Sunday Roast on the Barbie Sunday May 27th at Percy Throwers

Sounds crazy right?……but if seeing is believing then you’d better come and take a look.
On that day I will be performing another Barbecue Master class.
I will demonstrating how to hot smoke Salmon, roast a “A Sunday Roast” on the barbecue, which will include Carrots, Broccoli & Roast Potatoes.
I’m even going to cook the pud on the Barbie……..yep that’s right and we are not talking grilling a bit of fruit on a wooden skewer no…………….The dessert I will be cooking is Apple & Custard Flan with Toffee Sauce. So if your tired of putting up with your husbands “burnt offerings” and pray for rain when he says he is planning a Barbecue…get him to come along.

Anyone who comes along can taste the food; go home with my hints and tips sheet for better barbecuing, recipes of some of the dishes I will be cooking…a chance to ask for my cooking advice in person.

opening hours on Sundays 10:30am - 4:30pm
The demonstration is FREE of charge and will begin around 11am and continue until 4.15pm giving plenty of opportunity for visitors to catch the show.

Tel: 01743 352311
Email: Info@percythrowers.g-l.co.uk

MAP

Dear Friends and followers of this blog....

To all those of you who have tried to vote and given up because the site did not seem to work....
I humbly apologize.

If I had known about these problems before hand I would not of let this blog get nominated. This is definitely a one-time deal for me. Having said that I feel at this point a bit like a mental patient...fully committed (excuse the pun) to see this thing through and get a respectable amount of votes.

As promised I did contact the Bloggers Award Site and complained about the difficulties that had been experienced by my friends of this blog.

Here I have pasted their reply
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Hi! Thank you for contacting the Blogger's Choice Awards. Last night we moved the servers to a new location and in the process parts of the application were not functional. As of this morning we believe we have everything back up and running again, so you should be able to create an account successfully at this time. Thanks for your patience and sorry for the inconvenience!

Jamie Gillespie
Developer, Blogger's Choice Awards

On Apr 21, 2007, at 8:21 AM, chefkevin1@hotmail.com wrote:

I am the owner of Wannabetvchef.blog.co.uk
(Kevin Ashton)

At least a dozen people who follow my food blog have tried registering so they can vote but they seem to be having lots of difficulty...can you help and advise?
Has the site crashed at all recently?

My email address is

chefkevin1@hotmail.com

Regards

Kevin

I admit this is not the shortest recipe you will ever try but for special occasions it is well worth the effort. It’s not a hard recipe to do just one that takes time, but the pay back is the wow factor when your dinner guests see this sophisticated appetizer on their plates.

7 Duck legs
1 tbsp of course sea salt
2-3 sprigs of thyme
1 head of garlic, roughly chopped
454g (1lb) goose or duck fat
200g (8oz) Shitake mushrooms
200g (8oz) Oyster mushrooms
100g (4oz) Flat mushrooms
*6 slices black forest ham

You will need a terrine dish approximately 300mm x 110mm

1. Dry off the duck legs with kitchen paper towel and place in a large bowl.
2. Rub on the sea salt and leave for at least 4 hours in the fridge.
3. In a thick-bottomed large saucepan add the goose fat, the sprigs of thyme, garlic and turn the heat on low.
4. Brush off the salt from the duck legs and wipe dry on clean tea towel then carefully add them to the fat.
5. Make sure that the duck is completely covered by the fat and bring to a low simmering point.
6. Cook the duck gently for about two hours until the meat is almost falling off the bone.
7. Remove the legs from the fat and allow to cool.
8. In the meantime strain and save the fat for other uses.
9. Line your terrine dish with cling film then carefully lay the Black forest ham slices, overlapping them slightly.
10. First lay 4 slices across, starting right in the corners of the terrine making sure the ends of the slices overhang the terrine.
11. Lay the 2 remaining slices at each end of the terrine making sure there are no gaps and that there is also an equal overhang, then refrigerate
12. Remove the storks from the shitake and flat mushrooms and tear the oyster mushrooms into l inch pieces if they are large.
13. Sauté all the mushrooms in 1-2 Tbsps of duck fat until lightly brown; season with salt and pepper as they cook. Remove the mushrooms from the pan and allow to cool.
14. Pick the meat off the duck legs and save in a clean bowl.
15. Begin to layer about 1 inch (5mm) of the duck meat into the terrine, pack it down with a spoon then top with a thin layer of mushrooms, then repeat this process until you have filled your terrine.
16. Seal terrine by closing the flaps of Black forest ham (close the 2 ends first).
17. Wrap the whole terrine in cling film and weight the terrine down with something heavy to press it (use a couple of cans of food or weights).
18. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours before turning it out.

To Serve
Carefully unwrap the terrine and warm very slightly to turn the terrine out.
Slice carefully with a very sharp knife and serve with good quality spicy apple chutney
Decorate with any remaining wild mushrooms.

Chef’s Tip
If you enjoy broadening your cooking skills then invest in a cast iron terrine dish.
It does not have to be La Creuset; there are some very good yet cheaper alternatives.
This terrine will easily last in your fridge for 5 days so you can enjoy the leftovers if there are any?

Ps. The zigzag on the plate is reduced balsamic vinegar. Just boiled down until syrupy then put into a squeezie bottle and chilled.

Very fresh fish requires the lightness of touches to allow the seafood to shine through.
So here I have combined it with fruit, which is quite Bermudian and often reminds me of the wonderful 2 years I spent there. In particular one Christmas Day I was out on a friend’s sail boat fishing, it was about 74 F and though I would never call myself a fisherman, I have always enjoyed being on boats of various sizes out at sea. By early afternoon we were moored in St George's Harbour and I was cleaning the snapper reflecting on how lucky I was to be out on these azure blue waters on Christmas Day.

2 Fresh Snapper fillets 150-160 grams each
Snapper bones
1 onion chopped
1 carrot chopped
1 large ripe mango peeled and chopped
2 ripe passion fruit
1 teaspoon caster sugar
100 ml cold water
1 teaspoon coriander
100 ml white wine
30 grams unsalted butter
400 grams new potatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 red chili, de-seeded & finely diced

1. Put the mango, sugar, 100 ml water, 50 ml wine into a non stick saucepan and heat until simmering.
2. Spoon the passion fruit pulp into the sauce, turn down the heat to low and cook just until the mango is tender enough to puree.
3. Press the sauce through a fine strainer, be careful to keep as much of the sauce as possible, allow to cool.
4. Wash and dice the new potatoes (skin on), then cook in boiling salted water until tender, keep warm in the water.
5. Wash the snapper bones well in cold water then place in a stainless steel saucepan together with the chopped onion, carrot and cover with water.
6. Simmer the fish stock until the vegetables are tender, then strain into a large clean saucepan that has a steamer insert in it & add 50 ml wine.
The fish stock should not be above the steamer insert if it is you need to reduce the stock more.
7. Place both snapper fillets on the steamer insert, season with salt, pepper and cook for 5-6 minutes (make sure the fish stock is almost boiling before you add snapper fillets).
8. Reheat the mango sauce, add the remaining coriander and chili to the sauce. When the sauce is hot whisk in the butter.
Drain the potatoes, crush with a spoon, and add the olive oil & half of the coriander.
9. Using a pastry cutter fill it with potatoes and press down to create a potato “disk” to lay your fish onto, then repeat for the second plate.
10. Gently lay the fish fillets onto the potatoes and spoon the sauce around the base of the plates.

Chef’s Tip
Try to buy a whole fish and have your fishmonger fillet it for you, this way you can look for clear eyes & red gills to indicate it’s freshness.

With St George’s Day only 2 days away I wanted take part in Beck’s and Posh’s English Food is no joke. For more details click this link.

http://wannabetvchef.blog.co.uk/2007/04/09/traditional_bakewell_pudding_serves_8_c_~2061821

After cooking for over 30 years I’m sure you can imagine how many different chocolate mousse recipes I have seen & tried.
But for me this one that I adapted from Marco Pierre White is my favourite. Intensely chocolate not to sweet and that coffee edge rounds it off.

If your feeling adventurous and would like to try making the chocolate wrapping the mousse is served in, here’s how to do it. If you don’t want to make the chocolate wraps then skip straight to the mousse recipe.

Chocolate Wrapping (optional)
150 grams good quality dark (plain) chocolate
150 grams good quality white chocolate

1. First find some flexible clear plastic (acetate) and cut out 8 rectangles 7” x 2”
2. Take one of the rectangles and mark one inch in from one end and score a line so you have a one inch fold in your 7 inch rectangle. Repeat this with the other rectangles.
3. Lay a 2” piece of sellotape at the end with the fold, laying the tape vertically.
4. Place one piece of plastic onto a slightly larger piece of baking paper.
5. Break the dark chocolate into small pieces and place into a bowl. Melt over a pan of hot water (not boiling). Once the chocolate is fully melted remove from heat & cling wrap. Repeat this process in a separate bowl for the white chocolate.
6. Using a palette knife spread some of the dark chocolate onto the plastic strip up to the fold but not over it. Carefully bring the two ends of the strip together at the fold line and tape the fold down with your sellotape.
7. If you have done this right the chocolate is on the inside of the plastic strip, do not stand them on their ends or most of the melted chocolate will run out, instead lay them on their
sides on a clean separate piece of baking paper.
8. Repeat this process to make 4 dark chocolate wraps and then make 4 white chocolate wraps.
9. After they are set we are really to make the mousse

Dark Chocolate Mousse(serves 4)
135 grams (5 ozs) good quality dark (plain) chocolate
4 egg yolk (use large eggs)
80 grams ( 3 ozs) caster sugar
1/3 of a espresso cup of coffee make sure there are no coffee grounds in it 235 ml 1/2 pint of double or whipping cream (whipped into soft peaks)

Method
1. Break chocolate into small pieces and place into a large bowl then melt over a pan of hot water (not boiling). Once the chocolate is fully melted remove from heat & cling wrap bowl to keep chocolate warm.
2. Whisk egg yolks over a pan of hot water using a hand held electric mixer
3. Add sugar after 7 minutes then remove from the hot water & whisk the egg mix for a further 3-4 minutes or until cool (should be very pale in colour).
4. Fold the egg mix into the warm melted chocolate, making sure the chocolate is well mixed in.
5. Next stir in the espresso coffee (this will thin the mix down a little)
6. Finally fold in the whipped cream gently but thoroughly.
7. * If you have made the wraps and they are set stand them up on baking parchment and carefully spoon the mousse into them, but do not quite fill them. (Go to step 10)
8. If you didn’t make the wraps then gently pour the mousse into your ramekins or glasses. You may find that depending on the sizes of your ramekins or glasses you may fill more than 4 so a bonus for the hard working chef!
9. When the mousse is set top with a few fresh raspberries
10. When the mousse is set, carefully unwrap the plastic, and place one white chocolate and one dark chocolate wrap on each dessert plate. Top with fresh raspberries and serve with a raspberry sauce.

As a food journalist I get sent a lot of food related news items. I thought perhaps from time to time I would share the more note worthy with you.
This is a story about Yeo Valley's Campaign to get people to plant trees.kev
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Start the day with a yogurt this spring, or pour milk into your morning coffee and you could be playing a part in helping to boost the UK’s sparse tree cover – which currently makes us one of the least wooded countries in Europe.

Today just 12% of the country is covered by woodland, compared to the European average of 44%. Britain’s No 1 organic dairy company, Yeo Valley is joining forces with the UK's leading woodland conservation charity, the Woodland Trust to try and reverse the picture. In a bid to stimulate a revival of the great British garden it’s going to make available thousands of free trees which it hopes will become the centrepiece of gardens throughout the country. At the same time it’s aiming to support the Woodland Trust in its own conservation and tree planting work.

The dairy company’s ‘plant a tree’ drive will run for two months from mid April and will give people a free tree, complete with support cane and guard in return for five labels collected from its organic milk and organic natural yogurts. For eight labels it will provide two trees.

As an alternative, people can turn their tokens into a donation to the Woodland Trust, with £2.50 being given by Yeo Valley for five labels and £5 for eight labels.

The Yeo Valley offer will include a choice from five native British trees; Hawthorn, Wild Cherry, Rowan, Silver Birch and Hazel. Each has been chosen for its versatility, robustness and appropriateness for the average sized UK garden.

The dairy company recently won a Queen’s Award partly because of environmental work it has carried out on its own Somerset farmland, including the planting of more than 20,000 trees to restore old woods create new ones.

Around this time of year I would encourage everyone to venture out into the surrounding countryside and buy a bunch or two of local Asparagus.
The Asparagus season in Worcestershire begins in late April early May and now runs into early June. Some consider Asparagus to be the king of vegetables, and others just roll their eyes when they hear such talk but if you make the effort to drive into the country you too will appreciate the huge difference between something grown locally and just pulled out of the ground that morning and Asparagus from the supermarket with 10,000 air miles on it.

Ingredients
4 large free-range eggs
16 Asparagus Spears
Juice and Zest from 1 large lemon
6-½ Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ Tbsp chopped coriander
25cl Balsamic vinegar
100g Prosciutto ham
50g sun-blushed tomatoes
1Tbsp White wine vinegar
1 Small bag of mixed leaves
2 pinches of sea salt

Method
1. Line up the tops of the Asparagus spears and trim off the bottom 5cm (2”), then peel the bottom of each spear to ensure any tough skin is removed.
2. Pour the balsamic into a small nonstick saucepan; simmer on a medium low heat to reduce the vinegar until it is syrupy.
3. Pour the balsamic into a small and cling wrap to prevent further evaporation.
4. As it cools check that the consistency is thick enough to lace across a plate making a zigzag pattern.
5. Wash and drain the mixed leaves well, using a salad spinner if you own one.
6. Using a pan large enough for the asparagus to lie flat in, fill with boiling water and a couple of pinches of sea salt.
7. Mix the lemon zest and juice with 6Tbsp olive oil and add the coriander and season to taste.
8. Cook the Asparagus for about 4-5 minutes then cool down completely in cold water, and then drain in a colander.
9. Bring a medium-sized pan of water to the boil, season with salt and pepper and add the white wine vinegar.
10. Place a small handful of salad leaves in the center of four dinner plates.
11. Poach the eggs 1 at a time for 3-4 minutes (so that the yolk is still soft) then remove and drain on a warm plate.
12. Warm the Asparagus in a non-stick frying pan using the remaining ½ tbsp olive oil.
To Serve
Lay 4 Asparagus spears on each plate, on top of the leaves.
Then carefully top with a poached egg.
Decorate with the prosciutto and sun-blushed tomatoes then drizzle with a little of the lemon dressing.
Finally lace a zigzag of the reduced balsamic across each plate and serve.

Chef’s Tips
This dish is all about timing so why not try halving the recipe and make 2 portions to begin with.

© 2006 © 2007 All rights reserved. No content on this website including, but not limited to, text and photography may be reproduced without prior explicit written consent.

Tomato Sauce comes in many guises and plays
a major part in both French & Italian cookery
and yet its often under represented in cook books.
Though I work in a French Restaurant I am also
influenced by the evocative mental picture of
craggy-faced Italian grandmothers making tomato
sauce as if “a labour of love” for the whole family.
A tomato sauce so full of flavour that it makes me
think of late summer afternoons & the smell of
warm rain on the rich volcanic soil.

2 packets of vine ripened tomatoes (about 1 kilo)
2 tins of chopped tomatoes
2 Tsp of olive oil
1 Large Spanish onion finely diced
3-4 large cloves of garlic peeled
sea salt to taste
fresh black pepper (from a pepper mill if possible)
1 medium sized carrot very finely diced.
8-10 large basil leaves chopped

Tips for a good tomato sauce
*Use good quality tomatoes (vine ripened) and the tinned tomatoes should be a quality brand such as Napolina.
*Don’t chop the garlic because it burns very quickly & can become bitter.
*Just peel the cloves and put them in,this way you can also take them back out of the sauce at the end of the cooking if you feel the sauce is garlicky enough.
*Be patient enough when cooking the onions, they should be soft but not brown before adding the tomatoes.
*Use olive oil not vegetable oil, you will notice the difference.
*Use fresh herbs not dried and put the herbs in the sauce at the end to keep the freshest flavour.
*Generally speaking I don’t put tomato paste in my tomato sauce, if you do use it do so sparingly.
Too much can spoil the colour of the sauce making it too dark almost reddy-brown or even bitter if the sauce is cooked for a long time.
* I don’t normally add sugar, wine or vinegar to tomato sauce because leaving the tomato seeds in during the cooking adds enough acidity and the carrot will bring out the natural sweetness of the tomatoes.
Making the sauce
1.) Make a crisscross on the bottom of each vine ripened tomato with a small sharp knife
2.) Carefully put them into boiling water for 10 seconds, then quickly drain and cool the tomatoes in cold water. The peel should come away easierly.
3.) Warm olive oil in a saucepan, then add the diced onion, carrot and garlic and
gently simmer until the vegetables are soft.
4.) Chop the now skinned fresh tomatoes and add once the onions are soft, and also the chopped tinned tomatoes.
5.) Simmer the sauce gently for about 40 minutes (stirring occasionally), then season with salt & pepper.
6.) Blend with a hand blender leaving the sauce as chunky or as smooth as your personal taste requires. *You can also strain the blended sauce if you want
a very smooth finish & add a small splash of olive oil.
Chef’s Tip
Besides the obvious addition of Basil there are several other herbs that go particularly well with tomato sauce like Coriander, or you could combine Basil & Oregano for a more Italian flavour.
Or try other favourites of mine like chopped Olives.

Other herbs such as Thyme, Rosemary, Tarrogon & Sage also work well in tomato sauce but you need to use less of these strongly flavoured herbs.

I started writing this second part to my herb & spice guide months ago….
then Christmas happened and shortly afterwards my computer crashed
(god bless the PC).
Now with a few days off from work I’m finally getting back the desire to have a second go at this.

I am in the process of adding this spice article onto the herb guide so scroll down or access it via the herb and spice tag in the margin.

I hope you will find this lengthy guide useful.
Photos will also be added.

St George’s Day-English Food Is Not a Joke
British food and British Ingredients have gone through a complete metamorphous in the last 10-15 years. Great award winning restaurants have sprung up all over the country.
The country is awash with farmers markets selling quality grown and produced ingredients to a very savvy British public. These markets are more than just a place to buy great food; they are vibrant social gatherings where foodies can swap information and ideas.

With in 7 miles of were I live there’s a goat farm producing cheeses & free range chicken eggs, a farmer who raises Barbury ducks, another farmer who raises award winning Black Aberdeen Angus Beef, free-range pork and lamb, lots of asparagus between now and early June and that is followed closely by the short but sweet English Strawberry season, the scent of the strawberries during picking can sometime be smelt from the road. New varieties of cheeses being produced locally such as Worcester Gold, Elgar and Hereford hop.

Throughout the year there is now an almost endless amount food festivals both national and local that celebrate the cornucopia of home grown ingredients. Offering opportunities to UK Foodies to relearn about historical foods of Britain and enjoy and sample the new foods of these sceptered isles such as a Balti’s a type of Indian cooking proudly born in Birmingham.

So if you still think you know about British Food………..maybe its time you paid us a visit!!!

British food and drink exports have broken previous trading records and reached an all time high in 2006, according to figures released today (20 April) by market development consultancy, Food from Britain (FF. Finishing the year at £10.5billion, food and drink exports have increased by 5.8% in the last 12 months alone, exceeding the previous highest level of £10.1 billion achieved a decade ago.

P.s Strangely enough this habit of bashing British Food in the US is repeated in the UK were US restaurants are portrayed as places where you can only get huge portions of mediocre food. Having lived for 13 years in the US and now back in the UK for the last 13 years I have found that most of the people criticizing either have never visited the other country or they are basing their opinion on an experience from years ago. I think the other problem that perpetuates this stereo-typing is most visitors don’t seek out good places to eat they just go to the tourist traps.

With St George’s Day about 2 weeks away I thought I’d make my next recipe very, very British. Bakewell Tart is a well-known English dessert though out the country but what you may not know is its origins are quite different. Created in the Derbyshire town of Bakewell in the 19th century. The original dish had a puff pastry crust instead of a short crust pastry of the version most of us are familiar with. The other big difference is the texture of the filling which in this recipe is eggier and lighter making this Bakewell dessert the number one in my book.

Ingredients
350g (14oz) puff pastry
75g (3oz) unsalted butter
90g (3 ½ oz) caster sugar
5 large eggs
125g (4 ½ oz ground almonds)
Few drops of almond essence
4 Tbsp seedless raspberry jam
125g (4 ½ oz) fresh raspberries

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 190 C if fan assisted or 200 C if the oven has no fan (gas mark 6).
2. Lightly butter a 10 inch quiche dish and roll the pastry out until it is about 4mm thick.
3. Once you have lined your dish with the pastry don’t trim and of the excess.
4. Gently spread the raspberry jam over the base of the pastry then use ¾ of the fresh raspberries and crush them gently with a dessertspoon.
5. Cream the sugar with the butter and almond essence until white and fluffy.
6. Gradually add one beaten egg at a time, then add a little of the ground almonds, beating on a medium to low speed.
7. Continue to altenate between the eggs and ground almonds until you have mix them all in.
8. Pour the mix into the pastry case then use a palette knife to gently spread evenly.
9. Now use a very sharp knife to trim off the excess pastry and crimp the edges.
10. Bake in the centre shelf of the oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the filling is set and lightly brown.

To Serve
Dust lightly with icing sugar and decorate with the remaining raspberries.
Serve warm with custard or single cream- or cold as a cake.

© 2006 © 2007 All rights reserved. No content on this website including, but not limited to, text and photography may be reproduced without prior explicit written consent.

..It has attracted a cult-like following in Southeast Asia, but Westerners usually don't care much for its mild oniony flavour. Once cut open, this fruit also called durian gives off such a strong and foul odour that it's banned on Singaporean subways.

On the other hand Fiddlehead ferns are not odorous but some types if undercooked can be poisonous. Looking somewhat like the head of a violin or fiddle hence its name. Fiddlehead ferns are the uncoiled fronds that first emerges from the ground when a fern grows. Both these stranger than fiction foodstuffs can be found in Lori Alden’s, Cook’s Thesaurus. Though I can't claim to have any experience with Stinky Fruit...I did use Fiddlehead ferns half a dozen times during my stint in Washington. D.C.

Cook’s Thesaurus
Lori Alden’s, Cook’s Thesaurus is an interesting site that bravely tackles the almost endless list of edible ingredients we humans eat. Each of the 2,500 entries is accompanied by a clear photograph, and various names by which a specific foodstuff may be known around the world, to ensure you realise that, for example, Indian brown, German and Egyptian lentils are all exactly the same variety. This thesaurus is very useful in several ways. It can help you become more familiar with lesser-known ingredients. It also suggests substitutes, which is helpful if the ingredient is hard to find.
Special thanks to Lori for her kind permission in allowing me to use two of her photographs.

http://www.foodsubs.com/