The Burns Night Stack

 

This recipe is a rework of the Duck Egg, Black Pudding and Arbroath Smokie Stack I came up with last year, and intended as a toast to my Scottish friends and colleagues with Burns Night coming up.

I won’t pretend to have any Scottish Roots, but I find my recent foodie adventures in Scotland to have inspired me to play with new ingredients and combinations, so for that I wanted to come up with a little salute in my own style.

So without further ado, warm a potato scone ( a potato based pancake) in the toaster, and fry off in a little rapeseed oil, a slab of haggis, a slice of black pudding, a piece of smoked haddock (naturally smoked not yellow please) and a fried egg. Brown the meat and fish on both sides, and cook the fried egg until crisp but with a runny yolk. Then layer up as follows, scone, black pudding, thin round of goats cheese, haggis slice, smoked haddock and finally the egg.

Toast the poet with a wee dram of good single malt whisky.

 

Smoked Hough and Venison Feijoada.

This is a really warming, rich bowl of food, that will really hit the spot. Feijoada is a Brazillian stew, usually made with cheap cuts of cured pork, such as this lovely Smoked Hough (hock), you can use a ham hock from a good butcher, and also used some leftover venison shin I had, but you could use beef or veal shin.

Brown off the Hough and shin in a large deep casserole dish in a splash of rapeseed oil, then add a couple of  chopped shallots, a couple of chopped garlic cloves and a pinch of salt over a low to moderate heat until soft and brown, add a handful of diced chorizo and allow to cook off until the russet coloured oils leach out. Add 2 or 3 bay leaves followed by a tin of black beans, a carton of passata or chopped tomatoes, and then 500ml of beef stock.

Pop the lid on or cover with foil, and pop in a low oven 140degC for 3 hours You can eat at this point once the meat is falling off the bone or for the best flavour, leave to cool and place in the fridge overnight for the flavours to develop. Pull apart the meat into long shreds and remove the bones and skin.

Warm on the hob, until heated through, and serve with rice, steamed greens, I used Black Tuscan Kale, slices of orange, chopped coriander, and some chilli sauce.

Do you know what’s in your burger?

So….. do you?? With the recent scandal of extra ingredients appearing in supermarket burgers, have you lost confidence in the meat you buy there?

Well if you haven’t already, there’s no better time to get acquainted with your local butcher, and if you build up a good relationship with them, you can trust your meat, and what goes into your burger.

Since I started to eat meat after being a vegetarian for so long, it has always mattered to me where the meat I eat comes from, so I always discuss the meat with the butcher, what beef is it? where has it come from? I was very fortunate to have been offered these Gordonian Luxury Burgers to try, they are dry aged Aberdeen Angus, from Andrew Gordon are a huge 200g each. The aroma was deep and beefy as they cooked, with no rubbish in them, they cooked to perfection on a griddle, and the taste was outstanding, seasoned perfectly, I was quite confident to serve it medium rare, to keep it moist, but with a thick savoury crust from being cooked on a high heat on the griddle.

So, without preaching, maybe it’s time you got to know your local butcher?

 

 

CountryWoodSmoke Video

I wanted to show a little more about the equipment I cook on out in the garden, so made this video back at the end of the summer.

Just thought I’d share it with you guys who may not have seen it yet.

Turn your volume up!!

Cheers

Marcus

Bacon wrapped pheasant breast with blue cheese and thyme oatmeal grits

Although the name of this dish is a bit of a mouthful, it’s worth it for the flavours going on here. Salty crisp bacon wrapped pheasant breast pan fried until crisp on the outside and slightly pink on the inside. Creamy blue cheese and thyme oatmeal grits, similar to polenta but using stoneground oatmeal, this is a seriously good combination.

Wrap a pheasant breast (per person) in a couple of slices of long cut smoked streaky bacon, and start to pan fry on a medium heat.  Add a cup of stoneground oatmeal to a small pan and cover with cold water, cook over a low heat until starting to bubble, stir as little as possible, add boiling water as needed to keep a slightly liquid consistency add a couple of sprigs of thyme, and grate in 50g stilton and a knob of butter. Season with salt and pepper. It should be lovely and creamy and oozy without being too sticky, add a little further boiling water if it’s too thick.

Once the pheasant is browned on both sides, but still slightly pink, should be a few minutes each side. Remove and allow to stand on a warm plate for a few minutes, serve with a good ladleful of the grits and a few branches of lightly steamed purple sprouting broccoli. Crumble a little stilton over the top of the grits and dress with a little fresh thyme.

Lovely and comforting, without being too rich.

 

Birthday Brownies

What a lucky chap I am. I’m away working on my Birthday, and I have just received a lovely package of Brownies from my family. What a great idea, gourmet chocolate brownies delivered to you to enjoy.

What a great selection too, Cardamom, Hazlenut, Coffee & Irish Cream, and Chunky White Chocolate from a selection at Blue Basil Brownies which have won Great Taste Gold Awards. It was difficult to pick a favourite, but the Coffee & Irish Cream was a winner for me.

I was really impressed with the simple packaging, and the moist brownies went down a treat, shared around the office.

 

Chimichurri Squid

A little something to bring the zing back to jaded taste buds, hammered by the festive onslaught.

Make up a chimichurri sauce to add a little zip to squid.

Blitz the following ingredients in a blender until they form a rich tangy sauce

1 finely chopped shallot

2 cloves garlic

A handful each of fresh flat leaf parsley and coriander

1tsp dried oregano

2 tsp white wine vinegar

6 tbsp olive oil

half a small red chilli

juice of half a lime

 

Grill or Pan fry some prepared squid in a little rapeseed oil over a very high heat for a couple of minutes until starting to brown, sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt. Plate up and drizzle the squid with the chimichurri sauce. Serve with lime wedges, rice, and a glass of crisp Sauvignon Blanc.

“Posh at the Seaside”

 

We’ve all been picking ourselves up since being hit with a nasty new years flu bug, and feeling a bit better we wanted to venture out to get a bit of fresh air by the sea and some comforting food. Our closest seaside is the Victorian town of Exmouth. After a lovely walk along the esplanade, we popped into the new cafe bar “Posh at the Seaside”, literally on the seafront.

A lovely airy room with a simple nautical feel and lovely big windows looking out to the Exe Estuary. We wanted something comforting and simple, I went for the Whitebait with salad, chunky chips and garlic mayonnaise. The whitebait was very generous, unusually it wasn’t the pre frozen breaded type, but obviously very fresh, dusted in a little flour and fried, then sprinkled with cayenne pepper. My lovely wife had the Scampi and really enjoyed it, and the kids shared a lovely snack box.

A great little place, with great coffee, and good food, and a friendly welcome right on the beach.