Mains

Barbequed Chicken with Chili-Aioli

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chicken-1I woke today to a pleasant surprise – Delivery of my very own barbeque!
Barbequeing brings back fond memories of my childhood in Sweden where everyone barbeques as soon as the sun manage to stay up for more than a few hours. We did a lot of barbequeing in my family, at one point I think we had something like three DYI barbeques built with bricks scattered around the garden.
This is the first thing I cooked on the Weber. Gutsy flavours for sure but that’s what you want sometimes.I pared it with quite a heady Marsanne which worked quite well. Could also go with a medium bodied red wine.

This makes enough for about 3-4 persons.

Ingredients for the Barbequed Chicken:
700g chicken breast fillets
2 garlic cloves
1 lime
Half a red chili
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp smoked paprika powder
A few dashes of Tamari soy sauce
Salt (smoked sea salt if you have it)
Pepper

Preparing the barbequed chicken:
Start by preparing the marinade. Press the garlic cloves and the lime into a bowl. De-seed and finely chop the chili. Mix in the chili and the rest of the ingredients.
Cut the chicken fillets into 2 cm big cubes. Put them into the marinade, mix around to make them all coated by marinade. Put some cling film on top of the bowl and marinade in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours, preferably more. Take it out about once per hour and mix it around a bit.
Take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before you want to start cooking it.
Thread the chicken pieces on skewers and barbeque for about 6-10 minutes. Turning the skewers halfway through.

Ingredients for the potatoes:
750g Jersey Royal potatoes
A few sprigs of thyme
2 cloves of garlic
5 black peppercorns
Salt

Preparing the potatoes:
Put a pot of water on to a rolling bowl. Add about a small handful of sea salt to it. You want the water to be quite salty, a bit like sea water. Leave the skin on the garlic but crush them a bit with a chef knife. Add the garlic to the pot with the thyme and peppercorns.
Add the potatoes and let them boil for 15 minutes.
Drain and let cool.
When you are ready to barbeque put the potatoes on and turn them regularly. They will be ready in about 6-10 minutes.

Ingredients for the chili-aioli:
2 egg yolks (in UK I recommend Burford Brown Clarence Court eggs), at room temperature
2 garlic cloves
1 – 2 limes
250 ml groundnut oil (or any other neutral oil), at room temperature
0.25 tsp red chili paste
Salt (smoked sea salt if you have it)
Pepper
A bit of cayenne pepper

Preparing the chili-aioli:
Press the garlic and one of the limes into a glass bowl. Add salt and pepper, egg yolks and chili paste. Whisk together with a balloon whisk.
Slowly add the oil first to ensure that the emulsion is forming, whisking constantly. Whisk until all the oil has been incorporated.
Check for seasoning and some cayenne pepper if it’s not hot enough. Add more salt, pepper, lime juice if needed.

Desserts

Chocolate Ice-Cream with Raspberries

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chocolate_icecream2-1Chocolate ice cream is always great and if you make it with a good chocolate it will be fantastic.
I used Valrhona Guanaja 70 % chocolate that you can buy in 200 g bars for cooking with. The chocolate taste fantastic and melts beautifully into the Creme Anglaise, creating a silky smooth ice cream without any graininess.

I recently started using Clarence Court Burford Brown eggs. They are fantastic eggs with a deep yellow orange yolk.

This makes enough for about 2-3 persons.

Ingredients for the chocolate ice cream:
100 g chocolate (50 – 70 %), finely chopped
70 g caster sugar
3 medium egg yolks
150 ml double cream
150 ml whole milk

Preparing the chocolate ice cream:
Bring the cream, milk and 46 g of the sugar slowly to the boil in preferably a non stick pot while stirring occasionally. At the same time, whisk together the egg yolks and 24 g of the sugar in a glass bowl until it reaches light ribbon consistency.

Temper the yolk mixture by slowly poring over the warm milk mixture while whisking vigorously, when the first bit of milk is incorporated you can poor a bit quicker. A bit like making a mayonnaise.

You have to go slow at the beginning so that you don’t scramble the eggs.

When all the milk is incorporated poor the mixture back into the pot and heat gently over a low to medium heat while stirring with a wooden or silicone spatula. A bit like making a risotto.

When the custard thickens a bit draw a line with your finger through the custard on the spatula. If your finger leaves a line without the custard flowing back together it’s finished. Take it off the heat and stir in the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is melted.

Set a glass or metal bowl into your sink or a bigger bowl and fill the sink with cold water and a few ice cubes. Poor the chocolate custard into the small bowl through a fine meshed sieve or chinois.

Stir occasionally until the custard is cooled down.

Freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Ingredients for the raspberries:
300 g raspberries
25 g caster sugar
1 lemon

Preparing the raspberries:
Put the raspberries in a bowl and poor sugar and lemon juice over them. With a light hand, toss together the raspberries with the sugar and lemon juice.

Leave to macerate for 30 minutes in room temperature. This will boost the flavor of the raspberries.

Bread

Sourdough Bread

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This is my first attempt at making sourdough bread using my homegrown sourdough starter based on water and rye flour.

How to make a rye sourdough starter:

Making a sourdough starter is quite easy. It takes about 5 days until the sourdough starter is ready to use for baking.

You need a jar to keep your sourdough in. I used a 0.5 liter glass Kilner jar. Make sure that the jar is clean and sterilized before you begin.

Once the sourdough starter is finished it needs to be fed about once a week (even though you can leave it for longer). I throw away most of the starter when I feed it, I keep about 50 g in the jar (weigh the empty jar so that you can weigh it with the starter to see how much starter it contains).

I feed it once a week with 60g rye flour and 100g tepid water to 50g starter.

Day 1
Mix 1 tbsp rye flour (I use stoneground organic rye flour) with two tbsp tepid water (30 – 35C, I use Evian spring water) in your jar. Put the jar in a warm place (between 22 – 25C).

If you have a cupboard above your fridge this is a good place since it’s a bit warm.

Do not close the lid, leave it slightly open.

Leave the jar for 24 hours.

Day 2
Look at the sourdough starter. It might be a bit bubbly and maybe a bit foamy. It should smell a bit sweet.

Gently shake the jar to mix it up a bit. That’s it for day 2.

Day 3, Evening
It’s time to feed the sourdough starter. Add 1 tbsp of rye flour to the jar and mix well. We will leave the jar for about 10 hours and then feed it again.

Day 4, Morning
It’s time to feed the sourdough starter for the last time before it’s ready. At this stage it should be bubbly and a bit mousse like in it’s consistency.

We need to throw away some of the starter to get the right ratio. If there is a lot of starter it will require more food (flour and water).

Throw away most of the starter, leave about 1 cm at the bottom of the jar.

Feed it with 2 tbsp tepid water and 2 tbsp rye flour. Leave the jar in a warm place.

Day 4, Evening
The sourdough starter is now finished. Keep the sourdough starter in the fridge. If your jar has a rubber seal, take it off so that the starter can get a small supply of air even though the lid is closed. 


The sourdough starter on Day 1, nighttime.


The final sourdough starter fed the night before the baking. Day 6.


12 hours later. The sourdough starter is alive and bubbling. Day 7.


Mixed with water, salt, stoneground rye flour and strong wheat flour. Left to proof for 2 – 3 hours.


After 2 hours of proofing.


Dough in 1.5 liter loaf tin. Left to proof for 1 hour.


After 1 hour of proofing.


Me and the bread having fun. 🙂


After baking. Returned to oven sans loaf tin for another 10 minutes to further bake the crust.


Final sourdough bread.

Bread

Wild Yeast

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wildyeastWild Apricot Yeast, Day 1
125 g dried organic apricots (the brown ones, not yellow)
50 g honey (locally sourced, not runny)
25 g sugar
250 g tepid spring water (I used Evian)

wildyeast1Day 5
After five days in the jar we can see that the apricots have plumped up nicely and are floating on the surface. When shaking the jar lots of small bubbles (like Champagne) rise to the surface.
The liquid smells a bit boozy, like a liqueur.

wildyeast2The mixture is sieved.
This recipe yielded 150 ml finished wild yeast.

wildyeast3Finally decanted into a bottle. Apparently it will keep for about 2 months in the fridge but the yeast power will be best within a month.

Mains

Jersey Royal Potato Salad

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It’s Spring and the arrival of Jersey Royal potatoes is a true delight.
Here I turn them into a quick and easy potato salad for a weekday supper. Serve the potato salad for instance with a few slices of prosciutto crudo.

This serves about two as a main course.

Ingredients for mayonnaise:
2 medium egg yolks (free range please)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 pinches of salt
1 pinch of cayenne pepper
300 ml groundnut oil (or other unscented oil)
1 lemon

Ingredients for the potato salad:
750 g Jersey Royal potatoes
A few salad onions

Preparing the mayonnaise:
With a balloon whisk – Whisk the egg yolks, mustard, salt and cayenne together in a glass bowl. Gradually, at a very slow trickle, whisk in the oil. This early stage is the most delicate and if you do not mix in the oil very slowly the mayonnaise might curdle.
When you mixed in about half the oil, whisk in the lemon juice from half the lemon to thin it down. Continue adding the oil, you can add it quicker at this stage, until it’s all incorporated.
Check for seasoning and correct with more salt, cayenne or lemon juice if needed.

Preparing the potato salad:
Boil a pot of water, add about a small handful of salt and then the potatoes to the boiling water. They will take about 15 – 20 minutes until tender. When done, drain and place on a tray to cool down to room temperature.
When they potatoes have cooled down, cut them into bite sized pieces and add to a bowl. Thinly slice the salad onions, as much as you prefer, and toss it together with the potatoes. Add some salt and pepper and mix well with a healthy dose of the mayo.

Desserts

Raspberry Sorbet

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This is a wonderful and incredibly fruity sorbet, especially when raspberries are in season.

Ingredients for the raspberry sorbet:
600 g raspberries
100 g caster sugar
Freshly squeezed lemon juice from about half a lemon

Preparing the raspberry sorbet:
Wash the raspberries. Put them in a bowl and sprinkle with the sugar and lemon juice, mixing as you go so all the raspberries are covered by sugar and lemon juice.
Set aside to macerate for 30 minutes at room temperature (this will boost the flavor of the raspberries).
Puree the macerated raspberries in a blender. Push the mixture through a fine sieve into a clean bowl to get rid of the seeds.
Pour the raspberry puree into your ice-cream machine and churn for 20-30 minutes until frozen.

Stocks

White Chicken Stock

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chicken_stockWhite chicken stock is chicken stock where the chicken carcass or whatever you are using have been blanched instead of being roasted or sauteed.
By blanching the chicken first some of the fat and impurities gets removed and can easily be discarded with the blanching water, this results in a clearer stock.
After the stock has been made it’s important to store it in the refrigerator overnight. This makes the fat set on the surface of the stock where it can then be scraped off and discarded. After that the stock can be stored in the fridge for up to five days or the freezer for about three months. Make sure you mark the container you are storing the stock in with the date it was made.

The stock can of course be used for a variety of uses… stocks, braising vegetables, cooking lentils, sauces etc. etc.
It’s a bit of work but it’s so much better than stock you can buy in the supermarket!

This recipe yields about 1.5 liter of stock.

Ingredients for the White chicken stock:
1.5 kg chicken wings (preferably organic)
200g carrots, cut into chunks
2 leeks, white part only, cut into chunks
Half a celery stalk, coarsely chopped
1 onion, studded with 2 cloves
150g button mushrooms, thinly sliced
Six whole black peppercorns
1 bouquet garni (one leek leaf, six parsley stalks, one bay leaf, one sprig of thyme. Herbs wrapped in the leek leaf and tied at both ends with kitchen string.)

Preparing the White chicken stock:
Start by blanching the chicken wings. Put them in a casserole or stock pot (at least 6-7 liters big), cover with 3 liters of cold water. Put the pot on high heat and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the chicken wings from the pot with tongs or a spoon, put into a large colander and rinse thoroughly under cold water. Set aside and throw away the water in the pot and wash it out. The reason why we remove the chicken wings from the pot in this way is to not poor the impurities and scum from the pan over them while in the colander.
Return the chicken wings to the pot and cover with 2.5 liters cold water. Bring to the boil over a low heat and then immediately lower the heat and keep at a simmer.

After 5 minutes of simmering, skim the surface of foam and fat, then add all the other ingredients.
Cook gently for 2 hours, skimming the surface whenever necessary to keep the stock as clear as possible.
Put a bowl large enough to hold the stock in the sink or in a larger bowl. Fill the sink (or bowl) with cold water and add a few ice cubes.
Strain the stock into the smaller bowl through a chinois (a fine-meshed conical sieve) lined with muslin. Let cool in the bowl.
Transfer to a container and put in the fridge overnight. The next day you can easily remove any fat that will at this point have gathered at the surface of the stock.
Refrigerate and use within 4 or 5 days or freeze for up to 3 months (I mark the container with painters tape so that I can write the contents and date produced).

Mains, Pasta

Pasta with Chorizo

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chorizo_pastaThis is one of those pasta dishes that I make time after time again since it’s so tasty and satisfying, and quick enough to make on a weeknight.

I can really recommend San Marzano D.O.P tinned plum tomatoes if you can get hold of them, they are amazing.

This recipe makes enough for two to three persons.

Ingredients for Pasta with Chorizo:
250 g dried pasta (fettuccine or tagliatelle)
100 g chorizo, diced
250 g mushrooms, diced
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 – 2 normal sized red onions, chopped
1 (400 g) tins of Italian plum tomatoes, chopped
5 fresh plum tomatoes, skinned and diced
1 tsp of tomato puree
1/2 tsp crushed chili flakes
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 – 1.5 tsp hot smoked paprika
About 5 – 10 basil leaves, torn
1 tsp dried oregano
1 – 2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley (plus extra for garnish)
40 g butter
Olive oil
Sea salt (preferably Maldon)
Black pepper

Preparing Pasta with Chorizo:
Put a large pot of water on the hob for the pasta.
Heat some olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Sweat the onions for about 5 minutes and then add the garlic. Add the diced fresh plum tomatoes if using and then the tinned plum tomatoes and the tomato puree. Add the oregano, cayenne pepper and chili flakes. Let the sauce boil for about 10 minutes until slightly thickened.
Heat another frying pan over medium to high heat, add a bit of olive oil and then saute the diced chorizo. After a few minutes add half the butter. When the butter is melted transfer the chorizo to the sauce using a slotted spoon. Add the mushrooms to the frying pan and saute them off, season with a bit of salt and pepper, add the rest of the butter to the mushrooms. When the mushrooms look finished add them to the sauce together with the butter and juices. Add the smoked paprika to the sauce together with the parsley and basil.
Boil the pasta.
Drain pasta when it’s al dente and toss with some extra virgin olive oil (this prevents the pasta from sticking). Add the cooked pasta to the pan with the sauce and toss to combine (alternatively poor the sauce on top of the pasta in the bowls).
Serve the pasta in warmed bowls. Grate over some parmigiano reggiano, drizzle over some extra virgin olive oil, a bit of milled black pepper. Add some chopped parsley and a few basil leaves.

Mains

Steak with Potato Wedges and Sauce Béarnaise

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Ingredients for the potato wedges:
3 medium to large sized potatoes per person (I used Maris Piper)
Handful or so of fresh rosemary twigs
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
Two garlic cloves
Olive oil
Salt (preferably Maldon)
Pepper

Preparing the potato wedges:
Bring a pot of water to the boil and put in the thyme sprigs and garlic gloves (with their skins on but crush them a bit with a knife).
Turn the oven on to 200 C. Peel the potatoes and slice each one into six wedges. Put the wedges into the boiling water and let them boil for 5 – 10 minutes. Drain and discard the thyme and garlic.
Put the wedges on an oven tray, drizzle olive oil on top and mix them up a bit so they are all covered by oil. Turn the wedges so that the sharp edge is facing upwards. Season with salt and pepper. Tear off as rosemary leaves and distribute evenly over the potatoes.
Roast in the oven for 25 minutes. After 25 minutes turn the oven to grill, 225 C, to get a nice crispy exterior. After about 5 minutes under the grill the potatoes should be ready.
Turn off the oven and leave the door slightly ajar if you need to keep them warm.

Ingredients for the salad:
Rocket salad leaves
Baby plum tomatoes

Preparing the salad:
Cut the tomatoes in two, combine with the rocket leaves. Dress with the vinaigrette.

Ingredients for the vinaigrette:
50 ml Champagne vinegar
150 ml extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Preparing the vinaigrette:
Make sure that the oil and vinegar is at room temperature since this makes it easier to form the emulsion. Whisk the vinegar and oil together in a bowl until a good emulsion is formed. Season with salt and pepper. It’s better to prepare the vinaigrette 1-3 hours before needed to let the flavors meld.

More to follow…