A simple meatball with several uses – like this as a meal, in a sub roll with tomato sauce, in smaller balls on pizza, as part of a buffet on skewers, or even in a soup.
There’s the added benefit that it’s high in protein and low in fat.
A Spanish tapas dish that’s also great for a meal or in smaller balls on skewers as part of a buffet.
I like this pie best as a cold-cutting pie. It’s a great addition to a buffet table. The recipe comes from my grandma, who lived in the North West of England – Lancashire and Westmorland – for many years.
You’ll see from the photo that the bottom’s a little bit soggy – hey, sometimes that happens; it could’ve done with a few more minutes in the oven, but so what, it tastes great.
The recipe’s really simple; I’ve tried it in the past with additions like egg in the filling, but this one’s the best, just cheese and onion like grandma used to make.
Continue reading Cheese and Onion PieThis is a great recipe for all those odds and ends of ham that are left after slicing. It’s also a good way of using the hock or shank of a pig’s leg.
Original post made in 2007.
An article called ‘Leftovers are a cheaper, greener option’ at the Daily Telegraph reminded me of a snack/starter I hadn’t made for some time. Croquetas – croquettes or croquets in English, are a tasty way of using up small amounts of leftovers.
Continue reading Croquetas
Having made the sausagemeat for rolls it’s a fairly simple task to make it into sausage rolls.
I prefer to use a rough puff pastry rather than a shortcrust or shop-bought puff pastry but these could also be used. I make the pastry using this quick rough puff pastry recipe.
I’ve dropped a clanger by not taking a photo of the sheet of pastry after it’s rolled out but I roll it to approx 250mm (10″) by 400mm (16 “). Square the edge off that’s nearest you. I will make 2 long rolls from this that I’ll then divide each one into 4 individual sausage rolls.
For approximately 100gm rolls use 170gm of sausage meat and roll pieces to form a long sausage to lay along the nearest edge. Then, lifting the pastry, roll it to just encase the meat. At this stage dampen the next inch or so of pastry with water (I think that water is better than egg wash for this) and roll the meat/pastry roll onto this. The roll can be cut away from the sheet at this stage.
Continue reading Sausage RollsFrom 2011:
I’ve written before about cold smoking food and there’s even a full review of the smoker that I use – it’s simplicity itself to use. However, I realise that there can be a tendency to worry or even panic the first time you smoke something like a salmon. Questions like, should I brine or dry cure it? What brine or cure should I use? What strength should it be? How long should I cure it for? So, here’s a breakdown of what I did with the salmon I smoked for Christmas.
Continue reading A Tale of Cold Smoked SalmonFrom 2008.
A friend brought me some samosas from a shop on Green Lane Road, Leicester to try and they are superb. Mind you, the tamarind dip which accompanied them about blew my brains out!
Continue reading Samosas
There you go, I’m being posh and calling it quiche! It’s really a good old bacon and cheese flan. It’s a pity that so many poor imitations of this superb rich savoury egg custard are sold by supermarkets and presented to the world on numerous buffets with cheap frozen sausage rolls and those damn miniature scotch eggs.
A good quiche is all about the quality of the ingredients, there’s few of them, so they all count. Use good dry-cured bacon (mild smoked if you like), good eggs, double cream not milk, and you won’t go far wrong. One other thing, and a very important one, is that most recipes (including Delia) will tell you to cook the quiche at too high a temperature. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again – cook the quiche at around 160°C or below; you’re making a savoury custard, not an omelette!
I was fortunate to receive Jane Grigson’s book “Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery”, for my birthday a week or so ago. You see, it’s not just me:
Bake in a moderate oven for about 40 minutes. Remember that a quiche is a savoury custard tart; it mustn’t cook too quickly or it will curdle.
I feel a bit of a fraud giving a recipe; it’s not rocket science, but here’s my take on it:
Pastry
6oz Plain Flour
3oz lard (or lard/butter mix)
about ¼ teasp salt
water
Rub the fat into the flour/salt until it resembles breadcrumbs, then add water a little at a time and mix until it forms a dough. In all honesty, I generally make a batch using 1lb flour, 8oz fat and 1 teaspoon of salt, in the food processor. Don’t add too much liquid or the pastry will be hard – about 1½ – 2 tablespoons (ish) should be about right for 6oz flour.
Use the pastry to line a loose-bottomed flan tin (approx. 7½ inch diameter) then prick the base with a fork, line it with parchment paper, fill with baking beans, or rice or dried beans, and bake it at 180°C for 15 minutes. Remove the beans and parchment and bake it for a further 5 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C ready for the next stage.
Filling
6 – 8oz bacon
2 – 3oz grated cheese
¾ pint double cream
3 eggs
Salt and pepper
While the pastry is cooking, remove the rind from the bacon and discard it. Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry it, then put it on a paper towel to drain and cool. Mix the eggs and cream and season. Sprinkle the bacon over the base of the pastry followed by the cheese and then fill with the egg/cream mix. I do this while the pastry case is still on the oven shelf to avoid spillage. Bake it at 160°C for 40 minutes or so until it’s set.
It can be eaten warm but according to my wife is better eaten at room temperature the following day.
A note for US readers: faggots in the UK are a meatball made from liver. There are two distinct types: faggots without sauce sold by butchers, and faggots with sauce, usually made in factories. I’d just finished the two recipes linked when I posted this.
Originally posted in 2009
There are only so many faggots a man can take. So what’s different that you can do with the masses of pork liver from your half pig? Liver Pâté is the obvious one, but it’s taken me ages to find a recipe that isn’t just too… well, just too ‘livery’.
This recipe is a slightly amended version of the one from Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn, and is the best that I’ve found so far. The one I formulated myself was too strong in the liver department and too bitter. In my notes, I wrote, “add breadcrumbs/rusk, add milk product”; that’s exactly what the one in ‘Charcuterie’ does.
Ingredients
1 lb/450 gms pork liver, cut into large chunks
1 lb/450 gms boneless pork shoulder, diced
1 ounce/25 gms (about 2 tablespoons) salt
1 tsp/3 gms freshly ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 Tbsp/30 ml vegetable oil
¼ cup/50 gms chopped shallots
2 Tbsp/30 ml brandy
2 slices white bread, crusts removed and roughly chopped
½ cup/120 ml whole milk
¼ cup/60 ml double cream.
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp/6 gms chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
¼ tsp/0.5 gm ground white pepper
½ tsp/1 gm freshly grated nutmeg
Method
1. Put the meats in separate bowls with half the salt, pepper, thyme and bay in each; mix and marinate separately for 8 hours or overnight.
2. In a frying pan, sear the liver in the oil until brown; add the shallots and cook until translucent; add the brandy, cook off the alcohol, scrape all the bits off the bottom of the pan and put in a bowl to cool in the fridge.
3. Mix the bread, milk, cream and eggs well and set aside.
4. Keeping everything very cold, mince/grind everything except the bay and thyme (which can be thrown away) through the fine plate of your mincer/grinder. (Watch out as the liver has a tendency to squirt through the mixer plate!)
4. If you want an even finer pâté, put the lot in the freezer with your food processor bowl for 20 minutes or so. Then process until very fine. Check the temperature with a thermometer regularly – don’t let it exceed 15°C. Food processors heat food very quickly, so watch out – or omit this step.
5. Line a mould with cling film, greaseproof paper, or baking parchment and fill it, pushing the mix into the corners. Cover the pâté with the chosen lining and then with foil.
6. Put in a bain-marie (roasting tin of hot water) in the oven at 150°C, 300°C, gas mark 2; test with a thermometer after about 1-1½ hours – remove when it’s been above 65°C for 10 minutes.
7. Put weights on top of the pâté and cool.
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