The 2017 Salad Crisis and Burgers

There has been a shortage of courgettes and salads due to bad weather in Spain. I hadn’t really noticed as we don't buy courgettes in winter, because we grow them in summer and anyone who has ever grown their own courgettes knows, by the end of the season you don’t want to see another courgette until next May at the very earliest!

Salad leaves are different we do buy some during the winter to supplement the leaves we grow in the poly tunnel. Little gems are our favourites and we’re quite bad about composting the outer dark leaves preferring the inner pale leaves. This is a waste of the outer leaves, so what to do?

Well, for a start I gave the slightly floppy outer leaves a good soak in some cold water with a spoonful of salt in it for about 45 minutes, then I drained the leaves and dried them in a salad spinner. After that they went into a container covered in damp kitchen paper in the fridge over night.

They were crisp the next day and perfect for a salad. I used them in a classic Caesar salad and got to thinking about all the Caesar variations there are out there, with bacon or chicken, blue cheese or avocado or sometimes all of the above!

Blue cheese……….. there was some blue cheese butter in the fridge, some cream and I was making burgers from some minced beef……… how would burgers with blue cheese and lettuce sauce go down?

Very nicely as it turns out.

Burgers with Blue Cheese and Lettuce Sauce

The finished burger

250g beef mince

salt and pepper

1tbs butter

1tbs blue cheese

100mls cream 

10 lettuce leaves

2-4 slices of onion

4 slices of aubergine or 2 flat cap mushrooms 

2 slices of Parma ham or 4 slices of pancetta

Season the mince with salt and pepper and shape into two burgers and leave to rest in the fridge.

Mash together the blue cheese and butter with a fork and put into a small saucepan with the cream.

Slice the lettuce leaves longways removing the centre rib if you like.

Brush the onion and aubergine slices with oil and fry in a pan until nicely browned and keep warm.

Bake or grill the mushrooms with a knob of butter, salt and pepper until just done and keep warm.  

Grill the Parma ham or pancetta till crisp.

Heat a pan or grill to cook the burgers and put the blue cheese butter and cream on to a low heat to melt.

When the blue cheese is liquid add the lettuce leaves and bring to a simmer until the lettuce is wilted and the sauce thick.

Lettuce sauce!

Cook the burgers as you like them and place on the aubergine slices or flat cap mushrooms and top with the onions and the sauce and then the Parma ham or pancetta.  

Building the burger

Summer Arrives!

      Summer has arrived with a bit of a heatwave and we've been enjoying BBQs with our Aldi Pizza oven and some Irish lump wood charcoal from The Irish Artisan Charcoal Company. 

      I have to admit we got both of these as gifts, my husband Tom who is connected with Aldi on the wine side was given the Pizza oven to test and due to a modicum of interaction and retweeting with Colin on Twitter he very kindly gave me a bag of charcoal at Litfest.ie in May.

Fuel!

      I put the oven together, it was relatively easy and when I looked at it I felt it was a bit low so I put it up on two cavity blocks, much better for our backs.

The cat inspecting the new addition!

        Now what to cook? First up some mini pizzas on the pizza stone, these will need a bit of practice as we got the bottoms to be crispy bit there wasn't much browning on top, but we will persevere. Then we removed the pizza stone and BBQed some free range pork chops and roast peppers, much more successful. The next night we spatchcocked a chicken and seasoned it with the Bharat spice mix below, this was a great success and it was as good cold for lunch next day.

         We had, well Tom had used different fuels apart from the charcoal the first night. He'd had some trouble getting the charcoal started, but Colin came up with a good tip, dip strips of the paper bag the charcoal came in in vegetable oil and add that to the kindling. With the last of our charcoal we cooked these burgers and an aubergine for a tasty supper on a warm evening. 

BBQ, burgers and aubergine slices.

Spicy Lamb Burgers

This recipe is one I have developed for the Summer cooking camps I do at Brennan's in Cork, it makes 6 small burgers and while it has spice it doesn't have heat, feel free to add chilli if you like things hot.

500g minced lamb

1 clove of garlic

1 small onion

2tsp baharat spice mix

1tbsp pinenuts 

1tsp salt

1tbsp olive oil

      Place the minced lamb in a bowl.

Peel the garlic and the onion and grate them. 

Add the grated garlic and onion and then the spices, pine nuts and salt.

Mix well and divide the mixture into six, shape each sixth into a burger and leave to rest on plate.

Brush the top of the burgers with oil.

Heat the grill for 5-10 minutes and then grill the burgers for 4-5 minutes on one side and turn them over and brush the other side with oil and for another 4 minutes.

Make sure they are cooked through and serve.

      These are even nicer cooked on a BBQ, timings will vary depending on the heat of your BBQ. A great accompaniment is aubergine cut into 2cm thick slices and brushed with oil and grilled on each side with the burgers.

The spices

Baharat spice mix

1tsp black peppercorns

1tsp coriander seed

2cm cinnamon stick

½tsp cloves

2 allspice berries

2 tsp cumin seeds

1tsp green cardamom pods

½tsp grated nutmeg 

      Put all the spices in a spice grinder or a mortar and pestle and grind to a powder.

Store in an airtight container for up to 8 weeks. Makes about 6 teaspoonfuls.

This is based on a recipe from "Jerusalem" by Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi 

With tzatziki and salad.

Beetroot Tzatziki

Depending on the beetroot this can taste quite sweet.

1 small cooked beetroot

¼ of a cucumber

½ a shallot

1 small clove of garlic

12 mint leaves

¼ of a lemon 

salt & pepper 

125g thick yogurt

      Grate the beetroot onto a plate. 

Cut the piece of cucumber in half and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon, grate the flesh onto the plate.

Peel and finely chop the shallot and the garlic and add to the beetroot and cucumber.

Roll the mint leaves up and very finely slice them across the roll, add to the plate.

Season the vegetables on the plate with the lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Put the yoghurt into a bowl and add the vegetables stir to mix well.

Taste and add more seasoning if you think it needs some.

Evening light!

Let us hope the good weather continues, it sure puts everyone in better form! 

Winter Salads

       I always think of salads as summertime food, I find it hard to summon enthusiasm for them in the winter. They are cold and should come with a dose of heat and vitamin D from a sunny day! 

Having thought about a bit more I am slowly coming round to winter salads and these two are becoming my favourites. 

       The first makes use of oranges very much in season at the moment, I made my marmalade a while back and the blood oranges are now in the shops, and fennel available for most of the year.

The second salad is a bit of a salmagrundi, using Asian flavours and as much chilli heat as you like.  Both of these go very well with duck, the acidity cutting the rich fattiness. The second is good with crispy, spicy belly pork added. 

      The important thing is to make sure the ingredients are not straight from the fridge and have time to warm up to room temperature before you eat the salads.

Orange and Fennel Salad

      This is so simple I almost didn’t write it down, I love the scallion in it but it can linger on the breath!

1 orange

salt

¼ of a lemon 

¼ of a bulb of fennel

2 glugs of good olive oil

the white of a scallion or 2 optional*

Cut the skin off the orange and slice it into rounds and lay them on a plate and sprinkle with a pinch of salt.

Slice the fennel as thinly as possible and spread over the top of the orange slices, squeeze over the lemon juice and pour over the olive oil. Leave to stand for 30 minutes at room temperature.

* Finely slice the white of the scallion and sprinkle on with the fennel.

A Warming Salad

      Roast beetroot is nicest in this, but the vacuumed packed cooked beetroot will be fine, it also gives a little colour to the dressing.

1 small clove of garlic

juice of half a lime

1tbs soy sauce

2tbs olive oil

1tbs sesame oil

0.5cm ginger

¼ to 1 chilli

a piece of cucumber

1 cooked beetroot

¼ of a red pepper

1tbs sesame seeds

lettuce

2 scallions

salt & pepper

Grate the garlic clove into the bottom of a salad bowl and add lime juice, soy sauce and the oils.

Peel and cut the ginger into fine matchsticks and finely chop the chilli, use as much or as little chilli as you wish or leave it out and add some chilli oil to the dressing.

Deseed the cucumber and cut into thin batons, cut the beetroot into small cubes and the pepper into thin strips. Add all of these to the salad bowl and mix well.

Toast the sesame seeds on a dry pan until they are just turning darker and sprinkle over the salad. Very finely slice the scallions and tear the lettuce into bite sized pieces and add to the salad. 

Toss before serving and taste adding salt and pepper if necessary.

Devilled Crab Gratin

Devilled Crab Gratin

         Some jobs in the kitchen just have to be done by hand, topping & tailing gooseberries, stoning plums for the freezer, shelling fresh peas, pricking sloes for sloe gin and picking the meat from a hole crab. There is nothing for it but to gather all you need sit down at a table and get on with it. Company of some sort is essential, ideally a real live person who will share the task or one engaged in other activities that you can chat to. Failing live company the radio will keep me entertained.

Of course the point of these activities is to end up with something delicious to eat!

Last night I took on the crab picking challenge and it was well worth it. The brown meat is essential to this dish as it gives a richness that can’t be achieved with anything else.

Crab meat and shells

and the rest.

2 crabs

2 small onions or 1 large one

50g butter

2cm piece of fresh ginger peeled

2 cloves of garlic peeled & chopped

1 dessert spoon of lime pickle

double cream

salt & pepper

fresh coriander chopped

grated cheddar

Pick the brown and white meat from the crabs.

Peel the onions and slice them very thinly, melt the butter in a pan over a low heat and add the onions. Cook the onions gently. 

Grate the ginger and chop the pieces of lime in the lime pickle. Add the grated ginger, garlic and lime pickle to the onions and continue cooking until the onions are soft.

Heat an ovenproof dish and preheat a grill.

Add the crab to the pan with the onions and enough double cream to loosen the mixture. Heat it all through and stir through the chopped coriander, pour into the warm dish and sprinkle with the grated cheese and grill until browned and bubbling.  

Leave to cool until the bubbling stops and serve with a green salad.

Let the bubbling stop before serving!

Serves 4 as a starter or 2 as a main course.

PS Add a chopped chilli if you want a really spicy version, but I like the crab flavour not to be drowned by the chilli.

Going a Little Potty!

        I love having a treat at the back of the fridge for the days I need a quick supper after a long day or to bring to work for lunch. Smoked mackerel pate is one I tend to fall back on. 

      

I have been reading the lovely "Kitchen Essays" of Agnes Jekyll first published in 1922 (the original articles were first published in The Times). The "Potted Shrimp" recipe is one recipe that caught my eye. I had had these recently in a restaurant, but they were seasoned shrimp in a ramekin topped with butter, chilled and then warmed to soften the bottom half of the ramekin. They came with crisp toast, as I scooped out the hard top layer of butter on to the toast added the shrimp, pressed down with the knife, the shrimp fell off and the toast broke.

       I knew this was not what it was meant to be. Lady Jekyll had the answer, 'pound' most of the shrimp with the soft butter! So I set about 'pounding' my shrimp, which in my case were defrosted Atlantic prawns. My mortar was on the small side so I moved to a bigger bowl and a fork and I achieved a coarse pate in no time.

     

Potted Shrimp or Prawns

Potted Prawns

125g of shrimp after cooking and shelling or peeled Atlantic prawns defrosted

50g soft butter

mace blade

lemon zest

clarified butter

salt and pepper

      Dry the prawns on kitchen paper. Save 10 or 12 whole prawns. Put the rest of the prawns into a bowl with the butter, a grating of mace, a teaspoon of finely grated lemon zest, a pinch of salt and a grind of black pepper.

     Mash all these together with a fork until combined. It should not be too smooth, then stir in the reserved prawns pack into ramekins and cover with clarified butter and chill.

Bring to room temperature before serving with Melba toast.

       If you prefer some dill or fennel could be chopped through instead of the mace. This is lovely for a picnic too.

Spread on crisp Melba toast

      This other recipe for a 'Mousse of Sardine and Egg' also caught my eye, I had a feeling it could be a fish paste and not very tasty, but I like it. It's not for people who like their fish not to taste of fish.

     

      The recipe recommends 'pushing' everything through a sieve, the egg went through easily enough but the mini processor was a godsend for the sardines! It is also recommended as an alternative to marmalade at breakfast time! That could be a shock to the unwary first thing.

Mousse of Sardine and Egg

The basic ingredients 

3 to 4 sardines

1tsp soft butter

salt pepper

1tbs lemon juice

2tbs cream

a couple dashes of tabasco

a dash of Worcester sauce

1 hardboiled egg

       Put everything except the hard boiled egg in to a mini food processor and blend Remove the blade from the processor and sieve in the hardboiled egg. Stir in to mix. Taste and adjust seasoning.

       Serve on crackers or with crudities. I spooned the rest into a small jar to be stored in the fridge.

Breakfast!

Chocolate Mousse Cake

I can’t remember where the recipe for this cake came from, but I did find it in a magazine recently. It is very rich, almost a custard!

The lettering is cut from pale green florist paste and milk chocolate modelling paste. I used royal icing for the knives & forks. 

Cake is always good especially when we have something to celebrate and the launch tomdoorley.com is!

150g (70% cocoa solids) dark chocolate broken up

150g butter cut in cubes 

75g soft brown sugar

75g golden caster sugar

2tbs double cream

1tsp vanilla extract

3 large eggs

cocoa powder

Heat the oven to 160˚C, GM 2.5. Butter and line a 20 cm square tin with baking parchment.

Put the chocolate, butter, sugars, cream and vanilla into a bowl and melt them all together with the bowl standing in a frying pan of hot water.

When melted take the bowl out of the water and add the eggs one at a time, whisking each one in with a ballon whisk, until smooth.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Place the cake tin onto a baking sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until almost set in the middle. Leave to cool in the tin.

When cold turn out and dust the top with cocoa powder.

Serve with whipped cream and strawberries.

Making the most of a surplus.

              Sometimes our shopping and eating gets out of sync and the fridge fill up with extra things I’d planned to use, but didn’t.

One of these was a lovely tub of Mossfield Organic Farm natural yoghurt. I decided it was time to go back to my cheese making roots and turn it into a soft cheese or labneh.

Peppered Labneh

500g tub of thick yogurt 

1tsp salt

2tsp peppercorns

Line a colander with muslin or a brand new ‘J’ cloth, scald by pouring over some boiling water to wet the cloth.

Season the yoghurt with salt and mix well. Pour the yoghurt into the cloth and draw up the sides of the cloth and tie with string. Hang up over a bowl and leave to drip overnight.

The next day tip the strained yoghurt into a bowl and mix well.

Crush the peppercorns in a mortar and pestle and add to the cheese little by little until it is as spicy as you like it. Add more salt if you feel it needs it too.

Pack into a dish and cover, it will keep in the fridge for about a week if it doesn’t get eaten.

Annual Cleanse

     As soon as the Christmas decorations are down it's time to start thinking about Marmalade! 

In January Seville oranges come to Ireland for marmalade making, they are sour and bitter and need lots of sugar to make them palatable. 

     We have a long legged stool that was my mothers and her Mother in laws before that and it is known as the "Jam Stool"! Mum would sit on it during her day long marmalade sessions each January.

     The house was filled with a strong citrus scent and the kitchen steamed up.

It was a cleansing for the new year. 

    

    This version is not quite so steamy as the peel is softened in the oven with less water than is usual for marmalade. You still get the wonderful scent when it is boiled to reach setting point.

     As this is based on Mum's recipe I have used imperial measurements the metric amounts are below.

Marmalade

Liquid sunshine!

3lb Seville oranges

2 lemons

6lb sugar

3pts water

     Squeeze the oranges and lemons and save the seeds and membranes in a piece of muslin.

All ready to start softening.

     Finley chop, slice or mince the orange and lemons peels.

Place the sugar on the top to the Aga at the back, to warm up. I leave it in its bags.

     Put the peels, the muslin bag of pips and membranes and the water into a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Cover the pan with a lid and place on the floor of the simmering oven of the Aga or in a low oven about 110˚C, GM 1/4 and simmer until the peel is soft, 
“Like bread and milk between your fingers!” as Mum use to say. 

     It will take about 2-3 hrs. This year I got distracted and it spent about 4 hours in the simmering oven!

     Remove from the oven and remove the muslin bag. Using a saucer and the back of a slotted spoon squeeze as much of the liquid out of the bag as possible back into the pan. 
Place a ramekin into the fridge to chill.
     

Sugar added and ready to boil.

     

     Put the pan onto the simmering plate and add the sugar stirring until it has all dissolved then bring to the boil.

     Cook at a rolling boil until setting point is reached.*

A rolling boil!

     When it starts to boil put 12 clean jars and lids on a baking tray in the simmering oven for at least 20 minutes to sterilise. 

     To test for setting point place a teaspoonful of the marmalade on the cold ramekin in the fridge and leave for a few minutes. Push gently with your finger and its skin should wrinkle.

      Turn off the heat and leave the pan to stand for 10 minutes. 

      Pour into the hot jars, wipe any dribbles from the rims and cover the jars immediately to seal.

I use a heatproof jug for pouring the marmalade into the jars.  

     Leave to cool and label.

Precious hoard!

*How long it takes for setting point to be reached will vary a bit but for this amount at least 20 to 40 minutes. I tend to make quite stiff marmalade so it takes longer and the yield is lower. We don’t eat a lot so it needs to keep. I give most of our marmalade away to friends and family.

Metric measurements:  
1.4kg Seville oranges, 2 lemons, 1.8l water