Monthly Sloe Gin Report.

It has been a month since I made my Christmas Sloe Gin, coming along nicely! Minus 1 bottle (no comment)!

Venison and Wild Mushroom Sausages!

My Italian mate Freddie came around mine this morning for brunch,
The menu,
Fried Eggs on Toast, Wild Oyster Mushies and Venison and Wild Mushroom sausages!
It warmed the old cockles on a chillie winters day!

Funny!

Great Produce.

On my recent hunter gathering trip I cooked this dish of 'Grilled Venison with hedgehog mushrooms, green beans and a lovely game sauce', venison and mushies all from the New Forest!
I also cooked some lovely Wild mushies (also from the New Forest) on toast, but it was quickly eaten before I had a chance to take a pic!

Hedgehog Fungus.

Four of us picked an amazing 35 kilo's of these tasty hedgehog mushies! They sell to London restaurants for £20 a kilo, thats £700 of 'food for free' in 2 hours!
They are to be treated in the same way as a Girolle mushroom, cleaned on the underside with a small knife, so as to remove the 'spikes' (they are not really spikey, but they do give the mushroom its 'hedgehog' name!) And then cooked in butter, seasoned with roughly chopped parsley, salt and pepper.

Ceps (Porcini).

Some amazing New Forest Ceps!


Recipe ideas,
-Grilled, served with olive oil and Parmesan Cheese.
-Tempera.
-Suateed in garlic butter, served on crusty brown toast.
-Sauteed in butter as a garnish to a roasted meaty fish (Cod, Turbot, Halibut, etc) with Garlic Mashed potatoes.
-In a Risotto.
-Warm salad of Ceps, Smocked Bacon and Baby Spinach.
-Served in Papperdelle, with Garlic, Parsley, White Wine and Parmesan.
-Sauteed in butter and used as a garnish for a soup, Pumpkin soup with roasted Ceps!

Brown Chantarelles.

Picked yesterday morning in the New Forest.

Hunter Gathering.

More pics from my 'hunter gathering' trip to the New Forest.
We found 35kg (wow) of Hedgehog Mushrooms, these sell for £20 a kilo, so thats £700 of free mushrooms!
We also found about 1 kg of Ceps, also £20 a kilo and a few Brown Chantarells, same price.

Poh's Kitchen: Coconut cream. Ep 2

My old boss David Thompson demonstrating how to make fresh coconut cream.

Wow! Somebody Cooks me Dinner!

Went round Freds tonight, he bought home a few dishes that he was testing at work today. Wasn't quite as good as one of my 'Chef nights in', but it was nice to be cooked for, for once!
The Menu,
-Semolina gnocchi baked with duck ragou and white sauce (bechemal).
-Homemade Pear and Chestnut Tart with shop bought (come on Fred, raise the bar) Chocolate and vanilla ice cream.

Todays Lunch.

Just cooked the lovely Skate 'knobs' that I bought yesterday,

Skate 'knobs' with ham, cornichons and mustard sauce. mmmmmmmmmm.....

Fresh Wakame, From Billingsgate.

Yesterday I bought some amazing fresh Wakame (aka kelp/seaweed/algae) from Billingsgate market, I soaked it overnight so as to refresh it, just to bring it back to life as it has probably been out of the sea for a few days.
I tasted a bit this morning and it was fantastic, full of iron and other vitamins.It will taste great in a salad.

Koya-Talk of the Town.

Koya

More Hunter Gathering.

More hunter gathering with Mrs. Tee on friday and saturday, October and november the best months for mushies. So hopefully we will find some goodies!

Marco - The Johnny Rotten of the Kitchen.

Marco - Legend!

This is why I chose to be a chef all of those years ago, White Heat was the first cook book that I ever bought, he is amazing!
Gordon Ramsay, Philip Howard and Stephen Terry all working for him! Ramsay hiding in the corner! Amazing.

Britain announces world’s largest marine reserve

Britain announces world’s largest marine reserve

Here is an interesting article that I 'borrowed' from Charles Clover's Blog, Author of end of the Line.

Roka, Zuma's sister Restaurant.

Roka : Japanese, expensive but oh so very good.

London Eaters Review of Nahm, Nice Pics!

Nahm [Invite]

Still Not Finished Freddies Jam!

I'm getting a bit 'jammed out', about a month ago Freddie gave me 2 jars of lovely Jam, and after a Jam Rolly Polly, endless toast with jam, coissants, scones, jam sandwiches, jam and rice pudding and a few spoons of jam in the odd sauce (great in a red wine/game sauce to go with Grouse) my jam supply has almost ended!

Billingsgate Market.

My Mrs. thought that I was loosing the plot when I told her that I was going with Dobbie to Billingsgate Market at 4 o clock this morning, and then thought that I had completely cracked up when I told her that we were riding there!
So long johns on and off we set. From Wandsworth, it is a 12 mile journey according to Google Earth, and thats just there! So with a few detours (orienteering not my strong point) and a search for a good cafe, it was about a 25 mile round trip! By bike!At 4 am!
What a trip, London is such a cool place in the early hours of the morning, Riding down Fleet street, in the middle of the road, without a car in sight!
It only took about an hour, so we arrived at 5, and the Market was in full swing, traders and buyers hustling for the best deal, there were fish from all around the World, that me or Dobbie had never seen before! Your not allowed to take pictures in the market for some stupid reason, but I managed to take a few 'cheekies' without getting caught!
Great bargains can be found down there, a whole Salmon (farmed, but cleaned) can be bought for £12, one of the same size would be found in a high street fish mongers for about £25+ ! And 18 small seabass, ideal size for 1 per person, cooked whole, sold for £25, that's about £1.40 a portion, in a fish mongers the same sized fish would sell for about £3!
I found some great buys, 1kg of Shetland mussels for £2! 1 Kg of Skate 'nobs', a really meaty 'nob' of fish, trimmed off of the skate wing, I have only seen this cut once before, but it is really cool, this part of the Skate is usually thrown away! But, it is great, I could see it on a pub menu blackboard, 'Deep fried Skate Nobs'! I am sure that this cut will hit off soon, thy were £5 a kilo, me and Dobbie split a kilo.
But my star buy, was a kilo of Wakame, or Kelp (or a type of seaweed regularly used in Japanese cuisine), it was fresh and it is very rare to find fresh Wakame in London, I have never seen it before in fact! I have had a dish at the back of my mind for a few weeks, which revolves around curing a meaty white fish, such as Halibut or Turbot, in seaweed (ideally Wakame) with salt and sugar and serving the fish thinly sliced so that the it has a thin layer of green around its rim, with the umami qualities of the seaweed adding to its flavour. The Wakame had been lightly salted so as to lengthen its shelf life, should keep for a month or so. I was surprised that there wasn't more seaweed down there to be honest, it is full of greatness, low fat, high in vitamins, its a real 'super food', I am sure that we will all be eating loads more of it in the future, I remember that everybody used to turn their noses up at the thought of eating Spinach a few years back, but now it is everywhere!
Anyway, back to our trip, we had a good look around, took a few sneaky pics, then cycled back, still in the dark, home, via a cafe, where we had a 7.30am Fry up!

The Fryer's Delight.

Disco Dan (Aka Dirty Dan) kept harping on about how great The Fryer's Delight in Holbon was, ''Yer, it's the best chippie in London, go there all the time, etc'',! So last Friday we popped over there (well, sat on a tube for 45 mins), for a good feed!
Rubbish....It was terrible, I had better fish and chips, when my mum used to take me to ''The Harvester'' when I was a kid!!
We ordered and our food was served within 1 minute, so it obviously wasn't cooked from fresh, Disco had a pie (weirdo, why have a pie in London's so called best chippie!) which was soggy and was deffo from the microwave! My fish (Cod) was also soggy, you know like when you have fish and chips for school dinners, it looked as if it had been baked, no light, crispy batter, just this thick, soggy outer cardboard like sort of layer of leather, type thing!!! Wow, harsh! Anyway, you get the picture! And a chippie that doesn't do mushie peas!! What!!!
So you get the jist, I won't be rushing back there or listening to Disco Dan again!