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Wednesday 7 October 2020

A simple home-made chicken soup.

Home made chicken soup. Into a large tureen I put the cooked chicken bones of a previously roasted chicken with some cold water and I introduced a couple of bay leaves then boiled the carcass for three quarters of an hour. I sieved the liquid via a colander into a smaller saucepan and the cooked bits of meat were removed (picked off) once it had cooled. To the liquid and added the scraps of chicken and added more cooked chicken from the original carcass. I chopped some spring onions, shredded a small piece of ginger and three cloves of garlic. Earlier on I had put some frozen sweetcorn in a bowl of cold water to defrost. Once it had defrosted I added the sweet corn and a finely chopped chilli pepper. Now I seasoned the soup with plenty of salt and pepper and warmed it through. Delicious. I liked this so much I had two bowls!



Thursday 10 September 2020

Spanish Pintxo. What are Spanish Pintxos?

 If you love tapas then you will love these two videos made before lockdown about Pintxos in San Sebastian by our foodie friends James and Yolanda of Spain Revealed on YouTube.

Also if you love Spain, then do as we do. and subscribe to their Spain Revealed Community Facebook Page to get regular updates. So about those Pintxos. Venga. Let's go.






Ruddington Village Market. Adventures with smoked fish from Smith's Smokery of Linconshire.

 The Ruddington Village Market happens once a month at the beginning of the month and last weekend I had a mooch round and ended up buying some smoked fish items from a very pleasant guy running the Smith's Smokery Smoked Fish stall. He had come to our village all the way from Skegness and was doing a great trade. I purchased a whole smoked eel and a pack of two smoked salmon pieces that were close to their use by date of 9th Sept and on sale for a bargain £4 for the two. The eel cost me a fiver.

I filleted and skinned the Wild Smoked Eel and made myself a smoked eel salad on the day of purchase. Delicious.





The smoked salmon was refrigerated until the 8th when I decided to make a salmon and leek shortcut pastry pie. I did it all in stages by poaching the salmon and steaming the two big leaks. I made a pastry base and coddled together lid from a shop bought ready made pastry. The mushrooms were chopped up and gently fried  in butter. To add some more flavours I raided my cupboard for a few salty capers and opened a small tin of anchovies. These were all quite random 'I wonder what would go nice with it?' additions and to finish I sliced a tomato and added a home made cheese sauce. 








With the pastry lid in place and the sides trimmed I popped the pie in a pre-heated oven at gas mark 6 for an hour. I don't know if I put too much cheese sauce in but when i checked to cooked about 30 minutes in there was some spillage. I whipped the pie out and transferred to pie dish into a low ceramic dish and washed the oven tray once cooled. I gave some of the finished pie to my elderly neighbour Betty and ate a good slice of mine with some new potatoes. 





The next day I pigged out on the reheated remainder of the pie with some steamed and buttered asparagus. I can't wait to see what tempts me at the Ruddington Village Market in early October.













 




Thursday 27 August 2020

Garden overhaul that only cost time and effort. Goodbye lavender bushes. Hello clean space.

 I do love lavender and I did love my lavender bushes in the back garden. Unfortunately they had been in situ for around eight years (if not more) and had got very woody and the weeds underneath them and around them were proving hard to control. 




So, on August 12th and 13th (hot days) I set about chopping down and pulling up all five lavender bushes, I gathered in the the flower heads to keep and dry them but, other  than that,  the whole lot went into the green rubbish bin. I saved the woody branches separately with the idea of storing them and using them for kindling one fine and sunny day when I might have a barbeque. As Autumn approaches I think that plan may not come into fruition. 









The next stage was to uproot the actual roots (just visible in the picture below) and then take all the stones off by spade work and depositing them on some plastic bags at the side of the perimeter. I did all this quite back breaking work in the hot sunshine and then got on my hands and knees pulling up as much of the weeds and weed roots as I could find. I had no new membrane to put on top of the old black membrane but I utilised two old cloth throws that were about the dimensions of a king size bed and the luckily the area within the bricks.



All the stones got a rigorous sieving to get all the little bits of soil and lavender wood from them. Then, sieve by sieve full. I put them on top of the throws I had tucked into the space. This took quite a long while. I was sweating buckets by the time the last sieve full got chucked into place. I left it as it was for that evening and the following day I returned to the garden. I pushed the stones around to do my best to get the throws completely covered around the edges to prevent weeds returning (they still came back!) and finished off the new design with my ceramic balls. The chair was loaned from a neighbour.
















Thursday 20 August 2020

Love shopping or just mooching around supermarkets on holidays abroad? Check this out.

 I love mooching around foreign supermarkets to see how different they are laid out and what their cultural offerings are. For example one time when I went to Bordeaux I stood for ages at the dried herbs section just reading all the names in French of herbs and spices and was amazed that their fish counter and the different display methods to when I worked at Tesco. Then there was whole chiller sections dedicated to duck and goose products! I also love cured meats and get very excited when I see much bigger offerings from what I might see at home in the UK. Such was the case when I went to Leiden in Holland.


As I mentioned in the last blog post I have recently come across #SpainRevealed on YouTube which is curated by James Blick and Yolanda Martin, a very enthusiastic couple based in Madrid. This video below in which they visit a big Spanish supermarket is eye opening and I learnt so much about the way the Spanish shop at supermarkets and what appeals to them. I have a friend who lives and teaches English in Barcelona and she told me that such supermarkets are often on the outskirts of the big cities and you really need a car to shop there. When I saw the Iberico hams on display in the Spanish supermarket I was in cured meats heaven. Do check it out.


Tuesday 18 August 2020

Spanish food stories and life as shown by Spain Revealed on YouTube.

 For the next ongoing blog posts I want to share with you all a regular stream of YouTube videos about Spanish life and food according to a New Zealander called James Blick and his Spanish wife Yolanda. I discovered them on YouTube almost by accident and I have become completely obsessed with their wonderful videos and have learnt so much more through these exciting and insightful videos than I have through many a TV chef. You genuinely feel like you are with them in the tapas bars and on the streets of Madrid, Seville or wherever. So as they say "Venga!" - "Let's Go!" Phil xx

James and Yolanda's 'Spain Revealed' YouTube channel is HERE



Thursday 13 August 2020

Spinach omelette delight

By simply steaming a bag of spinach and squeezing the moisture out of the steamed leaves, then adding them to final part of cooking the omelette can make a plain omelette into something rather delightful. I gave this a go the other day and the results were delicious.







Thursday 30 July 2020

The day water got into my boiler through the outside flue and fried the board!

About a month ago Nottinghamshire experienced an excessive downpour of rain that caused floods in the streets, my neighbours kitchen to flood rather dramatically and unbeknownst to me, rain water to get in through my flue on the outside wall and then into my boiler. After the storm I was completely without hot water (the boiler had always been temperamental anyway) and after a bit of trial and error trying to get the pilot light thing to light I got in touch with my landlady and we called a heating engineer to inspect the boiler. It was then revealed what the damage was (a fried electrics board) and a decision was made to purchase and install a new hot water boiler system.


 In the meantime my land lady's sister who lives in my village generously offered me her shower if I needed one. Eventually, after washing in cold water for a few days, I took her up on her offer and enjoyed a rather luxurious shower at her house. It reminded me of how nice a hot shower was and I looked forward to the guy coming round to sort mine out. It took him nearly a day. The pipe in the picture below is my old flue. Note there is no covering on the outside.



The pictures below are the old boiler and the brand new one and the old boiler in the garden waiting to be taken away.










Since the boiler was installed I have had the utter pleasure of hot showers and constant hot water for washing up. This is after years of me stoically putting up with the old combi boiler performing haphazardly, the pressure gauge dropping, and me  washing up with the dribble of warm water and boiling kettles. Onwards and upwards.






Tuesday 16 June 2020

The day I nearly lost my right arm to an out of control butcher's bandsaw blade

I came across this piece in my document files and the observations I made over time about the dangers of working in a traditional butcher's shop still hold true today and are worth another visit.

The dangers of working in a traditional butcher's shop


"I was doing an interview in London today with a lady called Katie from the Tesco 'Real Food' magazine and I happened to mention the time, many years ago, when I nearly had my arm chopped off by a rogue band saw back in the days when I worked as a traditional butcher. Such is the adventurous and somewhat perilous life of working in the butchery trade. Prepare to feel faint as a dark vein of humour awaits the unwary in the passages that follow.




The band saw incident came about when I was working for a butchery firm called Edward Ryde and Son in the Cornmarket, Derby. I never trusted the accursed machine in the first place and the fast spinning and shark teeth beast had a reputation of breaking free from its housings at top speed and then shuddering to a violent halt after a terrifying bang and snapping sound of the circular band of jagged steel thrashing around in the close proximity of one's arm or hands or face. One false move and one's juggling days were over. Thankfully my years of Kung Fu training and lightening reflexes meant that my body parts weren't savaged on the dreadful day it decided to kick off with me at the helm. Well that's my story. However, the smell of scorched bone marrow has haunted me ever since!




That's not all folks. One fine day, at the same shop. I narrowly missed being squished by a speeding bus as I pulled out the shop window blind. This involved tugging on a pole with a hook attached to the blind and bouncing backward into the open road in order to secure the blind and thus protect the meat display from the ravages of the midday sun. Alas on this particular day the hook came maladroitly away from the pole and I landed on my scrawny backside in the middle of a busy road junction complete with oncoming traffic. Fortunately the alert bus driver spotted me lying abjectly in the road before reducing me to a screaming tyre print mess in a blood soaked butcher’s coat. Gingerly, I got up, waddled precariously back to the safety of the chewing gum patterned pavement, through the shop entrance, up a flight of stairs and got on with the day's work! Two days later the whole blind got violently smashed from the front of the shop by an errant bus and the window pane undulated as in a mild earthquake but thankfully, failed to shatter. Talk about a drama. The whole of the shocked serving staff hit the deck and a red ring of polony died amongst the temporarily fallen.




Another time, I myself, fell down a full flight of, just mopped, stairs with a full to bursting aluminium bowl of pig's liver in my hands. The liver went skywards I clattered down the steps in a more earthbound direction. That week I was also playing Puck in Derby Shakespeare's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and doing less than impressive acrobatics on stage. A poorly limp and a forward roll was all I was up to. The combination of the back jarring accident and the minor acrobatics meant that I was off work for thirteen weeks with a crippling bout of sciatica. Guess who neglected to fill in the accident book. Oui, moi.




Then there were the accidental and often brutal cuts that most butchers give themselves: a deep stab into the thumb from boning a leg of pork and slipping; various nicks on the hands and painful intrusions down one's nails. Let's not forget the purple bruising and callouses that don't want to heal at Christmas time from constantly stringing up the various joints with coarse butcher's string that on each tug dig into the hand even more. Who can neglect to consider the trick of stabbing oneself with the threader, a large sewing needle type tool for threading butcher's string through joints of meat to make the joint compact and pretty or to string up a chicken. What a surprise when it comes through the other side of – your hand. Oh how you giggle as you attempt to find the empty first aid box.




Also, there is always the possibility of dropping a knife or cleaver down onto your foot. Woe betide you if you are foolishly wearing sandals, trainers or tennis shoes to work as I often did in my 'foolish Philip' years circa 1971 -1988.




Butchers shops need to be scrubbed clean in all manner of places to prevent germs and flies laying their eggs in the summer. Nobody wants maggots in a butcher's shop unless they are into fishing. Then, as fishermen say, “sanitary neglect can be an unexpected boon”. The wooden block would be scrubbed with a block brush; a viscous implement that could easily tip over during the scrubbing motion and lacerate the fingers with its hard metal bristles. Believe me that hurts for weeks afterwards. How much? Like a stinging reprimand but much more direct and involves bandages. Plenty of bandages and deep sobbing in the middle of the night.


Should you wish, you could also scold yourself badly with sloshing buckets of boiling water or slip on a wet shop floor and hurt yourself in various degrees, pride included. Not interested? Perhaps you'd prefer to simply get acutely incised (cut thee self) quite gravely by being daft enough to recklessly plunge your vulnerable hands into a sink full of soapy bubbles, hot water and cunningly hidden knives.


I had a manager once who accidentally sliced himself very deeply on his hand whilst cleaning the 14” incredibly sharp circular blade of a bacon slicing machine. Luckily I was there to laugh mockingly – and eventually phone for an ambulance. For me. He was an ex-boxer.


'Breaking down' is a term butchers use to describe taking an animal carcass apart and creating joints or chops and steaks. To 'break down' a whole English lamb we used to cut through the leg end of the lamb through the spine, insert a metal spike for chopping guidance, and spread the legs apart to attach to two hooks within a door frame and then carefully and delicately use a large, long handled. cleaver to chop downwards through the back of the animal to create two sides. This involved a swinging motion with the large cleaver and should the butcher not stand with his own legs apart the cleaver could easily find its way into the butcher's thigh or leg. I can hear the sound of an ambulance as I type. And screaming. Blood curling screaming.




There are many more tales of gore from yesteryears but I finish today with my favourite. This was the steak tenderiser, a machine that had no point but many sharp edges. It was electronically powered and had two roller blades that were supposed to finely cut the steak that was fed through the letterbox top of the machine. Most of the time it would chew up the poor innocent piece of frying steak worse than a man with no teeth. Invariably the expectant customer got given a piece of mush that was once a decent steak. And the danger in this? The danger would come from trying to clean the blades and make them free of mangled beef. Here we are talking of sixty or more sharp blades each keen to dig into delicate fingers. And they did!


And then there were the ultra sharp blades on the mincer, the multiple needle points on the bacon machine that grip the bacon joints and just love lacerating unsuspecting knuckles; the life threatening slips as boning knife connects with groin...


Perhaps that's enough for today."

Phil Lowe


Monday 15 June 2020

Basic crab meat salad idea. Perfect for a hot day.

I recently made this crab meat salad from crab meat and cooked prawns salad as a refreshing lunch. The crab meat and prawns were from Sainsbury. As was the blue and white crab plate. Aside from the crab meat the other ingredients were, cooked king prawns, radishes, mayo and lettuce.





Thursday 11 June 2020

Were you ever a butcher's boy in the 1970s/1980s? Remember Dewhurst The Master Butchers? Read on...

Recently updated. Tales From The Block by Phil Lowe. 


This book is full of amusing stories of the life of Phil Lowe as a 1970s naïve butcher's boy and a gullible 1980s butcher's apprentice. The book is also embellished with cookery extracts from this popular food blog along with advice on meat cuts and given plenty of mouth-wateringly photos by Phil.

Now available as £2.99 ebook on Blurb.



Monday 1 June 2020

Rick Stein's Secret France. DVD review.

Rick Stein's Secret France DVD.

Review by Phil Lowe.


It will come as no surprise to you regular readers that I am a big fan of Rick Stein and I recently purchased his latest DVD Secret France and the accompanying book to add to my already large collection of all of his DVDs and most of his books.


Of late, I must have enjoyed the Secret France DVD multiple times and being a lover of France and French cuisine I have been in constant Francophile heaven. The two disc DVD gets better and better as Rick journeys around France on his new culinary adventure to search for France's best kept gastronomic secrets. His route across the country and France's varied regions takes us on his personal trip along picturesque and remote back roads in his own open top car. He says that his late producer David Pritchard suggested he do the whole series in a beat up Deux Chevaux. Sensibly Rick declines, otherwise the whole series would have possibly been littered with shots of the car breaking down on a remote back road.



As Rick says in this series “For the French, food isn't part of life, it is life itself. It's that important to them. And what is slightly worrying is that I keep hearing these stories about things not being what they used to be with cooking in France. The point is I really don't believe if I go off the beaten track to what I call Secret France that I still won't find those lovely bistros and restaurants. It's always better to travel hopefully.” Cue upbeat French style music.




This meandering quest sees Rick Stein pick up inspiration from the various regions and includes mouth watering examples like a rack of lamb with potato and celeriac dauphinoise, a confit tomato and aubergine tarte tatin, grilled bream with aioli from the Languedoc coast, chicken stuffed with mushrooms and Comté cheese and the most divine raspberry tart you have ever seen. The food looks so lush you almost find yourself licking the TV screen. On the second disc there is the most wonderful coverage of a brightly coloured and very inviting French market at Périgueux the capital of the Périgord region. The market is situated at the Place du Coderc and Rick revels in the quality and beauty and freshness of the produce on sale and confesses he may be becoming a caricature of himself as he expounds yet again on the open market scene. He doesn't venture down to Bordeaux as he does in his French Odyssey and Rick Stein's Long Weekends but Périgueux and its old town buildings and atmosphere looks a total delight. As does all the food and the other destinations throughout Secret France. If you loved French Odyssey you will love this series. Order your copy HERE.


Bon Appetit Ricky.”


Friday 29 May 2020

Book review. John Partridge. There's No Taste Like Home.

Many cookbooks feature a foreword by the author, particularly if the author is well known. And that's nice – you get to understand what the author's motivation is for writing that book. Then the usual format is to carry on through the rest of the book by filling it with appropriately chosen recipes and very often some beautiful photographs of the cooked food and maybe some preparation stages. No more stories, no more personal insights – just recipes and pretty pictures.

Not so with John Partridge's There's No Taste Like Home. It's a fabulously unpretentious cookbook which features not only a foreword but also heart warming anecdotes with each recipe so you really feel you get to know the man and how his cooking relates to his life growing up in Radcliffe near Manchester. Partridge says “ This is my taste of home. My pictures, my memories, my moments. Some old, some new, some borrowed, some stew! All the dishes in this book have been cooked at home in my kitchen – and some on the telly, too. Cooking the food from my past has helped me to live in the present.


I am a big fan of actor John Partridge having seen and reviewed him in quite a few productions over time including, the fairly recent production of Cabaret when it came to Curve Theatre in Leicester. We also had the pleasure of interviewing John on the telephone before the set up at Curve. He was fascinating and spoke about this book back then as well as his times in Germany and the production of Cabaret playing the Emcee.


There's No Taste Like Home has us aching to try out some of the recipes like Cheesy Mushroom Toast, Fish Pie Deluxe, Egg Custard Tart, Lancashire Hotpot, Wings, Ribs and Slaw, Beef and Guinness Stew, Chicken and Olive Tagine and even some of the 'for fancy' recipes including Pork Chops with Hasselback Potatoes and one day (when friends can visit again) go mad and make a Black Forest Gâteau. The joy of these recipes and many more in the book is that they sound totally straight forward and fuss-free and we love the design of the accompanying photos which have a creative quirk to them as well as a loving feel of nostalgia.


If there is one honest cook book written with lots of humour, reverence and love then There's No Taste Like Home is it. We love it! Order your copy now HERE.


Phil Lowe

Wednesday 27 May 2020

Foreign meat cuts posters. Are you as interested in them as me?

A few years ago I was lucky enough to go to the city of Leiden in Holland to visit my friends Emma and Ronald. I wrote several blog posts about the experience and one of the most popular was about Emma and myself going into a Dutch butchers' shop and ordering some sirloin steaks. Having been a former butcher for a goodly portion of my working life I am always fascinated by how the shops in Holland, France and Germany look and display their products. Normally, if I am staying in an hotel I wouldn't buy fresh meat but, as it was, I was staying at their apartment and had promised to cook them steaks. If you want to read about my meat buying experience you can at https://mugofstrongtea.blogspot.com/2017/05/buying-sirloin-steaks-from-dutch-butcher.html






The different names of the cuts of meat on the foreign animals always fascinates me and here are some from France, followed by more modern Dutch versions.








And now the Dutch ones.






Recently I was conversing online with my young German friend Thorsten and we were both barbecuing or grilling a steak for our evening meal. It was an enjoyable conversation with me on the outskirts of Nottingham and he on the outskirts of the German city of Stuttgart.

Thorsten's hufte beef steak with sweetcorn, roast potatoes, bread and aioli.


My rib eye steak with new potatoes, peppercorn sauce and dandelion leaves.

 

He posted me some German meat cuts posters and the white lamb one at the bottom is from Austria showing some slightly different names for the cuts.