Winter Pie

08/01 WINTER PIE

As we crawl out of our wintery beds, hibernating from the world we all need something soul warming. This Shepherds Pie is reflective of two quintessential winter moments. Firstly the warmth of the rich filling and the light comfort of the pillowy potato are a culinary representation of the bed we never want to leave - our warm bodies cloaked in our feathery blankets. Secondly it is also deceptive, the vastness of the white potato hides the richness underneath. Just as waking to fresh snow jars our perception of the familiar view from our windows. 

This pie is not what I would call simple, or fast. However it isn't difficult and just requires the kind of slow Sunday in the kitchen avoiding the world outside. The result for dinner is both rich, moist topped with a crips lightness. Winter is incredibly manageable with this of an evening. Especially with a glass of wine in bed watching a movie. You'll have to get up on Monday so may as well enjoy this as much as possible.


Ingredients (all approximate) - 

400g Beef Mince
1 Onion
4 Carrots
2 Celery stalks
75g Button Mushrooms
1 Can chopped tomatoes
1tbls Tomato paste
Thyme
1 tsp Whole Peppercorns
50ml port/red wine
Beef Stock (diluted in 100ml water)
Salt + Pepper
400g Potatoes
25g butter
50ml Milk
1/4tsp Ground Nutmeg

What I did - 

The Filling: I wouldn't normally divide a recipe in two parts, however this really is the first or two very different stages. Start by dicing all your ingredients in small bowls; the onion, carrot, celery and mushroom. In a heavy based pan begin by browning the beef, to get the excess moisture out. remove from the pan and straight away add the onion and soften. Then add the carrots, brown further. Then follow with the celery and mushrooms. Once they're all giving in to the heat add the salt, pepper, peppercorns and thyme with the port.

Let the first sear of the alcohol burn off and then add the beef stock. Simmer for a couple of minutes to reduce then add the beef back to the pot. Stir through. Finally add the chopped tomatoes & paste, clamp on a lid and simmer on a low heat for about 45 minutes. Turn the heat off and let cool while you move onto stage 2...

The Topping: This can be done immediately after the filling is ready, or can be done half an hour before you want to consume. Peel and chop the potatoes into small pieces. Add to a small pot of boiling water. Boil for 15 minutes until soft. Drain the water keeping the potato in the pot.

Add the butter and roughly mash. When it is mashed but still lumpy, add nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste. Then add the milk and mash until heavenly smooth. Spread the filling in a wide pie/baking dish. Blanket in the mashed potato and carefully spread to all edges, this will ensure the pie stays moist in the oven. Using a fork scrape a pattern (in this case Twin Peaks inspired) into the potato. The peaks will catch and the entire top will crisp in the oven. If eating immediately bake for about 20 minutes on a high heat, if from cold cover in for and bake for 45 minutes, then grill for 10 minutes to crisp the top.

Damn good pie.

JG

Narco Nachos

13/09 NARCO NACHOS

Apologies for my absence. This is generally the feeling after August leaves us be. The Leo season is over. Parties have all but ceased. The chance for recuperation. As the main perpetrator of the hangover, I must also apologise.

This recipe is a culinary token of my gratitude to those who held me up and kept me going through the month. Week after week and weekend after weekend. It's hard to remember details, but then all come floating back like the embers of a fire returning to earth. These punchy nachos will help you through recovery and kick you back into life.

Ingredients (all approximate) - 

1 Packet Nachos (chilli flavour)
1 Jar Salsa (spiciness to taste)
200ml Sour Cream
1/2 Onion
4 Tomatos (diced)
1 buffalo Mozzarella


What I did - Oven preheated to 200 OR grill on high

While Nachos theoretically are a 1-2-3 kind of recipe. This steps it up a level, but nothing too strenuous. Firstly empty the packet of corn-chips (i find that mildly flavoured ones boost the excitement) into a wide raised dish so that they sit about 3-4cm thick.

Empty the jar of salsa on top of the chips, spread around but leave a ridge of chips around the rim. On top of this scatter the diced tomatoes over the whole dish. On top of this grate the gooey mozzarella into the peak of this corn chip mountain.

Grill or bake the dish until the mozzarella is blistered and the visible chips are on the verge or charred. Mix the finely dived onion with the sour cream and dollop as the cooling summit of this spicy hot volcano. Eat with your fingers and a cold beer. Recovery. Your brain will catch up soon.

JG

Leo Catch

13/08 LEO CATCH

Hear us roar. Or Purr. The Leo’s are out for the kill. In this case a very boujie hunt at an over-priced but fabulous food store. This recipe is old-time fabulous and decadent to the extreme. Exactly how the Pride of Leo’s take on the world. We are fabulous and decadent to the extreme, and in our season there is nothing that will hold us back. 

This recipe is this Leos favorite, raw meat, a slathering of flavours makes it irresistible. This version is vaguely Japanese inspired, half sashimi half steak tartare. The heady mix of Japanese oils and prices plays perfectly with the tang of the Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce. Breaking the perfect yolk through the raw meat is one of life’s most satisfying pleasures – causing a squeamish reaction from half of you only heightens the thrill. This is so very delicious, with a dry stiff drink, a perfect way to toast the leo Pride.

Ingredients (all approximate) - 

250g Steak (lean)
1 Egg
1/4 tsp Wasabi
1 tsp Sesame Oil
1/2 tsp Black Sesame Seeds
1/2 tsp Japanese Chilli Powder (a sprinkle more to finish)
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp Tabasco
1/2 tsp minced onion
Salt + Pepper

Crisps & Martini to serve


What I did - 

This is an assembly recipe, no heat required. Take the steak and give it a good beating. Once it's tender, but not beaten to death finely dice into small quarter centimetre cubes. In a small mixing bowl mince in the onion. Add the wasabi, sesame oil, seeds, chilli, tabasco and Worcestershire sauce. Stir through thoroughly until all the meat is slicked in the mix. Taste and season with salt & pepper (hold back a bit to add when finishing).

Press the mix into a small bowl and cling film in the fridge for half an hour or so to set and macerate.
In the meantime sedate yourself with a martini.

Take the bowl out of the fridge and leave to warm up for about 5 minutes. scatter some green on a plate and then turn out the tartare. Using a fork, press out and make a small depression in the centre. Separate the egg yolk and gently rest on the meat. Season with the chilli powder, salt and pepper. This takes it from looking like cat-food to something deliciously savage.

Perfect as is. Better with plain crisps on the side. Best with a second Martini. It's the leo season, allow the inner savage out.

JG

Jammed

09/08 JAMMED

This - for me - is absolutely eating the forbidden fruit. I have always longed to know what the appeal of peanut butter is, and being an allergic one, have never been able to indulge. Until now. I have discovered my equivalent in Almond Butter. So please indulge this "recipe" and let me have this moment of pure bliss.

The blackberry jam is probably the only cooking that need happen, and was only because there happened to be a very fruitful blackberry bramble in the front garden. I collected all the fruit it spawned and couldn't eat them quick enough - found myself in a jam. This recipe is really a revelation, my coming-out and learning that I do really love nut butter. Jokes aside, this is beyond deliciousness and I'm very sorry to have discovered it.

Ingredients (all approximate) - 

Good Sourdough Loaf (like really really sell-your-soul good)
250g Blackberries
250g Castor sugar
Crunchy Almond Butter


What I did - 

I know that toast is not a recipe. But this is more an assembly instruction then recipe.

The only cooking required is the jam (which you can buy, but i'm feeling domestic). Boil the berries and sugar together in a small pan for about 10 minutes until glistening, scalding and thick. Allow to cool in the pan and then transfer to a couple of (sterilised) jars. Use a small bit of baking paper to seal under the cap.

Cut a hearty slice of the bread. Toast as desired (slightly just past golden is perfect here). Spread the heady nut butter thick on the bread. Let a heaped tablespoon of the jam fall on to and allow to drip through the bread down the sides.

Eat in bed with some early morning viewing. I have just discovered heaven and it tastes so good.

JG

Summer Catch

26/07 SUMMER CATCH

Returning to something after a time away is always approached tentatively. Seeing your past again. Returning home. Restarting a project. Can seem daunting. But you have to start somewhere, and where better than in the midst of summer. Not a scorching, skin melting summer - a light breezy ethereal afternoon.

This dish is inspired by the soothing comfort retreating to a cool room after a day in the sun. It is both light yet filling, cool and full of heady flavour. Paired with a bottle of wine and some company there isn't much else I would rather - altogether cheekily playful.

Ingredients (all approximate) - 

2 Salmon Fillets
1/2 Cucumber
1 Romaine Lettuce
1 Avocado
1/2 Fennell (or celery if preferred)
Bunch Fresh Dill
1tbls Hot Mustard
1tbls Mayonaise
1/2 tsp sugar
1tbls Gin
Preserved Lemons
Salt + Pepper
Olive Oil


What I did - 

Nothing too involved, simply salt and pepper the two Salmon fillets. Place a couple of slices of preserved lemons (or thin fresh if you don't have - I mean who really does) on top and then lightly oil. Wrap the top of each fillet with a leaf of lettuce - this will help the fish heat all the way through but retain the moisture.

grill under a hot grill for about 20 minutes until the lettuce is charred and the fish coral-pink. Leave out of the grill to cool while you prepare the salad.

Which is so easy it barely needs instruction. Shred the lettuce into a bowl, scoop curls of avocado, slice the cucumber and fennel (medically thin) and then dice the dill over the top. In a jar shake the mustard, mayonaise, gin, sugar, pepper violently together until it has emulsified into a pale gold.
Turn the dressing through the salad well and spread in a serving dish.

Add the two Salmon fillets to the top. Eat relaxed, on the floor (indoor picnic) with a glass of wine.
Summer bliss.

JG

Green Park

07/04 GREEN PARK

The end of a long, long weekend draws to a close. The sun is setting on the last day of peaceful freedom before the world start grinding back in motion. After spending a blissful few days in the spring countryside - lavishly indulging in much wine and lazy rowing down a still river - the cold greyness of any city can be overwhelming. I always feel the need to bring a little of the country back - and this verdantly green soup does just that.

A mixture of hearty green vegetables - broccoli, sprouts and peas - are blitzed into a smooth green soup with extra green flavour brought in with a heavy handed helping of pesto and sweet wholegrain mustard. Almost cruelly i have also added a pig to this country bowl, bacon, not only to add smokey salt but to give the calm green some texture. A country weekend does wonders for the soul - this keeps is going for just a little longer.

Ingredients (all approximate) - 

1 Broccoli
500g Brussel Sprouts
500g Frozen Peas (can be fresh if you have the time)
100g Basil Pesto
50g Bacon*
3 cloves Garloc
1 tbls Wholegrain Mustard
400ml boiling water
Salt + Pepper
Olive Oil


What I did - 

Keeping the country pace - this is a very simple and no fuss recipe. Firstly clean and divide half of the spouts and scatter them in a baking tray. Finely dice the bacon into small pieces and toss through the sprouts. douse lightly in olive oil, salt + pepper. Scorch them in a hot oven (around 200degrees) for half an hour until slightly charred and crispy.

Peel the garlic and lightly sauté whole with some oil in a large pot on the stove. When infused add the rest of the cleaned sprouts, the broccoli heads (and stem peeled and cut into chunks) and peas. Stir around the pot for a few minutes until they start to catch. The flavour of the vegetables mellows when liquified so best to get all you can out at this point. Add the boiling water and let come to a simmer for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are soft but not mush.

Using a stick blender (easiest) blitz the pan until there is nothing but a smooth green pond. Add the pesto and blitz again. Add salt and pepper now (to taste) and blitz one last time. Finally stir in the mustard, leaving the small grains flecked through the green soup.

Before serving mix the majority of the baked sprouts and bacon into the soup, leaving a small scattering to garnish. When the grime of the city comes too much, there is always a bowl of this to bring back the bumbling country soul in all of us.

JG

Rapid Retro

30/03 Part 1: P-COCK-TAIL

This is the first part of my super easy - campishly retro - instant suppers. I know that both of them may make some people squeam in their chairs reading, if only for the raw factor. Trust me i have gone much farther, raw meat. But if thats not your thing, not to worry.

To be honest the prawns are pre-peeled, pre-cooked and pre-packed. This makes them laughably easy to pre-pare. But there is something about either of these simple and quick plates that is so nice to sit around and pick at with a glass of wine and some delicious reality show to indulge.

Ingredients (all approximate) - 

200g Peeled Cooked Prawns
2 tbls Tomato Sauce
2 tbls Mayonaise
1tsp Japanese Chilli Powder
1 spritz lemon juice

What I did - 

This hardly constitutes a recipe. In fact it is just a matter of opening a packet (don't feel any shame) and squeezing out some sauces.

Scatter the little pink bodies of the prawns on a plate and give them a light spritz with a lemon quarter. In a small bowl mix the mayonnaise and the sauce until you have a bowl of pink 70s kitch. Sprinkle the chilli powder over the pink sauce.

Have a dry martini at hand and slowly make your way through this little camp dinner.

JG

Part 2: SAH-SHIMI

This is the less glamorous sister of the prawn cocktail, and a decade later. Now enter the aggressive, fast-talking falseness of the 80s. Sashimi - instant, delicious, expensive to buy out. Super cheap and easy to make at home. Just please make sure the fish is good quality and fresh. No one likes that kind of fish fingers.

I have since discovered Tuna which makes a far nicer dinner. Also there is a strength to the flesh which cuts much easier than salmon. So in this case use this recipe more like a guideline then an actual rule.

Ingredients (all approximate) - 

300g Salmon
50g Okra
Wasabi
Light Soy Sauce (preferable salt reduced)
Chilli Powder
Salt + Pepper
Sesame Oil

What I did* - 

Again this is hardly a recipe. But a simple, easy and overwhelmingly delicious supper. Take the tuna or salmon steak and lay if on a chilling board so that the grain is fanning away from you. Slice the fish as thin as possible without tearing it. Lay it gracefully (more than pictured) on a plate and drizzle very lightly in sesame oil.

In a very small bowl spread two or three (tolerance depending) smears of wasabi and top up with soy. Also good with that incredible Japanese chilli powder, you know the one in every Japanese restaurant. Serve with something picky, crunchy and salty - in this case small pieces of over roasted okra. Cook small chunks with liberal amounts of salt until there is no trace of moisture left.

*I mean no offence to anyone who knows better, this is just what I usually do as an instant supper.

JG

Peachy Hot Bed

21/11 HOT BED

We all want to dive under a blanket at the best of times, a hot warm blanket to melt under while the winter sets in. These are the times when energy is at an all time low, and you really want to cover yourself and forget about the rest of the world. 

Indeed this recipe is found hiding under its own crumbly blanket. A soft bed of fleshy, sweet and hot fruit robed in a dusting of glorious crumbs. The only thing this bed needs is a good spoon. And you have two choices - big spoon or little spoon. Also both benefit from cream.

Ingredients (all approximate) - 

3 Old Peaches
75g Butter
75g Sugar
75g Flour


What I did - 

Arrange the slightly old soggy peaches around a small baking dish (this is a small recipe for three to four at most). They should all be standing on their backs, the thin gill of the meat upwards.

In another bowl rub the butter into the flour and sugar until you get a thick gloopy crumb. Sprinkle over the peaches as evenly as possible - don't press it down, the lighter it falls the more the preaches melt and the crumb stay loose in the oven.

Bake at 180 degrees for 40 minutes or so - just before the crumbs start to catch. The more heat this is exposed to the more the fruit melts and crumb crisps.

Eat directly out of the dish if there's only two of you, or glooped in cream with friends. The best way to be.

JG