Filtering by Tag: starter

Great British Menu 2023: Scotland

March 08, 2023 / Geoff Griffiths

Watch ‘Scotland: Judging’ on BBC iPlayer while this image link stays available.

Furious - literally furious - activity on social media for the appearance of Scottish chefs on this year’s ‘Great British Menu’. There’s certainly material for an additional post about the public’s perceived merits of one chef in particular. Maybe later.
For now, please read on as I put plenty of ‘anal’ into analysis.

I’m jumping straight to the Judging Chamber here to analyse the scores which determined who won the Scotland heat.
Please check out the two ‘discarded’ chefs who competed and raised their own and, more importantly, their restaurant’s profiles but fell before the final hurdles.
Tunde 'Abi' Abifarin and Kevin Dalgleish got hot at their stoves but were knocked out cold by two manifestly superior chefs.
Which means that we are focussed on Adam Handling and Mark McCabe for the rest of this post.
More on Mark here. Likewise for Adam here.

Nervously waiting for the judges’ decision

Tom Kerridge, Nisha Katona and Ed Gamble were joined by Frank Quitely, superhero artist, for this round of the competition. You will see all their scores before I play around and give selective - hopefully interesting - alternative interpretations.

Disclaimer: I remain glaringly aware of the glorious nonsense to which I am adding. But as Bill Shankly (almost) said, “Great British Menu isn’t a matter of life and death for chefs and the viewers, it is much, much more important than that.”

Size really doesn’t matter, does it. But before we move on to the big stuff let’s deal with two small-but-perfectly-formed elements.

Canapé
Mark’s cured char and tomato croustade was given a unanimous nod over Adam’s pea and caviar tart.

Pre-dessert
Later on Adam restored the balance with his lemon panna cotta, lemon sorbet, jasmine-pickled apple and white wine foam. Also a unanimous decision.
Mark’s rye biscuit sandwich of lemon verbena mousse, damson jam and candied hazelnuts hinted that his lack of pastry skills might prove an Achilles’ heel.

Canapé - Mark wins hands down (or is it up?)

Pre-dessert - Adam wins hands down (yeah, it’s hands down, isn’t it. Isn’t it!?)

Starter
First of those ‘big ones’ is the starter. Vegan this year, in line with new stipulations from ‘The Powers That Be’. Whoever they might be.

And it’s a good start for Mark as his offering gets a respectable score ahead of what Adam must have deemed a disappointing one. Disappointed by his efforts rather than the judges’ reaction, I would suggest. He will surely find ways to improve on his tomatoey ideas in future.

Fish
Adam is straight back in the game with his fish course. Only just though. All comments suggested to me that Mark’s emotive, wistful evocation of the sea might see him retain his lead. Not so.

Main
Neck and neck. Adam just takes the honours with the main but the scores are still splitting the room almost equally.

Dessert
Things suddenly jump in Adam’s favour. Mark had already conceded his limitations here. “A little bit nervous going into dessert. Don’t feel like it’s my strongest dish. Haven’t had a lot of formal training in pastry. So I just kind of make it up a bit.” Those were his words before we saw his dish for the first time but it didn’t prevent Tom Aikens sending him to the Judging Chamber. Once there, he was unable to make up for his weaknesses and it cost him dear.

Time for my threatened jiggling of the numbers which have put Adam through to the final rounds against each of the other regional winners.

Canapés and Pre-desserts cancel out each other on all counts. Let’s look at how things are altered elsewhere - if at all - by refining our view.

I assume you will check these workings which are based on my GCE O-Level Grade 2 Mathematics (yes, I do go back a long way) but trust me on this as I explore a multiverse of alternate reactions.

Discounting the marks of Frank Quitely* - keen but, in food matters, fairly amateur participant - every course remains won by the same chef.
*Sorry, Frank - love your work! (GrimacingFaceEmoji)

I’ll make so bold as to see what happens with Ed Gamble out of the picture.* He has serious credentials as an ardent guest of hospitality but even he might come under fire for being unaware of some industry intricacies which could limit a truly professional judgement.
*Sorry, Ed - love your podcast! (GrimacingFaceEmoji)

With Tom Kerridge and Nisha Katona as final arbiters the result still stands. Both chefs are now inseparable on the fish and main courses. Adam gets even closer to Mark’s Starter score than with all four judges. But it is the dessert disaster which drags Mark into the desperate abyss of deciding whether to come back another time to “put his heart on a plate and showcase amazing culinary talent”.
Tom and Nisha finally pull Adam back to 6 points more overall than Mark compared with the gap of 11 when combining all four judge’s scores.

Still a win for Adam but by such fine margins that it might be worth telling Mark that, in this instance, second most certainly IS somewhere.

As I said, this show gives a welcome higher profile to chef’s restaurants. I’ve been interested, intrigued and appreciative of Adam Handling’s work ever since his 2013 ‘Masterchef: The Professionals’ appearance. Another tight contest there when coming second to Steven Edwards was also far from nowhere.
Mark McCabe was a new face to me.
Practical geographical considerations give Mark’s restaurant the edge but I’d be very keen to eat at either of these chef’s restaurants for the first time.

Before that, I’ll watch with continued interest to see if Adam’s dessert is strong enough to be chosen for the banquet. With the added interest of finding out if JOSEPHINE is right about that final week. Exciting, isn’t it!

I know how agitated people can get even when there’s a #SpoilerAlert so I suppose I should leave a respectful pause before editing the title of this post to “Great British Menu 2023: Scotland - Handling (by a nose)”. Say, a couple of years, eh…

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tags / Great British Menu, Adam Handling, Mark McCabe, #GBM, banquet, starter, main course, dessert, #adamhandling, #michelinstar, Scotland, chefs

Spiced Carrot - via Chris Simpson at Pensons Restaurant

August 08, 2022 / Geoff Griffiths

“A cheeky request for the recipe was met without fuss. I will enjoy interpreting chef’s ideas in my own kitchen…”
Those words from my recent review of our lunch at Pensons have already been acted upon.

Our Spiced Carrot starter was just one part of a delicious meal at the restaurant but it is the element which has generated the most discussion and acclaim from us both at the time of eating and since. So memorable that I was inspired to make my own version in double-quick time.

I am writing this a few days after Alastair Little died on 2 August 2022. An influential British chef, his menus changed daily and featured seasonal produce. That legacy from the mid 1980s is certainly reflected in Chris Simpson’s primary approach at Pensons. I’m sure he would readily fall in with this part of Phil Howard’s reaction to the news of a great chef’s passing.

“… my time at Bibendum changed my perception of food forever and through Simon Hopkinson and the likes of lovely Alastair Little I came to see that the ingredient is king. That is all one needs to know. Thanks Alastair. RIP.”

— https://www.instagram.com/p/Cg09HHYMrHy/

The Ingredient

The ‘royal’ ingredient in this case is growing in our garden. I have to thank Mrs Cheoff for her St George’s Day sowing for the mature crop on the left. Her later sowing lies in tantalising wait.

The Recipe (not a recipe)

I noted down the ‘recipe’ which Jade relayed verbally from the kitchen team to our table. It was enough to give me fuel for my own version. I realised later that coriander was not mentioned and it did not appear in my dish.

The rest of this post will roughly describe how I interpreted those scribblings. So, no proper recipe for you either - but if you have enough cooking understanding and the confidence to play around with the elements you should have your very own tasty attempt.

Chef Simpson uses baby carrots in his dish. None of those in our more advanced home crop but I cut things down to size until they would fit the bill.

First cooking stage involves softening the carrots in spices (cumin, cinnamon, star anise and pink peppercorns) and juices (orange, carrot and butter). It’s possible the restaurant use sous vide at this stage to really ‘squeeze’ flavour into the carrots but I made do with a very slow simmer until all was Al Pacino (or some similar culinary term).

Pumpkin seeds were toasted and some of them ground along with a little ground fennel seed. No fennel bulbs in our house so this was my modification to reflect the restaurant’s offering of pickled fennel strips.

My first (discarded) mandoline efforts were too thick but I managed to adjust the blade for carrot strips which were then pickled in a 300g orange juice, 200g castor sugar and 100g white wine vinegar mix. Bring the liquor up to simmering. Immerse the carrots, cover and remove from the heat to cool.

Three other elements complete the dish. Our homemade yoghurt is always at hand. I reduced half of the spiced carrot and orange cooking juices to make a thin sauce. The other half was used for my own idea. A fluid gel with agar agar. Fine for vegan diners, this one. Mind you, so is this whole dish.

All prepped for plating. My layout is different to the restaurant’s.Yours can be too. Simply enjoy the placement of carrots, the sprinkling of crumb and the blobbing from squeezy bottles to realise your own visual impact.

Visual impact is pretty much redundant unless you have treated those ingredients like royalty. Taste, taste, taste everything as you cook. This could easily be a too-sweet affair. The light pickles are vital to draw back on that. My taste buds told me to add a little lemon juice to the fluid gel. It was immediately brighter and less akin to confectionery. Juggle the flavours here but make sure they are in balance before serving.

The last detail of this non-recipe rundown is to advise gentle warming of the spiced carrots only. All other elements are room temperature apart from the yoghurt which leaves the fridge at the last moment.
Oh, and my garnish is a few fronds of bronze fennel.

Eager to please (and show off just a little) I suggested a taste of my latest exploits with my Mum, our sons, their partners and our grandchild. Last weekend saw seven fairly decent plates served up. Yes, the flavours were very much appreciated but King Carrot was definitely the star.

Such enjoyment in the cooking of this. Enough experience to work from verbal hints and the tasting of the original at Pensons. Mine was not the perfectly balanced dish but I never lost sight of trying to do justice to its ingredients.
And I certainly won’t lose this chance to thank Chris Simpson for developing a lovely dish and sharing his ideas with me.

If you need even more inspiration, here is David Loftus’ photograph of the ‘real thing’ from Chris Simpson’s Instagram account.

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tags / Carrot, spices, pickles, starter, recipe, ingredients, Pensons, Chris Simpson, David Loftus

Hospitality’s Big Friendly Giant Chefs Inspire My Cooking

June 01, 2022 / Geoff Griffiths

A first for me after invited guests struggled to find child-minders. So we decamped to their house and produced the meal from their kitchen.

I had already planned and shared the menu below with them so the only surprise would be whether I managed to get everything right on the night with unfamiliar equipment. All I’ll say is that I wasn’t disappointed with my efforts - and everyone was most convincing with their endeavours to be complimentary.

BFG Chefs (others are available!)
Helen Everitt-Matthias included as the doyenne of British restaurants’ front of house.

“Standing on the shoulders of giants” is a nice, if full-blown, concept but the elements of this menu relied, as ever, on the skills and wisdom of some of cooking’s finest exponents.

Here are the ‘giants’ who were referenced for the meal which I planned - with links to some of the recipes which you might be tempted to try out in your kitchen.

Nigella Lawson - ‘Bar Nuts’

Thomas Keller - ‘Bacon and Eggs’

David Everitt-Matthias - ‘Bar Nuts’ (the outtakes!), Ras-el-hanout mix, Prune pre-dessert (Recipe in chef’s ‘dessert’ - BUY IT!), Dessert (Recipe in chef’s first cookbook, ‘essence’ - another must-buy!), Petits fours - Salted caramel and peanut truffles, White chocolate and preserved lemon fudge, Mulled wine pastilles

Richard Bainbridge - Fish course

Catherine Fulvio - Main

Yotam Ottolenghi - his recipe for Olive Oil Crackers* was adapted for my ras-el-hanout cracker
* the recipe is more or less here - but discard the sesame seeds and the author’s ignorance of Ottolenghi’s first book, ‘Ottolenghi, The Cookbook’ from 2008 in which the recipe appears!

George Blogg - No recipe used BUT the booklet from his ‘Chef’s Masterclass’ given when Gravetye Manor was closed for the new restaurant build is the starting point and inspiration for planning many of my own more developed menus.

Coffee as always is ordered from HASBEAN

**Union Square Cafe's Bar Nuts, Bacon and egg, Pain d'épices with smoked mackerel and horseradish**

**Spicy parsnip soup, ras-el-hanout cracker**

Our fish starter is tried and trusted. Please don’t @ me over the appearance of that haddock. This photo was taken in my kitchen hours before the meal with a ’cushion’ of raw fish. Eat your heart out food stylists!

**Poached haddock with stewed leeks, soy-cured egg yolk and curry dressing**

A lovely, celebratory dish for our main. Prep pics plus the only photograph taken on the night itself.

**Pheasant breast with wild mushrooms and parmesan polenta**

**Chocolate and cardamom yoghurt, Armagnac prune purée and grue de cacao**

**Millas cake with liquorice bramble compôte and lemon verbena ice cream**

**White chocolate and preserved lemon fudge**, **Salted caramel and peanut truffles, Mulled wine pastilles**

Sensible menu.
Added nonsense with no extra charge.

**Recipes, menus, matching food to wine, catering for larger groups… preparation and inspiration to become a better cook**

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Dinner For Four, 2 November 2018

November 04, 2018 / Geoff Griffiths

Here’s one of my posts which has a prime objective. Whatever else you take from it, if you don’t invite some friends round and offer them some food from your kitchen, I will have failed in that objective. And don’t wriggle out of it by arguing over the standard of your own cooking. If your skills are better than mine, I salute you. If you suggest that you can’t match what Mrs. Cheoff and I produce then you will miss a trick. Good, proper friends come to share everything you have to offer… any that don’t appreciate your food efforts can always be ‘Muted’ on social media and in real life!
I hope we understand each other. Get busy… but put on your apron first!

This was our menu for last Friday’s meal. It was very much appreciated and we enjoyed making it and eating it. And, yes… we were knackered and did bugger all on Saturday.

Amuse Bouche

Smoked haddock, curried eggs, shallot rings

No recipe for this one. I was in the middle of ‘mucking about a bit’ with the three main elements… as can be seen from my header picture where a canapé version was experimented with. Expect a post with more details soon.

Here is my plating on the night.

Starter

Carrot cooked in chicken fat with pickled carrots & crispy chicken skin
From Paul Foster at Salt, Stratford-upon-Avon. We enjoyed this as part of the tasting menu on our first visit. It’s published in the Great British Chefs cookbook. Chef Foster contributed this as one of a small number of original recipes which are not available on the Great British Chefs website. So I’ll leave you to discover its glories by buying a copy of the book!

Soft chunks of carrot imbued with chicken fat, pickled and raw carrots, buttery croutons and crispy chicken skin. Pretty much all the flavours of a roast chicken dinner in a bowl. No ‘meat’… but still not vegetarian.

Main

‘Somerset’ pork (fillet, mushrooms, cider, cream), Spiced red cabbage, Buttery mashed potatoes… with extra butter

Over to Mrs. Cheoff for the stove duties on this one. I’ve cooked it myself but not as much as she has. Not sure if the cabbage exerted some strange colour spectrum for my photo… we did not eat this under ultra-violet light!

The recipe is a much repeated one. Out of a Marks & Sparks cookbook from the mid eighties. Here is the cutting which we still have but hardly need to refer to after all these years.

Dessert

Sticky Banana Puddings with Tipsy Toffee And Walnut Sauce

More sterling work from Mrs. Cheoff to wind up proceedings. No photos of it yet. They will appear here when we have had ‘seconds’.

Petits Fours

Pear & vanilla jellies
Nougat (Silvain, Saint Didier… no point in offering anything but the best)
Salted caramel and peanut truffles

Coffee

No firing up of my Rancilio espresso machine at the end of this meal. I made a cafetiere with this bean from my usual (constant) supplier.

Wines

Joly-Champagne, Cuvée BRUT NV

Dopff au Moulin Riesling Grand Cru Schoenenbourg de Riquewihr 2009

Ch. Potensac, Médoc 2009

Henriques & Henriques Full Rich Madeira

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tags / dinner, dinnertime, dessert, starter, main, menu, yummy, yum

A Meal... Planned, Cooked and Delivered

August 29, 2018 / Geoff Griffiths

Three days preparation here. A few elements were already cooked, preserved or frozen so that made things a little less heavy duty overall. The 'Brandade', Pear Jellies and those Ice Cream Sandwiches were previously untried but all the rest was put together as a menu knowing I could cope reasonably well. It helped that Mrs. Cheoff contributed her indulgent cheesecake to lighten my workload... if not the intake of food!

We gave this meal to good friends as a way to celebrate their Ruby Wedding Anniversary. You should know that I did not take as much care in presentation on the night of the meal as these photographs might suggest. Most are taken before or after people are entertained. It would be daft to ignore specially invited guests too much while they are with you, don't you think.

On the subject of those photographs and my 'food styling'. I look at some of them in the same way as I look at my cooking efforts. Not quite the finished article. But I'm not here to apologise... I shall continue to go off to quieter places and consider improvements.

Start with a pictorial run through of each course. After that you'll find a copy of the evening's menu with a few links to recipes I used.

Have a go at some of them. Have a go at all of them. If you do give them all a go at the same time, practise the recovery position... I'm in that now!

Ooh, one IMPORTANT note! If you make those lovely Pear Jellies please, please do NOT try to take the mixture to 180º... it should read one hundred and EIGHT degrees!

Smoked Salmon & Dill Crème Fraîche Blini

Amuse ‘Brandade’ Salt Cod, Beer & Milk Poached Potato, Crispy Onion, Garlic Foam — **Amuse** ‘Brandade’ Salt Cod, Beer & Milk Poached Potato, Crispy Onion, Garlic Foam

Starter Beetroot, Red Onion, Goat Cheese & Hazelnut Tart — **Starter** Beetroot, Red Onion, Goat Cheese & Hazelnut Tart

Main Chicken Dinner — **Main** Chicken Dinner

Main Chicken Leg Confit with Savoury Granola (detail before plating) — **Main** Chicken Leg Confit with Savoury Granola (detail before plating)

Main Bird's eye view... presumably not the chicken's eye — **Main** Bird's eye view... presumably not the chicken's eye

Yup... I'm off right now to practise my gravy delivery

Pre-dessert Pink Grapefruit & Basil Ice Cream Sandwich — **Pre-dessert** Pink Grapefruit & Basil Ice Cream Sandwich

‘Eton Mess Cheesecake’ White Chocolate Cheesecake, White & Rose Meringues, Raspberries, Raspberry Coulis & Cream — **‘Eton Mess Cheesecake’** White Chocolate Cheesecake, White & Rose Meringues, Raspberries, Raspberry Coulis & Cream

Petits FoursPear, Vanilla & Poire William JellyDark Chocolate, Pistachio & Raisin FudgeSalted Caramel & Peanut TruffleAmaretti MorbidiWhite Chocolate & Salted Lemon Fudge — **Petits Fours**
Pear, Vanilla & Poire William Jelly
Dark Chocolate, Pistachio & Raisin Fudge
Salted Caramel & Peanut Truffle
Amaretti Morbidi
White Chocolate & Salted Lemon Fudge

And... relax.

The menu with recipe links for some of the items:

Canapés
Bacon & Sweetcorn Mini Muffin
Best Ever Cheesy Nibble
Prawn Cocktail Cracker
Smoked Salmon & Dill Crème Fraîche Blini
Quail Egg & Chorizo Jam Toast

Amuse
‘Brandade’
Salt Cod, Beer & Milk Poached Potato, Crispy Onion & Garlic Foam

Starter
Beetroot, Red Onion, Goat Cheese & Hazelnut Tart

Wholemeal Bread Rolls & Salted Butter

Main
‘Chicken Dinner’
Breast, Confit Wing & Leg, Crispy Skin, Carrot Purée, Savoury Granola, New Potatoes, Broad Beans, Runner Beans, Beer Pickled Onion ‘Petals’, Bread Sauce, Herby Chicken Gravy

Pre-dessert
Pink Grapefruit & Basil Ice Cream Sandwich

Dessert
‘Eton Mess Cheesecake’
White Chocolate Cheesecake, White & Rose Meringues, Raspberries, Raspberry Coulis & Cream

Petits Fours
Pear, Vanilla & Poire William Jelly
Dark Chocolate, Pistachio & Raisin Fudge
Salted Caramel & Peanut Truffle
Amaretti Morbidi
White Chocolate & Salted Lemon Fudge

A Certain Quartet Back In Nineteen Seventy-Bloomin' Eight!

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tags / menu, food, planning food, dinner, recipes, celebration, amuse bouche, starter, main, pre-dessert, dessert, canapés, petits fours

A Star* From Yorkshire

January 10, 2017 / Geoff Griffiths

Pressed Terrine of Yorkshire Gammon with Fried Ledstone Quail Egg, Spiced Pineapple Pickle, Mustard Seed Dressing

This is a really pleasing take on the classic gammon, egg and pineapple.

Before I get down to the business of convincing you that this is not such a challenging recipe and will handsomely repay any small effort, here is the genesis of it appearing in our kitchen.

Diana Henry's, 'The Gastropub Cookbook' received as a present (not in 2003 at publication... probably around 2008).
Made note of various recipes and restaurants from that book, especially Andrew Pern's Yorkshire pub.
Finally (July 2014) booked for lunch at The Star Inn, Harome for our thirty-eighth wedding anniversary.
Duly enjoyed that lunch as a lovely, memorable meal which I then reviewed at some length.
Unwrapped 'Black Pudding and Foie Gras' on my sixty-fifth birthday last year.
Travelled up to Harome later that same day and had one of my finest ever birthday meals** (I'm being very honest. It was wonderful... but other chef's still force their way into that roll-call).
Gave my new recipes proper consideration and determined to include this terrine as part of our Christmas food.
Made and enjoyed as planned... and will be made and enjoyed again.

The recipe is available here if your order for Andrew Pern's first book hasn't yet been delivered.

We all know the rules by now. So, here is your starter for ten... out of ten.

This is some of what you will be getting up to when you make your own.

Two generous ham hock ends here with their cooking vegetables and aromatics. Meat waiting to be stripped and shredded.

Layering up makes the whole thing start to look very promising. I would be grateful if you don't share this post with my Mum... she's been wondering what happened to her Le Creuset dish for quite some time now!

With the addition of jellied stock and an overnight fridge vacation you should have a thing of beauty whose 'joy' is unlikely to last for ever... so you'll just have to make another!

I sliced the whole thing, keeping four portions for that evening's starter, and froze the rest. They made a dainty supper at Christmas with the last of the pickle and a discussion of the latest Star Wars movie. More contact with stellar stuff!

The pineapple pickle and the dressing are very easy to make. I did use quail eggs but if they are tricky to find I'm sure you could substitute a confit yolk from a chicken. A whole large egg would have to be carefully placed or trimmed so as not to hide the slice of terrine.

I failed to be truly authentic... Grimsby isn't in Yorkshire! But our quality butcher and a lady whose quails lay eggs for doorstep sales are within half a mile of our house.

This recipe had been available to me for ages before I made it. Please don't make the same mistake. Make this your next job in the kitchen. You will be rewarded with a perfect, scaled-down version of a pub classic.***

* Star/Starter/Star Turn: delete where applicable.

** That terrific sixty-fifth birthday meal last October is still nagging at me. Not just visions of the wonderful Yorkshire produce and its cooking but the memories of lovely people who made it possible. Those particular 'stars' at Harome need proper recognition... expect my overdue review soon.

*** Hey, if you really don't feel up to the (minimal) challenge, at the time of writing this is on the menu at the relatively new venture, 'Star Inn The City', York!

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tags / The Star Inn, Andrew Pern, Steve Smith, Eve Cullen, recipe, starter, pineapple, quail eggs, ham hock, The Star Inn the City