Cheoff

A site about food, drink and other random stuff!

O Sauce, Where Is Thy Sting?

May 29, 2015  /  Geoff Griffiths

Here’s a recipe which I've known of for seven years… since getting a copy of Diana Henry’s ‘The Gastropub Cookbook: ANOTHER HELPING’ 

If you don’t have the book you can find a recipe including the sauce accompaniment here. 

I’ve referenced mint sauce before  but never until now used this version. A trip to The Pipe and Glass Inn on Mrs. Cheoff’s very recent birthday provided the oomph to get back to my kitchen and reproduce at least one of the elements of the rather lovely meal we enjoyed there.

My main choice at the Inn was lamb rump with a mutton belly fritter. It demanded a certain sauce and the chef did not disappoint. Mint made its appearance but brought along its very welcome mates... some young nettles!

Please don’t be put off by the thought of a little foraging. This will take you into the fresh air for a few minutes (at least it forced me to go further than the herb pots outside our kitchen door)

I reckon you should find nettles pretty close by. A clump away from a busy road and traffic fumes would be ideal.

After tearing off the leaves with gloved hands I put them in boiling water for a minute. This blanches them and takes away any trace of ‘sting’.

Plunge these soggy greens into cold water and then drain them. An excess of water will remain so a salad spinner or a good hand squeeze will drive off more. Don’t despair on watching the bright liquid disappearing down the sink - there is still plenty of green left!

The nettle leaves join the roughly chopped mint, olive oil and wine vinegar. Pulse in a blender until you get a smooth mix.

You now have a delightful addition to almost any lamb dish. The vibrant emerald green seduces the eye and the flavours should make you wonder why you haven’t made this before. Mint impresses as usual but then the nettles underscore everything with a clean and deeper hint of grass and hedgerow.

I’m sure the science would explain this with reference to photosynthesis and chlorophyll but I prefer to lean towards the more fundamental senses of sight, smell and taste. This sauce asks for no understanding - it just pleases all those senses in abundance.

Please don’t wait as long as I did before you make your own.

You should know that there will be more here about our meal at 'The Pipe and Glass' pretty soon.

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Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration.

March 30, 2015  /  Geoff Griffiths

Rest easy - I’m not on the election trail. This concerns things happening in and within a few metres of my kitchen.

A meal cooked for friends is something my wife and I enjoy planning together but I have become increasingly bossy in the production department, very often claiming all the kitchen duties. The fact that cooking gives me such great pleasure can leave me shame-faced when I realise that I’m sometimes giving in only to offers of help with the washing up! So, this also concerns my effort to relent and allow the proper expression of my wife’s wonderful cooking abilities.

We have enjoyed a spot of North American input for the last couple of years. One of our sons has brought his Canadian girlfriend into our family. We are all enriched by her and she loves cooking! After she had made us a second pumpkin pie and given us her favourite recipe we decided to include it as dessert for a visit of old friends. And I decided to give in gracefully and let my wife make it!

Here are the recipes which formed the menu we offered to our friends:

Eggs in Pots (Oeufs en Cocotte)

Braised Pork with Plums

Chef John's Pumpkin Pie

Please, do watch Chef John’s video - it clarifies things but, best of all, it lets you hear his lovely, lilting, reassuring voice.

I said that I would reference my recently made Chorizo Jam again soon. I discarded all but a simple salt and pepper seasoning for the eggs and served with sourdough toasts and butter… and a goodly helping of the savoury sensation. The combination was just as successful as its first appearance shortly after Christmas.

The main course contained my usual ‘deliberate’ mistake - I forgot to sprinkle on the other half of chopped spring onions before serving. All, including me, were ignorant of this while eating so we were only crest-fallen later! Mum cooked this for us on a recent visit and I’d been keen to try it out myself. Served with rice and green beans. Another must-make dish.

We knew that our friends had recently visited family in Canada and they had tales of China Town cuisine, sushi and meaty meals but no trans-Atlantic experience of the pumpkin pie which was about to appear. Of course, I’m not quite vulgar enough to enter into a discussion about the merits and success of each course but will concede that the pie was perfectly delicious. And, just to prove that my wife still has her touch, this was the one course where our guests asked for seconds!

The recipe is reasonably simple but very rewarding. The velvety texture of the filling is given just enough edge from the spices.

Here is the pie in all its glory. How smashing that we each had at least two more helpings to enjoy after our guests had left.

Over the years, my wife and I have done some amazing things together in the kitchen (and I do mean that in the best possible taste!) Planning, preparing and producing meals are collaborative processes which strengthen the bond between us. I think that getting in each other’s way is essentially more productive than avoiding each other. After her latest foray, I reckon it’s safe to say that my wife’s pie has broken down any last silly jealous thoughts of mine that the kitchen might be my domain.

Now what should I do with these floury hands of mine… ;)

* I don't own a snazzy camera. Some shots look half decent but I'm aware that taking them in the middle of 'service' doesn't always produce the best results - my apologies.

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We're Jammin'

March 27, 2015  /  Geoff Griffiths

 

Last Christmas was no exception. As usual, I succumbed to the purchase of the bumper-bundle, two week edition of the Radio Times. There are so many on-screen guides available that it is fast becoming an anachronism but, whatever the schedule, it still holds a huge wodge of festive nostalgia for me. After careful insertion into the leather RT cover which came as a gift many years ago, it provides, at the very least, a fine, sturdy surface for thank you letter writing!

The BBC is usually under fire from some quarter but that doesn't stop me adding another of their licensed magazines to my Christmas shop. The December 2014 edition of ‘Good Food’ provided the recipe to which I'm linking here:

Chorizo Jam

Such stuff as bacon jam and bacon and cola jelly have their undoubted merits but the kick of chorizo spice here adds a little more wake-up zing to proceedings.

I made this and tried it out on my family for our last breakfast together before sons and girlfriends headed back to their homes for respite from six day assault on their digestive systems. Served with fried eggs and freshly baked wholemeal bread and toast, it went down a storm.

Meaty, sweet, spicy and tangy combine to leave a delicious, flavour-packed imprint, even in small quantities. This is a really simple recipe with guaranteed success in the taste department. Your only consideration will be which side of chunky or smooth you go to in the food processor.

As post-breakfast goodbyes were said I did a most honourable thing and divided the remaining jam into two portions which were duly transported to Hull and Nottingham homes. This meant that the fleeting delight of a newly found recipe could not be enjoyed again here until I made another batch last week.

Here’s where I must show you one of my amazing Christmas presents from son number one (that’s chronologically speaking… we have two inseparably awesome sons!) and his girlfriend. One hundred 116 ml jars and a custom made Cheoff stamp with tie labels was their obvious hint for me to go into filthy commercial production, cornering the market in quaint, but tasty, tracklements. I have resolutely resisted this suggestion so far!

However, the new-made supplies of Chorizo Jam were ideally suited to storage in half a dozen of these dinky containers. I think they look splendid in the picture. I'm so glad I took it because within days I’d halved the supply by giving jars to friends. I often think some of them have developed a sixth sense which tells them when I've been at work in the kitchen!

I do know that previously mentioned son found at least one good use for the ‘jam’ he took away; here is his baking later in January with a certain spicy topping crowning his rolls!

My remaining three jars are already under attack with small amounts used for a starter course, details of which I'll share here soon. So much flavour in just a spoonful... Chorizo Jam is really worth making!

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'Lush' Is Not Always About Fresh Handmade Cosmetics

March 11, 2015  /  Geoff Griffiths

 

A ruddy great boned shoulder of lamb was surplus to requirements over Christmas and ended up frozen in two slabs. Last weekend, following a chance reminder on Twitter, I decided against the idea of a South African approach, defrosted one portion and went for this bloke’s recipe:

Tom Kerridge's Slow-cooked Lamb Shoulder with Boulangere Potatoes

Tom is currently not so physically large after a bit of dieting but his flavours remain as big and insistent as ever. As usual, read my words for further encouragement and then go straight to your butcher, put a copy of the recipe on a kitchen surface and get prepping.

I peeled some garlic cloves and halved them to make slit-stuffing wedges. A teaspoon of vegetable bouillon powder made up the standard chicken stock cube to 600 ml. I’d run out of home-made stock for the potatoes… gah!

The simple, raw ingredients were already making it obvious that this Sunday would be one to remember.

Lamb is my wife’s favourite meat and I know if it’s making an appearance that mint sauce also has to be on the menu for her. I muck about with various amounts of chopped mint, balsamic or wine vinegars and sugars. Hey, try Pedro Ximenez sherry vinegar and cover all bases at once!

So, here’s my mix of mandaTORY sauce… a LABOUR of love for the one I will always love… ready for LIBERAL use. There - I believe I have DEMOCRATically included the major parties in time for the forthcoming elections… phew!

I’m pretty sure that any wine recommendations would include a drop of Spanish red. The one in picture was on offer at Sainsbury’s and certainly did the job. Crianza, maybe, but still with enough mellowed fruit to give cheeky competition to more aged relatives. I really should investigate ways of taking a fee for this blatant product placement!

Once the lamb and potatoes were in the oven, I gave thought to accompanying vegetables. We still have clumps of baby leeks among the full grown and I pulled and trimmed one of these. Blanched in boiling water for five minutes, they were drained and sprinkled with parmesan. They are ready to have a fifteen minute oven bake just before serving.

Carrots and parsnips were cut into careless chunks, seasoned and drizzled with a light olive oil. They go in during the last hour of cooking and need only a couple of tosses or turns to reassure them that they aren’t being neglected.

Turning the oven up to 200 degrees while the meat was resting left us with really delicious chewy, caramelised vegetable ‘toffees’.

The potatoes are introduced to the stock early on. As cooking progresses they enjoy the unexpected but inevitable delight of soaking up the fatty juices of the lamb as well. I guess you could eat the spuds alone. There is so much richness here from humble ingredients.

The beauty of slow roasting is that it leaves you with a bit of time on your hands. No walk, church or pub for me… instead, I painted the hall ceiling and glossed the stair woodwork. I managed one traditional task and made a serious start on the Sunday crossword.

At the allotted times all comes together. The lamb rested while carrots, parsnips and leeks had their final blast. The Kerridge connection ensures that you end up with food oozing glistening goodness. I carved the lamb into offensively thick slices but you could just as well go for the ‘tear and share’ option.

What a smashing way to slip out of the weekend. This is life-enhancing stuff for months with shorter hours of daylight. Which means that I need to gather a larger set of diners soon. A full shoulder cooked on the bones is just screaming to be given the same treatment for family and friends before the clocks are put forward.

Grateful thanks must go to Tom Kerridge, Graham, my butcher, and to one much respected sheep.

“Lush”? Oh, yes… but you will struggle to mumble words of even one syllable once you have cooked this glorious dish!


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VW Pigeon Pie

February 02, 2015  /  Geoff Griffiths

Please don't fret. This isn't the precursor to a succession of posts about camper vans and 'Beetles'. The 'VW' on show here is the undeniably sleek and fabulously engineered Val Warner. His writings are never  far from my kitchen. Here is much that is 'red in tooth and claw'. The natural bounty of the countryside leaps and flies into and out of his recipes. There is also plenty of foraging from the static natural world which is waiting to be picked or harvested... good, honest stuff.

Mr. Warner seasons his text with idiosyncratic words, phrases and descriptions. These will distract and delay you. Let them do so - they are worth the price of admission alone. What follows is something that I neglected for too long but finally made just after Christmas.

I’m pretty much decided on the approach to my blog. When I recommend a recipe, I’ll simply try to show that it’s approachable… “I’m a cook, not a chef!” So, please read this and then discard it temporarily - you’ll be welcome back any time later. Arm yourself with a laptop, iPad or print-out of the online recipe and don’t wait as long as I did before making it. 

Here is the recipe for VW's Pigeon Pie

Ah, yes... one more thing and then I really will give you the low-down on this smashing feast. Graham and Karen opened  seventeen months ago just down the road from us. Since then, Brown's Family Butchers has provided all our fresh meat needs and a fair few items from their 'home made' selection. The pigeons here came from them. Five of them in all. I used all the carcasses and four of the breasts, freezing the others. Modify amounts like I did or stick to the recipe for six.

If you haven't yet done so, go and find your own nearest 'proper' local butcher. I assure you that there are enough to go round. Seek them out beyond the supermarket also-rans.

The carcasses were chopped up using a santoku which came courtesy of a special offer from one of those recently-mentioned supermarkets. The blade served its purpose but I was soon reminded that a superior item might fit nicely on my wish-list.

Once the stock is bubbling the house begins to fill with pervading clouds of glorious vapour. This is probably the time to ensure that no laundry is hung out on a clothes horse. There are some limits to the spraying of this particular cookery cologne.

More careful, regular chopping is needed for the rest of the filling.

If you follow @ValentineWarner he has recently tweeted to advise "Should you want to make a game pie Resist urge to use bacon as it  tends to dominate and mask the flavours of the furred or feathered" I agree almost entirely but the lardons I used were the last of some which were unaccountably bland - no real harm done.

Pigeon breasts: plump and skinless... in the process I found a couple of reassuringly authentic shot pellets... no empty cartridges for my photo-shoot though!

When frying the breast pieces the idea is to do surface damage only. Full heat and speed are vital to avoid anything but minimal cooking.

The meat and veg filling is combined. My choice of pie dish catered for a generous twosome.  The whole thing is beginning to promise something rather special now.

Flour, butter, salt and water. What a quartet! Many recipes forgive you for using shop-bought pastry. On no account are you allowed to do that here. This golden, crunching, melting crust that topped off everything  almost stole the show.

Tenderstem broccoli was fine but provided little distraction from this almost perfect pie. I'll be honest and repeat that warning about the flash-in-the-pan browning required for the breast meat... mine was ever so slightly 'over'. Still the most enjoyed meal at home since recent Christmas highlights. 

You have the recipe at your disposal. Go to it... better still, order The Good Table and enjoy a plethora of further scrummy dishes. This one appears as 'Roast pigeon and ale pie' on page 104 in my copy. No further mention of boozy content is made but I can assure you it would not add very much.

That'll do for now. I trust you'll be inspired (so much better than being insipid!)

Oh, dammit, no... let's just take one more look at a thing of true beauty:

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