9 minute read
Recipes
BBQ Season, The Art of Marinades
by Chris Price,Training Officer, Cambrian Training
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As we enter the summer months and you start planning your BBQ parties, why not impress your guests by making your very own meat marinades that will leave them wanting more of your delicious food. Here is a guide for a good technique to use to help maintain flavour and keep your meats tender by using one of my favourite marinades using Welsh Honey, Lime and Coriander suitable for everyone’s taste.
Ingredients
• 60g lime juice and zested limes if using fresh ( should be 5 limes ) • 70g Welsh Runny honey • 2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce • 1 Tablespoon olive oil • 2 garlic cloves, minced • 1 bunch fresh coriander, finely chopped • ½ teaspoon salt • ¼ teaspoon pepper
Method
Making your marinade;
For a good marinade, you need a balance of acid, oil and spice.
1. So simply mix all the ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Place your meat/poultry into a zip sealed bag and pour over the marinade, zip the top and mix all over. Leave in the fridge for 12hrs or until you need them.
3. Remove from the bag and place straight onto the hot BBQ or grill. You are looking for nice grill marks on either side with a nice golden brown colour. 4. You could also make a spare mix and brush each side of the protein each time you turn it over to add some extra punch.
Top tips - If you marinade your meats/ poultry the day before you are giving them extra time to soak up those lovely herb flavours and help tenderize those tougher cuts of meats. If you’re short on time and can’t marinade your meats, then you can simply rub around your protein and put them straight onto a hot grill or BBQ. The art of marinating & grilling develops skills learnt by apprentices when working towards an Apprenticeship Level 3 in Craft Cuisine and covers preparing and cooking of a range of meat and poultry.
For more information about Apprenticeships contact Cambrian Training Company at cambriantraining.com or Tel: 01938 555893.
Welsh Beef Calzone
Ingredients
• 300g lean PGI Welsh Beef mince • 1 pack of pizza dough mix, made up according to the instructions or shop bought pizza dough or you could make your own pizza dough. You will need enough pizza dough to make 2 x 20cm circles • Seasoning • 1 onion, sliced or chopped • 1 small red pepper, cut into strips • 1 small yellow pepper, cut into strips • 25g mushrooms • Handful of spinach • Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved • 1 garlic clove, crushed • 2 tbsp tomato purée • 1 tbsp tomato ketchup • 1 tsp dried oregano • 50g grated mozzarella cheese • 50g Cheddar cheese, grated • Few slices of salami (optional)
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 220°C / 200°C fan / Gas 6.
2. Dry fry the beef mince until nice and brown, leaving it in clumps.
3. Add the onion, peppers and mushrooms and fry gently to soften.
4. Add all the remaining ingredients other than the cheese. Stir through to mix and leave the mixture to cool.
5. On a floured board, roll out the pizza dough into 2 circles approximately 20cm each.
6. Place the pizza dough circles on baking paper. 7. Stir the cheese into the beef mixture.
Halve the beef mixture and spoon onto one half of each pizza dough circle, leaving 3cms around the edge.
8. Lightly dampen the edges with water and fold the pizza dough over the half of the circle to form the calzone.
9. Press to seal the edges. Using your fingers, crimp or fold in the dough to form a pattern around the edge of the calzone.
10. Carefully lift the calzone onto a baking sheet and place in the oven for approximately 20 minutes until the dough is golden and crisp.
Porc shoulder ramen
Ingredients
• 1kg porc shoulder joint • 1 tbsp oil • 1 tbsp sesame oil • seasoning
For the broth:
• 2 litres of chicken or vegetable stock • 1 large onion, cut into wedges • 2 carrots, roughly sliced • 1 stick of celery, roughly chopped • 3 garlic cloves, sliced • 1 red chilli, halved • a 3cm piece of piece root ginger, roughly chopped • 4 tbsp reduced salt light soy sauce
To finish: • vegetables, choose from: spinach or pak choi, carrots cut into thin matchsticks, thinly chopped spring onions, beansprouts, chopped bamboo shoots, leeks • boiled egg (semi soft) • sesame seeds, toasted • red chilli, thinly sliced, or chilli flakes
Method
The porc shoulder is cooked slowly, producing a delicious broth packed with flavour – a great recipe for slow cookers or simply on the hob. The tender meat is then pulled and combined with crunchy vegetables over steaming noodles.
1. Season the porc shoulder with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a frying pan and sear the meat until browned. Place in a large pan or if you have one, a slow cooker. 2. Add the broth ingredients, bring to the boil and simmer gently for 3-4 hours in a pan (or 6 hours on low in a slow cooker).
3. When the porc is cooked through and tender, remove from the broth and allow to cool slightly before pulling apart into smaller pieces. Directly before serving fry the porc pieces in 1 tbsp sesame oil to crisp up slightly.
4. Strain the broth to remove any solids (the liquid can be topped up with chicken or vegetable stock if required).
5. To serve, place the cooked noodles in bowls, ladle over the hot broth and porc pieces and top with vegetables of your choice. Finally, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and red chilli.
Welsh Lamb cutlets with ginger and lime butter
Ingredients
• 4 lean PGI Welsh Lamb cutlets or loin chops • 50g softened butter • ½ lime, juice and grated rind • 1 tbsp stem ginger in syrup, finely chopped
Method
1. Take the lamb cutlets and cook under a preheated grill or on a hot barbecue for 8-12 minutes.
2. Meanwhile make the butter: mix together the softened butter with zest of lime and juice, and finely chopped stem ginger. Place a spoonful of butter onto the lamb cutlets and allow to melt slightly before serving.
3. Serve with a new potato salad and seasonal vegetables.
Cocktail of the month
Devil’s Advocate
Made with Devil’s Bridge Bara Brith Spiced Rum, this short, sweet & punchy drink is perfect for that sitting-around-a-camp-fire kinda weather. Soaking up the evening sun, and spending time in good company with even better booze.
This little number, garnished with a banana bread crisp, perfect for dunking, is light, complex, tropical and refreshing . The perfect summer banger.
To make this delicious banana crisp you want to pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees. Then in a sauce pan mix together 60g butter, 60g sugar, 30g finely mashed banana, the smoother the banana the better and 50g golden syrup. place on the stove on lowest heat for 3 minutes mixing together until all sugars have disolved and at a good consistency. Then add 80g of plain flour and mix once again. On a baking mat spread a thin layer of the mixture across, place into oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown. While hot slice the crisp into strips and leave to cool.
To make this cocktail you’ll only need a couple ingredients. Pour into a boston tin (if you don’t have one of these anything like a kilner jar, a coffee flask or anything you can close and shake)
30ml of Devil’s Bridge spiced rum, 15ml Creme de Banane, 15ml Aperol and 20ml fresh lemon juice, fill the tin up with ice and give it a hard and sharp shake for about 10 seconds. You want to strain this out into a Nick and Nora glass and squeeze a lemon zest over the drink and garnish with the banana crisp.
Txoko Hake
Serves 4–6
We will never forget cooking our version of this classic Basque dish in Txoko, an underground food club in San Sebastian. The combination of hake, clams, local teardrop peas (lágrima) and Txakoli white wine is very indulgent, and one that never fails to transport us back to that place and time. As teardrop peas can fetch a few hundred pounds per kilo in the UK, this recipe uses ordinary peas instead. Apart from that swap, we do everything else by the book, simply cooking each element as best we can to preserve the integrity of the dish.
Ingredients
• 1 bunch of green asparagus • (8–10 spears) • 1kg fresh thick hake fillet, trimmed, • pin-boned and cut into 6 pieces • 100g jamón butter (see page 262) • 1 large banana shallot, finely diced • 3 large garlic cloves, sliced • 750g palourde clams, rinsed and • cleaned • 150ml Txakoli white wine (available • in good independent wine shops) • Extra virgin olive oil, for frying and • sprinkling • 2 tsp capers, from a jar • Flour, for dusting • Zest of 1 lemon • 200g freshly podded peas or frozen • peas • Large handful of flat-leaf parsley, • leaves picked and finely chopped
Method
Trim the woody ends off the asparagus. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook the spears for 2 minutes. Drain and refresh in iced water, then chop into 3cm pieces. Set aside. Score the skin side of the hake fillets at 2cm intervals, then set aside. Heat the jamón butter in a sauté pan or saucepan over a medium heat until melted. Add the shallot and garlic, and cook for 2–3 minutes, stirring until softened. When translucent and with the smell of cured ham in the air, turn the heat up to maximum for 20 seconds, then add the clams and wine. Stir, cover with a lid, and cook for 2 minutes. In the meantime, heat 3 tablespoons of the olive oil in a separate non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Season the hake with salt on each side, then place in the pan, skin-side down, and press with a spatula for the first 10 seconds. Cook for 4 minutes, then turn and cook for another 2 minutes. If you have a probe thermometer, the centre of the fish should register 50ºC. Transfer to a plate to rest.
Toss the capers in some flour, add them to the empty frying pan and cook for 2 minutes, until crispy. Drain on kitchen paper, then place in a bowl and mix in the lemon zest. Set aside. Remove the lid of the clam pan and keep the heat on high to evaporate the wine and clam liquor. After 2 minutes, add the peas and asparagus, then cook for another minute to warm the vegetables through and reduce the liquor even more. The clams should be fully open now. Discard any that aren’t. Turn the heat off and stir in the parsley.
Dress with a little olive oil. Arrange the clams and vegetables on plates, then top with the hake fillets. Add a small spoonful of the caper and lemon zest mix to finish.
