Hash up!

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I do a big shop every month or six weeks online with Sainsbury’s. As a non-driver, it’s actually cheaper and easier than getting a taxi with my bulky essentials and I find it easier to stick to a budget and avoid impulse purchases this way. Occasionally though I discover I haven’t been paying full attention when filling my basket and get the odd surprise. This time it happened to be a random tin of corned beef…

I contemplated keeping it in the cupboard until needed in a post-apocalyptic scenario, but not wanting to encourage 2012 to be the end of the world, I decided to use it up. None of my cookbooks offered any advice (Can you imagine Nigel Slater telling you what to do with anything tinned?) so I turned to Google. Even allowing for the fact that corned beef is different in the US, there seemed to be only one recipe on the agenda. Corned beef hash it was then!

I diced some potatoes and put them on to par-boil while I fulfilled a rather dubious childhood ambition to open a can of corned beef with the key provided. This moment of giddy joy was immediately quashed upon realising I had basically unleashed a can of premium catfood. I hoped that the judicious addition of mustard and Lea & Perrins would break the association.

The potatoes and onions went into a hot pan to crisp up round the edges and looked pretty darned tasty. I added in the diced beef and turned my attention to frying an egg. The beef began to melt and coat the vegetables evenly even if it did remain an odd pinkish colour. I reminded myself that anything involving fried spuds is a good thing and plated up.

This was surprisingly palatable. The rich egg yolk bound it together nicely and the mustard gave it a tasty kick that disguised just how mind blowingly salty corned beef really is. (Yes, I know that the corns of the name relate to salt not grains, but it still surprises me). I enjoyed this as a hearty Saturday brunch far more than I expected, but think it would be better if the beef was less prevalent and more like a dressing on the crispy potatoes. This would make it an excellent dish to feed about 6 people heartily without costing more than pennies. I’m not sure I’d bother cooking it again unless this scenario arose. Sadly I still have half a can of corned beef to use up though. Maybe I’ll feed it to the squirrels…

Pumpkinseed brittle

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Many years ago I had a Home Economics teacher who took great glee in scaring a roomful of twelve year olds off ever entering a kitchen. Anything and everything was a source of potential death, disease or disfigurement in this most dangerous of rooms. She left me nervous of many things, but none more so than hot sugar. But Nigella’s recipe for pumpkinseed brittle sounded so delicious, I decided to apparently risk life and limb and try making caramel for the first time… Read more

Curly Girl

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I  have a new love in my life which I just can’t get enough of these days…I have given my heart completely to curly kale!

Despite being a huge fan of dark leafy vegetables, I am a recent convert to the ways of curly kale. This is probably because despite being cheap, nutritious and usually British-grown, it is almost impossible to find in a major supermarket alongside more common brassicas such as broccoli or cabbage. I discovered it when the farmers’ market came to Brixton last year and I have been wondering how I did without it until now…

A large bag of curly kale costs me 90p from the market and lasts up to 3 weeks to the fridge so I am never without a green veg to add to any dish. Unlike spinach it doesn’t shrink to a fraction of the size when cooked thus making it damn good value. It is also more versatile in that it is happy to be cooked either quickly if needed or given the long languorous treatment without losing flavour or colour.

The iron-rich taste of curly kale goes especially well with many of my store cupboard staples such anchovies, chorizo and eggs. I also imagine it would take strong flavours such as chili or mustard well which will all help to steer me away from always seeming to add animal protein for an umami hit with meals.

If you haven’t welcome kale into your life yet, get yourself to the next farmers’ market or farm shop you can and treat yourself to a big health giving bagful as soon as possible while the season lasts. I’m happy to share the love, but you’ll have to get your own shopping bag!

I’m a sucker for spicy octopus tentacles…

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Spicy Portuguese-style octopus stew

I bought a big bag of frozen octopus for a few quid on a whim before Christmas from an Asian supermarket: every now and then I’ve idly wondered how I’d be best tackling them in the kitchen. I’ve often thought some kind of Iberian treatment would be good – garlic, olive oil, onions and tomatoes would be natural bedfellows – and after my recent visit with Miss South to Estrela, where the polvo was divine, I was tempted by tentacles.

A cursory scout on the web for Portuguese octopus recipes didn’t provide anything definitive, but then I often spend a bit of time online just to get inspiration from flavours and pairings of ingredients. I had a range of directions to follow, a range of references, and a healthily stocked kitchen, so I decided to freestyle it a bit. The aim was to end up with a warming and spicy octopus stew. I think I nailed it…

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Pumpkin gnocchi

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Who doesn’t love gnocchi? Little morsels of potato-ey heaven dressed in butter and just made for parmesan…I figured gnocchi could only be improved by a hint of sweetness when I found this recipe for pumpkin gnocchi with sage butter a few months back. It may not quite be pumpkin season but my local Portuguese deli almost always has delicious looking slices of this under-rated ingredient, so when I invited my friend J round for dinner on one of the first longer nights of the year, it seemed perfect to serve something lighter, yet still substantial in these early days of spring. Read more