Burgers on the Barbecue
This was our third attempt at perfecting our hamburger recipe and by jove, I think we have it. What was important to us was a burger that retained its meaty flavour but had just the right amount of other flavours to complement it. Once the basics are there then we can play around with the toppings which tonight were lettuce, pickles, cheese, fried onions and a selection of mustards. The meaty burgers stood up to this myriad of toppings very well which confirmed that we’ve cracked it.
500g minced chuck steak
Salt and pepper
1/2tsp Dijon mustard
1/2tsp English mustard
1/2tsp wholegrain mustard
several dashes Tabasco sauce
1tbsp parsley
1/2 medium onion, grated
Mix all ingredients together well, form into two patties (yes they will be large!) and then chill until needed. Grill over direct (but not too hot) heat for four minutes per side, with the lid on. This will produce medium-rare burgers.
Now we just have to work on a hamburger bun that is big enough and firm enough to carry a burger as fine as this.
Red Thai Chicken Curry
We have been on a draconian clear-the-freezer mission lately, and as it turned out we had both chicken legs and red curry paste in there. Which meant that we needed to make red curry with chicken of course. It was shop paste rather than home made, we must admit; hence we had loads of it and ended up freezing what we didn’t use the first time round.
We didn’t use a recipe this time, just followed our instincts and followed a similar approach to what we use for our green curry. It was full of rich chilli and coconutty loveliness with a bit of a kick but not too much. Along with the chicken, we added baby corn, pea aubergines, lime leaves and holy basil.
We drank an Alsace gewurtztramminer with it and the flavour matched the flavours in the curry very well, with the full body also standing up to the creaminess. There was a little too much heat in the curry for it to be a perfect match and it brought out the alcohol in the wine a bit, but that is generally to be expected with curry!
Lentil Crumble
On Sunday, I finally got round to working my way through the huge stack of food magazines that have been threatening to take over the lounge. I thought I’d stopped buying food magazines for this very reason but I must go into some kind of trance when I’m in a newsagent because I always seem to have masses of them hanging around. Anyway, after ploughing through at least fifteen of them, I was left with a small pile of things that interested me – and a rather heavy recycling bag. One of the recipes was a lentil bake from Delicious magazine which I thought I’d make for this evening’s dinner, when it came to it however I wasn’t particularly excited by it. I decided to take the basic elements (cooked lentils baked with a crunchy topping), drop the original feta and olives and replace with some herbs, tomatoes and stilton.
Perhaps I should have stuck to the original plan or perhaps I was destined to failure all along but I was disappointed with how this turned out; there was very little flavour despite plenty of garlic, herbs and seasoning. We’re using up the green lentils that we bought in error and I’m wondering if they behave differently to the puy lentils which I’m more used to. I think this has potential so I’m adding the ‘recipe’ below in case I stop being cross about it and decide to try again.
15og green lentils
1 red pepper, sliced
1 red onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Bunch oregano and thyme, chopped
Tin tomatoes
Tablespoon tomato puree
Salt and pepper
Cheese (we used some leftover stilton)
Breadcrumbs (seasoned and with parmesan added)
Start by boiling the lentils in cold water until cooked, about 25 minutes. You could also whizz up some bread to make crumbs at this point if you were so inclined, season and grate some parmesan into them for added flavour.
In a separate pan, sautee onions, pepper and garlic with some salt until soft. Add herbs and cook for a minute or so. Season, add tomatoes and tomato puree. Bring to the boil and then simmer until the tomatoes have reduced – about 20 minutes.
When the lentils are cooked, drain and rinse in cold water. Add the lentils to the tomatoes and mix together. Ladle into a dish, top with some cheese and then add breadcrumbs. Coat with oil and bake for 25 minutes, or until brown.
Serve with salad and, in this case, quite a lot of extra seasoning.
Pancetta, Sage and Broad Bean Risotto
As I think we’ve mentioned before, our sage plant is going crazy so we’ve been trying to think of ways to use it up. That, coupled with a risotto craving led us to this evening’s meal. We had some really good stock in the freezer that was made with two chicken carcasses which leant a really deep, earthy flavour to the dish. The broad beans lifted things slightly but they were a little lost really.
No real recipe, we just fried off the onions, celery, garlic and pancetta before adding the rice and cooking for a few minutes. Deglaze with some vermouth, add the sage and then keep ladling in the chicken stock until the rice is cooked through.
Barbecued Pork Chops
After the excitement of yesterday’s fermented fish, we opted for a quick dinner of barbecued pork chops, baked potatoes and salad tonight. The chops marinated overnight in lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, oregano, garlic and salt and pepper. We cooked them for five minutes each side with the lod on which was possibly slightly too long but luckily they remained juicy and tasty.
Swedish Fermented Fish РSurstr̦mming
“Surströmming” translates literally as “soured herring”, which is a woefully inadequate description of the monster that is this particular Swedish delicacy. The herring is fermented in barrels for a month or two and then tinned, but continues fermenting in the tin with the result that the tins often end up bulging worryingly and some airlines have banned them on the basis that they could explode dangerously while in flight.
With all this fermentation comes carbon dioxide (which causes the bulging) and also by-products. This is a bacterial fermentation rather than the yeast-based fermentation that is used to produce alcohol in wine and beer. Modern wine-making techniques insist on scrupulous cleanliness in order to prevent unwanted bacterial fermentation precisely because the by-products of these fermentations will taint the wine with unpleasant tastes and aromas. Surströmming-making techniques obviously encourage this fermentation, which the result that opening a tin of the stuff releases the most ungodly smell known to man. So much so that when renting an apartment in Sweden, the rental agreement will forbid you to eat it in your apartment.
Why am I telling you all of this? Well, last night we went to a barbecue with several friends of ours where we cooked some sausages, chops, burgers, etc, and played Kubb, which is a strange Swedish game involving throwing bits of wood at other bits of wood. To keep in with the Swedish theme, Lars (who is Swedish after all) did something that he has been threatening to do for a while – he very kindly and no doubt at great risk to himself, brought along a few tins of surströmming.
There is a technique of opening the tin in a bucket of water to hide some of the smell, but we didn’t have a lot of luck with this. In fact, for a while we didn’t have much luck opening the tin at all; Lars tried various openers but none of them were quite up to the job of piercing the armour-plated tins and it took his better half’s touch to get it going finally. When we eventually did get the tin open, the crowd of curious onlookers that had gathered close by instantly dispersed far and wide to escape the intense reek that emanated from within. It smelled Wrong. Like super-concentrated rotten eggs that had gone even more rotten than could be thought possible.
Certain foodstuffs smell bad but are still definitely edible and are indeed particularly delicious. A good example would be Epoisses and similar types of cheese that smell like sweaty socks but taste powerfully rich and creamy. Or an aged, particularly “farmyardy” red Burgundy which tastes of a perfectly elegant marriage of fruit and earthiness with a touch of spice. With this in mind, I was determined to fight past the seemingly impenetrable wall of pestilence and try it. There was a certain amount of instinct-suppression going on and I had to push the “this smells like it’s going to kill me” thoughts to the back of my mind.
After opening, the herring fillets are removed from the tin, washed in sparkling water and served with “tunnbröd” flat bread and several other accompaniments, namely boiled potatoes, chopped red onion, sliced tomato, dill and a Swedish type of cottage cheese. Being a particularly premium brand of surströmming, this one included a lot of the roe along with the fillets. We rolled all of this up in the tunnbröd to make a sort of wrap and then ate it that way. Watching Lars make his, he arranged all of the accompaniments on his tunnbröd, then topped it with two large fillets of surströmming and two large pieces of roe before rolling it all up. Trying to do it correctly of course, I copied his example closely.
How to describe the flavour? Well, the closest way I can think of emulating the taste would be to drink Thai fish sauce straight from the bottle. And in a similar way, if you have a little of it mixed in with other things, it tastes rather good, but if you have too much then its overwhelming pungency just takes over. The potatoes and cottage cheese are essential for diluting its intensity, but sometimes you do get more fish in a mouthful than you bargain for, especially as the skin is still on the fillets and makes biting through it difficult. I survived though, and even went back for a second helping. Traditional carraway snaps is also important here.
Curious about why people would want to make something like this, I did some searching on the interwebs this morning. Obviously it is a way of preserving the fish for future consumption from the days before refrigeration, but then so are curing, smoking, salting, etc, and they result in rather less offensively pungent products. What I found out was that the fermentation proess does use a little salt, but it uses a lot less of it than salting or brining would and in days gone by, salt was scarce and/or expensive. So that makes a bit of sense.
As for the smell, and how something that smells so obviously rotten can somehow still be edible, Wikipedia was quite helpful here. The four main smell categories are “pungent”, “rotten egg”, “rancid butter” and “vinegary” (I can attest to these all being present in copious amounts) and these are given off as by-products of fermentation by a particular type of bacteria. However, it is a different type of bacteria that would actually break down the fish proteins and rot it and this type of bacteria is killed off by the salt that is added. Which makes sense too, but the brain still has a way of associating these smells with something being rotten.
So, a rather smelly food adventure, but one that was certainly worthwhile. It is certainly an acquired taste, and Lars ensures me that over the few times that he’s had it, he has definitely moved out of the “distinctly wary” camp into the “actually it’s not too bad, I think I’ll have some more” camp. I’m not sure when I’ll have it again, but hopefully I’ve started on that path.
The Phoenix
I had lunch at the Phoenix today, the training restaurant in Lewisham attached to the local college. The food is cooked by third year students and served to paying customers by their classmates. For four days a week, during term-time (plus some evenings) you can enjoy three courses of ‘exciting modern’ food, for less than £15.
I was really excited by the idea of dining somewhere completely different, I haven’t made it along to any of the underground restaurants currently taking London by storm but this felt similar in some ways. We didn’t know what we were going to be served or how well it was going to be cooked so there was an element of uncertainty about the whole thing, we did know that Friday was gourmet day though so we weren’t taking too many risks.
The whole experience was very different to eating in a “normal” restaurant, the dining room was tucked away somewhere in the middle of the college and, despite the proper tablecloths and attempts at silver service, we were still essentially eating in the middle of an academic building.
The ‘staff’ couldn’t have been friendlier, they weren’t professionally trained and made some small mistakes with the orders that might have lost them points in a proper restaurant but they were incredibly enthusiastic and keen – we were even treated to a joke while dessert was served.
And so to the food. After a well presented and technically skilful amuse bouche, I opted for the salmon and crab starter. The crab was somewhat over-powered by the salmon and it was rather too large a portion but it was all very well presented and attractive to look at.
My main course of stuffed pork with a thyme jus was lovely, the meat was well seasoned and perfectly cooked and the jus was a great match in terms of flavour. I was particularly impressed with the well-cooked and expertly crafted vegetables – another example of the skills the students are obviously learning and one I could do with adopting at home.
The desserts though were the real star of the show; even a s a dessert novice, I could tell my choice of apple tart with a crumble topping and caramel sauce was exceptional. I swithered over whether to order dessert or not because I was already approaching fullness but I’m glad I did. Everything about it was brilliant from the perfectly cooked pastry to the crunchy crumble topping and the deliciously sweet but not cloying sauce. I couldn’t eat it all but I’m glad I attempted it.
It was great value and a really good experience which I would definitely recommend if you’re in the area.
Two Bean Chilli
Yes, three or even four bean chilli would have sounded better but I forgot that we had other beans hidden away when it came to soaking time last night. We ended up with black beans and haricot beans which worked well anyway.
The basic recipe is based on our recently tweaked chilli con carne but this version is meat-free, partly because we wanted to eat something slightly lighter than normal this evening and partly because this recipe relies on store-cupboard basics. As there isn’t any meat, I’ve reduced the spicing slightly because I have a vague notion that meat can carry stonger flavours than pulses.
4 tbsp olive oil
2 red chillies, roasted, deseeded and pulped
4 garlic cloves, roasted and then pulped
1.5 tsp ground cumin
3/4 tsp ground coriander
3/4 tsp chipotle chilli powder
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp smoked paprika
Glass red wine
1 large onion, finely chopped
600ml beef stock
400g tin chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato purée
Salt and pepper
Bay leaf
500g mixed beans
1 tsp cocoa powder
Roast the chillies and garlic in the oven for about 30 minutes, on 190 degrees, before removing from the oven leaving to cool down. Remove the seeds from the chilli and squash together with the garlic.
Boil the (soaked overnight) beans for 20 minutes and then rinse well.
Grind the coriander and cumin together in a mortar and pestle and transfer to a bowl, mix with the chilli powder, cinnamon and paprika.
Soften the onions with some salt, add the garlic and chilli pulp to the softened onions and let it cook together for a couple of minutes. Into this mixture, add the powdered spices and cook for a further couple of minutes. Deglaze with some red wine and allow the alcohol to cook out.
Next, add the stock, tomatoes, tomato puree, the bay leaf and season. I left this to bubble together without the beans for a few minutes, mostly because they hadn’t finished cooking but it did give me the opportunity to squash everything together so there weren’t any lumps. Add the beans, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer for an hour and a half. Add the cocoa powder and cook for just a few more minutes.
This would be better left to cool, refrigerated overnight and then served the next day but I wasn’t organised enough for that. It ended up sitting for about four hours and I added the chocolate powder while I was re-heating it which worked well.
The end result was really good but I think I was wrong about the meat carrying stronger flavours, this was definitely spicy but I think it could have taken the same amount of heat as the meat version. We served it with a baked potato and cheese and really didn’t miss the meat at all.
Summer Lentil Ragu
I’d love to claim this as a well though-out, lighter version of our lentil ragu but, in truth, it was mostly an accident. We normally use puy lentils for this dish but bought green ones by mistake last time we went shopping, they behave in pretty much the same way but the result is less dense and altogether lighter. Vegetable stock instead of beef aids the lightening of the dish, as does the lack of hearty mushrooms. I forgot the garlic and also used white wine instead of red which likely contributed to the change in flavours too.
1 onion, finely chopped
1 stick of celery, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 small packet pancetta
200g green lentils
Mixed herbs (I used thyme, rosemary and parsley)
Salt and pepper
1 glass white wine
300ml vegetable stock
1 tin chopped tomatoes
Tablespoon tomato puree
Teaspoon tabasco
Fry pancetta until fat has rendered and remove from the pan. Fry onion, celery and carrot until soft. Add lentils and mix until coated, return the pancetta to the pan. Add herbs and season.
Deglaze with the wine, add the rest of the ingredients, bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer until cooked – I think this took about 45 minutes.
Alsace Tasting – Green and Blue
Last night, Kerri and I went to to an Alsace wine tasting at Green and Blue in East Dulwich. We have been there before for a rather intruiging wine and chocolate tasting and were excited about going back, so much so that on the evening of an impending Tube strike, we ventured out there without knowing how we were going to get home.
Green and Blue are running a three-month promotion on Alsace wines at the moment, which was the reason for the complimentary tasting, and they are also offering some specially chosen dishes that complement the wines well. I have been quite partial to Alsace wine for several years now, but don’t drink it very often. There is something very seductive about the aromatic bouquet of the wines from that region. They can verge on the slightly too sweet side at times and it is hard to tell just from looking at the bottle which ones do, but none of those that we had over the course of the evening fell into that category.
For those that don’t know, Alsace is situated in north eastern France, on the border with Germany. It is in the rain shadow of the Vosges mountains, which means that it is dry and sunny, while its northerly latitude ensures that it is not too hot. These make for ideal vine-growing conditions. Being so close to Germany, and having been part of Germany on and off over its history, there are a number of German influences in the region and one of these is that their wine is sold in tall, German style “flute” bottles. This does tend to put people off them though, which is unfortunate. On the other hand though, it is one of very few French wine regions that actually puts the name of the grape variety on the label, which is helpful to the modern international wine drinker who doesn’t have time to study the intricacies of the Appellation Controllee system.
Okay, enough background and onto the business of the tasting itself. The first of the dishes was marinated artichokes. Artichokes are notoriously difficult to pair with any wine as something in their chemistry or flavour profile just clashes with most wines and leaves a nasty, metallic taste in the mouth. So we were pleasantly surprised to find that they went rather well with the Muscat. There was a brief hint of nasty metallic taste forming, but it soon gave way to a pleasing merge of flavours that for some reason also made the mouth water rather a lot. Maybe this is what washed the nasty taste away? Either way, the result was good.
Reading the back label of the bottle (this was the only one of the four bottles that sported such a modern invention), it made mention of the pink sandstone on which the vineyard was situated. Having just had a look over the Alsace section in my wine diploma text book on the way to the tasting to get some background, one thing that I do remember is that it said that the pink sandstone of the area was generally not very high in minerals and therefore not very useful for growing wine. So it surprised me to read that on the label; not only did they grow it there, but they were proud enough of it to put it on the label. It was a light and delicate wine though, so maybe the lack of minerality was a good thing in this case – no smokiness or earthiness to get in the way of the delicately grapey and floral muscat fruit (yes, this was a wine that actually tasted like grapes!)
Next up was crab with dill mayonnaise and toast, which was served with a Riesling. This was a lovely Riesling, with the nose full of honey, grapefruit and minerality and the same flavours on the palate with a high dose of acidity which gave it a lovely length. This was probably my favourite wine of the evening. It did match the crab well, but I felt that it would have gone better had there been a little lemon in the crab and/or mayonnaise. We discussed this with Kate who was running the tasting and she said you’d need to be careful not to put in too much lemon which would make it too acidic and make the wine taste flabby in comparison. As it was a wine high in acidity I think it could have taken a little, or maybe just some lemon zest and not too much juice.
Then we were served a slice of Popina aubergine tart along with a glass of Gerwurtztramminer. Gerwurtztramminer is a very aromatic grape and makes wines that are fruity, floral, low in acidity and rarely completely dry and are usually paired with spiced foods, so I found this match interesting. Interesting and very good; it was my favourite pairing of the evening. The tart contained the aubergine and also sweet fruitiness from tomatoes and pepper, along with some caramelised onion and a touch of black pepper spice. All of this combined to make the perfect match for the wine.
Last up was a smoked chicken breast with dried red pepper and this was served with a Pinot Gris. It can be strange to think that the rich, aromatic, sometimes biscuity Pinot Gris from Alsace is the same grape that makes rather bland Pinot Grigio from Italy and elsewhere. By this time my tasting notes were getting a little sparse, but I do remember that this was also a very good match, second only to the tart/gewurtz match that preceded it. Eating a slice of the chicken with a little of the pepper at the same time created a flavour combination that paired very well with the wine.
So all in all a lovely evening with some rather good food and wine and some interesting and very successful pairings of the two. And to have it with Alsace wine too was really enjoyable for me in particular, given how fond I am of it. I feel a little like it’s under appreciated and I should go around telling people to drink more of it. Hopefully people will try it some of it because of this three-month promotion and come back for more.
Food and wine matching is something that we sometimes try to do, but usually we’ll end up drinking wine before a meal, then just eating the meal and then drinking more wine afterwards. And all too often we’ll pick a particular wine to match the meal, then end up finishing it before we start eating and need to open another, less well matched bottle to drink with the meal. Bad planning. Or too much drinking. Or both.
As for the transport situation, luckily someone else had looked up a bus to get him home and it took us most of the way home too, after which we soon found another bus to get us the rest of the way, which was nice.
