After a Long Break from the Blog...A Herbacious Return

Working in the herb business has resulted in several commercial requests for the backstory on certain herbs and for recipes that showcase them, I thought it would be a good idea to share some of the pieces I have been asked to write.

Rosemary:

 

 

 

The name Rosemary is derived from the Latin word Ros, meaning dew and Marinus, meaning sea. This is likely to be a result of the perennial herb originating in Mediterranean regions growing near the sea. It was brought to England by the Romans in the 8^th Century and has been in use both for culinary and medicinal purposes ever since.

Rosemary is one of the predominant herbs used in Italian cuisine, particularly in lamb and chicken dishes, but is also an excellent choice to roast with vegetables and potatoes. A fantastic method to impart flavour is to use Rosemary sprigs as a replacement for wooden or metal skewers in either the grill or on the barbeque. A quick and effective method for using up some leftover Rosemary sprigs is to pop them in a bottle of olive oil to infuse.

An authentic Italian recipe which can often be found as a ready meal option which does not capture its true deliciousness is the traditional rustic dish, Hunters Chicken. This wonderful combination pays tribute to the herb’s Mediterranean heritage.

 

Recipe:

Traditional Hunter’s Chicken (Pollo alla Cacciatora) Serves 4

Ingredients:

                1.5 kg chicken, jointed, or use the equivalent amount of chicken pieces

                            sea salt

                            freshly ground black pepper

                            6 bay leaves

                            6 sprigs fresh rosemary

                            3 cloves garlic, peeled (1 crushed, 2 sliced)

                            ½ bottle Chianti

                            1 tbsp flour, for dusting

                            4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

                            6 anchovy fillets

                            1 handful kalamata olives stoned

            2 x 400 g good-quality tinned plum tomatoes

 

Method:

First in a large pan season the chicken pieces with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the bay leaves and rosemary sprigs and the crushed clove of garlic and cover with the wine. Leave to marinate for at least 2 hours, but ideally overnight in the fridge to really flavour the chicken. Preheat your oven to 170ºC/350ºF. Strain the chicken, keeping the wonderful marinade, and pat dry with kitchen paper. Dust the chicken pieces with flour and heat an ovenproof pan, add the olive oil, fry the chicken pieces until browned all over then rest these on a plate. Place the pan you cooked the chicken in back on the heat and add the sliced garlic. Fry gently until slightly translucent, then add the anchovies, olives, and the tomatoes, use a wooden spoon to break these down a little. Finally add the chicken pieces with their reserved marinade. Bring to a simmer, cover with a lid and cook over a medium heat for 1 ½ hours. Skim off any oil that's collected on top of the sauce, then stir, taste and add a little salt and pepper if necessary. Just before serving, remove the rosemary and bay, they have served their purpose. This dish is perfect with new potatoes and salad, simple sides compliment the chicken’s richness perfectly.

 

Thyme:

 

 

 

Thyme is a Mediterranean perennial herb that is a part of the wider mint family. The herb has a rich and mythical history, it is said that the Ancient Greeks burnt the herb in their temples, believing it to be a source of courage, it was later given to knights by women for the same purpose when setting off for battle.

Thyme’s strong and aromatic flavour is well suited to many meat dishes, particularly game and chicken. The herb’s woody composition makes it well suited to longer cooking times and so is excellent in stews and can be used as part of a bouquet garni with similarly hardy herbs such as Rosemary and Bay. Another great idea is to roast tomatoes whole with some Thyme and olive oil for a wonderful side dish.

In Autumn months Thyme marries particularly well with seasonal nutty mushrooms and beef in a slow cooked dinner party favourite.

 

Recipe:

Slow Cooked Beef with Thyme, Garlic and Mushrooms: Serves 4

 

Ingredients:

        1kg beef topside

        2 tbsp sunflower oil

        black pepper

        30g butter

        1 onion finely chopped

        1 carrot, finely chopped

        1 celery stalk, finely chopped

        125g streaky bacon, diced

        2 tbsp plain flour

        250ml red wine

        12 garlic cloves

        12 shallots

        6 peeled carrots cut into roughly

        4 tender celery stalks, cut into roughly

        450gm mushrooms (mixture of varieties roughly chopped)

        3 tbsp fresh thyme leaves (stripped from stems)

salt

Method:

Heat the oil in a large, heavy casserole with a lid, add the meat and fry until sealed and browned all over. Remove from the pan and sprinkle all over with pepper and leave to rest. Preheat your oven to 160ºC/320ºF.

Next add the butter to the pan with the chopped onion, carrot, celery and diced bacon. Cook over a medium heat until golden and slightly softened, roughly 10 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and stir for about a minute. Pour the wine and bring to the boil, allowing some of the alcohol to evapourate. Make sure you scrap the bottom of the pan with the spoon. Now reduce the heat so the liquid barely simmers. This is essential as boiling will make the meat extremely tough.

Return the meat to the pan with the juices that will have run from it while resting and surround with the garlic, shallots, carrots and celery. Arrange a layer of mushrooms on top and scatter over the thyme leaves.

Cover the pan tightly and put in the oven to cook until very tender, 3-4 hours. Before serving, if the sauce looks too thin, remove the meat and the vegetable pieces and keep warm covered with foil in the oven while you boil down the juices until further concentrated.

Season with salt and pepper to taste. To serve, cut the beef into thick slices and spoon over the vegetables and juices. A perfect side dish is a simple celeriac mash and some seasonal greens.

 I will add some photos for these recipes as soon as I have time to cook them!

Canape Shots

I thought I would just upload a few shots of canapes from a variety of events. Food photography is a great hobby of mine and I would love to learn more about it, and get my pictures looking a bit more pro! 

The Foccacia that travelled

Firstly, foccacia is no where near as difficult to make as you might believe, and in this recipe the dough is very forgiving, as I proved (haha) by breaking the usual bread making rules.

I proved the dough overnight, then it travelled up to Notting Hill, where I was assisting on a shoot for the day, I then knocked it back and cooked it...some of the bread made a delicious accompaniment to lunch. The rest was used for a dinner I was catering that night.

Ingredients:

For this bread, you will need: (Which will make 2 loaves)

700gm strong white flour

1/2 tsp salt

10gm sugar

50gm butter

1 packet fast acting yeast, or 15gm fresh yeast (better)

4 tbsp olive oil

350-400ml lukewarm water

For the surface: Some extra olive oil, rock salt, rosemary (optional)

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 230 degrees celsius.

In a large mixing bowl sieve in the flour and add in the salt and sugar, rub in the butter and add the yeast. Mix thoroughly. 

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, add the oil and majority of lukewarm water, mix to a loose dough. Add more flour or water if necessary.

Turn the dough onto a clean, lightly floured surface and leave to relax for 5 minutes. Then knead for 10 minutes, or until smooth and springy. Relax again for 10 minutes. On an oiled baking sheet, shape into two flat loaves of about an inch in height. Don't worry about making them round, give them some character!

Make dents fairly firmly with your fingers and brush generously with olive oil, poke in the sprigs of rosemary then sprinkle with rock salt. Allow to rise for about 30 minutes, pop into the oven for 5 minutes, then decrease the temperature to 200 degrees celsius for about 20 minutes.

And there you have it, impressive but easy foccacia!

Jam

So this is extremely long overdue, jam. Jam is one of the joys of summer- so I made a batch of strawberry which went down very well with the lucky one's who received a pot.

 All you need is some lovely, fresh unblemished and preferably hand picked fruit, two thirds of the weight of the fruit on granulated sugar, and a squeeze of lemon (for the pectin). And that is it. Simple. Well, you also need a big pan and a hob and some jars...

Put your sugar and fruit in a pan large enough, turn on the heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Then put a little plate i n the fridge, this you will use to test to see whether your jam has reached setting point.

Allow the jam to boil for, oh, about 8 minutes then spoon a little onto your chilled plate. If when you run your finger through it, the mixture creases (wrinkles, whatever you like) then you are hood to go. Have your sterilised pots to hand (washed then popped into an oven at 100 degrees celsius for 10 minutes) and fill them. It is easiest to put the jam into a jug and pour into the pots. Minimal wastage. Now I know it's a while before summer's bounty will be upon us...but remember it is almost marmalade time...

Delicious Hot Chicken Noodle Broth, Great for a Cold

I have a horrible cold and have had for at least a month now, but sometimes out of the darkness comes light. And an excuse to feel sorry for yourself is sometimes quite nice, no? Here was mine. This broth is extremely versatile and can be the receptical of whatever vegetables you have lying around. The key really is a good chicken stock, so ideally make one from the leftovers of a roast chicken. By doing so you'll be killing two birds with one stone, the stock and the chicken for shredding in one fell swoop. If you really don't have time or inclination, this broth will be just fine rather than fantastic.

So, once you have the chicken stock (or cubes- shame on you) ready and your chicken finely shredded, get yourself a couple of inches of peeled ginger, two chillis, a couple of peeled garlic cloves and a couple of pieces of lemon grass. Give it all a good bashing in a pestle and mortar...or put in an ever handy freezer bag (always good and strong) and hit it with a rolling pin, or wooden spoon.

When you open the bag it will smell amazing.

Right, have your stock boiling away in a pan, a pan that is large enough to cook the required amount of noodles in, so also consider  whether you need to add water if there is not enough stock. Through in your noodles, ensure that you do not over cook them. Next add in the contents of your mortar/ freezer bag, and the chicken. Squeeze in the juice of two lemons or limes, add a good glug of soy sauce and some fish sauce...finally lots of freshly chopped coriander and its stalks.

Give the broth a taste, it should have a real kick of chilli and zing of lime, taste it also for the balance of saltiness from the fish sauce and the soy. The main reason I haven't quantified a recipe for this dish is because it is SO subjective. Trial and error will be key.

I think it's a really good idea to serve with some extra lemon/lime wedges, coriander and spring onion. Enjoy!

My Favourite Animal is Steak

This is a take on Jamie's Fillet Steak with Creamy Leeks and Butter Beans. If you fancy pepping up your steak, this is a brilliant recipe. The sauce created when the meat juices, leeks and beans are combined  is really something to behold. It would work well with rib-eye or sirloin...but is especially wonderful with a nice piece of tender fillet. I aslo served it with wedges and a green salad. I'm a bit of a salad enthusiast and deem it a necessary element of most meals. If you don't agree, don't have the salad, but I will never understand you.

The raw elements of the dish:



The ingredients, for two:

2 200gm fillet steaks (or as big you want)
About 4 maris piper/ king edward potatoes
Salad (optional but advised)
A good couple of glugs of Olive Oil (EV)
Salt
Pepper
1 Lemon

For the Leeks and Beans:

1 Garlic Clove
2 leeks
1 tin of Butter Beans (or dried)
Knob of Butter (about 10 gms)
Big pinch of Thyme (fresh would be best)
Small handful of Parsley finely chopped
About a glass of White Wine
1 Tbs Creme Fraiche

Right, so if you want to do the wedges, start by pre-heating your oven to about 190, and chop your potatoes into eighths of roughly the same size to ensure even cooking. Put a roasting tray of a size that means the potatoes can be spread in one layer into the oven with a good glug of olive oil in it. Preheating the tray and the oil really helps to get the potatoes cooking.

Potatoes in, now get on with washing and finely slicing your leeks. Keep any off cuts if you think there's a chance they'll be handy in a stock etc in the next couple of days. Whatever you do with them, please refrain from putting them in the bin! Get a suitable pan on the go with the knob of butter and a little olive oil. Finely chop the garlic and thyme and add to the pan with the leeks. Sweat gently on a low heat for about 20 minutes, until the leeks are really soft. Check your potatoes and give them a jiggle. If you have wisely opted for a salad, now is its time.

Increase the heat and slosh in the white wine, allow it to boil and once it does, toss in the drained beans and a splash of water so the beans are almost covered with liquid. I would recommend getting your griddle pan, or thick frying pan, or whatever best equipment you have for cooking your steak. I used a griddle on the hob, you want it super hot. Simmer for ten minutes to soften the beans and thicken the sauce slightly. Now you can add in the final bits; the parsley, creme fraiche, a glug of olive oil and season.

 

Time to cook your hunks of meat, season and brush with olive oil. I cooked mine, which were roughly an inch thick, for about 2 minutes on each side for rare, but it obviously depends on the thickness of your steak.

 When you're satisfied, pop them on a plate to rest for five minutes, drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice and slice thickly. Spoon the leeks and beans onto hot plates and lay the steak over the top. Pour over some of the resting juices and you're done!

Bill's Lunch...is it worth it?

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the food at Bill's in Lewes. The aesthetics of the cafe teamed with the constant hustle and bustle create a lovely atmosphere. Displays of beautiful artisan breads, oversized pumpkins and hanging chillis really draw you in, making every item on sale an absolute necessity.

 I went on Mum's Birthday this week for a quick lunch. We both chose the same dish on the menu, a feta and cous cous salad.

 

As you can see it is a visual feast...but really, it's rocket, cheese and cous cous for a tenner. But I knew that when I ordered it. And I didn't feel over charged (not that I picked up the bill (haha)). What you pay for at Bill's is the whole experience, the queuing and other negatives that are often cited are from people missing the point. Bill's has achieved the incredible in terms of marketing, it's a cafe charging twice what it should and that's why people go. They might not realise it but it is. Everyone wants a bit of Bill's. Including me. And the salad was good by the way, for what it was. I know this has probably been a misleading passage, but I do feel slightly misled (in a positive way) every time I find myself in the establishment. Delight and bewilderment sit side by side, time and time again.

Joss turned her back on me because I didn't save her any feta.