Masterchef 2014

No recipe this week, well, not yet anyway, but now that Masterchef has finished, I thought it might be the time to jot down a few thoughts on my experience during the programme and what might be coming next for me.

For those who didn't know, I was a contestant on the series that just finished, finally reaching the last 8 before my luck ran out. There were highs and lows for me personally, but the overall experience was overwhelmingly positive, so anyone expecting the embittered rantings of a sore loser will be disappointed. 

Having entered really more as a gesture of bravado rather than seeking any sort of particular validation of my cooking, it was more than a shock when I got a call to invite me onto the show. A pleasant shock, the type of shock you'd get if someone say, bought you a lovely present, but a shock nonetheless. This was when some real planning got underway, trying to think of dishes, reading cookbooks, trying to swot up on techniques in case something came up in the invention tests that I'd never done before. It's probably at this stage that the panic really started to set in. When my friends found out I was going to be on, one comment in particular stood out: "If you cry on telly I will laugh at you for the rest of your life". You know who you are.

I'll be honest and say I didn't allow myself enjoy the whole experience as much as I should have. That's not because it wasn't enjoyable, because it was, massively so (I'll expand on this later), but because I'm a worrier, and so I spent a lot of time worrying about things.

What will happen if I go out in the first round? I definitely don't want that to happen, I'd never be allowed to forget it!

Ok, I'm through the first round, great. Right, it's going to get harder from here on in isn't it?

This is getting quite serious, I'm through to the quarter finals. I'm surely going to be exposed as a fraud in the next round.

Last 10! Wow! I'm going to need time off work and I haven't told them about it. Hmmm.

Last 8? Well this escalated quickly.

And so on and so forth. My natural state of worry probably stopped me enjoying myself as much as I should have, which is a shame, because when I was in the kitchen, I loved it, absolutely had a ball. Even when it was hard and things weren't going that well, I had a great time when I was cooking.

There were plenty of times outside the cooking when I had fun as well. The team who work behind the scenes on the show are absolutely brilliant. It won't surprise most people to know that there's a lot of sitting around, between judging and things. There were a bunch of people who always said the right things, made us feel better, supported us and genuinely seemed happy for us when things went well, and disappointed for us when things didn't. I sent my thanks through when my time on the show finished, but if any of them happen to be reading this, my biggest thanks go to you all for making the times when I was most nervous (and trying not to show it) fly over and never failing to make us all smile and laugh. I know for a fact that every contestant I had the pleasure to cook alongside would agree with me on that.

Alongside those people, the other people I really need to thank is my family. To say they were supportive is an understatement. Nealy put up with me during the whole process, tasting recipes, telling me not to worry, dropping me off and picking me up from the train station, and generally being amazing. To be getting married to her next year is bigger and better than any television show could ever muster. And I get to write the menu as well!

My parents were tasters as well, but more than that, were the people who obviously instilled the food bug in me, always making sure we had good food and watching many an hour of food-based television together, stretching back to the days of the Carlton Food Network on Telewest (one for the North Easterners there). Finally, my sister Julie has been, along with Nealy, my biggest supporter online, and also became my biggest defender in the aftermath of the pro kitchen. It's probably fair to say Adam Handling has probably postponed any trips he had planned to Gateshead soon in case he bumps into her. Thanks sis.

The weekend I got knocked out I was working at Gateshead Beer Festival, which is held at my rugby club, Gateshead RFC. I just wanted to mention that a few people spotted me over the weekend, and every single person was so nice about my appearances, some were kind enough to say I'd been a good representative for the region, and if this is true, then fantastic. I love the North East, and I'm proud to be from Gateshead. This blog isn't named NE9 for no reason.

A word about our illustrious judges. Everyone seems to have an opinion on John and Gregg, and so here is my experience. In the early rounds, John was quite quiet, I think he was watching everyone and seeing what people were like when they were left to their own devices. As the rounds went on, he became so helpful, making sure you were checking something wasn't boiling over, or that something that needed to be in the oven was in. My feeling was that he didn't want anyone to fail - if the flavours don't work, that's something he can't help with, but he didn't want to see someone go out on a technicality, if that makes sense.

Gregg is another who ensures that everyone is at ease. He likes to tell a joke or two and generally make people smile and laugh, which is great, and sorely needed at times in the kitchen. Both judges were nothing but great to me, and nothing but honest, which is all anyone can ask, isn't it?

The professional kitchen. My nemesis, as it turned out. I could be wrong, but I think it was probably that round that did for me in the end, and rightly so. I struggled in that environment on the day, and made no bones afterwards about that fact. I think I could do better if given another chance, but Masterchef is in large part all about how you perform on the day, and put bluntly, I didn't. I made early mistakes, which I think certainly put the chef on the defensive against me, and then I didn't redeem myself as I should have. I've had plenty of comments about that round, some I could print, some I couldn't, but if that's what killed me off in the end then so be it. Mistakes happen.

A quick word on the people I cooked with, my fellow contestants. I'm still in touch with quite a few, and I have to say that again, they are a really great bunch of people. I'm proud to now call some of them friends, and I very much hope I haven't seen the last of them, in fact, I'll hopefully put in place some plans to see some of them this summer if I can. Ping, if you're reading, you were a worthy winner - you cooked consistently incredible food, and the food world is now your oyster, enjoy it!

I do have one admission about something that surprised me recently, something that I didn't expect at all. I found the final rounds, after I'd been sent home, very hard to watch. I did watch them all, because as I say, I class those people as my friends and wanted to celebrate for whoever won, but also, because I know how much hard work went into the making of the show, I wanted to show my appreciation in a little way. But I found it hard. I think watching myself go out was more difficult than actually having gone out, if that makes sense. There was a definite sense of disappointment at what could have been, especially when the gang cooked alongside one of my food heroes, Tom Kerridge, for a table full of chefs that I've spent so much time watching on various food shows. I was left to rue what could have been, and ponder on what I could have done differently in order to get through.

The truth is though, there's nothing I could have done. Even if I'd done something differently, would I have got through? Maybe, maybe not, who knows? What I do know is that I worked my backside off for a few weeks, I sat on trains for more hours than I care to remember, I trawled through recipes online looking for inspiration, I not only got to cook for John Torode, Gregg Wallace and Marcus Wareing in the Masterchef kitchen, but I got some pretty decent comments from them as well. I met some amazing chefs, some amazing people, smiled plenty, laughed more and left with a bucket-load of experiences that money can't buy. All in all not bad.

And most importantly, I didn't cry on telly.

Za'atar chicken with herb & pomegranate couscous

Ok, I promised you panna cotta (and it will come), but my house move has seen my notebooks packed away for a couple of weeks, and so I'm resorting to quick and easy recipes for a couple of weeks! Apologies it's been a couple of weeks since the last post, I'll try to be better from now on.

Za'atar isn't the easiest spice to get - I know my local large supermarket doesn't stock it, although I'm sure some in bigger areas may well do. I find it in the local food market (The Grainger Market in Newcastle), and I am sure if you ask around, there may be some local Asian food stores that may also sell it.

However, don't be downheartened, as it is actually pretty easy to make your own. It's just toasted sesame seeds, dried thyme, dried oregano, sumac and salt. Sumac is another Middle-Eastern spice with a slight citrus note, and is much easier to get hold of, the two large supermarket chains I've been to both stocked it.

This is a fantastic midweek meal, super-easy and tasty, without too much effort!

Ingredients (Serves 2)

2 chicken breasts
80g couscous
Handful each of fresh mint, oregano, coriander and flat leaf parsley
3-4 tbsp za'atar
Zest of one lemon
One pomegranate
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Method

With a sharp knife, make a series of shallow scores in the top of the chicken breast, to allow the marinade to penetrate, and also a more even distribution of heat when cooking.

In a bowl, mix two heaped tablespoons of za'atar with enough olive oil to make a loose paste, then place the chicken into the mix and rub in thoroughly. Leave to marinate for as long as you can. Ideally a minimum of 30 minutes, and it can comfortably be left overnight in the fridge. When you're ready to cook, bring the chicken out of the fridge for 10 minutes and allow to come up to room temperature.

Heat a small amount of oil in a large non-stick frying pan and place over a medium heat. Once up to temperature, place the chicken in, scored-side down. Leave to cook on one side for 4-5 minutes until a nice light golden brown colour, and then flip the chicken and cook on the other side. Keep turning the chicken every 2-3 minutes, until cooked through, which will take around 15 minutes for an average chicken breast, longer if you manage to get quick thick breasts. Turning regularly stops the chicken drying out, which can always be a problem with poultry.

A quick note about temperature. I've already mentioned previously, but I am a huge fan of a thermometer for cooking thick pieces of meat. It takes out the guesswork, and since getting mine around a year ago, I've never overcooked a piece of chicken. It's cooked when it reaches 72 degrees Celsius, which means it will be cooked through safely, but beautifully juicy inside. If you can afford one (around £10 online for a decent one), then get one, or maybe add it to the Christmas list.

Whilst the chicken is cooking, weigh the couscous, and add to a bowl with a large pinch of salt, and 1.5 times the volume of boiling water (or chicken stock if you prefer, but if you do, don't put the salt in). Practically speaking, this means if you make 80g of couscous, add 120mls of water. Place a plate or cling film over the top of the bowl and allow to soak. It will only take 3-4 minutes to cook.

When this is soaking, chop all of the herbs, zest the lemon and cut the pomegranate ready to be used. Remember to keep turning your chicken!

Once the couscous has absorbed all of the water, fluff it up using a fork, and then add the chopped herbs and lemon zest and mix. Add a little black pepper and check the seasoning. If needed, add more salt and/or pepper.

To get the little pearls out of the pomegranate, the best way is to give it a good smack with a wooden spoon! Cut the pomegranate across the middle (not through the spiked ends) and you'll see the little seeds inside, which is what you want. They are surrounded by a sour, white pith, which you definitely don't want. To get the seeds, rather than pick them out, which would take forever, hold the pomegranate in your hand, with your fingers splayed across the cut side. Turn it upside down over the bowl and hit the bottom with a wooden spoon (or anything you'd got to hand really!). You'll see the seeds start to pop out quite easily. You can put as many as you'd like in, but I find around half a pomegranate more than enough.

If you don't think you'll use the other half, then tap out the seeds and add them to a nice glass of champagne or sparkling wine to make it a special occasion! Once the seeds are out you can squeeze in a little juice to give the bubbly a nice lift.

To serve, nothing more difficult than spooning some of the couscous onto the plate and then placing the chicken on top. I like to carve the chicken into slices just to make it look a little neater. Serve as it is, or perhaps with a nice little flatbread.

Enjoy!

Next week - well, I'm visiting House of Tides on Saturday night so I think I'll write a review - can't wait!

Duck with spiced plum sauce

Armed with a couple of duck breasts (courtesy of Mother Tate, thank you very much), I decided to go down a quite traditional route of a plum sauce, spiced up a little with a few extra accompaniments alongside. So, in the end it turned out to be a pan roasted duck breast, with fondant potato, parsnip purée, creamed cabbage and a spiced plum sauce.

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 duck breasts
2 large potatoes
1 large parsnip
1/2 savoy cabbage
Double cream
3 rashers smoked bacon (or pancetta would work well)
Handful of fresh thyme
500ml chicken stock
300ml milk
Bay leaf
4 plums
50ml red wine vinegar
3-4tbsp dark brown sugar
Five spice powder
Salt, white pepper, black pepper Olive oil

Method

For the fondant potato, peel the potatoes and cut out rounds, making rough 'hockey puck' shapes, then fry lightly on both sides to colour. Once that's done, place into a pan with the chicken stock and a good few sprigs of thyme. The stock should come up about half way up the potato. If you are happy to throw the calories out of the window for the weekend, then you can also tip in about 100g of butter with the stock, to give the potatoes a luxuriously buttery finish. Place into a preheated oven at around 180C for 25-30mins, checking regularly and turning, until it is cooked through.

Next, get the parsnips on. Peel and cut into small chunks, and then place into a pan with the milk, a pinch of salt and ground white pepper. Place onto a medium/high heat and cook for around 20mins until the parsnip is tender. Drain, making sure you reserve the liquid, and then blend, using as much of the liquid as you need to make a nice, smooth purée. Check and adjust the seasoning and then keep warm in a pan until you need it.

 

For the plum sauce, remove the stones from the plums and put in a pan with the sugar, vinegar and five spice. Cook over a medium heat until the plums have broken down (15-20mins), then blend and return to the pan. At this point, it's important to taste. Because plums can differ with their tartness, you may need to add more vinegar or sugar, and you may also want to adjust the spicing. When I did it, I ended up adding more sugar and more five spice, just to get it where it needed to be.



Cut the bacon into small strips, and then in a frying pan or sauté pan, fry in a little olive oil until nice and crispy. Take the bacon out and put to one side, and then in the same pan, just put a ladleful of water or stock (I used some of the stock from the fondant potato) and add the cabbage. With no lid on the pan, fry/steam the cabbage for 4-5mins until just tender. Don't cook it for too long otherwise it will start to go mushy and lose it's fresh taste. Once cooked, add the bacon back in, then add around 50mls of double cream, just enough to bring it together. You don't want the cabbage flooded in cream, just almost bound together using the cream. Taste and season with salt and some freshly ground black pepper, which goes brilliantly with the cabbage.

For the duck, gently score the skin with a sharp knife, then season with some salt and place skin side down into a cold pan, then place onto a medium/high heat. It's important that the duck goes into a cold pan, as it allows the excess fat to render out slowly, leaving a crisp skin without any chewy fat underneath. Fry for 5-6mins until the skin is a light brown, then turn and quickly fry for a minute on the underside, just to get a small amount of colour. Flip back onto the skin side and place the pan in the oven for around 8-10mins for a nice, pink duck breast. Once it comes out of the oven, it needs to rest like any good piece of meat, so take it out of the pan, cover with tinfoil and allow to rest for 5-10mins if you can.

Plate it up any old way you like, I tried to make it look nice so I could show you good people! The key thing to remember about this recipe is to not overcook the duck, and to check the plum sauce and adjust the various seasoning as necessary.

If anyone does decide to try, please do let me know how it goes!

Enjoy!

Next week....pushing the boat out with a posh pannacotta...

Pasta

For my first proper post, I'm going to combine a couple of recipes, the first to make your own pasta, and secondly to make a sauce to go with it. Puttanesca is an intense, tangy, tomato-based sauce, traditionally combining olives, capers and garlic. Over the years this has evolved a little in my house, with the addition of anchovy, chilli, pancetta and a splash of balsamic vinegar, to create a luscious, dark sauce. Sweet, salty, rich and with a little bite from the chilli, it is perfect for the dark winter nights.

Firstly though, the pasta. Making spaghetti, linguine or any of the long pasta varieties, is best done using a pasta machine. And by best done, I really mean it is very difficult to do without. The pasta dough has to be rolled so thin that to do it by hand would be almost impossible (although I imagine there's an Italian nonna or two who would disagree). It certainly makes it much more achievable in the home kitchen, and if you think you'd enjoy making your own pasta, they are certainly a good buy (you can pick them up for around £20-40 online).

Pasta dough is best made using '00' flour, which can be bought in any larger supermarket, or at specialist food delis, if you're lucky enough to have one close by. It differs from normal flour by being incredibly finely ground, allowing you to make very smooth dough, perfect for pasta (as well as pizza, which I'll definitely cover another time).

As a guide, for every 100g of '00' flour, you want to use half the weight of egg, so 50g. I know eggs don't come in weights, but it really is the best way for me to tell you. I could tell you one egg, but eggs can vary so much in size. However, if you weigh a single egg for example, and you find it weighs say 40g, and you don't want to waste another, then you can top it up to 50g with water. The only other ingredient is salt. I've seen recipes that add olive oil, but I've always found it can make the dough tight and unworkable.

Of course, not everyone has, or wants, a pasta maker, and so if you don't, obviously just cook up some pasta to go with the sauce! I find long pasta works best with this sauce (my personal favourite is linguine), but whatever you have in the cupboard will go just fine.

Pasta Dough - Serves 2

100g '00' pasta flour

50g eggs

Pinch salt

If you're making the pasta by hand, then weigh out the flour into a large bowl, add a pinch of salt and then add the egg, slowly bringing the mixture together with your fingers until it forms a dough. Empty it out onto a floured surface and then knead it for 5-10mins until it is soft and springy to touch (it's important not to skip the kneading! It develops the gluten in the flour and basically means the pasta will be edible once it's cooked).

Once kneaded, form into a ball and then wrap tightly in cling film and allow to rest in the fridge. Ideally leave it for 30mins to an hour.

While it is resting, set up your pasta machine. It will need to be clamped to the work surface (follow the instructions you get with it, but this will stop it moving while you are rolling). Dust the area around the machine with flour as well, to stop the pasta sticking as you roll it. The machine should be set at its widest setting (again, follow your instructions).

Once the pasta is rested, unwrap it and place onto the floured surface. You'll need to roll it out manually into a roughly rectangle shape in order to begin to feed it into the machine. Once this is done, carefully place one end into the pasta machine and begin to roll it through. I roll my dough twice through each thickness setting, getting down to a very thin sheet, before folding in half again and again to get back to a small rectangle of dough, turning it 90 degrees and feeding it back through the machine on each setting once more. This reduces your waste, as when your first roll, you'll get slightly raggedy edges, which you won’t want to use if you're trying to impress someone.

Doing it this way might seem long, but actually it doesn't take any longer than maybe 10 minutes in total to roll it, you get great pasta, and it can be quite therapeutic, just take your time and make sure it turns out well. It may take a few attempts before you get it just right, but people are really impressed by homemade pasta, and once you've mastered this you'll also be able to use the same basic technique to make ravioli and tortellini.

Once you have a long sheet, attach whichever cutter you want onto the pasta maker (most come with spaghetti and tagliatelle cutters as a minimum) and then run the pasta through the cutter in the same way to create your shards of gold. You should cut your pasta as soon as it is rolled, as it dries very quickly. If you need to wait any length of time, either try not to roll it out, or cover it with a damp cloth. Once cut, it can be hung over a wooden spoon handle or whatever you have available and allowed to dry for a few minutes before cooking. Fresh pasta cooks in a matter of minutes. A large pot of boiling water, with a good pinch of salt (my Italian food bible, The Silver Spoon, recommends 10g of salt per litre of water) and the pasta will cook in around 2-3 minutes. Always be sure to taste it, pinch a little off with your hand - it should be cooked through but still have a firmness to it ('al dente').

Puttanesca Sauce

100g pancetta (or 1 box of cubetti de pancetta, which most supermarkets stock and is what I use)

2 cloves garlic

1 red chilli

4 anchovies

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

15-20 pitted olives (black or kalamata work best)

2-3 tbsp capers

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Bunch of flat leaf parsley

Salt and pepper (to taste)

Place a large frying pan onto a medium heat. Once up to temperature, add the pancetta to the pan and fry for 4-5 minutes until golden. The pancetta will give up some of its delicious fat (don't throw this away!). Using a slotted spoon, remove the pancetta and place in a bowl.

Finely slice the anchovies and chilli, then place into the pan and allow to cook for a few minutes in the pancetta oil. If you have anchovies stored in oil, then add a little of the anchovy oil into the pan first as well, for an extra punch of flavour. The anchovies should begin to almost melt in the oil - if they look like they are starting to brown, lower the heat.

Finely slice (or grate on a microplane grater if you have one) the garlic and add to the pan for just a minute or two - don't allow to brown otherwise the garlic will taste bitter.

Tip in the chopped tomatoes, olives, capers and a splash of balsamic vinegar, then turn the heat down and allow the sauce to simmer gently for 10-15 minutes, to allow the flavours to come together. (If you have a stick blender, sometimes it can be a good idea to blitz the tomatoes for a few seconds before adding. If you're using the supermarket own brand or value brand tomatoes, they can have quite chunky pieces of tomato in, and it works better if they are blended down. My stick blender fits straight into a standard size tin, so I don't have to wash another bowl!)

The sauce is ready when it has thickened ever so slightly, at which point you can add the pancetta back in, add the finely chopped parsley, check and adjust the seasoning, and then serve with the pasta.

Serve your pasta however you want obviously, but traditionally, the pasta is always mixed with the sauce before being served, rather than having the sauce on top of the pasta. It’s how I like to do it and it means the pasta gets beautifully coated with all of the sauce before serving.

Once your sauce is ready you can cook the pasta, that's how little time the pasta takes. Drain the pasta (but first reserve a little of the pasta water) and add into the pan of sauce. Mix or toss around in the pan, and if the mixture looks a little dry for any reason, add a little of the pasta water to loosen.

I'm pretty confident you'll love this sauce, but play around with it. Add in some other ingredients that take your fancy or take out anything you don't like. That’s how I cook.

 

Happy cooking.

The Beginning

The start of a new year always brings a landslide of new blogs from people who set themselves New Year’s Resolutions that they’re desperate to keep. Mine is no different really, except it’s taken me until April to get around to starting. You might think this translates to hour after hour slaving away on content, crafting every last word, ensuring that it is absolutely perfect to be read by literally tens of people, but more realistically it meant getting lost in the frustration of not being able to think of a good name.

I settled on NE9. The more local readers among you will perhaps realise that this is the start of a local postcode, representing Low Fell, where I was born and raised. It represents my food history in a way, where I learned about food and learned to cook, and so really it’s where my food story started, and where its heart will always be.

Anyway, onto the main event (or the main course, he says, tantalisingly offering a glimpse of both the topic of the blog and the trademark wit that you'll come to put up with through gritted teeth).

I love food. I love eating it, I love cooking it. I like great home cooking, as well as occasionally pushing the boat out and trying something a bit different.

I've decided it might be nice to share a bit of this; while I've no doubt the blog will grow and adapt as time goes on, for now I'm thinking it will be a mix of recipes, interspersed with perhaps the occasional restaurant review (if I eat somewhere worth telling you about) and anything else food-related that takes my fancy.

I hope you try some of the food, or maybe just take something away that you can use in your own kitchen. I'll try my hardest to make all of my recipes easy to do in a home kitchen - I don't have tonnes of fancy equipment - and also as accessible as I can ingredients-wise.

Mostly, I hope I can pass on a bit of my enthusiasm for food to even just a few people.

Enjoy.