Archive for the ‘Lunch’ Category
Sunday, February 5th, 2012
We are pretty much slap bang in the middle of Vacherin season, which runs from late September to early April. This creamy, smooth, slightly nutty and super runny cows milk cheese is an Alpine speciality traditionally sold in round wooden boxes, cinched with a piece of spruce bark.
Vacherin is great eaten at room temperature with some bread, but a killer way of serving it is baked. Particularly when it’s been snowing. It’s like a fondue without the hassle and the Abigail’s Party baggage, and is great lunch for two.
Pre-heat your over to 180 – 200c, then remove all the plastic wrapping from the cheese, but leave it in it’s box. Slice a fat clove of garlic, and then using a sharp knife, pierce the Vacherin’s rind and slide in the slices. Pour over around 50ml of white wine, and then put the cheese into the oven to bake until it’s golden brown and bubbling (15minutes or so).
Serve it with whatever you like, but I like a good mix of raw veg like raddishes and carrots, some hunks of good sourdough, a few boiled potatoes (pink fir are particularly good), a pear and a bit of salad.
Then just dunk in your vehicle of choice, and get cheesy.
Tags: Abigail's Party, Alpine, Baked, Carrots, Chese, Cows, Fondue, Garlic, Milk, Mont D'Or, Pear, pink Fir, Potatoes, Raddishes, Salad, Season, Sourdough, Vacherin, White Wine
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes | No Comments »
Friday, January 13th, 2012
We moved to South East London a few weeks ago, and last weekend finally made it down to Brockley Market.
It’s only been going for a few months, but the organisers have pulled together a really nice selection of stalls including organic fruit, veg, meat, as well as a few street food style vendors and some great coffee. Special mention should go out to Mike & Ollie for their delicious mackerel wrap, and the Mother Flipper burger I sampled. Brunch of champions.
In general I have a bit of a problem with the prices of farmers markets in and around London, particularly when it comes to meat, so I decided to set myself a challenge. Spend a tenner or less to put together some decent grub. After spying a nice slab of chuck steak at Jacob’s ladder, I hit on the idea of making pasties. I cheated a bit as the flour and butter I already had at home, but including the cost of store cupboard ingredients I probably still only spent £8 or £9, which is pretty decent for 4 chunky pasties.
Ingredients
For the filling
450g chuck steak
1 medium carrot
1 medium potato
(more…)
Tags: Bake, Brockley Market, Carrot, Chuck Steak, Cornish, Crimping, Onion, Pastry, Pasty, Potato, Salt, Swede, White Pepper
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes | No Comments »
Friday, January 6th, 2012
This post should have gone out around Thanksgiving / Christmas time, but it didn’t. And now it’s too late. Story of my life.
BUT turkey is a much underused meat in this country, it’s low in fat, and if cooked right is pretty tasty too. So hopefully, this recipe will enable some of you to get your burger fix whilst being a bit healthier in January. Oh yeah, and sweet potatoes are officially a superfood now too. Think I turned that one around…
The long-ish ingredient list suggests that this is quite an involved recipe, but it really isn’t. Once you’ve got everything together, it’s pretty easy. The red pepper relish works really well with the burgers, as does a bit of creamed horseradish instead of ketchup or mayo. I like the robust sponginess of ciabatta with these, but feel free to use whatever bread tickles your fancy.
Ingredients (serves 2)
For the patties
400 g turkey mince
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme, finely chopped
1 tbs parsley, finely chopped
(more…)
Tags: Burger, Ciabatta, Creamed Horseradish, Garlic, gruyere, Healthy, Onion, Red Pepper, relish, Spring Onion, Superfood, Sweet Potato, Tabasco, Thanksgiving, Turkey
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 4th, 2012
Day two of me pulling my finger out is another local hero from our stay in New York late last year, and trades the buttery crusts of pies for another American obsession. Barbecue.
I’ve wanted to visit Fette Sau since I read about it three or four years ago. Last time I was in New York, I failed to get my ‘cue on, so this time I vowed not to fly home without coating my face in barbecue sauce.
Tucked away down a side alley in Williamburgh, Brooklyn, Fette Sau is a temple to meat. The walls are adorned with scrawlings of different cuts of various four legged beasts, knives hang behind the bar, the white tiled walls are all butcher shop, and they sell their wares by weight as opposed to portion, which is great from a trying everything point of view. It also exposed the tactical eaters we overheard rejecting anything on the bone as it’s “…dead weight, man…”, which means no ribs, which is crazy right??
I wanted to try as much as I could, so after much deliberation I pulled together what I figured would be a killer selecta. Black Angus Brisket, Spicy Berkshire Pork Sausage, Pulled Berkshire Pork Shoulder, Duroc baby Back Ribs, Burnt-End Baked Beans and some green stuff to keep my digestive system alive. Now I was pretty pleased with the ribs that I made earlier in the year, but this was some next level business. The words that follow are not going to do what I ate justice, because I loved every friggin’ mouthful so much, but here’s a taster.
(more…)
Tags: Baby Back Ribs, Baked Beans, Barbecue, BBQ, Beef, Berkshire, Black Angus, Brisket, Burned Ends, Duroc, Fette Sau, New York, Pig, Pork, Pulled Pork, Sausage, Spicy, Williamsburgh
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Opinion, Travel | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 10th, 2011
Having eaten my fair share of sliders in the US, I’ve been musing over the idea of doing an Anglicised version of these over grown amuse-bouches. I hit on the idea of doing an Ox Tail version around a week ago, but didn’t really have the perfect vehicle for the meat. Then the other day, almost as if he sensed my bun based anguish, Dan Lepard sent me a recipe for his slider buns that are in the Hawksomoor At Home book to try. The recipe will appear in this weekend’s Guardian, and you’ll discover that it contains custard powder. Yep, you read that right, custard powder. As crazy as it sounds, it’s actually a work of evil genius as it makes the buns tender, gives them a brioche like colour, and is vegan to boot.
The Ox Tail gets slow cooked for around 4 hours, so this definitely isn’t a 30 minute meal. In fact some might describe it as ‘a long walk for a ham sandwich’, but I think it’s worth it, and is a great way to use a much under appreciated cut of meat. I’ve served it with a crunchy, sharp, almost Summery slaw to cut through the fatty, sticky meat a bit, but these guys are still definitely winter warmers.
Ingredients (makes 10-12)
For the meaty bit
1 kg Ox Tail
300 ml red wine
300 ml beef stock
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
2 sticks celery, roughly chopped
1 chilli, sliced down the middle
(more…)
Tags: America, Anglicised, Beef Stock, Buns, casserole, Custard Powder, Dan Lepard, Five Spice, Ox Tail, Recipe, Red Cabbage, Red Wine, Redcurrant Jelly, Short & Sweet, Slaw, Sliders, Slow Cook
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Snack, Travel | 9 Comments »
Saturday, September 24th, 2011
Every now and again, you get a really good feeling about a restaurant just by walking past it. In our first week in San Francisco, we walked past The Swan Oyster Depot on our way home after a boozy night out. Even through our alcoholic haze we could tell we were going to like it. It had this really lovely old-school feel to it, so the next day we decided to give it a go. As you can probably conclude from this post, we weren’t disappointed, and we’ve been back a few times since.
But before we get down to the nitty gritty, a short history lesson. The Swan has been around since around 1912, and by the look of the place not much has changed since. The original oyster bar was bought out by a guy called Sal Sancimino and his three cousins (Al, Pat and Frank LaRocca) in 1946, and in turn their kids took it over in the ’70’s, and it not surprisingly has a really friendly, authentic family feel to it.
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Tags: Albacore, Chowder, Clam, Olive Oil, Salmon, San Francisco, Sashimi, Sauvignon Blanc, Scollops, Shellfish, Smoked Salmon, Swan Oyster Depot, Tuna
Posted in Lunch, Reviews, Travel | No Comments »
Saturday, September 17th, 2011
Gyoza, dumplings, wontons, pot stickers, whatever you call them, I love them. They’ve fast become one of my favourite snacks. One of those things that when you think about them, you’ve got to have them.
I’d never really thought of making my own, but a chance encounter with a dumpling press and a packet of wonton wrappers in San Fran’s China town changed all that, and now I can’t stop cranking them out. Of course if I was a real expert, I’d be wrapping them by hand, but I’m not, and the $6 press does a pretty good job.
This Thai influenced recipe has a pork filling, but you can stuff these little guys with whatever you want really. You could do a variation with salmon or shrimp and chive, or maybe even tofu and shitake mushrooms. The cases we’ve found work best are Singapore style dumpling wrappers as they’re a bit thicker and give the pot stickers more substance.
One more thing, the pot stickers get fried on one side (which is how they get their name) and then steamed, so you’re going to need a wok or frying pan with a lid. Lets begin.
Ingredients (makes about 20)
For the pot stickers
250g pork mince
1.5 tablespoons fresh coriander, finely chopped
1.5 tablespoons fresh mint, finely chopped
3 spring onions (scallions), finely chopped
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger (more…)
Tags: Chili, Coriander, Dumplings, Garlic, Ginger, Gyoza, Mint, Pork, Pot Stickers, Scallion, Singapore, Siracha Sauce, Soy, Spring Onion, Thai, Wontons
Posted in Dinner, Lunch, Recipes, Snack | No Comments »
Friday, September 16th, 2011
I’m sure there’s plenty of cock waving when it comes to which nation produces the greatest chefs in the World. Japan? Spain? The US? England? France? Denmark? To be honest, as long as I’ve got a great plate of food in front of me, I don’t really care. But one thing I’d stake my reputation on (for what it’s worth), is that when it comes to making sandwiches, the Yanks p**s all over the competition.
Us Brits may have invented the humble sarnie, but the Americans have taken it to a whole new level. Here the sandwiches are a proper meal, lots of good stuff slapped between whichever kind of bread you fancy. The fact that burgers sit in the same section on a menu kind of sets the tone. Now I’ve tasted the brave new world, I feel kind of sad when I think about the Prets and Eats I used to visit so often back home, especially as most of the really good ones come out of small independent shops and delis.
Anyway, to prove the point, I thought I’d show you the evidence by showing you a few of our favourites (excluding burgers) from the recent months. GET READY TO DROOOOOOLLLL.
The Delores from Rheas Deli
Smoked peppered turkey, spicy cranberry sauce, muenster, bacon, tomatoes, red onion, pickles, pickles jalapenos, spinach on Dutch crunch bread.
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Tags: Bread, Delores Sandwich, Golden Gate Sandwich, Ike's Place, Korean Steak Sandwich, Mayoose's CA-BLT, Meal, Paul Reubens Sandwich, Rhea's Deli, San Francisco, Sandwiches, Sarnie, Saul's Deli, The Eggbert, Whole Foods
Posted in Lunch, Opinion, Travel | 3 Comments »
