Partridge in a pear tree

A few weeks ago I acquired some partridges and, seeing as it is coming up to the festive period I thought I would share the recipe for this most festive of dishes.

Before the jus

Partridge can be readily found in your local fields. However, if you don't fancy shooting and preparing your partridge you should be able to find them in your butchers or a supermarket. Preferably go for the butcher. 

For this recipe you will need:
2 pears
1 partridge
some carrots
some chopped cabbage leaves
(This is for one dish. Increase the pear and partridge by one for every additional dish)

Peel and halve the pears. One pair of pear halves will be kept to one side for the time being. The other pair should be chopped up finely and put in a saucepan with about 200ml of water. Bring to the boil and then simmer whilst you prepare the rest of the dish. 

Heat the oven to 180C. Sear the partridge in a frying pan with a knob of butter to colour the skin and start the cooking process. Wrap the breast in some bacon, the fattier the better, and transfer to the oven along with the whole pair of pear halves and carrots. Leave in the oven for about 15-20 mins. 

Strain the pear sauce and return to the heat to reduce by half.

Once all cooked, prepare in the following way. Plate up the pair halves at 90 degrees to each other to form the trunk. Place the carrots underneath the horizontal pear and the cabbage leaves above the vertical pear. Carve the breast off the bird and place the breasts in the cabbage. Drizzle the pear jus over the dish and eat.

Devonian Sausage and Mash

This weekend I had the pleasure of entertaining two very good friends from home. The trickiest thing, I find, is thinking up food to cook for people that is a) tasty; b) quick / can be left alone. So, on Saturday as we went around the museums of London I put a dozen sausages in the slow cooker with the very best compliment to sausages, and which definitely makes this recipe Devonian as opposed to being from any other (and inferior) county. 

This key ingredient is cider. But any old cider won't do. It has to be from Sandford Orchards as that is, in my opinion, the best cider in the world. But for this recipe I used some Old Kirton (see image) as it is a great cooking cider and great drinker. It's dry, sharp and with a kick to whisk you back to the rolling, red mudded hills of Devon. 

Not only is Old Kirton a great cooking cider, it's also a fantastic drinking cider. However, if you like your cider fizzy and cold you should probably rethink your life and get some of this down your gullet. 

Anyway, back to the recipe. Dozen sausages and about a litre of cider. If you can't make it Old Kirton, make sure it's dry and flat. Whack on the slow cooker for a few hours (I think this was on for about eight). 

When it's almost ready, mash up some spuds and transfer most of the liquid into a saucepan. Now, with some cornflour you want to thicken up the cider sauce into a cider gravy. Serve up the sausages and the mash and cover with a ladle of the cider gravy. 

Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is a proper job.

Ox heart stew

It be proper hearty!

Lots of people eat steak these days but most of them neglect other parts of the cow, such as the offal. It could be dismissed as awful, but offal is actually tasty and people need to get over their phobia of such things. So, this is the first post of many to come about the offal side of life.

Ox heart is huge and cheap. I bought mine for £5 from the local butcher and they were perplexed that someone asked for heart. I did initially want lamb's heart as they fry rather nicely, but they only had ox heart in stock.

That's what an ox heart looks like. Not that dissimilar to your own heart, just a lot bigger. To prepare the heart you want to rinse it first, washing out the ventricles etc., because congealed blood isn't that nice (unless it's in a black pudding). Then you want to grab a sharp knife and cube the heart. Be sure to leave the fat on as it'll make the stew rich in taste, but if you come across any sinew you want to cut this out and discard. It gets tough in the cooking process.

 Half way done and the heart will look like this. Finish off the cubing process.

Complete cubed ox heart in a slow cooker. If you've cooked a stew before you can do what you want to finish it off. If you haven't cooked a stew before, pay attention.

Dust the heart with flour as this will help the sauce thicken up and you'll have a nice jus. If you want a gravy at the end, you'll have to take the jus and add a cornflour paste to get that sort of thickness.
Add some vegetables. What you put in is entirely up to you. For this I went simple with potatoes, onion and carrots.
Add some stock (beef, chicken or vegetable is fine) and season to taste. Cook slowly for a good few hours and you'll be the proud owner of one of the most delicious tasting stews there is. Also suitable for freezing.

Karpo

On Tuesday (30/07//2013) evening I was taken by my lovely friend Kay to this unassuming restaurant on the Euston Road, opposite Kings Cross. The style of the restaurant is seasonal French cuisine. When Kay told me about this place I was rather excited. I like French cuisine as it is largely simple but tastes heavenly.

We entered and were shown to our table, which was two seats on the end of a large table. At the opposite end were another pair of diners. We spent some time mulling over the options - should we go for a starter and main or just focus on the main and dessert - we finally settled on main and dessert. Kay went for the Linguine of girolles, peas and ricotta. I went for the Herdwick lamb, charred aubergines, olive and salted courgettes. We were asked if we understood our choices, which I found rather bizarre as I was having a particular breed of sheep. There wasn't anything to misunderstand. Our food took about 20 mins to arrive due to the fact that we weren't having starters.

My lamb was exquisite. A fillet of lamb, with a lamb kebab and an aubergine and olive mash decorated with thin slices of salted courgette. The fillet was tender, moist and succulent. But the flavours were mind boggling. There was a lot going on, not too much, but just enough to excite the taste buds and want more. Apparently I had a pained look on my face but I was trying my hardest to disseminate all the flavours that were going on.

I was lucky enough to also have a taste of Kay's linguine and it was good. No, it was great! Bold, easy flavours hitting every taste receptor. It was vibrant.

Dessert was an easier choice and went for the yoghurt, raspberries and cream tea. Little did I know at the time that it also came with miniature meringues, popping candy and small chunks of jelly. It was simple and a taste explosion, aided by the popping candy.

During our dining experience, Kay and I were talking about the food but also how empty the restaurant was. It could be that not many people fancy going for food in Kings Cross on a Tuesday evening or it could be that on the outside Karpo looks like a nightclub and an uninviting one at that. The styling of the building has made it unappealing. The interior is dark, perhaps to give a more intimate vibe, but I feel that it would be better off being lighter with a more rustic French feel and to show off the marvellous living wall which could be easily missed due to the dark lighting.

Marks
Food: 10/10
I gave Karpo top marks because I could not fault the food. It was excellent and used ingredients that were, more or less, locally sourced and seasonal.
Service: 8/10
I felt at times that the staff were a bit too condescending because we weren't "trendy" enough for the establishment.
Atmosphere: 5/10
It could've been much better and I've addressed this further up the page.
Overall: 8/10

Price: average price of a main meal is £15 and a dessert is about £5