Offally Good Value

The daily news bulletins describing the horrendous state of the UK and world economy are understandably alarming and soul destroying. Belts are being tightened and the pennies counted but something positive has come of the monotonous monetary doom and gloom.

More and more people (myself included) are turning to cheaper cuts of meat and the resurgence of offal related recipes. Nose to Tail fortnight (in association with Sustain) kicks off in May to celebrate this and top chefs will be encouraged to use meat more thoughtfully and less wastefully and diners persuaded to experiment and branch out into dishes with less favoured - but no less flavoured (see what I did there) - meats.

I know that a lot of budding amateur chefs have been cooking all sorts of animal bits for some time, however this is somewhat new to me. My reaction was always the same as most people's is now. Mention a cheek, tail or tongue and their look turns to disgust, repulsed that anyone could put such a thing in their mouth. (The temptation to wade in with Tulisa related jibes is almost over powering - but I shall resist). A familiar retort is, 'if I didn't know what it was, I probably wouldn't mind'. When a friend recently sampled my Ox Cheeks in Plum Porter (scroll down and you'll find the recipe) they remarked that it tasted better than most expensive cuts they had tried. This may of course be the Porter - not the Ox.

Don't get me wrong, I do sometimes baulk when prepping. Making the afforementioned, the removal of facial hair (the animal's not mine) was a little disturbing but it was all worth it in the end. The key also was that my mate (he used to be known as the Beer Investigator but now goes by the name of Panna Cotta Price - but that's a whole new blog!) supplied me with enough cow face to feed my whole street - for just 2 quid.

I'm not sure I could eat the whole animal. As I write, Serious Eats have just posted a recipe that to be honest, sounds and looks horrific - Fried Pig's Ear Salad. A recent gift also endorsed this. Fergus Henderson's 'Nose To Tail Eating' (watch him shave and cook a pig's head) contains some fantastic recipes however Cold Lamb's Brains on Toast and Rolled Pigs Spleen really don't set my taste buds gushing.

I can honestly say that the ox cheeks have been a welcome revelation to me and have been used in a chilli and a curry since. For this my thanks to Panna Cotta Price. I shall keep going and attempt the whole animal. If you don't think about what it is you have put in your mouth you probably won't regret it. Tulisa?

Ox Cheeks and a Porter

I know I have been guilty of going on (and on and on...) on Twitter about Titanic's Plum Porter. For this, I make no apologies. This award winning addition to the Stoke-on-Trent brewery's fleet is exceptional. So imagine the jigs of delight (or maybe don't) when I heard that Morrison's were to stock a bottled version branded as Hedgerow Porter. At only £1.50 for a 500ml bottle it all seemed to good to be true!

Admittedly there was a little cynicism as it is rare for the pint over the bar to ever taste anything like that from the bottle. Such negativity was ill founded.

Dependent on how chilled you like your bottled ales it's only a matter of time till the natural plum flavour hits - basically, the colder the quicker.

The depth and strength of the beer I believed would lend itself perfectly to ox cheeks and a lengthy spell in the slow cooker. Simple and hearty and the Porter proves a perfect ingredient.

Put 4 roughly chopped ox cheeks (trimmed of fat and of course - moustache and beard) in the slow cooker. Add whatever veg you fancy and can fit but I used 2 chopped carrots and a stick of celery - also chopped, a diced onion and half a dozen cloves of garlic - peeled and pressed. Pour over the bottle of Plum, add a tablespoon of cocoa powder and a hefty pinch of celery salt and pepper. Stir, making sure the cheeks are covered in the liquid. If not - add more Porter!

Put the cooker on low and leave. I left mine for about 10 hours, stirringly occasionally and adding a little more seasoning and a pinch more cocoa towards the end.

Reserve about half of the remaining liquid and bring it to the boil, add a couple of slugs of a decent red wine and a good pinch of brown sugar. Reduce by half. I served (enough for 2 people in this instance) with sweet jacket potatoes, a dollop of soured cream and the reserved jus.

Maybe it is too good to be true. The Hedgerow is a limited edition so I suggest you get it while you can.

*Adapted from a recipe by Chow*

What are you waiting for Stoke-on-Trent?

For a considerable amount of time now my good friend Neil has continually recommended several food establishments that are a 'must' visit. On my recent trip to London, I was able to witness first hand exactly what it was that stimulated his taste buds so significantly – several of them in one day!

The night prior to our food fest, a visit to The Coach and Horses where simple yet exquisite food and a couple of excellent real ales (this night the bar held pristinely well kept Timothy Taylors and Hooky) served as an excellent pre-cursor to the delights that were in store the following day. My starter of hash brown with chorizo and a soft boiled egg a particular highlight yet there wasn’t one dish on the menu that I dismissed as unattractive either to the eye or the palate.

Our day of grazing began at Moolis. On all my London sorties bar none, a pilgrimage to the Indian street food bar is a standing item on the agenda. Recently taken over and due for imminent expansion my keema mini mooli didn’t disappoint as is always the case. Discussions ensued and are still continuing on the similarities between proper Staffordshire oatcakes and rotis. But more on that at a later date. The first recommended stop on the Foodathon was Pitt Cue Co. The small but beautifully formed restaurant and bar near Carnaby Street tends to have queues throughout most of the day and it isn’t difficult to see why. The menu is simple yet astounding.

Pulled pork, burnt end mash, house sausage, chipotle slaw, a slice of sourdough bread, all accompanied by the house pickled cucumber and onion. Normally not a dessert fan, I agreed to ‘sample’ the Sticky Toffee Pudding with a bourbon and caramel sauce. Those three words, ‘Sticky Toffee Pudding’ normally induce horrific flashbacks to school dinners and clumpy, stodgy slabs of gloop that need a glass of paint stripper to suitably wash down.

How wrong such presumptions were in this case. The pudding was rich but unbelievably light and the sauce was a revelation.




‘Sampling’ led to an empty plate. However, for me this wasn’t the extraordinary experience of my visit to Pitt Cue Co. As we meandered through the ever-bustling streets of the capital, it had been casually dropped into conversation that I HAD to try a Pickleback. Intrigued, my initial enthusiasm was somewhat dampened by the description of it’s constituent parts. A shot of bourbon immediately followed by a shot of the house pickling vinegar. No – really. It is a phenomenon. The mixture of the shots turns two extremes of taste into what can only be described as a liquid Big Mac.

You have to try it. A bottle of Kernel Pale Ale served as a very favourable chaser.


Our tour continued with a brief stop at a pop up food stall in Soho and a sweet pastry - a char sui filled delight – I’m quickly running out of superlatives. Let’s just say an immense little snack.


Onwards then to MEATLiquor. What started as some guys selling burgers from a van has turned into a restaurant where once again, queues at the door are a regular feature.


The building used to house a refined Italian restaurant but now has a vibrancy and energy that is enhanced by a continual buzz of happy and fulfilled diners and the constant scurrying of attentive waitresses. Satirical sketches and highly amusing quotes and instructions adorn the walls. We had a Dead Hippie burger – MEATLiquor’s take on a Big Mac - and a chicken burger - deep fried chicken pieces in a very thin batter with Frank’s red-hot chilli sauce.

With all due respect to other burgers I’ve had the pleasure of consuming, these pair were probably the best I’ve had the good fortune to sample and were washed down with lageritas and cideritas. The clues are in the names so I’ll let you work it out. Some drinks are served in jam jars ensuring the cocktail making procedure is quicker, quirkier and original.


Our day of significant food consumption concluded at Tsuru and a spicy scotch egg with shichimi salt, a portion of chicken kara-age -Tsuru’s delightful take on chicken nuggets- all washed down with a bottle of Asahi.


A common theme to this truly outstanding day was the simplicity of the food at every stop of our London grazing. All of the dishes sampled were no nonsense yet unique and small touches of originality either in presentation or preparation, make them exceptional.

Stoke-on-Trent take note...

A Hare Raising Experience

Ever walked into a pub where the first ‘patron’ to greet you is a hare with a shotgun? No…didn’t think so. Neither had I till I was ‘welcomed’ in such a way at The Three Stag’s Heads in Wardlow Mires. The hare is (of course) stuffed and seems to have kidnapped Barbie - whom he carries in his backpack. The bizarre yet highly amusing window decoration is testament to the local folklore that you always shoot the rabbit but never the hare.

Hunting in this area of the world is as much a part of the day as breakfast, lunch or dinner and the results normally form the staple part of those. Proof of this could be found behind the bar on a snowy Sunday lunchtime when I had the pleasure of visiting this remote pub. A dead grey squirrel, passionately despised by locals, is notoriously difficult to skin apparently and said squirrel was to be used as an experiment in how such a task could be made simpler (insert here discussion of bicycle pumps – no really!) and no doubt form the base ingredient of some ‘delicacy’ later.

The Three Stag’s Head is an incredible jewel in the Derbyshire real ale crown. About an hour drive from Stoke this pub is something to behold. The building is over 300 years old and has 2 stone flagged rooms, heated by open fires and frequented by (on this day) a war veteran and his son. The hare may have been an eye opener but the sight of an armoured car pulling onto the car park extended the brilliant bizarreness of the day. I felt firstly welcomed by the display of Titanic Stout bottles behind the bar (always a reliable back up should the real ale disappoint) and also the owner, manager and locals. You have to go outside to use your mobile, not because of some new Derbyshire law, simply because the belief is a quiet pint and chat with friends shouldn’t be ruined or interrupted by modern technology, an idea I would love to see rolled out to other venues.

Abbeydale Absolution (5.3%) was on the bar accompanied by its fellow brewery product Deception (4.1%). The former is a tangy and extremely pleasant session beer, the latter palatable but not of the same enjoyment. We finished with just a half of the house beer (a meaty 8%) Black Lurcher, affectionately named after one of the previous housedogs. Definitely not a session ale! Pottery is made in the stables and sold here too and I was assured that they are superb ware to cook with as they hold their heat incredibly.

Naturally the menu is adorned by local game and though time didn’t permit any sampling, the atmosphere, people, building itself and ale mean that I will definitely return.

I cannot guarantee war veterans and armoured cars, but what I can guarantee are an intimidating hare, a warm welcome (just don’t ask for Carlsberg!) and a hidden treasure.




The Three Stag's Heads
Wardlow Mires
Tideswell
Derbyshire
SK17 8RW

Only open Friday evening, all day Saturday and Sunday

Sheep's Intestine, Cheesecake & A Lost Little Girl

I haven't been lazy I promise. With gentle prompting from friends, relatives and other bloggers, I have constantly been reminded that I have recently posted about as regularly as Port Vale have won games. It isn't as if I haven't had anything to blog about either. Many an hour has been spent in the kitchen making new dishes and some particular favourites. More about the usual foodie things shortly, in the meantime please forgive my indulgence in a little non-culinary chat.

Time just seems to have run away from me and the mortgage paying bit of my life has become all encompassing. The opening of a new Community Health Centre in Cobridge, Stoke-on-Trent has been all consuming in my attention. This £14m NHS development is a real boost for the locality, not just the health of the local population. It also represents an example of how Stoke-on-Trent can be innovators as the new Sexual Health Centre on the site will house the first fully integrated sexual health service in the country. May not seem like much but for service users and the NHS it represents a major improvement in the delivery of treatment and will see preventative and health promotion activity advance dramatically. Great news for the area.

Anyway - back to the food. Following a visit to Stone food and Drink Festival, amongst many of the delights purchased was haggis. Having no real idea what to do with it and following a few suggestions from the twitter community I made a lasagne. Delicious is an understatement and I will definitely be making it again. Other attempted dishes (some with dire consequences - I'm still learning) have included mint marinated lamb with a blueberry gravy - a succulent and different take on a traditional dish, oriental swordfish steaks - a tangy, meaty and new dish to me, lobby (of course - tis the season!) and a White Chocolate and Espresso Cheesecake. I'd love to be able to tell you how this hugely anticipated dessert tasted, however...

On completion of said cheesecake, a quick dash to the local shop was required (for what I have no recollection - probably a Merlot emergency!). Upon my return, my creation was nowhere to be seen - just a very clean dish. Basford is not renowned for dessert thieves and my kitchen cupboards never normally get hungry. Had I dreamt the couple of hours of kitchen endeavour? Also nowhere to be seen was my canine friend also known as Mia. Upon summoning, she slinked her way down the stairs and into my cheesecakeless kitchen. First fears that she may have rabies soon diminished when I put two and two together and of course made a disheartened four. She was saved a vocal berating firstly by the highly satisfied but guilty look on her face but also due to the fact I had only 'found her' a couple of days before - after she had 'disappeared'.

For those of you that follow me on Twitter you will be aware of the saga over a three day period. Several years ago when I didn't own any form of pet I would have had no understanding of the upset of losing a dog. I certainly do now. Thank you so much to everyone that helped search for her and sent messages on Facebook and so on. It was all a very strange sequence of events accentuated by the fact that apparently over that same weekend two other cross bred huskies 'disappeared' in the area. The conclusion of the Littlest Hobo scenario was a man calling me from a phone box (who uses a phone box these days?) saying he had found her TWO DAYS prior but only noticed her tag that day. The Hercule Poirot in me reckons she may have been taken, the phone box fiend was looking to sell her but then she scoffed his cheesecake - or in his case probably an Arctic roll - and he wanted rid quickly...

On the food and drink related front the blog will return to normality in future, featuring a visit to St Stefanus brewery in Belgium and numerous exciting projects with top journalist and food blogger Neil Davey including a day in a proper commercial kitchen.

And finally...a plea. If you haven't tried Titanic's Plum Porter...why!? I implore you to try this bold, rich beer. The plum is evident but not too overpowering as can sometimes be the case in other ales.

The Bone Collector

I have never been blinkered to the fact that my knowledge in the kitchen or the restaurant is limited and it has become almost an obsession of mine to learn more.

That learning curve took a huge upward swerve recently when I was invited to Beef and Simpsons – on the same day! I had never been to a Michelin star restaurant before and the excitement was mixed with a little trepidation. I have always had the misguided view that such high brow dining would be stuffy and reserved, a library like atmosphere where a mere utterance to a fellow diner would be greeted by scowls from the waiting staff and utter contempt from regular customers.

I could not have been more wrong. Simpsons has a relaxed air, a genuine feeling that you are part of some wonderful dining experience, where the chatter of those gathered is a fundamental part of the meal and not to be frowned upon.


More on Simpsons later, however the lunchtime treat was Beef. Situated in Kenilworth, it has an unassuming façade and the clue to what’s inside really is in the name.


Andreas Antona had a vision when opening Beef and the New York Steak House style really does work. The décor makes no attempts to disguise the delights of the menu either.

You are greeted by beautiful cuts of different meats as soon as you walk in, displayed for your perusal and aiding your choice when ordering. Expecting my choice to be limited by the obvious, I was pleasantly surprised by the wonderful range of options available on the menu although there was never any doubt that, as a steak lover, I would be tempted to stray.

It isn’t difficult to see why Beef was voted in the top 10 steak houses in the UK. All meats are aged for a minimum of 21 days and I was able to sample the Wagyu (Japanese cattle fed on beer mash and sake), the fragrant USDA (US Cattle fed on more grass giving the extra flavour) and a Highland variety. All had surprisingly different qualities, marbling and texture and all were sumptuous.

The supporting cast of Roasted Marrowbone and finishing off with a palate cleansing bon bon made for an exceptional lunch. When you can also get 2 courses for £12.95 at lunchtime, such a high class and quality venue doesn’t have to be to the detriment of your wallet.

The evening leg of our mini Birmingham tour took us to Simpsons – Beef’s sister restaurant. Set in a beautiful building in Edgbaston, the whole place has a feel of splendour but not in an overpowering or condescending way. The finer details – every member of staff remembered the first names of our party after one brief introduction – ensured a comfortable introduction to the finest dining.

A pre-starter of Israeli cous cous, squid, squid ink, Greek lemons and silver leaf was one hell of an insight into what was to come. I will let Neil do the food justice in his own inimitable style and imminent recounting of the numerous courses. This wasn’t just about the exemplary food and incredible accompanying wines. The whole experience lifted dining to a whole new level for me. Previously occupied by the stereotypical view that I would immediately need another meal after leaving a restaurant such as this, I instead left satiated, amazed and desperate to learn more.


And again at £37.50 for a set 3 course evening meal, you won’t need to bother the bank manager in order to dine there.

I referenced a gherkin in a previous post and promised an explanation. On tasting one dish I was asked by a companion what the delicacy adorning my fork was. Although it looked and tasted like none before I KNEW it was a gherkin yet my lack of confidence in my own taste buds and culinary eye lead to mutterings and shame. However, I know that I am learning and thanks to James, Neil and all at the aforementioned establishments, I am receiving a very helping hand along the way.

What came first? The chicken or...

...The can?

Enough steak to feed a football team √
Fingerfood feasts worthy of Kings to add to a vibrant table √
Sultry Septima Malbec to accompany √
Back up assorted bottles and cans √
Family and friends gathered √
Barbecue fired up √
Beautiful view of the Peak District – see below
Weather – ermmmm

On the whole the checklist matched up to expectation. Several days of investigation and enquiry had lead to many a pondered moment over what was – at the end of the day - a barbecue. And many hours of glorious sunshine had given way to typical British weather.

What fascinates me most about barbecues is partially what Neil has to say regarding the same occasion, but mainly the preparation. No matter to what extent, whether a few quick burgers and a coal degraded sausage, or (as in our case) supreme steak, marinated pork tenderloin, an alcoholically abused chicken, absurdly delightful guacamole, Niamh’s ribs (not literally) and another whole host of delights including suggestions from such respected contributors as Mr C – the preplanning is often much the same.

You can pretty much guarantee that on a steaming hot Saturday Summer afternoon (dependent on random football/rugby/cricket matches), your local ASDA, Sainsbury’s, Tescos et al, will be teeming with middle-aged men debating whether chipolatas are ok and whether to buy submarine rolls or baps. In our case, the ripeness of a lime or the relevant pros and cons of shallots or bog standard onions prevailed. This is not the result of some regurgitated Jamie style ‘cooking=man=testosterone=hero programme’ but the desire to set fire to things.

I love barbecues. Fact. There is something about the charred flesh of what’s cooking accompanied by the charred flesh/sun tan cream aroma of people gathered close by that have come to define good and bad weather.

This feast was exceptional. Summed up by none other than my Mum. She proclaimed like some self-confessed oven chip addict, that she had ‘never had a spare rib in her life’. The fact that the ribs were beautifully bathed in a coffee marinade added more to her pleasure. The ribs fell away from the bone, the wine soaked tenderloin induced ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’, the steak added more superlatives, especially when accompanied by Kitchen’s at Horsley Beetroot and Horseradish Sauce…on a submarine roll.

As we approach possibly the last hope of a BBQ weekend, I implore you - stick a can of lager up the rear end of a chicken and then stand back and admire your rather strange culinary expertise.

Success is judged by so many things when cooking. An empty plate or repeated belches just to name a couple. In this case, one of our party was apparently perusing websites the following day ordering the Malbec, my nephew had interrogated my sister about all things Carling and Chicken, my Mum had broken her ribs... abstinence. And my Dad. He had a chicken experience several years ago at a BBQ that lead to sponsorship from Armitage Shanks. The aesthetics of my dish as it stood ashamedly on the barbie didn’t exactly inspire confidence but he was seen with a gob full of chicken late into the night.

Chicken & Can recipe
Cover a chicken in all the spices, herbs, chillies, garlic etc you want.
Bang it in the fridge over night
Drink half a can of lager
Stick remaining can of lager up chicken cavity – still in the can
Stand upright on BBQ for about ¾ hour depending on the size of your bird*
*Author accepts no responsibility for cooking times