Barbeque

Ah, the Great British Barbeque. As soon as a barbeque was on the cards, we nervously check the weather every day. British weather cannot be trusted. Last summer was a complete wash-out, the whole of last week was rainy and miserable, some might say positively autumnal. Conversations went a little like this:

"BBC Weather says cloudy and light showers".

"But Accuweather says sunny, and Accuweather must be accurate, it's all in the name."

"Maybe we could barbeque in the rain; we have done before".

I burst out of bed (when I say burst, I mean staggered) on Saturday morning and nervously pulled the curtains back. Hurrah! The sun was out.

My parents are champion marinaters. We had a million ribs, all swimming in the 'special marinade', so called because my dad can never remember exactly what goes in it.

What can be better than ribs? Especially these ones; they were slightly tangy, slightly sweet and well caramelised. Meaty too; quite often all you get is a bit of fat and bone, but these were something to sink your teeth into.

Other meaty morsels destined for the barbeque were squid, chicken legs, steaks and sausages.

You can see the tentacles of the squid sizzling away in the top picture. The squid was extremely tender, cooked to perfection and often the tentacles are the best bit, cooked so they have a bit of crunch.

We did have vegetably bits, such as barbequed courgettes, a lettuce, tomato and avocado salad and some potatoes with red onion and a little mayonnaise, but really - it's a barbeque! It's all about the building of the fire, the frustrations of the coals not catching, the joy of it finally being at the right temperature, and then, of course, the meat.

...And there wasn't a drop of rain.

Tart

When I was a wee nipper, I once ate so much pie I was quite sick in my sleep. It was a rather traumatising experience; I tried to wake my mum up but she just grunted and rolled away from me. Luckily, my sister was easier to rouse. She wasn't best impressed when she returned from her nasty chore to her bed to find me asleep in it.

Ever since then, I've had an aversion to pastry, shortcrust in particular. I've been trying to get over this, starting with the pasties in Cornwall and so far it seems to be working. Puff pastry is easier for me to deal with, although it's something I don't use a lot due to it's high fat content. I threw caution to the wind and made a mushroom tart.

Mushroom Tart

Serves 2

5 large closed cap mushrooms, sliced

1 tbsp dried porcini mushrooms, rehydrated

2 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley

3 tbsp creme fraiche

Enough puff pastry to make 2 6"x 4" tarts - I used 1/2 a block of unrolled pastry

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celcius. Fry the garlic until softened, then add all the mushrooms. Fry until softened, making sure there isn't too much liquid. Add the creme fraiche and the parsley and take off the heat. Season to taste. Roll out the pastry and make an indentation about 2 cm from the edge, all the way round. Leave to rest for 5 mins, then spread the mushroom mixture on the base. Wash with egg and bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

I served this with griddled red onions, courgettes and aubergines dressed with a little extra virgin olive oil and lime juice, and some broccoli on the side.

The pastry was lovely and light and complemented the earthy mushrooms well. The parsley really helped to cut through the creaminess of the sauce. Shortcrust pastry (maybe even home-made) will be next...

General Tso's Chicken

Deep frying strikes again. I felt quite naughty deep frying chicken with skin on, but this dish was definitely worth it. Josh, a fellow blogger recommended it to me.

Apparently this is often served in American Chinese take-aways and I've certainly never seen it in my travels. It's quite a different dish there, usually very sweet and the chicken is sometimes battered. The origins of this dish and why it's General Tso's, a Qing Dynasty statesman and general, is unknown. This was a Fuschia Dunlop recipe; she's quickly becoming my favourite.

General Tso's Chicken

Serves 2

To marinade the meat:

3 or 4 chicken thighs with the skin on, deboned and chopped into pieces

1 egg yolk

2 tbsp cornflour

2 tsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp dark soy sauce

Mix this in a bowl and leave to sit whilst you prepare the other ingredients.

For the sauce:

1 tbsp tomato puree

4 tbsp water

1 tbsp rice vinegar

1/2 tsp dark soy sauce

1 1/2 tsp light soy sauce

1/2 tsp cornflour.

The rest:

6 - 10 dried chillis, snipped into 3cm pieces, discarding the seeds

2 tsp finely chopped ginger

2 tsp finely chopped garlic

1 spring onion, sliced for garnish

2 tsp sesame oil

Oil for deep frying

It looks like a long list of ingredients, but you just need to mix the sauce materials up for the last minute cooking.

Deep fry the chicken in 2 batches until the chicken is golden and crispy. Set to one side. Empty out the oil, reserving 2 tbsp. Fry the chillis briefly and then add the ginger and garlic. Fry until it's all fragrant, and then add all the sauce in, and then the chicken. When it is thickened, turn off the heat and serve, with the sesame oil and spring onion to garnish.

This was a great dish - slightly crispy chicken, a glossy coating of slightly sour, spicy and deeply savoury sauce. Recommended.

Bouga Restaurant, Crouch End

I don't go out often for dinner. It's not because I don't want to, but due to budgetary constraints. So hurrah, at long last it was payday last week.

We decided to go out in Crouch End, where my boyfriend lives. We originally wanted to go to Jerkmaica, but sadly it was closed on when we got there, at 7pm on a Saturday night, strangely enough.

We decided on the Bouga Restaurant. It looks quite kitsch from the outside; some of the seating consisted of couches with big squishy sofas and there were various Moroccan-looking lamps around. Having had a look at the menu, we decided to go here, especially as I hadn't had a tagine before.

The first alarm bell rang when they tried to seat us by the open window, right where the window folded back. I said no, I didn't want to sit with a huge hinge in my face, so they offered us a different table and said they needed it back in an hour and a half. Fine - do many people spend more than that amount of time on dinner, dining as a couple? It all went downhill from here. Firstly, the chairs were so low that I felt like my 27" legs were round my ears. This never happens. Then I was given the wrong main course which was then replaced by the right one, literally 10 minutes after we had ordered. If that doesn't make you feel rushed, I don't know what does. The cocktails we ordered didn't turn up until we had almost finished.

But what about the food? I ordered a lamb and prune tagine. The lamb shank was succulent and tender, falling off the bone but into a very salty and watery sauce. The poor boyfriend ordered a mixed grill. This was brought out on a big metal box containing hot coals, and then dumped in front of him, smoke billowing in his face. We moved it to a nearby table without even a whisper of help from the waiting staff. This 'mixed grill' consisted of 1 skewer of chicken, 1 skewer of lamb, a cocktail-sized sausage and a quarter of a tomato. Oh, and a side salad of cucumber and red onion. He left hungry.

When I told the waiter to take the service off the bill, he didn't ask why but just looked surly. It said it all really - miserable waiting staff, rubbish food and management obviously trying to ake as much money from as little quality as possible. It was an expensive mistake for us to make.

I don't want to use this blog as a medium to moan, but if it means that I can prevent others from being wildly disappointed with this sham of a restaurant, then moan I will.

Gigli

I've recently started to like blue cheese. It's one of those things that I think I should really like, an every time it's on offer I've tasted it again. After all, when I was younger I didn't like aubergines, carrots or swede and now they're all regulars. It certainly paid off with the blue cheese; I was recommended Stichelton and after trying a piece from Neal's Yard I was hooked on the blue stuff.

The selection of pasta shapes in the supermarket now is almost over-whelming. I'm a noodle kind of girl, so fettucini, spaghetti, linguine, tagliatelle and pappadelle are my usuals. On a whim, I bought Gigli. It's a frill edged, cone shaped pasta and is apparently excellent with cheese sauces. It held this sauce well.

Blue Cheese & Spinach Gigli

To serve 1

100gr gigli pasta
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 small leek, finely shredded
2 mushrooms, sliced
3 tbsp low fat creme fraiche
3 large handfuls of washed baby spinach
30gr (roughly) blue cheese - I used Cornish Blue

In a frying pan, sweat the leeks until they are softened. Add the garlic and the mushrooms, and fry gently. Put the pasta on to cook (I found it took about 6 minutes). When the pasta is almost done, add the spinach to the frying pan. Once wilted, add the creme frachie. Add the blue cheese, season and toss through the gigli pasta.

What sauces do you make for Gigli?

Tofu Tuesday - Braised Tofu & Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce

Tofu Tuesday seemed to dominate the blog recently, so I opted out of it last week. I found myself craving it though. Many people say tofu doesn't taste of anything, but this really isn't so. It has a unique taste, though not strong and it was this was what I missed.

I had a massive tapas lunch today, and so was feeling quite unmotivated as to what to cook tonight. I wanted to try a new type of beancurd, like perhaps beancurd skin but most of the recipes I found involved some deep-frying. Fine, but two deep fryings in one week is a touch excessive. Peng's Home-Style Beancurd really caught my eye, but as I had eaten an ungodly amount of pork for lunch, this will have to wait until next week. Something light and meat-free was the only way forward.

Braised Tofu & Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce

Serves 2

6 shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in boiling water
1/2 a block of fresh tofu, cubed
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal
1" ginger, chopped finely
1 spring onion, sliced on the diagonal
2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
1/2 tsp five spice
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
Large pinch of sugar
1 tbsp cornflour, slaked

Heat your wok up until smoking and then add about 2 tbsp vegetable oil. Fry the tofu cubes until lightly browned, which will take about 10 minutes. Remove and drain on kitchen paper. Fry the ginger and garlic until fragrant, then add the carrots. Fry for 5 minutes, then add the wine. Once it comes to a simmer, then add the mushrooms, slicing off any hard stems. Add the five spice, oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar and stir it to coat. Remove to a saucepan with a lid, and then add enough boiling water to make some gravy (about 150mls). Put the lid on and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the tofu and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Add the cornflour and stir carefully. Simmer until thickened, and take off the heat. Garnish with the spring onion, and serve with white rice and some steamed greens.

This did just the trick. Despite the braising, it's still light and quite refreshing. The mushrooms are juicy and unctious while the carrots provide a sweetness to balance the intensely savoury oyster sauce. The tofu soaks up the five spice flavour of the gravy nicely. If I had any broccoli, this would work well braised with the mushrooms. Substitute the oyster sauce with mushroom sauce for a veggie-friendly dish.

Deep-Fried Delights

Much to the dismay of my waistline, I've gone from a mild dislike of deep-frying - some may have even called it a fear - to something of a compulsion. The Agedashi Tofu turned me. Prior to this recipe I'd regarded deep-frying as something beyond my realm. My first deep-frying attempt saw me try to make falafels. I'd gone as far as soaking the chickpeas, blending them up with parsley, lemon, garlic, all those aromatics. When it came to cooking them, I was excited. The oil heated up and I waited patiently - I even tossed a breadcrumb in to see if the oil was hot enough.

Alas, it was not to be. The falafels fell apart into a million little pieces, all fizzing away furiously in the oil. My (now ex) housemate snorted: "Well, you f*cked that up, didn't you?". He has a way with words. Well, due to the success (with just minor burns) of the tofu, it was time to move on. Time for deep-fried meaty things... like spring rolls.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Makes 8 - 10

200gr minced pork
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
A handful of woodear mushrooms, rehydrated and sliced finely
2 spring onion, sliced into shreds
1 clove of garlic, minced
2" piece of ginger, grated
1/2 bag of stir-fry vegetables
A handful of rice vermicelli or (preferably) glass noodles, soaked in boiling water for about 10 minutes
Rice paper
About 250ml vegetable oil for deep frying

Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce

3 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp sugar
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, chopped finely
A little diced carrot

Marinate the pork in the ginger, woodear mushrooms, garlic and the dark soy. Meanwhile, once the noodles are soft cut into 3" strands. Add to the vegetable ingredients. I used a packet of bog-standard Tesco beansprout stir-fry packet, to save on the chopping. Prepare a bowl of hot water to dip the rice paper sheets in.

Mix all the ingredients for the dipping sauce and set to one side.

Lay out a clean tea towel in front of you. Dip the rice paper discs into the hot water until they soften. When they have done, place carefully on the tea towel and dab dry. Cut the discs in half. With the straight edge facing you, place a little of the pork mixture in the centre on the edge. Add some vegetables and noodles, taking care not to add too much (it's trial and error). Fold the round edges in to seal the sides, and then start rolling it up from the flat edge. You should end up with a 3 or 4" long roll. Once these are all done, heat the oil up in a wok. Once hot enough (add a breadcrumb; it should sizzle) carefully place the rolls in, ensuring they don't touch each other. Fry until browned, about 5 - 6 mins in total.

To serve, I separated the leaves of a head of Little Gem, so that you can use the leaves as a wrapper to pick up the roll and to dip into the nuoc cham.

This was quite a fiddly process for my oafish fingers, but with some practice (and a helper) it shoudn't be too time consuming. It's delicious; the crunch of the rice paper wrapper is really complemented by the crunch of the beansprouts and vegetables, whilst the dipping sauce really lifts it. This only goes to confirm my new-found love of deep-frying.