Burgers on the Barbecue
Today marks the first day in our quest for the perfect burger. This version included anchovies and capers along with some grated onion, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper and some chopped parsley. They were seasoned just right and the meat (miced chuck steak) was tasty and had a great texture but the anchovies over-powered slightly. The capers worked well though.
Next time, same combination but minus the anchovies. At some point, I’d also like to consider the addition of chilli or tabasco. I’ve used red wine in the past and that’s worked well, as has worcester sauce. We also need to work on a lamb version. I guess we’ll just have to keep on firing up the barbecue.
Tuna, New Potato and Asparagus Salad with Salsa Verde Dressing
We have vaguely talked about tuna last night, but I’d completely forgotten about it by this morning. And Kerri said that she spent most of the day thinking about lamb chops. Somehow, she eventually remembered about the tuna and bought some, along with some potatoes and asparagus.
When I arrived home, she was blending the ingredients for the salsa verde and offered me a taste. I approved. When the potatoes and asparagus were cooked, they went into a bowl and we stirred them up with some of the salsa verde. Then we seared the tuna quickly in a frying pan, just a couple of minutes a side, although the piece wasn’t consistently thick so some of it was a bit less pink than we’d wanted. The well-seared edge bits were very good though.
We sliced the tuna and put it on top of the potato and asparagus “salad” and topped it with a little more salsa verde. Delicious. We drank a crisp, herbaceous sauvignon blanc with it which went well with the salsa verde.
Salsa Verde
15 parsley stalks
15 mint stalks
6 cornichons
20 capers
5 anchovies
1 garlic clove
Heaped tablespoon Dijon mustard
Olive oil
Red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend.
Chalky’s Bark Beer
Kerri went to Whole Foods today at lunch time, and bought me this as a surprise – a beer named after Rick Stein’s beloved dog Chalky who has now sadly passed away but is still very much alive in many re-runs of his television shows.
I rather enjoyed it, along with its interesting addition: ginger, which comes through more in the finish than it does initially.
This is the second Chalky beer – the first one was called Chalky’s Bite. I don’t know if Chalky’s Bark is stronger than his Bite or not.
Smoked Mackerel Salad
Can you tell I was hungry when I took that picture? Stephen is out this evening so rather than reaching for the toast and Marmite as I usually would, I thought I’d use up the salad that was in the fridge and have it with some smoked mackerel. I added a little dressing after the picture was taken of oil, lemon juice and mustard. It doesn’t really need a lot of oil because the mackerel has so much natural oil but the lemon juice and mustard really lifted the flavours.
Spring Soup
“Spring Soup” makes this sound very grand when, in fact, it’s actually just a combination of leftovers from the bottom of the fridge: the watercress from last week’s salad and the ends of the asparagus that we barbecued on Sunday.
1 white onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, sliced
3 large new potatoes, sliced
1 litre vegetable stock
Handful of asparagus stalks
Half bunch of watercress
Salt and pepper
Start by sweating the onion and garlic in a little oil and some salt for about 10 minutes. When softened, add the potatoes, stock, asparagus and salt and pepper and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the watercress and cook for two minutes. Blend. Check for seasoning and rectify if necessary.
This was obviously very quick and cheap to make and was great for lunch with a toasted bagel. I think some paprika would have worked well too, stirred in with the onions.
Barbecued Lamb with Tzatziki, Salad and Pita Bread
After yesterday’s barbecue, we still had most of a barbecued leg of lamb left over. It was Kerri’s suggestion to slice it up and put it into pita bread with some tzatziki and salad, and a very good suggestion it was.
The lamb had retained its barbecued smokiness, and went very well with the garlicky (a little more garlicky than intended) tzatziki. Salad added healthy freshness and crunch. Being such a lovely evening, this seemed just the right sort of food to be eating and I commented that it made me feel like being on holiday.
We do still have quite a lot of the barbecued leg of lamb left over, so might just try the same thing again tomorrow evening unless we come up with a brilliant alternative way of using it up between now and then (it will need to be brilliant to beat this one).
Asparagus and Barbecued Lamb
Looking back, our first barbecue of last year was on 26 April so we’ve beat that by a week. Had we been more organised, I think we could have managed one even earlier this year but as it was, today’s weather was perfect.
Like last year, we’ve spen many hours deliberating what out first barbecued meal was going to be. We initially settled on hamburgers but since we had those on Thursday, decided on asparagus followed a leg of lamb. I bought the asparagus at Borough Market on Friday and we were both keen to try the first of the season. We’re both big fans but were largely underwhelmed with last year’s offerings. Luckily, this was really good and the charcoaled outside produced an almost nuttiness which gave way to the sweet, buttery flavour of the asparagus.
The lamb leg was already part boned so all Stephen needed to do was butterfly it before marinating it overnight in a mixture of oregano, olive oil, bay leaf, garlic and salt and pepper.
When it came to the cooking, Stephen seared it skin side down first, over direct heat for about 10 minutes. He then turned the meat over and seared the other side for five minutes. At this point, the meat was removed from the heat briefly so that the coals could be pushed to the sides for the remainder of the cooking time. Overall cooking time was an hour, with one turn midway and with the lid on the barbecue.
The first barbecued food of the year is always going to be good but I don’t know how to describe just how brilliant this was. First of all, the lamb was English new season so it was good and tasty. Secondly, the marinating not only brings out the flavour of the lamb but helps to tenderise the meat. It adds great flavour too. The smokiness of the coals added another level of flavour and produced meat that was beautifully charred on the outside but juicy and moist in the middle. It took us ages to finish what we were eating because we kept stopping to comment on how much we were enjoying everything, and ebcause we kept going back for more.
Served with a mixed and potato salad which were both great too but nothing like as good as the lamb. The best news is that there’s plenty left over for tonight.
Huge Pork Chops and Strange Little Corn Things
Kerri spent a fair amount of time shopping at Borough Market on Friday afternoon. Amongst other things, she bought ostrich steaks (which we took to a barbecue at my sister’s this afternoon – delicious), “fresh” garlic, Jersey Royal potatoes, various other vegetables and some very impressive-looking pork chops from the Ginger Pig.
We decided to marinate these in a mixture of olive oil, garlic, oregano, lemon juice, salt and pepper. So we mixed all of these ingredients up in a large freezer bag, then added the chops, sealed the bag and rubbed the marinade into the chops inside the bag before leaving them for an hour or so. While we were waiting, we ate some very interesting little things that Kerri had also found at the market… these were “Spanish Spicy Corn”, which were corn kernels that had been expanded somehow, but not in the same way that popcorn is popped:
After the chops had been in the bag marinating for a while, we heated up a little oil in a frying pan, then fried the chops for a few minutes on each side before popping them into a pre-heated (to 180C) oven for ten minutes. They were really good; the meat itself was really delicious and the flavours from the marinade lifted and added to it. We served them with some plainly steamed Jersey Royals which were lovely and some unidentified greens which we sautéed in garlic and butter and turned out brilliantly.
The Stonemason’s Arms
Stephen and I met up with some friends for a drink on Thursday night in Hammersmith and, since we were the most local, we got to choose the venue. The plan was to “go for a few drinks” but I’m far too old for just drinking these days and, knowing that I would need to eat at some point, I suggested the Stonemason’s Arms. We’ve eaten here a few times and while the food isn’t amazing, it’s pretty good and certainly one of the better offerings in the area.
Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long before the boys mentioned they were hungry. I swiftly whipped out the menus and we set about deciding what to eat. It was then that Menu Blindness struck me and I knew I was going to have the hamburger. I could smell pork belly and I knew it would be good (I’ve had it there before) but, having spotted the burger my fate was sealed. The friend to the right of me asked me what I was going to have and I said “burger”, at which point he declared that now he had seen the burger, he couldn’t see anything else on the menu. This pattern continued all the way around the table until I found myself ordering four burgers from the waiter.
They weren’t the finest burgers any of us had ever eaten but they were just what we were after. Even the ridiculously large chips were pretty good.
Pasta with Crayfish and Rocket
I’m the sort of person who likes to plan. I’m not very good at spontaneity, especially when it comes to food. I like to know what I’m going to be eating in advance, preferably a couple of days if possible. I know lots of people would be horrified by this approach but, where food is concerned, I’m a bit of a control freak. As a result of this, we tend to plan menus about a week in advance leaving a little room for movement and always with the understanding that something can be thrown into the freezer if necessary.
The Easter weekend however has left us a little less organised than usual and today we didn’t have a plan. We talked through a couple of options last night and decided on pasta, possibly with some combination of anchovies and capers but when I arrived at Waitrose and saw crayfish, I changed my mind. I suppose you could call this planning as the final dish wasn’t that different to what I originally had in mind but without a vague idea, I would have been wandering around Waitrose without a clue what to buy.
Anyway, after all that waffling, I’m pleased to say this turned out well. It was really quick too. I sliced a chilli and fried it in some olive oil before adding some halved cherry tomatoes. Leave to bubble for a couple of minutes before adding the crayfish and the juice of a lemon. Once this has warmed through (about 2-3 minutes), stir into the drained pasta and add rocket, black pepper and parmesan.
This was quite a mild chilli so it just leant a gentle, backround heat that didn’t overpower the delicate fish. The rocket was peppery, as rocket normally is, which provided another interesting flavour level.
