Glazed Vegetables

This is very slight variation of Thomas Keller’s approach to vegetables in the stunning French Laundry Cookbook (if you don’t have it, you really, really should get it).

It’s a great method of prepping veg ahead of a dinner party as well as being a luxuriant finish to braises and stews (as per Keller’s advice, I tend to discard vegetables used in the braising process as their flavour has been extracted and they get a bit too “mushy”). Use whatever vegetables you like/want for your dish.

Method

Take your largest pan and fill it up, almost to the top, bring to the boil and add a decent amount of salt.

Add the vegetables in batches (peas on their own, then carrots, then parsnips etc.) and cook ‘till they’re 80% done, remove and plunge into an ice bath. Allow a few minutes between the batches for the water to come back up to a vigorous boil.

Drain the cooled vegetables and keep covered until needed.

At service, place a small amount of butter in a pan (woks work quite well here) with a similar amount of water, warm and whisk ‘till it forms an emulsion, add more water/butter in equal quantities and whisk to keep emulsified, season with salt and sugar. Increase the heat.

Place the now mixed vegetables in this pan and as they finish cooking they’ll take on a wonderfully rich, sweet and savoury glaze.

Food Geeks retox

 Here's a copy of my recent post for the Total Food Geeks about "retoxing" in February:

Retox, it’s an interesting concept and one that’s dangerous in my view; think about it, an indulgent December followed by an abstemious January makes my body go into shock – and then, once your body has just about adjusted to the age of austerity that is a January detox, it gets shocked again by the sudden onslaught of salt, fat and alcohol. Far safer just forgetting the “detox” in the first place, it can only be bad for your health.

However, if you want to treat yourself, following a period of diet or not, I give you the best, most indulgent, fat and flavour laden meat imaginable – Pork Belly.

 

A staple on gastropub menus the country wide, pork belly is something that's easy to get wrong, cook it for too short a time or at too high a temperature and you can end up with variously a hard, dry or fatty puck of protein that’s an insult to the noble beast who originated it; but treated with care – lightly cured with salt and sugar before some long and slow cooking in an oven (or waterbath) produces the food of the Gods. The fats render through the meat, basting it from the inside, almost confiting it, the collagen transmutes into gelatine and the skin dries preparing the most wonderfully tender and succulent meat and crisp crackling; I roast mine on a bed of apple, onion, cider, garlic, sage and thyme (which also steam the pork with the aromats and prepares the start of an awesome gravy). Serve this with a simple mash, roasties, sweetpotato rosti, ratatouille – there’s nothing Pork Belly doesn’t go with, but make sure you cook more than you think you’ll need because then you have – leftovers.

 

And leftovers are almost the best bit; the following day when you’re feeling kinda good but kinda guilty about all the fatty pork you scarfed (kinda like a one night stand), you can look forward to a cleansing Pho:

 

Riff on a Porky Pho

• Leftover pork belly
• Pork or chicken stock (or a mixture)
• Noodles
• Spring Onions
• Peppers
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Fish Sauce
• Chilli (or sriracha)
• Suger
• Lime
• Coriander

Start by building the broth of your Pho, warm the stock and add sliced ginger and garlic to taste (I like mine aggressively garlicky and gingery) – to save waste and build flavour, I often use the left over gravy as well. Then add sliced chilli (Sriracha works well here too), a healthy glug of fish sauce, a good lot of lime juice and some sugar. Stir and taste, play about with the seasonings ‘till you really like it. 

 

Shred the leftover pork belly into bite-sized chunks and add into the broth, then add noodles (I like Udon) and julienned spring onions and red peppers (you can also add other veg, carrot, radish, anything else you fancy) and simmer for 10 minutes. Yes, I know there's no quantities here, play about with it and have fun.

 

Serve in big bowls with a healthy amount of the broth and coriander scattered on top.

 

Easy, healthy and most of all – tasty.

 

Veal Marsala

I love veal, it’s a beautiful meat and I think we have a moral obligation to use it – calves are a by-product of the milk industry; cows need to be pregnant once a year to produce milk, the resulting female calves are raised for milk production and the males... well, they don’t have such a good time. I’d much rather they were ethically raised and given a good life before joining the food chain.

You hear that milk-drinking vegetarians? You’re responsible for the deaths of lots of baby cows, the least you could do is eat them.

·         Veal escallopes – 200g/minimum 1cm thick, 1 per person

·         Unsalted butter

·         Rapeseed oil

·         1 large shallot, chopped

·         Sliced mushrooms, about 100g

·         1 large, firm fleshed tomato, peeled, seeded and diced

·         250ml chicken stock

·         150 ml Marsala

·         Double cream/Creme Fraiche (optional)

Season the veal escalopes with salt on both sides. Heat rapeseed oil in a heavy based pan. Quickly sauté the veal on both sides, rest in a 50 degree oven while preparing the sauce.

Drain oil and bring the pan back up to a medium temperature and add the butter and a little splash of oil (to stop the butter burning). Add shallots and mushrooms and sauté for 2- 3 minutes until softened. Add a good glug of Marsala to deglaze the pan and reduce ‘till almost dry, then add the stock and add a splash of Marsala, reduce.

To finish the sauce add the tomato dice and tarragon (and cream or creme fraiche if using), adjust seasoning. Return the veal back to the pan and spoon the sauce over the top to warm.

I’d serve this with sautéed potatoes, roasted cherry tomatoes and steamed green beans.

Baked Pineapple Cream with Mandarin Ice

This is an awesome dessert, adapted from “Dessert” by David Everitt-Matthias – it’s an amazing book, especially for those (like me) who’re not natural pastry chefs..

·         300g  pineapple pulp (trim a pineapple and blitz it in a food processor)

·         1 bunch lemon thyme

·         325g double cream

·         2 whole eggs

·         3 egg yolks

·         300g caster sugar

·         300ml Mandarin (or good orange) juice (with bits)

·         1 red chilli (medium heat)

·         40ml liquid glucose

·         200ml water

·         ½ gelatine leaf

·         1 ripe pineapple

·         Pecan nuts

·         Neutral oil

 Method

Pineapple Cream
Put pineapple pulp and lemon thyme in a saucepan and boil ‘till reduced by a third to a half, add 250ml cream and take off the boil, meanwhile mix the egg and sugar ‘till it combines , then pour the cooled pineapple cream mix through the sieve, whisk all the time.

Oil 5cm presentation rings and cover one end with clingfilm then foil and hold with an elastic band, place on a folded j-cloth in the deep pan and fill with the mixture; fill up half way with hot water and bake in a 120 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Chill until needed.

Mandarin Ice

Place the mandarin juice, water, glucose, 75ml double cream, 120g sugar and chopped chilli (to taste) in a pan, boil and remove from the heat.

While waiting for the mixture to boil, bloom the gelatine in cold water, add to the (now boiled) ice mixture and mix.

Place in an ice-cream machine and churn until set.

Pineapple tranche

Cut a tranche of the ripe pineapple, heat the griddle pan and char on both sides, reserve and keep warm.

To Assemble Dish

Unmold the cream, if you want, sprinkle with more caster sugar and brulee with the blowtorch.

Place the tranche of pineapple on a diagonal from 7o’clock to 1 o’clock, place the pineapple cream on the top left and a quenelle of the mandarin/chilli ice in the bottom right.

If you have the time or inclination then add some caster sugar to just a little water and melt to a caramel, chop some pecans and place in the caramel, mix and pour onto a silpat and sprinkle with salt. Break up and serve a piece of candied, salted pecan brittle artfully on the plate somewhere.

Easy Confit Salmon

This is great because it looks (and sounds) impressive but in fact it’s really easy..

• Salmon steaks
• Pre-cooked cannellini beans (1 tin per 2 people)
• Garlic
• Cherry tomatoes
• Oilve oil (or oil and unsalted butter)
• Unsalted cutter

Roast the tomatoes in a 180 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Start by seasoning the salmon then leave to the side for 10 minutes. Then, in a deep sided pan heat olive oil (or a mix of butter and olive oil), a couple of smashed cloves of garlic (and a sprig of thyme if you have any) gently to 50 degrees (use a digital probe for best results, they're cheap and really usefull), place the salmon in and keep at that temperature for 15 minutes.

Drain and rinse the cannellini beans, place in a pan with a little olive oil, a little butter and some sliced garlic, warm through (the beans are already cooked) and puree with a blender (or mash or put through a potato ricer) and adjust for taste and consistency with salt, lemon juice and olive oil.

Drain the salmon onto some kitchen paper, place a mound of the cannellini puree on the centre of a warm plate and top with the salmon and place the roasted tomatoes around the plate. Top the salmon with some crispy leeks if you want to posh it up.

Note - normally I'm a big fan of rapeseed oil but for this recipe you really need the fruity nature of the olive oil rather than the brassic note of the rapeseed.

North African Monkfish

This isn’t very authentic but it tastes great – it uses a few spice blends that are easy to track down on the internet and are great because they add so much to fish and other things.

·         Monkfish tail – about 200g per person
·         Easy cook cous-cous
·         Veg of your choice (see method)
·         Sultanas
·         Za’atar spice blend (I like Steenbergs)
·         Ras al Hanout spice blend

Method

Sprinkle the monkfish with salt and za’atar, roll tightly in clingfilm (into a sausage shape) and set aside for half a hour.

Mix the sultanas and Ras al Hanout with the cous-cous and make according to instructions (use a chicken or a veg stock cube instead of just water) , once cooked strain and stir a small knob of butter and the veg through it.

The veg is really up to your own preference but carrot, peas, spring onion, courgette, green beans, corn, pomegranate seeds, preserved lemon all work, cut them into bite-sized pieces and cook as appropriate.

Heat oil in a pan over a medium-high heat and then sear the monkfish on all sides to give a nice golden crust and then put it into a 180 degree oven for 8 minutes before serving with the jewelled cous-cous.

If you want to posh this up for a dinner party, take the sultanas out of the cous-cous and rehydrate them in a little veg stock and puree, add some harissa paste (to taste) and puree again into a nice, spicy sauce.

A fishy diversion..

The best fish is simple fish, all you need to do to make it nice is take some fresh fish, dry the skin and then cook it a little. Ratatouille is an amazing accompaniment to lots of things and kids love it, make it in big batches and keep tubs as a standby in the freezer.

·         8 small (or 4 large) fillets of white fish – Sea Bream, Red Mullet, whatever you want – just make 
        sure it’s fresh, ask the fishmonger to pin bone the fish.
·         1 Aubergine
·         1 Onion
·         2 Courgettes
·         1 tin of chopped tomatoes
·         2 bell peppers
·         Garlic
·         Oregano
·         Chilli (fresh or powdered, optional)

First, make the ratatouille, chop the onion and soften in oil then add chopped courgette and cook over a medium heat for a couple of minutes, add chopped aubergine and sliced peppers and cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes, some sliced garlic and a pinch of oregano, season with salt and pepper and simmer for half an hour.  Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Check the fish for bones and remove with tweezers if necessary, score the skin a few times with a diagonal cut (this helps stop the skin from contracting too much in the pan), salt the skin side only liberally and place skin side down on kitchen towel or a clean Jcloth for half an hour – this dries the skin making it crispier and allows the fish to come to room temperature before cooking.

Heat some oil in a non-stick pan over a medium high heat and place the fish in skin side down, cook for about three minutes or until crispy, then turn the fillet over for no more than 40 seconds. A good rule is cook on the skin side for 80% of the time.

Place a mound of the ratatouille on a warm plate and put the fish on top (skin side up or that lovely crispy skin will soften) and serve to some lucky people. If you want to posh this up for a dinner party then drizzle some tapenade* around the plate.

* blitz 100g black olives, some fresh thyme leaves, 150ml olive oil, 1 small garlic clove and 1 anchovy into a loose tapenade dressing.

Stocking Up

Following my earlier post on white chicken stock, I wanted to look at evolving this basic stock into something more interesting. I tend to freeze all bones left over from roasts to use (make sure you mark them well or you’ll end up with mystery bones in the freezer) but most butchers will happily give you bones for free as they get charged for disposal themselves – do call ahead to “order” your bones though as they normally get sent off before the weekend. And please, don't use "mixed" bones - what's the point of going to this effort only to confuse the flavours.

This method works for all meat stocks.

• Minimum 1Kg of beef/lamb/chicken/etc. bones
• 1 large onion or leek
• 2 large carrots
• White chicken stock (to cover the bones so no fixed volume)

Method

If the bones haven’t been roasted (from Sunday Roasts for example), then toss them in a little oil and roast at 180 degrees for 40 minutes or so.

Take these bones and place in a large pot and bring to the boil, allow to sit at a rolling boil for 7 to 10 minutes and then strain into a colander. Rinse the bones to clean them of any impurities and clean the pot too.

Peel and chop the carrot and onion/leek into fine dice (the more surface area you expose, the better the flavour transfer)  and put in the now clean pot, add the cleaned bones and then cover with the white chicken stock (I like to cover the bones by a good two inches)  and then slowly raise the temperature to a very gentle simmer and leave for a minimum of 6 hours (but as long as you can).

When done, strain through a muslin lined chinois or sieve and there you have your stock, from here you can reduce for flavour as required.

How not to do a dinner party (and a scallop recipe)

As you may have guessed, I enjoy cooking – it’s playtime for me, but annoyingly some people seem daunted by the thought of cooking for me in return (don’t be, for the record keep it simple and wine flowing and I’m happy).

Happily though, my old boss Joe and his wife Tracey just enjoy themselves and so when they’re coming over my wife lets me play. This is the menu from a recent visit:

·         Tuna Tartar, spiked with lime zest & wasabi and dressed with a spherified mango “yolk” and toasted nori

·         Seven Seas Scallop

·         Rabbit 2 ways, confit of East Lothian bunny leg and a Wellington of rabbit loin and sweetbreads with a pearl barley spring veg risotto, feta mousse and rabbit & Madeira reduction

·         Truffled Brie

·         Grilled pineapple with lemon thyme ice-cream

Here’s the recipe for the Scallop, the name is a bit of a conceit as it started as a scallop with a carrot and cumin velouté and evolved from there:

Seven Seas Scallop

·         1 large hand dived scallop per person

·         Salmon Caviar (Keta)

·         Cox’s (or another crisp) apple

·         Chorizo (I find the Bath Pig best as it’s got amazing taste & texture)

·         Chives

And for the velouté

      ·         Fresh Carrot

·         Cumin seed

·         Cream

First, make the velouté, boil the carrots and cumin seed in unsalted water till soft, drain and reserve the water then roughly smash the carrot in the pan and add the double cream, bring to a simmer and reduce slowly – add the carrot water to help adjust for consistency, season with salt and a little champagne vinegar, blitz with an immersion blender and pass through a sieve. This can now wait until service.

Up to an hour before you plan to serve, take the scallops out of the fridge, cut the apple into small batons and put in acidulated water, cut the chorizo into 5mm cubes.

10 minutes before service, gently warm through the velouté and the chorizo.

When it’s time to serve, pan sear the (unseasoned) scallops over a decent heat to get them nice and crispy on the outside but soft and raw inside; place in a warm bowl and scatter the chorizo cubes around the scallop, pour some of the velouté over the chorizo (if you want to, kick some lecithin into the velouté, blitz it and serve it as a warm foam) then dress the plate with the apple batons, and chives before adding  a large spoonful of salmon caviar to the top of the scallop.

Enjoy.

Daddy or Chips? Or the Daddy of Chips...

Don’t you just hate it when people proclaim something to be the best? Surely the best Burgundy/Sitcom/Blowjob is all subjective, apart from anything else context is always dependent.
Anyway, this might not be the best way to make chips but it’s a damn good one and goes really well with a good steak.

Ingredients
• Floury potatos (Maris Piper, King Edward etc.)
• 1 head of garlic
• Some thyme sprigs (optional)
• Salt
• Peppercorns
• Oil (or better, animal fat) for frying

Method

Part 1 – can be done hours ahead.
Fill a deep pan with cold water, cut the head of garlic horizontally, bruise the thyme with the back of a knife, add both to the water and season really well (heavy salt here means not having to use it later). Bring the water to the boil and let cool.

Cut the chips, this works best if you make them chunky.
Place the chips (to be) in the water and bring to the boil, turn the heat off as soon as it reaches the boil and leave for 5 minutes or so.

Drain very gently and lay out on a cooling rack/baking sheet – if you want to get all Heston then put them straight in the freezer

Part 2 – still an hour ahead.

Bring the oil up to 120/130 degrees (Celsius, we’re not in the dark ages any more) and give the chips their first fry – probably for 4 to 5 minutes but you’ll looking for them to be a very gentle gold on the outside. Drain and cool again. If in doubt use a cooler temperature at this point.

Part 3 – just before serving
Heat the oil to 180 degrees, plunge the chips in for their final fry, shake the basket to keep them moving and in about 2 minutes you’ll be there, just pull them and drain them before they burn. Serve to someoen you really like - if you've not eaten them all yourself.

This came about while trying to develop a confit-style chip (you need to use waxy potatoes which end up mushy inside) and I’d like to thank John Quigley of the Red Onion in Glasgow for his help & advice.

Pulled Pork

What can I do with pig cheeks? The question was asked on Twitter, Pulled Pork I suggested. “What’s that?” the questioner responded. Well, as 140 characters is too short to describe the brilliance of Pulled Pork, and especially for Saffron, here’s my easy recipe, make enough for 4, eat between 2 and spend the rest of the evening a very contented bloater:

Serves 2

• Pig Cheeks (about half a kilo, boneless shoulder will do if you can’t find the cheeks)
• Red wine, fruit or cider vinegar – 3 tbsp
• Ketchup – 1 tbsp
• Mustard (not seeded) – 1 tbsp
• Soy Sauce – 2 tbsp
• Brown Sugar – 2 tbsp
• Paprika (smoked works really well) – 1 tsp

Method:
Pre-heat an oven to 150°/130° Fan, oil and liberally salt the pig cheeks and place on a rack in a roasting pan. Cover with foil to create a sealed tent/chamber and chuck in the oven for 6 to 7 hours.

At some point, make the barbecue sauce – combine all the ingredients above, bring to a simmer, stir for a few minutes and let cool.

Once the pork’s done (meltingly soft and tender), remove from the oven and let cool till you can handle it; using your hands or forks, pull the meat apart, shredding it into bite-sized pieces and removing fat/sinew/skin or anything else you don’t like the look of.

Mix the meat and the sauce in a large pan, warm through and serve.

I like serving this with Pita bread and some lightly pickled veg (julienned carrot/daikon/cabbage tossed in vinegar, salt & sugar and left for an hour), our American cousins (whose technique this is) serve it in a soft roll with fries on the side, Daniel Boulud uses it as a topping for his famous “Piggy Burger”, the uses are endless – only it’s so tasty it doesn’t last long enough to experiment too much.

Taking Stock of Things..

There are many schools of thought when it comes to stock, there’s the reinvented Parco Pierre White who peddles salty, artificial crap on TV, there’s the traditional long/slow/skim-like-buggery typified by Michael Ruhlman’s book on the CIA and there’s Thomas Keller’s technical mastery detailed in The French Laundry Cookbook

But do any of these really work at home? Well, the concentrated chemical pots are horrible so if you’re considering that you may as well buy a jar of sauce from the Supermarket. 

The traditional and the technical – both great but they can take a lot of time and I for one only have a little time to spend on making stock. So what do I do? Here’s part 1 of Ross’s guide to stock:

Basic White Chicken Stock

The stock I use (and therefore make) most is a white chicken stock, not as deeply flavoured as a roasted (or brown) stock and no salt, garlic or other heavy aromats but great as a base for many stews, braises, sauces and as a building block for other stocks.

Ingredients & Equipment:

• About 500g Chicken Bones (see method)
• 1 large onion (peeled & chopped)
• 2 carrots (peeled & chopped)
• Black peppercorns
• 1 large pan
• 1 colander
• Muslin (useful)
• Chinoise (useful)

 Method:

Chop the chicken bones (I mainly use frozen trimmings or bought chicken wings) into 1 inch pieces and place them in the big pan, cover with water and bring to the boil. And I mean boil.

Almost everyone will tell you never to boil stock but what we’re doing here in blanching the bones, removing any fat, blood and other impurities.

Once the bones have boiled for a good 5 to 10 minutes (you’ll see scum floating on the top), tip them into the colander and rinse them clean. Really rinse them well. Return the bones to a clean pan and add the onion, carrot and some peppercorns; bring to a light simmer and then reduce to the lowest temperature and leave at the back of the range for hours (I do this overnight), it should be nice and clear.

Finally, strain the finished product (best through a Chinoise and Muslin) into another pan. Now you can reduce it to concentrate the flavour, freeze it in useable portions or keep it in the fridge; if you go for the fridge option make sure to bring it all to the boil every 3 to 4 days (and before use) to kill any nasties.

We’ll have a look at other stocks and sauces in other posts.

Pimp my Beef

I was in Tesco recently and noticed that a “beef roasting joint” was on special offer for £8, not £8 per kilo but the (unspecified) joint was £8 in total; I think it was silverside and was about 1.8 kilos. For £8.

This triggered a bit of a challenge, I wouldn’t normally buy it, and certainly not roast it but was there anything I could do to funk it up? Well, yes – this:

• 2 big cloves of garlic
• 1 tsp cumin seed (or 2 if you like)
• 1 unwaxed orange, zested and juiced (in that order)
• Fresh or dried chilli to taste
• Salt & Pepper

Roughly chop the garlic and chuck it into a mortar, if you don’t have one then you’re reading the wrong blog. Smash it up with the cumin, some salt (not too much though) and a big lot of pepper before adding the chilli, grind it again. We’re making a paste here so don’t worry about it being too dry.

Add the orange zest and grind for the last time, once you have the paste, add the orange juice and mix well, add a little rapeseed oil if it looks too dry (but remember this is a paste, not a marinade).

Score the beef all over with a sharp knife, not too deep – a couple of millimetres at most, and place in a foodbag; pour the marinade in and leave to soak for a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 24 hours in the fridge.

And then? For best results barbecue for 7 to 10 minutes on each side and then close the BBQ lid and roast for 30/40 minutes depending on the size of the joint or griddle/sear in a pan for a similar time before chucking in a 160 degree oven for 40 minutes – though increase that if have a big joint or you like wrecking your beef by serving it anyway other than rare

Rest for a minimum of 15 minutes and serve with a roasted veg cous cous (surely you don’t need a recipe for that, email if so) and a roasted tomato and red pepper salsa to enjoy...

Ross's Party Lamb

Let’s skip the preamble in which I wax lyrical about some boyhood reminiscence or other inspiration and cut to the chase; of late I’ve been quite inspired by North African flavourings and also entertaining a lot and this is the (easy) way I’ve been doing it:


Barbecued Moslem Spiked Lamb with Roasted Veg Cous Cous – Serves 10

• 1 Big Leg of Lamb, butterflied (get the butcher to do it)

• 4 Garlic Cloves

• 1 Lemon

• 1 Preserved Lemon

• 3 Tablespoons Cumin Seeds

• 1 Onion (red or sweet white)

1 week before the party; smash the garlic with the flat of a knife, toast the cumin seed and chop the preserved lemon, put it all in a mortar with a healthy pinch of salt and smash it about into a rough paste. Grate the onion and add it with some peppercorns, oil and a bit of tomato paste to the mortar before grinding it all together some more, add the juice of the lemon and mix through.

Take a sharp knife and lightly score (in a hatched fashion) the lamb on both sides and then put the lamb into a large freezer bag. Tip the marinade in, seal the bag and massage it like a drunken teenager attempting foreplay.

Let the meat marinade for a few hours before popping into the freezer.

36 Hours before the party; take the meat from the freezer and let defrost in the fridge. The freezing is only for convenience and can be omitted as long as the lamb gets a 24 hour marinade.

The day before the party; finely chop/cube/dice:

• Red onions

• Assorted peppers

• Courgette and Aubergine

Toss in oil and roast for half an hour then pop in the fridge.

The day of the party; take a good handful of fresh Mint, Oregano and Chives and chop well, stir into some Greek yoghurt along with some garlic paste, add a pinch of sugar and salt and mix well – check for seasoning, perhaps some white pepper or some more salt, but not too much sugar.

You might also want to spoon some harissa (to taste) into some more Greek Yoghurt to make an alternative, spicy sauce.

Make a pile of cous cous and when drained work through a healthy knob of butter and the roasted veg – ideally so it’s still warm for service.

So now, barbecue the lamb, keep an eye on it so it doesn’t char too much – spray down any flare ups and turn often so it doesn’t burn, it’ll probably take 30 minutes. If you have a lid on the barbecue you might want to build the coals at one side and initially char it there before moving the lamb to the other side and covering it to let it roast through.

Now carve the lamb for your guests and let them help themselves to the cous cous, the yoghurt sauces and a green salad (bought mixed from any supermarket).

It’s easy for the cook, tastes great and looks really impressive. But mainly it tastes great, according to 3 of my cousins and 2 of their children it was the best lamb they’d ever had.

Well, except for Heather (aged 6) who didn’t like the charred bits. Little critic. Still, Uncle Ross doesn’t mind, and he certainly will have forgotten by Christmas. Probably.

Pork Chop Night

I grew up in the 80’s, a kid of 2 working parents and consequently a lot of indifferent, frozen food featured heavily in my upbringing. Not everything was frozen though, on Pork Chop night things were freshly cooked, the chop dipped in egg-wash, then bright orange Ruskoline breadcrumbs and shallow fried, served with apple sauce from a jar, tinned peas and bland boiled potatoes. I’m shuddering at the memory even now; given all the wonderful things you can do with pork, I can’t understand why anyone would’ve chosen that.


So, now I’m a parent I’m avoiding the horrors of my youth and instead doing pork chop night thus:

Pork chops, thick cut and preferably from a rare breed like Saddleback or Old Spot – 1 per person, I get mine from Ballencreiff pigs or the Gosford Bothy .

Floury potatoes

½ an apple per person

½ red onion per person

So stick the oven on to 180° and a griddle pan on to a high heat, score the fat on the chop (this stops it twisting the meat when it shrinks) oil the chops well with something like groundnut or rapeseed oil and season well (seriously, pork loves salt).

Cut the apple into 1cm dice and toss in a little oil then stick on a tray in the now hot oven.

Dice the potato and boil in well salted water and then wait a few minutes.

Grill the chops for a couple of minutes and then turn 90° in the griddle pan and grill for another couple of minutes to give you a nice cross hatched pattern, turn over to cook the other side.

While that’s cooking, dice the red onion.

The potato should be cooked, drain it and let it steam dry in a colander, take the pork out of the griddle and put in the oven, beside the apple.

In the pan you cooked the potato, dump a lot of butter and start softening the onion, after a few minutes add the apple and cook gently to let the flavours infuse – you should have a lot of melted butter in the pan at this point, if not then add more butter.

Now would be a good time to check the pork (probably 12 minutes or so since it went into the oven), press it to see how it yields – it should be tender but not too spongy, if you’re happy with it then remove from oven and leave to rest, if not back into the oven...

So, once the pork is out and resting, return the potato to the pan with the apple and onion and stir well to mix and work the melted butter in, it’ll break up a bit but that’s not a problem. Check for seasoning.

Now, serve a big spoonful of the potato with the chop and whatever steamed green veg you have to hand (seems to go very well with broccoli) to some happy campers.

The best thing that can happen to a steak...

Compound butters, be they garlic, maitre d' or harissa are all well and good, but for when you want to be really nice to both yourself and that prime Rib Eye you've just got from Well Hung and Tender:

Take a bunch of tarragon and strip the leaves. Chop finely and throw them into a small pan with 125 ml or so of sherry, red wine or champagne vinegar (or a mixture of the 2 or three, sometimes I'll also use tarragon vinegar), 2 shallots (or 1 large banana shallot) and a teaspoon of black pepper that's been bashed and cracked with a mortar and pestle.

Reduce this down 'till it's almost dry, do it slowly or it'll burn and the vinegar will stink the kitchen out.

While that's reducing place a block of unsalted butter, preferably French, weighing about 225/250g into another small pan and melt it gently.

When the reduced tarragon has cooled place mixture in a heat proof bowl and beat in an egg yolk. Now place the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and beat in another 3 egg yolks, beat constantly until the eggs look foamy and thicker. This isn't scrambled eggs so if it looks like it's beginning to scramble or split, take it away the pan and add just a touch of cold water and whisk furiously; it may work and recombine, if not - go back to step 1. Also, use the best and freshest freerange, organic eggs you can get your mitts on, don't even waste your time with this if you're going to use some supermarket value egg that's been in hte fridge for a couple of weeks. Also also, have the yolks at room temperature before using.

When the yolks and reduction are combined, foamy and thicker, start to add the warm butter, spoonful by spoonful. Do this carefully because you don't want any milk solids (that white stuff in the bottom of the pan) getting into the sauce, keep whisking and whisking. Once the butter's almost all gone (except for the white crud), taste the sauce.

Season it with some salt and pepper, and serve it immediately beside that steak and some chips. Real chips, not frozen or oven chips, you've just made a kick-ass Bearnaise so why spoil it with frozen chips?