Food

Fantastic book - get yerself a copy or I can send you some sexy pics

hnnnnng

#grooming

Good shout, that's what we ended up doing, busy, but once we got a hold of a table it was fine

Which one? Thai? Feels pretty Christmassy, Roupell St.

Yep, at the Kings Arms

Love that joint, used to go there for press day dinner after too many beers at the Paper Moon... Which, sadly, doesn't exist anymore... Was a great pub...

Porchetta practice run...

Trying some anchovies and capers in with the usual mix. Ginger Pig offered me a ready made one at £20 a kilo vs £11 per kilo for just the pork...😳

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anchovies and capers = strong call. my pizza topping of choice!

I made a balls up and as yet haven't pickled ANYTHING this year. Is there a legit speciality online retailer that can help me out in time? Looking for pickled 'things' as well as pickles/chutneys etc. Would usually do 2 kilos of eggs and 2 of onions plus a wildcard (previously carrots or gherkins or peppers etc) Halp.

Fortnum & Mason?

I'm looking to pick up a stand mixer in the January sales, but I'd also like it to multitask as much as possible, so blending & food processing would be a massive bonus, especially slicing / julienne-ing well, as I find those tasks a massive ball-ache.

Any recommendations? Am I asking too much to want one machine to do all those things well?

Some of the Kenwood chefs seem like they might hit the right spot of price and quality. Budget would be £400 for the right thing.

Any recommendations for an immersion blender?

We had a Kitchenaid - overrated IMO. I would go for Kenwood Chef.

Yeah, I do like the look of them, but not the food processing attachment which looks like it would snap as soon as you pressed a carrot into it.

Kenwood is brilliant. Use the mill and blender attachments on ours quite a lot. Keen to get the proper food processor one.

I wouldn't use any kind of food processor for slicing and julienne-ing though, that's what a mandoline is for

Bamix, pricy but last forever...

what's erryone serving with they porchettases?

is gravy a hanging offence?

No, but there really is no need for it TBH. The meat stays quite moist and gravy would take the crunch away from the crackling. I think I have seen a 'jus' made for it in one of the recipes I researched, let me see if I can find it.

Ah yes. Here

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/aug/27/how-to-make-the-perfect-porchetta

Towards the end of the article.

good point.

maybe some salsa verde / chimichuri action on the side.

how important is fennel to the authenticity of the final product? it's not a flavour i'm particularly fond of.

and how long and how hot should 4 kilo slab of oinker take? crisp the skin at the beginning or blast it for 20 minutes at the end?

Your call on the fennel. I love the combo of pork/fennel/chili but you gotta eat your food: make it like you like it.

On the skin, I blowtorched mine at the end of cooking. As to time, I always use a meat thermometer and cook to temp not time, so can"t say.

I made a sauce with the Porchetta on Saturday - used the bones, stock veg, chicken stock and finished with some shallot and sherry. I remove the cracking and serve separately.

Cool your Porchetta on a rack so that all of the skin goes crispy.

I'm doing the usual baked gammon and turkey this year. turkey can be delicious if not dried out. I love it actually.

On the subject of gravy ^^ I think a good roast (cos that's all Christmas dinner is) lives or dies on it. I've been really knocking the roasts out of the park lately (if I do say so myself) and hope to apply some lessons learned to the roast beast feast.

Depending on the fat content of the meat I don't overly grease up the outside prior to cooking. I know it's fashionable to massage chicken with olive oil or butter but i don't really buy the logic in this. Both of these are liable to burn and taste bitter at the temps you roast meat. Plus it will just run off and create more fat to discard from the roasting pan before you make gravy. Even with no added fat a chicken roasted in a tin with half a bottle of wine will generate pan juices that are around 1/3 fat, most of which you will discard so why add to it just to chuck it away?

For chicken (or Turkey) you want crispy skin and moist meat right? crispy skin is delivered by dryness and moist meat is created by juices not being evaporated and the fat under the skin rendering into the flesh. Rubbing fat all over the skin would seem to deliver neither of these desirable outcomes.

My theory is that the best way to do this is leave the skin dry, or at most a very light rub of oil with a high smoke point, just enough to protect the skin from burning in the initial high heat and help the salt stick. I add plenty of salt. NB this salt will trickle down into the pan juices so it's important not to season the gravy until the last second (if required at all).

I always use a cast iron roasting tin, build a trivet of carrots and onions and cook for a quick half hour blast at +200 degrees with no liquid added. That gets everything up to temp and gets the crispy bits underway. Then I add half a bottle of white wine and a load of fresh herbs (if you add them dry at the start they can burn), turn down to 160 or so for the duration of the cook. I'll keep topping up the liquid with wine or water to keep a good pint or more of pan juice. This method seems to retains the crispness but is gentle enough that the meat cooks slowly and doesn't dry out.

Then when the meat's done i'll lift it out and set aside and cover to rest and crank heat back up to finish of roasties etc.

Gravy time: Fat content is criticalIi think. For years I didn't bother emptying the tin to discarding enough fat and had greasy gravy. Finally got that lesson learned. Now I always empty the pan juices into a pyrex jug so the fat separates. Discard most of it and add back a just tablespoon or two to start a roux with the flour. That needs to cook through till it's nicely browned. At this stage I usually squeeze out the veg from the pan through a sieve so they give up their juices. Then add another half bottle of wine, scrape off all the crispy bits round edge, add back the rest of the pan juices (having discarded the remaining fat) and the crucial finishing bits of finely chopped fresh thyme or rosemary, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and a teaspoon of bramble or blackcurrant jelly.

That gets gently cooked and/or topped up with wine or water from the veg (I usually restrict this to the water from the carrots and it's sweeter and less likely to be cabbagey stinky) till it's ready to serve.

Always warm the gravy boat and the plates and make sure there's more than enough to go round. Even if you've slightly buggered up the roasties (not crispy enough) or the meat (too crispy), a plateful of proper gravy will make the whole thing amazing anyway.

Sorry if that all seems incredibly obvious, but it took me years and many disappointing Sunday roasts to understand how crucial each of these steps was.

The mustard and jelly thing was a revelation to me as well. Game changer.