Recipe / Experiment: Hand Dived Isle of Man King Scallops wrapped in Pancetta (30mins)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Recently I was presented with some spectacular hand dived King scallops (monsters they were!) form the Isle of Man. I was given them by my rather chuffed flat mate who’d brought them back for me to cook with!! Touch! They were absolute beauties so I thought I’d do something simple with them:

Wrap them in smoked pancetta, baste them in butter and serve with a sharp blueberry sauce. Alone it’s barely a snack, so I thought a nice accompaniment would be a little rillettes, some pickled shimeji mushrooms, toasted sour dough baton and a little butter. Oh and a little arugula salad!

Wrap them in smoked pancetta, baste them in butter and serve with a sharp blueberry sauce. Alone it’s barely a snack, so I thought rillettes  would make a nice accompaniment, some pickled shimeji mushrooms to balance the heaviness of the rillettes & some toasted sour dough baton with a little butter. Oh and a little arugula salad!

(I was also the happy recipient of some Queenies - also Isle of Man scallops - but that another story! A rather more complicated and experimental one!)

Cooked in this order active cooking time is about 40 minutes! Total time 3hrs (takes longer to read that do!)

* Confit the meat.

* Pickle the mushrooms.

* Make blueberry sauce.

* Wrap the scallops (and allow to warm to room temp).

. . .  ~2hrs later . . 

* Drain the oil from the confit and put the wine on to reduce.

* Mix the rillettes.

* Toast bread - optional. (or roast the whole baguette!)

. . and (imagine a massive moustache and a paintbrush!) drum roll, the pièce de résistance . . 

* Sear and baste the scallops.

* Assemble, dress & serve immediately!

tada . . .  : )

Sounds like a lot but it took less than 30 minute to make this for 4 people, whilst quaffing le vin and chatting to them! ; )

ingredients (serves 4 - starter)

for the rillettes (makes ~500g - enough for 8)

(200C / 20m then 120C / 1h40m) 

8 rabbit legs / 4 chicken thighs (confit, then pulled)

350ml white wine

2 onion (medium dice)

5g thyme (picked)

5g rosemary (picked)

4 cloves garlic (peeled & flattened)

olive oil to cover

150g soft cheese

5g english mustard

~

Place the onion, wine, garlic and thyme into the bottom of a small ovenproof bowl (that has a lid)

Season the rabbit legs (or 2 skinless chicken thighs) with salt and pepper and place them on top.

Cover with oil by 1cm. Put the lid on an place into a preheated oven at 200C.

After 20m turn the temperature down to 120C.

After 1 hour and 40 minutes remove the confit from the oven.

Remove the rabbit / chicken and ladle off as much oil as possible. 

Keep the oil it will be nicely flavoured. (Good to brush onto bread instead of butter for example)

Pour the remains into a small sauce pan, reduce this mix until it’s nice and thick & blend with a stick blender until smooth.

Take it off the heat and add the soft cheese and mustard and mix well.

Pull the meat off the bone and mix it into the cheese. Season with salt and pepper / mustard if it needs it.

Put it into a suitable container for the table, cover with cling film and allow to cool.

for the blueberry sauce

100g blueberries

150ml water

5g sugar

pinch of salt

1/2 lemon (juiced)

~

Put 12 blueberries aside.

Put rest of the blue berries, sugar and water into a small sauce pan, bring to the boil, then set to simmer.

Once the blueberries are soft, pulse with a stick blender until smooth & pass through a sieve into a container.

Squeeze the lemon juice (through the sieve) reduce the sauce until it coats the back of a spoon.

Take it off the heat and at the remaining blueberries.

Warm when required.

for the scallops (pièce de résistance!)

8 king scallops (patted dry)

16 slices of pancetta 

or 8 slices parma ham (cut lengthways in half)

75g clarified butter

75g olive oil

~

Pat the scallops dry then wrap them in a half a slice of parma ham.

Put aside on some kitchen towel on a tray and allow to warm to room temp before searing.

Add enough oil to coat the pan.

At the point where it’s almost smoking, then add the scallops and sear them until the bottoms are brown. (actually the top once plated)

Roll them in the pan to slightly colour the pancetta. (optional - I like to still be soft)

Holding the pan at an angle add the butter and once it’s hot (not brown) start basting the scallops.

If you are using normal butter allow it to stop foaming before you start basting. (All the water will have evaporated and the oil/butter will then start to rise above 100C - the boiling point of water - giving a nicer result)

for the sour dough bread

good quality sour dough baguette

salted butter (optional since you have rillettes)

~

Slice & toast.

Serve with a knob of butter. 

for the garnish

80g arugula

16 pickled shimeji mushrooms 

lemon juice & zest

drizzle EVO

~

I’ve garnished this dish with arugula, because it tastes better than rocket! (in my memory at least!) Funny how the mind works isn’t it!! The first time I came across this leaf was when I was living Barcelona, which has a lot of great and exciting memories attached to it, the second reason being that it was introduced as arugula by a rather cute american lass who was working in the green grocers where I regularly shopped. She was full of good tips! They were larger less strong leaves than the ones you get in the supermarkets in London with a much subtler flavour and altogether better tasting! 

FYI: Arugula & Rocket are both Eruca Sativa (aka salad rocket, rucola, rucoli, rugula, colewort, and roquette)

equipment

stick blender

thinking ahead

The rillettes will last for 2weeks in the fridge, no problem!

what could go wrong? (notes)

I fell asleep reading the recipe, the other half put a wine cork in my left nostril! : /

Real or Fake? . . . and How to cook a steak!

Technique: Cooking Steak

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Before I say anything don't forget it's our 1st Birthday Party on the 31st Aug, let us know if you fancy joining the party!! back to the post . . . check the photo below!!

Hereford is well know for its cattle - 'bos taurus' to the scientifically minded - the Hereford breed originating in Herefordshire in 1742!

Recent traditions (this century) would have farmers bring their livestock into the centre of Hereford on a Wednesday (market day) to sell their livestock. I remember the market as a busy, noisy place with a host of animal noises and the constant background rhythm of the auctioneer rattling off unintelligible numbers, seemingly without pause for breath. (which might explain why the auctioneer always had a bright red, verging on purple, face!)  There was also, as one might expect, a wide variety of food places, fishmongers, and, of course butchers, I loved it!

It transpires that there used to be a china shop on the High St in Hereford which was only a few hundred yards from the old cattle market. I remember going to the market to see the animals as a young child - I'm telling you when you're 3ft tall a fully grown hairy tusked pig is terrifying! With slobber hanging off its tusks these bristly beasties can let loose a blood curdling cry, I'm avoiding saying 'squeal' because that really doesn't do it justice!! Anyway, I digress. It turns out that every now and then a bull would get loose and hot hoof it up Blackfriars St. and along Widemarsh St. to the centre of town!! Some how, I just can't imagine the 1970's Herefordians legging it down the street like a frenzied Pamplonan! More likely to get a raised eyebrow from one of the farmers eating a bag of chips! Just to prove a point here's a photograph of one of the escapee bulls posing in said china shop!!!

I love this photo, it's so Monty Pythonesque, what a fantastic expression our would be Graham Chapman has on his face. (I swear it's him!! Open the link in a different window and compare!!!!)

So, the question is:  Is the bull real, or a fake?? Leave your comments at the bottom I'd love to know what you think!!

Well, with such a worthy beef heritage it would be criminal not to know how to cook a steak!! Here's how!! : )

ingredients (serves 1)
for the steak

1 ribeye steak (or whichever cut you prefer)

extra virgin olive oil

pinch of salt

for the sauce/garnish

extra virgin olive oil or single cream

method

Leave steak out so that it's at room temperature, warmer still if possible, better up to 35C.

When picking your steak, look for steak that's well marbled, that is, has thin flecks of fat running through the meat. These will render as the steak is cooked, enriching the flavour of the meat! My favourite cuts are hanger steak and rib eye, and if I'm honest I wouldn't turn my nose up at a bone-in, fore rib either!! (for pay day anyway!!)

Get you pan hot so that it would be smoking if it had oil in it, season and oil the steak and put it in the pan.

Once you have a nice golden crust formed, turn the steak and cook the other side. Once it's ready remove it from the pan and put on a warm plate to rest.

Deglaze the pan with a touch of water (100ml) or white wine and once half has evaporated add a tbsp of extra virgin olive or single cream, add the juice from your rested steak, mix and pour this cracking sauce over it!!

Serve immediately!!

rare

wait a minute, how do I know when it's ready?

Couple of options here, you can probe it with a temp probe: 45C for rare, 55C for medium  and 65C for well done!

or

You can give it a prod and see how cooked it is by how much the meat resists, this comes with experience but a good guide is to compare how it feels with how the base of your thumb feels when

medium-rare

your thumb is touching the tip of one of your fingers:

 If you want your steak closer to medium-well than medium, turn it more often and cook on a lower heat!

schools of thought on oiling!

1. Oil & season your steak, not your pan:

    Advantage: creates less smoke

    Disadvantage: Can't flambé, less satisfactory deglaze

2. Oil your pan and season your steak:

    Advantage: You can flambé your steak to add a nice smoked flavour, better sauce

    Disadvantage: Turn your extractor on because it's a smoky old business!! ; )

medium-well

knackered! err . .  I mean well done

I did the blue rare a touch over on the right hand side!! Pay attention!!

You need to be cooking with gas to flambé!!

thinking ahead

Don't forget, cook the steak last!! Once it's rested you want it on the table ready to eat as soon as possible!!

So get those chips, or baps (bread rolls), or salad, or whatever you're having with it (see suggestions below) ready ahead of time!!

what could go wrong?

I like my steak rare, but if I cook it so it comes out rare it's always cold by the time I sit down to eat it!! Bring it up to room temperature before you cook it. If you cook it straight from the fridge the centre will almost certainly be cold, and the thicker the steak the worse the problem! I pre-heat my grill, then turn it off, then put the steaks in there to warm up a little more before I cook them. Also, don't forget to serve on hot plates - obvious, I know, but also essential!

I set my hair on fire flambéing my steak!! Stick to school of thought 1!

links

Interesting read "Why you should have your steak rare" by Dr Quincy, with whom I wholeheartedly agree!

now that looks like a real bull

You can see the reflection in the eye! But I don't think this is the same bull, it doesn't have the studs in the nose band for a start!! But the nose on that first bull does look real!!!

variations

Steaks that will happily be cooked like this: Rump, Sirloin, Fillet, Hanger(recommend medium-rare), Forerib, Ribeye amongst others!

Steak and chips with a twist:

Hanger Steak - Medium Rare

Marbled forerib

Flash Seared Fillet Steak w/ Roast Baby Peppers & White Tomato Emultion

Recipe: Oyster Mushrooms Noisette

by ferdie

This is an unassuming but tasty little number, I often do it if I'm doing tapas since you can cook them in the afternoon and reheat them when you need them. Sitting in the clay dish with a little parsley on top they look very prosaic. Which is kinda what you want so that with that first bite your guests will have that look of mixed surprise and delight at the nutty loveliness.

They go well with tortilla, and as an accompaniment to a variety of things (add link to chorizo crisps), and are a great vegetarian option on their own, and, for example, with a little cream and tagliateli or torteloni.  

Oyster mushrooms, extra virgin olive oil, salt.

INGREDIENTS
400g oyster mushrooms
150ml Noilly Prat (dry white vermouth or failing that white wine)
50g unsalted butter
extra virgin olive oil
parsley to garnish
flakey salt and pepper

METHOD
Put enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan with generous coat of oil and add the mushrooms, turn up the heat.
Add the mushrooms just before the oil starts to smoke and toss them in the oil to coat them all over.
Once coated sweat off the mushroom don't move them around too much allow them to brown from the heat of the pan.
Once they have released most of their moisture and are nice and golden brown, remove them from the pan to a bowl.
Get the pan hot, pour in the Noilly Prat / white wine - it should bubble as soon as it hits the pan - and boil until you can no longer smell evaporating alcohol. When you reach this point return the mushrooms to the frying pan, stirring them to coat them all over.
Once there is almost no liquid left in the pan remove the mushrooms to your bowl again and add the butter.
Melt the butter and heat it until it turn a light brown, (You do not want this smoking!) and then return the mushrooms to the pan, coat well. Once all the juices are soaked up, you can serve or put aside until later.

After they've taken a little colour they should like this. Fab!

If you put it aside simply return it to the pan to warm through.

Serve in a clay tapas dish with a few leaves of parsley on top and some rosemary bread.

A vegetarian dish: Oyster Mushrooms Noisette w/ Tagliateli and Baby Courgettes

Recipe: Arroz al Horno (Baked Rice)

by ferdie, in partnership with Unearthed for Action Against Hunger

I was asked to do an event for Unearthed, who have a lovely range of food and recipes using their products. So I had a look to see what recipes were on their page, to avoid being entirely unoriginal, and to offer something that Unearthed could add to their recipe list.

As you might imagine, paella is the first thing on their list, which kinda suits me because I've done it a million times, and so has everybody else. Since paella is already on the recipe page, I thought this might be great alternative, plus it uses more of Unearthed's bits and pieces.

I think the first time I came across this dish was when both Marta (a work colleague at the time) and I were trying to avoid the mind numbing pin checking exercise of swapping a microprocessor in one of our products. Instead of doing that, she regaled me with her version of this dish. I've adapted it a little to my tastes and then again for Unearthed.

One of the nice things about this dish is that it's simple to make, it's a lot harder to screw up than a paella, and when it comes out of the oven and hits the table, it smells great! A real crowd pleaser!

We served it with a tomato sauce, green beans and asparagus.

So here goes . . .  Arroz al Horno / Baked Rice (Serves 28 small/med or 12 large portions)


INGREDIENTS

Fantastic ingredients! What a start : )

For the arroz al horno:
18 pork ribs
28 chipolatas
5 chillies (jalipeño)
14 cloves of garlic
4.5 tbsp cumin seeds
2.5 giant mushrooms
9 capsicum (long thin green peppers) chopped in rings
4.5 mug mixed rice (pudding Arborio 50/50)     - weight 500g
EVO (for frying off, base of pan and adding to rice)
750g potato (thinly sliced and baked w/ little olive oil) 200C/12mins turn once
48 tasty ripe cherry plum tomatoes (topping)   -  weight?
white wine
2 1/4 L chicken stock (2250ml + 7stock cubes)
salt and pepper

For the green beans & asparagus:
(par boil these then ice bath them so can be ready for service in seconds)
green beans (trimmed)
fine asparagus (trimmed and peeled at end) (if in season)

For the tomato sauce:
400g crushed chopped plum tomatoes
rock salt to taste
10g basil leaves
150ml white wine
50ml white wine vinegar (counter act the rice stojtastickness)
50ml extra virgin olive oil

METHOD
1. Pre heat oven to 200C
2. Slice potato into thick crisp cuts & put them in an oiled baking tray and into the oven coated in olive oil salt and pepper.
3. Fry up the meat, garlic & cumin until starting to brown put to one side
4. Once the potatoes are golden brown (about 10 mins), remove them from the oven. Remove them from the dish and put to one side. Add a touch more oil to coat the dish and return it to the oven to keep the oil sizzling hot. Turn oven down to 190C
5. Fry up everything else except the tomatoes.
6. Mix meat & veg in pan, remove the dish from the oven and add the mixture to it, it should sizzle as it hits the oil.
7. Pour the rice evenly over the mix, add the stock, put potatoes on top and then the tomatoes on top of that!  Phwoar! : ) 

This bad boy is now ready for the oven!

Bake 15 min 190C
Then 10 more at 70C
The rice should be cooked - check it and return for and extra 5-10mins if necessary.

1. For the tomato sauce, pour the wine into a preheated pan so it starts to boil off the alcohol straight away, add the vinegar too and reduce by a third.
2. In a separate pan bring the EVO up to almost smoking and then add the the chopped tomatoes, TAKE CARE this spits, put a lid on straight away!
3. Once the tomatoes have stopped spitting, stir the oil that hasn't emulsified into the tomatoes and add the wine/vinegar mix, and basil. Season to taste. Take off the heat until required

I like my tomato sauce to be fairly chunky, giving you bursts of tomato flavour amongst the other flavours. If you like a smooth sauce with a consistent flavour profile you can blend it and sieve it at this stage.

Serve the rice with steamed green beans, asparagus, and the tomato sauce, The greens and the sauce provide a light acidic complement to the baked rice. (I think we actually served this with some fried off, sliced, giant flat mushrooms with the greens and tomato sauce)

For me two of the flavours that define this dish are the mingling of the pepper from the saucisson sec and the pave (which is sooo good on it's own BTW) and the flavour of the cumin seeds, hmmmmm!

This is a version we did in partnership with  Unearthed for Action Against Hunger

Criminal! Sooo tasty!

We used Unearthed pave for pepper flavour, saucisson sec w/ herbs, catalan sausage, organic pancetta, cumin seeds.
You can find the whole 8 course menu we served here.

TIP: Remember meat mix should go into sizzling oiled tray - just like you do with roast potatoes to get that browning and crusting going straight away!

This one's also for you Luiz I meant to get this up before Christmas but as you know it's been a bit hectic!