Prawncrackers

It's definitely a 'GreenPan', i have the exact same pan posted by rotuts. They're okay, it's my main everyday pan for frying anything; eggs, bacon etc. The non-stick coating on them isn't as non-stick as they'd have you believe though. Fried eggs will stick like hell without plenty of grease. My mother in law stayed with us for a couple of weeks, tried to cook breakfast in it a couple of times and the burnt mess was spectacular. They do clean up nicely though, even now after a year the pan looks brand new. I think the big selling point is the high heat capability over the more traditional teflon non-stick. ETA: it's a good stove to oven pan too!

Roasted bone marrow, I find it incredulous that anyone would actually pay good money in a restaurant for what my butcher gives me for free. What cooking is involved? Put bone in oven for 15-20 mins, toast bread, dress some leaves. Bam, a tenner!

Hi Alan, thank for sharing those photoes, the meal looks amazing. Was this a one off special 22 course option? I can't see this available on the Berkeley website, was going to book The Ledbury for a special birthday meal in November but this has given me some serious thinking to do.

Yeah, i'm just really bad at this game. It's a New Yorker right?

After much anticipation generated mostly by this thread, I finally got to eat at Hedone last week. I went with the missus and another couple and had the 5 course lunch. We all found the the setup there really wonderful, it's a great space and the front of house are very warm and welcoming. Sadly for us we felt the food let the side down in it's inconsistency. It started off well with the Berkswell Sablée, the smell of that hot cheese cooking is guaranteed to get the juices going. The taste of it was just as good, the sharp and rich Berkswell accented by the sharp blackcurrant. We were then served a little extra course of lightly smoked salmon with a beetroot foam. The roughly hewn chunk of salmon was for me a little insipid and the beetroot although vibrant in colour was again strangely insipid. It was just as well it was an extra because it was underwhelming. But then the first proper course of Grelots Onions picked it up a little. They were sweet and juicy, lightly treated it was a bold statement of simplicity. Next, the hen egg with girolles was probably my favourite dish of the day. The mushrooms were amazingly fresh like they'd been plucked from the woods minutes beforehand and carried in a hot pan of butter straight to our table. There was a vinegar component to the dish that also starred, is this Banyuls vinegar? We asked the lovely French waitress but she was surprisingly coy about it. The fish dish is where it fell down for me, the Mackerel with Japanese flavours. A nice bit of fish but of the four orders on our table mine was the most underdone. As you can see the centre was raw, a pretty basic cooking error that I mentioned to the server as he was taking it away. The frisee lettuce also was a little on the tough side, not all that crisp and like my dining companion said at the time "meh, it's frisee lettuce!". I'm puzzled by the Japanese flavours of the dish, this was presumably the dressing on the leaves. It just reminded me of the cheap table dressing you get in Tonkatsu chains in Japan for your shredded cabbage. I'd like to digress and mention the bread, the hefty crusted sourdough was a delight. I'm distrustful of airy light sourdoughs that rise a lot, but this one definitely wasn't one of those. This one had risen maybe an inch and a half and was dense with bread flavour. The crust is substantial, at first I was reticent and feared for my gums. But it gave way wonderfully, the chewy crumb was perfect. Our table of four choose two of each of the next course, Sea Bass with Fennel and Sika Deer with Smoked Potato & Apple, so I got to try them both. As I'd actually ordered the bass, I tried this dish first and my setting was a fish knife and fork. It's a another very simple dish, a portion of fish and some fennel, two elements that's all. The bass is as good as I've ever tasted, and just makes me want to live by the sea but the fennel was awful. I could not go through it with my fish knife, was I supposed to pick it up with my fingers? My wife had to cut it up for me into bitesize pieces with her meat knife much to everyone's amusement. But then when I actually got to chew on a piece it was as anticipated tough and completely devoid of any sweet fennel flavour. So for all the excellent work of the fish this two element dish was completely let down by the veg. The Sika deer was a hit all round our table, none of us had eaten venison that good. At once both rich and lean, bursting with meaty almost beefy flavour. The little smoked potatoes were a good accompaniment, the sauce light and unobtrusive. To finish, my wife ordered the Peach Millefeuille and I the Hedone chocolate bar. Both were on the not so polished looking end of French style desserts but were delicious nonetheless. My chocolate bar had a subtle orange flavour and nice chewy consistency, I think helped by a layer of dacquoise on the bottom. So all in all, there were some outstanding highs - the bass, girolles, sika deer and the bread, the BREAD! But some proper ropey lows too - Mackerel and Frisee was a disaster for me. I love fennel but the fennel that was served to me was bad. I can just imagine a lovely soft bulb of fennel, juicy and heavy with it's aniseedy liquor pairing up perfectly with that heavenly bass. Bitterly denied! Based purely on the food I'd come back but not in the hurry that everyone else seems to be in. Maybe in a year or two.

Hey Scotty, I love to see the great ingredients that people are using as much as the wonderful dishes they cook. It makes me think about what I would do with them, especially if I can't get them in this country. It might make an interesting topic - 'Look at what I've got.. What would you cook with it?'. Could be a good ideas generator. Those squabs were amazingly good, the first time I've ever cooked them. Usually I buy wood pigeon that are £3-£4 a pair, wild and from the farmers markets - that's why they're five times cheaper than those squabs! Those beauties were from one of the best butchers in London, O'Shea's in Selfridges department store, and I only got them on the off chance after meeting a friend there for a snack. The counter was just about to shut around 8pm Saturday evening but I snaffled them just in time. They're bred in France and whilst they have that unmistakable pigeony flavour, they're much more tender and less gamey. The closest I've tried are the pigeon you get in Hong Kong, the famous ones from Sha Tin, maybe next time I'll cook them like they do in HK. But then the HK ones are meatier and can survive being cooked a little more well done. As for the smoked eel, that was a gift from Hamburg, Germany of all places. A friend brought it back from a business trip along with the black pudding So all in all, ingredients-wise, it's been an exceptional start to the cooking week. It's been a real treat for me to cook with such nice stuff. Tonight, back to reality, I've taken some char siu out of the freezer and making egg fried rice.

I was preparing a couple of French Squabs on Sunday but I kind of got held up so in the end cooked them last night. It was a pretty nice dinner for Monday night after work: These Imperial squabs were £10 each so I took extra care taking them apart. Though I was disappointed to find only one of them had the liver attached to the heart. The carcasses were used for stock sweetened with a touch of marsala. For the sauce the stock was reduced a little and finished by blending some cold butter and the chopped raw liver. The legs and wings were confited then stripped off the bones. The confit meat was then fricasseed with the hearts, black pudding, fava beans, peas, little gem lettuce and a touch of PX sherry vinegar. The crowns were simply cooked sousvide, finished in the pan and the breast fillets taken off the bone. Served on a big dollop of parsnip puree scented with vanilla bean. Tonight following the broad bean, black pudding, pea and little gem fricassee theme again (look it was in the fridge already!). I made a warm salad that included smoked eel and an onsen egg. The dish was bulked out a little with some sauteed potato and there was a PX vinegar and yuzu dressing: Not my usual start of the week type of dinners, the rest of the week can only go downhill from here!

Mango cones is just the Tickets dcarch! How are the cones made, they look perfect?

Hmmm crispy chicken skin, Israeli couscous and tomatoes. There must be a kind of telepathic collective cooking subconscious here on the Dinner thread, because that's what I've been cooking for dinner this past week too! Bought a nice French Label Rouge chicken and a selection of wild mushrooms last week. With them I did two similar chicken and mushroom dishes. The first was a ballotine with the legs, the second was the breast. Both were done sous-vide, served with crispy chicken skin, Israali couscous and reduced chicken jus made from the carcass. I've never made a ballotine before, the stuffing was a chestnut mushroom duxelle with goats cheese and the sautéed mushrooms in this first dish were mostly girolles and oyster: The second dish with the breasts was much simpler, this time with some fat slices of porcini and dainty pied bleu: I've never seen the fantastic looking large heritage tomatoes you get in the US here in the UK. But what we do have are these gorgeously sweet cherry tomatoes: These have been sitting around for a couple of days so tonight I made a Spaghetti alla Puttanesca with them: It's been quite a greedy week, the wife and I managed to scoff a whole steamed turbot between us: and a fusion dish that really worked for us, Tonkatsu with Bulldog Sauce, Guacamole, Ikura and Mexican green rice made with Basmati. It was Muy Oishi!

Yup, I usually bake them but I got impatient and finished them in the fryer this time. Turned out pretty well, seasoned them with seaweed salt and white pepper. I think I could eat a whole bowl of these, they were very light and crispy. Thanks Scotty that means a lot coming from a pork-meister like yourself. I remember that pig you roasted a month or so ago with the incredible crackling skin like stained glass. You want some more pig porn? Well, here's some Cantonese style crispy pork belly, aka roast five layer belly (燒五花腩): Here in the UK when we ask "have you had your tea?" it means have you had your evening meal. The term 'tea' in this respect is interchangeable with dinner or even supper. There's a funny adage about Scottish hospitality; when greeting guests a Scots host will state "you'd have had your tea", meaning don't expect to get fed a meal! It's not to be confused with afternoon tea or high tea, which has tea (the beverage) served with a small selection of cakes, usually scones and sandwiches. But what happens when you have high tea for your tea? Well a couple of Sundays ago, we had just that. My wife baked some scones, lemon biscuits and matcha cake. Our friends brought round a lovely cherry buttercream frangipane tart and I made some sandwiches, smoked salmon cream cheese, crab mayo and truffled egg. With the crusts cut off of course. We had Darjeeling and White Peach teas and lashings of clotted cream and jams too. So stuffed were we that our high tea became our tea!

It's been a while since I last posted dinner but I've been off cooking anything involved due to gout in my finger. My right middle finger to be precise so holding a knife was darned near impossible for about a month. It's still a little stiff now but I managed to break down half a middle white pig last week so I would say I'm on the road to recovery. What better way than to make some pig dishes. First off I made some andouille and ribs for Southern BBQ Cookoff we had here in good ol' Birmingham, UK: More details of the cookoff can be found from Brummie bloggers here and here. The andouille i was particular pleased with, hot off the smoker was just incredible. With some leftover sausage I made pizza. Asparagus and wet garlic too: Sous-vide pork chops, a basic mole poblano style sauce, pico de gallo and green rice.... and because I know you people like this sort of thing, a close up of the crispy pork rinds. Finally tonight we had some friends around and before our pork main course we had crab and samphire linguine. My go-to favourite! With the pork was pearl couscous and a refreshing raw and pickled beetroot salad.

Kim your enthusiasm and love of dear old blighty is bursting from the page. Even though I live here, i'm enjoying your trip immensely. I too second cream first on your scone, it's like putting on butter first. Unless you're actually using butter, then it's butter first then cream then jam! Yum yum.

I want to second that, fab start to your blog!

Some interesting stuff here, thanks for sharing. The veggies on ice look like sliced okra, were they cooked?

I think the bread in both shots is what I don't like about them. They're difficult visually to compliment with the long pasta. Although trust me taste wise they are probably my favourite element of the dish. As with chicken i'm a dark meat man. The problem with me is I like to get everything i'm eating into the shot but maybe with dishes like this I should have the bread on a side plate. I like the twist of pasta too after a little more analysis, but the first dish was a smaller starter size so easier to plate neatly. Ok bigger carving fork and bigger bowl required. Thanks dcarch for correcting the colour on that one, I knew it was off but not by that much!

May I submit these to the panel - A study in Brown Crab... I took the first photo off the cuff really, just before scrubbing these two hen crabs clean and dispatching them with a skewer. They were all tensed up and looked like they knew what was coming. Anyway I took one shot, light wasn't great and they were still moving a little, hence the shot was a little soft: I don't usually do much post-processing, maybe just the odd brightening here and there but I thought this shot looked interesting. So I decided to apply some sharpening and up the contrast. It really surprised me how it made these creatures pop out of the picture. Especially the hairs on the legs, you really get a sense of the texture of the shell, don't you think? These crabs were destined for linguine, but that's one thing I find tricky to get right on the plate/in the bowl. I made this dish twice in the past week and just can't decide which is the more appetising presentation and gave the better shot. The first dish had the linguine wrapped around a carving fork and placed carefully in a cheffy way into the bowl. This one was taken with flash bounced off the ceiling: The second was taken with natural light and here the pasta was just dumped into the bowl for a more natural look: So what do you think? I can't decide which shot I prefer, I'm not really that happy with either. Will a smaller or differently shaped bowl help perhaps, and is there anything else I can do with long pasta to get a better composed shot?

Just catching up on the all the lovely meals here on the Dinner thread and i missed this question from Percyn a few pages back! Yes I removed the skin from the chops before they were brined overnight and used a belt and braces method to make sure the crackling was perfect. I scalded the skin with boiling water, rubbed some vodka on it and left it uncovered in the fridge overnight. It only took an hour to crisp up in a moderately hot oven (190c) flattened between two cake racks. Well, the temperature today has barely reached double figures and it's been raining all day, which means British summertime is here. What gaps in the weather there have been over the last couple of weekends I've managed to get some decent bbq on. First off I smoked some ribs and brisket two weekends ago. The ribs I butchered myself and left a lot of meat on them. They were smoked for about four hours then sizzled with a little of my homemade bbq sauce. The ribs we had immediately that day and kicked off my bbq season with a bang. I've just bought a new horizontal smoker and I couldn't be happier with the result. These were the best ribs I've ever made, who knows how good they can be with a little more practise? The brisket was smoked for six hours and was saved in the freezer for a rainy day, like yesterday. I warmed it through in the water bath a few hours whilst I smoked some chicken, homemade andouille and chorizo too. The andouille recipe in Ruhlman and Percyn Charcuterie book is really delicious, I'd never made it before but I will certainly be making it again. I made my bbq sauce again but this time I dropped a dried naga chilli in it to pep things up, It gave a lovely pungent fruity heat but foolishly I decided to suck off the sauce from the chilli. Man was that a mistake, I was incapcitated for a good ten minutes: And yes I eat bbq with chopsticks!

Kim your pics look great to me too, no reason to do anything drastic. Just stick it on the table and take a quick photo before it gets cold, it is Dinner! after all. Enjoy dear Blighty, I shall be on the other side of the world to you still as I'm off to the Orient tomorrow.

I've never used fresh horseradish before and I've never made my own beef carpaccio either but rarerollingobject yours looks delectable, as does your grilled chicken. I did my own smoked and chargrilled chicken for the first time this year a couple of weeks ago but didn't take any photos. In fact I've got a new "rig", an offset smoker so expect to see more 'que from me this summer Here's a few of our recent dinners. First up is a Tuscan marinated Veal Chop (fennel, bay, lemon, garlic, rosemary) with Vanilla Scented Parsnip Purée & Crisps, Broccoli and Marsala Pan Reduction: A vegetarian friend visited last weekend so for one day only we when meat-free. I treated her to a Beetroot, Red Onion & Goats Cheese Tart with Walnuts and Honey. It was a gloriously sunny day, served with a simple salad and boiled Jersey royals I almost didn't miss the meat. Almost, because by bedtime I was tempted to nibble on a slice of ham to inoculate myself but just held out! A midweek Mutton Tagine with Cous Cous, half an hour in the pressure cooker made the tough old mutton shoulder lovely and tender: Double Tonkatsu happiness, I post this dish quite regularly but then it is my wife's favourite! These past couple of weeks have seen me start to cook using sous-vide. Here's a pair of lovely Berkshire pork chops, taken from near the shoulder. Brined overnight and done at 58C for 7hours, served with Pico De Gallo, Avocado, Sweet Potato Fries and Crackling:

Off to Fukuoka again next week to visit family, but this time we may have a couple of days to actually explore the city on our own. Definitely going to venture out and hit some of the Yataithis time but does anyone know of any in particular we must must must try? Also does Fukuoka have a kitchen town like Kappabashi in Tokyo or Dogayasuji in Osaka?

Has anyone tried 'broasting' in their PC? I'd love to try and make some KFC style chicken at home but the thought of pressure deep frying is a little worrying. Though the recipe book you get with the Kuhn Rikon does have a recipe where you kind of shallow fry chicken, has anyone been brave enough to try this method?

Agree with jenni, if you can use an oxo splitter or if you can do the hedgehog technique on your mango, then your mango isn't sweet and ripe enough! With a thin fruit knife and lots of practise you can follow the contours of the pip and leave no flesh at all. Otherwise as jenni says, just go for it and lets the juices flow through your fingers and down your chin.

It feels like I've been hanging on for weeks for the first sight of my beloved Indian mangoes this year, it looks like I've found the reason why in this BBC report posted last week. Now I am sad. Hopefully other mangoes from other regions are not as badly affected as the famous Alphonsos.

Wow just tried to click on new entrants Amber's website as we're in Hong Kong next month. Website down, bandwidth exceeded, that is the power of this list - love it or loath it!

Haven't been doing much cooking recently but a lot of lurking on this thread to keep my gastro juices flowing. Delicious dinners everyone! My mother brought me an oh-so fresh dover sole yesterday morning so I thought I'd share the preparation with you of last night's fish supper. Dovers are expensive fish around these parts, almost £10 per kilo wholesale, and they are also some of the slipperiest! Kept trying to grab this slimy sucker out of the bag by the tail until I realised I had to grab it by the head. Skinning dover soles is one of the most satisfying fish prepping jobs there is, making the little slash by the tail and tearing the skin off in one ripping motion. I think it's the sound it makes, like leathery velcro. After skinning and gutting it in the morning i painted it with butter to keep for the night. The fat roe I removed, salted and kept separate from the fish: Now like any good Cantonese cook I would normally steam a dover sole for about 9.5 minutes and be done with it. But as you've gathered with the butter, my intentions were always going to be western. So I seasoned it up and started it off under the grill (broiler) and finished it in a hot 220c oven for ten minutes along with the roe. Whilst it was cooking I did a black butter sauce with capers and brown shrimp. Served with the first asparagus of the season and some simply boiled anya potatoes. Looking at the picture now isn't it strange how the roe and the potatoes like so similar? I loved this meal, from start to finish it only took 20 minutes to cook in the evening and it tasted so good. The dover was cooked to perfection, as I peeled the top fillets away, look the bone was still pink: