Prawncrackers

I’ve caught bits of it this week and one of the bits was what you’ve just described. The dish looked very nice, tidy presentation just a shame that the fish wasn’t cooked well enough though. If it had been done well then a good piece of bass on a bed of broad bean and sweetcorn etc would be good eating, wouldn’t it? Well it seems unless you know why, when and how succotash was invented then you couldn’t possibly start to use it in your final dish! Especially if you plan to pair it with such a “luxurious” piece of sea bass. That little extract just screams of the man’s hideous preconceptions of food. Exactly why personally i could never conceive being on that show; if you put me in a room with slaphead only one of us would be walking out. What a twunt. Poor chap, did he get through? I switched over after catching those comments.

Wow, well dug out that thread - that is a great recipe. Yes, mine is basically the same dish minus the broth and other bits like Pandanus, Saffron & Kombu (very good idea this one). You should try it.

It's probably an ingrained and irrational response on my behalf. Like i said i've never used it in my cooking so i don't really have an objective reason to dislike it. I suppose i fear that if i start, i may end up putting it in every dish. But as your opener stated Chris, this topic is not about the ethics of using it so i should zip it... now!

My mother would disown me if she thought i used MSG in my cooking, it's definitely cheating in her book. For that reason I've never used it and have never found the temptation to either. It would take all the fun out of buying good ingredients and preparing them with care and skill. I get enough MSG eating out, i don't feel the need to replicate that restaurant taste at home.

I've had Peking Duck Pizza back in my student days, not only that but Chicken Tikka and Donner Kebab pizza too. It seemed like such a good idea at the time...

Tonight Chicken Rice again, except it wasn't chicken.... it was guinea fowl and it was a revelation! I've been dying to eat this dish again and was so disappointed the supermarket was still out of decent chickens today (even made the chilli sauce yesterday in preparation). I picked up this bird anyway and was going to roast it like i normally would but decided in the end to go ahead with the original plan. Glad i did as it was delicious. It's as close to the flavour of the chickens you get in Asia as i've ever had here in the UK, rich taste with silky texture. The fat was beautifully rich as indeed was the stock for the rice, all in all markedly tastier than last time so testifies the wife:

The only argument for me is taste. Like Tim, i will have no truck with the concept of animal welfare or cruelty in food production. These animals are bred, nay produced, to be killed and then eaten. What can be more cruel than the ultimate killing of an animal? The only issue is whether the lifestyle of the animal affects the quality of the product. I'm neither middle-class, wealthy nor particularly chattering but it is obvious to me that FR chickens are far tastier than battery ones that have next to no flavour. This is the intrinsic difference between we who use this forum, and the demographic to which these shows are trying to preach to. At the moment you simply cannot convince the majority that there is marked difference between the taste of FR and battery chicken, or for that matter between rare-breed and ordinary pork et al. If food is not an important part of someone’s life then the argument is lost before it has even started. I can appreciate what these tv shows are trying to do. They are providing a platform for these issues to be aired but the way they do so with equal amounts of shock and tug-at-the-heart-string tactics, well time will tell if this is an effective angle of attack or not. In the short term it may be working; I was in Sainsbury’s earlier (huge one – Marshall Lake in Solihull) and they’d completely sold out of Organic, FR and even corn-fed chickens when there were still shelves packed with ordinary birds! I have a feeling in a month’s time the opposite will be true…. I think the slow initial uptake on this forum regarding these shows is the fact that they are exactly that – tv shows. Prime time entertainment vehicles, nothing more than telly bosses riding the media bandwagon.

i dunno i kinda like the white rice to soak up the gravy - call me Chinese.... Seriously though Daniel this was a really tasty stew. Very simple to make, one of those that cooks exactly how you imagine it would. Here's a pic of it in the pan, PM me if you want a quickie recipe:

Pear Frangipane Tart Serves 8. I am submitting this recipe because I fluked it perfectly first time and I have to put it down in writing before I forget the quantities! The amounts are for a 9in shallow flan tin. Enjoy... For the Pastry 175 g Plain Flour 80 g Cold Diced Butter 35 g Caster Sugar Pinch Salt For the Filling 130 g Softened Butter 130 g Caster Sugar 130 g Ground Almonds 2 Eggs & 1 Egg Yolk 40 g Plain Flour 2 Pears, peeled, cored and cut into eighths 2 T Apricot Jam, warmed 1. For the pastry. Rub the flour and butter together till all the butter is incorporated and you have a sandy texture. Add the salt and sugar, mix well then add a splash of cold water to form the pastry dough. Roll into a ball, wrap in clingfilm and let rest in he fridge for at least 20 minutes. 2. Roll the pastry out and line your 9in flan tin. Cut away the excess and crimp the edge tight. 3. For the filling. Cream the butter and sugar together then add the eggs gradually, beating all the time. Add the ground almonds and flour, mix well. Spread the filling evenly over the bottom of the pastry case. It should fill three quarters of the case and will rise to fill the case nicely. 4. Arrange the pears on top of the filling and press them in gently. 5. Bake in a preheated oven for 35-40 minutes until golden brown. Glaze with apricot jam whilst still warm. Let cool on a rack before slicing and serving. Keywords: Dessert, Intermediate ( RG2084 )

It's basically just poached sliced octopus with garlic and paprika dressing. There are a couple of technical points: 1) When poaching your tentacles, bring your poaching liquid to a rapid boil then dunk your tentacles in for 15 secs then pull them out. Let the liquid come to the boil again and repeat a couple more times. At the final time leave your tentacles in the liquid and simmer gently for an hour. This ensures that the pinky red skin on the tentacles doesn't split during cooking. So that when you slice you get a lovely contrast between it and the sweet white flesh. 2) I like to warm the anchovy, paprika and garlic in the oil so all the flavours infuse well before hand. Slice the garlic into cigarette-paper thin slices so that it almost melts. When it's time to dress heat the oil back up add the lemon, pour over the pulpo and season. 3) The few times i've had this dish in Barcelona, it's always served on a wooden platter in a single layer sprinkled with a lot of raw paprika. Personally i don't like the raw paprika so i've adapted this recipe slightly. Though i admit it does make the presentation of the final dish pop out at you. It is a lovely way to eat octopus, a close second to the braised Japanese way...

How about Galician Pulpo or Fairground Octopus. Best with large frozen tentacles as the freezing makes them tender. Thaw them out and gently poach for about an hour in salted water with an onion studded with clove and bay. Remove and let cool a little so that you can slice into discs and then pour over the hot dressing. Dressing is made by gently heating and dissolving an anchovy in good quality spanish evoo with some smoked sweet paprika, paper thin garlic and lemon juice. Warm it all through careful not to brown the garlic then pour it over the octopus and season. Can be prepared in advance and served at room temp, dress with parsley at the last minute. Edited to add: you could of course add some dried or smoked chillies to the hot dressing for an extra dimension.

Gosh, i've not posted on the Dinner thread for almost a month! Don't worry we have been eating... just not had the time to post any photos. So please indulge me whilst i catch up with a few of the dinners i've cooked so far this year: Chicken Rendang and Stir fried Mange Tout: Longhorn T-Bone smothered in Colston Bassett Stilton & Fries: Tripe, Trotter, Chorizo and Chickpea Stew (try saying that after a few!) this was from Frank Camorra's Movida cookbook - doesn't look like much but packed some serious flavour: Gnocchi with Ragu and Rocket: I'm not much of a pastry cook but tonight i think i may have baked the best sweet to come out of my oven, Pear Frangipane Tart: It was a bit lucky that the tart turned out like it did because i was guessing at the quantities! I will be posting the recipe for this as soon as possible in case i forget.

Because it would take all the effort in the world not to plunge a knife into slaphead's eye! That man is surely the most annoying on television. How is he qualified to judge on that show? He started off as a "veg expert" now he's apparently a "food writer and ingredients expert". Talk about self-aggrandisement, he's like a bogus GP; you look closer at the diplomas on the wall behind him and you see they're all signed in his own hand. He's just another wannabee celeb.

I used to despise Jamie Oliver, his whole demeanour used to be so forced and offputting. Thankfully he has matured a little and his latest program is very enjoyable. The recipes are demonstrated with real passion. His rustic Italian style will never be acclaimed for it's innovation or technical brilliance but it is genuinely honest tasty grub. Just one thing about the show; why does he never use a chopping board? He makes me literally scream at the tv when he chops everything directly on his wooden countertops!! Keep watching you'll see what i'm talking about....

Thanks guys, the ham turned out perfectly. I did buy a thermometer in the end on xmas eve. Lakeland had sold out but i managed to get a cheapo one from Aldi (you are a genius Dougal). I brought the ham up to about 75-80C in a fresh change of water with a studded onion and bay, i dunked an oven thermometer into the pot to gauge the temp of the liquid! Poached it until the meat thermometer reached 60C which took nearly 4 hrs. Took it off the heat and drained the liquid. Took the whole thing to my aunts where it had been stood for about an hour and a half covered before i stripped the skin off and scored the fat. I studded it with cloves and gave it a honey, maple syrup, mustard and peppercorn glaze before putting into the oven whilst the bird was resting for half an hour, reapplying the glaze a couple of times. The result was stunning, everyone adored the sweet, salty, succulent, smokey ham along with the goose. I think the usual turkey has finally had its day in our family!! Thanks again for the great advice, here are some pics:

This year we escaped the tyranny of bland & dry turkey. We had a three bird roast of goose, chicken & pheasant and a smoked ham. Everyone was delighted with it, i think the turkey has finally seen it's day in our family. Good riddance i say to cheap and nasty white meat. For starters i did some gravdlax salmon too, here are some pics;

I've never seen proscuitto wrapped in monkfish either!!! That would be truly avant-garde Seriously though i thought Monkfish wrapped in ham is a classic recipe, been doing it for years. It is delicious maybe it's worth putting on the RecipeGullet if it's uncommon? Ooh i wish it was always perfectly sunny here in Birmingham, even in the summer the light isn't great for photography. I'm always envious of you guys who can get away with using just natural light - it always makes food look more appetising. No even in the summer I use a flashgun on my camera, bounced off the ceiling it gives more even lighting.

I am a bit of a Uni (sea-urchin) fanatic. A work colleague of mine recommended Cafe Japan in Golders Green stating that it has the best Uni she's ever tasted. She is from Hong Kong and has also eaten Uni in Japan. I, of course, said that it was impossible - how could the Uni in some local sushi place in London be better than Japan? Must simply be nonsense! I argued with her saying that i've had fantastic Uni in a Sushi Bar at Tsuikiji market as well as wonderful Uni in Kyoto and Fukuoka. Even in HK and New York, you surely can't get better Uni in London? She was adamant... Okay so i had to check it out. I have to say that she is absolutely right, i can't remember having better tasting Uni anywhere!! I was gob-smacked, i can't wait to go back and try it again. Here is a pic along with some Otoro: My wife and i went for lunch on a Saturday and had these, salmon avocado roll, soft-shell crab roll, prawn tempura bento box and Salmon & Ikura Chirashi. Overall the sushi and sashimi was excellent and as good as any we've had anywhere in the world. Very reasonably priced too. My wife was very disappointed with her tempura though - it was a little greasy and flacid. Where are the good tempura places in London?

David Ross would you post a photo of the whole rib roasted please? I know you would taken a of photo it! For me that it the "hallelujah!!" moment - when you take it out of the oven... thanks.

Okay so the festive season is definitely upon us now! The in-laws have travelled across the country today so i've splurged out on some live lobsters for Lobster Thermidor. I already had a monkfish tail in the freezer so i roasted that wrapped in prosciutto on a bed of red rice and some roasted veggies. Happy holidays everyone!!

Thanks Dougal, as you say it is a cold smoked ham and is therefore raw. So all your info is relevant. I've had to take a couple of chunks off the sides of the ham for it to fit into my stockpot! Conveniently i boiled and roasted the chunks and they are a little salty, not overly but enough to warrant an overnight soak. It's tight fit in the pot so your tip about using a plate to prop it up is very useful. But should i really poach it for three hours? It seems a little long. Plus i don't have a meat thermometer so i'm assuming 70-75C would be barely below a simmer, does that sound right to you?

Earlier in the week i was in a mild panic that i'd not bought enough meat to feed the 18 Chinese folk that i need to cook Xmas dinner for. I'd bought a 10lb three-bird roast weeks ago (goose, chicken & pheasant from the lovely people at Seldom Seen Farm) and at the same time ordered a 10lb smoked half ham on the bone from my local butcher. I picked up the ham today and it's massive! My fears have been allayed about the quantity but now i'm in a mild panic as to how to cook it. Here is a pic of the meat: I've been avidly reading the tips provided in the earlier thread on Cooking Raw Ham however mine is a smoked ham on the bone not raw. I've cooked much smaller pieces of ham before where i've soaked overnight, boiled for an hour, glazed then roasted. Should i do the same for this ham... If so, what timings would you recommend for each stage?

Over here a double chop across the saddle is called a "Barnsley Chop". Barnsley being a town in Yorkshire.

Lovely dishes David Ross, aside from being a fully paid-up member of your fan club you know i'm sucker for crab porn! Tonight was Confit Duck Leg, Camargue Red Rice & Beans:

Fibilou the wild boar bacon is from the Sillfield Farm stall at Borough market in London. I don't go down to Borough Market very often but when i do this is always top of the list. The wild boar cumberland sausage was delicious too.