Roast Beef and Kedgeree

carnisseria

November 25, 2011

For the Homage to Cataluña shoot, we’d decided to make British tapas, as an amuse bouche, for all the people taking part. Before lunch, at the Kiosk Universal, we’d gone to a carnisseria (see above) in the Boqueria to buy a beef roasting joint and butifarra, with Alfredo.

raw beef

I believe Alfredo shops here on a regular basis and the butchers were very helpful. Spanish cuts of meat do differ from those of Britain, so we needed help. We bought a 2.5 kilo roasting joint and 2 or 3 kilos of butifarra (a traditional Catalan sausage – which compares favorably to Cumberland sausage). Alfredo took charge of the sausages and I got the beef.

browning the beef

I browned the beef all over in Oli’s griddle pan, then roasted it for 40 minutes in a preheated oven at 200º C. Beforehand I deglazed the griddle pan with a glass of red wine and a splash of sherry vinegar and poured the deglaze over the beef before seasoning it with salt and pepper. I also added a few pieces of garlic for flavour.

roast beef

After the allotted 40 minutes, I left the beef to rest before wrapping it up and putting it in the fridge for tomorrow. I didn’t waste the juices and burnt bits in the bottom of the tray – they were turned into gravy.

poaching haddock

Meanwhile, I’d brought 1.5 kilos of smoked haddock from England (it’s not common in Spain) to make Kedgeree, a popular Victorian breakfast dish made with curry, rice, smoked haddock and hard boiled eggs. I poached the fish in milk and then once it was cool, used the milk to cook (and flavor) 1.2 kilos of Basmati Rice. I also fried 4 large Spanish onions gently, until they’d caramelised.

basmati rice

Once everything was cold, the onions were stirred into the rice along with two large teaspoons of Madras Curry Powder. I also removed the skin from the fish and flaked it into the rice.

kedgeree base

I heated some cumin, 4 cardomom pods, madras curry powder and turmeric in a frying pan, once it started to release odors (it shouldn’t cook or burn) it was done, so I poured on lots of olive oil and warmed that to infuse it. Some of this was added to the kedgeree for flavour and the rest got kept for tomorrow.

curry oil

The rest of the work was left to our chefs, Alfredo and Zim (The Unemployable Chef), at the shoot, tomorrow…