Archive for the ‘Snack’ Category
Tuesday, January 10th, 2012
It would have been Elvis’ birthday on Monday (8th Jan), so in honour of The King I knocked up this version of his his favourite grubs, the peanut butter, bacon and banana sandwich.
I first heard about his ’snack’ of choice some years ago whilst watching a documentary about his eating habits. He was a man with a legendary appetite, even persuading his cook to smuggle bag loads of hot dogs into the hospital where he was being treated for the kind of things that a bunch of dogs would really not have helped.
Based around the Fools Gold Loaf created by the Colorado Mine Company that Elvis famously traveled cross the country to get his hands on, there seem to be lots of different versions of this sandwich out there, but the one I recall from the doc is this one based around the four Bs. Baguette, Bacon, (peanut) Butter and Banana.
The King was known to wolf down piles of these in one sitting, but for those of us with a more moderate constitution, this recipe serves two. Oh, and I candied the bacon in maple syrup, as I figure he would have liked that.
Ingredients
1/2 a baguette
2 tbs smooth peanut butter
4 rashers of bacon
1 ripe banana, sliced
1 tbs maple syrup
Butter for frying
Method
First up, get your frying pan on the heat and drop in a large nob of butter. Once it’s sizzling, get your bacon in there. Elvis reputedly liked his bacon crisp, so give it plenty of time in the pan.
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Tags: Bacon, Baguette, Banana, Birthday, Colorado Mine Company, Elvis, Food, Fools Gold Loaf, Peanut Butter, Presley, Sandwich, Snack, The King
Posted in Recipes, Snack | 1 Comment »
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
Like Hot Cross Buns at Easter, one of the things that make Christmas for me are mince pies. I love them. So when my mate Luke who co-runs clothing label Percival asked if I fancied making some for late night shopping evenings at their new pop up in Covent Garden, I was all over it like a cheap suit.
This recipe is a bit of a remix. Inspired by and finished like the mighty Eccles Cakes of St John, the filling is simpler than traditional mincemeat, but the spices, currants, muscavado sugar and rum pack a treacle-like punch, and instead of beef suet, or that horrible veg substitute, I use frozen, grated butter, so the veggies can chow too. I’d recommend making the filling a good couple of weeks before you make your pies. Over time the flavour gets better and better, and if you keep it cool it will last for ages.
This recipe will make 24 or more mincers. I make them in muffin trays with 6 x 3 dimples which gives them a meat pie like appearance after they’re baked.
Ingredients
For the pastry
480g Plain white (pastry) flour
25g Caster sugar
10g Salt
340g Unsalted butter, cold
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Tags: Allspice, Butter, Christmas, Clothing, Currants, eccles Cake, Mince Pie, Nutmeg, Pastry, Percival, Pop Up, St John, Sweet, Treat
Posted in Recipes, Snack, Sweet Stuff | 2 Comments »
Thursday, November 24th, 2011
Been trying to write a few post US entries, but this baking malarky is busting my arse. I’m knackered!
Anyway, I have managed to pull my finger out a bit, so here are the first couple of things I wanted to share from New York, Smorgasberg & The New Amsterdam Market.
New York doesn’t really seem to have the same kind of street food culture as San Francisco. In SF there were trucks and pop up stalls on every corner, and sure NY has their regulated the hot dog carts for decades, but much less of a mobile scene that pushes the boundaries. That being said, the street food scene is far from undeveloped, in fact it has given birth to something a bit different. The closest thing I can think of to describe it are the Hawker Centres you get in South East Asia. Smorgasberg is one such example, a weekly event on the same site as the famous Brooklyn Flea which collects all manner of food vendors selling some fantastic, and if I’m honest also some not so fantastic, grub.
But I’m not going to dwell on the negatives, as there were two stalls in particular that blew our tiny minds. First up Bon Chovie, which has to be the best food stall name since I saw a kebab van called ‘Jason Donnervan’ in Essex many moons ago. A bit like large whitebait, these guys sell deep fried achovies and boy are they good (picture above). They dip them in egg and then flour seasoned with salt, pepper and paprika , and serve them up with a wedge of lemon, pickled peppers and a smoked paprika aioli. You can eat them head off or on (Jersey style), and they are the perfect combination of crunchy, fishy and salty. They are seriously nice guys too. They give fish a good name.
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Tags: Bon Chovie, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Cured, Dough, Doughnuts, Eat Street, Kings Cross, Market, Mast Brothers, Meathook, New Amsterdam Market, New York, Nordic Breads, Smorgasberg
Posted in Opinion, Snack, 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
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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 | 8 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 »
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
Going back in time a bit, on the last day of the bread section of my course we had a flat bread day. We made pitta, pizza, lavash and naan breads. Knowing we were going to make them, I thought I’d give my course mates a little taste of ‘home’ by making some spiced fillings for a few of the naan. Well everyone knows how much us Brits love a curry.
The breads are made with a whole wheat biga, which is a (typically) Italian stiff pre-ferment, although I imagine the Indians would use hunks of ‘old dough’ to add flavour and a bit of leavening. As the biga is made of whole wheat and has a wee bit of yeast in it, you don’t need to make it the night before, just a few hours before you make your final dough, which has a 3 hour bulk ferment, so you’ll need to get a bit organised.
I made the meat (keema) filling for the carnivores and a vegetarian version for the herbivores and we baked the breads in the schools wood fired oven, which I’m guessing most of you out there don’t have. Don’t worry, you can cook them in your oven at home. Just make sure it’s as hot as Hades, and that you bake the naans on something solid and heat retaining like a pizza stone or heavy roasting tin.
Ready?
Ingredients (makes 4)
For The Bread
380g White Bread Flour
30g Whole Wheat Flour
170g Water (temp of around 26c)
16g Ghee or melted butter
12g Salt
1g Instant Yeast
160g Goat or regular low fat Yoghurt
225g Whole Wheat Biga (see below)
More Ghee / Butter for brushing the bread with
For The Keema
400g Minced Beef
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Tags: Biga, Bread, Butter, Coriander, Cumin, Garlic, Ghee, Keema, Naan, Onions, Oven, Tandoor, Turmeric, Whole Wheat Flour, Wood Oven
Posted in Recipes, Snack, Travel | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 26th, 2011
For the un-initiated, Ray Mears is a legend. He’s a quietly authoritative survival and bush-craft expert, who’s brilliant TV shows have been running in the UK for years. He basically gets to live out every schoolboy’s fantasy of surviving in the great outdoors, whittling wood, foraging, and using a few of the hundred or so ways he knows how to start a fire in the wild.
Anyways, I remember seeing an episode of one of his shows a while ago (I think it was the one where he met up with another survival legend, Les Hiddins aka The Bush Tucker Man) where he cooked foil wrapped bananas with cocoa powder in the dieing embers of his camp fire.
Hardly haute cuisine I think you’ll agree, but they looked tasty, so the next time I had a barbie I thought I’d give it a go, and they’ve been a fixture ever since. So I figured if some guy from New Orleans called Foster can have a banana dish named after him, why can’t our Ray?
These ones are a posher remix of Ray’s iron rations, using dark chocolate and a bit of booze, but I’d like to think the man himself would approve.
Ingredients (per person)
1 ripe banana
2 squares of dark chocolate
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Tags: Banana, Barbecue, Bush Tucker, Bushcraft, Chocolate, Double Cream, Ray Mears, Survival, Vanilla Ice Cream, Whiskey
Posted in Dinner, Recipes, Snack, Sweet Stuff | No Comments »
Monday, June 6th, 2011
BIG day for me on Friday. I broke my S’Mores virginity. We don’t really have anything like this traditional US fireside treat in the UK, so I thought it warranted a little post.
For the uninitiated (as I was until a few days ago) s’mores are a kind of sweet sandwich of Graham Cracker (a bit like a digestive biscuit back home), marshmallow and chocolate. Traditionally enjoyed by girl guides and scouts round the camp fire, you toast a marshmallow over a fire and then sandwich it between two crackers containing a square of chocolate. The residual heat from the molten mallow melts the chocolate, and you’ve got yourself a sweet, chewy, crunchy, chocolatey treat.
We had some ‘posh’ s’mores at college this week as the wood fired oven had been stoked up by Mike, the SFBI’s resident pyromaniac. I was chatting to him about them, and he told me that the Graham cracker was invented by an eccentric minister from the same school of thought as Dr Kellogg, and believed that his crackers could cure all sorts of modern life’s ills from alcoholism to ’self abuse’.
So there you have it. Tasty AND good for you. Win win.
Oh, and I should add that the s’mores in question were created by Jen, one of the interns at SFBI, who has seriously wicked way with all things sweet.
Tags: America, Camp, Camping, Chocolate, Digestive, Fire, Graham Cracker, Marshmallow, S'More, Tradition
Posted in Snack, Sweet Stuff | 1 Comment »
