Cooking The Books

Pizzette Fritte Ripiene

I lay in bed recently, having woken up about 6am due to the sunlight, thinking about the fact I'd not deep-fried anything for a while - as you do.  Straight away my thoughts went to buffalo wings, the planned next installment of my fried chicken series that was long overdue.  This thought stayed with me through the first couple of hours of the morning.  I'd got so far as planning a quick 5.30pm supermarket trip for the wings, squeezing it in after work and before I hopped in the car and went to meet the missus for a climbing session, ready for some late night frying.  I was pondering how to treat the wings, did I go with nothing but salt or would a light dusting of flour give the perfect texture, when a random tweet about pizzette fritte ripiene knocked any thoughts of buffalo wings for 6.

If you've not heard of them, and I hadn't, pizzette fritte ripiene are like little mini calzone, tiny folded parcels of pizza dough, sealed to hold their filling but then, and this is the fritte part, dumped in 190C oil until golden.  Pizza already holds a very high place in my food-rankings and I've always said that deep frying improves everything so here was a chance to put it to the test.

Whilst these appear to be the exception that proves the rule (they equal pizza, but could you really improve it?) they are ridiculously tasty.  I'd never fried a bread dough before (and the coating here is just plain white bread) and it takes on the most fantastic texture, a light crunch giving way to dense chew. It seems to soak up very little oil either, remaining remarkably grease-free once drained on kitchen roll.  On the inside the mozzarealla melted as only mozzaralla does, the billowing folds striped with spicy oil rendered from the salami, the edge taken off the richness by the piquant artichokes.  Add the sweet sauce and some salty parmesan and - and I know I'm repeating myself, but - ridiculously tasty.

Pizzette Fritte Ripiene

Makes 10, a snack for 2-3.

Dough

120gr strong flour

70gr water

Big pinch salt

1/2 ts dried yeast

Filling (but you can use what you want)

125gr mozzarella

50gr fiery salami

3 bits of marinated artichoke (this was basically a quarter)

Sauce

The tomatoes from a tin

2 cloves of garlic

Pinch of fennel seeds

Salt

Parmesan to serve

Method

Make the dough, knead till smooth. Leave in a bowl under clingfilm for an hour or two.

For the sauce soften the chopped garlic in a little oil, along with the fennel seeds. Add the tomatoes then simmer for about 30 mins, mashing them up as you go.

Roll the dough out to about 5mm thick and cut into ten pieces, you can go rough and ready but I used a chef's ring.  You could cut into less and make bigger pizzettes too, obviously.

Place a tenth of each of the fillings in the middle of a piece and fold over, sealing well.

Deep fry at 190C till golden, drain well then place a teaspoon of sauce and a sprinkle of parmesan on each before eating.

Turkish Grilled Onion, Pomegranate Molasses and Sumac Salad

My end of London is filled with Turkish ocakbasis, literally filled.  A walk down Kingsland Road (or Stoke Newington High Street, where it changes I'm not too sure), even in winter, is redolent of a British summer, the air filled with smoke and the unmistakable scent of fat igniting as it hits the glowing coals.  Whilst all the restaurants serve the same gorgeous mix of lamb and chicken, off and on the bone, whole or minced into spiced adana, what comes with these kebabs varies between establishments, sometimes within establishments even where one week's grated carrot is another's cucumber, onion and tomato. 

For me the 6 balls plus bonus of this salad lottery is the charcoal cooked onion segments, their sweetness offset with tart pomegranate molasses, sumac adding fragrance and parsley its inimitable freshness.  I thought I'd give it a go at home this weekend and was very pleased with the result, and that was just using the kitchen grill.  If you're blessed with a barbecue I imagine it would be better still and it sits perfectly alongside any flame-grilled meats, Turkish or not.

Turkish Grilled Onion, Pomegranate Molasses and Sumac Salad

1 Large White Onion

A handful of flat-leaf parsley

A tablespoon or two of pomegranate molasses

1/2 ts sumac

Method

Cut the onion into eighths and skewer, either onto metal or bamboo that has been soaked.

Grill or barbecue over a high heat for a few minutes a side until nicely charred and softened through.

Remove onto a plate, breaking the segments up, drizzle with the molasses then scatter the parlsey and sumac on top, adding a sprinkle of salt if you want.

Serve as part of a mezze or any other meal you think it would go with.

(Instant) Potato Rolls

I've tried making potato rolls a few times.  The desire was born from a slight burger obsession and the fact that so many Americans cite the potato roll as the perfect roll for housing burgers.  I followed recipes where a cup of mashed potato was added to X cups of flour but they were never quite right and I was never happy in the making either.   I love accuracy in my baking and cups fail miserably at this and so I try not to use them at the best of times.  Here the cups were joined by another rogue element in the mashed potato where there can be so much variety, both in the starchiness of the potato and in the amount of moisture it holds.  This is not how I like to bake.

How could I possibly get a nice, rigid and repeatable recipe using such an ingredient?  It was then I set upon the thought of making potato rolls using instant potato. I'm not normally one for Smash but I thought its mass-produced homogeneity would be perfect here.  I googled around and found I wasn't the first to have such an idea so grabbed a recipe, converted it from cups and had a little play with the liquid levels (I like my dough wet) and this was born.  Initially I wasn't going to post it as the rolls were too light and fluffy, a very tasty eat - don't get me wrong - but I didn't think they'd hold up to a burger well.  Within a few hours they had firmed up a treat though whilst staying perfectly fresh.  I'd read that industrial bread producers add potato flour to their recipes to increase longevity of freshness and if these are anything to go by I can see why, 2 days on and they were still perfectly edible - although best if toasted.  It's very rare that home-made rolls keep usable for that long.

I've made this recipe twice now in less than a week and they're a definite keeper.  I've enjoyed them with ham and poached eggs, toasted with homemade bacon and obviously with a burger (7oz of well-aged longhorn chuck), where it was light enough to bite through with ease but firm enough not to collapse under the patty's juices.  I think next up I will try some little buns using the same dough and try and make some proper sliders, steaming tiny burgers over onion and adding the buns on top so they steam too.  I'll keep you posted.

(Instant) Potato Roll Recipe

Makes 6

300gr strong white flour

2 TB instant potato (looking in Sainsbury yesterday their Basic Potato is only 18p)

Scant ts of salt

1 sachet of dried yeast

1.5TB white sugar

90ml semi-skimmed milk

100ml water

25gr butter

1 egg, beaten and split in half

Another splash of milk

Method

Warm the milk and melt the butter in it.  Add the water and half of the egg then mix well.

Mix the dry ingredients together then add the liquid and combine into a wet dough.  Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave for ten minutes.

Lightly oil a work surface and dump the dough on top.  Carefully fold the dough edge into the middle, turn maybe 30 degrees and repeat.  Do this 11 more times then turn the dough over and place in the bowl, covering again with the clingfilm

After ten minutes repeat this folding stage then wait another 10 minutes and repeat again.  By this time you may not need to oil the work surface.  Leave for a final ten minutes then you need to split the dough into 6.  I use scales to get them an equal size.

When baking buns it is important to get nice tight balls.  To do this I use much the same technique as for the kneading.  First I give the lump of dough a squash then I fold an edge into the middle, turn slightly and repeat and so on, maybe 15-20 times, till I have a nice, tight ball.  I then place seam side down on a greased baking tray and make the other 5.

I place these maybe 5cm apart before squashing flat, after which they'll be maybe 2cm thick and more like 1cm-2cm apart.  Cover loosely with clingfilm and leave to rise for 30-45 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Add a splash of milk to the remaining egg then lightly brush the rolls.

Bake in a 200 C oven (I use no fan so you'll probably have to adjust down if your oven fan only) for 15 minutes, I then turn the heat down to 180 and give another 2-5 minutes, until cooked.  As with all my bread baking I spray some water onto the sides of the oven as I put them in to create some steam.

Bacon Connoisseurs' Week 2011 - Black Bacon Day 7

So we're finally at the end of the week and the bacon is ready to eat.  Any worries about the not particularly appetising black colour penetrating deep into the meat are unfounded.  As soon as I broke the surface the dark exterior gave way to sweet pink meat.  It's maybe a little darker than normal but in an appealing well aged way, the thin edge adding to this matured feel. 

The sugar in curing has no effect on the curing process itself and is there merely for flavour, to help counteract the heavy levels of salt.  The treacle has the same effect and this is a sweet bacon, the edges almost toffee like once grilled.  I'd have loved for there to be a hint of the ginger too but the teaspoon of ground is lost on my tastebuds.  I'm not too worried though as this is damn good bacon, perfect with a little brown sauce in a home-made potato roll.

Josh's Black Bacon

Per kg of pork, back (loin) or belly is the usual

2.5gr cure #1

25 gr rock salt

1 ts ground ginger, I couldn't taste it but removing it might ruin it, so I won't

3 TB black treacle

Method

Grind the salt, cure #1 and ginger with a pestle and mortar until smooth.  Rub the pork well with this mixture, maing sure ot get it into all the crevises.

Rub the pork with the black treacle (this is a little tricky as it's pretty thick) then place into a zip lock bag.  Try and scrape as much of the cure & treacle mix off your hands into the bag too.

Cure in the fridge for 1 day per cm of thickness plus 2 days, so probably 5 days for a belly and 7 days for a loin/back.

Remove, wash well then dry, uncovered on a rack (or hanging from a hook if you have somewhere suitable) for a day or two.

Slice and eat.

Shrimp and Grits

For a second week running I've turned to the US for breakfast dishes that are pretty crazy for a British breakfast table.  For some reason products of the sea are conspicuous in their absence from the first meal of the day here, you may see a rare kipper or an even rarer smoked haddock, a trip across the Severn may see a few cockles and some seaweed, but that's about it - definitely no prawns.  My stint in Asia left me loving them for breakfast though so making the transition from a noodle soup to this dish was very easy. 

It's a quick dish to prepare.  The first step of browning some smoked bacon and onion in a little oil leaves a pan full of those flavours, ready to impart on the prawns.  Once they're starting to colour a few chunks of tomato go in - we're not aiming to break them down, just warm them through.  A knob of butter adds richness to both the sauce and grits and the soft yolk is a second, ready made sauce.  It's real comfort food that spoons down the throat very easily, warm with smoke and interspersed with the sweet chew of prawns and crunch of browned bacon. 

It's a southern US dish at heart but is supposedly very popular in the hipster establishments of New York, I can see why.  With current blogger's favourite Spuntino offering the first grits I've seen in London maybe a restaurant version of this isn't too far down the line here either.  If it does pop up I'm not sure it will be at breakfast time though.

Shrimp and Grits

Serves 2

1/2 cup grits

500ml stock (chicken or prawn)

12 king prawns/shrimps, if you have them the shells will help with your stock

4 rashers smoked streaky bacon

2 eggs

1/2 small red onion, 1cm dice

1 large tomato, seeded then 1cm diced

A big knob of butter

Method

Prepare the grits as detailed on the packet.  Mine takes 5 minutes which gives enough time to make the 'shrimp'.  Finish it with a knob of butter, although that's not just yet.

Get the fried egg goings.

Heat some oil over a reasonably high heat.  Slice the bacon into 1cm batons then fry with the onion until both are starting to brown, chuck in the prawns and fry until coloured.  Add in the tomato and the remaining butter and give just enough time for them to heat through and the prawns finish.

Spoon the grits onto a plate (pasta bowls work well), place an egg on top and pour over the 'shrimp'.

I like to eat with some hot sauce (Franks, Tabasco...) so you may do too.