Showing posts with label Nigel Slater. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nigel Slater. Show all posts
One of my favorite Nigel Slater cookbooks is called "EAT". You all know how I love Nigel and his way of cooking and eating. That man could make anything look and sound tasty and he is the master as creating delicious and fast food out of just about anything you can get your hands on. He has one whole chapter in this book devoted to sandwiches and the like. My kind of guy. My kind of cooking.
I think the British love sandwiches more than anyone else in the world. Walk into any shop, and I do mean any . . . and you are sure to find a variety of them, ready made, wrapped and for sale to anyone who feels in the need for a portable sustenance of the this kind. AND, they come in varieties which are suitable for any meal of the day . . . breakfast, lunch, dinner or snack!
This delicious recipe I am sharing with you today combines all of my loves. Sandwiches, Nigel Slater, and making good use of leftovers. I was inspired by one of the recipes in his book.
This was a sandwich he created using crusty bread, beef drippings and leftover roast from the Sunday dinner. Reading about it . . . made me want one, and reading about it . . . inspired me to create my own version. I got to thinking hash . . . roast beef hash . . . in a bun.
And so that is what I did. I made some hash using chopped potatoes, chopped onions, chopped cabbage and some of the leftover roast from yesterday's pot roast. I seasoned it lightly with some salt and cracked black pepper.
Added a touch of herbs . . . in the way of summer savory, and a hint of snap by using some Worcestershire Sauce and a dash of brown sauce. (steak sauce to you North Americans) I cooked that all together until the potatoes and onions and cabbage were gilded with little caramelized edges, all golden brown and sweet . . . and the meat was falling apart once more.
And then I sandwiched it between two halves of a crisp warm ciabatta roll . . . the bottom spread with just a touch of creamed horseradish sauce . . . a slice of cheese layered on top of the hot hash, so it melted down into all those gilded crevices, and topped by that crisp roll-top . . . all that goodness tucked into a tasty and lightly crisped ciabatta suitcase and just waiting for me to tuck in.
Simply put, this was phenomenal
INGREDIENTS NEEDED
TO MAKE
HASH ON A BUN
Leftovers put together in the most delicious way.
- 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped coarsely
- a handful of chopped cabbage
- two medium potatoes, peeled and chopped coarsely
- 1 small clove of garlic, peeled and minced
- 2 TBS hot beef stock or water
- an amount of leftover cooked roast, cubes (equal to the amount of potatoes)
- 1 TBS vegetable oil
- 1 TBS butter
- fine sea salt and black pepper
- 1 tsp of either dried thyme or summer savory
- 1 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
- Brown Sauce to taste
To finish:
- 4 warmed ciabatta rolls
- Creamed Horseradish sauce
- 4 slices of processed cheese
Feel free to vary the vegetables and protein used in this sandwich. You can use leftover cooked beef, pork, lamb, chicken or turkey. The vegetables you decide to use will vary according to the protein used.
You can also use ground meat which has been browned. The important thing to remember is to keep the proportions correct. You want roughly the same amount of protein as you have potato.
If you are using chicken or turkey feel free to add some leftover stuffing.
I have used cabbage and onion here, but you could also use leftover cooked sprouts, carrots, parsnips, etc. This is meant to be a way to use up your leftovers!
Brown sauce is what is known as steak sauce in North America. HP sauce.
HOW TO MAKE
HASH ON A BUN SANDWICHES
This really is not all that hard to do. The end result is a very delicious sandwich!
- Heat the oil along with the butter in a large skillet. Toss in the onions, cabbage and potatoes.
- Cook stirring until they begin to turn golden brown. Add about 2 TBS stock or hot water, a bit of seasoning, the Worcestershire sauce, brown sauce, summer savory, and the garlic. (You really want them to begin to caramelize as this will help to enhance the flavors.)
- Turn the heat to very low, pop a lid on and cook for about 15 minutes, checking every so often to make sure they don't catch. At the end of that time they should be knife tender.
- Uncover and toss in the beef. Cook and stir over medium heat, frequently turning it over until the meat is heated through and all is golden brown. (I like to make sure that the beef browns a bit as well.)
- Taste and adjust seasoning as required. While you are doing this, pop the ciabatta into a hot oven to heat through.
- To serve, slice each hot ciabatta roll in half. Spread the bottoms with some horseradish sauce (if desired) and then pile an equal amount of the hot hash on top.
- Top the hot hash with a slice of cheese and then the top of the rolls. Serve immediately. Pass the brown sauce or ketchup if desired. (The heat from the hash should melt the cheese.)
HINTS AND TIPS FOR SUCCESS
- Read through the recipe thoroughly before beginning. This will help to familiarize you with any ingredients needed, etc.
- Assemble everything together before you begin. This will help to prevent you from leaving anything necessary out of the recipe by mistake.
- Use the freshest buns and other ingredients.
- Cut everything into bite sized pieces so that it will be easier to eat.
- Make sure you let everything caramelize to perfection. This makes the difference between a ho-hum sandwich and a fabulous sandwich!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
CAN THESE BE MADE AHEAD OF TIME?
You can certainly make the hash up ahead of time, ready to reheat and then stuff the sandwiches with.
CAN THIS BE MADE WITH ANYTHING OTHER THAN ROAST BEEF?
You could make a hash of any kind of cooked meat you wish. You could also use browned ground beef in the equivalent amount if you wish.
DO I NEED TO USE HORSERADISH SAUCE?
Not at all. We use this because we enjoy it. You could use Arby's sauce, or a spicy or garlic mayonnaise, Aioli, etc. You use whichever sauce it is that you enjoy and that you think will go well with the other ingredients.
CAN I USE ANY OTHER KIND OF BUN?
The only pre-requisite is that the bun be fresh and sturdy enough to stand up to the weight of the hash.
HOW LONG WILL THE FILLING KEEP?
I would not keep the filling any longer than two to three days.
CAN THIS BE CUT IN HALF?
Absolutely. Simply divide the amounts of everything in half. The cook times will remain the same.
A FEW MORE
HOT SANDWICHES YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY
We love hot sandwiches here in the English Kitchen. here are a few more favorites that we really love that we think you might also enjoy!
CHILI CHEESE DOG BOATS - A cheesy, saucy, chili‑smothered hot dog experience that’s messy in the best possible way. They’re fun, filling, and guaranteed to be a hit with kids, teens, and anyone who loves a good retro‑style comfort meal. Perfect for game nights, casual dinners, or those evenings when you just want something indulgent and delicious.
CROISSANT REUBEN SANDWICHES - Crispy flaky buttery croissants, filled with tangy crisp sauerkraut and a homemade slightly spicy dressing, hot juicy meat and oodles of melted cheese. This is everything a good Reuben Sandwich should be. Prepare to fall in love with this fantastic hot sandwich! Yum! Yum!
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Yield: 4 servings
Roast Beef Hash Buns
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 25 MinTotal time: 35 Min
A delicious way to stretch the leftovers from Sunday lunch even further.
Ingredients
- 1 medium onion, peeled and chopped coarsely
- a handful of chopped cabbage
- two medium potatoes, peeled and chopped coarsely
- 1 small clove of garlic, peeled and minced
- 2 TBS hot beef stock or water
- an amount of leftover cooked roast, cubes (equal to the amount of potatoes)
- 1 TBS vegetable oil
- 1 TBS butter
- fine sea salt and black pepper
- 1 tsp of either dried thyme or summer savory
- 1 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
- Brown Sauce to taste
To finish:
- 4 warmed ciabatta rolls
- Creamed Horseradish sauce
- 4 slices of processed cheese
Instructions
- Heat the oil along with the butter in a large skillet. Toss in the onions, cabbage and potatoes.
- Cook stirring until they begin to turn golden brown. Add about 2 TBS stock or hot water, a bit of seasoning, the Worcestershire sauce, brown sauce, summer savory, and the garlic.
- Turn the heat to very low, pop a lid on and cook for about 15 minutes, checking every so often to make sure they don't catch. At the end of that time they should be knife tender.
- Uncover and toss in the beef. Cook and stir over medium heat, frequently turning it over until the meat is heated through and all is golden brown.
- Taste and adjust seasoning as required. While you are doing this, pop the ciabatta into a hot oven to heat through.
- To serve, slice each hot ciabatta roll in half. Spread the bottoms with some horseradish sauce (if desired) and then pile an equal amount of the hot hash on top.
- Top the hot hash with a slice of cheese and then the top of the rolls. Serve immediately. Pass the brown sauce or ketchup if desired.
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I learned to love two things over the 20 + years that I spent in the UK. One of them was lamb, and the other was the cooking of Nigel Slater.
Lamb was not something I had ever really had when I was growing up. My mother did buy lamb chops once, but they smelled like burning mittens when she was cooking them so nobody would eat them.
It was probably not good lamb. I only came to love and appreciate lamb after moving over to the UK. Our wedding supper was held at a restaurant and we were allowed to pick whatever we wanted from the menu.
I decided to be brave and picked Saddle of Lamb. It was delicious. I fell in love at first bite and have been cooking lamb ever since. They had beautiful lamb in the UK.
I know you are all familiar with what lamb is, but you may not be so familiar with who Nigel Slater is. Nigel Slater is a cook who writes. He is not a classically trained Chef, but he is every bit as popular as any celebrity chef.
He's been writing a food column for the Observer every weekend for 27 years, and is the author of multiple cookbooks. He has also had several very popular series on the television, and a movie made about him called simply "Toast."
He is a man who loves to cook and who loves to eat and who loves to write about it. He cooks the way I love to cook and to eat. Its that simple.
I have a few of his cookery books. Not as many as I used to have because I am having to replace the ones I left behind, but I am starting off with his best (in my honest opinion), The Kitchen Diaries. There are three volumes and they are exactly what the title says. Kitchen Diaries.
Taken from Diaries he kept throughout the year of his adventures in the garden, kitchen, etc. Recipe journal, kitchen chronical. I find them fascinating and filled with loads of inspiration and great recipes.
What I love most about his recipes is that they are great jumping off points for doing my own thing. I have replaced all three of the kitchen diaries (one at a time) and have just gifted myself with the two Volumes of Tender (again one at a time.)
The recipe which inspired what I am sharing with you today comes from the first volume of The Kitchen Diaries, which is something which he cooked on the 7th of May. I am cooking it a tiny bit later in the year.
When my sister and I were at the Super Store the other day I spied some lamb chops. I have not had lamb since I arrived back in Canada last November and I was so tempted by them that I picked up a small package.
They were a bit pricey at over $8 for three chops, but sometimes you just have to fill your yearnings for what you love and enjoy, especially food wise. I have only me to please now, so why not
They were nice thick chops as well, with abundant tenderloin bits on the sides. Loin chips are like the T-bones of the lamb kingdom, with a nice little chunk of meat on one side of the T-bone and a little nugget of tender lamb on the other. (No surprise that is my favorite part!)
Of course I wanted to cook them perfectly. I didn't want to be wasting these prime cuts of meat. I looked to Nigel for inspiration and found this recipe, amongst a few others.
This felt and read like what I wanted to cook today and I happened to have some new potatoes in my cupboard. I did improvise on the recipe quite a bit, but most good cooks do.
He starts off by boiling some new potatoes in a pan of lightly salted water. I did that as well. His chops were simply seasoned with salt and black pepper.
Freshly ground sea salt and black pepper to be exact.
He heated some olive oil in a heavy based skillet along with the finely grated zest of one fresh lemon and some fresh mint. I did not have fresh mint, so used dried and it worked fine.
I took the liberty of adding two fat cloves of garlic that I peeled, bashed and split open. These helped to flavor the oil that the chops were going to be fried in.
Simply fried, just until golden brown, seared really so that the lamb inside stays nice and pink and tender. But the juices of the lamb mingle with the olive oil, mint, lemon and garlic to make a lush pan juice.
He had merely crushed the potatoes into the pan juices at the end. I decided that I would fry them in the pan juices and brown them off a bit, before adding the lemon juice at the end.
The potatoes are boiled until tender. I lightly crushed them before adding them to the pan. Cracked them more or less, that way there were lots of craggy bits to brown and get a bit crisp. (I removed the lamb to a plate, keeping it warm and tented.)
That afforded me the time to really get the potatoes a bit crispy. And then I added the lamb back to the pan and squeezed over the lemon juice.
Leaving the skin on the potatoes and cracking them open rather than slicing or mashing them, gave them added interest I thought.
Well, the picture speaks for itself. Nothing there but the pan juices and golden crispy edged potatoes, lightly flavored with the lemon at the end.
And then I threw them into the pan with the potatoes and the lamb, coating them with some of those lush pan juices as well.
This was a beautiful combination. Tender moist pieces of lamb . . . crispy tender potatoes . . . lemon, mint and garlic pan juices.
Crispy tender beans . . .
You can see how perfectly cooked the lamb was. Just pink. Succulent. Delicious.
This combination made for a really wonderful dinner for myself. Cooking for one or two doesn't have to be boring. In fact if it is, then you're doing something wrong! (Now you know why I look the way I do.)
Many thanks to Nigel for the delicious inspiration!!
Lamb with Lemon, Mint & Potatoes
Yield: 2
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 25 MinTotal time: 30 Min
I wanted to take advantage of the flavors of the new potatoes that are showing up in the shops and paired them with some tender lamb chops. Inspired by Nigel Slater.
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound smallish new potatoes
- 4 lamb loin chops
- one medium fresh lemon, zest and juice
- 1/2 tsp dried mint
- two fat cloves of garlic, peeled and mashed
- fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- light olive oil
Instructions
- Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Add the potatoes and bring back to the boil. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes until they test tender when prodded with the sharp end of a knife.
- While they are cooking, heat the olive oil, mint, mashed garlic cloves and lemon zest in a large heavy bottomed skillet. Add some seasoning.
- Season the lamb chops all over with some salt and pepper.
- Once the oil begins to sizzle, add the lamb chops. Cook for two minutes on one side until it begins to color, then flip over and cook the other side, again until brown. Remove from the heat and tent with some foil.
- Scoop out your cooked potatoes into the pan with the oil, mint, garlic, etc. Mash lightly with a fork. Allow them to brown before flipping them over to brown lightly on the underside. Add the chops back to the pan. Squeeze the juice of the lemon over top and heat everything through.
- Serve two chops each, along with some of the browned potatoes and pan juices.
- I like to eat mine with some mint sauce or jelly.
"Its so comforting to have a piece of cake, just one small slice" ~Mary Berry
I'm with Mary Berry on cake. A house without some cake in it is just a house. Comfort = Home. Cake in a house makes it a home! And this is a really, really LOVELY cake!
The recipe is adapted from one in the Nigel Slater cookbook entitled The Kitchen Diaries ll.
If you have been reading me for any length of time you will know I have a healthy respect for Nigel Slater and his cookery.
I've not really done much of his sweet baking however, mainly just his savoury cooking. I wanted to make some use of the thyme in our garden however, while it was still lovely and usably fresh.
It would have been really nice had I used it while it was flowering, but hindsight is always 20/20. I was a little bit nervous using a baking recipe from Nigel however . . .
Lemon and thyme are a marriage made in heaven. The two are just meant to be together, and when I was reading this cake recipe, I just thought . . . this is going to be a beautiful cake.
I trust Nigel and I was right to do so!!!
It is an incredible cake with beautiful flavours. There is a very subtle flavour of lemon and thyme in the cake itself.
This comes from the use of finely grated zest of a lemon and fresh thyme leaves.
I used Dorie Greenspan's trick of rubbing the lemon zest and thyme into
the sugar, to really help infuse the flavours into the cake, and I am
happy that I did because the flavours were really subtle.
I think they would have been hardly noticeable had I not done this, so I have added those instructions to the method.
Most of the flavour comes from the use of a delicious lemon and thyme syrup that you spoon over the hot cake as soon as it comes from the oven.
The cake itself is a lovely moist and buttery sponge, and that syrup soaking into the surface tips it over the edge into gorgeousness!
The hardest part was waiting long enough for it to cool so that we could slice into it!!
Nigel recommends serving it with a dollop of yogurt. I served it with some plain thick Greek yogurt.
We love Greek yogurt in this house.
I added a tiny drizzle of liquid honey on top for Todd. It was fabulous and added a really special touch that we both loved.
Altogether it was a lovely, lovely cake and one I can see myself baking again and again.
Thank you Nigel! You can bake!
Yield: 8
Thyme & Lemon Cake
prep time: 15 minscook time: 45 minstotal time: 60 mins
Lemon and Thyme are a marriage made in heaven. Adapted from a recipe in Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries ll.
ingredients:
200g butter (3/4 cup + 1 tsp)
200g caster sugar (1 cup plus 2 1/2 tsp fine sugar)
4 large free range eggs
4 large free range eggs
100g plain flour (3/4 cup plus 3 TBS)
1/2 tsp baking powder
100g ground almonds (1 cup plus 3 TBS)
the finely grated zest of one lemon
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
To glaze:
4 TBS caster sugar
the juice of 2 large lemons
2 TBS water
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leavesinstructions:
Preheat the oven to 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3. Line an 8 X 4 inch loaf tin with baking paper. Butter the paper. Set aside.
Sift together the flour and baking powder and then stir in the ground almonds.
Cream
the butter with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy. Measure the
sugar into a bowl and rub together with the lemon zest and thyme
leaves. Beat into the butter. Beat in the eggs one at a time. If the
mixture begins to curdle add a TBS of the flour mixture. Once all of
the eggs have been beaten in, fold in the flour mixture. Spoon into the
prepared baking tin.
the butter with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy. Measure the
sugar into a bowl and rub together with the lemon zest and thyme
leaves. Beat into the butter. Beat in the eggs one at a time. If the
mixture begins to curdle add a TBS of the flour mixture. Once all of
the eggs have been beaten in, fold in the flour mixture. Spoon into the
prepared baking tin.
Bake for 45 minutes, until well risen and the top springs back when lightly touched. Remove and set on a wire rack.
Whisk
together the lemon juice, water and sugar in a small saucepan to
dissolve the sugar. Stir in the thyme leaves. Prick the surface of the
baked cake with a skewer and then spoon the syrup over top allowing it
to soak in.
together the lemon juice, water and sugar in a small saucepan to
dissolve the sugar. Stir in the thyme leaves. Prick the surface of the
baked cake with a skewer and then spoon the syrup over top allowing it
to soak in.
Leave to cool completely. Cut into slices to serve.
Created using The Recipes Generator
You really need to do yourself a favour and bake this lovely cake. Don't be afraid of using savoury herbs in a sweet bake, the thyme really works beautifully here. I think you are going to love this! Bon Appetit and Bon Weekend!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
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