Category: Yelly Eats

Everything and anything about food, cooking, baking, and recipe-testing

Yelly Eats

BIRD is not the word

Yelly

Given the choice between beef, poultry, pork and seafood, I would choose poultry over pork, then seafood then beef.  Beef is probably the best source of protein, but I would chicken over most meats any day.

In the last quarter of 2014, I wrote about my Chicken Bucket List.  It was a list of up-and-coming places to eat that specialised in chicken that I wanted to try (the London food scene is alive, well, vibrant and varied!).  I must admit, the underlying criteria was that the places needed to serve some sort of Southern fried chicken-style dish.

It was their claim that they “served the best free range fried chicken you’ve ever tasted” that drew me to wanting to try their food.  I mean it’s a very brave and bold claim certainly.  The people at Bird must trust their food that much to make that sweeping generalisation.

I went to the Shoreditch restaurant and got there fairly early (I had misjudged how quick it was to walk from Liverpool Street station to the Shoreditch location – clearly I did walk faster than I thought).  So anyway, I was cool with having to wait outside and sit on the benches situated outside the restaurant.  It was fine.  Besides, Shoreditch is a very interesting place and there will always be something to see.

Bird ShoreditchSo when the restaurant finally opened (nearly 45 minutes later than what was on the doors), my tummy was rumbling excitedly.  I love Southern fried chicken, and while I cannot claim to be an expert, my Spit and Roast-inspired buttermilk fried chicken is really good.  Bird was one of the very few places at the time that served chicken and waffles.  I was hoping to get gravy and maple syrup.

More Bird spaceThe space was okay.  Nothing too styled, it was clean and not cramped, if a little dimly lit (it was located right next to a bridge, almost under it, so I wasn’t expecting a space awash with light!).  The decor was kitschy but cute, with framed caricatures of chickens.

Bird SpaceThe staff were nice enough, seating us in one of the table-chairs-banquette spaces that was nearer the Bird doughnut hatch, on the left side of the restaurant.  It was quiet and I loved the fact that it was the quieter side of the room.  I was ready for a relatively spiritual experience.  After all, we were talking about chicken and waffles here!  So orders (from slightly smudged menus) were taken and I ordered what I came to order: fried chicken and waffles (I was disappointed that it didn’t come with gravy as I’d wished, but that was my fault because I didn’t check out the menu online before I went.  They didn’t have any gravy on the menu).

Bird menuThe service was friendly and efficient and soon, plates of chicken pieces and fresh waffles were slide in front of us.  I’m not sure whether it was just that it was the early hour or if it was just the location.  But my chicken looked wrong.  I know that they battered their chicken and they didn’t bread it, but I found it a bit awkward that the chicken piece I was given had a scaly bit exposed – don’t get me wrong, it didn’t affect the flavour, it was just not pleasant to see.  We do eat with our eyes as well.

It went downhill from there.  I visited their website that evening and it does say that their chicken isn’t Southern fried chicken.  It’s fried chicken.  Granted it is fried, but you do get succulent fried chicken.  My chicken was dry and overdone, painfully so.  I’m not too certain how the chicken is prepared, whether it’s brined or marinated in buttermilk, but my piece of chicken wasn’t battered very well.  The batter had a bitter aftertaste, probably signalling that it had been left a little too long in oil that was a little too hot.  Mind you, I’ve incinerated enough chicken so I wasn’t too fussed so much.  It was just that the chicken was so dry that it was quite a struggle to adequately make a dent in the two pieces of chicken that my two waffles were served with.

Bird chicken and wafflesThe waffles were really nice, if a little on the light and thin side.  I loved that it was more savoury than sweet with the addition of spring onions.  Usually the waffles, in my humble opinion, provides the sweet element, to the sweet-salty flavour combination (the salty element provided by the chicken).  It was a refreshing change to have a properly savoury waffle.  It was great to be able to drench it in proper maple syrup.  I must say that I would probably happier just having the savoury waffles and the maple syrup instead.  But the restaurant is meant to specialise in poultry (its name is Bird).

Bird wafflesI realise that everyone has their opinions and food is a relatively subjective experience.  But I was disappointed.  It wasn’t the chicken experience I was expecting, and for me, it wasn’t the best free range fried chicken experience.  I probably won’t go back to any of the other Bird locations.

Sadly, for me, BIRD was NOT the word.

Yelly Eats

Absolutely magic!

Yelly

This should go wrong…even when I was making it, it felt absolutely wrong.  The batter didn’t look like it was going to set at all.  But let me tell you, whoever invented magic custard cakes is an absolute genius!

This is going on my must-bake-all-the-time list!

For those who have missed this growing trend, magic custard cakes are cakes is a cake with three layers, a spongy-meringuey top layer, a custard center and a pudding bottom layer.  The magical bit is that all this happens with JUST ONE BATTER!

Don’t ask me how because I have no idea how it works…but it does and it’s so good!

Magic custard cake

Yelly Eats

Dry rub Yelly-style!

Yelly

I love cooking meats low and slow.  There is a nuance of flavour that you can’t get anywhere else.  Plus, it’s one of the easiest ways of cooking.  You mix your spices for the rub, you slap it on the meat then bung the meat into an oven and (almost) forget about it.   I particularly like slow roasting pork.  I’ve tried a few rubs and I think  I think I’ve cracked the whole dry rub thing, at least for my pork.  I’m happy to share my recipe because I think it works really well.

  • 200g dark brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp paprika
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp coarse ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp chilli pepper

Just mix all the ingredients together.  This will be enough for at least 2 kilos of meat (pork shoulder or beef brisket work best).  Place the meat in a baking tray lined with baking parchment and then covered with foil.  I put a piece of parchment in between the foil and the meat so that the foil doesn’t stick to the meat.  Preheat your oven to 220°C.  Once the oven is heated, put in the meat.  Cook at this temperature for 20 minutes and then turn the oven down to 150ºC and cook for at least 5 hours.

Then serve with coleslaw and cheesy cornbread! Voila!

If you’re trying out my recipe, I’d love to hear from you!  I’d love to know how you got on.

Pulled pork, southern style

Yelly Eats

No to takeaway – yes to biryani

Yelly

So for someone who works a 9-5 job (well, okay, it’s really 8:30AM to 5PM) with a 2-hour commute (return trip, of course), giving up ordering takeaway for Lent can be quite disastrous because there are days when you simply don’t want to cook and you’d rather have pizza or chicken or a Chinese or Indian.  But there you go.  I have given up takeaways for lent.

Alan, bless him, has found something interesting in the aisles of Asda though.  He found a biryani spice mix for under £1.  There were instructions on the box about how to prepare the biryani.  I was excited.  If I couldn’t order a biryani, I would make it myself.  Granted it wouldn’t be my spice mix…but how spicy could it be (surely not as spicy as that biryani I ate in New York – that was like a volcano exploding in my mouth).

So I followed the instructions on the box.  The cooking process was quite fun, actually.

Ginger and onionsOnce the biryani was cooked, I plated up.  I artfully topped the bowl with mint and coriander.  I was so excited!

Lamb biryani

Then it felt as if I had bitten into a birds eye pepper.  I tell you, I was thankful we had mango lassi with our biryani and leftover yogurt because I have never made raita that quickly!

The next chapter of this biryani story is me trying to make biryani completely from scratch.  I don’t want to not feel my tongue when I eat one of my favourite Indian meals.

Watch this space!  Recipe testing is on the horizon.

 

Yelly Eats

Kedgeree

Yelly

A few weeks back I finally started making kedgeree.  I remember seeing cooking shows in Manila talking about kedgeree.  The idea of a curried rice dish appealed to my very Filipino palate.  We have rice with everything.  Plus, in the shows, it looked like a very easy dish to do.  I never got around to making it.

So when Alan announced we should try to make kedgeree, I was excited.  I’d seen the Hairy Bikers and the Spice Men (Cyrus Todiwala and Tony Singh) do their versions and I always end up wishing I could try it myself.  So I searched for a relatively easy looking recipe.  I wasn’t sure it was going to work but I was hoping it would.

And it did!  And it was good!

KedgereeSo after making it once, I made notes, tried to remember what my thoughts were on improving the taste (mostly add more salt!).  I’ve done it a few more times but this time, I think I’m brave enough to share my version of how to make a quick and easy version of kedgeree.

Ingredients:

  • 4 fillets of smoked haddock (can be just 2, I just like a lot of fish in my kedgeree)
  • 500ml water
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 medium onion, minced
  • 2 tbsp curry powder (I used medium)
  • 1 tbsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp ground dried coriander
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 2 tsp salt
  • juice of half a lemon
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 400g basmati rice
  • 500ml water
  • 25g flat leave parsley, chopped finely
  • 25g coriander, chopped finely
  • 6 hard boiled eggs, quartered (optional)

Directions:

  • In a saucepan, heat up 500ml of water and add bay leaves.  When the water starts simmering, add smoked haddock fillets.  Allow the water to come to a boil and turn down the heat to medium and allow the haddock to poach until it turns a light colour.  Poach for 10 minutes.
  • Once the haddock has poached, drain water and allow the fish to cool.  Once cool to touch, peel off the skin and flake the fish into large flakes.
  • In a pan, heat up the vegetable oil and add the onions.  Allow onions to become translucent and slightly brown around the edges on medium heat.  Add curry powder, turmeric, ginger, cumin, and dried coriander and heat until spices become aromatic.  Add the lemon juice to form a paste.
  • Add rice and mix until the rice grains are coated with the spice-lemon paste.

Rice and spice!

  • Add salt to spice and rice mixture.  Mix until everything is well-incorporated.  Pour 500ml of water and mix slightly.  Cover pan and allow water to boil.  Once the water starts boiling, turn the heat down to the lowest setting and allow rice to cook and absorb the water.  Cook covered for 10 minutes on low.
  • Once rice is cooked and all the liquid has been absorbed, stir in flaked fish and chopped parsley and coriander.
  • Top with hard boiled eggs and serve.

Kedgeree my wayMy recipe has a bit more spice, a bit more salt.  But that’s to my taste.  Feel free to customise to your taste.  If you try the recipe, I’d love to know how you get on!  I have fallen completely in love with this beautifully spiced rice comfort dish.

This recipe will serve a greedy 4 or 6 average eaters.

Yelly Eats

Pork puff pastry

Yelly

Recipe in development!

Char siu in puff pastry…in my head it was going to work.  But I think I need to read up on how people do this so that I can see where I went wrong and adapt my recipe.

The filling works though so that’s one thing that went right!

Pork puff pastry trial

Yelly Eats

Pastry fear conquered

Yelly

I love baking (I thought I’d put it out there, just in case you missed it!).  But there are still large gaps in my baking repertoire and there are projects which I’ve put off because of the fear that I won’t be able to produce the (baked) goods, so to speak.  My closet perfectionist comes out and becomes more critical than a certain Paul Hollywood could be.  I am always worried that what I bake isn’t good enough.

One of my stumbling blocks is puff pastry and rough puff pastry.  I’ve always relied on store-bought pastry for the pastry because I’ve tried to make rough puff and puff pastry but they never really “puff” up.  So instead of disappointing myself, I usually just go and buy puff pastry and use that instead in all the baking projects involving puff pastry.  It’s the coward’s way out, but I’m less disappointed in myself.  I usually say to myself that even Mary Berry and Jamie Oliver suggest using store bought pastry!

But last weekend, I was, very strangely, prepared to try again.  I was surprised to find myself only too willing to face my fears and try to make puff pastry again.  I knew that I had to at least try again because my short crust pastry was already good.  I needed to at least try to learn to make acceptable puff pastry!  It took me several weeks to work up the courage to make pastry.  In the end, I found a relatively straightforward recipe from the Pieminster cookbook (see Page 10 of the book).

pieminister-a-pie-for-all-seasons-coverSo I bought the ingredients, determined to make lovely, flaky cheese straws and bacon twists!

After reading and rereading the recipe, with a lot trepidation, I set out to follow the recipe properly.  Et voila!  I managed to make (really pretty, if I do say so myself) pastry that looked the part!

wp-1454857681421.jpegThere is something to be said about facing your fears…and doing a lot of research to prepare!  Thank you Pieminster for your glorious book and the recipes within it!

wp-1454857837239.jpeg

Yelly Eats

Finally Kedgeree!

Yelly

I love curry and Alan has introduced me to the fragrantly delicious world of Indian food.  After trying lamb biryani for the very first time, I have never looked back.

Even when I was in the Philippines, I would hear about kedgeree.  How it was nice and comforting.  But I was never really brave enough to try to cook it.  In the Philippines, it was because I didn’t have smoked haddock readily available.  In England, it was because I thought kedgeree was difficult to make.

So a couple of weekends ago, I told myself it was time to bite the bullet and make kedgeree. I used a recipe that looked simple enough, from the BBC Good Food website.  I took a deep breath and added the ingredients to my shopping list and took the plunge!

And, oh boy, was it GOOOOOOOD!!!

I don’t know why I thought it was difficult.  It was so similar to cooking a paella which is something I can do with my eyes closed.

Kedgeree prepIt may have a few stages more than my favoured paella but it was similar and it was equally as comforting!

KedgereeIf you’d like to have a go, John Torode’s recipe is the best to start with!  Enjoy!

Yelly Eats

The (Chicken) Bucket List!

Yelly

Chicken is probably my favourite meat.  I mean, truth, currently have a lot of pork in my freezer at the moment (I once had a 2kg pork shoulder joint hiding in the bowels of my tiny freezer) but my meat of choice is chicken.  It’s so versatile and is probably the healthier option (granted, fish is probably the healthiest option but if you want a perfect middle ground, trust me, poultry is king!) than pork or beef.  I’ll take chicken any which way.  I love it baked, broiled, stewed, poached, steamed, roasted, barbecued…I could go on.  I’d probably eat chicken however way it’s prepared. I may have already done so.

My all-time favourite chicken dish, however, is Southern fried chicken.  I loved it so much that every time I hear of a chicken place that claims to serve “proper” Southern fried chicken, I ask Alan if we can go and try it out.  Thankfully, Alan is almost always too happy to indulge this particular obsession.

I’m truly grateful that Alan shares my passion for finding the perfect fried chicken (Southern).  We scour – well, okay, scour is probably too strong a word – we peruse social media, read through the food section of newspapers and magazines to read about these chicken-serving places and make mental notes of the places that we want to visit.  We’ve discussed chicken places to death so it dawned on me that the next step in this fried chicken journey was to put together a list of chicken-serving places that we wanted to try.  So we’ve written up a rough list of the places we’ve either tried or want to try.  The qualifying characteristic?  They claim to serve some sort of fried chicken.

And so…presenting our chicken bucket list!

1.    Roost
2.    Spit and Roast
3.    Mother Clucker
4.    Bird
5.    Clock Jack
6.    Wishbone
7.    Red Dog
8.    Jubo
9.    On The Bab
10.    Stax
11.    Ruby Jean’s Diner
12.    Joe’s Southern Kitchen and Bar
13.    Chooks
14.    Meat Liquor
15.    Rita’s Bar and Dining
16.    Eat 17
17.    Jackson and Rye
18.    Clutch

So watch this space as I write through the (chicken) bucket list!

Yelly Eats

Beseder the Bell and Brisket!

Yelly

When I was little, my father talked about salt beef and chicken soup all the time.  He always waxed poetic about how life was in kibbutz that he stayed in.  He studied in Israel and loved his time there, eventually converting to Judaism.  Most of the memories that I remember him sharing with us while we were growing up was about the food that he ate.

I am more partial to chicken, but will eat beef, occasionally.  But I do love salt beef.  Especially when it’s done right.  We met the lovely Bel Shapiro of The Bell and Brisket, oh maybe, three years ago, at the Brewer Street Market (I think it was in the Brewer Street parking building).  Her salt beef is beautiful and delicious and yummy and succulent and flavourful…I could go on.  I am such a fan.  But this fan hasn’t been able to have a salt beef fix in a very long time.  That salt beef desert ended last Friday though.

I got a “naked” Old Timer from The Bell and Brisket (sans any carbs) so I could enjoy the lovely salt beef in all its deliciousness, only adorned with horseradish and mustard and complimented by pickled gherkins and beets and it was beseder!  Well, not just good.  It was AMAZING!

Old Timer