Thursday 28 November 2013

Persian pomegranite and pistachio stew



Every now and then, you taste a new taste. It's a bit like what you imagine it would feel like to see a new colour - it opens up your tastebuds and your imagination. These moments are special because they are so rare. I had one of them the first time I tasted Persian cooking with pomegranate molasses. Pomegranate molasses are a transformative ingredient in savoury cooking but are also great in deserts - with a large bowl of Greek yoghurt or with champagne as an aperitif. 

I recently had a large family meal to cook for my grandmother's birthday and having just bought a new bottle of the stuff from a Comptoir Lebanais http://www.lecomptoir.co.uk/shop.html I decided to cook Persian style for the event. This recipe is adapted from the traditional late autumn Persian dish done the same way but with walnuts. I find that the pistachio adds a more luxurious texture and taste to the stew but you can use either. 

This dish serves 8 people

Ingredients: 

12 Skinless, boned chicken thighs
2 large red onions finely chopped
2 large aubergines roughly chopped
2 cups of chicken stock
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp hot paprika
100g shelled pistachios
7tbsp pomegranate molasses
2 tpsb olive oil


Method:

Pan roast your pistachios for 1-2 minutes until you can smell the skin cooking and they start to brown a little - stir all the while. Then leave them to cool. Whilst you wait for the pistachios to cool, finely chop your onion and sauté it with the olive oil in the bottom of a large heavy based saucepan. When the onions are done, set aside, blend your pistachio until it forms a fine soft powder. Add your chicken and your aubergine to the pan with the onion in it. Sprinkle the paprika on top, and brown all over. Once browned, pour in your pistachio closely followed by the chicken stock and molasses. Bring to the boil, then turn down low and allow to simmer for an hour - if you have longer an hour and a half will make a richer flavour and more succulent chicken. 




When your stew is cooking, start to prepare the accompaniments: 

Spinach and cucumber yoghurt:

Ingredients: 

200g spinach
2 cucumbers
1 garlic clove
1 tsp maldon salt flakes
300g greek yogurt
Juice from 1/4 of a lime
2 sprigs of fresh mint
Black pepper to taste

Method:

Wilt your spinach by placing in a large saucepan with a little water, stirring constantly until it is all wilted. Then remove and place in kitchen roll to remove excess water. 
Grate your cucumber as you would a carrot, salt the grated cucumber and place in kitchen roll too
Leave for at least 1/2 hour, regularly squeezing the moisture out of both the spinach and the cucumber until it is as dry as possible. When the spinach is dry, place the mint on top and finely this mixture with a knife. 
Take your garlic clove, peel and crush it with the side of a knife, then place the malton salt on top and scrape the side of the knife over the garlic, applying pressure until you have a garlic pulp. 
I like to saute my garlic so that it's less indigestible, but if you're a big raw garlic fan, use as it is. 

When your garlic is prepared and your greens are dry enough, add to the yogurt in a large bowl and mix. Add a lot of freshly ground black pepper to taste and a little lime juice (1/4 will do it)







I served my dish with a watercress side salad with a light mustard vinaigrette. I also cheated and heated up some ready made naan rather than making rice, as it goes much better with the textures of the stew and the yogurt dish. 


Fresh pomegranate seeds are a nice touch for serving too and really brighten the table up.


For desert, Flo made petit fours: home made marshmallows, macaroons, lemon and poppyseed miniature sponges and raspberries. These were absolutely incredible but will make a Flo blog post for another time. 
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Monday 25 November 2013

Quick Review: Oyster Shed in Waterloo


This place may be a little corporate in crowd and a little contrived in design...but it does what is says on the tin, and I like that tin! The oysters are very good and the Prosecco perfectly palatable. Just the thing for a casual after work bite to eat. The oysters only come in one variety and you can have them either raw (alive!) or baked with cheese. I personally like them fresh since when baked they get a really strong fishy flavor.




What seals the deal is the scenic Thames view and reasonable prices. While not spectacular, the rest of the pan-Mediterranean menu does the job if you are particularly hungry.


In summary, I wouldn't say that Oyster Shed warrants a journey, unless you have an insatiable craving for oysters (I sympathise, honestly!) but it is a pretty good thing to have up your sleeve when the time and place are right. 

Tuesday 19 November 2013

Battered Monkfish with Sweet and Spicy Pineapple...

... served with sweet potato chips.



This is my barstardised version of the delicious meal I had at the Porthminster Beach Cafe in Cornwall. Having failed to procure their recipe I thought I'd have a bash at it myself and the result was pretty close to the real McCoy.

It makes for a fantastically fresh but devilishly deep fried meal and an interesting alternative to your standard fish and chips.

I don't often deep fry things so it was a good learning exercise too. The three key things I found were:

1) Small batches work best (otherwise the temperature of the oil drops right down and takes too long to heat up, making the result less crispy)

2) When using batter it is best to drop your frying basket in the oil and then drop in the battered pieces of fish rather than place them in the basket and then lower the whole thing, since that way the batter gets a bit entangled

3) You need a lot of frying oil! Around 3l for enough chips for 4 people

Two other well known tips: olive oils does not work for deep frying as it has a low burning point. A kitchen thermometer is really helpful for judging the temperature of the oil, otherwise there are various tests involving scraps if bread and a timer that you could look up.

Here are my recipes below (serves 4):

The best order of events is to prepare the garnish first then deal with the sweet potato chips before leaving them in a hot oven and getting onto the fish.


Sweet and Spicy Pineapple Garnish

Ingredients

2 tablespoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of water
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of pineapple juice (squeezed from a bit of your pineapple)
1 chilli

2cm stub of ginger
A large handful of coriander
A large handful of mint
Half a pineapple
4 cloves of garlic
A teaspoon of flour

Method
Begin with the caramel sauce. Place the sugar in a small, thick based pan and heat without stirring until it just begins to go dark brown. Then carefully add the water (avoiding and hot spitting sugar) and let it dissolve the caramel - this will probably involve more heat.


Pour the mix into a saucer and add the soy and pineapple juice to taste (it should be very sweet and salty since you only use a little on each plate).



Now cut your pineapple in half and slice off all the skin. Very finely slice the pineapple horizontally into 1-2mm thick slices (they will look like flowers with the pineapple core in their centre). If you don't get perfect circles it really doesn't matter as you will then cut them into semi circles anyway.

Now deseed your chilli and slice finely. Peel your ginger and slice into threads (see below). Pick your coriander and mint leaves and chop very very roughly (see photo).






Finely slice your garlic and toss in flower to be deep fried just before the sweet potato chips.

When it comes to assembling the whole dish, place the pineapple into a nice tallish clump drizzle over a tablespoon of sauce then sprinkle the herbs, chilli, and garlic on top

Sweet potato chips


Ingredients
1-2 sweet potatoes per person depending on appetite
3l frying oil
Cornflour for dusting
Salt
Mayonnaise for dipping (I cut up coriander into mine. Wasabi mayonnaise would also work well)

Method
Heat the oil to 200 degrees Celsius and turn the oven up to 200 degrees too. Line a baking tray with kitchen towel.


Slice your sweet potatoes into the shape you like - skinny or fat. Toss with flour and a teaspoon of salt.





Once the oil is hot enough add the chips in 3 batches. Each time fry for 6-8 minutes (maybe longer if you are doing thick wedges) until crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. You can check this with a fork.

Scoop them out with a slotted device of some sort, I use a frying basket that I put in the oil before hand.

Carefully shake off the boiling oil and empty onto the kitchen roll lined tray to absorb excess oil. Sprinkle with salt. Place in the oven to keep warm.

Beer Battered Monkfish


Ingredients
4 monkfish fillets
100g self raising flour
150ml beer
A pinch of salt and pepper
3l frying oil (you can use the same oil as the chips)

Method


Heat the oil up to 200 degrees celsius again. (Don't forget to do your garlic for the garnish which you can do at 180 degrees Celsius).

Now make the batter by sifting the flour and seasoning into a bowl, pouring over the beer and mixing.




Coat your fish fillets in the batter and drop into the hot oil. Fry for 8-12 minutes until the batter is a good colour and crispy.

When done drain and pat off excess oil with kitchen roll then serve immediately while hot.




Thursday 14 November 2013

Night Tales from Dalston

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of attending the launch night of Night Tales in Dalston. This is a wonderful gig put on by the Bootstrap studios lot of the Dalston Roof park that we've all been queuing for all summer. If you weren't you either have a Boot Strap studio (no queue for those fuckers), or you should have been.


Night Tales takes place in a car park round the back of the Arcola Theatre (downstairs from Bootstrap). It has all of the wonderful pop-uppery of late: Smokey Tails and Patty and Bun under one roof, plus a negroni bar that has hot spiced negronis for sale. This is basically a novelty mulled wine, but being the aperitif bitters fan that I am, was exactly what the doctor ordered. 

Excuse the 'atmospheric pics' my proper camera battery died!

Night tales will be on for the winter Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Get down early as there's a queue and wrap up warm. The spiced negronis will sort you out once you're inside!
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Friday 8 November 2013

Hoi Polloi Review

Hoi Polloi: ˌhɔɪ pɒˈlɔɪ/
noun
derogatory
  1. 1.
    the masses; the common people.
    "avoid mixing with the hoi polloi"
    synonyms:the masses, the common people, the populace, the public, the people,the multitude, the rank and file, the lower orders, the crowd, the commonality, the commonalty, the commons, the third estate, the plebeians; More
Hoi Polloi, the new Ace Hotel restaurant is accessed through a florist on Shoreditch High Street. Stepping through lillies into a cool, modern interior to be greeted by smiling and relaxed staff pretty much sets the tone. This isn't anything like the luxury hotel restaurant experiences to be had in Central London it feels natural, relaxed and calming- it even makes The Boundary look a little sniffy. 


The drinks menu provides great aperitif and digestif cocktail suggestions. Drinks to be had as an accompaniment to a great meal (which we will come on to), rather than as a sickly appetite spoiler. My Omi Poloni, a kind of Port Sour was perfectly pitched between sweet and sour. The ideal start to our evening.



After one or two in the hotel bar, we went to our table. The menus are newspapers left out on your table for you to unfold at your leisure. With a lot of choice, you should take your time. I asked the waiter for his favourite dishes and went with a few of his suggestions.
Pork puffs to start were incredible... 
 Swiftly followed by my favourite dish of the evening: liver and leeks - this dish is absolute heaven. The boy who doesn't usually like liver had his mind changed in seconds. I cannot describe the joy of this dish, you have to try it for yourselves.

 The fresh crab salad with aioli was the perfect balancer of the rich liver dish. Fluffy and fresh, exactly as you'd want it.



Then for the main course, the skirt with an onion rosti on top and dripping chips.
 With an accompaniment of mushroom and truffle gnocci. 
I'll let the images speak for themselves. Sadly we were too full for desert but will certainly be going back for more. 

Go hungry and thirsty, book well in advance here or do as I did and put your name down for cancellations, they came through within hours... 

You can thank me later. 
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