Penis cake!

I do hope that I never get given, or have reason to purchase, my own Pecker Cake Pan.

Thankfully if I ever do find myself in a situation where I do have said cake tin sitting idly in the cupboard, one woman has made it her mission to find alternative uses.

http://www.penispans.com

I think the Christmas tree cake actually looks pretty good and you'd never guess its origins.

Ox-tail soup

I was visiting the 'rents at the weekend and was delighted to find that a new traditional butchers had just opened: http://www.ianchatfield.co.uk.

Naturally, that gave me the perfect excuse to go in and see what interesting cuts I could get my hand on; the sort of thing supermarkets simply don't stock. I've fancied making ox-tail soup for a while and the rubbish weather meant that such a warming broth is still welcome.

I did a fair amount or research into finding a great recipe for ox-tail soup. I was quite surprised that there was very little variation so I think what I made was pretty "authentic"and I couldn't have been much happier.

The soup was very rich and very meaty but refreshed by the hit of parsley. It had a real depth of complex flavour. The strands of meat were meltingly tender with an occasional crispy jewel. The time invested in making this definitely paid off. It's little wonder that this is a timeless classic.

Ox-tail soup recipe (Serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 ox-tail ~900g/2lb

Seasoned flour

Onion, roughly chopped

Celery stalk, roughly chopped

Carrot, roughly chopped

Turnip, roughly chopped

Bay leaf

Thyme, two sprigs

Star anise

7 black peppercorns

1tbsp tomato puree

225ml red wine

1.125l beef stock

1oz butter, softened

1oz flour

Parsley, to garnish

Method:

1. Roll the ox-tail pieces in seasoned flour and knock off any excess.

2. Brown the meat over a high-heat in a little hot oil with the star anise. Once darkly caramelised remove the meat from that pan.

3. Turn down the heat, add the vegetable chunks to the pan and fry briefly to add a little colour.

4. Add the tomato purée and fry for a minute. Add the remaining aromats and deglaze the pan with the white wine.

5. Add the meat back to the pan and add the stock. Bring to a very gently simmer and cook for 2.5 - 3 hours, covered, until the meat is very tender.

6. Remove the meat from the stock and allow to cool.

7. Strain the cooking liquor, cool and refrigerate over-night.

8. Remove the hardened layer of set fat from the liquor the next day.and remove the meat from the ox-tail bones and shred.

9. Warm the soup in a large pan. To thicken the soup, mix together the butter and flour and whisk in, if required.

10. To serve, fry the meat to give it a crispy finish, then pile into bowls. Spoon the soup around the meat and garnish with freshly chopped parsley.

Quick Bailey's cheesecake

A trip back home meant that my sister wanted a quick pud to follow her tuna pasta bake. thus a rapid cheesecake was put together. 

Crushed up plain chocolate digestives, covered with a mix of whipped cram, mascapone and Bailey's, topped with a massive Yorkie man-button. Assembling rather than cooking. Lovely nonetheless! Just goes to show things don't have to be complex to be satisfying.

PS Yorkie man buttons are amazing: 4cm discs of Yorkie. Genius!

Lamb breast

Lamb breast (or belly; I've never been able to get my head around the fact that the same bit of an animal is called different things depending on the beast so you get lamb breast, pork belly and beef brisket. Anyhoo, moving on.) is something I've been wanting to try for ages. A pre-Alpine leaving feast, was the perfect excuse to go to the butchers in Banners and get my hands on a big old breast of lamb. (Well over a kilo of lamby goodness for a little over £3: bargain!)

(Sorry for the terrible photos, I got a bit in to the swing of hosting and only remembered to take any photos at the last moment.)

I stuffed and rolled the lamb and slow roasted it. As my friends arrived they both commented that they could smell the lamb way out in the landing outside me flat. The lamb skin was incredibly crispy, quite like pork cracking. The meat was meltingly tender with the fat having rendered away leaving a strong flavour of lamb. The sides of broccoli, courgettes and carrots were suitably light and fresh (despite the appalling weather outside).

For pudding, I put together a little trio of puds. I made Heston's passion fruit and chocolate tart, which is quite possibly the silkiest, smoothest thing I have ever made. Simple chocolate deliciousness. To go with the tart I made a berry sorbet and finished off with a piece of my favourite brownie. All in all a pretty damn good pud plate: complimentary flavours, different textures and contrasting temperatures.

On to the recipes.

Stuffed lamb breast

Ingredients:

Lamb breast

For the stuffing: (use quantities as you see fit and to reflect your palette)

1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Rosemary
~80g best sausage meat (lamb sausages or mince would be great)
Nutmeg
Parsley
Mint
Zest of 1/2 a lemon

Method:
1. Sweat the onion until transparent and soft. Leave to cool.
2. Mix all the stuffing ingredients together.
3. Trim any excess skin or fat from the lamb. Rub a cut clove of garlic over the meat. Spread the stuffing all over the lamb. Roll the belly tightly and tie.
4. Brown the meat all over in a pan then roast at 150°C for 3hours. Once tender (a skewer should pass in to the meat with no resistance). Leave to rest for about 15mins.

5. Carve in to thick slices and serve.

Roast courgettes with lemon (a recipe from Sainsbury's)

Ingredients:

6 courgettes, trimmed and cut into thirds, then each third cut into thick strips

1tsp lemon juice
1tbsp olive oil

1tbsp mint leaves, chopped

Method:

1. Put the courgettes in a roasting dish in a single layer.

2. Whisk together the lemon juice and olive oil, then drizzle over the courgettes. Turn to coat.

3. Roast at 160°C (fan oven) for 30 minutes. Spoon into a warm serving dish and sprinkle with the chopped mint.

Steamed broccoli with toasted sesame seeds (a recipe from Sainsbury's)

Ingredients:

900g broccoli, cut into small florets

1tbsp olive oil

1½ tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

Method:

1. Steam the broccoli over a pan of boiling water for 7-10 minutes until tender.

2. Fry the sesame seeds in the oil until lightly browned. Add the broccoli and stir-fry briefly. 

Lemon and parsley carrots (taken from New British Classics, Rhodes, G, 1999, BBC Worldwide)

Ingredients:
1lb carrots, sliced thinly
1tsp caster sugar
1oz butter
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Parsley, chopped

Method:
1. Put the carrots in a medium pan and barely cover with water. Add the sugar, half the butter and a pinch of salt. Cover with a butter paper and bring to the simmer. Cook until tender.
2. Remove the carrots and reserve.
3. Bring the cooking liquor to the boil and reduce by three-quarters. It should be nearly a syrup.
4. Add the lemon juice and simmer for 1min.
5. Season to taste. Add the carrots and re-heat. Stir in the parsley before serving.

Exploding chocolate gateau recipe (Heston's recipe with some steps slightly simplified)

Ingredients:

For the base:

150g all butter shortbread biscuits

30g butter, melted

2 tbsp white caster sugar

25g orange popping candy

For the chocolate ganache

• 175g whipping cream

• Pinch of salt

• Pulp from 6 passion fruits

• 50g fresh custard

• 110g dark chocolate (minimum of 60% cocoa solids), broken into pieces

• 50g milk chocolate, broken into pieces

Method:

1. Place the biscuits in a food processor and add the melted butter and sugar. Blitz until the mixture resembles fine sand in texture.

2. Gently stir in the popping candy. Place the mixture inside a 20cm cake ring placed on a tray lined with baking paper. Flatten using the back of a spoon then put to one side to set.
NOTE: Heston uses a smaller 15cm cake ring which gives a very satisfying deep slice

3. Add the cream, salt and passion fruit to a small saucepan and place over a medium heat until it almost comes to the boil. Remove from the heat and allow to stand for 5 minutes, then stir in the fresh custard.

4. Put the dark and milk chocolate in a bowl. Place over a bain marie (a pan of gently simmering water) and allow to melt completely. Remove from the heat.

5. Strain the infused cream and add to the bowl of melted chocolate a third at a time, making sure to incorporate the cream thoroughly after each addition. Allow the ganache to cool to room temperature.

6. Pour the ganache into the ring and place the tart in the fridge to set for 2 hours. Place the tart in the freeze.
7. Remove from the freezer 20 minutes before serving.

Creamy berry sorbet (a recipe from Sainsbury's)

Ingredients:

500g frozen summer fruits, slightly defrosted

60g caster sugar

125ml pomegranate juice drink

30ml double cream

Method:

1. In a food processor, whizz the berries, sugar and pomegranate juice drink together until smooth. With the motor still running, gradually add the cream and continue to whizz until well blended. Transfer the mixture to a stainless steel bowl, cover with clingfilm and put in the freezer.

2. Freeze the sorbet for between 1 hour and 1 hour 20 minutes or until set. Take the bowl out of the freezer at 15 minute intervals to whip the mixture with a spatula - by doing this, you'll break up any ice crystals that might have formed, resulting in a smoother, creamier sorbet.

3. Remove from the freezer 15 minutes before serving.

Red rice salad with mackerel

I've been wanting try red rice for ages and I finally managed to get my hands on some. It was a bit like wild rice; firm but a bit nutty in flavour. It went really well with red peppers and mackerel.

Red rice and roasted red pepper salad with mackerel (taken from Rice Ingram. C, 2001, Hermes House)

Ingredients (for 1):

2 mackerel, fillets

2oz Camargue red rice

Vegetable/chicken stock

Red pepper, de-seeded and sliced thinly

2-3 sun-dried tomatoes

1/2 onion, chopped

1-2 whole garlic cloves, unpeeled

1tbsp parsley, chopped

1tsp vinegar, red wine or balsamic (lemon juice would work too)

Method:

1. Cook the rice, following the instructions on the packet.

2. Fry the pepper slices in olive oil until softened, approx. 4 mins.

3. Add the tomatoes, whole garlic cloves and onion. Lower the heat, cover and cook for 8-10mins, stirring occasionally.

4. Remove the lid and fry for a further 3 mins.

5. Meanwhile fry the mackerel in olive oil, skin side down for 3-4mins, then turn and fry on the other side for 1 min. Remove form the pan and leave to rest.

6. Take the rice off the heat and add the parsley, vinegar and season to taste.

7. Peel the garlic and cut into thin slices.

8. To serve, spread the rice on a plate, put the peppers on top, scatter the garlic slices and top with the mackerel.

Burger and Lobster

Much has been written about Burger and Lobster since the first branch opened in late 2011. There are now four restaurants in the chain and I finally got to experience the phenomenon at the newest branch at 1 Bread Street tonight.

The menu choice is simple:

• Burger
• Lobster (steamed or grilled)
• Lobster roll

That's it. Just three things on the menu. £20 each. All come with fries and a salad. In the interests of foodie investigation I had a steamed lobster and a burger. 

The lobster was pretty damn good: tender sweet lumps of crustacean goodness anointed in a bath of garlic butter. Only picking from the shell slowed us down. The fries were good, although saltless and the salad was perfect accompaniment. Well worth £20.

The burger was OK. Not the best burger I've ever had, but definitely the most expensive and not really worth it. The patty was medium-rare and packed a meaty punch, the salad and pickles added a refreshing zing and the bacon and cheese rounded off with an umami hit. Unfortunately the roll wasn't really up tot eh job and had disintegrated by the end. A good burger but not £20 good.

At this newest city outpost there is limited booking. Fortunately for us at 1800 we managed to just walk in and secure a table for four. The place filled up pretty quickly and was buzzing by the time we left. The service was pretty good although once the silver platters are delivered there's not a great deal to be done. Although we did seem to be the only table not to be offered a plastic bib to protect from the lobster juices. I'm not sure if this was simply and over-sight or a conscious snub. I hope the former. Also it's worth mentioning the cocktails. They were good. Definitely worth getting there early and hanging out at the bar for.

I'd go again but just stick to the lobster.

Cantina Laredo

It was my sister's birthday today so in celebration we had dinner at Cantina Laredo on Upper St Martin's Lane.

Now I am a sucker for Mexican food. I love the mix and match appeal of Mexican, you can configure the food anyway you like it. As for nachos, as simple as they are, they are a divine trinity of taste for me. Now I'll hold my hands up and say that just because I like what passes for Mexican in the UK it doesn't mean I know a great deal about authenticity. Although it's not difficult to spot that Wahaca is a great deal better than Chiquito. (I would love to go to Mexico one day but there's part of me that thinks it would be inevitable that I'd never enjoy a "Mexican" in the UK again having had the real deal.)

Now Cantina offers "modern mexican" and it's certainly a world away from anything I've had before. When I got there I was already a margarita down and there were only the scraps of tortilla chips and salsa left. (Quite why they didn't have the nachos is beyond me).

For main I had the "camaron poblano asada":

Grilled carne asada steak wrapped around a fresh poblano pepper filled with sautéed tiger prawns, mushrooms, onions and monterey jack cheese. Served on a bed of chimichurri sauce and Mexican rice 

A steak wrapped around a stuffed pepper: mental. It was a pretty good steak and the pepper was stuffed full of prawns and cheese. Although it was sad waste of prawns as the cheese dominated everything. However, it was good enough for me to happily polish off and temporarily put my aversion to green peppers to one side.

Dessert, however, was something else. I had the biggest, fattest churros I've ever seen. Liberally doused in sugar and cinnamon, they came with orange cream and spiced chocolate sauce which were a perfect compliment. Since I've never been a fan of the orange-chocolate combo, that's really saying something. I don't think my family were quite so enamoured with their mexican apple pie or tequila lime cheesecake with avocado ice-cream. Mind you they were quite a few more margaritas to the good so the plates were sent back spotless anyway.

The service was faultless. The prices for the mains were in the £15-£30 bracket and were bit steep for what we got. I'd gladly go back to try out some other interesting things on the menu but I'd need a "wow" experience to go back again. A slightly reserved thumbs-up.