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

3 sprigs of both rosemary & thyme, tied together

1 tsp Chinese five spice

1 tbs redcurrant jelly

Salt & pepper to taste

Seasoned flour – 2 tbs flour, 1tsp smoked paprika, salt and pepper

For the slaw

1/4 head red cabbage, finely sliced

3 spring onions, finely sliced

1/3 cucumber, finely sliced

Dressing -  100ml olive oil, 50ml lemon juice, 1tsp Dijon mustard, salt & pepper to taste

Method

The first thing to do is get that meat on. Turn your oven on to 160 c, and then in a freezer bag, dump in 2 tablespoons of flour, one teaspoon of smoked paprika and the salt and pepper. Give it a shake to mix it all together, then add the ox tail joints and give it another shake to coat them. Take them out of the bag, pat off the excess flour, and set aside.

Next, in a heavy casserole dish, melt a good nob of butter in some olive oil. Get it good and hot and then brown off the ox tail evenly on all sides. Do this is two batches, and when done set aside again. Roughly chop the veg and garlic, slice your chilli down the center, and add to the hot dish along with the five spice. Stir for a couple of minutes, being careful not to burn the spice and then de-glaze the pan with the red wine and beef stock, and bring to the boil.

Now add the tied herbs, the tomato puree and redcurrant jelly, and once the latter have dissolved, add the ox tail back into the pot (the liquid in the pot should almost cover the joints). Place on the lid and stick it in the oven to slow cook for around 4 hours.

Next make the slaw. Slice the red cabbage, cucumber and spring onions as finely as possible, and then make the dressing with the olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon and seasoning. Give it a good mix and then pour over the vegetables, making sure to coat them all thoroughly. Ideally you should do this a couple of hours before you eat, as the dressing will soften the cabbage and give all the flavours a chance to mingle.

After 4 hours, take the casserole dish out of the oven. Prod the meat, and if it falls off the bone, it’s ready. Remove the joints from the pot, and then pass the cooking liquor through a sieve into a bowl, discarding and bits of herb and vegetable, and then set aside.

When the joints have cooled a bit, remove all the meat from the bones, shredding it as you pull it off. Once you’ve got it all, pop it into the bowl with the liquid, and give it a good stir. You should be left with an unctuous, sticky, very thick, meaty sauce. You’re now ready to assemble the sliders.

Cut the buns in half, and then dollop a generous portion of the meat on the bottom half. Top this with a good helping of the slaw. Pop on the top, and eat. Now wasn’t that worth it?

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

For the coating

150g all purpose flour

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped

2 teaspoons fresh thyme, finely chopped

salt & pepper

Additional

1 large egg

Oil for frying (ground-nut / grape seed / rapeseed)

250g French beans, 1 large clove of garlic & olive oil (for the sauteed beans).

500g new potatoes, milk & butter (for the mash)

Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

The first thing you need to do is ‘marinate’ your chicken in the buttermilk. The whole point of this stage is to tenderise the meat and to help keep it moist during the pretty intense cooking process. But it’s also a chance for you to get a bit of extra flavour into your meat. Note that the chicken will need to sit in the buttermilk for at least 6 hours, preferably over night.

Pour the buttermilk into a large bowl and then crush the garlic clove under a knife and add it to the milk. Chop the onion in to thick slices, smash the rosemary and thyme with a blunt object to release their oils, and then add them to the bowl too. Give the marinade a good mix, and then add the chicken thighs, making sure each one is fully submerged. Cover with clingfilm and  put in the fridge for at least 6 hours.

Later / the following day, take your chicken out of the fridge at least an hour before you cook it. After you’ve done this, prepare the coating. In a large freezer bag, combine the flour, smoked paprika, salt, pepper and the finely chopped rosemary and thyme. Give the bag a good shake so all the ingredients are properly combined.

Now, set your oven to 180c, then remove the chicken thighs from the buttermilk mixture, and wipe off the excess with some kitchen towel (discard the marinade). Place the thighs in the bag two at a time and give them a good shake around to get them nicely coated all over with the seasoned flour. Set aside, and then repeat until all are covered.

Take the egg, crack it into a bowl and whisk it until the yolk is combined with the white. Again 2 at a time, coat the thighs with the egg mixture, let the excess drip off and then return the thighs to the coating bag. Give them another shake to coat all over, and repeat with the remaining chicken. This double dipping in the flour will give your fried crust extra flavour.

Your chicken is now ready to go. Take a heavy bottomed frying pan easily big enough to accommodate the six thighs (if you don’t have a pan big enough, fry in batches), and fill it up about a half an inch with your oil. Get it good and hot, around 160c, until a cube of bread sizzles and quickly fries golden brown in it. Fry the chicken on both sides until dark golden brown. This will probably take around 4 or 5 minutes on each side.

By now the chicken will have great colour and a crispy texture, but will not be cooked all the way through. So place it on a metal rack (NB. not a baking tray or anything solid or the underside of the chicken will get soggy) and pop it into your pre-heated oven for 10 minutes, or until you are satisfied it is cooked through.

Serve as soon as it’s out of the oven with French beans par cooked and the sauteed in olive oil with garlic, salt and pepper, a rustic, skin on new potato mash, lemon wedges for squeezing all over the crispy coating, and hot sauce (for the record my favourite hot sauce of the moment is Melinda’s original Habanero pepper sauce – it’s killer).

And that’s it in all it’s finger lickin’ glory y’all. Sorry about the lack of pictures. I got a bit engrossed in the cooking process and forgot to snap.

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

Pinch of salt and pepper

Flat leaf parsley

Method

The only slightly fiddly and time consuming bit about this recipe is cleaning the mussels. If you’re buying from a supermarket they may have been cleaned already (if so, skip the next couple of stages), but if you’ve picked them up at your local fishmonger you may have to do a bit of work yourself.

The things to watch out for are the ‘beard’ on the underside of the mussel, and and any barnacles on the shell. I find the best thing to do is dump the mussels in big bowl / sink of cold water and then get to work. Remove any beards by holding the mussel with the sharper end of the shell pointing towards you, and then pull the beard towards the round end away from you. Any barnacles can be removed by scraping off with a knife.

Whilst you’re doing this, make sure to pick out any mussels that are open. Tap these open ones on a work surface, if they don’t close they are dead and could make you sick if you eat them, so chuck them out. Now your mussels are clean, pop them into an empty bowl and into your fridge.

Next, get a large saucepan (with a lid) on the heat and melt a decent sized nob of butter in a little olive oil. Whilst this is happening, finely chop your celery, onion and garlic. Add these to the pan and gently sweat off for 6 or 7 minutes until translucent.

Now pop your mussels in the pan, discarding any liquid that has drained from them whilst in the fridge (this is water taken on by them when being cleaned – you don’t want this in your pan) and stir them around a bit. Next pour in the white wine, which should immediately start bubbling, season with salt and pepper, and then pop on the lid to steam the mussels for 3 or 4 minutes, occasionally shaking the pan.

When you open the lid, all the mussels have opened, and you’ll be hit by an amazing aroma of the sea and white wine. Scatter over a bit of chopped parsley, and then divide into two bowls, equally distributing both the musels and the fragrant broth.

Serve with a spinach, watercress, rocket and kohlrabi salad with a punchy mustard, lemon juice and olive oil dressing, and lots of crusty French bread.

Bon appétit.

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

Method

Preheat the oven to 135 degrees, and then heat up half the butter in a saucepan. Add the onions and sweat over a low heat for around 15 minutes or until soft and translucent, but not browned.

Next place the meat in an oven proof dish and add the onions, carrots, thyme and bay leaves. Season well with salt and pepper, and then mix together.

Arrange the potato slices on top of the meat and vegetable mix, overlapping the slices slightly, and then pour the stock and ale into the dish.

Now melt the remaining butter and brush over the potatoes, season with salt, cover with a lid and then pop in the oven to cook for 2 hours.

After two hours, remove the lid from the dish, increase the oven temperature to 150 degrees and continue cooking for a further 30-45 minutes until the potatoes are nicely browned.

Serve in big bowls, making sure you get a good mix of the meat, vegetables and the tasty stock.

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

1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 chilli

Handful of grated Parmesan cheese

Grated nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

2 medium eggs

Olive oil

Method

Start by preparing the the cake. Grate the potato and courgette, and then finely slice the onion (in a food processor if you have one). Turn out onto a clean tea towel, bunch up and squeeze the excess moisture out of the grated veggies. Place in a bowl and add the chopped chilli, finely chopped garlic, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and a few grates of nutmeg. Mix together, crack in the two eggs, mix again thoroughly and then set aside.

Now prep the veal. Scatter plain flour on a large plate and season with salt and pepper, then take another plate and scatter on the breadcrumbs. Chop the thyme, and then mix into the crumbs. Finally beat an egg in a flat bottomed bowl. Take each escalope, pat dry with kitchen towel, and then coat with the seasoned flour. Pat off the excess and then dip in the egg, covering the surface of the meat. Then coat with the breadcrumbs, patting down to make sure the escalope is covered, and then set aside.

Get a large frying pan on the heat, and coat with olive oil. Decant the courgette and potato mixture into the pan and flatten with the back of a spatula to form an even cake about an inch thick, and then turn on your grill to maximum. Cook on the hob for around 5 minutes. Turn up the side of the cake with the spatula, once it’s a dark golden brown, pop it under the grill for another five mintes.

Whilst the courgette and potato cake is in the oven, get another frying pan on the heat. Add some rapeseed or groundnut oil to the pan, and when it’s good and hot, pop in the breaded veal escalopes. Fry on each side for around one minute, or until golden brown. Remove from the pan, rest on kitchen towel to remove excess oil, and you’re ready to eat.

Serve with a slice of the courgette and potato cake, a parsley, red onion and cucumber salad dressed with a nice mustardy vinaigrette, and a wedge of lemon. Buon appetito!

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.

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.

Before you put the pan on the heat, get a saucer and place it in the fridge. I’ll explain why in a minute. Next, put the pan on a high heat and bring up to the boil while stirring. Before long the fruit will start to give up its juices, and the mixture will begin to resemble jam. You need to simmer the jam for about 10 minutes to bring it to setting point. A scum will probably develop on the surface of the mixture; skim this off every few minutes.

After 10 minutes take the pan off the heat, and dribble some of the mixture onto your cold saucer. Place the saucer back in the fridge. After a couple of minutes, take it out again and perform the ‘wrinkle’ test by running your finger through the mixture. If it wrinkles, the jam is at setting point and ready to store, if your finger slides through return to the heat for a few minutes and repeat the test.

If the jam is at setting point, put the mixture in a sterilised jar. You can sterilise jars by pouring in boiling water to the top or placing in the oven for a few minutes at 100ºC.

Leave the jam to cool and then eat or refrigerate. It should keep for 3 – 4 weeks.