Gammon, Egg and Chip-Henge

I have mentioned before how the temperature difference between the top and bottom shelf in a caravan oven can be frustratingly far apart. Usually it is a nuisance but occasionally it can work in your favour when you have two dishes that need to be cooked at different temperatures. In this case I had chips that need a hot oven on the top shelf with the gammon at the lower temperature on the bottom. We were going to visit Stonehenge today but plans changed so I recreated it with chips. If you are going to do anything like this you need to make sure you have some square cut ends so at least some of your uprights will stand up. Food should not only be tasty but good fun too!

Ingredients:

1kg Gammon
Potatoes, peeled and chipped
Eggs


Method:

1. Put the oven on gas mark 6. Cover the gammon loosely with foil and put on the top shelf for half an hour.
2. Turn the oven up to gas mark 8 and move the gammon to the bottom shelf. Heat some oil in a roasting dish on the top shelf.
3. Pop your chips into the hot fat and turn regularly until done (about an hour or so).
4. Remove the gammon from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes.
5. Fry eggs.
6. Slice the gammon and plate up!

Pot Noodle and Chips

Yes you did read that right, this is pot noodle and chips! This, erm recipe, was born out of a teenage hangover and is equally suited to times when you're not feeling 100%, just like Mrs Larry is right now. Tonight for simplicity we have used the Golden Wonder plastic potted version but below you will find my recipe for homemade pot noodle. You must serve it with crinkle cut chips, those crinkles create a bigger surface area for absorbing more of your favourite noodle sauce. Mrs L likes the beef and tomato version whereas I prefer the chicken and mushroom loaded with extra chilli sauce, either that or the BBB (Bombay Bad Boy). All I can say is don't knock it until you try it!

Ingredients:

Pot Noodle
Chips, crinkle cut


Method:

1. Cook your chips as per packet instructions.
2. Boil kettle and make pot noodle as per instructions. Add additional chilli sauce if you like.
3. Pour pot noodle over chips.


To make your own pot noodle:

Ingredients:

Noodles, either fresh or dried soaked in water.
Meat, chopped into small pieces, I used pork in the photo below but chicken is good
Mushrooms, diced
Shallot, diced
Carrot, peeled and diced
Peas
Chicken stock
Soy sauce
Cornflour


Method:

1. Sweat off the onion in a pan until translucent.
2. Add the meat and brown if raw.
3. Pour in the stock and soy sauce then add the remaining veg.
4. Simmer for a few minutes then thicken with cornflour and season to taste. Add any chilli sauce if you like.
5. Add the noodles and cook through.
6. Plate up! Eat as they are or if you're feeling delicate pour them over a hot steaming plate of crinkle cut chips.

Pork and Mushroom Stroganoff with Fries and Baby Kale

We have got quite a bit of pork leftover from the roast on Sunday and as it is our last night away this trip we are eating up. Traditionally stroganoff is made with beef but there are so many variations why not try it with pork. It is usually made with paprika but as we have some paprika packed chorizo to eat up I'm using that instead. You can serve it with rice or pasta but in Russia the side is always matchstick thin potato chips. Now there is no chance I'm going to risk a Clarkson-esque disaster deep frying in the van so frozen oven ready french fries it is!

Ingredients:

Cooked pork cut into strips
Mushrooms, quartered
Red onion, peeled halved and sliced
Garlic clove, peeled and diced
Soured cream
Chorizo, about half a ring, peeled and chopped
Baby kale leaves
Oven ready french fries
Parsley
Bread and butter


Method:

1. Put the chips in the oven as per packet instructions. A tip is to make sure the tin is red hot before pouring the chips in, by doing this they shouldn't stick.
2. Get a saucepan full of water boiling in order to blanch the kale later.
3. In a frying pan cook the chorizo until it starts to release its fat then add the onion slices and cook until translucent.
4. Bung in the mushrooms and stir until cooked.
5. In goes the cooked pork and garlic, stir for a minute then pour in the soured cream.
6. Blanch the kale for 3 minutes.
7. Season the strog and plate up! Top with chopped parsley and serve with some nice crusty buttered bread.

Stoofvlees - Beef, Beer and Chocolate Stew

We crossed the border into Belgium today and had an incredible day exploring the trenches at Sanctuary Wood. Ypres is very nice too and it gave me chance to buy two special ingredients for this delicious beef stew, Belgian beer and Belgian chocolate!

Stoofvlees, also known as La Carbonade La Flamande, is a traditional beef stew slow cooked and served with chips. Endives are very popular here so I sauteed some in garlic butter to add a little bit of veg. The interesting bit that caught my eye is that stoofvlees is topped with mustard coated bread that slowly melts into the stew to thicken it. I've got to give that a go and here it is!:

Ingredients:

750g Beef, any slow braising cut will do, chopped into bite size pieces
750ml Beer, it should be Belgian but any dark beer will do
2x Onions, diced
4x Garlic cloves, crushed or diced
2x Carrots, peeled and sliced
30g Belgian strong dark chocolate, grated or chopped into small pieces
1x Teaspoon of thyme
2x Bay leaves
1x Beef stock cube
2x Tablespoons of red wine vinegar
3x Tablespoons of brown sugar
1x French baguette
Dijon mustard
Potatoes
Endives
Butter


Method:

For the Stoofvlees:
1. Put the carrots, thyme, bay, red wine vinegar, brown sugar and chocolate in a stew pot.
2. Season the meat and brown off in batches in a frying pan, add to the stew pot when done.
3. Gentle fry the onions until translucent, add the 3 crushed garlic cloves for one minute then add to the stew.
4. Pour some of the beer into the frying and bring to the boil, crumble in the stock then add to the stew. Keep deglazing the pan until all of the beer is in the stew and give it a good mix.
5. Slice the baguette and slather one side of each with Dijon mustard. Place them mustard side down on top of the stew.
6. Cover the stew and place on the stove on the lowest heat setting possible and leave for a few hours. Occasional give it a stir to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom and allow the soggy bread to disintegrate and thicken the sauce.

For the Chips:
1. Peel and cut the potatoes into chunky chips all the same length and thickness.
2. Parboil the chips for 10 minutes or as I do microwave on high for 7 minutes.
3. Plunge into cold water to cool and rinse the starch.
4. Dry the chips on kitchen paper and if you have a freezer pop them in there for an hour. If not just leave them out covered with kitchen roll.
5. Pour a good glug of oil in a roasting tin and put in the oven on gas 7
6. When the oil is very hot gently place the chips in then baste them and pop back in the oven on the top shelf.
7. Regularly turn the chip so all 4 sides brown as much as you like. We like our chips crunchy.
8. When done turn the oven down and move to bottom shelf if you're not quite ready to serve.

For the Endives:
1. Using 1 crushed clove of garlic mix it well with a big dollop of butter.
2. Slice the endives into quarters length-ways.
3. Put the garlic butter in a frying pan and gently saute the endives for about 5 minutes.
4. Season and serve.

Sirloin Steak on Fried Bread Pâté with Marsala Sauce

We first saw a dish similar to this at The Sheaf in West Haddon (which has sadly now closed) and have modified it to suit us in our van. Please excuse the focussing in the picture, I'm learning how to use a new camera!

 

Ingredients:

Sirloin steak about 2cm thick
Bloomer loaf
Pâté
Potatoes
Mushrooms
French beans
1x clove of garlic
Marsala wine, or any wine
1x shallot roughly chopped.
Butter

Method:

For the Chips:
1. Peel and cut the potatoes into chunky chips all the same length and thickness.
2. Pour a good glug of oil in a roasting tin and put in the oven on gas 7
3. Parboil the chips for 10 minutes or as I do microwave on high for 7 minutes.
4. Plunge into cold water to cool and rinse the starch.
5. Dry the chips on jolly roll (kitchen paper).
6. Gently place chips into the hot oil in the roasting tin, baste them and pop back in the oven on top shelf.
7. Regularly turn the chip so all 4 sides brown as much as you like. We like our chips crunchy.
8. When done turn the oven down and move to bottom shelf while you fry the steak. Season with salt and vinegar prior to serving.

I like to prepare the chips the night before up to the point where they are plunged in cold water. Dry them off and put them in the freezer uncovered. The next evening roast them from frozen. This is using Heston's triple-cooked-chips method but in this case only double-cooking.

For the steak:
1. Make sure the steaks are at room temperature and not straight from the fridge.
2. Brush oil over one side and season with salt and pepper.
3. Get a frying pan hot and smoking and drop the steaks in oil side down. Never do more than 2 steaks in one pan as the temperature drop stops the all important maillard reaction.
4. Oil and season the upturned side.
5. After 2 minutes add a big knob of butter and turn the steak over.
6. Fry the other side for 2 minutes whilst continuously basting with the buttery juice.
7. Remove from the pan and put to one side, cover with foil and allow to rest.

For the mushrooms and beans:
1. Slice mushroom into chunky slices or use shitakes whole as I've done.
2. Trim beans and chop in half.
2. Chop or crush a clove of garlic.
3. Chuck it all in a frying pan with a big knob of butter.
4. Keep turning and when done add a good squirt of lemon juice, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with chopped parsley leaves.

For the fried bread pâté:
1. Cut into 2cm slices and trim to roughly the same shape as the steak.
2. Fry in a nice oil and set aside until serving.
3. Just lavishly smother in a pâté prior to serving.

Order of cooking:
1. Do the chips completely to the point of moving to bottom shelf.
2. Put beans in a bit of oil and begin sautéing.
3. Do steaks and set aside.
4. Add shallot and marsala to steak pan and reduce.
5. Add mushrooms and garlic to beans.
6. Plate up!

Rump Steak and Jenga Chips

You can't beat a good steak and chips and this thick rump steak was tremendous! We bought it from The Farmers Cart in York and can totally recommend them.

 

Ingredients:

1 Big rump steak
Mushrooms
1x Garlic clove
Tomatoes
Celeriac
Double cream
Big potatoes
Butter
Fresh flat leaf parsley
Half a lemon, or bottled juice if easier.


Method:

For the celeriac mash:
1. Just like mashed spuds, peel, chop and boil the celeriac.
2. Mash with a fork with some butter, cream and salt and pepper. If you want fancy puree push the celeriac through a fine meshed sieve before adding butter and cream.

For the Chips:
1. Peel and cut the potatoes into chunky chips all the same length and thickness.
2. Pour a good glug of oil in a roasting tin and put in the oven on gas 7
3. Parboil the chips for 10 minutes or as I do microwave on high for 7 minutes.
4. Plunge into cold water to cool and rinse the starch.
5. Dry the chips on jolly roll (kitchen paper).
6. Gently place chips into the hot oil in he roasting tin, baste them on pop back in the oven on top shelf.
7. Regularly turn the chip so all 4 sides brown as much as you like. We like our chips crunchy.
8. When done turn the oven down and move to bottom shelf.

For the steak:
1. Make sure the steak is at room temperature and not straight from the fridge.
2. Brush oil over one side of the steak and season.
3. Get a frying pan hot and smoking and drop the steak in oil side down.
4. Oil and season the upturned side.
5. After 2 minutes add a big knob of butter and turn the steak over.
6. Fry the other side for 2 minutes whilst continuously basting with the buttery juice.
7. Remove from the pan and put to one side, cover with foil and allow to rest.

For the mushrooms:
1. Slice mushroom into chunky slices.
2. Chop or crush a clove of garlic.
3. Chuck it all in a frying pan with a big knob of butter.
4. Keep turning and when done add a good squirt of lemon juice, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with chopped parsley leaves.

For the tomatoes:
1. Cut tomatoes in half and either fry them or roast in the oven.

Cooking order:
I cant quite remember how I did this but it would have been something like.

1. Make chips and put in microwave.
2. Peel and chop celeriac.
3. Put chips in oven, and tomatoes on bottom shelf.
4. Get celeriac on the boil.
5. Chop mushrooms.
6. Chips on bottom shelf.
7. Mash celeriac.
8. Fry steak.
9. While steak resting do mushrooms in steak pan.
10. Serve on a sharing board and tuck in, yum!