Shortloin of Beef

I am not a fan of turkey, it's all well and good in a sandwich or a pie or something but as the centrepiece of the meal of the year then just no and don't play the 'it's traditional' card either, it's not. Have a goose if you want to be traditional. Personally I like to have something a little tastier and this year I was drawn to the shortloin of beef.

The shortloin, is arguably the finest part of the noble cow, the crowning glory. it consists of the spine down the centre with the Fillet on one side and the Sirloin on the other, it is superb.

To cook this I turned to the balded headed genius/nutcase himself with the recipe in his excellent book Heston at Home.

I say recipe, its barely that as there is little effort involved apart from browning the outside at the start which takes some effort depending on the size you bought, ours barely fit in the frying pan.

The meat is then slow roasted and I mean slow roasted for the best part of 6 hours at 60 degrees Celsius. yes, 60 degrees, I've had baths hotter than that.



What this does to the meat is nothing sort of magical, the outside drys up and forms a wonderful seasoned crust but the inside stays moist to the point all the juice gushes out like a waterfall when it's done (collect it and pour it straight into the gravy). The meat cuts like butter because it's been gently warmed and not been blasted with heat. This also allows precision to cook it how you like from 45C (blue) where the cow is still walking round the field to 70C (well done) where you should be eating turkey if you cook it like this. I opted for 55C which is medium rare.

Cooking this way is stressful, not due to the work load but the stress of watching a thermometer creep up degree after degree when all you want to do is get on with eating it, the last couple of degrees I don't think I took my eyes off it.

I can't imagine cooking a joint in any other way after this. Heston, I salute you.

Rice Pudding Pork

The Ghost of Christmas Past is the theme of Random Recipes at Belleau Kitchen this month. Well to be more precise it's last years recipe books that RR participants received and now have to pick from.

For me, I received two weighty tomes in the form of River Cottage Fish and River Cottage Meat. With a trusty flip of a coin River Cottage Meat won. So far so good. I had visions of lovely roasts, maybe a side of ribs when I flicked randomly through the book.

The recipe I landed on was Rice Pudding Pork....right.....

must not turn the page....will persist....it might be nice...swears violently in the direction of Belleau Cottage....sighs...accepts the inevitable...

Reading the recipe, it didn't seem too bad, no actual rice pudding involved and the recipe is based on a traditional Italian dish of braising pork in milk, fellow food blogger Clare at Feast and Glory made a version using Garlic and Rosemary which turned out very tasty by the sound of it. This version uses bay and thyme. It also uses brown sugar and nutmeg to give it hints of a rice pudding.

The recipe is fairly simple:

Rice Pudding Pork
Ingredients
2-2.5 Pork loin, rolled and boned.
gratings of fresh nutmeg
olive oil
50g butter
1-1.5 litres whole milk, hot
2 tsp brown sugar
3-4 bay leaves, fresh if possible
3 sprigs of thyme
zest of one lemon
salt and pepper

Method
Season the pork with salt and pepper and grate over nutmeg.

Heat the oil in a pan and sear the pork on all sides until nicely browned.
Leave in the pan.
Melt the butter in a saucepan large enough for the pork, stir in a third of the hot milk and sugar.
Place the pork in the pan and pour over the remainder of the milk.

Add the bay, thyme and lemon a couple more gratings of nutmeg and bring to barely a simmer.
Very gently simmer for about 1 and a half to two hours.
Allow the pork to rest out of the pan and serve with the sauce and the curdles of milk from the pan.

Verdict
Well that's not half bad actually, soft very slightly milky pork in a slightly too sweet sauce with hints of thyme and nutmeg. The curdles of milk are very very good, soft and creamy. If I were to do this again I would try it with garlic and rosemary as it sounds more up my street and hopefully not as sweet.

An Adventure in Bread

I cannot recall the last time I made a loaf of bread, in fact I'm almost positive I've never made one properly before.

Sure I have made the odd pizza dough but there is no substitute for taking the time to produce a fresh loaf from combining the ingredients into a soft, slightly sticky dough...to kneading it so it is stretchy and smooth...to waiting (impatiently) for it to rise and commence its quest to leave the bowl and take over the kitchen ... to watching it bake in the oven, filling the kitchen with that lovely fresh baked bread aroma and finally to eat it, still warm and soft with plenty of butter.

So I have decided to change all that and dive into the world of bread and have a look around, try out a few recipes, develop my own (currently lacking) knowledge and skills and to tell Dr Atkins etc... where they can shove their no carb diets.

To begin with I have started with the basic loaf recipes, to get into the swing of things regarding techniques, ingredients and also patience, I'll stop shouting at dough 'to get on with it' at some point.

There are many versions of this basic recipe, usually regarding techniques. Some people have no knead recipes, others like a good knead every now and again. I belong to the latter. I'm a bit of a traditionalist and like the kneading process of working the dough and stretching the gluten. I used a Paul Hollywood recipe for my first loaf which is available here and this is what happened:

Not too bad at all. I did like some of the tips that Hollywood suggests, I have heard them before but never put into practice such as using oil instead of flour on the work surface and proving bowl and the roasting tray of water in the bottom of the oven.

So happy with the first effort, I decided to adapt that recipe, sticking to the dry ingredient quantities but replacing the white flour with wholemeal flour, I also increased the liquid amount to 400ish ml due to wholemeal flour absorbing more and this is what happened:

Result, two quality loaves which I have been stuffing my face with for the past few days. I am now slightly addicted to making the stuff when I get the time and looking forward to my next bready challenge.

Coconut Milk Cake and CCC's 2nd Birthday

Sunday marked the 2nd Birthday celebration of the Clandestine Cake Club with a meeting in a Leeds hotel of 30+ bakers and their cakes.
I was fortunate to attend the very first meeting of the CCC way back  in 2010 on a cold December afternoon, I vaguely remember trying to hunt down an inflatable parrot stuck on the door indicating the location. There was only about ten of us on that day that spent a pleasant afternoon chatting and stuffing ourselves stupid with cake. Nowadays it's more a well known secret with meetings countrywide and the odd international event as well but the rules remain ever constant, only cake allowed and there is no judgement on the cakes.







 It's a rare occasion I get to visit an event nowadays there isn't many round my current neck of the woods and unless it's on a weekend I struggle to get to Yorkshire and Leeds to attend events so I was pleased this one was on a Sunday Afternoon.

The cake I decided to make was one I had been eyeing up for awhile. Dan Lepards' Coconut Milk Cake, a delicious sounding cake (if you like coconut that is) that lured me in with the stylish picture in Short and Sweet.
The cake itself  was fairly straightforward. Light and coconutty with hints of rum and lime, very 'wintery carribean' and the meringue butter cream that went with it was light and deliciously buttery, one to use again I think. I added shaved white chocolate to the cake to give it a snowy effect.

Here's to another 2 excellent cakey years and not forgetting the impending CCC cookbook......

Roast Pork Belly, Roast Potatoes, Aubergine and Carrots

Sunday Dinner, arguably our finest export. Hunks of juicy roast meats; chicken, beef, pork, lamb the choice is yours. Various veg cooked any numerous of ways ranging from the meh of boiled vegetables, why people, why? To the sublime of a roast potato with it's crisp crunchy golden exterior to its fluffy cloud like centre, drowned in a lake of gravy. delicious.

The OH was in charge of the dinner last Sunday, which she claims is her first effort at a full sunday roast. The star of the show was a huge hunk of pork belly that we picked up at the excellent Doncaster Market. We browsed through River Cottage Veg for some of our favourite veg dishes to finish off the meal.
The final menu:
                      Roast Pork Belly with Chilli, Cumin and Honey
                      Roast Onion Gravy
                      Roasted Potatoes and Aubergine from River Cottage Veg
                      Caramelised Carrots with gremolata from River Cottage Veg

I make no excuses for the picture, that is how a Sunday dinner should be served, mounds of food piled up on the plate, preferably just enough to immobilise the person for the remainder of the Sunday afternoon unless of course, somebody mentions the pub....

Creme Catalana - A Random Recipe

I haven't been to Europe much on my holidays, usually I fly west instead of east. I have, however made the odd trip to the continent and one of these trips was to the amazing city of Barcelona in the Catalan Region of Spain.
Barcelona, pickpockets and scam artists aside, is a beautiful city. It pretty much encompasses everything you want in a holiday with it's white sandy beaches, rolling hills and mountain sides, bustling city life and of course, amazing food. If you ever get the chance to visit, have a wander around The Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria which is the main food market on Las Ramblas in the centre of the city. It is truly stunning, miles of fresh vegetables, seafood, patisserie, meat and charcuterie, it is a food lovers dream. Then play catch the chair with the rest of the crowds (speed and sneakiness is the key) on one of the tapas stands and eat what you have just gawped at.

So why am I wittering on about Barcelona, well as usual over in Blighty, everyone's favourite Ringmaster is orchestrating his usual Random Recipe challenge over at Belleau Kitchen. This months challenge was to pick a cookbook associated with our birthdays e.g. mine is on the 20th (May, I like whisky) so I counted to the 20th book and randomly picked a recipe. The book I picked was Ramsay's World Kitchen and I landed on the Spanish version of the classic Creme Brulee; Creme Catalana.  

Ingredients
4 large yolks
70g Caster sugar
2 tbsp cornflour, sifted
zest of one lemon and one orange
cinnamon stick
250ml whole milk
250ml double cream

Method
Whisk the yolks with the sugar until pale and creamy
Whisk in the cornflour and zests
Slowly pour in the milk and cream whisking continuously.
Pour the custard into a saucepan and add the cinnamon stick.
Heat gently whilst stirring continuously, when the custard can coat the back of a spoon, turn off the heat.
Pour through a fine sieve into a jug then pour into individual ramekins
allow to cool completely and chill in the fridge until needed.

Sprinkle a thin layer of demerara sugar over the top and either wave a blowtorch over the top to caramelise the sugar or preheat a grill to high, place on a tray and place under the grill until golden.

Verdict
Lighter than a traditional creme brulee with a lovely citrus undertone, couldn't taste much cinnamon, might infuse the milk beforehand  next time to see if that helps.

Living over the Shop - Book Review

A bit ago I was sent a cookbook to review - Living over the Shop by Stephen Doherty. The shop referred to in the title is every cooks favourite - Lakeland, namely the flagship Windermere branch back in my home county of Cumbria.

Lakeland is an absolute bain on my life, I cannot resist wandering in and buying some random kitchen utensil/gadget/tray etc.... I have quite a few items from that shop and all of it is of excellent quality, reasonably priced and lasts an age. So I was quite pleased to find out that this book was from the restaurant at the Windermere store.
Stephen Doherty is the former 3 Michelin star chef currently running the restaurant with a background most chefs would kill for, namely working with the legendary Roux brothers at Le Gavroche.

The book
The book is split into two parts. the first part is about Stephen's life under the Roux's and afterwards running pubs before finally arriving at Lakeland. There is also an excellent bit dedicated to Cumbria's finest producers, some I already know and others I need to track down. This bit of the book might be uniteresting to some but as the Roux brothers are my idols, It was nice to get an insight from another point of view. The producers bit I enjoyed also, more books should have this, allowing people to get quality ingredients straight from the source.
The second part of the book is all about the recipes

The recipes
There are 80 recipes in total ranging from simple basic food that you would expect in a store restaurant, jacket potatoes, sausage and mash but as well as these they cater for the more adventurous; Souffle Suissesse for example, a Gavroche classic. It also consists of variety of 'basic' recipes such as various sauces, chutneys and preserves. The baking section is also well stocked with fondants, chocolate stout cake and honey and whisky creme brulee. There are a lot of recipes based around salmon in various states: rilletes, cured, roasted etc.. which could put some non salmon lovers off but as there is a lot of salmon available in the Lakes, its not that surprising.

I decided to try out a couple of recipes;

Shallot and Goats Cheese Tart Tatin

Honey Madelines

Both recipes were simple to follow, did not consist of a wide range of impossible to get ingredients and both as you see came out excellent, the honey madelines were lighter than air.

Verdict
Overall a good book, an interesting behind the scenes look at Le Gavroche and Lakeland accompanying some excellent recipes that most people would have no problem making and showing off with.


Disclaimer
The book was sent to me free of charge with the intention to review, all opinions above are my own and I was not asked to give a good review or told which recipes to cook.