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Grilled Chicken

I do like grilled chicken, however I don’t like my grill! I would love to have a proper commercial salamander grill, I am reminded on a regular basis that this is a standard domestic kitchen, and not a restaurant kitchen…

Well one can dream…

So the grill we do have is built into the oven and is not separate. So if I want to grill I need to leave the oven door open and that I don’t like from a safety perspective, especially with young children running around.

So the other day I decided I would use my grill and as I had the time I would be able to ensure that everyone else in the house wouldn’t be grilled.

I took some chicken thighs and legs and in a bowl added some Schwartz’s Spicy Italian spice mix, some olive oil, lemon zest and the juice form the lemon too.

This I coated the chicken before placing it under the grill.

I turned the chicken a couple of times and each time I would brush the chicken with the remaining spice mix from the bowl.

The result?

Grilled Chicken

Well the chicken had a wonderful flavour and was beautifully moist and tender. I really do like the taste of grilled chicken (especially with lemon) and this was just right.

I intend to use the same ingredients in the summer, but use the barbecue.

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Ich bin ein Berliner

Ich bin ein Berliner

The infamous quote from John F Kennedy was as any German will tell you translates as “I am a doughnut”.

So it was with this reminiscence in mind that I bought a Berliner doughnut from Waitrose that had been reduced.

It was the first Berliner I had ever had. Never had the chance to get to Germany for many years, and though through JFK I was aware of the Berliner it’s not something I had seen.

So what did I think?

Es ist ein schaler Berliner.

Yes it was stale.

So it was reduced and it was reduced because it had been out all day (maybe a couple of days) and as a result it was stale. Well I hope it was stale in some ways, as if that was how it was suppose to taste then I am disappointed.

So I didn’t finish it.

I will need to get to Germany sometime for a doughnut…

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Pink Peppercorn Crusted Beef Steaks

Sometimes time is against you with cooking, especially after a long day in the office, so ranges like Waitrose’s Easy To Cook can be a quick and useful way of making something nice to eat.

I picked Waitrose’s Pink Peppercorn Crusted Beef Steaks from their branch at Gordano Services and they did look quite nice, not just in the packet, but also on the side of the packet.

However cooking them, according to the instructions did not go to plan…

The steak itself cooked fine, but the crust stuck to the pan and separated from the steak. Think it was a combination of the preparation of the steak and my pan.

Anyhow scraping the crust from the pan onto the steaks worked okay, but they didn’t look anything like what it looked like on the packet.

I served it with potato rosti, steamed vegetables and a homemade sauce using the pan I cooked the steak in, some white wine, creme frache and a little parmesan.

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The difference saffron makes…

Tonight I made paella, something I seem to do on a regular basis. Tonight though was different and the reason was I had no saffron.

Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of the saffron crocus and it imparts not just a rich golden hue to the paella, but also importantly adds flavour too.

So don’t get me wrong, the paella was very nice, what with onions, pepper and peas, but the lack of saffron was very telling and I think next time I want a rice dish, and I don’t have saffron in the house, I will be making risotto instead.

How my paella should have looked, a rich yellow colour….

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Roast Pork

Though relatively cheap, a joint of pork loin still makes for a nice Sunday roast.

Cooking lunch

I did manage to get very crispy crackling and a tender moist joint.

One thing I do about 30 minutes before the pork has finished cooking is to add some sliced apple to the roasting dish. I also add other stuff like onions, mushrooms, courgette and bread, however the apple is there as a kind of apple sauce. I do though have been known to cook the apples separately but sometimes for speed and to save on washing up I will roast the apple with the pork.

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Spicy Linguine

Though I am calling this spicy, it isn’t that spicy, you could of course make it more spicy, if you like your food really spicy.

What I do like about this recipe is that it is very quick and easy.

In a large pan of boiling water cook some linguine. I use De Cecco Linguine as it cooks well, tastes great and works with a range of sauces.

Whilst the linguine is cooking (takes 10-11 minutes) in a large frying pan I cook off some onions and pancetta, to which I then add slices of cooking chorizo.

I ensure that the chorizo is cooked before removing from the heat. There will be a fair bit of fat cooked off from the chorizo and the pancetta, so you might want to drain off this before adding the contents of the pan to the cooked linguine.

Once the lingine is cooked, drain and add half a jar of red pesto and the cooked onion, chorizo and pancetta.

Serve.

You could add red pepper to add some more spice and chilli if you want heat too.

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Roasting Potatoes Perfectly

Potatoes

I do like roast potatoes and after trying many different varieties and techniques I believe I have now got a repeatable recipe and process for perfect roast potatoes.

Firstly you need to use the right kind of potatoes. It’s not as simple as buying any kind, the cheapest or whatever. I have in the past used King Edward potatoes which have worked, but more recently I have found Maris Piper to be a better choice. However this time I went with King Edward (as that was all that was available in the shop, well there were other varieties, but no Maris Piper.

After peeling and cutting into chunks the potatoes are blanched in boiling water for about 7-10 minutes depending on the size of the chunks. Now the size if dependent on how you like your roast poatoes and how long you have to cook them. Obviously smaller chunks means a shorter cooking time, whilst larger chunks though take longer are preferred by some people.

While the potatoes are blanched, place the roasting tray into the oven, with a good splash of olive oil. Now you can use goose fat, and I have done in the past, but I am now using olive oil. You could use sunflower oil. I avoid butter generally because it burns and adds a bitter taste. The key here is to heat the pan and the oil. I put the pan into the hot oven (with the oil added) for at least five minutes, not too long though. So I put it in about 2-3 minutes before I drain them. After blanching the potatoes, drain and the key here is to let the heat dry the potatoes. If they go into the pan “wet” they won’t crisp up well. The next stage is to slightly “bash” the potatoes by shaking the colander or sieve, this will aid the crisping process too. Then remove the roasting pan from the oven and add the potatoes, turning them and maybe a little more “bashing”. You could add some flavouring, fresh sprigs of rosemary works well. You should also ensure that the potatoes are not too crowded, in other words they need air to be crisp.

Cook for 30-45 minutes depending on the size of the chunks, if you have parmentier sized chunks cooking time could be as low as 20 minutes. It is a good idea to turn the potatoes half way through to ensure a more even crispness.

The end result should be tasty, crisp potatoes with a fluffy centre.

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Crispy Crackling

So how do I ensure that my pork crackling is crispy?

The key for me is two factors, dryness and hotness.

The pork skin needs to be really really dry. I use kitchen towel to ensure that the pork is as dry as possible. I know some people will rub salt in, but that is basically the same thing, the salt will asorb any moisture on the skin. Personally I find that just using kitchen towel is just as effective.

The next stage is place the pork into a really really hot oven. I have my oven on full and when it has pre-heated, I place the pork in the middle and cook for 15 minutes before turing down the heat to 160℃ or 180℃ depending on the cut of the pork.

As a result, nearly everytime I get a wonderfully crispy crackling.

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Fruity Waffle

Fruity Waffle

So what do you do when you run out of maple syrup? Well what I did was add some fruit to my waffle.

The raspberries were beautiful, wonderfully sweet. The strawberries (been well out of season) were okay, but nothing like proper summer strawberries. As for the blueberries, well they were rather tasteless, so much so I didn’t have those.

As for the waffle, homemade using an electric waffle iron. Made using a batter of flour, egg, milk, a spoonful of sugar and a few drops of vanilla extract. I use it for both breakfast waffles, sweet ones and with the addition of herbs to the batter it makes great savoury waffles.

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Coffee and Croissant

Wanting a break whilst shopping recently we went to Patisserie Valerie for coffee and cakes.

The coffee was very nice, and for a change from many coffee places not in a huge vat of a mug, but more of a cup. I had an americano and it was very nice.

Time for coffee

If you are use to the Venti sized coffee servings that you get at Starbucks or Costa you would be disappointed. But for me the quality of the coffee was good and that to be honest is what really counts, not the quantity of coffee. My wife had a filter coffee and she enjoyed that.

There was a wide choice of cakes and I was tempted by many different varities. In the end I went with the almond croissant.

Croissant

It did taste of almonds, the almond paste was not overdone, though I would have liked more almonds on top and slightly less icing sugar. As for the other cakes, the toasted teacake was according to my son “not very nice” and having had a bite I had to agree. Something not quite right about it. However my daughter was overwhelmed by her huge plain croissant, so much so we had to get some more butter for it, which came quickly and with a smile. The waitress even offered to bring a bag if we couldn’t finish it; it was that large. My wife enjoyed her cinnamon danish pastry and I didn’t get a look in for a bite, even though I offered her a bit of my almond croissant.

With free wifi it’s a nice place to sit and work over a coffee, though as we found a nice place to take a break. The service was efficient and quick, and certainly so much better than the Café Rouge next door.