Experiment - Recipe: Lamb breast / Belly cooked w/ a Cartouche & Topped Caramelised Veg.

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Originally this was and experiment, which explains why the images don't exactly match the pictures. The recipe is 3 experiments later, and seriously lush!! So simple to make, inexpensive and so tasty!

Makes a great Sunday dinner recipe!! Succulent, juicy

Cartouche? Probably better at preventing spitting than any other use, not sure it brings anything to this party! You’re welcome to post a comment on that if you feel strongly about the benefits of a cartouche!!

ingredients (serves 4-6)

for the lamb breast / belly 

  (roast:  150C/180min)

2 lamb bellies 

4 onions

2 leeks

4 cloves garlic

2 lamb stock cubes

2 pints / 1L water. 

for the sauce

1 pint skimmed milk

1 tbsp flour

200ml water

for the roasties

8 medium / large potatoes

7g thyme (bruised)

7g rosemary (bruised)

4 cloves garlic (peeled and squashed)

150ml olive oil

for the greens

broad beans

radish pods (optional)

for the garnish

a touch of parsley if you fancy it

apparatus / equipment

pyrex dish & lid

method

lamb breast / belly

Put all ingredients into a roasting tray.

Coat the skin of the lamb with oil, and sprinkle with salt (draws water out of the skin makes it crispy).

Roast for at least 3 hours.

If it needs it, top up stock with another pint after 2hours.

After 3 hours, remove lamb and cut off the butcher's string.

Slice the lamb belly rolls into 1 cm pieces, and lay out on a tray.

Drain the vegetables, and put the stock to one side in a tall thin container. This makes it easier to skim off the fat.

Spread the remaining onions leak and bits over the sliced lamb and return to the oven at 180C/60m 

After an hour the top with have for a caramelised crunchy gorgeous surface.

make the sauce

Skim off as much fat as desired - more fat more flavour - but also A LOT more calories (and it's saturated fat from this cut).

Add 1/2 - 1pint of milk - add enough so that the seasoning is balanced.

Mix 1tbsp of plain flour with water until smooth paste, then gradually add more water until you get to a cream liquid consistency.

Add the flour liquid mix to the jus, stirring vigorously to start,  and bring to the boil stirring continuously until the sauce has thickened and the flour is cooked out - about 5-10mins. Season if required.

potatoes

While the lamb is in the oven boil the potatoes in salt water, drain and leave them until they stop steaming.

Add the oil, salt and garlic and mix with a wooden fork until the potatoes have a fluffy coating of mashed potato.

Pour out onto a baking tray and roast 180C/45m - then turn them and return to the oven for another 15m.

Serve the lamb with roast potatoes, and Yorkshire puddings!!! Oh my goood, soooo good!!!

thinking ahead

This is great pre-movie fare. Stick it on while you making lunch for the evening viewing!! It really is as simple as chopping up a few onions and a squirt of anchovy paste, and into the oven with some stock. You can then claim 5 hours of cooking and hand the potatoes over to somebody else!!! : )

what could go wrong? (notes)

Not much, this is a pretty forgiving dish, just make sure it doesn't go dry! That, would be bad! Specially just before the movie!!

conclusion 

A must try lazy Sunday recipe! Don't forget the red wine!

Recipe: Mac 'n' Cheese (Macaroni Cheese - Rigatoni Actually)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Mac 'n' cheese is an uber classic! It was one of the first things I tried to perfect when I left home! It's a super comfort food, and so versatile. As far as the basics go all you need to be able to make are a béchamel sauce and to make that a simple roux. the rest is cheese, your favourite pasta and all manner of variations depending on your mood! It's great for incorporating leftovers and stands on the plate without need for accompaniment. In fact I suggested an accompaniment for this one and got a reet (I think that's a northern term I might be wrong) good re-educating from my Italian flatmate . . . . . You do not serve a salad with a mac 'n' cheese, that's a different course!!

The cheeses I used for this particular mac 'n' cheese - which make's it the mac daddy were these:

murgu - swiss from belp - raw cows milk

vintage gouda 3yr - dutch from het groene hart - pasturised cows milk

schneeflockli - swiss from rougemont - raw cows milk

munster - french from alsace-lorraine - cows milk

They were leftovers form a rather nice cheese board I put on just recently! (sacrilegious I know . . . but soooo goood!)

My flatmate liked the mac 'n' cheese, I chucked the salad out of the window while no-one was looking!! ; )  

ingredients (serves 6-8)

for the mac 'n' cheese

500g rigatoni / macaroni

300g cheese (grated) (your favourite - better to pick a relatively strong one)

4 tomatoes (diced)

2 onions (fine dice)

4 cloves garlic (fine dice)

2 tbsp dijon mustard

1 tsp cumin seed

50ml olive oil

1L water

100g butter

100g flour

Cheese: a nice mix that wont hurt the bank too much - Red Leicester, Parmesan or Gran Padano and Mozzarella.

for the topping 

200g mature cheddar (grated)

apparatus / equipment

stick blender (optional)

Hard to tell but this mac 'n' cheese is over a foot wide!!! 

method - the basic steps are as follows:

* Cook the rigatoni / macaroni

* Make stock for the sauce

* Thicken the sauce with a roux

* Add the cheese to the sauce

* Mix sauce and pasta

* Sprinkle with cheese and bake for 20mins @ 180C

here's how in more detail:

stock

Put 1L of water, the onions, cumin, tomatoes and olive oil in a pan and bring to the boil, then set to simmer for 20mins.

Once the stock is ready use a stick blender to make it smooth and pass the stock through a sieve. If you don't have a stick blender skip this step and go for an artisan style sauce personally I quite like it with a little texture!! Smooth is good too!

pasta

In a separate pan add 1.5L water and 1tbsp of table salt and bring to the boil. Once boiling add the rigatoni and boil for 7mins.

Worth pointing out here that this is undercooked. If the rigatoni was for meatballs for example, or another sauce to be served immediately 7mins wouldn't be enough!!  9mins would be al dente and 11mins would be soft. We want it undercooked because it's going to be in the oven for 20mins in sauce cooking more!! : )

But you can cook it longer if you want to have a softer mac n cheese. 

roux

Next make a roux to thicken the stock. A roux is a mix of flour and fat. This recipe is vegetarian so I'm going to use butter, but you can use most fats, veg oil, bacon fat, duck fat etc for different flavours.

Melt butter and add the flour, mix well, and stir continuously over the heat to cook out the flour.

Add a fifth of the stock and bring to the boil and mix it in to create a smooth paste.

Repeat: adding the rest of the stock to the mix a third at a time, stirring until you have a smooth and even sauce.

add cheese

Next add the cheese to the sauce, stirring until it's melted and completely dissolved in the sauce. Season it with salt and pepper. Then add the pasta and mix well.

sprinkle

Put the mix into an oven proof dish, sprinkle with grated cheese and bake for 20minutes @ 180C until it's golden brown!!

thinking ahead

This is a great dish because, it will last over night in the fridge and be easily reheated in the oven (or microwave if you insist!) and you can also freeze it with very little side effects. 

variations

Are you kidding the list is endless, it's a great way to use up odds and ends: Use a tomato based sauce and just top with cheese for a healthier version. Add aubergine caviar, or ham and oregano. A chicken based variation is also pretty good!! : )

As you can see I tried an avocado topping as an experiment, and although it didn't detract from the dish it was a bit like adding double cream to single cream - pointless!

Aubergine caviar mac 'n' cheese

Classic cheddar and chicken mac 'n' cheese

Recipe: Cambodian Seared Beef Salad with Lime, Coriander & Peanuts served with Chips (AKA Steak, Chips & Peas)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

This recipe is inspired by my travels in Cambodia. I can't claim to be able to get hold of any prahoc, but I can claim to have been exposed to a serene culture, with an amazing and, frankly, dark past. I have mixed memories of land mine museums, electric bicycles, and the most friendly population I've ever encountered on my travels. Recovering from a pretty grim past I found the Cambodian people really welcoming. What to see? Jungle, elephants, amazing stonework sculpture and temples.

We'll take you to the floating village - come with us!! - Little monkeys!

Angkor Wat popping out of the jungle - although I didn't know it at the time, this was to be one of the happiest holidays of my life!

That's an elephant's arse!! How did that get in there?

 

I have to be honest - the food in Cambodia was a pretty hit and miss thing! This one sticks in my memory, I tried to get the recipe from the chef, a little old Cambodian woman, but it was a hopeless task since we had no common language (except food) whatsoever. I had to do a little research to get it right, but it's pretty faithful! It's mostly about the sauce, great depth!

Just look at that, what a stunning view!

Prahoc is a fermented fish paste, made from mudfish & gourami, amongst other things. It is widely used in Khmer cuisine. Try finding that in the supermarket!! Tuk prahoc is a liquid made by adding prahoc to boiling water and leaving over night

I've used shrimp paste instead of prahoc, and in the photos some leftover ribeye roast beef. I used sirloin steak last time I made it for supper club. This is a gorgeous recipe, great summer food!

You can use whichever steak you prefer, for this salad, my preference is sirloin or ribeye.

ingredients (serves 4)
for the salad and chips
750g sirloin - seared and thinly sliced - raw in the middle
400g sugar snap peas (julienne - diagonal)
800g Maris Piper potatoes 

From bottom CW: garlic, shrimp paste, lime, palm sugar & lemon grass. Got everything but the shallot!!!

for the sauce

2 lemon grass (blended)
2 shallots (blended)
2 cloves garlic (blended)
50g palm sugar (blended)
3 limes (juiced)
3.5g shrimp paste (+50ml boiling water)

for the garnish
2 birdseye chilli (fine sliced rings)
15g coriander (chopped coarse, stalks ok)
70g peanuts (coarsely ground)
sprinkling of garlic chives (optional)

apparatus
heavy based pan
fine sieve

beef salad and chips
Cut up the sugar snaps in long diagonal strips, take off any tough stalky bits, of which there should be very few, and place them in a salad bowl ready to mix. Use your favourite method to make chips, I'd suggest a 10mm square cross section, the rest I'm leaving for another post! Put them somewhere where they will keep warm in a tray lined with kitchen towel.

Chips glorious chips . . . hot chocolate and biscuits?

For the photography, I used some leftover roast ribeye of beef and pan seared it. Very, very nice! (Video of how to roast ribeye coming soon) If using sirloin, remove the fat and cut it into 1.5cm (1/2 inch) steaks, and marinate them in a little of the sauce for a couple of hours.  Bring the meat to room temp before cooking: this way it's not cold in the middle after searing. Cooking the steak should be the last thing you do! When you're ready, bring a heavy-based pan up to a high heat, pop a glug of olive oil in with the steaks, make sure they're coated with it, season lightly and put in the pan. Turn them a couple of times, once they're golden brown it's time to whip 'em out.  Slice thinly across the grain, and serve immediately! The thinner you slice the faster the meat will go cold, so not too thin! Think of that gorgeous, steamy, beefy goodness!!

sauce (overnight infusion - or first thing in the am)
Bring the water to the boil in a pan and add the shrimp paste. Stir until dissolved, then leave to cool.
Once cool, add the sugar and dissolve.  Blend the rest of the ingredients and add them, then leave the mix in the fridge overnight. In the morning sieve the mix. It's now ready to use.

garnish

Now that's and explosion of flavours, sharp and light!

Personally, I don't mind a few chilli seeds in my salad. If you're not of that persuasion, cut the stalk end of the chilli off at it's widest point, roll it between your index finger and thumb to release the seeds, then slice it into rings.
Coarsely chop the peanuts with a knife or with a couple of pulses of your blender. Do not powder them! They contribute a great texture and flavour, if there are quarter peanut-sized lumps in there that's great!!
The coriander is fine torn by hand, stalks and all!!

thinking ahead
Make the sauce the night before, so those flavours really infuse with each other.

to serve
Place the steak on a bed of peas, dress with coriander, chilli and peanuts and sauce serve with bowl of chips (making sure your plates are hot!)

Thank you Cambodia!