KOREAN FRIED CHICKEN WINGS

These are highly addictive and it's probably a good job they are a bit of a faff otherwise we would be eating them all the time.  These chicken wings are coated in cornflour, fried, coated again, fried again and then doused in a highly addictive hot sweet spicy sauce. You get messy eating them and messy cooking them but they are well worth the trouble.  I don't have a deep fat fryer so cook them in a high sided sauté pan which is probably the best way as they would make a horrible mess of any fryer!

I like to serve them with a very simple coleslaw. Shred half a cabbage and a couple of carrots, along with a finely sliced shallot - I have one of those plastic mandolines which makes all this very easy.  Lots of black pepper, a sprinkle of sea salt and enough mayonnaise to keep it all together. The end result shouldn't be creamy, the mayonnaise should just be enough to bind.  A squirt of lemon juice lifts it all.

A word about quantity - my husband can eat chicken wings until he explodes so this amount is dinner for the pair of us...adjust to your own appetite!





INGREDIENTS

Wings
800g chicken wings (usually two packs and you don't want the wing tips)
8 tblsp. cornflour
1 tblsp. rice wine
Oil

Sauce
1 tblsp. soy sauce
3 tblsp. rice wine
2 tblsp. white wine vinegar - or apple cider vinegar
I tblsp. gochujang, Korean red chilli pepper paste - most Chinese supermarkets carry it, it usually comes in a plastic tub
3 tblsp. honey
2 tsp. sesame oil
2 tblsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. grated ginger
1 tsp. grated garlic
2 tblsp. chopped peanuts for garnish

METHOD

Joint the chicken wings into little drumsticks and the flat two boned wing piece. Put them in a big bowl, add the vinegar and toss them together. Leave for half an hour.

To make the sauce put all the ingredients in a saucepan, slowly bring up to the bowl making sure the sugar has all melted. Simmer for ten minutes until the sauce is thick and glossy.

Prepare a grill pan or similar by lining with foil and putting on top the grill rack.

In a wide deep frying pan heat up half an inch of oil.  I use rapeseed oil (not the cold pressed expensive stuff, the ordinary cooking oil) because it gets to a nice high temperature for frying.

Bring the oil up to a medium frying heat then dip each chicken wing in cornflour and put into the pan to fry.  Don't overcrowd the pan.  Fry on each side for three to four minutes then put on the grill pan rack to drain.  They don't have to be brown at this stage but the cornflour should look crisp.  Dredge the draining wings with another coat of cornflour.

 

Once all the chicken wings have been fried and are draining let the oil cool then strain it to get rid of the residue.  Put the strained oil back into the pan, top up with clean oil and then prepare to start frying again.  At this stage I put my oven on so that the first batch of wings I have second fried keep hot but I am a bit of a fiend for hot food - up to you!

Fry all the chicken wings again at a medium heat until they are golden brown.  Transfer them to a hot wide shallow bowl, pour over the hot sauce, then toss and toss until the wings are thoroughly coated.  Sprinkle over the chopped peanuts and serve with the coleslaw, a bowl for the bones and a lot of kitchen towel.  Enjoy!

DISHOOM BLACK DAAL AND SOME CRISPY BHINDI

I have been trying to eat at Dishoom for ages but I am not a natural queuer (is that a word?) and as I never seem to be in the right place at the right time the joys of their delicacies have been denied to me.  And then the stars aligned...

My good friend Buz and her man Euan had promised to buy Mr Redding and I dinner at Tom Kitchin (which was utterly delightful) and we thought this would be a good time to catch up with some of the people I was at Stirling University with - people I haven't seen for over *cough* 30 years.  So we had a big enough party to book a table!  O frabjous day!  Between the seven of us we got through four bowls of Dishoom's trademark black dal as well as their crispy okra, squid, chicken, lots of other stuff - it was all delicious.  I was very struck by the daal so began to try and find a recipe - this is my most recent version, and I thoroughly recommend it.  I use a pressure cooker, a utensil I am using increasingly to cook both meat and pulses.  Meat seems to retain more of its flavour whilst becoming beautifully tender and both meat and pulses take a fraction of the time.  The pulses you need are Urid beans - KTC Foods do them, I bought mine in Morrisons.

Ingredients

200g Urid beans
Twice the amount in volume of water
Tsp. grated ginger
Tsp. grated garlic
1/2 tsp. chilli powder
Tsp. ground cumin
Tsp. ground coriander
Tsp. turmeric
Knob of butter
Tblsp. cream
Tsp. salt
Good couple of grinds of black pepper

Method

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan, bring to the boil. If using a pressure cooker it will take around 25 minutes, if conventional cooking probably a good hour.  Once the lentils are soft take off the heat and mash half the beans.  Stir together then add another knob of butter and maybe a splash of cream before serving.

This also responds well to being stuck in a low oven for further cooking - seems to add to its unctuousness!

Last night I served this with pork with garlic, vinegar and chilli (a vindaloo) from Madhur Jaffrey  and crispy fried okra. 

The okra are so delicious and so easy - just mix 1/2 teaspoon each of ground coriander, ground cumin, chill powder and turmeric with a couple of tablespoons of gram flour.  Cut the bhindi in four lengthwise and toss in the mixture.  leave for half an hour than heat some vegetable oil in a frying pan and shallow fry in batch.  The finishing touch should be a sprinkle of amchur, dried mango powder, which add an amazing tartness.

EATING A BIT DIFFERENTLY

I am overweight.  I feel like I have always been overweight but when I look back at photographs I see I wasn't. It was all in my mind.  But I am now.  I am also in an extremely stressful job where I am having to make people redundant and the future of my organisation is in the balance - and it's a good organisation, it's been looking after charities in London for 110 years - but I digress.

Before Mr Redding and I got married we followed the Sirt diet for a few months - it did the trick. Almost no fat, kale juice deadening the appetite, and no carbs led to a gratifying but not silly weight loss.  We tried it again last month but suddenly swamp water wasn't cutting it for us.  So I have decided to off piste, inspired in some way by a fellow food blogger @thefoodjudge. Her plates of spiralised vegetables and protein looked interesting, delicious, and a fabulous antidote to Christmas food.  So I bought a spiraliser, looked to Sabrina Ghayour for some middle eastern flavours and set off.  I will say up front that I am not counting calories but I am avoiding carbohydrates and saturated fat.

First of my recipes is a soupy noodly prawn dish - it is deeply satisfying, a bit hot, very tasty. This recipe is for two people.

INGREDIENTS

1 tblsp. oil
400g kings prawns, cut down the back and intestinal track removed
Tblsp. soy sauce

1 tblsp.oil
6 spring onions, white part sliced diagonally, green part shredded
Inch of ginger, sliced and shredded finely
Garlic clove, sliced finely
2 red birds eye chillies, sliced finely

2 stalks celery sliced
Tin of sliced water chestnuts drained
Handful of coarsely chopped coriander
2 medium courgettes, spiralised or cut into long fine strips
2 medium carrots, spiralised or cut into long fine strips
Chicken stock cube

1. Heat the oil and soy sauce together. When hot add the prawns and cook until they have just turned pink all over. remove from pan and set aside with juices.  Wipe out pan.

2. Add oil to pan, out on medium heat and add spring onion whites, ginger, garlic and chilli - sweat down until soft.

3. Add the celery, water chestnuts and the stock cube along with a mug of water. Bring to boil for five minutes.  Add the spiralised vegetables and cook for a couple of minutes, adding the prawns in the last 30 seconds to warm through.

4. Serve in two bowls, sprinkling over the green bits of spring onions and coriander.

CHICKEN SHATKORA

 

East Dulwich is on the other side of Peckham Rye from us - when we moved here 10 years ago we were very much on the 'wrong' side of the Rye, the Peckham side, the dodgy side.  Nowadays we are on the hip side, the groovy side, the oh so achingly let's have another upmarket barbers to look after all of those beards side.  Whatever. Lordship Lane is the main drag in East Dulwich and has a surprising number of restaurants - and a lot of them are Indian.  Our favourite is Jaflong, it has a few things on the menu you don't see elsewhere, the cooking is great and the staff are lovely.  It is also BYOB with no corkage which always goes down well.

It was at Jaflong I first encountered shatkora - or satkora, spellings vary - an Indian citrus fruit which seems to be a bit like a lemon, a bit like a lime, and has very thick peel and pith.  I have hunted far and wide for this and finally tracked down both fresh and frozen versions - in Taj Stores in Brick Lane - where else?   I bought a bag of frozen and this is my first experiment using it.  I think the delicate citrus flavour is very well suited to chicken so I have used chicken thighs for this.  A mound of fragrant basmati and maybe some bhindi would go well with this.

Ingredients

I tblsp. vegetable oil
4 black cardamom
I tblsp. grated ginger
1 tblsp. grated garlic
1 large onion very finely diced
1/2 tblsp. tomato puree
1 tsp. turmeric
1 tsp. chilli powder
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. garam masala
5 slices of satkora
500g boneless chicken thighs, cut into chunks

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the cardamom pods.  Sizzle for a minute or so then add the onions. Fry gently for about five minutes until soft then add the ginger and garlic, fry for another couple of minutes.

Add the tomato puree and spices and cook out gently for a another minute then add the chicken.  Continue frying for another couple of minutes then add the satkora and a mug of water, turn down the heat and let it all simmer for 40 minutes.  Taste, adjust seasoning if it needs a touch of salt, and serve.

MY LAMB CURRY

I love Indian food, I love eating it and I love cooking it.  I have always been intrigued by it and on the purchase of my first book by Madhur Jaffrey in 1986 (!) I set about trying to learn the secrets of the spicing and the textures, all so different to the food my Mum taught me to cook…

Since then I have tried many recipes and this has become my own curry, the one I cook when I can’t be bothered to follow a recipe.  I make no claims for its authenticity so I want no howls of outrage about my technique or ingredients but we love it.

As an aside, if you love Indian food I do urge you to book into dinner at one of Asma Khan’s Darjeeling Express events – cooking the food she was brought up with and drawing on the cooking of Hyderabad and Calcutta it really is some of the best, authentic, Indian cooking you will find in this country.

This recipe gives a thick smooth gravy (apparently what ‘curry’ means) which is well flavoured but not particularly hot – if you like your curries hot add more dried red chillies to the spice mix.  I will also admit to the fact that I now buy frozen pureed garlic and ginger, makes life so much easier...

INGREDIENTS

Curry Powder - 2 tblsp. cumin seeds, 4 tblsp. coriander seeds, 1 tblsp. fenugreek seeds, 1/2 tblsp. cardamom seeds (and yes I mean the seeds out of the pod - good Indian supermarkets will sell the seeds by themselves), 2 inch cinnamon stick, 4 dried long red chillies, 12 cloves.

2 tblsp. vegetable oil

5 cardamom pods

6 cloves

0.5kg lamb shoulder, cut into 2" chunks

3 red onions

1 tblsp. grated ginger

1 tblsp. grated garlic

4 large ripe tomatoes chopped

Handful of chopped coriander

1 tbsp. tamarind paste

 METHOD

Put all the spices in a frying pan and warm over a low flame until you start to smell them – don’t try and rush this stage with a high heat as it will burn them…they should be ready after a couple of minutes.  Tip them into a spice grinder and grind until you have a fine powder.

In a large frying pan heat half the oil and add the onions, garlic and ginger. Cook on a low heat for around 10 minutes until the onions are soft.  Add the tomatoes and cook for a couple more minutes.  Once everything is collapsed blend it – I do it by putting everything in a bowl and using a stick blender but whatever works for you.

Give the frying pan a quick wipe out then add another tblsp. of oil.  Heat it then, once hot, add the cloves and cardamom. Once they are sizzling add the tomato onion paste, cook for a minute or two then add 2 tblsp. of the spice powder.  Stir everything round briskly for a couple of minutes, making sure it doesn’t catch, then add the lamb.  Keep stirring for a few minutes then add half a pint of water.  Make sure everything is well mixed then turn down to simmer for an hour.  Check from time to time to make sure it’s not getting too dry.

At the end of the cooking time check that the lamb is tender – if not, give it a bit more time.  Add the tamarind and coriander, give it all a good stir and taste – it might need a bit of salt.

I usually serve this with dal and a vegetable.  My current favourite vegetable is spinach and potatoes.  Take a large bag of spinach, put it in a frying pan and let it wilt in the heat then drain and chop. At the same time cut a couple of potatoes up into 1” cubes and boil for 10 minutes, drain.  Heat a tblsp. oil in a frying pan and add a teaspoon of turmeric and a teaspoon each of coriander and fennel seeds.  Toss the potatoes in this, once coated add the spinach, then add a dash of water and let the whole thing cook and homogenise for five minutes.  Add a bit of salt to taste.

 

 

MY WEDDING CAKE

Apologies for having neglected this blog for so long - life kind of takes over and my job has been very busy recently and I have also had something else on my mind.  Finally, Mr Redding and I can get married.  We've been together for nine years  but now he is free to make an honest woman of me.  The first time I got married was in 1987 which now seems several life times away.  It has been lovely organising this wedding, deciding exactly what we want rather than what is expected of us.  I have a lot of free time on Sundays so I decided I would make my own cake.  It's a fruit cake using Delia Smith's Christmas cake recipe and I have marzipanned the bottom two layers - the top was left naked as my eldest brother doesn't like marzipan. I used roll out fondant to ice it then decorated with sugar balls stuck on with thick glace icing.  I'm very happy with the way it has turned out, I feel it's very 'us' and that is how we want this wedding to be.  So, I will endeavour to blog more this year but for the next few weeks I will be getting married and honeymooning in Madeira.   

MEDLAR, CHELSEA

I don't do restaurant reviews but this was just so enjoyable I have to share. Neither Mr Redding nor I work on a Friday - a sign of the straightened times the charity sector finds itself in but an arrangement we have both embraced. Normally we spend Fridays looking for the ideal seaside town to retire to in a couple of years but this Friday an unexpected work engagement meant we felt justified in taking ourselves out for lunch.  I remembered seeing a couple of reviews of Medlar, and various Twitter people saying how good it was, so on a cold November lunchtime we were very happy to enter the lovely dining room - nothing pretentious, cool and neutral tones, and a gentle murmur of happy people eating...and no music, praise be.

Before we get on to food I must put in a word for our sommelier - we kind of knew what wine we wanted  but he was so thoughtful and knowledgeable, and didn't try to upsell. As someone who comes from a background where a bottle of Piesporter was the height of sophistication even though we were eating steak I can still feel a bit overwhelmed when it comes to wine but he made me feel those 6 evenings spent on a wine tasting course in Putney five years ago weren't totally wasted.

So, with a glass of champagne in hand, we read the menu, ordered and ate - it was all delicious, beautifully cooked, with magical little touches like the rissole that accompanied the venison - and the crab ravioli with its seafood bisque was something I would be happy to have for lunch every day - just the right side of grand French opulence.

I will let the pictures do the talking....

Buffalo burrata with tempura artichoke, speck, rocket pesto, vincotto and hazelnuts
   

Crab raviolo with samphire, brown shrimps, fondue of leeks and bisque sauce

Under blade fillet with shin and pickled walnut croquettes, triple cooked chips and béarnaise

Venison loin with rissole, choucroute, beetroot and braised shallot

Cheese and biscuits

Rose custard with orange, cardamom, saffron and pistachio 

Accompanying it all were delicious wines including a slightly off-dry white from Luxembourg for our starters, an incredibly deep, spicy, complex Cote du Rhone with our mains and an amazing yuzu flavoured sake to go with the pudding. Service was friendly, efficient and professional - the whole experience was delightful, down to the bag of passion fruit marshmallows and chocolate truffles we were given to take home.  When you next need spoiling go to Medlar.

SPANAKOPITA

I make no claims for the authenticity of this dish. I must have used a recipe the first time I made it but that was many moons ago and now this is the way I do it. It uses quantities of ingredients that are as I buy them so there are no annoying left over bits of packets of stuff apart from the filo - I use exactly half a packet so just freeze the remainder for the next time you make this - and I think you will. We are confirmed meat eaters but this has such refreshing yet comforting flavours you don't miss the meat.  The combination of irony spinach, with notes of dill and mint and the salty tang of feta with the crunch of the pastry and pine nuts is just lovely - I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

INGREDIENTS

450g spinach
I onion sliced finely
25g mint chopped
20g dill chopped
200g feta, broken into walnut sized lumps
Olive oil
135g filo pastry
Handful of pine nuts

7" non stick round cake tin

Heat the oven to 180 degrees

Thoroughly wash the spinach then cook until just wilted. I do this in a large frying pan, it usually takes two batches. Add a tiny bit of oil to make sure it doesn't stick, put the washed spinach in and leave on a low light for 4-5 minutes, turning as it cooks.  You won't need to add any water - in fact, after it has cooked, turn into a large sieve of colander and press until you have extracted as much water as possible. Chop finely and put in  large bowl.

Cook the onion very gently in a splash of olive oil for 7-20 minutes until it has almost melted.

Add the onion, dill and mint to the spinach, mix thoroughly then gently fold in the feta.

Pour about 3 tablespoons of oil into a small bowl and take the filo out of its packaging. If you're a fast worker that's ok, if you're not then over the filo with a damp tea towel to stop it drying out.

Use four sheets of filo, each brushed with oil, to line the cake tin.  Spoon in the spinach mixture then use another couple  of sheets, also brushed with oil, to cover. Trim and fold the filo so that the filling is totally encased. use any left over bits of filo to scrunch up and decorate the top of the pie and sprinkle over the pine nuts.

Bake for around 30 minutes. If you need a side a simple tomato and cucumber salad goes rather nicely.

BLACKCURRANT POLENTA CAKE

Along with a lot of people I am a huge fan of Dan Leppard and am the proud owner of his book 'Short and Sweet'. His Lemon and Poppyseed Cake is a triumph and should be made by everyone immediately but I am also a huge fan of his Cherry Polenta cake.

I don't make cakes or pudding very often but this Sunday I just felt like baking. As I hadn't actually planned anything I had a rake through the freezer where I found a bag of blackcurrants bought frozen from a Garden Centre on the way back from Bath in May - whenever I see blackcurrants I always snap them up as they rarely make it to grocers or supermarkets, I believe Ribena snaffles most of them up and I do love blackcurrants. We are probably talking about around 500g of blackcurrants. I pondered the idea of making a mousse, or perhaps a blackcurrant crumble but then I remembered the cherry polenta cake and thought - why not?

I halved the amount of mix for this cake as there are only 2 of us on a Sunday - I used a correspondingly smaller tin. The addition of pine nuts, as recommended by Dan, really make the cake - adding that bit of crunch to an otherwise sumptuously moist cake. I haven't given you the recipe - you'll have to go and buy the book!

CHICKEN CHILLI

I am slowly getting my cooking mojo back after a combination of events - my Dad dying in August, being crazy busy at work and getting rushed into hospital at the end of December with dried up kidneys and a digestive system in freefall. But here we are, just about back to full fitness and getting my appetite back, for both eating and cooking. I find my tastes have changed though - I can no longer eat, or particularly enjoy, large amounts of red meat, in fact large amounts of anything are a struggle.  I am making more salads, more fish and old favourites like a lump of roast lamb are taking a back seat.

One of our regular Saturday night meals was chilli con carne but in looking for something lighter I decided to use chicken thighs in the same kind of seasoning and served with an avocado relish and brown and wild rice. The end result was delicious, light enough for me but tasty enough for Mr Redding.  I used chicken thighs because I think it needs to be cooked for a while to meld the flavours and breast would become tough.

INGREDIENTS

CHICKEN CHILLI

500g chicken thigh fillets, cut into 2cm cubes
I onion, finely sliced
Couple of cloves of garlic crushed or grated
Tin of black eyed beans
4 jalapeno chillies, red or green or a combination, chopped
Dessertspoon of sweet smoked paprika
Teaspoon of ground cumin
Tablespoon of flour
Handful of chopped coriander
Salt

AVOCADO RELISH

I ripe avocado, chopped
I ripe tomato, chopped
I shallot, finely chopped
Juice of a lime
Handful of chopped coriander
Salt

Slowly sweat the onion and garlic off in a generous tablespoon of olive oil until soft and translucent, probably about ten minutes.  Add the chicken, turn up the heat, and when it has all changed colour and browned a little add the beans, chillies, paprika and cumin. Give all that a good stir, then stir in the flour making sure it is all distributed, then stir in half a pint of water, bring to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes.  Taste, season and stir in the coriander just before serving.

To make the avocado relish just combine all the ingredients 10 minutes before you want to eat and chill. I served it with  combination of wild and brown rice. The picture really doesn't do it justice!

ARTUSI

The lovely thing about being on Twitter in a place like Peckham is that there is a huge foodie and other stuff Twitter community here, so as soon as a rumour starts it gets spread round like a flash and eventually someone who actually knows what is going on chimes in. And so it was with our new Italian restaurant Artusi on Bellenden Road. Waters were muddied for a while as apparently an Italian café is opening up in what was Chaz the Hairdressers but  it soon became clear - Jack Beer, ex Clove Club  and Peckham Bazaar, our very own Balkan grill-fest (sadly closed at the moment whist it is being transformed) was opening an Italian restaurant called Artusi in our midst. There was no 'soft launch', no fanfare, they just opened with a picture of their menu on the chalkboard to whet our appetites posted on Twitter. And what a menu - three starters, two pastas, three mains, two puddings.

The restaurant is an old shop, and is now long and thin extended back into the store rooms with the open kitchen at the back. On arrival the wine list was proffered and I can recommend the house white, the Vermentino and the white vermouth - others can tell you about the natural wines on the list. My first visit was with my friend Tony, better known as award winning food blogger Theskintfoodie - we hadn't seen each other for a while and needed to catch up on new jobs and stuff.   My second visit was with another friend Heather Jordan, a local Chef and Masterchef quarter finalist and my third was with Mr Redding - at last!

The atmosphere is relaxed with very trendy but extremely efficient and friendly service. Slices of Peckham Rye sourdough from The Brick House Bakery arrive with a slab of butter. Dishes I and my companions have loved include excellent squid ink pasta filled with squid; grilled baby artichokes with the smoothest garlicky anchovy bagna cauda I have ever tasted, and, on another occasion, with the greenest tasting salsa verde I have ever enjoyed; melting octopus with wild garlic and asparagus; pork chop cooked in milk and lemon to delicious unctuousness; pappardelle with pancetta and fresh peas; pork belly with broad bean broth and glit head bream. Puddings are equally lovely - olive oil cake, proper tiramisu and ice creams including chocolate, mascarpone and salted honey.

Three courses each with a bottle of wine and a couple of vermouth comes to around £80 for two plus service, which refreshingly isn't included. Since Jay Rayner reviewed the restaurant booking is essential a bit in advance but do give it a go - thoroughly recommended.

GREEN MAN AND FRENCH HORN

We don't eat out very often, mostly due to straightened financial circumstances and family responsibilities. However, my friend Amanda has been known to entice me out from time to time and, to celebrate my last day on a fundraising contract (I HATE fundraising), we went to Green Man and French Horn, a restaurant that we both remembered had fabulous reviews when it opened.  Its sister restaurants Braun, Terroirs and Soif  are nearby and also heavily influenced my local ToastED in Lordship Lane, East Dulwich.  All good stuff.

We started with a bottle of sparkling Vouvray which was slightly off dry and very lovely  and the perfect thing to drink as we caught up on the last couple of months and decided what we wanted to eat. This took rather  a long time as we were tempted with so many great things but in the end we decided to go for five of the small plates, one of which we shared - we are both very territorial about food.

Details were good - great bread and butter happily replenished without asking. Still or sparkling free 'tap' water. Service throughout was great. But the food...that was divine. Crispily fried fresh anchovies with aioli disappeared within minutes - beautifully fishy and rustled on their paper. Asparagus with fromage blanc, bitter leaves and walnuts was the kind of salad that only the French seem to carry off with the combination of bitter, creaminess, nuttiness and the glorious flavour of asparagus all highlighted by beautiful olive oil and salt. Snails with parsley root and hedgehog mushrooms were declared to be the most tender ever encountered (I didn't indulge, not a huge snail fan). Leek, crab, egg and horseradish was an absolute triumph. A brown crab sauce with horseradish provided a base for gently poached leeks, all topped off with grated egg and white crab meat - simple, beautifully seasoned and a very generous plateful. We shared the chopped raw beef with radish and hedgehog mushrooms - true beefy flavour accentuated by the vegetables and dressing. We shared a 500ml carafe of some rather gorgeous very light red wine but the name escapes me - the waiter recommended it so I am sure he will recommend it to you.

The bill came to £118 for five dishes, a bottle of sparkling wine, a carafe of red, water and limitless bread. For the standard of cooking and the excellence of ingredients I call that great value.

A lovely Italian Restaurant in Liverpool

I love Italian food. I am not a huge fan of pasta but the way Italians deal with meat, fish and seafood makes me smile - a gorgeous bit of protein, a sauce or dressing with vibrant flavours, and that's it. If you want potatoes or vegetables then order them separately. Great. So, when we ventured up to Liverpool, and fancied some fish, we googled 'fish restaurant' and one of the top results was San Carlo. So off we went. It is a splendid restaurant, with a gorgeous cocktail bar greeting you on arrival. We were a bit early for dinner so sat at the bar for cocktails and there we had nibbles of huge olives, socca and arancini to keep us occupied. We ordered sardines and seafood salad for starters - beautifully fresh, well cooked and plentiful....mains were five kinds of grilled fish and seafood and veal scallopine with a wild mushroom sauce. The side of sauté potatoes were crisp and delicious. We were so impressed by the generosity of the servings and the quality of the ingredients and the service was warm and helpful. Our desired digestif wasn't available so we were recommended Amaro Montenegro - warm with violets it made Fernet Branca seem very harsh. This restaurant may not suit those looking for an ultra modern experience but for good honest but refined Italian food it was fabulous. £120 for two courses each, three cocktails, a bottle of wine and two digestifs. Thoroughly recommended.

www.sancarlo.co.uk

FISH PIE

Another comforting classic for this chilly weather.  There are endless variations - some people use prawns and scallops as well as fish, some include chopped up boiled eggs or capers but mine is very straightforward. Just smoked haddock and cod in a parsley sauce topped with mashed potato and a sprinkling of parmesan.

This is something I make quite often so I will just give an idea of quantities as we go along.

I generally make this pie in advance as I find that it is best to let the sauce/fish mixture cool a bit. If you put the potatoes on top of the sauce whilst it is hot the potato seems to melt into the sauce and it all becomes a bit of a gooey mess. If the potato goes on the sauce when it has cooled the layers stay more distinct.

First of all the fish. I allow a medium sized fillet of fish per person and generally a third smoked fish to unsmoked. Put the fish in a wide shallow pan with around 500ml milk. Bring up to the boil and simmer for five minutes until just cooked. Remove the fish, break up into big chunks and put in the bottom of a buttered baking dish. Season with salt and white pepper.

Make the white sauce with the milk that the fish has been poached in.  I use around 50g butter and the same of flour for a four person pie.  Melt the butter, stir in the flour and cook that through then gradually add the milk, bring to the boil and whisk until smooth and thickened. You may need a bit more milk if the sauce is very thick as it needs to be the texture of thick custard. Stir in the juice of half a lemon and a big handful of chopped parsley. Pour over the fish.

Peel some potatoes, allowing a large potato per person. Cut into chunks and boil for 20 minutes until tender. Strain, mash the potatoes, add a splash of milk, a knob of butter and a generous shake of white pepper and beat until smooth.

As the fish and sauce mixture is quite unstable it is best to take spoonful's of the potato and dot over the top, then gently join the dots of potato up with a fork.  Leave a hole in the potato in the centre. Sprinkle the top of the pie with a little cayenne pepper and finely grated parmesan.

Cook at 180 degrees for 45 minutes until bubbling. This pie takes a long time to cook through so use the hole in the mash topping to check that it is hot all the way through.

I think peas are an ideal accompaniment to this dish and perhaps some broccoli.

AVOCADOS WITH CRAB

 



 

 

 

 

Avocado, crab and a bit of crunch - what more could you ask for? This is a really simple but very effective dish. Two halves make a good lunch and one half makes a lovely starter.  For two people for lunch you need 2 ripe avocados, 200g white and brown crabmeat, a tablespoon of cream, handful of dried breadcrumbs and a tablespoon of grated parmesan.

 

 

This is unusual because it is a warm avocado dish. Put the oven on at 180 degrees.Slice the avocados in half and remove the stone. In a small bowl combine the crabmeat, a good pinch of cayenne pepper, black pepper, pinch of salt and the cream and fold together. Spoon the mixture equally into the avocado halves, sprinkle with the breadcrumbs and grated parmesan.

 

 

Cook for 10 minutes then either put under the grill or turn your oven up to crisp off the parmesan and breadcrumbs.  Delicious. 

BACON AND ONION PUDDING

I have an unhealthy weakness for suet puddings.  The classic, of course, is steak and kidney but my favourite has to be this one - bacon and onion.  For the filling I use a pack of 'cooking' bacon from Morrisons.  These are the offcuts left over when they slice up their rashers, all the little odds and ends. The quality is the same as the ordinary bacon and while we aren't talking artisan dry cured it is definitely good enough for this pudding.  Do have a sort through them first as they can be irregular sizes - it is best to have them in fairly uniform 1cm-ish bits.

Unlike a steak and kidney pudding this one doesn't generate its own gravy so a separate one has to be made. When I was growing up it was made with half a packet of dried chicken and leek soup, a method I still use today. However, I had run out of soup so I had to make one from scratch - I use a chicken Oxo cube instead of proper stock simply because I think it works.

Pastry

200g plain flour
100g shredded suet
2 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 tsp dried sage
Cold water

Filling

500g cooking bacon, in small pieces
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 tsp dried sage

Gravy

Finely chopped shallot
Chicken Oxo
1 tbsp flour
250ml water
2 tbsp cream

Grease a 1 litre pudding basin.  In a roomy bowl mix together the flour, suet, baking powder, salt and sage.  Add enough water to make a pastry that is softer than shortcrust pastry but still capable of being rolled out. Divide the dough into a third and two thirds. Dust your board and roll the larger piece out until it is big enough to line your pudding basin, then transfer to the basin and press carefully into the bottom. 

Combine the bacon, onion and sage and tip into the lined basin. Roll out the remaining pastry into a top to fit the basin, brush the edge of the pudding with water then press on the top. Trim the edges.

Take a sheet of greaseproof paper and a sheet of tin foil. Put the tin foil on top of the greaseproof paper then fold an inch pleat in both. Place this over the pudding and tie with string tightly (useful to have a friend near at this point!).  Steam the pudding for 2 and a half hours.

To make the gravy slowly fry the shallot in a knob of butter until it starts to disintegrate. Stir in the flour and then the water until it thickens. Crumble in the Oxo cube and stir until a nice thick gravy has formed - a little more water might be needed. Just before serving add the cream and bubble up.

Once the pudding has cooked turn it out onto a plate. Serve with a little bit of mashed potato, a green vegetable (kale is lovely with this) and a generous glug of the gravy. Perfect for winter nights.

AVOCADOS, PRAWNS, CRAB AND SMOKED SALMON VARIATIONS



I always have smoked salmon and raw king prawns in my freezer - they freeze well and (more importantly) thaw out well!  Throw in some avocado, tomato, coriander, shallot and a variety of starters or light lunches are at your finger tips.  Below is a nest of smoked salmon strips on top of roughly chopped avocado, tomato and coriander, dusted with paprika and dressed with a little olive oil and lemon.....

 

This one is avocado crushed with lime juice and chopped coriander, brown crab meat mixed with a little mayonnaise and white crabmeat on top, dressed with olive oil and lime juice, served with pea shoots and chopped parsley and chives.

 





 

 

And here we have tiger prawns that have been deveined so that they curl up prettily, briefly fried in a little garlic infused olive oil, seasoned and set aside to cool.  They then sit on a top of a bed of finely sliced lettuce, and chopped tomatoes and avocado. Dress the whole thing with a lemon and olive oil and a few chilli flakes.

POACHED PEARS

I am temporarily (I hope) out of work so I have absolutely no excuse not to get back to putting things that I cook on my blog.  This is a nice light pudding (I really dislike the word dessert for some reason), ideal for after a heavy lunch. It is easy to do, you can prepare it well in advance and there are lots of variations you can make. 

The most important point is to make sure that your pears are slightly under ripe otherwise they will collapse when poached. Conference pears are best but make sure they are fat enough as in this recipe the core is removed before poaching. 

Serves 4

Pears 

4 largish Conference pears or similar hard pears
150ml water
100g sugar
150ml white wine
3 cloves
I orange sliced

Chocolate sauce

100ml double cream
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
Tablespoon golden syrup
Knob of butter

Filling

150 ml cream
50g dark chocolate grated 

Nibbed pistachios

Peel the pears and carefully hollow out the core from the bottom. Scrunch up some tin foil and put in the hole so that the pear doesn't collapse while poaching. Put the water, sugar , cloves, orange slices and white wine in a saucepan big enough to hold the pears, add them and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook for 20 minutes until tender. Remove the pears and let them cool.

To make the filling whisk the cream up until thick then fold in the grated chocolate. You can add some chopped nuts if you like.

Heat the cream, thoroughly stir in the cocoa powder, syrup and butter and beat until shiny.

Once everything is cool fill the pears with the cream mixture, settle each one on a plate, pour over the chocolate sauce and sprinkle with the pistachios.

SAVOURY PALMIERS

 

Mr Redding is very fond of sweet palmiers - Wiki defines them thus: 'Palmiers are made from puff pastry, a laminated dough similar to the dough used for croissant, but without the yeast. Puff pastry is alternating layers of dough and melted butter. The puff pastry is rolled out, coated with sugar, and then the two sides are rolled up together so that they meet in the middle, making a roll that is then cut into about 1/4" slices and baked. Usually it is rolled in sugar before baking.' Whilst being associated with France different varieties occur across Europe.

 

I quite like sweet palmiers but generally prefer savoury to sweet and was reminded of a palmier recipe that Delia had in her Christmas book that contained parma ham. Anyway, I had some wild garlic pesto left over and some shop bought puff pastry so I thought I would  experiment.

Making palmiers is all about the construction. Take a ready rolled sheet of puff pastry that is roughly square.  Spread with pesto ( ordinary is fine but I had made some delicious wild garlic pesto - take an ordinary recipe and substitute wild garlic and rocket for the basil), then line anchovies up in two lines roughly equidistant. Srinkle a generous handful of grated parmesan over the whole lot along with a good grind of black pepper. Starting at one side roll up tightly as if you were rolling a swiss roll until you get to the middle. Turn the pastry round and do the same with the other side. Wrap the resulting roll in cling film and rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Once the pastry has chilled pre-heat your oven to 220 degrees. Slice into approx. 50mm slices and place on a baking sheet covered in baking parchment, leaving lots of space between them. Bake for around 15 minutes until crisp, golden brown and bubbling.

These are a brilliat drinks nibbles and, having a little more body than many, enable two decent cocktails to be consumed before dinner. Enjoy.

SCALLOPS WITH MORCILLA, BACON, BROAD BEANS AND PEAS

This is a delicious starter, quite light but full of good flavours - the saltiness of the bacon and earthiness of the beans and peas complement the sweetness of the scallops.

I love scallops, both the big fat King scallops and the sweet little Queenies. I find them to be a very useful thing to keep in the freezer for impromptu starters - yes, I know I should buy everything fresh from my local fishmonger (the excellent Sopers on Nunhead Lane) but I'm busy with lots of stuff and good quality frozen scallops are ok by me.

This isn't an original recipe, we have all seen variations on the theme of black pudding, scallops, broad beans, peas, but it is very easy to prepare - no purees or emulsions here, just lovely ingredients cooked quickly. 

Again, I apologise that I can't give much idea about quantities because lately when I have been cooking I have been doing so out of pleasure and to feed people.  Per person I would allow 2 large or 3 small King scallops, a handful of frozen broad beans and peas, 3 inches of morcilla sausage and a small handful of smoked lardons.

So, how to do it....

Pour boiling water over the broad beans, leave for a couple of minutes, then remove the outer skin of each bean. Cook the beans and peas for 2-3 minutes in boiling water until just done. Set aside.

Put a splash of oilve oil in a small frying pan, allow to heat up and add the lardons. Once they are looking browned and crispy add the morcilla and brown. Add the peas and beans and a splash of balsamic vinegar to create a dressing - taste and check for seasoning then keep warm.

Heat up a frying pan, add some olive oil and get smoking hot. Put in the scallops, and cook for a minute or so each side (depending on size) until just cooked. These are best served in small shallow dishes with the morcilla and bacon dressing on the side.