Tom Kerridge's Proper Pub Food (7 page)

A classic vinaigrette dressing consists of a fat and an acid, such as olive oil and lemon juice or rapeseed oil and cider vinegar, so the use of bacon fat in this recipe is just
a different fat flavour.

Serves 4

Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and place a bowl of iced water in the sink. Add the French beans to the boiling water and blanch for 3–5 minutes until tender.
Add the broad beans to the pan and cook for a further 30 seconds. Drain well, then immediately plunge them into the iced water to stop the cooking and set the colours. Leave both beans to cool,
then drain them.

Pop the broad beans out of their grey outer skins and cut the French beans into ½cm pieces. Put both beans in a large bowl and leave to one side until needed.

Heat a large dry frying pan over a high heat. Add the cumin seeds, and toast, stirring constantly, for 1–2 minutes until aromatic. Add the bacon and butter and continue
frying and stirring until the bacon is crispy and golden brown. Strain the bacon and cumin seeds through a fine sieve, reserving the butter and bacon fat.

Pour a little of the fat back into the pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, and fry, stirring, for 3–5 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and stir for a further
1–2 minutes. Add the tomato purée and stir for a further minute.

Add the blanched beans and canned pulses to the pan and stir over a high heat for a further 1–2 minutes. Pour in the chicken stock and toss the beans around. Add the
oregano and basil – you can just tear in the basil leaves, there isn’t any need to chop them. Tip in the bacon and cumin and mix, then transfer the salad to serving bowl.

Whisk the reserved bacon fat with the Cabernet Sauvignon vinegar and season. Pour over the bean salad and serve or leave to cool completely. When it’s cool, cover and chill
until about 10 minutes before you’re ready to serve.

Tom’s Tip

This bean salad is particularly good served with fish, such as mackerel or tuna. Basically, you can use any oily or meaty fish.

This makes great use of leftover beef dripping, a flavour that takes me right back to my childhood. Tomatoes and beef are a classic combination, and this is a British version of
the great Italian salad, panzanella, intended to use up stale bread. Here, I add a beef flavour from the dripping to give this blokey salad a super-meaty taste without having any meat.

This is a tomato salad that has all the flavours that everybody knows, but every element has been enhanced to lift it to a new level. It’s a great light summer lunch or
side for a barbecue – I like to serve it with my Barbecued Short Rib of Beef, British Style
here
.

Serves 4

For the beef dripping dressing

Preheat the oven at 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Trim the root ends of the red onions, then cut them into ½cm wedges, but keep them attached at the root ends so they don’t
fall apart. Drizzle them with a little rapeseed oil and place in a small roasting tray. Place the tray in the oven and roast the onions for 10–15 minutes, until tender and caramelised.

Place the bread in another roasting tray and drizzle with 150g of the beef dripping. Add the tray to the oven and toast the bread for 6–8 minutes until crispy and lightly
browned. Season straight away when the croûtons come out of the oven so they absorb the flavour as they cool. You can toast the bread while you are roasting the red onions. Do not turn the
oven off.

Meanwhile, place the tomatoes, white onion and lemon thyme leaves in a large non-metallic bowl. Add the sea salt flakes and mix thoroughly. Leave to one side for 15 minutes, or
until the tomatoes start to break down and you see a lot of water in the bowl. Drain the tomato mix in a colander, then tip the tomatoes and onion seeds into a baking tray. Place the tray in the
oven and roast the tomato mix for 1–2 minutes just to warm through.

To make the beef dripping dressing, melt 150g beef dripping in a frying pan over a low heat. Add the chives and spring onion and stir for just 30 seconds to warm through. Stir in
the vinegar, then taste and season with salt and pepper.

Tip the warm tomato mix into a large bowl. Add the onion seeds, crusty beef-flavoured croûtons and the roasted red onions. Add the beef dripping dressing, gently toss
together and serve immediately.

Tom’s Tip

The beef dripping can be left over from roast beef, or make your own from beef trimmings and beef fat from the butchers and a little butter. Dry-fry the trimmings in a heavy-based
saucepan over a high heat until dark brown, but watch closely so they don’t burn. Add beef fat and butter, turn the heat down to low and leave to cook for 30–45 minutes until the fat
and butter take on the flavour of the beef trimmings. Pass the fat through a fine sieve into a bowl and leave to cool completely. You can now cover and store in the fridge almost indefinitely.

Warm tomato, onion and bread salad with beef dripping dressing

Sausages are by the far the best invention of the culinary world! I love them, and this is a way to serve them with a salad-like twist. My favourite sandwich when I was a child
was cold sausage and English mustard and this is a more grown-up riff on that. The English dressing is the same as French dressing, or vinaigrette, but made with English mustard and rapeseed oil.
That powerful pungent kick that comes from English mustard is one of life’s delights. Be careful though, as too much and it can bring tears to your eyes! Poaching the sausages first is a
chef’s technique that allows you to fry them without them curling up.

Serves 4

For the English dressing

Put the sausages and enough water to cover in a large frying pan over a high heat and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes, or until all the water
has evaporated, but the sausages have taken on no colour. Remove them from the pan and set to one side to cool.

To make the English dressing, whisk the mustard, sugar and white wine vinegar together in a non-metallic bowl. Slowly whisk in the rapeseed oil until it emulsifies and thickens
into a dressing. Season with salt and cayenne pepper. This can stay in the fridge until needed, then just give it a whisk or shake before you use it.

When you are ready to fry the sausages, heat a thin layer of rapeseed oil in the frying pan over a mediumhigh heat. Add the sausages to the pan and fry, turning them over
occasionally, for 3–5 minutes until the skins are crispy and browned. Remove the sausages from the pan and drain on kitchen paper, then thickly slice them.

Place the hot sausages and spinach leaves in a large bowl, add enough of the English dressing to coat all the ingredients and toss together. Serve immediately. Any leftover
dressing will keep in the fridge indefinitely.

Hello you! This is my idea of a great salad. It’s got spicy mustard, a smoky garlic dressing and crispy, crunchy crackling. The method I use here is a great way to get super
crackling. Try it one Sunday and serve it alongside your roast – then just sit back and bask in the compliments. Mustard leaf is a very spicy, tasty leaf and goes well with pork, which make
it a natural for this salad.

Frankfurters are a great childhood memory for me, regarded as a cheap and cheerful ingredient. Used as in this recipe, however, they add a delightful contrast to the big flavours
of the rest of the dish.

Serves 4

For the smoked garlic vinaigrette

Preheat the oven to 110°C/Gas Mark ¼. Bring a roasting tray of water to the boil on the hob, then add the pork skin. Cover the tray with kitchen foil, shiny side down,
then place it in the oven and braise the pork skin for 4 hours, or until it is very tender. Remove the skin from the water and transfer to a wire rack to cool and dry. Turn the oven temperature up
to 200°C/Gas Mark 6.

When the pork skin is cool, place the wire rack with the skin into a roasting tray. Rub a little vegetable oil on to the pork skin, then rub in about 1 tablespoon sea salt
flakes. Place the tray in the oven and roast the skin for about 20 minutes until the crackling is crunchy. Remove the crackling from the oven and break into chunks, then leave to one side.

Meanwhile, make the smoked garlic vinaigrette. Use a Microplane grater to very finely grate the smoked garlic into a bowl. Whisk in the Dijon mustard, smoked paprika, salt, the
white wine and lemon juice. Slowly whisk in the olive oil until the mix emulsifies. Transfer to a bowl, cover and leave to one side until needed.

Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large frying pan over a high heat. Add the frankfurters and fry, stirring occasionally, until they have nice tasty brown bits on them. Drain
them well on kitchen paper, then place them in a large salad bowl. Add the pork crackling, mustard leaves and as much of the smoked garlic vinaigrette as you need to dress the salad. Serve
immediately. Any leftover dressing will keep in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a week.