Salt baked swede

Swedes, rutabaga, or whatever you choose to call them, I'm guessing you fall into one of two categories, love them or hate them. Much like the often maligned brussels sprouts there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground or indifference to them, you’re either excited to have them on your plate or someone will of offended you greatly. Unlike the sprout, which on inspection you have reasonably good idea of what flavour it’s going to be, it looks like a mini cabbage and is probably going to taste a bit like one too, the swede however is a root vegetable carefully hiding its true flavours, which is pretty pronounced cabbage, so yay for Brassica lovers.

It’s a pretty versatile vegetable, it works well raw, grated with some garlic hot aioli as a remoulade, sliced thin and stir fried, baked in fat with a roast, steamed or as below baked in salt to really intensify the flavour, sliced into wedges and served with some peppery hot olive oil.


Salt crusts are reasonably straight forward, dump a lot of salt into a bowl and crack in a couple of egg whites, mix together to make a wettish sandy mixture. Make a layer in the bottom of the roasting dish, nestle in the peeled swedes and firmly pack with salt making sure there are no gaps. Bake at 170ºC for about an hour, a little longer won't hurt. Remove from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes or so. With the back of a knife, crack the crust open like an egg and gently wrestle the swedes free.

Baking soda spuds

It’s a hard road finding the perfect roast spud, but this method works pretty well, there are a few steps, but you can prepare ahead of time and whack them in the oven when ready. The three main steps are, boiling, cooling (refrigerating), roasting.


Water
1% (of water) Baking soda
2% (of water) Salt
Small roasting potatoes, peeled

• Add all to a pot and bring to a simmer, cook for 15–20 minutes, or until well cooked but not falling apart, the baking soda in the water will form a skin on the potatoes enabling them to be cooked for longer than normal.
• Remove the potatoes to a rack and let cool to room temperature.
• Place the rack, uncovered in the fridge for a couple of hours.
• Place the potatoes in a pan with oil and put into a hot oven, roast until crispy and golden brown all over.
• Devour.

Adapted from Ideas in Food

The best chicken gravy

This is a really simple sauce that takes no time at all to prepare and really brightens up a roast chicken meal, instead of that heavy gluggy gravy this is a bright sweet and sour sauce with the chicken drippings adding that unctuous roast gravy feel.


In a pot over a medium heat add a couple of tablespoons of sugar and a dash of water, slowly melt the sugar until it caramelises. How far you want to take it is up to you, I like quite a dark caramel.

Deglaze the pan with about the same amount of vinegar and let the sugar dissolve. Use something that will compliment the liquid you’ll add later, I used wine vinegar as I will add red wine, but if you were doing this for pork and wanted to use apple juice or cider, use a cider vinegar.

Add a generous glass of red wine and let the liquid reduce. If you want to add a herby note, now is the time to do it, with chicken I quite like to pop in thyme tied up in a bundle so it can be later removed easily.

Finally, once the roast has rested add the cooking/resting juices to the pan and reduce down again, season to taste and spoon over the served up roast.

Twice cooked roast pork belly

There are dishes which you wish had a quick and easy version, or at least a way of getting the benefits of a long cook in a short time. Pork belly is one of those roasts that easily falls into that category, you want unctuous fall apart flesh and crisp salty crackling. There are a lot of shortcut methods that purport to achieve this miracle, but I have yet to find a one that doesn’t compromise some aspect of what should be a rather tasty bit of meat. As with anything worth doing, it should be done right, with a little forethought and planning you can spend a relatively short active time cooking to achieve perfect roasted pork belly.


Set your oven to 120–130ºC. Place the pork belly in an ovenproof dish, add herbs and some liquid, thyme and cider’s always nice, or a few juniper berries and bay leaves. Don't forget to season the meat. Cover the dish with a snug layer of tin foil. Cook for about 5 hours.


When time is up carefully remove the pork from the dish and set aside to rest. Get two dishes (I use a couple of rectangular oven dishes), ideally one will be slightly smaller, line the base with a piece of baking paper, place the pork in the dish and lay another piece of baking paper on the pork and then put the other dish on top, press down gently, you could weigh it down with some cans but I find wrapping it tightly in clingfilm does the trick and takes up less room in the fridge. Refrigerate overnight.


Ready to devour some porky goodness? Well not long now. Set the oven to 220ºC, I just crank mine up to full. Remove the pork from the fridge, score the skin side, portion it and season the skin side with salt. Get an ovenproof pan on a hot heat, and when almost smoking, place pork in the pan, skin side down. Put the pan in the oven and cook for 15–20 minutes.


That’s about it, get it from the oven, don’t forget that pan handle is going to be hot! Transfer the pork a board, skin side up, let it rest for 5 minutes or so, and then greedily eat it all up. All and all, some delicious roasted pork belly took you 10–15 minutes of active cooking, and a whole lot of waiting, but I think you’ll agree it’s worth the wait.

Slow lamb roast

You can roast a pork belly for a few hours at 180ºC and you'll end up with some pretty good meat with great crackling, or you could cook it forever, as I have done in the past, or even follow David Chang's method of 6 hours or so uncovered basting now and then (Lucky Peach, Issue #2, page 121). You can confit your meat at 130ºC for 3 hours, and have pretty good results, you won’t be complaining about what you're eating, or you could confit it at 90ºC, or even 70ºC for 12 or 24 hours and have great results. There isn't really any extra effort involved, just a bit of extra time, or in some cases a lot of extra time, but it is passive, it doesn’t require you to be in the kitchen.

The idea of not having enough time to cook is being pushed on us more and more these days, Food in a Minute for example. While Food in a Minute is a shill hocking off what are essentially prepackaged meals, there are others out there making their living off meals under 30 minutes, or X number of ingredients or less, it just feels like they’re making the act of cooking a chore and something that you need to get done as fast as possible. It shouldn’t be that way, it should be a pleasure, something you don’t mind taking that extra bit of time to do well. But I don’t have kids, I cook for two usually, so maybe I don’t understand the pressures of cooking for the whole family. Maybe I’m just a nut, I like getting home and spending time in the kitchen cooking dinner, then after eating, and cleaning down, I may do a bit of prep work for the next nights meal.

My preferred method when it comes cooking a leg of lamb, roast it low and slow. Save the med-rare cooking for the cuts that show it off best, rack, backstraps, rump. Leg (and shoulder) should be unctuous, falling off the bone, rich with it’s meaty lamb flavour, nothing beats it.


Spice rub
1 Tablespoon Cumin seeds
1 Tablespoon Coriander seed
1 Tablespoon Dried Thyme
1 Tablespoon Fresh Thyme
1 Tablespoon Salt (kosher)
1 Teaspoon Sweet Paprika
2 Garlic cloves
Olive oil

Grind all the ingredients (apart from the olive oil) in a mortar and pestle. When everything has been thoroughly crushed and ground together, add enough olive oil to form a thick paste.

The Lamb
Preheat the oven to 140ºC. Slice up a few onions and layer on the bottom of a roasting pan. Remove the lamb from the fridge and coat with the spice rub, place it on the bed of sliced onion. Leave the lamb out for about half an hour, which should be plenty of time for the oven to preheat, and take the chill off the meat (never cook meat straight from the fridge).

Half an hour later, put the lamb in the oven (uncovered) for 30 minutes, giving the spice mix a bit of direct heat to release its flavour. Remove the roasting pan from the oven, pour in 250ml of red wine, cover tightly with foil and return it to the oven for four and a half hours, basting a couple of times throughout the cooking.

When the long wait is up take the pan out of the oven and set aside to rest. Turn the oven up to 200ºC. Carefully remove the leg from the pan to a cutting board, and cover. Strain the liquid from the pan into a saucepan. Again, carefully transfer the leg from the board to the pan and roast for 15 minutes in the hot oven, giving it a nice golden crust.

Meanwhile, reduce the cooking liquid, but not too much, just enough to have a good strong sauce. Thicken it with a little arrowroot dissolved in water, do not bring the liquid to a boil again as it will become loose. I like arrowroot as it thickens without adding flavour, and it doesn't make the liquid cloudy, but if you prefer you could go down the traditional flour gravy method.

The meat should have a good golden crust and be falling off the bone tender, but not falling apart. It's perfect for a cold night, served on a parsnip & potato mash made with lots and lots of cream.

Red wine marinated roast beef salad

This is so simple to prepare, all it takes is a bit of patience or forethought, and a mandoline (or a sharp knife and steady hand). The earthy taste of the carrots pair nicely with the thin slices of medium rare beef, then little explosions of saltiness from the capers, finishing with fresh anise from fennel cleansing the palette ready for the next bite.


Marinate the beef in red wine and garlic for about 8 hours, or overnight, heck longer the better, but you probably wouldn't want to leave it much longer than 24 hours.


Preheat the oven to 200°C, and get a heavy based pan on the heat, preferably one which is oven proof. Pat the beef dry and season well with salt and pepper. Brown the beef on all sides in the pan with a little butter and oil, you want a good brown crust as it adds bundles of flavor to the beef. Once browned place it in the hot oven and cook until medium rare (internal temperature of 55°C).


Let the meat rest for as long as you can, preferably until it's room temperature.


While the beef is resting, slice some carrot on the thinnest setting of a mandoline, put aside some of the carrot slices to use raw, and in a bowl mix the remaining slices with a bit of vinegar, salt and sugar to make a quick pickle. Chop some parsley, and slice some fennel on the mandoline, again thinner the better. When the beef has finished resting, slice it thinly and lay it out on a plate. Garnish with the carrots, pickled carrots, fennel, capers, parsley, and drizzle over a simple vinaigrette (oil, white wine vinegar, dijon mustard, salt and pepper), finally sprinkle over some flaky or kosher salt.

I ❥ Chicken

I love roast chicken, I don't mean sticking a whole bird in the oven and ending up with dry over cooked meat. I prefer to break down the bird before cooking, it gives more surface area to flavour, better cooked meat and a better carcass for stock.


A bowl full of olive oil, salt, pepper, olives (black olives (pelion), and Sicilian green olives), orange peel & juice, thyme, parsley and sage.


Toss the chicken pieces in the bowl.


Roast for about 30 minutes at 180°C.

Slow, slow prime rib

Nothing beats walking in to your local butcher and being able to ask for something to cook long and slow, and get a bevy of options back from someone who is obviously proud of their product. In this case we walked away with a prime rib.


The plan was a very long slow cook surrounded by shallots on a bed of aromatics, and braised in rich beef stock.


When cooking any piece of meat, from steak to big roasting piece, leave it out on the bench for at least half an hour, you don't want to go from fridge to oven (or pan). While the beef is resting on the bench peel a bunch of shallots.

Give the beef a heavy dose of salt and pepper, and finish with a sear on all sides in a very hot pan.


Place the beef on a bed of thyme, bay and other aromatic herbs, surround with peeled shallots and then add about 1 cup of rich beef stock. Cover and cook at 115-125°C for about 4 hours.


The beef was served up with some hasselback potatoes. They are very easy to prepare, just make slices through the potato, making sure not to go all the way through, rub with oil or water and sprinkle over with salt. While the beef is resting crank the oven up to about 200°C and roast the potatoes for about half an hour.


Just before serving, drain off the liquid to a pan and reduce a little and freshen up with some chopped herbs, and adjust the seasoning and finally add the shallots to warm through.


Carve the the beef in to 'steaks' topped with the caramelised shallot and jus.

Forever pork taco

I've talked about cooking pork like this before, but never got around to doing a post on it. I am talking about Michael Chiarello's Forever Roasted Pork, with a little tweak and served as a luxurious taco filling.


I used 1.5kg pork shoulder, boned. It's very important to leave it on the counter before you roast, you don't want to go from fridge to oven.


There is a little bit of prep work to do before you get it in the oven, but nothing too complicated. Pre-heat the oven to 130°C and assemble the ingredients peppercorns, salt, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and a few onions.


Measure out 1 cup of fennel, 3 tablespoons of coriander, 2 tablespoons of peppercorns and 3 tablespoons of salt (kosher or course).


Toast until fragrant and then blitz in a blender until it's a coarsely ground. Set aside.


Slice up the onions and sauté on a very low heat until they have caramelised.


Be patient and don't rush this, if you burn the onions that acrid taste will taint the whole dish. It can take up to 25 minutes to get wonderful golden onions.


Slice underneath the fat cap, being careful not to cut it all the way off.


Smother the pork generously with the spice mix, making sure to coat it all.


Spread the caramelised onion on to the pork and fold the fat and skin back over.


Place the pork in a lined tin and drizzle a little olive oil over the skin (this will prevent it sticking to the top layer of foil). Cover with foil and place in the oven for about 8 hours.


After 8 hours it will be fall apart tender and deeply caramelised, with a rich savoury flavour.


I served it up with Corn tortillas and a few filling options, Thinly sliced red cabbage with lime juice squeezed over it; An Avocado and tomato salsa; Red pickled onions; Sour cream blended with a chipotle (it was going to be home made sour cream but that failed); and jalapeños in adobo sauce.

Chicken and Red Wine

Alone at home for 2 weeks, and I hate preparing meals for one. I over do it for two.

I found a corn-fed free range chicken at the supermarket on the way home, well after spending about 15 minutes staring at the fish and meat and having no idea what i was going to do for myself. Finally I decided on chicken, I figured a quick and easy roast was the best option, plus I'd have left overs for the next night.


I pulled out the cider vinegar and olive oil, when half a bottle of merlot caught my eye. This changed everything. I didn't know exactly what I was going to do, I just knew it involved slicing a chicken in half and lots of wine.

Along with the wine I used thyme, paprika (hot and smoked), smoked salt (yes I am obsessed), bacon, onion, salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon, black olives (I really think those tinned 'Pelion' olives are best when roasting), sunchoke, 1/2 a bottle of wine, garlic and lemon zest.

Slice the onions, peel the sunchoke and put in acidulated water (to stop it discolouring), dice bacon, zest lemon, grate the garlic, slice lemon and get a few olives out(10ish). Oh and slice your chicken in half.


Place a pan on a medium heat and pour in a small amount of olive oil and place in the bacon (while pan is still cold, this helps to render out the fat). Wait until you hear a few pops and sizzles and then turn the heat up, wait until the fat has rendered out then add the onions and cook until softened.


Once the onions have softened add the herbs & spices, cook till aromatic.


Add the wine and reduce to about 1/3.


Spread out in a roasting pan and add the lemon slices.


Place the chicken halves on top, and rub in the garlic and lemon zest. Scatter the sunchoke and olives around the chicken. Finally cover with foil and cook at 180°C for about 30-40minutes depending on the size of your bird.


Once the cooking time is up uncover the dish making sure nothing sticks to the foil, place back in the oven for 10-20minutes depending on the size of the bird.


Once the skin is crisp and the bird is cooked, portion, serve, eat.

This is now my go to chicken dish with out a doubt, no longer is it a quick and easy roast with vege. It's falling off the bone tender, juicy, crispy skin, and a sauce that is awesomely rich.

A note on this would be to make sure your lemon is not too acidic or too big, the lemon can kill it, if in doubt use half a lemon.