Last night we feasted on monster rib-eye steaks with smoked garlic, served with roasted vegetables. Paired with some lovely red wine, these were about the best steaks we have cooked. And by “we”, I mean my wife. 🙂
Continue reading “Rib-Eye Steaks with Smoked Garlic”
The rustic pub scotch egg, when made using Cumberland sausage infused with black pudding, has a few of the ingredients for a traditional English breakfast.
After the last article, I was challenged by a Facebook correspondent to see if I could work bacon into the recipe … after all, everything is better with bacon. Well why stop there? Let’s throw some mushroom in for good measure. And thus it was born.
I present to you the hand-held meal that is the English Breakfast Scotch Egg.Continue reading“English Breakfast Scotch Eggs” Continue reading “English Breakfast Scotch Eggs”
I recently found a great recipe for double-cut pork chops. This used a spice rub from Dizzy Pig that is inaccessible where I live, so I made my own rub based on the ingredients of their product. It resulted in some of the finest pork chops I have ever tasted. Enjoy! Continue reading “Glazed Double-Cut Pork Chops with a Spice Rub”
Popcorn has been going through a bit of a resurgence lately. Tastes and flavours from salted caramel through white cheddar and even Worcester sauce and sun-dried tomato are now readily available at supermarkets and online.
With the addition of an inexpensive popcorn maker to the kitchen, these can mostly be made at home. Our standard popcorn comes in from left field, using Ras el Hanout and Maple Syrup to add a spicy kick to movie nights. Or … writing a blog post :).
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I’m a sucker for a really great scotch egg. Add in a kick-ass dipping sauce, a cool cider and a sunny beer garden and that’s a great afternoon.
On a trip to a rustic pub in the sleepy village of Cartmel, I discovered the finest scotch eggs I had ever tasted, along with an outstanding taramind-based dipping sauce. My wife, who normally cannot stand scotch eggs, was instantly converted.
The chef, Gareth Webster, was kind enough to share the recipe for both eggs and sauce. They can be made at home and well worth the effort.
Continue reading“Rustic Pub Scotch Eggs” Continue reading “Rustic Pub Scotch Eggs”
This is a simple recipe for a great dipping sauce, with a couple of off the wall ingredients to give it a bit of a kick. Superb with Rustic Pub Scotch Eggs as well as pretty much anything cooked al fresco in the Great British Summer … whenever that might happen. Continue reading “Gareth’s Tamarind and Date Dipping Sauce”
With its distinctive taste and mottled crust, there are few loaves of bread that look as impressive as the aptly named “Tiger Bread” (also known as Giraffe Bread, Dutch Crunch and Dutch Crust). Using this recipe you can bake one for you and the family. Or just for you. Continue reading “Bake Your Own Tiger Bread”
I have been embroiled in a friendly-ish competition with my mother-in-law (who is an excellent cook) to cook the best roast potato. My current method is the culmination of this endeavour, to which a dinner guest once commented:
“he has studied to Heston Blumenthal levels of obsession, [these] were emphatically the finest roasties I have had ever.”
Praise indeed for humble spuds transformed into Duck ‘n’ Dexter Roast Potatoes.
Continue reading “Duck ‘n’ Dexter Roast Potatoes”
One of my favourite aromas is that of freshly baked bread, even beating a good red wine. And it’s easy to make a crusty, tasty loaf at home with virtually no effort.
This classic restaurant dish from the 1970’s has all but disappeared from our menus now, as the food trend has moved from sauces poured onto food to food served on sauces (or with foams).
In the past the emphasis was weighted towards the sauce … which led to heavy sauces, unbalanced flavours and the duck skulking somewhere in the background. With a couple of tricks, the meal can be re-balanced, letting the duck shine through once again.
An impressive meal to serve to guests, or enjoy as a family, we present duck a l’orange.
Continue reading “Duck a l’Orange”
Walk around any town or city in Vietnam and you’ll find a Pho vendor, either a curbside street stall or a bustling cafe. Pho is a very popular Vietnamese noodle soup dish, normally served with beef (Pho Bo) or chicken (Pho Ga).
From my first taste, it was an instant hit. So many new and exotic flavours and aromas. This just had to be made when we got back home … which happened, and as a result of eating this wonderful dish, I dropped 19kg (3 stone) in weight.
Delicious, cost-effective and incredibly healthy, I hope you enjoy Pho Ga.
Continue reading “Pho Ga – Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup”
On most pub and steak joint menus nowadays you’ll find triple cooked chips (or fries), served as either a standard side dish or bar snack. This incarnation of the humble chip is a relatively new phenomenon, devised by Heston Blumenthal in the early 1990s and served at his restaurant, The Fat Duck, in 1995.
The standard recipe does work but takes a while, and the chips can fall apart sometimes. So I created a simpler variation, adding in a duck nuance for extra flavour.
The result … triple cooked duck fat chips.
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The Cook's Digest 