The Shooter's Sandwich

I had read about the Shooter’s Sandwich previously in Elizabeth David’s ‘Summer Cooking ‘.’The wise’ she says ‘travel with a flask of whiskey and a Shooter’s Sandwich’. ‘With this sandwich a man may travel from Land’s End to Quaker Oats, and snap his fingers at both’. We didn’t go quite that far, but we did go for a picnic in the Lake District in December on one of the stormiest days of the year...

My aunt’s birthday falls on the 27th December and as a surprise her immediate family had planned a return to a childhood holiday home deep in the valleys of the Northern Lakes. The fact that it was December and had no electricity or running water did not deter us. I designed the menu, packed up the picnic baskets (waterproof) and set off from Newcastle laden with potted fish, pickles, terrines, homemade breads, a delicious sticky ginger cake and the Pièce de résistance, the Shooter’s Sandwich...

As the gale force winds and horizontal sheets of rain battered us on the drive over we received a phone call from the advance party, a tree was down blocking the road further ahead. Not to be deterred we followed instruction to stop for a coffee and wait for it to be cleared, thinking it might be hours some of the party were a bit down beat, there was talk of a Plan B; but before we had even finished our giant cheese scones we received instruction to proceed, the tree was cleared and we were back in business!

An early 20th century shooting lodge made of corrugated iron and timber, no electricity, water or lights, at the head of a deserted valley in a gale, an ideal picnic spot, and a pretty exciting one at that. Once the fire was on, glasses in hand and the indoor picnic laid out we were all set... the rain and wind battered us from the outside, noisy and insistent, but it was a unique picnic lunch I will remember for a long time.

To make the Shooter’s Sandwich you will need a large round crusty cob loaf or similar, 2 steaks, I used rib eye, 500g of mushrooms and 200g shallots, some garlic, a splash of brandy and Worchester sauce, some horseradish and Dijon mustard. I followed a Tim Hayward recipe this time, but am already geared up to free style it next time...

Slice a ‘lid’ off the top of the loaf and hollow out the centre, I kept the middle and froze it to use for breadcrumbs at some point. Finely chop the mushrooms and onions and sweat them in about 75g of butter until they are tasty and soft and have lost most of their moisture. Season with salt and pepper, some grated garlic, a shot of brandy and a splash of Worcestershire sauce.

Season the steaks and get a frying pan very hot; I cooked mine for 2 minutes each side, possibly a touch less, and they were medium rare, you want them to be on the pink side.

Then quickly assemble the sandwich, no resting required. Put the first steak into the bottom of the loaf; add all the mushroom mix, packing it into all the nooks and crannies, then the next steak on top. Spread the top of this steak with horseradish and spread the inside of the loaf lid with Dijon mustard. Pop it back on and then wrap the whole thing up in greaseproof paper tightly. Secure with four lengths of string and finally place between two boards, with some heavy pans or weights on top and press overnight.

To serve, cut the Shooters Sandwich into wedges still in its paper, along with some piccalilli or a good mustard, and a full winter picnic if you’re feeling adventurous. It’s delicious; the mushroom mix is so tasty with rich meat and sharp hot horseradish and mustard. Bring on the next picnic, rain or shine. I’d use a crustier loaf next time, this one was a little soft and I might also add a layer of horseradish to the base as I love it so much. This is the classic version, if you Google it there are many more, I’m going to stay away from the Parmo version, that’s a step too far... but a vegetarian one with pesto, mozzarella, roast peppers, aubergines and basil looked delicious.

Spiced Apple Chutney

I think perhaps I forgot I had a blog, or at least I haven’t really had time to have one recently. I've been cooking easy 'go to' recipes like kedgeree or meatballs or things on toast, that I have told you about before. New things I have cooked have either been bad; apple, pancetta and sage risotto, don't go there... Or delicious, but I didn’t take any photos; celeriac and truffle dauphinoise and braised venison in red wine with orange and juniper, my god that was good. I also suffer at this time of year with the dark evenings; I just have a little automatic camera which has seen me very well for the past few years taking some beautiful pictures, but at this time of year in the low light everything just looks blurred and orange. I might just take the plunge and get the fancy pants camera I've had book marked for the past 6 months, or perhaps I should buy some Christmas presents...

I always make some Christmas presents, a few years ago I went to extreme lengths with potted duck, white chocolate and cranberry biscuits, chocolate truffles, chutneys, pickled grapes, florentines, the whole lot... I think a few jars of chutney and some chocolates might be my limit this Christmas, it's been a busy year! This Spiced Apple Chutney, which I have made a few times before, is perfect if you're thinking of making foodie presents for Christmas this year this is a winner. I've made it before in little jars with tiny parcel tags and it went down pretty well I think. Delicious with cheese, or lush Christmas ham with that sugary mustard crust, in sandwiches, with cold meats or potted game, any excuse really...

This isn't a recipe that has to be followed exactly to the letter, how sweet it is will depend on your apples, some recipes add cinnamon or nutmeg too, paprika, allspice or malt vinegar, you can play around with it, the following recipe is what I've settled on as one of my favourites...

Peel and dice 900g of cooking apples, I've used a mix of cooking and eating before too. Then combine 550g of caster sugar, 200g of brown sugar and 900ml of cider vinegar. Heat the mixture through to dissolve the sugar and add a tablespoon of ground ginger, 2 tablespoons of mustard seeds, a large pinch of salt followed by two large diced onions, 2 cloves of garlic crushed and chopped and 250g of raisins. Finally add all of the diced apples and stir it well. Then simmer for about an hour, it is difficult to say exactly as it depends on the amount of water in your apples. I have cooked it for 45 minutes before, and also 2 hours... You want it to turn quite dark and to begin to take on the consistency of warm thick jam. Then pot into warm sterile jars.

Finally leave it to sit, for it to do its stuff. Be patient, I'd say 3 weeks minimum, in a cool dark place, some people say 6 weeks. I've never managed to wait that long but it's perfect timing for Christmas presents... It is my favourite chutney I think, sweet, thick tangy and spiced, SO good with some ham, bread and butter or a piece of cheese. I was so disappointed when my last batch ran out, I'm hoping the next one will be just as good!! It keeps for ages, recipes say to eat chutneys within a month, but generally they last a lot longer, if you can manage to not eat them for some odd reason...

Smoked Beef Ribs

Ok so this is another smoker recipe, and if you scroll down the page pretty much the last recipe I posted was a smoker recipe, and I don’t want to come across like a smoker show off, but I do have a smoker and I’ve been smoking stuff so I thought I’d tell you about it... again... because it is better than telling you about either nothing, or a bad apple risotto that seemed like a good idea but wasn’t...

I was given the Pitt Cue cookbook as a belated birthday present recently. It tells the story of Pitt Cue’s evolution from a trailer on the South Bank to their own little restaurant in Soho, building their own smokers and devising their own rubs, sauces and smoking techniques. These days they are even farming their own Pitt Pigs, I’d love my own pigs... It’s a canny little tale and is full of amazing looking smoked stuff.

Only it is DEAD complicated. I want to make the ‘Mother Sauce’ but to do that I have to first make beef stock and pork stock, fresh. I’d like to make the BBQ sauce to go with my lovely beef rib, but first I need to make a spice mix AND homemade Chipotle ketchup... I make a lot of stuff from scratch but this seems a bit of a faff on. They probably don’t expect people to make most of the things, but that makes me want to give it a go... The drinks and pickles look a bit more accessible. So  I improvised, missed some steps out and sacked off the BBQ sauce and ended up with a bloody lovely beef rib rack...

I made their ‘House Rub’, there’s enough to rub a house, so make a half or a quarter of this if you only have one piece of meat like I did. It comprised of 10g of fennel seeds, 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds, 1 teaspoon of black peppercorns and 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds, toasted in a dry pan for a few minutes, then ground up in a pestle and mortar. Add to a large bowl 100g of soft brown sugar, 50g granulated sugar, 10g garlic powder, 100g of fine salt, 15g of smoked paprika, 30g of regular paprika, 1 teaspoon of dried oregano and 1 teaspoon of cayenne. I threw in some mustard powder too... See, it’s a LOT of stuff. Mix it all together and you have your rub...

The beef was a lovely 4 bone beef rib rack from Charlotte’s butchery, which I covered all over in every nook and cranny with the rub. It was enough for four people, or two if you're really greedy, we just ate it for two days.

So we set Mr. Smokerson up, charcoal burning nice and white, water bowl in, temperature hanging around 110°C or 230°F, put the little metal box of wood chips onto the coals and in went the rib, not to be seen again for 6 hours, so we went for a walk. There is a massive bit of fat that runs through the middle of the rib that keeps it really moist but also has to break down so takes some time. When it is done the meat pulls away from the bone and is soft, sticky, smoky and delicious. We had it with mustardy coleslaw, lentils done like baked beans and some buttery polenta, perhaps an odd mix, but a pretty tasty one...

Roast Topside of Beef with Black Pepper, Mustard and Celery Seeds

I have some new butcher friends, they popped up to say hi on Twitter a while ago now and invited me to go and have a look round their place, which I gladly accepted. I've always been interested in butchery and have long harboured intentions of taking some kind of course one day, to learn the basics at least... 

 

Freeman’s started as a family business in South Shields in 1953 and is still run by the grandson's of the founder, albeit as a much bigger operation in the middle of Team Valley these days. Robert showed me round, to where the meat arrives, how it's labelled and tracked so they know exactly which farm every piece has come from, which abattoir it was slaughtered in and when it arrived with them. Into the giant fridges with huge cuts of meat hanging from rails, followed by a demonstration from butcher Darren of how to cut out a sirloin steak and how to cut a Barnsley chop. I had a lovely time, and sadly couldn’t stay long enough to see more, but will definitely return... 

 

So as if that wasn't good enough already, this week Robert turned up with a Christmas meat hamper for me... Christmas come early! This is the first year that they have sold hampers on line, you can have a look at the whole range here, from little ones to huge ones, full of turkey, gammon, topside of beef, duck, pork loin, sausage meat and pigs in blankets. All delivered to your door for free, if you order before the 21st December.

 

So this weekend I roasted the beautiful piece of topside beef. I crushed a tablespoon of black peppercorns and bashed them up in a pestle and mortar with a tablespoon of mustard powder, a teaspoon of dried thyme, a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of celery seeds, then mixed it all with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and spread it all over the outside of the meat. I roasted it at 190°C for 47 minutes... That is 12 minutes per 450g for medium rare, mine was possibly more on the rare side but that's how I like it. Make sure you rest it properly, covered in foil for 30 minutes. I served it with a big dish of Pan Haggerty potatoes, the little pigs in blankets and lots of vegetables, followed by an apple and walnut crumble. It felt almost like Christmas...

 

 

Smoked Baby Back Ribs

Mr Smokerson was feeling a bit neglected I think, starved of attention for at least a few weeks, maybe longer... Poor guy. Until I spotted some baby back ribs in Waitrose that was. I've smoked some once before and it was an effort to find them; now I see them everywhere, Morrisons, Waitrose, The Grainger Market. They are small, tasty and cheap. This lot only cost £2 and there were smaller racks for less... rude not to I thought...

It was a match day, expectations were high... (not that high as we were playing Man United), but high enough to bet on Newcastle to win and get up early to light the smoker and pop some ribs in. The sun was shining, autumnal colours were dancing around the yarden, wood smoke was puffing out of Mr. Smokerson, I could smell smoky delicious ribs, I was happy, Mr. Smokerson was happy, everyone was happy...

That was until about 4 minutes into the match, but the less said about that the better, I still smelt a bit of wood smoke and hadn’t forgotten the good times entirely...

You don't necessarily need a smoker to make these as there are two methods, one for the smoker and one for the oven. I haven’t tried the oven method yet, but the smoker way is pretty damn good, so I'm guessing that is too. The recipe is from the Joe Beef book, my current obsession and inspiration for my Pop-up Feast on the 3rd November at Ouse Street Arts Club.

My ribs weighed about 350g. Mix together a teaspoon of smoked paprika, one of garlic powder, one of mustard powder and one of black pepper, and add some crushed bay leaf. Rub this mix all over the ribs, whether you are putting them into the oven or the smoker.

For the oven method put them in a tray, pour in half a bottle of beer and cook for 2½ hours at 165°C covered with foil, for the smoker method bring the smoker up to about 240°F and smoke for 4 hours, keeping the temperature between 210°F and 240°F. For me this involves lots of faffing, opening and closing of vents and messing around with probe thermometers... but actually Mr. Smokerson is pretty reliable kind of guy when you leave him to his own devises, I just like faffing around pretending I'm some kind of all American smoker guy... For a fuller explanation of how Mr. Smokerson works see my 'Experiments in Smoking part 1' post.

We added an overly large handful of apple wood chips at the same time as the meat went in, and a few more half way through just for good measure, the aim being to smoke the hell out of them. This resulted in a pretty bloody smoky rib; soft, sweet, delicious. Just all round delicious. Next time I'll make more as well as coleslaw, buns, bbq sauce... I want more already...