The Arc, Headingley, Guv’ner 12oz Burger

Posted on 17/03/2009 by cwildman

Dropped into The Arc in Headingley, Leeds for lunch between meeting’s recently and tried out an Arc Burger, lots of burger, nice juicy meat, tasty bbq sauce and great onion rings, served with a nice mini bucket of chips on the side.  It was very good and reading the blurb in the menu they source locally.  Friendly, fast service, great spot for lunch.  Couldn’t tell you what the beer was like as it was coke only for me!!

From the menu “The Guv’ner 12oz £10.95, Our iconic double burger coated in melted, Monteray Jack, smoked BBQ sauce, bacon & mayo topped with onion rings.”

The Guvnor Burger

The Guvnor Burger

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Beef Brisket n’ Carrots

Posted on 09/03/2009 by cwildman

Fiercely traditonal and very tasty, Beef Brisket and Carrots is an old favourite and an old school “Frugal Food”.  Simply braise or roast in a casserole for melt in your mouth rich beef flavours.

I used the Aga casserole with beer & root veg.  Easily feeds four (4) with meat leftover for tomorrow cold.

Ingredients:-

  • 2kg Beef Brisket joint, your butcher will string it to keep it all together during cooking
  • can of bitter/ale
  • root vegetables, carrot, parsnip, swede, turnip, a selection of whatever you have
  • bulb of garlic split into whole cloves
  • water

Method:-

  1. place brisket joint into your casserole
  2. pour over a full can of beer, bitter or ale
  3. roughly chop carrots and any other root veg and throw into the pot
  4. roughly chop 2 onions into quarters will be fine
  5. split a bulb of garlic and throw the cloves in
  6. add a little more water, salt & pepper to taste
  7. put the lid on the casserole and slow roast for 2 to 4 hours, I put in the bottom of the Aga for approx 4 hours
  8. carefully remove the meat and let rest
  9. carefully remove the veg and keep warm to serve with the meat
  10. thicken the remaining beef stock for gravy

Dish up and enjoy, should be more than enough for four hungry mouth’s and you can keep the leftover meat for a cold beef brisket sandwich or salad tomorrow… I remember Grandma serving cold brisket with a Yorkshire Salad aka sweet & sour salad, Lettuce, onion & tomato in vinegar, must try that again as well. 

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Wilf’s Cafe in Malhamdale

Posted on 09/03/2009 by cwildman

Wilf’s famous Cafe visited Malham at the weekend for the Yorkshire Dales Open Adventure Series of adventure races and was sited on the Malham Show field providing competitors with vital sustanance, including pizza, veggie chilli and some great homebaking, flapjack, etc.

Wilf’s is based in Stavely in the Lake District and has a great reputation for fantastic grub, lot’s of vegetarian dishes and at the Cafe they also do some great meat dishes, bacon butties et al.  Always worth a visit and keep an eye open for the green mobile unit at other events.

Wilf’s Cafe Website

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Pork Belly or is it Belly Pork?

Posted on 11/02/2009 by cwildman

Lots of  interest in Belly Pork at the moment and fellow food bloggers love it! I have tried it a few times and Marco Pierre Whites recipe with star anise and honey is one of my favourites but this recipe is a really simple traditional belly pork supper.

Roast Belly Pork

Roast Belly Pork

Ingredients:-

  • 1kg Belly Pork (just feeds 4)
  • Salt
  • Vegetables, carrot, potato, shallots, courgette, swede, whatever you have
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 500ml water
  • a little oil for the roasting tin (I used groundnut oil)

Method:-

  • Score skin of the pork with a Stanley knife about 10mm apart
  • rub sea salt into incisions and remove excess from skin
  • season with black pepper underneath only not on the skin
  • add a little oil to the roasting tin and plonk your belly in and transfer to oven
  • Hot to begin then lower the temperature, sory I’m not good with temperatures here as I put in the top oven of the Aga for the first hour, bottom oven for a further hour, then added the chunky cut veg, garlic and 500ml water and finished off back in the top oven for 25 mins.
  • I added the courgette fairly late so as not to over cook
  • when the crackling looks crispy enough transfer the pork to a plate and allow to rest while you make the gravy in the roasting tin, make sure you get all the goodness from the scrapings on the bottom of the tin.  You could use veg stock, gravy browning or whatever you fancy for the gravy.
  • serve and enjoy, super crispy crackling and melt in the mouth pork, most of the fat cooks away, can be poured off or goes in the gravy!
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Paganum on Twitter and Food Blogs

Posted on 11/02/2009 by cwildman

I have been using Twitter for a while now and it has suddenly gone mainstream with mentions on Radio, TV and national press. I have found it very useful for expanding my Food Blog friends and audience and we have received some great feedback and reviews for our Paganum Mail Order Meat and online Farmers Market site.  We have been quoted as “Meat Dealers” and even had a catchphrase christened by Niamh @EatLikeaGirl  “p-p-p-p-p-p-p-pick up a paganum pork belly! :-)”

Twitter Logo

Twitter Logo

Thursday the 12th of February is Twestival Day, a Twitter meet up or Tweetup for Charity and will take place in over 175 cities around the world.  Various raffle’s, auctions and even a Gumball style car rally from Newcastle to London (See Paganum on the Gumball Car here) will be taking place more info on the Twestival website.

Twestival Logo

Twestival Logo

You can follow me on Twitter @cwildman and you can read a selection of our reviews here:-

Hollow Legs – Chickpea & Mint Lamb

Food Stories – Crispy Chinese Roast Pork Belly

Leigh at The Good Stuff – Paganum Online Farmers Market

Rasga at Food By Day – Rib Eye Steak

Rasga at Food By Day –Yorkshire Lamb Chops

Eat Like A Girl – Roast Yorkshire Pork

The WordPress Mag – Yorkshire Dales Food Blog

Thanks to all of the above for the reviews, very much appreciated.

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Jamie Saves our Bacon

Posted on 29/01/2009 by cwildman
Jamie Oliver Saves our Bacon

Jamie Oliver Saves our Bacon

A further TV Show from Jamie Oliver goes out tonight 29th January 2009 on Channel 4 at 9pm “Jamie saves our bacon” and should be worth watching.

This is a great cause highlighting Pig welfare and supporting British farmers, Jamie will be showing us what to do with some cheaper cuts of pork and highlighting the strange rules about packaging and Country of origin.

Make sure you buy British Pork, ask your butcher or supermarket before you buy and check the packet to make sure it is labeled clearly, if not complain, all meat products should be clearly labeled so you know where your food is coming from..

You can follow Jamie Oliver on Twitter

or have a look at his website which includes some recipes and you can sign up and pledge your support Jamie saves our Bacon

For further British Pork inspiration check out these other posts

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Spicy Salmon Soup

Posted on 28/01/2009 by cwildman

Had a couple of poached Salmon fillet’s left over so made it into a spicy fish soup.

Ingredients:-

  • 2 small salmon fillet’s lightly poached (6 mins)
  • fish stock from poaching
  • vegetable stock (maggi granules or stock cube will do)
  • small red pepper (nearly our last homegrown pepper)
  • green chillies, I used 2 small fresh hot green chillies
  • approx 6 sliced mushrooms
  • 2 cloves of crushed garlic
  • square inch cube of fresh ginger, chopped finely
  • teaspoon hot chilli powder
  • light soy sauce (to season instead of salt)
  • large tomato
  • splash of Nam Pla Thai fish sauce
  • olive oil or rape seed oil

Method:-

  • gently fry/saute the pepper, chilli, garlic, tomato and ginger until soft
  • add stock and other ingredients and simmer for 10 mins
  • flake poach salmon into pan simmer for a couple more minutes and serve
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Homemade Scotch Eggs

Posted on 21/01/2009 by cwildman

Homemade Free Range Scotch Eggs, The real thing, not those plastic supermarket wonders, I thought I would see how easy these are to make and was pleasantly surprised at the ease and the results!

Homemade Free Range Scotch Eggs

Should make 5 or 6 fantastic scotch eggs

Ingredients:-

  • 500g Pork Sausagemeat
  • 7 free range eggs (not too big) 6 for scotch eggs one for binding
  • rasher of back bacon
  • 1 medium onion, chopped finely
  • breadcrumbs, homemade or the bought variety do work very well for this recipe
  • 2 teaspoons plain flour
  • salt & white pepper
  • 2 teaspoons parsley
  • grated nutmeg about a quarter of a whole nutmeg
  • other ingredients to taste can be crumbled and added to the sausagemeat e.g. black pudding, sliced chilli, smoked bacon, Stilton cheese, chopped Chorizo, whatever takes your fancy

Method:-

  • hard boil 6 eggs, cover eggs with cold water and bring to boil, 8 mins from boiling, then cool under running cold water
  • chop onion finely and saute in butter for a couple of minutes until soft and starting to turn golden brown add to large dish with sauagemeat & finely chopped bacon
  • peel eggs
  • add seasoning to taste and any herbs e.g. parsley, mixed herbs, basil or fresh coriander is good for a different flavour
  • put raw egg whisked up a bit on a plate ready for coating the scotch eggs
  • put breadcrumbs on a plate ready for rolling on your scotch eggs
  • combine all ingredients and make a hand sized pattie then carefully wrap each egg in the sausgemeat using both hands to mold the sausagemeat completly surrounding the egg, try not to make it too thick or too thin approx 5mm is good
  • coat sauagemeat ball in the raw egg and then dip and roll around in the breadcrumbs until completly coated, put on one side
  • should make 5 scotch eggs and possibly 6 if you havent gone overboard with the thickness of the sausagemeat on the first few
  • once you have coated all your balls, deep fry at approx 180 degrees C for 6 to 8 mins or until golden brown, make sure you turn them over if the fat is not deep enough to cover them
  • let them rest on a cooling rack with paper roll to absorb any excess fat and let cool
  • you can serve hot but I prefer to let them cool and serve cold then you can cut into them and admire your perfect handywork before tasting a real scotch egg
  • repeat with other ingredients, experiment with whatever takes your fancy, blackpudding, tomato & basil, goats cheese & red onion, fresh red chilli peppers, anything goes…
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Hetton Pale Ale

Posted on 15/01/2009 by cwildman

Called in at the Fountaine Inn, Linton on the way back from Lunch at the Red Lion @ Burnsall for a nosey and a quick pint, pleased to find our local brew Hetton Pale Ale from the Dark Horse Brewery.  It was served at a great  temperature, fantastic condition and an all round quality pint.

I also nonchalantly walked over to the bull ring in the snug and swung it onto the hook first time, not wanting to spoil the effect I didn’t risk having another go !!

Hetton Pale Ale, Dark Horse Brewery

Hetton Pale Ale, Dark Horse Brewery

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Lunch at The Red Lion, Burnsall

Posted on 15/01/2009 by cwildman

I do enjoy a trip over to Burnsall but sadly don’t visit the Red Lion as much as I’d like, had an excuse for a trip over today and was very pleased we did.

First the Beer, Timothy Taylor’s Best Bitter or Caledonian Deuchars IPA (one of my favourites through habit when they used to serve it at The Lister Arms in Malham)  of course I choose the Deuchars IPA for old time’s sake, good temperature, lovely creamy pint.

The food, for starter’s Fish Soup with Aioli & Gruyere, very meaty fish soup ! can you say that? I mean lot’s of nice fishy or seafoodie bits in this case, squid, mussels all sorts, lovely consistency and a nice floating crouton with a dollop of Aioli and sprinkling of Gruyere on top, yum.  served with sundried tomato bread.

Main course, after much thought I plumped for the Liver & onions with bubble and squeak, another great choice on my part, various veg served with the other meals and included, butternut squash mash, dauphinoise potatoes, chips, red cabbage, carrots and cauliflower cheese, oh and a salad with the steak.

Other dishes on the menu included, rib eye steak, smoked haddock, poached egg and hollandaise (I went for this last time I was here!) 14oz rump steak, Hartlington Lamb, Pigeon & chorizo salad, game pie with herb dumpling crust and Haggis (but they had run out).

I was stuffed and couldn’t face a pud but other’s tried a lemon tart with lemon sorbet, an orange and chocolate mouse cake and the cheese and biscuit selection which all looked great and the cheese came with fruit cake as well!

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