Braised Oxtail in Star Anise and Soy

Years ago living in Canada I would often go for DimSum when I had a hangover while I love dumplings my favouties were often slightly unidentifiable sticky pieces of bone in spicy sauces. Somehow I have a cold again so I wanted something that would cut through my tastebuds

The market always has piles of oxtails which I thought would be perfect , a quick trip to the Chinese supermarket to stock up on ingredients I managed to lose an hour in there so many lovely things.

You need to make some fluffy  rice and to go with the delicious sticky sticky juice, my perfect tip for cooking rice. Just cover the rice with cold water and bring to the boil , then leave for 10 minutes

I think this dish is best eaten with your fingers plenty of chewing and slurping ,perfect as those autumn days.

Braised Oxtail

Serves 2
4 oxtails
5tbps of thick soy sauce
3 tbsp of rice wine
4 tbsp of rice wine vinegar
1 pint of beef stock
1 tsp of fermented soy beans
2 star anise
2 red birds eye chilli
2 cloves of garlic finely sliced
Juice and Zest of a satsuma
1 thumb of ginger cut into matchsticks
1 tbsp of ground nut oil

1. Heat the oil in a pan and sear the oxtail on all sides
2. Add the garlic ,ginger, chilli, star anise heat in the oil for a minute or two
3. Add the liquids and satsuma juice and zest and cover
4. Place in the oven at 150degC for two hours
5. Serve with rice

Roasted Preserved Lemon Chicken

This roasted chicken recipe recipe is slightly adapted from Casa Moro, I think any combination of hot spices with the preserved lemon  makes a delicious
roast . Leaving  the chicken to rest after roasting means you can use
the combined chicken and roasted lemon/spices to make a tart gravy with crunchy bits of roasted spices.

Preserved lemons are one of my favourite ingredients , delicious with meat, fish & in salad and one of those wonderful things to make yourself. It takes only a few minutes and a lot of salt . I keep a jar in the fridge

Moro Roast Chicken with Preserved Lemon
1 medium sized chicken
1 whole preserved lemon
1 tbsp of cumin seeds
1 tsp of chilli flakes
1 tbsp of coriander seeds
1 tbsp of olive oil

1. Food process together the lemon,  cumin ,coriander , chilli flakes and oil to form a marinade.
2. Rub the chicken with the marinade.
3. Leave overnight.
4. Roast at 190degC for 1.5 hours
5. Leave to rest for at least 10 minutes

Home , Heart , Homegrown and Homemade

Last week I was tagged by Wendy at A Wee Bit of Cooking on the subject of home with a meme for  Refugee Week 2009.  The campaign aims to raise awareness of refugees’ contributions to society through a wide range of cultural and educational programmes nationwide. Inspired by the the Simple Acts campaign encouraging people to do one little thing to understand the experience of being an exile a little better Wendy has provided a  meme  ,  “What Does Home Mean to You?” with the challenge post three photos which represent “home” to you and write a little about each one , check out her post here

Home is where the heart is

They say home is where the heart is and thats even more true recently for me.  Nick and I have been together for a couple of years,  commuting back and forth weekends between eachothers respective homes in the South West and Derbyshire.  One Sunday a few months ago as the usual sadness at leaving settled in , packing my clothes up.  I finally said enough and committed to making his home mine.

Homegrown

One of the most positive things about leaving my small studio flat in the centre of Bristol is  having a garden. Which for me is an increasingly big part of home . I had brought seeds from my previous gardens , now scattered around the edible poppies & nasturtiums are coming into flower , we have also dug a vege-patch so increasingly we will be eating home-grown

Homemade

Well this is a foodblog after all for my mum and step-dads were visit this weekend .  I wanted to make something of a tribute to my new home in Derbyshire , Bakewell Tart. This dish was supposedly created by accident when an inexperienced cook was making a jam tart and forgot to put the almond egg mix into the pastry  Not sure I believe the story but it’s a delicious tart reminiscent of a frangipane or even tart au citron.

Bakewell Tart.

Pastry

125g plain flour
75g unsalted butter , cold and diced
25g caster sugar
1 egg yolk and white seperated

Filling

3 heaped tbsp cherry jam
150g unsalted butter , at room temperature
150g caster sugar
3 eggs , beaten
150g ground almonds
lemon , zested

1. To make the pastry tip the flour, butter and sugar into a food processor .  Whiz until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
2. Add the egg yolk and 1 tsp of cold water,  pulse until the dough comes together.
3. Cover and chill for 30mins.
4.  Roll out the pastry to 3mm thickness.
5. Line a 20cm fluted tart tin with a depth of 31/2 cm. Prick the base with a fork. Heat the oven to 180degC.
6. Line the pastry case with baking parchment . Cook for about 20 minutes til the pastry is a pale golden colour.
7. Spread the jam in an even layer over the base of the pastry case.
8. Cream together the butter and caster sugar, add the beaten eggs and egg yolk. Fold in the ground almonds and lemon zest.
9. Spoon the mixture over the jam and spread level. Bake for 20 minutes. Scatter with the flaked almonds and continue to cook for a further 15-20 minutes until golden and set.
10. Cool to room temperature, dust with icing sugar and serve with pouring cream or custard.

I am tagging

• Anne at Annes Kitchen
• Jules Domestic Goddess in Training
• Stephen and Kerri at Dinner Diary

All of these blog for me a have a real sense of food and home if you want to have a go  The rules are quite simple:

• Think about what home means to you.
• Titled “What Does Home Mean to You?”, post three photos which represent “home” to you and write a little about each one. 
• Include a link to the Refugee Week website: http://www.refugeeweek.org.uk
• Tag five others to do the same ( sorry I have managed three)

Crab and Cold Noodle Salad

Having a lovely Friday night in by myself , researching for our grand summer adventure. Nick and I have negotiated a whole month off over the summer and are
planning on going travelling,  beggining in Thailand ( catching up with a freind and moving onto and more of SE
Asia) neither of us have had ever had this long off work or had the
chance to travel.

Hopefully our travels will open up more culinary experiences but this will have to do for now it was zingy and fragrant plenty of fresh flavours and ready in just a few minutes.

Any travel suggestions gratefully received.

Crab and Noodle Salad

1 sheet of egg noodles
1 tin of crabmeat
1 clove of garlic grated
1/2 thumb of ginger
1 tbsp of chilli oil
1/2 red chilli finely chopped
1 spring onion
1 handful of fresh coriander
1 tsp of rice vinegar
1/2 lime juice and zest

Bring the noodles to a boil and cook as per packet instructions
Mix together the chlli onion, ginger, oil line juice and zest
Mix in the crab meat and coriander
Rinse the noodles in cold water to cool them
Stir into the crab meat and servce

Ox Tongue Braised In Red Wine

Not a dish for the squeamish this one or those looking for a quick dish . On Thursday up in Sheffield I saw whole Ox Tongues for sale  for just 1pound each . Since I had braised Ox Tongue at the Pumphouse, I have wanted to try cooking it.

Thank heavens for the internet which advised a lot cooking ,first a gentle simmer for a couple of hours to cook and add a gentle flavour

then braise to finish.

Cooking Ox Tongue

1 tsp of peppercorns
1tsp of cloves
1 tsbp of mustards seeds
1 medium onion
Mixture of herbs parsley , sage and thyme
Enough water to cover the tongue

1. Place all the ingredients in a large saucepan
2. Bring the water to the boil then turn to a low heat and simmer for 2.5 hours
3. While the tongue is still warm , remove the skin this   is really just a case of peeling the tongue ( click here for the full grusome images)
4. Once peeled you can then slice the ox tongue, some recipes talked about removing a bone , but there was no bone in my tongue.

Once cooked ox tongue can be  eaten cold and over at Nose to Tail at Home Ryan faithfully recreats Fergus Hendersons Nose to Tail recipes . This is one of my favourite & unusual blogs , Ryan channels fergus to offer a range of options for cold tongue.

I wanted something pretty substantial and so went for a braised tongue , but couldn’t find any recipes that really appealed so I improvised. The result some lengthy slow cooking resulted in some  melt in the mouth meat .that somehow retained a delicate beef flavour . Slow cooking gave a  delicous sauce soaking into the mounds of mashed potato. Morever  while the outside of the tongue slices turned almost black from the wine the inside remained pink.

I will be making this again when I can find Ox Tongue closer to home, it may have taken a while to cook but it was definitely worth it.

Ox Tongue Braised In Red Wine

Serves 4

1 Ox Tongue , first cooked , peeled and sliced as above
200g carrots finely chopped
200g of mushrooms finely chopped
1 medium onion finely chopped
3 clove of garlic finely chopped
500ml of red wine
200ml of the cooking liquid from above strained
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 tsp of mustard seeds
3 tbsp of olive oil
Salt and Pepper

1. In a cast iron lidded pot , heat the olive oil  add the mustard sees , garlic , onion and carrots
2. Fry for a few minutes but do not allow to brown
3. Add the mushrooms and  the sliced tongue
4. Pour over the red wine and cooking liquid
5. Adhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/beckayork/3434249844/d the rosemary and plenty of salt and pepper
6. Place in an oven at 150degC for 2 hours.
7. If possible leave overnight and heat the next day like most braised or stewed food it improves with time and resting
8. Heat through and served with mashed potatoes

Hot Peas

Yesterday the weather wasn’t really great for walking,  dark clouds in the sky,  so we opted for a day hanging out in Nottingham .  Off course we stopped off at  Victoria Market carefully secreted at the top of a shopping mall , ignoring the fluorescent light and suspended ceilings, the market  has several good butchers , fish and vegetable stalls where we stocked up on rabbit, gammon hock ,mutton.

In Victoria Market,  is a Nottingham institution , the “Hot Pea” man which serves bowls of well… um … hot peas . These are  mushy peas ,  dried marrowfat peas which are first soaked overnight in water and bicarbonate of soda, and then simmered with a little sugar and salt until they form a thick green lumpy mass.

As a confirmed Southerner, these are not something I have ever experienced , occasionally you get mushy peas with fish and chips but apparently in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and parts of Lincolnshire, they are often served as a snack on their own . In Nottinghamshire at least the traditional accompaniment seems to be lashings of thin mint sauce ( dried mint mixed with malt vinegar).

Worryingly  these simple  mushy peas could be at the heart of a political storm. Last year  the British Food Standards Agency has asked for a voluntary ban on artificial food colourings.  At present there  is no alternative to tartrazine (E102), that gives a bright green colour without which the dried peas would be murky grey. For me adding artificial colours or flavourings is not really the way to go  but the peas were very tasty and will be thinking of some recipes

For the full Midlands experience we also went to see ” The Damned United”,  a new film about Brian Clough .  Clough is a probably as massive as hot peas in  Nottingham . As manager of football team Nottingham Forest he took them them
from small provincial side to First Division Champion and two consecutive European championships. They  even have a statue of him in the city centre . The film however  focuses on Cloughs prior experiences with football teams Derby and Leeds so Nottingham supporters might be hoping for a sequel. I really enjoyed it .

Before the film Nick even persuaded me to try some proper beer  starting me off easy with some Flowers Indian Pale ale it was a revelation creamy and delicious is felt like a was drinking soe kind of citruses cream .. is this the beginning of a real ale obsession

Salmon and Dill Fishcakes

This morning on Something for the Weekend they were making CornBeef Hash cakes , easily influenced I instantly began craving something potato cakey ..

I have made salmon fishcakes before with leeks and also spicy fishcakes with asian Slaw , dill though is a classic companion ingredient and for the first time I also tried a  breadcrumb coating . Breadcrumbs seem to have become very fashionable suddenly especially  panko which are japanese breadcrumbs made from bread without crusts . My breadcrumbs seemed set to be the very opposite of panko  since I made them using a incredibly stale heel of homemade wholemeal bread found lurking in the breadbin . However putting it first through the thin grating setting of the food processor meant they were very fine and acutally they had a delicious crunch once baked in the oven.

Served with some fresh green salad and a dill and mustard dressing

Salmon and Dill Fishcakes

200g of floury potatoes peeled and chopped into quarters
200g of skinless salmon fillets
4 tbsp of capers
4 tbsp of fresh parsley
4 tbsp of finely chopped fresh dill
100g wholemeal breadcrumbs
1 egg
Salt and Pepper

1. Bring a frying pan of water to a gentle simmer,  add the salmon and poach for 4 minutes, once cooked remove from the water and flake the fish.
2. Boil the potatoes in salted water until soft.
3. Mash the potaotes with plenty of salt and pepper.
4. Mix  capers, parsley , and dill into the potatoes.
5. Shape the mixture into cakes with your hands about 1.5 cm thick 5cm across.
6. Lay the cakes on a baking sheet and place in the freezer if possible for 20 minutes.
7. After the cakes come out the freeezer dip each first into beaten egg then roll into the breadcrumbs.
8. Returns to a baking sheet and either fry in sunflower oil or bake at 190degC for 30 minutes.

Dill and Mustard Dressing

1 tbsp of fresh dill finely chopped
1 tbsp of wholegrain mustard
1 tbsp of sugar
Juice of one lemon

Mix togther the ingredients and use to dress salad and the fishcakes

Happy New Year 2009

Becoming a tradition this mosaic

I certainly seem to have cooked and eaten pretty well this year . Thank you to everyone who has inspired me in 2008 and for all your lovely comments.

For me 2009 is set to be incredibly scary since I am moving to London for work after 30 years on and off in Bristol  my home town I am  pretty scared but calming myself with the hope of plenty of new foody experiences .

Bye Bye 2008 .. Hello 2009

1. Spiced Baked Apricots, 2. Pork Chops with Cider and Rosemary, 3. Cabra al Romero Sandwiches, 4. Salmon cured with beetroot and vodka, with cream cheese on malted toast, 5. Pear Tart, 6. BBQd Koftas, 7. Lamb , Olive & Tomato Stew with Olive Bread, 8. Sag Paneer, 9. Mashed Broad Beans with Preserved Lemon & Mint on Walnut Toast, 10. Shepherds Pie, 11. Roasted Wild Mallard Duck with Balsamic Cherry and Lentils, 12. Two Peach & Cardamon Tart, 13. Salt Marsh Lamb with Spiced Salad, 14. Asparagus Roasted in Parma Ham, 15. BBQ Mackerel, 16. Greek Salad, 17. Tri Color Salad, 18. Dim Sum for Dinner, 19. Wild Garlic Butter, 20. Wild Garlic, Courgette and Asparagus Salad, 21. Three Seed Bread Rolls, 22. Three Bean Chilli, 23. Smoked Mackerel and Beetroot with Creamy Fennel & Lemon Dressing, 24. Tomato and Haricot Bean Soup, 25. Oatmeal Raisin and Coconut Cookies, 26. Chick Pea , Kale and Spicy Lamb Meatball Stew, 27. Breakfast – Wholegrain Toast , Soft Cheese, Watercress and Smoked Salmon, 28. Creamy Herb Lentils, 29. Date Balls, 30. Vodka Marinated Salmon and Beetroot Chutney Canape, 31. Rhubarb and Ginger Upside Down Cake, 32. Faggots in Dark Ale & Onion Gravy, 33. Lavender and Rosemary Lamb Neck Fillet with Bean Salad, 34. Pork and Sweet Potato Peanut Chilli Stew, 35. Paprika Chicken Livers with Coriander & Mint Yogurt, 36. Chilled Courgette Soup with Radish and Mint Pesto

Created with fd’s Flickr Toys.

One Steak – Two ways

Things have been very manic lately I have been  working long hours , commuting and with more than  the odd work Christmas I have been  left  with little time to do any real food shopping which has meant raiding the freezer for old stews and ultimate prize a lurking steak  .

I am a big believer that your body begins to crave something it needs with that in mind I think my body is craving , red meat vinegar and salt. I was clearing out the freezer and found a large rump steak which has made two meals with suitably strong  accompaniments.

Steak Sauce – Roasted Peppers , Chilli , Anchovies,  Olives,  Garlic and Cornichons

I keep a kilner jar of olives  roasted peppers , chillis , garlic and olives. I keep this topped up by always roasting peppers , garlic or chillis in a roasting dish at the bottom of the oven when I am cooking other things , just with a dash of olive oil , salt and pepper.

These come in very handy roughly chopped with some , anchovies, capers or gerkins seasoned with a little pepper and a dash of balsamic vinegar or lemon juice to accompany a steak or some fish. Better than ketchup I don’t know overuse of ketchup is my guilty pleasure but definitely a chunky alternative

I also add these ingredients to  sandwiches or simply thrown into tinned tomatoes to make pasta sauce. Its a taste of summer in the depths of winter , though better than ketchup

Celeriac Remoulade

Celeriac remoulade is one of my favourite salads, plenty of celeriac around in season  and while I a happy eating it straight from the bowl , it makes a crunchy zingy accompaniment to steak

300g celeriac bulb
10ml of olive oil
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp of dijon mustard
1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of pepper
4 tbsp of white wine vinegar

1. Finely grate the celeriac ( easy if you have a food processor)
2. Whisk together the egg yolks with the olive oil and salt til glossy
3. Mix in the mustard , white wine vinegar and pepper and the mixture over the grated celeriac
4. Mix well and leave to cure for at least an hour

Pot Barley Soup

Got home after a horrible day how much did I need a hug but soup had to do ,  hearty and delicious simple vegetable soup with pot barley , this should be a very chunky soup the pot barley gives a chewy texture.

Pot Barley Soup
100g of dried pot or pearl barley
2 medium carrots  roughly chopped
2 leeks roughly chopped
1 medium onion roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 pints of vegetable stock
2 rashers of bacon roughly chopped
Fresh soft herbs thyme or parsley
Seasoning to taste

Gently fry the onion , bacon garlic and leeks til soft
Add the carrots and barley with the stock
Bring to the boil and leave to simmer for 30 minutes
Season with salt , pepper and fresh herbs