food blog

Preparation method

Cover the potatoes with salted water and simmer until cooked (approximately 30 minutes).

Crush with a fork and add butter into the centre of the potato. Cover the butter with crushed potato and leave to melt. Once the butter has melted stir and crush the potatoes until the butter is evenly distributed. Add the chives and stir in, then set aside. Be carful when crushing the potatoes to not be too vigorous and to leave them some texture – these are crushed potatoes, NOT mashed.

Whisk together the red wine vinegar, mustard, honey, lemon juice, chives, and salt and pepper, to taste, in a medium bowl until combined. Slowly whisk in the oil until emulsified. Stir in the spring onions and set aside.

Just before cooking the fish, pick the coriander leaves from their stalks and chop them finely.

Heat a non-stick frying pan on a high heat and add a generous film of olive oil.

While waiting for the heat to rise, cut the limes in half, squeezing the juice over the chilli along with two tablespoons of olive oil.

Toss well, adding the coriander and half of the spring onion.

Season the fillets of Salmon with salt all over, then press into black pepper and place them in to the hot pan, skin side down.

Sear the fish on the skin side until crisp, which should take about 2 minutes. Be careful not to burn them though.

Squeeze a little lime juice over the fillets then turn them over carefully, be gentle and confident or you’ll break the fillet. Turn the heat down to medium and cook the fish for another 4 minutes.

Add HALF the spring onion/chilli/coriander mixture and fry it off for 30 seconds, then carefully lift the fillets out on to a plate lined with kitchen paper.

Place a salmon fillet on the plate then scatter the rest of the spring onion and chilli mixture over the top.

To serve, spoon potato into centre, sit Salmon fillet next to it, spoon over a little vinaigrette.

You could finish with a good pinch of mustard cress as a garnish around the plate (but I forgot!). 🙂

MUSIC I COOKED TO:

So… this is my first post in what I hope will be an informative, useful and, most importantly, tasty recipe and food blog. Hopefully I can bring you guys out there reading good hearty, well cooked, interesting food using interesting and delicious ingredients. Anyway – without any further ado, here is the first recipe – EASY BOOZY BEEF STEW. I chose something fairly simple and straight forward for the first recipe so I could explore how the blog is best photographed, written up and put together. I was unsure how much of the process to document and if you think there is too much or too little let me know. Now… I use the word ‘boozy’ in the title because the stew contains some ALE, some RED WINE and also, a little unusually, a splash of Chinese RICE WINE too. In fact this whole stew, whilst predominantly remaining a traditional, deep, bold beef stew, is slightly influenced by the fact I’m half Chinese on my mothers side. Therefore the ingredients include what may at first glance appear to be a couple strange and incongruous items. The first of which is the Shaohsing Chinese cooking wine – which I believe adds a aromatic, pleasantly sweet, and nutty taste element to the dish. The second is a small amount of light soy sauce which adds a nice earthy, depth to the sauce and of course a little salt and umami flavouring. Obviously everyone knows a good stew is perfect comfort food for a cold winter evening, but its also great because its simple and low on stress – throw everything in a pot and wait for the the awesome flavours to mingle and develop together over time. And whats more pretty much any root veg can be substituted/added to the mix. And the addition of the wholesome, fluffy dumplings will give you that great cosy, warming feeling. So here it is – what I believe to be the ultimate, meat-melting, hearty, slightly-sweet, tangy beef stew.

INGREDIENTS:

For the beef stew:

2 tbsp olive oil
25g/1oz butter
750g/1lb 10oz beef stewing steak
2 tbsp plain flour 2 garlic cloves, sliced and chopped
175g/6oz baby onions, peeled
150g/5oz celery, cut into large chunks
150g/5oz carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
200g/7oz Potato, peeled and cut into large chunks
150ml/5fl oz red wine
150ml/5fl oz Shaosing Dark Cooking Rice Wine
½ litre/17fl oz real ale or bitter
500ml/18fl oz beef stock
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp fresh lemon thyme leaves
3 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
3 tbsp chopped fresh flatleaf parsley
Worcestershire sauce, to taste
1 tbsp red wine vinegar, or to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Dumplings:

125g/4½oz plain flour plus extra for dusting
1 tsp baking powder
100g duck fat
pinch salt
just enough water to make a thick dough

Preparation method

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
For the beef stew: In a large casserole/oven dish, heat a tablespoon of the olive oil until shimmering. Trim any excess fat from the meat.
Pat dry the meat with kitchen paper and fry the beef until browned on all sides. Stir in a large splash of the Shaosing rice wine.
Sprinkle over the flour and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.
In a separate frying pan add the butter, garlic and all the vegetables (apart from the potatoes) and and cook over a moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened. Drain any excess oil. If very oily remove the contents of the pan and pat with kitchen towel to absorb the oil.
Add the vegetables to the meat pan.
Stir in the wine, Shaosing wine, stock and herbs, then add the Worcestershire sauce and red wine vinegar, to taste. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Then add the honey and stir it in.
Add the ale and simmer on a medium heat for 10mins.
Cover with 2 layers of foil (or a lid obviously), and transfer to the oven and cook for about two hours, or until the meat is tender.
After an hour add the peeled potatoes to the broth.
For the dumplings, sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
Add the duck fat and small amount of water – just enough to form a thick dough. If you’re not sure err on the side of caution you can always add a little more.
With floured hands, roll spoonfuls of the dough into small balls – don’t make them too big as they will expand in the stew.
After two hours, remove the lid from the stew and place the balls on top of the stew. Cover, return to the oven and cook for a further 20 minutes, or until the dumplings have swollen and are tender.
If you prefer your dumplings with a golden top, take the foil off and bake in the oven until they’re browned off.
To serve, place a large spoonful of dumplings and potatoes into each of four serving plates and top with the meat and vegetables from the stew. Sprinkle with some chopped parsley.