First and foremost thank you to the team at Pepe Sale in Reading for being so welcoming and hospitable in hosting yesterday evenings 2nd round heat of Reading, steady, cook! I was rather pleasantly surprised by the restaurant having never been there before.
It has a really authentic, family run and genuine Italian feel to the place which of course comes from owner Toni Sale, his family and the kitchen team who produce some wonderful and classic Sardinian cuisine.
Oh look and here's Toni himself......
The music bread was to die for. (knocks Jamie's out of the park......shhhh don't tell him I said that) Just couldn't stop munching away on it and the black olives were like sunshine in your mouth :-)
Congratulations to Rick on winning the heat and progressing to the semi finals. His pan roasted poussin with spring vegetables was superbly sourced, excellently cooked and very well presented.
Commiserations to Marc who lost out narrowly with his fusion styled lobster with pappardelle but it was a very tricky decision as was entirely expected at this stage of the competition and ultimately somebody had to go through.
Marc is extremely passionate about food and has been a great and enthusiastic supporter of the competition attending many of the heats so hopefully he'll be back in some form or another. Well done buddy :-)
As Guy Douglas (BID Manager for ReadingUK CIC) commented it really was a brilliant advert for the Reading community all showcased through food. We had Rick's use of local ingredients, Marc's multi cultural culinery background and Pepe Salé's family business all rolled into recipes and restaurants, it's really what this whole competition is all about so well done to everyone involved.
From one fabulous Reading, steady, cook venue to another and I was amazed at seeing the new website and facebook page for LSQ2. Having recently been vote the best restaurant in Reading by the Pride of Reading awards perhaps I shouldn't have been so taken aback. Very sleek design and fantastic photography. I'm absolutely sure the food matches up but I shall let you know soon because I'll be reviewing it at some point soon......watch this space. In the meantime pop along to their website and see for yourself.
Here's a little piccie of yours truly announcing the winner of the heat that LSQ2 hosted....
I've also been asked to do another interview for Helen Wright's local lunch show on the community based Reading4u radio station. This will happen on the 17th of May. It's an internet based station so you can listen live from that link on the day. The date also corresponds with another heat of the Reading, steady cook competition being held at La Tasca in the town centre so great synergy there.
It's also been confirmed that I will be doing a cooking demonstration on the Eat Reading Live festival in July. I understand it'll be right before the professional chef cooking final.............no pressure then!
I was thinking that I might cook the wonderful prawn balls that I am about to give you the recipe for but who knows? I tend to mostly act upon inspiration for these kind of events so I'll choose closer to the time.
I'm just going to do the prawn ball recipe and not the dipping sauce because you can choose your own for that. We had them with some chilli oil which was fantastic but I'm sure there are plenty of others you can experiment with.
To feed two people what you're going to need is two or three handfuls of peeled and de-veined prawns. You can choose which ever variation you like but they must be uncooked. When I created this dish I used previously frozen and uncooked tiger prawns but you don't need to limit yourself just to these because ultimately they are going to be blitzed up with other ingredients.
Dipping Prawn Balls
Serves two and it's a bit fiddly so get everything prepared in advance and perhaps search Google for a video on how to form quenelles if you don't already know !!!
Ingredients -
For the filling
3 x Handfuls of raw, shelled and de-veined prawns.
1 x Fresh red chilli, stalk removed, seeds in....man/woman up.
1 x Handful of fresh coriander.
1 x Clove of garlic, peeled.
1 tsp x Thai fish sauce.
Half tsp x Paprika.
Half tsp x Garam Masala.
800ml x Rapeseed oil for deep frying. (I love using rapeseed oil as it's virtually flavourless but you can use other sunflower or vegetable oil if you like)
For the coating (and into separate bowls)
1 x Crust ends of sliced bread blended into crumbs.
2 x Eggs, whisked.
100g x Plain flour (maybe more if needed)
1. Put all the filling ingredients into a blender. Before pulsing decide if you'd like a smooth filling or something with a little more texture, it's entirely up to you but of course you can't go back if you whizz it up too much so pulse accordingly. You may also need to add a bit more moisture by way of a few drops of water if you find the blender doesn't quite grab the contents but use sparingly as these will be deep fried and water + hot oil is never a good mix.
2. Once blended empty the mixture into a bowl and let it rest in the fridge for about 10 mins to firm up a little, this will help with forming the filling balls as they will be quite delicate even after chilling making coating them a bit sticky and tricky.
3. Ideally you want the finished prawn balls to be about the size of a golf ball. That makes them just a little too big to eat in one mouthful but not so big that they take far too long to cook so using a dessert spoon scoop up enough filling you think will be enough to create a ball just smaller than the desired golf ball size. Using another dessert spoon pass the mixture between both to form a quenelle.
4. Drop the quenelle of filling into the bowl of flour and using a clean spoon roll it around very gently until it is completely covered in a dusting of the flour. At this stage you can delicately pick it up with your fingers and form it into more of a ball shape.
5. Lightly drop the floured ball into the egg bowl and again using another clean spoon gently cover the entire ball in a coating of egg. Once covered lift the ball out and again gently drop it gently into the bowl of breadcrumbs and roll around until completely coated. (I'm instructing you to drop the ball into each separate bowl because you want to keep the rolling spoons as free from the other coating ingredients as possible)
6. Take the breadcrumbed ball and again drop it into the egg bowl, roll it around and breadcrumb for a second time. This is often referred to as double dipping, it creates a bigger barrier between the filling and the hot oil so that it doesn't seep into the ball and make the contents greasy. It also makes the coating that little bit crunchier.
7. Set the fully coated prawn ball aside while you repeat the process until all the filling has been used up.
8. Heat the oil up to 375F/190C this needs to be quite accurate because any higher and the coating will cook to quickly and the filling will be undercooked any lower and the oil will seep through the coating before it has time to seal up making the filling greasy.
9. Deep fry the coated prawn ball in small batches until they are golden brown setting aside to drain on kitchen paper when done.
10. Put all the finished prawn balls in one big bowl, serve with dipping sauces of your choice and share with your friend, partner or whoever else as a nice and jolly evening repast.
If you are worried about the filling being undercooked perhaps if you are an expectant mother or just don't like the thought of eating a undercooked prawn then you can always preheat an oven to around 280F/140C and after deep frying leave them in the oven for about 10 mins before serving.
Ideally they should be served warmed through as the filling will be moist and juicy however they could also be served cold as a picnic alternative to mini scotch eggs.
That's it for this epic post so ..... toodlepip xxx
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