Something New

It is always a pleasure to come across a new combination of ingredients, a new dish, that works, especially if it is simple. With a glut of broad beans from our allotment (no complaint there, just an observation) I was looking for a way to do something different with this vegetable that doesn't lend itself to all that many exotic uses. There are dips and hummuses (hummi?) that suit it well, but none met our needs on Friday. As so often the divine Hugh F-W offered a direction, if not the solution itself.

HFW suggests zapping the cooked older beans (once the grey and bitter skin has been removed) and mixing with a little garlic and a thrutch of ricotta. He may not have used the word thrutch. I had ricotta in the fridge, and am never without garlic, but as our beans are fresh and young making a puree of them didn't appeal, indeed it seemed just wrong, so I warmed six thinly sliced cloves of garlic (HFW suggested two) in a little butter and olive oil, added a heap of the jade gems, and stirred in half a container of ricotta (about 125g).

When the lot was well mixed and warmed through it was piled on a toasted flatbread and became the nearest thing we had to a main course that evening. All three of the ingredients (discounting the flatbread) married beautifully, the garlic was very present but not dominant, the texture moist and toothsome, and The Dear Leader (all hail our Dear Leader, ever vigilant guardian of the homeland) fulsome in her praise.

The combination was so good that to demonstrate it to the returning Sternest Critic I repeated the exercise and served the beans as an accompaniment to the customary fatted calf (thick steak) enjoyed when he is just back from university. He is not a big fan of the broad bean, but made short work of these.

Only one thing bothers me slightly about the dish, and that is the thought in the back of my mind that it is not a million miles from The Fast Show's cheesy peas.

Due to Overwhelming Demand

A flood of comment, singular, asking for the recipe for the brisket mentioned in the previous post. As with so much of what I cook it's more method than measurements.

First have one bloody big piece of brisket, ours was just shy of 6lb, ready at room temperature. If I had been confident of my butcher locating flat-rib I'd have used that in place of brisket. Prepare a dry rub with a nice finely ground blend of spices, my own preference the other night being a tsp of peppercorns, a tbsp of coriander seeds,  two tbsp of cumin seeds, two whole star anise (anises?), a tsp of sea salt, three cloves and a tsp of piment de Jamaique as we say in Preston, or allspice if you prefer, and a tbsp of palm sugar. Rub this all over the beef as erotically as possible in the circumstances.

In a chicken brick or similar closed pot big enough (derr) to take the joint put some slices of carrot and onion in the bottom to keep the meet raised slightly, plus a few cloves of garlic. Pour in so as not to wash the meat clean of dry rub (derr again) enough boiling water to touch the bottom of the brisket, put the lid on and put into the oven preheated to about 180C, then immediately turn the temperature down to 120C and leave for about eight hours - it could actually have stood another two at least.

The end result is, or should be, easy to pull apart, the crust beautifully blackened by the spices rather than the heat.

Drain the excess juices off every two or three hours, but leave enough in to maintain the steaming-roast effect. After resting the meat for at least 25 minutes serve pulled into shreds with BBQ sauce or if you have time a reduction (how trendy) of the juices tweaked to your taste.

To be eaten in wraps or flat-breads with sauce, fried onions, dill pickles, red cabbage, friends and beer. Although as Malcolm Bradbury so astutely pointed out eating people is wrong.

Good Bread for Pennies?

There really shouldn't be a question mark in the title as three recent attempts, all successful, at making flatbreads has proved. No pun intended. Honest. HFW should get the plaudits, though I did make chapattis ages ago with a similar recipe. I was inspired by his recipe in River Cottage Everyday to give it another go as an accompaniment to his equally excellent spiced-up lamb burgers. Credit where credit is due.

You need (again no pun etc) 250g of flour, plain is ok but bread flour works best, 1 tsp of salt, a good tbsp of decent oil (best results so far with a delicious rapeseed oil), and 150ml of water on the warm side. Mix together, kneed for about 6 - 7 minutes, then cover and leave to prove for at least 15 minutes, ideally 30. Divide the dough into 8 - 10 pieces and roll them into very thin round(-ish) crepe-thin breads, using a bit more flour to prevent them sticking to the surface on which you roll them. Cook on a dry (no oil), non-stick frying pan that you have got very hot beforehand, each side only needs about a minute, you can tell how they are doing by the bubbles that puff up and the savoury bread smell, but lifting an edge to peek is fine too. Keep them warm in the oven while you do the rest. Great stuffed with crunchy salad, better with a homemade burger. These will replace buns for me in the coming BBQ season.

As regards ease, my 15-year-old son did last night's, nothing burned, nothing wasted, and only a bit of flour on his school trousers to show he had been involved. The one tricky bit is removing surplus flour from the pan after each is cooked - necessary to avoid creating an insulating barrier and as it burns and doesn't look great on the finished articles.

The lot cost less than 20p, though under the system of bribes we operate for help in the kitchen said son gets £1 bonus added to his pocket money. Worth it either way, they are at once crisp and light, free from supermarket-bread additives, and dead easy to fill and eat.

Do use them quickly, they don't improve with age (according to Hugh FW - we have never had leftovers).