Recipe: Morcilla Croquette w/ Poached Egg & Peas

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Sometimes simplicity is all that is required . . .  

ingredients (serves 4)
for the herb oil (you'll only need a fraction of this!)
500ml extra virgin olive oil
100 baby spinach
15g parsley
10g chives
5g salt

for the peas
150g peas
40g butter
250ml chicken stock
seasoning

for the morcilla croquettes (8)
280g morcilla
50g panko bread crumbs
1 egg
plain flour for coating






for the poached eggs
4 eggs
herb oil (in a squirty bottle)
cling film
4 bag clips

for the garnish
coriander shoots (or cress)
herb oil

herb oil
Wash the spinach and herbs, and squeeze dry.
Heat the oil to 90C, with heat still on add the spinach, and the herbs, mix well for 1minute and turn off the heat.
Blend until smooth and store in a squeezy bottle. Hazaaaah!

peas
Put all in the ingredients into a small pan.
Cook on a gentle heat until the stock and butter form an emulsion.
Season to balance the egg, don't forget the herb oil is also a seasoning!
Keep warm . . .

morcilla croquettes
Quenelle the morcilla into 30g quenelles, pane it.
Deep fry them at 160C / 3mins. (or shallow fry turning frequently to give an even golden coat)
Put aside and keep warm until ready to plate.





poached eggs
Pull some cling film, cut it. Make sure it's enough to envelop an egg.
Give it a quick squirt of herb oil. (for flavour and so the egg doesn't stick to the cling film!)
Pop it over a gap in the egg box oil side up - where you took the egg from, and crack an egg into it.
Seal it with a bag clip. (Cut off any excess cling film)
Boil for 4mins, then gently remove from pot.
Cut the clip off, and carefully unwrap the egg for plating!

so serve
Plate up peas first, croquette, egg, black pepper, and some coriander shoots (or cress), and a quick squirt of herb oil.




technique
Pane: if you do it properly you'll end up with one wet hand (coated in egg) and one dry hand (with a little flour on it) - which is A LOT cleaner, and quick to wash and dry - rather that 2 hands that are all sticky and coated in a thick layer of bread crumbs!! It helps if you quenelle a batch onto a bed of flour first! ; )

quick tip!
Growing init! Coriander shoots are a very popular garnish, if you fancy kicking off a background task sprinkle some coriander seeds on a little, err what exactly did you do mum? Compost that's it!!

Sprinkle them on compost earth. You have 2 options for sourcing the seeds, you could go to your local garden centre and pay £2.50 for 15 seeds or you can go to a half decent indian supermarket and buy a 1kg bag (don't buy roasted they're not viable!) of coriander seeds for £2.99 (gotta be 60,000 seeds - I didn't weigh them I swear!! £10/g = £10,000 / kg think the garden centre has it sown up, boom boom!!)

Thanks mum for the gardening, and the gardening tips! : )

Recipe: Pancakes with Snowburst Nectarines and Basil and Grapefruit Syrup

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Pancakes! King of comfort foods. My mum recalls, when the family were living in the worst house they'd lived in, with a tiny little kitchen, how this was one thing that everyone liked! How they'd all be gathered in the living room waiting for my gran to come through to them with a stack of lovely pancakes ready to be rolled by all the eager beavers, including granddad!! We didn't have lemon in those days!!! Bit too sophisticated!! (this was the late fifties!) 

Pancakes, I'm sure, are ingrained in all our childhood memories. Comforting times for the lucky!

I have similar, warm memories of wide-eyed expectation, sitting at the kitchen table waiting for my moist pancake, made juicy with a little sugar and a squeeze of lemon. Wow!! This was one of the first things I learn't how to make - batter!!!

Pancakes with Snowburst Nectarine and Basil and Grapefruit Syrup

For me a good pancake has a little thickness to it, at least 3mm.  With a light, moist texture so that it rolls up into a proper pancake. A pancake that oozes tasty juices  onto your tongue as you bite into it!!  It should have a lovely golden colour and not look all pasty and anaemic, and it should definitely not be rubbery!

What is it with pancakes? The first one always seems to go a bit wrong? Maybe something to do with judging the amount required for whatever mad batter mix has been concocted on the fly this time round!!

Here's how to make classic and Snowburst pancakes . . .

ingredients (serves 4, 3 pancakes each)
for the pancakes
1 egg
120g plain flour
240ml warm milk (30-35C)
4g yeast (1 level tsp, twice as much if fresh yeast) - optional
5g sugar
0.5g salt
50g butter (cut into 12 knobs)

for the grapefruit & basil syrup
~320ml pink grapefruit juice (2 grapefruits)
30g / 2 tbsp sugar
8-12 basil leaves (fine chop - last minute)
2 ripe Snowburst nectarines (stoned, cut into 1/8's)

for the garnish
basil shoot
poppy seeds

apparatus / equipment
flat bottomed frying pan light enough to toss pancakes in
sieve

pancakes
OK, to get a light, moist pancake we want a bubbly mix, for which we need a little yeast: Warm the milk up to around 35C / 95F, and mix in the yeast until it's completely dissolved. Don't use milk hotter than 50C / 122F since that will kill the yeast.

Add the egg, sugar and salt to a whisking bowl, sieve the flour and add the yeast mix, whisk until smooth. To avoid rubberiness, we want little egg, and we want to avoid gluten formation, so stop whisking as soon as you have a smooth mix!!!

Packed with tiny bubbles for extra lightness!

Leave the mix on the counter for at least 30 minutes until it has small (half mm) bubbles running through it and has a ribbon consistency. Ready to rock!! It's pancake time!!

Add a small knob of butter to a hot pan, let it melt, then coat the surface with it. Pour the batter into the centre until the circle of batter is about 2/3's the diameter of the pan. That should be enough to make a pancake the size of the pan, move the pan to coat the bottom completely and wait for small holes to form around the edges - then toss the pancake.

Classic pancakes - simplicity - beautiful! Where's me fork?

For classic pancake turn out, sprinkle with sugar, a squeeze of lemon juice and roll up. Add another sprinkle of sugar and lemon juice on top!! Beautiful!!  Alternatively add nectarines and syrup, below.

If you're don't have half an hour to wait for the bubbles, leave out the yeast, give the mix a good whisk to get some air into the batter and use immediately!

For a thin more crepe like beastie, don't use yeast, but still leave the batter to stand for 45mins to allow the air in the mix to float to the surface and out.

grapefruit & basil syrup
Put the juice and sugar into a heavy-based pan and stir until the sugar has completely dissolved. Bring to the boil, and then simmer until the liquid has reduced by 1/3, then add the nectarine pieces. I used Snowburst because they have a beautiful white flesh and I love their sweet taste. There's no reason not to use normal nectarines though. Put to one side until the pancakes are ready. Once the pancakes are plated, pick and fine chop the basil and mix it through the syrup. Then serve.

thinking ahead
The batter takes 30mins to bubble up so mix it before your favourite soap and let it rise.
Make sure you have some warm plates ready to serve the pancakes.
Make the syrup before the pancakes, it will keep much better than they will.

what could go wrong?
I'm rubbish at tossing pancakes - they always crash into a crumpled heap when they land!! Use a fork to guide the pancake through the air! Make sure the pancake is not stuck to the pan, ease the fork (or spatula) in under the edge of the pancake, move the pan upwards, then back down quickly, and at the apex of the movement use the fork to turn the pancake as it drops back into the pan. Don't use the fork to lift the pancake, simply to guide it as it returns to the pan! Have fun : )

to serve
Lay 3 pancakes on each warm plate, spoon on 4 pieces of nectarine, some syrup, dust with a little poppy seed and dress with a basil shoot. I love the crunchiness of poppy seeds, but they're not for everyone! Totally up to you!!

Still gorgeous even without poppy seeds!!

variations
blueberries, maple syrup, ice-cream, caramel sauce, the possibilities are endless!!

basil plants
Tip on keeping basil plants alive: Keep them indoors in good light (kitchen window for example), when the soil dries out, put them in the sink and soak them, then drain them and return them to their spot. Pinch off the the top shoots, they'll bush more. Pinch off any white flowers - they'll keep growing longer!! Happy basil!

As you can see, I've kept mine alive long enough for it to be almost bald!!!

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.