HOME OF THE NUTTY CLUCKER

"reluctantly I will now give the secrets to this little beauty"

The “Nutty Clucker” is our most well known burger, reluctantly I will now give the secrets to this little beauty so that you can enjoy it at home too.

From the fridge...

1 chicken breast

1 tub of buttermilk

1 small jar of satay sauce

From the Pantry...

100g /3½oz plain flour

50g/1¾oz cornflour

2 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp ground white pepper

4 tsp table salt

2 tbsp sweet paprika

2 tbsp smoked paprika

2 tsp onion salt

2 tsp garlic powder

The key element to get right is the Buttermilk chicken. Good crispy, tasty, juicy chicken breast strips along with a crunchy coleslaw and a nutty Satay sauce and you are there. You can buy buttermilk in most big supermarkets; you can find it with the sour cream etc.

Step 1: The Buttermilk

 Start by cutting the chicken breast into 4 long strips, empty the buttermilk into a small bowl and then submerge the chicken in the buttermilk, cling film the bowl and put it into the fridge.

Step 2: The Seasoning

 While the chicken is in the fridge make your seasoning by mixing all the ingredients "From the Pantry" together in a bowl, there is enough mix in the recipe for a few batches so you can store it in an ait tight jar for another day (obviously throw away any mix that has been in contact with the raw chicken)

Step 3: Frying Time

 Heat your fryer or oil to 180oC, if you are using oil in a pan on the cooker, rather then a deep fat fryer, you can check when the oil is ready by dropping in a piece of bread, if it browns within 30sec it is ready but please be careful this method of cooking is very dangerous! 

Next take the chicken out of the fridge, put some of your seasoning into a  clean bowl, pull the chicken out of the buttermilk and roll it into the seasoning one piece at a time, use as much seasoning as you need as this is your flavour. I like to let the chicken sit in the seasoning for a couple of minutes before frying, when you are ready to cook lower the fryer basket into the oil. Lift the chicken from the excess seasoning and give it a little shake then lower it into the oil pushing it away from you, be careful as the oil will spit and don’t let the ends of your fingers touch the oil! I know that I am being a bit OTT on the health and safety but I would hate to see people get hurt. Cook the chicken for 4-5 minutes then carefully lift it out either with the fryer basket or a pair of tongues and lay them on kitchen roll on a plate. If you have a temperature probe then check the temperature is over 75oC, if you don’t have a probe then make a small cut in the thickest part of the chicken and put it open slightly to make sure the meat is white and fully cooked.

Step 4: Putting It All Together

  Lightly toast the cut sides of your rolls, then on the bottom half of the bun add the salad and coleslaw. Carefully warm the Satay b sauce in the microwave or in a pan then spread 1 tablespoon of it on the cut side of the top half of the bun. Next put your chicken on top of the salad and coleslaw then put the top half of the bun on with the Satay sauce and give it a gentle push down. Your “Nutty Clucker” burger is now ready for maximum enjoyment!

COME DINE WITH ME HEART WINNERS

Just a quick blog to shout about us winning the Come Dine with Heart competition.  

We went into this competition as the underdogs with us being the new kids on the block.  We were up again stiff competition, the first of our competitors was “The Marmion” who also are the new kids on the block but they have recently had a complete refurbishment a big launch party and some great advertising. The other restaurant that we were up against were last years winners and one of the top restaurants in Portsmouth, Koi Tapas. 

"We went into this competition as the underdogs with us being the new kids on the block."

We were selected to do desserts, quite ironic to win a competition on desserts when we don’t currently have desserts on our menu, so we choose to do a trio of British puddings. The Bread & Butter pudding had to be on the menu as did our favourite Sticky Toffee pudding and for the third dessert we chose to deconstruct an Eaton mess and produced an Eaton stack. We knew that it would be tricky winning a competition with desserts as everybody has different preferences and tastes with puddings, some people prefer a sweet sickly dessert but some prefer a lighter fruitier dessert so we covered all bases by doing a trio.. 

"..quite ironic to win a competition on desserts when we don’t currently have desserts on our menu.."

The desserts were very well received as was our little secret weapon.. Handmade truffles! We pre made a selection of three truffles, a chilli-chocolate rolled in crushed wasabi nuts, a chocolate-orange rolled in white chocolate and finally a plain-chocolate rolled in crushed roasted hazelnuts. We gave these out to the judges in miniature boxes and to clinch the deal we took our ingredients out to the table and made the truffles in front of them, they got to choose their own combinations of flavours but the chocolate orange was a firm favourite. 

We had a great time doing the competition and it was even more amazing to come out victorious.

PUNCH UP YOUR SUMMER DISHES IN 20

For me there are two parts to an amazing BBQ, the first part is the meat or veggie alternative of course. You have your bangers and burgers, wings & drumsticks, juicy steaks, fish fillets and of my favourite a gammon steak or pork chop.

"..makes best friends with fish and chicken.."

The second part, and this is just as important as the meat, is the sauces. For me a banger needs a good mustard and ketchup combo, a burger needs a an onion chutney or maybe a hot sauce. Every year I experiment and make some new chutneys and sauces and this year I wanted something different to go with my favourite pork. So here it is a juicy, zest pineapple salsa, I love this with gammon but it also makes best friends with fish and chicken very well.

Prep-Time: 20 Minutes

Cook Time: Less than a minute

Ingredients:

½ Red Onion (Finely Diced)

1x Red Pepper (Finely Diced)

1x Jalapeno (Finely Diced)

2x Garlic Cloves (Grated)

1x Pineapple (Diced)

1 Small Bunch of Coriander (Roughly       Chopped)

Juice of 2 Limes

Method:

11. Chop all the ingredients as required.

22. Combine in a large bowl, stirring well.

Storage: Airtight container for up to 4 days.

BEHIND EVERY GREAT CHEF, THERE'S A GREAT MUM.

The earliest memories of food would be my nan in her kitchen wearing her tabard steaming Christmas puddings for what seemed like months, and of course her amazing butterfly cakes and victoria sponges, she too went to culinary college, and like me, found passion or relief in baking.

My next and biggest influence was and still is my mum, her roasts will always be better than mine, my cauliflower cheese is better but my mums crispy roast potatoes will always win. Being of South American decent the food she cooked was very multicultural with empanadas for special occasions to amazing curries, which you could still smell around the house two days after, and of course mums roast dinners which are famous amongst friends and family.  

     “…her roasts will always be better than mine, my cauliflower cheese is better but my mums crispy roast potatoes will always win.”

I suppose growing up constantly surrounded by food had a large part to play in my future career as a chef.  Although this is an antisocial, stressful, and generally unrewarding job I love it, I have seen many chefs come and go and I sometimes ask myself why after 16 years I still do it and the answer is always the same… I love what I do.

Gourmet Grill is a mixture of passions from my food, and myself to my business partners and their passion for bars, service. The hardest thing about being a chef or running a business in this industry is that we are trying to please you. I have to think about you and what you like, what I can cook that will intrigue you and make you smile, most of all tell all your friends about. My aim for the menu at gourmet grill is to create a menu that you will read and struggle to decide what to eat, as you want to try everything. There are influences from America, Germany, Latin American food and English cuisine. For me a perfect steak isn’t all about the cut or what country the animal is from its all about the cooking technique, simple things like seasoning the steak and not the pan and allowing the resting time is key to the perfect steak.

This blog will be keeping you up-to-date on; what we are creating, events we are involved in and putting on and the journey of Gourmet Grill.