Ah, Dear Old Blighty. Soggy sandwiches and warm beer on stony, windy beaches; town centres populated by charity shops and coffee bars whose mega-owners don't pay tax; home of the deep-fried Mars Bar...
Land of the free, Winner of the world cup more than half a century ago (but we won't let that get in the way of giving the boys a kicking in the press if they lose a competition that we never win but weirdly always expect to). And it's home until I can come up with a plan.
We used to have arguably the worst cuisine in the world but that's just not true now. The whole group of islands is blessed with lush grass for cattle and sheep, beautiful fish (even though we sell much more than we eat to people who appreciate it more), and a recent wave of artisan producers of every type of food and drink.
This is why it crossed the road
Get the best chicken you can afford and ignore the packet cooking instructions but make sure you know how much it weighs
Wouldn't be a Bradford Christmas without this!
Remember, there's more to life that Cheddar!
Much more!
The best soup in the world
This is inspired by a Rick Stein recipe that is absolutely lovely.
I don’t wear Wellington boots and I don’t like pastry that much so . . .
This is similar to beef wellington but with lovely crispy prosciutto crudo on the outside instead of pastry.
Crispy skin is what this is all about
Dead easy. You can buy “Baking Potatoes” now and they are fine – they are just big spuds. It’s just a marketing thing – you can use any spud. The fluffier the better – King Edward are ideal.
I'm not a great fan of Salmon but this recipe just works!
Like every fish recipe it's easy to lose your nerve and keep it in for too long. You'll learn how you like it after you've done it a couple of times but this really works
The real reason we have roasts on Sunday
There are several ways of making this, but the traditional description of gravy is that it’s made from the juices from the meat. Well, if you’re Achilles on the beach of Troy sacrificing 20 white bulls for the death of Patroclus then you might have enough juices for that but the rest of us use oxo.
Jelly and custard for grown-ups
No, nothing at all to do with French Nazi sympathisers
Ever wondered what tinned peas were for? Well, it's this
Use tinned marrowfats for this recipe. I've used sage because it goes better with the ham or bacon than mint would, but peas and mint go really well. In summer use frozen peas instead of tinned and leave the meat out, swap the sage for mint and you've got something beautiful
It's what the mackerel would have wanted!
This is a very basic recipe which you can play with by adding different flavourings if you like: garlic, spring onion, chilli, up to you
If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck . . . fry it!
Duck is fatty but only really in a single thick layer between the skin and flesh – the meat itself is rich but lean. Get the fat out and use it for something else (Roasties)
Fried leftovers! Fantastic!
"Pan" on anything pisses me off quite a lot: What else would you fry in? Bucket-fried? Even the colonel fries the chicken separately from the bucket he puts it in
Anyway, you can just cook the salmon in the pan on the hob (fry it) or start it in the pan and then put the pan in the oven (pan-roasted). Pan-roasted is fair enough I suppose
To do this properly, 1lb of spuds to 1lb of butter. Not healthy but who cares?
Seems silly even putting this is in – how hard can it be, right? Just boil the potatoes – it doesn’t really matter what type but, again, floury makes your job easier.
Clown divorce: custardy battle
There are 2 versions of this, I wanted to make it thicker for a trifle so reduced the milk to 350ml and took an egg out but left the same amount of everything else
When life gives you lemons, make a posset…
… or a Gin and Tonic. Your call but I’m less interested in the posset now I've though of that.
This is a truly beautiful thing.
Look at the previous recipe (salt beef) about a week before you want a sandwich. Yeah, I know.
One thing you can pretty much guarantee you can do better than a restaurant or pub can
I don't know what it is - cold fat; raw potatoes; crowding them in the pan... But anyway they are just always better at home