kutsu

Wow, St John with a Michelin star - didn't expect that! Congrats to Purnells, fabulous food from Glynn Anyone have any reports from Whatley manor? not heard of that one..

Evening all A growing trend (considering the economy) in the UK is to start looking towards cheaper meals, making the most of the foods available in season, and to bulk cook. I'm making a special effort to make meat a once or twice a week type of treat, because good meat is expensive and it makes it seem even more special. But i'm struggling for ideas for everyday type food, and could do with a few ideas! So far, I've enjoyed the obligatory soups (a curried lentil soup especially hit the spot and is made for pennies), as well as a butter bean & chorizo stew, delicious and frugal because of the meat being used a seasoning rather than for protein. Anyone have suggestions to add for cheap food for hard times?

Saturday "festive" lunch today, in the slightly-snowy but beautiful surroundings. Starter was a mosaic of derbyshire pork with piccalilli and sourdough - delicious porky goodness, perfect temperature and the 'allili with the right amount of heat. Mrs had a prawn cocktail with the freshest prawns I've ever had, god knows where they were from but were A+ for taste. Mains for me was a safe braised beef shin, delicious and unctuous, but the far away winner was Baslow Goose with red & white cabbage, chestnuts, roast veg - amazing piece of meat (huge portion too) and was the real stand out dish of the day. Mrs had cheese, a fine selection but could have used some explaining as to what was what maybe. Mine was a fantastic bruleed bread & butter pudding with Baileys ice-cream and was so more-ish I wanted to order another but t'other half wouldn't let me Excellent coffee (a whole press full of it, we had about 6 cups each -that's how it should be done fellas!) with a superb mini mince pie. Room was packed and an excellent lunch all around again - thumbs up from me.

Without being flippant, anyone who insults someone based on their appearance gets no respect off me anyway, but this is like a bad attempt at both food-testing, and comedy. Boring and unfunny, sorry.

He gets the beef from Richard vaughan at Huntsham farms and I can vouch for how nice it is!

Just back from a week in (not so) sunny Paris. Three excellent brunches at Angelinas, each time with the Hot Chocolate, some with cakes, some with pastries and once with eggs benedict. Highly enjoyed all the meals there, friendly and efficient service, good choices, cakes/pastries were superb. Hot Chocolate is to die for..

Just had my first ever shipment of the Label Anglais chickens, 4 direct from the farm. Expecting a bit of a taste sensation as they're so highly touted, I cooked it very simply and both me and the family have been very disappointed - it wasn't really much better than an average organic chicken, certainly not as good as ones we used to get from wellhungmeat.com. Am I alone in feeling this way? Did I just get an average one as luck of the draw?

What did you think of the pork Erica? Must admit, i'm quite excited

My first order of pork from Huntsham farm arrives this thursday; cant wait!!

Kutsu - where do you live, it may help with recomendations. ← Hi mate, i'm up in sunny (*ahem*) Stoke on Trent. Any idea what some of these top Mich' starred places use? Saying that, best beef i've had was a tie between the starred-Baslow Hall and Michael Caine's new Abode hotel, which doesn't have a star. Adey - thanks for that, I will take a look at their website.

Hi all I currently get a meat box delivery from Well Hung Meat limited and the meat is indeed very nice - but i'm looking for some meat for a special occasion, and want something very special. Any recommendations? Any type (non-game, not that it's in season I'd have thought) is welcome, mail/internet order as I wont be able to travel too much. Thanks Kutsu

I had lunch at the Manchester Abode (the Michael Caines fine dining restaurant) on Saturday and it was absolutely excellent, certainly aiming for Mich-star given the quality of the cooking. Only slight negative was the size of the pudding - I wanted twice as much! Nicest food i've eaten in Manchester, personally.

Sunday lunch here today with t'other half. Some nibbles of hand-fried crisps to start, very good. Starter of mosaic of guinea fowl, fois gras & ham hock - excellent dish, although I think it could have been a touch warmer (not fridge cold but not room temp). Other half had crab & scallop ravioli with ginger bisque - sauce was fine but filling lacked salt. Mains were both roast beef & trimmings - absolutely excellent, including the nicest parsnip i've ever had. Excellent gravy/"sauce". A fantastic panna cotta w/ poached rhubarb for me and an excellent apple & sultana crumble (cinamon creme anglais included), many petit fours and great coffee. With a couple of soft drinks and half a bottle of wine, the best £100 i've spent in a long time.

Strange, I had the worst Mich-starred meal of my life at Juniper about 10 months ago, it was dire..

In the interests of journalistic integrity, I have been advised to let everyone know that t'other half did NOT in fact partake of the chips and fish-pie carb combo, but I am the fattie that ate all the pies, as it were. Also, if the staff are briefed that people may ask for the stairs and are ok in giving a hand down (literally, after all those chips) then I'd have no issue with returning as it was top notch indeedy!

Well, back at home; safe sound and my bank account only minus the cost of a slap up meal and a DKNY handbag for a V-day pressie.. Long and short; food was delicious, staff friendly and not overbearing, very impressed. I will preface that the only "problem", which I guess is my own fault, is that for someone like myself who is claustrophobic, it created a bit of a fuss when I asked to use the stairs. Both members of staff were very curtious and helpful, full marks to them, but I'm suprised that the stairs aren't able to be used freely. On to the room; big, bright, well decorated, but empty. Three other tables were eventually filled, but the music helped to stop it being "dead". Food was scotch egg for myself, served being pernickity slightly too cold, but the dish was fantastic, second only to the Ginger Pig's version. OH had cornbeef hash, which she snaffled down and declared it delicious. Main was chicken (more on that later) for me, fish pie for t'other haff and a portion of chips. The fish pie was again declared fantastic, very big portion (ooerr) but lots of fish. My chicken, with bacon, braised leeks and mustard sauce was honestly one of the nicest pieces of chicken I've had; ever. It was full flavoured, crispy skinned, seasoned absolutely perfectly and so moist. Really really impressed. Chips went uneaten as we were too full. We managed to pluck up the courage for steamed pudding with creme anglais; which was so so delicious, but this, coupled with a decent bottle of plonk, topped me off - stick a fork in me, I was done! Decent bread and butter at the start (please offer salted butter as well, as the rolls were decent but slightly underseasoned for my liking), a decent bottle of white wine, bottle of hildon and a decent tip for under £55 for two. If it becomes less of a problem in asking to use the stairs, I would 100% definitely return, and am going to recommend this place for all those in the neighbourhood.

Hopefully I'm in Manchester tommorow, and if so, I'm going to chance getting a walk in table for me and t'other half. Is the menu online up to date for lunch? Looking forward to writing my impressions!

Morning all Off to stay in 'sunny' London for a week in august and I'm looking to get some meals booked up. Being from up in't sticks, Id like a couple of Mich-starred ones. However, Im checking the availibility for my daughter dining with us, who is 7 and has eaten in a few starred places before (last one being Baslow Hall). Shes an angel, absolutely perfect tablemanners, patience etc, so I have no worries about her behaviour (she's very old-headed when we dine out) but I wouldn't want to put a restaurant in an uncomfortable position. I'm looking at, ideally, one lunch and one early dinner (7 o clock seated type affair) - not fussed about price, food type, etc but must be in central london. Any suggestions? I'm thinking Locanda Locatelli for the early dinner, if they are ok with that. Cheers ~K

I had a fucking awesome lunch at Fischers in May. Seriously the best piece of beef I've ever eaten.

Evening all. Being as I've just come in to a fantastic chicken from wellhungmeat.com, I thought it might be a good time to try the recipe from the first series, "Perfect Roast Chicken and Roast Potatoes". Just to preface, I have no camera abilities at all, so apologies for the blurry photos! Roast Chicken & Potatoes The day before.. The recipe is started the day before you want to cook the bird. Start by making a simple brine solution for your chicken. Take a large saucepan or stockpot, and put in your chicken. Measure how much water it takes to cover it, take out the chicken, and add 8% of the water's weight in salt. As a rough guide, and adequate for a brine, 500ml of water weighs 500grammes, so its easy to work it out. Bring the water and salt solution to a boil, then leave to go cool. Add your chicken (with the wings, leg tips and wishbone removed) to the cold solution and leave for 6 hours. After 6 hours, remove the bird and soak in fresh, non-salted water for an hour. Then, take the bird out, and place into boiling water for a minute. Remove (for the last time!) and dry with paper towels. Place in the fridge to dry overnight. On the day... Pull the chicken out of the fridge to warm up to room temperature. Set the oven to circa 65degrees Celcius and leave to warm up for 30 minutes. In the meantime, chop your brocolli into equal pieces Put it into boiling salter water for 1 minute, then into ice-cold water. It can stay in the ice water until you are ready to serve the bird. Make a gravy for your bird by frying a carrot, onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, the chicken wings and tips and some herbs. Add a little chicken stock and simmer for an hour or so. Strain and leave to cool. Time to put the chicken in. The chicken, with a probe thermometer, has to reach 60 degrees internally before being removed from the oven. This will take between 4 and 6 hours hours, and when it come out, it will still look raw. Leave it to rest, covered in tin-foil for an hour. Time for the roasts. The only potato that this works with that is worth the effort, is Maris Piper. Take your potatoes, take off the peel and chop into quaters. Reserve the peelings and tie them in a muslin sheet and add all of them into boiling salted water. After about 15 minutes, take them out and let them dry. Whilst they are drying, turn the oven to 200 degrees, and place a roasting try with olive oil in it to warm up inside. Add the potatoes and give them a toss around to coat them, then stick them in the oven for 40 minutes, turning every 15 mins. After 40 minutes, add 3 cloves of garlic and a big bunch of rosemary and give it 10 more minutes. Make a beurre manie to thicken your sauce; mix equal parts butter and flour in some clingfilm and put to one side. When the sauce is strained and ready, mix in chunks of this and whisk while the sauce boils and it will thicken nicely. Chop up your carrots and braise them in a knob of butter and a pinch of salt in a covered pan. Add NO water at all. They need about 30 minutes. When every is approaching being ready, heat a saucepan up with a slick of oil till smoking hot. Add your chicken and fry it on each side for 3 minutes to crisp and colour the skin. Carve the bird, assemble the sides, and enjoy perfect roast chicken! (apologies for the crap picture, my daughter was moaning she wanted to eat!) Overall: A lot of work, no doubt about it, but it's very methodical and slow, no rushing "a la minute" style cooking, which suites a sunday roast! The chicken is fabulous, the most succulent, juiciest you can imagine. Also, supprisingly, Blumenthal's way of cooking carrots is outstanding, perfectly sweet and reaffirms my disdain for boiling them! If I was to adapt this and use it all the time, I'd do a couple of things differently. I'd take off the legs of the bird and use them elsewhere as I wasn't keen on them, I like them falling-apart tenderness, and there was slightly too much resistance for me. I'd also make the gravy the day before as it would easily keep in the fridge. Overall? excellent recipe, like everything else from the book. Just make sure you use the best bird you can afford. It should be noted that the bird remains pinkish around the bone, don't let that put you off.

I often get lamb neck fillet in my wellhungmeat.com meatbox - it's very nicest, not a soft as fillet, but very flavoursome.

I picked the book up from WHSmiths t'other day, and I'm about half way through it. I don't know if I prefer it to the first book or not, simply because I love both of them, and the concept behind them. So far I've made the burgers and they really blew me away, they were fantastic. I think I'm going to go for the chilli next, albeit after I order lots of dried chillis online as they aren't possible to get up here in sunny Stoke. The book is highly recommended, just like the first. In fact, I'm making his "perfect roast chicken" this weekend!

I think the best supermarket eggs are from Clarence Court, but maybe I just like the pretty colours. ← Wow.. these have impressive pedigree (Claridges, Ivy, etc etc) Time to go buy some!

Guys/gals I'm on a personal quest to find the nicest tasting egg money can buy in the UK. However, it would also be nice to find the nicest widely availible egg as well, as no doubt the best egg is produced on some obscure farm in the middle of no-where which doesn' sell to Joe Public. So far I'm tried a whole bunch of supermarket eggs and they have all been uniformly tasteless - including organic & free range ones that are over £3 for 6.. Anyone have any recommendations for either the best, or the best supermarket type egg?

Sadly not, my kitchen ceiling just fell through and everything is now covered in water - my priorities changed somewhat at that point! Hooray for dodgy plumbers I will try and take a pick another time, the recipe makes a ton of meat, and it's all gone in the freezer