Food

Beef ribs this weekend.

Next weekend, I'm heading back home. As it's prime mussel season I will be indulging in serious shell fishery.

So - My girlfriend is friends with someone who did all the branding for the launch of Foxlow - apparently it was booked out within 5 MINUTES and they had over 5000 emails! Bonkers.

These guys do it mail order http://www.nifeislife.com/ but there must a be a few delis that have it.

I've definitely seen lardo (maybe not this stuff) at Gennaros in Lewisham.

Was in Gennaro's this morning and they can order lardo di Colonatta for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXAr0DiptrE

Great deli Gennaro's is....

Anyone have a killer Ragu recipe? I made a shit load yesterday and would be interested to hear what other people do.

1.5kg Beef Shin, cut into thumb thick pieces
150kg Chicken Livers
3 Italian Sausages
2 Large Carrots
2 Large Onions
5 Sticks of Celery
5 Cloves of Garlic
5 Bay Leaves
10 Sage Leaves, chopped.
2 Large Sprigs of Thyme
Equiv. Of 2 tbsp of chopped Rosemary
Juice of one Large thin skinned Lemon
1kg Plum Tomatoes
500g Cherry Tomatoes
1 tube Tom Paste
Splash of Red Wine Vinegar
Two big handfuls of Basil
3l of Beef Stock
Half a bottle of Red Wine

Brown Beef in Olive Oil, in batches. Skin sausages and break into chunks, add to final set of beef being browned. Remove only beef and add soffritto. Soften in fat with sausage until transluscent. Throw in garlic when soft, and all herbs except basil. Soften for another 2 minutes. Add red wine and scrape bottom of the pan to release meat browning. Cook down until volume has reduced considerably. Stir in finely diced chicken liver.

Blanche Plum Tomatoes and remove skins and and seeds. Break apart/chop and add to dish with whole tube of tom paste and cherry toms. Add all of the beef stock. Cover and simmer for 3 hours, stirring occasionally

After 3 hours, add first handful of torn basil, check seasoning and add tbsp. Of RW Vinegar. Meat should be tender and fall apart.

Remove lid and simmer for another 90 mins to 2 hours until reduced down. Add lemon juice (to taste, but I used a a whole lemon) and just before serving throw in remaining basil.

Served with either polenta or fresh pappardelle, covered in a blanket of parm.

Looks pretty epic. Looks more complicated than day-to-day italian ragu, I doubt the cherry toms, sage or lemon juice would usually feature, would prob be straightforward mince too, beef with maybe a bit of pork in the mixture. They'd never have the patiance to cook shin for 5 hours for a ragu... bet it tastes good though!

make sure you spend the time removing the tendons from the shin, else you'll be eating chewy rope. not nice. worth the trouble tho.

Looks pretty epic. Looks more complicated than day-to-day italian ragu, I doubt the cherry toms, sage or lemon juice would usually feature, would prob be straightforward mince too, beef with maybe a bit of pork in the mixture. They'd never have the patiance to cook shin for 5 hours for a ragu... bet it tastes good though!

Man, it tastes so good.

But true - I am a fiend for lemon in anything, but especially with tomatoes, just feel like it accentuates the acidity really sweetly... I'm going to do a mince version next...

I always like a pinch of fennel seeds and maybe a small bit of nutmeg (smashed in a pestle a mortar) in Italian sauces. Almost so you can't distinguish them but they do add a sort of rounded warmth to the whole sauce. Your Italian sausages will probably have fennel in the already.

I'd probably have to put some sugar in it, other than that sounds more than decent.

I'm gonna call my butcher to get 2 onglet in for saturday.

I <3 my butcher. You can halve this fantastic cut in two down the middle and trim out the white fat/sinew to make it look nicer, but as it was just the wife and I we didn't bother, thin end was mid-rare, fat end was a tad blue, all tasted great.

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That looks awesome!

#want

Ha - I ordered a kg of Onglet and a kg of Bavette not half an hour ago.

I was going to attempt the DIY sous vide from a while back.

Oh - I have also put a Thermomix on my Birthday list.

Bad Pig at the Wargrave, do it!

^^£9 per kg from my guy. He had three in a vac-pack for me. Must have been a funny looking cow I said :-)
These specimens are about 650g each!

oof that's 2 quid cheaper than I paid.

Please tell me you're out in the sticks?

Aye, don't panic, its worth £2 a kilo not to have to live in Grantham :-)

Oh shit! Grantham. Hometown of Maggie Thatcher. From a local lad (Nottingham).... sorry about that ;)

I'm ordered a Sansaire Sousvide Circulator a while back. Cannot wait to play with it.

Every town, has it's ups and down, sometimes the ups, outnumber the downs, but not in Nottingham

Lets not get into this...

Is that the Kickstarter one?

When you get it, would you write a review on here? I nearly went for one but wanted to know how it performed.

I'm meeting some mates tonight for a few drinks and maybe a burger somewhere central, where should we go? I have not had the energy to follow the burger debate.

I had a Patty and Bun on Friday night - the Ari Gold was pretty decent and really messy (it's next to Slefridges). I am partial to Shake Shack (my favourite burger in London) but have been shot down a few times!

Bad Pig at the Lord Wargrave - I think it's worth a shout. Meantime on draft (IPA) and reasonably priced for central London. No need to queue in general as well.