tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75058835961017904042024-02-19T02:06:22.095+00:00Robbish Food & BBQWhere the elite meat to eatRobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.comBlogger53125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-54040483992689247602021-01-14T21:32:00.006+00:002021-01-15T15:53:41.087+00:00Robbish Food has a new home!<p> I am pleased to announce that as of today, Robbish Food has a new home - a website dedicated to food, cooking, bbq and science! (Obviously mac'n'cheese, cookies and burgers will still feature heavily)</p><p>You can check it out here: <a href="https://www.robbishfood.com/">RobbishFood.com</a>!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkaCR-Biewm4A9PaiJ8JQpMWaAx1NwzSYNEk3nh-yxrJzSt2V3bVV9rHOe1mSI8mFjGhap15sNOGScHxFugMxUM9Uz0a_fCaXCzQdeLWnb3PoEpkPtRDHYJ7zyfXx4StHHN_Q1QkGqUVk/s1414/robbishheaderlogo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Robbish Food" border="0" data-original-height="715" data-original-width="1414" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkaCR-Biewm4A9PaiJ8JQpMWaAx1NwzSYNEk3nh-yxrJzSt2V3bVV9rHOe1mSI8mFjGhap15sNOGScHxFugMxUM9Uz0a_fCaXCzQdeLWnb3PoEpkPtRDHYJ7zyfXx4StHHN_Q1QkGqUVk/w640-h324/robbishheaderlogo.png" title="Robbish Food" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>It will link through to my food instagram, and have a dedicated contact email if you need to get in touch about anything. Some of these posts will be migrated over too!</p>Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-63478846624629964732020-04-06T21:34:00.000+01:002020-04-06T21:34:13.943+01:00Campfire chilliAnother weekend on lockdown, but this time it was with almost summer-like weather. Sun was shining and reportedly 20 degrees, but whatever it was, it was warm enough to be in shorts and t-shirts and spending all day in the garden. And as long as it's warm enough to be outside, its warm enough to cook outside!<br />
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To be honest with you, my original plan for campfire chilli was to homeschool the kids a little bit about making campfires, but I soon realised, with the lovely weather, it would be a bit anti-social to have a fire in the garden in the middle of the hottest day of the year so far, so it ended up being over coal briquettes (smoke-less) and we ended up not having any educational how-to-build-a-fire fun (we will have to save that for an evening time) but instead cooking a chilli on the BBQ.<br />
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It's been a couple of years since I last entered a chilli cook-off and had the pleasure of cooking chilli outside, so had forgotten how much fun it is cooking chilli outside. It's a very low-maintenance, hands-off affair, that takes a few hours to cook (meaning you have to stand around outside in the sun all afternoon) and fills the air with the most wonderful of smells (and quite different to your standard BBQ smells, so maybe that was quite inconsiderate of the neighbours too!).<br />
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The chilli can be made on a BBQ, a campfire, a camping stove or just inside on the hob - you'll be cooking for probably three hours or more, so as long as you have the fuel to last then cook where you like! (BBQ briquettes easily burn that long, mine were still red hot hours later, campfires you can get going and just keep fuelling with logs).<br />
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<h3>
Ingredients</h3>
<ul>
<li>1 onion</li>
<li>2 cloves of garlic</li>
<li>a couple chillis (red/green/jalapeno, as you like) - optional</li>
<li>2 carrots</li>
<li>1 tablespoon tomato puree</li>
<li>1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional, if you don't have this on your shelf then don't worry about it)</li>
<li>1/2 teaspoon onion powder (optional, if you don't have this on your shelf then don't worry about it)</li>
<li>2 teaspoons oregano</li>
<li>2 teaspoons cumin</li>
<li>1 tablespoon chilli powder (when I entered chilli cook-offs, I would blend chilli powders often De Arbol, Mulato and New Mexico Red, but for regular family chilli powder, run of the mill supermarket chilli powder will work fine)</li>
<li>1 tin 400g chopped tomatoes</li>
<li>400ml vegetable stock</li>
<li>1 sheet gelatin (optional)</li>
<li>1 tablespoon cider vinegar</li>
<li>Meat: this weekend I used 500g chopped pork shoulder & 70g chopped chorizo - but you can choose the meat as you please. My competition chilli would normally be pre-dominantly beef (short ribs) and some pork (pork cheek, chorizo etc) - but you can use any meat you please, just as long as its suitable for slow cooking - pork shoulder, beef ribs, beef shin, ox cheek, pork cheek etc - or just supermarket generic <i>braising steak</i> type thing.</li>
</ul>
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<h3>
Method</h3>
<div>
<ol>
<li>If cooking outside, get the fire going and nice and hot<br /><br /></li>
<li>In a large pot, add a drizzle of oil and start cooking the onion and carrots until soft and translucent, probably about ten minutes (depending how hot the fire is - it often takes a bit to really get going)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Add the garlic, chillis (if using), pork (e.g. chorizo or bacon) and tomato puree and cook for a further minute<br /><br /></li>
<li>Mix in the spices and oregano and cook a minute longer<br /><br /></li>
<li>Add the main meat you are cooking with and brown in the pan (don't stir it too much to allow it to brown nicely)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Mix the sheet of gelatin (if using) with the 400 ml vegetable stock, stir so it dissolves and then add the liquid to the pot and stir<br /><br /></li>
<li>Allow to come to the boil and reach a rolling simmer (if you are cooking outside, you wont have fine control, but because the liquid essentially braises the meat so the liquid acts as a temperature control)<br /><br /></li>
<li>After an hour or so, add the tomatoes and cider vinegar<br /><br /></li>
<li>Continue to cook, stir occasionally, for another two hours or so. If it gets too thick, then add some more boiling water<br /><br /></li>
<li>When its done, the meat should be tender, and you will probably be able to pull it apart with forks (like pulled pork), which can help create a nice textured chilli, with some pulled meat and some chunks left whole.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Serve with rice, nachos, fajitas or whatever!</li>
</ol>
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Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758351.1912379 -0.7732053 51.8234639 0.5176887tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-34646305441663114572020-04-04T10:12:00.001+01:002020-04-04T10:12:57.838+01:00Easy weeknight ratatouilleSo, still being on lockdown, and with the limitations currently in place, both around availability of online shopping and leaving the house, I decided on the weekend to order a veg box as an alternative (or at least a supplement to) regular supermarket shop deliveries. Included in the box was a big old aubergine, and whilst I did consider smoking it on the bbq, I decided to stick with the usual ratatouille (I had smoked aubergine at Smoke Stak in London once, and it was incredible - the best thing on their menu - and I have plans to try and re-create it one day).<br />
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Growing up I ate my fair share of courgettes and aubergines, almost always in the form of ratatouille. My dad would grow courgettes in his greenhouse, and they were prolific in their output. They'd be producing faster than we could eat them, so over the summer we would be inundated with them - and it became traditional that ratatouille would be a side dish with pretty much all BBQs we had (a tradition I am fast adopting myself). It would usually get to the point where my dad would have to freeze courgettes as they weren't being eaten fast enough, and whilst he will probably maintain he kept them in empty ice cream tubs in the freezer for practical reasons, it seems like a cruel trick to play on your kids (if you were to look in his freezer and discover an ice cream tub these days, my guess would be it would be full of frozen chillis, rather than courgettes - but either way, its unlikely going to be ice cream).<br />
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So, I called this recipe an easy weeknight version - and thats mostly because its relatively simple and only has a few ingredients, however, as with most my cooking it does want a little time in the oven to bring out its magic. Your active time will be quite short, but time to table a bit longer - if you can steal 30 minutes or so in the middle of the afternoon or even lunchtime so its got time to sit in the oven ahead of dinner, then you'll be grand.<br />
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<h3>
Ingredients</h3>
<ul>
<li>1 aubergine, sliced into discs</li>
<li>1-2 courgettes, sliced (as chunky as you like them)</li>
<li>1 onion (I used red yesterday, but white is fine), finely chopped</li>
<li>2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped</li>
<li>dried oregano - about a tablespoon</li>
<li>olive oil (quite a few glugs - aubergines really drink this up)</li>
<li>tomato puree</li>
<li>1 400 gram tin of chopped tomoatos</li>
</ul>
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<h3>
Method</h3>
<i>Preheat the oven to 160 degrees fan oven (adjusting if not a fan oven, usually you just add 20 degrees)</i></div>
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<ol>
<li>First of all, we will slice and salt the aubergine - we want to get that done up front as we to let the rest salted. Simply slice the aubergine into discs, lay them out on some kitchen towel and liberally salt them. <b><i>Editors note: there is debate around whether this is necessary - it used to be to draw out the bitterness, which has apparently been bred out of aubergines anyway. Another alternative to salting is to pre-cook them in the microwave, but I salt them partly out of nostalgia - my dad salts his aubergines - and partly because its the only seasoning I add to this recipe, and it works well.<br /><br /></i></b></li>
<li>Next lets start on the tomato sauce - add some olive oil to a saucepan over a medium heat and add the chopped onions - cook for 5-10 minutes until softened and slightly translucent<br /><br /></li>
<li>Add the chopped garlic and oregano, stir and cook for a further minute - try not to let the garlic brown<br /><br /></li>
<li>Add a tablespoon of tomato puree, stir through and cook for a further minute<br /><br /></li>
<li>Add the chopped tomatoes, stir through and pop it in the oven (you can just continue cooking on the hob if you prefer, but I prefer the quality you get when oven cooked)<br /><br /></li>
<li>In another frying pan (I use my cast iron skillet for this - which does a great job, as long as you get it nice and hot) add some more olive oil, and once its hot cook the courgettes. As long as the pan is hot enough, it should only take a few minutes for them to brown nicely. Once browned and soft, transfer them to a kitchen towel lined plate (this is to remove some of the oil from them).<br /><br /></li>
<li>Next throw in the aubergines - depending on how big the aubergine pieces are, this shouldn't take too long (and if you are using a decent frying pan, it should be really hot by now). You may have to add a couple glugs more olive oil, as aubergines will really absorb that - but thats ok, the additional olive oil helps add to the flavour and richness of the finished dish. Once browned, transition to another lined plate<br /><br /></li>
<li>At this point we will construct the finished dish - you can just slam it altogether if you like, but I go for a layered approach: in an oven dish, layer the aubergines, then courgettes, then top with the tomato sauce - making sure the tomato sauce covers the top of the veg<br /><br /></li>
<li>Reduce the oven temp 10 degrees (so to 150 in a fan oven) and pop the ratatouille in. It's ever so forgiving at this temperature, so cook for at least 40 mins, but if it needs to be in there beyond an hour it wont do it any harm (if you need it to sit in there longer, consider covering it if it starts to brown too much on the top)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Once done, serve with pasta, cous-cous, bread, whatever you like (I have also blitzed in with a hand blender to make veg packed pasta sauce - if you blitz it, kids will likely eat it with pasta and cheese, oblivious that they are eating quite so many vegetables)<br /><br /></li>
</ol>
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Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758351.1912379 -0.7732053 51.8234639 0.5176887tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-66717642255884695062020-03-31T20:52:00.000+01:002020-03-31T20:52:16.899+01:00Cookie tray bakeHard to believe that its been almost two years since my last update here, despite having been busy cooking, I don't seem to have found the time. Now we are well and truly on lock-down here in the UK, I am finding a bit more time (not a whole lot more, I should add, given as we have two kids in the house that need entertaining, most of my additional time locked in is quite quickly filled).<br />
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One recipe that I have bene playing with is a cookie tray-bake. It's simple, quick and good to do with kids. I was originally playing with the idea of more extravagant versions of this (mini eggs etc in them), but given shop trips are limited, I have kept it simple.<br />
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Another good thing about the tray bake approach is you can cut the slices as big or as small as you like, so can easily get child friendly slice sizes (I never manage to make small cookies!).<br />
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<h3>
Ingredients</h3>
<ul>
<li>170 grams unsalted butter</li>
<li>100 grams granulated sugar</li>
<li>160 grams light brown sugar</li>
<li>300 grams flour</li>
<li>1/2 teaspoon baking powder</li>
<li>1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda</li>
<li>200 grams choc chips</li>
<li>1 egg</li>
</ul>
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<i>(Substitutions: as always, feel free to play fast and loose on substitutions - I have recently had an abundance of self-raising flour, so have made the last two batches with that instead of plain flour, with no ill effect. Likewise, I have switched the light brown sugar for dark brown or muscavado - you get a different taste with those, more caramel-treacle-y, which is also nice!)</i></div>
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<h3>
Method</h3>
<ol>
<li>Cream the butter and sugar - stick it in a free standing mixer and beat - it should visibly look a lighter colour, and will probably take a couple minutes (for real, leave it mixing for a couple minutes, which will probably feel like a long time)<br /><br /></li>
<li>To ensure an even distribution, I often add the baking powder and bicarb at this point and beat further<br /><br /></li>
<li>Add the egg and beat until its smooth and combined<br /><br /></li>
<li>Add the flour and mix slowly until combined, add the chocolate chips and mix further for 30 seconds or so until distributed throughout<br /><br /></li>
<li>Line a tin with baking paper and press the dough into the tin, and put in the fridge to chill. Overnight if you have time, but a couple hours is fine (to be honest, feel free to cook immediately if you want, it won't be the end of the world)<br /><br /></li>
<li>When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 160 Fan (180 or whatever you adjust your non-fan oven to) and bake for 23-25 minutes, turning 2/3 times throughout.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Take out and leave to cool on a rack (still with the baking paper is the easiest), after 5 mins transfer (still in baking paper) to a chopping board and cut into slices as your prefer. Serve immediately with ice cream.</li>
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Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.127758351.1912379 -0.7732053 51.8234639 0.5176887tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-33780192818207715692018-08-13T20:44:00.002+01:002021-01-15T15:59:58.794+00:00Since the last time: The fourth best chilli in the UK<div><b><i><span style="font-size: large;">This post has now been migrated over to the new website - you should check it out over there - also, it actually has the chilli recipe with it now! <a href="https://www.robbishfood.com/recipes/chilli/2018/08/13/fourth-best-chilli-uk/">The fourth best chilli in the UK</a></span></i></b></div><div><br /></div>Can't believe the last post was a whole year ago. It's not that I haven't been cooking, probably just lack of time I expect. I'm not really sure.<br />
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There has been lots of cooking since then - the last post was about the <a href="https://robbish-food.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-gower-chili-cook-off-2017.html" target="_blank">Gower Chilli Cook-Off 2017</a> - which resulted in a bronze and a place in the UK finals, and this time three weeks ago I was just preparing to compete in the Gower chilli cook off 2018.<br />
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Unfortunately, in the middle of the longest heatwave I can remember in recent years, there was one weekend of rain and gale force winds - which resulted in the competition being cancelled. Which was a shame, and rather unfortunately the news of the cancellation didn't come in until after I had purchased around 4 kilos of meat. None the less, the meat got cooked, and it fed 7 adults for two nights, if not entirely impressively.<br />
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So to the finals, last September I competed in the UK finals of the Chilli cook off, just missing out on a spot on the podium (and a prize!) taking 4th spot, probably out of about 12 teams. Unbelievably, I was just cleaning out a drawer in the house yesterday, and I found all score cards from last year, and being so sure I had taken photos already I binned them all, only to discover now I don't have them! The scores were more consistent in the final, a similar total to the Gower round, but all 4 came in around 38/39 or so (rather than the two outliers of 31 & 49 from Gower) .<br />
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Once again, we did manage to learn some things to take forward though - this time I didn't pre-chop the meat ahead of the competition, which resulted in me being slightly slap dash in trimming the meat under competition deadlines, which meant there were some strap pieces of fat left in there (one judge noted it was a bit chewy in parts, so can only assume they found a stray piece of fat).<br />
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Following the cancellation of this year's cook-off, the UKCCA held a draw to select three teams to go through by default, and we were one of the teams pulled from the hat, so as long as its a convenient location and time to attend, we will hopefully still ride again this year. Although I have decided, based on a theory rather than practice, that my entry will be a "cheeky" chilli - using beef and pork cheek for the meat. Who knows how that will turn out!<br />
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Here are some of the highlight reel for the last year..<br />
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There's been home made chorizo (failed)</h4>
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<h4>
.. cake (mixed results)</h4>
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<h4>
.. Spanish sausage (ace)</h4>
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<h4>
of course, lots of BBQ (shoulder of lamb, pulled pork, ribs, etc)</h4>
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<h4>
and cookies!</h4>
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<br />Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-21465366783669228942017-08-09T14:23:00.000+01:002017-08-09T14:23:22.193+01:00The Gower Chili Cook-Off - 2017 - A RetrospectiveA few weeks it was the annual Gower Chilli Festival, which of course meant it was the annual Gower Chilli Cook-Off!<br />
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Having entered <a href="https://robbish-food.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/the-gower-chili-cook-off-2016.html" target="_blank">last year for the first time, and come a not-too-shabby 9th out of 12</a> (not too bad, considering I went in with very little clue as to what I was doing, or what the standard was, so was expecting, but not hoping for, last place), I was looking for an improvement on last years placing - in my head aiming for a move up the rankings to around 5th place.<br />
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<h3>
Lessons learnt (or not) from last year</h3>
In <a href="https://robbish-food.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/the-gower-chili-cook-off-2016.html" target="_blank">my retrospect last year</a>, I noted that a more regular competitor (and professional chef) told me that "<b><i>mince always wins</i></b>", so I was going in with the plan to switch to mince, but a last minute (well, the week before) change of heart saw me going once again for my favourite part of the cow - ribs! As it happens, I think the top three or four competitors were actually not using mince this year, so maybe the old mince bias is not a thing, or maybe it just wasn't mince's year. I don't think we found anyone else using short-ribs, brisket seemed a popular choice and I think another competitor was using shin, another using goat and another using pork belly.<br />
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Despite not switching to mince, as I had said I would in the retrospective last year, I did focus on really making the flavour work over the four hours. And boy was that stressful! When all the ingredients hit the pan at about the one hour mark, so with three hours to reduce, it was pretty runny, so I spent a large part of the next 2 1/2 hours stirring, pacing and fretting about whether it was actually going to reduce like it was supposed to. But it did, it just left it until the final 30 minutes to really thicken up!<br />
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Unfortunately, whilst we planned to take heed of the lesson learnt that food prep could start before the official kick off, we failed. Actually worse than last time - last time around we were there and tent setup for the starting gun, but without most of the ingredients, this time we didn't even arrive on site until starting time and whilst the other competitors were starting to cook we were trying to setup table, cooker and gazebo!<br />
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<h3>
Things to improve</h3>
I was happy with the consistency and the savoury element of the chilli, and the judges seemed to like that balance - but as my dad pointed out, it lacked a salt and sweetness - it was very meaty, just didn't have the all round brightness. I did forget to add the sugar at the end, and also forgot to add the lime - which might have brightened it a little and made it a little better balanced. One idea that I have had since is to add tomato ketchup: being packed with both sugar and salt and has quite a sharp taste, if I can work out a subtle enough quantity it might add the missing something.<br />
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I also used bacon bits this year, which overall I was happy with, but bacon doesn't really seem right for slow cooking - admittedly, they work fine in a slow braise, and kind of melt away, but I'm going to try switching to pig cheek for the next experiment. As well as being cheaper, it should also provide a closer texture and appearance to the beef.<br />
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I will also try to experiment with a different blend of chillies, to see how I can work the flavour a little more.<br />
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<h3>
The results</h3>
I came 3rd!<br />
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So, a better improvement than I hoped for and meant I took home the bronze cash prize which just about covered the cost of the food! A further nice side-effect of the placing was because the Silver medal winner had already qualified for the UK finals (he is a chilli cook-off circuit pro and had already qualified in another regional cook-off) I took his place, which means 23rd September, I will be competing in <a href="https://www.fleetchillifiesta.co.uk/" target="_blank">the UK finals</a>, which should be fun!<br />
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It was a genuine surprise, there were only 9 competitors, and all looked very serious, so on arrival I started revising my targeted place to maybe 6th out of the 9. Whilst tasting the other competitors chillis, we started to be optimistic that "we wouldn't be last place" (a genuine phrase that was said out loud several times in our tent during the final stage - which shows the level of expectation on the team!). Our confidence was somewhat boosted by the <b><i>People's Choice</i></b> voting (during tasting, people can taste and vote for their favourite before winners announced) as we seemed to be getting at least a reasonable number of votes (last year I had one vote, which was by us), but was still in genuine shock when the results were announced!<br />
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As per last year, here are the feedback cards (one of the official UK Chilli Cook-off Association judges explained that two of the judges on the panel judged all events, whilst the other two were locals - which I assume was his attempt to explain the two extreme outliers in the scoring)<br />
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<br />Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-45956078945917714952017-07-30T10:23:00.000+01:002017-07-30T10:23:31.498+01:00Birthday CakesIt's that time of year again when I get a chance to make fun birthday cakes. I don't bake that much, and rarely cakes other than birthdays, and kids cakes are the most fun and least fun at the same time (I haven't really got the knack for rolling icing, so that is always testing).<br />
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Anyway, here are the end results:<br />
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A <a href="http://www.gruffalo.com/" target="_blank">Gruffalo</a> cake and a lego superman cake, if you couldn't tell.Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-30294053752062124912017-04-30T11:47:00.001+01:002017-04-30T11:48:32.185+01:00BBQ Beef - a retrospectWell, it's that time of year again, we have had a run of dry weather so time to get a BBQing!<br />
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A little earlier than last two years this time, as my first official BBQ of the year was 9th April, and its been good to get back on it.<br />
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It's actually been a busy old time cooking, as usual, but not much new to update here, so this is really just a recap of what I have been up to.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWqcUh2lehzhv3mAjX8eeKBkbjWql9WPvbu5URR1KPEKOUKZ-8y1oi3AQlm4RQCJihNL0msmeXWx1qxy-xanfkOGt7VTbaOSdElEkmA70tyiW17k2Vf8gnS_y0hBWwKKTqYBTm9Lhw9QY/s1600/IMG_20170422_214233.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWqcUh2lehzhv3mAjX8eeKBkbjWql9WPvbu5URR1KPEKOUKZ-8y1oi3AQlm4RQCJihNL0msmeXWx1qxy-xanfkOGt7VTbaOSdElEkmA70tyiW17k2Vf8gnS_y0hBWwKKTqYBTm9Lhw9QY/s640/IMG_20170422_214233.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
The BBQs have both mainly been beef short ribs, as they are really my favourite bbq, both times combined with baby back ribs. The baby back ribs have been cooked well both times, but the rub on the second outing wasn't quite as good so I didn't enjoy them as much. The first beef ribs were individuals and came out really well, but the second attempt of doing a full rack of ribs didn't come out as well, and were a little over cooked - second outing I upped the temperature to 275F, as I had read several people cooking at a higher temperature with no real difference in the results, but in the end, the outer section of the ribs were a bit tougher and over cooked, which is a shame.<br />
<br />
Pork belly burnt ends:<br />
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The first BBQ of the year:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu7mDP-ASeg7WjkP0excrmh345AdOuRq72BF18AgrXqNGqGmAfsBVtWc3xf11KxhyphenhyphenZv_318WJ1EY8NY6_GzlR6nzv_tQUr1w5ZUE-Hct9V2fTOHcq6gsccSFDM3dFZV3mq7ZQt__g-uQ8/s1600/IMG_20170409_070737363-COLLAGE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu7mDP-ASeg7WjkP0excrmh345AdOuRq72BF18AgrXqNGqGmAfsBVtWc3xf11KxhyphenhyphenZv_318WJ1EY8NY6_GzlR6nzv_tQUr1w5ZUE-Hct9V2fTOHcq6gsccSFDM3dFZV3mq7ZQt__g-uQ8/s640/IMG_20170409_070737363-COLLAGE.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I have also been busy baking sweet things, including home made bourbon creams, easter inspired brownies and passion fruit sponge cake..<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYnNR925BmS99Pf7g3g4HLmuixWRGANIu6eiLxG44uDlr22pbWimaUoVZ4zKaWmXuQPLQuQeOcz8DZ0zmGYW5I8SojmHTiL3eYy3TUe_0Eoo_XeOaeYbyvZfBx_zu21XXUAKydSER6Yks/s1600/IMG_20170416_121409490.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYnNR925BmS99Pf7g3g4HLmuixWRGANIu6eiLxG44uDlr22pbWimaUoVZ4zKaWmXuQPLQuQeOcz8DZ0zmGYW5I8SojmHTiL3eYy3TUe_0Eoo_XeOaeYbyvZfBx_zu21XXUAKydSER6Yks/s640/IMG_20170416_121409490.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-58850338755208494722017-01-21T15:30:00.002+00:002017-01-21T15:30:53.492+00:00Recipe: Nutella filled cookiesAs well as making raspberry & white chocolate cookies on the weekend, I also decided, on a whim, to try and experiment with nutella filled cookies.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHscjVSf08Xc0lzqdEeajHMckzdSLfzwopu1yOebLFABI2agvgbyilTgHHujTPD3zOY2P4ukoDfKBvPjLLcdtohScsHa-82FoahVL_2lcPD-KxPJIZTkIfh_hx4-FTAdD-4fJaPzBokMc/s1600/IMG_20170115_150657346.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHscjVSf08Xc0lzqdEeajHMckzdSLfzwopu1yOebLFABI2agvgbyilTgHHujTPD3zOY2P4ukoDfKBvPjLLcdtohScsHa-82FoahVL_2lcPD-KxPJIZTkIfh_hx4-FTAdD-4fJaPzBokMc/s640/IMG_20170115_150657346.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I used my <a href="http://robbish-food.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/recipe-my-favourite-cookies.html" target="_blank">normal base cookie recipe</a>, but with milk choc chunks instead of the white chocolate and raspberry (although I did experiment with one nutella filled raspberry-and-white-choc cookie, which was fine, but didn't work as well as the normal choc chunk cookies).<br />
<br />
<h3>
Method</h3>
We will be following the <a href="http://robbish-food.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/recipe-my-favourite-cookies.html" target="_blank">same instructions as described here</a>, but before we start, we will line a baking tray, and using a teaspoon put small blobs of nutella on it, and put it in the freezer to harden - this is mostly to make it easier to handle when we try to get it into our cookie later:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Hv7HcVSNsUZ5tbSmNcgQoKa5QsbhUmC_mKQT3iJmfCg_mnOZDEH5twF_Uj9NlLxFcaLotPI4ymaNffo0ZQCupEjN-SCxvLEpcp8flgngtChrYkbfkAgPQd9wx2FAeysEUP1efYfMAlA/s1600/IMG_20170115_132154427.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Hv7HcVSNsUZ5tbSmNcgQoKa5QsbhUmC_mKQT3iJmfCg_mnOZDEH5twF_Uj9NlLxFcaLotPI4ymaNffo0ZQCupEjN-SCxvLEpcp8flgngtChrYkbfkAgPQd9wx2FAeysEUP1efYfMAlA/s640/IMG_20170115_132154427.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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Once you have the cookie dough cooled and ready to cook, rather than shaping it into a ball, flatten each piece slightly and then put a piece of the frozen nutella in the center, shaping the dough back into a ball around the nutella competely.<br />
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Cook as described and eat!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNOTTa5cKcDMh5amh_pVY6QVpUvia5SJ6wtyoq8yns8L5DQz3b3drg6oX8Wksu9BMfRiyDXGjuvYGMCSfw1lin-dEmy5Ia1hdYQcClKHPoFetCK2k_GtjH_sKVnHulEJ66kgnRZh7MSsA/s1600/IMG_20170115_135229138.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNOTTa5cKcDMh5amh_pVY6QVpUvia5SJ6wtyoq8yns8L5DQz3b3drg6oX8Wksu9BMfRiyDXGjuvYGMCSfw1lin-dEmy5Ia1hdYQcClKHPoFetCK2k_GtjH_sKVnHulEJ66kgnRZh7MSsA/s640/IMG_20170115_135229138.jpg" width="360" /></a></div>
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<br />Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-51999968428357589522017-01-21T15:15:00.003+00:002021-01-15T15:59:38.190+00:00Recipe: My favourite cookies<div><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>This post has now been migrated to the new robbish food website, robbishfood.com - You can check out my <a href="https://www.robbishfood.com/recipes/cookies/2021/01/09/ultimate-chocolate-chip-cookies/">Ultimate Choc Chop Cookie</a> post & recipe over there!</i></b></span></div><div><br /></div>As I have mentioned before, one of my favourite sweet combinations is raspberry and chocolate - whether it be milk, dark or white chocolate, it just seems to work so well for me, so unsurprisingly, if not controversially, my favourite cookies are white chocolate and raspberry.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsxL_JRsvujmSH7-Pbnrx3_sKP7ZATQiQuCAG01p-4YP_XSubDW6HHvQVj3YYt9ewLLj9Lh3mKg3zudZayxGXEqBVjrnY0PSzXK8KOJlfOgHbez7vd-XfgFKUlfweg3yWaJtGG96Vmz2M/s1600/DSC_0162.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsxL_JRsvujmSH7-Pbnrx3_sKP7ZATQiQuCAG01p-4YP_XSubDW6HHvQVj3YYt9ewLLj9Lh3mKg3zudZayxGXEqBVjrnY0PSzXK8KOJlfOgHbez7vd-XfgFKUlfweg3yWaJtGG96Vmz2M/s640/DSC_0162.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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I made them last week, as a sort of practice run for an upcoming birthday party for my youngest, but I am pretty tempted to just keep making them regularly. Although, I am the only one in the house who prefers them to normal chocolate chip cookies, but that probably works in my favour too, as it means more for me (or more likely they don't all get eaten whilst I am out at work).<br />
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They are pretty simple, and are actually my go to cookie recipe, but you can replace the raspberries and white choc with plain choc chunks or whatever your mood fancies.<br />
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<br />
<h3>
Ingredients</h3>
<ul>
<li>170 grams unsalted butter</li>
<li>250 grams plain flour</li>
<li>1 egg</li>
<li>1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda</li>
<li>1/2 teaspoon baking powder</li>
<li>100 grams granulated sugar</li>
<li>160 grams light brown sugar</li>
<li>200 grams white choc chunks</li>
<li>10 grams freeze dried raspberries</li>
</ul>
<br />
<h3>
Method</h3>
<i>Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Makes about 15-25 cookies, depending on the size you go for</i><br />
<ol>
<li>Mix the flour, oats, salt and bicarbonate of soda together in a bowl<br /><br /></li>
<li>Add the sugars and butter in a bowl (ideally of a freestanding mixer, but whatever) and mix well - for a few minutes with the paddle attachment if you have one, but again, whatever. Just mix it well so it is smooth and well beaten<br /><br /></li>
<li>Add the egg and beat/mix again for a minute or so until well combined. Add the vanilla if using it.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Add the flour mixture and beat until combined and formed a cohesive dough. If you are using a free standing mixer, then increase the power slowly, as if you go straight in fast then you will get covered in flour. This has happened more than once to me.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Chuck in the choc chunks and raspberries and mix for another 30sec-1min<br /><br /></li>
<li>Wrap the the dough in clingfilm and stick it in the fridge to cool - probably an hour or so<br /><br /></li>
<li>Once cooled, chunk the dough into small fist size balls and place them equally spaced on a baking tray and cook for about 15minutes, or until they have melted into cookie shapes and lightly browned.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Take them from the oven, let them cool for a bit</li>
</ol>
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Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-81808920844139651262017-01-09T21:01:00.000+00:002017-01-09T21:01:33.729+00:00Stoneware baked shortbreadA few years ago I got bought a stoneware shortbread mould, basically identical to the one below:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbXa6XnRBAi4dr9prbR1JEvFg-ce8fWWeGS2gaInU1JVwgy6H0LU4ITccr8zypqlzidb5dO6UHkzi298a8_Gm7AHtkGS-hM-ffCrSQ1KKTR-yB9L4zEv2JvLFQUM_-Y0l4DREGOV98zJw/s1600/11537_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbXa6XnRBAi4dr9prbR1JEvFg-ce8fWWeGS2gaInU1JVwgy6H0LU4ITccr8zypqlzidb5dO6UHkzi298a8_Gm7AHtkGS-hM-ffCrSQ1KKTR-yB9L4zEv2JvLFQUM_-Y0l4DREGOV98zJw/s640/11537_2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Its a classic s<a href="http://www.lakeland.co.uk/11537/Shortbread-Mould" target="_blank">tone, patterned shortbread mould from Lakeland</a>, that's supposed to create traditional shortbread.<br />
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As I have previously mentioned, I quite like shortbread, so over the years I have attempted to use the stoneware to create picture perfect shortbread (with a variety of normal and brown-butter recipes), all of which ended in disaster.<br />
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I tried a number of tricks: cooking it low and slow, making sure it cools completely (several hours) before removing, greasing the mould, but every time it came out in pieces and mostly stuck to the mould. Searching for advice, several people in the <a href="http://www.lakeland.co.uk/11537/Shortbread%20Mould/all-reviews/2/20.5" target="_blank">lower end of the product reviews experienced similar results</a> (although several people gave 5-star reviews with claims of mould-glory) and one of the top results on google was <a href="http://cakesbakesandcookies.com/2011/12/31/why-i-dont-love-shortbread-part-two/" target="_blank">an article about similar disastrous experiences</a> using the same mould, I didn't have high hopes.<br />
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I am pleased to say though, that I have had a breakthrough.<br />
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There were lots of comments in the review section for the product saying it worked as-is, recommending shortening, or letting chill completely, which I can confirm absolutely did not work for me, however, one or two comments and some more careful searching lead me to the idea of seasoning it (much like when I got my pride-and-joy new cast iron skillet) - which suddenly made sense. Its a natural, porous material, which draws moisture our of the contents (which is one of the properties that makes stone an appropriate material for pizza stones - the other property being the heat retention, also much like cast iron) - seasoning, the act of heating oil or (non burning) fat above its "smoke point" creates a chemical reaction where by the oil bonds and forms a natural, breathable coating.<br />
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Much like a well aged, well used, cast iron pan can demonstrate incredible non-stick performance - due to long term use - the same applies to stoneware for baking wet foods - there is apparently a saying that goes<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">The worse it looks, the better it cooks</span></blockquote>
Thankfully, cast iron or stoneware, you don't need a lifetime of use before you start to see the best results - we can fast track the process by seasoning the pan. As it happens, seasoning pans is very satisfying.<br />
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<br />
Seasoning a pan is simple -<br />
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<ol>
<li>Pre-heat your oven to as hot as it will go (it might smoke, so make sure you are ready to have windows/doors open)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Apply oil (I used vegetable oil) to the pan, not a lot, just a light coat (trying to make sure there aren't bits of dust or paper debris from kitchen towels - as the stone can be fairly abrasive, and any debris is going to get sealed into the surface)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Put the dish in the oven for around 30 minutes<br /><br /></li>
<li>Take out, let it cool completely (this will take a while, remember what I mentioned about it stone retaining heat)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Repeat the process two or three times (I find it quite addictive to repeat, as the results are such a delight)</li>
</ol>
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<br />
The results should be clear - the colour will change fairly dramatically, and if you touch it (once its cooled down) it will be fairly smooth.<br />
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If you look at the colour in the starting photo, a kind of pale-greyish white, that is how my mould started out, and below is after three or so seasoning runs:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheTkDqPtq_liPn7Xyr9XAC445OElRoPYe2bvlhd7XvEqko9xIDkO7ZdGTZr3NC-Q5_KZtAXDIHRF9UlNLi9TYKf4o9MS3klYo2so_bDGYdo0CIU3H1otNBOEuQRMnUd7fGUkg9pb0Ay2U/s1600/IMG_20170107_195939532.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheTkDqPtq_liPn7Xyr9XAC445OElRoPYe2bvlhd7XvEqko9xIDkO7ZdGTZr3NC-Q5_KZtAXDIHRF9UlNLi9TYKf4o9MS3klYo2so_bDGYdo0CIU3H1otNBOEuQRMnUd7fGUkg9pb0Ay2U/s640/IMG_20170107_195939532.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Isn't that a beautiful colour?<br />
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And here's the successful results:<br />
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(a success in as much that it came out, pattern in tact - however it was an iteration on my brown butter shortbread development, so still a work in progress)<br />
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<br />Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-67675470894812635082016-11-13T10:04:00.000+00:002016-11-13T10:04:17.383+00:00Gluten-free Rosemary Millionaires shortbreadA few weeks ago I re-visited my rosemary millionaire shortbread to attempt to make a gluten free version (well, mostly - I used regular porridge oats in my version, which I think is not guaranteed to be 100% gluten free because of cross contamination or something, but gluten free porridge oats are available).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIiyiU_QKUV8hW_qnAJEdSypevNNllWOM1Gm8EJ4k7dJdcTGfGXx3So5FpmoJ5_WjNblBVI7gEg4C-MdBBmhbKpGycCgYJqBbyMV0BmvvC2ZxP_2FNP5L8ct1hVwxUyCaoxJMmGRrt5NM/s1600/IMG_20160905_081643702.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIiyiU_QKUV8hW_qnAJEdSypevNNllWOM1Gm8EJ4k7dJdcTGfGXx3So5FpmoJ5_WjNblBVI7gEg4C-MdBBmhbKpGycCgYJqBbyMV0BmvvC2ZxP_2FNP5L8ct1hVwxUyCaoxJMmGRrt5NM/s640/IMG_20160905_081643702.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
I also varied the way I made the rosemary-caramel, but it still wasn't very rosemary, so maybe I will up the rosemary next time.<br />
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<h3>
Ingredients</h3>
<b>Shortbread</b>
<br />
<ul>
<li>150 grams porridge oats</li>
<li>75 grams cornmeal</li>
<li>170 grams butter</li>
<li>90 grams caster sugar</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Caramel</b>
<br />
<ul>
<li>150ml double cream</li>
<li>30 grams salted butter</li>
<li>a single finger pinch of sea salt</li>
<li>100 grams light brown sugar</li>
<li>1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Chocolate </b>
<br />
<ul>
<li>250 gram cadburys chocolate</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Method</h3>
<ol>
<li>Make the shortbread - Normally making the shortbread we have to cream the butter and sugar and then fold in the flour, but as we are gluten free we don't need to worry about being careful this time: just mix the oats, cornmeal, sugar and butter together.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Press the mixture into a tin and cook in a fan oven at about 160 degrees for about 20 minutes - keep an eye on it so it doesn't go to brown, but we really want to cook it fairly slowly for a while so it has a chance to dry out, this will give it more of a brittle crunch to the base (in a hopefully good way)<br /><br /></li>
<li>For the caramel, gently melt all ingredients except rosemary in a pan, once melted add the rosemary and stir through, heat for two to three minutes<br /><br /></li>
<li>Leave the caramel to stand for another 10 minutes or so, whilst the shortbread cools<br /><br /></li>
<li>Poor the caramel through a sieve to remove the rosemary pieces, pour caramel onto the cooled shortbread<br /><br /></li>
<li>Place the caramel topped shortbread in the fridge to cool for another 20 minutes<br /><br /></li>
<li>Melt the chocolate in the microwave on a low power settings (will take a couple of minutes), once it is smooth, pour on top of the caramel shortbread and put back in the fridge to set.</li>
</ol>
<div>
<br /></div>
Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-87290038760640269842016-09-05T21:33:00.002+01:002016-09-05T21:33:33.805+01:00BBQ spare ribsA rather productive weekend for cooking this weekend. Well, mostly just the Sunday really. After heading to a local pick-your-own farm with the kids on Saturday I picked up a full rack of pork ribs from their butchers, so Sunday I smoked those and whilst they were sitting on the grill I also found time to make some rosemary salt caramel brownies.<br />
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<br />
<br />
The ribs were fairly simple - Saturday night I trimmed and lightly salted the meat, Sunday morning I rubbed the meat and then cooked for about 5 1/2 hours Sunday afternoon for dinner.<br />
<br />
<h3>
The rub</h3>
<ul>
<li>30 grams light brown sugar</li>
<li>15 grams caster sugar</li>
<li>5 grams smoked paprika</li>
<li>5 grams garlic powder</li>
<li>2 grams onion powder</li>
<li>3 grams ground ginger</li>
<li>2 grams black pepper</li>
</ul>
<br />
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<br />
<br />
It was a full rack of spare ribs, and I threw together one of <a href="http://robbish-food.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/sticky-bbq-chicken.html" target="_blank">my standard, quick-n-easy BBQ sauces</a> for the painting at the end.<br />
<br />
<h3>
Method</h3>
<ol>
<li>Trim the ribs and remove the membrane<br /><br /></li>
<li>Salt and apply rub<br /><br /></li>
<li>Setup the BBQ (WSM) for smoking set at 110 degrees (225 farenheit)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Once temperature is stabilised, add the ribs<br /><br /></li>
<li>After 4 hours, check to see how they are looking, depending on the thickness of the meat they might take longer (mine took about 5 hours)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Check the ribs by doing the bend/bounce test (pick up the ribs and bend them a little, if they crack a bit on the top then they are ready)<br /><br /></li>
<li>If using sauce, paint the ribs with the sauce (I quickly painted the ribs with a water/maple-syrup solution prior to applying the sauce, this was just to keep the sauce loose and not to thick anywhere)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Return to the grill for 15 minutes or so<br /><br /></li>
<li>Before getting ready to serve, put them over the direct heat (for this I just remove the middle section of the WSM and stick the grill directly above the coals) meat side down, for a minute, just to crisp up the bark - don't do this for too long as it can easily burn<br /><br /></li>
<li>Slice between the bones and serve up.</li>
</ol>
<br />
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Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-10092255268531282432016-09-05T21:20:00.000+01:002016-09-05T21:20:21.319+01:00Rosemary Millionaire ShortbreadI also put together some rosemary-salt millionaires shortbread on the weekend. I originally tried rosemary caramel in a hipster coffee shop in London, and, as you might guess, thought "I should do that".<br />
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<br />
<br />
So its pretty simple, I made shortbread as usual. I made caramel with some rosemary added. Then topped with normal melted chocolate (nothing fancier seemed necessary)<br />
<br />
<h3>
Ingredients</h3>
<b>Shortbread</b>
<br />
<ul>
<li>225 grams plain flour</li>
<li>170 grams butter</li>
<li>90 grams caster sugar</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Caramel</b>
<br />
<ul>
<li>150ml double cream</li>
<li>30 grams salted butter</li>
<li>a single finger pinch of sea salt</li>
<li>100 grams light brown sugar</li>
<li>1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary</li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Chocolate </b>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Two 110 gram bars of cadburys chocolate</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<h3>
Method</h3>
<ol>
<li>Make the shortbread - cream the butter and sugar, mix in the flour, and then press into the bottom of a lined baking tray<br /><br /></li>
<li>For the caramel, gently melt all ingredients except rosemary in a pan, once melted add the rosemary and stir through, heat for two to three minutes<br /><br /></li>
<li>Leave the caramel to stand for another 10 minutes or so, whilst the shortbread cools<br /><br /></li>
<li>Poor the caramel through a sieve to remove the rosemary pieces, pour caramel onto the cooled shortbread<br /><br /></li>
<li>Place the caramel topped shortbread in the fridge to cool for another 20 minutes<br /><br /></li>
<li>Melt the chocolate in the microwave on a low power settings (will take a couple of minutes), once it is smooth, pour on top of the caramel shortbread and put back in the fridge to set.</li>
</ol>
<div>
<br /></div>
Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-28016471532717600152016-09-05T21:07:00.000+01:002016-09-05T21:07:46.169+01:00The Big Meat 2016August bank holiday weekend, we went to the <a href="http://thebigmeat.co.uk/" target="_blank">The Big Meat</a>, BBQ and Beer festival, in Farnham. It was recommended to me by the winner of the Gower BBQ competition, and as it was just down the road from us, I figured it could be fun. Plus it was only £35 for a family camping ticket - which seems like really good value for a nights camping for the four of us and entry to the event both days (which included live music, cooking demos, a kids area and then on the Sunday, loads of free meat from the competitors in the BBQ comp).<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
Luckily the weather was pretty good too - the Saturday was pretty hot and sunny, there were a few showers on the Sunday, but not enough to really affect anything much.<br />
<br />
It's a fairly fledgling event, only in its second year, so it wasn't as big as it could be (in terms of vendors, there was only BBQ food and one or two drinks vendors really) and as you might expect none of them were up and running for the 7am campers, but that wasn't really a big deal. In terms of the competition they managed to attract 20 teams and it seemed like a very impressive setup - they had a decent judging panel and all competitors seemed to be provided all they needed (space and electricity).<br />
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<br />
<br />
Honestly, all of the meat that I ate from the competition (and there was a lot of it) was really high quality - After the chef's special on the Saturday (which I missed because I didn't realise they were turning any food before Sunday) the main four rounds were chicken, pork ribs, pulled pork and brisket, and was some of the best BBQ food I have ever eaten (including compared to authentic American BBQ joints).<br />
<br />
One of my reasons for going was to go and chat with the competitors, taste the food and check out their set up (and generally get as many tips as possible), so here is some of the stuff I learnt:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Chef's special are impressive. Once again, just expecting people to do some piece of meat for this round, a lot of people were really creative - one competitor did veal on gnocchi, another did a giant burger and another did smore-brownies with a white russian to wash it down (using fresh, raw milk from the dairy farm that the festival was being held on)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Chicken round: everyone does thighs. Severeal competitors I spoke to said this same thing. The judges know what to expect with thighs, and going off piste with this can result in your scores getting tanked if just one judge takes a dislike to whatever it is you try (which also makes sense given me gripes with low'n'slow cooking chicken)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Almost everyone has a temperature controlled BBQ system. BBQ Guru being the most popular choice I saw. Which makes sense, being as there were several rounds to cook for hand in with in two hours of each other, and most competitors putting on their brisket around 22:00 on the saturday night.</li>
</ul>
Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-11977916964981086432016-08-14T22:43:00.002+01:002016-08-14T22:43:32.028+01:00Oat-y shortbread bitesIt's been a strange kind of weekend for cooking. For a change, my savoury food has all turned out fairly badly (a made an adhoc couscous sund-dried tomato and mozarella bake, yesterday which I quite enjoyed but didn't quite taste right, and then today I attempted to make an afghan inspired stew but: I mis-judged the spices and it ended up tasting like curried aubergine, my okras got mistakenly thrown away and I hadn't soaked my split peas), but as a pleasant change, my shortbread experiment turned out pretty well.<br />
<br />
I have been trying to perfect my brown butter shortbread recipe I have previously posted. As mentioned, I am happy with the taste, but they are incredibly crumbly (to the point of being pretty messy to just pick up), but my repeated attempts to adjust the ratios have been met with continued failure. I am sure that the problem is due to lack of water in the mix, but not able to get the balance right.<br />
<br />
Anyway, this weekend, on the Saturday, I was out with the boys and we had some oat-y type shortbread biscuits with dried strawberry in a cafe, which were pretty tasty. So needless to say, when we got up this morning, I decided we should try to work out the recipe.<br />
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<br />
<br />
The first iteration was pretty decent - a little sweeter than I had in mind (I prefer more butter-y flavour in my shortbread) so I think next time I will try with more butter, and more flour to keep the structural integrity) but overall pretty decent.<br />
<br />
I also substituted raisins for the strawberries on this occasion, on account of us having millions of raisins and no dried strawberries in the house. Anyway, to the details..<br />
<br />
<h3>
Ingredients</h3>
<div>
<ul>
<li>90 grams rolled oats</li>
<li>125 grams plain flour</li>
<li>100 grams caster</li>
<li>15 grams light brown sugar</li>
<li>180 grams unsalted butter</li>
<li>raisins</li>
<li>Pinch salt</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<h3>
Method</h3>
<ol>
<li>In a freestand mixer with paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars until light<br /><br /></li>
<li>add the salt, raisins and oats and mix until combined<br /><br /></li>
<li>Add the flour and gently mix through - either on the lowest speed of the mixer or by hand<br /><br /></li>
<li>wrap in cling film and roll into a tube shaped about 1 inch in diameter (I was going for small, slightly bigger than bitesize biscuits) and cool in the fridge for 30 minutes until set<br /><br /></li>
<li>Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees centigrade, slice the chilled batter into discs about 1/2 inch deep and place on baking tray line with baking paper, cook for about 15-20minutes untill golden brown</li>
</ol>
<br />
<br />
<br />Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com1London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-34999839494225606722016-07-30T11:37:00.000+01:002016-07-30T11:37:39.542+01:00The Gower BBQ Competition 2016And so, 06:30 Sunday morning, I found myself trekking out to Gower to sit in a gazebo, in the rain, watching my smoker slowly cook meat.<br />
<br />
Despite the less than favourable conditions for the competition, and the lonely nature of the experience, it was good fun! It was the first chance since buying the smoker that I had to really spend some time working with it, watching how it behaved to different circumstances and getting a feel for it. I'm also an introvert who likes to be alone, so sitting in a field with just some music and a BBQ was really quite peaceful.<br />
<br />
As well as generally enjoying it, I also learnt a whole tonne of stuff. Both from the practical experience and just generally going through it and advice from fellow competitors (surprisingly, I went into both competitions expecting everyone to be highly secretive about technique and recipes - although I was planning on publishing my recipe and scorecard whatever happened - but found the opposite, everyone I spoke to offered tips and lots of competitors had their ingredients listed on their stalls).<br />
<br />
The competition involved three rounds: 1) a rack of pork ribs 2) a half chicken 3) Chef's choice (I went short ribs again)<br />
<br />
Given all my practice up until this weekend had been for the chili, and I had used my new smoker a total of three times up until this weekend I had reached the point where I figured there was not too much point going all bells-and-whistles for the competition, so I used supermarket meat rather than better quality meat from a butchers and re-used the same rub and sauce on both the pork and chicken.<br />
<br />
<h3>
The results</h3>
I came a more impressive sounding 3rd (so took home a prize!), but with the caveat that there were only three of us competing on the day, so depending on how you look at it, its taking home the bronze, or coming last. (I did however get some pretty positive feedback on the chicken and the beef ribs)<br />
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<br />
I didn't taste or see the second place entry, but I can say that <a href="http://fireandsmokerevolution.co.uk/" target="_blank">the winning BBQ</a> was wayyyy ahead of the level I was at! (They also were the most helpful in giving advice and talking through what they did).<br />
<br />
I didn't take home the feedback notes, but generally the chicken and beef were well cooked (although in reality the beef was over-cooked, and had more shrinkage than I would have liked, but beef ribs need to be cooked well beyond well-done for the connective tissue to melt, so even though they were cooked to fast, the end result was positive). The pork ribs were overdone (I knew this at time of submission) and everything was a bit too smoked.<br />
<br />
<h4>
An aside: Reasons against chicken</h4>
I really don't like slow cooking chicken. Although the judges were very positive about it, I just don't think it makes sense as low'n'slow bbq food, and given the option I wouldn't include it on my menu. My original plan for the competition was to take two BBQs: my smoker and my <a href="http://barbeskew.co.uk/" target="_blank">Barbeskew</a> (basically a charcoal BBQ with a rotisserie), however, the day before due to travel I failed in my attempts to dismantle it so it would fit into my car. <br />
<br />
So for the competition, I had to suck it up and just cook the thing in the smoker. There are two main reasons I much prefer cooking the chicken on the rotisserie than the smoker:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Chicken, especially the breast meat, is not well suited to slow cooking and gets dried out very easily. It has very little connective tissue in the breast meat as it is a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/factfiles/fastandslowtwitch/soleus.shtml" target="_blank">fast twitch</a> muscle (also not helped by the physical properties of a whole chicken, with the breasts the most exposed parts of the meat, and higher up - problems that can be helped by spatchcocking). Just like cooking a traditional roast chicken in an oven, I would cook hot and fast (220 degrees centigrade on a fan oven), to quickly cook without drying out - where as a smoker (especially one that is also cooking other meats) is better at cooking slowly at much lower temperatures.<br /><br /></li>
<li>The lower temperature doesn't crisp up the skin as well as a direct, radiant heat source. The rotisserie lets us cook the chicken over a high radiant heat from the direct coals (whilst of course rotating, to avoid overcooking a single part of the chicken) which very effectively browns the skin. Again, this problem can be alleviated a little by rolling the bird around on a direct heat above the coals for a short time, but still not as effective. Just look at the skin of the bird below compared to the one I submitted for the competition (the competition chicken also has my BBQ sauce on it, which is contributing to the brown colour, where as the bird below is just a dry rub before cooking and then just beautifully golden skin):</li>
</ol>
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<h3>
So, what did I learn?</h3>
<div>
Much like the previous day, I learnt a lot. Some basic things about the smoker, and some about general technique, so in no particular order:</div>
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<ul>
<li>The Weber Smokey Mountain is incredibly effective at holding its temperature - As mentioned, this was the first time I had a chance to just sit and watch it, and I did fiddle with the air vents an awful lot, but the take away was that it was pretty simple to get it sitting at a fixed temperature for several hours. With the vents fully open, and using about 1 1/2 chimney-starters worth of coal, the smoker will happily go to 125 degrees centigrade - if you need to ramp it up even higher (for example you want to really blast a chicken), then you need more oxygen. I noticed the previous day that when I opened the lid for more than 30 seconds or so, the coals got flooded with the additional oxygen and usually re-ignited - this is useful to help restore the temperature in the smoker once the lid is back on (as with the lid off for a minute or two you will easily see a drop to something like 70 degrees) - but also highlights the importance of air-supply. If you want to keep the temperature high for a short time, you can open the lid for a few minutes to get that initial flood of oxygen and then leave the coal door open to keep a steady supply of air coming in. Whilst not that useful in smoking food normally, its interesting to experiment to really get a feel for the kit, and understand the controls.<br /><br /></li>
<li>I decided to cook without water in the water pan - having heard that several competitors don't use water, or instead replace it with sand or terracotta (to act much like a pizza stone, to retain heat). It might normally have been a gamble to just change up my setup on the day, but given the minimal experience I had, I figured it didn't matter too much.<br /><br />One side affect of not adding the water was it seemed to change the temperature dynamic in the smoker. Normal advice is that (on a hot day) the temperature shown at the top thermometer in the lid can be 10-15 degrees hotter than the bottom grid in the smoker (due to heat rising, and potential effects of sunlight direct on the lid). However, after a few hours I measured the temperature lower down in the smoker (I inserted an instant read thermometer in the side just above the lower grid) and it was running around 30 degrees hotter than the thermometer at the top (also worth noting that it was a fairly grey and miserable day, so possibly that was cooling the top thermometer).<br /><br />I will try this approach again to check the same behaviour, but my theory is this: with the water in, the water pan blocks the direct heat from the coal, so the smoker operates like a normal convection oven, regulating the heat throughout, however, without water (or in theory, sand etc) the metal pan just absorbs and radiates the heat from the coal, so providing a more direct heat source - providing radiant heat from the pan from the bottom as well as the convective heat. If this is the case, then it possibly provides an interesting approach for two zone cooking - the bottom grill running higher with more direct heat, and the top grill operating more like the conventional smoker.<br /><br /></li>
<li>One of the pieces of feedback from the judges was that the meat was all too smoked. I knew I shouldn't add too much wood. I had read, start with less. Err on the side of caution. But despite all this, I kept doubting that the wood was smoking enough, so kept adjusting. Something that comes with experience and confidence is the self assurance to not second guess yourself, and not to second guess what you know is right.<br /><br /></li>
<li>As I mentioned, the ribs were overdone. Especially the pork ribs. When I went to take them off the BBQ, they were looking a gorgeous colour, and I had a decision to make - do I wrap them in foil and put them back on the BBQ (a la <a href="http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/texas_crutch.html" target="_blank">Texas Crutch</a>) or do I foil them and put them in the cooler (a la <a href="http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/faux_cambro.html" target="_blank">faux cambro</a>). I opted for back on the BBQ, but as I hadn't really planned this part, I didn't add any liquid to the foil - and disappointingly, when I unwrapped them from the foil, they didn't look as good as when I had wrapped them. Changes I will make for next time: try out the Texas Crutch approach earlier on in cooking to finish off, or once done just put them in the cooler. I will also be switching from baby back ribs to spare ribs. I might also try the texas crutch approach for the beef ribs next time.</li>
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Now all I need to do is get in some more practice before next year..</div>
Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com1Gower, Swansea SA3, UK51.5876497 -4.192249800000013251.5631847 -4.2325903000000134 51.6121147 -4.1519093000000131tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-40514330147609181072016-07-28T21:27:00.000+01:002016-07-28T21:27:00.674+01:00The Gower Chili Cook-Off - 2016 - A RetrospectiveLast weekend was the weekend that I have been building up to for a few months. It was the Gower Chili Cook-off and the Gower BBQ competition weekend, and I had signed up for both competitions.<br />
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The chili cook off was due to take place 12:00 - 16:00 on the Saturday and then the BBQ competition was taking place from Midnight Saturday until 14:30 Sunday afternoon. Despite it raining most of Sunday, and being a fairly miserable day to be sitting on my own in a field in the early hours of a Sunday morning, it was a great weekend. Something that I would whole-heartedly recommend anyone to try (well, the BBQ competition does require the equipment to smoke - or at least low'n'slow cook - some bigger pieces of meat, although that is perfectly possible on a decent kettle bbq).<br />
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So lets start at the beginning. The chili cook off.<br />
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I had been iterating on my recipe for a couple of months, adjusting each iteration based on feedback and tasting - the outcome of which <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NE0Lr2143SJ-qW8A6pRqbhy15Mn5fZV0s92qeGKCbz4/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">can be seen here</a> (yes, I did have a spreadsheet for my cooking), any but the version 1 of the chili will make a decent chili, and those quantities will actually produce enough for 3-4 people with rice. Going into the competition there were still a lot of unknowns, primarily: 1) practice runs had all been in the house using an oven; 2) I had not attempted scaling up to 1 gallon, so was unsure how that would cook/reduce with the increased volumes; 3) I had further adjustments to the final recipe that had not yet been tested.<br />
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Anyway, all fears aside I am happy with how it turned out - I knew on submission that it was too runny: I had been a little over-zealous adding additional stock early on, and the smoker just didn't run hot enough to effectively reduce that volume of liquid. But consistency aside, I was pretty happy with the submission in the 4 hours.<br />
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Unfortunately, the judges weren't quite as happy (more on that later). I came 9th out of 12 - which given it was my first run, and all the other chilis I tasted were really good (and a lot of the other competitors had won regional cook-offs in Gower or elsewhere), I was bracing myself for last place.<br />
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But despite the less than glowing feedback from the judges, and the fact that we didn't win any of the public vote, I am still sharing it here because: 1) I think it tasted pretty decent; 2) whilst not getting any of the votes for the "People's Choice" award, several people returned to compliment the chili and to find out more about how it was cooked and how we achieved the taste.<br />
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<h3>
The whats and whys</h3>
Rather than writing out the recipe (as that is already written out in the spreadsheet) I thought I would write down the key ingredients and the reasoning behind each one:<br />
<ol><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklb5eH4AD0M1a3icfZqCoOb-Uzf5HR2J6dccMERAv3uWn89BN6t1g67uytOJ1IPElbPGTXuXKMiu8JY1V7mfc2BfjK6igjcgnQBlB__zzwmvp_oJ-z4dIsxCfKdcW_9wlAH-xXX3CioA/s1600/IMG_20160723_125856937.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklb5eH4AD0M1a3icfZqCoOb-Uzf5HR2J6dccMERAv3uWn89BN6t1g67uytOJ1IPElbPGTXuXKMiu8JY1V7mfc2BfjK6igjcgnQBlB__zzwmvp_oJ-z4dIsxCfKdcW_9wlAH-xXX3CioA/s640/IMG_20160723_125856937.jpg" width="640" /></a>
<li>Short beef ribs - these are one of the most intensely beef-y cut of the cow. Incredibly deep flavour, a lot of connective tissue and usefully, very cheap! I used them to add a rich meaty flavour to the chili. The ribs need a long time cooking, so it was important (as I discovered first iteration of the chili) that after the first hour on the smoker, it by cut quite small to make sure if was sufficiently cooked in the liquid. Given the volume of liquid being cooked, and the temperature of the smoker, the meat wasn't as soft and melt-in-the-mouth as it could have been.<br /><br /><br /></li>
<li>The chilis - dried Ancho, dried Cascabel, Chipotles and Jalapenos. The Ancho and Cascabel were almost entirely because of availability - but they provide a fruity and nutty flavour - being dried, much like raisins or sun-dried tomatoes, they have a concentrated and more intense flavour. The chipotle was a must have on account of the smokey direction of the chilli (chipotles are smoked jalapenos). The Jalapenos were fresh and were to provide the heat, plus a fresher pepper taste.<br /><br /></li>
<li>The savory base - Given the time constraints to practice the chili, I opted to keep it relatively simple with the flavour base of my chili, and went with the classic oregano, garlic, onion, chili, cumin and coriander mix. I will start to turn this up a notch in preparation for next year, as this is what will really come into its own and shine on being reduced for 4 hours.<br /><br /></li>
<li><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami" target="_blank">Umami</a> - an important part as well, in providing a deep, complex savory flavour and boosting the beefy-ness of the ribs - Standard options here including tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce (although Waitrose has started selling jars of Umami..)</li>
</ol>
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<h3>
What I learnt</h3>
<ol>
<li>I went into the competition that using proper cuts of beef (rather than ground mince) and smoking the meat before adding to the chili would be a competitive advantage. This was not the case - the judges seemed to not be keen on the smoked element, and as I was later told by an experienced competitor: <br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><i>"mince always wins"</i></b></span><br /><br /><br /></li>
<li>The biggest insight into competition chili was tasting the other competitors chili, they were not what I was expecting. They were a lot richer, deeper - in my opinion, sweeter - than I would expect for a chili. In many ways it reminded me of <a href="http://robbish-food.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/recipe-lasagne.html" target="_blank">a rich bolognese sauce</a> (obviously with chili ingredients instead, but the way the flavour is boosted by slowly reducing to a thick, intense sauce). Next time I enter, I will go with mince, and focus on reducing to that thick, intense sauce over the 4 hours.<br /><br /></li>
<li>A further observation I made, in the same vein as above, was that a lot of competitors included pork (pancetta, pork belly, etc) - which is a common approach in bolognese sauce to add flavour and gloss (and gelatin!).<br /><br /></li>
<li>You can start chopping vegetables before the start time! We did discover this before the start time, but unfortunately our organisation was a little shambolic, so our ingredients didn't even turn up until just before the start time!</li>
</ol>
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<h3>
What the judges said</h3>
If you are interested (in the format or content) of what the judges had to say about the submission, here are the feedback forms. Not an awful lot to work with (particularly the "Taste: Odd" comment or the comments about the burnt aroma/taste - which is strange as I can confirm that none of the ingredients were even close to being burnt.. not even charred at the edges, or the fact that more than once the judges made diametrically opposing statements)<br />
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As I said, the real insight was tasting the other chillis.<br />
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<br />Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com1Gower, United Kingdom51.5966706 -4.169878100000005451.2813631 -4.8153251000000052 51.911978100000006 -3.5244311000000055tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-59393259780819095602016-07-15T02:10:00.000+01:002016-07-15T15:43:39.796+01:00BBQ Practice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I haven't posted much for a bit, but as previously mentioned, I have entered a BBQ competition and a Chilli-Cook-Off competition this summer, and the date is fast approaching. <br />
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To be honest, I have not been able to get in as much practice as I would like to - mostly due to the rubbish weather we have had here in the last month. The problem with low'n'slow is that, well, its slow. You need to be cooking for a good 8 hours, and thats after all the setup and preparing the meats, which means if you are expecting some nice weather at the end of the day, but raining at lunchtime, its not going to work.<br />
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I have managed to practice using my smoker I think three times, neither times smoking the full three rounds for the competition, so I suspect that competition will be winging it. I have managed a few iterations of recipe development for the chilli, although all of them have been indoors based, so there is still the unknown of how it turns out being cooked in the smoker outdoors, but lets see.<br />
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Anyway, entering these competitions are more bucket-list things, I don't have any expectations of winning, and will be happy if I just manage to deliver something edible within the time.<br />
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I will put all the final competition recipes and a bunch of photos up after the event.<br />
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<br />Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com1London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-2617588679795486102016-07-12T23:00:00.000+01:002016-07-15T16:01:15.247+01:00Excuse #1 - Birthday Cakes!It has been a while since posting anything here, and part of that reason is that there was a birthday party recently, and I had volunteered to make the cake.<br />
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It seemed like a good idea at the time. I enjoy making cake, and whilst I hadn't had much success decorating them, it seemed like a chance to practice.<br />
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Normally I go for buttercream icing and more fancy looking cakes (which inevitably don't turn out looking fancy), but this time I went for a simpler, 2-D rolled icing cake. If you look at superhero cakes online you will see hundreds of fancy ones, with tiers and incredible the incredible hulk smashing his way out of cakes, but having learnt my lesson not to over-stretch, I went for a simple option.<br />
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There really wasn't much to it in the end, it was a simple Victoria Sponge (Nigella Lawson's recipe) with jam and whipped cream in the middle, with pre-made coloured icing that I just rolled and cut to shape. my only tips are these:<br />
<ul>
<li>Rolling on a veneered worktop didn't work out too well, despite dusting well with icing sugar, the icing kept on sticking as I tried to peel it off, and the icing sugar just kept leaving white specks on the icing</li>
<li>Instead I rolled it out on baking paper, which worked out well - both for the non-stick-ness, but also it allowed me to pick up the rolled/cut icing to place on the cake. When I started trying to just pick up the rolled icing (the bat sign for example) I found the icing stretched a lot under its own weight, leaving it mis-shapen. Being able to cut out the underlying baking paper and just flip it onto cake made it possible to transfer almost exactly the shape I had cut onto the cake.</li>
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Oh, and I also agreed to make individual cupcakes for all party guests, so I still managed to do some buttercream icing too..<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh626T-TETvqPyKwz3-LqqJMcylxPxE7HNd_evk2QNPWu7MwbjW-yIXtjIaUQ57IE4k17U9x-UlA2uK11WG2udnSYfKOxHIAOouYVE_XnNdB_BX7OxRmqtR5947fvGys-H0h6vqelogVHE/s1600/IMG_20160709_095522001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh626T-TETvqPyKwz3-LqqJMcylxPxE7HNd_evk2QNPWu7MwbjW-yIXtjIaUQ57IE4k17U9x-UlA2uK11WG2udnSYfKOxHIAOouYVE_XnNdB_BX7OxRmqtR5947fvGys-H0h6vqelogVHE/s640/IMG_20160709_095522001.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com1London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-57213778809121406292016-05-17T18:55:00.001+01:002016-05-17T18:55:44.838+01:00Sicilian Spring Pizza (getting over my deep-pan phobia)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQHJ8AfFUTezGfh1DO4-EnoWGtAkvbFcmq4D-Im0sNZIJ9cTIAOO3Ht2W_Eu1q6bYjxoOdNnMpEYwk_31-gfR5dqt11NW1HN7GKQvPuoFKfUiQ5DFcthK5bHn_9sMRaSdS0ZgnAkVhQr4/s1600/IMG_20160515_180433954.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQHJ8AfFUTezGfh1DO4-EnoWGtAkvbFcmq4D-Im0sNZIJ9cTIAOO3Ht2W_Eu1q6bYjxoOdNnMpEYwk_31-gfR5dqt11NW1HN7GKQvPuoFKfUiQ5DFcthK5bHn_9sMRaSdS0ZgnAkVhQr4/s640/IMG_20160515_180433954.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I would guess that the majority of the pizza I have eaten over my lifetime has been shop bought. Probably somewhere in the region of 90% I would guess. This is partly due to several factors: never really trying to make my own, rarely ordering pizza in restaurants and only really starting to use take away pizza places in the last 5 years or so.<br />
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Another factor is that by and large, supermarket pizzas are actually pretty good. I suppose it's another one of these food groups that are just so simple - meat, cheese and tomato - that makes them a pretty safe bet. With the exception of the dough, the components are incredibly simple - cheese, tomato sauce and any toppings you fancy - even just a handful of pepperoni can be trans-formative. And even if the dough is a trickier component to master, if it is good enough to deliver the pizza toppings to your mouth, without distracting, then that can often be good enough (don't get me wrong, the base can, and should be, a great thing, but I'm just saying that a sub-par base can still deliver an enjoyable pizza experience).<br />
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As if to prove this point, I present toast pizza (my lunch today):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0HLhAob3r_RJNvKb0Cg6NeaLsozJ3moodpE6TMO6dQmjRCuBEuu2azAmB5JjGGxpBYhAMAbQGbQfiqgZ5890deQpnGkA_vobJCw3P3ORBmawQgMa7kTGgGWAdLpzotYM0FMFJKtg-txw/s1600/IMG_20160517_131353848.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0HLhAob3r_RJNvKb0Cg6NeaLsozJ3moodpE6TMO6dQmjRCuBEuu2azAmB5JjGGxpBYhAMAbQGbQfiqgZ5890deQpnGkA_vobJCw3P3ORBmawQgMa7kTGgGWAdLpzotYM0FMFJKtg-txw/s640/IMG_20160517_131353848.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="color: #999999;"><i> (regular sliced bread, left over pizza tomato sauce, cheese and pepperoni)</i></span><br />
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A part of this pizza-eating-ratio's legacy is my dislike for deep-pan pizza. Much like <a href="http://robbish-food.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/new-york-style-pizza-experiments.html" target="_blank">the NY style pizzas I have written about</a> before, I favour thin, crispy bases - and I think the reason for this is that historically, supermarket bought deep pan pizzas have been a bit of a let down (maybe this has changed, but I'm not going out and buying one to find out!). And they have been let down because of the base - the mass produced, frozen deep pan pizzas never seemed to have good dough. They were just a stodgy, thick bread-y mess, that failed my most basic of requirements: deliver the toppings without distraction. On more than one occasion, I remember resorting to cutting the bottom of the base off rather than chew through the stodgy and bland underneath.<br />
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Anyways, that's a pretty long winded way to say I don't really eat deep-pan pizzas.<br />
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However, last week, Kenji Lopez-Alt (The Foodlab) tweeted a recipe for his Sicilian pizza, which made me think its probably about time for me to re-think my phobia. As if further encouragement was needed, in the article he also mentions that his goal in the recipe is re-creating Prince street Pizza's Spicy Spring (apparently the best slice in NY, <a href="http://robbish-food.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/food-tourism-new-york-city.html" target="_blank">which I experienced earlier in the year</a>) - which was a delicious, deeper square slice of pepperoni pizza, where the base was, as you might guess, soft, springy and delicious - to the point of being good enough to eat on its own.<br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
Square up to a NY-Sicilian-style pizza, modeled after Prince Street Pizza's Spicy Spring. <a href="https://t.co/uRu8E4P0SX">https://t.co/uRu8E4P0SX</a> <a href="https://t.co/cYcLG6SoLg">pic.twitter.com/cYcLG6SoLg</a></div>
— J. Kenji López-Alt (@TheFoodLab) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheFoodLab/status/732279239253221376">May 16, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
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And to be frank, the mans a genius. I adapted the dough recipe for quantity/ingredients I had and went with my normal sauce recipe, but it turned out great. Light, springy and tasty in its own right, sitting beautifully with the thick tomato sauce, mozzarella and pepperoni. My wife described it as the best pizza she'd ever had.<br />
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<h3>
Ingredients: dough</h3>
<ul>
<li>375 grams of strong white flour (I only had about 200g of strong bread flour, so made it up with plain white flour)</li>
<li>10 grams fine salt</li>
<li>4.5 grams active dried yeast</li>
<li>15 grams of oil, plus more for the pan</li>
<li>245 grams of luke warm water - I go for around 110 degrees Fahrenheit </li>
</ul>
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<h3>
Sauce </h3>
<ul>
<li>1 tin of chopped tomatos</li>
<li>1 tablespoon of butter</li>
<li>1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano</li>
<li>1 carrot</li>
<li>1 stick of celery </li>
</ul>
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<h3>
Toppings</h3>
<ul>
<li>dry aged mozzarella (not the wet stuff that comes packed in liquid) - Waitrose sells what they call "pizza mozzarella")</li>
<li>Other cheese, some cheddar, Parmesan, whatever you fancy </li>
<li>Pepperoni, anything else you fancy</li>
</ul>
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<h3>
Method</h3>
<i>This is adapted from <a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/05/spicy-spring-sicilian-pizza-recipe.html" target="_blank">Kenji's recipe here</a> - its probably far better to just follow his guide! </i><br />
<i>Pre-heat your oven as hot as it goes - My fan oven goes to 450 degrees, which was fine)</i><br />
<ol>
<li>About three to four hours before you plan to cook start the dough<br /><br /></li>
<li>Put all the ingredients into a food processor with the blade attached - process for about 30 seconds, until the dough rides above the blade<br /><br /></li>
<li>Pour a few glugs of olive oil into the baking tray. Be generous<br /><br /></li>
<li>Tip the dough on to the tray, and cover it in the oil.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Stretch it out into a rectangle type shape - don't worry about making it fit to the tray (<a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2016/05/spicy-spring-sicilian-pizza-recipe.html" target="_blank">this technique is far better explained by Kenji</a>) and cover it in cling film and set aside<br /><br /></li>
<li>Before you are ready to cook, make the tomato sauce.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Melt the butter in a saucepan<br /><br /></li>
<li>Peel the carrot and chop into f (cut in half length ways, then half again); squash the celery with the blade of a knife and cut into 4 large pieces <br /><br /></li>
<li>Add the vegetables to the butter and cook for a minute or two and season<br /><br /></li>
<li>Add the tomato puree, stir through and cook for a further minute<br /><br /></li>
<li>Add the oregano, stir through and add the tinned tomatoes<br /><br /></li>
<li>Cover the pan, leaving a crack (we want to reduce the sauce, so we want some moisture to escape, but tomato can really spit as it bubbles, so I use the lid to reduce the mess) and heat for 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally<br /><br /></li>
<li>Once cooked, remove the whole vegetable chunks and squash the chopped tomatoes (use a potato masher or back of a spoon)<br /><br /></li>
<li>After three hours or so, uncover it and stretch it out to fill the pan<br /><br /></li>
<li>Layer the dough with mozzarella, this will help prevent the dough getting soggy<br /><br /></li>
<li>Next spoon on the tomato sauce, then top with your toppings (pepperoni, additional cheese etc)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Put it in the oven for 12 minutes, the base of the pizza should be nicely browned</li>
</ol>
<br />Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-64071093215028443592016-04-18T15:03:00.001+01:002016-04-18T15:03:57.631+01:00Low 'n' slow - Feather blade beef and pork ribsAnd so it begins.. (BBQ season that is!)<div>
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<i>(Ok, this is a little freakish - I just had dejavu of declaring BBQ season has arrived, so thought I would go back and check whether BBQ season has started earlier than last year, and found that <a href="http://robbish-food.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/recipe-barbecue-pulled-pork.html" target="_blank">last years BBQ article</a> was the exact same date! 18th April..)</i></div>
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There is likely going to be a bit of a shift in focus here on the blog for a bit. There are two reasons for this:</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>I have just splurged and bought myself a smoker (a Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker to be precise)</li>
<li>I have entered two food based competitions at the end of July: A chilli cook off and my very first attempt at competitive BBQ! Both very exciting, and I think competitive BBQ is probably something on my bucket list (if I had one), so really glad to be able to tick that off (although expecting to get hooked on it, to be honest). Also, I have only once made a legitimately serious chilli, and that wasn't that sophisticated, so there could be a lot of chilli eating between now and then..</li>
</ol>
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<div>
Sunday was the first forecast dry day since I put the smoker together, so gave it a whirl. It was only my wife and I eating, but didn't want to have it smoking all day for just meat for two, so I went with feather blade beef joint and a few pork ribs.</div>
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As it was my first try, I was just getting a feel for it and didn't want to have too many variables to consider for the experiment - so I just banged them in with a few handfuls of smoking chips and tried to keep the temperature at around 110 degrees centigrade (it varied hour to hour by about +/-10 degrees).</div>
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I was aware that ribs generally take shorter than feather blade, but didn't want to disrupt the temperature by opening too frequently (opening can apparently add around 20 mins to overall cooking time) so just left them all in for around 7 hours. </div>
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The ribs had quite a bark on them, but were still very soft and moist inside (relatively high fat content on ribs), they were ok but a little too salty with the rub. I used the same rub on the beef and that tasted very nice - it is somewhat disturbing seeing the meat look quite sooo charred (with normal associations of BBQ & charred crust = ruined), but I have discovered that the "bark" is actually very tasty and an integral part of traditional BBQ (apparently with beef brisket and pulled pork, the bark is the most in demand part).</div>
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I don't have the ingredients I used to make my dry-rub to hand, so I will post those up later.</div>
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Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com3London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-85114922642213188852016-04-12T01:03:00.000+01:002016-04-12T14:05:28.141+01:00Recipe: Burgers Re-visitedLast weekend, I had another try at burgers. The good thing about burgers is that you can get great results with very little time or effort - just some carefully timed preparation and you can have a meal pretty quick.<br />
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I followed a similar approach as last time, except rather than the single, larger patties, I went for slimmer, "smashed" patties - but with two in each bun. I also added a cheese slice to the experience. The end result was agreed to be better than the last attempt, so will modify from here.<br />
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There really isn't much to it, but here's the details (quantity for two complete burgers, 4 patties) :<br />
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<h3>
Ingredients</h3>
<br />
<ul>
<li>~400 grams beef mince - as per previously, exact blends of meat are most often personally guarded secrets, but even just ground braising steak (or chuck) is a pretty decent option to get started. This time around I actually just used 15% fat content Aberdeen angus beef, and was still fine</li>
<li>Salt</li>
<li>Two rolls - depending on your preference, I go for Brioche burger rolls</li>
<li>Sauces - I go for yellow mustard on the base and relish/tomato sauce on the top</li>
<li>Two cheese slices</li>
<li>Mature cheddar</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<h3>
Method</h3>
<div>
<i>Pre-head the grill/broiler and a heavy bottomed frying pan on the hob, for about 10 minutes on a high heat.</i></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Split the mince into 4 even balls and squash into a patty shape - ideally about the diameter of the bun, it should be pretty slim<br /><br /></li>
<li>Cut the buns in half and lightly toast under the grill (cut side facing the heat)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Sprinkle salt on the top of each of the patties, and depending on the size of your pan put them in salted side face down - ideally I guess two at a time - with a spatula press down on the tops of each patty (for the smashed effect) - cook for a few minutes until nicely browned on the underside<br /><br /></li>
<li>Sprinkle salt on the op of patties and flip & repeat<br /><br /></li>
<li>Once buns are lightly toasted, add a few slices of the cheddar to the top half of the bun and toast further until melted<br /><br /></li>
<li>Apply yellow mustard to inside base of the bun and relish to the top half (the cheese half)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Once patties are nicely browned both sides, place one on the base of the bun, followed by a cheese slice, followed by the top of the bun.<br /><br /></li>
<li>Eat!</li>
</ol>
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<div>
Cooking time probably won't take more than 10 minutes, so if you have the buns, cheese and raw patties ready to go at the start, you can get it done pretty efficiently (if not frantically!)</div>
Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-30443563925958646662016-04-11T13:14:00.000+01:002016-04-12T15:16:53.090+01:00Chorizo Mac & CheeseA little while back, a pasta place opened up near the office - It's called <a href="http://cocodimama.co.uk/food/" target="_blank">Coco di Mama</a> and is a London chain. I got lured in there a while ago because they had a board outside saying they were selling mac & cheese (marketers take note, that is all it takes to make me come to your shop).<br />
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They have mac & cheese on permanent rotation, but with a few variations: pulled-pork, chorizo and truffle oil. Of the three, the chorizo variety is definitely the stand out. The pulled pork is fine, but the pork really just sits in the background not bringing much to the dish, and the truffle variation is not really to my taste.<br />
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But the chorizo, that is good. it brings a slightly spicy, acidity and brightness to the dish that works like a cross between tomatoes and bacon (the high notes of the tomatoes and the meaty, low notes of the bacon). So, as if it wasn't already obvious, I have to try and re-create it. Now I feel guilty making mac & cheese to frequently, as its really not a healthy meal, but I decided it was high time last weekend.<br />
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I went with my usual mac & cheese approach, so I will only skim over that, with a few notes at the bottom.<br />
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<h3>
Method</h3>
<ol>
<li>Cook the macaroni until al dente<br /><br /></li>
<li>Cook the leek in butter, then use the butter to make a basic roux (I have never actually weighed/measured any of the flour, butter, milk or cheese I use here, so I can't really comment on that, but <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/rouxthebasicwhitesau_13035" target="_blank">here is the basic idea</a>)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Add the cheese to the roux - again never weighed the cheese, just add to taste and thickness of the sauce - unsurprisingly, if you use stronger cheddar, it will taste stronger! I also added 4 cheese slices (see notes below)<br /><br /></li>
<li>Mix the leeks, chorizo, cheese sauce with the macaroni in an oven proof dish and top with more grated cheese and breadcrumbs (if you dont have breadcrumbs, I find grating a piece of sliced bread works well) - put in the oven at ~160 degrees for something like 30-40 minutes</li>
</ol>
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<h3>
Notes</h3>
<div>
<ol>
<li>The cooks chorizo I used came similar shape to bacon lardons, small cubes about 1 cm in length - I found these somewhat underwhelming, and really I think I need to go for bigger slices of chorizo to get that brightness - with the smaller size it adds overall flavour to the dish, but not the more direct hit<br /><br /></li>
<li>I added the cheese slices on recommendation from the <a href="http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/10/the-food-labs-ultra-gooey-stovetop-mac-cheese.html" target="_blank">FoodLab</a> - the reason being it contains sodium citrate, which is used to make cheese slices more meltable - and the theory is helps make the sauce smoother, and bring out more of the cheese flavour. <a href="http://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/silky-smooth-macaroni-and-cheese/" target="_blank">Modernist Cuisine go as far as using the sodium citrate raw in their mac & cheese</a>. Without doing a particularly controlled experiment, I can't say that I observed nay notable difference, but I had the cheese slices (leftover from <a href="http://robbish-food.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/recipe-burgers-re-visited.html" target="_blank">burgers</a>) so in it went!<br /><br /></li>
<li>I leek in my mac & cheese, but there is no denying it varies from the original, so to be true to re-creating that it might have to drop out next time around..</li>
</ol>
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Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com2London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.5073509 -0.12775829999998223 51.5073509 -0.12775829999998223tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7505883596101790404.post-86827402392180230632016-04-08T01:57:00.000+01:002016-04-08T14:58:21.021+01:00Birthday cakeI was saying a day or two ago, I often surprise myself at how difficult cake decorating is. <br />
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It's not that I am surprised that it's hard, I am surprised that I keep fooling myself into thinking "that looks simple". In the cold light of day, I know full well that people spend years training and practising cake decoration, but for seem reason that part of my brain shuts down when I think of a cake decoration that looks simple to replicate (see <a href="http://robbish-food.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/mothers-day-cake-2016.html" target="_blank">my mothers day cake for goal vs reality</a>!).<br />
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This occasion was no different. It was my wife's birthday and needed to make a cake. and I thought a sponge with chocolate icing, but covered completely with chocolate chips in a densely covered pebbledash type effect (at least that's the best way I can describe it!)<br />
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I used the same <a href="http://robbish-food.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/birthday-cake.html" target="_blank">chocolate-cream cheese-buttercream icing</a> as in last year's cake, but this time I mixed up my sponge approach, moving away from my default food processor method.<br />
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The food processor method basically involves throwing all the ingredients into a food processor (just a normal processor using a blade attachment), and processing until smoothe, dropping consistency. However, having read a bit about flour and how gluten is formed (adding moisture and stirring/beating to form gluten bonds, the more beating the more the proteins are able to move and form more bonds - creating a big gluten network), I wanted to take a more traditional approach to the cake - e.g. beat the ingredients up until the addition of the flour and then fold that in. Replacing a small (~10%) amount of the flour for a gluten free alternative (in this case, corn flour) also helps avoid the build up of too much gluten (which would prevent rising, and nice airy sponge).<br />
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Switching to the traditional approach, on the basis of a single experiment compared to numerous sponges previously baked, appeared to be a success - the cake definitely rose more than usual.<br />
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<br />Robhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01080851737011489428noreply@blogger.com0London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777