Kieron Norfield

The great British BBQ

Kieron — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 12:34:12 +0000

Whether you consider us a nation of food lovers or dog lover there is one side of of Britain that no one can deny, and that is when the sun come out we go crazy. Whether it’s wearing shorts in the early April sun or going topless and lobster red in June. We inflict our obsession for it on everyone around us and none more so than the infamous burnt sausage.
I’ve, like most, loved BBQ’s since I was a child. It was a time when the whole family got together and talked while cooking as well as eating. Being outdoors it was a time when everyone stepped away from the day to day life and let go even if only for a little while. Now as an adult (and man!) I am left to tend the BBQ at those family gatherings. It’s all too easy for this to become an easy option with a couple of burgers and may be a banger or two. I’ve experienced both the highs and lows of BBQ food, from the fake smile as you stick another lump of dried out burger in your mouth to blissful moments of hot tasting goodness.
On my travels around the world the hotter the country the more they cook outside and the wider the range of BBQ food becomes. In Lanzarote I watch fresh fish being cooked over an inactive volcano, unfortunately I didn’t get to taste it but I doubt sulphur adds much to sardines! In Australia I learnt that you can cook a lot more than just sausages on a BBQ, from frying potato slices to make chips to corn on the cob. Although as a Christmas dinner I’m sorry it’s not the same. The best BBQ food I have ever experienced was American, Texan to be exact. The first experience was pulled beef tacos which gave me a taste and subsequently took a trip to Iron Works BBQ and enjoyed the beef ribs and aside from being enough meat to feed a small family it was mouth watering. The meat was tender, sticky and flavoursome and million miles from the burnt British sausage.
This summer I will be running some experiments to re-make that mouth water Texan meal and already have grand plans that involve a welding touch and plasma cutter. To get me in the mood I decided to cook some slow cooked shoulder of lamb. It’s the closet I’ve come to good BBQ food and still not a patch on it.

Ingredients

Half a shoulder blade of Lamb
3 – 4 cloves of garlic
A large handful of fresh Thyme
Salt
Generous amount of Pepper
A good slug of olive oil

Step 1
Crush the garlic, leaving the skins on. Then mix all of the ingredients together.

Step 2
Taking a long length of foil, at least twice as much as is need to wrap the lamb. Double the foil over placing the lamb on it and smothering with the ingredients from step 1. Wrap the lamb up tight so that nothing can escape. I left my lamb over night in the marinade but due to the length of time cooking you could skip that step if you were in a hurry.

Step 3
Place the lamb still in it’s foil in the oven at 120 C for 5 – 7 hours (7 hours in my case)

Step 4
Remove from the oven and with a pair of forks remove all the meat from the bone and serve.

Finally a decent loaf!

Kieron — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 08:12:22 +0000

Bread has to be one of the basic staples of all meals. We’ve been baking it and eating it for years and whether you like soft whites or hearty seeded wholemeals our meals would be lacking without it.
I used to work in a patisserie many years ago but unfortunately they bought their fresh bread in, so I never got to steal a recipe. The one thing I did learn was that the fresher the bread the greater the taste. In the patisserie I was responsible for slicing the fresh bread and spent many hungover mornings stealing slices out of the centre of peoples loaves. Hot fresh bread is a good hangover cure.
From that point I’ve made my own bread. I’ve tried many different recipes and methods and have always been a little disappointed. I think I’ve finally got a basic loaf from which I can experiment from, draw back is it’s all made by hand! I still use my kenwood mixer to knock up some pizza or flatbread dough but for a decent loaf it needs some good old fashioned hard work.

Ingredients

750 grammes of Strong flour (preferably organic, British and the stronger the better)
14 grammes of Fast acting yeast
14 grammes of Sea salt (finely ground)
14 grammes of Honey ( I tend to add half a teaspoon of granulated sugar as honey and yeast don’t play nicely together)
40ml of Sesame oil
400ml of tepid water ( this is approximate as it depends on your flour )

Step 1
Mix 200ml of your water with the honey/sugar and yeast and stir well. Caution: Your water should not be over 20c as it will kill your yeast)

Step 2
In a large bowl add the flour and salt, stirring them together to spread the salt a little. Then add the sesame oil and mix this through.

Step 3
Slowly mix in the yeast/water/honey mixture to the flour. Next using the remainder of the water you need to create a dough that involves all of the flour and is tacky to touch. This bit is a little bit of judgement and I normally tip the dough out of the bowl onto a clean surface, but it is better to have a wetter dough and add flour while on the work surface that to try and add additional water at this stage.

Step 4
Kneading, everyone has there own style and theres no wrong way to do it. As long as your stretching the dough and folding it over it’ll work. Kneading takes me about 5 minutes but depends on style and strength can take less or more time, the key is the dough should gain a smooth surface then returns when pressed.

Step 5
Lightly flour the bowl your mixed your dough in and return the knead dough to it. Cut a couple of deep cuts into it and cover either with a damp cloth/tea towel or with clingfilm. Let it rise until it has doubled in size, approximately 40 minutes in a warm room.

Step 6
This step is the most dis-heartening of all you need to knock the air out of the risen bread for about a minute. This is to re-distribute the bubbles through the bread. At this point you need to shape your bread to how you would like your final loaf. My favoured choice is nice and simple and I flour a sheet of baking paper on a flat tray and just make a simple round loaf. Cutting the top but this time for visual effect so the cuts are not as deep. Flour the top of the loaf and cover again with a damp tea towel. I then place the loaf on the hob above my oven and turn the oven on high to pre-heat it.

Step 6.a
One of my bread loves is Tiger bread you get from almost all of the supermarkets today. To make tiger bread you need to make a paste from:
A pinch of salt
A pinch of sugar
A pinch of yeast
A desert spoon of sesame oil
100 grammes of rice flour
100 ml of water(ish)
Add the water last to regulate the consistency of the paste. Once combined spread over the top of your unrisen loaf. Covering a loaf with this paste is pretty difficult and anything that touches it will stick. I placed cling film over mine but lost 50% of the topping to the cling film.

Step 7
Finally to the baking, without banging or knocking your bread place it in the oven at the highest temperature and gently shut the oven door. after 10-15 minutes turn the temperature down to 220C for the remainder of the cooking time, approximatley 30-40 minutes or until the dough sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Step 8
Place on a wire rack to cool for a little while prior to eating!

Tadgh, UK

Kieron — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 13:17:00 +0000

June, 2007

Norfolk, UK

Kieron — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 13:15:51 +0000

August, 2002

UK

Kieron — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 13:14:38 +0000

1999

Malta

Kieron — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:13:10 +0000

2001

Marahau, NZ

Kieron — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 10:31:19 +0000

8th May 2010

Motueka, NZ

Kieron — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 09:35:49 +0000

10th May 2010

Wales, UK

Kieron — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 12:53:25 +0000

27th December 2007

Venice, Italy

Kieron — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 08:07:37 +0000

August 2002