Experiment / Recipe: Squid Ink Charcoal

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

I was doing a little flavour profiling the other day - aka dicking about in the kitchen -  I’d been trying out an idea with black ribs for a course called “rack and black 2.0”. Still needs work, but one of the elements uses squid ink to introduce the black element.

rack of rose veal w/ black ribs

black ribs w/ pa amb tomàquet

Anyway, the result were OK but nothing to write home about so I settled into a glass of wine and catching up with Masterchef. It was the heat where the contestants had to cook for Michael O'Hare (The Man Behind the Curtain).  The task: to make a dish from his restaurant (obviously). A dish that caught my eye (mostly because I had most of the ingredients in the kitchen) was a dish with Iberian pork (two ways), an edible eggshell filled with egg yolk (Onsen tamago style) topped with squid charcoal.  It looked unusual, really tasty I’m sure & the pork looked spectacular!

Anyhow, I’ve never made and edible egg shell or squid charcoal, and since I had the ingredients for for the squid charcoal I had a stab at it! 

Here's the recipe and the results . . .  

ingredients 

for the veal stock (makes 250 - 400g)

2 sides veal ribs (sliced into ribs, browned)

1 onion (quartered & charred)

2 star anise

20g ginger (sliced & charred)

1L water

season

~

Brown off the veal ribs.

Char the ginger & onion.

Put all the ingredients on to boil then turn down to a simmer.

Simmer for 90 minutes with the lid on, then remove the lid and reduce for another 90 minutes.

Keep going until it coats the back of a spoon.

Remove the ribs, and store for later use.

Remove ginger and star anise, then blend the onion in with an immersion (stick) blender.

Strain.

for the squid ink stock (makes 440g)

90g squid ink

350g veal stock (or a good gelatinous or white stock)

~

Add the ink to the boiling veal stock, mix well and put aside until needed.

for the squid ink charcoal (makes ~180g)

155g old bread

170g squid ink stock

200ml milk (semi skimmed)

6g salt (will depend on how salty your stock was)

~

Blitz the bread and the squid ink stock until it’s homogenous. It will be thick enough to roll into balls.

Loosen the mix with milk, and season. 

Spread a layer 2mm thick onto a silpat / heatproof baking sheet, and bake 100C / 3hrs. 

(145g for a 24x18cm baking sheet - 1g/ 3cm2 - made 50g)

It’s more of a dehydration process than baking.

Once it’s brittle, it’s ready!

I kinda forgot I had the first batch in the oven and ended up with a sheet of actual charcoal . . . oops!

Best to check it every hour!

A quick re-run gave me a very passable result:

Next week . . . prince party nougat (beetroot, orange & pistachio. . . delish)

Recipe: Beef Pho - Vietnamese National Dish - Noodle Broth (rated 18)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Firstly let me begin by explaining the 18 rating. This recipe has been simplified so that an 18 teen year old with relatively little skill or interest should be able to produce a pretty decent rendition with an “am I bovered” amount of effort! (but proper good!! - chuck it all in the pot - 3hrs gaming - noodle dreams - lush)

short rib - cow rib init - cut into 4

ingredients for the beef pho (serves 6)

for the stock

3L water

2 chicken stock

75g  ginger (cut into 4 slices & charred)

2 large onion (cut into 8 & charred)

6 star anise

2 cinnamon stick

25g rock sugar (or brown sugar)

12 small oxtail segments (2pp)

3 short ribs (1/2pp) (what are short ribs? see below)

100ml fish sauce (to taste)

40g lime juice (1 or 2 limes)

for the pho 

600g fresh noodles (100g pp)

or 3 cucumbers (shredded)

500g sirloin / ribeye (80g pp medium rare)

2 large steaks

for the garnish

10g thai basil (4 leaves pp)

20g coriander (10 clovers pp)

4 spring onions (cut into rings)

1 red onion (cut in half, then semi circles) 

2 chillies (cut into rings)

fish sauce (tsp pp)

1 lime (1/6 each)

apparatus / equipment

knife

large boiling pot

method

stock

Put all the ingredients into a boiling pot, bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to simmer. (Volume knob to 3 or 4!)

Simmer for 3 hours. Take the steak (for the pho component) out of the fridge so it’s at room temp when you cook it.

Salt it (a couple of pinches of salt on each side - evenly distributed) and leave it in a takeaway box. (or similar)

pho 

Just before the stock is due to be ready. Remove the short ribs and place on a chopping board. 

Cook noodles for 2 minutes in boiling water, then strain and place in hot serving bowls.

Add some oil (a glug - pour for 1/2 second) to the steaks and turn them to cover them with oil. Place them into a hot pan. Turn them once the underside is brown, 2-3 minutes max. Remove and place on a chopping board once the other side is brown. Leave them there (to rest) while prepping the garnish & assembling the pho.

to serve

Remove the meat from the short ribs by cutting along the flat part of the bone. Slice the meat thinly.

Prep the garnishes as shown. Share out the oxtail and broth into bowls, slice the steak and garnish!!

Good to go!!

If you can be bovered: stock

Boil the meat separately before you start for 5 minutes, and discard the water it was boiled in. 

(Will result in a clearer broth as it forces a lot of scum to the surface - out of the meat)

Char the ginger and onion on a griddle pan, this adds a nice flavour giving a more complex broth.

Skim scum off the broth constantly as it’s cooking.

thinking ahead (aka for when you really can’t be bovered)

Put the stock including oxtail and sliced short rib in a resealable plastic bags. 600g / bag.

Bust it out of the freezer when you want a pho!

Nuke it for 10mins (800W microwave). Make the noodles and steak while it defrosts!

Great hangover cure with minimal effort!

what could go wrong? (notes)

I couldn’t be bovered and I ended up eating 40p quick noodles. (Ahem, for the rest of my life!)

sirloin steak - medium rare

oxtail - niblbes

Recipe: Sustainable White Fish Ceviche w/ Edamame (or Sugar Snaps)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Ceviche is a great way to eat fresh fish, and in a time when sustainable harvesting habits are important, this technique and its flavours lend themselves very well to sustainable fish stocks. Ceviche has it's roots in Peruvian cuisine. For this dish I've taken a little Asian influenced cuisine too!

If you can't fine edamame, sugar snaps go well too!

ingredients (serves 6-8)

Whack the stone with a knife.

for the white fish ceviche  

1 lemons (juice & zest)

2 limes (juice)

100g coconut cream

1/2 thumb of ginger (peeled & finely grated)

15g chives (finely chopped)

15g coriander (torn)

350g white fish 1cm dice (pollock, river cobbler, bream, pouting or a mix)

1 avocado peeled, small dice (spray with lemon juice to stop oxidation)

1 tbsp fish sauce (season to taste)

for the edamame

500g edamame

smoked salt flakes (Maldon salt )

for the garnish

fennel fronds for garnish 

and some of the chives (or garlic chives if you can get them - supermarket)

Turn the knife to loosen & remove the stone.

method

ceviche

Prepare the ingredients. See ginger tip what could go wrong?

Mix the fish cubes in with the chopped herbs, store in a sealed container in the fridge for 2 hrs at least.

Infuse the coconut cream with the ginger in a pot: bring to boil then simmer. Reduce the mix by at least a 1/4. (A creamy consistency is required since the sauce loosens considerably when the fish and lime are mixed in.) Leave rest off the heat until required.

As your last guest arrives ceviche the fish with citrus 

Cut a grid into the avocado.

for 20min (15 - 45mins is fine).

edamame

Drop the edamame (shell on) into a pot of salted boiling water for 4 minutes.

Drain in a colander, and put into a bowl of cold water (so they retain their colour). Put aside until needed.

thinking ahead

Prepare all the ingredients but don't combine until your last guests arrives or not too long before otherwise the fish will be white all the way through instead of having a gorgeous translucent centre.

The edamame can be cooked early, refreshed and stored in the fridge.  Then heated in boiling water for 1 minute to serve hot when needed.

what could go wrong? (TIPS)

After peeling my ginger, only half of it is left!

And push out the pieces . . simple.

TIP: Try peeling ginger with a spoon, I know what your thinking but it works really well! Turn the spoon upside down and scrape it along the surface of the ginger - the skin will come away with very little effort, and very little waste!

My avocados look rank! 

TIP: coat them in a little lemon juice after you've cut them up to stop them oxidising.

My fish is cooked all the way through! 

TIP: Don't make the pieces too small, they will cook faster in the lime juice, and don't leave them in the lime for more than 45mins.

to serve

Add the edamame to some boiling water for 1 minute then drain through a colander, serve in a large bowl and sprinkle with smoked salt.

Drain the lime from fish and mix it with the coconut sauce and avocados, season with lime juice, and fish sauce to taste.

Place the ceviche into serving bowls, garnish with chives and fennel fronds, serve with chopsticks and a spoon. (that should entertain!)

techniques used

Ceviche, refreshing, peeling ginger

Recipe: Caramelised Pork Belly w/ Boiled Eggs and Rice

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

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.

Leftovers - Recipe: Duck & Date Pie

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

I hate food waste, so very important to cook nose to tail! (Ahem - parsons nose to bill in this case!) 

I’ve been developing a couple of new duck dishes recently. Our ducks come with giblets, which includes neck, heart, liver, and kidneys. The liver and kidneys are easy to use, the wings and neck on the other hand? 

Well I decided to make a stock out of them, after about 2 hours of slow braising I pulled them out. 

Turns out there’s quite a lot of meat on duck necks!  The wings have bizarrely little meat on them because the muscle is in the breast obviously!!  If you’re roasting a duck, the wing dries out in the oven and becomes tough and chewy, if you braise them however you get a fair amount of meat form them!! Which is a good reason to cut the wings off before roasting. 

So from making the stock I got a great sauce and wing and neck meat, I picked them both, reduced the stock and turned them into pies!!!  And jolly good they were too!

I served them with a tangerine cauliflower cous cous - light and fruity - great combo!

ingredients (makes 8 pies)

for the duck stock

4 duck necks

8 duck wings

leftover carcass

1 tomato (diced)

1 onion (diced)

2 chillies (chopped into rings)

2L water

for the pie

duck meat (picked from the carcass, wings, and neck)

8 dates (copped)

2 onions (medium dice)

chilli sauce (to taste)

3cm ginger (peeled and fine dice)
180g haggis (cooked, crumbled)

for the pastry

700g flaky pastry

1 egg

duck stock

This is really simple, chuck all the ingredients into a pot bring to the boil, then set to simmer. Leave for 2 hours.

Then take out the wings, necks and any carcass and pick the meat from them once they’ve cooled a little but are still warm.

Sieve the remains of the stock and reduce it by half. A quick taste check to make sure it’s nice, if it needs more reduction to develop the flavour then crack on! If it’s too salty add some water to loosen it a little.

for the pie

Sweat off the onions until they’re translucent, add the duck and let them brown a little.

Add the ginger, dates and chilli, this should make a meaty pie filling!!

Next add enough of the reduced stock to give the perfect pie filling!

Finally mix in the haggis.

for the pastry

Get some flakey pastry (or make you own).

Dust the pie dishes with a little flour. 

Once you’ve line the pie dishes with pastry, put a piece of cling film or baking paper in them and fill them with ceramic beads or pulses of some sort. (lentils, chick peas, rice works too, as do coins!)

Put them in the oven, 180C 15mins.

Remove them from the oven and turn it up to 200C.

Remove the pulses and cling film from the pie cases and brush them with egg wash. This serves two purposes: to make them shiny and to water proof them - no soggy bottoms here!!  

Put the pie cases back in the oven for 5 mins @ 200C.

Fill the pies with the filling, then brush the rims with egg wash. 

Put tops on the pies and put them back into the oven for 15-20mins.

If you’re a perfectionist you should probably crimp them around the edges!!!

thinking ahead

These will freeze.  Re-warm from frozen, at 160C for 15-20minutes - AWESOME!

to serve

Since this is quite a naughty dish I served it with a tangerine cauliflower cous cous, which is cous cous made 50% out of cauliflower, really tasty an really healthy with a nod to that classic Duck L’Orange.

and I quote . . . . "Oooh, so sooo tasty!!"

I served it w/ tangerine cauliflower cous cous

Recipe: Herefordshire Beef Pho w/ Brandy de Jerez Digestif

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

First day's rest for the festive season! Wake up in the morning, slowly, don't have anything to do today. I love that feeling - holiday! - without a care in the world, no responsibilities to deal with and a bit of cash to spend on a good time! Yeay! What to do? Potter about, make a coffee and call friend, "you fancy hanging out?", "yip : )", "cool, I'll come get you, we can do a little shopping for dinner". "You had breakfast yet?" "No? OK we can grab that too". Quick look in the fridge and larder, what have we got? Some oxtail, onions, lemons, ginger, lemon grass, chillies, bottle of Prosecco : ) hmmm and idea begins to form involving slow cooking oxtail. A little piece of fillet steak, some noodles and some coriander will be all I need.

Unbeknown to me, there were secret elements that had been bought for our consumption, so we picked up a poppy and sesame seed baguette from Des Lys Boulangerie which is a cracking spot by the way, and a few other little bits for our dinner and Champagne brunch!

By this point we were starving. Luckily, almost before I'd managed to start browning the oxtail, a rather lovely combo dip of truffle oil and 25 year old balsamic reserve found its way onto the table with a very enticing, seeded French stick. After a little toning down of the truffle flavour to make it a little subtler the combo was a cracking start that went very well with a glass of Prosecco. Aperitif darling? Why I don't mind if I doo!

Bits on the griddle done, oxtail for the pho on the bubble, I got on with brunch but I found myself being distracted by another festive treat: a little brandy de Jerez!!!!

How could I not indeed!! "Rude not to!! Would you like one?" I inquire, to be greeted by a charming smile and a decisive "I think I'm going to have to try some, quality control you understand." A few giggles later and breakfast was on the table, sorry, err . . brunch was on the table and our oriental dinner was bubbling away nicely on the stove, as we settled in for a movie!

I have to say that a strong coffee with a touch of Jerez brandy makes for a fabulous digestif.

The pho that we had later was close to the original but the response it got: "surprising fusion of flavours and freshness it all went together so well!!" and the fact that it had disappeared are good enough signs to me that it's a keeper!!

note for the purists: I put this post up because folks complained they couldn't get half the ingredients where they lived! This recipe is basically as close as you can get to a Pho with plain old supermarket ingredients. If you can make it in Hereford you can make it anywhere!!! It's missing a few of the light fragrant notes from the specialist leaves namely the Thai basil, but the fine Herefordshire steak more than makes up for that!!

Here's how I made it . . . .

ingredients (serves 4)
for the pho
1 oxtail (cut into slices)
1L chicken stock
300g finest Hereford fillet steak
1 red onion / 4 shallots (finely chopped)
2 birdseye chillies (deseeded)
3 star anise
1 lemon (halved)
1 large piece ginger (3 thumbs - halved)
2 onions (halved)
200g pak choi
30g rock sugar (optional)
600g noodles (I like the flat rice vermicelli (ribbon noodles) - but you can use what ever you want)

for the garnish / accompaniment
10g fresh coriander (torn)
2 bird's eye chillies (sliced rounds)
dash of fish sauce
2 spring onions (julienne)
1 lime (quartered)
2 handfuls of bean sprouts
fish sauce

equipment
griddle pan
4 large soup bowls

 

method
In the broth pot, add a little oil and brown the finely chopped red onions / shallots, and star anise. Whenever you want particular spice flavours to come through more in a dish they should be added first: the roasting will bring  the flavours out more prominently 'Thanks Atul Kochhar for that tip', it's made a great difference to a lot of my food over the years!
Next, put the lemon, ginger, onions, and lemon grass on a griddle pan and char them until they have dark lines running across them, this will give you extra depth of flavour.

They need to be browner than this much browner!!

Brown the oxtails in a pan to get that Maillard reaction going. Once brown all over add them to the broth pot, deglaze the pan with a little chicken stock and add it to the broth pot. Add the griddle contents to the broth pot and deglaze that too, adding to sauce to the pot -  loads of flavour.

Add enough chicken stock to the pot to cover the meat by at least an inch (2.5cm), and at least a tablespoon of fish sauce, then bring it to the boil and allow it to simmer for 3-4 hours, keeping it topped up with stock. If you'd like a lighter, more traditional broth add water and sugar to loosen the broth; if you'd like a more wintery broth simply add stock.

thinking ahead
The broth can be made in the morning and reheated for dinner when you need it, the veg, beansprouts, pak chi, coriander etc are always added at the last minute so they don't spoil.

what could go wrong?
My broth isn't clear!! Well that depends on your point of view. I like my oxtail browned before it goes in so it has more flavour, if you're a clear broth only sort, then you can boil the meats that are to be braised for 15min, then rinse them under cold water and continue with the recipe.

to serve
Bring the broth to a simmer.
Cook the fillet steak to the doneness you like (I like mine closer to rare than medium), rest it for about 4mins and then cut it into fine slices. Add the pak choi to the broth, let it warm through while the steak rests.

Warm the bowls and share out the noodles, fill generously with oxtail and broth and dress with slices of fillet steak. Serve with a side plate of the garnishes and accompaniments so that people can season to their taste.

variations
Pho varies from place to place and the ingredients certainly aren't restricted to oxtail for the slow braising. Cuts such as flank, brisket, and rib (cooked bone-in and sliced later) can all be used, and for the rare beef, sirloin, hanger (onglet), and rump can all be used hanger is my personal favourite it's so tasty! You can also make Pho with chicken - happy days for those who don't eat red meat! I garnish mine with crispy chicken skins - nice!

Enjoy!!