Pizza!!

Having tried and ignominiously failed to produce adequate gnocchi (which you will see at some point in August unless the gods smile at me and ITV sinks into deep blue sea in the meantime…), i’ve returned to my first true italian love affair… PIzza!! Added to which, the footy’s on and i wanted something quick and snacky for tonight…

The dough recipe is adapted from Richard Bertinet's olive dough recipe.

Ingredients (for two c. 12” pizzas)
420g strong bread flour
100g fine semolina
10g salt
15g dried yeast
320g hand hot water
50g olive oil

combine the dry ingredients and mix, then add the oil, then the water.  Stir, then use a spatula or your hands to combine fully, then turn out on to an unfloured work surface.  Work the dough until it’s holding together and coming up from the surface pretty much cleanly – don’t flour the surface until this point, then be sparing – the more flour you add, the heavier the dough.

Once it’s smooth, lightly flour the surface and knead until silky and not sticky, then plaice in a floured bowl to rest – cover with a cloth and put it in a warmish place.

Once rested, divide the dough into two large balls on a floured surface, then roll or tease the dough balls to the desired diameter and thickness (i like mine as thin as you can get them without breaking) and place one of the pizza breads a pre-heated pizza stone or baking tray, then add the toppings.  Cook in a preheated oven (gas mark 6) for about 20 mins - try not to make the toppings to wet, or the centre of the pizza will be quite sloppy.

For toppings today, I chose a tomato (300g pureed), shallot (1), and basil sauce (sprinkling, adding 1 chopped clove of garlic and a splash of balsamic), then artcihoke and pancetta on one, and crayfish on the other, both finished with mozarella, parmesan and cheddar… pictured :-)

I need to buy another pizza stone however! I part-baked 'em so they wouldn't need to be on a stone,  then added the toppings a couple of hours later - tasted good, but the middle went a bit soggy, and i think it would've worked better if i could've put them both on their own stone and cooked them from scratch straoght to service.... ah well, live and learn... - my motto for the week i think!!

Dom’s lasagna

This recipe does what it says on the tin – it’s lasagna.  But there’s a few things thrown in to bring out the flavours and make it more moorish…

Ingredients
(Serves 4)
1 shallot or onion, finely chopped
50g pancetta or lardons
4 cloves garlic, crushed
200g button or chestnut mushrooms, chopped
500g lean minced beef
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp soy sauce

1/2 tsp paprika

1 tsp all spice

1 tsbp balsamic vinegar or 1 glass of red wine

1 tbsp sun-dried tomato pesto
1 can chopped tinned tomatoes
1 tsp dried basil
50ml water
1 stock cube
6-8 sheets of lasagne (depending on the size and shape of your dish)
50g butter
1 tbsp plain flour
1pt milk
50-100g cheddar
20g grated parmesan

Start by frying the shallot, garlic, pancetta and mushrooms until soft, then add the Worcestershire sauce, soy, balsamic (if using the wine, add just before the tomatoes instead) and the paprika and all spice.  Mix well and fry until the onions are soft.  Add the mince, season to taste, then fry until it picks up colour then add the pesto, basil and tomatoes (and wine if using). Add the water and stock cube, then cover and leave to simmer for 20 mins.

Meanwhile make a white sauce - melt the butter in a pan, then add the flour, whisking to combine.  I cheat here... the constant stirring annoys me, so i bosh all the milk in at once and leave it on a low-medium flame until it starts to turn - check it regularly.  Then whisk it to make sure it doesn't get lumpy.  Once it's got to a nice double cream consistency, you can put in about 2/3rds of the cheese cheese.  You can also flavour this with a touch of all spice if you want.

Put half of the mince in a good-sized rectangular dish, and lay half the lasagne sheets over it, then add the rest of the mince.  Place the rest of the pasta on top and cover with the white sauce, then top with the rest of the cheese.  Then bake on gas mark 5 for about 25-30 mins until the cheese has melted and the pasta is cooked.

Fish Tagine

Tonight’s offering is a sweet fish tagine which combines some of my  favourite foods – a sweet rich sauce, light flaky fish and some nice bread.  I’ve served it on couscous this time, but that’s optional – it may be a wee bit heavy for some (we’re both sitting here rather full as I write this…).  The fish borrows a dish at a great little Moroccan restaurant in Easton called La Casbah (review to follow next time we go there), particularly in it’s use of raisins to sweeten the sauce.  Anyway, enjoy.

Ingredients (serves 2)

For the fish
1 Shallot or small onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tsp ras el hanout
1 tsp all spice
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp tomato puree
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
100ml water or good fish stock
50g raisins
1 tbsp apricot jam
Salt and pepper to taste
2 good size fillets of white fish, chopped into strips about 3cm width

For the bread
200g wholemeal flour
100g strong bread flour
2 tsp baking powder
10g dried yeast
10g salt
100g hand hot water (100ml)
2 tsp caster sugar
2 tsp ras el hanout, plus 1 more for dusting the bread

For the couscous 100g fine couscous
1 tbsp good quality olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Boiled water as per instructions on the couscous - depending on grain bought, this varies from 1:1 couscous to water to 0.5:1

You need to prep the flatbread first.  Combine all the dry ingredients and mix, then add the water and mix.  Knead into the bowl then turn out onto your work top and knead until a firm dough forms.  Flour your surface lightly (don’t add too much flour or the dough will be too stiff) until the dough is silky and smooth – not sticky – then form into a tight ball.  Put into a floured bowl and cover, then leave it in warm (not hot) place for about 30 mins.  Meanwhile preheat your oven and baking tray or breadstone to 220 degrees.

After half an hour, turn your bread out into a floured surface and divide into 4 (you will have 4 breads… sorry just realised that, but the quantities work best, you can keep the rest in the fridge for a few days, then add more flour and hey presto, more bread).  Flatten or roll them into 1 cm thick teardrop or triangle shapes.  Leave them to rest while you do start the tagine.

For the tagine, fry the onions and garlic together with all of the spice until the onion starts to brown. Then add the balsamic and tomato puree and fry for another 30 seconds or so. Add the the water or stock and bring to a low simmer.  Let this reduce and  for ten minutes, then add the apricot jam, raisins and sliced fish. Keep on a low simmer until the rest is cooked.

At this point, put your bread in the oven for about 10 mins until it is a golden brown colour.

Meanwhile, season the couscous in a bowl and add the oil (you can also add a small pinch of turmeric for colour if you want too).  Add the requisite amount of water to the couscous and stir through with a fork, then cover for five minutes.  The couscous should be light and fluffy when done – stir it through again with a fork to break up any clumps.  Take care not to add too much water – make sure you check the instructions on the packet carefully – you don’t want to end up with mush.  You can also add chopped fresh coriander if you like.

Serve the tagine on a bed of coucous with the bread on the side.  Enjoy with a glass of  white – semillion chardonnay or similar.

NB. in the picture above i’ve thrown in a can of tuna, but with hindsight i think that made it too heavy – you want the sauce thick and rich, but not too heavy.

Taste of Easton – Eastern Taste

In the four years we’ve lived in Easton, visits to Eastern Taste have become a fixture in our culinary lives – from social gatherings of 8-10, to a quick curry for the two of us early on a Friday evening, Eastern Taste is exactly what you’d want and expect from a local curry house.

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Compared with the fashionable Thali 50 yards down the road, Eastern Taste looks a bit old-fashioned – it’s menu too is traditional, with the large range of curries you would expect and, in some circumstances, dread. As with many such establishments, it does help to know what to order, but unlike many you aren’t limited to the specials only.  From starters, to specials, mains and sides, the quality is consistently high and very tasty. 

Particular favourites for me are the Karahi, Pathia, Madras and especially the Balti – all curry houses think they can do Balti, but this is definitely a great example of the dish.  Trina’s usual favourite is the Vindaloo (her palate will take more of a beating than mine) – quite a dry heat in comparison to the sweeter Madras, but very edible.  I usually go for Tikka’d meat rather than straight as there’s a bit more flavour.  Prawn and other fish dishes, and veggie sides are also great – the Sag Aloo is fantastic.

The restaurant is BYO – typical for Easton and cuts your costs down. Typically we manage to spend about £25 between us for popadums, starters and mains (they also know us well and Trina get’s her own plate of sliced onion to accompany the popadums…). 

The service is very friendly, and they usually squeeze us in if it’s just the two of us – it can get busy, especially Thursday to Saturday, so it’s worth booking.

In all, a great place to spend an hour or an evening.

Looking forward to cooking normally again…

Has to be said, while I’m excited at the opportunity to make an arse of myself on national TV, I am looking forward to getting back to cooking proper dishes again – added to by the fact that we’re currently trying to run the freezer down in prep for the house move…

The Gnocchi marathon went quite well today – finally got to a stable and repeatable gnocchi, though i had to bite the bullet and stick egg in it.  I’m still not 100% confident that I’ll be able to pull it off, but I think once the sauce is on it, it should be fine… fingers crossed.

I also established the reason for my bread results being a little mixed… my scales have a margin of error of around 100g depending on how hard i put the dish down on top!  Even more irritatingly, I purchased replacement scales which then buggered up as soon as i got ‘em home. I do love Kitchens up on Whiteladies, but two trips in two days is a little annoying.  On the other hand the ricer i bought in there worked a treat.  I had to resist buying extras in there though – always a problem…

Barbeque tonight – doing a pretty traditional one tonight, sausages, burgers, pork chops… i have on made the burger baps however, courtesy of the great Richard Bertinet’s Dough book, with a couple of tweaks – i’ve added some ras el hanout to the dough mix to give it a lovely fragrant flavour, and drizzled some great lemon olive oil on top.  Trina’s folks brought it back from their Peninsular travels in the spring and it tastes amazing – really light olive oil with a lovely citrus overtone.

Will be doing a review of my favourite local curry place tomorrow or Sunday, though I’m also tied up with rehearsals most of the weekend.  So, catch y’all on the flipside…. Enjoy the sun ;-)

‘Pueblo’ Pie

This recipe was born at Uni – a product of being a bit skint, wanting some good warming food and having a packet of mince.  It’s a spicy take on traditional cottage pie, replacing the traditional English veg with peppers, and chucking in spices.  The other main variation which I added after reading a Latin American cook book was to add sweet corn to topping.  Anyway, enjoy…:

Ingredients
(Serves 4 – unless it’s me an Trina, as we have been known to pack this away between us over several hours… particularly in the run up to finals…)

400g beef or lamb mince (I find beef works better with this one as it’s less fatty)
1 large onion, quartered and thinly sliced
1 red and 1 green pepper, sliced into chunky slices
3 tsp of paprika (or 2 of smoked paprika)
2 tsp cajun spices
1 tsp hot chilli powder
1tsp cumin
1 glass red wine
1 tbsp HP sauce
1 can of tinned tomatoes
1 good quality stock cube/sachet (I may be a victim of advertising, but i really like the Knorr Stock Pots that Marco Pierre-White advertises…)
4 floury potatoes
1 corn on the cob
50g of grated good mature cheddar (have to recommend the Tickler that Trina’s firm make – bloody gorgeous)
2 tbsp sunflower oil

Method
Start by seasoning the meat – and mixing about half of the paprika, chilli and cajun into the mince.  Then brown the mince in a heavy wide pan with half the oil (don’t put too much in at once as it will overload the pan and the meat will start to stew rather than brown…). Once browned, remove the meat and chuck in the onions and peppers and rest of the spices – cook until tender and the onions have started to brown, then throw in the red wine and cook off the alcohol.  Add the meat back to the pan, and the tinned tomatoes, HP and stock cube.  Cover and let this cook on a low heat while you’re doing the rest.  You want it to be relatively thick.

Boil the potatoes as normal until tender, then remove and mash with a little butter or milk (you don’t want to make them too runny, but you do want them to be spreadable).  Also cook the corn on the cob until tender, then scrape off the corn with a fork.

Pour the filling in to an ovenproof dish, then spread the mash over the top, then sprinkle the corn, then the cheese over the top.  You can finish it with a dusting of paprika or flaked chilli depending on how hot you want to make it.  Place the pie in pre-heated oven (about 200 degrees, Gas Mark 6) for about 20 mins until the cheese browns.  Then serve and eat… carefully – it’ll be quite hot!!

Tired of spuds

Cooked no less than 6 different incarnations of gnocchi last night with varying degrees of success... The last batch (the one that I eventually served with dinner) wasn't too bad though didn't have the firmness of texture it should have - though at least it didn't turn to mush this time!

Anyway, taking a day off tomorrow to try and perfect it - will be doing an emergency run to Kitchens on Whiteladies to buy a potato ricer (sworn by several Italian chefs online to get more air into the mixture), then spend the day with yet more potatoes, slightly burnt hands (currently scarred by a bowl breaking in half during washing for no apparent reason....).

On the upside, the sauce that accompanies the dish, and the marinade for the poussin both worked brilliantly last night... Though I think my housemates choice to have it with potato waffles was inspiring but possibly an indictment of my own gnocchi making skills! I'm wondering whether I should try and sneak a packet in or just apolgise in advance and serve it with sauté spuds instead... We'll see...

By the way, as soon as I get the gnocchi right, I promise I will post more original recipes with pictures...

South Indian Mackerel

This dish is an ideal starter if you’re looking for a lighter way to start a curry – it’s got it’s roots in dishes we had when we visited Kerala a couple of years ago, and borrows from that area with the addition of a banana as a flavour – it’s sweet and a little spicy, but not so much that it overwhelms the fish. This recipe is a starter and uses mackerel, but would also work well with meatier fish like monkfish, or even scallops.

Ingredients 
(Serves 4) 
For the fish
4 small fish – mackerel or similar
A little plain flour for dusting, with a touch of turmeric and cumin added
Salt and pepper for seasoning
1/2 tsp cumin, yellow mustard seed, dried red chilli.

For the Sweet potatoes
1 medium sized sweet potato, cubed into 1.5cm cubes
1 Onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2cm root ginger finely sliced
50ml water
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp yellow mustard seed
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 dried red chilli
Pinch of turmeric (for colour only)
200 ml coconut milk (you can sub this with coconut block and increasing the quantity of water)
2 tbsp coriander leaf (for garnish)

For the bananas
2 bananas (the less ripe the better)
1 tsp amchoor (dried mango) powder
1 tsp cumin powder
Pinch of turmeric

Fillet the mackerel, removing the backbone and head completely.  The easiest way to do this (apart from getting your fishmonger to do it…) is to cut behind the gill with a thin filleting knife, then reverse the knife in the cut and slicing back down toward the tail – keep as close as you can to the back bone. Do this on both sides and you should get to nice fillets.  You can either slice our or pick out the rib bones and the small bones that run through the middle of the fillet.

Once boned, lightly season the fish and sprinkle the spice on to the flesh side of the fish, then leave in the fridge for an hour or two.

Fry the onions, garlic and ginger in about half the oil until tender.  Add the spices and sweet potato, tossing it until the sweet potato has picked up a little colour. Add a little water and cook until most if absorbed and a paste has formed, then add the dried chilli and coconut milk and simmer gently until the potato is fully cooked and the sauce has thickened and coated the rest.

Peel the bananas and slice them into 5mm thick slices (looks best if you go slightly diagonally, as this gives a longer slice).  Sprinkle with the spices then fry in a pan or on an oven tray until crispy.

Retrieve the mackerel fillets and dust the skin side with the flour mixture. Place skin-side down in a pan (heated to medium heat) with a little ghee or oil.  Press down the middle of each fillet for a few seconds as you place them so it doesn’t curl.  They should take just a couple of minutes to cook through – don’t turn them over, they should cook through from the skin side.

To serve, use a slated spoon to place some of the potato onto the middle of the place, then place two fillets in an X over the potato.  Serve the bananas round the edge of the potato and garnish with the coriander. You can also serve this with chapati, or for real authenticity, on a banana leaf.

Accidental potato dumplings…

Oops. That didn’t really work… trying to replicate the success of thursday’s gnocchi with fresher potatoes which split in the pan led to the accidental discovery of a perfect accompaniment to the pie we had… potato dumplings… very wet spuds, too much flour, kneaded to death rolled and then dropped in gravy with onions and garlic… turned out to be quite tasty, but definitely not as intended…

Will be taking a couple of says off to just cook gnocchi i think… whyohwhyohwhy did i say i’d do this??