Bread Sauce

There's never enough bread sauce, and I think Delia's recipe is one of the best. It reheats well and I think it suits cold meats of all sorts. I've modified it a bit, though, both to make better use of the onions and to ensure you have enough for the turkey (or goose or whatever) on the day, and for a couple of days afterwards.

Ingredients
2 large onions
lots of cloves - try 8–10 per onion half
2 bay leaves
black peppercorns
2 pints of full cream milk (although semi-skimmed will work)
4 oz butter
8 oz of breadcrumbs (some bread whizzed up in your food-processor is ideal)
4 tablespoons of double cream

Preparation
Start this the day before you need the sauce. Put the milk in a pan and add the bay leaves and peppercorns. Cut the onions in half and stud the round surface with cloves and put them in the milk. The onion will float flat side up so the cloves need to be on the underside. Warm the milk until it's about to boil and then remove from the heat, cover and leave it overnight.

The following day, remove the onions and bay leaves and keep them handy—chasing around after the peppercorns is a bit fiddly so I leave them in. Add the breadcrumbs to the infused milk and stir over a low heat for fifteen minutes or so.

Pick the cloves out of the onions and throw the cloves away. Carefully chop the onions; they'll be soggy with milk and very slippery and fry them gently in half the butter until they're as cooked as you like them, adding a twist or two of black pepper. Add them to the milk and breadcrumbs.

Beat in the remainder of the butter and the cream and season if necessary.

Pete Wright
Portsmouth

Turkey Soup

The highlight of the Christmas Turkey for me is the Turkey Soup you make with the carcass. Distilling the very essence of the bird down into a golden nectar that is fit for the very gods themselves.

---

The Stock

Ingredients

• Turkey Carcass Including any bits of stuffing still hanging about. Try to keep some meat on the bird when stripping it. The more meat, the more flavor.
  
• 1 Carrot split in half length ways
  
• 2 sticks of celery
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 2 bay leaves
  
• 12 black peppercorns
• salt

Preparation

• Break the carcass up and put them in a stock pot or other large pan fit for the job.
• Add the rest of the ingredients
• Cover with water & bring to a simmer
• Skim off any scum that floats to the top and simmer for two hours
• Using a sieve lined with a piece of paper kitchen towel strain the stock, replacing the towel periodically
• Discard the debris.

---

The Soup

Ingredients

• 1 lb (450g) of vegetables per pint of stock - (a mix of carrots, leeks, swede, celery & onions) chopped
• 1 heaped tsp of Turkey Dripping or butter per lb (450g) of vegetables
• Salt & freshly milled black pepper

Preparation

• Melt the dripping or butter in a large pan and sweat the chopped vegetables, with the lid on, on a low heat for 10 minutes.
• Add the stock and leave to simmer gently for 1 1/2 hours
• Liquidise the soup in batches
• Season to taste

1 pint will serve about 4 people. If eating over several days, keep in a cool place and bring to the boil for around 5 minutes every day, to stop it turning.

Optionally add chopped cooked turkey meat to the soup before serving and a spot of cream.

Blogged with Flock

Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta and Marsla Wine

I caught this recipe on Nigella Lawson's TV show last year. Even sprout haters will love this one.

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 pounds Brussels sprouts
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 9 ounces pancetta, rind removed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons butter
• About 8 to 9 ounces vacuum-packed chestnuts
• 2 fluid ounces Marsala wine
• 1 large handful fresh parsley, chopped, divided
• Freshly ground black pepper

Cooking

• Parboil the Brussels sprouts for 5 minutes

• Take pan off the heat and drain the excess water

• Heat oil in a largepan. Add the pancetta and cook until crisp and golden, but not cooked to the point of having dried out.

• Add butter and chestnuts and use a wooden spoon or spatula, press down on them, breaking them into pieces.

• Once the chestnuts have warmed through, increase the heat up and add the Marsala.

• Cook until reduced and thickened slightly.

• Add the sprouts and half the parsley to the saucepan and mix well. Season the Brussels sprouts with freshly ground black pepper.

To serve, place the Brussels sprouts onto a warmed serving plate and sprinkle the remaining chopped parsley over the top.

Traditional Roast Turkey

To some, the traditional Christmas dinner is a daunting proposition, with a myriad things to juggle to get that fat bird on the table. However, with a little organisation, and a copy of Delia Smith's Christmas, cooking the perfect bird every time is a doddle.

On the night before Christmas Eve make up a batch of Cranberry Sauce ready for the big day. That'll be one less thing to do on Christmas morning.

Liking a leisurely Christmas, we eat Christmas Dinner at around 3 o'clock as such the timings that follow are geared around hitting that mark. For an earlier, or even later fare, adjust them accordingly.

Ingredients

• 1 x 6.5 kg (14lb) turkey, oven ready (I'd recomend getting a Bronze turkey if possible)
• 175g (6oz) softened butter
• 225g (8 oz) verys fat streaky bacon
• Salt (preferably Maldon) and freshly milled black pepper
• Stuffing
• Extra wide Turkey Foil

Timetable

8:45 a.m

• Pre-heat the oven to 220C (gas mark 7, 425F)

• Stuff the bird, packing the neck end then putting the rest in the body cavity. N.b. if you use the body cavity then please ensure that both turkey and stuffing are defrosted properly. Failure to do so can be dangerous. If in doubt, just stuff the neck.

• Arrange two sheets of foil across the roasting tin, one widthwise and one length wise. Allow for enough to make a nice tent for the bird.

• Lay the turkey on it's back in the centre then rub all over with your softened butter. Pay special attention to the thigh bones.

• Season the bird all over with salt and pepper.

• Lay the bacon in overlapping rows over the breast.

• Wrap the turkey loosely in the foil. Sealed firmly but allowing for an airspace around most of the upper part of the bird.

9:15 a.m.

• Place the turkey in the pre-heated oven. It will cook at this high temperature for 40 minutes.

• While it is cooking peel the potatoes and cover in cold water ready for roasting, and prepare the bread sauce.

9:55 a.m.

• Drop the oven temperature to 170C (325F, gas mark 3)

• Relax. All is now well in the Christmas world for the next couple of hours. So drink a glass of wine, eat some breakfast and unwrap those presents!

12:30 p.m.

If you're having chipolatas and / or bacon rolls, then now is the time to roll with it and get them prepared.

• Brush a shallow baking sheet with oil and arrange the sausages in rows.

• Stretch the bacon rashers, rind removed, out as far as possible, roll them very tightly before threading them on long flat skewers. Place them next to the chipolatas ready to go into the oven later.

13:30 p.m.

• Increase the oven temperature to 200C

• Take the turkey out of the oven

• Remove the foil from the top and sides

• Take off the bacon pieces, put them on a tray and return them to the oven

• Give the bird a damn good basting

• return it to the oven for a further 30-45 minutes to finish browning basting as frequently as possible

13:45 p.m.

• Parboil the potatoes for 10 minutes then drain.

• Put the lid back on the saucepan and shake vigorously, giving the spuds a fluffy edgde to them.

• Take a solid roasting tin and add some lard, or, as we prefer, some goose fat.

• Place on a direct heat till it sizzles.

• Add the potatoes and baste them with the hot fat.

• Put the tin in the oven with the turkey.

14:00 p.m.

• Take a 2nd roasting tin and add 3 tbsp of oil and 1tbsp of butter

• Place over a direct heat

• When hot add and baste the parsnips

14:15 p.m.

• Remove the Turkey from the oven and increase the temperature to 230C (450F, gas mark 8).

• Transfer the turkey to a warm serving plate to let it relax for up to 50 minutes covered in foil to keep it warm.

• Place the parsnips on the middle shelf of the oven, and the chipolatas / bacon rolls at the bottom.

• Pour the wonderful turkey fat into a ceramic heat proof container. Don't waste it.

14:30 p.m.

• Turn the sausages, chipolatas, bacon rolls over

14:45 p.m.

• Par boil the sprouts for 5 to 6 minutes. Either serve them al-dente or cook them as per the recipe for Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta and Marsla Wine (a much better idea).

• Carve the turkey and serve up.
  

15:00 p.m.

• Bone apetite !!!
  

Cranberry Sauce

There's nothing better with your Christmas turkey than home made cranberry sauce.

Ingredients

• 225g (8oz) Cranberries

• 100g (4oz) Demerara (or other brown) Sugar

• grated rind and juice of 1 orange. Alternatively you can also use a fresh good quality orange juice here. Just add a glass full and reduce a bit more if the sauce is too thick. This year I used Tropicana Cranberry Blend, and the result was superb.
  

• glass of port (85-120 ml / 3-4 fl oz)

Preparation

• Put the cranberries, sugar orange rind, orange juice and port in a pan.
• Stir it over a gentle heat until the sugar disolves.
• Simmer for 5-8 minutes untill the cranberries are soft and the sauce has thickened.
• Allow to cool, then poor into a rigid container.

This sauce keeps up to a week in the fridge or for up to 2 months in the freezer.

When quality cranberry sauce is so easy to make, there's no reason to use the shop bought variety, other than a lack of cranberries that is.

Drinkies

Here are some off-beat Christmas wine suggestions.

The Times is running a '100 Winter Wines' series at the moment and rather than try to kill my liver matching that before Christmas, I thought I'd point you in the direction of some of my current favourites. A 'favourite' may, of course, be enjoyed no matter what the season. Or it wouldn't qualify as being a favourite now, would it?

First there are three kinds of wine without details of maker or vintage; go with what you can find. Then I've listed two specific wines that I'll be opening this Christmas. Here we go:

Tokaji Azsú - Hungary - White

Tokaji comes from Hungary and has a long and distinguished history. It's a sweet, golden wine, refreshingly sharp, too, made with Hárslevelu and Furmint grapes some of which been affected by noble rot, caused by a fungus called botryitis cinerea. This reduces the water content of the grape and concentrates its flavour. It also means that it takes considerably more grapes to make a given quantity of wine. The measure of sweetness is given as a number of 'puttonyos'; which will be between 3 and 6. The larger the number, the sweeter the wine. There is a category beyond 6 puttonyos called Aszú-Eszencia, but that's rare stuff indeed.

It is usually sold in 50cl bottles rather than 75cl ones. Expect to pay between ten and twenty quid (or more) per bottle. It's really good with nice cheese, but do put it in the fridge for a couple of hours before you serve it.

Madeira - Portugal - Brown

Hailing from the island of Madeira, surprise, surprise. Almost always a blend of different vintages (vintage Madeira is very unusual and somewhat costly). Originally used as tradeable ships ballast, madeira was transported around the world in the hot holds of ships in days gone by. This caused it to oxidize as completely as a wine can, which is why it is the way it is. These days the same effect is reproduced by storing the wine in heated cellars to mature. A bottle of Blandy's 10 year old Malmsey has always been a popular tipple here at Chateau Wright. We also once had a bottle of Henriques' Malmsey which was pretty good, too.

Drier madeira may be labelled 'Sercial' or 'Verdelho' and the sweeter ones 'Bual' or 'Malmsey'—the classic four varieties of madeira.

Recioto della Valpolicella - Italy - Red

Once upon a time, if you suggested to your friends that a bottle with the word 'Valpolicella' on the label was worth coughing up more than a fiver for, you'd be taken away for a well-earned rest somewhere. Let's get this straight. This is not the same beast at all. It's a rich red wine made from partially dried grapes, so the flavour is quite concentrated. This is not something you're ever likely to find in the bargain bucket - expect to pay around twenty quid or so for a good one.

Masi make a good one (try Oddbins - it'll be around £22 for a 75cl bottle), but the best one I tasted was from a 50cl bottle (at a fairly stiff seventeen quid from a now-defunct wine shop in Lechlade, if I recall correctly) and tasted like liquid blackberries. Gorgeous, and well worth the asking price. I think it was "Recioto della Valpolicella 'Le Arele'" from producer Giuseppe Lonardi - the label, description, bottle size and price are hauntingly familiar on the winedrop.co.uk site, but I'm not 100% sure - it was a few years ago and, like an idiot, I didn't make a note. If they would be so kind as to send me a free bottle - or, preferably, a free case, just to be sure, I'd be delighted to confirm it.

Cune Rioja Reserva 2001 - Red - Spain

I'd been itching to try this. Anne (my wife) worked for a short while in Spain a few years ago and Cune was one of the vineyards we had seen on our travels. I've always wanted to try this one because it has a good reputation, and I finally got the chance to do so last week in Majestic's in Salisbury. I did try an approximately equivalent claret but because I was driving, I couldn't go overboard with the comparisons. The Cune wine beat that particular claret hands down. Eleven quid a bottle and six quid off the pair if you buy two.

At Majestic you buy your wines by the case, i.e. 12 or more bottles at a time. Don't be shy - it's perfectly OK to go in with or without an idea of wines you like, and if the range of the wines gets your head buzzing, then get the chaps there to help you make up a case. It's quite fun from time to time to ask a wine merchant to make up a case for you. You can end up trying and liking wines you had no idea existed.

Villa Maria Reserve, Wairau Valley, Sauvignon Blanc 2006 - White - New Zealand

Anne and I took a friend out to dinner in the truly excellent Green Island Restaurant in Jersey - the most southerly restaurant in the British Isles. The meal was wonderful and we drank this. This is the only time I've ever ordered another bottle of the same wine during a meal. My tastes usually run to big red wines redolent of prunes and toadskin, but this is a gorgeous floral and very tasty white. Chill it well, like the Tokay I mentioned above. For goodness sake don't use it to wash your curry down!

Again, eleven quid a bottle from Majestic, and they drop the price to £8.79 for two or more. I bought four bottles this time because I know I like it a lot and it's a damned sight cheaper than restaurant prices! There are other Villa Maria wines available at Tesco, and they're worth a go. But, if you can run to it, the Wairau Valley is particularly good.

In Conclusion

None of these wine are cheap, but in my opinion they're pretty good and worth your attention. Enjoy, and do let me know what you think.

One thing I've learned over the years is not to combine good port (which I haven't covered this time) and good stilton. I think it's a waste of both. I love both port and stilton, but not at the same time. They're both highly aromatic and very tasty, and I think each destroys the other's strengths.

Perhaps I'll have a crack at some good wines under six quid soon. I can think of a couple that need to be tested again...

Have a good Christmas!

Pete Wright
Portsmouth

Oriental Pork

Feeds two. My mum has been cooking this for almost as long as I can remember. There has never been any left over.

Don't go overboard getting rid of the fat - the acidic marinade likes to have something to work on. And yes, the marinade should smell as though it could dissolve the mixing bowl, teaspoon, your nostril hairs and anything else it comes into contact with. It's worth experimenting with different mustards, vinegars, sugars and quantities of chili powder and pepper to get the pungency and heat level you like.

Ingredients
500g shoulder or spare rib pork chops, excess fat removed and cut into 1” chunks ('Value' diced pork is ideal for this recipe)
2 level tsp mustard powder
1 level tsp soft brown sugar
1 tbsp white vinegar (or balsamic etc.)
1 level tsp salt
half a level tsp ground black pepper
half a level tsp ground ginger
quarter level tsp chili powder
3 tablespoons Worcester or soy sauce

Preparation
Put pork into shallow ovenproof dish in one layer. In a small bowl, blend mustard and ginger with the water then stir in the sugar, vinegar, salt, pepper, ground ginger, cayenne pepper and soy or Worcester sauce. Pour the sauce over the pork, making sure the meat is well coated, cover and leave in a cool place overnight.

Next day remove cover and bake in the centre of a fairly hot oven, 400ºF or gas mark 6, for twenty minutes, then lower the heat to 350ºF or gas mark 4 for about one hour.

If you increase the quantity of meat, double the amount of marinade. You might want to do this anyway to give a little more sauce.

Pete Wright
Portsmouth

Chicken with Tomatoes and Fresh Basil

Here's my reinvention of this particular wheel.

Ingredients

• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• 5 shallots coarsely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 tsp demerara sugar
• 6 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 3 generous heaped tbsp fresh basil
• 3 chicken breasts
• 5 tbsp plain flour
• salt
• black pepper

Preparation
Chop the shallots and the garlic, heat the olive oil and fry in a saute pan until translucent. Stir in the demerara sugar, salt and black pepper and continue to fry gently for five minutes or so. Add the tin of tomatoes and keep the mixture simmering gently.

Shred three of the six rashers of bacon fairly finely and fry them in a large pan with a lid until you have nearly-crispy bacon bits. Remove from the heat and move the bacon bits to one side of the pan, tilt it and allow the oil to drain off to the other side of the pan. After a couple of minutes, remove the drained bacon bits and add them all to the saute pan with the shallots and tomatoes.

Mix 5 tbsp plain flour, 1 tsp salt and a good twist or three of black pepper together and coat the chicken breasts with it. Fry them until golden brown in the large pan with the now bacon-flavoured olive oil. This may take ten to fifteen minutes.

Once the chicken breasts are nicely browned, lay a rasher of bacon on each one, transfer the sauce from the saute pan to the large pan and cover the chicken breasts with it. Put the lid on the pan.

After twenty minutes or so, shred the basil (tear it, don't cut it - I have no idea why) and add it to the pan for the final ten minutes of cooking. Serve and enjoy. It goes pretty well with peas and a spot of plain basmati rice.

Pete Wright
Portsmouth

French Onion Soup

After my last unhealthy cooking recipe, here's one to balance the cosmic scales, French Onions Soup. I mean, Onions are a member of the same family as garlic, and garlic is brimful of goodness. And it keeps vampires away too.

Once again I've delved into Lloyd Grossman's The 125 Best Recipes Ever this time a contribution from Patience Gray and Primrose Boyd's cookery book Plats Du Jour.

Ingredients

About 50g/2oz butter or beef dripping

450g/1lb sliced Spanish Onions

1 small Bay Leaf

1 clove

Salt, Pepper and Brown Sugar

2 Pints of Beef Stock (I tend to use shop bought boullion for convenience)

Some dried slices of Bread

Grated cheese (if possible Gruyere)

Preparation

Melt most of the butter with a little oil in a pan and fry gently until golden

Add the bay leaf, salt pepper and brown sugar then crumble in the knob of the clove.

Heat the Beef Stock and add it to the onions. Simmer for at least half an hour and enjoy the oniony smell wafting through your house.

About 10 minutes before you plan to eat, fry the dry bread slices in another pan. When golden sprinkle the grated cheese on top and put in the bottom of your soup bowls. Pour in the soup and serve more grated chees on the side (there goes the healthy part of the dish). Alternatively, float your bread bits on the soup while still in the pan, sprinkle on the cheese and let it bubble. The heat will slowly melt the cheese. When it has melted, remove carefully to your bowls and again ladle over the soup.

The steriotypical frenchman, as seen on Alo Alo, is normally portrayed with a string of onions around there neck. Having eaten this soup I can understand why.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Arguably two of the finest contributions to the art of the sweet snack from America are the Cookie and the Brownie. The best brownie recipe I've come across is in a Sue Lawrence cookbook and I'll blog that later. The finest chocolate chip cookie recipe I've come across is in Lloyd Grossman's The 125 Best Recipes Ever, which in turn is taken from The Wolfgang Puck Cookbook by, surprisingly enough, Wolfgang Puck.

Ingredients

100g (4oz) Unsalted Butter

75g/3 oz Sugar

75g/3 oz Brown Sugar

1 tsp good quality Vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

275g/100 oz Plain Flour sifted

1/4 tsp baking soda disolved in 2 tsp of warm water

100g/4 oz Chopped Nuts - Optional - being a purist I tend to leave out the nuts.

175g/6oz Chocolate chips - I think if you leave out the nuts you are honour bound to increase this to 200g. Better still buy 200g of good quality chocolate and chop it into largeish chunks.

Use dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocoalte or a mixture.

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.

First off bring the butter to room temperature in a mixing bowl. Then cream it with a mixture until light. With the mixer on a low setting slowly add the sugars, vanilla, salt, egg, flour and disolved baking soda. Mix until just blended. Stir in the chocolate and, if used, the nuts.

If the dough is too soft put it in the fridge till it stiffens a bit (something I've never needed to do).

Divide the dough up into equally sized portions. The original recipe says that the above quantities make about 36 cookies, but being a big cookie fan I tend to make between 9 and 12.

Form the portions into balls with your hands and place on a baking sheet leaving roughly 2 inches between each (the cookies grow considerably during cooking so need th space).

Bake in the oven for 15 to 17 minutes. Let them cool in the pan then transfer to a rack. The optimum time for eating is 15 minutes after they came out of the oven when they are still a little warm. Lacking preservatives the cookies wont last more than a couple of days, but hey I don't think that's going to be a problem, you'll be lucky if they last longer than a couple of minutes. Store in an airtight container.

Freshly baked Puck cookies a warm September evening with a glass of cold milk. Mmmm could be a midsummer nights dream....

Itihaas Birmingham

Itihaas won the award for Best Restaurant in the Midlands and the top award of Best in the UK in the 2007 Good Curry Guide. The visit of the Red Dwarf and family to the UK was therefore a good excuse to give it a try. Dosas, Indian Lamb Chops and Carrot Cake were all excellent as was the smoked aubergine veggy option.

Service was a little slow but the Indian music piped through the sound system was very good for once.

Curry Fever Leicester

Another visit to Leicester, another trip to Curry Fever.

As usual the Fever's signature dishes of Jeera Chicken, Pili Pili Chicken Masala and Kenyan chicken waranted their normal 11 out of 10 ratings on the taste front. Unfortunately though the Flute Cafe is now sourced from a dfferent supplier in Italy and is now a pale shadow of its former glory. Still an excellent meal though, in the best Indian restaurant in Leicester and one of the finest in the Midlands.

Roast Chicken

There is nothing better in the world of food than a simple dish cooked simply with the best quality ingredients. A good Carbonarra made with the best Pancetta and free range eggs. or a homely roast chicken. Last night I got a craving for roast chicken and so turned to Simon Hopkinson and Lindsay Bareham's excellent cookery book Roast Chicken and Other Stories. The title dish of this book is of the best ways of roasting a chicken I've come across. Simple to cook, but tasty in the extreme

Ingredients

1.8kg (4lb) free range chicken
110g/4oz butter at room temperature
Salt (preferably Maldon Sea Salt) & Freshly Ground Black Pepper
1 lemon
A couple of sprigs of thyme, tarrogon or a mixture of the two
1 crushed clove of Garlic

Cooking

• Preheat the oven to 230 degrees C (450 F, Gas Mark 8)

• Cover the bird with butter and put it in a genrous sized roasting tin

• Season with the salt and pepper

• Halve the lemon and squeeze  juice over the bird

• Stuff the bird with the herbs, garlic and lemon halves

• Roast the chicken initially for 15 minutes at the high temperature

• Baste then reduce the temperature to 190 degress C (375 F, Gas Mark 5) and roast for about another 45 minutes, basting occaisionally. N.B. To ensure that the bird is cooked, insert a skewer or knife and press on the flesh. If the juices released are clear it is cooked, if they are red or pinkish in colour then continue cooking.

• Rest the roast bird for at least 15 minutes prior to carving to let the juices settle.

As it cooks your house will slowly fill with the fragrence of lemon and herbs which should get the mouth watering. The juices left in the pan, infused with the taste of lemon, garlic and the herbs, will make an excellent gravy for your bird. A variation popular in Italy is to 'wet roast' the bird by adding a little wine, chicken stock or water to the tin before roasting. This sauce can be further suplemented with the adition of mushrooms (porcini would be great), tomatoes, additional herbs, diced bacon, cream, spices  (both saffron and ginger go well) or anything else you can think of.

If Sherlock Holmes was asked by his sidekick, why this dish tastes so good, he'd probably say "A lemon entry my dear Watson".

Teriyaki Sauce

Teriyaki no Tare

Teriyak is the name of a grilling technique. Teri means glossy and yaki translates to grilling. The original version of teriyake no tare yaki no tare (teriyaki basting sauce) contained only shoyu (soy sauce), mirin (sweet cooking wine) and sometimes sugar.

Why use the sickly substance that passes for teriyaki sauce on supermarket shelves, when it is so easy to make the real McCoy yourself.

To make it you will need: -

Ingredients
200ml (1 cup) Mirin (sweet cooking wine)
100ml (1/2 cup) Shoyu (Soy Sauce)
1 1/2 - 2 tbsp Caster Sugar

Preperation

• Add the mirin to a pan and heat over a low heat for 1-2 minutes.

• Add the soy and sugar and simmer for another couple of minutes.

Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

Variations

For variation you can add other seasoning to your sauce. Honey, grated ginger, grated garlic , chopped scallions, fruit juice, fresh or dried chilli or chilli bean sauce (toban jiang). Experiment to make your own signature teriyaki sauces.

Here's another varient that also includes sake (rice wine).

Ingredients

100ml (1/2 cup) Mirin (sweet cooking wine)
50ml (1/4 cup) Sake (Rice Wine)
50ml (1/4 cup) Shoyu (Soy Sauce)
2 tbsp Sugar

Preparation

• Heat the Mirin & Sake in a small saucepan over a medium heat for 5 minutes.

• Add the Shoyu & Sugar, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.

• Simmer over a low heat for 25 minutes.

• Let the sauce cool.It can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.

So go ahead and make your teriyake. And remember, the baste is yet to come.

Japanese Store Cupboard

The following is a list of basic Japanese cooking ingredients that you should have in your store cupboard if you intend to any Japanese Cooking. If you don't have a local Japanese foodstore (highly likely in the UK unless you live in London) you can obtain some from Asia shops. Failing that see the list of websites at the end of this post.




Fish Sauce (nam pla) - Nam Pla is a condiment made from fermented fish.

Hoisin Sauce - Also known as Chinese Barbeque Sauce this is made from fermented soybeans, garlic, vinegar, and chilli peppers.


Mirin - Mirin is a kind of rice wine similar to sake, but with less alcohol. It has a slightly sweet taste.


Miso - Miso is made by fermenting rice, barley and/or soybeans, with salt and the mold kojikin (usually miso is made with soy). It is generally a thick paste and when combined with Dashi stock forms the basis of Miso Soup.



There are many different varieties of miso, ranging in flavour from salty, sweet, earthy, fruity, and savoury. Common varieties include: -

• Red (akamiso)
• White (shiromiso)
• Medium (awase miso)
• Sweet (saikyo miso)
  

Rice Vinegar - Rice vinegar is made from fermented rice or rice wine. Other than in Japan it is also made in China and Korea.

Sake - Sake is a Japanese rice wine

Soy Sauce - Soya sauce is a fermented sauce made from soya beans, roasted grain, water and salt. Two varieties are normally sold, light and the stronger dark. With the Chinese varieties the light is often called Superior Soy and the dark Soy Superior.

Shichimi - Shichimi, a.k.a. Seven-Spice Powder, a Japanese spice mixture made of a magnificent seven (or is that seven samurai?) ingredients.

• round red chili pepper
• Mandarin orange peel
• Sesame Seed
• Poppy Seed
• Hemp Seed
• Nori or Aonori
• Ground Sansho (related to Sichuan pepper)

Shichimi is also known as nanami togarashi outside of Japan.

Tamari - Tamari is, like soy sauce, a dark sauce made from the soybean, but is thicker. It has a mild flavor and is normally used as a table condiment, as a dip, or for basting.

Wasabi - Wasabi is a, blow your head off, condiment made from Horse Radish. Use sparingly with caution.

A Taste of Imli

As Indian restaurants go Imli is a bit different. Specialising in Indian Tapas, Imli has a clean cut modern design with a buzz reminicent of Birmingham's Balti land (Or a very large bee). Imli won the best Indian award in the 2007 Good Curry Guide. See my post on the awards for details of the other winners.

For my meal I opted for A Taste of Imli, an ever changing selection of 4 dishes chosen by the chef that give you a taster of what the restaurant has to offer.

First off two starters, a spicy fish dish, amsitsari fish (batter fried tilapia) served with a mint dip and spiced potato cakes with ginger chilli and tamarind (as an aside Imli in Hindi means Tamarind and the owners also run a Michelin starred restaurant of that name) sauce. Both were excellent, so far so good.

Next a chicken dish, Chicken Dungar (didn't he used to play for Brazil?) with rice. Again very good although the paratha I had on the side could have been a tad crisper.

Finally my palate was cleansed with a superb mango and basil sorbet washed down with some damn fine coffee.

Total damage....£16.

Overall verdict, great food, great price, great restaurant. Will I return? Oh hell yeagh. See you tomorrow night Chris.

:-)

Imli Restaurant
167 Wardour Street, W1
tel: 020 7287 4243
website: www.imli.co.uk

Good Curry Guide 2007

Finally, after more delays than this years Wimbledon, the 2007 edition of Pat Chapman's the Good Curry Guide is out. Hurrah!!!

There's a good deal on it at Amazon.co.uk at the moment, so get it while it's hot.

This years award winners are:-

British Regions
Best in the North Best Indian
Indian Ocean, 83 Stamford Street, E Ashton 0161 343 3343

Best in Midlands
Itihaas, 18 Fleet Street, Birmingham, B3 0121 212 3383 Website: http://www.itihaas.co.uk/

Best in Scotland
Ashoka at the Mill
10 Clydeholme Rd, Glasgow G14 0141 576 5123

Best in the South and West
Tamasha
131 Widmore Rd, Bromley, Kent (Gtr London) 020 8460 3240

Best in London
Mint Leaf
Suffolk Place, SW1 020 7839 6673

Best in Wales
Misbah
9 Priory St, Monmouth, NP25 3BR 01600 714940

National Cuisines
Best Bangladeshi
Kutis
37 Oxford Street, Southampton, 023 8022 1585

Best Indian
Imli
167 Wardour Street, W1 020 7287 4243 Website: http://www.imli.co.uk/

Best Nepalese
Monty's
224 South Ealing Rd, W5 020 8560 2619 Website: http://www.montys-restaurant.co.uk/

Best Pakastani
Kinara at Pitt's Cottage, Highstreet, Limpfield Rd, Westerfield, Kent
01959 562125

Best Sri Lankan
Elephant Walk, 98 West End Lane, NW6 020 7328 3308

Miscellaneous
Best Vegetarian
Chai Pani
64 Seymour St, W1 020 8560 2619

Chef of the Year
Stephen Gomes
Cafe Naz Group
E1 Cambridge and Cardiff

Most Welcome Newcomer (Joint Winners)
Moti Mahal
45 Great Queen St, WC2 020 7240 9329
Victoria's India, The Manse, Church St, Longridge, Lancs 01727 785111

Best Oriental Asian UK Restaurant
Orchid Lounge Thai at Jaipur, 1st Floor, 599 Grafton Gate E, Milton
Keynes, Bucks, 01908 669 811

Best European Restaurant
Tandoor Palace
Charanjit Singh, ul. Marszalkowska, 21 Warsaw, 00-825+48228252375

Special Awards
UK Lifetime Achievement Award
Kewal Anand, Brilliant Restaurant
72 Western Rd, Southall, 020 8574 1928

International Lifetime Achievement Award
Satish Arora, Chef Culinaire, Taj Hotels Group
Chef Director, Chef Director of Food Roduction

Best UK Restaurant
Itihaas, 18 Fleet Street, Birmingham, B3 0121 212 3383 Website: http://www.itihaas.co.uk/

I'll post reviews on the ones I get to try out and link to them from this post.

If anyone's eaten in any of them then feel free to leave your comments here.

Beef In Oyster Sauce

There's a school of thought that at its peak Chinese cookery is the best cuisine on the planet. There's also a theory that the best Chinese chefs work out of Hong Kong. In the book Chinese Cookery Masterclass, Willy Mark got the greatest masters for each region of Chinese cooking to part with their secrets and some of their best recipes.

This recipe for Beef with Oyster Sauce, hails from the Southern school (Cantonese) of Chinese cooking. As Beef in Oyster Sauce is my wifes favorite Chinese meal, and this is arguably the best recipe for it in the world, it's guaranteed to get a result with her.

Ingredients

11 oz Beef Steak (300g)
1 oz (25g) Root Ginger
3 oz (75g) white part of spring onion
450 ml (16 floz / 2 cups) peanut oil for frying the beef
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tsp Rice Wine

Marinade
1 1/2 tsp ginger juice (the first time I prepared this dish I squeezed the juice from a piece of ginger by hand. A process taking considerable time and effort. An easier alternative is to peel and dice some ginger, then press the result using a garlic press.)
1 1/2 tsp Rice Wine
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1 egg white
1/2 tsp meat tenderizer (optional)
1 tbsp peanut (groundnut) oil
1 tbsp cornflour

Sauce
1 1/2 tbsp good quality oyster sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
3 tbsp stock or water
1 tsp cornflour

Preparation
Cut the beef into thin slices across the grain. Peel and slice the ginger and cut the white of the spring onions into 2 inch (4-5 cm) pieces. Mix the marinade ingredients, add the beef, cover and marinate for 1 hour in the fridge.

Heat a wok over a high heat and add the oil. Reduce to a low heat when the oil is hot. Cook the beef in the oil for 30 seconds before removing with a perforated spoon and alowing it to drain. This technique is called running through the oil (or velveting) and seals the meat trapping any flavors inside. It also imparts it with a velvety texture.

Remove the oil then heat the pan a second time over a high heat adding 2 tbsp oil. Fry the garlic, ginger and spring onion for 15 seconds then add the beef and add the rice wine, splashing it round the outside till the sizzling stops.

Mix the sauce ingredients and add to the pan stif frying over a high heat for about 30 seconds.

Serve hot and fresh from the pan.

I just cooked this recipe using some Puddledub Aberdeen Angus fillet steak and it was totally awesome. It definitely makes my top ten dishes of all time.

Roast Chicken Breast wrapped in pancetta with leeks and thyme

I got this recipe from Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie cookery book. This is my kind of food, quick and easy to do and damn fine to eat.

Ingredients

1 chicken breast per person
Pancetta or streaky bacon
A leek washed and sliced into 1/4 inch (0.5 cm pieces)
A few sprigs of fresh thyme
Olive Oil
A nob of Butter
Maldon Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
White Wine


Cooking

Preheat Oven to 200 degrees


Put the chicken, leek, the leaves from 3 or 4 of your thyme sprigs, butter, salt & pepper and a glug, or two, or three, of your wine, into a bowl. Give it a good mix.

Take out your Chicken and wrap in the Pancetta
Put the remaining mix in the bottom of a tray and lay the wrapped chicken on top with a few full sprigs of thyme on top
Cook on a middle shelf of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes

Lamb With Spinach

In a recent conversation with my good friend Corby, the subject of Indian food came up. Somewhere down the line he mentioned that he was looking for a good recipe for Lamb with Spinach. Turning to one of the finest Indian cookery books in the world, Camellia Panjabi's 50 Great Curries Of India, I found the following recipe, and blogged it for him.

Serves 4

Ingredients

700g (1 1/2lb) Lamb cubed
2cm x 5mm (3/4 * 1/4 inch) fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves
1-2 green chillies
1/2 cup of yoghurt
1/4 tsp cumin
200g (7oz) spinach leaves
1/4 cup of oil
1 Bay Leaf
1 Black Cardomon
2 cloves
225g (8oz) Onions Chopped
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin
2 medium tomatoes chopped
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp salt
nutmeg
a knob of butter

Preparation

Soak the lamb in warm water for 15 mins

Puree Ginger, Chilli & Garlic and add the yoghurt + 1/4 tsp cumin powder

Marinate the lamb in the mix for at least 1 hour

Blanch spinach in boliing salted water for 10 seconds and puree

Heat oil in a pan with bay leaf, cardomon & cloves. When hot add the onions & cook for 15 minutes over a moderate heat.

Add coriander powder and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Addthe 1/2 tsp cumin and after 10 secs a little water. Allow to cook.

Add meat + marinade, stir and cook on moderate heat for 10 minutes until yoghurt is absorbed. Saute for 3 mins stirring constantly. Add tomatoes & tomato puree and cook for a few more minutes. Add 1 1/4 cups of hot water and 3/4 tsp salt. Turn down low and leave to simmer. When meat is almost done add the spinach season to taste and mix well. Cook for 5 minutes uncovered.

When ready to serve prinkle with grated nutmeg and knob of butter.

Roasting Meat

Last Sunday we had an awesome shoulder joint of Puddledub's Organic Pork (probably the finest pork in the world) and I need to yet again delve into my dog eared copy of Delia's "How To Cook Book Two" for the timings. To save time in the future and give me access to them on the road I've decided to blog them.

Beef

Pre-heat the oven to 230 C (gas mark 8, 450F)

Season beef, preferably sirloin or Wing Rib with salt and pepper with a dusting of flour and dry mustard

Roast for 20 minutes then drop the temperature to 190C (gas mark 5, 375F)

Continue to Roast at this temperature for 15 minutes a pound (450g) for rare, add 15 minutes for medium and another 30 for well done. Baste at least 3 times during this period.

Rest 20-30 minutes before carving (the meat not you, you should already have been sitting back with a glass of wine in your hand during the cooking time).

Pork (with crackling)

Pre-heat the oven to 230 C (gas mark 8, 450F)

Making sure the surface skin is dry rub with sea salt (preferably Maldon) and Roast for 25 minutes then drop the temperature to 190C (gas mark 5, 375F)

Roast at the lower temperature allowing 35 minutes a pound (450g). Don't baste or you won't have crisp crackling.

Rest 20-30 minutes before carving.

Lamb

Pre-heat the oven to 190C (gas mark 5, 375F)

After seasoning the meat with salt and pepper sit in a roasting dish on a bed of sliced onion and roast for 30 minutes a pound (450g) basting about 3 times during cooking.

Rest for at least 30 minutes.

Shrewsbury Sauce to accompany the lamb

2 tbsp plain flour
1 heaped tsp mustard powder
1 pint (570 ml) Beaujolais or other light wine
5 rounded tbsp quality redcurrant jelly
3tbsp Worcester Sauce
Juice of a lemon
Salt and freshly milled black pepper

Take 2 tbsp of the fat from your cooked joint and heat in a pan on low stirring in the flour and mustard powder.

Gradually add the wine to the resulting paste, a splosh at a time, stirring initially with a wooden spoon then switching top a whisk half way through.

Add the redcurrant jelly, lemon juice and seasoning whisking again until the Jelly has been dissolved. With the heat as low as it will go, and preferably with a heat diffuser sitting under the pan, let the sauce reduce for about 15 minutes. Your sauce can then be poured over your cooked lamb. Yum.

See also the post on Roast Chicken.