Food

I just made a caesar salad a la molly baz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSSMZj1BmKE

I followed some notes I had written down (possibly incorrectly) years ago and so I basically microplaned 2 whole bulbs of garlic.

Was fucking great tbh - eggs from neighbours, iced the lettuce, chicken from the butcher on the way back from a walk etc. But I feel the scale of the allicin dose has destroyed my taste buds for the foreseeable.

hmmm. this sounds pretty good.

Thinking I want to cook a biryani, I don’t really have any Indian cookbooks, and don’t want to google “best biryani”.
So want your best biryani recipes, the ones that come out good all of the time, I’m assuming they are one pot dishes, but am happy to be corrected on that.
Happy for it to be lamb, rather than chicken, and if you have one that uses lamb shanks even better.

.

2 Attachments

looks great.

making biryani isn't completely straightforward.

i haven't made this recipe myself but it's from Balwinder Kapila's excellent book - nothing that I have made from her book has been less than great.

https://www.balskitchen.com/

1 Attachment

Bal is my Mum 😊

I’m her son (obv!) and did the photography and design for this book.

I’m biased, of course, but this biryani recipe is great.

@ChasnotRobert I’d love to know how you came across the book.

I heard about it on here so found the book online and bought it!

I was going to mention in my post above that it is in some way forum related but couldn't remember exactly how. :)

Ah great. Glad you’re loving it.

@cornelius_blackfoot if you like, you can buy from the site or send me a DM and I can get you a signed/personalised copy.

Would love to but have a self imposed no more cookbooks directive.
Have too many I need to be working through to buy anymore..

Oven chips in goose fat
Charred asparagus with lemon zest and Parmesan
Reverse seared rib eye

Sometimes simple is best

1 Attachment

Some soy braised pork belly. Forgot how much I enjoy cooking with cast iron

1 Attachment

Nothing beats your own mum's cooking ;)

Would there be much difference between cast iron or wok?

No idea - the recipe calls for a wok (which I don't have) but I just enjoy using my Lodge combo cooker. Left mine there to cook down for about 90 mins, eventually hit that sweet spot for a sticky sauce

Oh, just wondering but it does look good pork belly.

Just talking in general, I like pork belly bits that are fatty but the fat is crisp and the pork moist in a reduced sticky soy sauce but I can't get what I want. Either the pork is dry and tough but crisp fat or the fat isn't crisp. Part of me is tempted to go Hank hill and propane the the fatty bits then cook.

What to you guy think?

Also what....you don't have a wok...hush don't tell anyone...also how can you have a kitten and no wok? Then you can't do the kitten asleep in a wok.

“taste the meat not the heat”

I've made this pork belly recipe many times and it's a winner - crisp fat and tender, moist meat.

https://pigeoncottage.com/2014/08/26/the-famous-chinese-pork/

That steak looks perfect, please talk me through your reverse searing method!

Steak rolled in pepper and smoked maldon salt flakes. Placed in convection oven at 95C on a rack this ensures the surface starts to dry out but that it isn’t being cooked by conduction. It slowly brings the steak up to temperature. The moment the core temperature of the meat reaches 42C the meat is removed from the oven and left to stand for ten minutes while a frying pan is heated up. The meat should have a nice relaxed wobble at this stage.

If there is a lump of fat on the outer edge of the steak I cut this off and rub it around the pan so there is a layer of fat for the steak to cook on. After the resting period seal the edge of the steak and maybe add a knob of butter to the pan. The pan should be hot but not smoulderingly so. It only takes 20-30 seconds of contact for the meat to seal and go brown. Once the edges are sealed I put the steak flat into the pan for again about 30s -40s per side, basically looking for a redish brown crust to form.

Now take pan off the heat, drop another knob of butter into it with a couple of crushed cloves of garlic and some hard herbs (eg rosemary /thyme etc) let the butter melt and foam.

Slice steak and pour over the butter from the pan. There is no need for further standing time, core temp should be about 52c, there is a deeply coloured crust, a thin bit of grey meat and then loads of proper rare beef.

This looks great, thank you - have saved!

If anybody is putting in a ProCook order and taking advantage of the spring sale
please feel free to use my code for 15% off!

https://procook.mention-me.com/m/ol/jb4uk-george-lindsay

Nice write up James.

How do you know that the inner meat has reached 42 Celsius?

https://www.procook.co.uk/product/procook-meat-thermometer-grey-fork