Three ways with cockerel

Last Easter we bought a cockerel for the first time - we had it roasted and did a couple of things with the leftovers and it was delicious. Unfortunately they only seem to be available at Christmas and Easter, so we had a long wait for another.

We had other plans for our big Christmas meal, and a 4kg chook isn't really the most practical thing for a family of two, so I split it into a crown, leg and thigh joints and wings, freezing the pieces separately, along with a bag containing the giblets, back and wingtips, which will eventually become stock.

The first meal we had from it was Simon Hopkinson's recipe for coq au vin. Which was, of course, as a Simon Hopkinson recipe much more involved than you would think a chicken stew needs to be, but the fiddle pays off. It was definitely the nicest coq au vin I've ever made.

A couple of days after that, we had the crown, simply roasted. It was big enough that we only ate one of the breasts (with pigs in blankets, because one of Paul's colleagues was pitying him that he hadn't had any over the Christmas period).

The leftover coq au vin and roast breast meat became a pretty amazing chicken pie, with a bit of proscuitto added for extra oomph.

I kept aside some of the coq au vin gravy to make a dish Hopkinson recommends, of poached eggs in the gravy. Which was nice but not that special and extremely unphotogenic. So let's just finish with a slice of pie.

Playing with Pomelo

Steak and Vietnamese-ish pomelo salad

One of the things that people who don't like online grocery shopping say about it is that they like to browse. They also say they'd rather choose their own fresh produce. And I understand that. For me, though, the convenience and ability to take a leisurely approach over the course of the week more than make up for being stuck with Ocado's "New" tab.

But as it happens I was perusing the New tab when I noticed that they had started to stock pomelos. I've been hearing things about pomelos for a while but never knowingly tried one, so I decided to order one to play with. And to be honest, I am glad Ocado were choosing my fresh produce for me, because the pomelo is a curious beast that flies in the face of everything I know about citrus.

For one thing, it was tightly wrapped in plastic, so I couldn't tell if it was aromatic. It was also very light for its size - I'm used to choosing fruit that seem heavy and juice-laden, but apparently that's not something you look for in a pomelo.

I took it out of the plastic and got a waft of a subtle floral, almost jasmine-y fragrance. I thinly pared off the rind, for candying, and then cut off the pith with the intention of cutting the flesh into suprême for putting in a salad.

And discovered that that isn't something you do with pomelos either. The membranes are very thick and the juice sacs quite dry and separated, so it's actually the easiest thing to just pull the fruit into segments and peel the membranes off with your fingers. Which isn't as sticky as it sounds.

The flesh went into a Vietnamese-ish salad with cucumber, shallots, mint, coriander and peanuts. I made a light dressing of chilli, fish sauce and lime juice. Even with all the chunks of pomelo in the salad, it still needed the fresh acidity of the lime juice, as the fruit is fragrant rather than sharp. Wonderful with a steak.

Then I candied the peel. I've been nibbling small chunks of it whenever I feel like something sweet, but I think most of it is going to be adorning my Christmas trifle.

 

Picture, Great Portland Street

I've made a new friend this year. It's quite exciting really, because the difficulty of making new friends in your 30s and 40s is conventional wisdom. Anyway, she's recently moved to the UK and posted in one of the dance groups on Facebook that she wanted someone to jam with and I had the time to do it. Of course, we've ended up spending much more time gossiping and drinking coffee than actually dancing, but never mind.

It meant that when I received an invitation to join a group of bloggers at Picture, on Great Portland St, a five minute walk from her house, on a day that we'd planned a jam, there was no earthly reason to turn it down. Serendipity!

Photo courtesy of Picture restaurant

Of course, with the gossiping and drinking coffee, I ended up having to rush that five minute walk, so I arrived a bit warm and out of breath, making the welcoming glass of prosecco with elderflower very refreshing. And I don't even like elderflower.

We were experiencing Picture's six-course tasting menu, which comes in at an exceptionally reasonable £35. Manager Tom and chefs Alan and Colin had previously worked together at the highly regarded Arbutus group of restaurants (I've only been to Le Deux Salons, but one day I will get to the others!) so I was reasonably confident that we were in good hands. The excellent sourdough bread with whipped butter confirmed that belief.

The first course was a squash veloute. I was disproportionately thrilled by this, because one of the (few) laments I have about living in the UK is that people here don't really seem to understand the winter squash family. It isn't a staple the way it is in Australia. Fortunately there was a fellow Antipodean at my end of the table, Emma from Adventures of a London Kiwi, who agreed with me that butternut or pumpkin soup is one of life's great pleasures and a winter essential. The veloute was very good, with a nice bite of cumin, if not the most exciting bowl of soup I've drunk.

Grilled tenderstem broccoli, with fresh goats curd was better, although I could have done without the broccoli and just smeared the goats curd on some more of the lovely bread. Not that there was anything wrong with the broccoli, I just really like goats curd, especially with good bread.

Picture used with permission of Kavita of Kavey Eats

Pork cheek was up next. With celery, celeriac and hazelnuts. I don't know if it is because of the current ubiquity of pulled pork, or I am at an age where I appreciate having all my own teeth, but I am getting a bit tired of spoon-soft meat. I like to chew! So this was a bit of a disappointment because the meat was as tender and sticky as can be. If "melt-in-the-mouth" is your measure of success, this was a winner. It was quite a large portion for a tasting menu too, and I honestly don't think I could have eaten more of it - particularly knowing there were still three courses to come.

The fish course was my dish of the day. Perfectly cooked sea bream with chard and a scattering of lentils: it was beautifully fresh and deliciously seasoned. I'd been a bit confused by the menu moving from veg to pork to fish, but it was a very intelligent decision - the pork was so rich that to go from that straight to the beef wouldn't have shown either of them to advantage. As it was, the bream was almost a palate cleanser.

28 day aged beef with kale, sweet potato and salsify was quite heavily smoked, to the point where it almost tasted like bacon, but the meat had a lovely (chewable) texture. I always like eating salsify when other people prepare it too. The sweet potato and kale made it all taste very autumnal, which seemed a little incongruous two weeks ago when the weather was lovely and warm, but now seems like just the right thing.

The photos haven't done it justice, but the crockery at Picture is beautiful. The only bum note was the dessert plate - a brown plate just doesn't show a lovely chocolate mousse to its best advantage. And it was a lovely chocolate mousse, if a little sweeter than I usually like it. That extra sweetness did the blackberries a bit of a disservice, making them taste a little sharp by comparison. The peanut cream also didn't entirely float my boat - taken in a bite with the mousse and a bit of blackberry, it was a balanced mouthful, but by itself it was a bit flat. Of course, I was very full by this stage of the evening, so being pickier than I would otherwise have been.

So, overall verdict? A fantastic neighbourhood restaurant, which I would happily frequent even if I had to pay for it myself. I will have to maintain my new friendship in order to provide opportunities to do just that. Maybe on a Monday night, when they offer free corkage for BYO? With any luck, our husbands will even get along.

 Many thanks to Picture restaurant and Sarah and Jenny at Salt PR for a lovely evening.

British Turkey Awards and a 5kg bird

On Thursday I had dinner at The Savoy. This is not, it pains me to admit, a normal sort of weeknight activity. But it was the British Turkey Awards, where I found myself crowned (no crown actually involved, but I got a trophy and a certificate) British Turkey Blogger Recipe of the Year for my turkey b'stilla.

Trophy

It was a very grand event. Champagne reception, grace, Loyal Toast, the whole shebang. There were several women in floor-length gowns and opera-length gloves and all but one of the men wore a dinner jacket. Paul, the notable exception, looked like Columbo.

I felt very lucky to be seated next to Robert Clark and Karen McQuade, veterans of the British Turkey Awards, who were able to explain some of the elements of the night. Like the bizarre "heads and tails" charity collection game and the boo-ing at some of the award nominees. Every group has its traditions! Anyway, unfortunately we had to hurtle off mid-ceremony, to catch the last train. Everyone else seemed settled in for the duration, so I suspect The Strand was populated by very hungover turkey farmers and retailers on Friday.


It only seems appropriate for me now to share a turkey post.

One of the things that British Turkey is trying to do is get people to see turkey as an every day meat and not just a Christmas thing. Which means that fresh turkey is increasingly available outside the Christmas season.

At Easter, in fact, we bought a 5kg fresh free-range Bronze turkey at a 50% discount, so it was £22. Clearly, for a family of two people a 5kg bird is a ridiculous size, so I assembled poultry shears and a sharp knife and watched a couple of youtube tutorials on jointing poultry and set to work. I vividly remember laying out the pieces on the board to take pictures of them, but I can't find any pictures of the completed butchery.

We ended up with a turkey crown, 2 wing portions, 2 thigh portions and 2 drumsticks, and the carcass, wing tips, leg joints and giblets for stock. All but the crown went into the freezer for later consideration.

Roast turkey crown

The crown, which weighed 2.2kg, we ate roasted. I lifted the breast skin and smeared the flesh with a compound butter, flavoured with lemon zest, garlic and anchovies. I gave it 30 minutes at 200C, then 45 minutes at 170C. We had it hot with roast potatoes and peas and it was just delicious - crisp-skinned with moist, flavourful flesh. The potatoes were also some of my better roasties.

Of course, 2.2kg is still a big roast, even if that includes a fair amount of bone. It left 700g meat to be stripped from the carcass. That meant two portions of a warm noodle salad with a chilli peanut dressing...

My 6" springform tin pays for itself again and again

... and three portions of pie. The pie was very Christmassy, really, with bacon, sage and onion, some of the jellied juices from the roast, a couple of tablespoons of dried cranberries and 50g Stilton, broken into chunks.

As you can imagine (or have experienced at Christmas), after that turkey-filled week we were quite happy to leave the rest of the pieces in the freezer for a fair while after that. But eventually, we were ready to face turkey again.

I boned out the wings and stuffed them with minced prawns and waterchestnuts, then pan-fried them. They were delicious as part of a dim sum meal, but would have made a good supper just with rice and vegetables.

The thighs I also intended to bone-out and stuff, but I ended up with much more stuffing than would fit. I butterflied them and made sort of a sandwich with the stuffing (which was rice, spinach and 'nduja) in between and baked it.The dark thigh meat has enough flavour to stand up to robust 'nduja without being completely overpowered.

Turkey thighs sandwiched with rice, spinach and 'nduja.

Then the drumsticks got a Mexican-inspired treatment. They were barbecued with a lot of smoke so that the skin was crisp and lacquered, and the meat falling off the bone, and served with a spicy peanut mole sauce.

That just left the bag of bits for stock. I added the turkey trimmings and giblets to a couple of roast chicken carcasses and the usual aromatics and simmered them to a rich broth. Some of the broth I then reheated with a couple of dried porcini mushrooms steeping in it, while I made some dumplings filled with minced turkey, more dried porcini and herbs. I roasted cubes of butternut and some sage leaves. Then I cooked the dumplings in simmering water before serving them in the broth with Asian mushrooms and the butternut - and there were three portions of that. My freezer is now empty of turkey and I am ready to start planning Christmas (I know it's still September!). We might have turkey this year.

The Blacksmith & the Toffeemaker, EC1

Halloumi burger

 Basically, I am writing a bunch of quick posts to procrastinate from the HUGE cherry post that is still to come. Those cherries have been haunting my dreams...

But this was a great find. I had a dance practice scheduled at a studio on Goswell Rd. We'd decided that the most constructive way to ensure that we practiced properly was to book an hour's studio time and then go somewhere for dinner and a proper catch-up. So, obviously I put out a request on twitter for recommendations.

Back came The Blacksmith and the Toffeemaker. Which is, of course, an excellent name. They also had a good gin list, an appealing post-dance posh junk food menu and a price-point that suited my fairly restricted purse. Then I looked at the map and realised it was about a 3 minute walk from the dance studio, and the deal was sealed.

It was hot as Hades, so inside the pub was virtually empty, except for a cluster of punters at the bar ordering cold drinks. We got a couple of Blackwoods gin and tonics and had our choice of seats. It's not what you'd call sumptuously decorated. They haven't even gone for Russell Norman-style filament-bulb chic. This reads much more like they went to car boot sales and repossession auctions and generally begged, borrowed or stole the furniture for the fit-out. The grunge has authenticity.

The burgers were good. There didn't seem to be a menu that you could take away from the bar, so I ordered the thing I remembered that sounded good, which turned out to be the Blacksmith burger. I didn't realise that it was going to be two patties... and it didn't occur to me to ask about lettuce, which brought nothing to the party. But the burger itself was excellent. It tasted freshly seasoned, very peppery and quite beefy. I wouldn't have guessed that the skin-on chips were triple-fried, but they were the perfect combination of crisp and floppy.

Sharon's burger was much more interesting and, I think, the better choice. Massive slabs of grilled halloumi (still with the stupid lettuce) and a pile of kimchi. An unusual fusion but a very successful one!

We had more Blackwoods gin and commiserated about husbands who haven't read all of A song of ice and fire. And made mental notes to come back and try more of the menu.

Blacksmith burger

Berry custard tart

I had half a carton of cream in the fridge, which was past it's use-by date, but still smelt absolutely fine. I also had the elderly remnant of a packet of fruits of the forest occupying valuable real estate in the freezer. There was a sheet of shortcrust pastry next to the fruits of the forest. I was in the middle of a nutmeg obsession which was screaming CUSTARD TART in my head. My purpose was clear.

With the ingredients to hand it wasn't going to be a luxurious, double-cream-and-eggyolk tart of extraordinary velvety depth. It was going to be a more austere animal with a firmer custard given body with whole eggs. I also wasn't going to faff about cooking the custard before pouring it into the pastry. It was going to have to look after itself.


Berry custard tart (makes 6-8 slices)


1 sheet frozen butter shortcrust pastry, thawed
Leftover double cream, made up to 300ml with milk
3 whole eggs
100g caster sugar
Frozen fruits of the forest - however much is left in the packet
Freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a pie plate with the pastry and blind bake for 15 minutes. Remove the baking beans and bake for another 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy, then thoroughly whisk in the milk and cream mixture. Allow to stand for 10 minutes so the air-bubbles rise to the surface, then gently skim off any froth with a spoon. Pour the custard into the cooled pastry shell, sprinkle the berries evenly over the surface and top with grated nutmeg. Bake for about 35 minutes or until golden brown but still wobbly. Cool for at least an hour before eating.

Onglet Wellington

I don't like to play favourites with food. There are so many very delicious things to eat in the world that it seems a shame to single out one or two dishes. I do go through periods of obsession, though, where everything I cook has nutmeg, or prawns, or pomegranate in it, and there are some dishes that I am delighted to eat more often than others.

Beef Wellington is one of the ones that I am delighted to eat quite often. Unfortunately, the recipe usually calls for an astonishingly expensive piece of beef, which means we really can't afford to eat it quite as often as I would like to. I've now worked out a way of making it a more regular treat.

Onglet is our usual cut of steak. It's inexpensive, delicious and, when cooked with a bit of care, as tender as you like. I couldn't see why it wouldn't work in a Wellington.

I seared the steaks for about a minute a side, then let them cool completely. They were the same weight, about 150g each, but one was long and thin and the other short and squat, so I cut a slice off the long one to even them up a bit. I made a duxelles from onions, mushrooms and garlic, flavoured with some tarragon, vermouth and a spoonful of minced truffles. I poured all the juices from the cooled steaks into it as well.

When the duxelles had also cooled, I spread it onto a sheet of puff pastry, topped it with the meat, rolled it up and gave it a good glazing of egg.

Then it waited obediently until I was ready to bake it. Half an hour in a 180C oven had it beautifully cooked. So beautifully cooked, in fact, that we didn't get a picture of the final plated portion. The flavour was just right, and the texture didn't suffer at all from being made with the cheaper cut of meat. Fillet at £37.25 a kilo or onglet at £12.45 a kilo? I will still use fillet for special occasions, but the onglet does make it an affordable option.

Whisky Ginger Panettone Pudding

OK, this is just a simple bread and butter pudding, but it was the best bread and butter pudding I have ever made so it deserves to be commemorated. It was very rich, very creamy and perfectly fruity and boozy. It was also unexpectedly frugal, using leftovers, pantry items and stuff on clearance.

It started out with the leftover panettone from Boxing Day. I cut it into slices, buttered it and made it into little marmalade sandwiches with some of the whisky marmalade my grandmother sent me for Christmas. I put the sandwiches in a dish, then made the custard.

Now, one of the amazing things about supermarkets in the UK is the boozy cream they sell around Christmas. Lovely thick cream, heavily spiked with brandy or cointreau, just sitting on the shelf waiting to be taken home and dolloped around. And of course, not all of it gets sold before Christmas so it gets massively marked down just afterwards. Which is how I came to be in possession of a half-price tub of Channel Island double cream spiked with whisky and ginger, to use as the basis for my custard.

I thinned it with a little milk, added a bit more whisky and a couple of eggs, then poured it over the marmalade sandwiches. Then - and this is a very important bit for a good bread and butter pudding - I let it sit for a couple of hours to make sure the custard soaked all the way into the bread.

I sprinkled over a few chunks of crystallised ginger, placed the dish in a water bath (this is also important for a good bread and butter pudding) and baked it slowly until the custard was set but still wobbly. I let it cool for a few minutes before scooping it out to serve. Utter heaven.

Tastes better than it looks