Monday 28 January 2013

Favourites List - January 2013

January is a difficult month. After all the festivities, fun and frivolity of the festive season are over, you have to take the Christmas tree down, pick yourself up from your New Year's day hangover and face mid Winter in all its freezing glory. Even though the Christmas tree might have taken up a lot of space, now that it is gone and you have got your room back, it's funny how the house feels bare, doesn't it?

I've been kept very busy by the day job. I've been in the thick of delivering my enjoyable but mentally taxing Large Group Sessions (that's lectures to those who still work in old money), my many fun Small Group Sessions (seminars), producing podcasts and student materials. We are also beginning to get into the dreaded Assessment Season. Feared and despised by students and tutors alike, it is now looming over us like a big, dark, big, dark...... loomy thing. See what's happened to me?! I can't even manage to write decent prose these days....

Still, here is my January Favourites list of all the stuff that has been diverting me these past few weeks. I hope you enjoy them!

The pictures this month are from my recent trip to Sri Lanka of the fishing boats in Negombo.


Blogs worth following:

http://eggsontheroof.com/




Recipes:


Proper tagine with heat diffuser and ceramic dish, Peckham style: http://helengraves.co.uk/2013/01/peckham-goat-tagine/


Up to date take on classic beef stroganoff (although I'd pass on the boil in the bag rice and would cook my own): http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/beef-stroganoff-fluffy-rice-red-onion-parsley-pickle

One pot wonder with lamb and pasta (a real Winter Warmer!): http://www.domesticsluttery.com/2009/12/one-pot-wonder-aromatic-lamb-with-orzo.html

Know what is in your burgers by making your own: www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/the-ultimate-beef-burgers

Vegetarian: Wild Mushroom Stroganoff http://recipes.vegsoc.org/christmas_recipe.aspx?cId=98





Interesting articles:

What is Kohl Rabi and what to do with it: http://www.food52.com/blog/5253_down_dirty_kohlrabi


It's wrong to blame feminism for the lack of cooking in contemporary homes: http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/01/betty-friedan-did-not-kill-home-cooking/272518/


A defence of the recipes of TV chefs (recently dubbed unhealthy): http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/dec/18/tv-chefs-food-not-unhealthy

Alvin Leung (Bo London & Bo Innovation) on his approach to food: http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2012/12/19/the-engineers-approach-to-food/


Books:

The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex: What Is Wrong With Modern Movies? by Mark Kermode


Music:

Akron/Family - Akron/Family

Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced

Ben Howard - Every Kingdom

Jack White - Blunderbuss


Saturday 19 January 2013

Slow cooker 101 (AKA Crock Pot 101 or How to use a slow cooker)


I recently got involved in a discussion on twitter about slow cookers. I have a slow cooker I was bought as a present about 15-16 years ago which is still going strong and gets used when the weather gets chilly and Him Indoors and I want something hot and comforting that doesn't require slaving over a hot stove. Slow cookers are great because you can put them on in the morning, forget about them and come home to lovely cooking aromas and a hot meal. They are also brilliant for making cheap meats into very tasty meals. And because they cook on a low heat, they use very little power. Most models are also inexpensive. Hence they are economic to buy, run and fill, and a time saver. What's not to like?
Old Faithful: still going after all these years!
Anyway, here are my thoughts for the uninitiated about slow cookers. I hope you'll share yours by leaving your comments below! (My heartfelt thanks go to the lovely family members who provided the pictures for this post below!)

Choosing a slow cooker

Please note that I do not recommend any particular make or model of slow cooker. You will need to do your own research and choose according to the features and specifications. I have thought carefully about the factors involved, however, and set out the things to look out for here.

You need a slow cooker which is easy to clean. The process of slow cooking will mean that where the top of the stew starts to dry on, the fluids will cook onto the pan. The last thing you'll want to do is spend ages scrubbing! So you want one with an easily removable cooking pan, which will fit into your sink for soaking. If you have a dishwasher, you will want to check that the pan will fit into your dishwasher rack after soaking. And of course, that it is dishwasher safe!
High end ceramic pan model by Crock Pot

In the USA the most popular make of slow cooker is 'Crock Pot'.  When I say popular, I mean it! So much so, they call all slow cookers 'Crock Pots' (hence the title of this post). These cookers have a ceramic pot in which the cooking happens. The advantage of this design is that the ceramic retains the heat very well, and successfully distributes the temperature to the whole volume of the pan. The result is good even cooking, and the assurance that if you are cooking meat and it has reached a safe temperature for eating, you will not get ill. 
Small size Crock Pot brand machine for dips and starters

There are a number of disadvantages. A stoneware pot can be heavy, and that ceramics are fragile. In the larger models, the size and weight of the pot when filled make it unwieldy. I would not like to have to lug one across my kitchen. If you drop the pot, it will break. You will have to sear meat in another pan since you cannot put the ceramic directly on the hob, and if you subject the pot a rapid change of temperature, it may crack. Crock Pot users may want to visit the official website and check out their wide choice of recipes: http://www.crock-pot.com/recipes.aspx
Large US style ceramic pan model

There are a variety of alternatives; enamelled pots, aluminium, steel and non-stick pots. 

UK model with non-stick aluminium pan
The advantage of many of these alternatives is that they are light and are not as susceptible to breakage. The metal ones are durable and you don't have to worry about cracking. Most of these are designed so that you can sear your meat in the slow cooker pot, which saves on time and washing up. 

Pans with non-stick coating will have to be treated with care. You will have to use a wooden or plastic spoon to stir, and you should never use a knife anywhere near the pan surface. Cleaning will involve care and you should only use scourers which are non-stick friendly and non-abrasive. If you scratch the non-stick, as you continue to use the pan, the coating will start peeling a little at the edges and flake in to your food. I have been told that non-stick coating is not good for you and even that it is toxic. So, look after your non-stick pan, and if it's too much to bother with, pick another design of cooker. 

The pan design and size is not your only consideration. I would advise that you find a model with multiple heat settings. You need 3 if possible: high heat, low heat and keep warm settings. This will make your cooker much more versatile for achieving the maximum number of dishes. And the keep warm setting is very useful for when your dish is cooked, but you don't want it to cool down. After all, it is the repeated cooling and heating of dishes which can lead to food poisoning. If you can keep it at a safe temperature but arrest the cooking process, the keep warm setting is very useful and beneficial for family dining.

Lid manufacture and design is important. The lid should fit well, without gaps or heat will escape, lengthening cooking times and diminishing the safety of the food (see below for my advice on food safety). Plastic lid versions are available, but I question how durable and long lasting a plastic lid will be from prolonged use. Also, despite many plastics being labelled as dishwasher safe, I find that after numerous washes, the shape deforms a little, cloudiness sets in, and shrinkage is possible. I cannot tell you how many plastic 'tupperware' storage boxes I have thrown out for these reasons (I have now given up and wash them all by hand). I would say that glass is preferable for durability and so you can see the contents when cooking. In terms of the design, you will find that vapour comes off the food and condenses on the lid. A domed lid which fits within the upper 'lip' or edge of the pot is a good design, because that condensation will eventually trickle back into the pan, rather than risk falling between the pan and the outer skin, risking water going on the heating element. 

Don't be influenced by the price. It is not necessarily a case of the more you pay the better a machine you will get. It is the features, settings and likely use you will put it to that you need to consider. The bigger the cooker, the longer it will take to heat up, longer cooking time and the more energy used. I would suggest that you think about how many people you will be cooking for. A slow cooker with capacity of 3-3.5 litres will easily make enough stew/casserole for 4-6. 

US slow cookers are sold depending on the capacity in US Quarts. The models are typically 4.5Q 6Q, 6.5Q, 7Q (6 quarts = 5.67l).

Some of the slow cooker models available are rather large. You need sufficient tabletop/countertop space for the slow cooker, allowing a decent amount of space from the wall and other appliances for the sake of safety. Most slow cookers are very safe, robust and reliable. However, if you are leaving the slow cooker on when you are out of the house, you need to make sure there is a space all around the cooker for air to circulate. You do not want the cooker overheating and for there to be nowhere for the heat to escape. That's how fires start.


Preparing your dish for slow cooking

Don't underestimate how long the preparation will take you if you are doing it before going to work. Chopping and peeling onions, garlic and carrots will take more time than you think. And if you are planning on searing meat before putting it into the slow cooker pan, you may want to budget between 20-30 minutes for your overall preparation. But do remember that the preparations of the morning will more than pay themselves off whilst you are off doing whatever it is all day. When it is dinner time, everything will be ready to plate up.

There appear to be a number of websites which are advising that you can prepare all your ingredients the night before, put them in the pan of the cooker, put them in the fridge overnight so that all you have to do the next morning is put the pan on the heater. I am sceptical about this advice. If you have a ceramic pan, then going from cold fridge to the hot element base of the cooker might cause chipping or worse still, cracking of your pan. Then it's game over for your slow cooker. 

Another concern I have is putting uncooked meat mixed with the other stew ingredients overnight. The whole point of a slow cooker is that it cooks gently on a low heat. That heat may not be enough to kill the bacteria which may be in the meat. Unless the meat is brought up to a temperature of at least 60°C (140°F), there is a risk of food poisoning. Ideally to ensure that bacteria, toxins and spores are all killed off, you need a temperature of 70 °C (158 °F). Some food safety agencies are recommending 72-74°C (160-165°F), and there are different guidelines for different meats. (See http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/charts/mintemp.html and http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/may/25/pork-cooking-temperatures-lowered). 
    
I would say that if you are pressed for time, and need to use the overnight method, prepare all of your ingredients. Store them in a different container from the cooking pot, and put the meat in a separate container. Then in the morning, put everything into your cooking pot and switch on.

For the same food safety reasons I have set out above, I would advise that you do not put any frozen non-vegetable ingredients in your slow cooker, and if you are tempted to use any frozen vegetables, that you check the whole dish reaches a high enough temperature (adding anything frozen will bring the pan temperature down considerably). 

If you are intending to use beans in your dish, then dried beans will need to be soaked overnight. Some beans contain toxins (like red kidney beans). Even with overnight soaking, if the heat is relatively low on your slow cooker, you may find that even after 6-8 hours cooking, the beans are still hard. By all means, have a test-run if you wish to see if your cooker has enough heat that this is not a concern. Alternatively, boil the beans for 10-15 minutes after overnight soaking.

If you can't be bothered will all the faff of overnight soaking and par-boiling of beans, you can use tinned. However, the cooking time for them must be reduced, unless you like bean mush. You will only need to cook them for 2-3 hours, so you may need to factor in when you will be able to add them, or make dishes without beans in them at all. 

Meat should have as much fat trimmed off it as possible, as the fluid in the pan will keep the meat moist. You will not need the fat to prevent the meat drying out, and any fat will just remain in the dish, which obviously is not healthy. This is one of the reason that the cheaper, leaner cuts of meat are recommended for slow cooking. 

Slow cooker recipes

There are lots of slow cooker recipes, available online or in books. You may need to take care with some recipes. In the USA recipes will follow US conventions on temperature and measurements, and will often assume you are using a Crock Pot - so will use 'high' and 'low' based on the temperature setting that particular brand uses. Whether these setting are the same for all brands, I am not sure. UK recipes tend to use weight measurements, cups and may refer to temperatures in Celsius (°C). You may want to check out cookbooks before you buy if you find it hard to translate from one set of conventions to another.

For the maximum flavour, meat should be seared before putting into the slow cooker. This is not essential, but will make a lot of difference. Experiment with both to see which you prefer and whether the effort is worth the trouble. 

As a result, you may want to take a favourite existing stew or casserole recipe and tweak it for the slow cooker. This increases considerably the variety of what you can make. When adapting a regular casserole recipe, there are certain considerations you will need to bear in mind. You need to think about whether any of the ingredients are going to turn into mush if cooked gently for 6-8 hours. Mushrooms are a prime example. These will need to be added in much later in the cooking process. Other 'softer' vegetables like courgettes may also disintegrate in the pan. 

Another consideration if adapting oven baked casserole or stew recipes is that a lot of moisture evaporates (even with the lid on) in the oven, thickening the sauce. The low temperature of the slow cooker means that you won't lose anywhere near as much liquid. This means you need to reduce the amount of stock/water you use. You may need to add more flavourings (herbs and spices) to avoid a blander taste than you would have got through oven cooking. Finally, if you find the dish is too watery, you can use a mixture of cornflour and water to thicken the 'gravy'.

Watch out when using root vegetables like carrot, swede, turnip etc. These are hard, dense veggies. They may not cook to the point of softness even after 6-8 hours. It may be an idea to soften at the frying/browning stage.

See above for my advice on adding beans and pulses to your dishes.

Try not to take the lid off to admire your handiwork or to stir. You'll lose some of the heat in the pan and this will increase the cooking time. Or increase the chances that your food will not be brought up to the minimum safe temperatures referred to above.

In my research for this post, I was amazed at the sheer versatility of a slow cooker. I had always used mine for stews and casseroles, real Winter warmers. I have now discovered that my trusty old cooker can be used for jam, chutneys, cake, steamed puddings, custard, curry, chilli, soup and stocks!

Kavita Favelle of Kavey Eats has advised me:
"I use slow cooker to make stock, after each roast chicken dinner. I pull all leftover meat off the carcass, then bones, ligaments, soggy skin all go into pot with water and left on overnight. Drain in morning and fridge or freeze, for soup or risotto. Often make risotto with stock and chopped leftover meat. Also, sometimes poach whole chickens in slow cooker."
Kavita also uses her slow cooker to poach a whole chicken. Recipe here:

This is my recipe for a tomato based slow cooker stew using butter beans and chorizo:

Here is my slow cooker version of the Spanish classic lunchtime dish Cocido: 

I use mine for mulled wine for Winter parties, which means the wine does not boil or evaporate and I am free to mingle with my guests instead of standing over a saucepan:

More tips for using a slow cooker:

Pot roast chicken:

A complete one-pot meal of Turkish lamb pilau (almost like a biryani):

Seasonal slow cookery - how to make cranberry sauce:

Pudding recipe for treacle sponge adapted for the slow cooker: 

A large collection of slow cooker and crock pot recipes:

What are your slow cooker hints, tips and tricks?

Monday 14 January 2013

Hush Brasserie, High Holborn


The internet is a strange thing. As a means of obtaining lots of information, instantly and for nothing more than the cost of connection, it is mindblowing. It is also shaping up to be a very useful means of social interaction.  The internet has allowed me to keep in touch with relatives, old school friends, uni buddies, former colleagues and many of the alumni I have had the pleasure to teach. Then, of course, are the people I have met since setting up Snig's Kitchen. 

I've been in contact with the lovely Kavita Favelle of Kavey Eats blog via various online means for months. I have a lot of admiration for her as a writer and gastronaut and I regularly follow her blog (http://www.kaveyeats.com/) and dip into the amazing living cookbook her mother Mamta has set up online (http://www.mamtaskitchen.com/). She has also been very supportive of my blog, being a regular reader and occasional commenter. Despite being such a well known and respected blogger, she's taken time to support a newbie. So I was thrilled when she agreed to meet me. Online interaction is great fun, but in my book is no substitute for real contact with real people - with not a keyboard or touchscreen in sight. 

Once we had agreed to meet, we had to settle on a date and an arrangement. I'd suggested a sneaky coffee and cake since we are both busy women. Imagine my surprise when she came back with the idea of lunch! And that I would be her 'plus one' for a review meal! 

So we met at Hush Brasserie on High Holborn. It's a new place, very close to my work, and very conveniently located for the Tube at Holborn. It has been the site of a restaurant for some years, but nothing that has truly captured the imagination or the market in this busy area which is neither The City nor The West End. In fact, it is only recently that there have been any eateries of any note in the Holborn area. It was long considered to be a bit of a culinary wasteland, but now with Shanghai Blues, Kimchee and The Chancery in the neighbourhood, things are looking up. Before, a cheeky fish 'n chips down the Fryer's Delight was about all you could treat yourself to!
 
Hush Brasserie is at the Holborn station end of High Holborn, so very conveniently located for public transport. The decor is neutral and smart but with an informal air. There are small bistro type tables, with some chairs and those very French style padded long sofas. I think they are called Banquettes in interior design, but I am no expert. 

When we arrived we were efficiently shown to our tables, and our voluminous bags were looked after without fuss. This helpful, unobtrusive service continued throughout our time there, despite the place being fairly busy with lunchtime customers.

The menu is varied; there is a 'blackboard special' at a fixed price of £11.95 which changes each day, but is listed on the menu so you can plan when you fancy coming in. There is a Sunday roast, and the Tuesday Shepherd's pie sounds pretty appealing too. The blackboard specials are very much traditional British nosh. The rest of the menu is more freewheeling; French dishes shoulder to shoulder with risotto and a touch of the exotic. Some Chinese inspiration (Bang Bang Smoked Chicken) and some from further east (Spiced Parsnip Soup and Tiger Prawn Masala). 

Grilled Portobello Mushrooms with French Bread and Garlic Butter (£4.95) is a good sized starter at a keen price for Central London. The Portobello mushrooms are tinged with garlicky goodness. Sometimes the mushrooms are so full of water that they taste bland, but these had flavour and texture. 

Dressed Dorset Crab with Avocado and Toasted Sourdough was (£7.95), which is a fairly priced starter, despite being far more dear than the mushrooms. I received a very generous amount of white crab meat, which tastes as fresh as a daisy. The avocado was just ripe, partly diced, partly mashed; all the better to spoon onto the fresh smelling and inviting Sourdough toasts. 

Tiger Prawn Masala with Lemon Rice (£14.95) was my main course choice, through sheer curiousity. We were sceptical about this dish. At best we thought it would only be a vaguely Indian influenced dish. But we were pleasantly surprised to find a delicately spiced, slightly sweet and balanced curry resembling a Moilie style curry. The coconut milks is tempered by the flavour of turmeric and spices. The rice is fragrant, fluffy and jewelled with tiny black mustard seeds. The prawns are firm and cooked perfectly, and the small sprinkle of mini onion bhajis provides an interesting contrasting texture. 

The Lobster Roll is actually a bargain (£15.95). A very healthy amount of lobster is heaped with mayonnaise in crusty bread. The New York chopped salad is zingy and compliments the roll and chips. To get the roll, chips and salad all in one is amazing value. 

Turning to the desserts, I confess that I was getting full by this time. So Kavey and I shared the Mars Bar Cheesecake. The cheesecake is meant to taste like a Mars bar. We were assured by our server that it was the 'runaway favourite' of the pudding list. It was nice, but a little heavy, and didn't quite get the balance of chocolate and caramel you expect from a Mars bar. 

All in all, we enjoyed our lunch. There are restaurants which attract food fans and those with a fearless desire to explore new tastes. However, when you are trying to get a gang of friends or perhaps work colleagues who are not big food fans to come out for a meal, those establishments are far from ideal. Were you to suggest going to Hawksmoor, how much choice would a non-beef eater or vegetarian have, for example? And what do you do with someone who doesn't like spicy food if going to Dishoom? Or finds burgers downmarket but is too scared to try lobster (Burger & Lobster restaurant thereby ruled out). Then  there is the friend who cannot bear waiting for a table in a no-reservations restaurant (that's Bubbledogs gone, too). It is exactly the situation where a place like Hush Brasserie comes into its own. 

Good food, well prepared, with a wide variety of meat and fish dishes are what you'll find here. Not 'fayne dayning' or the latest foodie fad. Just good reliable food. There is one vegetarian main (Butternut Squash Risotto) and a 'lighter' vegetarian main (Caramelised Onion Tart), although I might respectfully suggest that they might want to add one more to capitalise on the mixed group market.

Hush Brasserie
95-97 High Holborn
London WC1V 6LF
020 7242 4580

Kavey allowed me to tag along as her 'plus one' when officially reviewing the restaurant. I am very grateful to her for allowing me to review Hush Brasserie for Snig's Kitchen. 

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