it cool for 15mins before serving.
Juicy, tasty, lovely!


to serve
Serve with a little of your favourite salad. Or not!! ; ) 

Friday, 30 October 2015

Experiment - Recipe: Sushi Rice (& various Maki Rolls)


I love sushi! 

I’m a grazer, I like variety in my food, I like to make lots of different types of roll, which inevitable means I end up with rather more than I could possibly eat myself!!  That's why I make it when I have friends around. It’s nice to get everyone involved in the rolling . .  
S U S H I   P A R T Y ! ! , or maybe a little rolling competition : )


What I’ve found is that if you give folk a set of ingredients and let everyone freestyle, you invariably get some pretty random stuff, and it’s quite often very good!! I always take notes!!! : )


In this post: crunchy tipped chicken and mango rolls, mushroom rolls, soused cucumber and cream cheese, red pepper and mayo, sweet lemon lettuce and egg pancake roll.


OK first the basics: the rice
One of the most important things to get right is the rice, you don't want it too wet or mushy or too hard!

So first you need the right kind of rice: Sushi rice has a grain in between pudding rice and risotto rice, very similar to paella rice.
The next thing to get right is the ratio of water to rice which is 1.3 by weight. So for example 500g rice to 650g water.

For other types of rice you can have a quick check on the Quick Ref tab on this blog : )


How do I cook sushi rice?  Wash the rice by rinsing it in a sieve under the cold tap, cook it with or without seasoning seaweed (EG kombu), one cooked turn it out onto a tray. Spread out gently to season it. Season with sweet vinegar, do not allow to go cold (makes the rice hard).


What ratio of water to rice? 1 : 1.35  rice : water  by weight will give you mid ground bite. 1.3 to go more al dente 1.4 for a softer touch


How much rice vinegar & sugar to rice? 
After it’s cooked: 60g seasoning per 600g uncooked rice - 10% by weight (add as soon as the rice is cooked & turned out)
or 
Before it’s cooked: 60g seasoning per 300g uncooked rice - 20% by weight (add as soon as the rice is cooked & turned out)


How much sugar in the sweetened vinegar?
Rice vinegar : Sugar : Salt = 6 : 6 : 1


Nori: Shiny side in or out? Shiny side out rook nice! (also rice sticks to the rough side better, so assemble rice onto rough side)


What now? Get rolling Daniel-san aye.


What to go inside? Man the variety and spectacular presentation and combination of flavours of sushi masters is truly beguiling!
Best learn how to roll before you go native since some of the ingredients are delicate and expensive!

I believe Japanese food to be both the most fun and the most f8cking serious you’ll ever encounter! (and very rewarding)

This post is very much about fun : )

ingredients (serves 4 as a starter)

makes
2 large rolls - chicken and mango rolls (6 pieces x 2 types)
3 small rolls - mushroom rolls (18 pieces)
2 small rolls - soused cucumber and cream cheese (12 pieces)
2 small rolls - red pepper and mayo (12 pieces)
2 large rolls - sweet lemon lettuce and egg (8-12 pieces)

For which you'll need 7 sheets of nori. (plus any practice spares)

for the sushi rice
When working out how much rice you'll need calculate with 50g cooked rice per small roll
and 100g cooked rice per large roll (more quantities here: Quick Ref Tab
250g uncooked rice rice makes 550g cooked rice

large x2 100g x2 200g
small x9 50g x10 500g
need at least 700g

for the rice (1kg)
450g sushi rice 
585g water
2 sheets kombu (optional)

for the sushi vinegar (100ml  10% of weight of the cooked rice!) 
46g rice wine vinegar
46g sugar
8g salt


for the egg roll w/ sweet lemon & shredded lettuce
2 eggs
15g flour
50g milk
1/2 tsp sugar 
pinch of salt
1/3 iceberg lettuce (shredded)
1/2 lemon 
1 tbsp sugar

for the mushroom sushi
250g mushrooms (duxelles)
1tsp soft cheese
1/2 tsp all purpose

for the crispy chicken and mango salsa sushi
2 chicken thighs chopped into strips
1/2 mango (fine diced)
1/2 red onion (fine diced)
1/2 chilli
coriander (torn)
50g bread crumbs
50g egg roll mix (see below)

for the soused cucumber sushi
1 tsp soft cheese
1 tsp mayo
1/3 cucumber (cut into strips)
250ml white wine vinegar
125ml sugar
125ml water
12g salt

for the red pepper sushi
red pepper (julienne)
1tbsp mayo

for the accompaniments
pickled ginger
wasabi
ponzu

apparatus / equipment
sushi rolling mat
nimble fingers 
square frying pan (for pancakos)

rolling method
When spreading the rice onto the nori (seaweed sheets) have a bowl of water with a little vinegar in it. Dip your fingers in it every time you grab some rice so they don't completely covered in rice and stop you right in your tracks!!

When cutting the rolls make sure your knife is clean (and keep it clean with a damp cloth during the whole process) and sharp!

sushi vinegar
Mix all the ingredients together until the salt and sugar are dissolved. (Warm if required)

sushi rice
Wash the sushi rice, then cook it in a rice cooker ratio of 1.3 water to 1 rice by weight.
Once cooked turn the rice out onto a tray and season it with sushi vinegar. Sprinkle the vinegar over a paddle, flicking the paddle back an forth to evenly distribute the vinegar. When mixing the seasoning in take care not to squash the rice.

mushroom sushi
This is a simple mushroom duxelles in a small roll, great umami flavour and not too much mushroom texture, which for some people is a real bonus!

crispy chicken and mango salsa sushi
This flavour profile had nothing to do with Japanese cuisine, it’s more equatorial Brazilian kinda vibe but it works well in a sushi roll, this is what experimenting is all about!


soused cucumber sushi
Fairly standard roll contents but pickled. Mix the sousing vinegar ingredients (salt, sugar, water, vinegar) until the salt and sugar are dissolved. Pickle the cucumber for 60 mins. Mix the mayo and the cheese, and combine the the drained cucumber and mayo in to a roll.

Quite nice a nice combo is plain cucumber with a little wasabi mayo wrapped in pickled ginger in the centre of a roll.
Ahem, before any of the purists have a pop, it’s worth nothing that pickled ginger is traditionally used as a between sushi rounds palette cleanser.


red pepper sushi
Again another bog standard ingredient in its raw form. Roasted red pepper and beef tartare or charred beef are a great combo

egg roll w/ sweet lemon & shredded lettuce
Swiss roll style with and extra inch at the end to hold the wrap, filled in the centre shredded iceberg lettuce dressed with lemon syrup.

Sunday, 18 October 2015

Leftovers - Recipe: Special Fried Rice or Duck and Apple Haggis


I use all manner of variations of special fried rice to use up leftovers!  This one came about when I was running a duck menu last summer. 



Once all the development is done comes scaling it up for a banquet. It was the first time we’d scaled it up in anger, you always have to make alterations to ingredients, quantities and the process. On this particular occasion I totally miss-judged the amount of duck we needed (always have more than you need, hungry banqueters ain’t a pretty site!), and as it happens we had a giant haggis leftover too!! Secretly thinking RESULT!! : )

The key elements in this recipe are the caramelised apple and the haggis, they make a great backdrop of the duck and the cavolo nero. After the onions, which deepen the flavour and also add some lighter notes (spring onion), the rest is completely optional!


One note I will make is that the Braeburn apples that I used weren’t quite ripe which meant they had a good bite to them so they put up well with the caramelising process, staying in chunks and adding a sharp note when they were bit into, perfect against the haggis and the duck!!! Still I don’t think I’d use cooking apples!

Unusual, minimal effort and really really good!!!

ingredients (serves 6)
for the caramelised apple 
4 Braeburn apples (3/4 cm dice)
1 lemon (juiced)
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon

for the duck and apple haggis
300g picked duck (picked form carcass)
300g caramelised apple (from above)
700g haggis (cooked and broken up)
cavolo nero (1cm slices)
1 leek (cleaned and small dice)
1 large onion (medium dice)
6 spring onion (chopped)
1 pepper (deseeded, medium dice)
2 carrots (medium dice - 1/2cm)
2 eggs
200g boiled rice
2 roast potatoes (coarse chop)

for the garnish
5g chives (chopped)


caramelised apple 
Juice the lemon into a bowl big enough to hold the apples 
Peel and dice the apples about 3/4 cm dice. Add them to the lemon juice and toss to coat them and stop them going brown.
You want them to release a burst of flavour when you bite into the chunks, smaller than this and they’ll turn to mush!
Once they’re all dice put them into a medium hot pan and allow them to release juice without moving them about too much.
Once they’ve stopped releasing juice and there’s almost none left add the cinnamon and the sugar and toss them to coat well.
Leave them until the sugar stars to caramelise the apple chunks, once done put them aside until needed.

for the duck and apple haggis
Add a little oil and the eggs to a hot pan then add the boiled rice and chopped roast potatoes and mix well, one the egg is cooked put the mix into a large mixing bowl. This step is optional, I was just using up leftovers, that is after all the point or the exercise!

The bowl is not optional!! The rice and potatoes are!! K?

Next make a kind of mirepoix from the onion, leek, pepper, carrots and cavolo nero, season and once cooked add this to the mixing bowl.

Add a little more oil to the pan and ad the picked duck pieces toss to coat them (a smidgen of hoisin sauce at this point doesn’t hurt but it’s optional) and then leave them a few minutes to crisp up a little. Add them to the mix.

Right, time to release the Haggis! Add some more oil to the pan and add the crumbled (already cooked haggis) and warm through. Add this to the mix and mix in well.

Then mix in the raw chopped spring onion and lastly gently fold in the caramelised apple

to serve
Chuck some chopped chives over the top and serve immediately!! I served this with some larger duck pieces and hoisin sauce and some soused cucumber and mange tout.

variations
It really doesn’t need the rice or roast potatoes! The haggis is a good stogy substance and will put up with being loaded with quite a lot of vegetable! Pick what every you want! Pork goes well with this too instead of duck. . . 

It ain’t going to get any Michelin Stars but it’s a good feed if there are a few of you!! : )


Saturday, 10 October 2015

Recipe: (a nod to) Salad Nicoise (using Preserved Salted Sardine or Anchovy)


I made this at Halloween last year, crazy talk I know!! The weather was so nice  the dish just seemed to suit! It was 22C in London!! Barking! It’s cobbled together from stuff that was in the kitchen that day and some preserved sardines I made earlier in the year.

Boiled potatoes sautéed with chorizo make a nice addition to this classic salad . . . 



ingredients (serves 2, 4 as a starter)


for the salad
100g mixed salad leaves (the curly type are nice, bit of rocket too)
125g chorizo sausage (diced chunky)
3 medium potatoes (2cm dice, boiled)
2 slices white bread (1.5cm thick, toasted and buttered 
both sides)
2 fillets salted sardine (or 16 anchovies)
2 free range eggs (soft boiled)
4 small beetroot (pickled)
2 large ripe tomatoes
3 tbsp vinaigrette (35% vinegar 65% EVO)

for the sardine sauce
4 fillets salted sardines (fine dice, or 32 anchovies)
2 tbsp mayo
2 tbsp creme fraiche
1/4 cucumber (peeled & juiced)
1/2 lemon (zest & juice)

apparatus / equipment
stick blender (optional)


method
for the sardine sauce
Mix the fine diced sardine w/ the rest of the ingredients. I used 4 but you can use less is you like it a little less salty.
The cucumber gives it such a light summery flavour that goes so well with this salad. 
If you don’t have a juicer just grate the cucumber into the mix.

for the salad
To hard boil a couple of eggs boil them for 6 minutes then put them into cold water straight after, 4 minutes for soft.
Pat dry preserved sardines (or anchovies - 8 anchovies per sardine fillet). 
Make sure they don’t have any scales on them, scrape the back of your knife along the fillet of the fish to remove.
Cut 2 of the fillets into medium dice to mix with the tomatoes.
Cut 4 of them into fine dice for the sauce.


Add the chorizo to a pan on a medium heat and once it’s started to release fat, add a touch more veg oil and the boiled potatoes. 
If you rough the boiled potatoes up a little before adding them to the pan they’ll crisp up nicely, try it out!

Sauté until golden brown.




Toast a doorstop and butter it on both sides, then cut into croutons. (fast and tasty cheats croutons!!)



Peel and quarter the eggs.
Mix the coarse diced sardine in with some chopped tomatoes and add a little vinaigrette.
Mix some sweet pickled beetroot and salad leaves.
Assemble to create a feast for the eye and the palette!!



Tadaa!

Now that's a salad!!

Friday, 25 September 2015

Recipe: Caramelised Pork Belly w/ Boiled Eggs and Rice


This is classic Vietnamese fare.  Normally the pork is braised for and hour with the boiled eggs but I happened to have a rather large amount of cooked pork belly in the fridge so I though I’d do it a couple of different ways for my housemates.


This is a simple and tasty recipe; it’s a real corker, I’ve written the recipe how it would normally be made with uncooked pork belly.

The belly I had, had already been slow cooked so I put it in about 30minutes into the braising process so it wouldn’t fall apart in the broth, but still have enough time to take up the flavours and be soft and delicious!


Normally this is served with rice . . . 

 ingredients (serves 4-6)
for the caramelising slow braising broth
1/4 side pork belly (1.7kg uncooked weight) (cut into 3-4cm chunks)
500ml coconut water
1 red onion (fine dice)
6 cloves garlic (fine dice)
45g ginger 
30-60ml fish sauce (to taste)
80g palm sugar (or brown sugar)
6 eggs

caramelising slow braising broth
Boil the eggs for 8 minutes, then immediately run under cold water. Once they’re cold enough to handle, peel them, ready for the pot.
Fry the onions until they’re a little charred, then add the ginger and garlic and cook for a couple of minutes. Deglaze with a little coconut water and pour the mix into a bowl.
In the same pot add the sugar and a slug of coconut water. Cook on a medium heat until the sugar is a dark caramel colour, then add the rest of the coconut water (through a sieve). Careful it will spit!
Add the fish sauce, garlic ginger mix and the boiled eggs and set to simmer for 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes add the pork belly, bring back up to the boil and set to simmer for another 30mins.

If you don’t have any 3 hr slow roast pork belly kicking about, sear off some pork shoulder and add it in at the same time as the eggs, then simmer for 60 mins. 
At the end of the 60 minutes check the flavour. If it’s needs it, you can sharpen it up with a touch of lime juice just before service.

thinking ahead
You can make this the day before and pop it in the fridge, and reheat when needed.

what could go wrong? (notes)
It’s impossible to cluck this up! Oink.


to serve
Serve it in a large bowl with a ladle in it, and serve with boiled rice.

How To Book / Attend

How To Book / Attend
Fancy getting stuck in? Click on the image above and to see how : ) . . . hope to see you soon.

More Techniques, Basics and Corker Recipes

More Techniques, Basics and Corker Recipes
If there's something you've tried at ferdiesfoodlab or a technique you want to know about drop us a line at bookings@ferdiesfoodlab.co.uk and I'll put up a post about it!!