Cooking The Books

(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.

Buttermilk Biscuit, Fried Chicken, Cheese and Fried Onions

Sometimes a dish is so ridiculous you have to give it a go.  This is one of those times.

For anyone reading in the US, or Asia for that matter, the idea of fried chicken for breakfast won't sound so ridiculous, but over here in the UK it's simply unheard of.  Sticking it in a scone (a biscuit for our transatlantic cousins) adding some cheese and some fried onions just takes it to whole new levels of crazy.  My kind of crazy.

I found this whilst browsing the 19 best breakfast sandwiches on Serious Eats.  All the way through I kept thinking how great the sandwiches looked compared to our boring (albeit tasty) offerings over here.  This one particularly caught my eye though, mainly due to my fried chicken fetish.

 
I've made buttermilk biscuits and fried chicken before.  I used the prior biscuit recipe but decided to spice the chicken up a bit and as I sit here with slightly tingling lips from the chili (I've not hung around before blogging) I think it was a wise move.

So how does it taste?  Pretty much as you'd expect it to really.  Like a KFC that's been given the fairground burger van treatment, cheese slice and browned onions style.  Damn tasty, but I did feel a bit dirty whacking all that down having only been up 45 minutes.  I guess you can eat it whatever time of the day you please though.

Buttermilk Biscuit, Fried Chicken, Cheese and Fried Onions

Makes 2

2 Chicken Breasts

1 1/2 medium onions

200ml of buttermilk

Pinch of thyme

1 cup flour

1 ts garlic powder

1 ts chili powder

1 ts white pepper

1 ts salt

1 portion of biscuit recipe, here

2 cheese slices

Method

The night before eating finely slice half an onion, place in the buttermilk with the pinch of thyme and stick the chicken in to marinade.  It tenderises the chicken (not that a chicken breast isn't tender) and adds a lovely faint onion and thyme taste to it.

In the morning the first thing to do is make biscuits, instead of cutting into 4 though shape into a pair the right size for chicken breasts.

Whilst the biscuits are cooking slice the remaining onion and fry on a low heat for about 15 minutes, till brown and sticky.

Heat 1.5cm of oil in a frying pan to about 160 C.

In a big bowl or bag mix the flour with the garlic, chili, pepper and salt. Remove the chicken from the marinade, scraping off the excess, and dump it into the flour mixture, coating well.  Fry for 5 minutes on the first side followed by 4-5 minutes on the second side until golden. Drain well on kitchen paper.

Split your biscuit, place one chicken breasts on the bottom piece followed by a cheese slice, half the browned onions and then the top.

Eat.

Exercise.  Exercise lots.  Then exercise a bit more.

Rou Jia Mo - The Chinese Hamburger

Whilst this reminds me more of kebab than a hamburger it was billed by that name when our paths first crossed and so it's stuck with me.  I was in Xi'an at the time and, after dutifully learning the Chinese symbols for the dish and spying them on a window, the gf and I had popped into a tiny little restaurant to have some liang pi, a famous cold speciality of the region consisting of wide flat noodles with shredded cucumber, all dressed in a spicy and sharp vinegar, chilli and sesame paste dressing.  Whilst tucking into a lovely rendition of it I noticed that the purely Chinese writing of the place was punctuated by a single handwritten A4 page stuck on the wall, which proclaimed 'Chinese Hamburger 3.5RMB'.  Not wanting to miss out on such a thing with the point of a finger I took the 35p gamble and was presented with this most delectable dish.

The bread was crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, more similar to a pitta bread than anything else I've had which, given Xi'an's large muslim population, makes perfect sense.  Inside though Islam's influence was definitely lost as it was stuffed with pork belly, stewed till meltingly tender then smashed up into the sauce, which was fragrant with the usual Chinese suspects of cinnamon and star anise.  It was absolutely gorgeous and I vowed to blog it as soon as I got back.  I may have failed miserably on the timing but I got there eventually.

Rou Jia Mo - The Chinese Hamburger

Makes 4

The Bread - Or Mo

200gr plain flour

120gr water

1 TB baking powder

1/2 ts salt

The Meat Filling

325gr pork belly, no skin.  The streaky rashers from supermarkets are ideal.

1 TB light soy

1 TB dark soy

1/2 ts sugar (I like the light brown stuff)

3" cassia bark/Chinese cinnamon

1 piece of dried tangerine peel, about half a tangerine's worth

1 star anise

Extras

Coriander

Chilli oil

Method

Mix the salt and baking powder into the flour then add the water to make a soft dough.  Knead for a couple of minutes to bring together then place in a bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to rest for an hour or so.

Cut the pork into 1cm sticks through the layers (so 1cm x 1cm x thickness of the belly) and place in a saucepan with all the other filling ingredients.  Cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for an hour and a quarter until tender. Whilst cooking add water so it doesn't boil dry but you want the sauce to reduce a lot so don't add too much.

Cut the rested dough into quarters and shape each into a disc 7-8cm diameter and a little under a centimetre thick, do this on a floured work surface as it will be a little sticky.  Heat a large frying pan over a low to medium heat and then cook the bread (without oil) for 2.5 to 3 minutes a side, until golden in places and cooked through.

To Serve

Remove the pork and chop or crush into the sauce.

Split the bread, brush one side with chilli oil, top with a quarter of the pork and a good amount of coriander and tuck in.  It's pretty easy to knock down a couple of these per person.

Banh Mi with Caramel Roast Pork and Some Banh Mi Experimenting

I seem to be a bit sandwich obsessed at the minute and whilst I'm keeping that theme going I'm moving from the US for this one.

Last year I travelled the length of Vietnam and one of the foods that really stuck out was the Vietnamese baguette, known locally as banh mi.  The combination of light, crispy bread, various pork products, sweet and crunchy pickled veg and fresh herbs and sauces was a taste and texture explosion in every bite.  At the time I thought they needed some UK exposure but didn't expect them to blow up in such a big way in such a short time.  Less than a year after my return they seem to be the taste of the moment in London.  The first I knew of was the lovely Banh Mi 11 on Broadway Market (in my adopted Hackney) but this has been followed by numerous others and with more to follow, including one I'm particularly looking forward to due to their use of the Hoi An style pointy baguette - City Caphe

This is all well and good for those in London but what about everyone elsewhere?  Or for those like me where eating isn't enough and a quest for knowledge of the makings of things overwhelms?  Hopefully this will help.

Much has been written online about the banh mi baguette (strictly just banh mi), how to achieve the light inside and crisp, thin exterior.  Rice flour is a common ingredient - a sworn requirement for some - whereas others manage without it.  I wonder myself how much the drippingly humid heat of Vietnam plays a part.  Moisture definitely has a pivotal role in crust development whilst baking and the difference between the air over here and over there is like chalk and cheese.  Recipes online were thin on the ground though and one common one, which uses equal rice and wheat flour, just seems like it shouldn't work (rice flour lacks the all important gluten and 50% of the mix is a huge amount to go gluten free) and there's plenty of comments from those who have attempted it saying it doesn't, the rice flour making it heavier rather than the desired lighter crumb.

Reading can only get you so far though so I set about experimenting myself, keeping all other things constant (maybe not the best for different flours but as good a start as any) and just altering what the 200gr of flour consisted of.  My base recipe was:

200gr flour 

140gr water (70% using the % method)

1 ts dried yeast

1/2 ts salt

1/2 ts sugar

and for the flour I used 100% strong, 50/50 strong/plain (I read somewhere that Oriental flours are softer than our bread flour) and 25/37.5/37.5 rice/strong/plain.  They were all kneaded using the Richard Bertinet recommended pick up and slap down method, risen for an hour then shaped into 2 baguettes per mix and given another 45 mins or so till doubled.  In the oven they got 20-25 minutes with a good spraying of water into the oven at the start for that all important steam.

Even before we'd reached this stage though something didn't seem right with the rice flour containing dough.  Kneading away I could tell it was woefully lacking in gluten, whilst the pure wheat flour recipes developed that familiar stretch and spring as I worked them the dough in this case was a lot less resilient, losing the occasional lump as I swung the dough onto the work surface.  It came together in the end, and rose very well, but was a bit fragile. 

After baking there was a clear winner and there was no rice flour in sight.  The 100% strong white had the nicest, most golden crust and the softest crumb.  Whilst the rice flour dough had risen fine prior to the oven it didn't seem to rise any more in the oven leaving it small and heavy.  I ate it though and there was a definite thin crunch to the crust not present in the pure wheat flour doughs, enough to make me want to experiment further.  On the day though 100% strong won and that's where the filling went.  Some point in the future I will try some different combinations, first off 80/20 strong/rice to try and get a rise from the gluten with the thin crispy crust the rice flour is hinting at (have tried this now, see Further Experiments and Thoughts note at end).

For the filling I decided to play on the braised caramel pork belly dish that I'd had many times before both in England and Vietnam.  Rather than braising pork belly in fish sauce and sugar though I mixed palm sugar and fish sauce together and rubbed it on some pork shoulder which I then roasted.  The sweet, salty crust and juicy roast meat was a winner.

For the all important pickled vegetables I used this recipe and was more than pleased with the result - crunchy yet tender and with a pleasant balance of sour and sweet. 

The banh mi were completed with chili sauce (Thai sirachi as I had no Vietnamese), mayonaisse, cucumber and coriander.  Even if I say so myself they worked a treat, sending me straight back to the streets of Hoi An, probably helped by the recent warm sun and the greenhouse effect of the three huge east facing windows in my living room.

Banh Mi with Caramel Roast Pork

Ingredients

Individual baguettes, either bake your own above (I'd go for pure strong flour) or buy some

Caramel Roast pork, see below

Pickled Carrot and Daikon

Cucumber, seeded and cut into batons

Green Chilies, thinly sliced

Coriander

Chili Sauce

Mayonaisse

Method

Split the baguettes, I've heard some Vietnamese pull some of the bread out the middle just leaving a crisp shell (and more room to put filling in).

Spread each half with mayonnaise and then fill with pickled veg, cucumber spears, coriander, chilies and roast pork - this is a sandwich so you can put as much or as little of each thing as you want.  Add chili sauce to taste.

Caramel Roast Pork

Ingredients

1kg pork shoulder

1 TB palm sugar

3 TB fish sauce

Method

Take the skin off the shoulder and save for something else.  Butterfly the meat to leave a slab about 5cm thick.

Mix the palm sugar and fish sauce and rub all over the meat.  Leave to marinate for a bit if you have the time.

Roast at 160C for 2 hours.  You can brown under a grill at the end if you want, it may be nicely browned already though.

Further Experiments and Thoughts

Since this day I have tried 80/20 strong and rice flour.  Again there was hints of a thin crisp crust but again the rice flour made the crumb denser and the oven spring was limited leaving a thin baguette.  I'm thinking rice flour soaks up more water so I'm going to try again upping the water a bit.  I'm also thinking rice flour may take longer to hydrate so I'm going to mix the rice flour and the water and leave it for a couple of hours before carrying on with the rest of the recipe.  Anything I do will be reported back to the blog.  In the mean time it's 100% strong flour for my banh mi.

Bakewell Pudding, Lincolnshire Poacher and Melton Mowbray Pies

Last week I took a couple of days off work to recuperate after a gruelling 6 weeks of study and an exam and headed to the Peak District.  The aim of the trip wasn't food related but I had to eat and was drawn to Bakewell for one of their puddings.  Whereas the rest of the country eats Bakewell Tarts (do we have Mr Kipling to blame?) those in Bakewell have Bakewell Puddings.  The flavours are very similar - revolving around jam and almonds - but the pudding says goodbye to the spongey filling and says hello to an egg custard like filling sat in a crisp puff pastry basket and hiding a loan dollop of jam.  It is an altogether far superior treat, crisp pastry gives way to the rich almondy custard with the dollop - rather than base coating layer of jam - adding a surprise element - which mouthful will offer me the tart fruity foil?

As the weather turned and all thoughts of climbing or walking were shunned we decided to head across to Lincoln for a bit of history and a glimpse at one of four remaining original Magna Carta.  The one food that sprung to mind for the region was Lincolnshire Poacher cheese, which I'd been buying for a few years from Islington farmer's market.  I'm pretty crap at describing cheeses but to me it's cheddar like, being an artisanal cheese though it's like a very good cheddar - hard and yellow with a strong flavour.  Something I'm always happy to have it in the fridge.  I'd read of a mythical 3 year aged Poacher called Knuckleduster but have never seen this rare beast for sale, when I turned a corner to find the lovely little Cheese Society I thought my luck may have changed.  A quick chat with the lady in there informed me that not even they could get hold of it though with the farm owner keeping it all to himself - he doesn't make a lot - and letting it go on farmer's markets directly. 

The final foodie stop on the trip was Leicestershire's Melton Mowbray, home of the only pork pie with EU protected status.  I'm a big fan of the uncured pork pie and have gone so far as to cook them myself and they make it onto every Christmas breakfast table.  The main place selling them in Melton Mowbray is Ye Olde Pork Pie Shoppe so I headed in.  I'd been hoping for a quaint bakery, with the smell of warm pie wafting through the air but it's essentially an outlet for Dickinson & Morris pork pies which you can buy all over the place.  Talking to one of the staff most the pies in their aren't even made in Melton Mowbray being churned out by a factory in Leicester - not the most traditional.  They do make a limited number of hand raised pies in the shop though so I bought one along with a factory pie to compare it to.

The factory pie had a good crisp crust and contained lots of meat, the flavour was heavy on pepper - a definite positive - but the texture of the meat was too fine a grind by far.  A nice pie but I've had better.  The hand raised pie - pictured above - was much more like it.  A similarly good crust gave way to a far coarser grind of pork, I wouldn't be suprised if some of it was chopped by hand as we're talking 1cm for some of the cubes.  The grey in parts filling shows its uncured nature.  The pepper seemed less obvious in this one although that could just be the man flu I'm currently suffering from.  All in all it was a decent pork pie, although again not the best I've had.

So three counties and three regional delights, I aim to get a bit more of my homeland in this year and I'm sure I can find some more while I'm at it.