Smashed it.............

February is generally a pretty bad month for the food and beverage industry so I'm told but that didn't stop us exceeding our target, in fact it didn't stop us exceeding our final turnover target figure! By that I mean the figure we'd ourselves by the end of March. Massive pats on the backs all round and personally I feel relieved that all the hours I've out in have proved that in our business plan we have a product that works, even under difficult circumstances.

I fear however that it still may have come too late. Lets hope this performance urges the brewery to think long term rather than short for the sake of all involved, it'd be a shame to have made this progress only to be stopped in our tracks by the lack of decent business management prior to our involvement. It became pretty obvious only a week or two into the project that the situation was pretty grave but we'd made a choice and a commitment to achieve certain things which we've been successful at.

Currently we've had to close the kitchen while maintenance work is carried out. With business picking up we need it in a condition where we can have full confidence in it's layout and equipment, when we have our full time chef in place he or she needs to be reliant on that to be able to offer a consistently good offering. If we delay this essential work now it'll come back to bite us later so I think it's a good decision on our part. Not sure others think the same way but again short term loss for long term gain is necessary here.

The whole situation is a bit frustrating for me because readers of the blog will know that we've been looking at a few pubs in recent times and what has really baffled us is the valuation some people put on their (all of them) failing business. People want to claw back what they've put in using your skill set and enthusiasm as a benchmark for projected takings, they don't see it as them failing and you willing to offer what the business is actually worth so us being unwilling to pay out money held us back then and now it's money coming the other way that's holding back this venture.

It's certainly a lifestyle running a pub, you need to put a lot in and the financial rewards are not great considering that effort but the job satisfaction is the gain and I'm more than satisfied with the job we've done so far :-)

Step away....

About time for another post I reckon.

Starting to see some real positive movement at the pub although there is still a lot more hard work to put in to get where we want to be leading up to summer which given our huge garden and facilities should really be our peak season.

Going by the amount of meals served on Sundays you'd think world domination cannot be too far away. Week one we did 5 meals, week two we did 10 and week three we did 30 (and also a buffet for 35 heads) so with my limited mathematical expertise I reckon next Sunday we should be doing....ERM.....10 is double 5, 30 is treble 10 so next in sequence would be quadruple that so 120 meals right ?!!? ....OK maybe not but if we hit 30 again I'd be chuffed to bits.

Like I mentioned in the last post it would have been entirely conceivable that the pub would not have been trading this summer but our plan has boosted the belief that we can make it there, inevitably there is still some need for caution, nothing is certain in this business.

The staff I have in the kitchen for evenings and weekends (not all I am still very much in there) have made a real difference to my ability to take some time away and relax as well as concentrate on other necessary aspects of the job such as nailing down the paperwork for our food safety requirements. I'm getting ever more confident that we can not only meet the requirements but actually go that one step further showing our commitment to food safety and hygiene. Five stars or bust!

The two new recruits have had very little actual professional cooking experience but have shown a great willingness to learn and to take on extra tasks which is essential and just what I was looking for. I'm also pleased that my menu and recipes are proving to be as easy to serve as I have designed them to be but at the same getting some wonderful feedback from customers regarding value and quality.

We have a live in manager in place now too which is going to allow us to again take more time to concentrate on our business plan and is also adding stability to the pubs offering. He's a smiley chap with an appetite for fun and loves a good chat too.

All three were known to me prior to taking on this project so I have complete trust in all of them which is something that I might not have had time to build with a completely new person. Lets hope we have the time (and the backing) to achieve our goals so that the working relationship can last for a long time and even flourish as we take on more and more venues.

We also had a young girl come in to work with us to gain experience before she goes off to catering college in September. She's very shy but we tried to make her feel as comfortable as possible and she grew in confidence as the shift progressed. I even had her peeling quails eggs which is a very tricky task even for steady experienced hands but after a few breakages she got there. As we take on more places I really think this is something we should encourage more, the great chefs of the future all need to start somewhere and getting that little bit of experience at our humble venues might prove invaluable. Lets hope that in a few years time we'll be able to welcome them back to  our less humble venues with a kitchen all of their own to run. It all seems so very Jamie Oliver doesn't it? :-)

Cricket training for me also started yesterday, I was actually quite pleased with my bowling and I think that is going to be my focus this season alongside my fielding. I'm really struggling with technique with the bat (which is nothing new) and that was highlighted when I caught a quick delivery full on the forearm which I reckon is going to bruise the entire length of my arm within a few days. It just wouldn't be right for me not to start off the season with some kind of ridiculous injury. Having said that it was great to get back in the nets and to catch up with all the chaps.

Until next time my wonderful readers :-)

It's tough out there.....

"Wow" is all I can say. Some insanely hard work going into making this pub work and I can only hope that it pays off because we are definitely on the right track.


I think we severely underestimated just how poorly managed the place was before we came in. There are so many questions that I find myself asking in my head -


Did the call for help come too late?
Do we even have 8 weeks to get where we expect to be?
How are we going to recoup our costs and effort?
Are we getting the support we need?
Why can I not find anybody to work the kitchen during the day?


These are all genuine concerns especially the first and last ones.


A few things I am certain of though -


Takings are up.
The final menu is still yet to be decided but the food going out is a vast improvement and compliments are coming back with every meal served. Especially the Sunday roasts and steaks. So much so that I'm starting to doubt if I have ordered enough for this Sunday alone!
The pub has a real buzz of energy building up.
Villagers are returning and not only that but they are telling us how much better it feels in there.
The health and safety/food hygiene program is almost complete and I'm confident we can gain at least 4 "Scores on the doors" stars if not the full 5.
Our event ideas have been approved by all the local authority departments.


It's very easy to understand why so many pubs are failing. You either need to be a well established, well run venue with the right reputation or you need to diversify and offer people more than just beer and food.


Being only one of two pubs in the village with the other falling into the former category we need to be aiming for the latter and we have so many things in the pipeline but it's uncertain if we can have the time to get them going. It's a very tough business anyway but taking it from where it is to where it needs to be can only take hard work, patience, perseverance and definitely means having the right people involved.


From our pub consultancy business plan point of view we are doing well. We are on target to achieve the goals we set and most likely exceed them. We are well ahead with getting the villagers reputation improved and if I say so myself the food compared to just a couple of weeks ago is excellent quality and excellent value.


I have to be honest and say I'm impressed that the pub is still even trading given it's mismanagement by the previous person in charge. If it wasn't for the dedication of the key staff and the absolute passion and will to succeed of the leaseholder then this venue would have been boarded up months ago....I wish we'd have got hold of it much sooner....much much sooner!


"So how's the menu looking now?" I hear you beg upon thine ear. Well take a look at what we are serving up tonight and please do let me know what you think -

Starters

Prawn cocktail                                                                                                                                 £4.25

King prawns cooked in olive oil and cooled onsite combined with crisp iceberg lettuce and traditional Marie Rose dressing. To make this our own we’ve introduced chargrilled peppers into the cocktail and added a sliver of spicy Tabasco laced pepper purée on the side.

Scotch quails eggs                                                                                                                          £4.25

Two soft boiled quails eggs encased in succulent Berkshire pork sausagemeat then coated in seasoned breadcrumbs. The teriyaki sauce adds some sweetness to this otherwise savoury and exquisite signature dish.

Mushrooms on toast (v)                                                                                                               £4.15

Cup mushrooms pan fried in butter and garlic then enriched with double cream, served on toasted white or brown bread with a salad garnish.

Breaded brie(v)                                                                                                                                  £4.25

Four wedges of oozing brie coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried until golden and crunchy. Served on a bed of salad with a generous spoonful of award winning real ale relish from a local producer.

Spiced potted pork                                                                                                                           £4.50

Slow cooked pork shoulder shredded and mixed with Cajun spiced butter packed into a ramekin, sealed with melted butter sprinkled with paprika, served with brown or white toast and a salad garnish.

Main courses

Leek and potato tarte (v)                                                                                                               £7.25

Homemade shortcrust pastry tart case filled with sautéed leeks mixed with mashed potato, Cheddar cheese and free range egg. Served with a salad garnish and three slices of parsley and garlic bread.

Beef and Henry’s topcrust pie                                                                                                      £7.25

A packed bowlful of 28 day matured beef from our local independent butcher in gravy made with our Henry’s India pale ale and topped with puff pastry. Served with mashed potatoes, peas and wonderful red onion gravy                                                                                                                                                               

 Beer battered cod                                                                                                                            £7.25

               

                Crunchy coated cod with chips and peas served with a lemon wedge and a pot                   of tartare sauce.

Star fish pie                                                                                                                                         £7.15

No not actual Starfish but chunks of oven baked white fish in a Cheddar cheese and Gran Padano sauce topped with mashed potato and more cheese, served with three slices of garlic bread and salad garnish. (May contain bones)

Rump steak                                                                                                                                       £12.75

Finest 28 day aged rump steak from our local butcher slow cooking under vacuum makes this humble cut taste like the finest fillet. Cuts like butter, tastes divine and not a hint of pink to be seen, eating is believing. Served with chips, sautéed mushroom, onion rings and peas.

Scampi                                                                                                                                                  £7.25

               
                Wholetail breaded scampi served with a lemon wedge, chips, peas and a pot of                   tartare sauce.                                                                                                                                                              

Three egg omelette (v)                                                                                                               £7.15

Three free range eggs cooked in the pan and finished under the grill. Served with chips and salad garnish. (Fill with cheese, bacon, ham or sautéed mushrooms for an extra 75p each)

Desserts

Iced Baileys parfait with cream                                                                            £3.95

Chocolate truffon with cream                                                                              £3.95

Sticky toffee pudding with custard                                                                       £3.95

Syrup sponge with custard                                                                                 £3.95

Three scoops of ice cream (vanilla, strawberry or chocolate                                     £3.95

Tea or Lavazzi filter coffee                                                                                 £1.80     

Lack of connections...

Please excuse me for the lack of updates. I've been wanting to however I have literally been working all the hours of the day since Monday and it doesn't help that there is almost zero internet connection at the pub. There is a Vodafone dongle available but honestly it's like trying to run through 4 ft of treacle.

I've done every service since Tuesday morning on my own which in itself hasn't been too bad. OK the business is slow but it's not been helped at all by the weather, particularly over the last two snowy days. The main thing however is the toll all the washing up and cold weather has taken on my hands, they are like lizard hands, well not quite but you get what I mean. I should be wearing gloves and given the time I would but it's that time that's lacking.

I've decided to take down the menu boards and print out a different menu sheet everyday, mainly to use up stock but also to introduce new dishes. There is just so much to do in other parts of the kitchen especially where health and safety is concerned, it's not dirty in anyway but the CIEH (Chartered institute for environmental health) require quite a few records and procedures to be written and that just hasn't been kept up. I should have it all re-written and ready to go tomorrow and after that it's just a case of sticking to the basic hygiene tasks, keeping the logs and doing the checks each day. It'll be a huge weight off when done.

Our new till system is being installed on Tuesday which will require staff training, not so much for functionality but more for what to do is mistakes are made. The system is really really good as it links the till system to the accountancy to the stocktaking, it's pretty unique for this kind of smaller venue as it'd probably be considered something that only a big chain pub might employ. It has a set up fee and a flat price each month but for what it actually does it's cost is very low. The area manager of Wadworths looked dumbfounded when we explained it to him because he couldn't believe we'd have a package that does what it does for the amount it costs.

Still absolutely desperate for kitchen staff. It's not like we need anybody massively experienced either, just someone who can follow a few simple recipes and be able to build dishes from pre-prepared ingredients. I still love being in there but I only have one more week off work!!

How many?.......

Food trade in the pub has been slow, very slow, So slow in fact that I volunteered myself to cover both lunchtime and evening shifts in the kitchen yesterday............Hmmmm glad I did cause it went a bit looney tunes.

I hope I was more of a help than a hindrance to our other cook but I think I did OK considering the last time I did any kind of service like that was about 7 years ago with around 8 covers at most at the local boozer. This time we had around 30 covers and even though it probably wasn't the most well run of services with food going out at all different times the quality was good.

The customers don't know the situation the pub is in so we cannot afford to be so un-organised in the future. I hope those who did wait will be able to overlook that and be back next week. Most of them were ramblers and most had pre-ordered which makes it even more frustrating. I think we should greet them next time with a big hot mug of coffee and some bacon butties.

Plenty of drinkers here from around 4:30pm yesterday which added to the busy lunchtime so that made the overall business very good for a midweek day, we really want to be building on it and having every day like this at a minimum and I think that's a tough target to set but it's entirely achievable if we stick to our business plan.

Good thing about having a busy bar between food services is that I get to try out some of my new menu recipes on the punters. Yesterday I knocked up a couple of prawn cocktails which went down very well so they are definitely staying. I'll be doing a couple more today but spending a day in the kitchen has shown me that we only need a few regular dishes, maybe 6 starters, 6 mains and 6 desserts so what I have already will need to be trimmed. Even as simplistic as the current offering seems everything is just too fragmented, there doesn't seem to be any synergies. The specials board can offer a wider range and that way we can source even more locally and seasonally.

I'm back in the kitchen today, it's curry day too so I need to whip up a couple of them and I'm doing one of the services too...........WE NEED KITCHEN STAFF !!! HELP :-)

Two days in....

We after just two days at the pub I can safely say we're settled in and have a pretty clear idea on how we need to start off on our quest for 8 week profitdom.

It's pretty obvious to start that a slow measured approach to the food offering will be more beneficial than rushing in and creating a menu which might lead to some initial stock spoilage. The pub already has two successful midweek evenings so it'd be far more sensible to continue and grow these while at the same time introducing the drinkers to our simpler dishes such as the stonebaked pizzas which really are rather tasty. 

Another couple of more food orientated midweek evenings are being arranged and should these prove popular then that would pretty much create a healthy 5 day business which is essential to a venue such as this.

Lunchtimes are still our greatest challenge and getting if we can bring in a steady income from these as well as the evenings then we should not only meet our target but smash it. In a perfect world of course because to achieve this is going to take some seriously hard work and plenty of enthusiasm.

It is a country pub in a small village (Waltham St Lawrence, circa 500 households) so the business model has to reflect that. We want to do cracking pub grub but we don't want to pretend to be chasing Michelin stars because too many places seem to be far too focussed on that these days and lets be honest if you want that then Bray is only a taxi or chauffeur drive away.

That's not to say I don't want other awards! The pub has a good health and safety status and it's kept very clean. Joan the cleaner has been working there every morning for over 50 years, she certainly knows how to keep the public areas clean. The kitchen and bar areas have good cleaning routines in place and the stock is well stored and controlled. For me however the search for cleanliness, food hygiene and safety should never end and I won't be satisfied until we have a 5 star "Scores on the door" rating.

Having said that I have compiled a provisional a la carte lunchtime and evening menu, I'm changing bits on it all the time as I try to tailor it to maximise ingredient usage and portion control. It'd be good to get some feedback. This is it so far so whaddya think?

Starters –

·         Prawn cocktail with roasted red peppers

·         Game terrine

·         Spiced potted Berkshire pork

·         Potted crab

·         Scotch quails eggs with Star sauce

·         Mushrooms on toast

·         Fried halloumi with lemon and caper dressing.

·         Pickled sardines with crostini

Mains –

·         Slow cooked Duck Leg with mashed potato and pancetta peas

·         Rib Steak and triple cooked chips with mushrooms and peas

·         Handmade burger with choice of topping served with triple cooked chips

·         Lambs liver and bacon casserole with mashed potato, spring greens

·         Shepherd’s pie

·         Salt Cod with chorizo and butterbeans

·         Spaghetti with oil and chilli

·         Spenwood cheese sausages with triple cooked chips and peas

·         Battered Fish of the day and triple cooked chips and mushy peas

·         Pan-fried chicken breast with a mushroom and madeira cream sauce served with boiled rice

·         Beef lasagne with green salad

·         Chilli con carne with long grain rice

Desserts –

·         Seasonal fruit fool

·         Eton mess

·         Cheese & biscuits

·         Jam Roly Poly and custard

·         Sherry trifle

·         Lemon meringue pie

·         Ice cream

·         Chocolate tarte

Australia Day.....

I think I have found the best red wine EVER and I've not even had a sip yet.

Quite a coincidence that it's Australia day too because it's from the one place I've been too down under and it's the place on earth where I would love to live the most.

I was sat at work today thinking how much I'd love a nice bottle of red wine from Waitrose while I spend the evening working on the menu for the new venture and this was the very first bottle I went too.

It's a 2008 Pinot Noir from the Stonier winery in the Mornington peninsula in Melbourne. Initially I love Pinot Noir, it's probably my favourite of all grapes because it's so consistent. You'd be very very unlucky to come across a poor quality Pinot Noir, it's responsible for some of the greatest wines produced.

This however a very special meaning. Mornington is the home of one of my best buddies and his new family all of  whom I miss like crazy. I was there last year for their wedding and I fell in love with the place and the people. I crave to live there at some point in my life.

During the time I was there we went off on a wine tour with some of the travelling wedding party and it was such a wonderful day so even looking at the bottle gives me such good memories.

The absolutely wonderfully brilliant best bit about it though is that the back label tells me it's imported from "Merricks" and it was here that the actually wedding reception took place.

I'm so chuffed I found it :-)

Looks like I'm having a better Australia day than Julia Guillard (or however it is you spell it)

New venture......

Well we presented the proposal and it went down a treat. Barring any hiccups which are of course always likely, we'll be assuming control of a business and venue on Monday :-)

We'll have two weeks of intensive preparation and training before an official launch night.

Very exciting times for me and very happy that my current employers are being so supportive as I couldn't do it without their understanding and shared enthusiasm for the project.

It's a very unique situation we've found ourselves in so hopefully all our diligent research and number crunching can help us achieve our goal which is ultimately to have a proven business model which we can then present to other businesses as an alternative to their standard (and quite often failing) current model.

No Nissan GTR yet.....maybe in 10 venues time....all running at the same time...and working!

Daunting.......YES! Exciting......DEFINITELY! Life changing.....Possibly.

I've never been scared of a challenge or a bit of hard work so your dreams will never work unless you take the plunge I guess.

Toodlepip.

PS - I anybody knows of somebody who might be interested in a live in cook/manager role with excellent prospects let me know ;-)

Fresh Meat......

Yesterdays dinner was certainly a meaty sensation. Pork was there in all it's glory and the two most expensive ingredients I used were the two rashers of Heston's stout and treacle flavoured bacon. In fact the two leeks I bought to accompany the bacon were more expensive than the other two cuts of pork I had purchased.

First on the list were some pork osso bucco. These were on the fresh meat counter at my local Waitrose labelled up under their "Forgotten cuts" branding as were the pigs cheeks that became the next purchase.

I was a little sceptical about using pork osso bucco at first because traditionally this cut of shin comes from a veal calf and I've only recently been introduced to this but the pig cheeks I have had before and they are just scrummy, so much flavour and such a wonderful texture when cooked properly.

I cooked the pork osso bucco using the same slow cooking method you would for the traditional version.

And the pig cheeks I did in the waterbath at 75C for about 5 hours. I usually do them for 24 hours at around 67C so they were a little different but still fantastic.

I served this up with some potato mousseline and some creamed leeks with bacon, peas and cabbage greens which we're all cooked together.

In truth there was more than enough for four main courses out of this and off the top of my head I'd say that works out at about £0.90p per portion in total. A dish like this could easily fetch around £14.00 in a very reasonably priced restaurant.

Not one for the waistbands though.....Who cares huh?

In other news today is the day that our teams proposal goes in for our first venture and I'm thinking that the above might just make it onto the menu if we are successful today....fingers crossed guys and gals :-)

Closer......

Not been sleeping too well over the last couple of days as I have some dental work being carried out this morning and to say I'm a little pensive is an understatement. It's only a root canal, how ridiculously terrifying can that honestly be?

At least I have the England v Pakistan test match to occupy my mind for a couple of hours this morning.

Best bit of news which I can now leak out a little is that I am putting together a business plan and a strategy which will finally see me in a professional kitchen on terms that'll allow me to still be able to concentrate on my normal work.

The new company I'll be forming with my business partner will see me filling a kind of "Director of Operations" role. I'll mainly be responsible for the food and beverage offering which will involve designing a whole new menu with my own dishes and some new ones that fit the model and then we'll be bringing in a team that we can trust to run the place with myself overseeing (of course cooking whenever I can) and making sure our standards are being kept and that the business plan is being followed.

The business we are being brought in to run is by no means struggling at the moment financially, there are small losses which can be turned around instantly by cutting a few unnecessary costs but what it's certainly not doing is living up to it's potential and with the low risk involved it's a perfect first case for our fledgling food and beverage consultancy. I won't be buying that Nissan GTR just yet!

More news will follow shortly as we still have the business plan and model to complete but it should all happen fairly quickly and I'll be inviting you all down to my place with your friends and families for a meal in my restaurant with food from my kitchen......how exciting :-)

The first 13 days of 2012.....

In my first blog post of 2012 I highlighted my intention to make a real go with my desires to concentrate fully on everything foodie in my life and I can honestly say it's got off to a flyer.

Firstly I was given my first roving reporters job for the Reading post. Then I was asked to attend the opening night of a new pub/restaurant in Cookham which is being headed up by one of Heston's ex head chefs and following that I have been asked about my interest it two rather big and exciting new projects which I cannot talk about as yet but one of those is potentially a huge step in achieving a major professional goal.

This is all within the first fortnight of 2012 !!! What can the remaining 50 weeks possibly bring? Fingers crossed quite a bloomin lot :-)

The mere fact that I've been thought about in these terms is filling me with pride and excitement and if even one of the opportunities comes to light I will be as happy a pig in poop.

Lots to think about, lots to mull over but how can that be a bad thing when all I want to do is think about it?

Good times readers, let them roll on.

Tea......

There is only one thing more frustrating than planning your evening tea than finding that the supermarket has nothing you need in stock and that is finding the supermarket has stock but it's completely rubbish.

I was pleased to see that Waitrose in Twyford had some venison steaks in stock but less pleased to see that in each packet of two one steak was significantly bigger than the other meaning that if you really needed it then to make two decent portions you'd need to buy two packets at £8.00 a pop. How can anybody be expected to serve one person a piece of meat half the size of the other persons ?!?! Is this exploitation? Is this intentional? Why not put the small bits with the small bits and the big bits with the bit bits? It seems a bit too uniform for all 10 or so packs to be packed like this so perhaps it's not just a random occurance.

I've noticed this with their packs of chicken and duck breasts too, very rarely do you get a pair that are matched in size and density. I have this image in my head of all these wonky breasted animals roaming the countryside. Thousands of chickens walking about like Lee Evans doing a primate impression.

The next thing I wanted was a nice piece of fish for my eldest sprog. I really wanted to get her some lemon sole as it's the only fish I've ever heard her say as her favourite but there was hardly anything on the fresh fish counter that looked edible in fact most of it looked like it had been dragged around the car park before putting on display. In the pre-packed section there was some cod and some plaice but I'd already been put off by the suspicious venison packaging and the dodgy fresh display so she ended up with gammon, egg and potato wedges.......................which she absolutely loved!

Sort it out John Lewis....

The better half and myself had a pork fillet which I coated in the Weber chilli mix and waterbathed at 64.5C for about 2 1/2 hours. The chilli mix was actually rather good although it lacked the heat I was expecting from something labelled as "Intense". The all round combination of herbs and spices really worked with the pork and gave it a kind of citrus note. I think next time I'll slightly lower the cooking temperature and leave the meat to rest a bit long than the few minutes I did this time. Served up with some potato wedges cooked in duck fat and a salad of baby leaves and peas shoots this was a superb and very easy dinner. It could also be done on a BBQ or in the oven rather than using the sous vide method although you'll never get the texture as consistently good as when done in a waterbath.

This evening I'm again going to keep it simple but effective. we have some cooked chicken in the fridge that need to be used up so I'm going to grab myself some raw tiger prawns and a few other flavours (coriander, ginger, lime, lemongrass etc etc)  and make a nice Asian style noodle soup using a broth made from the remainder of the duck stock that I still have in the fridge.

In other news a buddy of ours is raising money for charity by organising a man raffle. The idea of these is that you auction off a man with skills (whatever they may be........the ones you're thinking.......are the ones I'm lacking) then the winning bidder can use the man for a few hours or a set period of time so I've volunteered myself to cook a four course meal for four at the winning bidders house.

Should be fun............. :-)

Settled....

Tuesdays are usually quite good fun for me because I get to cook our eldest her dinner after her swimming lesson. She is a very fussy eater which I think is born out of habit rather than anything else and as she only came into my life a few years ago I didn't get the chance to influence her early on. I fully intend to have the youngest on fois gras and turbot the moment she gets to solids!

I try and keep away from the easy to cook and completely boring comfort foods but even I like the odd fish finger now and again. I'm still undecided as to what to rustle up for her but I think I've settled on venison for my good lady and myself with some potato wedges oven roasted in duck fat. I think I'll serve it up with just some steamed veg and a caper sauce which I've just remembered from an old Keith Floyd show.

So with that in mind I suppose I could just quickly fan fry a nice fresh fillet of fish for the fussy one and she can have that with some of the potato wedges and some delightful tinned sweetcorn....oooooh how yummy. Still miles better than junk food I suppose. I might even stock up on tomato sauce as we've not had any in the house for a couple of weeks. With gifts like that it'll be just like Christmas all over again.

Shouldn't there be any venison at Waitrose which I have to say is quite likely because the Twyford branch don't seem to be very well stocked on the game front then I might go for a pork fillet. I bought this sachet of BBQ rub made by Weber, the same people that make the actual BBQ's, it says it's an intensely hot chilli rub on the packet and with pork and spice being a very good match it could be worth a go. I'll have to change the sauce mind you but the potatoes should still work fine.

The next question of course is do I get some vino ?!?! I feel like a glass or three........

Bangers......

Nope not sausages but cars :-)

My good buddy and myself have signed up to take part in the Barcelona Bangers rally in June 2012. The idea is that you buy a car for no more that £250 then daub it up in some garish and ridiculous paint job and drive it to Barcelona alongside a whole bunch of other silly people. What fun !!!

It's three days of driving to get there passing through France and Spain hopefully without too many breakdowns on the way.

I'm guessing we should make good use of the journey and try to raise some funds for a worthy cause so expect your inbox's to be pounded with requests from now until June. I'm kidding of course....it'll only be one or two.

I've driven through the French countryside a couple of times on our trips to Le Mans for the 24hr race and I do love it. I'm hoping we can stop frequently for some local foods, might as well make it a culinary journey as well.

Once we've reached Barcelona I think we'll probably carry on the roadtrip the next day and go to see my buddy in Ibiza for a couple of days before heading back. You can get a ferry from Barcelona to the port at San Antonio quite easily although having just spoken to my Ibizan chum I think we'll be dumping the car cause the ferry is dead expensive. We shall see......

All that is left to do now is get a banger and decide what theme to do. Any ideas ?!?!?

Guess what?.....

I do love my job, I really do but sometimes I do have to put up with watching some truly awful films. I can't say which film I'm watching right now, it wouldn't be ethical. What I can say though is that is so pathetic I am already thinking about what to have for tea tonight......This happens often by the way!

It's Friday so of course I will be entertaining the assembled masses with a delightful selection of uplifting house music at Cape Bar in Reading.....8:30pm onwards.....free entry....nice people..excellent music (natch)....good beer selection. Am I selling it enough ?!?!?

I'm hopeful that it'll be a fairly popular option for this evenings town revellers, historically it's not the busiest of weekends for the pub and club industry with the Xmas and new years celebrations fresh in the mind but I hope that those who do make it out find there way here.

Usual protocol for me on a Friday goes something like this -

1. Go to work.
2. Get my work done as soon as possible.
3. Trawl the music sites for more tunes to add to my wishlists.
4. Purchase wishlist tunes.
5. Listen to new tunes in my studio at work at an unnervingly loud level.
6. Get very excited about playing them out.
7. Twiddle my thumbs getting more and more restless.
8. Leave as soon as possible.
9. Get home.
10. Get freshened up
11. Stick on the dancing shoes.
12. Get my ass into town.
13. Set up my gear at Cape
14. Grab a pint of Doom Bar
15. PARTY...........

Today however I might add -

12.5. Have a nice dinner at LSQ2

I hope they still have the Masala Turbot on the menu. I've been aching to try that ever since chef patron Tony gave me a taste of the sauce about a week before Xmas.

At an impasse..

As often happens I sat at work today thinking about food and what to cook this evening. I know my darling girlfriend is looking for a bit of comfort and something other than dirty nappies and feeding to do as well so I figured I'd go for something a bit rich and extravagant.

Slow cooked duck breast with potato dauphinoise and chilli peas seems to hit every nail right on the head.

Off to the shop I popped and got a whole Gressingham duck. I've got into the habit of buying whole birds and so should you. I only need the breasts for this dinner but I've already got the legs in the fridge brining ready to make some beautiful confit tomorrow. I've also got a stock pan going which is using up the carcass, neck, heart, liver and neck in order to make some lovely stock which I can use on many more dinners before it runs out.

I also bought three jars of duck fat and at £3.00 a pop that is quite expensive but after I've used it to confit the duck legs all I need to do is pour it back into a container and allow to cool then I'll have a pretty nice supply of cooking fat for those perfect roast potatoes and more.

Potato dauphinoise is always a favourite, it's a meal on it's own and I've made far too much for two.....I always do. It's like an unwritten rule. Is around 550ml of double cream too much for a meal for two? NO IT'S BLOOMIN NOT :-D

Chilli peas are one of my own creations and I've posted on here how I make them. I usually use smoked bacon in them but today I have Proscuito crudo, nice little cubes which I hope are going to crisp up and add another texture.

However everything is cooking away. The stock pot is simmering, the duck breasts are in the water bath, the dolphins are looking pretty tidy in the oven and the washing up has been done so what should I do in teh meantime? Write a blog post I reckon....and tuck into a glass of that wonderful Loire valley chenin blanc...or perhaps the award winning Bordeaux ?!!? Such a tough life I have :-)

Gobble gobble....

Good morning one and all.

Encouraging figures for blog visits yesterday considering I've been a bad boy and not updated for a while. It's always humbling to see that people have not only read the article rather than just skipped over but also seem to have encouraged others too do so as well :-)

So yesterday I told of how I managed to feed five people their expected dosage of yuletide gobbler for very little cost in comparison to a whole cooked turkey. Going on from this it's not just turkey that you can employ this method on as it'll work with any bird or in fact any lean meat will benefit from using this combination of frugality and low temperature cooking.

When you buy fresh meat you pay for it according to it's weight so unless you particularly need or want the bones to either make a stock or if you want to cook a joint of meat on the bone for extra flavour as you would perhaps a lamb shank of rib of beef then why pay for their weight?

Another thing to consider, especially when buying white meat is the flavour that you want to achieve. For me there is no point in just roasting a chicken breast in a hot oven with no extra seasoning because it'll just be flavourless. The harder working muscles of any animal are always the most flavoursome but this comes at a price because it also means that they have more muscle formation which in turn makes them tougher in texture.

Just think of your own body. Unless you are Dolly Parton on treadmill or some meathead in a vest top then your own breast meat isn't really doing much on a day to day basis, it's not working hard enough to have all those blood cells pushing through an engorging the muscles fibres. Your legs however are used much more often and those constantly expanding and contracting muscle fibres need to be supplied with lots of fuel to keep going.

The same applies to animals.

With these factors in mind in went and got myself a pre-boned thigh joint of turkey from Waitrose for just £10. This joint in particular came already stuffed and rolled ready for slinging straight in the oven which is fair enough but I only wanted the meat off this joint so the string was quickly snipped off, the stuffing binned and the skin taken off. I'm absolutely sure you could get a the same joint minus the pre-faffing from any proper butcher and I'd encourage you to do so.

(I didn't keep the stuffing because I was making my own but there is no reason why it could be used in this dish too instead of binning it)

From looking at this naked flesh you can quite clearly notice it's deeper colour, it's almost brown. Amongst the more fibrous meat however there are little nuggets of whole lean muscle that you want to separate from the rest so what you need to do is get yourself a sharp knife and just butcher away at the joint until you have got all the good chunky tender meat to one side. You should be able to get a 3 or 4 good quality mini medallions of meat out of a turkey thigh.

The rest of the meat does not get wasted in fact it forms a very important part of the final dish but first you need to go through it again and remove and of the larger pieces of sinue and bigger pieces of fat. Keeping a little bit of the fat in there doesn't do any harm though as it'll dissipate though the meat when it's cooking keeping it nice and moist.

When this process is complete take half the trimmed meat (not the mini medallions, leave these alone for the time being) and pulse it in a blender with a bit of seasoning a few times until it's minced and remove to a mixing bowl. Then take the remaining trimmed meat and this time blend right down until it's almost a paste. You can add some double cream too whilst blending. This will help loosen it up a bit and add a level of richness to the end flavour. Once done empty the turkey paste into the same bowl as the minced turkey.

Now you can cut the mini medallions into smaller pieces, maybe strips and again add these into the mixing bowl. What you now have is the complete joint in three different forms which will give three distinct textures when finished so add some seasoning and a few finely chopped fresh herbs (I used sage and thyme) and give the whole lot a good mixing with a spoon.

The next thing to do is to form a stuffed turkey sausage or "Ballatine" to give it it's proper culinary term....I think....well that's what I'm calling it anyway :-)

The three components to this are firstly the sausage skin and for this I used Parma ham, you could also use smoked bacon which has been flattened out between two sheet of cling film and rolled over with a rolling pin....a bottle of wine makes a good rolling pin substitute if you don't have one to hand.

The second component is the stuffing. Now I made my own beforehand with a good quality sausage meat, chestnut mushrooms, chestnuts, red onion, pine nuts, breadcrumbs and chopped dates but you can use whatever you like.

Component three is of course the turkey mixture itself.

Forming the ballantine is not as tricky as you might think. Lay flat a piece of Clingfilm onto a worktop from back to front. Next leaving a couple of inches on each side lay (lengthways) the parma ham or bacon down onto it so that they overlap and form a sheet. Depending on how thick you want your finished ballantine you may want to add a second layer further down in case it doesn't fully wrap. It's much better to do this if you are unsure and it won't hurt at all if you have too much whereas it'll be a disaster if you have too little.

Now take the turkey mixture and empty it onto Parma ham. Spread it out into an even layer starting at the top and working your way down, you want to leave a good inch at the sides and perhaps two at the bottom, this will be important later when forming the ballantine.

Finally on top of the turkey spread a layer of the stuffing, this doesn't need to be to thick, the main purpose of the stuffing is to keep the turkey moist as it cooks and to add further flavour.

To form the ballantine lift the top edge of the Clingfilm and move it towards you and keep doing so until the mixture starts to roll into itself. Let the parma ham peel off the Clingfilm as it slowly encases the filling to form a big sausage shape.

At this stage you could just fold in the edges and cook in the oven at about 170/180C for about an hour but I prefer to do mine a little differently. Cooking it now would mean that some of the juices would flow out of the ballantine while it's in the oven losing moisture so ideally you want to keep all of those juices locked in at to do this is quite easy.

Take another piece of Clingfilm about 8 inches longer than the length of the ballantine and lay it on the same worktop this time placed from left to right. In the centre of this place the ballantine so that it is parallel to the Clingfilm the bring the top and bottom edge of the Clingfilm over the ballantine forming as tight a fit as you can. Finally take the excess on each side then lift and spin so that the spinning action closes off the sides an compresses the sausage into a much firmer rounded shape getting as much air out as you can.

Tie up the ends so the shape holds. At this stage I would vacuum pack mine give it a completely air tight seal then I'd cook it on my water bath and 67.5 C for around 7 hours but I realise that I'm probably the only person reading this who has such apparatus. Fear not though because you can do it another way.........

One wrapping in Clingfilm will most likely not be enough using this other method so you may want to wrap it a few more times. A little bit of water getting in won't hurt but it's best to be a sealed as possible.

When you are happy that the wrapping is good then place the ballantine in a high sided oven dish and fill the dish with water until it is about 3/4 of the way up the ballantine. Place this (Bain Marie) in the oven at around 140/150C for a good 3 or 4 hours keeping an eye on the water level from time to time and topping up if necessary.

Whether you use the water bath or bain marie method it'll be necessary to colour the finished ballantine before serving, to do this remove the Clingfilm/vacuum wrapping from the ballantine while heating some butter and oil in a frying pan until hot then simply roll the whole sausage in the pan until you have the colour you desire.

Leave it to rest for 15/20 minutes before carving into rounds.

It really does sound harder than it actually is. This is such a good way to make a very substantial and tasty meal using fresh ingredients at low cost.

The cooking method too can be employed on a multitude of different meats and even fish. Monkfish in parma ham is an outrageously good combination and cooking it this way (although adjusting the cooking times to suit) locks in all those delicious flavours.

All good intentions.....

A new year dawns..............2011 is "SO" last year.

With the new year always comes those fantastic intentions designed to be the actions that will shape the next twelve months. These resolutions will be not only be of benefit to our own health, wealth and vitality but they will also bring joy to our family and friends ultimately bringing world peace and global financial stability.

OK maybe the final two of those are less likely but what does that matter?

So what do I have in the locker for this year?

The blog will be getting more regular updates. It's been a rather hectic final few months of 2011 meaning that it's been placed on the back burner for a while but now the house has been moved and we are all settled in (well a few more bits to do) I should have more time to devoted to filling you all in with those recipes and foodie articles that you simply cannot be without.

I've renewed my gym membership at Nirvana Spa and I'm going to start working on my fitness and core levels so that I am a bit more prepared for the forthcoming cricket season. Of course that won't make me any better at the game but it'll hopefully mean I can play with more enthusiasm. It's a double barrelled gym renewal too because having got my good lady a membership for her Christmas present I'm looking forward to spending sometime with her just relaxing and enjoying the Spa.

I'm going to be more serious in my professional outlook too. The urge to get more involved in food is always there and any opportunity that might pop up be that inside a kitchen with cooker and knife or outside the kitchen with pen and paper will be looked at with a more open mind. I'm not saying that the money is no longer an issue but since my little angel of a daughter has come along I've realised that it's not the be all and end all of everything.

DJ wise I'm very happy with my current situation with the Friday nights at Cape in Reading. I can honestly say that I still look forward to it each week and I can't see that changing so long may that continue. The numbers were picking up week on week and it was phenomenal over the holiday period so lets hope that after the inevitable Christmas hangover those figures will keep up and the night will have some longevity.

That's all from me at this point in time. I wanted to get the more personal stuff out of the way before cracking on with the real purpose of this blog which of course is food.

Tomorrow I'll be explaining just how I managed to make ten quids worth of Turkey feed a table of five on Christmas day all five agreed it was the best piece of the yuletide bird they'd ever had.