A Mediterranean Experiment

The idea is probably a little odd, but I thought "can you combine Coq au Vin and Paella???" I would certainly need something bright green as contrast. Otherwise you would end up with a brown mess.

So, to start with I coated two chicken drumsticks and two thighs in flour and milk powder (a Heston tip) and fried them off. I then removed them from the pan and fried off the heads and shells of 8 prawns. I then put the prawn "waste" in a separate pan (I'll get back to that in a sec). Next I peeled and sliced two onions. The peels and any "waste" I through into the pan with the prawn stuff.
I then softened and slightly caramelised the sliced onion. In the meantime I took the skin of two small chorizos (the skin, again, goes into the "waste pan"). and added them to the onions.

While the chorizo was rendering out a bit, I filled the "waste pan" up with cider, added some stock powder (good veg stock and Japanese dashi) and wakame seaweed (great idea if you want to add seafood flavor) to create a strong seafood stock.

Next is red wine. I used a "Anciano Tempranillo Gran Reserva 2007". Believe it or not, but that was reduced at Waitrose to £5.99, so the whole bottle (minus a taster) went in together with a tin of Italian chopped tomatoes and then I re-added  the chicken. After boiling for 20 minutes, I took the chicken back out and passed the seafood stock through a sieve into the main pan. I then put in one cup of paella rice, gave it one stir and let it boil for 20 minutes. After taking the chicken out, I let it boil for another 15 minutes while I got some salted water to the boil in a third pan (with a little lemon juice).

Next the chicken goes back in ( sorry about the in/out/in/out thing, but it works). I then added some trimmed beans to the boiling water and after three minutes I added some tenderstem broccoli. After an additional three minutes, I drained the greens and dressed them with lemon juice and salt.

At that point I put the prawns (the ones I got the shells and heads from) into the main pot for two minutes.

Serving time...

It was amazingly rich and the crunch of the green veg contrasting really made it.

We had the same wine to go with dinner and it just worked.

Nibbles

My wife picked up some red pepper and chili soft cheese up from Lidl and we are using it as a dip for twiglets. Not very high brow, but lovely...

Tonight's MasterChef

Not blogging on this to the level I did last night, but I loved the two skills challenges today. Lobster and salmon raviolo and stuffed pigs trotter. My main complaint is that they kept referring to a single raviolo as ravioli. Well, ravioli is the plural of raviolo, so when only one is served that just doesn't work. I know that this is nit picking, but that is my German side...
The other point is that they kept telling the contestants that is was such a hard decision on who to send home, but apart from Joey and Joe, I think it was difficult to decide on who else should stay. So for me the problem is more about why to keep an additional one.

MasterChef The Professionals 24/11/2015 Episode

Now, I will not even attempt to blog on all episodes of this, but I saw in the description of today's one that Monica's challenge is filleting a sea bream, so that should be fun...

So here we go. It's not just filleting, it's serving it with an escabeche. Wow! Monica rocks! So beautiful - so let's see what the contestant will do to it...

Jamie looks like a bright young chef. But he's never done escabeche. Hacking away at that poor fish. Running late, but they allow him to finish. Too 2 minutes extra. cooking carrots the shortest doesn't sound like great understanding. Fish still got bones in. He certainly needs the second round.

Alex working at Corrigan's fish place. So he should be great at this. We'll see... Looks nervous. However the filleting looks good (I think, we'll see if Monica agrees). "Not a bad effort" she says. "Lovely flavors" from Greg and "lovely" from Marcus. Not bad, but if he doesn't loose the nerves he just might have a heart attack.

Josh is the third and last for Monica's challenge. Cooking the fish before even starting the escabeche. Interesting concept. Three minutes to spare... Probably should have used the three minutes to pin bone the fish. Or perhaps spending time to taste the escabeche. Summary was "harsh".

Marcus' challenge is watercress soup. Using fresh almonds. Potatoes for thickening. With a poached egg (as in Sunday's breakfast). Adding mustard, so I just learned something new! Monica says "stunning" and I can only agree!

Gayle is first. Another nervous one. Well, I am not a trained chef, but I would be nervous too. But it looks the job. "Amazed" coming from Marcus. Looks like the watercress is not cooked enough, but the poached egg is good. Not bad, but not great.

Dean from SA. South Africa is mainly known for meat, but we'll see. This one looks more confident. Watching these guys I think I need to do a post on poaching eggs and my pet hate on freshness of eggs. Good comments all round. Not perfect, but really good. Actually seems like a nice chap.

David is the sixth and last one. Soup looks good, but the egg looks like a car crash. Just learned from Marcus that when using potatoes to thicken a soup always slice a thinly a possible. David didn't ant therefore the soup[ is grainy. Not good. Better hope for a good second round. BTW, my wife swears that she has seen David on another programme.

Second round should be interesting...

David is using MCTP as his approach to midlife crisis. Obviously a joke, but odd either way.

Jamie up first. Sous Vide hake. Fish looks over done. "Basic dish done badly" isn't what I would call a compliment.

Dean is serving chicken breast with curry and raisins... Sounds a little like coronation chicken. The feedback is great, so I'd say he is trough to the next round even though GreG wasn't all that happy.

Gayle's laksa is next. The looks look like a car crash. Don't think she's gonna make it. Accused of wasting prime produce.

Josh has got aq rump of lamb with carrots looking lovely. Lovely lamb and sauce. "nothing bad to say" is high praise coming from Monica. The other two are following Monica's lead. So he is a staying - no doubt.

Alex is doing Halibut. Sounding and looking delicious, but stuff is missing. It still looks great though. According to Marcus, the fish is cooked beautifully. All round great comments, even though the additional elements would have enhanced the dish evenm more.

David is the only one making a pud. Greg doesn't like it. And when it comes to deserts that's not good. Mind you, the other don't like it neither. Good thing is that the usually only send home two. So someone might be lucky....

So the result is that Dean, Josh and Alex are staying while David, Gayle and Jamie are going home.

That was fun watching.

Tomorrow's Food

Finally, I have sooo been looking forward to this....

The pizza vending machine is really funky, but it's not quite as much fun as Pizza Night.

Amazing item on tomato growing. Apparently, the fear of death triggers fruit production (for reproduction). Not sure on the ethical side if you draw parallels to us humans, but perhaps it's better not to go there...

Next is algae / seaweed. Well, I love my nori, konbu, wakame and the like. Pills? Perhaps they are easier to stomach for some, but I actually like the stuff and I prefer my food to chew rather than in pills. But apparently it prevents the body from storing fat. So, perhaps pills help to get more seaweed in. Truckers using these pills claim to have lost weight... Interesting...

Oh well, the restaurant section with robotic waiters etc - fast food serving is one thing, but a restaurant is more than just eating. It's the experience. Not just when you do Heston. Certainly taking his idea of the seafood IPod to a new level with the walls being screens creating the right mood and scenes is new.

Now there is a new thing. Loud pubs make you drink more. However, I knew that plane food is seasoned more highly. Either way, noise and sound around us affects how we eat and drink.

The sonic decanter is something I have absolutely never have heard of. Angela Hartnett has given it the thumbs up. Sounds interesting, but the punters on the street didn't seem convinced. Time will tell.

Next item is on robotic farm helpers. Well, we have seen lots on Countryfile. So I am convinced that robotics can help us maximise crops- and we need that! The robotic ladybird was hilarious.

As you might know from my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/marcmouk), I love drones, so of course they can help on a farm ;-)

Angela on the assault course is interesting - go Angela go :-) The topic is on military rations. The stuff they do to make these rations last is just mind boggling. Pre-cooked pizza lasting three years. Wow! And the troops gave it 8/10 (Angela scored it 2 point higher, but then it was her pizza).

Now it's about climate change. Future climates might change the crops we can grow. So what does that mean to our food and what can we learn from areas of extreme weather? Rain making Texas style is amazing. I thought this stuff is science fiction. Apparently could seeding actually works - again, wow!

Novelty food coming up. So, what is it??? A new berry. Transforming sour into sweet???? Clearly I have not read my Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synsepalum_dulcificum). It's called the miracle berry and the Japanese are trying to use genetically modified tomatoes to produce the same chemical.  Controversial, but interesting.

Electrical taste is up next. Not sure about that one. OK, so sharing tastes over the Internet is interesting, but the device on show just might need a little refining. I will not be replacing going to a restaurant with holding a circuit board up to my tongue.

 Finishing off with the tomtato - growing tomatoes on top and potatoes below. obviously both are part of the nightshade family, but still, this is new.

All in all, I can't wait for next weeks episode!

Tomorrow's Food Tonight

Last week Angela Hartnett was on Chris Evans' Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 and she spoke about the Tomorrow's Food programme. It sounded fascinating. So tonight the first episode will air at 9pm on BBC1. Looking forward to it.

Skate Middles Fish Cakes

We got some beautiful Skate Middles from +Regal Fish Supplies Ltd , but I had absolutely no idea what to do with them, so I thought I'd try to make fish cakes. thery worked perfectly well. You could go for any flavoring, but I decided to go Japanese. I added mirin, soy sauce, roasted and ground nori and konbu sea weed and sesame seed oil. To bind them I added an egg, corn starch and some breadcrumbs. I served them with egg noodles dressed with soy sauce and sesame seed oil and some cucumber with similar dressing.

Well, the kids devoured them, so they must have been good.

XMas

Finally some useful instructions...

Turkey

Poached Egg with Magic Powder for Breakfast

Well, yesterday I posted about thew Magic Powder and said it would be great with poached egg. That thought never left me until this morning when it just had to be done

Magic Powder

I can't remember how I found this idea, but it was probably one of the elements in one of Heston's recipes. This powder is flavor magic. I use it to sprinkle over poached eggs on toast, add it to chili con carne or spagbol. It's also great for gravys. I certainly wouldn't want to be without it over the holiday period. Yet, last week I ran out....

It looks a little bland - light brown...

SO, what is it? Well, it started out as a roasted dried mushroom powder. I quite like to add some konbu, chili, garlic powder and salt.

To start with you roast some dried shitake mushrooms, porcini and chili and if you want some konbu at about 200C until you get this lovely caramelised mushroom smell.

Then mix in some salt (I use Maldon Sea Salt) and garlic powder with your roasted mushrooms etc and transfer to a spice grinder, food processor or the like.

After blizing it you have a very powerful powder....

I'll post when I use it. In the mean time let me know what you think, if you are giving it a go and if yes, how you are modifying and using it.

Fragrant Turkey

Well, this started live as "Fragrant Chinese Chicken Wrapped in Lettuce Leaves" in Gok Wan's "Gok Cooks Chinese". I loved the programme and I love the book. I am no fashionista, but Gok's cooking is great. I wish he would do more cooking shows.
We started to substitute chicken for turkey breast mince as it is lower in fat and you really can't tell the difference with all the gorgeous flavors.

 
Might even be worth considering for Christmas left overs...

Ribs and Wedges

Tonight we simply had ribs and wedges, but the family insisted that I write down what I did.

To start with I made a brine of salt, sugar, garlic powder, Chinese five spice, cardamon, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, dried ginger powder, good vegetable stock powder, dried shiitake mushrooms and a pierced died chili. The picture isn't a looker, but perhaps brine is just not very photogenic.

I then brined the ribs for about two hours and then brought the brine with the ribs to the boil and let them simmer for 10 minutes. I then switched off the heat and let the ribs cool a bit.

While the ribs where cooling I made a BBQ sauce. For that I used three ladles of the brine, ketchup, some bought (sorry) BBQ sauce, Korean chili paste, garlic powder, honey and cider. I then let this reduce a bit.

After removing the ribs I covered them with the BBQ sauce to marinate. While they where marinating I cut half an onion squash (butternut wound do), a couple of sweat potatoes and some carrots into wedges and boiled them for 5 minutes in the brine. I then removed them and put them in the fridge to cool quickly so that they do not overcook. Once cooled I coated them in vegetable oil, ras el hanout, ground cumin and again that vegetable stock powder.

This is not the best looking meal I ever made, but believe me, it was very tasty and the meat was super tender.

Next time I'll put in more effort into the presentation.

German Dinner Tonight

Tonight we had Bratwurst with Sauerkraut. It just doesn't get more German ;-)

My wife used to just use the Sauerkraut straight out of the jar and was rather amazed when I introduced her to adding onion, caraway, apple, potato and wine. It certainly makes for a more rounded flavor.

Dinner at "The Kensington Quarter"

So, tonight I was in London. The starter was "Crispy Calamari with green pepper sauce"

The calamari were absolutely super. But the sauce tasten more like hoisin sauce than green pepper. It was still delicious and perhaps I just didn't get it.

For main I had "Pan fried Lancaster Duck with Fondant Potatoes, Braised Cabbage and Orange Sauce".

I personally prefer my duck a little bit more on the pink side, but is was still lovely and tender. Well, when reading "braised cabbage" I assumed green cabbage, but that just goes to show that you shouldn't assume. Red cabbage was certainly the better choice and worked beautifully with the orange sauce. Not quite sure what the orange and green swirls were, but they did taste delicious.

So, all in all, I really enjoyed the dinner and the staff have been great, too.

Lovely Dinner at the Holiday Inn Winnersh Triangle

Tonight I had a lovely dinner with colleagues at the Winnersh Triangle Holiday Inn.

The starter was Seared Scallops, Cauliflower Puree, Curry Oil and Cauliflower Bhaji

It was absolutely delicious. The scallops were perfectly done and the bhajis were very tasty.

For main course I had Fillet of Beef, Swissh Chard, Wild Mushroom Tortellino and Pomme Boulangere

Altogether nice. The pomme could have been baked a little more, but it was nice.

No pictures of the cheese board, but again, I really enjoyed it.

My Wife's Stuffed Pumkin

This is based on a recipe idea we got from a freeby Tesco food mag. I don't quite remember the details, but it was nothing like this - this my wife's version...

You take an edible pumpkin, cut the lid off and scrape out the seeds. Make sure that you leave enough of the fruit flesh. It is full of flavor and that's what you should be going for. Either put in some olive oil, if you want to be good, 1cal spray with a little salt and pepper. Then bake th open pumpkin for half an hour at 180C (fan assisted). You then stuff it.

For the stuffing my wife boils up bulgar wheat with stock and garlic (powder) and about half an onion, seasoning with salt and pepper. This then gets mixed with some chestnuts from yesterday's post (just we happen to have them), mozzarella cheese, mushrooms and a bit more chopped onion. She also through in some fresh thyme, just to have some herbs. Really the filling is up to you, but this was delicious.

It then gets topped with more mozzarella and some pumpkin seeds for extra crunch.

We had this simply with some pork shoulder stakes, but the choice is your...

Let me know what you think

Chestnutting

Today the kids and I went "chestnutting" or "chestnut hunting" as my daughter calls it. When I grew up in Munich we only had horse chestnuts growing around us and I only knew sweet chestnuts as "Maroni" roasted on the street stalls.

Here in Bracknell it is difficult to through a stone (not that I would) without hitting a sweet chestnut tree. They are actually quite easy to tell apart. The sweet chestnut is more "edgy". The leaves have ragged edges and the shells of the chestnuts are very spiky. The horse chestnut is much more rounded.

I love the taste of sweet chestnut - for me it is the very essence of autumn, winter and Christmas. The are brilliant mixed into brussel sprouts with some bacon, they make great stuffing and I have even made chestnut ice cream.

I tend to steam them and the freeze them so that I can take small amounts as and when I need them.

This year seems to be an amazing year for chestnuts. Today we only spent 10 minutes with one tree and our loot was quite something:

In order to steam them I cut them in half

Always check them and discard any that have a worm in them

Only keep the good ones

Once they are halved they get steamed for about 15 minute

If you are lucky then some might simply fall out of their skin

When they are all peeled they are ready to be used or frozen

I already used some of them to thicken today's gravy, but the rest will get frozen...

Let me know if you have any nice, interesting or unusual recipes for chestnuts.