I Heart Italia: Sausages & Broccoli

I Heart Italia: Sausages & Broccoli

Italians do it better. Well, sometimes at least. If you like sausages and broccoli this is the dish for you. It goes very well with a smooth, creamy mash and takes sausage and mash to new heights. I dream about this dish.

850g Italian sausages - the ones from East Dulwich Deli are simply the best!

600g broccoli, cut into florets

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 French shallots, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1/4 red chilli, finely chopped

125ml chicken stock

1 tablespoon lemon juice

6 pitted black olives

Serves 4

Place the sausages in a single layer in a deep non-stick frying pan and add cold water - 1.5cm deep. Bring to the boil, reduce and simmer for 20 minutes.

Turn the sausages from time to time and when they are cooked all the water should have evaporated, leaving just a little sausage fat in the pan.

Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Add the broccoli with a teaspoon of salt and simmer for 4-5 minutes, until the florets are barely tender. Drain and set aside.

Add the oil to the pan and brown the sausages. Push them to one side and add the shallots, garlic and chilli.

Cook on a low heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring from time to time.

Add the stock and lemon juice, turn up the heat and cook until reduced by half.
Add the broccoli and olives, spoon the sauce over and serve when it has heated through.

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Nora's Bacon Hash

Nora's Bacon Hash by Charlotte

Recently, Nora Ephron died. Unrelated to this I started to read Heartburn, Nora's book on life, love, food and the rest. It is easy reading and she is funny, laugh on the tube kind of funny, and what's more, there are recipes that pop out of the pages from time to time. Having marked them all down [before realising there is a recipe index at the back] this is the first to go from page to pan.

Following Nora's instruction:
Cut some bacon into small pieces and start to cook it over a slow flame so that some of the fat is rendered. Then add diced cooked potatoes and cook slowly until the potatoes and bacon are completely crunchy. Eat with an egg.

I wasn't sure which egg to do, with so many options and all of them good, I decided to go soft boiled, a new favourite of mine, along with baked eggs. It turns out that this was the right decision - a soft boiled egg split on top of the hash does the job. Salt must be sprinkled onto the yolk - of course.

Feeling the need for something green I turned and saw a ripe avocado, resting in the Spanish vegetable trolly [small plastic trolly left by previous tenants who must have been mad - who leaves a perfectly good vegetable trolly?] So, I made guacamole with avocado, spring onion, lime juice, a pinch of chilli and salt. This is a good call. Green always = good.

Good post work food and also a potential brunch number… enjoy.

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This week I have mostly been eating...

Herefordshire Cherry Focaccia with Caraway Seeds. No.1 breakfast for champions.

Milk Tea & Pearl - cold tapioca tea[!] - either love it or hate it I guess.

Olympic Onion Rings. Thanks to Rachael for inspiring me with her Cheese Javelins.

Pickled Radicchio-mouth watering!! Basic recipe: 150ml malt vinegar; 300ml water, 65g caster sugar, salt. Add spices of choice. Mix cold and pour over. EASY.

BBQ Corn, Avocado & Tomato Salad.

2 ears of corn, husks removed

Butter

1-2 tomatoes
2 green chillis
1/3 red onion
1 ripe avocado
1 lime
2tbsp coriander
salt and pepper

Take the coriander and roughly chop it. Rub the corn with butter, a bit of salt and 1 tablespoon of the chopped coriander. Put it on the bbq until it is thoroughly cooked and coloured on each side, about 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, get a third of red onion in one thick slice and put it on the bbq. You can grill it if it is falling apart. Cook the onion until it is slightly translucent, turning it to ensure it cooks evenly on both sides.

Then cut the tomatoes into large chunks and add to a bowl with the remaining tablespoon of coriander. Next, dice the chilli, removing the seeds first and add to the bowl.

Cut your avocado in half, remove the stone and then cut away from the skin into pieces similar in size to the tomato. Add these to the bowl.

Once the onion is translucent remove it from the grill, dice it and add it to the salad bowl also.

Then take the corn off the grill [once evenly cooked all over]. Let it cool for a minute and then use a large knife to slice all the way down the corn to remove the kernels. Add everything to the bowl and mix.

Squeeze the lime juice on top, and toss with a bit of salt and pepper before serving.

The Battle of the Bak Kut Tehs - For Action Against Hunger

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Tempura

 Tempura - an enjoyable summer battering

 

Fish and chips is one of the best things when the mood is right, although the batter can cause a food coma to come on rapidly and immediately after consumption. Fritto misto is also one of the best things when in Italy and by the sea. 

When the food coma is not an option [you need to do things/speak to people/move around freely] and you're not leisurely hunting for lunch on the Italian coastline I suggest applying a light tempura batter to anything that you have to hand.

In this instance I had half a courgette, leftover asparagus, quite a few small carrots and two squid in my kitchen.

Firstly, cut your veg and fish to size:

Carrot and courgette batons

Asparagus (whole)

Squid - cut into rings

Get a plate of cornflower to toss the veg in before it goes into your batter.

Make the batter by mixing 80g cornflower, 80g self-raising flour, 210ml sparkling water, 2 tsp rapeseed oil (I used olive oil), 1/4 tsp salt and whisk to get a smooth runny paste. 

You can add in and herbs and spices to flavour the batter – I split it and added lemon rind to half (to go on the squid, asparagus and courgette) and fennel seeds to the other half (for the mountain of carrots). Dip everything in the batter ready to go into the frying pan.

You then want to fry everything in batches so that it cooks evenly and does not stick together. I opted for shallow frying in about 300ml of vegetable oil. Get the oil hot in the pan on a high heat and then turn down to medium.

Piece by piece put the vegetables and squid into the pan without too much excess batter. Soft veg should take about 1 minute and harder veg like carrots 2 minutes. Remove and place on kitchen paper to get rid of unwanted oil.

There are lots of dipping sauces out there but on this occasion I went with lemon wedges and salt as it was supposed to be a quick lunch break!

One happy lunch buddy

 

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Jubilee Week Roundup

Pizza Oven - the beginnings - a delightful dome - reminds me of something in Florence...

Devonshire cream tea in Torbay - with ginger scones and all mind!

Marcus Wareing's banana bread - made in a jelly mould. Crinkle cut.

100% Forest of Dean wild boar salami. Satisfying.

The Silver Spoon chicken with pomegranate (and Italian dried mushrooms). Che libro!

Brustengo - another Italian dish, also known as bubble and squeak! It goes very nicely with HP sauce (sshhh!)

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Chicken Breasts stuffed with Sun Dried Tomatoes, Olives, Basil & Feta

by Ceri X     

It's all quiet on the Keston front this week.  The girls are away for a seaside holiday, so I am on my own which has meant pottering around the house; cooking and generally recovering from the weekend.  Last weekend was spent in the first of many fields of the 2012 season at the lovely Fire in the Mountain festival in Wales.  Whenever I return from a festival; the 4 days of fun, work and generally giving my body a hard time (booze, cold, rain, sleeping on a floor in a tent, crew food, more booze) means that I come back craving some healthy, tasty food that I have cooked myself.  Today, I decided on chicken stuffed with sun dried tomatoes, olives, basil & feta to be eaten with salad & asparagus. 

The humble chicken often gets a bad press, but I believe if you buy Happy Chickens that have been able to run around in daylight and you cook it well, not much can surpass its flavour. You can buy happy chickens from most supermarkets these days and it's worth looking out for the freedom food stickers/ rspca assured labels to make sure.  Or just hot foot it down to your nearest good butcher who will be able to tell you all you need to know about just how happy it was and where it was raised.  Stuffing a chicken always looks more impressive/ complicated than it actually is, so goes down well at a dinner party.  It's quick, simple, very tasty & the whole thing takes under 40 mins.  I'd call that a weeknight win of a meal!

So having located my happy chicken; feeling summery, healthy and in need of some vitamins and keen on Mediterranean flavours, I came up with the following:

Ingredients: Serves 2.

2 Free range chicken breast- (I prefer skin on for flavour)

A few green olives sliced in half- 8-10 should do

8 fresh basil leaves

8 sundried tomatoes

12 cubes of feta (I bought the olives with feta in the mix), Mozzarella works just as well.

Olive oil

Dried oregano

Salt & pepper

4 cocktail sticks

Salad- use whatever you fancy

Asparagus spears (approx 6/ 7 per person)- June is 100% Asparagus season, so I'd urge you to get amongst it.  It's AMAZING!!

1. Heat the oven to 200 degrees (or 180 for a fan oven).  Slice the chicken breast down one side, but don't cut all the way through (to make a pocket type space for the stuffing).  Place the basil leaves, sundried tomatoes, olives  & feta inside and close up the chicken breast.  Push a couple of cocktail sticks through to hold into place.  Rub some salt & pepper onto the skin, drizzle with a little of the oil from the sundried tomato container and finally sprinkle some oregano on the top.  A delicious variation on the cocktail sticks, is to wrap parma ham around the chicken breast to keep the stuffing in place, which is well worth a try too.

2.  Place the breasts on a baking tray and into the oven.  Cooking will be approx 20- 25 mins.  The chicken is cooked when juices run clear.  Be sure not to over cook as chicken goes dry in this case and loses that lovely juicy quality and much of the flavour.

3.  Meanwhile, assemble your salad on the plate.  Use whatever you fancy, I used mixed leaves, tomato, olives, basil leaves, avocado, cucumber & shredded carrot.

4.  Dress the salad.  I don't really believe in buying salad dressings when they are so very simple to make.  If you haven't done it before, it's all about having a go and mixing up ingredients & flavours you enjoy.  Here is a very simple base recipe.

Pour 100 ml of olive oil into a clean, empty jam jar, followed by 50 ml of balsamic vinegar (cyder or white wine vinegar will also do the trick).  Mix in 1 tsp of wholegrain mustard & 1 tsp of honey.  Season, then give the jar a good shake with the lid on.  You now have dressing (hooray!).  You can vary this using lemon juice and or different herbs/ vinegars.  If you feel your dressing is too thick, you can thin it out with a bit more vinegar and vice versa with olive oil/ honey if it is too runny.

5.  To griddle the asparagus start by snapping the woody tough end from the bottom of the spears.  Place the spears on a hot griddle pan which has been drizzled with a bit of olive oil (or under a heated grill).  Turn the spears a few times to keep the cooking even.  Once cooked through (I like  mine a bit crunchy still, which should take approx 6 mins depending on the size of the spears), drizzle with a little of the dressing and/ or juices from the chicken & serve onto the plate with the dressed salad & chicken.  Remove the cocktail sticks from the chicken and voila; a very lovely Wednesday night  happy chicken dinner for one :) The girls will be sad they missed it.  I am looking forward to seeing them on their return & roll on summer!  Happy June everyone :) Xx

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Lamb & Cannellini Beans

I Heart Italia: Lamb & Cannellini Bean Spezzatino

I love lamb. It has always been my favourite roast. Over the last month I've been waiting for the right opportunity to make lamb and cannellini bean stew, a staple in the Italian kitchen. I got some lamb, got some beans, found some cousins and a sister to invite for dinner, got some more lamb and beans to ensure sufficient quantities and got to work.

I checked with Jacob Kennedy in the Bocca book to see if he had anything to say about this dish and found a rather lovely lamb and broad bean stew which made for the basis of my recipe.

Other key ingredients that I wanted to make an appearance were rosemary, as I have lots in the garden, white wine because the weather has been so hot and garlic, to hit the meat with some extra flavour. The result was a delicious spezzatino - a stew with an bold sauce, one that cannot be left behind and requires bread to swipe every last bit from the bowl.

Here's what I used: [serves 6]

500g leg meat, cut into pieces

Lamb ribs - I currently have an obsession with ribs - great inexpensive cut of meat

Flour

Olive oil

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 bunch spring onions

Pinch dried chilli flakes

1 teaspoon anchovy paste

6 rosemary sprigs

1 bottle white wine

2 cans cannellini beans

2 tomatoes, diced

Chard, finely sliced - this is optional, I fancied something green

First you need to toss you meat in seasoned flour. Then heat 2-3 tablespoons olive oil in a pan and lightly brown your meat.

Add the spring onion, crushed garlic, chilli flakes and anchovy paste to the meat and cook for a few minutes.

Add the rosemary and white wine and simmer for an hour and a half with the lid on. The meat will be lovely and tender by this point.

After an hour add your diced tomatoes and a cup of water if it needs more liquid.

Taste and season the sauce ten minutes before cooking time is up and then add your cannellini beans and chard if you're using.

Serve hot with some fantastic bread.

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