Dinner At Home - 23 February 2024

Just over a month since we presented this carefully planned set of dishes to friends. February saw our latest foray into entertaining at home. No plans as yet for a flurry of March madness in the kitchen.
Best get a report on yesterday’s meal out of the way first.

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Canapés revisited cheesy nibbles, egg with chorizo jam, and smoked mackerel, pickled apple and horseradish. My new one bite tart is a curried chicken mayonnaise with mint raita and crispy shallots. Very pleased with that. Could happily ramp up the spice in it next time.

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Halibut, leek, leek purée, pink peppercorn sauce and pickled quince for our starter.
Not the desired butter-kissed colour on the fish. As ever, eating at home with friends offers several instances of ‘Never mind’. And I truly didn’t mind. Unless, of course, it happens again.
I mistakenly left off the leek ash as well.

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A main of braised Jacob's ladder with parsley dumplings, parsnip purée and ‘Hand and Flowers’ carrots. Recipe here.
I added some parsnip crisps for texture.
The sauce was a beautifully reduced, thick and glossy affair until I reheated the ribs in it. They released some extra hidden fats into the mix and compromised things too late for correction.
Still a great pub classic to which I did a decent amount of justice.
Despite Tom Kerridge’s claims in his offensively idiotic, money-grabbing diet cookbook his credentials as a source of full-on flavour cooking remain intact. This recipe is just one of those to appear after his recent attempt to knock Marco Pierre White off his Knorr stock pot perch.

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A fairly straightforward set of wines for the evening.
Champagne with canapés? Not always - but quite often. And definitely with these good friends.
Bucelas from the Wine Society’s 150th anniversary Generation Series. Good acidity to balance the creamy elements of the fish starter. Portuguese food influence reappeared in our dessert.
A fond farewell to the last of our bottles of Condrieu from Aldi at their knock-down/knock-out price of £9.99 (previously a more usual £30.00). Red was on offer with the beef but the consensus was to give whites a run through the meal.

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Pre-dessert was a near repeat of a recent effort but with rhubarb added to the blood orange jelly. Topped with amaretti biscuit crunch (Mrs Cheoff’s baking), verbena and olive oil sorbet with marmalade peel, bitter orange powder and a cheeky addition of cola popping candy.

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Dessert had more baking from the woman who shares the kitchen (it’s OK, we’re married). A dense, soggy, but still airy almond cake. Bolo de Amêndoa – Portuguese almond cake from the Great British Chefs’ website.
Plums poached in port, and damson and clotted cream ice cream to complete.

A menu which needed a little care in the cooking but was not too adventurous. Forward planning and preparation of quite a few elements made for a fairly fuss-free evening of cooking, leaving more time to relax with our guests.
A few ‘outtakes’ follow.

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Carrots on the way.
Short ribs lifted from their cooking liquid.
Dessert plating before serving.

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Dinner For Four - Coming Soon

No appetite whetting pictures with this one I’m afraid. Not of the meal itself at any rate. This is a menu agreed with Mrs Cheoff which will be served in a week’s time here at Poverty Hall. There are elements which we have cooked before and some which have been waiting in the wings to appear at an appropriate time. It’s the sort of developed menu which we only offer a few times through the year. And this is one of those occasional posts which outline some of the planning which goes on before we present such a meal.

Blood oranges were squeezed today ready for the jelly.

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Blood oranges? Jelly? I really should share the menu, eh.

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Courgette velouté arrived as an amuse for our most recent meal at Gravetye Manor. Plenty of recipes are available. I just need to decide how creamy rich the final version should be. Don’t want to challenge everyone too much from the first mouthful.

The starter is one I’ve wanted to make since Richard Bainbridge and the Great British Chefs website shared it last year. It will have to be squished down from the main course size of the recipe which you can link to below.
Poached haddock with stewed leeks, soy-cured egg yolk and curry dressing

We cooked the main over Christmas 2019 for vegetarian guests. No need to send this away to an assay office. It already has all the hallmarks of satisfyingly simple/simply satisfying food. That satisfaction certainly comes from flavour but also from the mouthfeel if some vegetables are allowed to keep their crunch. A link to this recipe follows.
Italian bean casserole
This will certainly provide an uncomplicated rustic moment. I like that. Relief all round from being constantly distracted by ‘fancy’ dishes - and an easy one to prepare ahead.

Pre-dessert and dessert are still under review - but they are likely suspects which sound decent enough at present.

Petits fours supplies took a bit of a bashing during recent festivities but there is still a good enough selection to choose from without spending time to make more. I’ll pick from these.

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Wines are decided upon as well. The Château Bouscaut was delicious at Christmas and I’m really looking forward to what will be my first experience of a Valpolicella of extra finesse. That Sauternes was bought half price at a local Co-op almost two decades ago. Time to finally stop examining, fondling and re-racking it. Time to see if it is eager to please us after too many years alone.

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Mrs Cheoff still avoids the stuff but the coffee which will end the meal for three quarters of us is an old friend. I’ve ordered more of this bean than any other. After a painful absence from the Hasbean coffee collection it made a welcome return this month. My order has already arrived and is ready to be ground and shared. I continue to give thanks to Steve Leighton and his team for their coffee excellence.

That will do for now. Maybe you’ll take a few ideas from those on show here. Pinch one recipe for a supper dish or go full steam ahead with a multi-course effort. It’s only food. But cooking it will be fun - and sharing it doubles the pleasure.

New Year's Day Lunch 2020

A ‘grown-up’ meal for four. Well - three grown-ups and me.

Mum was still with us after celebrating Christmas, the end of a '“bumpy year”* and the start of 2020. She is most fond of pheasant and this recipe was always planned in her honour as my first cooking foray of the new year. A treasured neighbour joined us after confirming that her invitations to family and friends elsewhere had petered out.

Not content with ‘meat and two veg’ I decided to augment with a mushroom sauce from this recipe and a luscious parsnip purée from another pheasant dish.

The pheasant legs are cured for a while before cooking slowly as a confit. The kitchen atmosphere becomes heavy with meaty, garlicky, herby, fatty notes and salivary glands and digestive juices prepare for action.

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I’m still surprised by the generous amount of meat which comes from a brace of pheasant’s legs.

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Layers of meat, onion and herb mix disappear between those of potatoes but as soon as this ‘side’ is dished up and tasted it becomes deliciously obvious that any little trouble making it is oh so worthwhile.

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More indulgence here with the Madeira-rich sauce. I soaked dried shiitake mushrooms for the liquor. They retained a meaty chewiness while chestnut mushrooms softened more in the pan.

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Just a stick blender for the purée. It turned out silky enough to pass muster on Masterchef - maybe even the pro version!

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The red cabbage recipe goes for a mingling of sweet and sour. Onions don’t feature. Which is good. I’m sure they would upset the balance of flavours here.

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Two pheasant crowns remain for cooking just before serving. I almost did these justice. Although rested for a good while, I had taken them a little too far in the pan and the meat had more resistance than most would like. Maybe if I had paying guests I’d be more careful. Nope. I’ll stubbornly carry on serving the occasional mistake for free.

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Kitchen strip lights have leeched out some of the visual appeal of these plates. No matter. This was not quite the bird with all the trimmings which had seen us through Christmas Day but every element made a flavour statement and combined to usher in new year cooking and eating with a pheasant fanfare.

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Fruit salad helped to push back the richness of our main course and perhaps fool us into thinking we might even be on a healthy eating kick. Any suggestion in that direction was countered by a scoop of indulgent toasted almond ice cream.

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Our sons flew the nest some years ago but we still welcome their return with their delightful partners at any time. Their festive visit was already over but they had left us with lovely, newly-made memories and in blissful ignorance of the existence of my reserve stash of petits fours. These rum truffles, pear jellies, whisky and ginger truffles, confit clementines and peanut butter truffles were a perfectly adequate quintet to accompany our coffees.

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Meals will be less involved and not quite so rich for a few weeks ahead now. I will happily go for more simple ideas but we have already set dates for dinner with friends. Then 2020 will again see me taking time and making effort to offer something slightly fancy but hopefully crowd-pleasing from the kitchen. Still with no charge attached - until further notice.

Happy New Year, everyone!

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*A twelvemonth steaming crock of shit (translation from the Queen’s Christmas address to the nation)

Sticky Walnut - The Food

Dinner for two. Table 5. Our Kickstarter reward. A few descriptions, observations and reactions.

The food was only one part of our whole ‘Sticky’ experience. I’ve expanded on the rest elsewhere. That ‘elsewhere’ is more important than these musings. But if you like great food, do stay here and tag along.

This post gives due credit to this award winning local bistro’s statement of intent: “… serving humble dishes using the best possible ingredients”

Photographs here (all the good ones) link to the social media from which I have pinched them. There seems little point in offering my own sub-standard pics which would undermine the quality of food which we enjoyed. And in any case, as you might know, when we are aht and abaht I don’t waste precious time distracting from food so perfectly thought out, cooked and delivered by whipping out my macro lens. If the owners of these images object I am pleased to immediately remove them (the pics, not the owners, ya daft lot!).

Food on its way. But before that. My biggest expertise with wine is remaining open to suggestion from others who probably know more than I do. Quinta dos Carvalhais, Encruzado, Dao, Portugal was given pole position at the top of the list in ruby red printer’s ink and we trusted this nudge of recommendation. It went down very well. The whole list looks like someone has taken good care to create interest and value.

Right. Food.

What Mrs Cheoff ate.

Roast beetroot salad, sticky walnuts, spiced pumpkin seeds, ricotta

All the usual suspects for this starter. Except the obvious one. Goat’s cheese was replaced by whipped ricotta. Not wholly unusual but the lack of tang and the concentration on creaminess provided a different balance. Not the balance Mrs C would have preferred. She didn’t quibble for long. Everything here was really well done. Enough flavour and texture contrasts to keep up interest in even a small dish. The humble but tasty had begun… with an early appearance of sticky from those walnuts.

Roasted chicken breast, asparagus, truffle potato terrine, bread sauce

Roast dinner without knobs on? Perhaps. But any lack of the usual ‘trimmings’ still twiddled my wife’s dials up to maximum appreciation levels. Softness, wetness and richness was all here - with a satisfying resistant crunch from those glistening, erect green spears. I wanted to get ‘throbbing’ in there somewhere but drew back before the arrival of a full-on Mills & Boon. The depth of flavour from hours of ‘gravy’ production as well as the final quality of last minute cooking shone through here. Reassuring stuff. I was given a minuscule fork end of the potato terrine to stop my covetous looks.

This replaced duck which Mrs C would have ordered from the menu I’d downloaded the day before. Any disappointment lasted no more than seconds after starting her substitute. A menu which can change daily suggests that the kitchen reacts to exactly the right things. Availability of ingredients would be one of those. But my favourite notion is that there are chefs here who think, “This is what I fancy cooking tonight.” Not a bad approach if you want to stave off the drudgery of offering the same dish day after day.

Vanilla rice pudding, poached apricot, milk crumb, apricot sorbet

No hesitation from Mrs C in choosing this one. Equally quick nods of approval and low squeaks of delight as she tucked in. The poached apricots were even closer to Al Pacino (just a bit hard) than they were to al dente. This was perfectly fine given that they were sidling up to softer, silkier bed-fellows. I did a spot of quality control on that sorbet and then saw Mrs C’s glowering eyebrows and diplomatically decided to let her luxuriate in all the last remaining mouthfuls.

Time to collect my thoughts and assemble them in a feeble attempt to do wordy justice to the excellence of three more dishes which formed my meal. Oh, never fear. The high standard doesn’t drop at Sticky Walnut.

What Cheoff ate.

Crispy pigs head terrine, caramelised apple, barbecue sauce

So it’s back to savoury with my meal starter. Filaments of soft, only slightly fatty but very porky pork were encased in a crunch of fine breadcrumbs. I’m relying on the Instagram post of a rather elevated member of the culinary world to show the plating. I’m not great and seldom good but following the picture link above leads you to someone who is both of those and a bit more. It was delightful to find out that Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms’ chef owner Gareth Ward had looked across at our table as he enjoyed a Sunday lunch on his visit here a few days after us. His assessment of the ‘epic’ and ‘so so tasty’ food was all the way up there in agreement with ours.

Pork and apple is just right. Righter still when the sharp-sweet fruit is caramelised after being treated to something close to brunoise knife skills. As close, that is, as a kitchen which throws poncey in the slop bucket can get.

And then you hit on that glob of filthy dirty gorgeous brown goodness. Whacks of soy and star anise are trapped in a silky smooth sauce. You can probably buy the equivalent in a bottle with some sort of dragon on it but it wouldn’t match up to the competition here. This is one of those store cupboard essentials which good kitchens work on and perfect so that the only thing left is for paying guests to put the “Oooh!” into umami.

I reckon BBQ stands for the Bloody Big Queue of people who would like the recipe for this one… my email request is on its way!

Pan fried cod loin, lardo, brown butter pomme puree, parsley sauce

A different approach from my previous ‘best ever’ cod dish at Yummie Brummie’s. That was a glassy, flaking thing of beauty. This chunk of freshness had been given quicker hotter treatment. None of which stopped it being a complete star. Due, of course, to another complete star in the kitchen who had judged the cooking so perfectly before plating. Lardo was already adding a melt-in-the-mouth luxury coating. The finest golden crust on the fish from initial hot pan contact gave way to perfect softness but with just enough resistance to break away into my tooth gaps for exploration later!
Tender stem broccoli on the night instead of leaves. The potato puree held its own against the only slightly smoother parsley sauce. Another sauce of quality. Depth of flavour again of course. But the main magic was its vibrancy. It takes a clever cook to offer something which tells you what the colour green tastes like.
Four simple elements combining to give delight. This seems to happen a lot here. I’m putting this one in equal first fish dish position alongside my previous offering from Chef Purnell.

Baked pineapple and white chocolate cheesecake, poached pineapple, lime sorbet

Pretty sure a fair few top chefs regard white chocolate as a second rate cousin to the darker, sexier stuff. Silly buggers are missing out on producing crowd pleasers like this. All its creaminess is cut back here with a tangy pineapple jelly topping. The poached pineapple was taken just far enough to be coated in a sweet caramel. Those sugars needed more balancing. And, balanced they were by the presence of a vibrant citrus and herb sorbet. The printed menu omitted to reference that herb but it quickly said hello before I even put the first spoonful in my mouth. The equivalent of a face slap from two huge bunches of mint hit me before lime reminded me it was also along for the ride. This was a Mojito sorbet without the alcohol… but intoxicating all the same.

Oh - if you think that cheesecake looks like it had a soggy bottom you’d be right. But it also managed not to! Mrs Cheoff puts grape nuts in her key lime pie base and something similar was going on here. An informative chat at the pass revealed that crunchy feuilletine did the job.

No let-downs with the pudding then. That’s six out of six perfectly delivered dishes for the two of us.

Saved me cooking a birthday meal for the love of my life, eh. Ah, yes. We were celebrating here just a couple of days before the arrival of a new year in the life of Mrs. Cheoff - but as usual we kept that knowledge from our hosts. And with hosts who made us and every other diner feel like treasured old friends it would have been pointless to ask for more delicious fuss than we were treated to in any case.

A truly great meal thanks to a talented, intelligent and generous team.

Only five more Elite Bistros left for us to try. That won’t be any hardship.

Keep keeping it sassy, guys!

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“I am not a number - I am a free man.”
But numbers do help everyone get what they order!

Sticky Walnuts!

Dinner For Four, 2 November 2018

Here’s one of my posts which has a prime objective. Whatever else you take from it, if you don’t invite some friends round and offer them some food from your kitchen, I will have failed in that objective. And don’t wriggle out of it by arguing over the standard of your own cooking. If your skills are better than mine, I salute you. If you suggest that you can’t match what Mrs. Cheoff and I produce then you will miss a trick. Good, proper friends come to share everything you have to offer… any that don’t appreciate your food efforts can always be ‘Muted’ on social media and in real life!
I hope we understand each other. Get busy… but put on your apron first!

This was our menu for last Friday’s meal. It was very much appreciated and we enjoyed making it and eating it. And, yes… we were knackered and did bugger all on Saturday.

Amuse Bouche

Smoked haddock, curried eggs, shallot rings

No recipe for this one. I was in the middle of ‘mucking about a bit’ with the three main elements… as can be seen from my header picture where a canapé version was experimented with. Expect a post with more details soon.

Here is my plating on the night.

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Starter

Carrot cooked in chicken fat with pickled carrots & crispy chicken skin
From Paul Foster at Salt, Stratford-upon-Avon. We enjoyed this as part of the tasting menu on our first visit. It’s published in the Great British Chefs cookbook. Chef Foster contributed this as one of a small number of original recipes which are not available on the Great British Chefs website. So I’ll leave you to discover its glories by buying a copy of the book!

Soft chunks of carrot imbued with chicken fat, pickled and raw carrots, buttery croutons and crispy chicken skin. Pretty much all the flavours of a roast chicken dinner in a bowl. No ‘meat’… but still not vegetarian.

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Main

‘Somerset’ pork (fillet, mushrooms, cider, cream), Spiced red cabbage, Buttery mashed potatoes… with extra butter

Over to Mrs. Cheoff for the stove duties on this one. I’ve cooked it myself but not as much as she has. Not sure if the cabbage exerted some strange colour spectrum for my photo… we did not eat this under ultra-violet light!

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The recipe is a much repeated one. Out of a Marks & Sparks cookbook from the mid eighties. Here is the cutting which we still have but hardly need to refer to after all these years.

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Dessert

Sticky Banana Puddings with Tipsy Toffee And Walnut Sauce

More sterling work from Mrs. Cheoff to wind up proceedings. No photos of it yet. They will appear here when we have had ‘seconds’.

Petits Fours

Pear & vanilla jellies
Nougat (Silvain, Saint Didier… no point in offering anything but the best)
Salted caramel and peanut truffles

Coffee

No firing up of my Rancilio espresso machine at the end of this meal. I made a cafetiere with this bean from my usual (constant) supplier.

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Wines

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Joly-Champagne, Cuvée BRUT NV

Dopff au Moulin Riesling Grand Cru Schoenenbourg de Riquewihr 2009

Ch. Potensac, Médoc 2009

Henriques & Henriques Full Rich Madeira

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A Meal... Planned, Cooked and Delivered

Three days preparation here. A few elements were already cooked, preserved or frozen so that made things a little less heavy duty overall. The 'Brandade', Pear Jellies and those Ice Cream Sandwiches were previously untried but all the rest was put together as a menu knowing I could cope reasonably well. It helped that Mrs. Cheoff contributed her indulgent cheesecake to lighten my workload... if not the intake of food!

We gave this meal to good friends as a way to celebrate their Ruby Wedding Anniversary. You should know that I did not take as much care in presentation on the night of the meal as these photographs might suggest. Most are taken before or after people are entertained. It would be daft to ignore specially invited guests too much while they are with you, don't you think.

On the subject of those photographs and my 'food styling'. I look at some of them in the same way as I look at my cooking efforts. Not quite the finished article. But I'm not here to apologise... I shall continue to go off to quieter places and consider improvements.

Start with a pictorial run through of each course.  After that you'll find a copy of the evening's menu with a few links to recipes I used. 

Have a go at some of them. Have a go at all of them. If you do give them all a go at the same time, practise the recovery position... I'm in that now!

Ooh, one IMPORTANT note! If you make those lovely Pear Jellies please, please do NOT try to take the mixture to 180º... it should read one hundred and EIGHT degrees!

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Canapés

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Bacon & Sweetcorn Mini Muffin

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Prawn Cocktail Cracker

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Smoked Salmon & Dill Crème Fraîche Blini

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Quail Egg & Chorizo Jam Toast

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Best Ever Cheesy Nibble

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Amuse ‘Brandade’ Salt Cod, Beer & Milk Poached Potato, Crispy Onion, Garlic Foam

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Wholemeal Bread Rolls & Salted Butter

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Starter Beetroot, Red Onion, Goat Cheese & Hazelnut Tart

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Main Chicken Dinner

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Main Chicken Leg Confit with Savoury Granola (detail before plating)

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Main Bird's eye view... presumably not the chicken's eye

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Yup... I'm off right now to practise my gravy delivery

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Pre-dessert Pink Grapefruit & Basil Ice Cream Sandwich

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‘Eton Mess Cheesecake’ White Chocolate Cheesecake, White & Rose Meringues, Raspberries, Raspberry Coulis & Cream

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Petits Fours
Pear, Vanilla & Poire William Jelly
Dark Chocolate, Pistachio & Raisin Fudge
Salted Caramel & Peanut Truffle
Amaretti Morbidi
White Chocolate & Salted Lemon Fudge

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And... relax.

The menu with recipe links for some of the items:

Canapés
Bacon & Sweetcorn Mini Muffin
Best Ever Cheesy Nibble
Prawn Cocktail Cracker
Smoked Salmon & Dill Crème Fraîche Blini
Quail Egg & Chorizo Jam Toast

Amuse
‘Brandade’
Salt Cod, Beer & Milk Poached Potato, Crispy Onion & Garlic Foam

Starter
Beetroot, Red Onion, Goat Cheese & Hazelnut Tart

Wholemeal Bread Rolls & Salted Butter

Main
‘Chicken Dinner’
Breast, Confit Wing & Leg, Crispy Skin, Carrot Purée, Savoury Granola, New Potatoes, Broad Beans, Runner Beans, Beer Pickled Onion ‘Petals’, Bread Sauce, Herby Chicken Gravy

Pre-dessert
Pink Grapefruit & Basil Ice Cream Sandwich

Dessert
‘Eton Mess Cheesecake’
White Chocolate Cheesecake, White & Rose Meringues, Raspberries, Raspberry Coulis & Cream

Petits Fours
Pear, Vanilla & Poire William Jelly
Dark Chocolate, Pistachio & Raisin Fudge
Salted Caramel & Peanut Truffle
Amaretti Morbidi
White Chocolate & Salted Lemon Fudge

A Certain Quartet Back In Nineteen Seventy-Bloomin' Eight!