Black Pudding Delight

Cooking for large number's of people sometimes has it's benefits. It normally mean's that there are plenty of leftovers after cooking at events, whether it be actual leftovers or surplus ingredients, there is always something left over. The struggle is sometimes what to do with the leftovers. So after a hectic week of secret suppers at The Nursery Festival and with a lovely group of women containing a soon to be bride, I was left with a load of Black Pudding and Salsa Verde. Rather than adding to the ever growing food waste mountain, it only seemed right to try and conjure up a magnificent meal from the leftovers of others.

Now I love a bit of black pudding every now and again, but find that I mainly use it for weekend lazy breakfasts, especially my favourite, Breakfast of champions. After rediscovering Andrew Pern's book Black Pudding and Foie Gras in a recent clean up, I thought it was time to be a bit more adventurous with the black pudding and use it in a Monday night Supper for me and the flatmate.

Black Pudding and Chilli Pasta 

Serves 2

Brown onion finely diced

3 cloves of garlic finely diced 

1 red chilli 

Half a ring of Black pudding thickly sliced

About 5 good tablespoons of Salsa Verde 

200-250g of Spaghetti  (depends how hungry you are feeling, and to be honest I never weigh pasta out I just do it by judgement)

Maldon Sea Salt

Freshly Ground Pepper

Olive oil

1. First start by heating up some olive oil in a heavy based saucepan, once hot add onions and then garlic and let them soften slowly

2. Put another pan on full of salted water and bring to the boil for the pasta 

3. Add finely diced Chilli to the onions and garlic and sweat for a few moments.

4. Place spaghetti into the pan of boiling salted water and cook as directed on the packet, preferably until al dente

5. Once Spaghetti is pan of simmering water, crumble the black pudding in to the onion, garlic and chilli mix and gently fry, until the pasta is cooked .

6. Drain the cooked pasta and return to the pan.

7. Add the pasta to the  black pudding and onion mix  and then combine together.

8. Then spoon in the salsa verde into the pasta, mix thoroughly once again and serve

It was a joy to discover that the dish contain the right balance of heat from the chilli, herby goodness from the Salsa Verde and earthiness from the Black Pudding. We enjoyed the pasta with a bottle of young Portuguese Vino Verde which proved to be the perfect accompaniment for this unusual offally pasta dish

Illicit luxury lone dining

So apparently we are in a double dip recession, to be honest I have no idea what this means. I just know that most people are pretty skint and graphs showing the country's descent into an even deeper economic downturn looks like a reversed sign for a humped back bridge. Dining out and eating fancy foods have been somewhat curbed recently due to moving into a new ex council flat near Broadway Market in Hackney. My life's been a bit hectic in the past months what with the move, deposits, flaky landlords and of course the first weekend of Hidden Dining at Shacklewell Nights, so a treat of the culinary nature was defiantly order of the day.

Once moved into the new flat the first thing I unpacked was my collection of cookbooks (I have already filled up one bookcase with them all in), while I was unpacking them I found a copy of Trina Hahnemann 's Scandinavian Cookbook that had been sent to me by the lovely people at Quadrille Publishing before the move out of the old flat. Since the boy wonder disappeared to Sweden six months ago, I have become somewhat intrigued about Scandinavian cooking. Tales of the best tasting  fish and kelp's that taste of the sea and tins of exploding fermented herrings in the dry store, have fuelled me to learn more about the Scandinavian cuisine.

Finding my copy of the Hahnemann's Scandinavian Cookbook, got me thinking about  and craving one of my most favourite foods - Gravalax. Gravalax is Salmon cured in a mixture of sugar, salt and dill, and is left for a few days (if you can bear the wait) for the fish to take on the cure. The Swedish use to and probably still do, bury the salmon in the ground for the curing process, as the word gravalax in Swedish means buried salmon.
The recipe is adapted from a number of sources, mainly my lovely Swedish work mate who first turned me on to the wonders of gravalax and of curing your own salmon at home and  Hugh Fernly Whittingstall through a programme of his that I had seen a few years ago.





Beetroot Gravalax
Ingredients

a whole salmon halved, with skin
2 bunches of fresh dill
6 raw beetroot's grated
200g sea salt
200g caster sugar, sometimes I use a half and half mixture of caster sugar and soft dark brown sugar for a more stronger tasting cure
tsp peppercorns, crushed
4 tbsp vodka




Pick out any small bones left in the salmon with tweezers. Wash, dry and roughly chop the dill. Peel and grate the raw beetroot

Mix the dill, beetroot, sea salt, sugar, pepper and vodka in a bowl  thoroughly.

Place a length of cling film on a chopping board and place on side of the salmon skin down on the length of cling film
Place  the curing mixture one one top of the salmon,  then place the other side of the salmon on top of the cure mixture with the skin side facing upwards.



Wrap the whole of the salmon with clingfilm (you will probably need more clingfilm to wrap the salmon  and refrigerate for 24 hours, turn the salmon over  and refrigerate for a further 12 to 24 hours.

Remove the fish, rinse most of the excess cure and pat dry. Finely slice and serve.

The best accompaniment  for the Gravalax is a mustard dressing made from mustard, sugar, salt, white wine vinegar and dill and a good rye crisp bread. I can thoroughly recommend Peters Yard's Swedish crispbreads, which come in big disc's perfect for sharing or if like me perfect for indulging in some indulgent illicit luxury lone dining.

Autumn Days at Shacklewell Nights

With a definite change in the season's Shacklewell Nights presented an autumnal menu of

Roast Parsnip Soup with Colton Basset and Roasted Walnuts

Confit of Rabbit Leg with Butterbeans, Rocket and Red Onion

Discovery Apple Jelly with Spiced Mascapone Cream 

Neal Yards Cheese Plate, Biscuits and Hackney Chutney

The next weekend of Shacklewell Nights will be on the 19th and 20th November 2010. For further details and booking 

info@shacklewellnights.com

www.shacklewellnights.com

@Shacklewel1

 

Many thanks to all who were involved, attended and supported us  A special thanks  to Miguel from Casa Leal, Nick from The Drapers Arms, Henry from Leon,  Auchentoshan, and Paddy from Neal Yard’s Dairy.

Images used by permission from www.snapshotlondon.co.uk

The House Made of Tin

I feel slightly guilty, its been an age since I updated the blog with my adventures of cooking and eating. I know that its no excuse but it seems that my summer of fun came slightly later than everyone else's this year. After the success of the first Shacklewell Nights at the end of July, its been a whirlwind of cooking for other people in weird and wonderful locations for the past couple of months. I have also moved into a new flat, which unfortunately doesn't have enough room to hold a supper club and if truth been known, I have been slightly put off cooking due to the acrid color of the walls in the kitchen. The mustardy yellow color is not the most beneficial color to be productive, whether your feeling slightly fuzzy headed or not.

There have been a number if highlights since I fully got into the swing of summer in mid August, but the main highlight was running a pop up bed and breakfast of sorts for friends who were staying  in a converted tin tabernacle in the Isle of Wight in the run up to Bestival at the beginning of September.

Our stay in the converted former 19th Century Mission Hall was a delight from  start to finish. It was easy to forget that  I was in fact there to provide a service for people who were staying at the converted chapel. The beautiful tin structure held even more surprises inside, Vintage Vacations had decorated and styled the interior as a homage to all things vintage and kitsch. The kitchen itself was kitted out in a fully restored 1950's  'English Rose' kitchen. I was in my element, it felt as if you had just been transported straight in to a scene of Mad Men, just without Don Draper being there unfortunately.

Staying at the Mission really was a  week full of  communal breakfasts of Granola, yogurt and Stewed apples from the apple tree in the garden of the Mission or slow roasted tomato's on sourdough, perfect preparation for a hard day's work at the festival site. Once guests returned from the site, there were big pans of chilli, stews and plenty of home baked cakes, waiting for them to recharge their batteries. It was a hectic week of people wandering round with phones glued to their ears. The kitchen table turned into a hub of communication, at one point sitting 10 people their laptops and shouting down their phones, but thankfully once they left to go onto site I had the chance to soak up the atmosphere of the tin house on my own, reading books,listening to Radio 4,drinking tea, baking cakes and day dreaming of Don Draper to my hearts content. 

Images used from www.vintagevacations.co.uk

Feastival

For all those that are off to one of the last festivals of the year  - Bestival on the Isle of Wight.


Keep your ears open and your radio's tuned at 87.7 FM, as Green Onions will be currating Feastival, two radio shows  on Bestival Radio  on Saturday and Sunday afternoon at 1pm.

Hidden Dining

 

So we did it, our first evening of Hidden Dining at Shacklewell Nights. We couldn't of wished for anything better. Many thanks to all who were involved, attended and supported us in our new endeavours.

info@shacklewellnights.com

www.shacklewellnights.com

@Shacklewel1

Images used by permission from Betty Bhandari

Hobo Supper III

 

After the recent rounds of  friends sofa's and spare rooms  for the past week, I have thankfully got a whole house to my self for a week. I was lucky enough to have a house lent to me for a week whilst some friends took their kids on holiday. Their house is one of those houses which I would love to own when I grow up (even though I think I am actually grown up, but more than likely will never own a house, never mind one as amazing as my friends), a beautiful family home in the midst of Hackney full of gorgeous handcrafted objects and decorated internally in a homely yet modern fashion. The main delight of the house though is the large expansive garden out the back, which my friends have turned into a large veggie plot, providing them with all the fresh veg, fruit and herbs that anyone could dream of. 

When I moved in there was a note on the table telling me where the freshly washed sheets were and to make myself at home, but to make sure that I watered the garden every day. In return for watering the garden I could eat any of their produce which was ready to eat - I literally skipped out in to the garden and went to see what was ready and what I could cook and eat for supper that evening. After an initial look around there seemed to be nothing available, but after a closer inspection I spotted a lone courgette peaking out from underneath some leaves. One courgette was enough to produce a plate of supper of some kind surely, having doubts I then remembered a dish that me and a  dinner companion ate a few weeks earlier at St John Bread and Wine , I quickley sprang into action. Well not so much sprang into action, but a slow amble to the local shop to get some more ingredients to go with the courgette.

Courgette, White Bean and Goats Curd

1 x Courgette sliced

1 x Brown Onion finely diced

1 x Clove of garlic

1 x tin of Cannelloni Beans (can use any white beans for this dish including butter beans and haricot beans)

Goats Curd or Soft Goats Cheese  

Veg stock

Fresh Thyme 

Fresh Parsley 

Maldon and Black Pepper

1. Sweat  brown onion and garlic in a pan with a knob of butter and olive oil.

2. Add chopped leaves off a few stalks of Thyme

3. Add sliced courgette and sweat off for a few more moments 

4. Add the rinsed Cannelloni beans, stir and season

5. Add a drop of veg stock to braise the veg and the beans for a few more minutes

6. Once courgettes and beans have braised for about five minutes add some chopped parsley

7. Place the bean and courgette mix onto a plate and then top with Goats Curd or Soft Goats cheese (which more readily available).