Saturday 19th September 2020 – Cooking Dirty

Someone requested we cook a dirty steak. We’d already done some dirty skirt a good few weeks back, so instead we did some dirty pork rib-eyes, a fabulous cut not often eaten. Cooking dirty just means cooking directly on the charcoal. It’s a technique used by many including some of the  Michelin starred chefs.

• Dirty pork rib-eyes
• Dirty lamb topside – a great little joint that could be served for a roast dinner. We cooked this to medium rare using the Meater+ to monitor the cook.
• Dirty beetroot with goats cheese and chilli.
• Dirty Onions – we just love these and they’re so simple.
• Dirty carrots with maple syrup and balsamic vinegar.
• Dirty pepper salad.

The sink in my garden was bought from Garden Trends.

Saturday 12th September 2020

This week we to talked about caring for you cast iron. I had a particularly rusty dutch oven. The cooks were:

• Sea bass two ways – we looked at the difference in the results of cooking sea bass on a cast iron plancha and on a cedar plank. The plank technique is normally associated with salmon but I’m not the biggest fan of salmon unless it has been cured and cold smoked.
• Mussels, Thai style, cooked in a cast iron dutch oven.
• Slow roast fennel and tomato. This is a take on a recipe borrowed from Mark at SmokedFineFood.co.uk who in turn borrowed it from the excellent book Charred by Genevieve Taylor. Many people aren’t fennel fans, stick with this though as it’s absolutely delicious, the tomatoes sweeten it and it’s a great dish to serve with fish.

Several of you are still asking after the gloves. The latest ones I am using are these from Amazon.

The cast iron dutch oven by Lodge I used in the cook is here. It’s expensive and takes a while to deliver but I like it.

Otherwise I can quote you for the Big Green Egg ones, whether it’s their standard cast iron one like the one I seasoned during the live cook, or the enamelled ones you saw at the beginning of the cook.

Saturday 5th September 2020

We cooked some crackers this week:

• Rotisserie Picanha – just as the Brazillians would cook it. It’s absolutely stunning. I’ll be using some Sweet Chestnut wood chunks from Grilling Wood. I used the LetzQ Spit.
• A fresh ratatouille
• Croissant French Toast – the recipe is from the excellent Speedy Mob cook book.

All the recipes will follow the cooks this week.

Saturday 29th August 2020

We cooked the following recipes and had fun in the rain:

• Falafel in flat breads with tzatziki, salad, chilli sauce and tomatoes
• Flat Breads
• Peach Tarte Tatin

Saturday 22nd August 2020

We cooked the following recipes and had fun in the rain:

• French trimmed rack of lamb
• Spiced aubergine and tomatoes
• Blackened spring onions with a mint and tahini dressing

Saturday 15th August 2020 – we had Andrea back on the camera, my niece Pickle in to join the cook and @mrs_meatsmokefire answering and posing your questions.

We cooked the following recipes:

• Chicken lollipops – sweet, spicy and sticky
  • We made a BBQ sauce for these
• Salt and Pepper Squid
• Roast sweet potato with aioli
• Lexie’s gooey chocolate puds

Saturday 8th August 2020 –  with David from Spice Punch

He cooked the following:

• 150 day dry aged sirloin – aged in his own ageing cabinet
• Spicy burnt cabbage
• White bean mash with dirty onions

Saturday 1st August 2020 – Porchetta, Grilled Baby Gem with panchetta and a caesar dressing, Breakfast Puffs

We cooked the following recipes:

• Rotisserie Porchetta
• Grilled Baby Gem with Panchetta and a caesar dressing
• Super slow roast tomatoes
• Breakfast pastries, two different flavours

Saturday 25th July 2020 – Onion tarte tatin, grilled sardines and raspberry and pistachio cake

We cooked the following recipes:

• Red onion and Gruyère tarte tatin
• Grilled sardines with sourdough toast
• Apple and apricot puffs

Saturday 18th July 2020 – Fideua, ABT’s and Fruit Galette

We’re going to do a Fideua, a pasta paella that is easier and quicker than a paella and so tasty. It’s a fish dish with prawns and squid.

Off the wall a bit, we’ll do ABT’s (Atomic Buffalo Turds). They sound nasty but they’re an amazing and very simple appetiser.

Lastly we’ll cook a fruit galette in a skillet.

I use the Egg Genius to hold the Egg for the ABT’s at 110°C. You can see it here: https://myflameboss.com/en/cooks/1030265

To power the EGG Genius there are two options:

1. Battery pack – https://amzn.to/3fFBkZb
2. USB Cable conneted to your existing phone power bank – https://amzn.to/2Oxvsp8

If you’d like a quote for an EGG Genius please fill in the form:

ABT’s

Saturday 11th July 2020 – Pizza for #UKBBQWeek and some baking

#UKBBQWeek sets a theme and 11th July was pizza. While we have dough made we also did some baking:

• Pizza with home made pesto
• Sourdough loaf cooked in the dutch oven
• Raspberry and chocolate bread using leftover pizza dough
• Boozy fruit and apple twists, along the lines of a Chelsea bun

Saturday 4th July 2020 – For #UKBBQWeek and Saturday’s Burger theme

#UKBBQWeek sets a theme and 4th July was burgers so we made 5 of them:

• Chicken Tikka Onion Bhaji Burger
• Albondigas Mexican Burger
• Thai Pork Burger
• Spicy Bean Burger
• Korean Chicken Burger

Saturday 27th June 2020 – Paella, Albondigas and Churros

We’ll make:

• Chicken paella – we made this is a Netherton Foudry spun iron pan since the Big Green Egg pan has been discontinued
• Albondigas – Spanish Meatballs – it should have been in our tapas week.
• Churros – Spanish doughnuts – the Eggs not just about meat, desserts are epic too

Saturday 20th June 2020 – Kebabs and Burgers

We’ll make:

• Brioche burger buns
  
• Smash Burgers – recipe coming soon
• Brisket for our kebabs
• Flatbreads for our kebabs
• Brisket kebabs 

Saturday 13th June 2020 – Nando’s

We made:

• A Nando’s style chilli sauce to marinade our chicken.
• Nando’s Spatchcock Chicken – I’ll demo how to butcher a whole chicken, it’s super easy.
• Nando’s spicy rice.
• Spiced corn on the cob

A similar lemon squeezer to mine.

Saturday 6th June 2020 – Tapas

We made some lovely tapas and we’re treated to lovely weather for the cook (NOT).

• Tortilla
• Padron Peppers
• Baked chorizo
• Langoustines or prawns in a tomato sauce

Saturday 30th May 2020 – Surf and Turf

Surf and turf, a slightly different session as I will have a big birthday during the week before.

We’ll do lobster and steaks

• Reverse seared Picanha
• Grilled lobster tails with a garlic butter
• Sautéed mini potatoes
• Zingy slaw

Saturday 23rd May 2020

This week’s #SaturdayNightTakeAway theme is pizza and chicken wings, both popular requests over the last few weeks.

We’ll make some pizza, possibly using a homemade sourdough pizza base that I’ve been experimenting with. However my normal pizza recipe works just fine.

For the wings we’ll probably make three different flavours, 2 simple and one a little harder but only as the ingredients are a little harder to get hold of.

They’ll be:

• Salt and lime wings
• Buffalo chicken wings with Franks Hot Sauce and a blue cheese dip
• Korean chicken wings

Notes: There is an app called PizzApp that will calculate the perfect ratios of flour to water to yeast. If you’re moving on from my simple bread recipe, then I recommend having a look at it.

Saturday 16th May 2020

This week’s #SaturdayNightTakeAway theme was Fajitas.

We made:

• Guacamole
• Toasted Corn Salsa
• Dirty Skirt Fajitas with charcoal baked onion and peppers.

We used Capsicana seasonings that are available in many of the  big supermarkets.

I’m friends with Ben, who started and runs Capsicana. My second ever Big Green Egg demo was opposite Ben at The Gog Farm Shop. I’ve helped in the past with their recipe development and have even hosted a development recipe tasting party at my house with them.

Saturday 9th May 2020

Next week’s #SaturdayNightTakeAway theme will be curry and naan. We’ll cook:

• Plain and garlic naans – we’ll be using Susan Stoneman‘s recipe, it’s a cracker. 
• Parmjit’s Chicken Tikka – an absolute favourite. I sold a Big Green Egg to a 6 year old with this recipe, her dad was badgered to buy it.
• Tikka masala
• Onion Bhajis – we’ll use the wok to deep fry these, they’re amazing requested by Nigel.
• Mushroom curry – my latest favourite from lockdown, it’s different every time I make it but it has the same core ingredients.

Saturday 2nd May 2020

Continuing with the #SaturdayNightTakeAway theme. This week we cooked:

• Southern baked chicken – our take on a KFC but a much tastier and healthier recipe.
• Loaded potato skins – we’ll need to show you our baked potato recipe to make these. We’ll have a go at using the mash for gnocchi (not on the live video).
• Meat Smoke Fire Slaw – for those of you who’ve already been to a class, you’ll have had this pleasure. It’s simple but so tasty. Everyone always loves it.

Saturday 25th April 2020

Here’s a copy of the live cook without all the captions and questions popping up over the screen.

In this cook we made:

• Egg Fried Rice
• Spicy Hoi Sin Chicken
• Vegetable stir fry with King Prawns

The books I used for these recieps are recommended below.

Book recomendations – 25th April 2020

The main book I used was the Chinese Takeaway Cookbook by Kwoklyn Wan. There are load of great recipes in this book. 

The recipe I used was his Spicy Hoi Sin Chicken from page 57 of my book.

He’s also published a Veggie Chinese Take Away Cookbook.

Also checkout his YouTube channel.

The scond book I used was Great Asian Food from the Australian Women’s Weekly. I’ve had it years and there are some lovely recipes.

I did the stir-fried vegetables recipe and added a few prawns at the end.

Book recomendations from those we’ve used in the live streams

Everyday Indian – I’ve had this tiny (in size) cook book for years. I think I got it when it was published in 2009.

It may be small but it has some cracking recipes including the onion bhajis.

At just over £2.20 on Amazon it’s a bargain.

The Curry Guy – Dan Toombs

While I’ve not used this book directly in the class, this book has an amazing following as does Dan. I have used this book and like it. However I tend to modify his recipes a little as I’m not a fan of his sauce that he uses in all the recipes. 

Charred – Genevieve Taylor

There are some lovely vegetarian ideas in this book. Genevive is based in Bristol and does some live fire cookery classes, I’ve not done one yet.

We did her pea and paneer fritters during Burger week for #UKBBQWeek.