January 2014 – It's Not F***ing Rocket Science

like a posh fish finger sandwich but better

So last night I tweeted this pic of my dinner, a scampi sandwich with homemade tartare sauce and then was flooded with responses on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Some shocked that I would put scampi in a sandwich, which seems odd as they are perfectly happy with a fish finger sandwich, most now with hardcore cravings for scampi or fish finger sandwiches, but also many wanting to know how I do my tartare sauce, well I cheat.

If you want to make your own mayonnaise from scratch for this then Nigel Slater has a good recipe but if I’m having a scampi sandwich for tea it means I’m tired and time short and need some quick comfort food and not to be faffing about making my own mayo, which to be fair I never bother with anyway at the best of times.

Ingredients:

handful of good frozen whole tail scampi
few leaves of iceberg or gem lettuce
sliced cucumber
2 slices of bread (don’t go posh here, go for a squishy one rather than crusty one)
tartare sauce (see below)

Tartare sauce:

2 heaped tablespoons mayonnaise
10 cornichons, chopped
1 heaped tablespoon mini capers (the larger ones are too vinegary)
juice and finely grated zest of half a lemon
handful chopped parsley
half a finely diced shallot (I love onion in sandwiches)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon garlic infused creamed horseradish (from The Garlic Farm)
freshly ground black pepper
pinch smoked sea salt to taste

Method:

I prefer to oven roast my scampi to avoid an oily sandwich but cook as you prefer until golden and crispy.
Make the tartare sauce by simply stirring everything together.
Spread a layer of tartare on each bit of bread then a layer of lettuce, cucumber and then scampi, top with the other slice of bread, slice in half and behold the wonder of an epic scampi sandwich.

Winter salads are pretty kickass

Well it’s been ages since I’ve had time to post anything, I’ve been off gallivanting down in the South West rather a lot and dashing about working on lots of little projects. Christmas was a time of hedonistic indulgence, I’m still in Christmas mode to be honest, my tree is still up which means by Festive Rules it’s still fine to just eat cheese for breakfast.

I’m always finding chicory in the Reduced Section at the shops, people seem to be a bit nervous about using this bitter leaf, this works in my favour as it means they are always in cheap supply.

I like to use a crumbly cheese, creamy with a bit of tang, a good Wensleydale works really well, don’t go for the cheap stuff though as they have very little flavour. Feta works well as does a fresh ewe’s curd.

Ingredients:

leaves from half head of chicory, separated.
1 tsp butter
juice from 1 clementine plus zest
handful hazelnuts
crumbled Wenseydale cheese (feta is also lovely)
few young dandelion and rocket leaves
fennel fronds
freshly ground black pepper
tiny sprinkle of smoked salt

Method:

Preheat a non stick frying pan over a high heat, place individual chicory leaves over bottom of pan making sure they don’t overlap. Char then turn over and cook the other side.
Add the butter and orange juice and swirl pan to coat, it will go sticky very quickly. Put leaves on a plate then add the hazelnuts to the hot pan and cook whilst swirling the pan so they heat and release flavours but don’t catch as they will taste bitter.
Remove from heat, crumble cheese over leaves, add toasted hazelnuts, young leaves and finely grated clementine zest then season.