Author: jamesclay

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Gü Chocolate Trifle

Generally I don’t like shop made trifles, as in the main there is an articial taste to them, particularly chocolate trifles. The cream always has a tang to it that I really don’t like.

Generally I don’t have the time and patience to make my own (and also I am the only person in the house who likes trifle, so making a big one is not on the cards either).

Now and again I buy individual trifles, notably Tesco Finest and Morrisons The Best individual sherry trifles which are not that bad for shop bought trifles.

Recently I have bough a three pack of Gü Chocolate Trifles.

Gü Chocolate Trifle

Their website says about their trifles and why you should buy them…

1. The intensity of the 53% cocoa chocolate ganache.

2. The softness of the chocolate sponge.

3. The decadence of the lightly whipped cream.

4. The silky-smoothness of the chocolatey mousse.

I did enjoy them and you can tell that as I bought them again. They are by no way perfect, but when you want a quick chocolatey snack and want to avoid the artificial twang that you find with many chocolate desserts from the fridge, then chocolate trifles from Gü are just the job.

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Lentils with Chicken

Chicken with Lentils

This was a dish I recently served up.

The lentils were cooked in my usual way which is outlined in this blog article.

I poached the chicken, I take a pan of water, add some herbs, some onion, a carrot and if I had other veg I add that.

I bone the chicken and place in the pan and simmer for ten minutes.

Remove allow to dry for a while.

I then sliced and placed on a very hot griddle to add some colour.

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Pork and Shellfish

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in the Guardian has some wonderful recipes involving pork and shellfish.

I can clearly remember the first time I was struck by the genius of combining shellfish with pork. It was in a little Portuguese restaurant in west London, which is sadly no longer there. I had porco à alentejana – clams with salt pork, or thereabouts. It’s one of those culinary revelations when you think, “Yes! This really works. It will therefore be a recurring pleasure from now until the end of my days.”

Initially I thought, um…. then I remembered that I have cooked scallops with pancetta before.

Going to have to give these a try.

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Pancakes and Maple Syrup

Having got a really nice pancake pan for Christmas and though I have been using it for other stuff, I have also been using it for making pancakes.

I make a simple batter of flour, eggs and milk and then cook using a hot pan.

If I am making scotch pancakes, I will use self-raising flour and make a thicker batter, if I am making crepe style pancakes then I will have a thin batter which I can cover the whole pan with.

I serve them with proper maple syrup. Personally I can’t stand the maple flavoured syrups you can buy, and will only buy the proper stuff. Yes it is expensive, but I would rather have the good stuff now and again rather than the horrible stuff all the time.

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Pasta with steak and mushrooms

Though I eat pasta a fair bit, I do like to try different things, though more often then not it is a variation on a theme as is the case with this dish.

I cooked the steak in a hot pan, generally in the same way I cook any steak. Hot pan, no oil in the pan, but oil the steak with a good olive oil and season with black pepper (but no salt, as the pancetta used later has more than enough salt to season the dish).

I cook the steak and leave to rest.

While the steak is cooking, cook the pasta of your choice, I used a specialty air dried pasta from the Taste the Difference range from Sainsburys.

After removing the steak from the pan, add some diced onion and pancetta. When the onion has softened and the pancetta cooked, add some button mushrooms. When the mushrooms have cooked add some freshly chopped parsley, a few spoonfuls of creme frache and the steak which should be sliced.

Place the pasta on the plate and spoon the steak and sauce onto the top of the pasta.

Serve.

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Roast Outdoor Reared Pork

Yesterday we had a lovely piece of roast pork. It was a outdoor reared pork roasted on a bed of vegetables (and apple).  It was lovely and tender and covered in crispy crackling.

My technique is relatively simple, set oven to the highest temperature. Place the pork on some root vegetables (this time I used carrot and parsnip). I do add some olive oil onto the skin of the pork. Once I have put the pork in the oven, I turn the temperature down to about 160℃.

Cook for about an hour, I then baste the pork and add more chopped vegetables to the pan, onion, carrots, mushrooms and parsnips. Place back in the oven.

When the pork is cooked, allow to sit for a while to rest.

I served the pork with roast potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, roasted parsnips and some steamed green vegetables.

I made a delicious gravy using the cooking juices and beef stock.

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Put it on the barbie…

Snags

Lovely amusing article on the barbecue in Australia from the BBC.

Scotland has the haggis, Turkey has the donor kebab, England has the Yorkshire pudding and from the land down under I give you… the overdone sausage.

I am being a tad unfair perhaps since multi-cultural Australia boasts some of the most mouth-watering food in the world. But that just makes it all the more intriguing why one of Australia’s great national dishes comes partly incinerated.

Photo source.

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How not to cook steak

So there I was with a beautiful piece of 28 day matured rump steak and I ruined it…

Basically I roasted it in the oven (as it hadn’t fully defrosted) and as a result it came out dry and tough.

A silly mistake and next time I will ensure it is properly defrosted.

Normally I use a hot griddle and can tell how well cooked the steak is by the resistance you get, the harder the resistance the more cooked it is. Cooking in the oven, ensured that the steak dried out and was therefore quite tough and chewy.