Melbourne!!!!!

Following the British & Irish Lions has been a tough few days what with jet lag, pre-match nerves, etc but we've done our best to try the best food in Melbourne and succeeded pretty well I'd say. We've also tried to taste as much booze Melbourne has to offer so will be providing a more detailed review of the restaurants when my head recovers but here's a taster....

More by luck than judgement we're staying in an apartment on Flinders Lane that seems to have more than its fair share of restaurants.

Chin Chin - what can we say? This place is awesome if you like thai, pan-asian fodder. You can't book so luckily we went in for a very late lunch/early dinner. By the time we left there was a queue down the street. A mixed selection for 5 of us partly recommended by the brilliant staff was spot on. Crying Tiger beef had grown men weeping with chilli induced exquisite pain and  the phad thai described as the best ever. Like the rest of Melbourne seemingly, you have to go here basically!

http://www.chinchinrestaurant.com.au/

Coda - we'd booked ahead for our match day lunch and having been a bit slow first thing in the morning we literally went from breakfast to lunch 5 doors down the street. It's a shabby chic basement kinda place with very enthusiastic staff. The asian fusion menu is brilliantly confusing allowing the waitress to make our minds up for us. The 'smaller' courses are priced for one portion so you end up ordering 5 of them, for 5 of us, and they're not cheap, and you need several smaller courses. Pretty tasty but perhaps not as good as the staff think it is. The local wine was great and the extra enthusiastic waiter gave us brilliant recommendations for pubs in Fitzroy that proved to be a much needed post-match booze up. Highly recommended but you perhaps need to go once to get know how to order the second time.

http://www.codarestaurant.com.au/

Terra Rossa - 5 doors up or so from Coda, this is where we had breakfast 
(literally as a starter before Coda). 

Good breakfast of slow baked beans with a side order of smoked trout 
with the boys having more conventional breakfasts. 

Post-match day lunch, having woken up at 2pm (a combination of jet lag 
and hangover), was a tricky shout but a couple of pizzas, ham hock and leek 
croquettes and a salami plate 
washed down with local Pinot Noir was a good stomach liner before going to the 
Aussie Rules Footy. 

The waitress had a rather noticeable English accent and went to the same 
school as me!! You can take the girl out of Newport Pagnell.......

http://www.terrarossarb.com.au/

European - a recommendation of a mate of a mate is as it says on the tin actually quite European despite us trying to eat and drink local. No Aussie wine, mostly French, but we can live with that when the food's so good.  Anjum Anand, the Indian tv cook was in there so we assume she knows what she's doing!

A few oysters each as a pre-starter starter because we're greedy followed by some good lamb ragu, duck 7 ways, and a good homage to St John in London's marrow bone with parsley were all excellent and some really imaginative desserts.

http://www.theeuropean.com.au/

We haven't reached Sydney yet and that's got some work to do to beat Melbs!

Pheasant Croquettes

Not very seasonal in June, the pheasant season is beginning of October to end of January, but on the basis I've still got several birds in the freezer from last season a slightly different way of using them up is always good and this is quite summery.

The basics are largely plagiarised from a Hugh F-W recipe for chicken or ham but the deeper flavour of pheasant is even better as the taste comes through. I tend use the thighs or the meat picked off the drumsticks that have more flavour than the breast and can be tougher. Take care if using drumstick meat as pheasant drumsticks have short needle like sinews that would be very unpleasant if swallowed! So pick over it very well.

The tarragon mayonnaise goes with it really well and sometimes I add a small handful of tarragon in to the bechamel too. These are along way from the potato croquettes you find in the supermarket freezer section. When fried the bechamel goes all gooey again.

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp plain flour
375ml full fat milk
200g cooked pheasant finely chopped. The meat can be poached or baked and left to cool. 
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A good grating of nutmeg
2 eggs
100g fine white breadcrumbs or panko breadcrumbs
Olive oil (not extra-virgin) or rapeseed oil, for frying, although sunflower seems to work ok

Small handful of tarragon
Mayonnaise

Fry the onion in the olive oil in a frying pan until soft but not coloured.  

Add the flour and stir for a couple of minutes. Warm the milk in a separate pan and gradually add into the onion, stirring constantly until all the milk is stirred in and the sauce thickens, then add the pheasant. Continue to cook, stirring, until the béchamel is quite thick and pulls away from the sides of the pan as you stir, about eight minutes. Season and add the nutmeg. 

Pour the béchamel into a shallow dish. When cold, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate overnight preferably but 4 hours at least. 

Use two teaspoons to shape the mixture into ovals about the size of a large egg. Arrange a bowl of lightly beaten egg and another of breadcrumbs, and dip a croqueta first into the egg and then roll it in the breadcrumbs, covering the whole surface. If you want them extra crisp, dip and roll them twice.

Transfer to a plate and continue with the rest of them. Chill for a couple of hours, or up to 24 hours.

Pour the oil into a heavy saucepan to a depth of 5cm or so and heat until it is hot enough to sizzle as soon as something is placed in it.  Fry the croquetas three or four at a time until golden on all sides. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain and keep warm in a low oven. Continue until all the croquetas are cooked. Serve hot, maybe with a sprinkling of Spanish smoked paprika and the mayo on the side. 

Great with some other tapas style nibbles like fried chorizo or padron peppers fried in olive oil and sprinkled with flaky sea salt. The hot, green, pickled Spanish chilli peppers, 'guindillas', are also great as they cut through the richness

Curry House Dhansak, or a good attempt

Lentils get bad press from being hippy food and the staple diet of Neil in The Young Ones but when laced with garlic, onion and spices in daal or a citrus, chilli, spicy combo in a Dhansak they are hard to beat. I'll probably have Dhansak 8 times out of 10 when ordering in an Indian and the other 2 times will then allow daal as a side dish.

This probably isn't anything like how your curry house would make their Dhansak but it tastes pretty close. We used to live a 2 minute walk from the Bombay Bicycle Club in Clapham and I had a chat with the owner about Dhansak and he recommended using lime instead of lemon so I usually do except when it's spur of the moment and there are only lemons in the fruit bowl. Quite a few dhansak recipes use pineapple but I've never fancied it but may give it a whirl one day.

Serves 4

1 large onion finely sliced
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 inch piece of ginger grated or finely chopped
1 or 2 dried red chillies - Dhansak tends to be pretty punchy chilli wise in restaurants but up to you
2-3 desertspoons of curry powder as previous recipe on the blog
1 inch or so of cinnamon and 3 or 4 cardamom pods
400-500g split red lentils (yellow spit peas can be used but need soaking overnight and red ones don't). If there looks like too much lentil once cooked just set some aside.
Half tin of tomatoes
Desertspoon tomato purée
Juice of half to 1 lemon or 2 limes
Sugar - preferably jaggery or a darker variety that gives a nice caramely taste like soft brown or muscavado
Salt
Fresh coriander
Tablespoon of sunflower oil, maybe half and half mustard oil and sunflower if you have it.

The recipe is the same whether you want chicken or prawn. The quantities aren't exact as I tend to make it up but whatever feels and looks right.

Chicken: 8 thigh fillets or joint a whole chicken, much more economical and a carcass to make stock after
King prawns: how ever many you feel like but 8 or 10 each sounds right.

Soak the lentils for 10 or 15 mins giving them a good rub in the water to get some of the cloudiness off that creates the scum that surfaces when they are simmering. Rinse in fresh water until it runs clear. Cover with twice as much water and bring to the boil. Start them off gently skimming the frothy scum off and increase the heat once they start to tenderise. Add the dried chilli either whole or crumbled, the cinnamon and cardamom. Add more water if it looks too dry but once they are really mushy start to drive off the water so that it is thick and the lentils broken down and more like porridge. Mash up a bit if required.

Fry the onion in the oil until soft and coloured adding in the garlic midway through, adding some of the sugar towards the end of frying helps caramelise the mixture. If using chicken or lamb add this in to seal and colour a little. Add in the curry powder and fry for a few minutes to take away the rawness of the spices. Add in the tomatoes and tomato purée and simmer for 20 minutes or so adding a little water if too thick and sticking.

Combine the tomato sauce in to the lentils with the ginger and simmer further to combine. Add in the lemon or lime juice and taste to see if more sugar is needed. It should be sweet and sour in balance. Add salt to taste. The final dish should be quite thick, rich and the lentils having no firm texture.

If using prawns add them in and cook for a further 5 minutes until they are cooked through. Stir in some chopped coriander and reserve some to sprinkle on top when in a serving bowl.

Dhansak is quite often served in restaurants with rice as a standard side dish but I prefer chapatis or naan bread.

Top Sarnies

Chorizo & Rocket

This is so simple but if you ever had Brindisa's chorizo rolls at Borough Market in Southwark cooked on a barbecue then you'll know how moreish these are.

The picante chorizo are raw sausages rather than the firmer salami style chorizo so need cooking. They are very fatty so slicing them in half length wise releases some of the oil and makes cooking it quicker, all the better for getting it in your gob quicker!

Maybe put a couple of knife scores crossways on the skin side as it makes them curl up less when the skins shrink while cooking. Grill or barbie on both sides and put in a crusty roll that's been lightly toasted and dribbled with some olive oil. Squeeze in a good handful of peppery rocket and enjoy the spicy hit cooled by the rocket.

Steak in the style of The Guinea in Mayfair

The Guinea bangs out plenty of these to the suited punters that stand out on Bruton Place just off Berkeley Square. Trying to eat this, hold your plate and balance your pint of Youngs is a skill in itself due to the lack of tables.

Theirs is a wooden skewered triple decker called 'The Mirabeau' with some good relatively thin steak in ciabatta but the secret ingredient is mayonnaise with anchovy to give a salty, fishy whack that makes it sublime.

I chop up some anchovies, either the sort in oil or salted, and mix it in to some mayonnaise. The amount of anchovy is personal preference but I like a lot. I've also recently mixed in some Geo. Watkins Anchovy Sauce which is delicious but turns the mayonnaise a grey colour like Elephants Breath Farrow & Ball paint, apparently. Fish breath, cats breath?

Simply cook your steak, I like rump or ribeye, to your desired bloodiness, and slap it in a lightly toasted ciabatta with a healthy dollop of the mayonnaise and bit of rocket or lettuce. Pitta bread is good but hasn't got the crunch that scratches flesh off the roof of your mouth.

Bacon, cheese, marmite and lettuce

This is the antithesis of the low salt trend and would throw doctors or the nanny state in to convulsions but the combo of molten cheese, umami hit and crispy cold lettuce is a great weekend hangover treat.

Basically cheese on toast, smear of marmite, pop in some cooked bacon (good quality is good but those short streaky rashers that perfectly fit 4 abreast on to a a piece of sliced white seem perfect) and put in some little gem leaves and a buttered bit of toast on top. Any other sauces is overkill. Wash down with 2 pints of water to rehydrate. Go for a run or sit in a sauna for an hour to sweat out the salt and rehydrate again with 4 pints of water.

Toasted Cornflake & Golden Syrup!!

This is proper trashy. Drag the old Breville toasted sandwich maker out of the back of the cupboard and chip off the fossilised remains of baked beans and cheese from the last time it was used.

Lightly butter 2 slices of white sliced. You'll remember from your O-level toasted sandwich making that this is the OUTSIDE of the sandwich so put butter side down on the sandwich maker and put a good handful of cornflakes on the bread given a light crush as you do it. Pour over an unhealthy drizzle of Tate & Lyle's finest, pop on the other slice, butter side up of course, and close the contraption. Leave to cook until the outside is golden brown and lava hot syrup is being ejected from the side. Wait for a few minutes to cool as trying to eat too quick will result in hospitalisation.

I think this was a recipe that came with the machine in c.1978 and was a big favourite of my sister and I.

The in-laws Breville has been dragged out of retirement at 2 in the morning in the not too distant past after a farmers ball and baked beans and cheddar nuked as a pre-bedtime snack to soak up the Thatchers Gold.

Risotto & hare

Before I forget, this is what happened to the hare loin. Serves 2. 

Half red onion finely chopped

Knob butter

Glug of olive oil

1.5 inch chorizo or so in 1cm cubes (I know that's mixing metric and imperial but keeps all parties happy)

Garlic clove very finely chopped

1 smallish leek finely sliced, white part only

160g risotto rice

Glass white wine

Pint hot stock – hare, chicken, marigold, whatever's to hand

Parmesan, a nice big handful

More butter, cold dice

Splash of port or Marsala 

Hare loin, oil to fry

Typical risotto protocol!

Fry onion, leek and garlic in the oil and first butter knob until softened and then stir in the rice until coated then add the wine until that has been absorbed. Add the stock bit by bit until absorbed. In the past I think I've been to tame and had the heat too low and it seems to take 40 mins to cook rather than the 20 mins the packet says so crank up the heat a bit. Keep stirring and after a sensible while have a taste to see if the rice is to your liking. Parmesan and chorizo should season it but maybe some salt and perhaps some pepper unless the stock is already seasoned. 

Fry off the chorizo in a separate pan and add to the rice. Add some of the Parmesan and then the cold butter that will enrich and gloss the risotto.

Get a frying pan pretty hot and put in the hare loin, should be 2 from either side of the hare. Fry to get some good colour but it should be medium rare and the loins are quite thin so doesn't take long. Add in the Marsala or port which will deglaze the pan and thicken up to coat the hare in a sweet sticky glaze, hare can be quite ironey, metallic tasting so a bit of sweetness cuts through that. Rest for a few minutes and then slice at angle all cheffy like.

Add the rest of the Parmesan and serve out the risotto with the hare slices laid on top with any left over sauce drizzled on top. Tidy!

Clams with white beans

This is one of the specials in a great little restaurant called La Torre in the hill town of Benahavis 5 or so miles inland between Puerto Banus and Estapona. I've never actually eaten it there as you have to order a day ahead and I'm not that organised but it did inspire me to create something I assume is like it while we were last in Spain.

Decent amount of clams, washed, dodgy ones discarded, etc
Dried or tin of white beans, some small broad beans are good but cannellini or haricot would work
Small onion finely chopped
Garlic clove finely chopped
A good glug of dry sherry or dry white wine, or a bit of both
Good handful of chopped parsley
Olive oil

Fry the onion and garlic in the oil until softened but not coloured. Add in the beans (soaked and pre-cooked if using dried) and heat through, this can be set aside a while so the flavours mingle.

In a separate pan add in the booze of your choosing and bring to the boil driving off the alcohol and reduce by say half. Add in the clams and pop a lid on. Cook for just a couple of minutes until the clams open, giving it a bit of a shake.

Combine the contents of the 2 pans and the parsley, mix together and serve nice and hot. Good main course if enough or a great starter or tapas dish. To give it more depth perhaps add in some chopped chorizo in to the onion and garlic stage. Depending on how salty the juice is that the clams release you might not need any salt so down to taste. Grind of pepper though.

As always eat with the left over wine (albarino was the what I had at the time) but a glass of dry, salty sherry like manzanilla would be mucho Spanish.

Last week we particularly liked....

Albariño (even if the sun ain't out, again!), clams, Bury Lane Farm Shop, Coop own brand Tillington Hills cider, El Pirata in Mayfair.

Maybe next year........

http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/food-drink/the-50-best-food-websites-8665600.html#

Good website tip in the comments http://www.andyhayler.com

Mr Hayler should be the size of a house!

The week just gone....

......went in the blink of an eye.

An orange sauce to accompany a roast duck was pretty good on Sunday with good slug of the ginger liqueur thrown in to some fried red onion, orange juice, homemade marmalade, 2 star anise, 1 pounded to a powder, and an inch of cinnamon stick. A bit of seasoning and thickened with a bit of potato flour. Left over duck, spuds and veg all fried up in a kind of hash for Monday's supper with a few big splodges of Tabasco.

The mutton had to go in the freezer as ran out of time due to prior commitments such as a day at Ascot and being taken for lunch at Gallery Mess (part of Saatchi Gallery - very few images from last week's press knocking about!) in  Duke of York’s Square in Chelsea. The hosts had pre-ordered but the asparagus with deep fried duck egg and pancetta was excellent washed down with the Chilean Viognier. A mate from the same company was at a loose end last night so offered to buy me dinner, a very nice onglet and bottle of minervois at Brasserie Blanc later followed by a swift nightcap set me up nicely for this morning! Thank you to Bidwells for lunch and dinner, will bill you for breakfast. 

Having whetted my appetite this morning watching the Lions triumph in Brisbane in 2 of Berkhamsted's finest hostelries with a few pints of Irish breakfast liquid, there will be some blogs reporting on Melbourne and Sydney's restaurant and bar scene when 2 of us desert Mount Street to witness a Lions series win in the flesh. Some of Oz's finest restaurants booked plus a wine tour so don't miss our 8 day exclusive insight 'Eating With The Lions'. As I explained to the family it's a once  in a lifetime opportunity. Wife pointed out the '97 tour to South Africa I went on too! I must have been reincarnated in between!

Tonight will be a few jars and a rare eat in at The Curry Garden in Berko. 

A basic oyster sauce recipe that can be added to all sorts

This can be made ahead hours or even days in advance allowing the flavours to mingle and mature.

Oyster sauce, maybe half a normal sized bottle or 2-3 tablespoons
Dash of Shaoxing wine or dry sherry
1-2 cloves garlic
1" piece of ginger finely chopped or grated
Dash of soy sauce (not too much as oyster sauce salty enough)
Dried or fresh chilli (optional)
Enthusiastic grinding of black pepper or more modest of Sichuan pepper 
2 teaspoons groundnut oil

Gently fry the garlic, ginger and fresh chilli in the oil until softened.

Add the wine or sherry and reduce a bit to evaporate some of the alcohol but leave a bit liquid as this thins the oyster sauce. Add in the rest of the ingredients and simmer for say 5 mins.

It doesn't want to be too thick or the saltiness is overpowering but not too thin either. Stick your finger in to taste it.

Oyster sauce seems to draw out the moisture from some ingredients like broccoli or pak choi, especially if they have been blanched or steamed first and the residual water then creates a thin soup on your plate rather than coating all the ingredients. So judge how thick you want the sauce depending on what you're serving it with. A little water can always be added to thin it.

The sauce can be added in to a stir fry or poured hot over some meat or fish and veg. Last week I salt baked 2 bream and poured the sauce over the fish that had been taken off the bone which was laid over some steamed Chinese veggies and asparagus. Even my mum liked it who's a crispy duck and lemon chicken girl.

Crab & Asparagus Linguine

The fishmonger who chugs to Berko every Saturday and Wednesday always has a selection of good looking fish but a crab is a simple thing to spice up while the rest of the tribe have cheese sarnies or a salad at lunch. Anyway this was dinner on Saturday while the pastry chef, aka the wife, had salmon. 

1 medium dressed crab

As much asparagus as you feel like cut into 2cm lengths 

1 clove garlic finely chopped

4 spring onions cut to 1cm lengths 

1 dried or fresh chilli, crumbled or finely chopped

Small glass white wine

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Parsley chopped

Some good quality pasta, linguine seems to suit best but spag or some small shapes are fine. You just need the crab sauce to stick to it. 

Fry off the garlic and chilli if fresh in a desertspoon of olive oil until starting to mellow and soften. Add the asparagus and toss in the oil until starting to get a bit tender and add the spring onion.

Add the white wine (I added the dried chilli to the wine 20-30 mins earlier to soften) and reduce by half. Fold in the crab meat and take off the heat after it has warmed through. 

Cook the pasta, at the same time, after or whenever, and just before you drain it put a couple of tablespoons of the pasta water in to the crab sauce, which is now on the heat and just simmering. Stir in the water add the parsley and then add in the drained pasta and toss on the heat so all the pasta is covered but the sauce still has some sloppy moisture. Serve, with the rest of the white wine on the side of course. 

Serves 2 except on Saturday when it served 1! 

The Quest for the Perfect Spare Ribs

I much prefer Chinese flavoured ribs rather than American style. A combination of sweet and sour and saltiness from soy rather than an overpowering smoky thing. My mum used to make a sauce that seemed to be based on everything in the pantry with fried onion to which was added tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, mustard powder, ground ginger, cloves, brown sauce, soy sauce, tomato puree, golden syrup and ordinary malt vinegar. Maybe some 5 spice. The resulting sauce was reduced a bit and then mixed in to the ribs which were then baked until tender and the sauce now sticky and dark. Fantastic! And great for sending 2 kids in to sugar overload. Doesn't hurt once in a while. 

This is still my usual way but perhaps using hoi sin sauce from a jar as a base and then add in the rest haphazardly maybe with some chilli and fresh ginger. Bashed up caraway seeds give a great aniseed flavour as well. Provides loads of sauce that can be mopped up by some trailer trash homemade special fried rice. 

My next mission having mastered the above in my tastebuds opinion over a couple of decades was to try to create ribs from a Chinese I'd had once which were a typical flavour but had obviously been deep fried as they were crisp, crunchy on the outside. So I made a sauce and then simmered the ribs to get the flavour in and tenderise them. These can then be left to cool and some of the sauce thicken up and stick to the ribs. Next was the experimental part, I rolled the ribs in plain flour before plunging them in to hot sunflower oil for long enough that it seems to seal the outside and goes crispy/crusty but not drying out the middle. I fried some sliced garlic and green chilli until the garlic was golden and the chilli softened a bit. Using kitchen towel get as much residue oil off all the elements and sprinkle the chilli and garlic over the top of the ribs.  Pretty damn successful leaving a nice messy oil and sauce spattered kitchen behind. 

A simpler thin marinade works pretty well with soy, honey, 5 spice, ginger, chilli but left for a good couple of days but floured and fried from raw. Can be a bit tougher but ok on smaller ribs although I prefer big meaty ones cut in half with a mighty swipe of a big cleaver. 

Note that there are no quantities above as I've never measured anything so it's all down to educated guesswork as to how sweet, spicy, saucey, sticky you want it. Throw in all manner of left over sauces and relishes you find in the fridge, the flavour always seems to balance out. 

Eat in front of the telly when everyone else is out throwing knawed bones over your shoulder behind the sofa for the dog to find. My mate and rib enthusiast Foxy hasn't tried these yet but would be a fan. 

How to Prepare a fully feathered Pheasant, and cheat

We get through a lot of pheasants and hate wasting them so rather than trying to find 2 or 3 hours to pluck a few brace, and it is time consuming just because of the amount of feathers and the skin is so thin and delicate especially if there are some weak spots from pellets or over zealous gun dog that you have to take care, I just take off the main joints with no plucking or drawing (degutting).

To do this lay the bird on its back and firstly cut all around the leg just above the scaly part of the lower leg or the base of the drumstick. Having cut through the skin all around the leg, you might have to go through some feathers, bend back the joint back on itself so that it effectively cracks the joint. you should now be able to just pull the lower leg right off and with it some of the tendons that go in to the drumstick. Do the same to the other leg assuming it has one. 

Then grab through the feathers on its breast a decent bit of skin and insert your sharp pointy knife through this skin to make a hole you can now pull apart. You should now be able to rip the skin all the way up to its neck and down to the legs bearing all the breast flesh. Like ripping open someone's shirt with all the buttons pinging off! If you've jointed a chicken and have taken out the wishbone do the same to the pheasant. Not essential but it helps take off all the breast meat. 

Find the centre of the breastbone gently slicing either side of the gristly bit, and take off the whole breast following the contour of the ribcage down towards the wing and down towards the thigh where the breast gets thicker. Just like taking the whole breast off an already cooked chicken. 

Next force the legs back until the thigh joint pops out or at least weakens at the 'hip' of the bird. Now just pull the skin and feathers off the leg as if you are taking the birds trousers off over its knee. The skin and feathers should just pull off the flesh. This will give you the whole leg exposed still attached to the body. Cut between the hip joint keeping as much meat on the thigh joint and cut through until the whole leg is now amputated. The drumsticks are quite sinewy with not much meat on so to tidy things up perhaps just cut the drumstick off at the joint and retain the thigh which has good sinew free meat on it on the bone. 

Discard the feathered carcass and either freeze the joints or find a tasty recipe to pop it in. Valentine Warner's curry with coconut milk is great as the creamy oily coconut milk keeps the pheasant moister than tomato based sauces.  Or wrap in pancetta and bake the individual portions but don't overcook!  Marsala and chestnut is also great as a sauce but doesn't need too much cooking. 

Also works on seagulls but throw the carcass in the bin swiftly followed by the joints. 

Mutton shoulder - to curry or not to curry

The only purchase from Berko farmers market today. A little but great value bit of mutton from previous experience. 

Not sure whether to pop it in a cheeky tomato based curry or a winey, garlicky, thymey, rosemaryey affair with some white beans. The pastry chef doesn't seem keen on either. You're a farmer's daughter for Christ sake. Get over it!

To be continued........

Curry powder - homemade store cupboard basic

For as long as I've been making my own curry powder it has generally been based on the following which is out of Pat Chapman's Curry Club book. Seems a bit of a faff when you can buy ready made pastes and powders but this allows you to a) go and find your nearest Asian store and have a good nosey around all the other weird stuff and b) add in or takeaway spices. I quite often add in a teaspoon or 2 of fennel seeds which are good for seafood and game or crank up the chilli powder. 

60g coriander seeds

30g cumin seeds

20g fenugreek seeds

25g gram flour, can substitute plain but useful to have some gram about, once or twice a year/decade!

20g paprika

20g turmeric 

20g garam masala (or a little ground clove, pinch, seeds from 3 or 4 cardamom pods and a small piece of cinnamon)

5g dried curry leaves

5g asafoetida 

5g chilli powder, more if you want it punchy or none if  using chilli in your favourite recipe

5g yellow mustard powder, out of a tin of Colmans

5g whole black pepper

You can roast the first 3 ingredients but the benefits probably wear off after a few weeks or months of storage. The whole spices/seeds then need grinding. 

This is where it is useful to have a spice grinder or a coffee grinder donated to the curry cause. Coffee will never be the same afterwards!  Can use some serious elbow power in a pestle and mortar but these little electric ones are cheap and perfect. Normal food blender is a bit big or handheld is a bit crazy sending curry shrapnel everywhere.

Once blitzed to a powder, don't over blend as it can get very hot and even burn, put in an airtight container mixed in with the other bits and bobs.  Always fry off the powder in oil with some ingredients as just adding straight in to sauce can give a powdery coarse texture.

Curried Squid - Marari Beach style, Kerala

This is a small dish that was prepared by the chefs on a hotplate in front of you while you waited so you can imagine how quick it should take to cook once the ingredients are prepared. Their version was quite chillitastic and may even of had some ginger. Experiment. 

2-3 small squid prepared washed and cut in to rings and tentacles in to 1-2" lengths

Finely sliced shallot or 2

1 garlic clove finely chopped

1-2 desertspoons of light curry powder (preferably homemade)

Chilli powder or fresh red chilli

1 good teaspoon paprika

4 tablespoons yoghurt

Pinch salt to taste

In a hot frying pan heat a light oil and quickly fry the squid, shallot, chilli if fresh and add in the garlic when half cooked. When all slightly coloured and nearly cooked add the curry powder, paprika and chilli powder if using it and cook out the raw powderiness, if that's a word.

While still on the heat add the yoghurt and toss everything together until combined. Season. 

Serve as a snack, starter or as part of a main course. Also good with prawns or firm fish either with or instead of the squid.

Rich hare ragu topped with parsnip and potato mash (a la Launceston Place, nearly)

After a fantastic tasting menu at Launceston Place, under Tristan Welch, the star of the show for me was a seriously rich and deep hare ragu, I thought I'd try to replicate it. I have no idea exactly what was in the original but I think it had little cubes of parsnip in the bottom and a sweet topping which I assumed was a potato/parsnip mash with a sprinkling of toasted pistachio which gave a nice nutty and crunchy contrast.

I had a whole hare but took off the length of loin, the tenderness of which would have been wasted in a ragu, and saved it for another dish.

I took very scrap of meat off the hare, you don't need to be a very skilled butcher to do this as the meat needs to be pretty finely chopped anyway so some regular chunks and scrapings off the bone are both fine.

Hare Ragu

1 Hare – all but loin, finely chopped

1 large Onion

2 cloves garlic

Olive oil

Flour

Bottle red wine and a bit (something reasonably gutsy, Italian seemed de rigeuer, or what ever they say for that in Italy)

Half tin tomatoes

Thyme

Nutmeg (loads)

Star anise

2 tablespoons tomato puree

Stock (1.5 pints water added to browned hare carcass, onion, carrot and celery reduced to ½ pint.

Salt, sugar and pepper to taste. (sugar cuts through the sharpness of the wine and tomato)

1-2 decent squares of good dark chocolate 

Pretty foolproof and standard ragu method.

Fry off the onion until starting to colour and add the garlic towards the end.  Set this aside and then brown the hare in the same, yet now empty, pan or a different one. give it some good colour and then add back in the onion, reheat and add in a desert spoon of flour and cook out.

Get the heat quite high so the wine, which is added next to the meat and onion, can boil pretty much immediately when gradually added and reduces quite quickly and doesn't just boil the pan contents.

Once the wine is quite reduced, you'll know when, add in the rest of the ingredients, save for the chocolate, and either simmer on the hob for a couple of hours or put in the oven at 130-150C uncovered. Keep an eye on it stirring occasionally until it is looking, and tasting, seriously rich. Adjust seasoning at the end as it should have concentrated a lot.

Stir in the chocolate and top with some simple mash. Perhaps top with some chopped pistachio (to give it the proper LP treatment) and flash under the grill to crisp up the top and toast the nuts.

Serve in a single dish but to be a bit posher put in individual large ramekins or those cool black Staub cocottes, as I did , maybe with some buttered greens on the side and definitely with a big red wine served in a glass the size of the kids goldfish bowl!

It wasn't exactly as I recall it but very close but its got to be rich. The mash will temper this a little so be brave and don't skimp on the wine. 

Alternatively forget the mash and serve with good quality pasta and go full on Iti. 

Can use venison which is more available and less gamey. 

Homemade 'Kings Ginger' - ginger liqueur

Kings Ginger is a sweet, fiery and bloody delicious liqueur created for some 'British' king or another to keep him warm when shooting, hunting, riding, etc. It certainly works while doing the first one so well done YRH. Danke. 

KG probably has some smoother edges than the homemade version but isn't widely available, used to be just Berry Bros on St James but seems to be getting more widespread.

Having wondered how to make a homemade version I was given a glass of something that seemed similar by Willie Yeo who runs a shoot in Devon. This is a man whose (haunted) cellar is chockablock with homemade booze ranging from this winner to some more obscure concoctions such as banana wine and beech sap wine, which make glorious flames when thrown on the fire!

His simple recipe is this:

1 x 75cl bottle of bog standard whisky

1 x jar stem ginger in syrup (350g jar)

An empty sterile bottle larger than the above! (Either get a 1l bottle of whisky and drink/reserve a quarter or completely drain a litre of something else!)

Sober up and then simply combine the 2 ingredients, chopping up the ginger a bit so firstly it fits in the bottle and secondly gives up its flavour quicker in to the booze.

Leave for a few days or months. The syrup immediately sweetens and flavours the whisky so doesn't need to steep for months on end. When finished just pour more whisky on top of the remaining ginger and add another jar. Or take out some steeped ginger for cooking, ice cream, etc, etc.

Cheers Willie