Friday, 22 April 2011

Thai Green Chicken Curry

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11252/the-ultimate-makeover-thai-green-chicken-curry

This has to be one of the best thai green curry recipes I've ever tried and wonderful for filling the freezer, better than a recent restaurant visit! Also good with prawns. I substitute the rice for brown rice to make it low GI.

Enjoy!

A case of the Emperors new clothes? Zucca, Bermondsey - A review

Whilst I don't usually write reviews on here, I felt compelled to write about the restaurant I went to last night. It had taken me an age to get a suitably timed table and it was infamous for its rave reviews so I went along to Zucca with great expectations (as no doubt did my companion considering how much I'd been going on about it!). Unfortunately, I left deflated and disappointed.

It started well with us being shown to a nice table against the back wall and then we saw the menu. It was somewhat limited (don't get me wrong, I have nothing against small menus, in fact huge menus fill me with dread most of the time) and if it wasn't for the daily special I would have really struggled to have chosen a main.

While we were choosing, we were brought an assortment of breads and some of their olive oil which was delicious and can be bought at the restaurant. Within minutes our starters arrived, I had ordered the Zucca fritti and my companion had the salami with fennel seeds. The first bite of the pumpkin was lovely, crisp with tempura batter and seasoned well but halfway through the very generous portion I was bored and longing for a different texture or added flavour. The generous portion worked well though as my companion was given two thin slices of salami (albeit with some accompaniments) and was able to help me out.

Meanwhile, we still hadn't been able to order our wine. When we finally were able to and asked for recommendations, they were good. A Valpolo for me and a slightly less full bodied one for my companion worked well. What didn't help was that the staff waiting area was right next to our table so we spent most of the evening with a nice close view of their backs. As they were so close you would have hoped that the service would have been good - not once were we asked if we were OK or what we thought of the dishes.

This is more pertinent when it comes to the main course though. I'd ordered the special which was duck ravioli. Absolutely delicious, I cannot fault it. It was full of flavour, excellent home made pasta in a lovely herb butter. However, my companion did not fare so well. He'd ordered the lamb which was fatty and tasteless. Polite as he is, even he didn't finish it and left the majority on his plate. When the waiter came to clear the table, no questions were asked as to why most of it was left.

The waiter then asked if we wanted anything else, I asked for the dessert menu - apparently there isn't one, they just tell you what they do. Why this is I have no idea and we struggled to remember the list of things that were read out. My companion had the Pannacotta which had a perfect texture (like a quivering woman's bosom) and I'd gone for the cheese as nothing on the "list" had appealed. The cheese was nice enough but I do wish that restaurants in England would take note from France and arrange their cheese plates in order of strength. That way your palate isn't assaulted by a strong cheese and then unable to savour the rest. Another oddity, it was served with raisin fruit bread. A first for me and not one I'll be repeating, a bit like the chutney. I have no idea exactly what it was but it managed to be overly sweet and sharp at the same time and did nothing for the cheese.

At arrival we'd been told that they'd need the table back in two and a half hours. That's fine, I'm used to that sort of turnaround time and was looking forward to a nice leisurely dinner. The pace at which the courses were served made me feel like we were at Nandos and within just over an hour, we'd paid the bill and were on our way. It wasn't cheap either; for the above (and my main was a starter portion) and a glass of wine each, it was around £72 including 10% for service.

Its a shame and I wont be going back, but there are far more deserving Italian Restaurants out there. Santore in Exmouth Market, Farringdon is fantastic, well worth a visit. I'll probably come under scathing criticism for daring to point out that Zucca isn't the best little Italian around, but I'll live.

Monday, 11 April 2011

The Perfect Steak...


                   
Served with a red wine sauce and vegetable slice
I love steak...a nice juicy, medium rare fillet steak, caramelised on the outside and flavoured with garlic served with creamy mashed potato and spinach and a rich red wine sauce. Or with crispy chips, fluffy on the inside served with mayonnaise or Dijon mustard. It was the first thing I ate when I started to eat meat again. Anyway, whatever you like with your steak, its hard to make it at home as good as in the restaurants (and even they get it wrong sometimes!). If you've spent out on good quality meat, you want to be pretty sure that you're going to end up with something decent. You can do the below in a frying pan or on a BBQ but if you're doing it on the latter, make sure you rub your steak with the garlic first. Get yourself a pair of cooking tongs, they're the best things for turning and checking pieces of meat. You can of course use other cuts of steak if you wish and apply the same principle.

Ingredients

Fillet steak - 1 per person, around 180g - 225g per steak
Clove of garlic, chopped finely
Salt & pepper
Knob of butter
Olive oil

1. Firstly, heat a large non stick frying pan with a knob of butter. Chop the garlic and fry gently in the butter.

2. In the meantime prepare your steak by freshly grinding salt and pepper on both sides and rubbing thoroughly with olive oil.

 
Oiled

3. Place the steaks in the hot pan - it must be as hot as possible without burning the garlic - and leave them. Do not move them around in the pan, leave them to caramelise.



4. It is difficult to give timings for steaks as they all vary in size so the easiest way to tell how your meat is cooked is to use your hands!

5. Link your thumb and index finger lightly together (it doesn't matter which hand) and prod the fleshy part at the bottom of your thumb. The way this feels is how your steak should feel when it's rare.

6. Next, link your thumb to the third finger. The fleshy part of the hand below the thumb is how a medium steak will feel.

Medium













7. Repeat with thumb and forth finger for medium to well done.

 
Medium to Well Done













8. And with the little finger for well done...

Well Done


9. Once your steak is cooked how you like it, take the meat out of the pan to rest on either a warmed plate or foil for 5-10 minutes to allow the juices to release back into the fibres of the meat.

   10. Serve with whatever takes your fancy!

Enjoy!
 

 

Friday, 8 April 2011

Chilli Con Carne

This is quite possibly the easiest, quickest, most filling and comforting recipe I know. It can be made out of store cupboard ingredients and whatever is left over can be frozen in individual portions (plastic freezer bags or old takeaway containers) so you have your own ready meals on hand. Much better (and cheaper) than buying something processed, filled with E numbers and preservatives and made by a complete stranger. You'll get 6 reasonably large or 8 small portions out of the below recipe and you can serve with brown rice or roasted Cajun sweet potato wedges to make it low GI, or white rice or flour tortillas.

Ingredients

Olive oil
450g beef mince (I use lean, around 10% fat. You can obviously use normal at 20% or extra lean at 5%, depending on what you prefer)
400g tin chopped tomatoes or passatta
400g tin red kidney beans, drained
2 x peppers (I use red and green, mostly for colour)
100ml water
Tomato ketchup
2 Chopped shallots (As before, I use the frozen pre chopped ones from Waitrose)
Clove of garlic, chopped
Butter (generous knob of to finish off)
Salt & Pepper (freshly ground, to taste)
4 x tsps Chilli powder,  tsps Paprika, 1 tsp Cumin powder, 1/2 tsp Cocoa powder, 1/2 tsp Cayenne pepper,  1/2 tsp white pepper (if you're struggling and want a quick way to do it, Schwartz does a good ready mixed powder)
Creme fraiche to finish (you can also use half fat)
Grated cheese (your favourite, to finish)


1. Take a large non stick frying pan and heat a drizzle of olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the garlic and shallots and cook for a few minutes until the flavour is released into the oil.

2. Take the peppers and chop into rough pieces. When you chop the pepper, make sure you remove any pith (the white part on the inside, it's bitter). Add them to the shallots and garlic and fry off.



3. At this point, add the mince and break down with a wooden spatula until it is in small pieces. Stir into the vegetables and fry until the mince is brown all over. Once this is done, there will be some residual water in the pan from the meat. Carefully drain this away down the sink, retaining everything else in the pan.


4. Put back on the heat and add the kidney beans, tomatoes, water and spices. Add 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce and stir. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer for around 15 minutes until the mince is tender.



5. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once the cooking has finished, add the butter and stir. This adds a lovely glossiness and richness to the dish.
6. Serve with whatever accompaniment you choose and top with grated cheese and a generous dollop of creme fraiche. It really works well to cut through the slight heat of the chilli.

Enjoy!