July 17, 2017
This is beautifully rich and buttery but the Chinese spice adds a nice point to the flavour. What you’ll need 450g chicken livers 150g butter plus a bit more to top the parfaits with 1 shallot – finely sliced 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic A few sprigs of thyme 1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice 2 tablespoons double cream. You need to clean up the livers – cut anything off that doesn’t look like it should be there – the white bits, the green bits, the sinewy bits – they all need to go. While you’re at it, try to cut each...
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July 12, 2017
It’s all in the detail with this Pulled Pork Roll. You need a decent bun to start with – a potato roll is the way to go here I think. And then something to offset the rich meat – a pickle or maybe a red slaw would work well. The bigger the joint of pork you buy, the better and if you can buy shoulder on the bone then great but the reality is, if you’re buying from your local supermarket, you’ll probably be using a rolled, boneless shoulder of pork. There is nothing wrong with this and with a bit...
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May 17, 2017
This dish was inspired by a couple of recipes from the Eleven Madison Park cookbook – a book I thoroughly recommend. I was a little apprehensive when I put this together because the mix of flavours did sound a little complex but they come together nicely and, in the centre of the dish, you have a beautifully cooked piece of chicken. Buy a whole chicken for this – portion the chicken into breast, wing and leg meat and make your stock from the carcass – it’s a much more economical way of cooking as you’re bound to have leftovers. Here’s what you’ll need For...
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July 9, 2016
This is a great chilli sauce to have prepared a day or 2 before you host a BBQ. You can make it as hot as you like. It’s great smeared on meat and acts as a brilliant mopping up sauce/dip for pretty much anything you cook. The ingredients 6 or 7 red bell-peppers 3 or 4 red chilies – even more if you want hotter 1 tablespoon of maple syrup 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar 2 cloves of garlic, crushed Sea-salt to taste. Heat your oven to 180c. Put the bell peppers and the chilies on a roasting tray and roast...
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November 8, 2015
The trick with this Beef Short Rib Beer Chili is to roast the short rib and make the sauce separately. Roasting the short rib allows you to control the amount of fat you use and avoids having to skim fat from the dish as you cook. It also allows greater control over the doneness of the meat and the flavour and consistency of the sauce. Beef short rib is the ultimate meat for chili – cheap to buy and spectacularly tasty after a long, slow cook. Make this dish a day in advance and reheat if you can. It allows the flavours...
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March 14, 2015
This 12 Hour, Slow-Cooked Beef Brisket is the perfect way to turn a tough cut of meat into something that just melts in the mouth. It requires cooking for a long time – more to the point it will take cooking for a long time – you don’t need to be too delicate with a decent piece of brisket. Any good butcher will sell brisket and the larger the piece you can get, the better – it gives you more room for manoeuvre when cooking. Most recipes, including mine, will use a rub or a marinade or both to help it on its...
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January 17, 2015
I had the best beef rending I’ve ever tasted in New York about 10 years ago. I’m not sure it was 100% authentic but it was utterly delicious. The beef was fall-apart-amazing, the sauce was thick, almost dry but so dense, fruity and spicy. You need a bit of time for this dish and you need to keep an eye on it. The sauce needs to thicken and coat the meat. That’s the important thing to nail. This is how I tried to recreate it. What you’ll need to feed 4 750g beef suitable for slow cooking – shoulder is...
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November 2, 2014
I recently managed to purchase half a pig from a local farmer – the head was used in this recipe for brawn. A pig’s head isn’t really something you’re going to be able to pick up at the butcher’s counter at your local supermarket but – if you do have a decent enough proper butcher’s shop, it’s always worth asking what else they have going. You may find trotters and pig’s heads are available at little or no cost provided you ask for them alongside some other purchases. Once you’ve sourced half a head and 3 or 4 trotters, the...
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July 6, 2014
Making your own salt beef is reasonably straight forward – all you need is time, plenty of space in your fridge and, of course, the ingredients. Starting with the meat – you need a decent sized piece of brisket – 2kg should do it. For the brine you’re looking to spice it up to suit your taste – I love the sweet aniseed of Star Anise so I go fairly heavy in that direction. I don’t want to overdo it with the cloves though so maybe just 1 or 2 would be enough for a week’s brining. The saltpetre isn’t...
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March 26, 2014
Any dish that makes use of one of the tougher, less popular cuts of meat and turns it into something as classy as this is, for me, what good cooking is all about. Breast of lamb on the bone is ideal but if you can only find the rolled variety, this is still just as usable. You’ll probably be able to pick up a rolled breast of lamb for under £5 and this will happily feed at least 4 people as a substantial starter or, with some boiled potatoes, a decent main. You’re going to want to serve it with...
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March 10, 2014
Steamed Buns – if you make these in advance you can freeze them and have them ready to use on a week night by giving them a quick blast in a steamer. And – they offer the perfect solution to “what should we do with leftovers from Sunday dinner?”. I used some leftover Sous Vide Ox Cheek but any meat will work well. Just give it a good splash of soy sauce to complement the sweet buns and you’re on your way. The recipe 450g Strong White Bread Flour 3 tsp active dried yeast 2 tablespoons caster sugar 1 tablespoon...
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March 9, 2014
I’ll cut straight to the point with this one. If you’ve Googled “Sous Vide Ox Cheek”, the numbers you’re interested in are: 75c for 20 hours. If you’re interested in the rest of this dish – here are the details: Ox Cheeks – cheap, full of flavour and incredible in texture if you cook them right. I’d read a few different cooking times for Sous Vide Ox Cheek with the trend seeming to be for a higher temperature and shorter cooking time. This seems a little odd to me – Ox Cheeks are certainly a prime slow-cook cut so why not...
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October 4, 2013
Following on from my review of the SousVide Supreme I thought I’d detail the first dish I cooked using it. Most reviews I’ve read of first experiences with the SousVide Supreme will involve cooking steak. Nothing wrong with this of course but I thought I’d try something a little different – Sous Vide Rack Of Lamb. OK, I admit I’m still cooking a piece of meat but hopefully it’s a slightly different angle for those of you looking to learn about cooking using this method. For the Sous Vide Rack Of Lamb The meat was seasoned lightly and vacuum sealed along with...
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September 20, 2013
I picked up a Rondeau pan from Falk last year – a great piece of kit. Only problem was that it left me feeling I was missing out with the rest of my pans. These things are such a pleasure to use – the feel of the pan, the weight and the way they cook so evenly. If you’re cooking up any form of stock, stew or roast, those sticky bits of fond that are going to enhance your sauces form perfectly and scrape straight from the pan. So – could I justify forking out a considerable chunk of money...
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April 21, 2013
I had been resisting posting a ramen recipe – it seems anywhere you turn in the food blog world at the moment you’ll be faced with a ramen of some sort. But then I thought – sod it – ramen is good.. ramen is very good – I HAD to do ramen. I had to EAT ramen. My ramen is unashamedly taken from the Momofuku cookbook (if you like ramen, go and buy that book – it does a much better job of explaining ramen than I can) but I’ve tried to simplify things, very slightly, to a point that it...
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November 20, 2012
This was a relatively quick & easy meal. I put the pork on the day before in the Sousvide Supreme so I only had to worry about the veg when it came to Sunday evening. Leeks with prunes, I decided, would go well with the rich pork belly – the buttery silkiness of the leek and the deep sweetness of the prunes. A squeeze of lime to send it on its way and we’re good to go. I made a chicken stock gravy to go with it and big old pile of mashed potato but you could get away without either...
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