Be Excellent To Each Other

For once, I was pleased with my presentation.

It was OK, but there was room for improvement; it was still a just little chewy to my mind (my guests disagreed, but then they would) but not badly so. I wouldn't follow Jamie Oliver's recipe again though. The faffing with the flavoured butter was had little discernible benefit beyond making the pan juices too greasy and leaving a clump of strong herbs inside the meat.

I came across a recipe on the BBC that calls for an overnight marinade in wine to tenderise the meat, followed by a wet casserole for 2.5 hours, then removing the shanks and roast them for an hour as the casserole sauce reduces on the hob. That's the sort of thing I'll do next time.

I swear a lot of these new fangled recipes aren't properly bench tested before being committed to the page.



I did these myself a few years ago and after about four attempts settled on a very lengthy and slow cooking time of 4-5 hours at a low temperature of 110°C or thereabouts, having, like you said, marinaded in red wine and then cooked slowly in red wine with onions, garlic, rosemary and carrots. The thing is, with this method, the lamb shanks look really dark and sticky which probably doesn't make for "pretty eye food" but they sure taste good and do fall apart beautifully.

If I ever become so pretentious as to start prioritising how food looks over how food tastes, you have my express permission to beat me to death with a meat tenderiser. This long-slow-cook sounds better to me. Actually, I see no problem with "dark and sticky" either.

I suppose the answer if you cared enough would probably be to cook it in a sous vide for eleventy billion hours, then flash it in a pan to colour the outside. Or perhaps a hot smoke process. I'm not about to buy the kit for either of those approaches.

I like the BBC's idea of reducing the casserole sauce (by a lot -- to half volume, the recipe called for) while the rumps roast though.

Four hours casseroled at 120 is my go-to method for lamb shanks, though it doesn't give you the nice look of roasted shanks.

Was the lamb supposed to look like some kind of gun emplacement?

Christmas gammon joint is done. Covered it in wholegrain mustard, clear honey and maple syrup. The house smells amazing.

Excellent.

My meaty joint (ladies ) is currently soaking to remove the excess salt - then going to simmer in coke for a good while then mustard, muscavado and honey glaze.

I have home made pickles and plenty of shop bought chutneys ready for the cold meat extravaganza!

I've got mine to do today. However, "soak" what is this voodoo shit you're talking of. Put it in cold water, bring to the boil, then ditch the water, this removes most of the excess salt in about ten or fifteen minutes.

Because it's being cooked in coke and then glazed. If I wasn't the of course I wouldn't bother soaking it.

It's simmering away now. I've heard good things about coke cooked ham so thought I'd give it a whirl.

Mine has cooked in the coke and just went in the oven with a glaze of black treacle, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, mustard, and brown sugar.

Brown sugar, maple syrup, mustard powder for me.

So no soaking for you either?

I did what I always do: brought it to the boil in water, skim the scum off, and drain before adding the coke.

Maple syrup! Doh!

Yeah, another boil and skimmer here too.

Man, that pork froth tastes good.

My ham:

Christmas day breakfast:

Baked apple pancake with streaky bacon and rosé mimosa by PenLlawen, on Flickr

Danielle's family are predominantly German on her mother's side, and even 150 years after migrating to America, German cuisine still heavily influences their tradition cooking, producing dishes like this -- the apples are fried in butter with cinnamon and nutmeg, producing a strudel-like flavour, then a thin pancake batter poured over the top and the whole thing baked like a Yorkshire pudding (here's how it looks out of the oven).

That looks very lovely. I'm looking forward to this food blog from you and Craster, I think I'll sound my time drooling on my keyboard though

Who made meatball pizza pie yesterday?

Me, motherfuckers!

That looks like an autopsy.

Cause of death: CHEESED

Goose is nice.

But not as nice as craster's pulled pork with home made buns which is extreme nom noms. Rib of beef in the freezer for sometime soon, too.

Hey Gaywood - that ham looks nice. Is that a "brushed with Coca Cola" job? Or similar? How did it taste?

I seem to remember him giving favourable comments at the time.

Duh, didn't notice that post, cheers Craster.

So, tomorrow, I have eight guests (so, ten people with me and Danielle) for:

• Curried chicken appetiser with mini naan kebab -- I have no idea what this is like, it's being brought by one of my guests;
• Main of roasted chicken (4kg!) and rib of beef on the bone (2kg!) with roasted potatoes, parsnip, carrot and swede mash, and steamed green veg;
• Dessert of a choice of Christmas pudding with brandy sauce or a sugar cream pie (home-made by Danielle);
• Cheese platter of Lancashire Black Bomb, baked Camembert, and Dolcelatte, served with port.

Phew. I'm tired just typing it out. If my over-catering and my guests over-indulging go as they usually do, we'll eat the main course at 4pm, dessert at 7pm, and only be able to face the cheese at 10pm.

Achievement unlocked!

Good work. I've just seen a 2kg waygu rib joint on an online butcher's site. Must...not...buy...

Good lord. How much?!

A hundred quid. If I was cooking Christmas dinner, I'd have gone for it, but it would need a similarly special occasion.








Or a weekend, or something.

*Books Bar Mitzvah*

*Fetches tin snips*

Show me the beef first.

Pork first, then beef.

Oy vey.

Food porn on flickr, including images like this:


Baked camembert by PenLlawen, on Flickr

"Will you stop twatting about with that camera?! I want to eat the fucking cheese!"
- Imaginary Danielle, yesterday.

Yes, his obsession with photographing food he makes did make me think it's probably entering raised eyebrow and sighing territory, with stabbing and divorce to follow.

Would you have red or white wine with divorce?

She's very understanding, but I don't push my luck - usually it's my food I'm teaching about with, while she starts eating. That photo there was taken with my right hand and I'm holding the cracker with my left; no-one else was inconvenienced!

Empanadas in the oven right now. They smell incredible.

I put Sainsburys chilli beef empanadas in my belly over christmas. They were as borderline alright as you might expect.

I'm not sure they've come out yet, along with most of the other delicious filth that went in over the last 9 days.

The ones I did were really, really good. I'll stick the recipe up. I'm usually far too lazy to make pastry, and was pleasantly surprised how they came out.

Be afraid... be very afraid.

Wassat Malc? Is it a meatloaf?

No, it's my wife. (cackles madly)



Er, yes it's meatloaf - I have officially become North American. I'm hoping it looks a lot more appetising when it's cooked.

Official Verdict - meatloaf is actually pretty damn good.

Your strange meatslab intrigues me, Malc74. I don't think I've ever had real meatloaf - is the texture meaty, or more loafy? I might have to give it a go at somepoint.

I made some last night but when I looked in the oven this morning it was gone, gone, gone.

The meat itself is generally a 50/50 mix of ground beef and pork, so it's basically the same texture as sausages.

I'm a crap cook so I messed up making it the first time but I think I got it right after that. Two out of three ain't bad, certainly.

although the various recipes I've seen go from 100% beef to a mix of beef/pork/turkey mince. My one was half beef/half pork (waits for Zardoz).
You can then pretty much throw in whatever seasonings you like - I fried up a couple of garlic cloves and a shallot and threw those in, then some Italian herbs, some barbecue seasoning (a really awesome mix of herbs and spices that one of the stores over here sells), a good handful of breadcrumbs, some finely grated parmesan, a splash of leftover pasta sauce that was in the fridge and a couple of eggs to bind it all.
I made a barbecue sauce, using the rest of the pasta sauce, to glug over the meatloaf when it was served.

It's a very, very heavy meal though, especially when served with mashed tatties with loads of cream and butter.