A couple of months ago, for whatever reason, I was tempted to buy a suckling pig. Costco the big American owned Super Store, would deliver, and so it was one Saturday morning early December, that said Piggy arrived on my doorstep. He was much bigger and heavier than I had thought him to be. The next question, was, what to do with him. So off came his hind quarters, cut into two, well almost, one bit still had the tail, whilst the other did not. Wrapped those and stuffed them into a freezer. Next the front half, which of course still had the ears and snout. Again wrapped and stuffed into the freezer. Now, when on earth was this little pig going to be eaten?

The lovely little Amelia Rose and her parents were visiting for the weekend and although she is only eating deluxe baby mush  ( pear and ginger?) an opportunity had arisen at least for part of pig to be eaten by her parents.

I decided to use the wonderful Sous Vide machine and started googling, Sous Vide, Pork Leg. Not much joy there, I m afraid, most of the recipes submitted are by amateur cooks like myself, so actually did not find pork leg at all, but at least found pork shoulder. The instructions varied from 12 hours to 48, so it was a matter of take your pick. So I opted for 20, as that fitted in nicely with my schedule! ( on reflection, maybe a tad too long, it was a very young pig, after all!)

Twenty hours on, Piggy pings and is ready to be finished in the oven, again, I’m not sure how long this will take, but at first glance the meat already seems very tender. Skin is scored and initially put into a fairly hot oven to start the crackling process.

Our Sunday dinner timing was to be determined by young Amelia, and so it was that after she had eaten her supper, had her bath and her milk and had gone to bed, we sat down for ours. I started with some Arancini( can you see I’m feeling better? First time in the kitchen for about 7 weeks!) More on Arancini another time. Onto the pork, it was tender and crackling, crackled. Along with some rosemary potatoes, green beans sautéed with garlic, piquilino peppers and almonds, it was indeed very nice. Son, who dissected piggy commented that his bones were very tender and rather than trying to carve, ended up “Pulling” in an attempt to avoid small bone fragments.

Pork a tad on the dry side, should have done a sauce, but by this time, I had, had enough of being in the kitchen and handed over the role of beans to himself! Dessert ? A time old classic, mixed fruit crumble, I’m not a crumble fan, but son and daughter in law chose it as a dessert at their wedding and himself, will eat anything sweet! Think, 3 Krispy Kreme doughnuts at Twickenham! What a glutton! He doesn’t deserve to stay slim !

We only have two bits of little pig left, watch out you might just be invited to partake !

As I have been kind of out of action for going on 6 weeks, himself has been in charge ( well at least he thinks he has). And has cooked so many meals that soon we shall have enough for our own cook book!

Many years ago, my son, who is severely dyslexic, found a love of cooking. The reading part proved difficult though, so made him his own cook book. Simple instructions, not long-winded ones. I find, even today when checking out  new recipes, either in  a magazine or a cook book, the instructions are way too long winded and complicated. I usually get out a marker pen, scrub out at least half of them and substitute, my way.

When living in Bruxelles and had my own cooking school, I also sought ways to make the instructions as easy as possible for my pupils, to encourage them, as normally faced with instructions as long as an arm, one can easily get discouraged! My pupils in this instance were on the whole American expat wives, who were suddenly expected to have dinner parties, Brussels style and not just hamburgers around a pool, so the emphasise of my classes were always, a three course dinner party, the order in which to prepare and cook, what coud be made ahead of time and what could be frozen. The class ended with them sitting and having lunch. Himself teases by saying that the local council had a bottle bank installed outside our house ! But on the other hand, said son would race up the drive from the school bus, saying ” Mommy Mommy can I have sausages and chips”?, but then his face would fall and groan “oh No. cooking class !! He had no choice but to become a very competent cook !!

So the latest offering in our house is Chicken Curry. No sooner had we returned from the mountains than the baby brother of himself and his lovely wife arrived.

Hunting around, through my various books, it was decided that a chicken curry would fit the bill, but which recipe. I have books by Atul Kocher, the Michelin starred chef, but maybe this would be throwing someone in at the deep end ( make a paste, make another paste, grind your spices, type of recipe) No, we needed something a little more straightforward! And along came Keith Floyd, he lately departed of TV fame, the forerunner, of, if you like Rick Stein ( though I think they did not like each other) et al. On his TV shows, even when in a boat he had a glass of something in his hand ( usually wine) and he dreamt of cooking for Gorbachev, so that they coud drink vodka together!!

And so it was to Floyd’s India that we found ourselves.

And  the cook in chief was asked yet again to perform. One night was the new star turn, the fish pie, but the second night the chicken curry. Not just any old chicken curry but, Murgh Tikka Makhani. There are of course as many variations of this recipe as there are of any other. Floyd went to India, mixed with some locals, ate their chicken and came up with this version> I saw on TV this week Rick Sten doing exactly the same, trying out Goulash in Vienna and then creating his own version)

And so onto our version.

• 2lbs chicken ( use either thighs which have been boned and skinned, for a good flavour, or breasts, again skinned.
• 2 Tablespoons of Ghee or unsalted butter ( ghee is better as it will not spit at you)
• 150 mls double cream
• 5 cloves of garlic crushed  and chopped
• some fenugreek leaves, ( optional)
• some vegetable oil to fry the chicken

For the tomato sauce

• 2 cans chopped tomatoes ( you can use fresh but this is so much easier)
• 3 red onions peeled and cut in 2
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 2 ” bit og ginger peeled
•  5 fresh green chilies
• 5 green cardamom pods
• 1 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, ground coriander and ground cloves

Put all of the tomato sauce ingredients into a food processor or blender and process to make a puree.

Heat the oil in a pan and add the chicken in batches and stir fry until they are golden and cooked. Repeat until all is cooked.

Fry the garlic, taking care not to burn. Pour in the sauce, add the chicken and heat until heated through. Just before serving, stir in the cream and the butter/ghee.Taste and add salt and epper to taste. Decorate with a few prigs of fresh coriander and of course serve with rice of your choice, or how about some naan or other Indian bread. There is a good selection of frozen ones in most Indian stores.

 

 

It’s that time of year again, we are in the mountains, but to be honest this year has been snow ( along with several days of rain but higher up, there will be snow). Being mildly incapacitated, Himself has become, nursemaid, cook, housemaid, chief bottle washer, and in fact Uncle Tom Cobley and all !

He has cooked very well, under instructions, not allowing me up to the cooking floor but keeping me well supplied on the lower level with wine, recharging my glass and asking instructions! Out of all of the meals, whether it be Tarte Abondance , Cheese Soufflé, or Cauliflower Cheese, he has absolutely surpassed himself, except on two occasions. The first was when he did not realise that there are several types of rice, hence ham and egg fried rice made with Carnoli rice ( Risotto) was a a trifle on the sticky side. The sauté de Veau, was however not his fault but the meat! Tough it was ! Too bad as the mixture of assorted sautéed peppers was great! And not mention the Moules ( Mussels) Provençal. Made with tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic and of course white wine!And the piece de resistance was the fish pie.

Long standing friends arrived-from Brussels, Dinner on the night of their arrival was none other than Raclette! Aka heart attack central, but oh so good and cook your own is the way forward. But, the following night Fish Pie. He did go a bit off script, showing some independence in his new found freedom in the kitchen. We had bought, salmon, cod and large shrimp, but let loose in the supermarket came home with scallops as well! The result, was outstanding, enjoyed by all.

We ventured out one day to Le Marché in Thonon Les Bains. It is about a 30 minute drive from our Mountain abode, on a road, that I would be less than keen on driving at night, twisty and turning, gorges on one side, mountains on the other, still on a sunny day, not too bad!

The market is busy year round, even when the temperatures are below freezing. In the summer of course, there are many 0more traders and many many more shoppers. Summertime, means usually having to park by the lake, upper parking is always full but also very claustrophobic. Down by the lake is usually not a problem and there is a funicular to take one up the rather steep mountainside. One could easily walk down, but of course by then one has shopping! So maybe not such a good idea!

The market encompasses the whole spectrum, meat, fish, cheese, vegetables, fruits, plants, flowers, clothes, old clothes and general junk.

My interest is always with the food stalls. There is always a queue for fish, and I am amazed at the cost. I realise that cod has become endangered so become more expensive, but at €39-€45 a Kilo ! Wow, that is expensive! Cheese ( well we are in the middle of a cheese producing region) is always good value, and always a good selection of fruit and vegetables, usually more so and of a better quality than in the local supermarket.The one stand that is always popular is the cooked chicken stand, people stand in line, waiting for the perfectly cooked chicken. The only thing I can compare it to is either Marks and Spencer or Waitrose, both my local stores offer bbq cooked chickens, but not on a rack like these, but then also considerably cheaper, about £6.00 a chicken and in the market they are €10 upwards.

One vegetable that I was on the lookout for was Cardoons! They are not really well known in the UK. They are part of the Thistle family, the same family that includes artichokes. Whereas, it is the globe of the artichoke that is eaten, here is the stalk and leaves. I have only tried once to cook these, very much with mixed results. Himself declared “don’t bother, and not sure that I will but having found that they are now pre-prepared I might not give them another trial, not anticipating too much as even then, they do not look very enticing!

So back to fish pie, simplicity itself, but oh so good, made ahead of time and then baked to a golden crust, served with a green vegetable or a salad, what could be better?

Actually, although one could give an exact recipe, just winging it also works. In my house, or when I am cooking, it just depends on what I have in the freezer, so no two pies are ever exactly the same.

Take a quantity of fish, ( use, salmon, cod, Coley Shrimps, Scallops, haddock or smoked haddock) maybe for 2 people about a pound ( if any left over, it will keep or freeze for another day.) take some fish or vegetable stock or even better half bottle of white wine and poach the fish gently until cooked. Drain and pat dry but keep the cooking liquid. Boil 2 eggs so that they are hard boiled, peel and cut into 1/4’s. Then I always make my white sauce by the all in one method, in the microwave, into a microwave container put an oz of butter, along with an oz of cornflour, a pinch of salt and about a cup of milk, mix, put into the microwave and microwave for. Minute on high, stir and repeat, repeat this until you have a sauce, If it should go lumpy never fear, just beat and it will go smooth. If a trifle thick, thin using the fish liquid. Cook a couple of potatoes, again I cook then in the microwave, 1 large baking potato takes about a minute on high. Mash the potatoes with some butter and some milk. Now it is time to assemble, mix the fish mixture carefully with the sauce, so as not to mash the fish to smithereens, add the eggs. Pour into an oven proof dish and top with the mashed potatoes, this can be done by simply adding on top of the sauce and fluff it up with a fork, or try being posh and use a piping bag and a large nozzle and make the potato look a little more Sophisticated. Over this sprinkle some Panko Breadcrumbs and some Parmesan cheese.

At this stage it can be refrigerated even for a couple of days and then reheated until golden brown and hot.

You could be forgiven, for thinking that I only eat in amazing restaurants, as I seem to do so, on a regular basis. Actually, it could be a burger bar, or street food as in Bangkok or Mexico City, or a noodle bar in a remote village in Japan,or freshly cooked egg fried rice, as in a bus station , somewhere in Yunnan, as long as the food is good, then I am happy. But if they put themselves out there as being High End or todays by word”Fine Dining”, then they had better be.

So it might be a surprise to you, that we recently ate in one of Her Majesties Prisons, and we were very pleasantly surprised .

There are indeed several of theses establishments, well 4 to be precise, one in Surrey, one in Cardiff, one in Brixton ( London) and Styal in Cheshire, as well as a farm that serves the Surrey restaurant in a village called Send.

The idea of having a restaurant within a prison was the brain child of Alberto Crisci in 2009, and is now run as a charity . The aim is to give prisoners during their final months of incarceration professional job and life skills. It has been so successful that the re-offending rate has dropped right down, with 87% of graduates, managing to not re offend, but hold down a regular job.

Nowadays, inmates can apply to go on any of the courses that the Clink offer and they are always oversubscribed.

They learn professional skills, either in the kitchen, or the restaurant itself as wait staff, bar staff or as receptionist/hostess skills, they follow the GNVQ, NVQ and City and Guilds courses, so it is a recognised skill. However, it is a prison, rules and regulations apply. One has to register beforehand, then check in with a photo ID, along with having finger print taken, photo checked ( a bit like going though US immigration), diners have to arrive at an allocated time, no stragglers allowed. When every one has been checked, then we were allowed to go though security doors, etc into the restaurant itself. However all mobile phones, tablets, most of your money has to be checked beforehand, not allowed! The restaurant itself is very smart, nice tables and comfortable chairs.

We went with a group of people and the restaurant was almost full. There were separate tables for staff and as it was a Friday apparently Friday is extremely popular, Fish and Chips Friday!

Two very smart young men came to take ur drinks order, they all had spoof names, which made you believe you were really drinking something alcoholic, but no, no alcohol allowed, but at least the pretence means that staff learn the race, albeit, pretending to serve cocktails!

We had preordered our lunch, not sure if this is the normal process or not, but we had a very enjoyable three course lunch.

Our waiters were very professional, smartly dressed and very polite. I could not bring myself to believe that these young men were criminals, they could have been my son! The feeling left me deeply shocked.

Our menu was for a three course lunch, all of it beautifully cooked and served. I can thoroughly recommend a day trip to one of these restaurants. Not only will you have an excellent lunch but you will be helping an extremely worthwhile charity.

The graduates, are supported upon release by an extension of the charity, with help towards finding a placement as well as accommodation and setting up bank accounts. Many notable establishments give their support to this endeavour including The Royal Automobile Club on Pall Mall, where they have even given kitchen equipment to help get the charity up and running.

Am I just getting more exacting in my expectations of restaurants, I don’t think so. Himself sometimes calls me fussy ( not true) but I do know what I want and what I expect. When we first came to London, years ago, I used to visit Shepherds Market, where there was almost a hole in a wall Italian cafe, frequented by Taxi drivers. They made the most superb, chicken sandwich, umm umm and my current quick sandwich of choice, from Prèt a Manger, a ham and cheese baguette and service with a smile.

And so it was this weekend, a group of Old friends all  of whom lived at the same time as us in Brussels, met for dinner. The criteria were,  somewhere, where the 6 of us could sit and chat, have a nice meal, easy for all of us to get to. The choice was left up to me. As I had been a bit lax in making a reservation, many places were already full, had a very early dinner time or a very late one, neither of the latter two suited. I needed to find somewhere that could give us a table around 7.30 or 8 pm. I landed upon the Cinnamon Club.

I first went there in 2003 ( it opened in 2001) and it was a joy. Housed in the former Westminster Library, a beautiful room surround by books and upstairs a mezzanine, which serves as the private dining room.  We went for a corporate “DO”, after an evening of exotic Indian dancing and had the upstairs space, the atmosphere was fun, the food superb as was the service. Fast forward a few years and the “Ladies Who Lunch” went for lunch, again, everything was perfect.

So what has happened in the intervening years? over a million spent on a recent face lift but apart from that, our experience, and for all 6 of us was a disaster.

Firstly, our table, was in what could only be described as ” an overspill room,” an old book store, a dusty little corner with about 6 tables to seat about 24 people, with the atmosphere of a damp squib. We saw and could not see anything of the splendour of the old Library. Then the fun began, we consulted the wine list, and chose some white and a carafe of red and a beer. The beer arrived and after about 5 minutes the white wine and another 10 minutes the carafe of red wine. After about another 15 minutes, we grabbed someone and asked if we could order, a surprised look on the waiters face. We duly waited and a small amuse bouche appeared in front of us, with no explanation as to what it was, Our pescatarian friend had to grab someone to ask( it was so nondescript, that I have no idea, what it was). The wine waiter then poured wine into the glass of the beer drinker ( who by this time had asked for another beer). The glass was unceremoniously picked by the wine waiter and plonked in front of me ( so now I had two glasses). It went from bad to worse, the starters arrived and although my octopus was delicious, very tender, should have been sent back as it was luke warm. The main courses, well three  of us had the pheasant, it might have been pheasant but looked more like dry chicken, the assorted Indian breads, were distinctly uninspiring. Three people asked for coffee, no-one wanted dessert and we asked for the bill at the same time. We were on a bit of time restraint by now as there was a train to catch ( for those who came into town by train), coffee nowhere to be seen, someone got up to find a waiter, ( they were the other side of the door chatting, coffee came, and the Bill we asked? and the Bill, ?? at this point someone got really miffed, her coffee was not what she ordered, and it was cold, take it off the bill. The Cinnamon Club, does not included an automatic service charge, just as well, as we would have taken it off, as it was we did not add it on. The food was not great, could have been a whole lot better and as for the service, it was Dire. So Another one Bites the Dust. Too bad really , but there are plenty others to choose from.

The Cinnamon Club, Great Smith Street, London , SW1P 3BU

The other week, the Domestic God, excelled himself, and No it was not Oysters Rockefeller!! He told me I had to rise early and spruce myself up and be out of the house by 6.45!

Duly Done, I found myself in St. Pancras Station waiting for the early morning train to Paris, and Yes we went to Paris for lunch. All very decadent of course but he took me to a three star Michelin restaurant, near the Eiffel tower, on Rue Beethoven. It is called  L’Astrance  and has been listed in the top 50 of the worlds best restaurants for the last 7 years.

It is a small restaurant with only 25 covers, but  it still maintains crisp white lines. We were lucky to have one of the three small tables upstairs, which gave us a perfect open view of all that was going on. The service was impeccable without being in any way pretentious. Interestingly, there is no menu, never a menu, but one can choose how many courses one would like to eat and if to take the wine pairings option or not. We took the wine pairings, and they did indeed serve some very interesting wine.

Our first course or Amuse Bouche, was a small walnut tart along with a cucumber and  mousse tart. This was followed by the most raw mushroom I have ever seen! It was sliced into wafer thin slices and these were stuffed with Fois gras and a confit Citron on the side. The third nibble was , a couple of mini spring rolls with langoustines on a bed of caramelised peanuts and a peanut satay sauce.

 

 

These were followed by Patagonian toothfish. I had not heard of this fish before and little wonder. It lives in the cold waters of the southern Atlantic and is of a cod type. it lives  in deep water, (45m-3850m) but you are more likely to know it as Chilean Seabass. This name was created in 1977 by an American who was trying to sell it to the fickle American Market and the name has stuck. The fish is believed to live up to 50 years and its welfare and controlled fishing, is controlled by the Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Marine Living Resources ( CCAMLR). The fish was served with a grapefruit, cabbage and pineapple sauce. Then we had chicken with red cabbage along with a chorizo type sausage mousse, quickly followed Duck from the Chalon region with a confit of tomatoes and a quince puree. And then a dish of Puree potato, but unlike you have ever had before, as it was served with Fromage Blanc  vanilla ice cream with thyme.

We finished off this extravaganza with a sweet chilli sorbet followed by banana cake and frozen cheesecake with shaved milk and an egg nog.

Given that there are only 25 covers in this little restaurant there were 7 waiters, hence the impeccable service.

Once we were suitably satiated, and we were, more than, we hopped back into a Taxi, back to the Gare du Nord ( some very odd memories of this station from my youth) back onto the Eurostar. We made an unscheduled stop somewhere near Lille to rescue some stranded passengers from another train and back to London. Another quick cab ride and off to the theatre. Not sure that either of us were ready to sit and watch an Oscar Wilde play, but we are not complaining, as “How Lucky are we?” Will we go back? Yes hopefully, one day !

I have a new toy and it is a sous vide machine! You will have no doubt heard or seen it on the myriad of TV cooking shows. Of course what you don’t know is that you will also probably need a vacuum bag sealer!  The basic deal is, seal your food, meat, fish etc in a polythene bag, making sure that a) it is properly sealed and b) that all of the air is extracted . Of course this could be done with a Zip Lock type bag but much more difficult to extract all of the air.

So along with the Sous Vide machine I bought a Bag vacuum machine, which also means buying the proper bags as ordinary plastic bags, just don’t hack it ! I was so I impressed as was himself with the food cooked that I took my machine off to France this summer and I soon found out the downside of not having the Vacuum sealer. No matter how hard I sucked or squeezed to remove air from my Zip Lock bag it ended up floating in the water bath. Therefore it had to be weighted down, usually with a granite pestle and mortal! Still it worked. I am really impressed so much so that I bought another one to leave in France and another one for my son and a foodie friend has also now bought one! Maybe I should be getting a ‘ Refer a friend ‘ discount!

The basic principle of this machine (and this is just a home version so does not need oodles of storage space) is it cooks food very slowly at a low constant temperature. Consequently chicken breasts which can be quiet dry, are moist and succulent. They are in the water bath at about 140  F ( most of the online instructions are from the USA, hence the Farenheit ) for about an hour, patted dry and a quick sauté in the frying pan to give them some colour, Perfect!

Having played around, with chicken, fish, onglet ( hanger steak—-Perfect) I decided to branch out and bought a couple of kilos of Veal Cheeks. These can be very time consuming to prepare and require a lot of slow cooking, just imagine all of that chewing that cows do and today veal is ethically fine as the young animals no longer are kept indoors but free to roam. They are all young bulls but the farmer does not need an overload of young bulls for his herd, just imagine a herd with too many bulls, mayhem would ensue!

On ‘Googling ‘veal cheeks sous vide I discouvered that they need Dunking for a mere 48 hours. I trimmed the cheeks, vacuum packed them set the pan of water to a temperature of 140 F and when it reached this I  put them in the pot, making sure that they were well submerged, covered the pot with cling film to help reduce the evaporation and left them for 48 hours! Himself was given a dire warning “Do Not Touch !”

So after a couple of days, the machine beeped at me so I removed the cheeks and left them to cool, cool enough to handle. They were then trimmed and sliced, onions were also sliced and sautéed, along with some celery, garlic and mushrooms. This recipe, actually a non recipe, was created on the hoof. I added about a bottle of Malbec red wine, about 4 oz butter, some black currant jelly, salt and pepper. 

Although I bought a book called “Exploring Sous Vide” it does not really give very good temperature times and instructions. However it is a good basic guide and some useful information. I think the bottom line is that this is a kitchen gadget not for the faint hearted, BUT himself has been seen using it, to cook chicken, which comes out beautifully moist. I have to admit I have not ventured onto eggs and fish, that will have to come ( if only I was at home long enough). I receive a news letter from the author of this book and I was amused to read one day the article titled” making the perfect drip coffee using the Sous Vide Machine”! I have to say I was amused, not sure I can wait 24 hours for my morning coffee to be ready!

One thing I forgot to say! My machine is controlled by my IPhone! ( Androids also work )