Potato forms.......

Occasionally it's more than agreeable to just take the cooking out of your own hands and put your trust in some good old fashioned pre-prepared frozen comfort food.

I don't mind admitting that sometimes myself, and I'm guessing even the most hardy of home cooks will at some point just say....."I can't be bothered this evening".

Peas and potatoes are my main vices. I do love spending the time shelling fresh peas from their pods, they taste so much sweeter and firmer this way but frozen peas are perfectly acceptable too.

I'd never use that horrid frozen mixed veg though because I find it completely vile. I actually got some served up to me once at a restaurant and I was truly disgusted and I've never set food in the place since. It was La Fontana in Twyford by the way. I have no problem naming and shaming them because of this. Fancy living in a village surrounded by fields and serving up cheap, sweaty and nasty frozen veg, it's just not cricket I tell thee.

Potatoes are where I think frozen food does well. I often contemplate and change the order in which I rank my top 4 frozen potato forms. Current order is thus -

1. Potato croquettes
2. Hash browns
3. Potato waffles
4. Chips

The order changes each time I try a new variety.



Tesco's and Aunt Bessie's come out tops on the croquette front. I quite like Waitrose ones too but they tend to split when you cook them and I prefer them to keep their shape.




Hash Browns too can be hit and miss with own brand versions so I just stick to McCains as they get nice and crispy but still have a loose chunky inside. For absolute nirvana though you simply cannot get better than a piping hot McDonald's Hash Brown.





Potato waffles can only be from Birds Eye. Grilled until crispy and topped with a couple of free range, organic fried eggs they make a perfect breakfast.



Frozen chips can be a bit disappointing, especially the cheap ones. Personally I'll either got for an Aunt Bessie's homesytle or perhaps some McCains crinkle cut chips because they seem to crisp up more but still remain fluffy inside. Both of those though still come out quite dry. For ultimate frozen chip heaven though you have to go for McCains simply gorgeous chips. They really are the ultimate, cut from real spuds and cooked in beef dripping........worth the extra cost? absobloominlutely.

Are there any other frozen potato forms I should be checking out?

Toodlepip xx

DUCK !!.....Who said that !?!?

What a busy couple of days it has been. Made some progress on the pub having got some figures from the previous tenant but we also got news of another pub close by which we will also show an interest in as it's far better suited to being food led.

We have a business meeting planned for Wednesday evening with our advisor who will be able to look himself at the options and then based on his professional opinion we'll follow either one up.

Cricket match tonight too so hopefully the weather will clear too as it'll be welcome break to get out in the fresh air and hopefully be of some use to the team.

Right moving onto the main course from Sundays lunch.

Confit Duck.

Having never even attempted to confit Duck before this was quite an interesting lesson in classic French cooking.

It's certainly not a dish that you can just bung in the oven as it takes at least 36 hours to prepare before it even reaches the plate.

The idea behind using this method of cooking comes from an age old way of preserving the meat. Typical meats to confit are Duck, Goose & Pork. The process involves poaching the meat in it's own fat.

After poaching the pot containing the meat and fat is then left to cool and the solidifying fat then hardens to create a protective layer meaning that no air can get to the meat an therefore it can keep, completely submerged in the fat for a substantial amount of time, up to 6 months in a fridge !! Canned varieties which are commercially available can last for several years.

But the preservation qualities of confit for me come secondary to the taste and the texture that it gives the meat. This Duck, when it eventually reached the plate was so tender and so juicy, it just fell of the bone and was far from being fatty as you would ever expect given the richness of Duck anyway

So start it all off I had 4 duck legs which I seasoned with salt and pepper and put in a bowl to which I'd also addd a couple of crushed Bay leaves and a crushed up Star Anais. I gave the Duck legs a good rubbing in this mixture then left covered in the fridge for 24 hours.

Now I have a large saucepan and lid that is both stove top and oven proof and this is what I use for the poaching stage of the confit, a stove top and oven proof casserole would be perfect too.

Make absolutely sure that if you are using anything other than metal (Glass, Chine, Earthenware etc etc)on top of a stove that it is completely compatible with doing so otherwise you could risk it cracking and with hot fat around that would be very dangerous. If you have any doubt do not use it should be the rule here.

First of all I make sure that I have enough duck fat (available from most supermarkets in jars) melting over a low heat in the pan to completely submerge the duck legs, almost as if I wanted to deep fry them.

(Keep the jars that the duck fat can in because whatever is left over of the fat after using the finished duck can be saved for making the most amazing chips you'll ever have.)

Take the duck legs out of the fridge and run each one under cold running water to remove the seasoning ingredients and dry each one as much as possible with some kitchen towel.......water and hot fat are not a good mix at all, best avoided !!

When they are dry slowly lower them into the pan with the duck fat and put the lid on.

Heat the oven up to around just 150C making sure you've re-arranged the trays so that there is enough room inside to the comfortably house the oven proof saucepan with it's lid.

Also it's worth putting something underneath where you intend to put the pan so that any bubbling over oil gets collected in that rather than the oven casing.

Now carefully put the confit into the oven and you need to leave this for at least 3 1/2 hours.

After this time again carefully take the pan out of the oven and return to the stove top. No need for any more heat at this stage.

Get yourself some kind of dish that will fit the poached duck pieces in nice and snug and that also has high enough sides for you to again be able to completely submerge the duck pieces in the molten fat.

Traditionally in France they would use a special confit pot which is made from clay. This packs in the meat nice an tightly, has a seal-able lid and also because it's is made from clay it stops any light from getting to the confit.

After doing this you may or may not have some cooking fat left over, this can be returned to the original jars and the confit now be left for a few hours to completely cool so that the fat solidifies encasing the duck.

When the dish has cool sufficiently cover it up and store in the fridge until it's needed. As I mentioned before this will keep for up to 6 months so long as the meat stays encased in the fat. So as much as it does take quite a lot of time and effort to get this far you can do it well in advance.

When you do come to use the duck you just need to get your fingers into the confit and pull a piece of the duck out wiping of the excess fat with your fingers. Be careful though as the meat on it will be so tender that you might very well just end up pulling out just a leg bone !!

Brown this off all over starting skin side down in a frying pan over a fairly high heat then allow it to finish off in the oven (190C) for a further 10 minutes.

This is now ready to serve and I promise you that if you've never had Duck made this way before you be astounded by how good it tastes.....you have my word.

You can choose any number of things to accompany this dish but I went for some rather snazzy cylindrical, triple cooked chips and a Redcurrent Jus with 3 bowls of vegetables on the table.

The veg was Chantenay Carrots that I'd boiled then tossed in a little butter and a pinch of ground cumin, French Beans again boiled and tossed with a little butter and some toasted Seasame Seeds and some fresh Peas with Chilli and Panchetta.

All of these extra things I will post on the blog tomorrow.

How did it all look on the plate ......................



And seeing as this was my friend "Big Nicks" plate it didn't look this way for long.

Ahh the amazing sights and sounds of being on Holiday.

Picture the scene.

You're walking along the seafront, somewhere abroad, perhaps southern Spain.

The sun is just setting over the clear blue sea.

Yachts are bobbling lightly as the gentle sea waves ripple their way up to the soft, fine, golden sands.

The promenade is lined with palaces of gastronomic delight. The subtle waft of varying, fresh Mediterranean cuisine filling the air.

The chink of glass upon glass as the multitudinous evening repasts are toasted with a nice Rioja or perhaps a chilled Sangria.

Lovers look into each others eyes maybe blushing slightly and lowering their eyes as a compliment is made.

Olive skinned children sit quietly and enjoy the flavours of the food unconcerned by the colour or texture of the morsels they load into their smiling mouths.

Soft music also fills the air, perhaps something local, maybe a guy playing a guitar while a girl dances an alluring and exotic Flamenco.

Can it get any better than this? Really !!!

Oh yes because you can experience the "GREAT British Seaside"............

You're walking along the seafront, somewhere in the UK, perhaps Great Yarmouth.

The sun is barely visible as in sinks it's way behind the dark, thundery clouds and into the cold, Greenish/Brown and uncompromising North Sea.

Oil Tankers meander their way across the horizon being battered by the harsh, frantic waves that pound upon the stoney, dog s**t covered, cigarette butt, fly-tipped sand.

The promenade is festooned with outlets offering various deep fried objects and the air is filled with wafts of hot boiling cooking oil, vinegar and the odd waft of fresh horse s**t direct from the back ends of the knackeryard nags that drag poorly maintained carriages up and down so that poorly maintained people don't have to walk to the next doughnut emporium.

The chink of tin upon concrete as the next can of cheap, super strength lager or cider topples out the overfilled bin.

Lovers, when not shouting at each other, can only look into one of each other eyes as the other two are pointing in completely opposite directions.

Pasty skinned children wail as they shovel in copious amounts of hydrogenated fat into their already far to obese bodies and of course when ordering they we're explicit in making sure that nothing green accompanied their feast.

Cheesey Euro pop is being banged out of the grotty looking, shellsuit populated amusement arcades where you actually only find amusement in the elaborate exteriors that try to convince the great unwashed that they have somehow been magically tele-ported to Las Vegas (Caesers Palace my arse)

So there you go, only one winner there for me.......UK all the way :-)

With that in mind here is my recipe of the day.

1. Get some stuff! usually Fish but basically anything will work from Sausages to Chicken to Shoes and perhaps Books !!!

2. Cover it in batter and deep fry it until it's really crisp around the edges and soggy in the middle (Sogginess may not apply to books, particularly hard backs). Keep warm under bright halogen lamps (TIP - it's best to use oil that been constantly used for about 2 weeks without being changed)

3. Chips - Nothing else will do....Naturally these must have been deep fried.

4. Pile deep fried item number two into a polystyrene container and top with deep fried item number one.

5. Cover liberally with salt which was sourced from at least 4,000 miles from the very seafront you are on and drown in cheap malt vinegar.

6. ..............ENJOY.

7. Die young.