Friday Night Take-away - The Cheese Burger

The reality of being a parent really struck home this week.  R woke up last Thursday covered in Chicken Pox and our plans for the week were chucked out of the window.  We have been in self-imposed quarantine ever since.  My planned Birthday meal was cancelled and both Z and I had to re-arrange work as we had to keep him out of nursery.

Every cloud has a silver lining and ours has been more meals as a family.  In a normal week R has his meals at nursery and we eat our tea after R has had his bath and gone to bed.  This week we've been making sure dinner was on the table by the time the worker of the day got home.  We have even given R his first taste of Chinese food with a Chicken and Oyster Sauce stir-fry with noodles.

Tonight though, we are back to normal routine.  I don't finish work until six o'clock on Friday so R had cottage pie before I got home.  Once he was nicely tucked up in bed we cracked on with our take-away style meal of cheese burger and chips.

Even before the horse meat scandal broke we tended to make our burgers from scratch.  I have heard of people adding breadcrumbs, egg and even tomato ketchup to the meat as seasonings or binding agents for their burgers.  All we ever add is finely chopped and fried onion, salt and pepper.  By the time the mince and onions are mixed by hand I find the burgers hold their shape pretty well.  I fried the burgers for a couple of minutes on each side before letting them rest while I got on with some garnishes.

People smother their burgers with all sorts of toppings.  A recent take-away menu that fell through our letter box had fifteen different beefburger options*.  I'm not going to tell you how to top your burger but I went with Jarlsberg, dijon mustard, tomato ketchup and some crunchy gem lettuce leaves.

There is only one thing that I will change the next time I make burgers.  I own, and have never used, a mincer.  I am determined to dust it off and start experimenting with different cuts of meat to make the best burger.  I have even seen ox heart burgers on display in butchers' shops and having recently tried pig heart I'd love to give that a try.

*there was no pulled pork on offer although I'm sure it won't be long before it appears on the standard take-away menus alongside doner kebab meat.

Zebra Burgers

It seems that every week there is a new wave of public, or celebrity, outrage at the social networking and micro blogging site Twitter.  Some of the tales of woe are reminiscent of playground rows, friends falling out over an opinion miraculously behaving like best friends by the end of the week.  There are tales of trolls* being so vile that people are deactivating their accounts altogether.  There are also the legal battles over jokes on twitter being taken seriously and for deformation of character.

It's not all doom and gloom though, in fact it's probably not even 10% doom and gloom, but as with all things it's the bad news that travels and sticks.  Tonight's Menu comes courtesy of the nice, friendly, cuddly side of Twitter.  Over the past year I have been fortunate enough to meet some of the people I follow on Twitter at various food (and non-food) events and it was through one of these that I had my first contact with zebra.

Back in November I noticed a picture, posted on twitter by Jo from Thistlemist Farm.  She had been selling her wonderful soup at Wentworth Farmers market and was tucking into a zebra burger.  I was immediately jealous but resigned myself to not driving the hour and a half round trip for a burger.  I set about my day and promptly forgot about stripy meat.  When I got home I found a message from Jo telling me that she'd bought me a packet of the burgers and that I could collect them next time she was at a more conveniently placed farmers market. 

Today was the Oakwood farmers market and I made the trip up to Roundhay to pick up my burgers.  Sadly Jo was ill, but I had the pleasure of meeting Mr Soup who had been sent to market with her wares to sell and the zebra to pass on to me.  It felt a bit odd, getting to the front of a queue of people buying soup and asking for zebra.  It was just as odd when an unmarked bag was passed over the stall counter, money exchanged hands and, like a Chicago gangster, I left the market making sure that I wasn't being followed.

To make sure that we could taste the zebra we decided not to garnish the meat patties with the usual ketchup, mustard, cheese etc.  We grilled the burgers and served them with dukkah coated potato wedges as a nod to their African heritage.  I'm not sure what I was expecting from zebra, I've never eaten horse** and I was sure it wasn't going to be beefy.  It didn't have that strong a flavour at all, gamey and sweet.  The burgers were also very juicy which surprised me as I thought that zebra would have been especially lean.

The burgers were from Oslinc, a Lincolnshire Ostrich farm who also specialise in exotic meat.  I love ostrich burgers, not that I've had them for a long time.  I only hope I am never made to choose between zebra and ostrich as they both taste fantastic.

*not the ones who live under bridges waiting for passing goats to eat, but evil spirited individuals who take delight in bullying people. 
**it's on the list

Friday Night Take-away - Filet-o-fish

I realised recently that, although we have been keeping to the tradition of the Friday Night Take-away for a couple of years, there is one take-away establishment that has escaped a mention.  Tonight we have set that straight by knocking up a couple of fish burgers for me and Z.

There was a time in my life when I was a regular visitor to the burger bar with the golden arches.  As a 6th form student I had a Saturday job as a till monkey in a supermarket.  Every lunchtime, for two years, I wandered across the road to McD's and ordered the largest burger on the menu*.  This trend came to an end when I went to university.  A combination of no Saturday job, not having much disposable income and there not being a McDonald's close to my flat meant that my burger intake wained.

If we did treat** ourselves, normally in a moment of drunken abandon, I would stick to my guns and get as much meat as my wallet would allow and Z would usually order a filet-o-fish.  This left us with a problem.  For some reason, no matter which branch of McD's we staggered into, there were never any filets ready to eat.  This meant I had to either; A) wait for Z's filet to arrive, while my burger went cold, or B) eat my burger then sit there wanting a second burger watching Z eat hers.  Due to this, I have resented the filet-o-fish for years.

I do however love a fish finger sandwich.  The fact that they are on almost every pub menu is testimony to their greatness and, possibly, our inability to let go of more innocent times.  They do vary in quality, from reformed "white fish" in basic sliced white bread to monkfish goujons on ciabatta, and every thing in between.

To my mind a fish finger sandwich is a lunchtime treat and not an evening meal so tonight, I let bygones be bygones, set my resentments to one side and set about recreating the filet-o-fish.  Like the hyper-global-fastfood-chain I based my filet on 100% fish fillet.  To keep costs down I opted for coley but you could use any fish you fancy.  The fish fillets were coated in flour, egg and bread crumbs before being shallow fried and served in a bun with home made tartar sauce, cheese and lettuce.  This was every bit as good as I thought it would be and we didn't have to wait half an hour for it to be ready.

*washed down with a diet coke.  I am well aware of the irony of a greasy burger and a diet drink but I honestly prefer the flavour of diet coke to the full fat version.
**some treat!

Burger and Chips

Our original nineteen countries in the Olympic Food Challenge were a heavy mixture of beef, lamb and pork dishes.  We struggled to find many chicken or fish dishes and there were certainly no vegetarian meals to be had.  This time around we have drawn ten countries that seem to be chicken and fish obsessed.  This week's meal planning went a bit awry, as we were in danger of having chicken two days in a row, so with a break in the Olympic Food Challenge we decided to devour some red meat.

I know that the phrase "Why go out for burgers when I can have steak at home" is actually a referance to fidelity but if you look on it as a statement it's a little flawed.  Don't get me wrong, I love steak, but I also love a good burger once in a while.  These particular burgers were from Swillington Farm, so chocked full of rare breed goodness.

The beauty of a burger at home is that you are in control of the toppings*.  I kept things simple with French's American mustard and cheese while Z added tomato relish to hers.  Corn on the cob, pickles and skinny fries made for a wonderful mid week meal.  In amongst the frantic cooking of the last month the burger was like an oasis of calm.  A big, juicy, comforting oasis of calm.

*if you make the burger from scratch you are in control of the whole process, but that is for a different blog post altogether.

Johnny Fontane's

When I started Tonight's Menu back in November last year, I did so to see if I would be able to write about something I love on a daily basis.  I decided at the offset I would keep the blog to why we are eating what we are eating every night.  There would be no recipes, no measurements and definitely no reviews. Also the blog would be updated daily.

Recipes have started sneaking in. It's more the method of what we've cooked rather than a full blown, stage by stage write up, but there are still no measurements.  The posts are quite often added a day or two behind the actual event and there have been occasions that I have missed a day completely. However, I have become comfortable with this as time has passed.  The final standing, unwritten rule, was no reviews.

Sure, there have been nights where we have eaten in restaurants, but true to the nature of Tonight's Menu, I have always written about why we aren't eating at home.  The restaurant in question always gets a mention, and of course I write about the food*, but not to the extent that a reviewer would.

Then, out of the blue, I was contacted by the management of Johnny Fontane's, a new independent restaurant which shortly opens to the paying public of Leeds.  I was asked if I would write a review of their new venture in exchange for a free meal.  I was, in equal measure, flattered and shocked to be asked, exited at the thought of an independent burger bar and concerned that this might change the direction of Tonight's Menu.

I asked friends who write review blogs what they would do and sought solace from Z.  I even contacted Johnny Fontaine's directly regarding my reservations and after a chat I accepted their invitation.  That, in a nutshell, is how Z and I find ourselves sat at a table with three other food bloggers.  I have never seen so many people taking photographs of food in one place.

The meal deal was simple, any single burger, any side dish and a drink, from the extensive drinks menu (excluding spirits and champagne).  This would normally be great value at £9.99 but tonight the deal was sweeter as it was free.  Z and I both chose bacon cheese burgers.  I had onion rings and Z went for the seasoned fries for our side dishes.  I ordered at the bar and was handed a lump of impersonal plastic that would "flash and jump around the place" when my food was ready.

Our wait wasn't long.  My tricorder went off and I shuffled over to the counter to pick up my tray of food.  The experience was somewhere between waiting for an aisle at bowl-arama and being served school dinner.  Only I kept my own shoes and the burgers at my school were never this good!

The burgers where perfectly cooked, still juicy and pink in the middle and seemed to consist of nothing more than meat and some seasoning.  Our sides were a little disappointing.  The promise of home cut fries filled me with joy but ours were soggy and even though they were "seasoned" I still had to add salt and sauce.  The onion rings split Z and I.  We both love onion rings, especially when they aren't reformed from onion scraps. These were made from chunky slices of proper onion, but I felt that the coating had been applied ham-fistedly and then overcooked so that the slightly burnt bitterness of the coating masked the sweetness of the onions.

I'm sure that by the time Johnny Fontane's opens to the paying public, the food niggles will be ironed out, but I fear the impersonal service is there to stay.  You don't spend good money on flashing lumps of plastic and then not use them, do you?  There were plenty of staff milling around clearing tables, but even then, eye contact was minimal, never mind a complimentary "how is your meal?"  Perhaps I'm being a fuddy-duddy but I like a bit of a smile with my service, I also quite like some service.

One final thing, just in case your thinking "doesn't sound that great" the beer list is great and Z informs me that her cherry milkshake was awesome and she really likes a good milkshake.  Will I go back once they open?  Probably, the burgers were good and the price is right.  An independent American dinner is a welcome addition to the Leeds restaurant smorgasbord, I just wish it felt like an independent rather than trying to emulate a chain before it even opens.

*this is a food blog after all.

Beef Burgers

It's Easter Monday and that's a bank holiday! Bank holidays mean only one thing, a barbecue.  However, the weather gods have not smiled kindly on the UK today, so plans of cremating meat products have been knocked into a cocked hat.

Perhaps a little prematurely, we purchased the where-with-all for making burgers at Cornucopia on Friday and therefore our path for this evening was set.  We bought a packet of mince from Manor Farm Beef with tonight in mind.  Even Chris the farmer said that they often turn their mince into burgers by simply seasoning them.  Who am I to argue?

Salt and pepper is all that we added to the beef before dry frying the burgers and letting them rest in the oven.  We topped them with emmental, a couple of rashers of bacon and served them with skinny fries and gherkins.  The only thing missing was the smoky taste you get from barbecue cooking, but that will have to come later in the year.