Sunday 31 March 2013


Food, glorious food!
Hot sausage and mustard
While we're in the mood
Cold jelly and custard

Oh food
Magical food,
Wonderful food,
Marvellous food,
Fabulous food!

Right then, I think you get the idea now.

This one's all about what I ate last weekend.
At my house.
In my kitchen.
At the table.
With Sophie.
And Agnes.
And a case of red wine.
And some white as well.


So, I'd purchased my meat, and all I had to do then was wait.


Just for a few hours, as I had to salt my pork belly and duck legs before cooking them.

A head of garlic was smashed up, some thyme was sprinkled over, black peppercorns crushed and sea salt mixed in.

Rubbed all over, it will remove water from the flesh, and make it juicier to eat.


Don't ask me how, it just does, that's all you need to know.

But it might be because the salt alters the fibres of the protein in the meat, allowing it to hold onto more moisture, or something like that!

Next time I'll tell you how the universe started as well.

The skin was removed from the pork belly, as I had another use for that later, but the duck leg skin remained in place.

And don't start worrying about all that salt giving me a heart attack, it won't.

Most of it is washed off, and it's done it's job of removing loads of excess water from the meat.

This is how we can make food last longer, think of anchovies, olives and capers.

They are all just salted, and left in their own brine.

Good idea, eh?

And, while on the subject of salt, I've just ordered some Himalayan salt blocks and Persian blue salt crystals to vajazz a couple of new dishes that I'm playing around with.

How gay is that!

The duck legs and pork were cured overnight, washed off and dried.

So the first stage of Friday night's dinner was sorted.

I was going to poach the duck in duck fat to make a classic confit canard, as it's a vital part of a cassoulet, or French baked beans if you prefer.

So, after two or three hours the duck legs should be super soft and melting, in fact a pin or needle should be easily able to go through the flesh, just to make sure.

Which is pretty much all this supper was.


A one pot wonder, full of lovely, rich, warming, fatty, moist,
meaty joy!

It would be perfect for tonight actually, as now I'm stranded in Shottle, with a blizzard kicking off outside, ah well "c'est la vie".

Dried white haricot beans had also been soaked, in water, overnight, and all I had to was simmer them for a couple of hours, just to start the cooking process.

A couple of carrots, onions and herbs go in along the reserved pig skin.

If I could have got my hands on a smoked pork Morteau sausage that would have gone in as well.

Because even though this is a peasant, country style dish, it will still have bags of flavour, and because in Europe they have access to lots of different cured pork produce, just by putting a piece of smoked sausage or ham in will really improve the finished dish.

Try it yourself, you'll see what I mean, if when you're making a tomato sauce you put in a couple of chopped up slices of smoked streaky bacon in with the onions, the finished sauce will taste much richer.

I was shown once, by an Italian chef, I worked with in London, how by getting hold of some beef bones, just roasting them and cooking them very, very slowly with lots of herbs, tinned tomatoes and garlic, in a covered pot, for about ten hours, he would end up with the nicest tasting, rich, beefy tomato sauce ever, and it didn't even have any beef in it!

Some pasta, Parmesan and that sauce, it was all you needed.

Anyway back to my simple dinner dish, the belly is cut up, and is going to be browned off, in some more duck fat, then it was simmered for a couple of hours, again to get it nice and soft, ready for the final cooking process.

It's got to prepared this way as there are too many different cuts of meat, and they all have different cooking times, so perhaps one would be overcooked and some other undercooked.

And, anyway, what else did I have to do?


All different sorts of meats can go into a cassoulet, such as goose, pheasant, lamb or wild boar.

It won't be long before someone tries sneaking some horse or donkey in to it, just to be a bit different!

Those sneaky French eh, but they don't know we've been eating all that exotic stuff for years, at Ikea mainly!

And at The Taj Mahal, down on the A 4567.

I also had a small French "meat" salami that I was going to dice up and cook with the beans.

Now, this a dish from France, so apart from horse, and snails, and frog's legs, they eat tons of onions and garlic.

So that's what I did, chopped up about five sweet white onions and another whole head of garlic was crushed.

This was going to be sweated down, in yet more duck fat, ready for the final assembly.


And remember the piece of pork skin that I cooked with the beans, well I diced that up, nice and small, and it was mixed with breadcrumbs and chopped parsley, ready to be sprinkled over the cassoulet.

All that was left to do now was put it all together.

A big cast iron pot is best for this, so with the onions and garlic nicely soft, a couple of spoons of tomato puree are added, now there is a difference of opinion as to whether this should be added, but I like it in mine, it adds some sweetness to the dish, and it makes it even richer.


With the part cooked beans, confit duck legs, poached pork belly and diced salami it was a nice lazy Friday night dish.

But, with all those soft textures it need a bit of texture, and luckily that's exactly what I had.

When you bake pork skin you get crackling don't you?

Well that's what I had on top of my baked beans, mixed with the herb breadcrumbs, was a delicious, crunchy, pork scratching sort of topping.

Easy, and as I've used some of the cheaper cuts of meat it means tomorrows dinner can be something a little bit more extravagant.






This should do.



A nice bit of sirloin, some of Derbyshire's finest.

Now I managed to blag a few marrow bones as well, and as these are just about my favourite thing to eat in the whole world, I knew exactly what to do with them.

Now it's very fashionable to just roast them as they are and scoop out the marrow, spread it on some toasted sour dough, a pinch of salt and away we go.

And jolly good it is too!

But I wanted to make it easier to eat, so all I did was boil the kettle, and at about three at a time, put the marrow bones in the hot water for about thirty seconds.

This will loosen the marrow and then all you have to do is push it out from the bone.

See, easy.


And now you know how to do this you can you use it with so many things, it's very good stirred into a saffron risotto with grated Parmesan, or breadcrumbed and deep fried it's a good garnish for a braised beef cheek dish along with some spinach, or as I intend to use it this summer with some scallops, Jersey Royals and caviar.

On a long, crisp butter puff pastry tart.


That is, of course, if summer ever arrives, but anyway back to my bone marrow.

Luckily for me I had everything I needed to make my life complete.

Shallots, capers, some herbs,anchovies, gherkins and all the other condiments required for my steak tartare, now I won't bore you with how to make a perfect tartare, and anyway, it's quite a personal thing, depending on how you like it, maybe with extra Tabasco, or with no anchovies, or whatever you like really.


Once I had it sitting by Lake Geneva where it was prepared, correctly in my opinion, at the table, where the maitre d' could ask me if I wanted extra capers, or less shallots.

Although I just left it to him and it was superb!

But mine was pretty good too!

Some sour dough was sliced and toasted, the cold steak tartare was spooned on top, and then a slice of hot bone marrow to finish off.

A sprinkle of smoked salt and we were done.

I still needed something to go with the rest of the beef though, and as it was still snowing outside I wanted something nice and rich, and as I've never really got the idea of serving mashed potatoes with steak, I   decided to do a macaroni cheese.

This is also great with dark, sticky, red wine based dishes, like a slowly braised haunch of venison with lots of black peppercorns and bacon, and left overnight in a very low oven.

Actually now I think about it, hopefully there might be just one more weekend of snow, so I can try that one out!

This was the end of my road last week, but as you can see, Sophie and myself were never really in any danger of going hungry.

So, a quick cheese sauce was made, it's easy, all you need to do is boil up some milk and cream, chuck in a load of grated cheese, whisk it up, and then thicken it with some cornflour.

Much easier that doing a roux and it works really well.

Mustard and garlic can be added if you want to liven it up a bit, but I didn't as I'd had enough garlic the night before and I knew that the next nights dinner was also going to pretty garlicky.


The steak was cooked in the usual way, plenty of salt and pepper, nice hot pan blah, blah, blah, you know by now don't you.

As you can see it's been well rested, and carved into nice fat slices.

The macaroni has been baked, warm sour dough is ready for the tartare, I quickly cooked some spinach and I dressed some chicory and radishes in a mustard dressing.

We do sometimes have something heathy!

So, there you are, Saturday night steak at my house.

Easy, and pretty damn good as I remember!

And now on to our Sunday roast.

This is a prototype of a dish I'm planning to do for Sophie's birthday a few weeks time, and as it's such an important day, I'm taking personal control of the entire menu.

And, that, of course, means lots of testing, and eating!

And I can't wait to start the cocktail and punch development!

So a half shoulder of lamb was sorted, but this time i actually wanted the blade end, so I could whip off the neck fillet, and serve that nice and pink, while the rest was cooking in the oven.

I peeled loads of garlic, added some salt, and crushed it to a paste, then the same amount of peeled, grated ginger was mixed in.

Along with some other, top secret, well actually I've forgotten what they were, Indian spices, this marinade was rubbed into the lamb shoulder.

I'm sure some yoghurt was in there somewhere as well.

I sliced loads on onions and these were cooked down, in lots of ghee, until they were starting to blacken around the edges, tinned chopped tomatoes and red chilli powder were also involved, as I wanted to end up with a really dark, rich sauce.

The marinaded lamb shoulder was placed on top of this, then I covered it with a lid, and into the oven it went.

The neck fillet was coated in more red chilli powder, cumin and various other delights, and that would then be ready to be pan fried a bit later.

I boned out some skinned chicken thighs and diced them up.

This was going to be for the biryani.

I wanted to have a pop at this as it's something I could do a bit in advance, and even though I just sealed the pot with pastry, if I do end up cooking it I will cover the whole pot with some raw bread dough, so it will be a bit like a pie!

And I'll mix in some onion seeds and cracked pepper to give the bread a bit of a boost!

So I fried off the chicken with some finely chopped onions, more garlic and ginger paste was added and then about twenty different spices, and also some chopped up Indian pickles.

This was a great idea, as it gives the dish a nice salty and spicy kick, more yoghurt was stirred in at the end, not much though, this should be a dry curry.

Basmati rice was cooked in water that had been flavoured with cloves, turmeric, cassia bark and green cardamon pods. I made sure the rice was just a little bit under cooked, as it was going to finished in the oven.

With the chicken curry on the bottom the fragrant rice was spread over the top, lid on, a bit of egg wash, and a strip of pastry was stuck around the edge.
This is so nothing escapes, and when the dish is presented, and cracked open, all of those mouthwatering aromas can be enjoyed at the table.

The lamb neck fillet is carved, and I made a little salad with some cucumbers, tomatoes and red onions, and I know it's a bit naughty, but I got some asparagus and stir fried that with a bit of lemon and garlic, although in fairness, it was a trail for the party remember.

And it was Ok, but by then English will be bang in season so I'm going to do something with that, and it will be spot on!

A couple of chapatis and naan bread were warmed up, and that's it.

Sunday night dinner, all with Sophie in mind!

Although we have loads more things to taste and try, but, some how I think we'll get there in the end!




Right that's it!

A brilliant weekend, doing what I love most, cooking, eating, dancing and being snowed in with Sophie!

And now, finally it's over.

TB, BW and SAB, and everyone else who was part of the E.L.B.M.C for the last five years, it's been mental!

Nearly had a couple of heart attacks over the last half decade, but we always got there, so thank you all for making it all so much fun!

Tonights musical delight - High by the Lighthouse Family, Francois K vocal 12" mix, parts 1 & 2.







Saturday 16 March 2013

Right, listen to this then.

I went to the doctors a couple of weeks ago, and, you're not going to believe this, do you know what he told me to do?

Lose some weight.

Looooooooooooooooooooooooossssssssssssssssssssssse some weight!

Now then, I've actually never understood what these alien sounding words really mean, but I know a man that might.

So off I went, up to see David up at Highfield House Farm, where we discussed, over a cup of tea and a slice of warm pork pie, just what my doctor might have meant.

Well, we were both completely stumped, but after much thought we arrived at this.



EAT MORE MEAT.

So I got some, well quite a lot as you can see, and this is not even all of it, as I'm going up tomorrow to pick up some beef and lamb, for our weekend dinners, which I'm going to tell you all about later.

And it's not just me that enjoys a nice healthy appetite, as last week we changed the tasting menu for the chef's table up at East Lodge, so just eight courses to get through, but everyone seems to like it, and I think that some of the dishes might even be good for you, well, perhaps just one!

A couple of weeks ago, for about five minutes, the sun came out in Derbyshire.

Most people thought that spring might finally be arriving, I know I did, so got on the blower to our fishmongers and ordered some crabs, as I figured they would make a nice addition to the smoked salmon on the tasting menu.

So the next day four nice, lively crabs arrived, although the one at the back looks a bit fed up, I was also a bit miffed as it had starting snowing again, and was down to about -58 oc!

Anyway, this was only ever going to end one way, and that was with the crabs being put into a pot of seasoned boiling water to kill them.

So cooked for eight minutes, removed and left to cool down I was going to break them down, and start rewriting the menu!

Crabs are my favourite shellfish, they are a bit of a bore to break down and then pick through all of the white meat, to ensure there are no bits of shell left, you also have the added delight of the brown meat, which has a lovely deep flavour, and of course the shells can roasted off to make a beautiful, rich crab bisque.

Oh, yes, and I can have a superb crab sandwich for my lunch as well!

So, the first course is taking shape, and as we are always going to have our smoked salmon on the menu in one way or another, we have jazzed it up a bit this year, and remember I did think that, at last, spring might be coming.


So, here it is.

We used a much smaller amount of smoked salmon, so as not to overpower the crab, we also made a thick, spicy mayonnaise with the brown crab meat, small baked croutons were added, as I didn't want to serve bread and butter on the side, as it would be too much of a faff for our guests, trying to get the crab and the other bits and bobs onto a piece of bread.

And, anyway, I'm re-thinking the way we serve bread for the tasting menu this year.

What I would like to do is do a small plate of canapés to have with their Champagne, something a bit like these, although, a couple would have to be changed as one has smoked salmon and one had steak tartare on, so on this menu it would mean repeating the same ingredients, and I don't want to do that, but you get the idea.

Then you get a couple of amuse bouches, so you don't need bread with the meal yet, and then a couple of the courses have their own, specially made breads, baked to order, and served still warm!

Say we did a dish with some Indian spicing, we would make a small, griddled flat bread, and if we served some beef I would make a small bacon loaf and some beef dripping, so that everything complements each course, and I think it would make the dinner more interesting.

I mean, can you imagine getting a freshly baked, truffle laden mini sourdough loaf and some Parmesan butter, to go with little grilled lamb cutlets, or some toasted, garlic rubbed semolina baguette along with your ragout of lobster and leeks.

It's just a thought at the moment, but sounds as though it might work.

Anyway, back to the crab, with a small dice of pickled lemon, cucumber diamonds, caviar and some picked chervil and tarragon, it's a nice, pretty way to start dinner, and we've used up every bit of the crab.

Just like this one as well.

It's that rabbit I showed you last time, only now it's all been chopped up, cooked and rearranged!

I salted the legs and shoulders overnight and then poached them in duck fat, it keeps the rabbit flesh, which has a tendency to dry out, nice and moist.

White haricot beans were also soaked in cold water and then cooked in the ham hock stock, which was reserved from the ham hocks, that I intended to mix through the rabbit confit.

Terrines were brushed with duck fat and then lined with Parma ham, then I seasoned the meat and beans with cider vinegar and plenty of pepper but not too much salt as the rabbit and ham hocks were already highly seasoned, but you need to remember that terrines and pates should always be well salted and peppered as the fridge dulls their flavour.

The rabbit saddles were cooked in the water bath and then quickly seared on the plancha, along with some thin leeks and baby shallots, to add some sweetness to the warm salad.

The rabbit kidneys and livers were also served, pink, of course, a few black trompette mushrooms were added and finally, the rarebit.

Just posh cheese on toast really, but made with the addition of Dijon mustard, cider and grated Cheddar and a couple of egg yolks, and then thickened with cornflour.

You know, when I'm writing these, it really reminds me just how much work goes into each of these dishes, and how without having such a top crew working with me, none of these dishes would have been possible, I just come up with the ideas, Tom and Ben do the donkey work!

So, anyway, we've got a nice, warm, savoury rabbit and rarebit salad garnish, dressed with a light rabbit juice, made from the rabbit bones, and a beautiful, rich, dense rabbit and ham hock terrine, which as you will see in a few days time is exactly the same as I had for my dinner last night, well sort of.

And, it's also a nod towards Wales, what with the leeks and Welsh rarebit, and who, in about an hours time we are going to stuff down in Cardiff this afternoon!

So, now all of a sudden Derbyshire was right back in the grip of winter the next course was a bit richer.

Still using scallops, as we often do, on the tasting menu.

Want to know why?

Because they are nice, our guests like them, and they marry well with lots of different things.

I got hold of a couple of celeriac's, covered one in salt, and roasted it whole,  ready for service, and the other one was peeled, chopped up and slowly caramelised until dark and sticky.

I had some really reduced brown chicken stock and a tin of black truffles so they were used to finish cooking the celeriac in, as I was trying to have a bit of Yin and Yang going on, whereby some of the celeriac would be really clean and pure in flavour, and one would be really warming and rich.

It's just the same as I had done with the rabbit and crab, using just one ingredient, but trying to showcase it in different ways.

Penny Bun mushrooms were sauteed off, and the left over black truffles, their juices and the brown chicken stock were seasoned with aged sherry vinegar.

The caramelised celeriac was pureed and passed through a fine sieve, and some white chicken stock was seasoned with truffle oil, ready to be foamed up at the last minute.

The scallops only take a couple of minutes to cook, so with the salt baked celeriac still pipping hot from the oven, it's a quick dish to put together.

And it worked on that day as it was all cold outside again.

In fact one of guests that day was saying she had only ever tried scallops with things like lemon, garlic and parsley, and even though they are superb like that, in the cooler months different garnishes also work well with their sweet, juicy flesh.

Right, on with the next one now.

This is a prototype of a dish I want to do on the main menu, but using celeriac, but as I've just used that with the scallops I need another vegetable.

Salsify was the answer.

A really interesting root vegetable, it's also known as the oyster plant, as some people think it tastes like oyster, although I can't see it myself.

Easy to prepare, it just needs washing and peeling, and then cooked "sous vide" with some lemon juice, chicken stock and olive oil, so it stays nice and white.

What I wanted to do with the original dish is prepare some celeriac "chips", by steaming a whole celeriac, and then cutting it into thick batons, marinating them in herbs, rolling them in blitzed panko crumbs and then deep fry them.

With some sort of bearnaise sauce I though the might a nice side dish for a braised veal dish.

But as I was stuck with salsify I cut thinner batons for the fries and kept some back for a little salad garnish.

A couple of months ago I made some bacon "marmalade".

I think I was reading another food blog last year and stumbled across it.

Ever so easy to make, we used it with thin slices of brioche as a sort of fried club sandwich to garnish a pheasant dish on  Christmas Eve.

It's got maple syrup and black coffee in it, loads of cooked smoked streaky bacon, shallots and thyme, so it's got bags of flavour, and it's a pretty original way of adding another layer of loveliness to a pork dish.


So, using our "Bath Chap's", which are, by the way, a great thing to have in your larder, as they last for ages, and can be used in so many different dishes and ways.

I think that with time they could become the English equivalent of the French duck confit!

With some of the pork jowl cut nice and thick, ready to be grilled on the plancha, the remainder was thinly sliced, like fatty ham, ready to dressed and mixed with plan salsify, meanwhile the breaded batons were deep fried, some praline crackling was defrosted, ready to be sprinkled over the finished dish.

I'd made a smooth apple puree, as this dish, which was going to be a rich, warming, crunchy, soft and salty needs a bit of sharpness, so blobs were put around the plate.

I love this one, as on the tasting menu I can get away with doing a dish like that, which would be too much as a normal serving, and it's got everything going for it - local pork and apples, different textures and temperatures, just using a couple of main flavours and it's familiar at the same time, just a Sunday lunch really!

Duck's up next, and like the scallops it's good to use on the tasting menu, often because people don't cook with it at home, and it's a luxurious meat as well.

Ours are from Reg Johnston, over in Lancashire, so it's almost local! The breasts are cooked on the bone, left to cool down a bit and then removed, ready to finished at the last minute.

After the pork dish I wanted to lighten everything up a bit, so some not so local Sicilian blood oranges were required. Duck with oranges you see!

Thinking of the colours I decided
to use some sweet potatoes, and cooked them a caramel that was deglazed with orange juice, blended and with a knob of butter whisked in, it was ready to go.

Butternut squash was also poached in a honey and cracked peppercorn scented stock, ready to be glazed when the duck was called away.

With some wilted Asian greens that dish was just about there, and remember these are all classical flavours and garnishes to serve with duck, and they are perfect for a freezing Derbyshire day!

I scored the duck skin, to render the fat, and cooked it skin side down to get the skin nice and crisp, swooshed the sweet potato puree down the middle of the plate, roasted the butternut squash to give it  some colour and warmed up the blood orange segments. Some reduced duck juice was spooned over, and there you are.


And it might not even be too bad for you!

So, nearly there now, just the cheese course, and I had some cracking Stilton, Ben pickled some juilenned celery and we semi dried some black seedless grapes, a couple of rye crackers and that's the cheese course taken care, but I forget to take pictures of that one, sorry.

Yorkshire rhubarb was always going to be on the menu somewhere, and after serving it as a starter a couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd get back to normal and serve a nice rhubarb crumble.

Yeah, right!

First thing was getting the crumble topping sorted, and for that we needed some tapioca maltodextrin.

It's used to turn fats into a powder, so all I did was get Tom to make some really strong vanilla oil, then watch him spill it everywhere, and then turn it into a powder, easy really!

We also made some butter shortbread, as I wanted to give the vanilla oil powder some body, and it was supposed to be a crumble after all, so that was baked, in a low oven, as I was trying to keep it as pale as possible, then it was blended to a fine powder.

Rhubarb was poached, and some was pureed and made into a rippled parfait with vanilla cream, and then frozen.

This dessert started out from one we did for our Valentines Day menu, but we served it with deep fried custard fritters and a glass of Champagne mixed with rhubarb juice, so it was all pretty and pink!

And hot and cold!

Custard, that has been deep fried, how brilliant is that!

But I couldn't do that on the tasting menu as I had already used to fryer for my salsify and didn't want two deep fried things on the menu, and in any case it was too much to serve as part of an eight course lunch, so we just did a smaller version.

Rhubarb crumble, 2013, and it's just so light and easy to eat, as the crumble powder just melts in the mouth, some sharp poached rhubarb to cut through the creamy parfait and a massive hit of vanilla.

So, just one more to go now, and I've taken "Bakewell" off for the time being, partly as more and more people are returning to the chef's table and I wanted to give them something new.

Chocolate's always popular, and what with it being so miserable I thought it might cheer everyone up a bit, as I think chocolate is supposed to do that.

We made a dark chocolate ganache, but put loads of grated stem ginger in it, a classical chocolate mousse was pipped on top, and then we glazed it with melted chocolate.

Ginger sorbet was churned, and that was that.

I love chocolate and ginger, it's such a warming mix of flavours and quite exotic, just the thing to finish off a nice long lunch!

I 'll get the pictures sorted out for next time.

So, there you are, a great way to start loosing weight, planning eight course tasting menus all day long!

Right that's it, I'm off to sort out the load of protein I've got in my fridge, and start testing punches for Sophie's party, I know it's tough, but I think I'll just about manage!

Music for tonight - Velvet Pants by the Propellerheads, and the tambourines have bee ordered, you have been warned!