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.

(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.

Keu, Old St for some Banh Mi

When I first found the Vietnamese restauarants of London's East End I fell in love.  They were my first experience of the country's cuisine and I was smitten from day one.  The zing of lime, the heat of chili, the pungency of fish sauce and the freshness of herbs combined into a cacophany of flavour that was familiar yet altogether different from anything I'd had before.  Fast forward a few years and I was lucky enough to spend a month in Vietnam, travelling north to south the entire length of the country and getting to eat all the dishes, and more, than I'd fallen for back home.  This was a blessing but also a curse.  Upon returning to London all my favourite Shoreditch haunts suddenly weren't as nice as I remembered.  Chilies had lost their heat, lime it's zing, fish sauce was altogether less pungent and herbs were limp.  I still enjoyed most of them, don't get me wrong, but it was like my window into Vietnamese cuisine needed a damn good clean.

One restaurant that continued to shine though was Viet Grill, so when I heard recently (and by recently I mean about 11 o'clock this morning) they had opened Keu, a banh mi shop, I was over there like a flash.  Two tube lines and 7 stations later I was stood in front of a rather nice looking building.  Stepping inside the dark wood, dark tile and exposed brick should have been far more imposing than it was but the full-size front windows left a lovely, bright space.  The large counter concealed trays full of ingredients and stacks of banh mi & croissants, the numerous staff stood in front of shelves of srichacha & mayonnsaise (the Japanese Kewpie, which surprised me) and a stainless steel trolley proudly hanging a pair of roast ducks. 

First impressions were good and a glance at the menu did nothing to change this.  To go with the banh mi a selection of rice based dishes were available, a salad section concealing the de facto summer rolls.  To wash it all down there are fresh juices and smoothies, coffee (Vietnamese and more usual preparations) or some bottled beverages, Fentimans springs to mind.  If this wasn't enough a black board listed daily specials, both rice based and extra banh mi fillings.  There was food and drink galore.

I have trouble making my mind up at the best of times, although it was made easier as it was banh mi that had bought me here.  I decided to cover as many bases as possible and ordered the Keu Banh Mi - with its pork belly, Vietnamese luncheon meat and chicken liver pate - and took my seat.  The sandwich I was presented with was a thing of beauty, the dark golden bread concealing plenty of meat with cucumber, coriander and pickled vegetables providing some of my 5-a-day. Upon taking a bite my first impressions were the bread was verging on one of those crusty ones from Europe, the crumb had the light airiness one expects in a banh mi but the crust was thicker than I remember them being over there, requiring a bit more of a bite to get through.  Once I was through it though the sandwich was very well balanced, chewy rind on the pork belly giving way to creamy fat and soft meat, chicken liver pate pulling the whole thing together with its richness.  The sprinkling of Maggi on the pickled vegetables didn't go unnoticed either.

I decided I wanted to pep up the heat so went for the srichacha on my table, which I noticed was the US made Rooster brand rather than something imported from Vietnam.  With Japanese mayonnaise, Californian chili and the French-feeling bread the purist in me was starting to play up a bit but in the battle between it and my tastebuds in the end the tastebuds won - the simple fact was this was a very, very tasty sandwich.  As I sat typing notes on my phone I really didn't want it to end and the mouthfuls got smaller and smaller as I tried to delay the inevitable, in the end I ordered some summer rolls too in an attempt to drag out my time there but whilst tasty they weren't more banh mi.  For that I am going to have to return, which I will. 

Keu

332 Old Street

London

EC1V 9DR

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.

Breakfast Sausage and Sausage and Egg Non-McMuffins

Friends always found it strange that I could be so into my food yet love McDonalds.  To me it didn't seem strange as those muffins tasted damn good but others thought I must have some kind of food snobbery to go with my interest.  Over the years I've met a lot of food bloggers though and found it's far from uncommon for us to indulge in what some might think of as low-grade food, whether it's a McDonalds or talk of a Chicken Cottage within 10 minutes of eating at one of London's hottest new restaurant openings. 

At the end of the day though I think a lot of us who choose to write about food are just, deep-down, gluttons.  We plain and simply really enjoy eating. That may lead us, as in my case, to continually search the world's cuisines for something new and tasty but as long as we're eating we're pretty happy, even if it is mass-produced, salt & fat laden and from a huge corporation who lures kids into stores with free toys - all that is forgotten with the taste of porkiness & faint sage with each bite.

You may wonder why you would want to recreate fast food at home but I can think of three reasons:

 1) You don't have to go to McDonalds - maybe you don't live 100m from one like I do, maybe you do but you're too hungover to leave the house or maybe you just don't like the place and don't want to give them any money.

2) You get to have a runny yolk in your egg - as much as I love the McDonald's offering, moving from chalky to runny on the yolk can only be a good thing.

3) You can use the leftover patties to knock up biscuits with sausage gravy - if you haven't tried this dish then it's well worth it, especially if you want to eat your weekly fat content in the first meal of the day.  Just don't do it too often.

The following recipe is for the sausage, to turn it into a Sausage and Egg Non-McMuffin just buy English muffins, eggs and some cheese slices.  You don't have to cook the egg in a chef's ring, or wrap your finished non-McMuffin in a sheet of greaseproof paper, but why do things by halves?

Breakfast Sausage Recipe

Makes 6 patties

500gr pork mince

1 ts salt

3/4 ts black peppercorns

1/2 ts dried sage

1/2 ts dried thyme

1/2 ts chili flakes

1/8 of a nutmeg

1 ts sugar

Method

This couldn't be much simpler, just place everything bar the pork into a mortar and pestle it till the pepper is ground.

Mix into the pork until well combined.

Shape into 6 patties.  Grill or fry for 2-3 mins a side.

As I tend to eat 1 or 2 at a time I stack the rest with greaseproof paper between and freeze.  Obviously do this before cooking.