Balsamic Chicken Salad

This is an ever-so-simple meal for a quick and easy weekday supper.  If you can be faffed then you should get the chicken in the marinade before you go to work, knowing that it will be ready and waiting for you when you get home – ready, even, to go straight on the grill. 

 

The proportions will feed two as a main meal or four as a starter – but it's terribly easy to increase.

 

Ingredients:

 

2 chicken breasts

50ml olive oil (plus a drizzle for the sweet tatties)
50ml balsamic vinegar (doesn’t need to be uber expensive)
2 medium sweet potatoes
½ tsp cayenne pepper
50g pumpkin seeds
½ tsp smoked paprika
1 lime
100g rocket leaves

 

(In the pictures below I have used pine nuts.  Ignore this – Sainsbury's were out of pumpkin seeds.  So sub in pumpkin seeds wherever you see pine nuts.)

1. Lay the chicken breasts flat and slice them in half horizontally, so that you're left with two pieces of chicken of the same proportions but half the thickness.  Place these in a large, flat bowl, pour the oil and vinegar over them and stir it up so that the chicken is properly coated.  Leave them to marinade for at least an hour.

2. Peel sweet potatoes and cut them up into fat chips.  Drizzle the oil and sprinkle the cayenne pepper over them then stir to ensure they're coated.  Stick them in an oven at 175ºC for 45 minutes or until cooked (ie. soft inside and slightly crispy / blackened on the outside).  They'll need turning a few times during the cooking process. 

3. About 15 minutes before the potatoes are done you'll want to cook the chicken, so you probably want it to come out of the fridge about 15 minutes before that to come up to room temperature.  Get a griddle pan on the heat (mine is properly screwed so I've used a frying pan instead) and get it hot, but not screaming hot like you would for steak (otherwise the chicken will stick to it like superglue – hence why mine's so screwed).  Get the Chicken on the griddle and cook for about five minutes aside, or again until done and a little crispy on the outside.  When it's done the meat will need to rest of a few minutes.

5. Whilst the chicken rests you can cook the lime.  Slice it through the equator and stick it on the griddle.  At the same time, lay the pumpkin seeds out on a baking tray and toast them in the oven.  Be careful here – they need only a couple of minutes.  Overdo them and they'll be minging – crusty and burny and not at all nice.  So keep an eye on them.  When they're toasted pop them in a freezer bag with the paprika and the tiniest drop of olive oil and give them a big shake.  You'll find that the paprika sticks pretty good.

 6. All of your elements ought to be done by now, so it's just a matter of assembly.  Slice the chicken into strips, being careful not to lose any juices that run out.  Put the rocket in a big bowl and heap the chicken and any escaping juices on top.  Add in the warm sweet potatoes and the pumpkin seeds.  Squeeze the lime over the whole lot and toss the salad.  You may want to add a drizzle of oil if you don’t feel it's dressed enough, but I never really think it's worth it.

Serve the salad whilst it's still warm.  It's good for all seasons – summer and winter alike.

- GrubsterBoy -

Stag Part 2: The Banana Store

So, at the end of Monday's post I left you with the question: what does one do with an entire deer's worth of (relatively inexpertly) freshly butchered meat?  Well, the answer, of course, is to eat it.

Farmer Sharp's operations in Borough Market are generally run out of a restaurant called The Banana Store, which is housed in the former Borough Market Trustees Building.  This means that, once you're done hacking up your carcass, there is a trained (and talented) chef on hand to turn your carnivorous experimentations into something edible and delicious.

But before we even got to the meat we were availed of a host of starters. 

First out was gravadlax.  The Banana Store's chef, Jens, is Swedish, and his skill in curing the fish shined through– dry initially, but still with plenty of oily moisture and flavour.  
 

 

Also, we were treated to smoked eel, served with fennel.  Now, eel is not something that I'd ever order but I have to say it was absolutely first rate. 

Our fishy starters were also kept happy with a duo of salads, one of heritage radishes and the other of mixed beetroots and samphire.  Very good indeed. 

But the main attraction was the meat.  I've never eaten muntjac before, but I wouldn’t hesitate to eat it again.  It's a lovely gamey meat, but not too gamey – not so metallic, high, which I find slightly off-putting in game like grouse.  It's a rich meat and terribly tender.  It was also cooked to perfection.  It was also an absolute pleasure to be able to try the different cuts and have Farmer Sharp talk us through each piece and identify where they came from on the animal.

And these little pieces?  Why, they're the fillet steaks, of course.  Sure, they're a bit smaller than you'd find on a cow, but did you see the size of this beastie?  Anyway, you know how you hear people say that their steak was so tender it could have been eaten with spoon?  In this case it was actually true.  I could have spread these steaks on toast.  Fantastic. 

Now, I've walked past The Banana Store hundreds of times – I went to college just around the corner – but barely noticed it.  I had never heard anyone speak of it.  So I wasn't sure, if I'm honest, whether the food would be up to much.  I needn't have worried – it was fantastically done.  Each dish was exciting, imaginative, and (crucially) excellently executed.  We had expected the meat to be grilled up and served, perhaps with some potatoes.  What we received was a feast.  If I found myself in need of a quick meal in the area again, I'd definitely drop in.

- GrubsterBoy -

 

PS – I gather that The Banana Store does a rather interesting line in Borough Market eating called 'Eat What You See'.  Basically, the premise is this: You go to Borough Market, have a mooch around and pick out some food.  Then you bring it along to The Banana Store and they'll cook it up for you for £15.  Check out their website for details.

Blue Tomato

Just a quick little post today to tell you about Blue Tomato in Rock, Cornwall.

Besides a delightful atmosphere – right on the sea front, with a beautiful view that just as good in foul weather as it is in bright sunshine – it also serves up fantastic food and cakes.  But what I really wanted to share was this little number: a crab meat salad.  Now, I'm absolutely potty about crab, but so often shy away from it in restaurants.  You can never tell when it's going to be fresh or, worse still, if it's going to come out of a tin.  But down in Cornwall I felt safe.  And I'm glad I did, because it was amazeballs.

The addition of the soft fruit and the crunchy croutons, and a sweet-and-sharp dressign absolutely made the dish.  I would move to Cornwall to eat this every day, if it were practical to do so.

 - GrubsterBoy -

Pesto

This really isn’t a recipe; I feel like a bit of a fraud.  It's shockingly easy, almost nothing more than a case of assembly.  But I will say one thing: it is absolutely, totally worth it.  I have completely fallen back in love with pasta and pesto now I've made this.  it's a million times better than that green gunk that comes in jars and at least a thousand times better than the 'fresh' stuff the supermarkets produce.  It's also all about adjusting the taste to fit what you want it to taste like.

 

You will need:

 

2 packets of fresh basil (about 50g)
100g pine nuts
100g parmesan
1 clove of garlic
A wedge of lemon
Olive oil (some)

On the subject of olive oil, there is amazingly broad range going around at the moment.  I am currently using a bottle that a colleague gave me.  She's married to a Cypriot whose family has their own olive grove, so this is kind of home grown.  Whatever you go for, bear in mind that the oil here will make a big difference – it's essentially the base of the sauce.  Don’t use something too cheap, because it will infect the whole dish.  If you use something too expensive (which tends to include spicier, stronger, more peppery oils) it will blot out too much of the basil flavour. 

First, get the oven on and lightly toast the pine nuts.  Did you know you can now buy pre-toasted pine nuts? C'est ridicule.  Paying an extra quid for something that takes 10 minutes to do yourself is just burning money. 

Whilst that's happening, pick the leaves from the stalks of the basil and discard the stalks.  As I've mentioned before, basil stalks are rather fibrous and will wrap themselves around the blade of a blender and clog it up.  Also, they won't blend properly, so you're better off without. 

Also, grate the parmesan now.

 

You know I said this was easy?  Well, you're about 75% done already.  Throw the basil, cheese and pine nuts into the food processor along with a squeeze of lemon and whizz for about two seconds, no more.  Add an enormous glug of olive oil and repeat.  Keep adding olive oil to the mulch until you have a soft jam-like consistency.

Now, take the lid off and taste it.  You'll probably need to season it as well, but try fiddling around, adding more cheese or another squeeze of lemon, or more oil. 

And then you're done.  Ta da!  See, easy peasy lemon (and basil) squeezy, huh?

This is a fantastic sauce for anything.  For some reason, it always screams 'summer' to me.  Perhaps it's the fresh, no nonsense flavours or scents of basil.  Pasta pesto is the classic, but it also goes well drizzled over pizza, or chicken breasts to be baked in the oven.  If you're making the classic pancetta wrapped cod, smear a blob of pesto all over the ham before wrapping, for a ultra-classy version of an already pretentious dish.  Alternatively, liven up an old school one, as I have below, by drizzling a tomato salad (or, indeed, any salad) with pesto and a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar.

 - GrubsterBoy -

Steak Salad

Many years ago, during their relatively early(ish) courtship phase, my parents did a road trip across the United States.  They had a whale of a time.  A few years later, I did the same.  In my case it was with GrubsterGirl in tow, similarly in the early courtship phase, and now we're getting married.  Which is just acecakes.  Furthermore, some friends of ours recently got married.  Their first foreign trip together, and their honeymoon, were both US roadtrips.  I don’t know how I can say this any more clearly: there's obviously something about American roadtrips.  If you're wondering when your boyf will hurry up and propose / wondering whether your girlf will accept, can I recommend an American roadtrip?  Seal the deal.

Also, the scenery is a-maz-ing.

But I digress.  This post isn’t about our roadtrip or B&M's roadtrip / honeymoon.  It's about GrubsterMummy and GrubsterDaddy's 1970s road trip.  Sort of.  Specifically, it's about the one good meal they had in Vegas: steak salad.

This is a GrubsterMummy recipe - an attempt to re-live that aswsome salad - that I've done a (very little) bit of fiddling with.

Ingredients:
50g Pine nuts
50g Parmesan
25ml White Wine / Cider Vinegar
50ml decent olive oil
1-2 tsps honey
2-3 tsps grainy mustard
x2 steaks (see note below)
1 iceberg lettuce
250g cherry tomatoes

This fed two but you could totally get a third out of it.  More even, if you're not hungry.  Less if you're American.

OK, first: yes, it has to be iceberg lettuce.  This is an American salad, OK?  It's, like, basically the law that it's made with iceberg.  Also, it's mega crunchy, which works well with the hot beef (more on that to follow).

The steak.  Totally up to you what you get.  I would have opted for ribeye because I think it's the tastiest.  But I know GG's less keen.  So I went for a lovely couple of sirloin.  You want something with some good fat in it, though, so I'm not sure if fillet would be a good idea.  Also, you're gonna mix it with salad and dressing, so... well, I know people who would object to doing that to an expensive piece of fillet.

Right, first things first: toast them pine nuts – tossing them in the pan every so often.  They'll only need a minute or so – keep an eye on them as they burn.  It's so much better to do them in the oven, but I could not be faffed and it's also better to only have one pan to wash up.

 Next, turn the heat all the way up and let your pan get super hot.  I've got a very nice frying pan, made with thick iron, for this.  A griddle would be just as good / better – but in a pinch you could even use a Le Creuset or similar – I've seen it done.  You want to get the pan really, really hot for the next part. 

Whilst the pan heats up, season one side of the steak (lots of salt, only a little pepper) and rub a little oil into the meat. Then, when the pan is nice and hot, carefully place the steak, seasoned side down, on the pan.   

Now, DO NOT MOVE IT for the next minute and a half. Seriously. Don’t touch it. It wants to seal properly, so it shouldn’t be shifted. And please, please don’t go pressing it down like you see bad cooks around the BBQ doing. Sure, it makes a fun sizzling sound, but that's just the fat and juices squeezing out and evaporating away, leaving behind a drier steak.

It's only if you're resisted the temptation to push it around the pan that you'll get a really good crust going when you flip it, like this:

Once it's had a minute and a bit, season the raw top side and again massage a little oil in. Be careful, please. Flip it over at the 90 second mark. It'll need another minute or so.

When it's done, take it out and put it onto a plate (not a board, a plate – you'll see why).  Leave it there, for pity's sake – don’t go chopping it up yet, it needs to rest for at least five minutes. 

Right, whilst it rests you can assemble your salad. 

Dice the iceberg lettuce and quarter the toms and throw them in a big salad bowl.  Grate the parmesan finely and add it to the mix, along with the pine nuts.  No need to toss yet. 

Get out an old jam jar and chuck in the oil, vinegar, a teaspoon of honey and two of mustard.  Note: you're using less oil than I usually would for a vinaigrette such as this, but I have my reasons: You're going to use the meat juices as surrogate oil.  By now, you see, you should have a like gravy lake forming around your cuts.  Pour that into the jam jar (you see why I didn’t want you resting this on a board now?).  Season with salt and pepper, close the lid and shake like crazy.  Taste – add more honey or mustard to your own taste. 

Next up: slice the steaks into strips.  Any additional meat juices appearing can go in the dressing. (BTW: GG likes hers a little more done than me – so I left it on longer than I'd desire, but it's totally up to you.)

Dump the steak into the salad, dress and toss the whole thing.

Serve with cold beer on a hot day. 

 - GrubsterBoy -