Burger time @ Bukowski Grill

I’ve just realised how inactive I’ve been recently, this is in part because I’m a lazy so and so, and mostly because I’ve been for the last few months writing copy like a mad man for a tour operator I’m now working for.

Southern Cooking @ Joe's

Joe’s Southern Kitchen and Bar opened last month, aptly on the 4^th July, pure marketing genius in my opinion.

Previously known as Navajo Joe, which I never got to eat at, Joe’s Southern Kitchen and Bar is brining the authentic taste of the American Deep South to Covent Garden.

What We Ate Last Night : Coca Cola Bar-B-Q Chicken Wings

It's been a long while since I last posted a recipe. It was something I was meaning to do on a regular basis, but I am anything but regular.

Pitt Cue Co.

I’ve finally made it to the permanent base for the Pitt Cue Crew in their new premises in Central London.

I’d eaten at the food truck under Hungerford Bridge a few times last year and was more or else impressed with their food that they managed to deliver.

London is not known as an epicentre for good barbecued food. An Englishman’s knowledge of food cooked on a charcoal grill is normally undercooked burnt sausages on a cold, wet, windy Sunday afternoon.

The locals from the American South and Mid West would wage war on what we call barbecue. But we are a slow nation and new things like this take their time to come to us. But how many people would want to wait 24 hours to grill a brisket or 6 hours to slowly smoke some ribs in their back garden. Not many.

K is for Korea @ Koba

There wasn’t really any doubt as to what cuisine we were going to eat for the letter K. I made a half arsed attempt to look for something else, but really let’s be honest it was only ever going to Korean.

The difficulty lie with which restaurant we were going to sample this wonderful cuisine and what to have.

As none of really had eaten Korean food, apart from a couple of bits and bobs here and there, it was and well still is a bit of a mystery.

Out of all the restaurants I’d read about Koba kept getting the better reviews for its bar-b-q, which really as a newbie to Korean food, I think this had to be a major thing on our collective first visit.

The plush restaurant is very modern, lots of dark colours, moody lighting and a youngish crowd. The vibe was nice and easy, vibrant but calming.

Between 6 of us we had quite a good selection of starters and 2 bar-b-q combo’s. The highlight of the starters were the fried pancake and the fried chicken. The pancake was crunchy and crispy and was very well seasoned.

The bar-b-q which was the highlight of the night, turned out to be a fun thing. Thankfully Koba have an exhaust shaft above every bar-b-q, otherwise the entire restaurant would have been chokey smokey.

For large groups the combo bar-b-q selections turned out to be pretty good value. We did find it slightly annoying that the staff literally cooked our meat for us, maybe they thought us novices didn’t know how to cook Korean bar-b-q for ourselves.

I’m not sure of the quality of the meat, as the marinades over powered the beef and pork. Not to say that the marinades were not good they were. Nice and hot. Just how we like it.

I do have one quibble about Koba and that was the amount they charged for the kimchi. My little knowledge of Korean cuisine extends to kimchi. As far as I am aware, it comes with every meal, and I feel it should be a free accompaniment, not a £5 side. 

All in all we had a great night with lots of good banter and good food. I would imagine however that a modest bar-b-q joint in Korea would be a match for Koba on its food, but for London I think this is probably as good as it gets.
Oh and love the name of the beer, and no there is not an S before that H.

Food on the Street with the Pitt Cue Co.

I am a great lover of Bar-B-Q. Anything to do with meat cooked over burning embers sends me into such highs that I start dribbling. Literally.

To feed this addiction I am forced to cook bar-b-q style foods in my own oven at home, as I do not have a garden and therefore no bar-b-q.

It’s the one thing we want in London. A house with a garden or even a balcony. We had a front porch once and I used to cook bar-b on a small portable cue there. Heaven bloody heaven it was. Ahh how I miss those days in Brentford. It’s about all I miss.

Anyhows I’d heard about the Pitt Cue Co. on the South Bank a few months ago and have been meaning to get my sorry arse down there to check it out, but with work and generally being a lazy shit recently I haven’t managed it. Gotta change that.

My last adventure with street bar-b-q was at the recent Street Food Fest on the South Bank. A video of this day will be released too much pomp and ceremony soon. The bar-b-q I had to be honest was pretty poor. The sauce lacked any real flavour and it looked like the guys woke up that morning and said what shall we do today. I know we’ll do some bar-b-q. It was very lame.

Bodean’s are the big bar-b-q player in London, but with their major expansions (4 branches to date) has left this small chain spiralling downhill, as corners seem to be cut on quality to make up for quantity. Although their smoked hickory and hot chipotle sauces are pretty damn good.

As the Victoria Line was down this weekend, yet again, and the thought of getting on the bus replacement service out of Victoria was just too much to contemplate.

So off I trotted to the South Bank to finally sample this supposed bar-b-q truck heaven. The truck is silver and I want one. I really do. I think this is what I want to do, buy a truck, do it up and sell cheap heart warming comfort food to hungry eaters. What kind of food do you ask. Well it would have to contain every cheap cut of meat known to man. My favourite.

But enough of my dreams, back to the review. I never actually read the menu I just saw on the blackboard pulled pork and I was hooked. The pulled pork comes with either bar-b beans or coleslaw, bread and some pickles. I chose the beans of course. Silly question. And of course there has to be beer as well. Well bar-b-q with out beer is a sin in my books.

It comes in a nice little box and a piece of toasted bread to mop up the juices. I parked my arse down on one of the yellow stalls and tucked in as they say.

To be honest it was underwhelming. I was expecting a whole lot more than with what I got. I was expecting some wonderful smoky taste to dazzle me, instead all I got was a good but average bar-b-q that I reckon had not been smoked at all. Maybe oven cooked with spices.

The pulled pork was juicy and tender, but it lacked any real flavour at all. It was really rather bland. Disappointing. Those pickles however were awesome, they were really bloody good. I need to know where they get them from. Awesome. The bar-b-q sauce was thick and unxious, but the small black beans were slightly undercooked. They were a little too al dente for my liking. It’s just a shame that the star of the show was just so dull, and at £11 for the pulled pork and a beer, it is not cheap street food at all.

But with what London can offer at the moment with bar-b-q it is the best of a disappointing bunch. As I mentioned before it was much better than the bar-b-q truck at the recent street food fest, and the over sweetened bar-b-q ribs around Brick Lane every Sunday.  But not as good as Bodean’s in its hey day, although that place is becoming more miss than hit recently.

But with my slight obsession with bar-b-q no doubt I’ll be back. Hopefully it was a one off. Please let it be.

What We Ate Last Night : Bar-B-Q Rubbed Ribs

I love bar-b-q, not the typical English bar-b-q of burnt but raw sausages and charcoal colored burgers that are as dry as cardboard.

No, I’m talking about the good ol’ yankee bar-b-q type. The low and slow cooking that can take up to 24 hours to cook a Boston Butt, and 6 hours to cook some baby back ribs if you use the 3-2-1 method.
This is my preferred method of cooking them, although I unfortunately do not have a garden and therefore no kettle bar-b-q. Sad times indeed, especially with the weather as it is at the moment.

So I have to make my bar-b-q in the oven. Very sad times. It’s not the same as the smell of charcoal on food makes it all taste so much better.

With an oven you have better control, but the skill in keeping a bar-b-q at 110 degrees for 6 hours is an art form in itself, and I think those cooks that can do it are vastly under rated.

In England bar-b-q is not taken too seriously as I’m sure we’ve all seen this at many a crappy back garden event we’ve been to. So a lot of people are ignorant of the skill it takes to do a good bar-b-q. It's really not just add some lighter fluid, light it and burn away. Good god no.
There are one of two places in London that sell American style bar-b-q, but they are mediocre at best. Oh how I long for the real thing over here.

I’ve been cooking these ribs the same way for eons now, and they always turn out not too bad. I sometimes change the rub but generally I always use the same recipe, which can be found here.

You will need :

Baby back ribs (as much as you want to eat)

Your desired rub (enough to cover every part of the ribs)

Tin foil

Lemon juice / vinegar for the mop sauce

So the 3-2-1 method is quite straight forward. 3 hours uncovered, 2 hours covered and a final hour uncovered. During the first three hours and the last hour I always mop the ribs with the sauce, just to add a little bit of moisture back into them so they do not dry out. After the 6 hours the meat would have shrunk away from the bone and will be falling apart. The leftovers make great sandwiches.

1. Trim off any excess fat that you do not want. Take off the piece of membrane that is on the back of the ribs. This will help the rub penetrate more easily.
2. Rub your rub powder over both sides of the ribs.
3. Set your oven at Gas Mark 1 or 110°C. Yes very low.
4. Pop ribs into oven and every 30 minutes or so, just give them a mop with the sauce.
5. After 3 hours give them one final mop and then cover them with tin foil.
6. 2 hours later uncover and cook for a final hour. Mop after about 30 minutes and just before you take them out of the oven.
7. Serve with your favourite bar-b-q sauce and of course any leftovers are amazing in a roll the following day. If there is any left. 

Next up slow cooked shoulder of pork.

Foto Friday # 50

Roasted Hog, Sapa style

Homemade Paella in Medellin

As we are experiencing a very early summer, it is getting me thinking of all the bar-b-q's we hopefully will be able to have if the sun continues for more than a few weeks.
But in the meantime my mind was taken aback to a lovely Sunday afternoon having paella cooked for me a year or so ago in Medellin.

Shopping and the Brass Rail and Bodean’s

I hate shopping. I really do, especially when it involves shopping for clothes. I hate having to buy new clothes, especially when the clothes I want are way out of my price range. Damn those Italian shoes. Then again, wasn’t that why credit cards were invented?

I need energy to go shopping. So I always plan where can I get some well needed nourishment for the hellish day ahead.

I’d spent most of Saturday mapping out our new locale of Nappy Valley, or Stoke Newington as some people also know it by.

The thing I love is once you hit Stoke Newington High Street and then onto Kingsland Road, is the amount of small bakeries that sell salt beef. It’s glorious. Praise the lord for my murky Jewish heritage.

There is nothing I love more than a salt beef sandwich. It’s heaven, pure bloody heaven. I’m not a bagel man, even after my 18 months in Israel I never got a taste for them. Just not my thing. Remember I am a new Jew, so can be forgiven for many a hidden sin. But I am going to enjoy living in Stokie, even if it has a far higher percentage of young families than any other place on the planet. I am going to have to learn how to be patient. Big time.

As I hate shopping, a department store gives me everything I need. A one stop shop with everything inside one building. A genius who came up with that that idea.

Now as I still had the delightful taste and memories of my salt beef day the day before, I had been trying to find an excuse to re-visit the Brass Rail on the ground floor of Selfridges for an age now. Now I had one. Excellent, well apart from the thought of the shopping.

I hadn’t eaten here in at least 3 years, as whenever we come to Selfridges the queues were just too long for us to bother queuing up for. But this time there was only some chatty guy in front of me who wouldn’t stop yabbering on to anyone who made eye contact with him. Thankfully before he had time to turn to me and start trying to get me into conversation about whatever, he found himself front of Saj, who apparently according to their conversation had worked there for over 30 years. Damn, that’s a long time to be carving meat into sandwiches. I wonder if he just wants to say fuck it some days and look for another job.

I don’t remember how much they used to be but £8 for a sarnie is a tad too much, but I had been thinking about this for a day now, and the thought of being forced to eat at Square Pie that I decided to go for it.

So I ordered a regular salt beef with American mustard and a pickle. You pay through the nose, all in all it came to £8.70p, but Saj does pile on that salt beef.

I sat well away from the chatty guy who was engaged in a one sided conversation with some old lady who made the bad mistake on sitting on that empty table. She looked like she was ready to bolt, but was far too polite to do so.

The salt beef although quite tasty was somehow a bit of a let down. The meat was kind of dry and not what I was expecting.

I’d spent £3.50p on a salt beef roll the day before and it was miles better than this poor and pretty expensive version. But you are in Selfridges, so I guess it all goes down to location, location, location.

After leaving a rather disappointing sarnie, I ventured upstairs to do some clothes shopping. In record breaking time I found everything I wanted, but as it all came to well over a £1,000 I declined to open my wallet and get out that small piece of plastic. Plus it would have looked embarrassing with all the moths flying out as I went to pay. Damn those Italian handmade leather shoes. So I high tailed it out of there and off to a few more shops down the most hideous street on the planet. In the end I saw lots of stuff I should of brought, but just couldn’t prise that wallet open. The crappy thing about this shopping disaster was that I have to return and do it all over again, but I will do it next time with my own personal shopping and designer assistant.

As I said shopping or even window shopping is hard work. After another hour or so of aimlessly wandering around with my hands tightly clenched over that piece of leather, I ended up outside Bodean’s in Soho.

I love Bar-B-Q. I look upon those grill masters as what they are. Masters of the grill. Grilling or bar-b-q’ing is an art form, plus it is an obsession to some. Look at Barbecue Bible to see what I mean.

I love Bodean’s, although nowadays I won’t go downstairs as the last time me and Lina were there, we had a blazing row over a bowl of chips. They were mine, I ate them. She had none. We argued. Simple. But what started out as a fun night in Lowlander drinking Kwak’s, ended up as a heated row and us not speaking to each other for days, and all over me eating my own chips and not offering her any. Like Joey says “You want chips, order some chips, just don’t eat mine.”  Nuff said.

So for at least 4 years, maybe more we haven’t delved downstairs into the scene of that heated argument, such bad memories. I wonder if that argument has been passed onto to waitresses over the years. So since then we’ve only eaten upstairs in the deli. Lina doesn’t like it, as she thinks it’s cheap and naff. I like it, I actually prefer it, it’s more relaxed, more lively and gives me a chance to people watch. My fave pastime.

So this given Sunday afternoon I strolled into Bodean’s for some bar-b-q nourishment to wipe away the memory of my tightness at not buying anything all day. What a tight arse.

I normally always have ½ a slab of those baby back ribs with the coleslaw and fries. Sometimes I treat myself to a tub of bar-b-q beans. But this time I just wanted a sandwich, as the salt beef had slightly done its job. Now I needed something else to finish it off.

Looking down the list of their sandwiches, I was at a loss. Now do I go for the Boston Butt, the slow smoked cooked pork shoulder. Or the Pulled Pork, or even the Pastrami on Rye or a Turkey BLT. But no, I had to have the Soho Special. The Best Sandwich in London as voted by Capital Radio. It’s pulled pork and Burnt Ends mixed with a Bar-B-Q sauce in a toasted roll. Sounded too good to be true.

To be honest it isn’t the best sandwich in London I’ve ever had. But it was not the worst. The burnt ends and pulled pork were favourable enough, but the sauce was a little too thin. But it was ok for what I wanted.

I’ve noticed something about Bodean’s. The times I’ve eaten there since returning last March, that the quality of the food has slipped from what I remember it from before Colombia. Maybe this is due to their sudden expansion all over London, stretching themselves too thin. Or maybe I am just getting more and more picky in my old age. God I hope it isn’t the later, as soon I won’t be enjoying my fave crappy foods.

But Bodean’s I will always return to like a duck to water, as I love Bar-B-Q.

Memphis Dry Rub

The sun is starting to show its head out a little bit more of late. Although it is still getting mugged by gangs of dark grey clouds, and extinguished by frequent showers recently. But it is putting me in a jollier mood. I am so looking forward to 27^th March when the clocks change and we get more daylight. Although we loose that hour in the morning, but who cares about that as I never wake up till after 7 anyhows.

The extra 4 minutes of sunshine everyday is making me feel like summer is on its way. I’ve not actually suffered with SAD this year, mainly as I have had other things to keep my mind occupied lately.

But with summer on its way, it’s getting into Bar-B-Q season. Although I do not own a bar-b-q nowadays, as we have no garden of our own, and have nowhere to store one. Our shared shed I noticed recently has no back to it, and it wouldn’t last long if the new crime figures are anything to go by.

So I am being forced to cook my all time favorite bar-b-q item in my oven. Ribs. Baby back ribs to be more precise. Man I love those meat morsels as the tender flesh falls off the bone and melts in my mouth. Yum yum yum.

I’ve made my first batch yesterday, which were ok, but not fantastic. So I am going to try again this week. The problem was the rub. I had some of the “Classic Steak Rub” left over from my last order from The East London Steak Company. It was good, but not great, as I prefer something with a little more spice on my ribs. So I am going back to my mainstay of the Memphis Rub. It’s earthy and has a good amount of heat to it.

So for the rub you will need:

2 tbsp Paprika

1 tbsp black pepper

1 tbsp dark brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp celery salt

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp mustard powder

1 tsp cumin

¼ tsp cayenne powder

Mix everything together with your fingers and store in an airtight container in a dark place. It normally keeps for a good few weeks before starting to loose its bite.

It goes excellent with ribs or chicken.

Ribs to follow soon. 

Do you have the Heart?

Offal seems to be kind of coming back into fashion, although with some of us it never went out.

I know a lot of people who eat offal in restaurants, but refuse to cook it at home. Why? They say they are squeamish, hate the texture and the thought of touching a slimy product. Yuck. Oh boy.

But not only is offal high in vitamins, but it’s pretty damn cheap as well, and in these so called credit crunching times, (I want to shoot the person who came up with that saying) not only is it high in flavour, but low on the wallet too.

Offal is not that difficult to cook but it does require some respect and sometimes a little bit of pre planning and attention to detail, but the effort you put in is paid back to you in dividends in the end.

My favourite animal for offal is lamb. I love it, the kidneys, liver, and hearts. It’s amazing that from one small animal, its insides are so so good. Although lambs brains are the bottom of my list, after a dodgy episode in Kathmandu, which left me laid up for a week or two.

The offal from my other favourite eating animal, pig, which I find slightly too strong in flavour and not to my liking. For me lamb rocks. Although saying that, the liver from a baby tortured cow or calf is my favourite cut of all time. Dusted in flour, quickly fried in butter and served with peas and Jersey Royals. Heaven on a plate.

I was a fussy eating child, and would never eat any veggies at all. Those things changed as I grew up, although I still cannot stomach sprouts. But I did used to eat my dad’s lamb liver. Gorgeous.

I haven’t cooked hearts in a long time, but after seeing some for sale at the Ginger Pig in Borough Market. I had to grab a couple, and at 50p each. Cheapest dinner I’ll be cooking this week.

My normal way of cooking them is to give them a dusting of a Memphis bar-b-que rub. This I got it from a Steven Raichlen book. It works well and gives the heart a spicy note, which cuts through the fat a bit.

I’ve thought about stuffing and braising hearts, but I like them grilled. Pure and simple.

To prepare offal is pretty easy. I slice them in half from pole to pole. Give them a good rinse, getting rid of any traces of blood and cut away any sinew that will be there.

Then give them a thorough dusting of the rub, making sure every part is covered by the powder. Then place in a bowl, cover with cling film and leave in the fridge over night.

Before you cook them, make sure they are up to room temp before proceeding. After a bit of experimenting, I’ve found that about 2 or 2 ½ minutes each side will take them to about medium. Cooked but still nice and juicy.

As with meat you have to let them rest for a tad, then slice them and I serve with some sauté potatoes and a nice spicy salad. Yum yum yum.

So if you never tried hearts, give them a go….. 

I Got To Cook !!!

We were lazing on the beach in Nha Trang, soaking up a few rays, making our pasty white skin look a little bit more healthy. When I overheard a conversation between two couples. One couple had been here before, and was telling the other about a local restaurant called Lac Canh. He was describing it as a local institution. A real gem of a place, mainly visited by locals. This intrigued me. He described the food there and how it was cooked, which sent my taste buds into overdrive. 

Later I enquired in our hotel about Lac Canh, and they raved about it. Saying most people go their at least once a month with the whole family. What more of a reason did I need. Dinner was set. 

We strolled to Lac Canh, which was at the other end of the beach, it was a pleasant walk. As we drew nearer to it, we could smell the meat being cooked. My pace quickened somewhat. When we arrived, it seemed as if the whole place was on fire. The smoke made it hard to see. We were shown to our seats and given a menu. We were promptly visited by a beer girl, this time from San Miguel. We ordered a large bottle. Best to order one at a time here, as it gets warm quickly, and I want to get out of the habit of drinking beer with ice. Around us were tables full of Vietnamese families, enjoying themselves. Laughing, joking with eachother and eating loads. 

The menu is short and sweet. A small section on beef, pork, chicken, fish of varying types, a salad or two and a drinks section. What more do you need. 

To begin with we ordered some beef, which was marinated in an in house concoction. Which I gathered consisted of chilli, garlic, rice vinegar and lime juice. We also ordered a plate of shrimps, a salad and some baguettes. 

A charcoal bar-b-q arrived on our table, the coals were red hot, glowing like the sun itself. On top was a grate for us to put our food on to grill. 

The beef arrived first, so with chopstix I placed a few pieces on the grate. The smell was divine, as it dripped onto the coals, smoke would drift up. It was heaven. 

At Leiths, I was always taught, that when you cook a steak, to know when it's done, it's all in the touch. So with chopstix in hand, I prodded the beef slices to see when they were done. Not sure if my teacher had this in mind when she taught me, but it worked. The beef came off perfect. Cooked, but still juicy. 

Popped a bit in a piece of baguette with some salad and munched away. Delish. Taste was divine, a little bit of heat from the marinade, some taste from the flames, but it was so moist. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it. 

We cooked a few more pieces of beef, before we went for the shrimps. I had never cooked seafood on a bar-b-q before, well once before, when I got drunk and dropped them on the floor. So, this time I was a little bit more sober. As the heat from the coals was still quite high, they cooked pretty fast, turning them every so often, moving them around the grill as not to burn them to much. Peeling red hot shrimps with chopstix is a difficult job, but Lina is a natural at it. I may start hiring her out. They were delish, not as good as the ones we had n Bangkok, but pretty close to it. They were still juicy, but the taste of an open grill made them better. 

To be honest we ate the rest of the prawns and beef pretty fast. Easy to do when food taste this good. Now being a greedy git, I couldn't resist ordering some more. Shouldn't have, but I did. So I ordered some slices of pork belly marinated in the same in house sauce. These were a little more tricker to cook, as the fat kept dripping on the coals and flames would shoot up through the grates and lick the pork slices. So I had to be on my toes and keep moving them around the grate. They tasted divine also, the crispiness of the pork fat and the juiciness of the meat and their marinade was to die for that night. All washed down with several bottles of San Miguel beer, it was a fun night out. Plus I got to do a little cooking also. All this for about 5 pounds. I was in heaven.

Even though it was late, we decided to walk back as we were quite full. But with a full stomach and a happy heart, no walk is to long.