Highlights - March 2013

Curried Salmon (à la Café Spice Namasté)

Beautifully simple curry elevated to gastronomic highs by Chef Cyrus Todiwala.

Perfect Pork Tenderloin

Possibly the most perfect demonstration of macronutrient ratio on one plate?

Shrimp Bhajis

Light, satiating and great fun!

Beef Burger & Hamburger Sauce

I find that I sleep really well with a segmented sleep pattern of around four hours of really deep first sleep, get up for a short while and then back to bed for another few hours of lighter second sleep.

This morning I woke up around 02:00 and couldn't get beef burgers out of my mind!

I grabbed a packet out of the freezer and popped it into the oven set on defrost and went back to bed.

Waking in the morning, I discovered that I'd actually grabbed a packet of half and half: half beef and half pork; something I did ages ago when I made some pork and beef meatballs, putting the unused portions of meat back together and freezing.

So, I had half a pound of beef and half a pound of pork. I could make a couple of quarter pounders of both types, or ...

I decided to make a couple of beef quarter pounders and then pork mince into a hamburger sauce. Not the sauce to put on a hamburger, but a sauce made from hamburger. A ragu.

To work ...

Finely chop a small onion, or half a regular onion, softening it in your favourite paleo fat. I used goose fat. Add some garlic, chilli and then the pork mince. Some tomato puree works nicely, chicken stock and black pepper. Water, arrowroot and set to simmer.

The result should be that the meat is cooked, liquid reduced and thickened, giving a good, salty meat sauce. This will take about a quarter of an hour.

Meanwhile ...

100% beef burgers. Simply divide into quarters of a pound, gently push together into a ball and then flatten. Try not to disturb the meat fibres and don't maul it! Be gentle.

Cook the burgers through. I used a cast iron griddle pan and like my burgers just cooked, so about four minutes each side, with a piece of butter laid on the top once turned. The butter melts in and makes the burger double gorgeous!

Serve out ...

I served out over some shredded white cabbage and chilli, hamburger sauce over and the burger on top. Garnish with some herbs - parsley, here.

Melted cheese over the burger would be good, as would a boiled egg alongside ... but I was fixated on the burger, so everything else was an afterthought.

Rock Pool

Conceptually, this dish is simply seaweed and shellfish ... yes, a rock pool.

I had some scallops. Your rock pool could include clams, winkles, prawns, langoustine, lobster, crab ... whatever ... I had some scallops.

The seaweed is from a bag of dried sea vegetables. There's all sorts of seaweed varieties in there which just need reconstituting in hot water.

Added to the hot water, it's a shame not to add in some sea salt, garlic, chillies, ginger, spring onions and some sliced mushrooms ... just regular chestnut, because that's all I had. Exotic would be nice, say, enoki or oyster.

Scallops just want colouring up in a little butter. Maybe a minute of cooking time, if that?

Serve up ...

Seaweed in the bowl, shellfish over the top ... oh, and an egg alongside.

Next time, rather than cobble this together out of some leftovers (I made too much seaweed for breakfast to eat with some black pudding*) I'll make this as a deliberate meal: oyster mushrooms, also some clams, scallops and langoustine. Lovely job.

* Black Pudding over a seaweed salad:

So, a free idea for something else to do with seaweed. Instead of black pudding, any old offal will do: liver, kidney, heart, all would be just perfect.