I had my second piece of food writing published yesterday which was nice. The article was about my favourite meat venison. I cooked venison as my dish for the final of RSC 2010 which was judged by celeb chef Mike Robinson of The Pot Kiln in Yattenden so it when I saw that they had followed my article with two recipes from the man himself I was pretty chuffed to say the least!
I'll be heading over to his fine establishment very soon and I'm already looking forward to sampling some of his very own venison dishes. I've never had a bad meal there and his local, seasonal and often self sourced produce means that the menu is always different.
Game is always a major part of the food at The Pot Kiln and it's something I've been experimenting with lately although I have to say not with a great deal of success. Only yesterday I had to bin a Mallard that I'd been trying to confit under vacuum but after about 2 hours in the waterbath my duck looked more like a sparrow. I think I had the temperature set too high but it's a work in progress.
My efforts with Pheasant too have been less that satisfactory. My first pan fried attempt resulted in a very dry texture although because I overcooked it however the flavour was quite good.
The second effort was done in the waterbath and although it was softer and juicer I think the actual product was a bit dodgy. The flavour was much stronger and I got the impression it'd be hung for longer than was needed, it was also very bruised. I'd expect a bit of bruising where the shot from the gun had hit but this one looked like it'd been shot with an Uzi 9mm. I'll revisit pheasant another time but for now it's shelved.
By far the best result I've had is with partridge. I made a kind of partridge vol au vent and it was incredibly tasty, well worthy of any restaurant menu and sticking my neck out I'd probably say it's the best recipe I have ever created. Of course me being me I think it can be improved and I have a brace of partridge ready in the fridge waiting.
Once I have retested the recipe and method I'll post it up and it's so easy to do I reckon anybody could do it.
Toodlepip xx
Thursday 27 October 2011
Monday 17 October 2011
Veally veally good.....
I have to say that I sit here pretty damn chuffed with my Sunday lunchtime culinary sensation, and my Saturday sensation too come to think of it so perhaps I'll start there and then follow up with the Sunday dish in another blog.
As keen followers of the blog you'll know that a week or so ago I went to Jamie's Italian in Reading and when there I had the Ossobuco off the specials board and I really liked it and from that point I've wanted to give it a go myself. So on Saturday morning my partner and I whisked ourselves off to Reading farmers market in the hope of getting ourselves some lovely (well reared of course, just like the cheeky chappie below) shin of veal.
Alas there was none to be found there.....Nor at the four subsequent farms shops and butchers that we tried. There was plenty of diced veal and veal escalopes to be found but no shin, what do they do with them ?!?!?! Perhaps those crafty farmers and butchers are keeping them all for themselves because they are just so damn good or more likely these joints are shipped off to the continent to our European buddies.
There is such a taboo in the UK with regard to veal which I find quite unnecessary. Yes the cows are young when they are slaughtered and yes they do look cute and cuddly but what exactly is the alternative for these cows other than to be destined for the dinner table? The reality is that veal calves are just a by product of the dairy industry. No dairy farmer in their right mind is going to prolong the life of an animal giving it food and pasture just because it looks pretty.
A herd of dairy cows needs no more than one or two bulls to keep it going so when the cows themselves give birth to males a couple maybe saved for working the land but of course these days that is highly unlikely, even then they would be made steer (castrated). There is no financial point in continuing their growth for the 12 months it take for veal to become beef because a dairy cow is a dairy cow for a reason. Why outlay all that cost for something that'll will taste inferior to another animal which has been bred for purpose?
Every single milk giving dairy cow will give birth, not too many people can get their heads around the fact that for a cow to produce milk it has to be pregnant. The cow belongs to the ungulate family which like us are mammals, the female of our species produces milk in the same way, it's life. For every black and white cow you see in every field in the world there will be a calf inside, 50% of which will be male and unwanted for dairy use.
The whole animal is useful for other things though apart from it's delicate pale meat. The bones are used widely is the making of stock and other sauces, the rennet used in cheese making also comes from these calves.
The farming and welfare issues of old are being addressed and the vast majority of UK reared veal these days comes from free raised animals that get to spend time in herds for a few months or more and the old aged method of packing them into crates straight from birth is outlawed and hopefully a thing of the past. So instead of blubbing at the thought of tucking into a nice plate of veal just find some that has been reared with welfare in mind and get stuck in.
Find a butchers that stocks veal shin, (Jon Thorners at Sheeplands, Hare Hatch was the only place I could find it locally and even then it was frozen) get yourself two nice slices per person and then crack on with this method of mine for this Italian classic.
Ossobuco with gremolata and polenta.
Serves 2
Ossobuco translates literally as "Bone with a hole" and its quite clear to see why when you have the meat in view because the cut is taken from a cross section of the upper part of the veal shin and you can see the bone with the marrow inside. This marrow melts with the slow cooking leaving the hole that the name suggests.
The dish itself is of Milanese origin and dates back to around the beginning of the 19th century. The original version "Ossobuco in bianco" doesn't use tomatoes but my version is more like the the modern more popular version that does.
All versions are traditionally served with a gremolata which is a mixture of chopped herbs to which I like to bind together with olive oil. Again I've made my own version of this which differs slightly from the original Milanese version and I'm serving mine with plain polenta rather than Risotto ala Milanese as they would in it's place of origin.
For the gremolata just finely chop a couple of cloves of garlic, a good handful of fresh parsley, a few capers and the grated zest of a lemon. Mix these with a tablespoon of so of extra virgin olive oil and leave it in the fridge until you are ready to serve. (You could add some chopped anchovies to this too if you have any)
Firstly preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Then the next thing to do is to dust the meat joints with a light coating of seasoned plain flour. Put a frying pan over a fairly high heat, add a glug of olive oil then brown off the meat for a couple of minutes on each side so that they get a nice colour to them. Do them a couple at a time so you're not overcrowding the pan because this will make you lose heat and the meat will end up boiling instead of searing.
Set these aside while you prepare the vegetables. These vegetables are going to be the base onto which you will roast the veal shin joints and seeing as this is an Italian dish you'll need to prepare a "Soffritto" or as the French would call it "Mirepoix" which is just a mixture of finely chopped onion, carrot and celery, equal amounts of each is fine.
To the soffritto add some de-skinned, de-seeded and finely chopped tomatoes, use about two or three fresh tomatoes per person.
Before you put that chopped veg layer into your oven dish firstly give the whole lot little sauté in the frying pan you browned the meat off in. You really want to try and get as much of that flavour into this vegetable mix as you can. When you can see the onions turning opaque it's time to tip the vegetables into your oven dish.
Stick the pan back over a high heat and pour in a good glug of white wine, as this bubbles up it'll de-glaze the pan even more. When you are happy the you've scraped and salvaged as much tasty goodness as you can from the frying pan just pour the reduced wine over the vegetables and on top of this lay your browned off veal shin slices trying not to have them overlapping.
Finally before this Italian masterpiece is sent to the oven pour over a healthy large glass or two.....or three of white wine, add a few stalks of fresh rosemary and a generous seasoning with sea salt and cracked black pepper.
This will need around 90 minutes of cooking time. Try to turn the meat every 30 mins but be careful because it'll get so tender that it might just fall to bits as you do so.
When the cooking time is up take it out the oven and let it rest for a good 10 minutes. While that is happening add some plain polenta to a pan of boiling water and cook until it a nice creamy consistency stirring in a little unsalted butter to finish it off.
To serve spoon a good portion of the polenta into the centre of the plate, (works great with a pasta plate) onto this add a couple of spoonfuls or two of the cooked vegetables then top the stack off with the cooked veal shin.
Finish by spooning over some of the juices from the oven dish and then finally add a liberal sprinkling of the gremolata.
I did take a picture but having just upgraded my iPhone to OS4 without backing it up I have lost all my piccies :-(
As keen followers of the blog you'll know that a week or so ago I went to Jamie's Italian in Reading and when there I had the Ossobuco off the specials board and I really liked it and from that point I've wanted to give it a go myself. So on Saturday morning my partner and I whisked ourselves off to Reading farmers market in the hope of getting ourselves some lovely (well reared of course, just like the cheeky chappie below) shin of veal.
Alas there was none to be found there.....Nor at the four subsequent farms shops and butchers that we tried. There was plenty of diced veal and veal escalopes to be found but no shin, what do they do with them ?!?!?! Perhaps those crafty farmers and butchers are keeping them all for themselves because they are just so damn good or more likely these joints are shipped off to the continent to our European buddies.
There is such a taboo in the UK with regard to veal which I find quite unnecessary. Yes the cows are young when they are slaughtered and yes they do look cute and cuddly but what exactly is the alternative for these cows other than to be destined for the dinner table? The reality is that veal calves are just a by product of the dairy industry. No dairy farmer in their right mind is going to prolong the life of an animal giving it food and pasture just because it looks pretty.
A herd of dairy cows needs no more than one or two bulls to keep it going so when the cows themselves give birth to males a couple maybe saved for working the land but of course these days that is highly unlikely, even then they would be made steer (castrated). There is no financial point in continuing their growth for the 12 months it take for veal to become beef because a dairy cow is a dairy cow for a reason. Why outlay all that cost for something that'll will taste inferior to another animal which has been bred for purpose?
Every single milk giving dairy cow will give birth, not too many people can get their heads around the fact that for a cow to produce milk it has to be pregnant. The cow belongs to the ungulate family which like us are mammals, the female of our species produces milk in the same way, it's life. For every black and white cow you see in every field in the world there will be a calf inside, 50% of which will be male and unwanted for dairy use.The whole animal is useful for other things though apart from it's delicate pale meat. The bones are used widely is the making of stock and other sauces, the rennet used in cheese making also comes from these calves.
The farming and welfare issues of old are being addressed and the vast majority of UK reared veal these days comes from free raised animals that get to spend time in herds for a few months or more and the old aged method of packing them into crates straight from birth is outlawed and hopefully a thing of the past. So instead of blubbing at the thought of tucking into a nice plate of veal just find some that has been reared with welfare in mind and get stuck in.
Find a butchers that stocks veal shin, (Jon Thorners at Sheeplands, Hare Hatch was the only place I could find it locally and even then it was frozen) get yourself two nice slices per person and then crack on with this method of mine for this Italian classic.
Ossobuco with gremolata and polenta.
Serves 2
Ossobuco translates literally as "Bone with a hole" and its quite clear to see why when you have the meat in view because the cut is taken from a cross section of the upper part of the veal shin and you can see the bone with the marrow inside. This marrow melts with the slow cooking leaving the hole that the name suggests.
The dish itself is of Milanese origin and dates back to around the beginning of the 19th century. The original version "Ossobuco in bianco" doesn't use tomatoes but my version is more like the the modern more popular version that does.
All versions are traditionally served with a gremolata which is a mixture of chopped herbs to which I like to bind together with olive oil. Again I've made my own version of this which differs slightly from the original Milanese version and I'm serving mine with plain polenta rather than Risotto ala Milanese as they would in it's place of origin.
For the gremolata just finely chop a couple of cloves of garlic, a good handful of fresh parsley, a few capers and the grated zest of a lemon. Mix these with a tablespoon of so of extra virgin olive oil and leave it in the fridge until you are ready to serve. (You could add some chopped anchovies to this too if you have any)
Firstly preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Then the next thing to do is to dust the meat joints with a light coating of seasoned plain flour. Put a frying pan over a fairly high heat, add a glug of olive oil then brown off the meat for a couple of minutes on each side so that they get a nice colour to them. Do them a couple at a time so you're not overcrowding the pan because this will make you lose heat and the meat will end up boiling instead of searing.
Set these aside while you prepare the vegetables. These vegetables are going to be the base onto which you will roast the veal shin joints and seeing as this is an Italian dish you'll need to prepare a "Soffritto" or as the French would call it "Mirepoix" which is just a mixture of finely chopped onion, carrot and celery, equal amounts of each is fine.To the soffritto add some de-skinned, de-seeded and finely chopped tomatoes, use about two or three fresh tomatoes per person.
Before you put that chopped veg layer into your oven dish firstly give the whole lot little sauté in the frying pan you browned the meat off in. You really want to try and get as much of that flavour into this vegetable mix as you can. When you can see the onions turning opaque it's time to tip the vegetables into your oven dish.
Stick the pan back over a high heat and pour in a good glug of white wine, as this bubbles up it'll de-glaze the pan even more. When you are happy the you've scraped and salvaged as much tasty goodness as you can from the frying pan just pour the reduced wine over the vegetables and on top of this lay your browned off veal shin slices trying not to have them overlapping.
Finally before this Italian masterpiece is sent to the oven pour over a healthy large glass or two.....or three of white wine, add a few stalks of fresh rosemary and a generous seasoning with sea salt and cracked black pepper.
This will need around 90 minutes of cooking time. Try to turn the meat every 30 mins but be careful because it'll get so tender that it might just fall to bits as you do so.
When the cooking time is up take it out the oven and let it rest for a good 10 minutes. While that is happening add some plain polenta to a pan of boiling water and cook until it a nice creamy consistency stirring in a little unsalted butter to finish it off.
To serve spoon a good portion of the polenta into the centre of the plate, (works great with a pasta plate) onto this add a couple of spoonfuls or two of the cooked vegetables then top the stack off with the cooked veal shin.
Finish by spooning over some of the juices from the oven dish and then finally add a liberal sprinkling of the gremolata.
I did take a picture but having just upgraded my iPhone to OS4 without backing it up I have lost all my piccies :-(
Wednesday 5 October 2011
A re-visit to Jamie Oliver's Italian.....
Around 5:20pm yesterday evening I had this sudden urge for a pint of real ale so after leaving work I headed into Reading and settled down with a nice pint of Doom Bar at the place where I have my Friday night DJ residency (Cape Bar, Reading.......Big Friday night party launch this week by the way)
Whilst sat there having a nice bit of time to myself my mind started to wander towards food and about halfway down my follow up pint of Hooky Bitter I decided that I'd pay another visit to Jamie's Italian at The Oracle on the riverside.
I've reviewed it once or twice before on this blog and although it started out as a very impressive eatery subsequent visits have not been so great meaning that I'd virtually written it off of my dining radar. The last time I was in there I was only there to get a book signed by Gennaro Contaldo for my mum, I didn't eat at all !!
It may sound odd to some people but I really enjoy going to restaurants on my own. I find that rather than spending time chatting away I tend to get more immersed in the atmosphere and I notice what's going on around me much more. Don't get me wrong I also enjoy dining with others too but occasionally just my own company and a few checks of Facebook is enough.
So onto the venue and again I differ a bit here from the usual stuffiness of the English in that I appreciate a busy, noisy and bustling restaurant. I'm not talking about the crappy fast food eateries or other mediocre places like Nando's or Pizza Hut because I'd rate Jamie's Italian as being gastronomically far superior to these in virtually every way. What I mean is that I like the way Jamie & Gennaro have tried to create this little bit of the authentic Italian atmosphere in the UK and I do feel slightly taken back to my time in Rome when I eat there so it has nostalgia.
What they've also done with the food is of course keep to authentic Italian cuisine but where possible they use produce from the UK which to me serves to add to the influence that Jamie Oliver's personality has in the menu creation. Lets face it the vast majority of people who go there for the first time are going there because of the name so to not have that connection once you get there would be disappointing.
So the food. Feeling rather hungry I chose four courses but instead of a dessert I had a rather impressively made and wonderfully tasty Negroni cocktail.
Starter - Marinated Sardines £3.75
This course was the highlight for me and not because of the sardines, not because of it's accompanying salad and not because of the rosemary flavoured bread, although they were all very good. The best bits though were the capers, they had such excellent fresh flavour, almost floral. They linked all the other ingredients so well. I will have this over and over again on later visits.
Antipasti - Artisan Meat Board £4.45
There are three options to choose from here and I went for the English wild boar salami. You get 9 or 10 slices on a board drizzled with some oil which might not seem a great deal for the price you pay but you can tell in the eating that the effort taken to produce this salami justifies the cost. The salami itself has a slight flavour of game but the overriding taste is that of acorns which tells you right away that this came from a genuinely hunted animal free to feed itself on natural resources rather than a farmed and fed animal.
Pasta - Mushroom Panzerotti £6.55 (£10.35 for main course size portion)
Good flavour from the brown and porcini mushrooms in the filling and the tomato sauce was light and fresh tasting with a little chilli zing which only served to heighten that freshness. The pasta was a half moon shaped ravioli which was stuffed with the mushroom mix and I was a little confused by it. The filling wasn't very uniform meaning that some of the parcels were light on the filling and other more full. Personally I'd have preferred to have less parcels with more filling than the other way around but perhaps this filling randomisation was intentional to make you aware (if you weren't already) that it's handmade at the restaurant.
Main - Osso Buco (£12.75 off the specials board)
For those who don't eat veal or agree with it because the red tops tell you it's inhumane I feel for your naivety because you are really missing out here. This slow roasted shin of veal is so wonderful. Here they serve it up on a huge plate with some wet polenta and topped with some fresh gremolata (chopped lemon zest, garlic, parsley and olive oil.) Honestly the plate is so big you could use it to serve up sandwiches at a children's party!!!
Service throughout was splendid and the two glasses of red wine I had during the meal were both of decent taste and quality (Merlot & Primitivo £4.25/£4.45)
To be honest it would have been pretty hard for the cooks there to get this meal wrong as it's all pretty simple but the restaurant was very busy so well done to them and the waiting staff for making it a very enjoyable couple of hours. It's now back on my dining radar :-)
Whilst sat there having a nice bit of time to myself my mind started to wander towards food and about halfway down my follow up pint of Hooky Bitter I decided that I'd pay another visit to Jamie's Italian at The Oracle on the riverside.
I've reviewed it once or twice before on this blog and although it started out as a very impressive eatery subsequent visits have not been so great meaning that I'd virtually written it off of my dining radar. The last time I was in there I was only there to get a book signed by Gennaro Contaldo for my mum, I didn't eat at all !!
It may sound odd to some people but I really enjoy going to restaurants on my own. I find that rather than spending time chatting away I tend to get more immersed in the atmosphere and I notice what's going on around me much more. Don't get me wrong I also enjoy dining with others too but occasionally just my own company and a few checks of Facebook is enough.
So onto the venue and again I differ a bit here from the usual stuffiness of the English in that I appreciate a busy, noisy and bustling restaurant. I'm not talking about the crappy fast food eateries or other mediocre places like Nando's or Pizza Hut because I'd rate Jamie's Italian as being gastronomically far superior to these in virtually every way. What I mean is that I like the way Jamie & Gennaro have tried to create this little bit of the authentic Italian atmosphere in the UK and I do feel slightly taken back to my time in Rome when I eat there so it has nostalgia.
What they've also done with the food is of course keep to authentic Italian cuisine but where possible they use produce from the UK which to me serves to add to the influence that Jamie Oliver's personality has in the menu creation. Lets face it the vast majority of people who go there for the first time are going there because of the name so to not have that connection once you get there would be disappointing.
So the food. Feeling rather hungry I chose four courses but instead of a dessert I had a rather impressively made and wonderfully tasty Negroni cocktail.
Starter - Marinated Sardines £3.75
This course was the highlight for me and not because of the sardines, not because of it's accompanying salad and not because of the rosemary flavoured bread, although they were all very good. The best bits though were the capers, they had such excellent fresh flavour, almost floral. They linked all the other ingredients so well. I will have this over and over again on later visits.
Antipasti - Artisan Meat Board £4.45
There are three options to choose from here and I went for the English wild boar salami. You get 9 or 10 slices on a board drizzled with some oil which might not seem a great deal for the price you pay but you can tell in the eating that the effort taken to produce this salami justifies the cost. The salami itself has a slight flavour of game but the overriding taste is that of acorns which tells you right away that this came from a genuinely hunted animal free to feed itself on natural resources rather than a farmed and fed animal.
Pasta - Mushroom Panzerotti £6.55 (£10.35 for main course size portion)
Good flavour from the brown and porcini mushrooms in the filling and the tomato sauce was light and fresh tasting with a little chilli zing which only served to heighten that freshness. The pasta was a half moon shaped ravioli which was stuffed with the mushroom mix and I was a little confused by it. The filling wasn't very uniform meaning that some of the parcels were light on the filling and other more full. Personally I'd have preferred to have less parcels with more filling than the other way around but perhaps this filling randomisation was intentional to make you aware (if you weren't already) that it's handmade at the restaurant.
Main - Osso Buco (£12.75 off the specials board)
For those who don't eat veal or agree with it because the red tops tell you it's inhumane I feel for your naivety because you are really missing out here. This slow roasted shin of veal is so wonderful. Here they serve it up on a huge plate with some wet polenta and topped with some fresh gremolata (chopped lemon zest, garlic, parsley and olive oil.) Honestly the plate is so big you could use it to serve up sandwiches at a children's party!!!
Service throughout was splendid and the two glasses of red wine I had during the meal were both of decent taste and quality (Merlot & Primitivo £4.25/£4.45)
To be honest it would have been pretty hard for the cooks there to get this meal wrong as it's all pretty simple but the restaurant was very busy so well done to them and the waiting staff for making it a very enjoyable couple of hours. It's now back on my dining radar :-)
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