How To Make Salt and Pepper Ice Cream

So what started out as a twitter joke with the amazing @DigitalBlonde I wanted to see what this would actually taste like, and I have to say its brilliant!!!

For the base of the ice cream

8 egg yolks
6 tbl spoons caster sugar
1 table spoon rock salt
1 table spoon cracked black pepper
500ml whole milk

In a pan heat your milk to just under boiling point.

While this is heating up, chuck your sugar and eggs together in a seperate bowl and whisk.

Pour your hot milk into the bowl with your egg mix and whisk continually.

Return the mix to the pan and gently heat while continuing to stir.

The mix will thicken and make a custard.

Let the custard cool before adding your salt and pepper. This is really important because if the mix is warm the salt will dissolve.

I tried a batch using normal salt but wanted to get salty crunchy bits.

Now lob it in your ice cream machine.

Done!

I served mine with some summer berries.

Piri Piri Pork

Ok so to try and help warm everyone up I knocked up this Piri Piri Pork dish.

A favourite flavour of mine and one I can't recall unleashing on the boys yet, but it went down a storm!!

The pork steaks themselves are just dusted with cajun spice and oven roasted on 185c for around 25 mins.

Piri Piri Sauce

I used
6 good sized red chillis
6 cloves of garlic
Drizzle of oil
Can chopped tomatoes
Some veg stock powder
Sugar

First roast off the chilli and garlic until they start to char round the edges and chuck them in a food blender.

Lob in your chopped tomatoes then add your stock powder to taste.

At this point slowly add some sugar and keep tasting. The sugar rounds off the flavour of the chilli and brings your tomato to life!!

Have a go!!

I served mine with new potatoes and a sweetcorn puree.

Micro herbs in a school???

Just wanted to say a bit about micro herbs and why I use them in a school!!

Micro herbs/Sakura cress are more commonly found in your high end fine dining restaurants and I think that has put chefs in my position off the idea of using them.

Yes the price might seem extravagant but the flavour and colours you get from them are amazing!!

A tray of Sakura cress costs me around £13. Don't get me wrong it is alot for just a garnish but a box will last me for 2 services so around 180 plates.

Now it sounds better, right??

Not only that but it really enhances the look of the dish. As chefs we are always taught you eat with your eyes first.

If you get chance to get some of these bad boys grab them!! Its not as expensive as you think!!

Back to the Food!!!

So im guessing you are probably bored of hearing about awards and nights out, so heres todays lunch.

Slow Roasted Belly Pork

Ok so I took 12 kilos of boned belly pork and slapped it in the oven on 150c for a good 4 hrs.

Because the belly is fatty it needs time to render out the fat making the meat more tender.

After it was cooked I squashed it flat with another tin and a very large can of beans and let it cool. We have a blast chill so its cold in less than 90 mins. This makes the belly more even.

I then cut it up to about 85 decent portions. 45 mins before service I smacked the oven up to 200c to crisp up the skin and heat up the meat. It only takes about 30 mins but I wanted 15 mins resting time.

All that was left to do was slice potatoes and onions and cook off some veggies.

Job done and less than £1 a plate

Enjoy!!

Cardamom and Mango Cake

Right then, if you have read any of my other posts you can probably tell I like to be a bit adventurous when it comes to flavour combinations! So ive got Bangra Burgers on for lunch and wanted to carry on the indian inspired theme, what do you chuck on for dessert? Rice pudding? A traditional indian dessert like kulfi or gulab jamun? Not me! Cardamom and Mango Cake! Very tasty! Heres how I did it.

Made a normal sponge ( see previous recipe )

In a pan on the hob heat equal water to sugar and lob in 5 or 6 cardamom pods. I used green ones.

Bring it to the boil and reduce to a syrup.

Set aside to cool.

Turn out your sponge and make little holes with a cocktail stick all over.

Tip over you syrup.

Arrange on your desired plate and garnish with mango coulis.

At the school its all about getting the students to try new things and flavours. Always handy if you csn make it work in a cake!!

Enjoy!

It's Roasting!!!

Ok so its been the hottest day so far and what did I put in the menu last week for today??? Roast chicken!! Luckily im allowed to change the menu so I turned it into a roasted chicken salad. Topped with carrot and courgette spaghetti, vacuumed cucumber ribbons and a dressing I made using balsamic vinegar, olive oil, stock from the chicken and xantham gum! Not really a product you will find in a normal school kitchen but hey!! I'll be doing more with this as time goes on i'll show you the results and recipes.

Enjoy

Lobster Thermidore Pizza

So as part of our street food week I thought it would be a good idea to make a gourmet pizza, little did I know that I would be acquiring a couple of beautiful lobsters from Kingfisher in Brixham. So as I only got 2 lobster to serve 85 I made a really nice cheese and lobster sauce to top my pizza and garnished with a slice of their amazing smoked salmon. Classic street food! Take something that shouldn't be there and make it work!! Have a go!!

Thai Style Duck Salad

OK so during the half term holiday I've been in deep thought about what I can do different next and came up with this! Sounds expensive and looks a bit cheffy but really easy and surprisingly cheap.

Here's what I did.

For the duck.

To prepare the legs I got a roasting tin and chucked in about 8 sticks of lemon grass, on top of that stick your legs, its best to stab them a few times with a fork this let's the fat out and makes the duck more tender. Bang it in the oven on 200c for 30 mins. When its done let it cool and take off as much meat as humanly possible.

The salad

I used French mixed salad but use whatever floats your boat, I also roasted off some yellow cherry tomatoes with spring onion, grated carrot and chilli flakes with dark soy sauce and sweet chilli.
I really wanted to give a bit of crunch and at one point considered knocking up some croutons but that's pretty standard and not really out there enough for me so then my thoughts turned to prawn crackers, now do I chuck them on the side or lightly crunch them up and bang them on?? Neither! I found a pack of spring roll pastry sheets in the freezer chopped them into strips and fried them off. Top those off with a sprinkle of micro beetroot shoots and a squirt of sweet chilli sauce and you've got yourself a posh looking plate of really tasty food. 30 duck legs got me just over 100 portions loads came back for seconds and a few thirds!

Cheesy Jalapeno Bread

I don't need to tell you how cold its been, but I do need to tell you about todays lunch! So Chilli Pasta Bake ( done it before I know ) but this time I was looking to serve it with something other than garlic bread. What else do you serve with chilli? Cheesy Jalapeno Bread thats what. Admittedly at first I thought I had over Jalapenoed but as it turns out it was the star of the show! I also forgot to add a key ingredient to the dough and it still came out better than normal.

Here's how I did it.

500g Plain Flour
7g Dried Yeast
A good handful of Jalapeno Peppers
300ml warm warm water

Mix all the dry ingredients and slowly add the water until the dough comes clean off the bowl.
leave until doubled in size then roll out like pastry  to about an inch thick.
Top with grated cheese and slap it in the oven on 150c for 10 to 15 mins.
Job Done!!!

Did you notice no fat in the recipe? You won't in the end result either. Have a go!

Pulled Pork Bap

OK so back to school this week after a lovely 2 week break!! As always thought I'd try them with something new to our menu.

So with Pulled Pork being "in" at the moment I decided to give it my twist, and I couldn't just stop at the pork so made a chilli bread roll lemon and black pepper green beans and garlic roasted new potatoes to go with it. Oh and a choice of home made spiced apple sauce or mustard mayo to go with it.

Here's how I did it.

For the Pork

In a roasting tin pop in your pork shoulder ( I used 10 kilo but I'm feeding 90 ).

With this I chucked in 10 cloves of garlic a couple of sliced onions some Chinese 5 spice and white wine vinegar ( just enough to cover the bottom of the tin this helps tenderise the pork ).

Cover with parchment paper then foil and bang it in the oven on 180c for 3 hours, then take off the foil and paper and cook for another hour. I know its a long time to cook but its a hard working piece of meat so needs it. 

When its get 2 forks and pull it apart so its like strands of meat. 

In a pan chuck in a couple of glugs of oil, add some sliced onion chilli flakes a sprinkle of sugar Chinese 5 spice and honey.

Fry them off till the onion has softened then lob in that pork you just pulled apart.

Season to taste.

OK so that's the hard bit, its a bit cheffy and does tasks a while but the end result is so worth it!

For the bread

Same as my previous bread mix with the addition of chilli flakes 

For the sides

Chuck your new potatoes straight in the oven with some garlic butter.

After you have cooked your green beans drain and whack on some olive oil lemon juice and cracked black pepper to taste. 

Not the greatest pics I'm afraid!

Have a crack yourself!!!

Boarders Christmas Dinner

Its the time of year all the boarders look forward to! The Christmas dinner. Last year was my first in the boarding house and with the menu already done and all the food ordered I had no input, this year was completely mine. Historically the menu has always been the standard Soup Main and Xmas pud, you can understand my concerns about my menu! Here it is!

Starter

Tomato and Basil Soup

Or

Chicken Liver Pate with Home made Melba Toast

Main

Roast Turkey

Or

Feta Cheese and Spinach Parcel

With 

Roast Potatoes (in duck fat for the carnivores)

Baton Carrots

Honey Roast Parsnips

Brussels sprouts

Pigs in Blankets

Sage and Onion Stuffing 

Rich Gravy

Dessert

Spiced Apple Slice with Home made Christmas Pudding Ice cream

Or

Lemon Tart

Admittedly not entirely ground breaking or too outrageous the very idea of a choice of starter and dessert and the fact that Christmas pudding as it should be didn't feature on the menu was enough to raise eyebrows with a majority of the boys and staff alike! 

With service out of the way it became clear that the night was a massive success and with comments like "best Christmas dinner in the school ever" ( from staff and boys!!!) I was happy! 

As always though I couldn't have pulled it off without the support and willingness to work even harder than they normally do from my team. Thanks guys!!

Here's a couple of pics of the Pate and Desserts and one of some bloke trying to look busy!!

Thanks again and have a very merry Christmas!!

Bangra Burgers

OK so it being Monday and all that brings I decided to bang out a few Bangra Burgers for lunch, basically an Indian inspired burger. ( I love a twist ). Truth be told I was asked by my boss to help her out a bit with recipes, I made two types Balti Beef and Keema Lamb, not enough for me to just make the burger so I made garlic naan inspired buns and a roasted pepper chutney garnished with fresh coriander and shiso cress.

So for the naan

My previous bread roll mix with added garlic powder and caraway seeds, when shaping the rolls you need to flatten them so they are about 1cm thick, this makes it look more naan like.

Balti Beef Burger

I used 5 kilo of beef mince and got 75 burgers.

This paste I used as a base for both burgers.

In a blender I put 7 green chillis

5 red chillis

1 bulb of garlic

A thumb size chunk of root ginger

2 onions

Mix half the paste with your beef and add 4 eggs, give it a good mix and chuck in some mild madras curry powder. Shape in to burgers and cook on 180c till cooked.

Keema Lamb Burger

So same as the beef but I used ground cumin ground coriander and garam masala instead of curry powder.

I was torn between serving them with fries or basmati rice so went for the rice. Whatever you choose you'll love these bad boys. Enjoy!!

Gulab Jamun

OK so we are having an indian special night on Friday but I wanted to post the recipe for this amazing pud!! Its basically a doughnut in syrup.

So the recipe

1 cup plain flour
2 cups milk powder
1 knob melted butter
Splash of milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

All you need to do is mix the dry ingredients and the butter then slowly add some milk until it gets to a dough you can shape. Roll in to small balls a bit smaller than ping pong balls, chuck them in a deep fat fryer about 170c until golden then let them cool. Whilst they are cooling put your sugar and water in a pan and boil until it becomes a syrup ( about 10 mins ) when cooled to room temp glug it over your little doughnuts cover and leave for 30 mins. Job done. Try it!!!

Chicken Caesar Salad

So todays lunch was chicken caesar salad, an easy one I know but not so easy when u have 30 mins to serve 90 and plate them as they come in! For this I used diced leg and thigh fried with onion and white wine. In the salad mixed french leaf red and yellow cherry toms diced cucumber home made garlic croutons and my favourite micro herbs. Simple ingredients that do the work for you and all we have to do is put the effort in to presenting them! Have a go!

Caramelised Onion and Cheese Tart

Ok so for lunch today we had caramelised onion and cheese tart with honey thyme and rosemary roasted new potatoes, and green beans. The picture doesn't really do it justice! Followed by chocolate cake and chocolate ganache. For the tart I chucked some sliced onions in a pan with sugar and a good knob of butter, high heat till really brown. While thats happening roll out your pastry till about 5ml thick and line your chosen dish. When the onion has cooled a bit lob in some grated cheddar ( I use mature ) then spread it on your pastry. Cook it on 180c for about 20 mins. Top tip! let it cool before you cut it ( I used a pizza wheel ). And for desert see the chocolate cake recipe! Easy! Have a go!

Lemon Mousse

Everyone loves a good desert and this one turned out to be a real winner! Here's how I did it. So I had a bit of vanilla sponge wasn't enough to ice with lemon and really wanted a lemon desert. So I smashed it up so it was like bread crumbs and squeezed in the juice of 4 lemons then crammed it into 2 baking trays about half a cm thick and baked it in the oven 150c for 5 mins to set the base. Then I got some of my homemade yoghurt chucked in some more lemon juice and zest and whipped the life out of it. All that I had to do now was plate it so cut small disks piped on the mousse mix and dusted with cadburys chocolate powder. Its not what you have got its what you do with it. A little effort goes a long way!

Thai Style Beef Salad

So today's lunch was Thai style beef salad, sometimes the simple ingredients make the best dishes. All we have to do is think about how they get on the plate. For this I used beef strips lemon grass ginger chilli and garlic, a touch of soy and a bit of beef stock plus the salad. Cherry tomatoes red and yellow for colour bean sprouts beet shoots and the cucumber I sliced into ribbons just for a bit of difference. Not hard but looked very chefy and went down really well. Try it!!!

Chicken Biryani

Today's lunch was chicken biryani with home made naan and mango raita. Not bad eh!! Here's how I did it.

For the biryani

Sliced onion
Chilli
Garlic
Chicken ( I use diced leg and thigh, better flavour and breast can be dry )
Chicken stock
Salt and black pepper
Water
Curry powder
Dry rice

In a pan fry your onion chilli and garlic, get them nice and brown chuck in your chicken, when its nearly cooked give it a good whack of curry powder ( I know its cheating and I do use proper spices but its Monday and I've got £4 a day! ) its really important at this point to cook your spice for a good 5-10 mins this is called cooking out, basically it won't taste powdery. Now lob your rice in and if your using stock powder now's the time for that too. Stir it until its all coated then add your water/stock like your making risotto, a little at a time until the rice is cooked and you get the consistency you want. Done, I roasted some peppers and threw them on top last minute for a bit of decoration.

Naan bread my way

So I used my bread recipe and added some caraway seeds.

500g flour
7g yeast
300ml warm water
100ml oil ( sounds a lot but really helps the naan )
Pinch salt
Pinch sugar
25g caraway seeds

Mix the dry ingredients and slowly add the water and oil knead until  its a nice firm dough, leave to prove until double the size. Squash it back then shape into small balls, flatten them with a rolling pin into a naan shape. Lightly oil a frying pan ( I use a pastry brush ) and throw in your dough, brown on both sides brush with butter and eat with your amazing biryani!! Enjoy!

Todays Lunch

I know its been done before but it has now become a favourite so once again wild mushroom risotto! But this time with the addition of a mature cheddar cheese chard and as always Thai Basil Micro Basil Micro Mizuna and beet shoots with their choice of bread.

Salad Bar Latest Addition!

Ok so our salad bar runs along side lunch and dinner but I thought if they dont want the main then there should be another few protein choices available. I always cook my own gammon joint for sliced cold meet chicken drums eggs and cheeses (mature cheddar and brie). Not enough for me so I tried them with smoked salmon, which they loved. So in an attempt to make it even more restaurant style and to try and satisfy my needs ( I always want to go a step further ) I made my own cream cheese and chucked some chives in, lined a mould with smoked salmon put the filling in and turned them out. Couldnt make them fast enough!