EATING FOR BRITAIN: WIN A SIGNED COPY (WHOO HOO)

I am delighted to say that next week will see the publication of EATING FOR BRITAIN by John Murray.

I spent a litte over twelve months travelling to just about every corner of the U.K attempting to construct the perfect day of British eating. It was a heck of a trip and, along the way, I had the privilege of meeting farmers, chefs, restaurants owners, brewers, distillers, butchers and fishermen to name but a few.

There were a handful of things to really, really depress me about the state of food in Britain(Chicken Tikka Lasagna anyone? Nah, didn't think so). However, there was also much to be proud of (see pictures above for some of the highlights) and I returned home believing that British food is in a far better state than I imagined when I set out. We still have a long way to go, of course, but there are lots of folk out there who really do give a damn about bringing the best to our tables.

I could not get everywhere and, indeed, could not fit everyone I met in the book. But, I hope that those of you who are kind enough to pick up a copy of EATING FOR BRITAIN will at least think that I gave it a good stab and have done justice to the people I met.

SHAMELESS PLUG

The book is available on AMAZON

I do however have two signed copies to give away. To have a chance to win one all you have to do is answer the following question

WHAT IS THE PRIMARY BOTANICAL USED IN GIN?

Answers to doshermanos@doshermanos.co.uk with the subject heading EATING FOR BRITAIN BOOK

The competition closes on June 10th and I will select the winners names at random after that. I cannot enter into any correspondence with anyone, but shall inform the lucky (?) winners soon after.

Good luck and happy reading

THE COWBRIDGE FOOD & DRINK FESTIVAL: DAHL, A LIFE SAVER

I have just returned from a lovely weekend in Cowbridge, Wales, where I was asked to be a guest speaker and to do a cookery demonstration at their bustling food and drink festival.

It is the sort of food event I really like. Genuinely local and run by volunteers from the town under the keen eye of chief organiser Polly Wilson. There were over 70 stalls with lots of extra events going. I was delighted to find there was also a small beer festival specialising in Welsh ales.

I was slightly less pleased to find out that my room for the night in the pub was directly above the marquee for the beer festival. I did manage to squeeze in a few hours sleep and woke refreshed and excited for my first ever cookery demo. Polly had asked me to show everyone how to make the Majumdar family Life Saving Dahl and, when I saw the blustery weather and sheeting rain that morning, the warming dish of spicy dahl seemed like the perfect antidote to the gloom.

Unfortunately, the weather played havoc with the demonstration truck. The awning whipped away in the strong winds and also managed to blow out most of the burners on the stove while I was cooking. The day's presenter, local TV star, Frances Donovan, did her best to keep things going, but in the end, I had to retire to the town hall and finish off cooking the dahl there. The audience were very patient, and by the time I returned there must have been over fifty people waiting for a sample of my favourite comfort dish.

As you can see from the last picture, it all soon disappeared.

Quite a few people asked for the recipe, so here it is once again. It is well worth trying as indeed is the Cowbridge Food & Drink Festival well worth supporting.


DAHL (Bengali dahl with lemons)

INGREDIENTS
1 cup of red lentils (toasted first in a dry pan. I use my fingers to stir and when it is too hot to touch, it is done)
1 unwaxed lemon chopped in quarters
1 onion sliced in half moons
2 cardamom pods
2 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves garlic
3 fresh green chillis
2 inches of fresh peeled ginger
1 tsp each of ground turmeric/ginger/cumin/coriander seed/hot chilli powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 Bag of spinach (washed)
1 ½ pints of water, chicken stock or vegetable stock

METHOD
Make two pastes by blending the ginger/garlic together and blending the fresh chillis separately with a little salt and water.
Put 2 tblspoons of oil into a hot pan and when it comes to heat, add the cardamom, cloves and cinnamon stick. Cook for 1 minute on a low heat until they release their flavour.

Add the onion and cook until it begins to soften.

Add the ginger/garlic paste and cook for two minutes until it loses its raw taste.

Add the chilli paste and cook for two minutes until it looses its raw taste.

Add the ground spices, sugar and salt and mix well with the onions and cook out
for 4 mins until the spices lose their rawness. If the mixture begins
to stick add a little water.

Add the lentils and mix well so all the pulses are covered with the mixture

Add 1 1/2 pints of water or stock and the quatered lemons and simmer for 30 mins until the lentils have broken down. Add more water if it sticks. Some lentils may take a little longer to cook, but they should be reduced to a porridge like consistency

Add the spinach and allow to wilt in the residual heat of the dahl

The end result is quite a watery dahl which is great served over peeled hard boiled eggs

EATING FOR BRITAIN: THE POT KILN GAME COOKERY SCHOOL

My companion for the day, Rachel, summed it up as we drove home, when she said “It was one of those days, which restores your faith in food”

I knew exactly what she meant. Mike Robinson owner of what is very probably my favourite restaurant in the U.K, The Pot Kiln, had called me a week or so earlier and invited me to be his guest at one of The Pot Kiln's day long game cookery schools. The plan was to meet early in the morning, take a small group out to a local deer farm to select an animal that needed culling, dispatch it and then show us how to grollach it in the field. Afterwards, we would return to the cookery school a few hundred yards from The Pot Kiln and, after a restorative cup of tea and a bacon sandwich Mike would then show us how to butcher and prepare an animal he had shot a week or so before.

Mike being the generous sort that he is invited me to bring a guest along and, as HP could not make it, I posted about it on Twitter and Facebook. Within an hour I had received over fifty requests, but quickest off the mark was my new chum, Rachel. She was not deterred by the 6am starting time from London and by 8am, I was squeezing my battered Ford Focus between some rather smarter cars in front of the purpose built cookery school.

The day panned out exactly as Mike had promised and we were soon en route to the deer park. We soon picked out a likely suspect in the form of a Fallow deer and Mike dispatched him with one cracking round from his rifle. I had been lucky enough to spend time with Mike before, so stepped back and let others give a hand as he expertly showed us how to gut an animal in the field, to check for disease and then how to remove the beautiful livers and kidneys,of course retaining the heart as a special treat for his loyal gundog, Sassy.

Back at the cookery school, Mike was in his element showing us how to skin and butcher another animal. We were doubly fortunate as Alan Hayward, the owner of Vicars Game Dealers had agreed to come in and show us how to break up the animal. What was most remarkable was just how much meat Alan was able to remove from one carcass. Even more so, because he said that to have that much meat vac packed and delivered to your door ready for freezing would only cost about £100. Astonishing value.

Then, of course, it was on to what Mike does best, possibly better than anyone else in the country, cooking up the venison. First up, an Italian style venison stew which Mike prepared with a typical trinity of carrots, onions and celery before adding the sealed meat and lots or red wine. He put that to one side to simmer away and then turned his attention to making a venison Carpaccio and, even more delicious, an old school Stroganoff using thin strips of the venison instead of beef. Finally, Mike’s own invention a version of the French cut of beef “Pave” but taken from the haunch. Stunning when served with some green beans and Robouchon style mashed potatoes that contained almost as much butter as they did starch.

We moved back to the dining room of the cookery school to enjoy our meal. Every dish was outstanding but, for me, the highlights were the Simple stew which had reduced to a thick unctuous meaty ragout and the Stroganoff, which reminded me of why classic dishes are so often the best.

After our late lunch, we staggered back to the car and began the drive back to London. Rachel slumped in her seat trying to keep awake after such a long day and a huge meal “that was probably one of the best food days of my life” she said. Even though I have experienced quite a lot on the last couple of years, it would have been hard not to agree with her.

For those of you interested in cooking game at home, Mike Robinson’s new book FIT FOR TABLE is just about to be published by Quiller Press. Be warned, it is NOT a recipe book and may contain scenes that would make Hannibal Lecter wince (I particularly like the pages of him gutting a wild boar) but it promises to become the textbook on game preparation. Well worth buying as indeed is the Pot Kiln Game Cookery School worth visiting.

EATING FOR BRITAIN: A DAY IN THE KITCHEN AT RULES

With the writing for EATING FOR BRITAIN well under way, it is interesting to see what sort of picture is being formed of Britain past and present by its food. It is not meant to be a history book. There would be little point to that when Colin Spencer has already completed that mammoth task better than anyone else has and probably ever will. However, amongst what I hope will be amusing and readable chapters of my journeys to meet producers, chefs, farmers and shop owners, I hope there will still be enough information to form a worthwhile opinion about the way we eat in the UK.

While the notion that the Industrial Revolution and rationing fractured links to a glorious past of rural abundance and recipes passed from grandmother to mother to daughter may be far fetched, so is the idea that all strata of society viewed food as fuel and of function rather than of beauty. Feasting and fine dining may have only been the pleasures of the wealthy few, but that does not mean they did not exist. Just as they do today for those who wander around, er Borough Market to buy their produce.

You will thank God that there is actually a point to this, as a little over a week ago, I spent a day in the kitchen of a restaurant which truly does have links with our past, Rules. Opened two hundred and fifteen years ago as an Oyster house, Rules was a last chance for Thomas Rule who had led what their history calls a “wayward” life. Over the years, it seems to have maintained that slightly louche appeal and it is little wonder that King Edward VII made it his venue for a bit of rough with Lilly Langtry.

I have always been a fan of Rules, even as it went through a down period in the 1990’s when waiters wandered around with mini computers taking your orders and some wines were listed as “from the former colonies” Now, after considerable refurbishment and the opening of London’s best cocktail bar, it seems to have regained much of it’s former glory. The kitchen too had its challenges until five years ago, when the owner, John Mayhew brought in Richard Sawyer as Head Chef. Richard, is the sort of “old school” chef whose food I always love to eat, with years at the Savoy followed by almost as many working with Michel Bourdin at The Connaught behind him before he finally pitched up at Rules.

I had asked Richard if he and his crew could show me how to make two dishes for my book; Potted Shrimps and Steak & Kidney Pudding. Staples of the Rules menu for just about ever, these dishes really do have a link with our past. The earliest cookery manuals giving advice on potting for preservation and Hannah Glasse's instructions on how to make a good beef & oyster pudding are precious little different to making the ones I would see today.

Richard was already monitoring deliveries when I arrived and half of the thirty-person brigade were at their sections preparing for the fully booked lunchtime service. I was soon dressed in whites and then spent the next seven hours wandering around the kitchen trying not to get in anyone’s way as I flashed away with my camera and recorded video footage of the dishes being made.

You can see from my pictures and videos that, while I certainly saw the two dishes I had come in search of being prepared, thanks to the generosity of Senior Sous Chef’s Paul and Gary, I also saw a whole lot more during my time in the kitchen. The first thing that struck me was how quiet the place was with little shouting as people got on with their tasks in a hugely professional manner. The second was the quality of the ingredients, delivered in a constant stream down a steel chute from street level to await inspection by Richard. Whole Salmon, Plaice and Halibut ready to be trimmed by Richard himself. Lobsters from Scotland and The Scilly Isles, Beef from Rules's own closed herd of Belted Galloway and young grouse and roe deer from their own Lartington Estate. It’s impressive stuff and, as Richard himself put it

“If you can’t get excited about ingredients like this, you must be dead”

As the lunch service approached, I watched the two dishes I had come to see being prepared and the care both Paul and Gary took confirmed to me why they usually form my first two choices whenever I visit Rules. While I knew they were well made, in my ignorance, I had little idea that so much work went into making the relatively small portions that make it onto the plate.

When it came time to choose my own lunch, however, I shied away from my normal choices and turned my attention to the fabulous looking grouse that sat in the cool room ready to be roasted. I am one of those people who like their game to taste of game, so the notion of eating grouse a mere nine days after The Glorious 12th would normally not appeal, but when Paul showed me one plated up ready to head to the restaurant, I changed my mind and asked for one of my own, which they offered me as their guest.

It had been pan fried on each side to take on some colour and then just roasted for fifteen minutes and rested for a further ten minutes until the flesh was a perfect and consistent pink. It was topped off with bacon andsat on a bed of hispi cabbage sweated off with chestnuts and lardons. Traditionally, the livers would have been served with the grouse, but at Rules they use a duck liver pate and then serve the bird with the classic accompaniments of Madeira sauce, game chips, breadcrumbs, Cumberland sauce and bread sauce topped with a thick slick of clarified butter. Quite frankly, it's superb stuff and I stood at the pass gnawing at the bones and spooning the sauces into my mouth until I realised that I was in the way of service.

My time in the kitchen at Rules was coming to an end. I stopped for half an hour to watch Richard trimming three large saddles of Roe deer, removing every last scrap of meat until what remained looked like the result of a piranha attack. Then I did a quick round of the kitchen to say a heartfelt “thank you” for the good humour and generosity of the staff as I asked stupid questions and got in the way

I am hoping that my time at Rules will make an interesting chapter for the book, but what I am certain of is that after my time there, I shall never look at the restaurant or the dishes that come from its kitchen in quite the same way ever again.