Food and Tunes

Soft pillows

I can’t decide what takes centre stage in this dish.
The fish is as delicious as it is versatile. However, every time I have those freshly made gnocchi pillows, they undoubtedly take a starring role as well.

Though not particularly demanding of a high level skill, this trout, gnocchi & prawns does require a few hours of your time in preparation.

The resulting dish is worthy of every second.

You’re going to want a soundtrack to this one.

La Cadenza – Rudy’s Midnight Machine

Saxyness – Never Dull

Ocean City – Pacific Coliseum

Dust – Broods

50 Ways to Leave your Lover – Paul Simon

What you’ll need: (serves 4)
Trout fillet portions x 4
large tiger prawns x 4
large white onion x 1
Carrot x 1
Large leek (finely diced) x 1
Garlic cloves x 4
Samphire x 70g
Lemon x 1/4
Single cream x 2 tbsp
Potatoes x 500g
Plain flour x 400g
Eggs x 2
Dry white wine x 200ml

Tomato purée
Smoke paprika
Bay leaves
Fresh thyme
Lemon zest
Butter

The Stock

Roughly chop your onion and carrot, and in a deep saucepan fry them in a glug of oil over a medium-high heat for 10 minutes until completely softened.

Remove the head and shells of your prawns, roughly chop, and set aside.
Cover and store the flesh in the fridge.

Add 2 crushed cloves of garlic and the prawn shells/heads. Fry on a medium heat with plenty of seasoning for another 10 minutes. Add a quarter of a lemon, 3 bay leaves, and a handful of your thyme. Turn the heat down, and add about a tbsp of tomato purée and stir well.

Add 600ml of boiled water and leave to simmer for at least 2 hours, or until reduced by just over a half.

Sieve and set aside.

The Gnocchi

Boil your potatoes until soft. Strain and leave to cool completely. Season well then combine with your eggs and flour.

Mould together to form a dough, adding more flour if necessary. It shouldn’t be a wet mixture at all. On a floured surface, roll out the potato in batches into long sausages. Cut your sausage into small pillows.

Add your gnocchi in batches to salted boiling water, waiting for them to rise to the top, before removing them and setting aside on some kitchen roll.

In a large pan, fry off your leek on a high heat with a knob of butter. Add 1 crushed garlic clove, a tsp of smoke paprika and continue to cook for another couple of minutes. Add your white wine and reduce on a high heat.

Add your stock and reduce a bit further on a high heat.

Add your cream and mix well, before adding your prawns and gnocchi. Turn the heat right down and stir gently.

In a separate pan, fry your seasoned trout fillets skin-side down on a low heat in a touch of butter, for around 5 minutes. Cook your samphire together with the fish. Flip over your trout and turn off the heat.

Serve the gnocchi with the trout and samphire, and a dusting of lemon zest, if you like.

Enjoy! x

Vegan voices

Posted on March 19 by food_&_tunes

It was bound to happen at some point.

This black garlic and squash tagine is a solid vegan crowd-pleaser with virtually no preparation time needed. The addition of black garlic gives it a real richness and a darker colour.

Folamour – Christmas is Only Beautiful on TV Shows

What you’ll need: (serves 4)

Butternut squash x 1
Large white onions (finely diced) x 2
Black garlic cloves (diced) x 4
Medium red chilli x 1
Coconut cream x 200ml

Ras el hanout x 2tsp
Ground coriander x 1/2 tsp
Ground fenugreek x 1/2 tsp
Fresh ginger x 1 tsp
Lemongrass stem x 1
Zest of 1 lime

To serve:
Toasted walnuts
Fresh coriander
Pomegranate seeds

Set your oven to 180 degrees celsius.

Dice your squash roughly into cubes, and fry in a hot pan with a glug of oil, and plenty of seasoning. Do so until the squash starts to caramelise evenly, probably around 10 minutes.

You may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your squash. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Fry your onions and diced black garlic on a medium heat with a touch more oil, for around about 10 minutes until the onions start to soften. Season well and add in your squash again along with the red chilli.

Mix in your ginger and spices. At this point you can throw in a splash of white wine and reduce, if you like.

Add around 250ml of boiled water, along with your coconut cream and keep the heat on high. Throw in your lemongrass and lime zest with a good pinch of salt, and mix well.

Cover and put in the oven for 1 hour, knocking the temperature down to 120 degrees.

When the time arrives, serve with your chopped fresh coriander and crushed walnuts, adding a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds.

Enjoy! x

Three

Posted on February 3 by food_&_tunes

If there’s any testament to basing a meal around three simple ingredients, it’s this.

Seabass, romesco, and braised fennel come together in minimalist harmony.

Lewis Ofman – Je Pense à Toi

The Spy From Cairo – Nafas

French 79 – Between the Buttons

The shopping list (serves 4):

Seabass fillets x 4
Romesco (long red) peppers x 2
Fennel bulbs x 2
White onion (finely diced) x 1
Garlic cloves x 3
Lemon x 1
Small fresh chilli x 1
Ground coriander
Fresh dill

Set your oven to 200 degrees celsius.

Wrap your fennel bulbs tightly in some tin foil, with a good knob of butter, a splash of olive oil, some chopped dill, one crushed garlic clove, and a sprinkling of ground coriander. Place them in the oven for 45 minutes.

When done, set them aside for later.

Turn your grill up to high, and place your peppers under them for at least 15 minutes. Turning half way through, you’re going to be aiming for soft and slightly charred.

Fry 2 crushed cloves of garlic, with your onion and chilli until caramelised, with a healthy glug of olive oil.

Remove the peppers from under grill, slice into chunks and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Combine your peppers, fried garlic and onions, and blitz to a smooth sauce with a good squeeze of lemon juice. Season to taste.

Slice your fennel bulbs in half and begin to fry them gently on a medium heat, until starting to caramelise on one side.

In the same pan, add your seabass fillets skin side down. Fry on a medium heat for 6-7 minutes until the skin starts to crips up nicely. Flip the fillets onto the other side and turn off the heat. Leave for 2 minutes and serve.

Sprinkle with a touch of fresh dill, if you like.

Enjoy! x.

Into the wild

Posted on November 1 by food_&_tunes

*insert anecdote about the weather getting colder and the nights darker*

But at least it’s game season.

And so here’s a wild duck recipe to keep you warm… or at least teach you how to make a delicious game stock. This Confit leg and breast of Mallard with chicory and braised red cabbage dish uses only a few basic ingredients, but requires a healthy amount of kitchen time and techniques to serve up.

Here’s a couple of musical ingredients to add to your session in the kitchen:

Gus Miller – Bob

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Hunnybee

Get your hands on:
(serves 2)

Mallard (wild duck) x 1
Large carrots x 2
Large white onion x 1
Celery sticks x 2
Large garlic cloves x 3
Duck or goose fat – 200g
Large shallots x 2
Madeira (or other sweet dessert wine) – 100ml
Red wine – 50 ml
Chicory flower x 1 (halved)
Red cabbage – 1/2
Cider vinegar – 100ml
Caster sugar – 2 tbsp
Cinnamon stick – 1/2

Butter
Fresh thyme
Fresh rosemary
Bay Leaves
Star anise

The Stock

The crux to this dish is making the stock, which will transform your sauce. It takes a bit of patience, but is worth doing. As with any leftover stock, you can freeze it/use later in the week for another meal. A sharp knife is essential if you want to split the bird into breasts and legs yourself. If not, your butcher can do so.

Use the link below for a thorough tutorial on how to do so. Ducks have slightly different bone structures to other poultry, and so it is worth noting the techniques. The legs aren’t too tricky to separate. With the breasts you’ll need to keep your knife against the breast bone as you make single, controlled strokes into the flesh, gently and neatly separating the meat from the bone.

How to Break Down a Duck

After doing so, break up the carcass into at least 5/6 separate pieces.
Roughly chop 1 carrot, your onion and celery. Crush 2 of the garlic cloves and fry everything in a large saucepan with a glug of oil, on a medium heat for 5 minutes.
Add your game carcass (and giblets if you still have them).
Keep on the heat until everything is nicely browned, and the veg is starting to caramelise, 10 minutes or so. Season well.
Add 2 bay leaves, 1 crushed star anise, a handful of thyme. Cover with 500 ml of boiled water, and leave to simmer on a low heat for 2-3 hours at least.

Sieve, and set aside.

Le Confit

Set your oven to 140 degrees celsius.
To confit the legs, place them in a small oven dish. Season well, add some fresh thyme and rosemary and a crushed garlic clove. Cover with the duck fat, and place in the oven. After 1 & 1/2 hours, remove the legs from the oven and place to one side.

At the same time, slice your red cabbage thinly into strips, place in a saucepan with the sugar, vinegar and the cinnamon stick. Add a couple of splashes of boiling water, cover, and leave on a low heat to slowly cook.

To make the sauce, finely slice your shallots, carrot and garlic and fry with a knob of butter on a medium heat until starting caramelise.Add your madeira, red wine, 1 more crushed star anise and reduce by a half. Add 200ml of your stock and reduce on a high heat for 10 mins. Season to taste.
Sieve, and then continue to reduce until almost a syrup, adding a couple more cubes of butter along the way.

Rub salt into your mallard breasts at least 2 hours before cooking, then allow them to come to room temp. Wash off the salt under cold water, pat dry with kitchen paper.

Place them skinside down in a cold frying pan, and gently increase to a med-high temp over around 8 minutes or so, until the skin is golden and crispy. Add a small spoonful of the duck fat, and continue to cook on the other side on a medium heat for 3 more minutes, basting well.

At the same time, add a good spoonful of the duck fat to another pan and repeat the above process with the halved chicory leaves. The duck legs can be cooked alongside the chicory, basting and turning well to warm through and crisp up.

Allow your breasts to rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Plate with the cabbage, chicory and madeira sauce.

Enjoy! x

Hogging the limelight

Posted on April 20, 2018 by food_&_tunes

Just as things start to heat up considerably in London, I think it’s safe to say ‘unpredictable’ would probably be an understatement for 2018’s weather so far. With past weeks switching between rain, snow, sunshine and back to sporadic snow, it was at times, a bit jarring.

There is however one thing you can always depend on.

Pork Belly.

Some of the most simple ingredients come together in the dish, and with just a bit of preparation time the day before, this crispy pork belly with butter beans is the perfect oink-ment (couldn’t resist, sorry!) for any dubious British weather.

Here are a few tracks to accompany your upcoming lazy days in the sunshine.

HNNY – Till Dig

Axel Boman – Cubic Mouth

mtbrd – Damn Fine Coffee

Flamingosis – Long Distance

Shopping list (serves 6):

Pork belly (unrolled and scored) 1kg
Smoked garlic x 1
Medium onions x 2
Fennel bulb x 1
Large carrot x 1
Fresh thyme x 1 bunch
Bay leaves x 2
Dry white wine x 1/2 bottle
Fresh lemon thyme x 1 generous handful
Butter beans x 1.2 kg
Cavolo nero x 150g

(To coat pork belly)
Pomegranate molasses or acacia honey
Wholegrain mustard
Some good olive oil
Fennel seeds

Start the night before by rubbing your scored pork belly generously with rock salt, making sure not to forget to rub the salt into the scoring on the skin.

As the time arrives, set your oven to 200 degrees celsius, and wash the salt off your pork belly under cold running water, and pat dry with kitchen paper. When dry, rub generously with your pomegranate molasses, fennel seeds, a tbsp of the mustard, some good olive oil and of course salt and pepper.

On medium-high, heat a few glugs of your olive oil in a deep roasting tray. Slice your garlic down the centre and press down the two halves into the hot oil. At this point, dice your vegetable roughly (I like to chop the carrots slightly finer than the rest), and add them into the tray as well.
Season well.

Keep them on the heat until they’re starting to caramelise nicely, around 10 minutes. Add the white wine, bay leaves and your thyme. Reduce on a high heat for another 5 minutes, before resting your pork belly on the vegetables, skin side up. Wrap the tray in tin foil tightly, before placing in the oven.
Turn the temp down to 130 degrees and leave for 4 hours.

When the time’s right, remove the belly from the oven and transfer to another baking tray. On top of the belly, place a sheet of cling film and another baking tray, weighed down with a few heavy tins of tomatoes, chickpeas etc. Leave it to cool for at least 2 hours like this.

To make the sauce, add a splash more white wine to the roasting tray, and reduce on a high heat again for another 5 minutes. At this point you may want to add around 100ml of boiling water to pad out the sauce slightly. Keep it on the high heat for a further 5 minutes, before straining into a small saucepan.
Add a chunk of butter if you want, and leave to one side.

Add your butter beans to saucepan, with a small splash of boiling water, a glug of your good olive oil, the lemon thyme and season well. Heat gently for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, place your pressed pork belly under a hot grill, until the top is sufficiently crispy and then slice into cubes to serve. Accompany with the beans, hot sauce and some steamed cavolo nero, if you like. Time to pig out (Sorry!).

Enjoy x

Fishing for compliments

Posted on July 25, 2017 by food_&_tunes

With the British sunshine apparently dwindling, there’s never been a better time to inject a bit of heat into those lazy summer evenings.

Curried lentils with cod couldn’t be easier to whip up, and the leftovers keep brilliantly in the fridge for another day. If cod isn’t your preferred choice, this recipe works well with any other white fish.

On July 14th American indie band, Japanese Breakfast released their second album, Soft Sounds From Another Planet. As with the band’s first release, the tone switches from song to song, reflecting on the overcoming of trials and tribulations. But it is the album’s scope and variety in melodies which sets it apart from their first album. With powerful lyrics and a distinct sound, the ongoing evolution of Michelle Zauner and her band is plain to see.

Boyish

Till Death

The body is a Blade

Check out the full album on Bandcamp.

Shopping list (serves 4):

Cod fillets (or other white fish) x 4
Shallots x 6
Leek x 1
Red lentils 180g
Garlic cloves (minced) x 4
Large courgette (Peeled into ribbons) x 1
Spinach 100g
Sunflower seeds 100g
200g coconut cream
Red chilli (finel chopped) x 1
Fresh ginger (minced) 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds 1 tsp
Smoked paprika 1 & 1/2 tsp
Ras el Hanout 1 & 1/2 tsp
Turmeric 1 tsp
Tomato puree 1 tbsp
Fresh thyme & coriander
Zest of one lime
Good vegetable or fish stock 540ml

(If you have your own fresh fish/seafood stock prepared, then now’s the time to use it, but it’s not essential here. Refer back to Back in bisqueness for how to make a versatile seafood stock!)

Finely chop your shallots and leek, and add to your pan with the sunflower seeds. Heat with a glug of oil over a medium heat for just over 5 minutes until soft.

Season well, turn down the heat slightly and throw in your garlic, red chilli and ginger. Allow to cook for a further 2 – 3 minutes before adding your lentils to the pan, along with your spices, mustard seeds and the tomato puree. Heat on medium for another couple of minutes. Season well.

Add all of your stock to the pan and reduce hear to a low simmer. Add the coconut cream along with a handful of your thyme, and continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes, or until the lentils have softened.

When you’re happy with the lentils, go ahead and introduce the courgette ribbons, a generous handful of coriander, and the lime zest (but save some for serving!).

From here you can simply lower the heat right down and place your fish fillets on top, season well and cover.

Taking your fish out of the fridge for 20-30 minutes prior to cooking means they should only take 10-12 minutes here before they’re cooked perfectly. Wilt your spinach as an accompaniment for the lentils.

Sprinkle with more lime zest and red chilli, alongside some toasted flatbreads to serve, if you like.

Enjoy
x

Something to fawn over

Posted on April 28, 2017 by food_&_tunes

Finding a match of ingredients that both warms and satisfies, without leaving you feeling like you’ve over-indulged is no mean feat.

This warm venison and squash salad is easily assembled from a few hearty ingredients, pulled together with a rich blackberry, juniper & sage sauce.

Given that music is the best accompaniment to food, these couple of songs should go nicely with your time in the kitchen.

Furns have a brilliant back catalogue of laid back songs, with a new album due this year.

Furns – Forever Yours

Seaside Lovers – Evening Shadows

Your shopping list:
venison leg steaks x 2
shallots x 2
1/2 butternut squash
kale 50g
puy lentils 250g
garlic cloves x 2
fresh thyme

For the sauce:
shallot (finely chopped) x 1
butter 50g
game/chicken stock 200ml
handful juniper berries (crushed)
handful fresh sage
fresh thyme
bay leaves x 3
blackberries 100g
splash of port
half tspn wildflower honey
lemon zest

Ensure you leave your venison to reach room temperature (about 3 hours out the fridge) before starting.

The sauce
Fry your shallot in the butter, add a tspn of plain flour. Add the port and reduce.
Season well and add your game/chicken stock.

At this point throw in a handful of sage leaves & thyme, the bay leaves, lemon zest, the honey, chopped blackberries and the juniper berries.

Simmer on med-high for around 15 minutes, until it starts to thicken as a sauce.
Season to taste.

Sieve and leave to one side.

The venison

Prepare your lentils by adding the required amount of boiling water, and cooking until soft. Leave to one side.
Or if you bought pre-cooked lentils in the bag, then you can skip this part.

Start by chopping your 1/2 squash into manageable chunks/cubes. Add to a pan with a splash of boiled water (enough to cover up to a 1/3 of the squash chunks).
Season well.
Cover and leave to steam for 15 minutes on medium. Remove and leave to cool, before chopping into small pieces.

Finely chop your shallots, and grate your garlic into a pan with some oil on a medium heat. Fry gently until soft and add the lentils, thyme and a splash more oil.
Season well.
Introduce the squash and fry on a high heat, without stirring too much, until the squash just starts to brown. Turn off the heat and add the kale, roughly chopped.
Season, cover and leave the kale to gently cook in the residual heat.

If you like your venison pink, fry your well-seasoned steaks for 4 minutes on each side, on med-high. Remove from the heat, wrap in foil and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

At this point reheat your sauce gently.

Unwrap your delicious parcels and pour the juices into the sauce.

Slice your venison, serve with the squash and drizzle with sauce.

Enjoy x