Author: SamTheChef

How to make Gnocchi

Gnocchi!

It’s a fun sounding word, i think the best description i’ve heard of it is a potato dumpling though you can fry them.

Before having ever made them i always thought it would seem like a daunting task but they’re really pretty simple.

Recipe!

Ingredients (makes plenty)

  • Potatoes, preferably floury ones like King Edward, Estima, Maris Piper or Desiree.
  • Plain flour

Prep and cooking (35-45 minutes)

  1. Start by getting the potatoes on to boil, you don’t need to peel or chop them just leave them whole and boil on a high temperature for around 20-30 minutes until they are cooked all the way through, they might start to break apart but thats fine.
  2. When the potatoes are cooked pour out as much of the water as you can then run them under a cold tap (in the pan) until they are cool enough to handle.
  3. Remove the skins and put the whole potatoes back into the pan.
  4. Now mash the potato with a masher or potato ricer.
  5. Next to add the flour, a lot of it’s down to personal taste but i’d say about 300g of flour per 1kg of potato is a good starting point, the more you use the more texture it will have but will mask the potato flavour more, too little won’t hold them together enough and it’s nice to have a little bite.
  6. Mix the flour and potato well, flour a work surface and gently knead it for 3-4 minutes, add more flour if it gets too sticky.
  7. Roll out sausages and cut 1-2cm pieces, how big or small is upto you but if you make them too big the outside will turn to mush or burn before the inside is so don’t make them crazy big, if you score them lightly with a fork then sauce (or butter) will hold better when cooked.
  8. To cook you can either boil of fry them, to boil just get a pan of salted water on the boil and add 10-15 pieces, or enough so that they don’t sit on top of each other in the pan and let them boil for 2-3 minutes, as soon as they rise to the top they are ready.
  9. To fry simply heat some oil or butter over a medium high heat until you have a nice colour on them, you may need a little extra flour in the mix if frying.
  10. Cover with sauce, or just melted butter, salt and pepper.
  11. Good stuff.

More recipes soon!

Pork loin with Black pudding & Stilton

This is another request from the Facebook page.

It’s only the 1 component, i would normally serve this with some form of veg and potatoes and a sauce (Cumberland sauce works well, will get a recipe up for it soon).

To the recipe!

Ingredients (serves 1)

  • Pork loin, enough for 1 serving (about 200-250g)
  • 1 slice of black pudding, cut in half (2 semi-circles)
  • 2 slices of Stilton, i usually cut it quite thick

Prep and cooking (10-15 minutes)

  1. First you want to get the oven nice and hot so turn it on to about 190-200°c (fan).
  2. Next heat up a frying pan on a medium-high heat, preferably one with a metal handle so it can go straight into the oven.
  3. Whilst the pans heating up cut the portion of pork loin in 1/3’s with a slightly diagonal cut so you have 3 chunky medallions of pork loin.
  4. When the pans at a good temperature add a dash of oil and cook the pork for about a minute each side, or until it start to get some nice browned bits on.
  5. Take the pan off the heat and arrange the black pudding and stilton slice in between the pieces of pork, i usually put an extra piece of cheese over the top too.
  6. Put it in the oven and cook for 5-10 minutes.
  7. Remove from oven and serve as desired (watch out for the hot pan handle).
  8. Enjoy!

More recipes soon!

White chocolate and Strawberry Cheesecake (no bake)

We all love cheesecake!

This was a request from the Facebook page, you can use dark chocolate but i find the flavour of white chocolate works a bit better with the strawberry and slight sourness from the cheese.

Recipe!

Ingredients (serves 8)

For the base

  • 1 pack of biscuits (i like to use hobnobs)
  • 100-200g butter (depending how buttery you like the biscuit base, using more than 150g can make the base go soggy though)

For the filling

  • 200-400g strawberries, sliced (thickish, about 4 slices per strawberry)
  • 200g White chocolate
  • About 400g soft cream cheese
  • 50-100g icing sugar
  • 200ml double cream
  • Fresh mint or basil leaves (optional, to decorate)

Prep and cooking (30 minutes)

  1. First smash the biscuits up, easiest if you’ve got a food processor just blend them with a blade attachment, if not chuck them in a sealy bag and wrap a towel around it and smash it with a rolling pin.
  2. Put the biscuit dust into a mixing bowl and melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat.
  3. Mix the butter with the biscuit until it holds together.
  4. Line a cake tin with baking paper and layer the biscuit over the bottom, push down with a wooden spoon or your hands to compact it into the cheesecake base, cover with cling film and put in the fridge for about 20 minutes.
  5. Whilst it’s cooling down make the filling, melt the chocolate over a bain marie on the stovetop (saucepan with small amount of water in and a bowl over the top, using the steam to heat) or in a microwave, if using a microwave be careful not to burn the chocolate.
  6. In a seperate mixing bowl whisk the cream cheese with the sugar, add 1-2 tbsp of boiling water and whisk until its nice and smooth.
  7. Now pour in the melted chocolate with 2-3 tbsp of the cream and mix well.
  8. Put a layer of strawberry slices over the biscuit base and then cover with the cream cheese mixture and spread out evenly.
  9. Whip the rest of the cream and layer this on top of the chocolate/cheese filling.
  10. Arrange the rest of the strawberries on top, decorate with mint or basil leaves if using.
  11. Eat the damn thing.

More recipes soon!

Cookies; something to make with the kids on lockdown

This recipe is a request from the Facebook page.

Cookies are great to make with kids, they’re easy, quick and delicious (and kids love them!)

To the recipe, this is a sightly simplified version to make it easier for the kids.

Ingredients (Makes 15-20 cookies)

  • 300g plain flour
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 200g butter (melted)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 egg
  • 100-200g chocolate chips or broken up chocolate bars

Prep and cooking (30 minutes)

  1. Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan).
  2. Mix the melted butter, vanilla extract and sugar together with a wooden spoon in a mixing bowl.
  3. Sift the flour and baking powder and mix well.
  4. Add the chocolate chips and mix.
  5. Line a baking tray (or trays) with baking paper.
  6. Roll the cookie dough into small balls (you should get 15-20) and flatten them slightly onto the baking tray leaving about 2 inches between them.
  7. Bake for 15-20 minutes (it depends on the size) until the edges start to turn slightly golden.
  8. Enjoy! (I prefer them when they’re still warm).

More recipes soon!

Chocolate Crémeux Recipe

(above image from Gordons Restaurant with Rooms)

If you like chocolate, you’ll love this.

I’ve been asked for a recipe for something sweet and chocolatey, and this definitely fits the bill!

As you would expect using a better quality chocolate ends up with a better tasting desert.

Lets get to it!

Ingredients (serves 6-8)

For the base

  • 30g butter
  • 50g self raising flour
  • 30g demarara sugar
  • 1 or 2 tsp cocoa powder

For the filling

  • 1 egg
  • 100ml whipping cream
  • 150ml whole milk
  • 150g dark chocolate (min.70% cocoa solids)

Prep and Cooking (45+ minutes)

  1. First make the base, preheat the oven to 160-170°c (fan) and line a baking tray with baking paper and place a tart ring on top (if you don’t have a tart ring you can use the outer part of a cake tin that holds the base in place).
  2. Mix the butter, sugar, flour and cocoa powder to make a crumble and layer over the bottom of the tart ring to create the base, cook for 10-15 minutes, remove from oven and leave to cool.
  3. Now for the filling, make a bain marie with a bowl and saucepan of water to melt the chocolate in, whilst it’s melting bring the milk and cream to a boil and beat the egg in a seperate bowl.
  4. As the milk and cream comes up to boil remove it from the heat and slowly pour it over the egg whilst whisking constantly, then slowly pour this into the chocolate mixture whilst whisking.
  5. Pour the mixture over the base, cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
  6. Enjoy! try not to put yourself ito a diabetic coma with these things..

More recipes soon!

Prep Guide; Bell Peppers Part 2

Segment

The segments of pepper should quite easily come off as you pull them back, if not just use a knife to slice them away from the pith.

Trim the Pith

Tear off the inner parts with pith attached, lay them on their sides and cut the pith out.

And there you have it, a bell pepper prepped and ready to use, i like to roast them and store them in a jar in the fridge (will post a recipe for this soon).

Stay tuned for more tips and recipes soon!

Prep Guide; Bell Peppers

Probably one of my favourite vegetables (i know technically a fruit but oh well).

A very versatile ingredient, so i thought i’d do a little guide on how i usually prepare them.

1.Take it’s hat off

Start by slicing off the top, try to cut through the bottom part of the stem.

2.Take out the insides

Next remove the seeds and any pith (white bits) that you can grab with your fingers.

You don’t have to take out the pith, it’s perfectly edible unlike citrus fruits where it’s very bitter. A common misconception is that you can’t eat the pith on bell peppers, removing it is just down to personal preference.

Cut the Pith out

With a knife slice along the edges of the pith on the inside of the pepper.

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How to Butterfly a Chicken Breast

Following up on how to butcher a whole chicken (and save £££) when you butterfly a chicken breast it will cook twice as fast because of the larger surface area and it’s not as thick.

It’s a good skill to know if you ever want to stuff a chicken breast and it generally looks nicer on a plate.

It’s pretty simple and gets a lot easier with practise.

Where to make the incision

Firstly where to actually cut the breast, the incision will be made on the outside of the breast, if you’re unsure which is the outer side look at the underside of the breast, where in inner fillet is (or was if you’ve removed it) is the inner side, so the opposite side to that one.

Making the Cut

Slice into the side of the breast about 3/5’s of the way in, then open the breast up and slice down the centre to open it out fully.

Stuff, cook, marinade etc

As you can see this gives a lot more surface area so marinades get more absorption, it’s also good for stuffing as it creates a pocket.

More recipes and cooking tips soon!

How to separate a chicken leg into a thigh and a drumstick

Now to work on the legs, start by taking one leg, if you look at the drumstick you should see some white cartilage that goes round the top of the drumstick in the traditional rounded drumstick shape.

Take your knife and gently score along this line until you hit a bone, then it’s time to get popping again, feel for the joint connection in between the thigh and drumstick and pop it out of place, then continue to slice where the bone was previously obstructing .

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