Food

On the pork shoulder front... I am hosting a charity bike ride in a few weeks and planning burritos for dinner. Amongst all the other usual fillings, I will be doing bbq chicken thighs and also pulled pork Mexican style.

Anyone got any ideas on how big the pork shoulder needs to be to feed around 30-35 people, keeping in mind that half the meat intake will be from the chicken?

A 5kg shoulder (bone in) fed a Mexican food feast for about 12 as the main meat. You would be amazed at how much much cooks down as part of the process. Half meat for 35? Say 7kg as my best guess.

Have a look in the recipe thread for my carnitas recipe of you want mexican style pulled pork. That is the basis for my estimate. YMMV, T&Cs apply....

I'm going to this on Saturday....anyone else?

http://www.wefeast.co.uk/who/anchor-and-hope

I was going to try and go on Sunday, but I guess you'll have eaten it all by then...

Just saw this on BBC Food website. All manner of win!

Bone in pork shoulder might be better, but Morrisons are doing boneless shoulder for £2/kg at the moment.

I'm going to this on Saturday....anyone else?

http://www.wefeast.co.uk/who/anchor-and-hope

Early or late?

I'm after some barbecuey/smokery paraphernalia - I could just order things online but would like to have a browse in person. Is there anywhere in London that would suffice? Ideally I'd like to pick up things like liquid smoke/rubs and generally stuff to experiment with as well as mooch through smokers and what-not.

Only place I know is Cobham BBQ centre, not exactly London but if you're out that way... I got my smoker from there.

make your own smoke flavour, do not buy liquid smoke

just put a load of onions into the smoker, leave for a few hours, then blend the onions, if it is too liquid reduce this down a little

pour into ice cube trays and freeze, then have little ice cubes of smoke flavour, use sparingly.

order smoking wood from here

http://bbqsmokingwood.co.uk/

make your own rubs, no point in buying them

That's a great tip about liquid smoke DJ, thanks.

Gracias both - yep - hadn't really planned to buy rubs just get ideas.

The liquid smoke idea sounds ace, ta DJ.

Will see if I can pop down to Cobham Olly.

Went to FEAST today.
Ate a fucking load of food.
Biggest dissapointment was the Hawksmoor cheese burger, it came with a curdy cheese that was way too strong, it was underseasoned and the salad etc was a bit naff. Especially for £9!
Had a burger from the stall opposite for £6.50 and it was brilliant,
Also ate at bread and wine, Moro, St Johns, Barbecoa and had some oysters...PIG

Think a friend was at that judging by his tweets earlier. photos looked nommy.

Now. Where can I get the tastiest black pudding in London? (to buy and take home rather than eat out)

^That is an excellent question that we could use an answer to.

Well Brindisa at Borough Market has a deli which sells a few different types of Morcilla, all of which are very good. It depends if you're looking for british style black pudding or foreign muck

Don't go for Morcilla when you can get the best of the best - Boudin Noir.

(If you do get Morcilla, get the rice one. It's like the good version of Haggis)

And Brindisa is a fucken rip-off.

British - it's for my brother to take back to Spain to show them what's what : )

I made Ottolenghi's sweet potato gratin over the weekend. The book was left in my flat so had a flick through and this was the first recipe that didn't have about a million ingredients (and also sounded pretty good).

I could claim that I adapted the timings in the oven to caramelise the potatoes a bit, but I just forgot to time property and got lucky.

Tasted awesome and easy to do. Would cook again.

black pudding bump

This http://www.charlesmacleod.co.uk/black-pudding.aspx

or Ginger Pig surely do a good one?

black pudding bump

As a northerner I bury black pudding wins hands down every time for me, I am not sure where to get it down south though.

http://www.buryblackpuddings.co.uk/

The white pudding is lush as well.

This http://www.charlesmacleod.co.uk/black-pudding.aspx

or Ginger Pig surely do a good one?

I don't rate it as a breakfast black pudding.

Gracias both - just ordered one of each online. I'll have a search at a local butcher in Hampshire when I get down there this weekend.

In other news, a friend just brought me back a few salamis and some kind of smoked italian cheese from his parents' gaff in Sicily - haven't tried the cheese yet but the one salami I did eat was like delicious meaty butter. Utter heaven.