A journey to New York

The inspiration for my upcoming posts comes from my recent trip to New York, where I spent the most fantastic three weeks. New York is an incredible city and of course, as is the food. The city runs on food.   There are restaurants on every street, or should I say Avenue, and the choice of cuisine is just endless. The food I tried was amazing, from fresh sushi and oysters, to honey-glazed spare ribs and cream cheese bagels, I tried it all. Well not all, but I want to write about the journey I had, the different foods I tasted and restaurants I explored across the pond.

A new leaf

It is evident from the lack of posts that my blog has seemed to have taken a back seat over the last few months which I am completely ashamed of. I have still been cooking and baking, lots but have not shared. Although new leaves are supposed to be turned at new year, I am going to turn mine now, yes it is 4 months late, but better late than never.

A Chicken Pie

Ingredients:
Serves 2-3

2 x 180 gram chicken breasts
A knob of butter
5 spring onions
100 grams mushrooms
1 heaped tbsp flour
2 tsp English mustard
1 heaped tbsp creme fraiche
150 ml chicken stock
fresh thyme
1/3 nutmeg
1 sheet of pre rolled short crust pastry
1 egg

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Cut the chicken breasts up into 1 cm strips and cook them for three minutes in a large pan with the butter and a glug of olive oil.

Slice the mushrooms and spring onions.

Add them to the chicken along with 1 heaped tablespoon of flour. Stir. Add 2 teaspoons of English Mustard, 1 heaped tablespoon of creme fraiche. Stir.

 

Pour in 150 ml of chicken stock and pick of the thyme leaves. Stir really well and grate in the nutmeg. Season and leave to simmer.

Pastry: Roll out your pastry sheet on a clean, lightly floured surface, to a size slightly bigger than you dish. Score and criss-cross the pastry.

Take the chicken off the heat and tip the filling into an oven proof dish.

Cover with the pastry sheet and tuck the edges in. Decorate as desired. Quickly beat up an egg and brush it over the top of the pie.

Put it in the oven on the top shelf for around 15 minutes, until the top is golden brown.

This recipe is taken from Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals, which was a Christmas present from my mum. I used Shortcrust pastry instead of Puff pastry, not for any particular reason (in fact it was because I forgot which one it said in the recipe when I was in the supermarket so I guessed...wrongly, but it was fine). I think I prefer short crust pastry anyway, and I halved the quantities of the original recipe as I made it for two. The pie was delicious.

Stein's Fish and Chip's

  

A Review: After waiting in a queue, outside of Rick Stein’s Fish and Chip Shop, in the rain for 15 minutes to get a seat, things unfortunately didn't improve when we were finally let inside. We were hurried towards the back of the restaurant, and plonked down on to the end of an already half full table by a pushy waitress who slammed down in front of our faces, three laminated menus. However, once seated and coats were casually shoved under the table we finally looked at the laminated menus, and we couldn't complain anymore. The menu was like nothing I had seen before in a fish and chip shop (apart from the ones in Edinburgh which offer you an infinite amount of anything deep fried) as there was so much on offer; Cod, Hake, Haddock, Plaice, Sea Bream, Lemon Sole, Skate, Monkfish, Salmon and Mackerel, all caught locally and cooked in a variety of ways battered, fried and grilled. Chips were served with all portions and there ware a choice of sides; mushy peas, tartar sauce, curry sauce, bread and butter, salad an actual chip butty, tiger prawns and oysters shucked or battered if you so wished.

I had the battered Lemon Sole. The fish was good. The batter may not have been to everyone's taste as it was made from beef dripping rather than traditional beer or vegetable oil batter, but it was surprisingly light and flavoursome, and it did not over power the light fillets of fish. I was served three pieces of fish, which was generous, so the portions were not meagre. But there were too many chips, which to be honest were not great; they were soggy, not crisp and fluffy like they should be. The homemade tartar sauce was delicious but the mushy peas were I hate to say it, too mushy and salty which was disappointing. And to top if off, the prices were not great either. The Lemon sole was £9.95 without the additional tartar sauce and mushy peas and that was not the most expensive thing on the menu, battered squid i.e. calamari was £12.95. 

I wouldn't go there again, unfortunately. It was an experience; the fish was good but everything else was rather standard and for the price that we paid, I, along with everyone else crammed into the tiny room, I think, expected a little more. 

Festive Bubble and Squeak

Ingredients:

Serves 3-4

For this recipe it really doesn’t matter how much of one thing you have. The joy of the dish is you just use up everything you have left. If you have a large number of people in mind then quantities may be slightly more important but because I am only making this for three people, when the ingredients are out in front of me, looking at it now I know that it is defiantly enough.

100 grams of stuffing

200 grams left over turkey

200g alternative meat either cooked chipolatas or sausage (I am using some German sausage)

200 grams Roast potatoes

300 grams of roast vegetables (Brussels sprouts, carrots, parsnips)

Olive oil

Eggs (optional)

Put the potatoes and mixed vegetables and stuffing into a bowl and mash them up using a potato masher leaving a few chunky bits for texture. 

Using a large spoon or spatula, stir in the turkey, and additional meat and season really well.

Heat a large non-stick pan on a high heat and add a generous amount of olive oil or goose fat if you have it. Fry the entire mixture on a high heat and keep turning bits of it over so it goes crispy.

Pat the mixture down and shape it neatly in the pan. Leave it to crisp, then turn the mixture over – crisping the other side.

Slide onto a board and cut into wedges. Serve with a fried egg and a rocket salad.

Croque-Monsieur

An alternative to the turkey, stuffing and cranberry sandwich which is a favourite pre and post Christmas Day. A Croque Monsieur with turkey.

Ingredients:
serves 4

40 g butter
40 g flour
400 ml milk
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
100 g Stilton
8 slices of bread
Cranberry sauce
100 g Gruyere, grated
Left over Turkey (400 g)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Melt the butter in a saucepan on a low heat, until foamy but not coloured. Stir in the flour. Cook for three minutes. Pour in the cold milk and whisk to avoid lumps.

Increase the heat and leave to simmer for a few minutes. The sauce should thicken quite considerably. Then remove it from the heat and stir in the mustard and Stilton. The Stilton I used had cranberries in it, hence the cranberries in the picture. Season.

Line the bread out on a surface and spread four slices with cranberry sauce, then the Stilton sauce and scatter over half the Gruyere.

Top with the turkey and sandwich the remaining bread.

Press the sandwich together lightly, and spread the tops with the rest of the sauce and Gruyere.

Bake until the cheese melts and the sandwiches turn golden brown. This should take about 15-20 minutes.

Serve with a green salad.

Recipe by Bruno Loubet from Jamie Oliver's Christmas Magazine.

There are always left-overs

Everyone seems to stuff themselves silly on Christmas day, however, despite our gluttony, and our ''oh, I'll just have one more'' attitude, there is always a mountain of food left in the fridge to keep us going for days. But there is so much to do with it all and a chance to be really creative.