Recipe: Yorkshire Pudding (Giant and Beautiful)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Yorkshire pudding is very high ranking in the comfort food arsenal. We are talking big big guns! It's a corker, it goes well with gravy, sausages, roasts and with jam!!

Super versatile and hot and cold!! 

Making a really good yorkie pud has always been a bit of a hit and miss affair for me so you can imagine my delight when I perfected this . . . . 

ingredients (serves 4-6)

for the yorkshire pudding

4 large free range eggs

4 tbsp of flour

200ml milk

salt & pepper

100ml veg oil or duck fat

apparatus / equipment

baking dish 20cm x 25cm should be at least 4cm deep. (made of pyrex or heavy gauge metal)

method

Turn the oven on to 230C - quite often that's max!! Crank it all the way to the top!!!!

I work in centigrade but often I'm trying recipes written in fahrenheit so I've created a table I keep it as a bookmark on my phone for use in the kitchen. I thought it might be handy so I put it up!!!

Quick Ref - conversion form C to F and Gas mark

Put the fat into the baking dish and put it into the oven straight away!

Put the rest of the ingredients into a mixing jug and whisk until you have a smooth batter.

Wait until the oven has reached full temperature. 

Pull out the shelf with the baking tray on it, taking care not to spill the fat, and pour the batter into the centre of the tray.

Shelf at an angle, mix all in one end!!
Could be worse!

As it spreads out, the dish, and oil, should be hot enough so the batter starts to bubble straight away.

Pour in enough batter so that it's at least 1/2cm thick at the bottom.

Slide the shelf back in and close the door. 

DON'T open the door for at least 20min. 25-30mins really! 

Or until it's bulging out of the top of the oven!

Serve immediately!!

thinking ahead

If you making a roast the perfect time to rest your meat is while the yorkshire pudding is on!

Plate up the roast and serve the yorkshire pudding as soon as it's out!!

what could go wrong?

Hmmm, a few things: 

FAIL! Got stuck to the top of the oven!
Make sure you are at least on shelf from the top!

FAIL! Way too much batter, and tray not hot enough.
Make sure the batter starts to bubble when it hits the oil.

FAIL! Right amount of batter still not hot enough!
Make sure the sausages are heating up in the oven with the dish!

FAIL! Right amount of batter, not hot enough heat, and not enough thermal momentum in the tray . . .
place silicone on solid metal tray.

FAIL! result being a thick plank-cake! Sticky, not so bad if you like sticky!

variations

This a core ingredient for all sorts of things: Serving with a ribeye joint of beef, Mini Toads - Picnic Toad in the Hole, Yorkshire pudding sausage hats! (giant yorkies filled with Sunday dinner!! Hmmmm!)

RESULT! Mini yorkshires!

RESULT! Hot dog toad in the hole!

RESULT! Roast vegetable bake.

RESULT! Roast vegetable bake and beef and mushroom stew . . brilliant winter fare.

RESULT! Yorkies & Roast Beef with Horseradish 

RESULT! Brunch w/ Egg Yolk Yorkie

RESULT! Yorkies w/ Sausage and Gravy and . . . . oooh shivers of delight Roasties

ROAR!!!! 1ft Yorkie Bliss - Extreme Yorkie!

Meat Club (Secret Meat Business)

At the last sitting of the Guild of Beefsteak, also known as Meat Club our table was graced with forerib of Dexter

Beautifully marbled and aged for the best flavour . . . . .  stunning.

Seared before being roasted low and slow for 7hours until medium rare . . . truly amazing!

Hendrix also pitched in with amazing Beeftini . . . very smooth . . . lovely way to start the evening.

As the night drew in . . . 

A low glow set about the banquet hall and a palpable sense of expectation . . .

and Meat Club comensed . . . oh yes!

Well that's what I hear . . . 

45 day aged forerib (amongst other things) has been acquired for the next Meat Club.

7th Feb

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

Experiment - Recipe: Pork Scratching Spirals

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

I was watching Great British Menu last year and one of the chefs presented a spiral pork scratching, and at the time I was doing a fair amount of experimentation with pork belly so it kinda got me thinking about how he'd managed it.

check out this fine hand crafted chopping board made by @olliebutcher81! 
Get in touch with him or me if you want one - available in oak!

After a little thought this is what I came up with . . . trust me it's lush and if you want your pork belly to have sticky bits you can!!

ingredients (makes porky snacks for 10)

for the pork spiral scratchings

1 side of pork belly skin

1L chicken stock

5g rosemary 

5g thyme

4 cloves garlic (whole)

pork spiral scratchings

Coat the bottom of your baking tray with a touch of vegetable oil.

Sprinkle a baking tray with the aromats and lay the pork over the top, skin side up.

Pour in the chicken stock and lightly salt the skin and cover with a lid or tin foil.

Slow roast at 150C for 3hours checking occasionally to make sure that there is still liquid in the bottom of the tray.

Top up with water if it the tray has gone dry.

Once ready let the pork skin cool down until it's cool enough to handle.

Place it skin side down and roll it into a long sausage shape, then wrap it tightly in cling film and put it in the fridge to set.

Leave it to set for for at least 2 hours preferably over night.

Unwrap it and slice it up, the thicker the slice the stickier the centre will be.

Heat a heavy based pan and add the disks of porky goodness without and oil.

Once the skin has crisped up turn them once and crisp the other side, then remove to some kitchen towel to drain off any excess fat. Season them and serve at will! 

thinking ahead

Once rolled into a ballotine and cling 

wrapped or vac packed the pork belly will easily last for a month in he fridge, it can be sliced when needed and prepared in minutes!! Perfect accompaniment to a beer.

Or you can fry of the scratching and keep them in an air tight container to keep them crisp.

Book Launch - Cook Like a Man - for Movember

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Mo is slang for moustache, and in the month of November Mo brothers and sistas spend the month raising awareness about issues of mens health for the month of Movember. 

COOK LIKE A MAN cookbook!! featuring Simon Fernandez (err . . me) of ferdiesfoodlab! (amongst others)

Much more eloquently put by Ray Winston with some beautiful snooker shots by Jimmy White here!

And on the Movember web site here!

Sunday lunch followed
shortly after! : ) 

For the past 3 years Movember have got together with all manner of very creative chefs (one of whom I'm privileged to be) to make an annual Movember bulletin with a tonne of helpful advice and recipes and written with a great deal of humour.

This year Movember have teamed up with Macmillan, who sponsored the endeavour to create a cook book from all the past contributions. Resulting in a fabulously broad - dare I say spectacular cook book filled with all sorts of recipes and a written with a great deal of whit!

For the launch party chefs made their creations from the book and we all had a fabulous chow down, along with some music and a couple of drinks.  It's a real corker so I suggest you get a copy and have a Movember feast of your own!!

The book is available in all good book stores including Waterstones and Amazon and you can get the hardback delivered to your door for as little as £6 of for you Kindle for less than £4.50, and don't forget proceeds go to the Movember charity! 

You can get a copy for less than a pint of Hoegaarden! It's a no brainer

A bit about the book:

The book is split into sections on: soups and salads, starters, BBQ's, meat, gastronomic TRAILBLAZERS, poultry and game, fish, desserts, and my favourite; sauces, chutneys and jams! So there's all sorts to try out!

Seriously if you had to choose between a pint / glass of wine less one evening or a rocking cookbook? Simple choice!

Just to give you an idea (an excerpt):

"The 'perfect' dinner party brings to mind magical evening of social grandeur. The the impeccably dressed host meeting guests at the door, champagne and canapes on arrival, seamless courses of Michelin star worthy haute cuisine, and conversation so significant that it actually means something. Rubbish. This book is for Mo Bros and Mo Sistas and they, more than anyone, understand that any home-cooked meal shared with friends makes for a great night." which a statement I whole heartedly agree with!

Mo Chefs - posing!!

Chefs in the book (order of apearance):

Dave Bone, Richard Robinson, Sam Wilson, Deon Jansen, Brad Stoward, Fred Smith, Andy Waugh & Rauride Elmslie, Giles Clark, David Johnson, Luca & Guglielmo D'Alfonso, Duncan Maguire, Risto Mikkola, Ant Power, Wolf Conyngham, Mark and Connor Bereen, Oisin Davis, Simon Fernandez, Mark Bereen & Ciaran McGonagle, David Cuspinera, Eduard Prades, Joan Ramon Galindo, Evan Doyle, John Tremayne, Ivan Varian, Troy McGuire, Nick Butler, James Lyon-Shaw, Martin Dorey

Mo bro's at the launch party!! Great work!!

Recipe: Pumpkin w/ Preserved Lemon & Plum Stuffing for Halloween (Vegetarian)

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

Well after all the care, attention and surprises the time has come to harvest the unidentified gourd / pumpkin / squash thing maybe a  Baby Bear? or a Sugar Pie? pumpkin. Not sure! If you can identify it please comment!!! It made a very nice vegetarian dinner served with cherry tomatoes and lightly poached fine green beans. The lemon oil, honey and cherry tomatoes produce a gorgeous sauce during the roasting process, very nice! 

: ) Enjoy!

ingredients (serves 4 as a side or starter)

for the pumkin

1 small pumpkin 

1/3  large red onion (sliced into quarters lengthways)

4 tbsp stuffing & plum jam mix

1 salted lemon (cut into 8 slices)

4 tbsp olive oil (from salted lemons)

2 tbsp honey (loosened w/ 2tbsp water)

12 cherry tomatoes

method (170C / 45mins)

Quarter the squash and scoop out the seeds.

Place the squash skin side down in a roasting tin.  Put one tsp plum jam and a tbsp of stuffing in the first quarter,

then place an onion segment and 2 slices of salted lemon on top of that. Repeat for each of the remaining quarters.

Dress each quarter with the loosened honey and then the lemon infused extra virgin olive oil from the salted lemons.

Add the cherry tomatoes and and season with salt an pepper.

Pop it into the oven for 15mins then remove it, cover the base of the roasting tin with about 1cm of water an return it to the oven for another 30 minutes or until nicely roasted.

Add the green beens to a pot of salted boiling for about 5mins. Then drain them and dress them with a little vinegar and olive oil. Serve immediately with the pumpkin.

variations

I reckon this would work pretty well with squash or even sweet potato instead of pumpkin!