Souvlaki

A few days ago I was watching a re-run of Jamie Oliver in Athens, and was utterly seduced by the blazing blue skies, bustling moped lined streets, white pillared Parthenon and (if I had smell-o-vision) herb and lemon scented air of the markets.

I've been to Athens.  In sixth form the school organised a Greek tour as part of our Classics studies (the English and History kids also came along for the ride) and my overriding memory of our stopover in Athens is getting hideously lost with a couple of the other girls on our way back from the Parthenon, ending up in the middle of the red light district, getting propositioned, running and getting horribly drunk back at our hotel when we eventually found it to ease the trauma.  At 4am our teachers came down to tell us to shut up and sent us to bed.

Needless to say, the subsequent hangover meant that I didn't exactly have much of an appetite for proper Greek food the next day and the 17 year old me missed out on what should have been my first introduction to Souvlaki.  I didn't get a chance to taste it on the rest of the tour unfortunately.

Jamie's programme made me remember that I still haven't tried it, so I looked up his recipe (why try and fix what doesn't appear to be broken?) and whizzed some up for a quick and healthy work night dinner (on a day when I was hangover free I hasten to add!)

I have a few friends from Uni who live in Athens, so I'll be intrigued to see how this measures up with the Souvlaki they can get on every street corner throughout the city!

Souvlaki is essentially just Greek fast food.  It's the Mediterranean equivalent of a Big Mac or a fish and chip supper and I know which one I prefer!  It's finger food you can eat on the run, and there are many different versions out there.  Kalamaki is found in Athens and involves the meat being marinated in lemon juice overnight, Gyros is similar but the meat is cooked on a rotating spit.

I made bog standard, simple Souvlaki - quickly marinated skewers of pork meat served in toasted pita breads with charred peppers and chilli's and tzatziki.

It's really quick and easy, fresh tasting and light and surprisingly filling - one pita was enough and I had a number of skewers left over for us have cold with rice the next day.  The peppers add a zingy bite to the meat, which is succulent and tender and the tzatziki is cool and soothing, a nice counterpoint to the lemon and the charred peppers and griddle flavour of the pork.

I know I have already said this, but this dish tastes fresh - there is no other word that can describe it quite so well!

So you need: 

• 3 sweet pointed peppers 
• 2 big (so not very hot) red chilli peppers
• 8 pita breads, to serve   
• 4 sprigs fresh mint, leaves picked  
• 1 small bunch fresh dill, chopped (stalks and all)  
• red wine vinegar 
• Greek extra virgin olive oil 
• 1 lemon, to serve 

For the kebabs 

• 800 g of pork.  I got a knuckle shank which is a cheaper cut and then deboned and removed the skin myself but your butcher can do this for you.  It's a tasty cut which works well in this dish and much better value for money than a pork loin. 
• 1 tablespoon dried mint 
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano 
• juice of 1 lemon 
• 100 ml good-quality olive oil 
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely grated 
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar 
• 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper 
• 1 pinch sea salt 

For the tzatziki 

• ½ large cucumber 
• 200 ml fat-free natural yoghurt 
• 1 small clove garlic, peeled 
• 1 heaped teaspoon dried mint 
•  1½ teaspoons red wine vinegar 

Start with the sweet peppers and chilli peppers.  You want to blacken them all over by scorching them.  You get to use a blow torch for this bit which is always fun! If you don't have one, just use the naked flame from your gas hob or put the peppers on a very hot, dry griddle or frying pan, turning regularly until scorched all over and the flesh is soft and pliable, then place them in a bowl and cover tightly with clingfilm for at least 10 minutes.

Now prepare your pork by removing the skin and deboning it, and cutting it into cubes.  Mix the pork with the rest of the kebab ingredients in a bowl and leave it in the fridge to marinade for as long as possible.  Overnight is good but 30 minutes should do the trick.

Return to your peppers and chillis and carefully peel the skin away from the rest of the flesh - it should come off really easily now that they have steamed for a little while.  Deseed them as well and remove the stalks, then chop into fine strips.

Mix the pepper and chilli's with the chopped up mint leaves and dill, some red wine vinegar and olive oil and some seasoning.  Taste it and adjust the flavours if needed to suit you.  Leave it in the fridge until you are ready to eat, then remove and add some lemon to garnish.

Grate your cucumber, then squeeze as much of the excess water out of it as you can over the sink.  Mix the cucumber with the yoghurt.  Mash the garlic with some salt into a paste in a pestle and mortar and then add that to the yogurt and cucumber mix then add the dried mint and red wine vinegar.  Taste and adjust as needed and serve with a glug of olive oil in the top.

When you are ready to eat thread the pork onto skewers and cook on a griddle or BBQ for about 4 minutes on each side.

Toast the pitas (in a toaster is fine), then serve with the tzatziki and peppers and some slivers of lemon as well as any other salad bits you want (lettuce and pickles are traditional) and I also went with some slices of griddled halloumi for an extra salty bite.

Allow people to assemble at the table and dig in!  Layer up your pita's and then drizzle the tzatziki over top and finish with a squeeze of a lemon wedge for that extra hit of zing.  Make sure you have a napkin to hand, or lean over your plate as you bite in - the pork juices and yoghurt have a tendancy to make this quite messy, but it is so worth it!

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Piri Piri Chicken and Seasoned Wedges

I'm probably going to get strung up by a lot of people when I say this, but I have to come clean.

I don't like Nando's.

I find the chicken greasy and dry at the same time (quite an impressive achievement), the food is never warm and the restaurant is always full of people trying to chase away their hangovers.

However I do like piri piri and it's really not that hard to make at home. 

It's the chili that is the important ingredient and the clue is in the name.  Although people tend to assume piri piri is Portuguese in origin the dish actually originated in Mozambique and can be spelt as piri piri, peri peri or even pili pili.  However you chose to spell it, all versions translate as 'chilli' so the name literally means 'chilli chilli' in Swahili. 

You need little birdseye chilli's for this dish - small, fiery and red.  Go with at least 1, more if you want a bit more heat.  You can scrape the seeds out to amp up the chilli flavour without the heat if you want.  Just be careful - I was careless whilst making this, brushed my nose with my fingers and had burning nostrils for the next hour, a really unpleasant experience!

The longer you marinade the chicken for, the better but it will need at least 2 hours; overnight would be awesome.

To serve I think it goes really well with home-made seasoned potato wedges and corn on the cob dripping in salt and butter.  According to Steve I'm weird for putting salt on my corn but I happen to love it.

For the chicken you need:

4 chicken portions (strangely enough) - on the bone
1 small onion
Tomato passata or puree
Olive Oil
1 lemon (cut in half)
1 tablespoon sweet smoked paprika
Sprinkling of maldon sea salt flakes
1 dried ancho chilli
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried coriander leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon celery salt
2 cloves crushed garlic
Between 1 and 5 red birdseye chillli's

Score the chicken with deep strips along the skin.  Fry the onion in a little oil until translucent.  Add the onion, passata, olive oil, juice of half the lemon, herbs, spices, hot sauce and chilli's into a blender and blitz until smooth.  Put the sauce into a freezer bag, add the chicken and mush it all together, making sure you massage the sauce into the chicken well. 

Set aside to marinade until 1 hour before you are ready to eat.

Turn the oven up to 180 and prep your potatoes.  Scrub the skins well and cut them into wedges.  You don't need to peel them.  Scatter the wedges in a baking tray, slosh them with olive oil, pepper, thyme and a generous amount of sea salt and roast for 45 minutes - 1 hour, turning every so often.

Put the chicken into a baking dish and bake for 45 minutes - 1 hour, checking that the juices run clear before serving.  Because you are baking the chicken in the marinade you will find that the skin blackens a little bit. Don't worry - this just adds to the flavour.

Serve with corn on the cob and coleslaw with the chicken juices dribbled over the top and napkins as people will want to invite their fingers to this chicken party!

Tamoanchan Tart

Chilli and chocolate are a match made in Tamoanchan (Aztec heaven).  This dark chocolate Mexican tart is rich and indulgent, very decadent and definitely for adults only.  It is not sweet in the slightest but has a moorish, almost bitter tone to it and the filling is smooth and creamy with an edge of heat that lingers on your tastebuds.  You can feel your teeth just sliding through the chocolate with every bite. 

I've made it a couple of times.  It's another recipe that I first got from The Spicery and I have since adapted it from the original version.  If, like me, you are awful with pastry (my cases crack constantly) then just cheat and buy pre-made.

The chillies I used with this version are a mixture of Yucatan Habanero's and Ancho.  The Habanero's are dried so you need to rehydrate them and be warned, these are eye-wateringly hot.  You probably won't need to use a whole one!

They are quite small and fairly innocent looking at first.  To hydrate them you simply rip it into small pieces, removing the stalk and the seeds, put it into a mug and cover it with boiling water.  To get a very rough indication of how hot it is taste the steeping water after a few minutes.

Once you have hydrated it, remove it from the water and blend it to a puree with a splash of fresh water.  Make sure your blending space is well ventilated and you may want to cover your mouth and nose with a tea towel as the fumes that come off this tiny little chilli are enough to make your eyes stream and induce a serious coughing fit.  You have been warned!

The other key ingredients that are a bit less common are ground ancho chillies and ground cassia bark.  You should be able to get both at good supermarkets or specialist stores, otherwise I'm sure you can get them on line.  Cassia is a relation of Cinnamon so at a pinch you could always substitute although the flavour is not exactly the same.  There is no real substitute for ancho chillies I'm afraid!

So here is how you make it.

Heat 280ml double cream in a saucepan with 1 tablespoon ancho chilli powder, 1 teaspoon ground cassia, 1/2 teaspoon allspice, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste and as much of the habanero paste as you think people can handle (I put 1 teaspoon in).  Bring to the boil then reduce and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring.

In a heatproof bowl break 200g of good quality (75% at least) dark chocolate (I used one flavoured with orange and spices for extra interest but plain, coffee or chilli would also work well, or you could combine a couple of them).

Pour the cream and spices mix over the chocolate and stir to bring it all together.  When it is combined add two egg yolks and continue to stir.  The texture is slightly gelatinous rather than completely liquid and it should be smooth and glossy.

Pour the chocolate filling into the sweet pastry case (about 15cm diameter ish).  Cook for 15 minutes in a pre-heated oven at 150C.  When the chocolate is just firm on the outside and there are no ripples it is cooked.

Scatter the top with pumpkin and sesame seeds and set in the fridge for at least one hour.

Carve into slices and serve cold either on it's own or with cream.  A little goes a long way with this tart, this will feed at least 8 people!

Fire Onions

I'm not going to claim that this is a recipe.  It's not even original.  My mum always did it and I daresay she wasn't the first and certainly won't be the last! Growing up it was impossible to get hold of a pickled onion in our house that didn't have a little extra fire in it.  As I grew up with these I have always added chilli to shop bought pickled onions.  There is no exact number that goes in- it is normally whenever I remember to use up any chilli's in the fridge that are about to turn.

Around now is the perfect time of year to put this together.  By the time Christmas rears its tinseled head and you want the onions to go in your cold cut turkey sandwiches they will be hot and spicy, sharp and sweet.

Perfect.

I have a slight confession.  I was quite tired when doing these and wasn't paying much attention.  Steve and I have different jars of pickled onions in the cupboard.  I like one brand, he likes another.  I accidentally chillied his onions.  He wasn't happy.

Vine Tomato, Chilli and Bacon Pasta

I have to say, I do like my pasta.  I am also incapable of making a tomato based sauce without putting chilli in it.  If I have none in the house (unlikely) then the tabasco comes out.  Normally I use both together to be honest.

I'm not sure why I require my tomato to pack a punch; it is a partnership thing.  You wouldn't have Laurel without Hardy, Ying without Yang or Bubble without Squeak and likewise I would never have tomato without chilli.

If you are not a chilli fan, just leave it out. I will be looking at you strangely though.

This is ridiculously quick and easy to make.  There are a million and one ways to make a basic tomato pasta sauce and I'm sure everyone has their own version; this is my go to for a fast, vitamin packed meal without opening a single tin.

5 large vine tomatoes
4 rashers streaky un-smoked bacon
1 large red chilli
1 clove garlic, crushed
Extra virgin olive oil
Tomato Puree
Dried Basil
Dried Oregano
Sugar
Pepper

Chop the tomatoes into small pieces and pan fry in a dry saucepan for a couple of minutes until the tomatoes start to break down.  I don't bother with peeling the tomatoes as I quite like the skin.  If this bothers you, dunk the tomatoes into a large bowl of boiling water before cutting them.  This makes the skin loose and easy to slide off.   It takes about 30 seconds or until the skin splits.

Add the bacon and crushed garlic to the tomato.  Sizzle for 2 minutes then add a good slog of olive oil.

Chop the chilli and add to the tomato mix.  Take the seeds and the membrane out if you don't like heat.  These big fat ones I don't find hot but have a lovely earthy rich flavour.

Add a good squeeze of tomato puree to the tomato sauce

Add a good shake of the dried herbs, pinch of sugar and decent amount of black pepper.  Fresh herbs are better if you have them. I don't really use measurements - just season to taste.  You shouldn't need to add extra salt as the bacon compensates for this.

When your sauce is simmering nicely, add a slosh of water and turn down to leave to simmer.  Stick your pasta onto boil.  Don't salt the water - you will see why below.

Cook according to the packet instructions.  When you drain your pasta, keep back a little of the cooking liqueur and add it to the sauce - this thickens it and makes it a little creamier.  If you have salted the water, don't bother with this stage.

Combine, serve and guzzle.  Makes enough for 2 people to have a generous lunch.  The below wasn't all for me, I promise!

Ye Olde Beverlie

I do promise that not all of the pubs in Canterbury are ridiculously old.  I know it currently looks like that but it's probably just because those are the pubs I tend to hang out in.

They smell nice.

I have just realised that this makes me sound like I go around and sniff old things.

Ye Olde Beverlie (or The Old Bev to the locals) doesn't even try to hide its age.  Clue is in the name.  It's not in the city centre either but located on St Stephen's Hill, leading from the city to the University of Kent. 

The pub is a listed redbrick building, dating back to c.1570 and was built by Sir Roger Manwood as part of a set of almshouses, a history that is proudly displayed within the pub restaurant.   While I was snapping away one of the waiters, clearly excited by the interest I had taken, came up and told me all about the pub.  I like this about The Old Bev; there is a real sense of pride in the premises and it's unique features.

These days it serves a mixture of Mexican and English food (not the most obvious of food choices for a old pub to be honest, but it works).  I did disagree with the chilli board assessments - but that is my personal taste.  I do happen to love my chilli's and I'm sorry, but a Habanero is not hot.

Like the other old English pubs in Canterbury, this one has a warm vibe with low, dark wooden beams pitted with ancient and long forgotten woodworm, a roaring fireplace, higgledy piggledy doors and staircases and nooks and crannies you can secrete yourself in.

 

Old church pews complete tapestry covered seats while the original ceiling, brick red flagstone floor and old green bottles with wax candles add to the rustic effect.

The Old Bev also has a large beer garden which is wonderful in the summer time and boasts the claim of being the origin of Bat and Trap.  This unique Kentish game is only really found in this corner of the world and is basically pub cricket.  There are a few pubs in Canterbury that still play and every year the Cricket Club hosts an annual tournament.  It's a fun game that is perfect for a summer day with a BBQ and a beer with friends and one that I will cover in a later post!

The wine and beer selection is good - there will be something for everyone here and it is also very reasonably priced.  Their olives are also a great bar snack.

I have not eaten here in years - not since my student days, but the menu could be enough to tempt me back in.  This place is popular with the students, being located close by to many of the student dominated residential areas just outside of the city centre and attracts a varied crowd.  It still runs the ever popular quiz nights as well, a popular destination for the students hoping to win a few extra quid!

Parking is extremely limited out front but there is plenty of on-road parking just around the corner.

Overall, a nice little pub, one I don't go to very often as it is a bit out of the way but definitely worth a visit for a game of Bat and Trap in the summer!