More Ultimate Chilli
This time, with rice. I actually had a baked potato, Stephen had the rice.
We wanted something quick and easy tonight so pulled this out of the freezer to defrost this morning. Freezing had made the meat even more tender and the sauce had improved, as these things always do with storing and re-heating. The texture of the meat was reminiscent of a slow-cooked Indian dish such as Rogan Josh.
We served it with some guacamole that we made without chilli or other spices for the first time – we thought that it would act as a good foil to the main event by being fresh and full of coriander and lime rather than also being spicy. It did work well.
Christopher’s – The Burger
We’ve long suspected this is the best burger in London but the last time we visited we were without a camera, knowing how infuriating a post without pictures is we decided to delay the write-up until we could capture the burger in all it’s glory. It took a while but a Friday night shopping trip to Neal’s Yard Dairy provided us with the perfect opportunity to go back and get our shot. I’m not sure it does capture the full glory unfortunately since the bar was pretty dark by the time we got round to eating but it gives you an idea at least.
We’ve been going to Christopher’s American Bar and Grill for years, since we both used to work around the corner. Inevitably, we would end up there at the end of a long evening, order far too many of their very well-made cocktails and need something to soak up the alcohol. The burger was always the best option and never failed to disappoint (apart from one dodgy period somewhere around 2007 when the burgers became strangely tasteless so we stuck to Martinis and relied on the olives for sustenance).
The Christopher’s burger is big and juicy with a proper meaty flavour that is evident despite the bacon and cheese (Monterey Jack) accompaniments, Stephen thought he could detect a hint of rosemary but I’m recovering from a cold so can’t confirm. It’s big but not so big that you can’t bite into it and resort to using a knife and fork. The bun is soft but not so soft that it can’t handle the escaping meat juices, it isn’t toasted though which would definitely add an extra mark for me.
The fries are Proper Fries: thin and crispy, just as they should be. There’s none of those ridiculous hand-cut, triple-cooked chips, arranged Jenga style on your plate that are always raw in the middle; there’s exactly the right amount for the size of the burger too, allowing for a couple of fries per bite which is another thing I find very important in the burger experience.
There’s no pickle though which I imagine would disappoint some people, I like pickles but it’s not the main focus for me so I’m happy to let it go. It would be a good addition though.
At £9.50, it’s almost £2 cheaper than the equivalent burger at Byron (a branch of which is opening opposite, incidentally) who I think make a pretty good burger. The Christopher’s burger is a lot bigger and much more substantial and it feels wrong to compare it a Byron burger, it’s in a different league. Byron vs GBK is probably fairer alongside Christopher’s vs a pretty good steak. How it compares to a proper American burger I don’t know, since I’ve never eaten one and therefore isn’t a mark of quality for me as it is a lot of people.
So, we’ve done Hawksmoor and Byron. We did Goodman too but didn’t write it up since the pictures were blurry – it was pretty good but definitely lacking something compared to Christopher’s, the chips were ridiculous wedge-type affairs too. We’ve done GBK which wasn’t even worth commenting on. Next up is Hache, and possibly Guerilla Burgers (although I’m yet to read a single decent write-up) then we’ll really be in a position to decide on our favourite burger in London. They’ll have to do something pretty amazing to compete with Christopher’s.
Christopher’s American Bar and Grill
18 Wellington Street
Covent Garden
London
WC2E 7DD
020 7240 4222
PS The burger is on the bar food menu in the bar on the ground floor and I don’t think it appears on the menu in the restaurant proper, which is upstairs.
Asparagus and Chicken Risotto
I spotted the first of the English asparagus in Waitrose yesterday so eagerly grabbed some without giving much thought to what I was going to use it for. It seemed too early for asparagus but looking back at last year’s posts, we had the first of the season on the same week of the year.
These were fairly large so I decided to chop them up and use them in a risotto, following our basic recipe. I’m glad I did because these were quite tough and a little bitter, unlike the sweet spears found later in the year.
Some chicken also went into the risotto, as well as some pheasant stock we made up a while ago. The pheasant stock worked well with the chicken and added a deeper, rounder note than the usual chicken stock. There was also some thyme but it got a bit lost amongst the bigger flavour of the stock. I would have liked some more sweetness too, the shallots I used didn’t provide as much as I thought they would.
Thai Noodle and Prawn Salad
Yesterday Kerri commented that she was craving some sort of Thai style salad with lime juice and fish sauce in it and remembered the one we had made in this dinner. So we tried something similar, but it was not as successful this time because we could not get the bean vermicelli at the last minute and used rice vermicelli instead.
The flavour combinations were good though, the hot, sour and salty dressing with just a dash of sweetness soaking into the noodles and prawns, being freshened up by all the finely chopped, crunchy vegetables and the coriander. The main drawback was that the noodles had gone a big soggy – we either end up with those particular noodles being underdone or overdone, hard to get them right. Certainly something to try again, but with the correct noodles!
Thai Noodle and Prawn Salad (based on a recipe from the Blue Elephant book)
Serves Two
200g vermicelli
1 green chilli
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp vegetable oil
200g prawns
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
2 large shallots, finely chopped
4 spring onions, finely chopped
2 small carrots, shredded
Cook the vermicelli as per the packet instructions.
Coarsely grind the chilli with two cloves of garlic and mix with the sugar, lemon juice and fish sauce.
Crush the remaining cloves of garlic and brown in some oil.
Cook the prawns in boiling water for 2 minutes and then drain.
Combine all of the above and sprinkle with coriander.
Spaghetti alla Vodka
This is one of those acclaimed pasta sauces that only takes as long to cook as the pasta does, the kind of dish I normally ignore in favour of long, slow-cooked ragus. I’m glad I stopped ignoring this though because I really enjoyed it and would happily eat it again tonight. The combination of the tomatoes and cream create a rich sauce, not unlike a ragu in some ways but with an altogether lighter finish.
Although this isn’t an Italian recipe with a particularly long history, there are many variations on the recipe available. Chilli flakes are a common addition and would be a good way to balance the sweetness and, of course, pancetta would be perfect.
We used San Marzano tinned tomatoes, these seem to be naturally sweeter than other brands of tinned tomatoes and therefore don’t need to be cooked as long. You can find them in Sainsbury’s, under the Taste the Difference brand. If you’re using other types of tinned tomatoes then you might want to increase the cooking time.
Spaghetti alla Vodka
Serves Two
1/2 onion, finely diced (we used shallots this time, since we had some lying around)
1 garlic clove, smashed with the back of a knife
1/2 tin tomatoes
Salt and pepper
Splash vodka
Tbs double cream
Parsley, finely chopped
Parmesan
Start by slowly softening the onions over a low heat until they are almost brown – about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for a further two minutes.
Next, add the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Cook for five minutes before adding the vodka and cream. Remove the garlic clove, stir in the parsley and add the pasta. Grate with parmesan and serve.
Chorizo and Cannelini Beans
I was about to say that we’ve made this so many times before that I won’t bother writing up the recipe but it seems that we’ve actually only made it once and I couldn’t remember the recipe when it came to posting.
We had a change of plan on Sunday and had to make do with what we could find in the kitchen, there wasn’t much to work with but this doesn’t require many ingredients so we were in luck. Stephen did the majority of it since I wasn’t feeling very well but I think I’ve got the recipe right, I’m a bit sketchy on the detail but this is a very forgiving dish: you can use any kind of beans, lots of different herbs, wine instead of sherry, pancetta instead of chorizo.
Chorizo and Cannelini Beans
Olive oil
4 small chorizo sausages, sliced
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Herbs – we used thyme and parsley but most combinations will work well
Bay leaf
Tbs paprika
Tbs tomato puree
Glass of sherry
1 tin tomatoes
cannelini beans – enough for two
Salt and pepper
Parsley, chopped
Start by browning the chorizo and removing to a plate.
In the same pan, add a little more oil and cook the onions gently until soft. Add the garlic a couple of minutes before the onions are cooked.
Next, add the herbs, the bay leaf and the paprika and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the tomato puree and cook for another couple of minutes.
Deglaze with the sherry and allow this to bubble for a minute or two. Add the chorizo back to the pan, followed by all the other ingredients and cook for 2.5 hours, or until the beans are cooked to your liking.
Season and stir through some chopped parsley.
We ate this with bread but there was loads leftover so we had it on Monday too, with rice that time.
Barbecued Octopus, also Halloumi and Lamb Chops
Last week we received a copy of Jamie Oliver’s new book “Jamie Does…” in the post and started having a browse through it. He covers a number of different countries in it, all of which are within easy short-haul flying distance from the UK – a mixture of the usual culinary suspects and a couple of surprises – Spain, Italy, France, Morocco, Greece and Sweden.
We immediately went for those that we felt we had explored less in the kitchen – Greece and Sweden. When we saw the Barbecued Octopus recipe in the Greek section though, the search ended pretty much immediately. We were determined this year to have an earlier first barbecue than we did last year and were also keen to try octopus again. We bought a rather large octopus from a local fishmonger and it was more expensive than the ones that we bought last time, but it was already cleaned, which was a bonus.
The recipe involved stewing the octopus for 45 minutes in a mixture of wine, tomatoes, anchovies, lemon zest, herbs (mint, oregano and parsely) and white wine before chopping it up and barbecuing it. The recipe says to mix some honey into some of the stewing liquid and use a thyme sprig to brush it onto the octopus while it is on the barbecue. This sounded a bit fanciful, but we gave it a go. Hard to tell if that technique added anything to it, but the octopus was really good when finished, with the slightly crispy, smoky outside (particularly the suckers!) complementing the meaty, white flesh of the tentacles. It reminded me a lot of pulpo a la gallego, the perrenial tapas favourite. That will be on our list to cook next time we have octopus, I’m sure.
In keeping with the Greek theme, we also barbecued some halloumi (a little overdone in places as you can see in the picture) and some lamb chops which we marinated in olive oil, garlic, lemon and oregano (and then topped with a thyme twig for some reason… we had some lying around).
Not bad for a first barbecue of the “summer”!
The Ultimate Chilli Con Carne – Take Two
I should probably start by saying that this wasn’t an attempt to create something authentically Mexican (indeed, many would argue that no such dish exists in Mexican cooking) but more a convenient way of turning some cheap beef skirt I found in Waitrose on Easter Monday into something interesting.
It was also a good opportunity to fine-tune our Ultimate Chilli Con Carne either. We’ve been playing around with this recipe for a while and while I think we’ve got it just how we like it, some things I’ve read online recently prompted me to try some different methods this time. Most notably they were the addition of a charred, green pepper, some sweet paprika alongside the smoked we already used, some oregano, beer instead of red wine and a green chilli as well as the usual red. I also increased the amount of cinammon, since I’d noted in my last attempt that there was a lack of sweetness.
Of course, with so many changes and additions, it wasn’t going to be easy to work out exactly what had improved/declined but I didn’t have the patience to cook several batches. I’d foolishly only bought 500g of beef too which, given it had been reduced to £1.49 was a huge oversight on my part.
What I was hoping for was a fully-flavoured dish with varying levels of flavour which I aimed to create by intensely browning the seasoned meat, roasting the garlic, chillies and pepper, toasting the spices and caramelising the tomato puree. Seasoning as I went along too. I wanted it to be hot but not so hot that the spices did’t come through. I wanted a sweet note in there too, hence the caramelisation of the tomato puree and the increase in the cinammon. I also knew I needed to cook the whole thing for a long time so that the beef skirt was tender.
And that’s pretty much what I ended up with. I think I overdid the paprika and I definitely added too much cocoa powder at the end but otherwise this was a well-rounded, deeply flavoured dish with just the right layers of flavour I was looking for.
The recipe looks very long but a lot of it happens at the same time and it’s mostly the spice mix that takes the time. You could obviously substitute the beef skirt for minced beef if you can’t get it or just use beans, the cooking times would need to be reduced if you did that though.
Chilli Con Carne
Serves Four
4 tbsp olive oil
1 large green chilli, roasted, deseeded and pulped
1 red chilli, roasted, deseeded and pulped
4 garlic cloves, roasted and then pulped
1 green pepper, charred and then finely chopped
Spice Mix
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
5 black peppercorns
1 clove
1 tsp chipotle chilli powder
1.5 tsps ground cinnamon
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp tomato purée
500g red kidney beans
Flour (for browning)
Salt and pepper
500g beef skirt, diced
1 large onion, finely chopped
Bay leaf
250ml dark beer
600ml beef stock (plus more boiling water as the sauce cooks, if required)
400g tin chopped tomatoes
Worcestershire sauce (about a tablsepoon)
1 tsp cocoa powder
To Serve
Juice of half a lime
Handful of chopped coriander
Roast the chilli and garlic in the over for about 20 minutes, on 190 degrees, before leaving them to cool down. Remove the seeds from the chilli and squash together with the garlic.
Blacken the pepper on top of the hob (if you have a gas hob, otherwise roast in the oven) and then transfer to a plastic bag to steam for a few minutes. Remove from the bag, skin, deseed and then chop finely.
At the same time, toast the coriander and cumin in a frying pan on a low heat, for about 10 minutes. Once cooled, grind them up with some black pepper and a clove and transfer to a bowl, add the other powdered spices.
While both these things are happening, cook the beans (soaked overnight) for 20 minutes, rinse and put aside until later on.
In a large pan, brown the seasoned meat and remove to a plate. This took about 20 minutes. In the same pan, add some more oil and soften the onions for about five to 10 minutes. Then add the pulped garlic and chilli, the bay leaf and the diced pepper and cook for another five minutes.
Add the powdered spices and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the tomato puree and cook for two minutes. Return the meat to the pan and combine with the spice paste. Deglaze with the beer, then follow with the stock, tomatoes, a dash of Worcestershire sauce and more seasoning. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 1.5 hours, checking there is enough water as you go along.
After 1.5 hours, add the beans and cook for a further 1.5 hours. Just before the end of the cooking time, add the cocoa powder and cook for another five minutes. Serve with a squeeze of lime and a handful of chopped coriander stirred through (if you’re making this the day before then add the lime juice and coriander just before serving)
Stir Fried Chicken with Szechuan Pepper
We planned a quick dinner this evening of stir fried chicken and bought most of the ingredients yesterday. We weren’t quite sure on an exact recipe, which was left up to me as I arrived home first and started slicing things. I sliced an orange pepper, half an onion, some baby corn and a large chicken breast, then finely chopped a garlic clove and grated half an inch or so of ginger.
I decided that as I was still waiting for Kerri to arrive, I might as well marinate the chicken to give it a little more flavour. So into a bowl it went along with some soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine. As I started grinding some black pepper into the marinade, I realised that what we needed was actually Szechuan pepper instead! We had some but had never used it, so now was the perfect opportunity. I didn’t know how much to put in, so added a teaspoon or so of it. I had a look at the side of the spice bottle and it recommended making a marinate of soy sauce, dry sherry and Szechuan pepper, so my impromptu marinade was pretty much spot on.
I’ve never looked very closely at Szechuan pepper before and I expected them to look similar to black or white peppercorns, but actually they are the shell of a little fruit / seed rather than the seed itself – the inside is thrown away. Lots of information about them in the usual place.
We stir fried the various ingredients, adding the marinade to the wok after a few minutes of frying, along with a little more soy sauce and Chinese cooking wine and just a dash of chicken stock before adding some rice noodles and turning the heat down to allow the noodles to heat through.
While I am sure that I have ordered dishes that claim to contain Szechuan pepper, I have never really noticed them to stand out. Which probably means that the dishes that I ordered didn’t contain enough. And that is also the impression that I get from most restaurant reviews that mention them – most of them will say something like “this dish should be spicy and mouth-numbing from the Szechuan pepper but sadly isn’t”. For those that haven’t tried them, they are an interesting experience because they certainly are mouth-numbing. They have a flavour somewhat reminiscent of spicy dried citrus peel and contain a compound which numbs the tongue and gives a strange sensation in the mouth completely separate from the spiciness.
All very interesting and surprising for a first memorable Szechuan pepper experience, considering that I am sure I have eaten it several times before but not really noticed the effects very strongly. Next time we’ll look up a proper Szechuan recipe rather than just cobbling one together.
Slow Roast Shoulder of Lamb
Easter equals lamb, just like Christmas always used to equal turkey until everyone realised it was tasteless and quite difficult to cook it evenly without drying the whole thing out. Of course, lamb can dry out too but not if you cook it this way. Well, it might do if you left it too long but after four hours of tormeting yourself with the smell of garlicky, rosemary lamb then I’m pretty certain you won’t be able to wait much longer.
We first cooked this in February 2008 and have cooked it several times since (five, according to the archives), always with the same brilliant result. It’s the most popular of any dish that’s appeared on Dinner Diary (generating 52 comments, fact fans) and every time we cook it, I marvel at how something with so few ingredients can taste so good.
It’s popular with my mum too and since we were cooking lunch for her on Sunday, it was the obvious choice. The other great thing about this is that there isn’t any arguing over whether to cook it pink (our preference) or well-done (my mum’s preference) so it works well if you’re cooking for people with different tastes and don’t want to make more than one dish.
We actually had this last Easter and cooked it with some butterbeans. The combination was good but the beans became quite oily so this year we cooked them separately which worked much better. They were very similar to these beans but with garlic and rosemary instead of mustard.
The best post to look at for the lamb recipe is this one. You could go directly to Jamie Oliver’s site since it’s actually his recipe but of course I would much rather you stayed here.
Garlic and Rosemary Cannellini Beans
Serves Four
Butter
Oil
3 leeks, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 sprigs rosemary, chopped
2 tins cannellini beans, drained and rinsed*
Salt and pepper
Soften the leeks in a little butter and oil, before adding the garlic and rosemary and cooking for a few minutes.
Add the beans, stir to combine and cook for five minutes. Season, add a good measure of oil and serve.
*I usually use dried beans that have been cooked first but wanted to try tinned beans since last time the beans cooked somewhat unevenly. I did find that the tinned beans cooked more evenly but there was something about them that I didn’t like, a slightly plasticky taste perhaps.
