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A three-time loser: a chicken, stuffed, roasted, then boiled
In the not-so-old days, chicken sat next to crayfish as the food of the fortunate. I remember seeing chicken once a year, at Christmas; although we did have it occasionally, as a ‘casserole’, in less celebratory times. Later I discovered foul play: the chicken in a casserole was more likely rabbit than chook.
Such deception seems [...]
Poultry, game and offal
It’s easy to sneer at chickens, especially if you’ve watched them at close quarters in the coop. They always make me laugh, and it would certainly be a five-setter between a chicken and a lamb in any intelligence championship.
We sneer, too, at their rather flat flavour these days – an insult to a bird which, [...]
Ham hash
Every year I fall into a ham 1 for Christmas. And every year when I get the monster home I look at it and wonder what the hell am I going to do with it. It’s a little easier with many mouths to feed, but it is always before Christmas that we start to look [...]
Something like veal cordon bleu, whatever that is
Veal cordon bleu: is it real?
Did anybody make it up?
Or is it like an Hawaiian pizza, nothing more than the fertile imagination of an Australian pub cook, circa 1970. Remember? It was at about the same time as carpetbag steak, and ham steak, and sweet corn and onion salad, and baked potatoes and sour cream.
Anyway, [...]
Veal chops
Veal chops seem to be perfect candidates for quick cooking on the grill, but all is not as it seems. The chops from a young vealer are often confused by fat and sinew and sheaths, hanging about. Remarkably, they are great when cooked slowly in stock or tomatoes. If you wish to cook them quickly, [...]
Roast veal for picky feeders
There remain difficult people to please and to feed. I have great sympathy for these poorly guided folk. It was not too many years ago that I was one of them. Chops, sausages and mashed potatoes. That was me.
So, whenever you are required to cook for one of this unfortunate and plentiful breed, give them [...]
Veal shanks, or osso buco in the Orient
I delight in osso buco because I delight in veal, and the deliciously subtle flavour which comes from well-cooked veal bones is blissful. Put them together and you’re in heaven. There are plenty of sound arguments why home cooks shouldn’t bother to make stocks, the basis of the discussion being that stocks require too much [...]
Veal and pork sausages
It never ceases to amaze me how much people love sausages. Why? Perhaps it is to do with the shape, or childhood memories; or the possibilities of the extreme flavour of a great sausage; or even how well a sausage melds with a classic tomato sauce.
My father used to look forward to his annual holidays [...]
Micky’s marvellous marinated pork
Nothing makes my good friend Michael Gordon happier than a dirty apron, a wok, a bench loaded with spices, and a large crowd anticipating a good feed from the Orient. Micky once did a Chinese cooking course which had the unexpected side-effect of turning his intimate dinner parties into banquets for twenty to thirty people. [...]
Pork spare ribs; gnawing at the bone
You have to be something of an animal to enjoy pork spare ribs. Enjoyment is gnawing away at fat and bones, ripping away tender meat, while the soy and pork fat drips down your chin. And enjoyment is dependent on you getting the best quality ribs — plenty of meat, mixed with just the right [...]