Indolent Again

5 "Things" to eat before you die

Well following on from a post on traveler's lunchbox I thought I would post my own list.

Here goes.

1. Eat smoked bacon and egg icecream. This is more about the combination of the incongruous and most loved. Find someone who cooks an ingredient in a way you never thought possible. It works, its wierd and its fabulous.

2. Fine food with a view. Good company and service are all well and good but if you have an incomparable view then its complete. Jules Verne in Paris, 32nd floor of the 4 Seasons in Toronto (next year for me). 27th floor of the Hilton Park Lane.

3. Toast and fois gras with Lafite. If bordeaux doesnt do it then go with champagne (dom p or krug) or a bottle of DRC (Domaine Romani Conti). I know they say desert wine so if thats for you then Y'quem I guess.... The combination of a simple rich snack and the most fabulous wines... Yum

4. Freshly caught fish. Meat needs hanging and time but there isnt anything like eating your own grilled or barbequed just caught fish. Oh and dont forget a good chablis to wash it down.

5. Eat the whole thing. Get some friends and do a whole suckling pig. All the benefits and fun of a barbeque without the rubbish food.

There you go... Thats my current top 5.

Go Soca Warriors !!!!!

After a fantastic weekend holding Sweden to a draw with only 10 men its now waiting for Thursday.

Go TT. Good luck against England on Thursday.

Pork and Quail

Cooked for mothers day on Sunday. Did pork with a mustard sauce. It got me thinking. To make a dish taste interesting if you are keeping it simple there are always a couple of things you can add if you aren't in the mood for a "recipe".

1. Bacon, pork lardons chorizo call it what you will. Best flavour enhancer ever
2. Garlic. It doesnt work so well in dessert but everywhere else its usually a plus
3. Onion. As above but in larger quantities

4. Wine. Dont forget to cook it down and always consider sherry or noilly prat as an extra strong alternative.

My pork with mustard used everythign but item 3 :D and mustard and cream to make the sauce of course !!!!. I could have left it off but it seemed rude. Fried the pork in the pan until done then put to warm in the oven. Added noilly prat and wine and reduced then added mustard and reduced the heat and added cream until a nice light cream coloured sauce was produced (if you need to add more mustard to keep the balance).

The quail was done with Garlic and chorizo browned off in the pan then in with wine and stock bring to the boil then add lentils (just fancied them you understand ) reduce and simmer on a lowish heat until the quail is cooked through and tender.

with the pork I had a very nice Zind from Zind humbrecht. Balanced with loads of fruit. Not I would say for long cellaring but a good match with the pork.

What is the best wine ?

I have been reading another blog Elitistreview who blogs about his wines. He feels that burgundy is the best and I have no problem with that point of view there is a lot of evidence to back up his arguement.

For me though even though I love all wines (or at least quite a few of them). Bordeaux is my favorite drink.

Its main ingredients are all over the world and produce many fine wines. But here it makes a wine of complexity and depth that when done properly and aged well is for me a perfect mouthful with the right food.

I have been lucky enough to drink the finest bordeaux aged for almost 40 years and at this point became a mouthful of plums and blackcurrants suffused with leather. This made me wish that I could afford this level of luxury every day . And more importantly sits in my mind and reminds me of wonderful fantastic times.

On a normal day I try a variety of wines from burgundy, bordeaux, australia, spain and italy. All excite and interest me. But when deciding how good it is... its this memory I come back to.

Unusual Combinations

Cooked swordfish with mushroom gravy and mash last night.

Odd combination but very tasty result. The meatiness of swordfish doesnt get swamped by the gravy totally.

Marinated the swordfish in garlic, soy, paprika and lemon (the paprika flavour was not obvious so next time I will switch to fresh or dried chilli for that little pep).

Then to make the onion gravy. Reduce White wine in a saucepan (about 1 glass) when reduced right down add 300ml chicken stock and some dried porcini mushrooms. While this is reducing to about 1/2 original volume make a beurre maine (butter and flour mixed (equal quantities)). Then when reduced add this to the stock to thicken.

Plate up with mash - I did mine plain but I saw a really interesting recipe for mash with olive oil and garlic which looked good also.

A pleasant and easy meal to cook. Usually with fish I would be tempted to add ham / bacon as I love the saltiness of the bacon adding that extra dimension. Here the strong mushrooms do that task for us !!!. Great.

What to cook ?

Sometimes its easy. You have a craving for something so you rush out and get the ingredients cook and your done. No problems.

Othertimes you see something in the grocery which gives you inspiration.

There is the recipe you saw in the cookbook in the shop / on TV / in the paper / on the web and you plan and execute the meal to to this.

What do you do the rest of the time ?. For me sometimes its old staples - quick easy and practiced.

But others I find myself walking round the supermarket looking for that instant desire and not always getting it.

One solution is to go out to dinner. My personal favorite but the restaurant must be close and provide a large enough selection to wet my appetite.

Last night was Chinese in Sunninghill as I could not be persuaded to cook the rendang I had "planned".

Consistancy, Consistancy, Consistancy

What makes a good restaurant great. ????

Exactly the title. Went to 2 places that I like a lot and had not been in a couple of months and both proved to me this is more important than what they serve and what style it is.

Yes price and ambiance dictate how much you pay but its consistancy that brings you back time and again.

Picture for dimmockg

Hotel/Restaurant Wine Prices

I was reminded today about the crazy levels of markup in the restaurant business. Most of these places buy their wine from suppliers and keep low stocks at any time and then charge markup of 2 - 4 times the cost of the bottle.

I am lucky in that in general I know the rough cost of a bottle and therefore can guess at the mark up applied by the restaurateur to the wine.

Personally sub 3 times is what I would consider acceptable but recently was seeing what appeared to be a multiple of 4 on the bottle which is frankly outrageous. I ended up going for a much more expensive wine which was better value.

Why was I thinking of this well a favorite read of mine Chez Pim  has now got a local restaurant which is a wine store with a bar /restaurant attached which charges a markup of $10 on bottles to drink in house. Now there will probably be a mark up over a straight wine store but this is a refreshing way of doing this. More restaurants should follow this pattern, especially in the UK if they want people to eat out more times per week.

Oxtail for ever !!!

How long does it take oxtail to soften ????. Cooked in a westindian style last night and generally flavour was good (sauce a little thick because I wasnt concentrating for the entire time.

But here's the recipe I used.

West Indian Oxtail

1 - 1 1/2 kg    Oxtail
Salt and Pepper
Garlic - 3 cloves (large)  - chopped
4 Cups water
1 large onion                 - chopped
2 scotch bonnet chillis
1 tomato                       - chopped
wine to deglaze
thyme
pimento

Season the oxtail with the salt pepper and garlic (I also added some soy sauce).
Brown the oxtail in oil
Then remove and deglaze the pan with the wine (red rioja in this case).
soften the onion in the pan for a couple of minutes then add back the oxtail
Cover with water (about 4 cups) and add the thyme, pimento and chopped tomato.

Bring to the boil and add in the chillis whole (if you use another chilli chop and add it into the sauce) and then simmer until the meat is tender and falling off the bone (over 2 hours probably).

Then turn up the heat and reduce until the sauce is nice and thick.

Serve with rice

I recommend a good involving album to listen to while you are waiting for it to cook. Last night it was Holly Cole and Steve Hackett keeping me awake.