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Posts Tagged ‘british’

The World’s most expensive sausage ?

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

Officially this was an ordinary hot sausage sold by the United Nations Development Office in Sweden. The asking price? $130. The most expensive luxury sausage was £20, more of a fair game we we think. This was made in the UK and contained champagne and truffle amongst the ingredients. If you get the regular six sausages to a pound, that’s £120 per pack.

The key would be to make a sausage from luxury ingredients and to make them all sing together as a creation of worth. Expensive sandwiches have been made using sour dough bread, truffles, foie gras and kobe beef. Would flavours get lost or overwhelm even?

Another challenge is to get this done with local ingredients or even from what we would have commonly had to hand in times gone by. Imagine the Victorian Era, before two World Wars ravaged British food. At that time we had a great period of decadence and some very fine ingredients. With modern access to such fantastic ingredients, the options are fairly unlimited.

The Worlds most luxurious sausage or sausage range … watch this space

Tags: british, expensive, ingredients, local, luxurious, sausage
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Local Food, Is it just a British problem?

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

I sometimes get sent to nice places around the world for conferences and this trip was no let down. This is the first time I have visited Spain and being sent to Barcelona as an introduction to the country was great. The picture above is one of the longest building projects in the world, starting sometime in the mid 19th century. It is still a building site today and is a mix of architectural style from ancient to modern. So, I set off on foot from my hotel on the edge of the city to find this place, over a 2 mile walk down a lovely avenue of trees and then a few side streets to this amazing square. The cathedral is awe inspiring and maybe could also be described as eccentric or even barking mad. Sadly it had also inherited the same neighbours as many historic places around the world. On one corner stood the burger place, then on another, the chicken place and finally one of the pizza places.

So where was all this great local food that the Spanish produce? Luckily, that had been a treat on the way to the square before I got hit by the high street anytown fast food joints. A slim but deep bar / restaurant which was buzzing. The main bar had a local cable type lotto thing going on, buy a ticket and watch live draws several times an hour. For me it was about the food. Three types of Spanish omelette (potato, courgette and mushroom), chorizo, small warmed up morcilla (black pudding, but the guy said it was blue pudding), ham and a beer. So let me run through that again; omelette, sausage, black pudding and ham. Almost sounds like a British pub snack? But this was really nice Spanish food, done their way and in no way comparable to a fry up or a grill.

How is this different to British food? If you came from overseas looking for local food where would you go? Pie and eel shops, tea rooms, sandwich bars, greasy spoons and fish and chip shops. It might not be high end, but this is the kind of food enjoyed all over the world in local neighbourhoods. The tapas place was no different to this, people coming out for a snack, a chat, a cigarette, a flutter and a beer.

Tags: british, fast food, Food, local, spanish, tapas
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The Perfect Breakfast …

Thursday, October 14th, 2010

This all started with another article in The Times food supplement, good content, sadly widely unavailable online. Now here is something that people will always have an opinion over, breakfast. Whether the subject is health or the best greasy spoon in town, the breakfast is almost infinite in it’s choices. There is a decision making tool called morphological analysis which allows you to combine difference columns of ideas to get new ideas. This can be easily attached to the Great British breakfast, for example:

Base: White toast, brown toast, muffin, pancake, fried bread, bread roll, seaweed
Meat: Bacon, sausage, haggis, blackpudding, cockles,
Eggs: Fried, scrambled, poached
Extras: Beans, tomato, mushrooms

This list is not exhaustive and certainly each of these can also have further multiple choices. Then there is all the healthy stuff with fruit, grains and acidic milk which should not be talked about in these circles I remember once trying a beast of a breakfast in a town just outside of Glasgow; Lorne sausage (the square sliced stuff), bacon and scrambled egg all wrapped in a giant Scotch pancake. This was a fantastic treat once a week thing, but it amazes me how breakfast is taken so lightly. It can be one of the best times of the day to catch up with family and enjoy simple fair first thing in the morning when everyone is fresh and ready for the day.

When you start your day with just a small coffee, how long does the morning feel ?

Tags: analysis, breakfast, british, morphological
Posted in Food | 1 Comment »

Staffordshire Cheese

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

When the British Cheese Board asks a question such as what is your favourite cheese, they will get a very biased answer from us. Of course, this is going to be The Staffordshire. This cheese recently won protected designation of origin (PDO) from the European Union. According to their website the cheese is made from a rediscovered monastic recipe and can only be produced from milk from cows kept on Staffordshire farms.

One of our first jobs when opening the restaurant was to go out and visit potential suppliers. We took the long journey through the back roads of the Staffordshire moorlands to just outside of Leek. This is where Leek Brewery and Staffordshire Cheese Company are based. The cheese is made by hand on the premises and it’s quite a surprising thing to see this done on a reasonably small scale.

We use their cheese not only on our cheeseboard, but as an active ingredient in some of our other dishes. We’ve made a foam for one of our soups using The Staffordshire, as an ingredient in one of our vegetarian friendly dishes as well as on the cheeseboard. It’s a very versatile hard white cows cheese and will fit most roles that a good cheese should.

Given that Britain has had a resurgence in great cheeses, it is especially wonderful to see something so local and made with such care. The time and dedication it took to obtain their protected designation of origin was probably something they would not have done with hind sight. In common with a couple of other Staffordshire finds, this was down to the monks.

They certainly knew a lot about bugs, those monks, oh and of course beer …

Tags: board, british, cheese, designation, origin, PDO, protected, staffordshire
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Bang, Banger … You’re dead

Thursday, September 23rd, 2010

Sausages, how they should be.

In the food section of The Times today was a main feature on sausages and their health properties. Apparently a large cancer research foundation and Harvard found increased risks to health caused by the eating of the humble sausage. In one study it was concluded that the increase of 20% in instances of bowel cancer could be attributed to eating one sausage per day. They blamed this on the chemicals, the fats and additional preservatives and salts used in the manufacture of sausage. Sadly due to The Times adopting their subscription only online version, I can’t provide you a link.

In previous articles we have looked at the manufacture of sausages and how a proper home-made, hand crafted sausage should be put together. In defence of this great British tradition, it must be said like any other tasty treat, we should not overindulge. If sausage made from decent cuts of the animal, with natural fellows and minimum preservatives and chemicals bound in a natural casing or even a synthetic casing will hold few perils for the occasional feast.

The astounding part of this article was that anything up to 5% of sausage could be derived from chemical, a minimum meat content, dependent on the meat, can be as low as 42 percent, with meat being a very subjective term.

As many of you know how we like our sausages, we make our own sausages, we sometimes even smoke sausages and recently we have started experimenting with our own range of salami and other charcuterie. Like much of British food, there has been a revival and we hope to see the Great, British sausage brought out as a true hero of our nation’s culinary heritage. When you pass by those sordid pink slurry filled plastic fingers in the fridges and freezers of this nations mass sellers, compare those to the often excellent sausages produced by smaller caring producers. Some supermarkets stock such things and they are worth hunting down.

Think … Bangers or Trash ?

Tags: british, home, made, sausages
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Book Review | Mark Hix | Oyster and Chop House

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

Hix Oyster & Chop House (From Amazon UK)

I thought I was going to be impressed with this book from opening the box and finding a beautifully embossed cover and place-holding ribbon.

Mark Hix is probably more famous as a proponent of British cooking and helping to throw aside some myths surrounding our ability in the kitchen. He was also the man that put institutions such as Le Caprice, and The Ivy on the map. From these great venues, Hicks has gone on to produce his own name in his own restaurants. This title is all about as it says, Hix Oyster and Chophouse. The book is written in a style which makes it easy for people to step through and learn about the ingredients and their treatment. The most unusual part of this is the whole chapter dedicated to the explanation of oysters, how to prepare them and also the varieties of Oyster their difference.

The content also goes on to explore and to explain bar style finger snacks, drinks, soups, salads, sides and a few home favourites. One of the things which comes across very clearly in this book is the passion that Hicks has for British food. Ingredients are explained very well. The cuts of meat are dealt with in great detail, but not only in where they come from, but in the preparation and cooking. Predominantly the book is focused on oysters and also single pieces of meat, but does the full meal as explained in some detail along with sides, salads, soups and finally deserts.

The cover doesn’t differ much to content, the total package, a great book not just for the coffee table but a working volume for amateurs and professionals alike. Highly recommended.

Tags: british, chop, Food, house, mark hix, oyster
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Salami | A Slice of Science

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

Why would you make your own salami? It’s the same as climbing the mountain, because you can. A couple of months ago we got the necessary components from our charcuterie supplier and a pile of minced Packington pork from our butcher. The aim was to try and gain some understanding of how this great ingredient is made and whether it can be adapted with a British flavour. A late Saturday was spent getting the measuring of very small quantities of various powders right in proportion to the volume of pork we had on hand. Next came the patient preparation of the ox-middle casing, which is a reasonably unpleasant task. Finally, the stuffing and tying. So by about midnight, the first trial batch of salami was ready. This then needs an initial drying out before it can be hung to dry and age.

Preserved meat was born out of the necessity to extend the life of scarce produce. Traditionally pigs were slaughtered in the autumn and the pork was given extra storage from making pies, hams, sausages and bacon. The practice of salami making takes this even further by combining a number of different preservation methods in one product. First there is the creation of an environment too acidic for most harmful organisms. Then preserving salts that are toxic to pretty much the rest. Finally the air drying reduces the moisture content, which inhibits the growing of bugs and prevents the fats becoming rancid.

So science can be tasty

Tags: british, experiment, homemade, Packington, pork, salami
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Fennel sausage – Home recipe

Thursday, April 15th, 2010

Another of my favourites, originally based on an Italian recipe from a deli that used to be owned by our friends Lee and Mimo. This can be used to make a burger or sausage, it’s up to you.

5 lb minced pork
3 ts Fennel seed
2 ts fresh ground Pepper
1 1/2 ts Sage Leaves
5 Cloves pressed garlic
3 ts Salt
1/2 pint red wine

For sausages you can add 1/2lb of fresh bread crumbs and soak in the wine before combining. The traditional italian sausage would possibly not use any bread crumbs as it is a coarser, more “burger like” consistency.

Mix well and stuff into sausages casing or press into burgers. If making sausages, this is best produced unlinked and portioned into 2lb rings. The rings can be cooked just as well in one piece in a frying pan or, crossed through with skewers, on the barbecue.

Any hearty red wine works well with this and possibly a bit of homemade chilli sauce.

Tags: barbecue, bbq, british, fennel, home made, recipe, sausages
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The Parry Burger – Home Recipe

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

This weekend we had the in-laws over to stay. They live in Yorkshire but there is Welsh ancestry on my father in laws side. The weather was good, so we got the barbecue fired up for the first time this year. On the spur of the moment, we created this new burger recipe to celebrate, part Welsh, part Yorkshire, all Great and British.

500g minced beef (try not to get extra lean as you need the fat to bind)
500g minced pork
1 medium onion, chopped and processed in blender till fine
2tbs Henderson’s Relish (The Yorkshire ingrredient)
1tsp Red Welsh Mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

This is very easy to do, can be prepared in advance and stored in the fridge until ready.

Put all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and work together by hand. You will know when you have blended everything together as the mixture will be a constant off red colour, the mustard creates that. Take a handful and press together like a snow ball, press flat to about 1/2 inch on a clean board. Lift with pallet knife onto a plate. Repeat until you have used all the mixture up.

All you have to do it is put them on the white hot barbecue, let them cook and enjoy

Tags: barbecue, british, burger, homemade, recipe
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Say Cheese – Blacksticks Blue

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

This is a hand crafted cheese, produced from a local milk herd in rural Lancashire. It’s a soft textured, yellow coloured creamy cheese with a mild blueing. For those who want to try a blue cheese without being hit bit that strong, almost chlorine, smell, this is great. It still has an assertive flavour without being pungent and over powering.

Blacksticks Blue

The lovely yellowish colour comes from the addition of a natural ingredient called anato. Like many blue cheeses, Blacksticks Blue could be temperamental during it’s maturation, but with tender care from the cheese makers, the final product comes out spot on.

Tags: blacksticks, blue, british, cheese, lancashire
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