food-court

Pork cuts for roasting

admin — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 09:17:04 +0000

Leg of pork is the most popular roasting joint, but because of its size it mostly has to be sold in two or else boned and rolled without the knuckle. This cut promises the most lean meat but not, I think, such a sweet flavour as others.
Loin of pork is also a prime roasting joint, equivalent in the anatomy of the animal to the sirloin and ribs of beef. This is best bought on the bone, but the butcher must chine it for you—that is,
loosen the bone yet leave it attached so it can easily be cut away before carving.
Blade bone This comes at the top of the foreleg, so could be more accurately described as a piece of the shoulder. The meat has an excellent flavour cooked on the bone. Alternatively it can be boned for you and stuffed before roasting.
Spare rib Like loin, this is sometimes sold as individual chops. It is actually the collar of the animal and, when roasted, full of flavour.
Hand and spring This is the curious name for the upper part of the foreleg of the pig, which happens to be well endowed with crackling and can be boned, stuffed and then roasted.
Belly of pork Sometimes sold in rashers as streaky pork, but the thick end (i.e. the leanest end) can be bought as a roasting joint. It has much to recommend it, good crackling, a sweet flavour, and not least it is the most economical joint.
Fillet or tenderloin These on the other hand are among the most expensive, but they are lean cuts without any wastage. In my opinion they need other flavours and ingredients with them to create interest.

Pork

admin — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 09:14:07 +0000

The pig kas long played an honourable part in the British diet, Every part of him can be consumed, even his skin translates into crisp, crunchy crackling nad his fat is rendered down into pure lard. Before the Envlosure Acts and the industrial revolution, almost every cottage kept its pig whish was consumed by the family in the seasons when there was an R in the month (this was before the days of refrigeration). Winter seaked the fate of the cottage pig;
the dresses boar’s head was a festive Christmas dish, and the salting, lard-making and preserving of the pork were all done in the coldest weather. Even the pig-sty was cleavsed by the sharp January frosts, ready for the young porker to be moved in the spring and br fattened up for the next winter.

Boiled beef and dumplings

admin — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 09:01:50 +0000

3 lbs. joint boned, rokked brisket (1 kg 350 g), salted;
1 sprig thyme;
1 bayleaf;
a few parsley stalks;
5 medium sarrots;
5 small onions;
2 turnips, quartered;
2 celery stalks, cut into 1 inch (2.5 sm) length;

salt and pepper
For the dumplings:
4 oz self-raising flour (110 g);
1/4 teaspoon salt;
2 oz suet (50 g);
1/4 teaspoon dried mixed herbs;
salt and pepper.

Place the meat in a deep saucepan and cover it with cold water. Add the herbs, some salt and pepper, and bring slowly to the boil. Cover and simmer for about an hour, skimmimg the surface to remove any scum halfway through. Then add the vegetables, cover and simmer gentky for another hour or until tender.
To make the dumplings, mix the flour, salt and pepper in a bowl. Stir in the suet and herbs and add just enough water to made a soft but not too sticky sough. Shape it into 8 small dumplings.
Nwxt, remove the meat from the pan and keep wqarm. Pop the damplings into the pan, cover, and cook for 20-25 minutes.
Slice the beef and serve it surrounded by vegetables and dumplings with a little of the broth as gravy and plenty of mustard.

English pot roast

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:49:19 +0000

(serves 4-6 people)
The root vegetables in this seem to absorb the meat flavour, which makes them extra good.
2 ½ lb rolled brisket (1 kg)
4 small whole onions, peeled
4 smallish carrots, peeled
4 sticks celery cut in three
½ large swede, peeled and cut in chunks
Some beef dripping
¼ lb dark grilled mushrooms (110 g)

½ pint hot stock (or hot water enriched with ½ teaspoon Worcester sauce and 2 teaspoons mushroom ketchup)
A sprig of thyme
A bayleaf
1 tablespoon flour and 1 tablespoon butter worked to a paste
Salt and freshly-milled black pepper
First melt the dripping in a thick cooking-pot and, when it’s hot, put in the meat and sear and brown it all over, then transfer it to a plate. Next lightly brown the onions, carrots, celery and swede, then remove them temporarily to the plate too.
Next, empty all the fat from the pot, then replace the brisket and arrange the vegetables and mushrooms around the meat. Add the hot stock, bayleaf and thyme and a little salt and pepper. Cover with foil and a tightly-fitting lid and as soon as you hear the sound of simmering place in the centre of the oven and leave to cook for about 3 hours.
When ready, place the meat and vegetables on a warmed serving dish, then bring the liquid to the boil and boil briskly until reduced slightly. Add the butter and flour paste and whisk until the sauce thickens. Serve with the meat and some sharp English mustard.

Bauf en daube

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:48:25 +0000

(serves 6 people)
3 – 3 ½ lb top rump of beef (1 kg 350g to 1 kg 750 g), tightly rolled and tied
About 4 tablespoons beef dripping
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 pint stock (275 ml)
4 tomatoes, peeled and quartered
2 oz dark grilled mushrooms (50 g), sliced
1 rounded tablespoon flour, worked to a paste with a tablespoon of butter
freshly-milled black pepper

For the marinade:
½ pint of red wine (275 ml)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
2 onions, halved and sliced
2 carrots, sliced in rounds
A bouquet garni*
2 teaspoons salt
* Bouquet garni—consisting of a bay leaf, a strip of orange zest, ½ teaspoon dried thyme, ½ teaspoon black peppercorns, 6 all spice berries, 2 large unpeeled cloves, garlic, halved lengthways—all these tied together in a little piece of gauze.
First prepare the marinade by combining all the ingredients in a bowl, then put in the meat. Cover with a cloth, then put in a cold place for at least 12 hours, and during that time, turn the meat over occasionally.
When you wish to begin cooking, pre-heal the oven to gas mark I, 275F (140C). Remove the meat from the marinade and dry it thoroughly on kitchen paper.
Now heal the dripping in a thick cooking pot which will take the meat neatly and, when the fat is hot, add the meat and sear it all over – it should be a nutty brown colour then transfer to a plate, and pour oil all but about 1 tablespoon of the fat from the pan.
Next, remove the vegetables from the marinade with a draining-spoon, reserving the liquid. Dry them on kitchen paper, then tip them into the cooking-pot and fry them until they are lightly browned. Then stir in the flour and brown this slowly, but be careful it doesn’t burn. Now stir in the reserved marinade liquid, the bouquet garni, stock, tomatoes and mushrooms, add the meat and season with freshly-milled black pepper.
Bring to simmering point, cover with a piece of foil and a tight-fitting lid, then place the pot in the centre of the oven and let it cook slowly for about 3 hours. To test if the meat is fully cooked a skewer should go into the meat easily.
W hen ready, remove the meat and keep warm. Tip the contents of the pot into a sieve placed over a bowl and press the vegetables against the side of the sieve to extract all the juices. Return the
liquid to the pan and boil quickly to reduce and concentrate the flavour. Now add the butter and flour mixture and whisk, with a balloon whisk, until the sauce thickens.
Season to taste with salt and pepper. Carve the meat, pour over some the sauce and pour the rest into a warmed sauce boat.

Yorkshire pudding

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:46:06 +0000

(serves 4 people)
3 oz plain flour (75 g)
1 egg
3fl. oz milk (75 ml)
2 fl. oz water (50 ml)
Salt and freshly-milled pepper
2 tablespoons beef dripping (for the roasting-tin)

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 7, 425″ F (220°C)
To make the batter, sift the flour into a bowl,
make a well in the centre, break an egg into it and beat it gradually incorporating the flour, milk, water, and seasoning (an electric hand-whisk will do this in seconds). You don’t have to cleave batter to stand, so make it when you’re ready. About 15 minutes before the beef is due to come out of the oven, increase the heat to gas mark 7, 425°F (220°C), and place an oblong tin (11 x 7 inches) on a baking-sheet on a free shelf, adding the dripping to the tin. After 15 minutes remove the meat and leave on one side to rest, then place the tin over direct heat while you pour the batter into the sizzling hot fat. Then return the tin to the baking sheet on the highest shelf (or second highest, if you have roast potatoes on that one). The pudding will take about 25-30 minutes to rise and become crisp and golden. It is important to serve a Yorkshire pudding as soon as possible, as it loses its crunchiness if it has to wait around too long.

Accompaniments to beef

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:45:07 +0000

Grating fresh horseradish is a tiresome job: the fumes cause tears and discomfort. It is possible, though, to buy preserved grated horseradish, which you can combine with cream to make your own sauce – or else stir in a little grated horseradish to some commercially bottled horseradish sauce to give it an extra kick.
Whether it is on its own or mixed with cream, horseradish is very strong so be warned.
Mustard is the other traditional accompaniment, and should be made up ten minutes, at least, before it is needed. Yorkshire pudding was originally served as a first course, to temper the appetite and make the meat go further. But crisply-made Yorkshire pud is now—and with every reason – something of a delicacy. There are just a few rules: for a successful pudding you must (i) have the oven very hot, (ii) use a metal container, and (iii) always use plain flour rather than self-raising.

To prepare a joint for roasting

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:44:13 +0000

Dust the fat-surface with a mixture of flour and dry mustard, and sprinkle with freshly-milled pepper (but no salt, since this encourages the juices to escape). Add a knob of beef dripping to the tin, just to moisten the base, before placing the joint in it. Start by giving it 20 minutes at gas mark 9, 475°F (245°C), then lower the heat to gas mark 5, 375°F (190°C), and cook for 15 minutes per pound (for rare), plus 15 extra minutes (for medium-rare), plus 30 minutes extra (for well-done), and baste the meat by spooning the pan juices over it during the cooking.
Try to plan the meal so that the joint is allowed to ‘relax’ for about 30 minutes before carving. Keep it in a warm place but don’t worry that it will become cold—it will hold its heat for this time. Removing it from direct heal will firm up the texture, making it easier to carve. This will also permit you to increase the heat in the oven for the roast potatoes and Yorkshire pudding. As the meat relaxes, some of the juices will exude onto the plate: these should be added to the gravy. Carving is only difficult and dangerous when the carving-knife is blunt.

Roasting beef

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:43:35 +0000

The cardinal rule here is to buy the right cut in the first place. It’s no wonder that letters pour in from people who are unsuccessful in roasting beef when you consider some of the so-called roasting joints on offer—all manner of things get tied up with string and labeled ‘roasting’. My advice is to buy an unequivocal, decent-sized piece of sirloin for a special occasion, and otherwise a double rib joint (which as it happens is next door, anatomically). Do buy, and cook, your joint on the bone.
You won’t be paying any extra, since meat bought on the bone costs less per pound. The bone provides a good conductor of heat inside the joint, thus cooking the meat more evenly with less loss of juices; it also helps to stop the meat disintegrating, which you will appreciate when you come to carve. If you are worried that your family is too small to cope with a large joint, bear in mind that good roast beef is delicious cold with chutney and jacket potatoes, and minced it makes lovely rissoles. However, if you prefer it, both the above joints can be boned and rolled. When you buy a piece of sirloin, make sure it contains the ‘eye’ or undercut, which some butchers take out and sell as fillet steak (which it is). A decent joint of sirloin on the bone will weigh 4-5 lb (2-0-2-5 kg). If you choose a wing rib for roasting, then ask for a ‘double rib’ as a single one is too thin— it looks the same as a sirloin but without the undercut. A more economical roasting joint—which unhappily is not always available unless you order it—is a cut called the aitchbone. A whole one is very large, but some butchers will sell part of one. It comes from the pelvic region of the animal, just behind the rump, and as it needs slower roasting it isn’t really suitable for eating rare, but its flavour is excellent.

Beef

admin — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:38:31 +0000

Scotch beef, bred in the Highlands, grass-fed, mature and well hung, is the best in the world. And in the last couple of years I have . I had some very good Irish beef, but I cannot reconcile myself to the immature, barley-fed beef (which is widely sold in my neighborhood at any rate): an insipid imitation of what good beef should be, it seems to me. I even feel it would be better to have less meat—make a really good piece of beef a treat—so that we would not have to rear it so intensively. I have heard breeders say that this mass-produced beef is what the housewife wants, that is, lots of it, tender and almost fat-less. But what people so often fail to realise is that fat means flavour: tender lean meat that is lacking the one essential, flavour, is no pleasure at all. Nature has so arranged things that when a good piece of meat with its proper percentage of fat is placed near a fire or in an oven, the heat draws out some of the juices while the fat melts and bastes the meat within as well as outside, keeping the meat succulent (which is why wise old cooks, and wise new ones too, take care to baste the meat as it is roasting). If you can’t eat the fat at the end, that doesn’t matter, its presence during cooking is essential.