Steak tartare with crispy egg yolk, mustard mayonnaise, nasturtiums, tarragon dressing and fennel pollen

Firstly apologies for the lack of blog posts recently. Holidays, birthdays and general business have all got in the way and I just haven’t had the chance to sit down at a computer. Hopefully I’m on track again now and can get back to the weekly updates…

The real inspiration for this dish was a lovely trip to Brighton to see my mum and dad’s allotment. They have had it for a good few years now, and the work they have done really shows. Neat rows of perfect looking vegetables everywhere! I was lucky enough to get to pick a bit of everything, and came back to London armed with bags of courgette flowers, new potatoes, French beans and herbs. Heaven! And because they were so fresh the taste was just sensational. 
 

Included in my bag of goodies were nasturtium leaves and flowers. I had never tried them before, but once I had my first one I couldn’t stop. They have a wonderful peppery taste that yields to a final sweetness, and I knew they would be perfect as a salad element in this dish. The other unusual thing that I bought home was fennel pollen. This was something that my mum gave me to try as we walked round. It is way more intense and aniseedy than other types of fennel, and used sparingly here adds another flavour dimension. Obviously these are quite difficult to get hold of unless growing your own, so rocket or watercress can be used instead of nasturtiums and toasted fennel seeds for the pollen.

Steak tartare is a simple thing that can be made quickly and reasonably easily. The most important thing is the quality of the meat and the balance of ingredients. As you are eating the meat raw, you really want to be using the best beef possible from a trustworthy butcher. Fillet steak is the most expensive cut, but for this the tails will be perfectly suitable and a lot cheaper. A small piece goes a long way too. Instead of mixing all of the ingredients together, in this dish I have decided to present the mustard, dressing and egg yolk as separate items. I feel that this stops the beef flavour being diluted, and that you can taste each part individually. Texture is also important, and the nasturtiums and breadcrumb coating on the egg add much-needed crunch to the soft meat and mayo. It’s all about tasting for seasoning at every stage.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the tartare:

150g good quality fillet tail, trimmed of all sinew
3 cornichons, very finely chopped
2 tsp shallots, very finely chopped
¼ garlic clove, very finely chopped
½ tsp fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

For the crispy egg yolk:

2 egg yolks
1 handful panko breadcrumbs
50g flour
1 egg, beaten
Salt and pepper
1ltr vegetable oil for deep frying

For the tarragon dressing:

1 bunch tarragon
¼ bunch marjoram
½ lemon, juice only
1 tsp caster sugar
200ml olive oil
Salt and pepper

For the mustard mayo:

2 egg yolks
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp English mustard
400ml vegetable oil
Salt and pepper

To finish:

1 handful nasturtium leaves and flowers
A drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
A pinch of fennel pollen
Pepper


Take the steak out of the fridge to come to room temperature.

First make the mustard mayo. Put the garlic, egg yolks, mustard, white wine vinegar and a good amount of seasoning in a small food processor and blend well. Slowly add the vegetable oil, starting with just a few drops, then slowly trickling until fully emulsified. Taste and add more mustard or seasoning if necessary; you want it to be creamy with a good mustard kick. Remove to a bowl, cover and refrigerate until needed. 
 

Next make the tarragon dressing. Put the tarragon, marjoram, lemon juice, sugar and salt and pepper into a food processor and mix until very finely chopped. Add the oil slowly until well combined. Taste and season if needed then set aside.

Chop up all of the ingredients that accompany the steak; the cornichon, garlic, shallot and thyme should be really fine. Set aside until needed.

Heat the oil up to 180ºC.

While it is heating, prepare the crispy egg yolks. Very carefully separate the whites from the yolks. Lightly roll them in the seasoned flour until fully coated. Beat the other egg into a small bowl and dip the coated yolks into it before covering in the panko breadcrumbs. Set aside until the oil reaches temperature. 
 

Cut the fillet steak across the grain into 1cm slices, then into thin strips. Slice these strips into pieces slightly chunkier than mince. Transfer to a bowl and combine well with the flavourings, a good amount of seasoning and a couple of glugs of extra virgin olive oil. I like the tartare to be quite loose with oil, which also adds a good peppery taste.

When the oil is the right temperature, spoon in the egg yolks and cook for 45 seconds then remove. While the egg is cooking dress the nasturtium leaves and flowers in a little extra virgin oil, salt and pepper.

To plate up, spoon two neat piles of the tartare mixture onto each plate. Add the hot egg yolk and a small quenelle of the mustard mayo. Arrange the nasturtium leaves and flowers around the edge and add a few drops of the dressing. Sprinkle the fennel pollen over the top and serve.

Giant prawns

A nice and quick one this, as it’s less of a recipe and more of show of great ingredients. 

Last weekend I had a quick after work trip to Borough Market with Katie. It had been a really busy week, and the thought of drifting around a bustling market with a steaming cup of something mulled was too good an opportunity to refuse. As I work on Saturdays, I hardly ever manage get down there so couldn’t wait to get back! 

Over the past few weeks I have been trying to eat a bit more sensibly, mostly cooking up big vegetable stews and soups in an attempt to get in a bit better shape and hopefully save some pennies in the process. I even went as far as promising a friend one drunken night that I would go through the whole of November as a vegetarian, declaring that I could do it with ease. Obviously that didn’t last long. I have generally been good though and I have enjoyed feeling a little bit healthier because of it. I am the sort of person that could eat a good soup or stew every day of the week, so I plan on carrying this on a little longer. However, this doesn’t carry over to weekends, and it’s always so tempting to pig out. 

I had intended to be quite thrifty at Borough too, and it was the perfect chance to get some hard to source ingredients for a meal that I had been meaning to make. Sitting in the park in the cold on my lunch breaks in the week had made me crave warming bowls of mussels with a rich and spicy sauce with cider, tarragon and ‘nduja. The only problem with this is that when you are at Borough, you are surrounded by amazing quality produce and it is so easy to go a bit crazy and buy things by ‘accident’. This occasion was no different, and especially after a mulled cider as the first meal of the day I was a sucker. As I went to buy the mussels that I needed from the large fish stall in the central market, Katie pointed out the massive Madagascan prawns, and in a rash moment I pointed at those as well. 

I had often seen these prawns and wanted to buy them, but mostly I reason that they are too expensive, potentially unsustainable and I’m also not too comfortable with the amount of air miles involved in getting them here. That’s not to say that I only use local ingredients, I don’t, but in the case of the prawns I often just think that there is something better that I could buy from closer to home. However, at that point on Saturday I found those prawns in my bag, and I was quite excited about eating them.

I only had one method of cooking them in mind - fast and simple. When you spend that much on such special ingredients you want them to speak for themselves. Garlic, chilli and lemon go amazingly well with prawns, and the smell and taste of the freshly grilled prawns made me feel like I was on holiday, ripping the shells off whilst sitting at some Mediterranean harbour. If you like you can use the same methods with prawns of any size, just adjust the cooking time to suit. I used a grill, but had this have been summer, a bbq would have been my first choice. 

Serves 2

Ingredients:

6 large prawns, shells left on

1 small red chilli

1 large garlic clove, finely chopped

3 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

1 lemon

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

To serve:

Good quality mayonnaise, preferably homemade

1 lemon

Salt and pepper

Turn the grill up to high.

Mix the garlic, chilli, parsley, lemon juice, olive oil and some seasoning together in a bowl. Toss the mixture through the prawns, and arrange them on a flat baking tray. 

Put the prawns under the hot grill and cook for 3 minutes, then turn over and cook for another 3 minutes, or until the shells have turned pink and are sizzling away. 

While the prawns are cooking, mix a few tablespoons of mayo with the juice of half a lemon and some salt and pepper. Taste and adjust. 

When the prawns have cooked, squeeze over the other half of lemon juice and sprinkle over a little seasoning. Serve with the mayo and tuck in!

Pea, mint and almond tortellini with black pudding, crispy bacon and peashoots

Another day, another pasta recipe... I really am addicted to pasta, and could make and eat every day of the week. In this country is has a stereotypical association with stodgy student food, but it is so much more than that! With a little thought, you can make a lovely pasta dish out of pretty much anything that you’ve got in the fridge; and that’s exactly what I did with this recipe. 

Normally I leave making fresh pasta for weekends, or when I have a bit of time to cook something nice. It’s something that I like not to rush, and although with a bit of practice it’s quick to make, I find that taking my time with it makes the whole process lovely and therapeutic. On this occasion, I had made a batch of pasta a week before for a dinner party, and froze the cricket ball sized leftover dough. I didn’t really have a plan for it at the time, but it was too good to waste and definitely came in handy. All I had to do was take it out of the freezer the night before and it was all ready to roll out when I got home from work. 

I fancied making filled pasta again, and what I had in my fridge and freezer left me in no doubt as to what I wanted to put in it (or basically that was all I had in so had very little choice...). I had some peas in the freezer, and some bits left over from a previous breakfast and thought that they 

 go well together. Peas with bacon or black pudding is quite a classic combination with things like scallops or liver, so I was sure that it would work here too. Perhaps unsurprisingly it did, with the fresh and zesty peas contrasting beautifully with the salty bacon and the earthy black pudding. 

The best thing about it is that it is so easy to put together, and if you already have the pasta dough made then it’s so quick. Perfect for that night after work where you fancy something tasty but can’t really be bothered. For vegetarians, the basis of this recipe can remain the same, but the bacon and black pudding can be substituted with a nice tangy hard goat's cheese.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the pasta:

200g 00 Flour

2 medium eggs

1 tsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

For the filling:

250g frozen peas

125g good ricotta cheese

1/2 bunch mint leaves

2 spring onions, chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

2 tbsp ground almonds

2 tbsp finely grated parmesan

1 lemon, juice only

Salt and pepper

For the butter sauce: 

80g butter

3 slices of bacon, chopped into small pieces

Salt and pepper

To finish:

6 slices of black pudding 

1 handful peashoots

1 tbsp finely grated parmesan

First make the tortellini filling. Saute the spring onion and garlic until softened and add to a food processor with the ricotta, mint, ground almonds, parmesan, lemon juice and seasoning. Heat up a small saucepan of water until boiling and add the peas. Cook for a couple of minutes until tender and sweet before draining. Run the peas under cold water to stop the cooking and leave to dry off for a couple of minutes (tipping onto kitchen paper speeds this up). Add most of the peas to the food processor and blitz everything together until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning and lemon, then stir in the few remaining peas for a bit of texture. Set aside until you are ready to fill the pasta.

Now make the pasta. Put the flour, eggs and a good pinch of salt in a food processor, and blitz until the mix looks like coarse breadcrumbs. Tip everything out onto a floured surface and knead together until the dough has an elastic texture but is not sticky. Knead in a little flour if necessary. Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for half an hour to rest.

After half an hour, remove the pasta dough from the fridge. Using your pasta machine, roll the dough until it goes through the thinnest setting and you have a long, almost translucent sheet. Cut the pasta into 4” squares on a well floured surface, and spoon a large tablespoon of the filling into the middle of each square. Brush a small amount of water onto one half of the pasta sheet, and carefully fold diagonally to form a triangle with the pocket of filling sealed in. As you fold, push out any air that is trapped inside. Using a pastry cutter, cut around the folded triangles to make little neat semicircles. Holding one semicircle in one hand, gently form a dimple in the middle with your thumb and wrap the two corners around your thumb, then sealing with a little water. Sprinkle with a little flour and set aside in the fridge on some greaseproof paper until needed. Repeat until you have 6 tortellini (3 per person).

Heat up a saucepan on a medium-high heat with a little olive oil, and fry the bacon pieces until crispy. Remove and set aside, and remove any excess oil from the pan but do not clean. 

Fill a saucepan with water, season with salt and bring to the boil. 

While the water is boiling, cook the black pudding. Carefully cut the slices so that they are just bigger than the tortellini. Save the other bits to add to breakfast. Heat a non-stick frying pan with a little olive oil on a medium heat. Fry the black pudding for 3 minutes per side. 

Heat up the saucepan used for the bacon to a medium-high heat and add the butter. When the butter turns a light brown colour and is foaming, add the crispy bacon bits. Taste and season.

When the water has boiled, and the black pudding and butter sauce have 2 minutes to go, put the tortellini into the boiling water. Cook for 2 - 2 1/2 minutes before carefully removing with a slotted spoon. 

To plate up, arrange the black pudding on the plate and top each one with a tortellini. Spoon over a good amount of the bacon butter sauce, sprinkle with parmesan and finish with some peashoots. 

Homemade burger

Following on from my last blog post where I reviewed the brilliant Honest Burgers in Soho, here is how I would make my own burgers at home. 

Although I love to go out to a diner or burger joint, I’m a firm believer that the best burgers are the ones that you make at home. You can tweak the ingredients to make them just how you like them, cook them perfectly for you and serve them with your favourite condiments. I’m not a massive fan of ketchup and sliced tomatoes in mine, and seem to spend half my time pulling or scraping various bits from burgers eaten out, even when I’ve asked for them to be left out. There is nothing worse than a disappointing burger, and making them at home takes all of this stress away. They are so quick and easy too, and if you’ve got the ingredients in the house then you can make them in the time that it would take you to get a takeaway.

As with everything this simple, the ingredients will do the talking so try and use the best quality you can. When buying mince, don’t buy really lean mince, as you still want some fat present which will give more flavour and moisture to the cooked burger. Unlike many other burger recipes, this one has no eggs or breadcrumbs to bind it together. I think that these aren’t all that necessary and often give the burgers quite a hard texture. These burgers are really soft, but they are quite delicate and you need to be careful when shaping and turning! To help this, make sure that the ingredients that go in the burger mixture are chopped really finely. 

I’ve recently read about using brioche and even doughnuts as burger buns, but to be honest I think that the best thing is a simple large soft white bun. Anything too crusty will make it difficult to eat (especially important if eaten in company!), and could cause the burger to fall apart. I think that the sweet contrast in using a brioche has scope though, and I look forward to experimenting with this in the future. 

Try with the beer battered gherkins below as a good alternative to chips.

Makes 2 large burgers

Ingredients:

300g steak mince, not too lean

1/2 a medium red onion, finely diced

1 red chilli, finely diced

4 tbsp cheddar, finely grated

3 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

1 tbsp english mustard

Salt and pepper

2 large soft white buns, or brioche if preferred

Your choice of additional ingredients to serve. I like my burger with crispy smoked bacon, stilton, finely sliced red onions, gherkins, rocket and mayo.

To make the burgers, gently loosen the mince with your fingers in a large bowl and add the onion, chilli, cheddar, parsley, mustard and a good amount of seasoning. Mix well until all of the ingredients are evenly distributed. 

Heat a frying pan on a medium heat. Make a small patty out of a tablespoon of the burger mix and fry for about a minute on each side before trying and tasting for seasoning. Adjust the burger mixture if necessary. 

Split the mixture into two. Taking one half in your hand, bind it together into a ball and knead it quickly between each of your hands. This will help the mixture stick together and make shaping much easier. Carefully shape into a large burger, pressing any cracks together until you have a smooth disc. Set aside and repeat with the other half. These can be kept in the fridge until needed if preparing in advance. 

Put a large frying pan on a medium-high heat. Lightly oil and season both sides of the burger and fry for 3-4 minutes each side for medium, a little less or more if you like it rare or well done. If using cheese, put it onto each burger with a minute or two left of cooking to allow it to melt. 

Prepare the other condiments and additional ingredients while the burgers are cooking. When the burgers are done, transfer the burgers into the buns with the toppings and serve. 

Beer battered gherkins with paprika mayo

Gherkins are a really marmite ingredient, some people like them and others can’t stand them; I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who is indifferent to them. If you do like them, then these light and crunchy beer-battered gherkins are a great accompaniment to the burgers, or just to have as a snack on their own. 

They’re really easy to make too. The only thing that you need to be careful with is the deep frying. Always use a big pan and fill it no more than half full. If you are making a lot, fry the gherkins in batches to stop the oil temperature dropping and from them all sticking together. 

Serves 2-4 as a snack or side dish.

Ingredients:

1 jar of large gherkins, quartered lengthways

For the batter:

100g plain flour

175ml good ale or beer

Salt and pepper

2ltrs vegetable oil for frying

For the mayonnaise:

4tbsp homemade or good quality shop bought mayonnaise

1/2 a garlic clove, very finely chopped

A sprinkle of smoked paprika

1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped

Salt and pepper

To make the batter, mix the flour and a good amount of seasoning together in a large bowl. Slowly pour in the ale whilst whisking the mixture well to remove any lumps. Add the ale until the batter is the thickness of double cream. 

Heat up the oil in a large saucepan to 170ºC. When hot, coat the gherkins in the batter and lower them into the oil individually to avoid them sticking together. Fry until light brown and crispy, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the oil with a slopped spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Season and serve. 

For the mayo, spoon the mayo into a bowl and add the garlic, parsley and seasoning. Mix well, then sprinkle the paprika over the top.

Restaurant review: Honest Burgers, Soho

Gourmet fast food has become really trendy over the last couple of years. Barely a week goes by without Twitter buzzing about a new burger, hot dog or fried chicken joint opening in central London. Everyone loves a burger, but the best thing about these new ventures is the care taken in preparation and the sourcing of ingredients. No longer does late night convenience food mean a dirty burger with dodgy mystery ingredients, these places are now using good quality meat, artisan breads and independently brewed booze. Good times all round! 

I don’t venture into central London too often, so it has taken me a little while to get around to seeing what all the fuss has been about. However, I recently was out in the West End to see a show, and thought that it would also be the perfect opportunity to grab a late night bite. Funnily enough, I managed to accidently get my hands on a quick bratwurst before the show had even started! Stumbling past Herman Ze German whilst looking for a quick early pint, I just had to pop in and grab one. It was just amazing. Nothing new or revolutionary about it, but every element was just really well executed. It was great to see that the meat came from master butchers The Ginger Pig too. Bun, sausage, mustard and joy. I feel sorry for Katie though, who had to put up with me raving about how bratwursts were the future of fast food for the following twenty minutes... It was early though, so I was still thinking about how I satisfy my stomach for when the hunger came around later on. I needed recommendations, so it was time to get onto Twitter and find out where the best burger lay.

Show over and there were tens of replies to my tweet, with most of them saying that we just had to visit Honest Burgers. It was as easy as that, and so we set off through Covent Garden and into Soho full of great expectations. The only problem was that it was getting late, and arriving 15 minutes before close, we were painfully aware that we going to be those annoying customers and worried that we would even get fed. These nerves were totally unfounded though, and we were welcomed in by the friendly staff as soon as we opened the door. 

Despite the time, the intimate space was still bustling. The menu was short and the prices reasonable, with a burger and chips coming in at well under a tenner. So refreshing when most other places cram in the add-ons for those wonderful “how did the bill come to that, I’ve been fleeced” moments. The food came quickly and everything was just right. Honest burgers is exactly what they were; perfectly sized, well cooked and more importantly, tasty.   The Ginger Pig must be doing a roaring trade in town, as their beef had also crept into these tender patties. It’s exciting that people are caring more and more about what is behind the burgers, and the quality shines through in the taste. 

My only complaints were slight and mostly down to my own weird ways. I have a slightly unhealthy love of gherkins, and they are an important part of a burger experience for me, so I was disappointed by the lack of pickle presence. I fully accept that this isn’t a feasible gripe though, but my other issue was a little more pressing. You cannot serve up a bucket of unseasoned chips and not have salt on the table. Crunching through well cooked yet bland chips wondering “what if” is the most frustrating thing ever. Step in the great staff again, who happily offered some of their delicious rosemary salt when I brought it up. Burgers eaten and another surprise, we were content and comfortable. Too often you leave a diner stuffed to explode, but it this case they had judged it bang on. 

We left way after the doors shut and didn’t feel pressured one bit. We eat a lot of burgers,, and these were some of the best. It’s brilliant that fast food is no longer a drunken afterthought, and I’m already finding excuses to eat some more.