Posts Tagged ‘Recipe’

Ox Tail Sliders

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

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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.

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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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SFC – Southern Fried Chicken

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

The other day the missus suggested that I should tackle some indigenous recipes on Hand To Mouth. The kind of food that, for better or worse, the good ol’ US of A is known for. So this is the first of these American Classics, Southern Fried Chicken.

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I’m no food snob. I love a bit of fried chicken. A KFC or Junior Spesh after a night out is one of life’s pleasures. But there’s nothing wrong with elevating it a couple of notches either. I use thighs for this recipe, as to my taste they’ve got the right skin to flesh ratio, and of course that tasty dark meat. I also use a good dose of not very traditional herbs and spices in the coating.

Buttermilk isn’t that easy to get in the UK, so if you can’t get it, some live yhogurt will do just as well. Lets get cookin’.

Ingredients (serves 2)

6 chicken thighs

For the ‘marinade’

1 pint (600ml) buttermilk

1 clove of garlic

1/2 an medium onion

Sprig of rosemary

Sprig of time

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Moules Marinières

Sunday, April 3rd, 2011

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Mussels are back in season, and I can think of no better way to do them justice that with the classic French Marinière.

Not only is this recipe incredibly tasty, it’s as fast as hell; from chopping board to stuffing your face in 15 minutes flat as long as your mussels are clean. As an added bonus, mussels are pretty cheap, with a kilo coming in at around 5 or 6 pounds.

Lets do this.

Ingredients

1 kilo of mussels

1 stick celery, finely chopped

1/2 large onion, finely chopped

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

200ml good white wine

Nob of butter

Olive oil

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T&T #1 – Great British Food’s Lancashire Hot Pot

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

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As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been looking at new features to add to Hand To Mouth. My friend Dazzler suggested I try re-creating recipes from weird and wonderful books, which I thought was a great idea. This first ‘Tried & Tested’ post fits more into the latter category, as it comes from a rather lovely new cookery book called ‘Great British Food‘.

Put together by the guys behind the brilliant Canteen mini chain of restaurants, this Lancashire Hot Pot stays true to their ethos of cooking gutsy, tasty, good quality, British grub. The recipe calls for leg mutton, which I couldn’t get hold of at the time of cooking, so instead I used shoulder of lamb.

The recipe takes a bit of prep, but once you get going it’s pretty easy, and it tastes reet good.

Ingredients (serves 6)

50g butter

250g onions, sliced

1kg boned leg of mutton, 3-4cm dice

150g carrots, sliced

10g fresh thyme, leaves picked

3 bay leaves

700g floury potatoes (Maris Piper), peeled ad thinly sliced

500ml meat stock

100ml meat stock

Salt and black pepper

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Veal Escalope Milanese with Courgette & Potato Cake

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

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Veal had a bit of a bad rep in the 80s, but that didn’t stop the veal escalope becoming one of my favourite things to eat when I was growing up. There used to be this great Italian restaurant called La Baita up the road from my folk’s place in North London that we’d to go to on a pretty regular basis. I pretty much always ordered the veal escalope, which was served with sauteed potatoes and deep fried courgette. Not exactly healthy, but very tasty.

This is a bit of a remix of that childhood favourite. The prep is a bit fiddly, but well worth it.

Ingredients

For the Veal

2 veal escalopes

Seasoned plain flour

Thyme, finely chopped

Breadcrumbs (enough to coat both escalopes – 250 ish g)

1 egg, beaten

For the Courgette & Potato Cake

1 large potato, grated

3 courgettes, grated

1 medium onion, finely sliced

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Harvest Festival

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
Image from factmagazine.co.uk

Image - factmagazine.co.uk

Joe Goddard of Hot Chip fame has just released a solo album called ‘Harvest Festival’, and I’m liking it. I’m a big fan of the Chip, and listening to ‘Harvest Festival’ it’s clear who influences the beats and bleeps in their releases.

Each of the tracks has a fruity theme (hence the post), Apple Bobbing, Go Bananas, Sour Grapes to name but three, and range from the melancholy and melodic to the more bass bin troubling.

There’s also a nice surprise if you buy the CD or vinyl. You get a recipe for a Tomato Harvest Chutney from the suspiciously well connected Rosie Lovell of Rosie’s Deli Cafe in Brixton. Nice touch.

Jam On It

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

The summer fruit season is pretty much done and dusted, but you can hang on to it by making your own strawberry jam. It’s a piece of piss with just three ingredients, and it’s reet tasty.

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Ingredients

500g English strawberries

75g vanilla sugar

Juice of half a lemon

Method

Hull the strawberries (remove the leafy top and pale fruit) with the tip of a sharp knife and then wash. Dry off with a tea towel and place in a large pan. Add the vanilla sugar (vanilla sugar is easy to make – every time you scrape out a vanilla pod, put the remains in a jam jar with caster sugar – after a week or so the sugar will take on a lovely vanilla smell and taste) and lemon juice and stir. (more…)