Pulled Pig Cheek Hash

Where does inspiration come from? Sometimes a dream, perhaps you have seen something on the telly, read a magazine article or perhaps a book.  These days it's quite possible that inspiration comes from the internet.  I think, subconsciously at least, the inspiration for tonight's menu came from Twitter.

I can't tell you how, when or why I started following Hashcapades on twitter.  All I know is every now and then they pop into my timeline either with a new hash recipe or retweeting somebody else's meals.  It's not a new idea, I was raised on stovies* but to this day I have never cooked them.

So why change the habit of a lifetime tonight?  Insipration was at hand again.  Nestling in the freezer were a couple of pigs cheeks from Swillington Farm and some pork ribs that were leftover from a mexican meal we cooked a few months back.  I had been waiting for the right reason to cook the cheeks.  They are a brilliant cut of pork but two of them just doesn't quite feel like enough meat for a meal for two hungry carnivores.

I decided to use the ribs to bulk out the cheeks and cook them slowly so that they fell apart.  That was when the decision to make a hash came to me.  I cooked the meat in white wine and stock with onions, carrots and celery for around three hours on the lowest heat I could manage.  The shredded meat was then added to sauted potatoes, onions and more carrots to form the hash.  A ladle of the cooking liquor and a handful of rocket were added to finish the dish off.

The idea of pulled pork dishes has been knocking around for some time now so I can't claim to be any kind of revolutionary trend setter, but this dish was so easy and satisfying that I can see quite a few similar dishes on the menu in the future.

*a Scottish version of the hash, traditionally made with leftover beef but more often than not made with sausages in our house.

Beef and Chorizo Stew with Roast Potatoes

Tucked into a corner of our kitchen is the door into the cellar.  Down there lives a number of spiders of varying size, my fluctuating wine collection, our sofa*, R's future stocks of Lego and our over-flow freezer.  There are days when retrieving food from the freezer can be like a trip into the Temple of Doom, fighting past toppling towers of timber and vaulting discarded furniture while trying not to be skewered on some tools that have not been put away properly.  Today, I gingerly made the trip into the cellar to retrieve a portion of leftover Beef and Chorizo Stew, for our evening meal.

I knew that the stew was down there because on the door in the kitchen, we have a blackboard which lists the freezers contents.  We are in the process of adding yet another blackboard to the kitchen but I'll get back to that later.  It transpires that I had originally cooked the stew to form the base of a Spanish inspired cottage pie.  I had forgotten this nugget of information otherwise I may have tried the same trick with the leftovers.

In the end I made a huge pile of roasties to serve with the stew.  The drawing in of the nights and the chill in the air made my mind up for me on that front.  The stew was delicious with the sweet, smoky Spanish spice flavours that I adore.  The roasted anya potatoes were that magical thing, both crispy and fluffy.  However, having now eaten the stew twice my quest for a Spanish cottage pie remains unfulfilled.

This is where the second backboard is going to come in.  We are going to have a blackboard of dreams.  The dishes I want to create, the challenges ahead, the ingredients untried.  All of these things will feature and hopefully, they will not stay on the wall for too long.

*we are decorating the living room and the furniture needed to go somewhere!

Venison Steaks with Caraway Cauliflower and Anya Potatoes

Last weekend Z took the boy on a trip to Headingley so that I could crack on with some of the urgent DIY that a Victorian house demands.  We are slowly reinstalling a cast iron fireplace, replacing an ugly 80's gas fire in the process.  My task for the day was to chisel out the existing mortar from beneath the hearth tiles so that they can be relayed.

Z's trip was actually to a craft fair in Heart, but she also managed a trip to Headingley Farmers Market and picked up a few goodies.  One of Z's finds was a purple cauliflower.  I have seen them in seed catalogues but never seen one in the flesh, let alone eaten one.  As with all oddly coloured vegetables, I assumed* that the purple cauli would taste the same as the standard creamy white version.

With that in mind we decided to serve the cauliflower as a side veg, steamed to keep its colour.  We raided the freezer and found a couple of venison haunch steaks that were begging to be eaten.  The venison was simply fried for a couple of minutes on each side and allowed to rest.  The steamed cauliflower was tossed in butter and cracked caraway seeds.  A pile of anya** potatoes finished off a plate of food I could sit down to night after night.

*correctly.
**one of the nicest potatoes out there.

Olympic Food Challenge: Belarus - Draniki

I've not really been on top of Tonight's Menu since the end of the Olympic Food Challenge.  I put that down to a number of factors.  Firstly, no sooner had the challenge ended than we went on holiday.  I try not to blog on holiday, it's hardly social and possibly rude to lock myself away and type whilst visiting family.  Secondly, since returning to Leeds, we have mostly been eating leftovers and not cooking.  This does not make for good reading.

Thirdly and the saddest reason of them all, the Olympic Food Challenge remains unfinished.  The other bloggers involved and I all cooked like demons, but real life got in the way and so around forty countries remain uncooked.  In the last week I have reallocated the outstanding nations and the challenge is now back on.  We are now aiming to complete the set by the end of the Paralympics.

To get the ball rolling I discovered a Belarusian potato pancake that just had "eat me when hungover" written all over it.  Draniki is made with a mixture of seasoned grated potato and egg which is then fried and served.  Sounds great.  It wasn't.  Either my potatoes were the wrong type or I'm just not keen on draniki.  The grating, using the small side of the grater as shown on the instructions, left me with what can best be described as potato slurry.  Adding an egg didn't help matters nor did the instruction to drain the potato water which came after the instruction to add the egg.

The resulting batter did fry well.  As with all pancakes, the first few were not quite right and the last ones were a little burnt due to the variances in pan heat.  Unlike normal pancakes these were not yummy.  The potato didn't cook through and they remained watery.  Grating an onion didn't help my hangover either.  Luckily, a couple of sausages and a cracking slice of bacon, all from B&J Callard's on Kirkgate Market, came to the rescue.

It was the Belarusian pair of Azarenka and Mirnyi that beat Andy Murray and Laura Robson to the Olympic Gold medal in the Tennis Mixed Doubles.  I can only imagine that they didn't start that day with a plate of draniki.  If they did then they are better athletes than I give them credit for.

Olympic Food Challenge: Andorra - Trinxat

Unless you have been ignoring me*, or you are new to Tonight's Menu, you would have missed out on my plans to eat the Olympics.  Two years ago, during the World Cup, I had the great idea to base our evening meals on one of the two nations that were playing in the evening kick off.  This opened my eyes to some great new food, which I wouldn't have otherwise discovered.  I wanted to do something similar for the Olympics and came up with the Olympic Food Challenge.

Tonight sees the start of the challenge.  I know that the opening ceremony isn't until Friday but the sport started today with the Team GB Women's football team beating New Zealand 1-0, so the challenge is on.  From my allotted list we thought we would ease ourselves in by cooking Trinxat from Andorra.

Andorra is a tiny country high in the Pyrenees mountains surrounded by France and Spain, specifically Catalonia hence the 'x' in Trinxat, which you pronounce 'ch'.  The recipe for this bubble and squeak style dish can be found here but I have tweaked it for tonight as there are only two of us and we couldn't eat an entire cabbage.

I mashed together cooked potatoes and cabbage, added fried garlic and seasoned the mixture.  The recipe asks for salty pork or bacon and I happened to have some Swillington Farm bacon, which I had been saving for a special occasion.  The bacon was fried and set to one side while we cooked the Trinxat.  The mixture was fried in the pan that the bacon had been cooked in and served in wedges with the bacon and a fried egg.  I'm not sure that this is the kind of healthy meal an athlete might tuck into before an event but I could eat this a couple of times a week.

*I wouldn't blame you

Tandoori Mackerel with Spiced Potatoes

Last night we had planned on having Tandoori chicken as our Friday night Take-away but inspiration came along.  Instead we had oregano chicken from a book that Z bought me.  I was still in the mood for a tandoori so we switched it to tonight.  However, we try not to eat the same protein or carbohydrate on subsequent days, so chicken was off the menu.

Instead we got a couple of mackerel from Kirkgate Market, which the fishmonger insisted were small.  Have you ever noticed how things are bigger in the kitchen, than they were in the shop where you bought them?  Rather than two small fish, enough for one per person, we had what seamed to be a bottle nosed dolphin each.  Admittedly, by the time I had filleted them they were a bit more manageable.  I smothered the fillets in tandoori paste and popped them back in the fridge until we were ready for them.

The fish were roasted in the oven set to its highest temperature*.  While they were cooking I tossed some parboiled potatoes in some butter which had been flavoured with turmeric, coriander, cumin, fennel and mustard seeds.  Finally I fried some onions and peppers and added some leftover madras sauce that we had in the freezer.  The fish more than stood up to the strong flavours and the potatoes made a great change from rice.  With a few tweaks we'll be doing this again.

*I only wish my oven's highest temperature would be higher.  Tandoori and pizzas really need a scorching oven.

Aloo Gobi

We have returned to the freezer for tonight's meal.  Z has been fantastic over the last couple of months while I have been working late, but there are some days when you're just not in the mood to cook.  Plus life doesn't stand still and there are other, more important, things that still need doing*.

On the freezer blackboard on the kitchen door** Z found leftover aloo gobi from last month and a portion of tomato bhajis.  The defrosted curry reheated a treat, as did the bhajis.  Z cooked some basmati rice and warmed up a naan to have on the side.  Tomorrow I'm going to roll up my sleeves and get the meal prepared before leaving for work but more on that later.

*Booking a holiday is very high on that list!
**I have no idea how we would keep on top of the leftovers if it wasn't for the freezer blackboard.

Toulouse Sausages with Sauteed Potatoes

I know I keep going on about Leeds Market and how we should all shop locally.  I know that I keep having a go at supermarkets for one reason or another.  I also know, that despite my best intentions, there are some things that I cannot buy locally, that my closest supermarkets sell.  I actually shop at two different supermarkets, depending on what is on the shopping list, as there are some items that are only sold by one of them and some by the other*. 

A few weeks ago I happened to be in a particular supermarket; one that used to have a J and still has an apostrophie, and I spotted a special offer on their Taste the Difference sausages.  I'm rather partial to a banger as one in eighteen blog posts will testify to.  These were Toulouse inspired pork sausages with bacon, garlic, parsley and red wine all starring in the ingredient list.  We'd had them before and enjoyed them so into the basket they went.

During the colder months there is seldom any decision to be made for what to have with sausages.  It's either mash or they are cooked in a stew.  Given the raging heat of summer** I decided some sautéed potatoes and a side salad would be a more fitting meal, and it was.

*my life is a giddy rollercoster ride at times!
**I know, it's been rubbish this year hasn't it.

Baked Potato with Ratatouille and Goats Cheese

While making last night's risotto, Z also managed to make a ratatouille from the vegetables that were knocking about in the fridge for tonight's meal.  We always have tomatoes, onions and peppers in the house.  They turn up in so many dishes, including salads for lunch, that they have a permanent place on the shopping list.  For some reason, we also had a pair of aubergines in the crisper.  I am not a fan of the aubergine.  I have only actually found one way of cooking it that I love.  But when it is mixed in with all of the other vegetables you hardly know it's there.

With the rat in the bag, all Z had to do before I got home was bake a couple of giant spuds that I bought on Kirkgate Market.  By the time I got home from work, everything was ready, including a couple of slices of goats cheese topping off the filled potatoes.  It turns out that it is national vegetarian week this week.  If I had known in advance I may well have changed the menu for our evening meals.  I think this would still have made the cut.

Aloo Gobi

Another late night at work means another night of Z in charge of the pots and pans.  We're going away this weekend, so she has also been tasked with emptying the fridge and using any fresh vegetables that are in the house.

After rooting around the fridge Z came up with the wherewithal to cook a great Aloo Gobi.  I last cooked a cauliflower curry back in March and to be honest I overcooked the veg.  Z was clearly paying more attention, as tonight's curry was full of properly cooked vegetables and a lovely thick sauce.

Venison Steak with Braised Red Cabbage and Roast Potatoes

After a week of not cooking, I was determined to reclaim my place at the hob tonight.  I wanted to come back with a bang, but needed inspiration.  We set off to the Kirkstall Deli Market hoping to stumble upon the one ingredient that would shape our meal.  If you haven't been to the Kirkstall Deli Market can I suggest that you give it a try.  Even today, in the pouring rain, there was a good mix of hot and cold food stalls.  Even the local allotment society had a stall and at £1 for a huge bag of rhubarb, I'm glad they were there.

The inspiration finally came from Round Green Farm.  I didn't try any of their venison burgers or sausages, which were being cooked, but the offer of two packs of haunch steaks for £10 was too good an offer to miss.  Meat in the bag, I nibbled my way around the rest of the stalls picking up more ingredients for future meals.

After the market we had a less enjoyable food trip around a supermarket.  We had planned this prior to the fun at Kirkstall Abbey and it gave us the opportunity to pick up the rest of the ingredients for tonight's meal.  I think it was the heavy rain that made me crave the comfort of braised red cabbage and who doesn't want roast potatoes?

Bangers and Mash

Today has not been one of the better days on record.  I'm usually a happy-go-lucky kind of guy but today I've been wandering around work like a bear with a sore head.  Needless to say, the weather didn't help matters!  Luckily for me Z was on hand to save the day from complete ruination.

By the time I finally got home from work, Z had fed, bathed and read the boy his bedtime story and was already preparing tonight's meal.  Last week we took delivery of a meat box from Swillington Farm*. I won't regale you with a full list of its contents, but there were sausages.  They were rare breed, outdoor reared pork and herb sausages and very nice they were too.  Z also made some potato, swede and parsley mash and suddenly the day wasn't so bad after all.


*our first one since November last year!

Venison Sausages with Roast Potatoes

This is not a meteorological blog post, but the weather certainly plays a part in what we eat.  Big rib-sticking stews in winter, light salads in summer, you get the idea.  Having started Tonight's Menu in November I haven't written many salad posts but they will come soon enough.

This time last week I had spent the day on Portabello beach, Edinburgh, building sandcastles and eating ice cream.  It was like it was the middle of summer, only without the hoards of people.  I have never, in all my years of visiting Scotland, eaten ice cream, on a beach, in March.

Last night's meal was a light and summery pasta dish with a sauce made from my home grown rocket.  Tonight, due to the wintry conditions that we awoke to, we needed something a little bit more hearty to give us a big comforting hug and keep the chill out.

The venison, pork & red wine sausages were grilled, but the real treat was the roast potatoes.  Anya potatoes make the most fantastic roasties.  Each spud is almost like a single, huge, knobbly chip.  The flavour is superb, nutty and buttery.  To really set them off we roasted them in goose fat and served the lot alongside some steamed kale from the garden.  Summer is great but winter food can be so much more indulgent.

Chilli Pork with Potato Wedges

I've had a cracking day with my family today.  A leisurely breakfast and church visit for Mothering Sunday, where Z was given a bunch of daffodils.  We then shared a smoked haddock and spinach tart before going up to Golden Acre Park for a lung-busting leg stretch.

We'd bought a backpack style baby carrier at Christmas and so far only used it once, so today was the perfect opportunity to give it a whirl.  At first R wasn't too keen on the carrier, but he soon got into the swing of things and thoroughly enjoyed all of the dogs that were also out for a walk.

But enough of this idyllic family scene I'm painting, what about the evening meal?  Well, on top of everything else we are currently having a freezer clear out due to some immanent DIY, so tonight's menu was inspired by the pack of minced pork that was lurking at the back of the increasingly empty meat drawer.

We haven't had a chilli for a while and we decided to keep tonight's version it a bit lighter than our usual chilli con carne.  We omitted the kidney beans and added extra carrots and celery to the mince, onions, garlic, tinned tomatoes and spices.  After a couple of hours simmering, chopped coriander was added before serving with potato wedges that were roasted in goose fat.  What mother could say no to that lot?

Friday Night Take-away - Aloo Gobi

Tonight's Friday Night Take-away inspiration came, not from the raft of menus that clutter our welcome mat on a regular basis, but from the bottom of our fridge.  We'd bought and completely forgotten about a cauliflower at the weekend and it was screaming out to be used.  A curry seemed the obvious option.

I started the curry by frying mustard seeds in oil until they popped before adding onions and garlic.  Once they were starting to brown I added coriander, cumin, turmeric and chilli powder and a splash of water so that the spices didn't burn.  As soon as the onions were coated in the spice mix I added the potatoes, cauliflower and a little vegetable stock.  The curry was ready as soon as the potatoes were cooked.  For a change we had chapatis with the curry and a beer or two of course.

Welsh Dragon Sausages and Mash - Happy St David's Day

There are some things in life that it is perfectly acceptable to have favourites of.  Favourite football team: Leeds United.  Favourite graphic artist: Pete Fowler.  Favourite holiday destination: Barcelona.  There are other things where favouritism can be a bit more tricky.  You shouldn't really have a favourite child* and you certainly shouldn't have a favourite parent's nationality.

My Dad was Scottish and my Mum is Welsh.  The 5 Nations (now 6) always brought raised national pride especially between my Dad and Granddad.  I always felt torn between the two and see myself as half Scottish and half Welsh.  The only time I don't want either team to win is when they play each other.

My spilt-national-personality does come with its advantages.  I celebrate an extended number of national days.  Already this year we've toasted Robbie Burns with a haggis supper and today we're celebrating St David, the patron saint of Wales.

On a recent trip to an other one of my favourites, B&J Callard butchers on Leeds Kirkgate Market, I found Welsh Dragon Sausages**.  I duly bought half a dozen and put them aside for tonight.  Simply grilled and served with mashed potatoes they make a great mid week treat.  To make the meal that little bit more Welsh I added fried leeks to the mash. Mwynhewch eich bwyd!

*unless you only have one in which case it should be that one. 
**the sausages contain NO dragon.  There was a case in 2006 where Powys trading standards asked a butcher to re-label his Welsh Dragon Sausages, not because they didn't contain dragon but because it was too ambiguous that they contained meat.  The ingredients stated the per cent of pork that was in the sausage but that wasn't good enough for the man from the council. "I don't think anyone would imagine that dragon meat was being used but we would not want vegetarians to buy the sausages believing they were meat free."

Valentines Day - Tapas

Imagine my delight, a couple of weeks ago, when I asked Z what she would like cooking for her Valentines Day meal and she responded "Tapas".  We have an affinity with Spanish food.  Spain, actually Catalonia (really it's Barcelona) has been part of our life for years.

Our first trip abroad together was to Barcelona.  It was on that trip that I proposed on bended knee and Z said yes.  At the time I was keeping a small and under used journal.  Making notes on life and jotting down the odd musing.  That day I wrote the following:

How do you say...
This is the first holiday I've had where my lack of language has been frustrating.  All other trips to Spain have been with Spanish speakers or with family (Dad did the talking).  Should we have gone to France or Germany Z's knowledge would have rendered me speechless but secure in the knowledge that we would have got what we wanted.  
This time our 'pigeon Spanish' has not caused problems but extended uncomfortable silences between ourselves and various staff whose English is worse than mine.  
My own personal bug-bear has been "can I have the bill please?"  I can only presume my Scottish genes prevent me from offering to splash the cash however, now day 4, I'm getting the hang of "la cuenta, por favour" all though I still need to check every time.
The only other phrase I struggled with was "Will you marry me?".  I know this is easy to say and write but when you want the moment to be perfect the simple sentence can be v. difficult to spit out.  Fortunately the response was correct.

Since that day we have been back to Barcelona so often that the city now feels like an old pair of slippers, instantly comfortable and welcoming.  This is why tapas for Valentines Day is so apt.

Patatas Bravas, Pulpo and Gambas con Chorizo* were the stars of our meal, served with salad and bread.  We also had a cheeky bottle of Freixenet.  We actually prefer cava to champagne, but that's just us and possibly our affinity with Spain.

*Roast potatoes with a spicy tomato sauce, octopus in olive oil and prawns fried with chorizo.