Review of One Blenheim Place

OK, so I've been know to have, maybe just a bit of a Groupon habit in my time. It's great for bits and bobs and getting pointless but expensive things done to you hair. However,I don't often buy food on Groupon. It's just a bit too much of a wild card, and surely if a restaurant can serve up anything nice, people will go there anyway. In short, they shouldn't need Groupon. I got tempted a few months ago however when an offer came up for One Blenheim Terrace that caught my attention by flashing the word Michelin around. Not Michelin stared (don't be silly) but 'Michelin Recommended'. Now, I'm still not sure that 'Michelin Recommended' is a real thing, but I read a fairly favourable review on-line which talked about a very traditional 70's British menu but using Heston style molecular gastronomy to jazz it up. It sounded interesting.

Given that my preferred dining partner is not the biggest fan of fancy restaurants, I thought the traditional, plus the sciency side might persuade him through the door. This, plus a birthday coming up (bargaining power) and a cracking deal attached increased my chances further. He grudgingly agreed.

On arrival we were asked for our voucher right away, which I thought was really good. It wasn't mentioned again, it was automatically taken off the bill when we asked for it at the end. I sometimes find it embarrassing trying explain the voucher, get the bill, debate it all, all in the middle of the restaurant. I've also heard stories of people using Groupon vouchers like dirt in a variety of places. This place handled it really well.

We were seated in their nice conservatory. This would have have been lovely for lunch on a sunny afternoon. It wasn't bad on a slightly rainy Thursday evening either. The prosecco I ordered when we sat down was unfortunately served a bit warm. Then, when I sent it back and it took an age to return. However, when it did it was ice cold and went very nicely with the amuse bouche. This was tiny flower pot full of what looked like earth with tiny bits of vegetable poking out of it. The earth was actually some sort of dried out black olive 'soil' and it was all sitting on top of something that tasted like posh mayonnaise. It was the kind of thing I'd been expecting in the molecular gastronomy stakes. Unfortunately it was also the last of this kind of thing we saw.

My starter was a seared beef salad, with leaves, anchovies, croutons and creamy horseradish sauce. It was very nice but lacking in any sort of amazing flavour or innovation. Rhid's duck eggs on toast with HP sauce, was exactly what it said on the tin and really wasn't worth the £8.50 he paid for it.

For my main course I got the largest piece of salmon I've ever seen in my life! It was however perfectly cooked with a delicious crispy skin. It was served along side a poached egg, coated in a lovely creamy mustard hollandaise and asparagus  All the flavours went together really very well but unfortunately the salmon was so massive that I finished all of the accompaniments long before most of the salmon. All in all I was a little disappointed because the flavours were fairly traditional, the elements were unbalanced and pretty pricey into the bargain.

Rhid reported his fish cake as being mostly mashed potato but nice enough.

Both too stuffed for pudding we got the bill. Once the voucher had been taken off we were pleasantly surprised by the size of this. The offer made the whole experience worth it but if I was paying full price I'm not sure I'd go back. The nice added bonus was that they gave us a full sized brownie along with the bill. This made us very glad we'd missed putting, even though the syllabub looked delicious.

The final verdict is, a nice restaurant with lots of nice extras, good service and if you happen to be near St John's Wood I'd say pop in. There were quite a few fairly priced options on the menu which would have made it more affordable. They also do breakfast which I'd be tempted to try if we lived locally.

Smoked Haddock Chowder

Smoked haddock is the ingredient du jour recently and I've been looking for different ways to use it. I've found recipes for risotto, gratin and this one for a chowder. Not something that I've ever really had before a few years ago. I would probably never have served it up as a main, thinking, 'it's soup, that's not a proper meal!'. I had to take this back a few years ago when I was fed it by my friend Emily. It may be a soup, but it's so filling and so tasty.

The fish with potatoes, sweetcorn, leek and milk is a lovely delicate flavour combination which has started me thinking about what else it could go into. The soup is great, but what about a quiche or even a smoked haddock version of a croque-monsieur?

Anyway, what more can you say about soup? Here's the recipe:

Smoked Haddock Chowder

Serves two

approx 40g of butter
1 large leeks, thinly sliced
a sprinkle of dried thyme
1/2 can of sweetcorn
a handful of new potatoes, cut into bite-sized chunks
a couple of undyed smoked haddock fillets
milk, enough to cover the fish
a splash of vegetable stock
2 bay leaves
a sprinkling of black peppercorns
a good handful fresh flatleaf parsley, roughly chopped

In a deep pan, heat the butter until melted, add the leeks with the thyme and cover with a circle of wet greaseproof paper big enough to tuck down a little over the leeks. Cover with a lid so no steam escapes, and cook gently for about ten minutes. Add the potatoes to the pot. Replace the greaseproof paper and the lid and continue to cook for a further ten minutes.

Meanwhile, place the smoked haddock fillets in another shallow pan and pour in the milk, enough to just cover the fish. Add a bay leaf or two and a sprinkling of peppercorns. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook the fish for eight minutes or so, being careful not to overcook it.

Lift the lid of the pan containing the leeks and remove the greaseproof paper. Test the potatoes with a point of a knife. If they're still hard add the stock and some of the milk to the pan and simmer the potatoes a little more until their tender. Once the potatoes are cooked add the flaked haddock to the pan with the rest of the milk, making sure that you don't add the bay leaves or peppercorns. Season. Bring to a simmer and finish with a good sprinkling of chopped parsley before taking the pan to the table for the food to be served into bowls.

Savoury Presents

I rang my mum this week to ask if she had any ideas of what my dad might like for his birthday. I had an all right budget and was all set for a journey to John Lewis. But I was told pretty firmly 'No', just get him things to eat with his gin and tonic. Fantastic, I don't have to brave Oxford Street. I can just potter around Waitrose and my kitchen instead and it's going to be much cheaper. I was happy.

Any one who's ever been to my parent's house at 'Gin and Tonic Time' (When the sun is passed the yard arm, which means 6pm and not a minute earlier) will know what a big deal it is. At this point one of the strongest gin and tonics known to man is almost forced into your hand. The thing that makes this hilarious is that if you express the an interest in a drink a meer five minutes earlier, then your branded an alcoholic.

So, I'm sure you can appreciate that a few snacks to cut through that amount of gin is always appreciated.

I decided to pull out some old faithfuls because I didn't have a huge amount of time to research and think about new stuff. This gave rise to another Ottolenghi recipe, parmesan and poppy seed biscuits and cheese and mustard gougeres.

Parmesan and poppy seed biscuits

These little things are great. They're cheesy and spicy and are actually more flavoured with parmesan and smoked paprika than with the poppy seeds. The poppy seeds however give a bit of colour and visual drama. They're dangerous to have too many around as the second you've got a drink in your hand they just get hoovered up and you seem to drink a lot more too because they're so salty. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.


210g plain flour, plus plenty extra for dusting
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp paprika (I always use smoked paprika)
a pinch of cayenne pepper
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
165g butter at room temp
165g Parmesan Cheese, freshly grated
80g poppy seeds
1 free range egg beaten

Sift the flour, baking powder, paprika and cayenne into a bowl and add the salt and pepper.

Mix the butter with the Parmesan until they are well blended, add the dry ingredients and continue mixing to form a dough.

Divide the dough in half and roll each piece into a long log 5-6cm in diameter using lots of flour. Wrap each log in cling film and place in refrigerator for about 30 mins to firm up.

Scatter the poppy seeds over a flat plate. Brush the logs with the beaten egg and roll them in the poppy seeds until covered. Refrigerate for about 1 hour. (At this stage you can also wrap the logs and freeze them)

Preheat the oven to 170c. Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Cut the log into slices approx 3-5mm thick and arrange on the tray spaced about 2-3cm apart. Bake for 12 minutes. The biscuits should be dark golden and smell amazing! Leave to cool completely before serving or storing in an air tight container.

Cheese and Mustard Gougeres

I found this recipe last year. I was looking for inventive ways to use up cheddar when we received one of the oddest gifts I've ever had. We were given 6 large blocks of cheddar. All different types and all very nice but I don't normally eat that much cheese and by the time we'd have cheese and biscuits, mac and cheese, quiche and lots of cheese on toast I was kind of stumped.

These are quick, delicious, very cheesy and look pretty impressive for the effort. I normally flavour with smoked paprika but as I was already doing something paprika-ry I decided to flavour these with mustard. I added a pinch of dried mustard like the recipe suggested but if you love mustard like I do I think it could definitely take more. I also didn't use a standard piping bag with a nozzle I used a disposable piping bag and just cut the end to the right size (about 1.5 cm).

75g plain flour
dried mustard powder
50g butter
2 medium eggs , lightly beaten
75g strong cheddar , finely grated
Sprinkle of poppy seeds (optional)

Mix the flour and a large pinch of mustard powder and season well. Put 150ml water and the butter in a pan and heat until the butter is completely melted. Turn up to a boil. Tip the flour into the pan in one go and beat with a wooden spoon until incorporated. Turn heat down, but keep beating until the mix turns smooth and glossy and starts to pull away from the walls of the pan. Tip into a bowl.

Once the mixture has cooled slightly, beat in the eggs a little at a time with a wooden spoon or electric beaters. It should be smooth and stretchy and fall easily off a wooden spoon but still retain its shape. If it reaches this stage before you've added all the eggs, don't add the rest as it will be too runny to pipe. Beat in the cheese.

Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Line a couple of baking sheets with baking parchment, put a straight-edged cream nozzle into a piping bag and spoon in the pastry mix. Pipe out 30 small heaps of pastry about the size of a pound coin. (If you don't have a piping bag, put the mix in a strong plastic bag and snip the corner off, or use a teaspoon to portion it out). Wet your finger and press down the tip on each one. Add a scatter of poppy seeds if you like. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and firm. Serve hot or make a hole in the base of each with a skewer and leave to cool. You can reheat them if you like.

Michel Roux Jnr's Shepherds Pie

So the BBC revived the Food and Drink show earlier this year. It bought back memories of what was a very traditional 80's cooking show which I remember from my childhood. Men with beards screwing up white sauce and the truly mental Jilly Goolden talking utter bollocks about exploding shuttlecock Chardonnay with hints of creosote

This new format was good. A bit of chat, debate, some cooking and drink matching. Living  with a non drinker I particularly liked the fact that they would always suggest a non alcoholic drink pairing for each dish. The one thing I was less keen on was the way which they dealt with wine, as they would only ever describe the wine they were drinking without giving you a name, price or where to buy it. Watching this programme also had the effect that for a very short (and weird) time developed a bit of a crush on the front man Michel Roux Jnr. This is thankfully over, as it was really adding fuel to the fire of Rhid's opinion that I fancy really god-dam weird men and in turn getting a little bit offended on his own behalf.

Strange food crushes aside, it's changed the way I make shepherds pie, forever.

I was never really given shepherds (lamb) or cottage (beef) pie at home as a child. I'm not really sure why, as it's a British staple food. Maybe it was my father's, very strange, aversion to mashed potato? So this left me with my only experience of this being school food, and therefore disguising. I attempted to correct this in my early twenties by making myself one. However, not really knowing what I was doing, it wasn't particularly successful. It was only really when I was doing chalet cooking for children in the French Alps some years later that this dish really started to interest me. It really is ultimate comfort food.

Ever since then I've been fiddling with the recipe. More or less tomato, lamb / beef / chicken stock, fresh rosemary versus dried, adding red wine or leaving it out, lot of veg or just onions and garlic and various potato versus meat ratios. The latest incarnation was to try browning the meat in batches so was almost crispy in an attempt to add flavour and texture, whilst at the same time cooking down the veg (carrots, celery  onion and rosemary) until it was richly coloured and sweet, which was very nice.

All the recipes I've tried though have always had minced lamb at their core. Michel Roux's version focused on using up the remains of a roast lamb joint. I wasn't convinced, especially seeing as the recipe then required you to mince the lamb (I don't own a mincer) and then adding tomato ketchup of all things! The other thing that I wasn't wild about was that the veg was added raw to the minced lamb and then just slapped in the oven with the mash on top. But what about my beautiful caramelised vegetables?!

However, as Easter lamb was on offer at Waitrose I bought a leg speculatively thinking that we might have people over and if not I could try this recipe. I'm so glad I did. Firstly hacking the lamb leg to pieces and then chopping it up in to mince by hand was really quite therapeutic  I just shoved the veg into a food processor. Therapeutic or not, I'd had enough chopping by then. Then once compiled and served up it was lovely. The roast lamb gives a lovely texture to the pie and not cooking the veg off in advance gave them a lovely fresh, almost crunchiness. The ketchup too was also a winner. I normally add tomato purée but this version had a lovely sweetness added by the ketchup. I'd really recommend that you give this a try.

For this recipe I used the leftovers from a leg of lamb studded with garlic and rosemary so I left out the extra garlic. I reduced the amount of mash in this recipe and also added cream as well as the milk to the mash because, well, that makes the best mash.

Shepherds Pie

400-500g/14oz-1lb 2oz leftover roast lamb, leftover gravy and fat from the roasting tin
1 carrot, chopped
2 sticks celery, chopped
1 sprig fresh parsley, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
5 cloves leftover roast garlic
4 tbsp ketchup
1 kg/2lb 4oz peeled, cooked floury potatoes (such as King Edward, Desiree or Maris piper)
butter, to taste
dash of milk
salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Scrape all the meat off the lamb bone and put through a mincer with the carrot, celery, parsley, shallots and leftover gravy and fat from the roasting tin. If you haven’t got a mincer then chop everything finely and mix together. Add sweet roasted garlic cloves popped from their skins and the ketchup.

Press the mixture into an ovenproof dish. Mash together the cooked potatoes with butter to taste and a dash of milk, and top the meat with the potatoes. Use a fork to make a pretty design on top.

Cover the dish with foil and cook in the oven for 30 minutes. Then remove the foil and turn up the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6 for a final 10 minutes so it’s piping hot and lightly golden-brown on top.
For the stir-fried cabbage, heat the oil in a wok until hot, then stir fry the ingredients together for a few minutes until cooked, but so it keeps its colour and stays crunchy.

More pasta adventures

I started a rummage around the fridge today trying to rustle up a bit of lunch. I didn't have much enthusiasm, thinking that all I had was a bit of pancetta and although this is wonderful stuff, without any fresh herbs or interesting veg, I wasn't sure I had enough in to make it exciting.

I love it when it starts off like that and ends up as something really nice.

On request of having a pasta based meal I started by leafing through the pasta book which I've borrowed (OK, considering it's been two years, I probably have to admit - stolen), from my brother. Starting with a search for bacon (nothing) and then ham. This lead to the idea of adding onions, frozen peas and parmesan (which I always have in) and then cream (of which a tiny pot remained from Friday's pudding). I'm always a fan of a bit of reduced wine in a pasta dish so I threw some of that in too.

The result was very sweet and nice for a starter or a light lunch. If we'd been having dinner it might have been a bit much.

Bacon and pea pasta

Serves two as a light lunch

120g dried pasta
60g of pancetta cubes
1/2 a white onion, thinly sliced
knob of butter and a small splash of olive oil
1/2 glass of white wine
large handful of frozen petite pois
1-2 tbsp cream (creme fraiche would probably have worked too)
handful of parmesan
salt and pepper

Put a tiny amount of oil in a pan on a high heat and add the pancetta. Stir occasionally until starting to pick up a little bit of colour. At this point put the pasta on to boil. Then turn the temperature down to low and wait for the pan to cool a little before adding the onion and butter. Cook the mixture until the pancetta is crispy and the onions are soft and sweet.

Then add the wine and peas and turn the temperature up to bubble off the alcohol and cook the peas. Once the peas are warmed through and the acrid alcohol smell is gone, turn the temperature down again and add the cream, most of the parmesan and season to taste with salt and pepper. Warm through.

By this point the pasta will mostly likely be cooked through so it still has a bite. Strain it off reserving some of the cooking water. Put the pasta back in the pan along with the sauce and stir it through. Add some of the cooking water until you have a slightly looser slippery looking sauce. Adjust the seasoning and put in bowls topped with the remaining parmesan.

Eggs on Saturday

Eggs on Saturday is a big deal for me. In fact breakfast at the weekend is the important thing. Take the time to make something that takes a bit more time, then eating it in front of the telly together, paired with a pot of coffee or copious cups of tea. I love not having to be anywhere at a particular time, to the point where getting me out of the house before midday is a challenge.

So for this (four day!!) weekend I've been doing a lot of breakfast planning and even though it wasn't Saturday, it being the first day of the weekend, it had to be eggs. Unfortunately I was also so excited we wolfed it before I remembered to take a photo. So, I've found this one on Google to give you the idea (just in case you didn't know what fried eggs looked like). I have to admit that mine was not as pretty as this, but screw it, because it had bacon on it too, I win ;-)

By the time Saturday came I was looking to branch out so we had Bircher. This is a wet muesli created by Dr Bircher-Benner in Zurich in the 1890's. He was a Swiss physician and pioneered some aspects of our modern attitudes to healthy eating, recommending a balanced diet of nuts, raw fruit and vegetables to his patients. These attitudes were contrary to the common thinking of the time of eating lots of white bread and meat.

Anyway despite this, it's lovely and especially this Ottolenghi recipe that I found last year.

Bircher

Serves 4-6

200g rolled oats

200ml cold milk (full fat, low fat, soy or rice milk are all fine)

80ml apple juice

150g yoghurt (low fat or normal)

1 large granny smith apple, cored and roughly grated

70g agave nectar

60g raisins

½ tsp vanilla extract

Juice of 1 lime

60g walnuts, lightly toasted and roughly chopped (I used pecan nuts because that's what I had)

Your choice of fresh, poached or roasted seasonal fruit – plums, peaches, apples, pears, rhubarb – and/or fresh berries (optional). I used some sliced pears which I caramelised under the grill with some butter, brown sugar and mixed spice)

Put the oats in a large mixing bowl and add the milk and apple juice. Stir and leave aside for 10 minutes to soften. You can leave them to soak overnight in the fridge, which will soften them up a bit more, but it's not necessary.

When ready to serve, add the yoghurt, grated apple, agave nectar, raisins, vanilla and lime juice. 

Stir and transfer to serving bowls. Top with nuts and fruit if you like.

Day three and this might have to be the last breakfast extravaganza for the weekend as I've promised 'him in doors' that we can actually leave the house tomorrow and go and do something. However, we finished on a high and this morning has blueberry pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. The breakfast of champions and concluding what I've just realised is an unwitting American themed couple of days.

I love this breakfast. We tend to have it on special occasions because of the amount of syrup and butter that are 'required' :-)... It's the ultimate of salty and sweet. With soft pancakes, bursting with fruit, the bacon as crispy as possible and several pots of coffee. Happy me.

American Style Blueberry Pancakes

Should probably serve three but we always manage to get through this between two.

200g self raising flour

1tsp baking powder

1egg

300ml milk

a knob of butter

large handful of blueberries

maple syrup

Mix together the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Beat the egg with the milk, make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and whisk in the milk to make a thick smooth batter. Beat in the melted butter, and gently stir in the blueberries.

Brush a frying pan with vegetable oil. Drop a large tablespoonful of the batter per pancake into the pan to make pancakes about 7-10cm across. Cook over a medium heat until lightly browned on the bottom and bubbles have started to burst on the surface of the pancake and at least the edges of the pancake have started looking dry (about 3 minutes). Then turn and cook another 2-3 minutes until golden. Pop in the oven on a plate covered with foil while you use up the rest of the batter. Place the plate in a warm oven. Serve with maple syrup, butter, bacon and loads of fresh coffee.

Lunch at The Breakfast Club

We had a little wander down to Hoxton today. Hoxton has never really been my speed, preferring the more polished and grown up areas like Islington. I've never been into ordering lunch sitting in a garage on beanbag served by a stroppy hipster with an ironic moustache. However today I was liking the vibe of things being a bit gritty and arty. Plus, whenever you hear about a new and interesting restaurant these days, the majority of the time it does seem to be around this area. I think I'll make a bit more of an effort to explore a little more down there.

Anyway, today Rhid took me to The Breakfast Club for lunch. Odd I know. It's a shame we'd already had breakfast because this place does seem to serve, you've guessed it, mostly breakfast and looked like it did it incredibly well. It also had a section devoted to comfort food which I loved the idea of. The upshot seemed to be that this place has been designed with both the weekend and the hangover in mind. We'll definitely be back to try what else they have to offer.

I was a bit disappointed to see that the comfort food wasn't being served and not being interested in breakfast we were left with sandwiches. However, when ordered I really didn't have any reason to complain. Rhid's bacon, cheese, ham and barbecue sauce club rocked and my hot pastrami was also great and as my demands for chips and beer were also met, I was happy.

Slightly unenthusiastic service didn't effect what was a very nice lunch.

Either Rhid was having to think really hard to decide whether he liked his breakfast smoothie or sucking it through that straw is harder than I anticipated.

Give me a bucket of chicken!

My latest obsession recently has been fried chicken. Maybe I'm missing my old flat in south London? Maybe I'm getting excited about our up and coming trip to San Francisco? Maybe I'm reminiscing about my ex boyfriend who used to promise to take me out to dinner only to turn up at my flat three hours late with a bucket of chicken (for himself). Actually, maybe scratch that last one.

I think the real reason is that I was recently reading a blog about a fast food pop up in Kentish Town called Lucky Chip's Fried Chicken. It sounded like it kicked Colonel Sanders arse and I was planning on dragging Rhid up there a few weekends back to try it out. Through a catalogue of failures we missed the lunch service by 15 minutes and I only found out later that it was the last day! This lit a bit of a fried chicken fire inside me and I began to ask Google, 'Where is the best fried chicken in London?'.

Do you know where the best friend chicken in London is? Do you? According to every food blog I can find. Only Lucky-sodding-Chip in Kentish-bastard-Town!

So, if I can't get my hands on that version then I'm going to bloody make my own. I've started reading lots of accounts on how you can get the combination of soft and tender meat, crispy coating and of course that 'special' blend of spices which we've all been told about since birth.

One of the things that I've found out which I think is really interesting is that you don't get the soft flesh by slow cooking the chicken. This is normally what I'd do with joints of chicken as I love the flavour and the moist flesh but I'm not really a fan of chewy meat and gnawing at bones. No, in fact you get that soft meat by soaking the meat overnight in buttermilk. The culture in the buttermilk is supposed to breakdown the meat proteins  Apparently it's similar to brineing meat but with the added bonus that it adds a really nice flavour as well as tenderising.

The other myth apparently is that the chicken is battered. No, it seems that the crunchy coating is only flour. I can't see how this in going to work but I'm prepared to give it a go. Here's how it went...

The process is actually remarkably simple. Soak the chicken in butter milk, coat it in seasoned flour and fry on each side for six minutes. I was quite intimidated before I started, but next time I'd be much more relaxed about it. The main reason for nerves were because I'm not that used to deep frying. Hot oil scares me and I don't think it's something that people of my generation do very much. I remember my mum always having a deep fat fryer and making home made chips. However the health junkies have beaten us into a grilling and steaming submission. Bastards.

They came out looking remarkably authentic and I was dead chuffed. I put them in the oven to keep warm, desperate to try them. Then our guests got stuck in traffic and where half an hour late. Argh! But when they got here and we finally tucked in. I was so chuffed. The chicken was meltingly tender and the seasoned coating was crispy and tasty. A definite result and I'll definitely do this again, but maybe not for a while.

I served this with maple and mustard pulled pork, which was amazing! Coated in marinate and done in the slow cooker for 8 hours then finished in the oven. I'd add a photo but it looked like cat food. We also traditional American cornbread, which was essentially just a slightly savoury cake with sweetcorn in it. Weird!

Anyway, here is the recipe for the chicken. The only thing I would change would be to add more salt, but then I'm a bit of a salt demon. I also added some onion powder to the recipe I found so you could leave that out if you wanted. I also soaked the chicken in butter milk for about 20 hours. I've read that you can do it for anything up to two days. Although there does seem to be a risk of the meat going soggy:

Southern Fried Chicken

300ml buttermilk
1 tsp salt
6 pieces of chicken (I use a mixture of legs and thighs)
150g plain flour
½ tsp salt
½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp smoked paprika
Vegetable oil, for frying

Combine the buttermilk and salt in a bowl large enough to hold the chicken, and add the meat, spooning the buttermilk over it to coat. Cover and refrigerate for about 8 hours, allowing it to return to room temperature before cooking.

Put the flour, salt and spices in a large, flat dish and whisk briefly to combine. Put 1.5cm of vegetable oil into a wide, straight-sided pan with a lid and heat until very hot: a cube of bread should brown almost immediately (about 170C). Wipe as much buttermilk off the chicken pieces as possible then roll them in the seasoned flour until thoroughly coated.

Put the chicken in one layer in the pan (you may need to do this in batches, depending on the size of the pan) and cover. Turn the heat right down and simmer for 6 minutes, then turn the chicken pieces over, cover again and cook for another 6 minutes. Prepare a rack to drain the chicken.

Turn the heat up and fry the chicken until it's a deep golden colour on all sides. Transfer to the rack and blot with kitchen paper. Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Red wine and lamb stew with herby dumplings

I knew we were going to be out this evening so I took the opportunity a few days ago to do some batch cooking so we could have something tasty and hearty when we got in from this freezing cold weather. I have to admit to having a total sense of humour failure about the continuous Baltic temperatures, but the one major (and only) win about the situation is the continued presence of stews and red wine in my life. Hurrah!

This was escalated today by the last minute addition of dumplings. Taking advantage oh the longevity of suet, that I've had lying around since Christmas. I haven't had dumplings in about 15 years and the question I had tonight was, 'Why on earth have I left it this long?!' They were awesome!

I've cooked this lamb stew before but with lamb shanks, which was delicious. This time I did it with pre-diced lamb from the supermarket, which was fine but I missed having the big chunks of meat which balanced out the rich slightly sharp sauce. If think it might have been nice with lamb steaks too.

Ingredients

400g of diced lamb
1 carrot, finely diced
1 stick of celery, finely diced
1 red onion finely diced
1.5 sprigs of fresh rosemary, chopped
olive oil
1 garlic clove, sliced
50mls balsamic vinegar
250ml red wine
1 tbsp tomato purée
1 tbsp red current jelly
1 tbsp plain flour
Half a chicken or lamb stock cube
For the dumplings
85g Self raising flour
45g veg suet
1/2 tsp of baking powder
handful of parsley
pinch of salt
water

Method

Splash the olive oil into a large heavy based frying pan and add the carrot, celery, onion and rosemary. Pop on a low heat and cook for ages until the veg starts to caramelise and go brown. The rosemary will go fragrant and they will start to look really appetising  Don't cook too fast because they'll burn and turn bitter. Chuck the garlic in for the last minute.

Once the veg are cooked tip into a casserole dish and use the pan to brown the lamb well in batches. Browning meat is all about intense heat and giving the meat room to get really hot without sweltering and sweating. You need to get a good colour and scorch on it to give it flavour and that needs room. If there are brown bits left in the pan tip some cold water in and scratch them off. Tipping the water over the browned lamb which should be added to the casserole with the veg.

Once the lamb and the veg are in the casserole dish stir in the flour and tip over the red wine, balsamic, tomato paste, red current jelly and some salt and pepper. Top up with water if needed to cover the lamb and pop into an oven at 150c for two hours. Once cooked remove the meat and veg from the sauce and reduce down until the sauce is good and tick. At this point I added some water and chicken stock as the flavour was a bit strong but that's up to you.

To make the dumplings blitz the self raising flour, salt and baking powder with suet then add enough water to make a scone like mix. Blitz through the parsley and then form into about 10 balls. Pop back in the oven at 180c for 20 minutes. I then took the stew out of the oven, painted the dumplings with melted butter and popped under a grill until brown.

Chestnut, sausage pasta

Ahh, hello. First post of my new blog. Let's see how long this lasts. I have a feeling this is going to expose that I only actually find recipes from one or two places. Hopefully it will push me to try searching for things from a little further afield.

So, this is a little something I knocked up for lunch the other day from some leftovers. The original meal was a Nigel Slater recipe for stuffed mushrooms where you sprinkle big flat mushrooms with madeira and thyme before baking in the oven. Then stuffing with a mixture of fried onion, chestnuts, sausage meat and breadcrumbs. This was OK, but not something I'd make again.

The stuffing however was both lovely and very plentiful. So with stacks of leftovers I thought this might make the base of a nice pasta dish. The original dish called for the stuffing to be cooked briefly in the pan before stuffing the mushrooms and baking for half an hour.

For this pasta dish I drew a bit of inspiration from Jamie Oliver's Proper Blokes Pasta which I've cooked before. He uses Italian sausages, crumbled from their skins and then cooked down until the meat caramelises. It adds nice texture and makes the flavour of the meat sweeter and more intense. Also, as I was using the stuffing I'd already made, the bread crumbs were already incorporated. If I was to make this again from scratch I think I might fry the bread crumbs separately and mix it with the parsley and maybe some chopped raw garlic to make a fresh tasting gremolata to sprinkle on top of the pasta.

Sorry for the slightly crap photo. If I'm going to stick with this I think I'm going to have to invest in a new phone with a decent camera.

Ingredients

dash of olive oil
knob of butter
1/2 medium onion, diced
approx 200g of sausage meat (about two sausages worth, removed from the skins)
1/2 sprig of rosemary, chopped
50g breadcrumbs
50g chestnuts, chopped
100ml white wine
2 tablespoons of creme fraiche
4 tablespoons parmesan (plus extra for serving)
handful of parsley

Method

To make the sausage meat 'stuffing' put the onion in a frying pan with the butter and oil, crumbled sausage meat, the chopped rosemary, breadcrumbs and the sausage meat with some seasoning. Cook it right down until the sausage meat had caramelised slightly and everything else was nice and crispy.

Then add the white wine and wait for the alcohol to cook off. When the pasta is cooked, stir a dollop of creme fraiche through the sauce with the parmesan and some of the pasta cooking water, just to loosen the sauce. To finish I added the al dente pasta to the frying pan to warm in through and mix in the sauce before finishing with a handful of parsley, seasoning and more parmesan.